leadership
I have long been fascinated by experts, expertise and the commonalities between them. I have learned much about learning by being in the presence of people who are great at what they do. In fact, I believe that reality TV is a manifestation for our basic human desire to engage in apprenticeship experiences.
I’ve been back to work for a week and many of our faculty will be back next week. My staff has been hard at work all summer setting up new machines and reimaging old ones. We’ve rolled out 50 new desktop computers in two computer labs and classrooms. We are in the process of rolling out 30 new faculty laptops and servicing the other 40 that are already deployed to faculty. This includes service packs, an Outlook upgrade, and SmartNotebook 10. As we do these laptop upgrades, we’re requiring faculty to participate in a 30-45 minute training session when they pick up their laptops. During this training session, we’re reviewing basic laptop maintenance, spending a few minutes training the faculty on Outlook, and making sure our backup script works.
In addition to the nuts and bolts above here are some of the projects that I’m working on for the school year (Thanks to Jim Heynderickx for the inspiration here):
Outlook Training: During the first month of 
school we have to make sure to provide enough support to faculty, staff and students so we can complete our transition from FirstClass to Outlook. So far, so good as our transition over the summer was completed with only a few minor issues and with a positive reaction from the community. Change is hard, so I don’t expect that September will be a cake walk, but with appropriate communication and preemptive training and support, we’ll be in a good place in October.
Continued Professional Development including New Faculty and 
Student Orientation, Collegiate Connect (our SIS and communication hub for school constituents), Gradebook, Smartboards, and Moodle. This is a big one.
- New Faculty Orientation is a big one as we need to bring our faculty in, show them what we have to offer and how to find resources about technology at the school. Luckily, we have two one hour sessions with the new faculty this year and that will allow us to do a nuts and bolts session: file sharing, printing, Outlook email, and Collegiate Connect (SIS). The second session will be a technology scavenger hunt that our Academic Dean and Lower School Assistant Head are putting together. This is going to be a fun exercise to see if new faculty can use the training and FAQ material we’ve posted on our department web site to get the scavenger hunt done.
- New Student Orientation includes much of the above, plus a heavy dose of Acceptable Use in 20 minutes. Any ideas?
- Collegiate Connect training is usually done in conjunction with division meetings as it consists of specific administrative responsibilities of the faculty in each division. We’re creating lots of documentation in the form of FAQs on our Technology web site for this.
- Gradebook, Smartboard and Moodle training. None of these tools
are required so we’ll be providing as needed support on them in September and then rolling each out via targeted monthly themes with professional development and communication with the faculty during those periods.
Powerful Learning Practice — This is very exciting. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson are running this professional development program for five of our faculty/administrators. Here’s how they describe it:
Powerful Learning Practice offers a unique opportunity for educators to participate in a long-term, job-embedded professional development program that immerses them in 21st Century learning environments.
Day one of this is September 8th. I’m psyched.
Website Upgrade — Yes, we’re upgrading our web site. This collaborative process has taken longer than I planned, but we’re on track for a January launch providing us a much better look and feel and more integration between our site and Collegiate Connect.
And a few smaller ones —
Faculty Professional Development Reports — Last year we did these in a DrupalEd environment. This year, they will be in Moodle. Just waiting for MoodleRooms to finish up our Moodle config and we’ll be rocking and rolling.
New Media Gallery Training – Whipplehill just released the new version of their Media Gallery which is a Flickr like upgrade to their photo galleries but 
also includes a slick video and audio player. Tagging and all sorts of web 2.0 goodies available. We’re starting with our archived digital photos from 2001 to the present. Our archivist has two parent volunteers who will be working on this all year. Very exciting!
Oh, yeah — On the personal front we’re a few weeks away from a working kitchen — you can check out some of the pics here. Feels like I have two 10 hour a day jobs lately.
arvind and I will be webcasting again over at EdTechTalk in the next few weeks. Just need to wait for his teaching schedule to get going.
I’ve also decided not to subscribe to all of the listserv’s I traditional participate in and concentrate on Twitter, the ISENet Ning and my Blogroll this year. See you all there.
I’m sure there is lots more, but that’s it in a nut shell right now. See you all on the other side!
I have been spending some time recently responding to a listserv discussion that has many brilliant, award winning teachers on it who are not sold on the idea that we really are going to have to change education to remain relevant; that *they* are going to have to change. I thought I would share my most recent letter.
One member writes-
I've been waiting and wondering when someone would take up the thread that Mark began during our "Here Comes Everybody" discussion, wherein he talked about how the printing press put scribes out of work and wondered whether or not technology would have a similar effect on teachers.
I am often asked as I travel to various places to present why I would spend so much time talking about technology knowing that with outsourcing and such that I am undermining job security in that computers could replace teachers. To that I respond, If you can be replaced by a computer then you probably should be! The truth is that technology will never replace teachers, however teachers who know how to use technology effectively to help their students connect and collaborate together online will replace those who do not.
Change is Here
The way we "do" school in the 21st Century will change. Teacher will be/is being redefined. (Lord knows it is time- while the rest of society has changed in its response to technology, education has
remained timeless the last 100 years.) What we have to do is ask ourselves what principled changes need to take place in order to remain relevant in the lives of the students we teach?
It Doesn't Change Some Things- It Changes Everything
With knowledge expanding at the rate it is and the world changing at a dizzying pace- to keep the status quo is to accept obsolescence. Teachers will need to accept the fact that even with all we have invested, the pace of change is going to demand us to unlearn and relearn. Every major technological innovation through time has demanded it of its users. Think of the world and how it functioned before electrification and the how it functioned after electrification- before television- after television (the way we fought wars and politics alone because of TV changed drastically)-- As Mark alludes to, technology doesn't change *some* things, it changes *everything*. Before TV, the thought of allowing someone to interrupt you constantly trying to sell you things you didn't want was unheard of- people were run out of town for such antics. But now it is part of our culture- to the tune of 500 channels-- which have figured out that by providing mediocre content (like reality TV) we will sit still and let them sell us things we do not really need and we will hum their jingles and use their products, all the while our culture becomes more and more superficial and kids lose out on developing deep, meaning (which they are so capable of grasping).
Incremental is becoming Exponential
Technology is and has changed society and the students we teach. The question isn't are you preparing for 21st Century teaching and learning- rather the 21st Century is here. The party has started. The kids have already arrived. We are 8 years into it.
Ask Them- They Know
Want to know how a 21st Century learner learns? Ask them. You will be amazed at what you hear and if you are smart- you'll act upon it. Sylvia Martinez says we are trying to solve this 21st C PD issue in schools with 6% of the population (teachers) when 94% of the population (kids) are better positioned to help us learn what we need to know to be successful. Turn your classrooms into learning ecologies- learn with and from your students. Get rid of top down, expert driven instruction methods and nurture self-directed discovery- both your own and theirs. Turn your passions into classroom curriculum. Get excited and mentor your kids integrating your passions with core content and foundational knowledge. Help them develop a love and understanding for culture and our rich heritage. Advocate hard to get the metrics we are using to measure classroom effectiveness changed- for we teach what we measure. Leverage NCLB to push for personalization of curriculum in an effort to meet AYP and all the various needs of your subgroup populations.
It Isn't "If", it is "When"
Technology WILL redefine schools- good or bad- it will/is happening. We are one node, one means, one stop in a 21st Century learners learning journey and options. We need to be having conversations about how to make sure that their time spent with us is preparing them for jobs that haven't been invented yet and enabling them in authentic ways to be a productive member of society now. As Dave Mathews says, "The future is no place for your better days."
And teachers need to be driving these discussions and this change- not policy makers. However, it will require you to redefine yourself. It will require you to unlearn and relearn which means an implementation dip in terms of personal power and knowledge-- but oh well, you are in this for kids remember? This will be messy, but you can't give away what you do not own. You have to own these tools and concepts before you can give them (empower) your students with them. However, once you do- get out of the way and let them show you all the ways to use them to learn that
you never dreamed possible.
Want to be amazed? Check out Laura (a 5th grader's blog) from a project I helped lead in WNY. How many of you can say you have the attention of 30,000 readers and that companies who are known for their giving acts are in regular contact with you? http://twentyfivedays.wordpres
We think as teachers -- oh ok blogs can help kids learn to write - they will supplement what I, the teacher does. When the kids think-- hmm blogs, you mean people can hear me? Watch what I can do with this- outside of school- in another node (space) of learning- my home.
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Virginia Beach
Networked Learner
photo credit: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/careers/images/articles/stages_of_change.png
What does music, film, live performances, laughter, passion, reculturation and blogging for charity have in common?-- Western NY's Powerful Learning Practice's culminating celebration!
Holland's team performing a remake of "This Land is my Land" into a Web 2.0 Song
May 22, 2008- 20 school teams in the Western New York region came together to celebrate their learning journey that took place over the last 6 months through a job-embedded professional development opportunity called Powerful Learning Practice. Schools met as teams to master the following outcomes over the course of the year:
Knowledge: An understanding of the transformative potential of Web 2.0 tools in a global perspective and context and how those potentials can be realized in schools
Pedagogy: An understanding of the shifting learning literacies that the 21st Century demands and how those literacies inform teacher practice.
Connections: The development of sustained professional learning networks for team members to begin experimenting and sharing with other team members and online colleagues from around the world.
Sustainability: The creation of long term plans to move the vision forward in participating districts at the end of the program.
Capacity: An increase in the abilities and resources of individuals, teams and the community to manage change.
The culminating celebration is one of the two face-to-face meetings that take place in PLP. It is a time when the schools teams come together and share what they have learned with each other through learning displays, presentations, informal sharing in groups, and a facilitated process that results in bulleted action plans.
PRESENTATIONS
While all the schools teams had an opportunity to share their team projects and what they had learned from being involved in PLP this year, three projects were asked to share more fully from the stage. It was very difficult to decide who should present because most of the projects were just incredible. Those that presented were:
Webster Teams,
Holland Team, and Niagara Academy. But the presentation that stole the show was given by Laura, the 5th grader who authors the blog: Twenty Five Days to Make a Difference.
Will writes about her presentation,
She talked about how she started her quest to get donations for
charities by finding sponsors for her daily good works, how surprised
she is that over 30,000 people have visited her blog since last
December, and how she’s been able to donate over $1,600, 50 pairs of
pajamas, and over 400 books to charities in her area. It’s a great
story and example, one that I’ve shared with Tess on a number of
occasions."
Another PLP participant Mike Maloy adds,
I’ve written on the group’s Ning and in comments on various
blogs about how my learning has been completely transformed. I’ve
written on my own blog about how inspiring and “human” the web can be.
I’ve been awed by Jill Bolte’s “My Stroke of Insight” and Randy
Pausch’s “Last Lecture”.
I can honestly say that Laura’s presentation was one of the
coolest, most enlightening experiences of all my years in education.
Since her presentation I’ve been wondering…If Laura can do what she is
doing as a fifth grader, what will she be able to do in the future? If
Laura can do what she is doing as a fifth grader, why the heck can’t I
be doing more? Will my daughter be inspired do something so special.
I was also incredibly impressed with the creativity in Western NY. For example, Holland's team opened with a Web 2.0 remake of This Land is My Land and closed with Eric Lawton singing an original song he wrote entitled, You've Got to Learn Web 2 Point Oh. You can listen to 2 minutes of that here--> Download youve_got_to_learn_web_2_point_oh.mp3
What a hoot! Not to be outdone Holland's superintendent followed in "American Idol" style with a song he sang A cappella to Will and I. All in all it was as touching as it was entertaining.
Reflecting on how PLP has impacted participants
When asked how has PLP impacted or changed your professional or personal practice those who attended the WNY celebration give many reasons. Here are a few of their responses.
- The resources shared and the connections with the community...I have started to build my network outside of my building.
- Broadened exposure to web 2.0 tools beyond personal use.
- Facilitated collaboration with colleagues within my district (but outside my building) that was little-to-none prior to this.
- It gathered all of the teachers using tech
together to work on one common goal. Otherwise, we would have just kept working
independently on our own path. It really pushed our district to start a plan to
implement and educate others in our district. - It gave importance to technology and gave those
of us with a passion and knowledge around technology a voice with our schools. - Working with other members from my district that
I usually don't get to see. Their ideas and perspectives during this learning
process were greatly valued. - I am no longer embarrassed about what I don't
know and I am excited about learning and moving forward. - I am using tools I didn't even know existed
before this year. I modeled in a regular meeting and taught other staff through
the process enough for them to say they will go back and use it in their
classrooms. I want to learn more and use it to help teachers in the district
support one another to excellence. - The level of support that is available in this
network is comforting. There is a lot of knowledge among the PLP community. - Thanks for the opportunity. It has been an
excellent, life changing learning experience. I hope we can sustain and spread
our learning. If I can inspire one other person like I have been I would
consider it a great accomplishment - You've opend my eyes to the potential of 2.0 and
have created a more technologically literate individual! I felt both Sheryl and
Will's support was awesome very encouraging and empathetic.
Culminating Meeting
John Norton on TLN threw out an interesting challenge around a six-word memoir. Someone on the list called this game a limited-word writing
activity "American haiku". I found the activity so interesting I tossed it to my Twitter community. The results were delightful!
I Tweeted: On TLN we are playing a game- Six-Word Memoirs- if you were writing a mini-memoir of your teaching life, what would
your six words be?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
snbeach- Mine is- "A Networked learner: learning never stops" What's yours?"
Stephieand - mind often moved faster than time.
robletcher - "Meet kids where they are...here."
henrythiele - Made the world a better place
robletcher - Mine is "Truth and hope: they always work."
jennyluca- public to private kids great everywhere
LParisi - Someday I'll get there. Still learning.
scottmerrick - hmmmmm, "blessed to be amongst young minds"
mcleod - Began clueless. Starting to catch on.
jonbecker - "Still learning; still finding my voice."
paulrwood - Another day to make a difference
montgorp - "lets get rid of the walls"
alicebarr - Always flexible while learning, "Semper Gumby"!
featheredflower - Constant Collaborative Creative Cooperative Collective Change
smeech - Techology Isn't Future, It is Present!
csessums - Went native. Discovered meaning with others.
mrscienceteach - Get them laughing, keep them learning
samandjt - 6-word memoir: "No such thing as too challenging"
Stuart Ciske - When learning stops, minds stop expanding.
beil - "Thirty-four years long, still going strong!"
SheilaT - "Inspired students to achieve and believe"
BarbGoldammer - students first, mentors, mentoring, love math
BarbGoldammer - "Teacher believed in me...pay forward"
CPence - Smarter and wiser but remain optimistic.
gmudge - Taught heart, body, mind and soul.
traymur - "teach for tomorrows not for yesterdays"
traymur - "learn to teach teach to learn"
wsigele - Life's too short to spend angry
tabor330 - Needed an excuse to read books
Please add yours below!
Lawrence Kutner has authored a new book suggesting violent video games do not create violent children.
As the parent of three young children and a Director of Technology at an all boys school, this story feels good. Do you know of opposing research?
Image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/2455932465/
This post may be premature as I have only seen 2/3s of the PLP Independent Schools' team presentations of their impact journey through PLP and team projects- but I must say, Will and I were more than impressed. It was more on the level of WOW.
From extensive summer institutes with a Web 2.0 registration process for other schools to attend (all taught by the team members) to an 8th grade project that will utilize the best that Web 2.0 has to offer in a project based format implemented by all 8th grade teachers next year to a creative Lunch 2.0 project or school-based wikis with all digital curriculum shared and more, we found ourselves renewed in the faith that schools can make principled changes in the way we "do" school as a way to remain relevant in the lives of the students we teach. Independent school culture is such that teachers need to make certain they build on the rich heritage of what works and yet make room to rethink delivery of AP courses and such so that these kids not only get into some of the most prestigious colleges around, but they are fluent in the new literacies when they arrive.
All the project plans will be shared on the Independent School wiki after the remaining 1/3 of the teams present next week.
Cohorts are forming for next year's Powerful Learning Practice opportunity. If you are interested in learning more visit http://plpnetwork.com
This year is a rebuilding year. As I wrote about in my reorganization post in the summer, I have three new staff members in my department this year. We are physically 
spread all over the school, creating divisions that can negatively effect department cohesiveness if we do not stay in frequent contact.
To work around this, we’ve been meeting bi-weekly as a whole department. I meet daily with my Network Administration and Technical Support Specialist. I have also scheduled bi-weekly meetings with individual department members. I know, you’re saying, that’s a lot of meetings. But these meetings are critical to keeping things going. To check in and move projects forward. To know how my staff is feeling. As we grow more cohesive, I can see taking some time off of these meetings, but for now, they are critical.
In the support staff meetings, we have been digging through our network settings (active directory policies, Internet settings, and router and switch configs), desktop and laptop image creation and configuration, policies and procedures, and how to communicate with faculty and staff. These conversations allow us to share best practices. It allows us to know what our technical issues are and to wrestle with making decisions for next September.
In full department meetings, we started by discussing how we are communicating internally, what we have been doing over the semester, and which tools we will be rolling out to the academic community over the next year. We’ve used so many different technologies over the past few years, that keeping up is tough. So we created a list of the department blog, wiki, and our web help desk. We discussed how to use each one. We use these tools in our day to day work with the school and the department.
So is this and effective management technique?
In order to evaluate them, I need to look back to the goals of my department:
- To provide reliable and consistent access to technology for students, faculty, and staff
- To develop technology skills in students, faculty and staff that support the curricular goals of the school
If I measure us against those goals, we are definitely more prepared to support our faculty and staff. This is a slow process because we are going through all of our configurations with a fine tooth comb, but we’re fixing support issues that have been nagging us for years and we’re looking to the future for major improvements.
On the classroom integration front, I see progress in taking our more technology savvy faculty to the next level. We are also making progress in implementing student and faculty curriculum standards. We are building out our Intranet where we can support Wordpress MU, Gallery, Moodle, and some group Drupal sites. We’ll be concentrating on how we use these tools in the spring.
How do you manage staff transitions?
How do you keep a dispersed department cohesive?
Lee C. Bollinger, the president of Columbia University, was confronted Tuesday by discontented professors who gathered more than 100 faculty signatures for a document criticizing his leadership.
With all of the conferences happening over the next few weeks (K12Online, AIMS, and NEIT2007, it’s kind of hard for me to think about January, but EduCon 2.0 coming fast.
EduCon 2.0 is being hosted by Chris Lehmann, Principal of Science Leadership Academy from January 25 - 27 in Philadelphia, PA.
Please take a Chris’: EduCon 2.0 — A Call for Conversations and the Conference Wiki.
This is going to be a great event. Don’t miss it.
