Sentiments On Common Sense

I had a nice compliment this week from visiting consultants we had at school. In our debrief with them at the end of an intense week of embedded PD, they noted to me that they liked working at my school because I keep my job focused on the big picture. Hmm… I thought… the “big picture”.   What exactly does that mean?

After it is all said and done, my search for the view from 35000 feet continues to keep me up at night. I wake up suddenly with a start and realize that we had not thought of this or that, and I really need to hone in on that idea further.  One of those is the role of libraries in our effort to provide a balanced digital and print environment to our students.  Yes… that’s right.. BALANCED!  Seeing as how the idea of balance needs to be defined, I was glad to see that one of my favorite blogger authors Doug Johnson (note:this site is blocked in China) has co-authored an article with Joyce Kasman Valenza in the School Library Journal titled “Things That Keep Us Up at Night”. (SLJ, 10/1/09) The article is targeted at librarians, but really has hit home with our administrative team at my school this week as well.  They write…

The future of the school library as a relevant and viable institution is largely dependent on us and how quickly we respond to change.

Libraries are no different than the classroom environment in many ways. The library, like the classroom is beginning to face an identity crisis of sorts.  The role of the learning space is being stretched by always available, always accessible and always relevant resources at the fingertips of the students.  The people who run libraries and classrooms are facing a sea of changing faces, with our students being completely at home in the digital environment and engaged in what seems like so many, many things simultaneously. Some of it good, and some of it bad and some of it useless and some it needing the guiding hand of a

trained professional educator, while other parts of it can be easily mined, harvested and mashed-up and republished.  Johnson and Kasman Valenza note that the challenge of keeping up with these trends will keep us all busy. Again, speaking to librarians they state,

Look around your state conferences. How many of your colleagues graduated from library school more than 20 years ago? Remember what the landscape looked like in 1989? How do we stay one step ahead of our staff and students in information accessing, evaluation, use, and communication in order to be seen as experts and collaborators? Do we know more about current information strategies than our school’s technology coach? No excuses. We must! If we are truly information professionals, we need not only to keep up, but also be on the cutting edge of changes in the search and information landscapes.

My favorite part of the article though speaks to “Advocacy by nonlibrarians”.  Here they write:

Rather than creating a perfect library, we need to reshape our thinking and create the perfect library for our individual institution. We can do this by changing our mind-set from adopting best practices as defined by our own professional organization to adopting a “customer service/support” orientation by crafting goals that support the larger goals of the organization.

Should this not hold true for all parts of our schools?  The best part of this though is that this is librarians thinking about and discussing their craft knowledge and reapplying it to a potentially new setting with a focus on the goals of the larger organization.  This is big picture thinking in action!  No wonder they can’t sleep. This is exciting stuff!

The authors write at the end of their article a bit of a call to action for libraries and librarians.  The word apathy certainly is written here, but I that the gist of the message is that without urgent action educational change, technological change and the variety of political forces in schools will define the role of the library for us.  I agree with the authors when they state their clear warning that:

Our best librarians will evolve, adapt, and thrive in effective
schools. But will they be called librarians? And will they be in
sufficient numbers for the profession as a whole to survive?

From 35000 feet I know that some things will be changing soon.

—————————————————-

Flickrstorm Photo Tagged “38800 FT” on : http://www.flickr.com/photos/20420218@N04/3903688501

Tags: digital resources, Doug Johnson, librarians, Library, school libraries, School library, School Library Journal, Technology

In my last post, I noted that I’d been saving this bookmark in my computer for quite a while.  Sean Nash from the blog nashworld wrote in July about the “Four Pillars of Technology Integration.” I wrote last week about our experiences with our Challenge Based Learning workshops that we were hosting in the month of September.  Today, I would like to explore the ideas that Sean has written about focusing on “Unfiltered, Ubiquitous Access”.

Sean spends a lot of time and lines writing about the requirements of the law in his state. The US has a lot of people telling each other what kids should and could see in their school networks, all the while the little darlings are going home and REALLY wanting to explore those sites because there are adults who have told them NOT to go there. Sigh… same story now as it was in the old days when boys would cruise the magazine racks for the occasional adult reading material so easily in their reach and so easily accessible.  Same holds true today.  But… that is not what I want to reflect on here.   Instead I would like to write about Sean’s comments around the ubiquity of the tools that may or may not be blocked in his district. The fact is that we all have a goal in our technology implementations that Sean describes so well.  He states:

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.

In my schools, we are now operating on a new wireless network and finding that it has freed us up in so many new ways.  Truthfully, the power of this tool alone is worth the price of educational admission at most schools, where roaming bands of learners find that access is found in any corner of the campus. We worked to ensure that the access is fully realized in the fields, cafeterias, student lounges and playgrounds with the realization that we need to have access where the students are located and stop worrying so much about locating the students in a lab or classroom.  By developing that freedom of space, you also free up the time of your community to learn and grow in any space and at any time.

Ultimately though it does come down to getting the machines in the hands of the students.  Sean writes:

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.

If you are a regular reader of my blog then you know how I feel.  Frankly speaking, I believe I have staked a lot of my career on the belief that a learner needs the tools of thought, voice, action and deed.  For a construction worker a shovel may be the tool of his trade, or another it may be a ruler, level or even his voice. For a learner, the tool of information access, information creation and information processing is currently a laptop computer. I cannot even imagine getting my work done without it.  I also have to ask how a student can get through school without the tool that virtually every adult uses day in and day out. Computers, whether on a desk or in a bag, are here to stay and getting more and more accessible each and every day.

In our CBL workshops we spend some time talking about the effects that the computers in each student’s hands will have on the working relationship that teachers and students develop over time.  The fact is that by giving students access like a laptop will certain democratize and “flatten” the social structure of a classroom. All of a sudden the teacher is not the ONLY resource to student for knowledge and in fact, the knowledge held in the head of an instructor may be “dated” or even wrong.  This, of course, moves all conversations to classroom management.  Frankly speaking I have been struggling finding resources for teachers on classroom management that will make them feel empowered and more comfortable.  Some of the more sage instructors will tell me (and their colleagues) that “good classroom management is good classroom management, laptops or not”. 
While I want to believe that is mostly true, I do think there will be some “figuring out” how to make it all work.  Thanks to my friend Blair Peterson, I was sent to the Friday Institute for Educational Innovations which is coordinating a study of 1:1 classrooms in North Carolina.  I found some great resources there and a great NING that is growing up and taking shape.  Take a look!

Laptop Friendly photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/81374383@N00/521630871
Technorati Tags: FIEI, Friday Institute of Educational Innovations, 1:1, Unfiltered Access, Ubiquitious Access

Tags: Classroom management, Education, Educators, K through 12, Sean Nash, Technology

I’ve been saving this bookmark in my computer for quite a while.  Sean Nash from the blog “Nashworld” wrote July about the “Four Pillars of Technology Integration.” and has created a very nice graphic to go along with the post (noting there that he spent too much time on the graphic).  I on the other hand will use it here (to the left) with FULL attribution!  Thanks Sean! Please check out the post!

What I want to write about today though is his initial insights into technological transformation. We worked through some training with our teachers over the past two weeks focusing on what we tried to represent as Challenge Based Learning to our teaching community.  The idea, sprouting from input from Apple Distinguished Educators who are part of our teaching staff, grew into a two day experience for all teachers in the classrooms which will be part of our 1:1 laptop implementation this year.  All in all, the workshops are going well, and have show to have teachers experience what I expected.   Some teachers to be struggled with technology. Some teachers found initial, early and dynamic success. Some teachers rebelled against the idea of the computers taking over their classrooms (and thus their lives). Other embraced the ideas shared and discussed and will be successful right away.  I also continue to believe that success will find us in our classrooms around this program due to our classroom teacher’s drive to use all the tools that are in their reach and the students love of the digital environment that they live in right now.  I believe our school has made some strong, agressive and noteworthy steps to get from what Mr. Nash states as “behind the curve” of technological transformation and instead get out in front of the crowd to distinguish our program from those that have come before us.

What initally connected to me in his post has nothing to do with the specifics of the Four Pillars of Technology integration, but instead it was his statement about the filters one applies as we consider as we retool schools along the lines of technological transformation.  Sean states:

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.

He then outlines two important thoughts:

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.

This is just the message I wanted to have the teachers EXPERIENCE in the workshops we have been providing. That’s right… EXPERIENCE.  If we spend time taling at the issue (which we also did a very, very small amount of in the two days together), we miss our own point.  Frankly, I am a strong believer in the common sense approach that says that you can tell people things like this over and over, but as I learned in “Influencer” if you show and demonstrate, rather than tell will garner fuller more expansive results in our efforts.

Thus our results show (after reviewing the progress and the exit survey results) that we did a decent job of addressing the following goals:

1. To provide teachers with the opportunity to become more aware of the power of the laptop computers the students will have full access to through this program.
2. To provide teachers an opportunity to engage in a collaborative and collegial learning experience in the same way the students may engage in our classrooms.
3. To provide the teachers in the 1:1 classrooms time to examine the challenges of classroom management in a technology rich environment and develop thoughtful strategies on how to address these concerns.
4. To provide teachers an understanding of the logistical processes involved in getting technical help, additional resources and integration support at Shanghai American School.

Did we feel like we needed to give out teachers a flashlight like Sean mentions?  No, we did not.  Some, admittedly stumbled around in the dark a bit, but for the most part we met the needs of the groups (which were large and diverse).  We encouraged teachers to “Collaborate.” Some– no most– “Learn(ed) from their successes and failures. Teachers in our school learned that they “Do not (have to)go it alone”. No, we did not “slap a digital device in the hands of each student and call it success.”

Thanks Sean for the inspirational post that helped my reflections. I will reflect more on the remaining part of the post later.

Tags: Apple, Classroom management, Education, Educators, K through 12, Shanghai American School, Teacher, Technology

Image via Wikipedia

Ok… I am on a roll here, and I as type this in the car on the way back to my home campus here in Shanghai, I am watching a news podcast that is highlighting the response to the United States President’s plan to speak to students in schools about “goal setting and hard work”.  Apparently there are some – labeled “indoctrinators”- who believe that this should not happen as this is just another way for the left wing folks in the US to indoctrinate the children into the “cult of Obama”.  Sadly the discourse is more of the same, with little intellectual conversation, but instead, a more guttaral response to someone they do not like.  What next… a Joe McCarthy-like panel?  Perhaps a front runner candidate for the presidentency from the John Birch Society?  Where is this type of leadership leading us to in the long run. Is there some strategic thought here?  If so, I would like to see the long term goals here!

So… I go back to Wikipedia’s definition of bullying:

“the act of intentionally causing harm to others, through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation. Bullying can be defined in many different ways. Although the UK currently has no legal definition of bullying,^[2] some US states have laws against it. Bullying is usually done to coerce others by fear or threat.”

It makes all to much common sense that this sort of behavior by a small faction in our world can inhibit free speech by spouting the extreme retoric, it certainly does have the effects of 1) drowning out the less compelling and more cerebral conversations and 2) pushing the more thoughtful, reasonable and intellectual people to the point of being unwilling to speak for fear of being portrayed as ignominious and shameful members of our society. I call this bullying.  The are using verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation and it is WRONG!

Even the Telegraph out of the UK notes the trend in the recent article “50 Things that are being killed by the Internet”. Their #1 thing being killed-  The Art of polite disagreement.  Author Matthew Moore states:

While the inane spats of YouTube commencers may not be representative, the internet has certainly sharpened the tone of debate. The most raucous sections of the blogworld seem incapable of accepting sincerely held differences of opinion; all opponents must have “agendas”.

My online collaborator Brian commented on my last post asking what is there to do? He said:

I’m seeing this professional digital bully trend happening quite a bit. I sense there is a new form of bullying happening between many of the early adopters and the establishment. The power of these tools is tremendous. It’s placing some who are a niched minority in educational institutions, into a quasi blogging stardom of the world. Some in the establishment may find this a threat and in effect the bullying starts.

My answers:
1.  Recognize and LABEL bullying.  The labeling of such behaviors make all of us take notice of exactly what it is and how we, in our effort to ignore it marginalizes it to acceptable parts of our world.

2.  After recognizing it, ignore it.

3. If they continue, then apply discipline when possible.  If in school, suspend or expel priviliedges of either school activities, school attendance.  If in the “real world”, press charges, apply legal recourse or notify authorities.

4.  Protect the innocent.

5.  Apply a SPAM blocker and tell your friends to do the same.  After a while even the nice people at Google and Yahoo! will take notice.  If nothing else, you don’t have to read the garbage in your own email box.

6.  If they have a web page that is getting lots of traffic, explode a Google bomb on them and do searches on alternative sights that have a more reasonable approach.  I’ve seen this work in the past pushing the more obscene and obnoxious to the less famous 2nd page of searches where the less famous web publishers are pushed to forever!

Technorati Tags: Online Bullying, Polite disagreement, intelligent debate

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• Bullying- What would your children say? (sentimentsoncommonsense.com)
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Tags: Bullying, Google, U.S, United States, United States President, Yahoo, YouTube

Wikipedia descibes bullying as….

“the act of intentionally causing harm to others, through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation. Bullying can be defined in many different ways. Although the UK currently has no legal definition of bullying,^[2] some US states have laws against it. Bullying is usually done to coerce others by fear or threat.”

Recently, I have observed the extension of this sort of behavior into what most of us would consider realms that would not be consider appropriate for this behavior before (not that even a back alley way or drug den would embrace such behavior either!).  As an American expat, I have been appalled by the behavior of the opponents of health care reform in the US.  They have come out of the wood work using tactics like “verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation.”  Over and over the people on the news keep asking each other if they have seen this kind of behavior before and over and over, they express their shock, dismay and awe at the tactics of these people. Today, I watched on one show a woman in a wheelchair publically outlining her medical issues to a congressman while members of the audience (many who were standing in the backrow) were yelling and screaming at her.

Sadly, I have to say I have seen similar tactics in schools over the 23 years I have worked with children and their families.  In the past, I would see these issues as one-off, disruptive, often unbalanced individuals.  Some of these people had long term mental health issues. Others were labeled alcoholics, druggies and criminals.  As of late, I have begun to see this behavior being perpetrated not by these sorts of people, but by “respected” members of the community in schools in the US and in some international schools.

My colleagues are reporting similar complaints at small international schools, colleges, and even in the larger international schools.  My school, so far, as been immune to the public displays of such behavior and thankfully, our discourse remains polite, respectful and constructive (on the surface anyway!).

The members of many of these communities under stress are unwilling, or perhaps unable to have a civil conversation, or even polite disagreements.  All conflicts are perceived as win/lose, good/bad, pure/evil for those who come to school with a concern.  The digital environment has made this more underhanded and mean.  In just a few minutes, I can create an anonymous email account and send 10-15 emails making allegations, threats, lies or insults and nobody is the wiser.  This is adults committing cyber-bulling!  Yes folks, that’s right. We have full grown adults (with children!) going out and doing google searches in order to find people to insult,harass, assault, coerce and manipulate.

According toe How to Stop Cyber Bullying.org cyber-bullies have a different profile than the off-line counterparts.  While I understand that to be true, I see the goal to be the same for both.  It is through insult,harassment, assault, coercion and manipulation, that the bully somehow gains power.

My response to this behavior (face to face and digital bullying) is always silence.  I will, at all cost ignore the ignorance right up until it hurts a child or one of those people of which I supervise. Then I will step in. Behavior like this bring up more questions than answers, but My question is one I ask myself often:

“If my children were watching, would I want them to do the same thing to their teachers or principals?”

Or….. as Thumper says:

“If can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

Top graphic from http://www.flickr.com/photos/47753500@N00/3525111678
Bullying article referred to from wikipedia is found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying
Thumper from http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:TxO8z789CaJEQM:http://disney-clipart.com/bambi/jpg/Thumper-1-lg.jpg

Tags: Bullying, Emotional Health and Wellbeing, Kids and Teens, Violence and Abuse

I am not sure how old I was when my Dad put a 9 iron in my hand in the back yard with those annoying little plastic whiffle balls to hit around, but I can remember whacking those tiny balls around the yard back and forth, to and fro…. later in life that same nine iron was the tool used for my first “real” shot on a golf course, hitting a green from about 110 yards, sticking that ball about 6 feet from the pin and gaining great praise from my Dad.

That was the shot on that course in Ontario, Oregon- Shadow Butte Golf Course, on the back nine (see photo above).   Over the past few years, I’d lost my glee of the game a bit.  My wrists ached, my back hurt, the walk was so long and I was just plain bad company the whole round.  I could occasionally hit those shots, but they didn’t seem to stick like they used to do so.  I am sure you know the feeling.  No joy. No glee.  No fun.  My clubs sat in the garage in my house in Shanghai looking out over the 15th tee of the Jack Nicolaus golf course. A kid in a candy store with no need to even take a taste.

Then at the end of the year, I took a few hours after school and decided to play a round with some guys at work.  As I stepped to the first tee, I decided I would change my mindset.  Instead of swinging with hesitation, trying to guide the ball, I would revert to that 9 iron I hit from 110 when I was 13 years old.  Afterall, how hard can it be.  The game is about putting the ball in the hole.  Just do it I thought.  I relaxed my arms.  Stood above the ball, took the club back with rhythm, my wrists relaxed, and swung down on that ball like I did 32 years ago.  No fear, no regrets, just a decisive, direct and rhythmic swing.  Even the bad shots felt good again.  My wrists stopped aching.  My elbows no longer were painful for 3 days after a round.  More importantly, my mind was able to concentrate on putting the ball in the hole instead of worrying about striking the ball. What was taking 5 or 6 strokes took 4 or 3… even sometimes two strokes.  I was able to think ahead.  Look two, three and four shots ahead.  I read putts and ROLLED putts rather than pushing them toward the hole.  When the ball rolls toward the goal they go in a lot more often!  The game has become fun again.

This coming year, I hope to play more golf, and will carve out time in the early mornings on weekends to do so.  I will also take my lesson of relaxing my local intent and thinking about the 3rd, 4th and 5th steps more carefully. Long term, I need to think like a golfer and remember the intent of my work.  Mark Shead wrote in his post “Leading on Purpose” on the blog Leadership 501 back in February, 2007 that leaders should examine each action from a leadership perspective.  He states:

Many people get put in a leadership
position and just lead by accident. They do whatever seems good at the
time without viewing each action as part of an overall plan. Sometimes
they do great things and sometimes they do things that really hurt them
from a leadership standpoint. Leading on purpose means making decisions
as part of an overall strategy to make it easier for people to follow
you. Whenever you get ready to do something, ask yourself if it will help
or hurt your leadership influence. For example, the evening you are
asking everyone else to stay and work late, probably isn’t a good time
to announce that you are head off to see a movie.

He goes on to write:

Leading on purpose means taking the long term approach to
leadership. It means thinking about how current actions will impact
your leadership ability 4 or 5 years down the road. In many situations
leaders don’t think like this. They expect to move on in 2 or 3 years,
so they only think about short term impact.

The problem with this approach is that the leadership legacy that
you have built will follow you beyond your current job. The world is
getting smaller and it is very likely that you will be working with
someone in the future that you’ve worked with before, or who is best
friends with someone you’ve worked with before. If you haven’t done a
good job of making long term decisions, it will come back to haunt you.

I guess, in reflection, this is what I am looking to do more effectively.  I need to play my game (both on the course and in my work) with the mindset of leaving a legacy.  In golf, my legacy should be to look to the next shot and then next shot and the next, all honoring the placement of the one that came before it.  In my work, I will strive to think about my next steps as a way to honor and follow the completed tasks of the past, building a legacy of consistency, intelligence and long term thinking.  In both cases, when it comes to the completion of a job, I can confidently step up and roll the final stroke to the goal knowing that my past work will more often than not have a positive result, and if I miss my mark it won’t be by much.

One of the things I forgot to do when I was not enjoying golf was look out on a hole that stretches out before me and admire the work of the course architect and course superintendent.  It is the challenge of the game that makes it fun.

The green grass, the wind, the occasional rain or the unbearable sun, it all contributes to the experience of the game.

You put your ball down.

Take a deep breath.

Maybe you take a practice swing.

Aim.

Relax.

Breath.

Rhythm.

Backswing.

Slight pause.

Weight forward to the left.

Turn hips slightly pulling the club down the line and watch the ball fly microseconds later.

Through the club feedback is given. Did I hit? Where on the club? How solid? Which direction?

Smile- no matter what.

I bend down to pick up my tee and start thinking about the next two or three shots.

Planning, thinking, breathing but living in the moment and laughing with my coworkers and friends.

This is my lesson from a game I forgot how to enjoy.

Golf Course Photo from http://www.oregongolf.com/ontario/ontarh09.htm
Swing photo from http://bnewman2000.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/inil01_jjhenry2.jpg?w=470&h=312

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Tags: Golf, sport

The post title is a famous line from Arthur Miller’s death of a salesman.

While the play is a dark and brooding, it is also classic as it shows the hard work and struggle the salesmen in our world face day in and day out.  Ben Stein (author, lawyer, actor and economist) writes about the sales professionals role in our world and that we should pay attention to their services.

Check out the NY Times article here. In it he writes:

Those who are in sales are always aware that the next sale is behind the next door, and they are always great companions. They are where the rubber of production meets the road of consumption, whether in a showroom or a studio or on the phone or calling you at home. When the recovery starts, they will be the ones making purchases happen.

I agree with him and in a time of needed innovation and ideas, this is the time to sell and sell hard the ideas of learning, leadership and collaboration!

We all, in some way, are salesmen in our work.

Some of us are selling ideas.

Some of us are selling concepts.

Some of us are selling dreams.

The best of us do it with grace, style and panache.

I do know that we all can learn from each other, no matter what we are selling.

Ben Stein, Sales, Educational Leadership

Tags: Arthur Miller, Ben Stein, Death of a Salesman, Educational Leadership, Sales

In my recent post, I spoke about the implementation of an innovative statewide technology resource teacher program in Virginia.  Paul McMahon then wrote me, thanking me for the blog post but stating that he’d “not seen a single blog post that would indicated systemic change in any school present from Hong Kong. (#hksummit)

Hmmm… Paul.  I don’t know if I have it in me tonight to write fully to the point you have, but I would come to a bit of defense for the very, very few administrators who attended the summit a week ago.  Let’s examine our reality.

1.  I am not sure you have noticed, but the world is in a bit of downturn and we are facing some tremendous pressure to keep our costs to a minimum.  The mere idea of “innovating” is difficult to sell to our increasing conservative clients.

2.  Most, if not all of the admin attending the summit work in schools already moving down the path of innovation and sustainable implementation. Can they explain in depth what they are doing? Probably not, and thus my last blog post.

3.  Let’s not forget that a blog post is a rare way for administrators to communicate today.  I am a rare bird (in more ways than one) and most of my colleagues don’t sit on the couch on a Sunday evening and rap out a blog post for their own reflection.  Many administrators show thought leadership in many other ways including the weekly memos that STILL end up in the teacher’s mailboxes on Monday AM.

I still feel that in order to make educational change, all members of the school community need to be supported through the process. This includes administrators.  I can guarantee you that the good admin out there appreciate the support and I can also guarantee you that the admin that attended the HKsummit left empowered and filled with ideas.  Change takes time. Change takes bravery.  Change takes guts.  Change takes focus.  How much of each of these things depends on the time and place.

My colleagues… continue to look for support and Paul… keep urging us all on.

Image courtesy of http://static.flickr.com/56/118110233_05d3ea53dd.jpg

Apple Leadership Summit-Hong Kong, Digital Leadership

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Tags: Apple Leadership Summit-Hong Kong, Digital Leadership, Paul McMahon

I have written before about my belief that staff development needs to be addressed as a long term effort, and not something that can be taken on as a short term effort to solve a particular problem.

Let’s face facts!  Common Sense tells us that to really learn to do something well, guided practice with a trained expert will result in success far more times than a single “sit and get” lecture of a visit to our local or regional conference. It is how our BRAINS work!

Sure, there are exceptions out there, but teachers who do apply knowledge garnered at a single sit down session are either 1) unusual, 2) probably educational risk takers or 3) a little bit nuts.  Perhaps some of us are a combo of the three, but I won’t write about that today!

Today when I opened my email, I found the digital version of ISTE’s Learning and Leading magazine. In it is an article called “Getting to the Heart of Technology Integration and focuses on the Instructional Technology Resource Teacher Program in the State of Virginia. The article is written by Teresa Coffman, associate professor at the University of Mary Washington.  From what I read of Professor Coffman’s writings, these folks are close to getting it right.  The State Department of Education in Virginia mandates that the 134 school districts in the state employ tech teams built around two key positions.

Those positions are:

1. An ITRT, who is responsible for training teachers to use technoloyg and software effectively, as well as helping teachers integrate that technology into their curricula.
2. A technology support staff persons who is responsible for managing the school’s information network.

From what I read, in the Virginia model the program relies on the collaboration of the classroom teacher and the ITRT.  Wow! The state is mandating that the ITRT and the classroom teachers communicate and strategize the implementation of the technology tools and provide direct support in the classroom environment.

The ITRT staffer has a wide vareity of responsibilities, but some include:

• Modeling instructional strategies for teachers
• Providing direct training and professional development
• Researching technology-based instructional strategies
• Evaluating software and hardware
• Meeting with administrators and content supervisors at the school or district level to coordinate services
• Serve on building and district leadership teams
• Creating and implementing a plan for communication on progress and activities to school faculty and admininstration.
• Maintaining records where and when appropriate to document progress

So… What’s Missing?
Where is the administrator support?  Why is it that the administrators are left off the list? Why does the state not recognize the importance of administrative leadership in the implementation of technology. Nothing will do more to raise the bar at a school level than to hold the administrators responsible for (at the minimum) the NETS-A.  To be fair accountability applied to any member of our learning communities without support of those members, is like taxation without representation.

Let’s just simply add one bullet point:

• Provide direct training, support and professional development to building and district level administration on the building of their digital leadership skills which focuses on the use of technology tools for administrative work and on the evaluation of the use of technology in the classroom programs.

I think that without that step, the $500 million dollars dedicated to this effort will fall well short of the effectiveness that the designers have hoped for in the long term.  The implementation of this program is merely focused on and dependent upon the ITRT position.  The good news here is that Virginia has at least recognized this as a key component.

The article states that:

Of the recommendations that researchers made for the ITRT program’s continued success, perhaps the most compelling was the idea that administrators should become more involved in the program so that they can recognize effective technology use and support their teachers’ integration efforts.

The author goes on to state that:

A Technology Resource Teacher Coaching Academy…. echoed this sentiment. It found variable levels of administrative involvement in the county. Some ITRTs indicated that their administrators provide ample support adn encouragement, and this was both necessary and beneficial.

Necessary and beneficial- yes, I could not agree more. It is in many ways like the air we breath.  It is not only necessary but also beneficial.  Without administrative support, technology integration efforts, no matter how well financed and resourced will struggle and suffer.

An analysis of the program (written in 2007) can be found at this link: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Technology/OET/info_brief_itrt.pdf

Leading and Learning, ISTE, ITRT, Technology Integration Specialists, Administration, Digital Leadership

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Tags: Administration, Digital Leadership, Education, Educators, Instructional technology, ISTE, ITRT, K through 12, Leading and Learning, Professional development, Technology Integration, Technology Integration Specialists, University of Mary Washington, Virginia

Walking down the stairs of the Canadian International School of Hong Kong with my colleage @chinaleish- and if you have never been to this school let me tell you… THERE ARE LOTS OF STAIRS!! @chinaleish had a few things to say about the stairs and I was complaining about @adecardy getting up at 6-dark-thirty this morning to twitter about twittering! (There is probably more of a story there!)

That is when the question came:  “Andy…. How do you have time to twitter?”

Truthfully, during a busy working day, I do not have time and tend to just keep tweetdeck open during my day to check on the people I follow during a lunch break or during a lull in a meeting.  Very seldom do I tweet at all during a day unless there is something noteworthy.  My secretary does the tweeting for the school, but she generally does this in advance on tweetlater. In the evenings at home I often will do a little multitasking (TV, email, twitter, perhaps a blog post, some RSS reading, etc) after my kids are in bed.  It works. It keeps me connected. It keeps me informed.  I learn a little, laugh a little, and relax a lot. It is a little bit of “me” time embedded in my homework time.  Perhaps it may keep me a bit more balanced.

I have often linked posts to the Blue Skunk Blog. Doug Johnson is one of the best educational bloggers out there and if you don’t have this guy on your RSS list, you should link to him today.   He responds to some blog chatter about the issues with being “hyper connected”, which is certainly a concern of mine as well. He links out to Darren Draper(another strong educationally focused blog).  Darren has some issues with Twitter, and fair enough I say.  I would warn all readers that even broccoli will make you sick if you eat too much of it!  ALL things should be used in moderation!

Doug’s post about a PLN Bill of Rights and Responsibilities provides a nice framework for digital leaders to use for themselves, but also to be shared and pushed to their faculty and their students.

Doug’s of R and R’s for PLNs is:

Personal Network Member Bill of Rights and Responsibilities

1. I have the right not to be social 24/7 – either online or in person.
2. I have the right to time for reflection and responsibility for doing so.
3. I have the right to use only the tools that suit my learning style.
4. I have the right to stop using a tool when it is no longer useful.
5. I have the right to not be on the cutting edge all the time or feel I need to always know all there is to know.
6. I have the right to choose those with whom I learn in my personal learning network and responsibility to learn from those with whom I don’t always agree.
7. I have the right and responsibility to disagree and the responsibility to do it professionally.
8. I have the responsibility to become familiar with a tool before sharing it with others.
9. I have the responsibility to share my knowledge with others in my network.
10. I have the right and responsibility to not let online activities keep me from my friends, my family, my workplace, or my community.

So… What did he miss?  What needs to be considered as we look through the eyes of our children? Our family lives?

Thanks Doug for the great post and the help in maintaining our balance!

Doug Johnson, PLN Bill of Rights

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Tags: Blog, Doug Johnson, Hong Kong, On the Web, PLN Bill of Rights, RSS, Television, twitter