Leading Change, One Moment At a Time

Oftentimes, we are not aware that we are leaders, but our actions and words make an impact on everyone we come into contact with. Leaders are often looked upon as figures in the spotlight, but the reality is, we ALL have an opportunity daily to impact someone. Maybe the impact will not turn into change and growth right away. Maybe the impact is a negative one, or maybe the impact is life changing. But in each moment we encounter someone, an opportunity presents itself to demonstrate and promote best practices in education. Everyday, there’s a moment to show how valuable developing significant learning environments is for students and educators.

I have seen my innovation plan grow and evolve over the course of the last 15 months. The overarching (BHAG) goal has been established: “to empower learners to achieve their highest potential, we must analyze our current status and intentionally develop and facilitate a framework of unique environments and learning experiences in order for students to collaborate, communicate, think critically, and creatively in a 1:1 iPad learning environment.” What has ultimately evolved during this graduate program is how this goal can be achieved.

What Do You Do Next After a 1:1 iPad Initiative?

What really needs to happen after a technology initiative has been established? How does an initiative go from being an "initiative" to something more? Several case studies highlight the successes and the pitfalls of growing Information & Computer Technology (ICT) plans from around the world. Governments and educational organizations globally are beginning to implement technology as a way to provide equal opportunity for all learners. This is causing positive and negative changes in policy, community opinions, and teacher support. While there are great strides being made through the use of ICT, there are still improvements that can be made globally. These improvements and problems are opportunities, not setbacks, for the evolution of education as a whole.

Below is a response to these global studies: the successes, the areas of concern, and what we can learn from them in response to a two year 1:1 iPad implementation.

To end, I think this video from Tom Daccord, Director of EdTechTeacher, brings great perspective.

A Growth-Minded Learning Environment is Intentional

In high school, I was involved with several honors-type courses; Pre-AP Pre-Cal and Calculus, Chemisty, Physics, and even AP Psychology, English, and US History. On top of extracurriculars...man, some of those classes were hard! 

I never felt that I was a "top" student, even though my ranking would have said otherwise. My friends around me were constantly competing to outrank each other, beat each other's test scores, and complete work the fastest (yeah-clearly we didn't have social media at the time to occupy us in other ways). I remember having to work and fight for the grades I received. I tried to ignore the pressure of my friends around me, and the pressure to prepare myself to get into a good college so I could go to medical school. I remember questioning often if I was cut out for all this work...if it was all worth it.

My AP English teacher taught with patience and finesse. He had ways to navigate hard text and literary critiques like they were a piece of cake. He provided critical feedback that allowed me to understand where I did not excel AND how to improve. I remember Ms. Finn, my Calculus teacher. She was such an amazing coach and taught me tenacity when academics got hard. She gave me a different mindset.

"Nothing is yet in its truest form." 

-C.S. Lewis

A Significant Learning Plan using UbD

I have spent some time studying Understanding by Design (UbD) as a means of developing courses and units that consider backwards planning. I appreciate it's thoroughness to incorporate established goals, evidence that goals have been met, and a learning plan. It is very analogous to the requirements of MYP unit planning and compliments what I should be doing in my own IB MYP units.

When you consider what goals you have for your students in a course or unit and plan backwards, it ensures that you fully equip your students to meet those goals. Considering Fink's guide and UbD, a course or unit can be rich in understanding and empower students to own their learning. Below is my UbD plan for my 7th grade unit called "Healthy Blacksmiths." 

A New Culture of Learning

If you know me by now, you know how much I love a 1:1 technology environment! There is just something very different that happens when you put technology at the finger tips of the ones you teach (yes, there are several concerns to address of which I am aware, but just roll with me here!).

Often we hyper focus on maintaining the stability of the infrastructure of education rather than responding to the change that is taking place in how our students learn today. After reading the book called "A New Culture of Learning" by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, I feel confident in the direction I have been going with my classroom, and can see clearly that it is imperative that we move toward a focus of creating significant learning environments (SLEs). 

Students are intuitive and creative. According to the book, this new culture of learning is made of two things: "The first is a massive information network that provides almost unlimited access and resources to learn about anything. The second is bounded and structured environment that allows for unlimited agency to build and experiment with things within those boundaries." Along with this, "learning thus becomes a lifelong interest that is renewed and redefined on a continual basis. Furthermore, everything-and everyone-around us can be seen as resources for learning." An SLE is not necessarily focused on actual environment of the classroom, however that can play a role. It is the culture within and the context of learning, rather than the content, that shapes the learning environment.

The Why, How, and What of Technology Integration

There is something unique about the word empower; it is a word filled with authority and strength-beckoning for action. The ability to empower a student, rather than “guide” or “help” automatically creates a sense of urgency and necessary action. It creates a sense of responsibility for the teacher to act on their duty to give strength and authority to their students so they can truly achieve their highest potential.

Teachers themselves need to be empowered to do so. By evaluating the last two years of our 1:1 iPad initiative and creating a common vision for technology integration, we will have the ability to create differentiated professional development that gives teachers the experience they need to use the iPads in the classroom. 

A Culture of Innovation

A term coined by Clayton Christensen, technology is a perfect disruptive innovator that increases accessibility to learning, simplifies tasks, and brings convenience to digital natives as they learn.

Through study of global educational technology trends across the world, I have learned that there are very successful technology initiatives that are beginning to help reach many people in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and North America. These early stages of mobile technologies allow for equal access to knowledge and also open up the door for policy change. Technology is enhancing communication between teachers as students as well.

While vision and leadership, professional development, evaluations, and infrastructure are improving for school systems, these same attributes of an ICT program also need improving. In some countries, vision is well established, and in others, the vision is lacking and teachers do not know why they are using devices to teach. In some educational programs, professional development helps teachers to learn how to use devices, but in other areas of the world, teachers desire more guidance on how to integrate the device into their personal curriculum.

My hope is that a platform is established for conversation; as we begin to have education technology dialogue, I hope this work inspires us to ask tough questions:

How can we move forward and embrace the technology we already have as a catalyst for change and innovation that supports our current and future constraints on students, teachers, and administration?

Can we evaluate our own program and apply the lessons learned internally and globally to develop a vision and professional development specific to the needs of our own values?

How do we equip teachers to be effective facilitators of learning in the classroom within our own educational program?

The Innovation of Technology

After studying disruptive innovations via technology for the last month, I have created a video that summarizes steps that can be taken at my current school to learn from the past, cultivate the present, and prepare for the future by utilizing our 1:1 iPad initiative as a catalyst for change. This video is meant to spark conversation and to get the ball rolling! Enjoy!

See the original YouTube Video here.

An Outline for a Culture of Innovation

Below is an outline for some ideas I have on a proposal of utilizing a current 1:1 iPad initiative as a catalyst for change in a culture of teaching and learning. Any feedback is welcome!

A Study of Education Technology Trends

John Dewey, 1940s education reformer, said it best: “We must prepare our children not for the world of the past, not for our world, but for their world: the world of the future” (Mitchell, 2007). Dewey’s sentiments have a greater impact and meaning in light of growing trends in education technology, as well as innovations in learning.

Checkout this video: there are many eerie similarities to where we are now and where education was in the 1940s!

In a review of education technology trends throughout the last four to five years, it is evident that technology is shaping education in a variety of ways. Some of these trends can be summarized into the following categories:

As technology becomes a catalyst for change and innovation, these trends should be looked at carefully to see the type of impact they can make in an individuals’ own education system at the K-12 level.

Embracing Our Technologies as a Catalyst For Change

Technology in schools is quite a game changer. More schools are beginning to implement iPads and devices 1:1. Apps are being developed at a fast pace, and innovation is taking off. If taught appropriately and affectively to teachers, these devices offer a huge disruptive innovation that can simplify, increase accessibility to learning, and make learning convenient for students, and teaching convenient for educators.

The development of the iPhone is a great example of a disruptive innovator. This product puts the World Wide Web into your pocket for just a few hundred dollars. It has made the internet accessible to many, simplified tasks, and made a variety of activities/communications very convenient for it's user.