always learning

Cross-posted on the Tech Learning Advisors Blog

Only one month into the new school year and almost every middle school student has their own blog hosted at ISB (plus all of our grade 5s, and quite a few high school students)!

Thanks to our fantastic middle school Humanities and Modern Language teachers, who spent their class time helping students create their own blog, we are off and running in record time! In fact, the process was so easy that almost all of our students had their blogs set up before we formalized our student blogging guidelines. So last week, I met with the Humanities department (and other interested teachers) to determine a set of basic guidelines for our students.

To get us started, we took a look at the blogging guidelines our elementary students developed last school year during their first experiences blogging. Interestingly, the guidelines our grade 4 students created last year were just as applicable to middle (and high) school as they were for elementary. We ended up using almost all of the guidelines from last year, with just a few minor re-phrasing issues and consolidation.

Given that the elementary students created these guidelines after a series of thoughtful lessons and meaningful class discussions, we see these them as prompts for deeper dialogue across classes, not simply a list of rules to follow. In order to help students make the best decisions, we’ve also followed each guideline with a question (also developed by our elementary students last year) they can ask themselves before they hit publish.

Here’s what we came up with:

Student Blogging Guidelines

As a student blogger at ISB, you are expected to follow these blogging guidelines below. Use the questions in italics to help you decide what is appropriate to post on your blog.

1. Only post things that you would want everyone (in school, at home, in other countries) to know.
Ask yourself: Is this something I want everyone to see?

2. Do not share personal information.
Ask yourself: Could someone find me (in real life) based on this information?

3. Think before you post.
Ask yourself: What could be the consequences of this post?

4. Know who you’re communicating with.
Ask yourself: Who is going to look at this, and how are they going to interpret my words?

5. Consider your audience and that you’re representing ISB.
Ask yourself: Do I have a good reason/purpose to do this?

6. Know how to give constructive feedback.
Ask yourself: What will I cause by writing this post?

7. Treat other people the way you want to be treated.
Ask yourself: Would I want someone to say this to me?

8. Use appropriate language and proper grammar and spelling.
Ask yourself: Would I want this post to be graded for proper grammar and spelling?

9. Only post information that you can verify is true (no gossiping).
Ask yourself: Is this inappropriate, immature or bullying?

10. Anytime you use media from another source, be sure to properly cite the creator of the original work.
Ask yourself: Who is the original creator of this work?

Commenting Guidelines

As a blogger, you will be commenting on other people’s work regularly. Good comments:

• are constructive, but not hurtful;
• consider the author and the purpose of the post;
• are always related to the content of the post;
• include personal connections to what the author wrote;
• answer a question, or add meaningful information to the content topic;
• follow the writing process. Comments are a published piece of writing.

Final Thoughts

I’m so impressed with the depth of thought shown by our elementary students! Being able to start this conversation with our middle school teachers using resources developed by 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students, clearly demonstrates that even our younger students really do understand both the power and the responsibilities of communicating to a global audience.

It’s also great to see that our ISB21 team vision of developing enduring understandings that are not grade-level specific, but rather provide a through-line for all divisions, has helped us focus on the bigger understandings and mindsets that students really will need to carry with them from year to year.

When discussing blogging safety and responsibility with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders last year, we did it in such a way that what they came up with were skills and essential questions that would help digital students no matter what grade level they’re in.

Once again, I’m reassured that elementary school is the place to begin this kind of dialogue so that we can provide a solid foundation for 21st century learning that students can continue to build upon year after year.

These guidelines have now been adopted by our elementary and high schools as well, so that we have a common expectation for all students at ISB, no matter what the age or grade level.

It will certainly be interesting to see what develops at all grade levels now that all of our students have their own blog hosted at ISB. We’re hoping that these blogs become their digital portfolio for their entire time with us. Being able to track their growth and learning over the years will be such a powerful tool for the students, teachers and parents.

Does your school have common guidelines for student blogging? What do they include? Are we missing anything here?

Yesterday Tara and I had the pleasure of hosting a one-day workshop at ISB entitled Rethink: Inspiring School Library Spaces, led by Kevin Hennah, an exceptionally engaging library consultant from Melbourne. Not only was the presentation informative and inspiring (more on that later), but the story of how it all came to be is pretty interesting too.

Once again, the power of personal learning networks leads to amazing real life connections. Kevin was presenting at a conference in Cairns with Judy O’Connell last April, who, though she has never been to our Learning Hub, included a picture or two from my Flickr set in her presentation. When Kevin saw the pictures of our space, Judy connected us via e-mail, and Kevin, on one of his regular visits to Bangkok, was standing in our library a few weeks later!

As soon as we met him, Tara and I knew he would be a fantastic speaker (and have tons of crucial advice on adding the finishing touches to our Learning Hub), so, in the span of a few weeks we arranged a one-day workshop here in Bangkok and invited any and all interested regional librarians. Amazingly, despite the fact that we started our planning in early May (at the very hectic end to our school year) and the fact that the workshop took place during the first week of school for most people, we had quite a crowd. Over 30 librarians flew in from all over Asia: Taiwan, China, Brunei, Singapore, and of course, Thailand.

As we anticipated, Kevin did not dissappoint. His previous experience in retail sales and marketing gives him a unique perspective on libraries, and his endless suply of “before and after” images provided practical ideas that librarians can implement immediately. A few of Kevin’s points really jumped out at me:

Libraries have customers, not patrons: If libraries take only one thing from retail, it should be that their job is to attract and entice customers into their space by branding (think logos and bold signage), attractive marketing of books, and a welcoming environment. Kevin challenges librarians to see their library from the customer’s perspective – finding things should be breeze, customers should be able to pinpoint the resources they’re looking for without a map, and the strategic arrangement of resources should encourage “impulse” borrowing.

Think of your library like a monopoly board: When a customer walks in to the space, they should find themselves on “Park Place” or “Boardwalk.” The most popular, most interesting and most inviting resources should be front and center. Kevin recommends walking around your space to determine your “hot,” “warm,” and “cold” zones to ensure that whatever is placed in the hot zone is “paying the rent.”

Make the books the stars! Instead of thinking about creating complicated “displays,” focus on a marketing strategy to “sell” as many books as possible. Keep the covers front and center using a quick and easy strategy for high impact visuals, instead of something contrived that takes ages to construct. Think DVD or CD displays in a mall – the more covers a customer can see, the more likely they’ll be to pick something up. Take advantage of the ends of aisles like a supermarket, where browsing can lead to borrowing.

Kevin had some great quick and easy ideas for high impact marketing strategies that libraries can implement in no time at all:

• Put a recent returns cart or shelf in front of a library with a big sign, capitalizing on easy of display as well as ensuring that high interest books are front and center.
• Welcome your customers, don’t nag them. Why is the first thing we often see when walking into a library a (usually poorly made) notices not to eat, not to talk, and not to use your phone instead of a welcoming sign?
• Use those glass cases to showcase books on hold, rather than books you actually want people to borrow. Tantalize your patrons with something they can’t get their hands on yet, to entice them to come back again.

Final Thoughts

If retail strategies have so much to offer libraries, I’m now left wondering, what do popular and “addictive” websites, like Facebook, have to offer schools trying to shape their online presence?

Cross-posted on the TechLearning Advisors Blog

What’s your job title? Yesterday I asked my twitter network the following question:

And received a lot of interesting responses:

Most of us share similar responsibilities, yet we have a wide variety of titles. Just looking back at my own experience over the last ten years in three different schools, my job titles have ranged from Technology Facilitator to Academic IT Coordinator, to 21st Century Literacy Specialist, to Technology Coach, to Technology and Learning Coordinator.

What is it about technology in education that makes it so difficult to define roles that everyone can agree on and understand? Even though we’ve had technology in schools for decades, it still seems like we’re making it up as we go along.

For the last few years I’ve been wondering if there are more established roles, that already exist (and are well-understood) in many schools, which could provide a model for this type of support position. Just because technology often deals with new ways of thinking about education, doesn’t mean that the process of supporting those new ways of thinking has to be different.

Looking at Librarians

When I first arrived at ISB two years ago, I realized just how much librarians have in common with technology facilitators. What impressed me most was the extensive research in the field of librarianship about the process (and effect) of collaboration among colleagues. Although the day-to-day tasks of a librarian versus a technology facilitator might be very different; the established, research-based process of collaboration, which librarians have been refining for decades, certainly provides an interesting inspiration for technology facilitation.

Considering Coaching

With the change in my position this school year, I’ve been thinking a lot about what another established educational role might have to offer technology facilitators: the Instructional Coach. This week, our fabulous visiting consultant, and experienced Literacy Coach, Maggie Moon, attended our Coaching team meeting. She shared an overview of her successes and pitfalls to avoid as a coach:

• A coach’s 3 major tasks in order of priority are: in the classroom (with teachers & kids, 1:1 or with groups of teachers), out of the classroom (with teachers, 1:1 or with groups of teachers), prep & planning.
• As a coach, begin with a vision of what you think teachers should/could do. What does the “ideal” teacher look like? How will we see the evidence that our teachers are meeting these expectations?
• Teaching teachers is just like teaching students: always explain things clearly & succinctly, and remember to show not just tell.
• Always focus more on the process of teaching well, rather than the content that needs to be taught. Let the content come through as you model best practice instruction.
• Be sure to track teacher progress by using a conferring notebook with items you’ve been trying to teach, times you are going in to see the teachers doing it (checklist), quality of what teachers are doing – use this to plan more in-classroom work.
• Have teachers bring student work with them during meeting time so there is evidence of what they are doing and students are learning.
• Getting started: keep it small, cycle through grade levels (work with 2 grade levels a month, go into classrooms and check in 1:1 with the other grade levels).  Sometimes it makes sense to start with groups to plant seeds, and then continue 1:1.

3 Phases of coaching (rotate through these phases – always possible to return to any of the previous stages):

1. Modeling: in the classroom, you’re teaching the class while the teacher is watching.

• Pre-conference: Be clear about setting up, discuss with the teacher beforehand what you’re doing & what to watch for and notice. Strategy: use guide sheets which gives structure of how lesson will go and the main components to keep teachers active during lessons
• In the classroom: Model best practice
• Post-conference: You reflect at the end of the lesson on what you felt went well, what you would change, to model reflection – reinforcement & refinement. Then, ask teachers what they notice (what questions does this raise?). Then discuss: “how does what you saw me do, differ from what you do?” (what’s different?). Finally, ask “whatever you just saw, how will that change what you do in your classroom?”

2. Coaching: in the classroom, the teacher teaches & you watch (next to them) – give feedback in the moment

• Start with a reflection with the teacher, ask them what they felt went well, always focus on the positive and be complimentary (any issues, record them and save them for later).
• If there are content issues (incorrect information), share this right away; issues with methods should be saved for later.

3. Co-teaching (good when you’ve planned a unit over time, building relationships)

Looking over Maggie’s coaching suggestions, I can easily see how all of them are relevant to technology facilitation. From the goal of being in the classroom as a top priority, to focusing on the process not the content, to starting small; everything Maggie shared fit closely with my experience and understanding of technology facilitation.

It’s particularly interesting to me that the process of coaching can be expressed in such concrete steps, so no matter what the grade level or content, Maggie follows a clear process that results in quality collaboration and teaching.

Although I like to think I follow a “process” myself, I feel that, in practice, technology facilitation is often far less systematic. Because it’s so organic, technology facilition can tend to be more individualized – different for each project and teacher. Although I love the fact that everything I do is tailored for each teacher, it’s possible that, as facilitators, we end up re-inventing the wheel each time, simply because we don’t have a systematic approach.

In fact, as Maggie was sharing her tips, our science and math coaches were nodding along with the terminology and processes she described, demonstrating that instructional coaching across content areas shares a vocabulary and philosophy that is worth investigating.

Final Thoughts

Although I can appreciate how much both librarians and coaches have to offer technology facilitators, I still feel that there is something different about technology. When Literacy Coaches are helping teachers learn how to teach reading better, those teachers still know something about teaching reading, they know how to read a book, they know how to spell, and how to write, because the tools of the subject are familiar to them. Technology doesn’t share the same tradition in schools. So what happens when the content area is just as new to the teacher as the best practice teaching?

And then of course, the technological support has to be considered. It would be great to focus solely on the pedagogy, but who deals with the broken projector and the students that can’t log in? I’m sure these are some of the reasons why we have so many different job titles and descriptions.

Clearly, while we can definitely benifit from the extensive experience of librarians and coaches in schools, there is more to a technology support role that needs to be included. So, I’m left wondering:

• What is still undefined in our conception of the role of a technology facilitator/coach/coordinator?
• How can we start building consensus on our roles in schools?
• What can’t we find that’s relevant to technology support when examining more established positions in schools?
• What does your job description include?

Over the last semester I’ve worked with several groups of students on a variety of globally collaborative projects, and each time we complete a project, I ask for student feedback.

Usually, I like to post these right after we finish, along with a description of the project, but somehow time has gotten away from me. So, in the interest of sharing student feedback, I have included the highlights from 3 of our major projects: 1001 Flat World Tales, NetGenEd Sounding Board (following the same process from the Flat Classroom Project earlier this year), and Life ‘Round Here (following the process outlined after last year’s experiences), in this one post.

Interestingly, as I looked back at all of the feedback, there was quite a bit of overlap. Even though these projects were completed by different students in different grade levels, many of them shared the same takeaways.

We learned:

• how easy it is to communicate with people in different time zones and in other countries using technology.
• writing feedback for other students makes you think and helps you practice your Writing Workshop skills – it’s like using Writing Workshop in real life.
• to accept other people’s ways of working and how to put our ideas together through cooperation.
• to work together with partners better to complete our goal even if we were making mistakes.
• we have a lot in common with our global partners.
• sharing our work online made me aware of what we were saying.

We liked:

• that we got to work with different people from other classes that we didn’t know how to work with, so we learned how to work with them and adapt to their way of working.
• getting to know my international partner by reading their introduction and feeling like I know my partner even though they’re not in my class here at school.
• how we could write about what we wanted to because it’s more fun to have your own choice for what to write about. I’m more of an expert on what I like.
• that because it’s online we can watch it again and show it to our family.
• that we were able to be creative with a partner.

Suggestions for improvement:

• It would be nice to go on the wiki regularly and leave discussions to communicate with our partners.
• I would like more practice being a peer-editor, especially on revising writing instead of just spelling and grammar.
• I’m wondering if we’re going to use another wiki next year because we already know how to use it. I would like to do the project again next year because we’re experts (whole class agrees).

Final Thoughts

When I look back over this compiled feedback (and others from earlier this year), I am so happy to see that these students are becoming 21st century learners, as we have defined here at ISB. They are actually noticing and discussing their opportunities to collaborate and communicate globally, to be creative, to use a variety of technology tools in real life situations, to learn from their mistakes and to share their learning with others. These are the kinds of experiences we want all of our ISB students to have!

One other commonality that really stands out is that all of the students would like more opportunities to participate in similar projects. They feel a sense of accomplishment and growing expertise in these new modes of learning and would like more classroom experiences which include global collaborations. It seems that our students are ready for these kinds of experiences to be embedded throughout the curriculum at all grade levels.

What do your students think about their experiences with global collaborations?

One of my first tips for any teacher wishing to authentically embed technology into their classroom experience is always to start small. It’s easier to build on a simple, achievable idea, than it is to trim down an all-consuming tech monstrosity.

So, with that in mind, one of our amazing grade three teachers, Rebecca (who is also a member of our SUNY CoETaIL cohort), began a small, achievable project for the FOSS Science unit Structures of Life with her students in early April. Rebecca’s goals were to:

• have her students experience tracking and sharing their developing understanding about their hands-on science experiments in a way that would be easy to manage and very student focused.
• visually document the stages of growth in the life cycle of a seed.
• utilize student “class experts” to ensure that the project was completed as independently as possible by the students.

In order to meet these goals, and provide a very simple start, we decided to use VoiceThread. Because this was the first time Rebecca had done a project like this, she wanted to make sure that the technology portion of the project was manageable. So, we decided to create class experts who would be responsible for different aspects of the project, which would allow Rebecca to focus on the science, instead of the technology.

Here’s what we did:

• First, we selected a group of 4 (volunteer) student photographers to be responsible for documenting the daily changes in their seeds, over a period of 7 – 10 days (to capture the full life cycle). These students would take pictures of their own seeds, as well as help other students use the cameras to photograph their seeds. Once all of the pictures for the day were taken, the camera experts were responsible for uploading all of the pictures onto Rebecca’s computer.
• When all of the pictures were taken, Rebecca and I chose which ones to put on the class VoiceThread. When had all of the pictures in a VT, we then showed the class and had them choose which ones they wanted to describe in partners. They spent some time working with their partners to write a script for their selected picture.
• Once they were ready to record, I worked with 2 groups at a time to record their scripts. Each student had their own identity in Rebecca’s VoiceThread account with a hand-drawn self-portrait scanned and uploaded to VT as their avatar.
• After the students completed their recordings, I shared the completed VT with my PLN via Twitter to show the students how many people would be enjoying their work.
• Finally, we had a class discussion about what we’d done well and what could be improved. Among the things the students noticed were the need to speak loudly and clearly, to sound professional, and how drawing and labeling the photo really helped the viewer understand the topic. They were amazed and thrilled to see comments from so many other teachers around the world, thanks to you!

Here’s the completed VoiceThread:

After we reflected with the students, Rebecca and I realized that students learn best from seeing their own work (as opposed to samples) after having experienced the entire process from beginning to end. They are then able to focus on sharing their learning, instead of the ins and outs of the technology tools. So, we decided to repeat the basic process of the project with the next part of the unit, studying crayfish.

We also wanted to add more opportunity for student input, so this time around, we asked the class to choose which pictures to include in the VoiceThread, to select which picture they would describe and give it a title, and to agree on a title for the entire VT.

Here is our second completed VoiceThread:

As you can see, the students applied all of the ideas they generated during the first reflection: improved clarity and volume in their speaking, and increased use of the drawing tool to label the photographs.

Ideally, if we had more time in the school year, we would have repeated this process once more, this time with each student (or partnership) completing their very own VT from beginning to end.

Teacher Feedback

After the success of these two projects, I asked Rebecca to share her experiences in our SpeedGeeking faculty meeting. Here’s what she had to say to our 4 prompts:

What was the impact on student learning?

• The most valuable impact was the gain I saw in students’ use of specific language to describe their observations.
• Observing students’ initial attempts to tell what was happening in the picture was a formative assessment.
• When the words “stuff” and “thing” were banned and students had to generate the description using the scientific vocabulary taught in the FOSS investigation, it became clear where they were lacking understanding.  This gave me the opportunity to clarify or re-teach points.
• When students later wrote an assessment response about what was happening with a sprouting seed, I could see more exact language and explanations.
• Having to express themselves orally and fluently was also a learning experience for most students.

What was easy?

• Once Kim met with the classroom “photo experts” and taught them a few pointers about using the camera and how to download the pictures to iPhoto, the picture taking was easy.  Now the students are teaching each other and helping each other become better photographers.
• Kim orchestrated the recording for the voice thread, but this seemed easy since the students had worked out their scripts in advance.
• Uploading the photos and individual student identification portraits took time but was also easy to do.

What was challenging?

• Making detailed observations and clearly using the correct words in the descriptions was challenging for many students.
• Careful planning was needed to keep students on task on recording days.

Steps to complete the project:

1. Students viewed a sample of a voice thread.  (Kim)
2. Photo/Camera experts (4 students) were taught camera basics: photo tips and downloading pictures. (Kim)
3. Student online identity pictures (self-portraits from the beginning of the year) were scanned and uploaded to voice thread. (Khun Kob, Rebecca, Kim)
4. Students photographed the sprouting process while making their daily observations. (Students)
5. Photos were selected for this project.  (Rebecca)
6. Students picked a picture to describe and worked with a partner to write a script describing the picture.  (Students)
7. Students recorded scripts for their respective pictures.  (Students & Kim)
8. Students viewed and critiqued the final project.

Total classroom time: 4-5 class periods (not counting the picture taking during seed observations). While recording was being done outside the class with Kim (2 periods), other class work could continue in the classroom.

Final Thoughts

It would have been easy to develop a large-scale project using a variety of tools for this unit (I’m seeing a wiki, with the life cycle of a seed mapped out, VTs, pictures, and videos embedded on each page, links to external sources and global partners collaborating), but starting small enabled both Rebecca and her class to enjoy the project, see the potential of the technology, and build the confidence to try it again only a few weeks later. Establishing a successful and positive first experience with technology is a surefire way to encourage teachers, students and parents to keep building those skills and to continue using new tools to enhance learning.

All too often, teachers think that they should use a tool only once and then move on to something else. On the contrary, I have found that using the same tool a number of times not only helps deepen student understanding of both the power and limitations of that specific tool, but it also helps them focus on their learning instead of just the technology. The first time students use a tool, they are focused on all of the bells and whistles, the second time they’re more focused on sharing or presenting their learning using the new tools, the third time they’re “old pros” at the tool and can focus entirely on the information they’re sharing.

What do you think? What are the pro’s and con’s of using the same tool more than once (if it’s the right tool for the task)?

It’s hard to believe we’ve already finished another year of thought-provoking discussions with elementary parents during our monthly Parent Technology Coffee Mornings!

Tara, Jeff and I host these sessions in the Learning Hub on the first Wednesday of every month in order to build parental understanding of the ways that technology is changing society, and therefore, changing education. Every month we watch a short video and then discuss the implications on education and learning, always with practical examples from classrooms here at ISB. Each of our sessions is re-capped in our community blog, Connect 2.0, for those parents that can’t attend face-to-face.

Thanks to a dedicated and engaged group of parents who attend our meetings on a regular basis, we’ve discussed everything from writing in the digital age (using tools like blogs and wikis), to social networking (using tools like Facebook and Ning), to digital storytelling (using tools like iMovie and VoiceThread), to information management, online safety and the changes and challenges facing education today.

Specifically, this year we’ve watched:

• Think Before You Post
• The Talent Show
• A Vision of Students Today
• Information R/evolution
• Introducing the Book
• Common Craft on Social Networking, RSS, Wikis, Blogs, and Podcasting
• Next 5000 Days of the Web, Kevin Kelly on TED
• The Sixth Sense Technology, Pattie Maes on TED

Each of these sessions gives us the opportunity to understand a parent’s perspective on technology, share exciting projects our students are engaged in, and help clear up any misconceptions about the use of technology in the classroom. We have been fortunate to build some lasting relationship with the parents who willingly spend one morning a month in the Hub.

Although our numbers fluctuate every month – usually depending on the topic and competing events at school – we are hoping that the positive experiences parents have had with us will spread throughout the elementary school.

In fact, the wonderful parents who regularly spend the first Wednesday of every month with us have shared some of their reasons for attending:

I want to thank Tara, Kim and Jeff for hosting us ES parents at the monthly Technology meetings this school year. WOW! It is so wonderful to be able to explore and discuss how technology is affecting us as parents, not to mention learning what our kids are doing on the IT front…or want to be doing…or shouldn’t be doing…or will be doing whether we want them to or not. I’ve learned that by understanding what is “out there” and being able to have open discussions with our children about these things (instead of ignoring it) is paramount on the parenting front! Plus it’s always great to gain insight that can help us with our daily lives…whether or not we are currently in the work force or plan to reenter it in the coming years. Thank you and I look forward to these opportunities again next year.

- D

These quick and friendly appointments have represented a valuable opportunity for me to

• get more familiar with the most recent technological updates, realizing how easy it could be just trying (podcasting – I did it and now we are getting addicted to it !)
• finally starting to use the various instruments we have at our disposal (Facebook – I do not hide my name anymore, just know how to use it protecting our privacy !)
• get a bit of understanding of the new world into which our kids are born and immersed and have a first clue about how different their learning experience is compared with ours

I also enjoyed the formula (monthly, about 1 hour long, right after kids enter their classes) and hope you will continue offering us these useful updates.

- R

I attend the Parent Technology Meetings for the light, non-filling, breakfast items that complement the coffee. Just kidding…

I attend the Parent Technology Meetings to learn what my children’s world looks like and what their future holds in the realm of technology. How can we, as parent’s, help guide our children, if we are not familiar with their world. Today’s classroom (libraries, household, businesses)…today’s world is completely unlike the one I grew up with. It is continually changing.

These meeting give me a chance to become educated about technology. I am learning what my children are doing in school, with technology. I am learning how the technology works so that I can use and understand it. I am learning the benefits of technology.

These sessions give me a place to express my lack of understanding, my apprehensions, my thoughts. I share what I feel, I ask questions and I learn from others. We come from different points along the technology timeline, depending on our age. I am able to hear differing viewpoints. This allows me to evaluate and form educated opinions about technology.

The sessions are invigorating. I may not grasp everything that I learn, but I am trying. It will make things easier, because not just their world is changing, my world is changing as well. I don’t want to be left behind.

I feel privileged to be given the opportunity to learn more about technology through these eye opening sessions.

- R

In order to continue to promote these sessions, we’ve already organized a great list of topics for our monthly sessions in the 2009-10 school year, for those parents that like to plan in advance:

September 2009: An Introduction to the Ways Education is Changing in a Digital World: an introduction to the major technological changes that are currently shaping society and changing education. We will also give an overview of all of the sessions for the rest of the year.

October 2009: An Introduction to Blogging: What is a blog? How and why do people blog? How can parents get connected to all the teacher and student blogs being authored at ISB?

November 2009: An Introduction to RSS: What is RSS? How can it help me stay connected to learning happening at ISB, as well as more personal interests (like gardening or travel)? Bring your own computer and we’ll help you set up your own RSS account!

December 2009: An Introduction to Podcasting & iTunes: What is a podcast? How and why do people podcast? What are some great podcasts for students and parents to listen to and watch? Bring your own computer and we’ll help you subscribe (for free) to podcasts from ISB and around the world!

February 2010: An Introduction to Digital Literacy: What are the new literacies for the 21st Century? How is the understanding of literacy changing in education? How are ISB students learning and using 21st century literacy skills?

March 2010: An Introduction to Social Networking: What is social networking? How are your children using social networking both in school and outside of school? How can we use social networking strategies for learning?

April 2010: An Introduction to Wikis: What is a wiki? How and why do people use wikis? What is the controversy over Wikipedia? Plus, we’ll share some examples of wikis being used for learning at ISB.

May 2010: Summer Tech Activities With Your Kids! Some great tech-rich activities you can do with your children over the summer, like: starting a family travel blog, taking control of your summer vacation pictures, finding the top 10 kid-friendly podcasts for long car trips or plane rides, or making your own summer travel video for YouTube!

Final Thoughts

Overall, these sessions have been a big success! We’re actively spreading the word about new kinds of learning all students should be regularly experiencing in the classroom, we’re helping parents understand why this kind of learning is important, and we’re helping build a strong voice among our parents to share that feedback with our admin team.

One of the new things we started this year was having parents actually try some of these tools during our sessions. We had a hands-on Facebook training where parents were able to create their own Facebook account, which they really appreciated. As you can see, we’re planning a few more hands-on sessions for next year in order to help parents actively engage in these new media.

What are you doing to help your parents connect to the new ways of learning in your school?

Last week Jeff and I presented one of the final keynotes, entitled Moving A Community Forward, for the 2009 Webheads in Action Online Convergence. Not only was it a blast doing the presentation with Jeff, but it turned out to be a great reflection on what we’ve accomplished at ISB this year and what some of our next steps could be for the 2009-10 school year.

The goal of our presentation was to address the needs of the various stakeholders in a typical school community when attempting to effect change.

We covered 4 groups: Parents, Teachers, Students and Admin. As we looked at each group, we shared strategies we’ve been using here at ISB (both successful and unsuccessful) and also brainstormed some new initiatives we are thinking about for the next school year.

Although you can watch the whole presentation here (and below), I thought it would be worthwhile to post some of our key points here on the blog just in case you don’t want to watch the entire, hour-long, session. Hopefully this overview of what’s worked for us will also be helpful for others!

Moving a Community Forward Presentation Notes:

Parent Community:

Over the last two years, we’ve been working on building a strong home-school partnership around 21st century learning. We are making a concerted effort to involve more and more parents in both formal and informal events to support the exciting changes their children are experiencing in the classroom.

Parent Technology Coffee Mornings

We started with our Parent Technology Coffee Mornings early last school year. These are monthly meetings open to all elementary school parents, facilitated by me, Jeff and Tara. We usually show an engaging, short video about changes in society (I’ll put up a list of all the videos we’ve shown this year soon) and then spend about an hour discussing the impact on education. We have a group of dedicated parents who show up every month and we post the most interesting points of our discussion (along with a link to the video) on our Connect 2.0 blog.

Although these started out very informally last year, we’ve had requests to share the topics in advance and have started promoting the monthly sessions well in advance to encourage more parents to attend. We’ve already outlined all of our sessions for next year and have shared an overview with our parent community.

Inside.ISB Communication Portal

More and more of our teachers are choosing to share classroom events via a blog (instead of a Friday newsletter), and in order to make that communication as streamlined as possible, we’ve created a parent communication portal using WordPress MultiUser (WPMU). All of our teacher blogs can now be found on Inside.ISB for easy parent access.

Parent Trainings

Over this past school year, we’ve implemented PantherNet (our Moodle), PowerSchool, My.ISB (Elgg), and Inside.ISB. In order to help parents cope with the influx of digital environments that their students are regularly involved in, we’ve started running more formal parent trainings.

So far these have been scheduled during the school day with parents signing up in advance, but we’re hoping to also offer some in the evenings next school year. Considering that our school is in the suburbs, we’re also thinking of offering some sessions downtown so that parents don’t have to wrestle with Bangkok traffic in the evening.

Next Steps: Advisory Committee

During our Main Library External Audit visit by Doug Johnson and Ann Krembs, they recommended that we develop a Technology Advisory Committee comprised of several members of our ISB21 team, teachers, parents, students and administrators in order to ensure that all stakeholders have a say in the decision making process. There is no way we can truly meet the needs of our entire community without involving them at the ground level.

Student Community:

We’ve been working hard for the last few years to ensure that our students have the opportunity to interact with their peers both within school and around the world in a variety of authentic and engaging ways.

Developing a Global Audience

At almost every grade level (PK-12), our students are involved in projects that connect them with the wider world. Although both Jeff and I work at the elementary level, innovative teachers at all grade levels are incorporating global projects into their classroom curriculum.

Student Authored Blogs

Beginning with fifth grade, all students at ISB will be part of our student-blogging portal through Inside.ISB. With our new grade 5 Digital Literacy unit of study, blogging will become an integral part of our language arts curriculum. We’re hoping to use these student blogs as learning portfolios that can be continued from one grade to the next, as well as a forum to share, reflect, and communicate with a global audience.

YouTube Channel & Facebook Alumni Group

In order to take advantage of two of the most popular social media platforms, we have created both a YouTube channel and collaborated with the creators of the FB Alumni group.

Next Steps: Student Tech Team

Along with our parent community, we are looking to involve students more directly in our decision making process. We would also love to develop a student tech team to help support the entire school community in their technology needs.

Teacher Community:

LAN Parties

Earlier this year, Chrissy and I started hosting Local Area Network parties around the K12Online08 presentations. We held several of these sessions in various teacher’s homes throughout the city, watching one or two presentations each time, along with hosting a special guest via Skype for each session. At each session we had about 10 – 12 ISB teachers excited to learn something new about technology.

Early Adopter Group & Elgg Network

After seeing the sucess of the LAN parties, we decided to create an Early Adopter Group for our super “techie” teachers at ISB. We wanted to provide a place for those teachers to collaborate and communicate across divisions (somewhat difficult at a school as big as ISB), and offer them the support they need to continue to innovate and assist their colleagues in each division. As part of this team, we created an Elgg group to encourage the networked learning to continue beyond school hours.

Regular PD

As part of our professional development opportunities for all teachers at ISB, we offer informal tech support sessions 2 – 3 days a week, after school. We’ve tried a number of formats, from discussion-based Wired Wednesday, to walk-in/walk-out Personal Tech Support, and are always willing to adapt to the needs of our teachers. We have also worked hard to ensure that each of our grade level teams (in the elementary) includes a member of the ISB21 team.

Faculty Meetings

We’ve been extremely lucky to facilitate 2 ES faculty meetings this school year. One of our main goals at each meeting was to highlight and showcase the fantastic work of our amazing ES teachers. Both meetings featured a structured rotation, including Speed Geeking, for teachers to experience a sneak peak into some of the exciting projects our teachers and students are working on. Although these meetings are short (around an hour), they’ve been a great way to promote success and to spread new ideas throughout the faculty in a viral way.

SUNY Course

In another amazing stroke of luck, we have been able to offer a 15-credit, 5-course Certificate in Educational Technology and Information Literacy (CoETaIL) to our faculty as part of a longer (30-credit) Master’s degree through SUNY Buffalo. We have over 40 teachers involved in the certificate program, including 4 teachers newly recruited to ISB in January. Considering the extensive time commitment, we are so proud to have such a large percentage of our faculty dedicated to learning together.

Next Steps: IETPs for Teachers

In order to build on the groundswell that we have started in the last few years, and to formalize the changes we’re implementing, our next step is to develop Individual Educational Technology Plans for our teachers. We will start with all of our new teachers, as well as a group of volunteers (as part of the final course in our CoETaIL program) in the next school year.

Admin Community:

Present at Leadership Team (LT) Meetings

Over the past two years, we have been invited to present formally at the ISB Leadership Team meetings. These presentations are our change to share our learning and recommendations with the higher school administration.

Continued Conversations

Outside of formal meeting times, we make an effort to continue the process of relationship building through casual and frequent conversation with our school leaders.

Sharing Resources

We regularly share blog posts, articles, websites, videos, and a whole host of resources with our admin team. Often these items prompt further discussion in meetings or casual conversation. The goal is always to keep learning.

Present to School Board

As a result of our successful LT meeting presentations, we were asked to present to the school board this year, which ended up in a decision to modify our school vision to reflect our ISB21 philosophy.

Next Steps: Tie Parent Community to Admin Community

In order to continue moving forward we know that we will need more than just teacher voices promoting change. We would like to work closely with our parent community to enlist their help in pushing our school community forward. It is the voices of the parents that most often and most successfully bring about change in schools.

Final Thoughts

Of course, not everything we’ve done has gone perfectly, or according to plan. We are always revising, re-thinking, and reflecting as the year progresses. These are just a few of our favorite initiatives in order to give us something to think about as we begin to plan for the 2009-10 school year.

What has worked well in your school in your efforts to move your community forward?

Full Presentation:

Moving a Community Forward by jutecht on Flickr

In January, I shared a list of international school teachers (those teaching outside of their home country in a school catering to expatriate families) on Twitter (or blogging). In the last few months, even more teachers have added themselves to the Google Form, so I thought I would do a recap with all of the names currently on the spreadsheet, organized by country.

If you’re not on the list yet and you’re teaching outside of your home country in a school for expatriate children, please feel free to add yourself! I’ll do another recap soon!

Note: I linked the names of teachers to their blogs (if listed) and their Twitter @username to their profiles (if listed):

Asia

China

• Jonathan Chambers, @jchambers, Shanghai American School
• Thomas Galvez, @tgalvez, International School of Beijing
• Mark Roper, Island School Hong Kong
• Micah Sittig, @msittig, SMIC Private School
• Mikey McKillip, @atomikey, Shanghai Community International School
• Amanda DeCardy, @adecardy, Shanghai American School
• Jeff Plaman, @jplaman, International School of Beijing
• Jeff Dungan, @jdungan, Shanghai American School
• Sheldon Bradshaw, @sbradshaw, Western Academy of Beijing
• Mike DeNeef, @coachdeneef, Shanghai Community International School
• Beth Gourley, @beahgo, International School of Tianjin
• Jennifer Chapman, @jenniferchapman, Concordia International School Shanghai
• Paul McMahon, @lsa_paul, Learning Solutions (Consultancy)
• Colleen Williams, @colwill, Shanghai American School
• David Gran, @dsgran, Shanghai American School
• Colin Gallagher, @colingally, The ISF Academy Hong Kong
• Simon Power, @spower, Shanghai American School
• Heather Davis, @greenisle13, Yew Chung International School of Beijing
• Bruce Roadside, @b_roadside, Beijing City International School
• Jon Nordmeyer, @nordmeyerj, Shanghai American School
• Sarah Toa, Shanghai American School
• Colin Aitken, @caitken, International School of Beijing
• Robert Hulse, @shalombringer, Concordia International School Shanghai
• Ryan Skardal, @skardalien, American International School Hong Kong
• dcnavis, @dcnavis85, Hong Kong International School
  

Korea

• Greg Israel, @israelgreg, Korea International School
• Jason Crewe, @jcrewe, Busan Foreign School

Vietnam

• Clint Hamada, @chamada, United Nations International School Hanoi
• Michelle Matias, @michellelmatias, United Nations International School Hanoi
• Adrienne Michetti, @amichetti, United Nations International School Hanoi
• Michael Wagstaff, @mike_wagstaff, United Nations International School Hanoi
• Sean Tangey, @stangey, United Nations International School Hanoi

Japan

• Genki Unno, @genkiu, Yokahama International School
• Brian Lockwood, @brianlockwood, Yokahama International School
• Rhonda Carrier, @rhondacarrier, Canadian Academy
• Christine U, @kurisuteen, Yokahama International School
• Josh Raub, @x5josh5x, The American School in Japan
• Jeff Lewis, @jefflewis9, Seisen International School Tokyo

Thailand

• Heather Vlach, @hvlach, International School Bangkok
• Sara Best, @saraebest, International School Bangkok
• Jon Russell, @jonrussell, Pibulwitthayalai School
• Dennis Harter, @dharter, International School Bangkok
• David Wees, @davidwees, Ruamrudee International School
• Jeff Utecht, @jutecht, International School Bangkok
• Steven Hall, @hitechhall, Ruamrudee International School
• Chrissy Hellyer, @nzchrissy, International School Bangkok
• Ben Winter, @bewi, Bangkok Patana School
• Jay Priebe, @jay_priebe, New International School Thailand
• Vu Lam, @vulam, International School Bangkok
• Michael Peach, @the_giant_peach, International School Bangkok

Singapore

• Keri-Lee Beasley, @klandmiles, United World College Southeast Asia
• Katie Day, @librarianedge, United World College Southeast Asia
• Susan Sedro, @ssedro, Singapore American School
• Ben Grundy, @bgrundy, Canadian International School
• Carrie Wilton, @carriewilton, Canadian International School
• Wayne Burnett, @waynebu, German European School Singapore

Malaysia

• Ian Pittman, @ipittman, The Alice Smith School
• Bron Narsiman, @bron_narsiman, International School of Kuala Lumpur
• Mark Marshall, @markmarshall6, International School of Kuala Lumpur
• K.Gwaltney, @KB2121, Dalat International School Penang

India

• Katie Christo, @katiechristo, American International School Chennai
• Ann Krembs, @DearLibrariAnn, American School of Bombay
• Melisa Enderle, @melissaenderle, American International School of Chennai

Indonesia

• Jose Luis Mejia, @jlmejia, Jakarta International School
• Jan Anderson, @janiceanderson, International School of Riau

Taiwan

• Leanne Rainbow, @rainbowl, Taipei American School

The Philippines

• Jennifer Smith, @jensmith8675309, International School Manila

Middle East/Central Asia

Qatar

• Jabiz Raisdana, @intrepidteacher, Compass International School
• Julie Lindsay, @julielindsay, Qatar Academy
• Ellie Bowe, @EllieBowe, Qatar Academy
• Mike Boulanger, @mikeboulanger, Qatar Academy
• Lauralynn Stefureak, @LauralynnLouise, Qatar Academy

Oman

• Eleanor Haynes, @MrsEHaynes, The American International School of Muscat

Khazakhstan

• James Lerch, @jclerch, Quality Schools International

Morocco

• David Carpenter, @davidcarp, Casablanca American School

Latin America

Mexico

• Angelesb, @angelesb, Escuela Secundaria General 5

Brazil

• Carla Arena, @carlaarena, Casa Thomas Jefferson
• Barbara Dieu, Lycée Pasteur

Argentina

• Weda, @theshortestfuse, Lincoln American International School

Peru

• Gerardo Lazaro, @glazaro, St. George’s College

Europe

Spain

• Nancy vonWahlde, @nancyvonw, American School of Madrid

Switzerland

• Kathy Epps, @k_eepps, International School of Geneva – Campus des Nations
• Will Kirkwood, @wkirkwood, Zurich International School

Austria

• Chris Rolfe, @cmrolfe, American International School Vienna

Serbia

• Jennie Scott-McKenzie, @jennieteacher, International School of Belgrade

Looking at this list, it’s interesting to see where most of the teachers are working. Can we make the assumption that those schools are the ones that are really moving forward with technology? Or is this list more representative of schools in Asia because that’s where I’m currently working?

Either way, if you’re considering going overseas, or just moving on to a new school, these are the people that can give you the greatest insight into life in a new country and working at a new school. There’s nothing better than actually knowing people at the schools you’re interested in to make an informed decision about where to go.

Please spread the word! I know there are many more international school teachers on Twitter and blogging!

I am incredibly honored (and quite flattered) to be part of an amazing line-up of speakers at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School (MICDS) this summer, thanks to Elizabeth Helfant and Patrick Woessner. Plus, as if it wasn’t exciting enough to be billed on the same event as Will, Karl, Alec, Darren, Dean, Chris, Jeff and Matt, my session is scheduled the day after Kevin’s so we get to meet up for dinner before he flies out!

In reflecting back to the SUNY course I taught with Jeff earlier this year; the faculty meetings Tara, Jeff and I have facilitated this year; my 2 trips to Qatar to consult at QA over the past two years (thanks to Julie); my recent visit to TIS (thanks to Leanne); and the various conferences I’ve attended over the past few years; there are a few things I want to make sure I do in my workshop:

• Ensure that the session is participant-driven and focused on actually producing something that can be used in the classroom in August.
• Provide lots of time for discussion, reflection, and metacognition by asking participants to work in small groups.
• Create groups based on participant need – either ability groups (self-determined) or curricular/grade level groups.
• Focus on the practical, remembering that the how is just as important as the why. Break the session down into stages (the way I would in my classroom) so that participants can work through the entire planning and creation of a global project.
• Model quality curriculum planning and authentic technology integration by using the Understanding by Design method and following the MYP Technology Design Cycle while using a selection of digital tools that teachers might want to apply in their own project.

Here’s how I’m thinking I might organize the day:

9:00 – 9:15: Warm-up, get to know participants and their experience with this type of project. Use pre-assessment survey to determine teams and grouping.

Clearly state the goal that participants will develop and plan a global project to be used in August, based on their curricular needs following the UbD process and using the technology design cycle.

9:15 – 10:30: Share a revised version of the Connecting Classrooms Across Continents presentation which builds understanding of the value of global collaboration, focuses on practical tips on how to develop a global project, and shares examples from a selection of classrooms and grade levels.

The rest of the day is structured hands-on work time following the MYP Technology Design Cycle, with opportunities for participants to work in groups, but come back to the larger whole at the beginning of each stage of the cycle for tips, strategies and introductions to the various tools needed.

10:30 – 11:30: Investigate: Start with a round robin or “final word” activity (in groups) with an article that really highlights the benefits of global collaborations. Then, provide participants with a wiki with links to authentic global collaborations to explore to get some ideas/inspiration. Next, have teams brainstorm (maybe using inspiration or one of the web-based mind mapping tools) a global project that would enhance a current unit in their curriculum.

Lunch

12:00 – 1:00: Plan: Start with an intro or overview of the UbD process (depending on what participants already know) to help design the project with the end in mind. Begin to build a unit planner using the same wiki, with template provided.

1:00 – 2:00 Create: Create the “home base” for the project – a wiki, Ning, blog, whatever. Demo some tools teachers might want to use to learn some tricks for how to use whichever tool is best for the task. Begin connecting with other teachers that might be interested in participating around the world through sharing on a Ning or Twitter (or anything else that we can think of). Focus on actually creating the online space that students will use in August.

2:00 – 2:30: Evaluate: Share projects with the larger group, reflect on process so far & what needs to go next

2:30 – 3:00: Feedback survey for me, links to all projects on the wiki, any final questions answered.

What do you think? Would you want to attend a session like this? What else would you do to make it a positive experience for the participants?

Tom Kelley got me thinking at the Hong Kong Summit: Where’s the innovation in our schools? Where’s the risk taking? Where’s the abundance of ideas? Who’s seeing things with fresh eyes? How are we taking the best ideas from other industries and applying them to education?

Generally speaking, schools are excruciatingly slow to change. Even when schools are making a concerned effort to be innovative and re-think traditional modes of learning, it often ends up being a variation of what’s already in place. I’ve been on countless curriculum review committees where one pre-packaged program was chosen over another in an effort to “modernize” the learning experience, but in the end all we ever seem to get is a new coat of paint on what we’re already doing. Sure, we’re moving forward, but it’s at a snail’s pace.

So how fast should schools be adapting and changing? What should the pace of innovation be?

Unfortunately, as Tom eloquently described, if we have any hope of staying ahead of the curve, we need to be moving even faster than the other innovators in our field. It’s not enough simply to be an innovator,  you need to stay ahead of everyone else who’s innovating – even if they appear to be outside your field.

Tom refers to this as the “Red Queen Effect” after a scene in Alice’s Adventures Through the Looking Glass, where Alice is shocked to be standing in the same place after running quite fast for an extended period of time and the Red Queen explains, “if you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”

This isn’t a question of schools choosing to stand still or not innovating at all, because I do believe we’re all trying to move forward in one way or another. This is about the dangers of slowing your pace of innovation just enough for others to out-pace you – not necessarily other schools, but rather other modes of learning. Interestingly, Tom also mentioned that resting on your laurels is usually the time when others outpace you innovatively (something I think many good schools are very much in danger of doing all too often).

Another Hong Kong presenter, Stephen Heppell, was also careful to emphasize that the biggest challenge today is the pace of change: exponential. With this rapid pace of change there is no time for the “staircase mentality” (pilot, review etc). He reminded us that we didn’t value tech in the 80s – what are we mistakenly not valuing now?

Why does this happen?

Tom explained that innovation falls squarely in quadrant 2 of Steven Covey’s matrix: it’s “Important”, but “Not Urgent”. For example, we absolutely have to have a new math/science/reading/social studies program. The teachers can’t teach without one, so picking a new one is going to fall in quadrant 1, and ultimately, innovation gets put off until tomorrow. However, innovation has an urgency all its own and those that don’t place innovation as a priority will find themselves displaced.

As innovators, Stephen mentioned that we need to be critical about what’s convenient for us versus what’s good for learning, for example, our assumption that ringing a lunch bell means that a thousand students will suddenly be hungry at the same time, or that students are at the same stage in their learning (in same grade) because they happened to born between two Septembers, etc.

Another problem is that radical change is often thought of as expensive. On the contrary, as Stephen, observed: “It’s more expensive to make or maintain schools and add bits of exciting 21st century around than to just skip to a much cheaper 21st century model model of community learning.” This is a good example of the difficulty people face in conceptually realizing the advantages of bold innovation: we naturally assume that slow steady progress will be best (as we are taught from an early age, when the tortoise wins the race).

How do we make innovation a priority in our educational institutions?

Tom discussed the 10 Faces of Innovation from his recent book of the same name, explaining that we need 10 different types of people to bring all the facets of innovation to the forefront of our organization:

• The Hurdler: this is the person who says, “of course there will be obstacles – that’s my job, overcoming obstacles.”
• The Storyteller: data is not that powerful. Stories carry messages farther.
• The Anthropologist: this is the person who focuses on seeing with fresh eyes (or “vuja de”). People get immersed in their own environment and simply stop seeing it for what it is, it becomes “just the way things are,” for example the turnstiles at CDG airport, which are impossible to carry luggage through, despite the fact that they’re between the airport and the subway. Yet airport employees see them day in and day out and they haven’t been changed. We need to observe objects in use in their natural environment so that we can design with empathy
• The Experimenter: this person gives permission for failure, knowing that innovation involves risk. To innovate, we must to be able to fail in a safe environment by creating an idea-friendly organization where we have the ability to “squint” and see the “shape” of an idea.
• The Cross Pollinator: the ability to share ideas, to take inspiration from other cultures and enhance, thereby gaining in translation. Examine other ideas cross continents, cross countries, cross industry, cross age (“reverse mentors”) to be able to build upon other ideas and transform and improve them.
• The Experience Architect : The Experience Economy – book (commodity, product, service, experience)
• The Collaborator: brings people together to get things done.
• The Director: enabler of great creativity around them
• The Set Designer: approaches from people standpoint then looks at business & technology elements to create effective designs. Building engaging, seductive, delightful learning is also a design task.
• The Care Giver: have empathy and work to extend the relationship.

How do you structure for innovation?

Tom shared several criteria for successful innovation:

• A flat leadership model to enable anyone to have their idea heard by the “boss” no matter where you are in the organization. He also pointed out, however, that after many years of experimentation at IDEO, the company found that 100 people is the limit for a flat leadership model, and any larger organization will unfortunately need to have a “boss’s boss” and so on.
• Must have an abundance mentality, the goal is to share as many ideas as possible, knowing that only a very small percentage will work. He cites an example of a game-design company which had 1000 ideas but only 6 patents in one year.
• The need for good humor, an environment where it is OK to make fun of the boss.
• Workspace design must focus on building collaboration, for example, the stereotypical office design of cubicles actually look a lot like voting booths, which are specifically designed to prevent collaboration. What about our set-up of each teacher in their own classroom? I’m not sure you could design anything so physically non-collaborative if you tried!

What does this mean for education?

The time for innovation is now, as Stephen described (and Marco Torres’ slide below emphasizes), “learning is at a crossroads:” we’re looking at a choice between productivity and new approaches, those new approaches being:

• student portfolios;
• making huge leaps in our model of education, not tiny steps forward;
• working to produce ingenious, engaged, inspired, surprising, collegiate students;
• and developing learning experiences that are open-ended, project-focused, multidisciplinary.

By innovation, I don’t mean just adding more technology to the classroom, I mean thinking differently about learning in its entirety. For example, I still find it hard to believe that many schools have not fully implemented a project-based learning approach. This was all the rage when I was in teacher’s college 10 – 12 years ago, but even now it’s still marketed as something “new” (maybe that’s why I like the MYP so much). How is it possible that, 12 years after learning about a model of education being the best thing since sliced bread, only a few schools really excel at this approach?

It’s not technology alone that makes us innovative, it’s looking at learning with fresh eyes. It’s asking ourselves: if we could start from scratch, what would our schools look like today? I can’t remember who said this first but, “technology is just an amplifier” – technology doesn’t change the quality of teaching or learning, it will only amplify it, either in a positive or negative way. What we need to be looking at is changing our approaches to learning, not modifying our curriculum to a “newer” version of what we’ve already had for the past 20 years.

We could start by taking a step back and looking at the whole experience of teaching and learning, as if we  were aliens from another planet or anthropologists studying a remote tribe, as Tom described the role of the Anthropologist in his 10 Faces of Innovation. It’s only through observing learning in its natural environment today, wherever it’s taking place, that we can understand how to build schools that meet the needs of today’s learners. As Tom quipped, “I don’t know who discovered water, but it certainly wasn’t a fish!”

What do you think? Is your school innovative? What are you doing to encourage innovation? What can schools do to focus on innovation despite the daily urgencies of our profession?

If you were an alien who knew nothing about our education system and you arrived on our planet today, how would you design a learning community for today’s students?

Miguel Guhlin quote from Clarence Fisher, Literacy as Battleground, image source
Chris Lehmann quote image source: Flickr user Ali K.