What are the key elements required for a transformation of teaching and learning through the use of technology? There are obviously many reasonable ways to look at this. From what position do you view this issue? Are you a teacher, instructional coach, building principal, technology facilitator, director of technology, chief administrative officer of some flavor, superintendent, parent, or student? For you, this issue will likely run through the filter of your current position.
It will also run through the filter of your experience. Are you an eighteen year old student who lives a life that is highly digitally integrated, or are you a teacher of 20 years or more who is just now trying to become familiar with the Internet as it relates to teaching and learning? Are you a superintendent or head of school who is beginning to open to the importance of a smart approach to technology integration, or are you a technology facilitator who has been a digital evangelist for the past five to ten years?
Those filters should all be applied to the problem of how to retool schools along the lines of technological transformation. (Though I didn’t think it worked in the title of this post, you will see below that I would rather use the term transformation as opposed to integration.) At this point, the vast majority of school systems are behind the curve in this area. Being this far behind might just have one distinct advantage. If there is no way to see any of the individual trees in a forest, you are likely going to be forced to start your mission with a whole-forest view to begin with. This is not a bad thing. It allows you to realize two important things:
1) You don’t need a flashlight. It’s not that dark in there anymore. Trust that there are others who have proceeded down this path before you, and they have learned many important lessons. Collaborate. Learn from their successes and failures. Do not go it alone. Resist the temptation to slap a digital device in the hands of each student and call it success. Have a plan.
2) Rarely do we get to make decisions with the clarity that a little distance provides. Take your time (but hurry). Ask yourself: what can we do with these new tools available today that we couldn’t do before? If we could remake our curriculum any way we wanted, how would we do it? Think transformation of the way teaching and learning is done in your district, as opposed to integration into it as it exists.
Allow me to run this challenge through my own filter for the next several paragraphs. For more on my filter for these ideas, consult the About page. Also- I certainly do not profess to know all of the answers. I am currently sitting on top of a nice little foothill of educational technology leadership… and staring up at some pretty massive peaks ahead. Allow me to talk about a few things that make these peaks seem climbable from where I stand.
It is my belief that all schools (and/or school systems) need the following four pillars below any technology “integration” effort…
An Innovation engine
All systems need what I will call an “innovation engine.” Whatever the system, whatever the setup, schools and school systems need pockets of sponsored innovation. Without some folks directly charged with instructional innovation with digital tools, we will always be just trying to fit technology into what we do on a day to day basis. It is far better to build innovation directly into the system, and to foster it purposefully. I know this may seem somewhat fringe in the world of public education, but it can’t afford to be much longer.
“At enlightened, forward-thinking companies, managers understand the connection between learning, innovation, and higher productivity — in fact, employees at these companies may even be encouraged to spend time learning and experimenting with new technologies.”
~Joe McKendrick, FASTforward
So who will drive this engine of innovation in your school? Will this be a technology facilitator? Will it be a technology coach? Perhaps an instructional coach. A ad-hoc committee of teachers? A requirement of your leadership team or department heads? If you are thinking of this from a district perspective, where does this responsibility land? Will you just hope for it, or will you truly sponsor innovation in new approaches to teaching and learning afforded by digital technologies?
Administrative support
An innovative technology leader will be of little use beyond their immediate world without direct, purposeful and inspired administrative support. Administrators: join forces with your innovation team. Learn what they learn. Push them to new heights. Allow them to bring innovative approaches to the classrooms and teachers of your school. Support your teachers every step of the way as they slowly transform the classroom environments they create toward new and better approaches to learning…
…and then hold them to it. Hold staff accountable for bringing their skills up to the present realities of the 21st Century. We’ve been living passively in this century for almost ten years now. It is time for all of us to sit up and take a direct and active role in the changes happening within the learning profession. Without strong administrative support, advocacy, and supervision, no real and lasting changes of the magnitude are possible. Guidelines for such leadership aren’t exactly guesswork. Grab a copy of the NETS and familiarize yourself with these standards today if you have yet to. They come in three fine flavors: for students, teachers and administrators.
Unfiltered ubiquitous access
So now you have innovation closely coupled with administrative support. With those two things, you can get a pretty immediate return for your buck, provided one more terribly important thing: that you don’t filter the very usefulness out of the web. A school can have instructional innovation and local administrative support and still fail with regard to technology integration. How do you kill innovation quickly? Tie it down. Even today, many schools filter all of the good, interactive raw materials right out of the web. Figure it out, people. Ask a school who only lightly filters. Ask. Don’t assume there isn’t another way.
Our school system does currently block Facebook and MySpace. However, our general approach is to put the filters in place required by law, and then keep the real Internet open for education. Yes, that means we have open access to YouTube, Flickr, UStream, Ning, Twitter, Blogs, Wikis, etc… We have our hands on far too much fuel for innovation to even worry about looking at Facebook and MySpace at this moment. They are where our students already are. But for now, we are luckier than 95% of school districts I encounter. This fact has allowed us to move quickly toward figuring out the advantages and disadvantages of these powerful new tools in an educational setting.
Oh, and ubiquity. Access to these tools must be easy and everywhere. Soon after access is all around you, it doesn’t even feel like “technology,” it just feels like the way things are done. This is a good thing, for when technology becomes invisible, we can finally focus on the value added from new uses of these tools. The world is moving quickly toward wireless access in all corners. If your school isn’t wireless, then only your students have wireless access. That’s right- via their phones. You have a cell phone policy in your school? Don’t kid yourself. Your students are on the raw, unfiltered Internet via the 3G connection of their cellphone more often in the classroom than you care to admit. Why ignore this… or worse yet, why punish it? Embracing might just be the answer. Try it.
If your school isn’t at a 1:1 ratio of students to laptop computers… and the students don’t take them home with them night by night, all year long… then you don’t yet have an ideal learning environment for 2009 in my opinion. However, there are other ways until that time to assure ubiquitous access. Our school currently employs MacBook carts at a ratio of 2.5 students to one computer. 60 of these machines will be available for checkout from our Media Center in the fall. Our Media Center/Library will also be open well beyond school hours. It isn’t perfect, but it is allowing us to move ahead intelligently. We are moving quickly toward the 1:1 environment everyone knows is inevitable in schools.
Instructional model
So now you have innovation on the ground level, administrative support, and unfiltered access. Be proud. If you can honestly say this characterizes your school or school system, then you are in a very small but fortunate minority. You work with smart, visionary people who know how to plan and have been doing so for some time now. If your lone goal is to have students, teachers and administrators all gleefully pushing buttons and gazing at computer screens… then your work here is done. Congratulations. However, if what you were wanting out of this nationwide technology push was something a bit more… substantial, then you had better finish reading.
The fourth pillar of “instructional model” is more than a quick soundbyte allows. I see three levels of this notion with increasing value as follows: 1) You have thought about and encouraged good instructional practices in your building/district. 2) You have a well-articulated plan for effective instructional practice that is building or districtwide. 3) You have a true learner-centered instructional model in place in grades K-12 that credits the constructivist nature of human learning.
I am fortunate to say that though our district has awakened late to the call of real and purposeful transformation via educational technology, the toughest of our four pillars has already been built. The final pillar of a student-centered constructivist model for instruction that is carefully stated, professionally-developed, supported, and supervised… is in place.
As I stated earlier, we are looking up at some pretty tall challenges ahead of us. Locally, we have unfiltered access to all of the content and interactivity the web affords. We have pedagogical experts in district leadership positions who have put in place an ideal instructional model for the future. We have a quickly multiplying group of administrators at both the district and building levels who are responding to the call of the digital world, and we are making plans to foster innovation and creativity in our classrooms.
I feel like I am at the foot of a mountain that a handful of good people have climbed… 20,000 feet below the summit, yet armed with the best climbing gear and support I can get my hands on. Our immediate future should be interesting indeed.
Where are you?
So where does all of this leave you? How many of these pillars have been already constructed around you? What have you done to help in that construction? What do you see as the greatest challenges in this mission? What can I or others do to help? Are there other pillars that you believe I have missed here?
This post was initially intended to be a part of “Leadership Day 2009“ as conceived by Scott McLeod. I am posting it at 1:30am on July 13th instead of on July 12th. This is not to shabby considering my two baby girls thought that since it is technically summer here… it should feel like it today.
I am currently sitting in the NETS-A release celebration at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC 2009). The NETS are the National Educational Technology Standards written by ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education.
The NETS standards for administrators were created in 2000 and this refresh is a much-needed follow-up to the recent releases of standards for both students and teachers. In a later post I will go further into my thoughts about the necessity of administrative leadership in this area. This is a topic I have tapped on in the past, and will surely be one I continue to explore as we go forth. There is no doubt that carefully articulated transformational standards are needed. What is even more important is that these standards are for not only our students, but for teachers and administrators as well.
What do you think about the new standards for leadership in regard to educational technology? Do you think the focus is appropriate? Do you believe they have both appropriate breadth as well as depth? Check out the word cloud (Wordle) above that illustrates the standards. Please click to view the detail. What do you think this view says? Does this type of view provide a different look from the raw text? Any interesting first thoughts?
Yep, I just quoted myself. It’s OK, I’ll take that one. In fact, I think I’ll take it and run with it for a bit. Check it out. See, I don’t deal well with what one of my science department colleagues refers to as the “Negative Nelson.” These are folks who jump quickly to the most negative outlook possible to begin any task, discussion or debate. Now I’m certainly not talking about people who exhibit the valuable skill of being able to ferret out potential pitfalls in any new endeavor. Karl Fisch, in a recent workshop at MICDS in St. Louis, referred to those elements of a system as the “yeah, buts.“ His willingness that day to confront potential snags head-on is one of the marks of any successful project manager.
That said, negativity used as a strategy to push back from the table (whether conscious or unconscious) in order to avoid change or conflict is a very toxic thing. Life is too short and too difficult as it is. Stirring up extra negativity in such a challenging career field is more than a waste of time. In my 18 years as an educator I have had the benefit of working in environments that were so positive and supportive that I was constantly inspired. I have also had my years where “clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right” is about the most polite way I can put it. Negative Nelsons. Thanks, Jennifer. That one is elegantly simple. It made me laugh, and it made me reflect. So obviously, I haven’t been able to get in here to write very much as of late. Please excuse the rapid-fire unloading of thought here. I’ll get back to succinct when I get more time.
“I would have written a shorter letter if I had more time.”
~Blaise Pascal
Why the “2.0?”
Now that I think of it, I probably could have just entitled this one “2.0″ because this is now what this phrase means to me. I’m not going to go off into the history of the quirk of using “2.0″ to signify the newest iteration of….. something. Heck it is now used for pretty much anything: Web 2.0, School 2.0, Library 2.0, Government 2.0, and on and on and on. Tack a two at the end and instantly whatever you are talking about, planning, or selling becomes better, newer, shinier. From my personal perspective, what at one point meant something to those pushing the envelope of using the Internet in education, now means means less. The more you use something, right? I get it. I know. After a while of having “2.0’s” ping-ponged about in the echo chamber of online communications… the meaning does tend to get stale. If you subscribe to the tweets of some of the more connected edtechers out there, you’ll find more than a few who are just plain ol’ sick of the term.
Why it doesn’t bother me
Let’s just get this out of the way first: According to Global language Monitor, “Web 2.0″ is the 1,000,000th word added into the English language. So there. It means something. For the “How’d they figure that?“, click here.
I’ll be honest. I hate it too by now. It is the height of cliche’ in my head. However, I think I am just sick of it considering how much I actually feel the need to use the term in my current job as an instructional coach in the middle of a constructivist reformation/technology integration pilot. I try to use a ton of helper phrases to describe this entity as well: read/write web, social web, participatory web, and other. Those are great, and do help, but I still need two-oh.
In a recent technology summit in our school district, an administrator actually started out one of the segments declaring that in terms of education, Web 2.0 “doesn’t really mean anything,” and that people really can’t agree on whether it will have an impact or not. This is one statement I had to disagree with point blank that day. Really, I get why it might seem less-than-concrete on the surface. With utmost respect, to an educator not using the participatory web in the classroom (or anywhere else professionally) “Web 2.0″ must look a bit like the wild west compared to the pricey and packaged comfort of a content management system like Blackboard, WebCT or E-Companion. But think about it- a constructivist classroom probably does look like Dodge City to the vast majority of people who were educated in the neat and tidy rows of desks in the American schools of our past.
What it means for me is that frankly… I don’t have to wait for anyone any longer. When I want to go, I go. When my students are ready for something better (that fits good pedagogy) we go. With a robust and lightly filtered network- no longer did I have to wait for more software to be decided upon, purchased, server space to be allocated, or passwords to be doled out. With Web2, I was able to immediately make a go at what I, my administrators, my students, and my parents thought was the right path to follow. I could hone a web tool to my liking in a weekend. I didn’t need to wait for a comprehensive plan filled with multiple opportunities for job-embedded professional development and one-on-one coaching. I was ready, and I rolled on.
All of a sudden, more than at any time previously in my career, I was able to model myself as a learner in the classroom right alongside my students. I was able to show them what it looked like to be a connected learner in the digital world of current information and communications technology. Now I am ready to go back and help build that comprehensive implementation plan for our teachers and students. I hope I am continually able to model those experiences in the other direction as well… still as a learner modeling the navigation of our newly-digital terrain, though not only for our students but also for those who make far-reaching decisions for each of the students in our town.
Positivity and possibility
I need positivity. My engine thrives upon it. I need open potential. I need new possibilities. Here’s why I decided today to “re-like” the terminology of 2.0: It is just so full of possibility. School 2.0? Seriously, who isn’t interested in reforming the future for the largest open-schooling system in the world? Don’t answer that. Good point. I’m sure there are plenty who aren’t. But look how many really are. Because of Web 2.0, the folks who want to step up and have a hand in the remaking of our outmoded schools, libraries and governmental participation models… can.
Web 2.0 is still a novel and effective tool for democracy. It is still a new way to interact via the Internet. Why not let it remind you of the shiny possibility of doing something better the next time you try? Sticking a two at the end of something doesn’t automatically make it better. However, possibility is as contagious as negativity. Spread some love, will ya’?
This post begins with a bigfat pointyfinger toward a recent post on Dean Shareski’s blog: “Ideas and Thoughts.“ The title was so fitting that I couldn’t bring the idea without it somewhat as well.
Nuts & bolts
Though I took the post pretty lightly through the first paragraph, I then started seeing the relevance of this in my world. The post rants away at the fact that so many people take technological tools at face value- rarely digging down beyond default settings to see what all the tool might actually be able to do. By actually changing each potential setting to fit the needs of the user, the device becomes a much better tool in the hands of the owner. Always seemed pretty simple to me. In fact, at one point in the post he describes working with students who were all using smartphones. He noted that the students in that setting who were familiar with the customization of the device were much more satisfied users.
“I told them to start thinking like hackers. I asked them to think of their devices in terms of what it should be able to do rather than only what it does.” ~Dean Shareski
These stories made my brain go in two directions, really. One was a nuts & bolts connection where I realized how purposefully I take teachers new to the MacBook Pro (our weapon of choice) almost directly to the System Preferences pane before beginning any real work. In my comment on Dean’s blog I spoke of this in a bit more detail. Towards the end of my rather lengthy comment, I took the idea of defeating default settings (much as Dean vaguely suggested at the end) to its other destination in my brain. That is, when we as teachers immediately jump purposefully and directly into a new world with new possibilities that we truly feel control over, then we can move into new dimensions.
And beyond
The next pointyfinger goes here. By the time I read this post, Will Richardson had just dropped a post that seemed to take the seeds of that idea into full-blown question. Entitled “If We Could Start Over, What Could We Build?“, the piece references a 2000 CITE article and looks at how nearly true reform is when it is retrofitted over the top of what we are currently doing. To me, the difficulties of this are immediately apparent. In fact, a book I am reading right now speaks, at least metaphorically, to the problems with building cumbersome entities on top of existing ones as a quick fix for the immediate moment. While the book, (Kluge by Gary Marcus) speaks about the human brain’s construction and modification throughout evolution, school leaders at any level will likely be able to draw parallels with their situation.
Again, repeating my deeper connections to some of these ideas here seems silly when reading the referenced post/commentary in context makes better sense. So therefore, I won’t do a repeat here. But suffice it to say, I state my quite practical belief in finding ways to make this sort of “system redo” possible. To me, the only practical way to hit reset and start anew within your own complex system today, is to build a pilot. Pilot programs that are allowed the charge of innovation can truly create a fishbowl of study in your neck of the woods. Do it differently. Do it now. Think hard, set something up… then set about doing it. Don’t just talk about what it would be like if you followed another approach, actually find out. In science, we call this a controlled experimental setup. In the rest of the world, we just call this smart practice.
“Pilot programs that are allowed the charge of innovation can truly create a fishbowl of study in your neck of the woods.”
Read both posts/comments. And if you’re really adventurous, get the book. Think of starting from scratch. Think of rebuilding your system. Think of rewiring your brain. Hey… if that all seems a bit much to you, at the very least think of changing the settings on your iPhone. You might be surprised what all it can do!
Modeling fluent reading. Introduction of outside text every period of every day in every class. The opportunity to bring relevance to adolescents. With whole-school immersion in text and reading, ideas and concepts naturally follow. The teacher reads, the student follow along a copy of the text. Content-area literacy expert, Janet Allen calls it “eyes past print with voice support.” At my school, we call it a requirement… one element of a building-wide literacy plan.
Two years ago, after our sit-down session with Janet Allen in Orlando, Florida, our leadership team decided on a school-wide implementation of this strategy as an element of our focus on literacy skills. Co-Principal in charge of instruction, Dr. Jeanette Westfall, was a former elementary teacher, high school communication arts teacher and instructional coach. There is no doubt that her background helped her decide that a non-negotiable approach to reading improvement across content areas was a valuable thing given our situation.
Why we went there
Data analysis in our school improvement planning sessions clearly indicated the need for a systemic effort to improve reading. However, witnessing and characterizing the problem is only the beginning. The ability to design concrete, strategic approaches to solving such a problem is a crucial next step. Bringing the teeth of accountability into the picture is the final piece of the puzzle in comprehensively addressing a systemic educational issue.
The accountability piece tied to EPP is a direct requirement from our building administration to employ this “read aloud” strategy for an absolute minimum of five minutes per class per day. For students this translates to a daily minimum of twenty minutes of engagement with rigorous text with a fluent reader. The next logical step of a strategic teacher is to quickly adjust planning to take advantage of this requirement to bring rigorous and relevant content-specific text into the beginning (or end) of each period.
For a teacher with traditional style, this also forces at least one transition within the daily lesson. In the hands of an effective teacher, these transitions help to keep kids actively engaged and using their brains in varied ways. Data showed that not only was there a need, but that our kids simply weren’t reading enough. You can make strong suggestions about what goes on outside of the classroom. Inside the four walls of a classroom is a different story. You can guarantee immersion within the walls of a school building.
Lit2Go
In other posts this year, I have suggested online services that might add to our implementation of EPP. In this post, I would like to introduce another interesting online resource from Florida’s Educational Technology Clearinghouse. Lit2Go is a website I remember running across a year or so ago on Apple’s iTunes. On the USF site within iTunes you will find audio files for K-12 education organized by grade level.
However, in my opinion, the organizational website for Lit2Go is what makes it useful for the strategy described above as well as others. The main page allows many typical content searches for literature. Author, Title, Keyword, and Reading Level are all available search functions as well as a direct link to the files on the iTunes service for slipping smoothly into your iPod.
My first try was an author search- I pretty randomly chose Lewis Carroll. I ran down the list of ten offerings for the author and clicked to select The Two Clocks. The contents page for any selection has a nice set of overview information such as an abstract, word count, reading level, origin, genre, lexile level, theme, suggested educational strategy, Sunshine State Standards (of more use if you are actually IN Florida), and more. On this page, it is the collection of not only the .mp3 audio file of the work, but also the text in both .html and .pdf format that makes this a valuable resource. It also looks as if some pieces contain other “support material,” though the attached document for this particular story seems pretty useless.
Overall, the fact that this site provides both audio and clearly-printed text of a good number of classic pieces makes it valuable for efficiently selecting and managing EPP within a literature or communication arts class.
An easy win
The “clock that doesn’t go” in Lewis Carroll’s story is right two times per day. The other clock which loses a minute a day is only right twice per year. Surely, implementing EPP in a setting where reading immersion strategies are warranted is a way to be “right” at least four times per day. If this form of “being right” seems worthwhile to you in your own educational setting, then give Lit2Go a try and come back and tell us what you thought. Did it work quickly and easily for the described strategy? Even better… do you have another innovative use of Lit2Go to share? Bring it here, and help us all to be right more than two times per day.
What I have found particularly true in the past year is that even the fanciest website on the Internet doesn’t produce a solid educational event outside of the carefully-created framework of a skilled instructor. Compared to many of the applications/websites I have talked about on this blog in the past year, this one could be seen as one of the less “sophisticated.” However, any good teacher knows that what happens when you plug a device into the wall… pales in comparison to what happens inside the mind of a child.
Not long ago, the MS Office suite comprised the bulk of computer applications in the world of mainstream business. I have to admit that as a career biology educator and instructional coach, I have precious little knowledge of the “real” business world. That said, this past year I have found my work overlapping many trends in business as I explore the efficacy of collaborative online applications in education. I am deeply interested in them as a framework for professional development as well as for classroom utilization.
“Yeah, but mainstream businesses aren’t using the Web 2.0 stuff… those are mostly a few cutting edge companies with money to burn.”
How much more “mainstream” can you get than Best Buy? Will Richardson pointed to the above video a couple of days back on Twitter, and I have held that browser window open since that time. I really enjoy some of the language found within. For example, one gentleman interviewed said that Web 2.0 applications allow the workforce to “…try a lot of different things, fail really fast, and then try things again.“ I dig that attitude in almost any endeavor. To me it is pretty clear that being fearless and willing to innovate is a big plus in much of the business world as well as in education. I also like the fact that another interviewee listed the following things as benefits to social media applications being implemented within the company structure:
better loyalty
less office politics
ability to meet other individuals passionate about the same things
ability to stretch an idea across an entire organization
Shifting schools
Now which of those things is not good as well for a school faculty? Of course blind loyalty leads often to the Abilene Paradox, and this is never a good thing. However, other than that, I’m betting that this list of four things is something all school administrators and staff would value in their world as well.
Those four items, as well as a few others, are a target of our school’s shiny new social network- Virtual Southside. This site was piloted by a cohort of 20 teachers and administrators at Benton High this year in the midst of an academic technology integration program. Starting next year, with our entire staff online in the program, this site will be a major part of how we conduct asynchronous staff professional development. Today I interviewed several cohort members about the benefits of working within our social network this past school year. A short list of their replies about our foray into social media is as follows:
develop general comfort with social media
ability to collaborate asynchronously
differentiated professional development
makes all staff a “professional developer”
makes professional work transparent
allows feedback from a wider dynamic of personalities
provides an archival record
creates an avenue for extrinsic motivation
Nearing the end of our first year employing social media in our school and in our classrooms, I am excited to see some of the benefits rolling in. In my opinion, the featured video showing similar strategies in a mainstream business model provides another interesting nod to the value of utilizing these strategies with our teachers and students as well. Are collaborative social tools being used currently where you work? What role do you see for social media in our schools and with our students?
Artwork thanks:
*Thanks to Stephen Collins for the “fail gloriously” slide image.
“OK Sean, I am ready to start reading some blogs. Can you tell me where to start… give me a few places to begin?”
Connecting
The above question is one I have begun fielding more and more often from faculty members as of late. Many teachers at Benton, and a growing number from other schools in town are ready to start tapping this powerful resource. In my opinion, this is a fantastic way to begin. Read. Read. Read. The best way to understand blogs is to read them.
The second step in the process is usually making your mark publicly and actually commenting on a few blogs that stir your interest. This is a very important move because it is the step that actually defines you as a contributor. This is no small thing, for this is a contribution to what has become a vibrant and global conversation.
For some, the final step in joining this conversation is to set up a blog, which is a place to guide a community of conversation of your own. Sure, some folks will say that they blog “for reflection”, or to “sort out their thoughts”, or even to “create an archive of what is happening in my life or work.” To this, I agree completely.
My perspective
Blogging fulfills many of those things for me as well. However, if that was all I really wanted to do, I certainly wouldn’t need to go to the Internet for it- much less do it in global public spaces. I would simply download one of the available free journal applications… or just tap away at MS Word. Right? Okay, perhaps Pages for me… but you get the point.
For me, the act of blogging has been responsible for more synthesis of thought than I have experienced in a really long time. For me, this is not only a place to put together professional thoughts, life experiences, and opinions, it changes the way I experience things. I find that I am now engaged in the act of “blogging” even while away from my laptop during most waking hours (and likely a few while asleep). I have always composed in my head, and this exercise makes it happen often. That said, for me personally, it is also very much about the interaction with those who reply to, link to, or blog about the ideas that I present there. That interaction between interested people from many countries not only changes the conversation after I post to the blog, but it also affects my future writing as I once again consider the audience that unfolds there.
So, where do I tell folks who ask where to look? The first place I suggest looking is down the right-side column of my blog under the header “blogroll.” This is a list of bloggers who, for differing reasons, have compelled me to plaster a permanent link from my site to theirs. Looking through someone’s blogroll is akin to mining the bibliography of a really super journal article. My blogroll is my “go to” list when I get a hour to read. How did I find those names in the first place? The answer to that question is as diverse as is the list.
However, more and more I realized that before you fill up Google Reader with a ton of blogs you may or may not read later on, there might be a better place to begin. And really… if you are just starting to open up to blogs as a learning resource, you probably aren’t ready to mess with RSS just yet. I really do like Alltop. I still use it. I came pretty close to titling this post: ”RSS for the masses.” When I want a visual version of the latest posts from the best blogs, I scan the screen there and click at will. In the words of Alltop, their service “is an ‘online magazine rack’ of popular topics. We update the stories every hour. Pick a topic by searching, news category, or name, and we’ll deliver it to you 24 x 7.” There is also a nice little explanatory video linked near the top of the main page.
In fact, just this past week, Alltop has now added a feature called “My Alltop.” As you can probably guess, this is a user-customized screen showing only the latest posts of the blogs you choose from all categories. I created my personal page the day it went live, and it bookmarks tons of blogs on the topics of education, science, neuroscience, literacy, news and even a few humor and “being a daddy” -type blogs. To me, it feels like something between that of a beefed-up blogroll and an aggregator. Another cool feature is that you can share the URL to your personal page with others.
In fact, as of a couple of months ago, you can also find my nascent little blog there.
The day my link first appeared on the site, I received a message that invited me to go to Alltop and download a badge to adorn the blog. I’m not above badges. Badges are fun. Steeenking badges. The one you see just above is the one you’ll see in the right sidebar of my blog. However, if public education wasn’t my business of choice, I might have been inclined to choose the more playful one shown modified below:
Add Alltop Education to your bookmarks toolbar. Click when you have a slot of time that couldn’t dare handle the latest print release by ASCD, but certainly could slide in a blog or two. Oh and of course, look for me there:
Oh yeah… I almost forgot: My name is Sean, and I approve this message.
I’m asking for your help. If you could pick anyone, anything, or anyplace, What books would you read? What conferences, workshops, or meetings would you attend? Who would you travel to meet with? Who would you fly in to sit at the table with you? Who would you pick to help you in your strategic brainstorming or planning? Who could help inject progressive, innovative ideas about the future of education and the technologies that will drive it? Anyone. Yes, I am serious.
This post is a straightforward attempt to leverage the power of my PLN. It is my goal to get some fresh input about that very thing… fresh input. As a generalist instructional coach on what could realistically be called a “21st Century upgrade” mission in my building, I have spent countless hours in research this past year. In fact, this blog originated from some of my earliest explorations into how a school can systematically raise the tech literacy of its staff ahead of a larger edtech implementation with students.
Here’s the deal
I am pleased to say that I work in a district with some success in incubating innovation. We locally help to fund innovation with a fantastic “Apple Seed” grant program for creative projects. We also celebrate ingenuity with an “Innovator of the Year” award- presented alongside the T.O.Y. award each year. On a district wide level, our administrators in charge of curriculum & instruction are working hard to implement constructivist-leaning instruction and content-specific best practices.
In my opinion, we have long lacked such a mandated, district level approach to educational technology integration. We invested early in a robust and speedy system-wide fiber optic network. We have always succeeded in putting current, state of the art technological tools in the hands of our children. What we now recognize the need for, is an innovative and comprehensive plan to elevate the technological savvy of all SJSD faculty members. 21st Century literacy skills (whatever you think those might be) cannot be developed in our children by skipping over our staff to do so. We are ready to do the staff development required in readying our own workforce… to ready those of the future.
Our crew
A district task force was assembled to study the situation. Our group consists of three instructional coaches, one social studies teacher, a library/media specialist, our district’s technology curriculum specialist, and our chief operating officer. We have been told that we are “taking one year to study.” One year to learn everything we can about what the future of learning will look like- at least with regard to information and communication technologies. Experimentation with free online technologies has been spawned and is growing in a grassroots way in a few places already. My home high school actually has a building-wide implementation plan that was put into play this past summer.
The goal is to get just enough perspective about what we are currently doing… and what we still need to do… before making any more large scale technology purchases. The idea is to put the “buy it and they will come” -approach to edtech integration to bed for good. This task force is headed by our C.O.O. He is a direct sitting member of our superintendent’s council. This level of buy-in is aligned what I had in mind when I wrote a post entitled “Increasing Our Level of Vitamin A” last November. We are really to the point in our little corner of the world where we need to think long and hard about our mission and vision prior to buying even one more laptop. Smart move, methinks. And this mission had better be flexible. Life moves pretty fast in these circles.
Why should you care?
I don’t know if I can say why you should care about a project in Missouri. However, I do believe I know why you will. Because you are a bunch of committed, forward-thinking educators. Folks like us know the power of buy-in at all levels of implementation. Here’s betting that the readers of this blog realize the power potential of solid know-how combined with administrative support.
Please help. I could submit my own recommendations. I essentially do that quite regularly behind the driver’s seat of this blog. The articles I write examine interesting avenues and advocate passionate positions. My blogroll is a list of folks I rely on for new learning. I have a set of books on my shelf that were important to me, but really… the elements of my learning network allow it to be a dynamic, hyper-responsive, thing. There is even a pretty good chance you came here from the Twitterverse- and that has become a frighteningly good resources as of late.
We are locked and loaded for NECC 2009. We are set for a sit-down at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino this March. We recently sent a small contingent to METC 2009 for a last minute look at a few of the presenters. We are ready to grab a few keystone texts for the group to dive into. We are ready to visit the top workshops available where our learning/time ratio will be strongest.
We are going to take a slow, smart, focused look at this issue. I can make informed suggestions as it is. Yet- this post marks one of the ways I am increasingly gaining input. Here’s betting that an emerging best practice in “informed decision making” includes surveying your PLN as an crucial step. What do you say… will you make a suggestion for our study?
I have a brand-spanking new site to share with you and your colleagues who might teach biology/life science. The new site is a worldwide professional network I created with the help of five super collaborators from across the country. This new public network is called: The Synapse.
For my non biology-geek readers (the majority) please allow a quick define of both a synapse and the site itself:
A SYNAPSE is a minute gap between nerve cells which transmits crucial information through the nervous system. The goal of this network is to perform a similar “synaptic” function between biology instructors of all levels and locations.
The Synapse is a science content-focused site on the Ning platform. Though it is managed by six people who are all relatively well versed in educational technology, it is not the primary focus of the network. It was designed primarily as a site for life science educators to connect with others without any geographical barriers. In fact, the site owes its origin directly from a frustrating discussion in the Twittersphere between biology instructors of many levels. On that day, it was decided that we needed a central place to meet, share and support one another from afar.
“What’s in it for me?”
Here, teachers can sign in to create a free profile to begin commenting, sharing, etc. The Synapse is a professional social network that features a discussion forum, blogs, event listings, images, videos, chat, etc. This is a perfect place to troll for ideas on an upcoming unit, a new strategy or approach you’d like to attempt in the classroom, etc. On The Synapse, teachers can log requests for ideas, tips or suggestions for teaching those most challenging topics or using new strategies. Teachers will also notice the ability to join or form their own subgroups within the network based on region, content focus, instructional strategy, etc.
The facilitators of this network represent different regions across the country, varying grade levels, varying approaches, varying years of experience. In fact, diversity within the network will certainly grow quickly even more over time. As this new network begins to expand, the power of numbers will work to produce results in an even more timely fashion. I look forward here to what James Surowiecki quite simply called “The Wisdom of Crowds.”
The real potential beauty of this network is its goal of decentralized intelligence. Online social networks such as this one harness the power of asynchronous communication to allow teachers to collaborate when and where possible within our increasingly busy lives. Sure, your brain has a ton of neurons… on the order of about 10 billion. However, it also contains around 100 billion synapses. That is, connections between neurons. It could thus be said that the connections between these brain cells are in some ways a larger factor than the brain cells themselves. Play that metaphor out in terms of this project. The connections we make here are potentially larger than any of us as individuals.
Sign in
The first step is to join. The second: poke around. See what this site can do for you as a teacher who is constantly looking to improve his or her practice. The final step: share. If everyone adds that minimum of one or two special things they have to share, this site will quickly be a huge part of your personal learning network. In fact, in the words of Dr. Geoffrey Hinton:
Learning occurs as a result of changing the effectiveness of synapses so that their influence on other neurons also changes… Learning is a function of the effectiveness of synapses to propagate signals and initiate new signals along connecting neurons. Learning and experience change the structure of the neural networks. (Geoffrey Hinton, “How Neural Networks Learn from Experience,” Scientific American, 267:3, September 1992, 145.)
Experience affects efficacy when it comes to your brain. Aren’t we magnificently plastic creatures? (Check out the related discussion between Dr. Doyle & I on this post.) The fact that you could alter the structure (and thus the function) of the only brain you’ll likely ever own, is a really powerful idea. So what on Earth are you waiting for? Jump in. Become one of the collaborators (neurotransmitters) within this newly-forming network. If you aren’t one who teaches life science… forward this post to a colleague who does. They might just thank you.
So welcome to another outpost on the rapidly expanding web that potentially connects professional educators worldwide. With a bit of help, this tiny outpost could turn into a metropolis. We think the infrastructure is ready. What do you think?
Michael Doyle is the name. I’m sorry if you aren’t following this blog. I really mean that. If you haven’t read this guy, you are missing out. Stop doing that. Read it today. Then make sure you come back often. I can’t continue to dig deep reading the blogs of influential educators without stopping today to make sure a few more people are reading what I am.
Perhaps it is because Mr. Doyle, the “Science Teacher” as his blog is entitled, is deeply creative. Perhaps it is because he seems to have the integrity to follow his philosophy as a mission statement. Or maybe it is more about the fact that he too, is a science teacher. That is the easy connection for me.
I thought about linking to this blog a few weeks back, and instead aimed my comments directly to the author on the pages of the blog. After reading today’s post, What I know now… I decided that’s it: time to share with my readers once and for all.
Honestly, I needed this post today. After the end of yesterday, I needed to be reminded once again why I work as hard as I do. I have always attacked every aspect of my job as a teacher or coach as if it were my 170lb. opponent standing two feet away from me on the mat. While teaching my third period Dual-Credit Biology course, I felt like a king. It was one of those 80-minute slices of life that remind you of why you work so terribly hard. (the online “after-discussion“) As an instructional coach, I get those rewarding slices of time less often than I did when I was in the classroom full time.
When I am able to design an event on the scale of a classroom… twenty-five kids, four walls and me… I more-often-than-not-feel like a maestro. When I scale up any endeavor to include the building level, it feels less powerful, less connected. However, those events are still frequently very rewarding. When it is then scaled up to some district-level event, it too often feels less savory.
Perhaps this is just an indication of a lack of intimacy. This morning while writing this, I think maybe I now understand yet another facet of my own personality. I think I need intimacy. Sharing new things with 100 people in a room can be really fun. Working on a district level committee toward enhancing instruction can be quite rewarding. However, when there are too many strong personalities in one room it gets tough. Too many chiefs and too few indians perhaps. Too little social intimacy for sure.
One thing I learned in the classroom years ago is that often the most valuable thing I can do as a leader is to listen. How do I help steer the discussion in a way so that students can make their own meaning? How is it that I can lead by doing less and end up achieving more? I listen. I’ve become fairly good at it. I get it now.
I wish listening were a universal skill. Not “letting someone else talk,” not “allowing someone to state their opinion,” but listening. Really listening. How about that one, folks? How about we all decide as a group from the top to the bottom and the bottom to the top… from the students to the teachers and the teachers to the administrators… how about we focus on listening? The valuable practice of listening to other people is not “wait time.” Think about it, and get back to me. I wonder if we can find a book published by ASCD, worthy of a book study, sailing along by the succinct title: “Listening: No subtitle- because it just doesn’t need one.”
So after this run-on mess of jabbering, you are probably going to look for someone other than me to follow. You are probably going to need to read something a bit less “cathartic.”
Allow me to suggest a surrogate. Read Michael Doyle. From a careful case made about the disconnect between science and language, to the near poetry of November Light, or the grounding thoughts of Clamming and Competency. Poke around the site for a bit, you’ll find something you personally like even better.
What do I find here? I find nothing short of inspiration in the creativity and thoughtfulness of the author. I find reminders that “goal directed exhaustion is OK.“ Sometimes when I can barely even sleep due to professional fatigue… I really need that reminder.
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