Lessons Learned

Instructional Technology - International Education - Wellness

Tag: PD

E-learning Discussion at the Ed Tech Co-Op Podcast

Ed Tech Co-OpMark, Jeff and I completed our third season of the podcast by discussing online learning in a variety of settings. Here is the link to show 77 on e-learning. It is definitely a show that connects with our earlier chat with Jeff Nugent and his work at Colgate University.

The Instructional Technologist and Teacher Librarian: PD to the Classroom

With the Blogosphere and Twitterverse filled with discussions about how to shift schools, focus on 21st-century skills, create and promote learning communities, provide PD, etc., it seems like an opportune time to revisit the roles of the instructional technologist and teacher librarian as leaders and change agents in our schools. We planned on making this a topic in an upcoming EdTech Co-op podcast, but a blog post leads me to share some ideas now.

Tim Holt’s recent post about the role of professional trainers and speakers hit a nerve for many folks and has led to many discussions about how to bring about change in our schools. My response is to put forth the instructional technologist and librarian as key leaders in schools who should follow up on professional development (PD) activities to facilitate the action steps to connect the learning from the PD to the learning in our classrooms. 

As for the considerable topic of shifting our schools, Jeff Utecht and I produced a podcast all about Shifting Our Schools. Please look at the show notes, as our guests brought many helpful ideas. Only the latest podcasts are still accessible via iTunes.

While Tim argues that the educational gurus should offer us the how-to’s on how to shift our schools, the pushback is that each school is different, and the road maps must be individualized. I agree with this and see that there are many ways to offer professional development for our learning communities. Still, the key is the follow-up after the PD, which is not the responsibility of PD providers. Whether one brings in educational trainers, sends staff off to conferences, runs book discussions, or has teachers take courses, the bottom line is that there are many choices and that each educator should be empowered to design and build their professional learning network as so many in the blogosphere promote.

It is then up to the school’s leadership to create the mechanism involving the use of time and support to empower the staff to develop the “how to” to take PD learning into the classrooms. Administrators provide this essential leadership, but the instructional technologist and teacher-librarian often are the doers, either working via the curriculum review process or collaborating individually or with groups of teachers who turn the PD into action.

Whether you call your school instructional technologist a technology integration specialist, educational technologist, learning coach, or whatever, it is crucial to realize what this well-skilled leader can do for your school. One can review the posts and articles by library leaders to paint the picture of the modern teacher librarian, or you could review the skill set and 21st-century vision of my wife, the library media specialist at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

To paint the picture of an instructional technologist, here is a MindMeister mind map I created several years ago for a conference in China where the participants helped build out the IT/ET job description, including experience and skill set for a 21st-century instructional technologist. Hopefully, it provides a discussion point on whether you have an instructional technologist or want to hire one but need a job description.

We will soon be discussing this topic further in the Edtech Co-op podcast.

How Progressive is Your School?

We just started two weeks of building our learning community at Hsinchu International School (HIS). On Monday morning, each staff member shared photographs representing their lives outside school. The new educators connected with the returning teachers as they talked about photos of family, travel, hobbies, and interests. We also enjoyed learning new things about returning members of our community. It was nice not feeling rushed and having to go and DO SOMETHING.

Our seniors came in for the afternoon to meet the new staff and to answer questions. It was something to hear them talk about our student learning outcomes, student Choice period, internships, community service, tight school community, deeper learning, expeditions, etc. They understand what our school is about.

Tuesday morning, we enjoyed discussing change and the transition that follows it. Rick Pierce of Rising Sun Consultants led the discussion from Pennsylvania via Skype video. A big takeaway for me was that our school leaders took the time to validate the changes our new and returning staff are going (and will go) through. Rick reminds us that it is the transition after the change that we need to be aware of and be ready to discuss within our community. He summed it up by saying:

“Research and experience has taught me that the first steps in dealing with transition is to bring it out in the open, acknowledge its impact and work deliberately at addressing any barriers which hinder your smooth journey through the change/transition process. The two most important ingredients in dealing with change and transition are information and involvement.”

Our principal, Brent Loken, had everyone do a little homework reading Alfie Cohen’s article entitled Progressive Education: Why It’s Hard to Beat, But also Hard to Find. We listed on flip charts the eight values Alfie writes about as essential to a progressive school. Everyone was asked to take time to respond specifically to each value by writing a reflection, a question, or an example of the value from their experience on each flip chart. We then broke into pairs with a returning and new teacher, choosing one value to discuss. They then shared ideas and worked to rank how HIS is doing on a scale of 1-10, with ten being the most progressive.

Each team then presented to the whole group their reflections and where they ranked our school. We will now set aside time each month to revisit one value at a time, review the gaps, and look at potential action steps to get us closer to 10 for each value. Our new educators brought many new ideas and perspectives to the discussion.

I look forward to digging deeper with everyone as we further discuss these values and our efforts to support them at Hsinchu International School.

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