Put the Personal in Your PLN - Ed Leadership column, May 2013

My Power Up! column - Put the "Personal" in Your PLN -  is available on the ASCD website.

Connecting problems and technology

"Given this year's learning in the areas of technology integration, what might be one or two concrete goals that you will set for yourself heading into next year?" - end of year assignment for an administrative technology leadership class

As assignments go, the one above isn't too bad. But (doing some Monday morning quarterbacking) could it be improved? What if read:

Select one or two major problems or challenges you expect to face next year and apply technology uses to help solve or meet them.

I know, I know, for many solving a problem or meeting an educational need with technology is implied in the first assignment. But for too many educators, technology application is still about starting with a solution and running about looking for problems to solve. 

In rather vague ways, when most educators think about the why's of integrating technology into education we consider motivation, engagement, technology skill practice, reading and math remediation, higher-level thinking, improved communication, collaborative learning global citizenship, problem-solving, yada, yada, yada. All lovely and important aspirations for the productive use of these fun devices, large and small, that beep, buzz and take batteries.

But we have to do a better job of getting down in the weeds, tackling real and specific problems with technology that are rooted in the day-to-day educational problems that can't very well be solved by traditional practices...

• How do I help students build the level of concern for the quality of their writing? 
• How can I help my current ESL students master double-digit multiplication?
• What might make my unit on the Civil War/the water cycle/nutrition more meaningful?
• How can I better connect with my students' parents?
• How do I make my staff meetings more productive?
• How do I provide non-fiction, high-interest reading materials for elementary students helping them meet the new ELA standards?

My long standing advice to teachers has always been to begin integrating technology into one's worst units -  the ones neither you nor your students much like. I would extend this to all educators and suggest we all start looking for technology solutions to our most difficult problems - those which seem intractable.

Most educator will need exposure to the basic functionality and possibilities of new technologies. But once exposed, the direction should be toward problems, not generic or idealistic technology use. 

Graphic source

BFTP: The Disillusionment Curve

A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post April 26, 2008.  Comments on the original post suggest that low expectations are the true secret to happiness. Hmmmmmm....

The graph above represents my imperfect remembering of a concept I learned once upon a time - early 90s, I think.

The theory is pretty simple: the higher your expectations of a thing, the deeper your dissatisfaction/disillusionment when experiencing the thing itself. The lower your expectations, the less disappointed you will be. And the less deep your unhappiness, the sooner, easier, and more likely your return to a level of satisfaction.

I am sure there is an official name for and far better explanation of this concept. It's similar to Moore's Adoption Lifecycle or Gartner's Hype Cycle, but I believe it pre-dates either of these. If anybody can supply a name and more authoritative source, I would be much obliged.

A number of things brought the concept to mind this week:

• I got a chance to study Jeff Utecht's Stages of PLN adoption on the Thinking Stick. I like that he adds perspective and balance to the path many take in learning and using social networking tools for professional growth. (He did forget denial, anger and bargaining ... oh, that's Kubler-Ross's stages of death. Never mind) Jeff's is a good "adoption" model.
• Spring was here. My expectations for the weekend were very high. But there was an inch of snow on the ground this morning, it's now 28F at midday, and the winds are gusting up to 30mph. My satisfaction level will be rising very slowly.
• My department has been pitching pretty hard all the benefits of the new student information system we're implementing next school year. How does one establish a balance between over-selling and working up real enthusiasm for change? [In 2013, we are pitching our first true 1:1 plan - same, same.]

And for some reason, I woke asking myself: "What should be our technology department's priority: Making people happy or making people productive?" I recognize there is a correlation. But do we make people unhappy in the short term for productivity increases that eventually result in greater happiness in the long run?

As if I really had that much control anyway...