The link to my final project is here:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/ictaccess/

At this stage I am looking at my project feeling a little bewildered.  It is not as organized as I had hoped it would be, and definitely not as large as I thought it would be.  In part, I am realizing that a website might have been a better choice as a platform but I felt that setting it up might eat up too much time.  My past experience has been that I spend a lot of time looking for the perfect tool and making it look pretty as opposed to spending the bulk of my time trying to put together something with strong content.

I think that what I am also realizing is that a lot of this project is an idea of what I would like to accomplish at my school, and therefore it is not yet a realization.  The work of the project will begin once I am back at school and building dialogue with my collegues about getting the technology committee up and running, looking at building a vision, and eventually discussing the pros and cons of a BYOD policy in our school.  The Blog space is a compilation of plans and resources that will help me achieve this task of concensus building and professional development but ultimately I think that it is important that I am flexible as to how I approach this in my school.  Staff will not be open to the discussion if they sense that I have a pre-determined goal in mind.  Rather, I need to be ready for the discussions to lead us in the directions that the majority of the staff are willing to go. Thus the simplicity of the content is somewhat a reflection of me not wanting to invest too much in any single branch of Pro-d because it may not be the direction that members of the group want to go.

I think that the simple act of thinking through these ideas and comtemplating some of the barriers and challenges that I might face in beginning these conversations at my school has been tremendously helpful.  In having done my inquiry work about BYOD I am now armed with more reasons why I think it is a relevant idea, but also have a better understanding of some of the reasons why some might oppose it.  I also have some ideas as to how to overcome some of the barriers, such as permission slips for allowing student work to be held on US databases and programs that use a sign on code instead of personal information in order to gain access. I think that as I continue to monitor my PLN I will continue to add more ideas and perhaps flesh out some more detailed pages.  I also think that the blog will serve as a space for me to document the process and progress of my ICT endeavours with my colleagues.

What I have also come to understand a lot better during this course is the nature of my school as funtioning along the lines of institutuinal isomorphism.  It is a self-sustaining body that will follow the status quo or the flow of change. My role in creating positive change therefore is to is to understand the structural coupling dynamics that are occuring for individual and groups of teachers and to harness these understandings to create change.  In particular I will need to pay particular attention to the language that I use and to ensure that it is positive when confronted with difficult, negative, or confrontational situations and mindsets.  One comment that Jenny said has really stuck with me, “it’s about conversation, not confrontation.” I know that I will need to remind myself of this when the discussions I am proposing might start to swing in an opposite direction or I am feeling bewildered by the outlook of others.  I must remind myself that it is a conversation and that sometimes conversations last awhile. I can’t expect everyone to reach consensus on the first try and therefore I need to be ready to continue these conversations over the long term.

A big thanks to all of my classmates, you have all made this course fun and interesting. An extra big thanks to Jenny! You have pushed us to better understand our use of ICT in education and to begin initiating projects that have a solid foundation in the WHY. Why we are using the approachs we are? Why we are using the hardware, software, programs, apps, and devices that we are…?  I’m not sure I will ever be able to use an aspect of technology without asking why first. You have also encouraged us to bring forward our voices as teachers and to fill the conversations about the teaching profession and the future direction of educaiton with our voices. Perhaps in this class you have inspired a teacher revolution of sorts. 🙂  Lets all stay connected!

Technology Committee

In anticipating difficulty with my Aspire team discussions I need to be thinking about the fact that some staff members may not yet be prepared to accept personal devices into their classrooms. Though I think the difficulty won’t be in convincing the committee but rather the wider body of teachers.  Some reasons why teachers may not accept personal devices: they may not feel convinced that students will use devices in a responsible manner, some may be concerned that not all students have a device, and some may feel like they have to integrate personal devices into their instruction. I think that I will need to have lots of small conversations with teachers before bringing this large discussion forward.  Because the aspire technology team hasn’t met yet I think that my first challenge will be to convince them that it is important that we meet. I know that our school has two seats on a District technology committee and I could use it as a reason to meet initially.  Once we are together to elect representatives to the District committee I could propose that we work on a vision for technology in the school.  I think that proposing a discussion about BYOD and inquiring about bigger district level policies would come after the initial committee is gathering momentum.

Order of approach:

-Argue that there is a need for the technology team to meet.

-Work on coming to a concensus regarding a vision statement.

-Use the vision statement to bring forward a conversation about BYOD.

• school wide strategy for teaching etiquette and cyber safety.
• professional development for those looking to teach with personal devices in their classroom.
• determine school wide protocol and procedure for students who choose not to use their personal devices appropriately.

Administration

I also need to anticipate a possible difference of opinion with my administrators.  With having two new administrators I have to be prepared for the fact that they may choose to approach technology differently in the school.  While our previous administrator was working hard to get our focus teams up and running, of which the technology committee was one of, the new administration may have a different vision for making technology decisions in the school.  I also have to be prepared for the fact that the new administration may see personal devices in the classroom as too difficult to manage.  I do think that it would be a big shift for the school to welcome personal devices into the classroom and administration need to be on board with the decision for it to work.  I also foresee that they will want a clear policy developed as to why and when a device would be confiscated and where it would be stored if it was.

Myself

The last big obstacle that I can foresee is myself.  I know that in order to bring forward these policy adaptations regarding technology in the school, I need to be active in seeking out conversations with both administration and colleagues.  This type of communication where I seek out individuals to change their minds is a challenge for me.  I tend to be someone that will respond to topics when I am asked about them, as opposed to bringing them forward myself.  I think that I often fear being judged professionally, looking silly, and certainly I fear having my ideas dismissed or put down.  In order to combat this I know that I will need to have lots of arguments to back up my reasons for why we need to decide on a BYOD policy. I also need to be prepared to have my ideas put down initially, and that I might need to stick with it for awhile, it may take some time to shine light on the importance of the topic. Ultimately I need to keep in mind how the policy decisions affect student learning and development positively and to present my arguments in this light.

I was going to begin by showing you igoogle but apparently it is slated for shutdown in November.  Here is a link to alternatives :

http://www.howtogeek.com/129155/6-alternatives-to-igoogle-for-personalized-homepages/

I was also going to show you google reader but it has been discontinued too. Here is their reasoning:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html

Google Chrome Apps

-demo

-assistive technology

-Chrome Speak

-Speech Recognizer

Use of social media to continue dispersing information. My teaching colleague on facebook sends out lots of interesting posts about education.  I consider this to be an important part of my PLN (personal learning network) Because facebook is something that I check often I am exposed to these new ideas through her.

www.facebook.com

Edutopia:  www.edutopia.org

-Website established by the George Lucas Foundation

-Schools that work: Profiles best practice projects in specific schools

 Mind Shift:  http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/

-Blog that was set up by NPT (National Public Radio) and KQED (branch of Public Media for Northern California.

-Main headings:  Games and Learning, Big Ideas, Teaching Strategies, Children and Media

Choice Literacy: http://www.choiceliteracy.com

-Paid website.

-Are we missing anything if we aren’t accessing paid content?

?????

Anyone know of any good Canadian versions of these types of ideal or best practice websites?

RSS Feeds?

Inquiry Focus

I appreciated the discussion of the three elements of inquiry, Process, Participants, and Purpose, that Jenny brought up in class.  These have begun to help me form my ideas about how I might go about my inquiry.

Process

Encouraging us to look at process reminds me to bring forward what I have learned in the Teacher-Librarian program so far regarding resource based learning and the inquiry process.  In particular it allows me to again consider choosing a model for the process. I find that keeping in mind the “points of inquiry” that has been developed by the BCTLA.  The points, Connect and Wonder, Investigate, Construct, Express, and Reflect, help me keep a sort of mental map of where I am in the process and help me to consider what I might need to do to continue moving forward to another step in the process.  The points help me to consider how I know if I am done and if I can move on or if I require further work in the on a point.

Participants

I have never been asked to consider the participants during an inquiry process before, but appreciate the question here as it helps in the process of considering why an inquiry might be relevant and how it will be done.  In this case my study group participants are Merrin and Petra who are fulfilling several roles. Firstly they act as co-creators of the body of research and resources that we can look at on our topic. Together we have created a mind meister map of our topic and it’s related issues.  Secondly, they are a sounding board for ideas; during our discussions we are developing concepts and trains of thought further, and more so than I might have been able to do on my own. Finally, they act as sources of advice regarding my specific project and advise on how I might be able to map out my project and match it to my objectives.

Purpose

Why, why, why!!! Jenny has been pushing us in class to ask why and this project is no different.  I think this is a good reminder to bring this forward in my own teaching.  When doing inquiry projects with students we need to have reasoning as to why we want to engage them in the work but also we should be encouraging them to ask themselves why they are doing the work.  Do they have their own rational for why they are doing the inquiry? If they do, they are more likely to be engaged in it.

With specific respect to this project I am aiming to find out more information about access to technology, and more specifically, bring your own device policy so that I can broach the issue with staff at my school in an informed manner this fall.  While working through this inquiry I am also trying to consider any Pro-D that I might be able to spearhead for teachers that would support the implementation of BYOD.

Barriers

I also appreciated the discussion about social theories that relate to how barriers to change are created in institutions.  I have left at the end of the day though feeling a little overwhelmed at how to go about overcoming the barriers when they do arise.  I suppose it depends on what the topic or issue is that has a barrier to it, but overall I am hoping we will also discuss some strategies.  In particular I can relate this barrier discussion to some colleagues in my school that are wary of using technology or that don’t see the value of inquiry and resource based learning.  I can relate to the negative talk that goes on in the Teacher’s lounge and have mostly stopped spending much time there because of the negativity, which is unfortunate because it could be a good place for discussions about collaboration and change as well.

Create your own mind maps at MindMeister

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