Be of Use

The pitch has been made for a 1:1 initiative starting in 6th Grade. So now, the tough part of "how do we pay for this?" Thankfully, that's not what I have to figure out. Once that gets figured out (multi-million dollar project in the middle of a recession - no big deal...) we have a ton of work ahead of us. There is so much out there that has been shared about 1:1 initiatives. Not the least of which has been on  Dangerously Irrelevant of late with two wonderful guest posts on how they've done this. In our planning to plan I'm taking to heart a short post from Scott McLeod last week New technologies vs new behaviors Revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technologies - it happens when society adopts new behaviors. - Clay Shirky,  Here Comes Everybody , p. 160 I visit many schools that have 'new technologies,' but not enough of them also have 'new behaviors.' It's time for us educators to raise our game (leaders, I'...

Right now my bosses are pitching a 1:1 initiative to the BoE. The hope is to grow the media specialist and instructional technology department to support a roll out starting in 6th grade for the 2012-2013 school year. Each year they'll add a grade until it moves up to high school. Both job embedded professional development and summer workshops are a part of the plan. They've put a lot of work into the plan...just hope it pays off.

I don't go to conferences often anymore. It's not because there is absolutely no money, I don't find it all that useful in the land of hyper connectivity. There is a great deal you can get out of a Google Reader and a Twitter Feed. Times is also an issue. Online if something isn't useful, you can scan it and move on. At a conference you're liable to sink 20 minutes into a session before you cut bait and by then it hardly pays to just into another session, because it's likely half-way done by that point in time. I want to want to go back to conferences, but what I want to hear is what you are doing with it in your school?  Let me give you some examples. Two years ago, I went to a conference called SLATE here in Wisconsin. The conference was fine, but one annoyance was I watched Scott McLeod's Did You Know: Shift Happens  video at every session. Really? There were two sessions that stick out in my head from that day, one incredibly useful because it was abou...

I strongly believe in instructional visions that put the teachers on the sideline facilitating learning instead of leading it. Be it the flipped classroom or Clayton Christensen's vision of learning programs and games taking the lead in personalizing instruction, I think we need to embrace this developing role. The teacher is by no means marginalized with these models, simply more of a coach or counselor. In the world of easy access to information personal relationships development trumps content expertise. For those of us working in technology, we've known for a long time that its okay to tell someone "I don't know, but will look into it" (I think that's a Doug Johnson line...). All of us in education need to be okay with that, from the superintendent on down. Content expertise is great, but I think humility is more important. I get it that it's a tough pill to swallow for some, but I feel I've been both happier and more effective in my job since I...

It's funny that I started this rant on January 3rd, then on January 4th this post appears on All Things PLC - Creating Buy-In for PLCs ---------------------------------------------- "The OSEP (Office of Special Education Programs) Technical Assistance Center on the SWPIS website (www.pbis.org) suggests that before schools begin implementing any sort of system change, they achieve at least 80 percent buy-in from building staff" (Windram, Bollman & Johnson, 2012). 80%! Really? In the book How RTI Works in Secondary Schools:Building a Framework for Success  authors Holly Windram, Kerry Bollman and Sara Johnson cite reliable sources - Mike Schmoker ( Results Now ) and Anthony Muhammed ( Transforming School Culture )  on the importance of buy-in. I'm not questioning the importance of buy-in. After a great deal of reading and seeing change flounder in different settings, I'm just starting to wonder what kind of Herculean effort is needed to pull it off? Windr...

I always appreciate it when teachers and administrators ask me "what should we buy" when it comes to instructional technologies. It's flattering to feel that your opinion matters, but it's almost always the wrong question. Here's an example. I'm presenting to a staff on interactive whiteboards per the principal's request. At the end the principal asks, "we have X dollars, should we be buying these boards?" My response was "what are your goals? How can the boards help meet those goals?" He didn't appreciate my response, even though it was the right question to ask. I feel like over my career a lot of money has been tossed around based on what's latest/greatest or there's money burning a hole in our pocket. Over the last few years there's finally been a change in a focus toward training to go along with major purchases, but that's only part of the problem. Even if you know all the ins and outs of an iPad, it isn...