Generation YES, and a New Administration

 
Just read the article Adding Student Leadership to Your Technology Plan by Dennis Harper which was very insightful in describing ways to try to get schools and teachers to move forward in the use of technology and 21st Century Skills in our classrooms. Involving the students in the development and execution of the Technology Plan allows for better insight for the adults into the ways students use the technology and would motivate greater acceptance and embracing of the tools by the students. Our kids today are Digital Natives, a term coined by G. Alex Ambrose in his video Googlios: A 21st – Century Approach to Teaching, Learning, & Assessment. In that sense, then, who better to aid in the professional training of these tools than our students themselves? The article talks about the GenYES initiative wherein students and faculty together claim ownership and responsibility for collaborating and teaching each other the myriad tools available, and together they develop a Technology Plan, which includes students serving as full participants in all aspects of development and execution. Harper starts his article with the statement that 92% of people in the schools are students, and most technology plans focus on the role of the other 8%, being the faculty. He goes on to say that “this is especially unbalanced given the fact that today’s students are increasingly savvy about the role technology plays in modern life.”

As a case in point, I had students after school today and I was struggling in trying to find and capture a video segment online. A student came up to me, suggested I do a few things, and he had fixed the problem. I know for a fact that our kids are much more tech savvy than most teachers, and use the technology daily in the ordinary facets of their lives. What a better resource for teachers and school administrators than our kids to help develop a technology plan that works for them!!

GenYES is a technology initiative that reaches out to students to involve them as full members of a team to develop a school-wide technology approach. The article states six ‘time-tested’ ways to involve students in the writing of such plans, including having students serve on committees, using students as trainers and support systems, as tech support agents, resource developers and communicators, as well as peer-mentors, peer-reviewers and peer-leaders. All these help to foster and create ownership by students of the approaches taken, and also ensure that the needs and tools that students use are incorporated into any executed plan. The article then discusses strategies that help schools migrate from the ‘talk’ to the ‘action’.

This article hit home in the sense that our school district is beginning a search for both a Superintendent and an Assistant Superintendent. I suggested to school committee members and peers that our search criteria should include the investigation into an administrator who can be a visionary when it comes to technology and 21st Century skills. The installment of a new superintendent is certainly a perfect opportunity to help set direction, leadership and a clear strategy for taking our schools into the future. If this administrator can set aside traditional approaches, and encourage the embracing of our students and inviting them to participate in the development of a modern technology strategy, then we will have certainly turned a new page for our schools and 21st Century skills.

Video 4: Building A Web 2.0 Culture by Paul Curtis

     I found this video to be refreshing in that it focused on the relationships between students and faculty as they create an environment that fosters the Web 2.0 culture. Rather than discussing the various tools, Paul Curtis discusses the overall characteristics of the New Technology High School in Napa, CA. This is a school that was in part founded by the local business community as they responded to the growing needs and skills in the 21st Century for future employees and business professionals. The primary objective of this video is to discuss the overall culture within the school, recognizing the current technical characteristics of the democratization of information, the power of collaboration and the personalization of our classrooms.

Building a Web 2.0 Culture

     Information access and publication capability is unprecedented for students of today. No longer can teachers ‘control’ where students get their information and research, nor can teachers monitor where student work can be published. For a reality check, as I am writing this I received a Facebook update from a student who told me she just published her science project video on YouTube! So the democratization of information is something that we need to accept and work within the new paradigms. The power of collaboration is such a strong element of the Web 2.0 culture. With the advent of social networking tools we should be encouraging the focused group work of students and not look at much of the online activity as plagiarism, cheating or other ‘old-school’ values. Rather we should be encouraging students to explore all avenues of information, but then analyze the data and work with the information through higher level critical thinking schools…both on their own or with collaborative groups. In the future working world more and more will there be a requirement for peer collaborations, and our students should be able to move into this environment with ease and confidence. And finally, this idea of personalization should empower students to develop their own strategies and techniques for learning rather than the ‘assembly-style’ teaching that Curtis refers to in his video.

Building A Web 2.0 Culture by Paul Curtis

One of the pillars of the overall culture of the New Tech School is that of empowerment, the ability to enable students to work together in this new world. Three major traits are vital to the overall success of the school culture …Trust, Respect and Responsibility. The ability for teachers to let go, and allow students to explore online resources on their own, is one of the facets of trust. An approach to this was to enable students to participate in the development and enforcement of behavioral expectations in the classroom and online, and then for teachers to encourage the virtual explorations. A mutual respect for work habits, ideas and thoughts should exist among all the school community which would tolerate differences in approaches and opinions, within the guidelines established by the community as a whole. Curtis believes that respect from individuals comes from the knowledge of the individual, when one knows them as a person. This collaborative and personal approach to education enables more of a bond among students and teachers that helps to build the culture of respect. And finally, with the base of trust and respect comes responsibility. Students know for what they are to be held accountable, both behaviorally as well as academically. Again, the overall culture is an open one where the community works as a whole rather than the parts.

For the classroom I would hope that students would say that I am encouraging such an open environment, as I truly do believe that education today is much more than the one-way direction of years past, that today, a critical interaction between student and teacher, student and student, and even among teachers is necessary for a culture of trust, respect and responsibility. Overall, I do like the basic structure and founding principles of the New Tech School, and hope that I can continue to implement such a culture and environment in my own classroom!

Video 3: Organizational Learning and Technology Collide

k12 Online Conference Video

     This video by Ben Grey discusses the theories and practices suggested by Chris Argyris when it comes to the implementation of technology in the classroom. I had to chuckle when the author began to describe an after-school session when one has all the best intentions of grading papers or doing other necessary but sometime tedious work for the classroom. We find that the allotted time had elapsed because we got so distracted by other tasks and activities, such as checking email, fixing a bulletin board, cleaning a work areas, etc. Before we know it is 5pm and what did we get done? Argyris suggests that the original plan, the Espoused Theory, is what we say we are going to do. And what we actually complete is the Theory in Use. And so many times the gap between what we say and what we do is immense.

This same theory can apply to the use of technology in the classroom. How many times do we say, “If I had the chance, I would….”, and then when we get the chance, we didn’t! Other actions took precedence, and we often end up frustrated. Argyris’ first tenet is to reflect on the gap between the Espoused Theory and the Theory in Use. What were the factors that led to the gap – time management, understanding, interest levels, and/or distractions? We should train ourselves to reflect on the differences without bias, and then develop a plan, or discipline, to do better the next opportunity. This reflection piece certainly makes sense as we begin to evaluate all our good intentions in the use of technology in the classroom. Often we leave a seminar, or even this 21st Century skills course, with all the grandiose plans to implement a concept in the classroom. But then we often get side-tracked in our ability, or focus, to actually get it done. It is relevant that for this course, many of us are actually doing the implementation with the development of our Digital Share projects, and we are finding success when we do not lose sight of the objective.

     Argyris’ theory then leads to a model called the Single-Double Loop Model. For our technology activity or lesson plan, we should develop and indentify the Guiding Variables for our lesson. What are we trying to accomplish…what is the big picture or the objective? With that firmly set, we then develop an Action Strategy to clearly set the expectation of what the finished product should entail. Is it a digital writing piece, a creative video, a wiki book report or scientific lab report? Clearly identifying the expected outcome will help one to focus on what strategies are needed to accomplish that goal. The final step of the model is the Consequences. What actually happened? Did we get the expected outcome from our students? And this is where the reflection takes place. We can look back on our Action Strategy to determine if we had gaps in our expectations, or objectives that were not quite clear, or even the skills and capability to accomplish the objective. This is the single-loop reflection. But we can also go back further, and then look at the relationship between our Action Strategy and our Guiding Variables. This double-loop reflection may allow us to reflect on the overall plan and purpose – did we in our own mind clearly understand the big picture, and did we then clearly explain it to our students? Reflecting on this element may then alter what would have been our Action Strategy to achieve the objective, which may in turn have resulted in different consequences. I know that I have often tried to implement the use of a technology tool with minimal results, or certainly not was expected. On reflection, it does appear that perhaps I did not clearly understand the overall objective and the relevance of the tool, or perhaps overestimated the capabilities of the students, or truly know what I wanted the finished product to look like. As I type this my students are working on a classroom project that is due tomorrow, and I wonder to what extent they have incorporated technology into their project. I do know that this is both a learning experience for me, as it is for them, so realistically I should be prepared for less-than-expected outcomes. I am sure that my overall Guiding Variables and Action Strategies were not clearly stated, and once the project is completed I will certainly reflect on how the overall effort may be improved.

     But I do have to feel good that for some, my Espoused Theory and Theory in Use should be somewhat aligned. We’ll see tomorrow!

Video 2: Googlios: A 21st – Century Approach to Teaching, Learning, & Assessment

Just finished watching the video  Googlios: A 21st – Century Approach to Teaching, Learning, & Assessment by G. Alex Ambrose on the K-12 Online Conference site.  The video talked about the evolution of teaching and learning through the tools that we have come to become more familiar with through this course The 3C’s of 21st Century Teaching and Learning. At this point in our own education I was not as overwhelmed by the technology involved, as the author focused on the free tools available through Google, and that in itself is a major accomplishment!  Rather, the challenge that I now am facing is the implementation and integration of these tools and resources with the curriculum and daily activities.

The author introduces the topic with an overview of the changing learning environments, and describes the Digital Landscape as we as teachers, especially ‘more seasoned’ teachers, are finding ourselves.  Our students today in the middle school have never known a non-digital world, and thus are considered ‘digital natives’ and are students using technology as a first language, coined DFLs. Many of us teachers, with the initiative to learn and become more familiar with the tools, are termed DSLs, or digital as a second language, or ‘digital immigrants’.  I find this characterization interesting as I do often find that what I am learning is indeed a second language, and only with practice and immersion am I getting for comfortable and working toward ‘fluent’.

The main topic of the video is the use of the Google tools to enable students to create their own learning and education portfolios, the ‘Googlio’.  With the use of the many tools of Google students can now create their own folios, digitally, and use them to chronicle their education progress through a topic, a term or even a school career.  The thought of students using these online tools to save their work is an interesting concept, and goes well beyond the milk crates and folders we now have in our classrooms.  There is no question that the technology exists…the real challenge for us DSL teachers is to become confident in ourselves to begin to use these tools. This particular course has certainly enabled me to explore more and more resources, and as I continue to find additional instruments, I need to focus on a select few and begin to develop an implementation plan in the classroom.

We are familiar with the term the Personal Learning Network (PLN), and the author discusses extensions to that line of thought with the categories Personal Learning Environment and Personal Knowledge Network.  The textbooks, folders, and notebooks that have been standards in a classroom are evolving into the many online tools and resources that are included in the graphic below.  As educators we have been introduced to many of these tools. Developing a plan to integrate a subset of these into the classroom is becoming the major goal of the next few years of my own career.

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