Tag Archives: educational technology

Removing Barriers and Educational Technology

I was recently asked to share my thoughts on the current state of educational technology and the connection it has to education in British Columbia (for a BC website). Here are some of the questions that came my way with my responses below.

What are you currently obsessed with at work right now?

One of my big focus areas is on how we give both teachers and students a voice in their learning. We live in a world where we all have the opportunity to share our thoughts instantly with the entire world, but schools have traditionally kept that learning within the confines of the building and have only shared during “special events”. If we give our students an authentic audience, we give them the opportunity to make a difference in their own lives, as well as the lives of others.

Tying into that notion is the idea of “entrepreneurship”. Students are creating some pretty amazing things in schools, whether it is in an art class, technology course, or english. How do we give them an opportunity to share their ideas to actually learn how to make a living doing something that they love? One of the things that I looked back upon during my time in the faculty of education was that we spent a lot of time learning how to “teach”, but no time learning how to actually get a job teaching. I believe that students should not only have great opportunities for learning in school, but we need to teach them how to create opportunities for themselves.

How is technology changing the face and pace of K-12 education?

Information is abundant and as Daniel Pink discusses in his latest book, it is not about accessing information, but about curating it. When you have access to all of the information in the world, there is obviously some great stuff, and some stuff that is of a poor quality. How are students critical of what they see, and how do they reflect and share? Too many schools are worried about students “googling” answers on test because that would make them “cheaters”, yet as adults, we would be considered resourceful if we did the same thing. What we do with the information is much more important now than simply finding it. We need to look at how students are not only consumers of information, but creators of content as well. That is where the real learning happens and technology gives us the opportunity to be able to share easily with the entire world.

What are some of the smartest teachers doing in this space?

Many teachers are looking outside of their schools and classrooms for new ideas to inspire and engage their students. Nothing in our world seems as stagnant as the “curriculum”, and many educators are learning to continuously embrace change and bring it into their classroom. They are looking at what successful organizations outside of education are doing and bringing those experiences to their students. They are not only making learning relevant, but real. There are teachers in pockets that are doing this, but many of them struggle with the politics of school and administrators that sometimes encourage risk, yet do not model it. As Chris Kennedy states, administrators need to be “elbows deep in the learning” with their students and faculty. In the area of British Columbia, Surrey School District (SD36) has been making some tremendous strides in becoming a “culture of innovation”, but I am guessing that even in their situation, they never feel like they are “there” and are striving to continuously get better. Learning constantly changes and grows and the best organizations continuously grow and adapt so that they can always excel.

What opportunities are there for collaboration and transition between K-12 and higher ed given current technologies?

With learning having the ability to be so visible in our time, K-12 and higher education need to spend a lot more time working together to improve education for our students. You often hear K-12 complaining that universities are out of date and are forcing schools to go to an old model (grading practices are a prime example of this), and many universities are saying that students are not coming into their schools with the skills that they deem valuable. Instead of talking about each other, they need to spend more time working with each other and figuring how to do best for the students, and not take the easy way out. Within our school division, we are looking at working with our university to work with teachers to give them an idea of the skills that we expect them to have and be able to teach their students. We are hoping that we can build a partnership to learn from each other and really have education take the next step.

What are some of the challenges? (BC’s Privacy Legislation any others?)

The privacy laws in BC are outdated and holding schools back significantly. They often talk about data being stored in the cloud as being “unsafe” but it seems that it is more about controlling it from an outsider perspective. These policies were created in a totally different world and are now holding schools back to help students understand and thrive in the world that we live in currently. This is similar to the outdated election laws in 2011 and how many became subversive because of those policies.

If provinces were really about “moving education forward”, they would look at removing barriers, not putting them in the way.

Engaging Parents in the Learning Process

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cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by bestlibrarian

“The role of parents in the education of their children cannot be overestimated.” ~Unknown

When you ask parents from any country in the world, what they ask their children at the end of the day about school, their question is very similar:

“What did you learn today?”

The disconcerting thing is that the answer is almost always exactly the same.

“Nothing.”

With some of the work that we are doing in Parkland School Division, we are really trying to engage parents in the learning of their child by opening the door into the classroom. Through the use of blogs, twitter, and other social media outlets, the question can change to something similar to, “I saw that you were learning about (blank) today; can you tell me more about it?”

Different questions usually get different responses. Improve the question and you are more likely to get a better answer.

Parent Participation vs Parent Engagement

Although the more parents can have a positive presence in our schools, the more they will build relationships within the school community, engagement is something different. Children are shown to have a much better chance at success if their parent is actively engaged and reinforces the learning that is happening in the school. Case in point; if you want to improve your child’s reading, read to them at a young age and model what you want to see.

Yet as students get older, many parents are uncertain about the learning that is happening and feel uncomfortable with the content. The benefit of a lot of learning in our schools today is that it is not solely focused on learning content, but skills and process which are important aspects in a learner’s development. Being able to engage in the process with your child, like reading, will help improve their learning. That type of engagement brings learning to a different level in the home.

Are we becoming illiterate?

One of the most influential articles that I have read was by Will Richardson on the notion of expanding literacy. In it, Will discusses The National Council of Teachers of English definition of “21st Century Literacies”, and how many adults, not just kids, are becoming or illiterate. For many, the notion of literacy boils down to reading and writing, yet it is much more.

“Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups.” NCTE

So with that in mind, what are parents doing at home? Are they creating websites with their children, assessing what is good and bad information, creating videos and podcasts, and so on? The majority of our students see the Internet as a place of consumption, not creation. We need to shift that focus.

Mitch Resnick challenged this notion of consumption when he stated:

“We wouldn’t consider someone literate if they could read but couldn’t write. Are we literate if we consume content online, but don’t produce?”

Based on this ever-changing definition, we have to ask, “Are we literate?”

Keeping Kids Safe

People are quick to jump on using these new types of technologies as either “dumbing down” education (David Crystal’s research shows that reading and writing improve through the use of mobile devices as opposed to the other way around) or that kids will be unsafe. The reality is that schools in partnership with parents, need to guide children to not only be safe, but to leverage these technologies so that children will have opportunities that we did not.

Carlene Oleksyn, a parent and pharmacist, has immersed herself in the use of social media, not only for the benefit of her own learning, but to ensure that she safely guides her children. In a recent post on her blog titled, “The Talk”, she shares a conversation that she has with her children:

It started like this:

“Boys, when I need to hire someone do you know what one of the first things is I do?”

Nope, they had no idea.

“I google them,” I said. “I see what they post on Facebook, Twitter, blogs. If they have posted anything that is calling someone else down, is sexually inappropriate, or if they’ve made blatantly disrespectful comments on other people’s postings, I would tend not to hire that person.”

The difference between Carlene and many is not this talk, but it is the credibility that Carlene has from immersing herself in using these technologies herself. By having a Twitter account, blog, amongst other things, she has learned how to keep safe by stepping out and looking around first, as opposed to simply letting her kids run wild when they reach the age they are allowed to use social media based on a company’s terms of service.

From her experience, she is able to give some very relevant advice:

I think as parents we need to do three things for our kids:

Be aware of what our children are doing on the internet

Be on sites with them and teach as they go.

Be examples with our own digital identity.

Carlene understands that the world is changing, so she is taking advantage of the learning that can be done while helping her children navigate some murky waters to find a much more positive place. She is setting a high standard for her kids not only through her words, but through her actions.

Concluding Thoughts

Kids existing online is not enough. Many schools talk about the notion of “digital citizenship” but simply being a “citizen” is not the heights we should be aiming for offline, so why is it online?

Through my work, I have tried to focus on the idea of “Digital Leadership”; the notion of using the technologies that we have to make a positive difference in the lives of others. I try to model this simply by writing this post and trying to build more awareness of the opportunities that technology affords parents and children in learning. Some kids are doing amazing things.

Millgrove School was recently highlighted on Global TV for their work on trying to use social media for learning, but by doing good for their community and hoping to inspire others around the globe. Isn’t that the standard we should be aiming for as school communities?

To be successful, educators do not only need the support of parents, we need their engagement. The door is opening more every day to your child’s classroom. Are you ready to step through?

Power and Freedom

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I heard this quote the other day and was struck about how many things that it applies to in schools:

“Freedom is actually a bigger game than power. Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash.” ― Harriet Rubin

When educators think about technology in schools, do they think of “power” and “control”, or do they think of “freedom”?

I have a good friend that has to copy and paste my blogs on her own, and post them on her school website, because my blog is blocked as it is labeled “social media”. That is not about freedom, but it is about power and control.

Technology should give the opportunity, as Stephen Covey would say, to unleash talent. It should not be about control, but about affording opportunities.

This also applies to leadership. Many often talk about “distributed decision making”, yet everything must be vetted through them. That is not about freedom, it is about power and control. That creates a lack of trust and an unhealthy environment. The administrators that I did the most for, showed they trusted me the most.

As soon as a person is hired, that should say, “I trust you”. We need to give them the freedom to unleash their talents. We need to say say “yes” often, and say “no” rarely.

More Mindset than Skill Set

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“Give it a second…it’s going to space!” Louis C.K.

Here are some thoughts that often run through my head when I get a little frustrated with people complaining about how technology never works for them:

I don’t magically walk by your computer and all of a sudden works.

I don’t just know this “tech” stuff.

I also can’t fix anything that has electricity running through it.

Just because I am good with technology doesn’t mean I am the “tech guy”. My focus is on leadership, teaching, and learning.

In my career, I have always been comfortable sitting with others that are eager to learn technologies and how they can implement them into their teaching. Although I have found a huge benefit of using technology to improve teaching and learning, I never really started using computers until my first year of teaching. In fact, I never took one technology course in university. Ever.

But that doesn’t mean I just “get this stuff”. It has been a lot of time of playing around, making mistakes, but also being comfortable that not everything works on the first time. My technology has failed in presentations, and luckily, since I am a teacher and more importantly a learner, I figure something out. Sometimes it is how to go all “MacGyver” and create a different solution. Sometimes it is just finding a solid plan B.

As I grew up, my dad with a limited formal education, was the master of buying weird technologies. I remember that he bought a horn for his car that you would punch in numbers and it had an assortment of 99 different songs that would be played through the car horn. Never saw that before and never saw it again but it was pretty cool. He also bought the first VCR in the town I grew up in, which was two pieces, weighed probably over 50 pounds, and cost over $2000. He loved playing around and trying new things, whether it was with technology, or in the woodshop.

Seeing that has definitely influenced the work that I do, but also my brother as well. We are way more tech savvy than my dad ever was, but he still wants to play around with every technology that comes out.

My 82 year old dad on FaceTime with his grandkids about a week after he received his iPad. Picked it up pretty easy

What I learned from my dad, is that it is not about your skill set, but more importantly, your mindset, when trying new technologies (that is actually with any learning isn’t it?). Playing around and actually finding enjoyment and satisfaction in problem solving is something that many “techies” have and my dad has this quality in spades. He will pick up a technology one day and not understand it. So the next day, what he does, is he picks it up again. Guess what happens if he doesn’t get it? He picks it up again. Consistency, effort, and the need to just”figure it out”, leads him to better results.

Learning something in a workshop and then not touching it for a month is probably not going to lead you to the desired results. Where has that ever worked? I don’t remember playing basketball, shooting free throws one day, and then coming back and being able to dunk 4 months later. To get better, you have to practice.

This is not to say that I don’t love helping people use technology to improve their teaching and learning; I love it in fact. What I hope for though is that once I do my part and give you all the support I possibly can, you do your part, and continue to learn. I am more than willing and excited to come back and help you if you want to get better, but I am going to ask you, what have you done in between? Eating salad once a month is not going to improve your diet. (Believe me, I try!)

Too much to ask?

Digital Leadership

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cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by flickingerbrad

I rarely ever do this, but it is now the second time this week that I have posted a comment that I made on someone else’s blog. Sorry if it is bothersome but I think it is important that I can come back and look at my own growth in this space later on to connect my learning.

Joe Bower has some strong viewpoints on differing topics in the world of education and I have read his blog for the last two years. I feel comfortable calling him a friend of mine and I learn a great deal from him. Recently, Phil McRae had a guest post that was shared on Joe’s Blog that shared some thoughts about technology (I really encourage you to read the entire post). At the end of his post, Phil posed two questions:

1) How might educators engage with digital technologies so that students can become empowered citizens rather than passive consumers?

2) What technological innovations will help to create a society where people can flourish within informed, democratic and diverse communities, as opposed to a culture of narcissists that are fragmented by a continuous partial attention?

I thought I would try to share my thoughts on this in the comments and have shared what I have written here:

Phil and Joe,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and I would like to point you to an example.

If you look at Martha Payne as an example, as outlined on Ewan McIntosh’s blog (and countless other sites), you see a 9 year old student that is giving an answer to both of your questions. Here is a child creating through her blog a movement on improving the quality of food that is served in her school’s cafeteria. Because of this opportunity to actually have a voice, she saw that she was able to make a change and bring awareness to something that she thought was an issue (as does Joe on his blog here daily). Even though it was something that many around the world felt was admirable, her school did not appreciate the fact that she was criticizing the food being served and tried to censor her blog. So instead of a school promoting this opportunity for a student to have a voice with a large audience and make social change, they actually tried to shut her down. I won’t go into entire details of the story as Ewan shares it well in her blog posted below, but I guess my question is, do we find it narcissistic for her to write to make a change through technology? Is Joe’s blog narcissistic? Does this post convey that as well? It is already shared on one space, so why in another?

What I want to believe is that you, Joe, myself, and others want to make change for the better and we have an opportunity to have a voice more now than ever. Is there any selfishness in these pursuits? Probably to some extent as I think we all want to make a difference in the world as there is an overwhelming positive feeling that comes from this. How could it not? I think however though, it is important that we not only use a Web 2.0 technology in a 1.0 way. I watch many only share what they are doing and not really engage in conversations with others using the technology that they use to share their message. If you look at Mayor Nenshi’s Twitter feed, he is engaging with constituents all of the time, sometimes on his politics, but sometimes on the new Batman movie. There is a human quality that can come out of using this technology that many of us are missing and helps to create a stronger connection to leaders that did not exist before. Is it truly authentic? Well that would depend on the leader. But I would say that it is much better than it was before.

The problem is that it is too easy to create this culture of fear around technology. I received this email from a company the other day warning administrators of all the “bad” things kids can do because of technology.

“Students can get into trouble on computers, especially on the Internet. And when they do, you’re often caught in the crossfire.

With LanSchool Classroom Management Software, you can watch what students are doing and even catch them in the act. Plus, you can document their actions to prove your point.

Put an end to trouble in your classroom today.”

When people focus on all of the bad things technology brings, they can easily create this “us vs. them” mentality as opposed to actually focusing on a conversation.

If we actually focus on giving students a voice through this technology, I think we are looking at some amazing learning and leadership opportunities for kids that goes beyond what we could have done as students in school. Ewan has a great quote in his blog post about some of the amazing learning from Martha’s experience:

“Martha shows every facet of great learning: real world change, making the environment around her better, sharing her thinking with the world, having a conscious for the world beyond her immediate horizons, and robustness in the face of incredible media and social media pressure. “

Would any of this happened if Martha wasn’t able to use this technology? it is her own pursuits that made it happen in the first place, but again, using technology in an effective way, gave her some amazing opportunities to make some powerful change. As adults, we need to continue to figure out how to continue to use these technologies to help ensure that Martha is not an outlier but the norm.

Just my two cents.

(Link of Martha’s story told by Ewan McIntosh)

I encourage you to share your thoughts here or on Joe’s blog.

“…they were born in another time.”

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I was led to this interesting blog post that was asking for some thoughts based on a letter that was sent by a parent discussing “technology and childhood”. Here is the email that was shared:

“I am a parent of two boys aged nine and six. One of the ongoing concerns within our family is technology and electronic devices. How do we safely allow technology to be a part of their, and our lives, and still let our children experience childhood? Does technology work in unison with childhood? Is technology so engulfed within our current society that we are required to partake whether we like it or not? I seem to be having an increasing number of conversations with other parents about technology and its implications on our, and in particular, our childrens’ lives. There seems to be varying opinions on how to approach it, how to utilise it and how to discipline it, especially in regards to social use and educational purposes. If you feel you have views to express in regards to this topic, then please use this as an oppurtunity for your experiences and ideas to be heard. My aim is to publish a complete text which will include shared stories from parents and teachers in relation to “Technology and Childhood”. I think by documenting families approaches we can not only learn from each other, guide and help eachother, but also record the current role that technology has in our childrens’ lives. Our young generations are going to be such a significant part of this country’s history. To a great extent they are “guinea pigs” to the social, physical and developmental outcomes of technology usage from a young age.

So what is your approach?

Since I wrote a long comment in response, I thought that I would share my thoughts on my blog as well. Below is what I shared:

Great questions here and I am going to jump in with a few thoughts.

1. Here is an interesting statement that grabbed my attention right away:
“How do we safely allow technology to be a part of their, and our lives, and still let our children experience childhood?”

I guess what I would ask right away is what have we determined as the notion of “childhood”? It is how we grew up or how kids are growing up now? If a kid played a board game would we better with that then a computer game? Both can be social but in a different way. If kids are reading, does it really matter if it is on an iPad or a paper book? We grew up with books and that was a new technology at some point that probably people were uncomfortable with. I think that when many see a kid using a digital device outside during recess, they are appalled, but when they see a kid reading a book, we commend them. In both situations there is good and bad and conversations that should happen with balance.

2. Imagination is extremely important but what happens when we can bring imagination to life? When I was a kid, playing with GI Joe figures was an awesome activity for me and I would act out scenes forever yet those scenes were only in my mind. What if I could actually create something on a computer that would allow others to recreate those scenes? Drawing my ideas was seen as great for brain development, so where does creating something on a computer fit into this? Imagination is fantastic but we have to also think about how we can give kids a creative outlet.

3. I think that this comment can be altered a touch:

“Our young generations are going to be such a significant part of this country’s history. “

The reality is that this generation is important to the ‘future’ of the country which should look different and grow from our past. The idea that kids are “guinea pigs” can be said for so many generations with different technologies, whether it it books, film, automobiles, telephones, or televisions. Do we grow up in an environment where there was no change or do society’s just continue to change, progress and evolve? I actually grew up with a computer that I would spend a ton of time on as a child. That definitely had an impact on my development, but I think that it gave me the opportunity to create in a way that others before couldn’t. Was it negative? Probably some things were negative and some were positive, but with every advance in society, we give some things up where we also gain. That leads me into my last thoughts on balance.

4. Balance is extremely important in this debate about what our kids are doing now. Ironically, I am writing this while watching the olympics which is a celebration of children that probably grew up with a gigantic lack of balance in their lives to be what many would consider to be successful. Is balance what we are aiming for or is it happiness, or is it both? I love this post by Will Richardson where he discusses the balance debate:

“…the reality is that most of those folks who are concerned about kids needing balance are out of balance themselves, just in the opposite way. They’re not online enough, not reading, writing, participating, connecting and creating in these spaces as much as they need to be to fully understand the implications of these technologies for their own learning and for the kids in their classrooms. Lately, when I’ve been responding to people about the “balance” question, I go with “well, actually, you’re out of balance too, you know.” Richardson

If we are really looking out for our kids, what experiences have we learned from using technology ourselves to help guide them through this unchartered territory. As someone who is an advocate for the use of technology in schools, I also am an advocate for exercise, connecting face-to-face, and trying different things. It is not that I am against the use of pencil, but I am against the lack of opportunity to have some meaningful opportunities to use technology in the classroom as well. We need to give kids Option A and B, not just provide one or the other.

The idea of “balance” is important so as Richardson discusses, let’s figure out how we can model this balance by embedding the effective use of technology in our lives while also learning to put it away when we should. By being able to model and understand both, we are more likely to seem credible in the discussions with our children.

With all of this being said, I believe that parents are doing their best to provide a life for their children that was better their own. I commend parents for asking these types of questions as these conversations are so important to improving the opportunities for our students in a safe way. In this whole discussion, this quote always sticks out to me:

“Do not confine your children to your own learning for they were born in another time.”

Thank you for the conversation!

These conversations are so important to our communities and obviously I am a big advocate for schools moving forward from when we went. I love the below picture which really shows how kids have moved away from how we are as children:

What are your thoughts on this topic? I encourage you to share your thoughts here or on the original blog post. These are such great conversations that we should be having with our school communities.

In Spite of Schools

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“And my contention is, all kids have tremendous talents. And we squander them, pretty ruthlessly. So I want to talk about education and I want to talk about creativity. My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.”

Sir Ken Robinson (Quote taken from this post)

Being able to just sit back and read and look at other posts, I have been amazed by some of the work that I have seen done by school aged students.

The first that I would like to share I had head about, but Ewan McIntosh writes about in depth and with great detail on his blog regarding Martha Payne and her blog. I am not going to go into great detail about what had happened, as Ewan’s post is much better than anything I could write, so below is a video about what Martha started doing:

After her blog saw a HUGE spike in readership, her own school tried to ensure that it was censored to not cause a disturbance within the school. Many people were outraged by this, and quickly it received international attention.

Through all of this, Martha had raised a huge amount to help build a kitchen in a school in Malawi, and has brought awareness to food programs in schools from all over the world. Ewan writes about the real learning that Martha exhibits so exquisitely in his post:

Martha shows every facet of great learning: real world change, making the environment around her better, sharing her thinking with the world, having a conscious for the world beyond her immediate horizons, and robustness in the face of incredible media and social media pressure. She is another ‘Caine‘, with a supportive parent and facilitating adults around her. She’ll go far.

The other student that I saw do some amazing work (although on a much less serious note), is Ton Do-Nguyen, a junior in high school from Pennsylvania, who made this amazing imitation of a Beyonce video with a “Snuggie” twist. You can actually watch the whole video with the Beyonce comparison below:

Reading an MTV article on the kid that made the video, it is amazing how he not only got so much attention, but actually figured out some other creative uses for the “Snuggie”:

It’s not just the superstar singing Ton’s praises either: Everyone from Perez Hilton to “Glee” star Harry Shum Jr. are bowing down to the Snuggie-clad tribute, with the same question on everybody’s mind: How the heck did he do it?

“For each specific part, I would just look on YouTube and try and get it down to a T in front of my mirror and go off and film it,” Ton explained. “It’s so tiring, and do you know what it’s like to be in a Snuggie in the middle of July?”

And while the sleeved blanket was originally used merely as a fashion statement to set the two clips apart, Ton revealed that the body-length fleece ended up serving useful in the production as well: “I used my Snuggie as a blue screen and wore a blue shirt and then I just did my thing.”

I am not going to lie. I have watched this video in the double digits not only because it is extremely entertaining, but because it is absolutely amazing that this kid created this video. He has an extraordinary attention to detail while also bringing his own personality to the video. I picture myself as a kid trying to imitate moves from videos (Every Little Step by Bobby Brown was a favourite although I did not really like the costumes!) but never being able to do any type of video editing that was done in this video. I have no idea who created the video, but it is interesting to see that this student is doing this when school is out, as opposed to when it is actually happening.

As I think of these two huge projects by these unique individuals with separate interests and probably strengths, I am curious about how much of this happened in spite of schools, as opposed to because of them. In Martha’s case, her school actually tried to stop her yet she succeeded because of support from her family and a huge international community backing her up. Ton’s video, which has brought more attention to the Beyonce song in which he should really get some kickbacks from (I never heard the song until now but have actually downloaded since seeing his video) was done seemingly on his own, where he says he had basically taught himself to do the video editing. (The “Snuggie” props are also his.)

Do we do projects like these in schools? I am not putting this challenge for everyone else, but for myself as well. Do we allow and encourage kids to be creative, take risks, create social change, and do all of this in the context of learning in schools?

After seeing these two kids over the summer, I am even more inspired to help students achieve these big dream projects within a school setting.

Teacher Learn, Teacher Do

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cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by epSos.de

As I have been working with our “Learning Leader” group and implementing a blended PLC model, I have been watching and connecting with educators who have been doing things in a slightly different way in their classroom. To be honest, as the PD is being offered to participants over this 2011-2012 school year, I have been adapting and changing the model based on their needs. I am trying to understand the people I am working with and adapt our program to their needs. To plan any learning for an entire year shows how quickly we forget that people are our number one focus, not curriculum.

In our second session, I simply showed a couple of apps and shared this Dean Shareski video and had participants tweet and share thoughts, while I engaged with them online. The conversation did not blow me away, but it was a start for something that was totally new to most people. Trying to make the course participatory and have participants tap into the learning of people in the room, as well as the world, I was happy to see how they started to engage with one another and see how easy the connections were.

As this was something I had done with adults, I was happy to see one of the teachers in the program started to implement this same practice into his own Social Studies classroom. I was proud to see that Cam actually implemented this because of what we were doing in our own program. When I asked what he was doing, he responded with the following:

It was awesome to see Cam using and creating a Twitter hashtag for his classroom. Not only can they learn from one another and tap into the wisdom of the crowd, they also can start to develop and understand the importance of a positive digital footprint. There are so many benefits of this type of networked learning for our students.

As we look at what we want from our classrooms, I realize more and more that we need to model in our own professional development what we want our classrooms to look like. We cannot just lecture about how classrooms should look different, do the same thing with educators, and then look at our classrooms and wonder why nothing has changed. Explaining our why is still important, but educators do not only need to hear about different practices, they need to experience it themselves as learners.

We have to continue to look at models of professional development and our rhetoric between the ever-evolving classroom. If our PD looks the same, why would our classrooms be any different?

Is our vision too generic?

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cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by robertstinnett

We are currently working on creating a document for our school division on our “Educational Technology” portion of the education plan. As I have looked at different documents, including this one from Alberta Education, I have been struggling with the generic phrases that have been used. Here is the statement on the outcomes for “digital and technological fluency” from Alberta Education:

Alberta students competently use information and communication technologies as tools in a variety of digital environments and media. Students access information from a variety of sources to learn individually or with others, to communicate, to come to new understandings, to inform problem solving, and support decision making. They are aware of current and emerging information and communication technologies and choose with confidence the appropriate technology for a defined purpose. Students can access, understand and manipulate digital information creatively and effectively for learning, for communication and for sharing and creation. They use technology critically and safely, and in an ethically responsible manner.

I think this is a great goal but I am wondering if you put 20 people in a room and asked them how they would do this, would you receive 20 different answers?

From that viewpoint, I then saw the ‘Technology Integration Matrix’ from the Arizona K-12 Center. This gave different goals, broke them down into steps, and then also provided exemplars in each area. When you provide examples like this, do we often kill the creativity of our teachers and students by giving them a preconceived notion of what good teaching and learning looks like? In this article on creativity, the author notes that our prior knowledge can sometimes inhibit our own opportunities for innovation:

“Perhaps the most important entry on Michalko’s list is his last point, that “creativity is paradoxical.” Schools are places where students are supposed to acquire knowledge—but to create, a person must “forget the knowledge.” If you’re not able to leave what you think you know behind, you can’t approach problems with a fresh perspective. Students must also be taught to “desire success but embrace failure,” and to “listen to experts but know how to disregard them.” Liz Dwyer

So where is the balance? How do we ensure that all of our students get the same opportunities no matter what school they attend, while also ensuring that our teachers have the autonomy to be innovative in their teaching practices? If you were to create a plan to support teachers and provide a vision for a preferred future, how would you go about it? Your thoughts would be appreciated.

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