Comments on: How do you get the conversation started in a disinterested district?

By: Flourish

Flourish — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Definitely, I think that the administration would be a place to go. I think it’s really important to come up with a rationale and a presentation that will help show them why new media are so important in classrooms, and why it’s incredibly important to come up with better systems of site blocking and so on.

I think the first thing to remember is that administrators often know that they need to have technology, but because they don’t really understand how to use it themselves – it isn’t a key part of their lives – they don’t know its importance. So starting from the very basics is incredibly important, and also showing them how it fits into preexisting curricula – how kids can learn geography, science, etc. with the use of these computers that they have but aren’t using. Actual demonstrations. I think that showing people the promises of technology can go a long way towards making them less afraid of the perils.

By: clieneck

clieneck — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Emotion, not reason, drives profound change. Ed tech folks have been making cogent, logical arguments for making changes for years now with little real impact on teachers, administrators, board members, and so on.

You have to move people’s emotions if you want them to change. We have never seen a better example of that than our recent election.

Find or make compelling narratives that show the digital world as it really is to yank heads out of the sand. Bring some of those parents with you who make their living with technology and expect schools to keep pace. Get students to step up and talk about what technology means to them in their daily lives. Give motivated teachers — and there are nearly always a few — compelling technology on the condition that they share what they’re doing with one other teacher. Quit talking about what tech tools do and start talking about what they mean.

You can also arouse emotions in other ways to create opportunities for dialogue about technology. Pick a budget fight about how tech resources are allocated. Get rid of tech resources that aren’t being used. Quit pretending that tech equity = treating everyone the same. Call out complacency when you see it.

We should all know by now that going to more meetings doesn’t create change. My favorite cartoon depicts a committee meeting in a burning building, and the caption says, “I move we call the fire company with the yellow trucks.” The world has changed profoundly while we have tried to persuade with reason. Advocating for our students’ needs means adopting different tactics before they disengage from school completely..if they haven’t already.

By: Carl Anderson

Carl Anderson — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

My suggestion is to jump ship and let disruptive innovation sort this one out.

By: Rob Jacobs

Rob Jacobs — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

When I participated in an effort to bring 1:1 laptops to a school where I was teaching at the time, we went straight to the parents and the staff. I gave several presentation in which I explained the need for computer and technology skills in the global market place. Once parents had a clear understanding of the need for their students to understand and incorporate technology into their learning, they were able to apply pressure to the administrators who make the decisions and, probably more important, they went to their local elected school board members and pressured them.

Parents are a huge ally and they can pressure the ultimate decision makers through the school board.

By: Charlie A. Roy

Charlie A. Roy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Administration. Administration. Administration. If the administration doesn’t understand the impact of technology or care about upgrading the technology and the curriculum tied to it you can forget about it. It won’t happen. Higher administrators who are tech competent.

By: shafeen

shafeen — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Caveat: I’m not an educator. But I recently slept at a Holiday Inn Express(!).

I don’t view this as purely about Administration.

Is the problem curriculum or inspiration? What is being measured as success in the technology classes? Is it proficiency in Pascal (God help us), or is it proficiency in programming? There are so many tools out there today, whose vendors also include teaching materials for free.

Inspiration is something else altogether. I recently met this incredible teacher (Sarietjie Musgrave) from South Africa, who teaches Gr11 Computer Science in an all-girls school in Bloemfontein. Here is a video interview (http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=82f66f8b-ebca-4c75-857b-b9094643e19d) of her that will just amaze you, and sends a shiver down my spine. This is what Andrew should do.

By: Lisa Nielsen

Lisa Nielsen — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I recently wrote a blog post called, “School 2.0 Transformation Toolkit – A Recommended Resource for Innovative Educators to “Let the conversation begin!” at http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2008/10/school-20-transformation-toolkit.html. This is part of School 2.0. I think it has some terrific activities and ideas for beginning conversations about relevant 21st Century teaching and learning.

There are many other great resources to accomplish this goal which I captured in a post called Helpful Documents for Innovative Educators http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2008/10/helpful-documents-for-innovative.html. It has classroom observation rubrics for teachers and educators, ICT literacy maps for various content areas and much more.

I hope some of this is helpful for others.

Lisa Nielsen
Read my blog on educating innovatively at
http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com

By: Stephen C. Veliz

Stephen C. Veliz — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Beyond grabbing the interest of administrators, sometimes you must push them to the point to act on the district level. That’s where the walls are in my school/district.

By: Sean Nash

Sean Nash — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I agree with the assertion by “clieneck” that emotion is what really drives real change. Brain science backs that up pretty solidly.

I essentially begged for some attention to these issues from the top just the other day:
http://nashworld.edublogs.org/2008/11/13/increasing-our-level-of-vitamin-a/

Good conversations here, as always.

Sean

By: Blair Peterson

Blair Peterson — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I agree that you have to play on the emotions to create a sense of urgency, but you also have to address the fact that change is difficult. Remember that the school leaders go through the same process that teachers go through when they are asked to incorporate technology into the teaching and learning process. After looking at a variety of change models I prefer Kotter and Cohen’s 8 steps that are described in The Heart of Change. It incorporates many of the ideas that are being mentioned but puts it into an organized plan.
I also believe that after the leader goes through a shock period it becomes important to convince him/her that they can develop the knowledge and skills that are necessary to lead in this new environment.