Perception of change

As I have been cruising through my RSS reader and the various conversations that are taking place within CL2.0, I began to wonder if we are actually going to see change or, despite all that is changing outside of education, all we are doing is having discussions about change but not going much further. I wasn't even sure how to write this because it seems so negative but it is something that I believe we need to find some type of solution so that it is more than just the meager few who are at the front of this change. All changes in education have had that. How do we make this different before it is crowded out by other voices? How do we go past perception to actual?

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Permalink Reply by James Dykstra on April 13, 2007 at 8:09am

I think you need to lead by example and to show teachers that computers add to what they're doing and doesn't just make it more complicated. It does work.
For a few years now I've been posting many of my assignments on the web. Just in the past couple of months, three teachers (out of a staff of 12) have asked for my help in setting up their own sites. I showed them how it could be done very easily using a blog. At my urging, two of our teachers are posting their marks in an online grade book so that parents and students can access their marks not just at report card time but anytime. Showing your colleagues that it works and is practical by doing it will win over far more people than all the directives from principals, boards or government committees.

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Permalink Reply by Carolyn Foote on April 14, 2007 at 7:54am

I think those of us in schools do have a big responsibility to encourage, guide and support others to join us in trying projects or using web 2.0 tools or having these conversations.

I also think, like with everything else, it meets resistance from some teachers and you really sometimes have to start one little project at a time. There are so many competing things vying for teachers' time--from AP audits to standardized testing to keeping up with their content area curriculum to simply the paper load.

I do think administrators like you also can do a tremendous amount to support change. What can happen with the school schedule to build staff development time into the day, or into the week? Can you have a late start day once in awhile purely for teacher technology training time? Can you rethink the traditional school schedule to allow for more opportunities for teachers to team together? Can we support teachers with incentives(like the 23 things project http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.com/ ) which gave incentives(mp3 players) to the library staff for completing all 23 things on the training module? Can administrators get the parent community to really support staff attending technology conferences "en masse" or bringing in guest speakers or consultants to work on a project?

Just brainstorming here, but I do think the enthusiasm an administrator has can really set the tone for the campus.

I also heard a great idea at the TLA conference at a session by Jenny Levine and Michael Stephens. They mentioned establishing an "emerging technology" committee. I thought how different that sounded from a "technology committee" because the focus is on the new!

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Permalink Reply by John Tanner on April 14, 2007 at 4:59pm

Change in education is happening but it is very slow. Glacially(word?) slow. It evolves over time. In my 30 years, I keep saying that to sound old not wise, I have seen changes but none have been as systemic as the Internet. In the early 90's we were using Gopher, UseNets, etc that whole thing. But it wasn't impacting the classroom. Then I started getting calls from teachers on how to access this web thing especially with email. They weren't calling me about using this in their classrooms mind you, they wanted to use it in there personal lives, (talking to kids and grandkids, talking to others about their hobbies,)

So it brings to focus Steve Hargadon's interview with John Seely Brown who said: from Steve's notes......
Is there such a thing as "School 2.0?" His belief (JSB): develop the edge, and let the edge transform the core. Allow other programs to turn kids on, let them be totally engaged in learning outside of the school, so that seeing this sends messages through parents or teachers to ask how come they are so engaged except in the classroom.

That is how Internet came to the classroom. Think about it, has any really significant educational transformation occured in education that came from within the education community. I mean really significant to our parents, community and business members, students themselves. Oh sure I can list neat stuff that has happened but that is exciting to us...nobody else really understands it or cares about it. So the core of education will change when new younger teaching generations come into the systems, and are forced by their students and communities to teach and learn in different ways. All this is happening today at the edges. I may not live to see it but I will be cheering from whereever........

Catch that interview of John Seely Brown at http://edtechlive.wikispaces.com/recordings+list