Graduating from the education program, the advice we received on the way out was “make sure you are careful with what you put online because once it’s out there, it’s there forever.” For many of our professors and peers, this translated to changing your name online and ramping up the security on your Facebook accounts. Our goal was to restrict ourselves and only put out what we had to. Three weeks ago, I was faced with a completely opposing point of view – put as much out there to maximize our social presence. Which model do I choose?

When I started this course, I had no clue what the course was about. “Special Topics in Teacher Librarianship” was all I had to go on. I felt completely overwhelmed and under qualified. How was I going to incorporate all these ideas and theories when I didn’t even have a budget for whiteboard markers and books? Furthermore, how could I use any of these ideas now that I don’t have a classroom this fall? “Trust the process,” was what we were told.

In the following days, we were introduced to a number of online resources; some of them I’ve heard of but shied away from because I didn’t see the value, and others I’ve never heard of. Having a chance to tinker with them made me realize that there is potential in things like blogs and Twitter. They aren’t just diaries and ways to update people that you’re eating a sandwich. The feedback we received was unobtrusive during presentations. People were able to finish speaking their train of thought and others could comment instantaneously. Instead of waiting around and taking turns, we could share our thoughts in a matter of seconds. Furthermore, these ideas were documented; we could go back and review what was said instead of busting our heads trying to remember everything that was said. Okay, +1 to “the process”.

As the course progressed, I began to realize there’s a lot more I could be doing to enhance my teaching and teaching practices without completely restructuring what I’m already doing. I am already fairly comfortable using technology and learning how to use devices I’m interested in – why not explore ways to combine the two? Just because I don’t have a contract next year and infrastructure for ICT is inconsistent doesn’t mean I can’t do anything. Surely, there’s got to be a way to find out what is available in schools and find ways to take advantage of our resources. That’s what led me to the inquiry topic of combining ICT and substitute teaching.

Sandy and I set out to create an online database to share information about classrooms and their availability of ICT to assist substitute teachers (TOCs). I feel we’ve been able to combine some of the concepts we’ve talked about in class, and a few of the resources shared during the 10 Minutes of Fame on our site in a constructive manner. Hopefully what we’ve created will do justice to the inquiry topic we set out to do.

The ICT Sub Hub – theictsubhub.weebly.com

So, going back to my first question, which model do I choose? Do I minimize and restrict what I put out there, or put out as much as I can? A balance of both, I’d say. It’s true we have to be extremely careful of how we are portrayed online because if anyone digs deep enough, personal content intended for friends and family could wind up on an unintended screen. But if we consciously share our professional ideas, create online communities for our students, and enhance our digital presence, there’s going to be a lot more positive content out there than potentially compromising content. From here, I intend to continue being apart of the discussion, incorporating ICT in subbing, teaching, and personally – that is, in moderation.

Today we hit a bit of a wall. For some reason, the information from the survey is not automatically sorting itself alphabetically on Google docs. It seems that users can sort the information after the data is collected, but our goal is to minimize the amount of moderation needed. Another issue we are having is that while we have set the permissions for the spreadsheet to be public, sometimes it requires users to login to Google, and sometimes it doesn’t. I’m not sure what the issue is or if there is a way to get around that. While it is frustrating, I feel we have managed to tackle our biggest challenges – creating a resource to gather information about ICT in schools, sharing that information, providing resources and ideas on how to use ICT, and creating a place for teachers to share ideas. Tinkering with the site will be an ongoing challenge, but maintenance and updating is necessary for just about everything. The important thing is we have a beginning that is incorporating ideas and concepts we’ve learned and shared in class, and made it possible for the conversation to continue. I’ve been considering what other content we should include on this website and I am having some trouble. I’ve thought about some of the resources we looked at in the first week, such as Twitter, Pearl Trees, Mindmeister, and Pinterest, but I don’t know if our site is the right place for something like that, and if I’d be adding them just for the sake of using technology, or if they would have validity to achieve our goals. It might be better to recommend some of those resources rather than embed them in our site. Pearl Trees could be an effective way to present some of the links, but I don’t want users to have to create account after account to access the information we are sharing. Another thing I’ve been considering is if more visuals are needed. One of my concerns is that more images and embedding will take longer for mobile devices or slow broadband to connect to the site if teachers are trying to get ideas on the go. However, having images can be aesthetically pleasing and appeal to visual learners such as myself. Also, the basic version of Weebly seems to be pretty restricting as to where you can post photos on the page. I’d love to hear feedback on things to add or revise on the site.

Today we started with the article “iPads vs Teachers – Why Technology is Winning” – this article bothered me for a number of reasons. The title in itself is polarizing and implies it has to be one or the other. My initial gut reaction was shock and anger. How could a piece of technology replace someone that has trained for years to become a teacher and that has a genuine interest in working with students? Not to mention how little evidence there is to support the efficacy of iPads over other approaches to improve student learning. There are so many things wrong with this concept of iPads replacing teachers, it’s ridiculous. Is an iPad going to teach empathy or how to work with manipulatives? Maybe the iPad will help the kids tie their shoes or teach restitution?

Then I began to wonder who David Sirota is and where is he getting his information from? It turns out that Mr. Sirota is a liberal political commentator and radio host. His 2006 book “Hostile Takeover” is about how corporate interests are driving the U.S. policy. Fair enough – his views may be a little biased and his article seems to have left out some important details. Where are the teachers in this conversation? Why were there significant teacher layoffs in the states? Is that directly linked to the purchase in technology?

There are certainly many issues both with the idea of technology replacing teachers and people taking an anti-technology stand point. What is the goal here and who’s really benefiting? The push for every child to have their own laptop never happened, so why are iPads going to be different? I feel the conversations have to happen and they need to be made transparent. I don’t believe there’s a one-shot panacea that’s going to reform the system. It’s going to take community with the end goal being education and what’s best for the students, not what’s best for business.

On that note and thoughts on community, Sandy and I have managed to overcome a couple big challenges in our developing of The ICT Sub Hub. We’ve decided to make three separate sub-pages with different surveys so we could distinguish information on elementary, middle and high schools. The surveys were easy to embed, but I don’t think the spreadsheets can be. I’ve set it so they are viewable to anyone accessing the link through the website. I’ve also created a forum and embedded that into our website in hopes that it will serve as a means to foster community and communication. In regards to the resources, I’ve tried to share and comment on some of the many sources we’ve seen during the 10 Minutes of Fame / mentioned in class. It’s an ongoing process, but I feel the project is really starting to take shape. I’ve recently been in contact with the technology teacher at one of the schools I was staffed and he’s happy to share his resources and share his thoughts. The conversation is beginning! There is a community that supports this, and I’m feeling optimistic we’ll be able to contribute.

Continuing on with the project, Sandy and I focused on establishing who our target audience is, what are the developmental characteristics and needs of our audience, and ways we can foster connectivity. Our topic is intended to be a resource for teachers-on-call (TOCs). Other users may be able to benefit from it or contribute, but our goal is to create something that can be used by teachers that are constantly on the go from one classroom to the next. The database of ICT infrastructure in schools does not have much use for a classroom teacher.

Most new teachers entering the TOC position have at least some basic computer literacy skills, such as how to use a computer, projector, or perhaps even Smartphones or tablets. More advanced ICT users may have experience with Smartboards, and have knowledge around the inquiry model and how to use technology to enhance their ideas. There’s also a community of retired teachers that are entering the TOC field again after years of teaching experience. I would argue that those teachers have a plethora of knowledge and would also have basic ICT skills. Some may be experts with technology, whereas others may have shied away from it before retiring. It is our intent with this website to enable those willing and wanting to use technology to enhance their lessons in the event that the regular classroom teacher did not leave anything, or is open to new ideas.

Beyond the database of what technology is available in classrooms, we’d like to create a page of suggested ideas for subs. It is our hope that our contributions will just be a starting point for others to contribute to. We’ve thought about sending out a blurb to our respective TOC representatives in try to get the word out and reach out to the sub community. Also, talking about it in staffrooms or sharing the ideas with administrators might help spread the idea. In regards to community, we initially thought of creating a blog, but we realized that since we do not want to be the sole moderators of the site, we decided a forum might be a better medium for people to communicate. While the survey and database portion will be username and password free, I feel it’s important for people to have an identity when communicating ideas.

I’ve been able to embed our survey on our Weebly site, and have created a brief write up for our goals. Our current challenge is figuring out the best way to organize the survey information. We have discovered it is possible to filter the surveys by alphabetical order of the schools, but we’d like to find a way to organize it further. We are investigating if it is possible to have a tab function that will allow users to differentiate from elementary, middle, and high school. The problem is we are not quite sure if google docs will distinguish that information or if more advanced scripting is needed.

Slowly, our idea is taking shape. I see potential in what we are creating, but it will certainly take a lot of refinement and numerous versions before we have something that we can work with. Perhaps this is the start of a collaborative resource concept that would be unofficially be supported by districts.

Today Sandy and I continued working on our ICT resource for TOCs (http://theictsubhub.weebly.com/). Still very much a work in progress, we have decided to keep our scope focused on teachers-on-call, and developing the survey for our database. The database will be compiled based on information provided by teachers-on-call or teachers and administrators willing to contribute information about their classrooms. Some of the criteria on the survey requires users to input the name and level of the school, the division room (we decided to avoid using teacher names due to privacy concerns), available technology in the classroom (are there computers readily accessible, is there an Internet connection, is there a projector/overhead/television), etc.

The draft of the survey is as follows:

While creating this, we’ve run into a few challenges along the way. The biggest challenge so far is figuring out how we can make it useful for teachers-on-call. Furthermore, finding ways to collect and present the information is something we still need to figure out. I think each district has a TOC representative – perhaps one way to get the word out would be to contact our district reps to get the word out.

So let’s pretend the survey is complete and TOCs are accessing the site – great, now what? We are currently trying to find a way to collect that data and present it in a useful way so users can quickly find the school and classroom they are looking for, and see if that class has a projector for them to use, or if there’s someone or something in the building that could be done to utilize ICT. We’ve considered having sub-pages stemming from Elementary, Middle and High School, but that would involve a lot of site management from moderators. Having all that information available on one page could work if users use the “Search” function on their computers; however, that would be pretty disorganized and may lead to information being re-entered by accident.

Aside from the survey and how we would like to present, the next big section will be the “TOC Tool Kit” on the site. What use would having a database of technology be if there weren’t any appropriate uses for it? We’re hoping to put together a few 1-off lessons that a TOC could use in a classroom if the teacher did not leave a day plan. On the more basic side, I was thinking we could have a list of books and suggested lesson activities stemming from them. If the books are available in a digital format, that’s even better. Other things we could include would be TED Talks or Podcasts to spark discussions. It is unlikely every student will have access to a device in the classroom setting (outside of the lab or cell phones if the students are older), so I think most of the resources in this section will be teacher led.

I’m starting to realize how much of an undertaking this project is, and I think the main thing for me is to focus on keeping it simple. With a lot of work, tweaking and luck, perhaps this will fill a need that is lacking in our districts.

This week we discussed a lot of theory about human nature and institutions. When we begin to view institutions as living organisms that are connected to the world, we begin to see how these structures are a sum of their parts and the relationships between these parts. Schools are made up of the people within the walls. Relationships between the students, teachers, staff and families make up the community. When the relationships are unharmonious, it’s typically because at least one of these elements is in conflict. Issues will remain, especially if there is a culture of sociocultural homeostasis – change can easily revert back to the status quo. Through a shift in linguistic cognitive domains and embrace in change, the parts within a school can adjust to a positive environment. That seems to be the first step for cultural change. Only once the beings within a school feel safe and supported can changes be made in the cognitive domains, along with supporting infrastructure and technology to support cognitive and cultural growth – it’s all connected.

An inner-city school I was once staffed had a history of conflict from previous administrators, and a challenging group of students working their way through the grades. Those years were simply categorized as “rough” from some of the teachers I talked to. However, once a more positive relationship with new administrators and strong support from the community was established, the culture and technology was able to change. The school was selected to be apart of a pilot program using iPads in conjunction with the area’s family of schools. While it is too soon to state the affects on student learning, I’ve realized how connected the cognitive, cultural, and technological domains are.

So how can I use this knowledge? As already mentioned, Sandy and I are trying to develop an online database and resource to provide information to teachers within our respective districts. While some of the ideas in the “bag of tricks” may not be feasible, hopefully we’ll be able to contribute to the use of ICT for new teachers.

In the future, I’d like to try to apply some of these concepts of resource based teaching and learning through the inquiry process while using technology to create (higher-level thinking according to Bloom’s Taxonomy). As we saw in Sugata Mitra’s TED Talk, students will teach themselves if they are motivated to do so. In the TL role, I’d like to look into the interest and demand for e-books, Tumblebooks, audio books and other digital media for students and teachers. If we can spark student interest with inquiry topics they want to do and provide the resources necessary, there’s no reason not to take advantage of the technological age we live it.

Today we had a chance to discuss the idea of digital world libraries in developing countries, and developing digital world libraries. What is the premise? The idea is to create online or digital resources for those in developing countries to access since many of the books developing or remote places get are out of date, hard to transport, or limited in variety. Shipping books is expensive, and having a place to store them all is also problematic. If the content were somehow accessible digitally, that would solve the issues of storage, shipping, and age. Furthermore, the physical books could not be damaged or lost. If libraries could organize their resources and allocate funds to specific topics, a number of libraries could expand their collective digital databases on a number of topics. While Internet isn’t accessible everywhere, fiber optic is being laid down in developing countries. One article I came across noted that the increasing demand for online gaming is actually encouraging the development of infrastructure. While that develops, there are other options that are more readily accessible. My initial thoughts went to e-readers since many of them can store thousands of books, have 3G capabilities to access online databases, and many have chargers that can connect to household power sockets, or even use solar chargers. Another option came from an article discussing using KickStarter to fund digital libraries housed in shipping containers that actual librarians would staff. The digital content would remain in the cargo container and people could come to access information with the assistance of the librarian. The most practical device available would be to take advantage of the most common communication device – cell phones. Cell phones are in many developing countries and are relatively inexpensive. If digital content were made available online and accessible via wifi, 3g, or even using cell phone towers, distribution issues would be resolved. Even a combination of the cargo-container concept, transfer cables and cell phones could work to distribute the content.

How does this relate to our inquiry topics? Sandy and I are collaborating on a way to share information about schools in districts and store that database online. This information would be accessible to teachers or anyone interested in contributing or learning about the ICT availability in schools. A section sharing teacher resources would draw on the digital content one might find from a digital library source. Tumblebooks and ebooks are wonderful resources, but not all books are available in these formats. With further development of digital libraries, it’s my hope that one day they will be.

Today we discussed another three terms that have to do with a more positive outlook – autopoesis, structural coupling, and linguistic cognitive domains. Autopoesis has to do with living organisms and their self-creating tendencies. All living organisms are connected to the world and humans are no different. However, many humans have been living under the false belief that humans are somehow separate and removed from the ecological system and that we are somehow above it. The way we are living now is not sustainable. While this is concerning to see in individuals, the problem runs much deeper. If humans have been raised with this belief, many of our systems and institutions have this belief built into them. The institutions created are perpetuating this misconception. As frightening as this sounds, by the same principle of autopoesis, humans have the capacity to self-regulate in our changing environment. Taken to the school level, while our environment is changing, students, teachers and staff will find a way to regulate to sustain ourselves – there’s hope. Following our discussion last day looking at dynamic conservatism and sociocultural homeostasis, there’s hope in creating new ways to adapt to our ever changing environment.

Structural coupling states our need to forge connections with our environment. Structural coupling has to do with humans and our cognitive, cultural and technological connection to our environment. All three domains are needed to survive; without them, our species could not survive. Maintaining that we are self-creating beings in an ever changing environment, in order for people to progress we must find a balance of the three domains. While traditional teaching has taken us this far, there needs to be a shift in the way we think to adapt to the change in culture. Living in what is termed Generation Z, people have never been more connected. How can we change the way we think and teach in order to adapt to these monumental changes in technology and culture?

Perhaps it has to start with our relationships within institutions to break the “us against them” mentality. How we communicate with one another affects our relationships and this is what the linguistic cognitive domains have to do with. There needs to be a level of trust and safety before we can begin to change and reframe our beliefs. In the education system, that level of trust and safety is needed before teachers can think of ways to reshape the way we’ve been teaching for so long. In order for that trust and safety to happen, we have to find better ways to communicate. Given that humans have never been more connected than we are today, we’re 1/3 of the way there. With the infrastructure in place, we now need to adapt cognitively and culturally so we can regulate with the environment once again.

Today we discussed three long terms known as institutional isomorphism, dynamic conservatism (conservative dynamicism), and sociocultural homeostasis. While I won’t be able to explain the three terms as well as our lecture, institutional isomorphism has to do with the institution as a living organism. Like a living organism, the school institution does what it needs to survive and is made up of the people, policies and procedures that occur within. Like breathing, its goal is to sustain itself and in the process, maintain policies, practices and philosophies. While this doesn’t sound harmful the problem lies in that our school system is quickly becoming outdated (if it isn’t already).

Dynamic conservatism has to do with utilizing new technology, but in traditional ways. As Larry Cuban puts it, “[educators] have hugged the middle between traditional and non-traditional ways of teaching”.  As great as PowerPoints are, it’s still the same method of presenting to your audience from the front of the classroom. While students are learning some useful skills which are certainly needed down the road, there are other things educators could try doing, especially with technology such as Smartboards and tablets becoming more accessible. This made me wonder why is there this disconnect between technology, innovation in the classroom, and educators? While there may be a few educators that are reluctant to change, I believe the issue lies with policy.

We know budget and cutbacks are an ongoing issue within our education system, and not all schools have the same level of technology – have and have-not isn’t anything new. But from what I’ve experienced, there seems to be a strong push to get students on iPads and to use technology without much of justification or mission statement explaining why? Yes, technology is important and using tablets is utilizing current technology; but why specifically iPads? Why not repair, update or expand existing computer labs? Who’s deciding all this? My concern is that policy makers are the ones pushing for these changes without consulting the teachers that are actually using these devices. Apple isn’t in the business of giving away their products for the sake of charity, so how did they get the monopoly in schools? Teachers know their students better than policy makers and therefore should be consulted, collaborated with, or leading the charge themselves with the system supporting their push for change.

Antonio Domasio’s ideas about sociocultural homeostasis have to do with how we feel and think and how they interact. Typically we feel first and then think and rationalize our thoughts. Our natural response to change is to be resistant; however, if we can reframe our attitude to try new things, that’s the first step to being innovative. I feel one of the main reasons teachers don’t is because they don’t want to “rock the boat”. Why not? Because the stakes are high. If a teacher tries something new and it fails, administrators, parents, and the school board would have no qualms reprimanding that teacher. Not to mention student education is on the line. I suppose this comes down to fear and needing to reframe how we as educators rationalize that emotion, and the attitudes from admin, parents, and policy makers.

So what do we do? I think teachers need to pick a specific goal and go from there. Start by conceptualizing what are our goals and then see if technology provides any devices to achieve that. Next would be figuring out ways to get those devices, whether it is as simple as signing something out, or approaching the parent committee, admin, or trustees to get the support and funding needed. If things go positively from there, the next step would be finding ways to get the word out so others can benefit. This certainly is not an easy task and will require time and perseverance, but the change we seek and not the one that is dictated has to start from the ground up, not the top down.