Tag Archives: technology

4 Guiding Questions For Your IT Department

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Maurizio Zanetti

Recently, I tweeted an article entitle, “The Obsolete Tech Director“, which had some ideas on how to ensure that an IT department stays relevant in the way they serve schools. With that being said, there was a really strong message being sent regarding IT departments and how many are seeing their work by the author:

“The role of the typical school district technology director has become obsolete. Speak with your average teacher in many school districts in America, and you’ll find the technology department is better known for getting in the way than for serving the educational needs of both staff and students. Many technology departments, led by obsolete tech directors, are inadvertently inhibiting learning. The mantra of ‘lock it and block it’ no longer works in a 21^st century digital learning environment.”

The author of the article is a technology director so I feel more comfortable where the message is coming from, yet my concern would be simply shooting the link off in an email to an IT department without any type of discussion. Having worked with both teachers and an IT department, it is important that we have conversations to work together and understand how we can work together to serve our schools. Daniel Pink sums it up nicely in his new book:

“Perspective-taking is at the heart of our first essential quality in moving others today.”

So to create a culture where we are supportive and serving of one another, I really believe that it starts by asking questions as opposed to simply making statements. Here are some ideas of questions that can start the conversation:

1. What is best for kids? – This is a question that should not just be asked of our IT departments but should be the question that guides all of our work. For example, the mindset about blocking many social media sites is that we keep the kids safe from doing this work, but in the long term, what seems to be best for kids is to educate them to navigate a really confusing and fast-paced world, as opposed to leaving them to do this at home. If you decide to open these sites, we have to ask what work is happening in the classrooms to ensure that students have an understanding of digital citizenship and their footprint. It is easy to say, “open the site”, but it is more important that if sites are open, that we work with kids to ensure that they are safe online. This question helps us to understand what we can do to help each other.

2. How does this improve learning? In the past, I have seen software programs that have been pushed out that have a business focus and then pushed as a great thing for schools. Companies can get very pushy with software and it makes good business sense to take a software and show how it can have multiple purposes. At any point though, if either educators or the IT department cannot articulate how any new program or software will improve student learning, why is it being pushed to all computers? IT departments should be able to ask this of educators as well. If a teacher just went to a conference and saw some cool software that they now think should be pushed to all computers, they should be able to articulate why it is essential for learing to their IT department. I believe that there is an opportunity to test some programs out in small cases, but when you think it is something that all students should have, we will need to articulate how it serves learning. If neither side can answer this question, we are wasting time and resources.

(See “Our Digital Portfolio Project” to see how it was articulated that we would be using WordPress for student portfolios and how it would give opportunities for learning. This was needed before we even went ahead with the project.)

3. If we were to do _________, what is the balance of risk vs. reward? Many IT departments look at risk assessment and they want the risk to be either low or preferably zero. But with that being said, how often do we look at the possible reward that is associated with doing something? For example, many schools block Twitter for all in a school as there seemingly is a risk of opening social media sites, but when you open up sites and you say to your community,
“we trust you”, there is a HUGE reward that can come out of this. If you also looked at the learning opportunities for opening up sites like YouTube, we have to look at not only the learning opportunities that are available with the second most used search engine, but also what we may lose. In my opinion there is a much higher reward with opening the site if you are to work with your students, but we should have to articulate what that reward could be instead of just saying, “Why isn’t YouTube open?”

4. Is this serving the few or the majority? This question is something that is essential when we make any policies on anything, but for some reason, we seem to go overboard when it comes to technology. If a kid stabs someone with a pencil, they might be writing with it by the end of the school day, yet if we have a cyberbullying issue with one student, some schools block social media altogether. It seems like quite the overreaction.

So anytime a new policy or procedure happens for an entire school, we have to ensure that we are not punishing everyone for the mistakes of a few. Innovative environments should be built on trust, not the lack of it.

(This is a great video talking about this exact idea and it is a great view for all staff.)

Empathy is something that is essential to the work that we do, and I realized when I went to central office is that there is a ton of work that our IT Departments do that I do not have the ability or skill set to do. They do amazing work. What I would suggest though is that you invite your IT team to observe in your classroom (not necessarily help) what you do on an everyday basis. If your Internet is slow, computers do not work, and students are having trouble logging into things, they want to know that but it is important that they see this, not just hear about it after the fact. On the other hand, invite IT teams to conferences on education (not only educational technology) and have conversations on how to get to the next level for student learning.

The success of the school is more likely to happen if your IT team and educators are working together, not apart. What are you doing to facilitate this?

Learning Out Loud; Podcast with David Truss

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Last week, I had the opportunity to work with the Coquitlam Leadership team and it was an inspiring group to learn with. If you are interested, you can look at many of the things that were shared in the document below:

CPVPA – The Wisdom in the Room

On the way home, David Truss asked me if I wanted to try a podcast (original link), and although I am no “Dean Shareski”, I decided to try it out. Here is a link to our conversation below:

Here are some of the links that David also shared on his page:

• George’s presentations for the CPVPA ‘Wisdom in the Room’ conference:
Day 1: The Networked Leader
Day 2: Leading an Innovative Culture
- Slide 11 – Why we do what we do (See the Simon Sinek video.)
- Slide 46 – Marsha Goldsmith quote George shared on doing things ourselves, instead of pointing to others, to implement change.

• 11 Ideas for Fostering an Innovative Culture

• Twitter (links below not mentioned)
Are You Twittering? Here’s How I Use Twitter - Sue Waters
Some BC Edu-Tweeters To Get You Started - Chris Kennedy
George @gcouros, Dave @datruss

• Blogging as a learning tool:
Why I Blog. Why blog with students? (Blog post)
My post mentioned: on Homework
George’s post mentioned: on Award Ceremonies

• Show music by Bryan Jackson ~ Carrying Stones.

I wouldn’t mind trying this type of learning more often. Our writing should be transparent, but how can we get these impromptu conversations to be the same.

Thanks to David for the great opportunity and conversation!!

Let’s Figure This Out

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cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Sean MacEntee

“We spend far too much time talking about problems, and not enough time talking about solutions.” Simon Jackson

I watched as Bruce Dixon spoke to a group of leaders. To be honest, I had only kind of heard of him before though his name has popped up in blogs, twitter, etc. As he was introduced, one of the statements about him was, “he has been pushing for 21st century learning for 23 years”, and I kind of laughed it off.

And then he spoke and I was blown away. To be honest, he really pushed my own thinking as well on what I do in my role.

He talked about the “elephants in the room” and one was the lack of access for students with technology and the pressure of time that we have, yet only providing kids time on a computer for an hour a week. He spoke passionately about the ubiquitous access that students need to a tool that is necessary in our world today. If you look around at most conferences, every teacher has some device that they use, whether it is a computer, tablet, or smartphone. Go into the classroom though, and you will be lucky if you see that as the norm.

1:1 schools get so much attention because they are so unique, but should they be? Shouldn’t that be the norm for our kids as it is outside of our world? If you really think of it, doesn’t it seem strange that we are nowhere near the point where every kid having a device in school is just the norm?

Why?

Some will blame budgets. Some will blame admin. Some will blame governments. Some will blame lack of teacher skills. Lots of blame to go around yet very little problem solving. We are teachers; solving problems is part of what we do. Why are we not pushing to figure this one out a little harder?

So I am looking around the room while Mr. Dixon is speaking and I see one of the things that I always notice when someone says this; the “head bob”. Watching people “bob” their head up and down with everything that he was saying just like I have seen many times from similar conversations. The notion of giving our kids access is something we all agree on, yet what have we figured out? As I look around this room full of superintendents, board trustees, educators, parents, and business people, I wonder if we REALLY started pushing the issue, could we not make a bigger dent?

Moving your head up and down does not equal action. If you aren’t going to try and figure a way to do this and push the issue, moving your head up and down is not for you; choose side-to-side. Be honest.

What you say (and show) should align with what you do.

This can be done and I have worked before to make it happen as a school principal (to at least some extent). Figure out what you want to do, then align your budget to make things happen. Don’t say “21st Century Learning blah blah blah”, then increase or even maintain your same textbook budget. That doesn’t make sense. When those “desks” break, don’t buy more desks. Another thing that makes no sense. Don’t ever put less money in people (the school can look flashy but if you do not provide the professional development, any initiative will die), but think of the “things” you buy. Leadership should determine your management, not the other way around.

So my first move? I guess it is this post that might make some people feel uncomfortable. But that’s not enough. I will continue to work with my schools to help find ways to make this a reality.

What’s your move?

Any politicians reading this? Your agendas and plans often look great, but for now they are words in print and nothing else. Want to make them happen? Provides resources and support. Some governments have provided funding for devices for students…it is possible.

Any businesses reading this? If you want kids to have the skills that YOU continuously say you need in your workplace, start to invest in schools. Don’t just sponsor sporting events so you can get your name on a banner. That money you spend on advertising within schools might get you some business short term, but will it promote the creativity and innovation of your organization long term? You will get a huge rate of return if you start putting money in schools to provide kids with what they need.

Administrators reading this? Figure this out. Take a look at your budgets and dissect them. What can be different? What is your focus for learning? If technology is not in your plan, why? Explain that to me. Feel free to write it in the comments. I don’t get how it can’t be anymore. but maybe I am missing something

Teachers reading this? Share your voice. Not just on Twitter and blogs but go talk to the people that determine budgets. Look at “government plans” which all talk about the learning our kids need, 21st century learning, etc., and ask them how will they fund this. Will politicians listen? Maybe not. But you have a better shot this way as opposed to saying nothing.

Parents reading this? Start talking with your schools and ask questions. Lots of them. Be a part of the school team to help improve the opportunities for your kids. We always say, “it takes a village” and we need parents more than ever in our schools.

I just can’t handle the head bobbing anymore without the action behind it. Let’s figure this out for our kids.

You Should Read…(August 12, 2012)

Taking Away Options?

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cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by aloshbennett

There are WAY more questions in this post then there are answers…I would love your thoughts.

I am a HUGE believer in personalized learning and think that our students should have opportunities to express their learning in many different ways. I would say that this holds true with the majority of educators that I know. The difference though is that do we often limit students to our version of personalization? Do we only give them options that we know? I have been very comfortable in my career encouraging students to share their learning in different ways whether I know them or not. The exploration and problem solving that goes into the work that a student creates using an unknown technology may not be taken directly out of the curriculum, but will obviously have some learning “side-effects” that will benefit the child long after their time in my class. Is this notion of exploration the norm though?

As the year has progressed, I have seen so many learning opportunities where “paper” has been the only option (always my favourite thing to happen in a session that discusses differentiated learning) and there is no digital component. This is not only for reading what has been shared, but also creating content to deepen understanding. Lyn Hilt wrote a fantastic post today giving some great options of what school administrators can try to further their learning. She ends her post with this quote:

This learning and reflective practice, which needs to be embedded throughout any district or school organization, must be modeled. It must be visible. It must be continuous. If you’re a school leader, ask yourself what about your own teaching and learning methods needs to be transformed in order for you to grow your capacity as a leader. Then turn your insights into action.

I have always believed in the idea that we need to give all learners options and Lyn exemplifies this in her post with a great table of ideas. That being said, I am wondering if this is a ‘suggestion’ will people jump in and try the “new” way (which I would say is better)? Even if it isn’t better for that learner, as leaders, should we still not understand different opportunities for learning, especially if we are to be experts on the subject? I wrote a post this summer that literally stemmed from my frustration of not been given the opportunity to have a digital component for my own learning at a “21st Century Conference” that was “paper heavy”. I know we are supposed to meet learners where they are at, but, to be honest, this pushed me out of my comfort zone. That being said, when we are being pushed out of that zone, shouldn’t it at least be a push forward? I wonder what would happen if we came to a point where we would say to educators that we are only going to use digital resources for this meeting, this PD session, this learning opportunity? Would they back down from the challenge or would they adapt and perhaps even transform their practice? I love the idea of sharing a continuum as Lyn has done, but maybe we need to just cut off the ‘old’ option. Can we really personalize learning for students if we don’t understand how to use emerging technologies?

We ask our students to be uncomfortable in their learning every day; do we embody that practice ourselves?

Last year, I spoke with John Carver and our conversation still resonates. He said to me, “This is a printing press time in history; what are we going to do with it?” In my opinion, we shouldn’t have the option to ignore it.

Thoughts?

Technology is More than a Tool

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Definition: Tool – (noun) A device or implement, especially one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function.

Often the saying, “technology is just a tool”, is said in the context of schools and learning. I (vaguely) remember writing a similar comment and being challenged regarding that same statement, but since then I have looked at technology in a different way. Based on the definitions I have read, and the way I see technology (in many cases) being used, it has the power to be so much more than a website, device, or app. If technology transforms the way we do things, is it “just a tool”?

For example, Neil Postman talks about technology being ecological and how it changes society:

Technological change is not additive; it is ecological. I can explain this best by an analogy. What happens if we place a drop of red dye into a beaker of clear water? Do we have clear water plus a spot of red dye? Obviously not. We have a new coloration to every molecule of water. That is what I mean by ecological change. A new medium does not add something; it changes everything. In the year 1500, after the printing press was invented, you did not have old Europe plus the printing press. You had a different Europe. After television, America was not America plus television. Television gave a new coloration to every political campaign, to every home, to every school, to every church, to every industry, and so on.

There is so much more to the “just a tool” analogy in this example. The invention of the airplane changed the way our world works and that would also fall under the realm of “technology”. Even though Louis C.K. is joking on this little bit, he does show the transformation of our world when the airplane was invented:

People like they say there’s delays on flights (yeah) delays really New York to California in 5 hours. That used to take 30 years to do that and a bunch of you would die on the way there and have a baby. You’d be with a whole different group of people by the time you got there.

If you even look at modern day technology, the invention of Google (along with prior and subsequent search engines), has really changed the way school should be taught. Why do we need to focus on content when all of the information you need is a “Google” away. Really, can schools stay the same with Google existing? It doesn’t make sense if they do.

Facebook, like it or not, is a whole different way of connecting with people. For me, it was the phone that I spent an inordinate amount of time on, but for the new generation, it’s this social network. It is not only a place you can connect with friends, but you can also share your life, play games, and even have advertising brought right to you. Like it or not, it is a technology that is transformative.

Twitter and mobile devices have also pushed the edges of the way our society exists. The recent pepper spray incident at UC Davis, still gives me shivers every time I think about it. The way news can be instantly delivered from anyone with one of these devices and a social media account, is changing how we live our lives, and is hopefully creating more accountability for all people. It is scary to think how many incidents like the UC Davis event have happened before the mass use of technology.

I guess the reason I even wrote this post in the first place, was from the inspiration of a picture. I have struggled back and forth with the idea of whether technology is just a tool, or is it truly transformative. Yes, the way people use technology is important, but again, when used in a certain way, it transforms. I am certain I may be saying something that has been said by Neil Postman and others, but again, it was a visual that inspired this post.

If my examples above haven’t swayed you, maybe the picture below will:

I just look at that picture and think it has to be more than a tool.

What’s in a name?

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cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by quinn.anya

As positions begin to developed for the following year, in many school divisions/districts around the world. I have been asked by several people about my own position, the work I am doing/plan to do, and the title. As many of you know, the title of my position is “Division Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning” which is quite long, but I think the important part is that it focus on “teaching and learning”. It may not be the perfect title, but I think it does say some things. I really believe that our focus as educators always starts with learning (for ourselves and our students), but as Greg Whitby recently said to me (paraphrased), “there is no great learning without great teaching.” There has to be a focus on both.

Now although my position does largely involve using technology, it is not the focus of what we are trying to improve. I have been in many classes watching a teacher discuss with their students proper ways to hold a pencil so that they can improve their writing, yet we have no “pencil integration coordinators”. As we continue to develop positions to support the learning that happens in classrooms, is it not important that we include learningin the title?

So why do I think that this is so important? Through my short time in this position, there are a few things that have stuck out to me. First of all, it is the conversations that the title does start. Often, there is some amazing work and ideas coming from “educational technology” named positions, yet there is a misnomer that when the “ed tech” person walks in the room, the focus is now going to be on technology, and perhaps off of learning the other, or even worse, the “important” stuff. This for some, shifts the focus away from learning and technology is seen as an isolated component of the school. When people ask me what my title actually means, I talk to them often about the importance of working with students in a collaborative model, giving them the opportunity to not only be consumers of information but also creators, and the idea of personalized learning, amongst other things. I talk about how technology may facilitate this in a powerful way, but there are other opportunities as well. It is the conversation that focuses on the big picture ideas, not only on a component. I have found value not only sharing my thoughts on my job, but also the discussion and learning from the thoughts of others that I speak with as well. Anytime we can have conversations about learning, aren’t we better off?

The other thing that the title has done has helped me focus on my own role. It would be really easy to get caught up in the amazing tools that I see every day (SQUIRREL!), yet I know that my position is always focused on the idea of helping to improve teaching and learning. Many times I have watched the quick tutorial on how to use different websites or tools, yet we often go through them so quick, we lose the depth that we are looking to provide in learning. Narrowing my focus has helped to focus on depth, not necessarily breadth.

Now I know that many of my colleagues have “technology” in their job title and I know that they are doing some amazing things so this is not calling for a mass change. I do however think that as we develop new positions, we have to really think about the language that we are using and what it says to our staff, students, and communities. Sometimes when people believe that there is a mass focus on technology, it turns them away from it. There are too many things that we can do because of technology that this would be a huge loss to our kids. At the end of the day, as Chris Lehmann says, “technology should be like oxygen; ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible.” So why do we keep putting it in job titles?

In the end, I believe that it is always the learning that should be “the explicit”, and the technology is “the implied”, not the other way around. Shouldn’t our job titles mirror that?

Defining the Technology

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cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by topgold

Still reflecting on the Sir Ken Robinson keynote last night, one of the points that I thought was very interesting in how we sometimes hold our students back is when he said the following (paraphrased):

We oftentimes use the new technologies to do the old things. It is transformational when we use the new technology to do new things.

I couldn’t help but think of the development of Twitter as a networking tool and watching how educators have really leveraged this technology to build connections and enhance their own professional development. My best guess was that Twitter was built upon the popular “status update” idea from Facebook which was often used to share simple “life updates”.

“George is eating pizza.”

“George is having nachos for supper.”

“George feels guilty and is going for a run.”

It is when people took this technology and started using it in a different way, is when it had become transformational. The change in use of Twitter as defined by users, prompted a shift in the question “What are you doing?” to “What’s Happening?”. This change was highlighted in this old (almost two years!) Mashable article:

On the surface it’s a minor change, and yet it’s significant in reflecting the shifting focus and user behavior of the service over time. As most users know, the official question is largely ignored by those who have found myriad ways to share pretty much anything they wanted, be it information, relationships, entertainment, citizen journalism, and beyond.

The change acknowledges that Twitter has grown far beyond the more personal status updates it was originally envisioned to convey, and has morphed into a sort of always-on, source-agnostic information network that is wholly unique. Twitter says they don’t expect the change to at all influence how people actually use Twitter, but might “make it easier to explain to your dad.”

We often talk about technology and how sometimes, it defines us (see the printing press, electricity, car, planes, etc.). Often though, through our innovative ways of using new things in new ways, we define the technology.

It Changes Everything

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Below is a video that I watched the other day (definitely a good watch) of David Jakes and David Warlick talking about learning and technology. There was a quote by David Warlick that has been sitting in my head from the video for the last few days. When asked, can a teacher be good without technology, he replies:

“…yes, but is that teacher doing their job? No.”

I also saw a discussion today regarding iPads versus Netbooks in the classroom, where my brother (seen here in his “Numa Numa” outfit) suggested that a certain level of tech savvy is a good thing for teachers (and students) to have.

I agree with both the statements suggested although I know there is some challenge for some to use technology in schools. It is maybe not something they are passionate about, but it is something that our students need to have the skills in. It is not only the ability to be able to use technology, but, in my opinion more importantly, the ability to sit down with something and problem solve.

Would we ever settle for a student saying working on any problem, “I don’t get this so I give up”? Never. Nor should we model that for our kids.

Take the time to watch the video below…

We Are All Somebody’s Kid

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As I have seen the new video regarding social media use by teachers from the Ontario College of Teachers, I have thought a lot about the presence of teachers on the Internet, and more importantly by us as adults. I know that I have said many times before that we need to really role model for students, yet I have seen many instances where I have seen adults needlessly attack and criticize others using the Internet. While many would say that this is the exact type of reason that we need to keep our students away from social media sites, this only encourages me to role model and teach them properly more.

What it is ultimately about is not that we are using social media, but about the person behind the tool. Often technology is what is blamed when we see needless attacks, but it is always the behaviour. It is not that we can’t disagree with people or their ideas; that type of conversation is beneficial to learning in all aspects. It is when we attack people for their beliefs that is wrong. Through my experience, I have learned something very important: our kids are always watching us. Whether that is what we do on blogs, or how we treat other adults on the playground. Yelling at a kid to be quiet, doesn’t make much sense. What you are asking for and what you are doing are two different things.

It is not that I have ever disagreed with anyone. In fact, I am more likely to write a comment on another person’s blog when I want to challenge them. I wish I have always been perfect in the way I have treated others but that is just not the case. To get better, I always try to remember something when I am frustrated with someone else: we are all somebody’s kid. If we always remember that we all have moms and dads, wouldn’t we just treat each other better no matter if we were 5 or 50?

I distinctly remember reffing a basketball game and having some fans yell some really nasty things while in the game. At a break, I walked over to the fans, and introduced them to my mom and dad who were sitting in the stands. They didn’t yell anymore. Our parents always care about us, even when we are adults.

So when I think about many talking about the “evils of the Internet”, I am always reminded of this tweet from Bud Hunt:

Our kids are always watching. That alone makes me want to do better.

The Principal of Change

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