Today in class my interest was really peaked by this the term paradynamic schism that Jenny threw out at us.  I definitely see that we are currently teaching during time of shift in education. The new skill set that the availability of technology is requiring of us, and our students, is unique and rapidly changing.  Students need literacy in the traditional sense but they also need a new set of skills to navigate these technologies, 21^st century skills. The must learn to function within the realms of new literacies: media literacy, visual literacy, science literacy, critical literacy, information literacy… they must also have the social skills required to collaborate and communicate effectively.

21^st century teaching and learning has only been on my conceptual radar since beginning this program in Teacher-Librarianship.  I am still learning about the ideas contained within this concept and I know that many teachers in my school perceive it to be a new “educational buzzword” that they don’t have time to explore.  This however is a profound shift that we need to be paying attention to.  As Jenny keeps saying, “teachers need to be part of the discourse about education and the direction it is heading.”  My ears perked up when Tess mentioned the 4 Cs of 21^st Centurey learning today. Upon looking up the four Cs (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity) I found a website called “Partnership for 21^st Century Skills” outlining this simple approach to 21^st century learning.  It was interesting to me to see that this partnership is composed primarily of large companies with an interest in the adoption of 21^st century skills as a buy-in for their products. (Apple, Microsoft, Lego, Crayola, Disney, Pearson, Intel, EF…)  Soooo… it looks as though even the concept of 21^st century skills are being sold to us as educators.  But I’m not sure I should despair quite as much as I had originally thought, as Jenny mentioned this morning we can use some of the momentum that these big educational policy drivers have created to reinvent and purposefully appropriate these new ideas in education.  Is adopting the concept of the “super skills” of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity not a good idea because some big companies are strongly suggesting we do it?  No, they are great skills for my students to have. Instead, I think we need to be really aware of who is driving these big ideas and what their purpose is behind doing it; we need to be critical consumers of educational ideas and policy.  In response to understanding the intent of these policy makers we need try hard to avoid being drawn into the consumerism of education; we need to work to develop a resistance against it.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could form our own not-for-profit company that builds inexpensive tablets that run open-source apps designed based on teacher input?

So where am I going with this and how does it connect to my project?  Well I think that if we are going to resist and ultimately transform these “policy pushes” from non-educational entities, we need to first be aware of them and understand them.  If we are simply being told what the skills are and what technology we should be using to implement them we won’t have much power to shape these ideas in a way that works best for our students and us as a professional group.  My goal therefore in my pro-d group is to begin with exploring some of the ideas of what 21^st century learning is, and how we, as educators, stand in relationship to them?  We could also explore the specific skills being proposed, how they are being worked into our curriculum, what we think of them, which ones are really essential, and whether or not any of them are being “sold” to us without good reason?  With better knowledge of the concept of 21^st century skills we should also better be able to make recommendations about technology integration, support, and purchases at our school and in our District.

Check it out:  http://www.p21.org/index.php

The learners for the purpose of my project are my teaching colleagues at my school as well as my administrators. I have two goals with my project, the first is to get the technology aspire team working on defining goals and tackling access issues and the second is to get a group of teachers together to work on computer and edtech skills.

Aspire Team:  This small group of teachers is quite experienced with technology and are likely to be willing to listen to my ideas about Bring Your Own Device.  We will have new administrators this year, both Principal and Vice-Principal. Because I have not yet had the chance to work with these administrators I am unsure of their educational philosophies concerning technology. As a committee in general we will also need to consider the reactions and input that all of the staff will voice regarding a BYOD policy in the school.

Teachers considerations:

-equity of access for all students

-best use of their time >is the pro-d to learn about devices and how to incorporate them into their teaching worth their time?

-teacher autonomy

-comfort level with implementing technology

-connection to learning outcomes

-ensuring students are developing the skills that they need (what are the skills they need? The world is changing rapidly is required skill set too?)

-communication and collaboration strategies with colleagues, students, and parents

-frustration with technology department and the slow process to get things done

-technical language needed to talk about technology (admitting that they may not know as much as they would like to) (fear of having our practice judged)

-appropriate use of class time by students

-cybersafety and cyberbullying

-theft of devices

Administrators Considerations:

-Student safety (cyber bullying, cybersafety)

-security of devices (theft is a concern)

-educational benefits

-fit with District policy

Pro-d Project:

When communicating with teachers in my school I need to keep in mind that there are various levels of comfort with technology within the large group and varying levels of willingness to move forward with technology. I may need to form more than one pro-d group to address the needs of the different teachers.  Those new to technology sometimes feel that workshops move too fast, while those experienced with technology feel that workshops drag too much and that they are not learning enough to make them worth their time.  Also need to make sure that teachers get to follow their interests and that they get something out of the process that works for their own practice.

Project Design… hmmmm.  I guess I have to make some decisions here.

Purpose: My school currently has a number of what we call aspire teams; one of them is a technology team.  I have, however, never been aware of this team meeting regarding any specific issues or to develop any policy or vision.  I would like to change this.  My project is an attempt to gather a useful collection of information that can be used as a conversation starter and point of focus (or point of return if we get off on tangents).  In particular, I would like to begin a conversation about internet access and policy regarding portable devices for our students.  We have a large number of students that already bring their smartphones or i-pod touches to school and are accessing an open wireless connection that was installed at our school by the District.  Right now we don’t have a schoolwide policy for students to follow; use of personal devices is a the discretion of the teacher.  Some teachers are frustrated because they are enforcing a no device policy but feel like it is a loosing battle because so many other teachers are allowing and encouraging students to use their devices in class.  I would like to see if a school wide policy is possible and if nothing else at least have a conversations about the merits and downfalls of a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy.

As part of this project I would like to have links to some research and information about current policy in other places.  I plan to try and outline the possible pros and cons of a BYOD policy. I will also try to develop some options for my school to look at for students who don’t have their own devices.

Design: I set up a blog in class today to serve as a parking lot for my information but now after reading Doni’s post I am wondering if perhaps I should us a LiveBinder to park everything on.  I may end up just putting things into a blog for now and reorganizing into a livebinder later because I finder it usually takes a bit of time for me to learn how to use new programs, as tempting as it is.

This is a summarization, not of this weeks inquiry, but rather of what has rattled out of my brain this afternoon as a combination of my thinking about the two courses I have been taking these past two weeks: Teaching YA literature and Media and Technologies in the School Library Program.

I got to thinking about Michelle Bertrand’s comment this morning about needing to not do too much all at once.  I have been thinking about this lately in relation to the idea of Smog that Christine Bodt brought forward.  I think that we can really get bogged down in too much information, ideas, and approaches that we get overwhelmed and don’t do any one thing well.  As a solution to this I feel that it might be better to pick one or two things that speak to us and to try and do them well, whether it is mastering new technology or deciding on basic units of study for the school year.

The other snippit that has been swimming around in my head has been Jenny’s constant asking of WHY.  Why are you using a technology? Why are you buying a technology? Why are you doing a specific activity?  I am not annoyed by this question but rather am very appreciative of her asking it.  Without answering the why in education we are potentially floundering without a clear purpose, potentially feeling a little lost.  I think this can also be true for students as they work their way through adolescents but also the school system; sometimes they feel a little lost.  They are constantly asking why they need to learn a particular content and, I believe, that we need to have a good answer for them. I personally hate doing something “just because” so why would that be an acceptable answer to any of my students.  I realize that I tend to focus more in a school year on the learning outcomes that I can answer student’s questions of why to.

In combining these two ideas of: need to focus on a few items and need to answer the “Why” in all things educational, I came up with a three point focus for my upcoming school year.  Here are my key points of focus for both myself and my students:

1. Why.  Ask the question why!  Why are you here? Why is learning important?  Why are each of your subjects important?  Why do you want to learn? Why is the sky blue?  Why did the author write that line?  Why did the person draw he picture they did?  Why do we explore space?  Why do fractions matter? …

• I believe this question of “Why” will help to develop the anchor of curiosity that is such an important factor in student lead inquiry.
• I believe that students knowing the answers to why we are doing specific activities, assignments or subjects will help them to remain engaged because they see the value or pay of being engaged and sticking with it.
• I believe that having my students push these questions upon me will force to be constantly thinking about my practice and therefore forcing myself to make it better.

2. Literacy and Multi-literacy.  I plan to teach my students the concept of literacy and to build their understanding of the different types of literacies that exist and the importance of developing each type.  I plan to talk about print based literacy, digital literacy, visual literacy, scientific literacy, musical literacy, information literacy, media literacy, social-emotional literacy…

• This is the buy-in piece for my students, if they can understand that all of the curriculum that we cover and all of the activities that we do are done with the intention of helping them to become literate individuals, they will hopefully participate in a more fully invested manner.
• Having developed the scaffolding of literacies at the beginning of the year can help me to reconnect students to their purpose at school when they loose focus or become frustrated. It is a framework that reasons for their engaged participation.Hopefully this is the answer to their “why.”
• Serves as a big picture reminder for me when I am lesson planning, and in those moments when I am having a hard time answering “why.”
• This is also my connection to the content I have been exploring my YA lit class and exploring the different ways that we communicate information and the skill set that is required in order to do so.

3. What can I do to make myself the best person I can be?  Encouraging students to pose this question can help them academically but, in particular, is intended to help build their social-emotional intelligence and skills.

• So often in my class we have to stop and deal with the social issues that are so much a part of adolescents and just plain being in middle school.  I think that this question can help reframe a lot of the issues that my students face.
• I can use this question a conversation starter with my students when social issues arise and helps students think about their own values in relationship to a problem or social issue.
• I also see this question as a useful tool in classroom management.  No student can tell me that sitting there doing nothing is contributing to the best person they can be or that berating someone else portrays them in a good way.
• This is also the outlet for conversations about netiquette, cyberbullying, and appropriate use of technology.

So this is my “big theme” plan for the year. A big picture map to help guide my way.  A bit edutopian, I know, but I am a teacher after all! 🙂

Janet’s presentation about the learning communities that had been created in her school was inspiring.  It seems like the kind of stuff that answers the WHY that Jenny keeps asking us.  Why engage in the use of technology? Because it can help to create the results that Janet spoke about in her presentation.  In her school the use of technology aided students to become better global citizens and to present their learning so that it could be shared with others. During her presentation I developed two take aways for my own practice.

The first take away was the need to create evidence of such great projects and to share them as best-practice examples. This is where I think that good uses of technology can occur.  Using digital media to record evidence of student learning is a smart use of technology.  Once this learning evidence is digitized it then makes it even easier to share.  Sharing can be done with parents, other students, and other teachers in different learning communities.  I am entirely guilty of not recording evidence of learning in meaningful ways.  I think that I could be doing more in my classroom to create spaces where my student’s work is shared between them and with others.  I am also doing myself a disservice by not recording the learning that I am facilitating with my students because I can’t as easily share my pedagogy insights with my colleagues.  A picture or a video speaks a thousand words and if don’t have either then I have to say or write a description of my learning activities in order to be able to share them: what a lot of extra work!  A lot of extra work often means it won’t happen because there just isn’t time.  If we as teacher remember to record the learning projects and techniques were are implementing we will be more likely to share them with other teachers.  Thus, record to contribute!

I also wonder if perhaps librarians could help classroom teachers in their recording efforts as well, or could be in charge of overall recording of school wide initiatives. With regards to sharing these types of ideas I think it would be neat to have a Canadian equivalent to the “schools that work” section that Edutopia has where they showcase best practice projects that are happening in different school communities.

The other idea that I hooked onto from Janet’s presentation was that of continuous pro-d.  I think that so often pro-d opportunities are a one-time event that is highly disconnected from the learning communities that teachers are a part of.  Imagine only taking in the first day of our class? I think that many would have felt disappointed and discombobulated. However, a few more days in and everyone seems to be making their own connections and exploring topics of interest to them.  I think that there can be real value in a sustained type of collaborative pro-d.  Some skills and programs are best learned and built over time.  In education and technology there is so much change happening so quickly that we have to eek out time to discover it, hash it out and learn it, as well as decide on ways to best use it.  I would like to like to develop something similar to Janet’s “luncheon learns” with my colleagues this coming year where we explore technology related issues and skills as a small committed group (or groups, depending on how many would like to participate).  Of course I would have to remember to record our learning journey as well.  🙂

After the previous lecture regarding barriers it was good to hear about the social theories that allow us to explain how change within institutions might be able to occur.  I have to admit that I still feel like it isn’t concrete enough for me, I was hoping for a quick fix list.  Of course I know that a quick fix list doesn’t work though because it doesn’t take into consideration the environment and the coupling within it individuals partake in, which in turn has built a specific culture.  The solution to creating change will be different in each culture or environment.

I think that one of the difficulties for teachers in creating and initiating change is that it gets harder and harder to decipher the culture (environment) the higher up in the organizational structure that you go.  I feel that I might have a chance of initiating change at my school level because I know all of the members of the community well and I can devise a plan based on their anticipated reactions.  However approaching the District level with ideas of change feels much more difficult because I don’t have the same knowledge of what role each member plays and how the environment is in other parts of the institution.  Even harder to make change would be at the ministry level.  I have no knowledge of the environment or language that they use there, let alone who the key players are.  I think that to make changes at these higher levels would require some degree of participation in them first in order to better understand the culture and devise a matching strategy for change.

This is advice I have to remember for myself.  This past year I participated in District level committee where I had voiced my ideas several times about some improvements that I thought might be possible.  For each idea I presented the administrator running the meeting had a reason for why it wouldn’t work. I returned to my school and told my colleague who also has an interest in the committee that I didn’t plan on attending any more of the meetings because they aren’t interested in hearing what we have to say.  Now that I think about it this may not be a wise choice because in not attending meetings I won’t learn more about the culture of the District and the opinions and communication styles of those who sit on the committee. At least by attending I can make observations and know about the context and history of decisions that are being made.  Perhaps if I stick with it I will be able to figure out the right language needed to communicate the need for and means for, the changes I am proposing.  Stay tuned for future developments I guess…….