The peripheral visionary

I was a peripheral visionary. I could see the future, but only way off to the side.
                                                                                                               Steven Wright

We took a few minutes in our tech teams last week to kick around a simple question: Where do we want to be with technology in five years?

Why now? Well, we're re-booting the district's strategic plan and a couple of us are on that team. Budgets for 2014-15 are in the making and we need to do some prioritizing. We're in the process of formulating next year's tech department goals.

And I think we are sensing that some previously unattainable goals just might be imaginable.*

The biggest change I see in this year's planning is that we've really taken to heart that our technology goals are totally in support of our teaching and learning goals. I know - well, duh! That has of course always been our philosophy, but we're starting to get a lot more specific.

So while these maybe in our department's sights for 2019: 

• Ubiquitous wi-fi in school and on school buses
• Devices for all children.
• 75% of library materials in digital formats
• 75% of all teaching materials and work flow digital
• Textbooks replaced by Content Management Systems (Moodle, GoogleSites, etc.)
• Print reading series replaced by reading programs

The "so-what" is that making these basic technology changes allows us to potentially make some really interesting, specific pedagogical changes:

• regular, powerful formative assessments in all classrooms
• differentiated materials to support reading levels and learning styles
• peer-to-peer collaboration and review
• project-based learning with products using multiple media
• workflow changes that ease teacher responding
• Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs) for all kids with a nod to Personalized Learning Plans (PLPs)
• real time communication and collaboration with parents with connections to meaningful data
• multi-grade collections of student work kept in online portfolios - from ALL students
• 24/7 learning opportunities - blended classrooms - no more snow days

I still have a lot of questions:

• What will effective PD look like to help teachers make these transitions? (My vote is for ILPs for teachers.)
• Which of these pedagogical should be given highest priority?
• Should there be any expectations of all teachers, and if so, how do we guarantee those expectations are met?
• How do we get input, buy-in, and enthusiasm for these ideas from those outside the technology department?

I find it amazing that my last few years in education may be the most exciting years. I personally cannot wait to see what the future holds for our schools, our families, and our community!

Just a reminder, that all ideas expressed on the Blue Skunk are mine alone, not the views of the district. 

* I see three major happenings in the next couple years that make these predictions realistic:

• Useful tablets will drop to the sub $100 price range. We are testing these now as potential e-book readers and GoogleApps creators.
• Cell phone providers will offer sub $10 a month home Internet hotspots. Again, this is already happening in urban areas and we're just waiting for it to spread. 
• Acceptance on the part of district leadership that technology is integral to meaningful change.

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A few other feeble attempts to peer into the crystal ball....

• Prognostications -  2003
• Forecasting trends (Jan 2007)
• Your brave predictions! (Dec 2008)
• Two sets of predictions (Jan 2009)
• How is the future touching your life today? (Jan 2009)
• Three futures: Skinner Elementary, Duncan Middle School,  Dewey High School, and What's the point?
• Miles's Library 
• Tony's (and my) brave technology prognostications

BFTP: The Pig with the Wooden Leg

A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post February 10, 2009.

A fable, if you will:

A manure spreader salesmen was driving past a farmyard here in southern Minnesota when he spotted a pig with a wooden leg. His curiosity aroused, he pulled in the driveway and over to where Ole was repairing the corn crib.

"Say, Ole," says the salesman, "that's an interesting pig you
got there. How'd he get the wooden leg?"

"Oh, yah," says Ole, "that's some pig. Once when the old barn caught fire, that pig rushed into the flames and let all the animals out of their pens so they could run to safety.

"Anudder time when the river flooded, our whole family was on the roof of the house and about to be swept away when that pig swam to the neighbor's house and swam back towing a fishin' boat to rescue us.

"And just last summer when a tornado was coming right at the farm, that pig rounded up all the kids and got them into the storm cellar. The house was a goner, but the kids were OK."

The salesman was amazed. "Wow, that is quite the pig, Ole," says he. "So then, during which adventure was it he lost the leg?"

"Oh, he didn't lose the leg," replied Ole. "It's just that you don't eat a pig that good all at one time."

I've been soliciting volunteers to help with different tasks in our state's school library and technology organization. Little things like serving on committees for the upcoming state conference, writing short articles for the newsletter, and taking part in legislative activities.

What percentage of our 600 member "volunteer" organization steps forward? I'd say we have fewer than 50 people who ever take more than a completely passive role. 8%. And of that 50, maybe 20 who are dedicated. 3%.

Why is this? Why do some people with the same 24 hours in a day, same commitments to family and work, same need for leisure still work on volunteer basis while others simply refuse to participate. I am not condemning anyone since I am absolutely certain everyone has a great reason for doing what they do. And god bless every volunteer effort no matter how seemingly small.

Is it something we current active members are doing - or not doing? Are we too set in our ways? Too clubby? Too poor at communicating the organization's needs?

Here's my fear. I am afraid like the pig with the wooden leg that we may be eating our best people alive. That at some point they will simply say "I've done my bit, served my debt to society the organization, and I am retiring as a volunteer." And the organization loses a wealth of information, experience, and talent.

What is your perspective on this? Does the same active vs. inactive ratio apply in the volunteer organizations to which you belong? And what can we do about it?

Social media: "should we?" to "how do we?"

The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed.

- Wm Gibson

I ran across two interesting articles this week that show the wide divide among schools in how social media is regarded.

My friend Frances Jacobson Harris with coauthor Megan Murray Cusik published What's Not to 'Like"? Rethinking Restrictive Social Media Policies, School Library Journal, March 10, 2014. In clear and compelling language, they argue that social media should not be blocked in schools. It's a little frustrating that an article like this is still needed. Yet I know from the phone calls I still get from nervous tech directors asking how I've kept my job even with Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube unblocked in my district that the fight is far from over.

On the happier end of the social network adoption spectrum, another friend, Vicki Davis, gives concrete, positive examples of how teachers are using social media right now in their classrooms in A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom, Edutopia, February 27, 2014.  Davis makes a powerful observation:

• There's one form of writing that can arguably get someone fired, hired or forced to retire faster than any other form of writing.
• There's one form that will most likely be read by college admissions offices and teams of student "stalkers" hired to vet students before they receive scholarships.
• There's one form that will prevent some people from running for political office and get others elected.

One form of writing is that powerful.

If you guessed social media, you're right.

Fearful adults leading schools will result in children not prepared for a society that will demand the skillful use of social media. And that's a damn shame.

Francie and Vicki - thanks for keeping the fight alive.

Some of my writing on the why and how of social networking in schools:

• Connections for Learning, a SayWire White Paper on social networking tools in education, 2009.
• Filtering Fallacies Power Up column, Educational Leadership, December/January 2013
• Guidelines for Educators Using Social and Educational Networking Sites (with Jen Hegna) Library Media Connection, March/April  2010
• The Neglected Side of Intellectual Freedom, March/April 2013
• Rules for the Social Web Threshold, Summer 2007
• Why Facebook Belongs in Your School Power Up column, Educational Leadership, February 2014

 

Mankato School district's social media policy and guidelines are here:

• 471 - Employee Use of Social Media
• 471 - Guidelines for Employee Use of Social Media

Source: http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/3202674/facebook+vs+school/