You may have seen something like this before...

I found this while searching Kim Cofino's website over the break. Most of you in this arena know Kim, and her ideas and implementation are wonderful. I have been thinking quite a bit recently about the future of our profession, the types of students we want to have, and the adults we want entering the world as they leave our schools.

It is not about the technology; it’s about sharing knowledge and information, communicating efficiently, building learning communities and creating a culture of professionalism in schools. These are the key responsibilities of all educational leaders. The Digital leader meets these responsibilities using relevant technology tools. — Marion Ginapolis, guest blogger on Scott McLeod’s Dangerously Irreverent

Technology is merely one of the tools you will use as an educator, but
it also happens to be the one tool that our students are immersed in, and that many aspects of their future will undoubtedly depend on. So, for me, it is so much less about the machine in front of the student, and more about the ability for that student to transcend the machine and show me something.

Yet at the same time, changing the culture of a school is a difficult thing to do. It begins firstly with the administration and teaching staff. Mass buy-in is huge. That is where I am struggling right now--how do I not come across as the overanxious geek trying to change everything in a short time? How do I sway a staff that hesitates, or cites lack of resources as a reason to stay away?

Karl's/Scott's video and Barry's, which I just came across today, will help, but the opportunities to get large groups of staff together are rare. Would love to hear some strategies that have worked in various places.

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Comment by Carolyn Foote on April 14, 2007 at 8:09am: I've mentioned this here in another discussion but I think bringing the administration into the conversation and having their enthusiasm and support can be huge.

Our new principal set up a Vision committee to plan for the graduates of 2020 and invited all staff, parents, and students to join voluntarily. As part of those discussions, we kept running into the issue of "time" which is significant in the school community.

She has worked with the district to create time in the schedule for the next school year...and we are looking at completely revamping the schedule the following year to build staff development time into the week. We have seen several schools who do this by having an early release one day a week or a late start, so that teachers have some common staff development time.

This is a real dilemma--change in education works best when it is somewhat grass roots, or when you have some staff on campus that can help "bring everyone in" so to speak.

I think it also involves starting small or with some specific projects with specific campus innovators.

Another great idea I posted about in the previous comment is Charlotte Public Library's 23 Things.
http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.com/
They gave incentives to their staff for participating, and because it's on the web, it's all self paced.

We're thinking of trying a smaller version, like 13 things.

At our campus, our tech coordinator and I (i'm the librarian) have been doing a weekly 20 minute workshop on Wednesday mornings and afternoons that teachers can voluntarily attend. We branded it, (modeled after Project Runway), put up flyers, sent email reminders, and our staff could gain credits by attending. Each session we do one small web 2.0 topic.

We certainly haven't reached everyone, but about a fifth of our faculty has attended and from departments all across the board. Some people come to every session and some to just one. But it's been a way to get some of the tools out there, demonstrate and discuss their use, and let people run with it and we offer support.

Teachers can visualize the possibilities once you show them something, and just doing one "theme" per session makes it easier to digest.

We're considering having a community-wide read this summer for parents, students and teachers as well, with a book like Whole New mind.

It is a struggle though, and there are so many things competing for teacher's attention, and some are still so uncomfortable with the technology. That intimidation factor is huge.

Comment by Adina Sullivan on July 19, 2007 at 11:46pm: Thank you for posting the link to Kim Cofino's site. I have some of the sources mentioned, but this was a great collection. As a new site tech integration mentor, it is helpful to be able to explain the need for integrating technology in education through the words of those with much more experience and knowledge than I have.