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.