The Danger of Pockets of Wow

It's funny how a single conversation can stay with a person for a very long time - even for an entire career.

20 years? ago I was at an open house in an elementary school. A parent came up to me to compliment a teacher, Ms Smith, who was using technology with her kids - KidPix drawings, computer generated graphs and charts, even samples of e-mail pen pal exchanges - lots of interesting stuff for the time. 

As the tech director I puffed up a little, assuming that I shared some of the credit for creating this technology star. Until the parent said, "The problem is my daughter doesn't have Ms Smith for a teacher. My daughter is in Mr. Brown's class and he doesn't use technology with kids at all. When are YOU going to do something about that?"

We're going to have a public "tech fair" in our district in a couple weeks. The Ms Smiths and their students will be there, demonstrating all the fun, cool stuff they do with technology. And that's fantastic! I love these "pockets of wow" we have in every building in our district. They will be rightfully recognized for their courage and innovation.

The Pockets of Wow don't need a lot of help. The teachers are instructional adventurers, self-confident explorers. If the district doesn't provide the tools they need, they will figure out how to get it themselves. No worries.

But I also think about those kids whose teachers haven't embraced technology and those ringing words "When are YOU going to do something about that?" Might our Pockets of Wow, our bright stars, be lulling us into a false sense that technology is being "done right" in all classrooms?

My job is to make sure every teacher, not just the early adopters, uses technology to improve teaching and learning. It's not a very sexy job. So the district's tech plan we are devising  is not the most cutting edge. It would disappoint many of the tech and education reform pundits who advocate for tech's more disruptive uses. But it is a plan that has all teachers, not just the stars, using technology with kids in what we hope are effective ways.

And I am proud on that.

 

Boy Scout training online - reflections

I spent a couple hours last Sunday preparing for the Boundary Waters canoe trip that I am taking with my grandson this summer. Organized by the Boy Scouts, the motto "Be Prepared" is evident.

Part of the preparation is taking a number of classes online. I had already taken the Youth Protection Training before attending a camp out with the boys last fall, but this weekend I completed Weather Smart, Safe Swim Defense, and Safety Afloat.  (I have a 2-day F2F class in June on CPR and Wilderness Survival as well!)

I am not sure just how effective these online classes are. They are certainly better than nothing, but they seemed content weak and lacking good assessments. (I missed a number of questions but was not required to re-take any of the courses.)

Not long ago I heard someone comment that parents tend not to question high schools adding online course offerings. Many parents, unlike teachers, have had experience taking online courses as a requirement for their own jobs, getting updated certifications and such. Perhaps the classes they've taken were better than those of the Boy Scouts.

As we enter into discussions about offering online and hybrid classes in our district as part of our tech plan, I will be listening carefully to see how planners' past experiences with online learning impact their enthusiasm (or lack thereof). After all, we tend to teach, not as we've been taught ourselves, but how we personally learn the best.

To me this means we need to offer powerful online PD as the first step in creating powerful online teachers.

Choosing the Right Device - May Educational Leadership Column

My May 2015 Power Up column "Choosing the Right Device" is now available online.

I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say.

Flannery O'Conner

It is my final column for Educational Leadership. My "Dear John" letter from the Editor-in-Chief says...

I am writing to let you know that even though we have enjoyed your Power Up! column very much, we have decided to change directions for next year. We have decided to debut a new technology column written to teachers rather than leaders and we believe a classroom teacher should be the author. 

Fair enough. I wish the new columnist the best of luck. Not sure if I would agree with the editorial direction -  seems like technology writing aimed at classroom teachers is pretty common, but for educational leaders is scarce. But what do I know?

I appreciated all the comments and requests from EL readers related to the columns. And they are available online. I got a lot of reaction, mostly requests for re-use, from these columns:

• “The Changing Role of the CTO” Educational Leadership, April, 2013
• “Technology Skills Every Teacher Needs” Educational Leadership, March, 2013 (adding techology use look-for's in the Charlotte Danielson framework)
• “The New School Library” Educational Leadership, October, 2013
• “Why Facebook Belongs in Your School” Educational Leadership, February 2014
• “10 Questions about 1:1” Educational Leadership, May. 2014
• “Who Owns That Course?” Educational Leadership, October, 2014
• “A Letter to Parents Shopping for Technology“  Educational Leadership, November, 2014
• “The Culturally Proficient Technologist” Educational Leadership, March, 2015

So I am going from writing two columns in print publications to no columns. Should make for more relaxing weekends.  (Less noise as those deadlines go whoooshing by.)

Miguel Guhlin writes in "Mourn Your Space" post on his Around the Corner blog:

Well, Doug, let me tell you that you're not the only writer to mourn the loss of his column. I still remember the death of my columns in TechEdge, T&L, Education World publications. The loss of those taught me the beauty of blogs...not having to worry about editors' changing the leads, and the freedom to write a column (or not) as I felt necessary.

Thank you, Miguel. Your words led me to re-read my own advice "Why I Write for Professional Publication." And I still believe what I wrote there: "As educators, our satisfaction comes from actually believing we are doing something that will make the world a more humane place in which to live. The ultimate goal of professional writing is to improve professional practice that in turn improves the lives of kids."