Some thoughts for you to ponder as Summer vacation nears

The following post was put on the LeaderTalk blog by Stephanie Sandifer. She has captured a lot of important thoughts and ideas here. We showed Shift Happens to you in a faculty meeting. The Board of Ed. was shown Shift Happens at a board meeting.....read the following and put you thoughts about it in a comment below.


Shift Happens -- Now What?

(Cross-posted at Change Agency)
You've just watched “Did You Know” or a keynote by David Warlick for the very first time. You feel your heart begin to race as panic sets in... you think: “My school is in no way prepared to help our students learn what they need for work and life in the this very different and constantly changing world... What should I do?!”
Too often, the initial response is to look for money to buy more computers. Some educational leaders may say “Let's make sure we have laptops in the hands of EVERY student!... SmartBoards in EVERY classroom!” While it is nice to have administrative support for new technology purchases, a “technology purchasing frenzy” is simply NOT the correct response to the realization that our schools are not doing enough to prepare students for their futures. This is really about changing adult perspectives and adult behaviors to create student-centered classrooms that exemplify research-based best practices around learning. It's not about buying the latest, greatest, and most expensive tech toys on the market. Expensive tech in the hands of educators who haven't made changes to their behaviors and instructional practice are no better than the good old chalk board, pencil, and paper. Even worse, expensive tech that the teachers see no use for will end up just collecting dust in a storage room.
The examples are endless... SmartBoards as expensive chalkboards... PowerPoint & media projectors as flashy and expensive overhead transparencies... computers as typewriters & calculators... Distance-learning labs that only get used for faculty or team meetings -- or worse, as a nice empty room to use during testing week... PLEASE NOTE -- from here on out on this blog post I am using the word “learner” for everyone on the campus -- teachers, administrators, staff... AND -- I am unapologetic with some of the things I say below. If we are serious about changing our learning environments so that our students leave fully prepared for life and work in a globally connected and collaborative environment, then we are definitely going to be moving the cheese of many people in our organizations -- it won't be easy and we can't wait for all of the state and federal policies and mandates to catch up before we take action.
So what should we do when we realize that the world has changed for our students?
Rather than immediately engage in a technology purchasing frenzy, take some time to begin discussions on your campus about how to transform your school into a place where teachers see themselves first as LEARNERS who are invested in improving their instructional practice through reflection and inquiry, and where students are more globally connected in a way that enhances and supports their individual learning. Collaborate with your faculty and staff -- your learners -- to learn more about how the world has changed and what that means for our profession...
Locate the “early adopters” in your district/schools and bring them in to a conversation around change — recruit them to help spread change virally... Change adult behaviors and practices first... Change the way you work together, the way you speak with each other... Change your vocabulary... Begin by redefining yourselves as learners rather than educators... Acknowledge that in order to prepare your students for their futures of the 21st Century, all learners on your campus must be equally prepared for those futures... Commit to the belief that being “technophobic” or “technology illiterate” is no longer an option for 21st Century learners (and after you've redefined yourselves as learners, understand what that means for professional learning on your campus)... Be firm about this -- it should NOT be okay on your campus for ANYONE to say “I don't like technology” or “I'm just not very techie... can you do this for me?”... Banish the phrase “Kids these days” from the vocabulary of everyone on your campus... While you are at it, you should also banish the phrase “My teaching methods have always worked and I'm not going to change just because these kids (fill in the blank)...”
Don't form a committee to “study this and bring back suggestions for change” -- committees take too long and you just don't have time... change needed to happen yesterday...
Don't create a “pilot project” -- same reasons for not forming a committee -- it takes too long and change needed to happen yesterday...
Do not purchase any new technology hardware until you have first ensured that your network is up-to-date and accessible... How many network drops are in each room? Do you have wireless access across your entire campus?... Drops in every room and wireless access across the campus are “must-haves” before you start buying anything else!...
Give your teachers time to “play” with Web 2.0 -- to explore the use of Web 2.0 (blogs, wikis, Twitter, etc.) for THEIR professional learning BEFORE they attempt to use the same tools in the classroom with students. In fact, put a moratorium on classroom use of blogs and wikis for at least four months until teachers have used them weekly for their own learning by reading and writing and connecting with other edublogging educators...
Inform all new first-year learners on your campus that their “learning” is just beginning and will never end... and that it certainly did not end upon completion of all degree and certification requirements...
Begin all interviews for new hires with “what is the most recent thing that you learned and how did you learn it?”...
Understand that all of this can and should happen in conjunction with other changes in professional practice such as Professional Learning Communities and Critical Friends Groups, and along with structural changes such as Smaller Learning Communities, varied student grouping strategies, and/or early college campuses... Transforming your school into a 21st Century Learning Center does not mean that you throw out other initiatives and other research-based best practices...
Campus leaders should model the professional learning use of Web 2.0 tools through transparent blogging and wiki use with the faculty on a weekly basis... Begin putting all of your professional “knowledge” on a wiki (accessible from anywhere -- NOT on the campus intranet) and when your learners ask where they can find certain documents, policies, etc., smile and tell them “It's on the wiki!”... Give your learners password-protected access to edit the wiki so that knowledge on your campus is collaboratively developed... This is as much about being transparent in your own learning and in your communication and collaborative decision-making with all of your learners as it is about modeling the use of new tools...
Don't know how to use these tools for professional learning, collaboration, and communication? Take time THIS SUMMER to learn... A few great places to start include a wide variety of edublogs as well as “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms” (Will Richardson), “Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century” (David Franklin Warlick), “Classroom Blogging: 2nd Edition” (David Warlick), and “Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools” (Gwen Solomon, Lynne Schrum)...
If our students need to be educated for a globally connected workplace rather than educated for factory work (and yes, they do), collaborate with your learners to make system, process, and structural changes so that your school looks, feels, and functions less like a factory and more like a globally connected communications and learning center...
Remember that the most important thing is a change in behaviors and practices -- a change in pedagogy -- NOT just buying new technology...
Finally... when you do make technology purchases -- provide support... provide support... provide support... AND provide training... but provide training that is a model of effective instruction and learning practices... create cheerleaders who will coach other professional learners and promote continual learning around changes in the world, economics, technology, and workforce trends that have an impact on our work as learning professionals... Here are a few other blog posts that offer more suggestions for creating a 21st Century learning environment on your campus:
Your job is to make something happen
First Steps Toward Becoming a 21st Century Educator
The Barriers May Not be so Great Disruption or Demand to Learn
Purposeful Networking
I'm on a Path -- Come Join Me!
The Teachers We Need
Don Tapscott Speaks Out on Education
-- Keynote for Horizon Project 2008
9 Principles for Implementation: The Big Shift
ISTE's Refreshed Technology Standards for Students
Social Networking Sites are NOT the Problem... BEHAVIORS (and bad statistics) Are!
The Five Phases of Flattening a Classroom
I know I haven't covered all of the do's and don'ts around this issue of reinventing our schools for the 21st Century, so I'll throw this out to the edublogosphere... What do's and don'ts would you add to the list I've compiled above?

What Do We Wo About Improving Technology?

I frequently find myself in a catch-22 these days. I am among those that have consistently urged our staff to seek new methods to incorporate technology in the classroom. I believe that we need to change our methods of instruction to fit a society that has changed over the past 50 years and that our students need to have technology integrated into classrooms and instruction. However, we are also faced with some of the negatives that these improved technologies bring. I am thinking specifically about cell phones. We are all aware that cell phones are no longer just for communication and that there are issues about privacy (cameras) and cheating (texting) during tests. So my dilemma is this how do we create a situation that allows us to embrace cell phones in the building, employ them in our classrooms and prevent there abuse?

I have a few thoughts and I present these not as a method of dictating an answer but as a place to start the discussion and looking for any and all relevant feedback.

1) We need to allow cellphones in the building and ask that students turn them in before a test is administered. Students would only be disciplined for cell phones if they went off in class or were being used.

2) We maintain the current policy. At this time we have collected cell phones from from 166 different students and many have not stopped bringing them. They simply view the losing of their phone as a nuisance. We spend at least 10 mins a day (teachers time + time in the office) dealing with cell phones and when it is inconvenient for a teacher to bring the phone to the office before the end of the day it results in uneven enforcement. I have also been told that not all teachers turn in cell phones which is a problem in and of itself. I do not think it is a great system and would like to refine or change it.

3) We let students keep their cells even during tests and instead begin to change how we test so that cell phones can't help students cheat but rather they become the data collection devices that many of them are and we teach our students to embrace this technology. (This, of course, requires that we get on board ourselves as well.)

This are simply my initial thoughts and again I welcome yours. Please contribute to this discussion.

Sorry to intrude on this blog Mr. Van Meter but I would like readers to look at this blog post and consider its ramifications. (Dave Meister)