Shift Happens -- Now What?

(Cross-posted at Change Agency)

You've just watched “Did You Know” or a keynote by David Warlick for the very first time.  You feel your heart begin to race as panic sets in... you think:  “My school is in no way prepared to help our students learn what they need for work and life in the this very different and constantly changing world... What should I do?!”

Too often, the initial response is to look for money to buy more computers.  Some educational leaders may say “Let's make sure we have laptops in the hands of EVERY student!... SmartBoards in EVERY classroom!”  While it is nice to have administrative support for new technology purchases, a “technology purchasing frenzy” is simply NOT the correct response to the realization that our schools are not doing enough to prepare students for their futures.  This is really about changing adult perspectives and adult behaviors to create student-centered classrooms that exemplify research-based best practices around learning.  It's not about buying the latest, greatest, and most expensive tech toys on the market.  Expensive tech in the hands of educators who haven't made changes to their behaviors and instructional practice are no better than the good old chalk board, pencil, and paper.  Even worse, expensive tech that the teachers see no use for will end up just collecting dust in a storage room.   

The examples are endless... SmartBoards as expensive chalkboards... PowerPoint & media projectors as flashy and expensive overhead transparencies... computers as typewriters & calculators... Distance-learning labs that only get used for faculty or team meetings -- or worse, as a nice empty room to use during testing week...

PLEASE NOTE -- from here on out on this blog post I am using the word “learner” for everyone on the campus -- teachers, administrators, staff... AND -- I am unapologetic with some of the things I say below.  If we are serious about changing our learning environments so that our students leave fully prepared for life and work in a globally connected and collaborative environment, then we are definitely going to be moving the cheese of many people in our organizations -- it won't be easy and we can't wait for all of the state and federal policies and mandates to catch up before we take action.

So what should we do when we realize that the world has changed for our students?

Rather than immediately engage in a technology purchasing frenzy, take some time to begin discussions on your campus about how to transform your school into a place where teachers see themselves first as LEARNERS who are invested in improving their instructional practice through reflection and inquiry, and where students are more globally connected in a way that enhances and supports their individual learning.  Collaborate with your faculty and staff -- your learners -- to learn more about how the world has changed and what that means for our profession...

Locate the “early adopters” in your district/schools and bring them in to a conversation around change — recruit them to help spread change virally...

Change adult behaviors and practices first... Change the way you work together, the way you speak with each other... Change your vocabulary... Begin by redefining yourselves as learners rather than educators... Acknowledge that in order to prepare your students for their futures of the 21st Century, all learners on your campus must be equally prepared for those futures... Commit to the belief that being “technophobic” or “technology illiterate” is no longer an option for 21st Century learners (and after you've redefined yourselves as learners, understand what that means for professional learning on your campus)... Be firm about this -- it should NOT be okay on your campus for ANYONE to say “I don't like technology” or “I'm just not very techie... can you do this for me?”... Banish the phrase “Kids these days” from the vocabulary of everyone on your campus... While you are at it, you should also banish the phrase “My teaching methods have always worked and I'm not going to change just because these kids (fill in the blank)...”

Don't form a committee to “study this and bring back suggestions for change” -- committees take too long and you just don't have time... change needed to happen yesterday...

Don't create a “pilot project” -- same reasons for not forming a committee -- it takes too long and change needed to happen yesterday...

Do not purchase any new technology hardware until you have first ensured that your network is up-to-date and accessible... How many network drops are in each room?  Do you have wireless access across your entire campus?... Drops in every room and wireless access across the campus are “must-haves” before you start buying anything else!...

Give your teachers time to “play” with Web 2.0 -- to explore the use of Web 2.0 (blogs, wikis, Twitter, etc.) for THEIR professional learning BEFORE they attempt to use the same tools in the classroom with students.  In fact, put a moratorium on classroom use of blogs and wikis for at least four months until teachers have used them weekly for their own learning by reading and writing and connecting with other edublogging educators...

Inform all new first-year learners on your campus that their “learning” is just beginning and will never end... and that it certainly did not end upon completion of all degree and certification requirements...

Begin all interviews for new hires with “what is the most recent thing that you learned and how did you learn it?”...

Understand that all of this can and should happen in conjunction with other changes in professional practice such as Professional Learning Communities and Critical Friends Groups, and along with structural changes such as Smaller Learning Communities, varied student grouping strategies, and/or early college campuses... Transforming your school into a 21st Century Learning Center does not mean that you throw out other initiatives and other research-based best practices...

Campus leaders should model the professional learning use of Web 2.0 tools through transparent blogging and wiki use with the faculty on a weekly basis... Begin putting all of your professional “knowledge” on a wiki (accessible from anywhere -- NOT on the campus intranet) and when your learners ask where they can find certain documents, policies, etc., smile and tell them “It's on the wiki!”...  Give your learners password-protected access to edit the wiki so that knowledge on your campus is collaboratively developed...  This is as much about being transparent in your own learning and in your communication and collaborative decision-making with all of your learners as it is about modeling the use of new tools...

Don't know how to use these tools for professional learning, collaboration, and communication?  Take time THIS SUMMER to learn... A few great places to start include a wide variety of edublogs as well as “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms” (Will Richardson), “Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century” (David Franklin Warlick), “Classroom Blogging: 2nd Edition” (David Warlick), and “Web 2.0:  New Tools, New Schools” (Gwen Solomon, Lynne Schrum)...

If our students need to be educated for a globally connected workplace rather than educated for factory work (and yes, they do), collaborate with your learners to make system, process, and structural changes so that your school looks, feels, and functions less like a factory and more like a globally connected communications and learning center...

Remember that the most important thing is a change in behaviors and practices -- a change in pedagogy -- NOT just buying new technology...

Finally... when you do make technology purchases -- provide support... provide support... provide support... AND provide training... but provide training that is a model of effective instruction and learning practices... create cheerleaders who will coach other professional learners and promote continual learning around changes in the world, economics, technology, and workforce trends that have an impact on our work as learning professionals...

Here are a few other blog posts that offer more suggestions for creating a 21st Century learning environment on your campus:

Your job is to make something happen
First Steps Toward Becoming a 21st Century Educator
The Barriers May Not be so Great
Disruption or Demand to Learn
Purposeful Networking
I'm on a Path -- Come Join Me!
The Teachers We Need
Don Tapscott Speaks Out on Education -- Keynote for Horizon Project 2008
9 Principles for Implementation: The Big Shift
ISTE's Refreshed Technology Standards for Students
Social Networking Sites are NOT the Problem... BEHAVIORS (and bad statistics) Are!
The Five Phases of Flattening a Classroom

I know I haven't covered all of the do's and don'ts around this issue of reinventing our schools for the 21st Century, so I'll throw this out to the edublogosphere...

What do's and don'ts would you add to the list I've compiled above?

Technorati Tags: 21st Century, Classroom, education, Fear, Flat, School 2.0, Technology, Warlick

Comments

[Patrick]

Stephanie,

Thanks for this post as it's something I will share with my fellow administrators and teachers. As I read through your rationale, what strikes me most your pleas for teachers to see themselves as learners, something that is all too often forgotten in our profession. We spend much of our time teaching and neglect our learning. But, even as I read that and type my response, I am hearing the counter-arguments from the teachers I work with: "We go to workshops," or "I am always taking the classes the district offers."

My response, after reading your post has less to do with the taking of the classes or the attendance of the workshop, but more with the larger impact what the teacher who attended or took the class brought back with them. Communities of Practice or Critical Friends Groups, or some entity by any name in schools that asks teachers to have dialog about their practice is necessary. For a lot of us, blogging helps with reflection. What do our non-blogging colleagues do for reflection and dialog?

[Gail Lovely]

Thank you for putting so many powerful thoughts into one post! I work with many schools and many learners. It is clear to me that the first step in my more successful efforts is the realization that there is a NEED to keep learning and growing by the adults in "the system" and the second is that there is great power in the permission "to fail". Trying new tools, resources and behaviors needs to be encouraged in an atmosphere where NOT trying is the only failure!

Thanks again for a GREAT addition to the thoughtful blogosphere!

Gail

[Stephanie Sandifer]

Gail and Patrick,

Thanks so much for the comments -- I think both of you "hit the nail on the head" with the words "reflection," "dialogue," and "permission to fail."

There are additional comments on the cross-posted version of this on my blog http://www.ed421.com/?p=453, so I encourage everyone to head over there to read those comments as well as they take these thoughts even further. (That's the problem with cross-posting -- the comments can get scattered!)

Stephanie

[Barbara]

Thanks for a great post. As I posted earlier this month I am recently back from a conference of principals and administrators who were very interested in what to do next. In fact the situation you describe in the first paragraph is great picture of their reality.
I am going to add this post as a link to my conference wiki!
Thanks too for putting my own practice in perspective...
I love this line
"so that your school looks, feels, and functions less like a factory and more like a globally connected communications and learning center..."
It is the challenge we face!

[Steven Kimmi]

Excellent post! I read it on the cusp of my district spending a lot of money on technology with a moderately resistent teaching force. This is a case of top-down change, something that may prove to be ineffective. I have shared this with my administrators as a place to start next year. The problem is not what they are buying, it is the fact that no training or development to implement the tools is in sight.

If I can add to what Patrick said, we know that you have gone to what the district offers, but what have you done on your own. Learning becuase the district and liscensure requires it is one things, but actively pursuing being a better teacher, with no compensation or administrative directive, is entirely different.

I am positive most of us out here would agree that what we have learned on our own, for ourselves, far outwieghs the amount of knowledge gained from administrative directives.

[Gareth Long]

This is a great posting and one that I have shared with colleagues already. It really does summarise our thinking on the way forward in many respects.

I wil also be cross referencing it from my own blog on: http://blog.garethl.com

Thanks for this really well written post.

[David Carpenter]

You most definitely nailed it. Thanks for covering so many bases as we work to shift our schools.