Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Paradigm Shift

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” ~Einstein

In education, what is our paradigm? Is there a different paradigm for the different areas of education - literacy, technology, leadership, organization? Have some of these paradigms shifted more than others, or are what we think of as shifts merely modifications on the surface?

If we take ed tech - how would you articulate past, present and future paradigms? In other words how has our thinking changed? What does the history of thinking about the role of ed tech look like? And since our system consists of countless parts and pieces, what shifts need to occur in those areas to enable this shift in technology that we envision?

New ways of thinking differently have to occur across the system. How do we get leaders in the system to think differently? The fact that we have so many groups within the system - community, students, teachers, parents, school board, administrators - makes paradigm shifts even more challenging. And then there is government...politicians. They don’t make change any easier. How do you lead this change? How do we educate those that need to know about this new way of thinking?

It’s just what I’m thinking about this morning… rasberry

Posted by Randy on 05/08 at 06:52 AM
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Monday, May 07, 2007

Catching up….and wikis…

Back in April, just before we got to Easter, I took my first “vacation” of the school year. I took 4 whole days off to go to Italy! (Yes...the trip was longer than 4 days...count weekends and the holiday and it was about 10. You can even see photos here.) Today was the first day that I didn’t feel so far behind. I actually feel that I am on top of things, with only reading of blogs and some informational emails left. And I’ll get to that in due time...no hurry there.

We have been looking into Wikispaces and their Private Label pricing. We are on a 30 day trial. Last week, I worked with one of our middle school Social Studies teachers who was interested in using several wikis for her classes to prepare for an upcoming debate. Each class is divided into two groups - about 10 kids in each group. She wanted a private space (password protected) that only the members of the team could access. So this was a good time for me to to see what Wikispaces could do for us. I was able to set everything up for her as she requested. I think this will work out well for her, with the technology allowing her students to work collaboratively in ways they wouldn’t have before. This will be a good try-out for this tool.

Speaking of wikis...I was also involved in a discussion with our Assistant Superintendent and Mathematics Chair. I was pleased to see the transparency of these tools being discussed - the idea of wikis being used by teachers to share and critique lessons concerning particular district initiatives. There really seems to be momentum building for teachers to break out of working in isolation and communicating and interactiing with their colleagues to grow professionally. And they are seeing these tools for the potential they have. It’s nice to see!

Posted by Randy on 05/07 at 09:48 PM
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Friday, May 04, 2007

Classrooms for the Future

Here in Pennsylvania there is a high school reform/technology initiative called Classrooms for the Future. The idea is to approach technology use as a catalyst for change, in this case at the high school level. The grant application process closed today, and my district submitted our proposal. More satisfying than completing this rather large undertaking was the process that led to this final product.

I could be out of touch here, but most districts that submit these kinds of grants have one or two people that sit in a room, brainstorm the ideas and then sit down to write the thing. The people on the font lines, those that will actually have to implement the proposal, don’t have much voice in developing the project and usually end up having it forced upon them once the monies come through. I am really proud of our process. We had about four weeks to develop the proposal from the time it was announced until the due date. In that window of time, we (meaning the Assistant Superintendent, High School Assistant Principal and me) assembled a team of around eight teachers to meet for six hours after school and generate a plan. What was most fascinating about this process was the fact that this group of teachers was generating the ideas! It wasn’t us administrators forcing ideas on them. They were discussing, debating and deciding on what their project would entail. Talk about building capacity. After those idea sessions, the three of us actually went and wrote the narratives, developed the budget etc. The group then offered final feedback on the proposal.

My biggest concern, early on, in applying for this grant was the question of readiness. Was the high school going to be ready for the changes attached to a proposal such as this? I have no doubt they are ready for this work. I am hoping that we are competitive. This would be a huge boost for our high school program as well as technology program. Tune in sometime in July to find out how we did.  wink

Posted by Randy on 05/04 at 08:48 PM
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