Filed under: Change Agent, Instructional Leader, Leadership | Tags: 1:1 Laptop Programs, 21st Century Schools, Action Plans, change, Learning, Risk taking, Technology Plans
Flickr by Edge of Space
In December 2009, I used this photo in my Leadership and 1:1 Bus post and last year I used it with the Graded faculty to describe our journey to provide students with a relevant education for today and the future. This journey includes going 1:1 in August 2012. For me the photo conjures up excitement and fear. And while some people are adventurous enough to sit on top or hang on the side, others feel more comfortable inside. It doesn’t matter where one sits, the important thing is that we’re all together on the journey.
When is it exciting and often magical? When our students are using technology for learning, creative and original thinking, communication and collaboration, research and information literacy and critical thinking and problem solving.
When is it a bit scary? When we are uncertain of what is coming next or when we have to step outside our comfort zone to try something new.
We have so much to be proud because we have traveled so far in such a short amount of time. This year we have done the following to prepare for a full 1:1 rollout in August.
- Support professional development at conferences by providing faculty with the opportunity to attend the Laptop Institute at Lausanne Collegiate and Unplugged at the American School of Bombay.
- Provided all of our teachers and administrators with laptops so that we all get used to working anytime, anywhere.
- Using digital tools to help us with our work and our learning. The idea is that we will experiment and figure out what works as we do the same in our classrooms.
- Created PLCs around assessment in today’s digital environment.
- Reviewed and redesigned our curriculum in science and English with a 21st century lens.
- Encouraged students to bring in laptops to ease the transition for August.
- Defined our Information Communication and Technology standards that will be integrated schoolwide next year.
- Provided teachers with a full-time academic technology coordinator to support them with integrating technology and professional development.
- Developed our acceptable use policy and LARK guidelines so that our community members can be responsible digital citizens.
- Developed a digital toolkit that will provide us with some software standardization in our bring your own laptop environment.
- Upgraded facilities so that we have electrical power throughout the campus.
We realize that the journey is not over yet. In reality, we’ve really only traveled a short distance. The key is that we are well on our way to transforming the learning experiences for our students.
Filed under: Change Agent, Modeler | Tags: cpchat, Modeler, Personal Learning Networks, Risk taking, Social Networking
On my recent trip to New York I happened to see the Naked Cowboy in action. He seemed very comfortable in only his hat, underwear and boots and he was putting on quite a show. He’s obviously quite the extrovert and performer and I could not help but think about how comfortable he was exposing himself to thousands of strangers. It got me thinking about how much I’m willing to expose about myself online with blogging and social networking tools. While I may have been timid in the past, I actually find myself becoming more comfortable exposing myself online. My thinking is that it will offer a wider audience some insight into my thinking and personal life.- Write assuming your boss is reading.
- Gripe globally; praise locally.
- Write for edited publications.
- Write out of goodness.
Filed under: Change Agent, Instructional Leader, Leadership | Tags: change, k12online, Leadership, Risk taking
My presentation, School Leaders Set the Tone by Playing, Experimenting and Taking Risks went live yesterday. While I have given many conference presentations over the years, this one is something new and different for me. The reality that my work will be on the website for the world to see for who knows how long, is exciting. At the school level is was neat to see colleagues show up for an after school session where my video was the main event. On a global level, I loved seeing educators tweeting about watching the presentation. The MS teachers at Singapore American School were probably surprised to see a clip from their assembly Flashmob video.
This process made me realize the importance of sharing ideas with my own school community and getting them involved in the discussion. In the past I may have gone off and presented without sharing with the faculty and students. In this presentation I included teachers and students in the process. While I’m not someone who enjoys self-promotion, in this case I think that it will be valuable for our school community to view the presentation and spend time discussing the ideas. The concept of risk taking for innovation is one that we all should consider. While I didn’t mention it in the presentation, I view the act of creating a K12 Online Conference presentations risky. We’re all putting ourselves out there for the world to see.
You can hear my Voicethread description of the story behind the making of the presentation at the 2011 Presenter Backstories page. Creating a video was a new endeavor for me. One that I hope to repeat in the future. I know for a fact that I’ll do a much better job of editing the final product. That’s the one area that needs the most work.
Who knows how many people will be exposed to these ideas?
Photo from Creative Commons: Boy Scouts – Gettysburg
Michael Coakley holds the new official NBA basketball, left, and the old one, at right. outside the Winstanley offices in Lenox. Tue June 27 2006 (Bonnivier)
For those of us who are promoters of change it’s important for us to step back and carefully consider how those involved with the change initiative are feeling. In 2006, the NBA made the decision to change from leather to synthetic basketballs. There hadn’t been a change to the basketball in 35 years. Talk about a sensitive subject.
The league tested out the synthetic balls for approximately 3 months. Spalding, the ball manufacturer, stated “We believe the microfiber composite ball offers many superior characteristics to leather…” After the player’s union filed a grievance and many of the players complained, the NBA decided to switch back to the leather balls. At the time, David Stern reported “Although testing performed by Spalding and the NBA demonstrated that the new composite basketball was more consistent than leather, and statistically there has been an improvement in shooting, scoring and ball-related turnovers, the most important statistic is the view of our players.”
“The only thing that we love the most is the basketball. That’s your comfort. I mean, without your basketball, it doesn’t work. That was my biggest problem, was, why would you change something that means so much to us? ” —LeBron James, Cleveland
So, the NBA decided to listen to the players and not make the change.
I’ve been thinking about this example a lot lately as we take on change at school. While we’re not going to drop our work on assessment, PLCs, and teaching and learning in today’s digital world in a 1:1 environment, we can certainly decide to slow down or backtrack a bit when necessary. Whenever we make significant changes there are always unanticipated demands on time and energy. These demands can lead to frustration, anxiety, anger and grievances among colleagues. Sometimes the leader has to press on, and act as a cheerleader for change. Other times the leader has to listen to the teachers, students and other administrators and slow down or back track a bit. David Stern certainly understood this in 2006 and the league backtracking didn’t seem to have a negative impact on the NBA.
Like David Stern, I hope that I am able to recognize when it’s time to back track on planned changes.
Photo from Jacobwolman
Filed under: Change Agent, Instructional Leader, Modeler | Tags: 1:1 Laptop Programs, 21st Century Schools, Future, Risk taking
On Tuesday I made a presentation to the entire high school student body and it did not go exactly as I had hoped. We’ve had a task force working on plans to implement a 1:1 program in 2012 and the timing seemed right to introduce the students to the initiative. The purpose of the assembly was to create an awareness amongst the students of Graded’s plans to start a 1:1 program in the high school in 2012. I also tried to go beyond the idea of just a 1:1 program by focusing on Graded in 2020. To provide all students with a voice in the discussion I asked all students to bring their mobile devices so that they could participate in a back channel chat.
It’s very interesting because I really thought that the problems would be different in nature. I did not expect that the immature acts of a small number of students would dominate the discussion on the back channel chat. I had asked a colleague to turn it off if someone posted anything inappropriate and about half way through he shut down the computer. This happened even after I gave them three clear rules: 1. Use real names; 2. Conversation has to relate to the topic; and 3. Think before you post. Here are my thoughts on the risk, my learning and the future.
The Risk
As I mentioned, The purpose of the assembly was to create an awareness amongst the students of Graded’s plans to start a 1:1 program in the high school in 2012.
I was certainly nervous and knew that there was a certain level of risk going into the presentation.
- Will students be receptive to the message?
- Will the technology work?
- How will I effectively communicate the message?
- Will anyone actually participate in the discussion?
- How will the teachers respond to the topic?
- What will happen when I all give students voice?
With these questions in mind I set out with purpose. When putting together the presentation my focus was on the topic and I tried to use a mix of text, videos and images to convey the message. Like every good teacher I rehearsed my speech and made sure that the Prezi slideshow, videos, and the back channel tool, Today’s Meet worked.
While I may not have been successful in creating that discussion on the back channel chat, I have anecdotal evidence that discussions are happening. Our film teacher told me that his class had a “interesting” 15 minute discussion right after the assembly. and our PFL students shared their comments with their teacher. I even find a sense of contentment in the fact that a few stragglers on the back channel chat session posted relevant comments as late as 8:35 pm on Tuesday.
“But Graded is trying to be a pioneer in the area in Brazil. I really admire them for that.”Liberalism Rules at 8:19 PM, 4 May 2011 via web
“And as for the maturity, if this technology was something that we were rather used to, people wouldn’t be so “obsessed” over it, and…” troll at 7:57 PM, 4 May 2011 via web
“I think that although laptops would provide more interactive learning experiences for the students, it would also hinder their concentration”: D at 7:45 PM, 4 May 2011 via web
I’m in search of more stories from students and teachers.
My Learning
Every good educator processes the lesson and whether or not students learned to identify improvements for the future. In this case, let’s think in terms of risk management.
- It’s probably natural for high school students to get a little giddy when they are introduced to a new tech tool and some will want to play around more than others. Maybe I could have tested the back channel out on smaller groups before doing it with 350 students.
- Next time I’ll plan to use a back channel tool that shows the identity of the participants. This will take longer to set up but it will be worth it. I can use the expertise of our Academic Technology Facilitator to help me with this setup.
- I’ll make sure that every student has access via the wireless network. I found out just prior to the presentation that this could have been arranged. I believe that there were students in the audience that wanted to respond to the topic and they were not able to. These students could have turned the conversation. In a 1:1 environment it is so important to provide everyone with the opportunity to participate.
- I’ll ask the faculty members to bring their mobile devices so that they can participate in a positive manner. Since this is a community discussion their voices are important.
- I’ll also continue working on building relationships with students so that there is a level of genuine respect between us. It’s my first year and the school and I have much work to do to build stronger relationships with the Graded student body.
- You can bet that I’ll also set up a way to measure whether or not I was successful in raising awareness.
What other suggestions do you have for me?
The Future
Will I do it again? You bet!
Will I do things differently? Of course.
In today’s learning environment it’s imperative for educators to try new approaches to teaching and learning. I think that it’s actually OK to fail every once in awhile. I’ll probably do a more thorough risk assessment in advance next time. I’m saving the transcript of the back channel because I want to go back and review it in the near future. I envision a time when everyone will have a voice at our assemblies in a meaningful discussions. I would have loved to have seen back channel chats when we had MV_Bill and Nando Reis speak to our community.
Photos: Risk Taking Quote by useitinfo
Risk Assessment by Blue Square Thing
Filed under: Change Agent, Leadership, Visionary | Tags: #leadershipday09, 21st Century Schools, change, Educational Leadership, fear and hope, Risk taking, school leadership, Vision
- Convincing stakeholders that these changes will require additional funding and/or the redistribution of funds.
- Tackling the skeptics who demand to know how the changes will positively impact student learning.
- Making personnel decisions that will promote this change initiative.
- Standing up in front of stakeholders and letting them know that my vision for our schools is continually developing and that I don’t have all of the answers.
- Discussing and taking action on the balance between restricting and educating students and teachers on the responsible and appropriate use of technology.
Why am I prepared to live with this type of fear?
