WANTED: TECH-SAVVY TEACHERS
On February 6, thousands of educators, students, and schools across the country will celebrate Digital Learning Day, an initiative created by Alliance for Excellence in Education to help teachers highlight and share innovative uses of classroom technology. Most educators agree that integrating "technology for technology's sake" is not good practice, but many see transformative potential in new learning tools.
However, a recent report by the National Association of State Boards of Education suggests that many educators are not yet comfortable with integrating digital tools, which may be holding schools back from adopting new instructional approaches.
What kind of successes have you seen with technology in the classroom? What strategies work best to help teachers to share their technological expertise with colleagues? What can school leaders, policymakers, and teacher preparation programs do to increase teachers' familiarity and skills with technology? What other ideas do you have for minimizing the gap between new technologies and classroom teachers?
January 30, 2013
Using Technology to Create Authentic Learning Experiences
Meenoo Rami
In my last post, I wrote about the potential value of education technology and how it can be used to give power and agency to students to tell their own stories. I got a glimpse of this transformation taking place in my class this quarter.
As I contemplated the goals at the beginning of the year, I knew I wanted my students to have authentic experiences as readers and writers. So this quarter, we have worked together to create a teen magazine. Our hope is that this project will inspire other classes to create similar work. (If you like what we've done, please share it widely and leave us a comment—we are eager to hear from you.)
This type of work in some ways is possible because our school, Science Leadership Academy, is a one-to-one laptop school. Having this kind of access to resources in and out of the classroom allowed us to do a number of things necessary to produce this magazine. For this project, we used our laptops and our school's wifi network to find articles to use as mentor texts, Skyped with a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and looked at excellent work produced by our own SLA Media. Access to technology allowed us to connect to resources we needed so that we could begin our work as budding writers and publishers—work that my students found uniquely engaging and valuable.
What are your thoughts on use of educational technology to give students opportunities to create, publish, and share their work? Do you have examples to share from your schools and communities? I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks!
January 30, 2013
With Classroom Tech, the Answers Are in the Questions
Delonna Halliday
"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."—Albert Einstein
Teachers are creative, inventive and keen problem-solvers. All most of us need is some encouragement to recognize how those skills transfer into adding technology tools into our classroom. People say I'm "smart" because I can use computers well. Truth is, I mess up a lot. I just don't let it get to me. I use that fabulous Ctrl+z to get myself away from an "oops" so I can try again. The learning is in the trying. And that is a change from the past.
Teachers are no longer seen as the gatekeepers of education. In the past (my past), teachers were the holders of knowledge who imparted their information onto us—the students. Those wise educators in front of us knew the gross GDP of major nations. They could recite the Periodic Table or concisely explain the difference between preterit and imperfect past tense verbs in Spanish. Now? In the past 10 minutes, I have looked up the quote from Einstein, confirmed the correct spelling of "preterit" and had a quick online chat with a friend who wanted information about James M. Barrie.
Teachers are not expected to be perfect. We need to be comfortable with the questions. This is similar to the disequilibrium students experience as they learn a new concept. It is awkward. Most of all, it is humbling. As teachers, we don't need to show students the answers to technology problems, we just need to show them how to work through the challenges. We need to show them we can sit with problems, and use creative thinking to revise, alter, and seek more understanding.
When planning a lesson for any subject, a teacher considers the students' needs, the end goal and then the best tools to propel students to that end goal. Then, the teacher proceeds to walk through the lesson, testing it in his or her mind for all the pitfalls or challenges their class may present. It is the same for technology. Have a backup plan for any lesson with technology just as you would have with any lesson. After all, if technology is just the tool, then what is really the focus? Communication skills? Writing? Presentation?
One of the greatest challenges to using new technology is time. It takes time to plan a quality lesson, and it takes time to then add a layer of technology. I wish curriculum would come with the understanding that technology would be used. Instead of it being an additional component (an online game, for example, that enriches or allows for remediation), the technology used in the lesson should be an embedded, intricate part of the lesson. I know we are all at different stages of technology. But I am thinking of lessons that almost anyone can use. For example, if it is a writing lesson, simply allow access to computers for students. If it is a math lesson, pre-recorded lessons with an online workspace for students would be ideal.
The need for teachers to be super-savvy-tech-rulers isn't as important as allowing students access to the tools. After all, if you are stuck, you have a room full of experts ready to impart their tech-knowledge to you. Stay with those problems longer; ask for help; see where it leads.
Delonna Halliday, a National Board-certified teacher and a member of the Washington New Millennium Initiative team, is a literacy coach at First Creek Middle School in Tacoma, Wash.
January 29, 2013
How to Be an Ed-Tech Evangelist
Ryan Kinser
What does successful collaboration between teachers and ed-tech developers look like? And as the discussions in this forum remind me, what roles must educators play in the face of resistance?
For example, after I signed up for a free teacher account with CodeHS, the company's co-founders Zach Galant and Jeremy Keeshin followed up via email. We talked about how to help each other. I figured they could use some feedback to make their product more beneficial to schools. In return, I gleaned their expertise for my students. We've tested their online coding lessons, grown our skill sets, and collected early feedback to share with the company. But this is only one class. Now what?
How do we replicate experiences like this for more students in districts concerned about digital ethics, allocating dwindling resources, and adhering to new standards?
It's the unabashed willingness to share—the evangelism—that has the potential to eliminate barriers to the real progress of turning a collaborative relationship into scaled student learning. At the intersection of policy, practice, and now profit stands the classroom teacher. My colleague Jennifer Barnett has even parlayed such evangelism into an innovative role influencing ed-tech policies in Talladega County, Ala., as a technology-integration specialist.
Here are some action steps to help you find your voice in the ed-tech arena:
Promote your class as a laboratory. My students will submit their own scientific analysis of their ed-tech experiments to several startups by blogging, filming video reviews, and presenting suggestions in live conversations with developers. The next time you hear, "Research shows ... " think about your classroom research.
Engage stakeholders to establish yourself as an authority. Start simple by emailing company contacts and signing up for free teacher accounts. EdSurge has a terrific newsletter full of these opportunities. Then invite school and district leaders to see how you're using the tools. They might just see your transparency as a strength.
Engage stakeholders to establish yourself as an authority. Start simple by emailing company contacts and signing up for free teacher accounts. EdSurge has a terrific newsletter full of these opportunities. Then invite school and district leaders to see how you're using the tools. They might just see your transparency as a strength.
Bring data to the discussions. Poll your students to stay on top of their habits. Was a certain technology resource a non-factor in student learning? Counterintuitive? Just disliked? The student data are your strongest points for developers.
Anticipate the "core DNA" of your audience. What concerns them? What are their goals? When my district blocked all in-school access to Edmodo, I told my district about some key benefits to students and addressed security concerns with examples from my class community. The very next day, access returned to teachers. The dialogue continues, as district leaders seek anecdotes from other local classrooms using the site.
Publicize the work. This isn't self-promotion; it's student promotion. No one will knock on your door. Teachers must present more of the great things technology is doing in their classrooms.
Seek community partnerships. Who might solve your students' lack of access? Are there businesses that can offer space, projects, tools? Microsoft puts employees in classrooms.EDesign Lab acts as a hub for such collaborations. Girls Who Code is modeling innovation between entrepreneurs and classrooms.
If we imagine ourselves as evangelists for ed-tech innovation and efficiency, teachers not only catalyze powerful working relationships, but we exponentially increase the number of students who benefit from them.
Ryan Kinser is a teacherpreneur at the Center for Teaching Quality and teaches English at Walker Middle Magnet School for International Studies in Tampa, Fla.
January 28, 2013
Play is Good. Purposeful Play? Better.
Bud Hunt
It seems that many of us in this discussion are fans of encouraging play and exploration. That's great. I'm certainly a fan, as my previous post should document.
But I wonder if I might suggest a bit more structure when it comes to how a teacher working with a new platform, tool, or piece of hardware might begin.
I talk and write a lot about the power of purposeful play. Some folks have challenged me when I put those two words together, because playfulness and purpose are sometimes seemingly at odds. But they're not. Playing with a purpose is knowing you want to get somewhere and heading out in that direction.
Playing with purpose is setting a goal or two. Or it might be deciding what tools you are certain you won't use, or maybe are certain you will.
Every year or so, I like to set some learning areas for myself, and try to direct my curiosity around them. When my children were born, I was working to learn about photography, as I wanted to capture their lives and a bit more of my own. I bought some equipment (toys) and tried to aim my attention at spaces and folks who were playing with photography, too. I didn't sit down and say, "Okay, I need a photography class," or "Gee, I could use some photography professional development." I just played with pictures and cameras. And I got better. On purpose.
Individual purpose is, though, only a piece of what I'd like to suggest. There's value in organizations specifying some purposes as more relevant than others. Standards are a piece of this, but not the whole story. In learning organizations, be they schools or districts or even academic departments, might I suggest that it's the job of the organization, through some sort of collaborative structure, to set broad purposes or goals for the play that it encourages. I'm not talking about more standards, or really, really narrow expectations, but I mean that the organization should be suggesting some broad targets for play, to encourage the types of experiences they would like for teachers and students to have.
And learning organizations are typically pretty good at doing this first part—the suggesting. But what they need to do, too, is to put their money and resources where the recommendations are and to provide time, support, and opportunities for that play to happen. Learning organizations should be really, really good at creating spaces for purposeful play for students, teachers, parents, administrators, and all in the communities they serve.
Otherwise, all that purpose setting? It's just lip service. Or, at worst, it's an awful lot of people playing their own games in total isolation or conflict with one another. And what's the fun in that?
Bud Hunt is an instructional technology coordinator for the St. Vrain Valley Schools in northern Colorado. He works with teachers and technologists to ensure the thoughtful use of technology for teaching and learning. Bud blogs at Bud the Teacher.
January 28, 2013
The Tech Shift: From Tried and True to New
Jody Passanisi
Ryan Kinser writes in his post that, "There are too many of us who fear technology, who believe sound pedagogy doesn't require it ... ." This is true. It is something that every one of us encounters at our schools. I tried to address this fear in my last post—how playing with technology can help teachers become more comfortable with tech. But to even get to that point, it is important to look at the rationales behind this fear of technology.
Understand the Fear
Implementing technology in the classroom can be challenging, but no teacher is trying to be difficult or stubborn by refusing to do so. Most teachers truly feel that their way is better—the way that has been tried and true for them. Teachers need to be shown why; they need to have the usefulness of technology "proven" to them. Having a "prove-it-to-me" attitude is a good one to have in this case, because it will help teachers ensure that the new technologies they employ are done so purposefully.
Implementing technology in the classroom can be challenging, but no teacher is trying to be difficult or stubborn by refusing to do so. Most teachers truly feel that their way is better—the way that has been tried and true for them. Teachers need to be shown why; they need to have the usefulness of technology "proven" to them. Having a "prove-it-to-me" attitude is a good one to have in this case, because it will help teachers ensure that the new technologies they employ are done so purposefully.
Because the reality is that teachers must (discerningly) employ these technologies now; it isn't an option any more.
Contextualize
To help ease this transition from tried-and-true to new, let's put it into a historical context. Yesterday, during history class, we discussed one of our U.S. History course's themes: "The use, disuse, and misuse of new technologies are crucial to shaping the events in a country's history."
To help ease this transition from tried-and-true to new, let's put it into a historical context. Yesterday, during history class, we discussed one of our U.S. History course's themes: "The use, disuse, and misuse of new technologies are crucial to shaping the events in a country's history."
When the students brainstormed for meaning, they first came up with the usual: iPads, computers, GPS, etc. But when pressed, the students realized that technology goes way further back than that.
Just like the wheel, technology is any tool that allows us increased ability to do something we were doing already, or ... to do something completely new. We need to communicate to the teachers in our schools that technology isn't here to hurt us, it is here to help make what we were doing in education better, and to help us imagine a different world of education for the future.
While historically technology has been used for good and for bad, there is no doubt it has led to progress. It has led us here. Of course teachers are resistant to new technology. In the past, people have always found the psychological shift from what is comfortable to what is new to be challenging. When teachers are reminded of this shift that has occurred over and over throughout history, it puts this conversation in a different perspective.
Compare and Contrast
One thing that has worked to help educators (or anyone) clear this mental hurdle is pointing out these shifts in history. This video, which humorously depicts a monk in the Middle Ages getting tech support to deal with his "new" book, is often a good icebreaker to begin this metacognitive conversation.
One thing that has worked to help educators (or anyone) clear this mental hurdle is pointing out these shifts in history. This video, which humorously depicts a monk in the Middle Ages getting tech support to deal with his "new" book, is often a good icebreaker to begin this metacognitive conversation.
Additionally, pointing out times when technology has worked better than the "low-tech" alternative will help this shift.
For example, social studies students can use Skype, or similar programs, to speak with politicians—a face-to-face interaction that would likely not be possible without technology. Letter writing, the "low-tech" version, would not be as effective or as efficient—or as powerful.
In the same vein, presentations used to be limited to posterboard and, more recently, Powerpoint. Now, myriad types of presentation software and platforms allow students to imagine presentations that are meaningful, sophisticated, and unique. Previously, presentations lacked individuality because of the limitation of the tools.
Showing teachers these instances where the technology allows for the expanding of classroom opportunities, including demonstrating students' unique talents, will only help to show the value, purposefulness, and necessity of shifting to the world of technology.
Make the Shift ... and Like It
Yes, change is hard, and can be it is painful for teachers to see everything they've worked for using the old technologies be replaced by something new. But we all need to see this as an opportunity: We can create new things, imagine new ideas, and build off the foundation of work that has already been done. We won't know what can be done until we dive in and try.
Yes, change is hard, and can be it is painful for teachers to see everything they've worked for using the old technologies be replaced by something new. But we all need to see this as an opportunity: We can create new things, imagine new ideas, and build off the foundation of work that has already been done. We won't know what can be done until we dive in and try.
Keep this in mind when you are helping implement new technologies in your settings: These shifts have happened in the past and we have improved as a society because of them.
Jody Passanisi is a middle school teacher at an independent school in the Los Angeles area and a clinical educator in the Day School Leadership Through Teaching's teacher-induction program. She and her teaching partner, Shara Peters, write about education on their blog and on Twitter@21centuryteachr.
January 24, 2013
Teachers and Ed-Tech Developers, Let's Meet
Ryan Kinser
After being wowed recently by a behind-the-scenes visit to aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, I implored teachers to help bridge the growing technology gap between their students and tomorrow's careers. Maybe I underplayed a bigger gap: the one between teachers and the tech world.
There are too many of us who fear technology, who believe sound pedagogy doesn't require it, or who complain we don't have time/energy/resources to implement it properly. For every one of these well-meaning teachers, there is a tech company that hasn't discovered what tools actually improve student learning or what insight teachers might add to their development efforts.
It's time to blur the line between teachers and ed-tech entrepreneurs, as this KQED Mindshift article suggests.
I propose that we meet in the middle. Teachers, let's get our hands dirty and offer our services to ed-tech companies, while publicly sharpening our own skills for students. Let's build relationships and see what innovation results from them.
There are win-wins. Teachers can help developers understand their curriculum needs, social networking wishes, and the objectives technology must help students meet. We can develop content, collect data from students, and provide real feedback on products. We can even outline district hierarchies to steer developers towards the decision makers.
Developers have plenty to offer teachers as well.
Consider these possible gains for teachers:
New skills. As a math teacher in my school remarked, "[Technology] is moving so fast. I hardly get through with a training before it's obsolete." Why wait for districts to train us? I've learned a lot from the private sector this year just by being a willing partner, including some fantastic nuts-and-bolts of computer programming in the Coding for GOOD competition.
Action research in your classroom. There's nothing wrong with signing up your students to be Guinea pigs. Engage them in the process. My students can't wait to interview the founders of coding start-up CodeHS. They were full of chatter after seeing a teacher avatar inStudyRoom. Any conversation between teacher and developer should have student data behind it.
Compensation. "Don't be afraid to get paid," I hear colleagues say more often these days. You are a professional offering an expert opinion, time, and perhaps even a testing ground. It's perfectly reasonable to charge for any services above and beyond your normal responsibilities.
Think about a company with whom you can partner or at least open a dialogue. Incubators likeY Combinator and Imagine K-12 can always use a bank of expert teachers as sounding boards for their start-ups. The latter's Educator Day is an event that brings them together for such a purpose.
Ask for an invitation to the next one. Let's get some conversations going. In my next post, I'll detail some successes that will show you the potential in these relationships.
Ryan Kinser is a Teacherpreneur at the Center for Teaching Quality and teaches English at Walker Middle Magnet School for International Studies in Tampa, Fla.
January 23, 2013
Keys to Using Classroom Tech: Shifting the Goals, Facing Fears
Delonna Halliday
Today's teachers—particularly those of us who graduated from college more than five years ago—must make some cognitive shifts in order to be tech-savvy. Here I discuss just a couple of that have been helpful to me.
Shift #1: Recognize technology as a tool for learning, not as the goal of the learning.
The other day, I was discussing classroom technology with a good friend. The two of us have worked together for many years, and collaborated on multiple projects. Our conversation centered on this shared observation: While many teachers want to use technology, some seem unaware that different tools work well for different purposes.
Not long ago, a teacher contacted my friend: "Come teach my students PowerPoint." My friend asked, "Why?" The response: "I want them to write a report."
All too often, with the best intentions, teachers use a wrench like a hammer ... simply because they know students should be able to use a wrench.
In this case, my friend suggested the students use a word processing program to write the report. The next step would be for students to use a tool like PowerPoint to create a presentation summarizing the report.
Of course, some would say developing a PowerPoint presentation on the fly (without the substance of a report to inform it) is a valuable task for 21st-century learners. It's a scenario they may face in real life. If you're seeking to fine-tune students' communication and presentation skills, then going straight to PowerPoint may be your best option.
But it's all about what you want students to accomplish. Establish the goal, and then select the tool.
Shift #2 - Get past the fear factor.
Remember the blue screen that meant you lost all your work? Many teachers recall misadventures with early computers: finding ourselves at strange screens with no way out, or accidentally deleting all our files. Pretty intimidating.
It may sound simple, but I was freed from fear by the power of the "Control + Z" key command. I was taking an Adobe Illustrator class when the instructor said, "Any time you find yourself in a place you don't want to be, or think you have completely messed up, press Control + Z until you are comfortable again. You cannot break this program."
Wow. Those few sentences granted me freedom! But once I started moving without fear, I rarely messed up. And when I did, I had my pinky on the Ctrl key and my ring finger flicking through those Zs.
Every tech class I teach, I mention the power of Control + Z. While it doesn't apply to every situation, goof-up, or uncertainty, it does remind my colleagues that there are solutions. That we are in charge of the technology. That Google is there for times like these. That it will all be fine.
Every tech class I teach, I mention the power of Control + Z. While it doesn't apply to every situation, goof-up, or uncertainty, it does remind my colleagues that there are solutions. That we are in charge of the technology. That Google is there for times like these. That it will all be fine.
Delonna Halliday, a National Board-certified teacher and a member of the Washington New Millennium Initiative team, is a literacy coach at First Creek Middle School in Tacoma, Wash.
January 23, 2013
Asking the Right Questions About Classroom Tech
Meenoo Rami
What role does technology play in your classroom? What questions do you ask yourself before you choose to use a particular web-based tool or application for instruction? What is your students' impression of your perspective on technology?
These questions are worth considering when we talk about encouraging teachers to incorporate technology in the classroom.
I often turn to my principal Chris Lehmann's words on technology to guide my use of it in the class. In his keynote addresses, he often says that technology should be like oxygen, "ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible." In other words, technology should get out of the way, while thoughtful pedagogical choices should guide classroom practice.
In the end, effective use of classroom technology is about more than technology; it's about about people and how they use it. A laptop can be a tool to create a multimedia book report using Minecraft (as one of my students recently did), or it can be used for drill-and-kill test prep sessions. A tool is just that; it is the user who directs the potential in a particular direction.
So, what difference does thoughtful use of technology make in the lives of students?
The most transformative quality of technology is that it gives the power and agency to the students to tell their own stories. Instead of merely consuming content created by others on the internet, intentional use of technology in the classroom can give voice to the ideas that our students possess.
For example, take a look at this project by My, a sophomore at the Science Leadership Academy. In this digital story, she shares her journey towards finding her voice and confidence to speak in class. It is a beautiful testament to her growth as a student and a person. It also shows how her teacher, Mr. Kay, has used technology to give his students a chance to tell their own stories.
But how do you get to that point? Educators who are looking to incorporate technology should consider the following ideas:
Network with other educators. This weekend, Science Leadership Academy will welcome more than 500 educators from around the country to take part in EduCon. One the axioms of this conference is that technology serves pedagogy, not the other way around. I am looking forward to discussing and debating innovative ways teachers are incorporating technology in their classrooms. We need to collaborate so we can support one another. Teaching is hard enough, we don't need to do it alone.
Be a learner first. Before you ask your students to create podcasts, create one yourself. You don't have to be expert in the room but you do have to be willing to show that you're learning along side your students. If you show hesitation and fear, your students will also become reluctant to go with you along on the work.
Accept that good learning is messy. Any meaningful work I've done with my students has never really followed the simple 7-step lesson plan. The work has always been circuitous, even messy at times. Often times, I have asked myself if this was a good idea in the first place. Show your students that you're willing to take intellectual risks in your classroom as well.
What would you share with teachers who are trying to figure out meaningful ways to incorporate technology in their classroom?
I look forward to reading your ideas.
Meenoo Rami, founder of the #engchat weekly Twitter chat for English teachers, teaches her students English at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia.
January 22, 2013
New Technology for Teachers? Play, Then Create
Jody Passanisi
As teachers, we are often asked to incorporate new, cutting-edge technologies into the classroom at the request of our schools. Given the pressure that schools face to stay current, the pressure to implement new technology is understandable.
However, putting new technology in the classroom isn't as simple as handing something to a teacher and walking away. Teachers often are wary of new technology, worry about how to use it, and wonder if it is going to require a drastic change in pedagogy.
The breakdown often occurs during the introductory phase of a new tech tool. When schools and administrators introduce new technology for teachers, those administrators frequently have expectations that the technology will have immediate application in the classroom.
Most of the time, these expectations aren't properly grounded. When teachers are asked to learn a new technology and immediately incorporate it into the classroom, two things happen: the technology doesn't get learned, and it also puts constraints on our pedagogical creativity.
So how, then, should introduce new technologies? My teaching partner and I have been working on this question with our students. We've found that first giving students a chance to discover and play with a new technology increases their ability to use it effectively when we ask them to then apply it to content.
This idea—that technology can be made more approachable through play—can be applied to teachers as well. Think about the experience of learning a second language. When language students are anxious, that anxiety puts limitations on their linguistic abilities. Why would this be any different for people learning technology as a "second language"?
Yet, when we go to conferences or introduce tech tools, the facilitator and the participants are all looking to make that experience immediately relevant to the classroom. It's an understandable impulse; who wants to spend a day learning something that isn't clearly applicable to what's happening in the classroom?
However, this may be wrongheaded when it comes to the learning new tools, or "training" on a new technology. Forcing teachers to come up with practical applications for a technology that they have never seen before is only going to guarantee lots of that "second language" anxiety.
Teachers don't need technology training: They need time to play.
When teachers have time to play with and discover the applications of a new technology, the result is teachers who feel confident about using tech and imagining new uses for it. Like any tool, the benefit of these technologies are realized by discovering their creative potential.
We need to look beyond the technology to examine our classrooms and our pedagogy, not to limit our focus to the technology and how it works. Give teachers the chance to play with technology; don't push to make it fit the current classroom model. We will respond with more creativity and more comfort with the technology itself.
Jody Passanisi is a middle school teacher at an independent school in the Los Angeles area and a clinical educator in the Day School Leadership Through Teaching's teacher-induction program. She and her teaching partner, Shara Peters, write about education on their blog and on Twitter@21centuryteachr.
January 22, 2013
Want Better Classroom Tech? Give Teachers More Time
Bud Hunt
"The subjects . . . may often be suggested by the pupil's observation or personal experience." —Report of the Committee [of Ten] on secondary school studies, from an 1892 meeting of the National Educational Association (p.88)
As an instructional technology coordinator for a large school district in northern Colorado, I see an awful lot of interesting uses of technology in the classroom. However, as a professional developer and former classroom teacher, I see too many things done to teachers and students, rather than with them.
If we believe that student choice and passion and curiosity are essential to learning, then how can we approach professional development for teachers without considering these as starting places for teachers and their learning about technology? Top ten lists, sit-and-gets, and vague mandates about "technology proficiency" are not useful. And yet they fill up Twitter streams and Facebook walls and blog pages all over the place.
Four years ago, some of my colleagues and I attempted a radical (at least for us) shift in the way we approached technology-related professional development. Teachers, as learners and as inquirers, should have control over their learning and explorations in technology. Thus, theDigital Learning Collaborative was born.
A two-year program that costs about as much for a team of teachers as one day with most technology consultants, the DLC is an attempt to return the agency around teacher learning to the teacher. In the first year, we help team leaders to convene teams of teachers curious about exploring more of the technology around them. In that first year, we instruct our teachers not to race to implement new technology in the classroom; instead, we encourage them to take time to play and explore and wonder. Dig deep. Try something new. Fiddle with it for a while. Explore. Play. Experiment.
In year two, we ask teachers to explore the consequences of their explorations and learning in their classrooms, and to conduct a teacher-research study about what happens when they apply their learning to students' experiences.
This can be messy work, and some of the teachers we work with are unsettled by it. They would much prefer that we tell them what to do, and when to do it, and why it matters. School districts, it seems, have sometimes taken the agency away from the folks we trust to facilitate that agency in others. That's not such a good thing.
But we have learned that prescriptive learning isn't learning that lasts, so we try to build support structures where our teachers can struggle together to better understand the technology that surrounds us. We want those teachers, and the students they support, to actively engage the tech of today, and to be ready to face the technology of tomorrow.
You can keep your top ten lists, or your quick tweets of "must reads." And while advocacy days are fine and certainly can raise awareness, they're not terribly useful in terms of actual day-to-day organizational change. So a special day is a good start. But that's all it is.
I've found that thoughtful inquiry and meaningful time for exploration are the best tools for thoughtful technology integration. Deep learning and instructional change take time, and I hope you're helping the folks you work with to find the time in their days for learning to happen.
Bud Hunt is an instructional technology coordinator for the St. Vrain Valley Schools in northern Colorado. He works with teachers and technologists to ensure the thoughtful use of technology for teaching and learning. Bud blogs at Bud the Teacher.
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