Reflection on EdTech

As I read about Larry Cuban, there were a few of his views on ed tech that stand out to me.  One of the biggest takeaways is from the article Predictions about Technology in K-12 and Higher Education for 2025.  In the article, Larry discusses how there are pockets of teachers who are able to integrate the use of technology into their daily practices.  However, this does not appear to be the norm.  When he talks about technology in these classes are present in the background, I love this idea/comment.  I often meet with teachers who feel they are struggling with the technology and how they are trying to use it in their classroom.  I will be the first person to say to them that maybe this is not the right task for integrating technology or maybe they are using the wrong technology for the task.  They are often amazed to hear a tech person tell them to not use technology.  Also, working with teachers, I often hear their grumbling as far as administration purchasing tech tools and expecting them to use them with no feedback or input from the teachers and also not enough professional learning in place to help the teachers experience ways of using the technology in the classroom.  Larry Cuban even references this when he says "Policymakers and IT specialists continue to give one another high-five hand slaps in getting interactive whiteboards, laptops, and tablets to more and more teachers and students."   This may be why I did not fit the best in the IT centered role.  I feel I see the bigger picture that technology needs to be available but there is so much more to it than just purchasing it and getting it in the hands of the teachers and the students.  I feel I connect to Larry Cuban in that I have my concerns with technology in the classroom and where it is going.  But I am also a believer and feel with the right supports and communication with all stakeholders when will continue to see learning taking place with technology supporting it when needed.

Team EA Vision Project

I was extremely lucky to be able to work with a great group from my EDCI 325 class at UVM over the last two weeks.  We were Team EA- Equity and Access.  It was a great task to work collaboratively using a Google Doc, Trello and to be able to do a Hangout to chat about our vision, plan, project, and our own thoughts.  Our final vision project was a Google site:EA School of Innovation. After looking at our core values, we each picked one to share our thoughts on and then the group provided great support to help build our final vision together.  It was a great process that I am glad I was able to participate in with this being an online course.

Time to look at Essential Conditions and the work that needs to happen….

 I continue to learn so much regarding technology for learning.  A reference I plan to share with administrators in our district is the ISTE Essential Conditions. These are the14 critical elements essential to successfully influencing technology for learning. They offer educators and school leaders a guide to the implementation of the ISTE Standards, tech planning, and system-wide change. This is an area that I have a lot to learn and I feel others have a lot to learn also.

There are a few areas that schools and supervisory unions may be able to be successful in more quickly.  And then there are other areas that will take time and focus to reach the goal of being successful in the area. For example, technical support is an area that many will focus on when purchasing new hardware and software.  Hiring skilled tech specialist that are available to support teachers when the technology is not working.  Also, the importance of teaching the staff that works with the technology daily the basic skills to fix or troubleshoot certain issues on their own can help with keeping the technology working when it is needed.

Another area that supervisory unions and schools may have in place are support policies.  There are school boards that would be involved in this process and examples they can research to see how other districts handle the different areas as far as acceptable use and web filtering.  However, past the policies are procedures.  This is an area that may need more support and work depending on each individual school.  Once the policies are in place, it will take time for the administration to plan out the procedure to follow through with what is defined in the policy.

As I reviewed the ISTE Essential Conditions, I could see how many of them are so closely related that if a district worked on one area it would also improve another area.  I think if a school focused on an implementation plan that includes long-term and short-term goals they would be working on building a curriculum framework to help with guiding the ways to use technology for learning. In order to follow through with the implementation plan and to add the standards to the curriculum, there will need to be ongoing professional learning and support in place for the teachers.  A district can hire skilled personnel from the start but also work to help bring the current staff up to being skilled in the areas they need to be to be part of the overall process of implementing the technology. Finally, the importance of a shared vision with all of the stakeholders including educators, support staff, students, parents, and community members will help with the implementation plan. If everyone is able to provide input and recognizes how it impacts everyone and what their responsibility is in their role, the overall goal of implementing technology for learning will be a success for everyone

Oh what a week- E-Portfolios, DigCit and more

As I sit here getting ready for the week ahead, I cannot help but continue to think and reflect on last week. It was a stressful and exciting week of being part of an amazing team that organized a day full of sessions on topics from proficiencies, youth suicide prevention, digital portfolios, and many self-care sessions for the teachers, guidance counselors, and nurses in the district. I was lucky enough to be able to lead two sessions.  One session was on making a digital citizen and creating connected classrooms. The topic of my session ended up connecting with the Technology and Leadership course very closely. Now, as the week comes to a close, I wish the additional information I have now, I would have had last Sunday.

I am excited to start this week planning and organizing. One thing I have learned in this new role is I need to schedule time. I need to schedule time for projects I need to focus on otherwise my schedule quickly fills up taking care of so many other things. Although all of the other topics and tasks are important, I now feel that I need to devote some of my time to helping to make a plan for what I need to do for the supervisory union to support teachers in the process of implementing digital citizenship in all areas of a student's day.  The group of individuals I worked with on Friday have sparked creativity in me. I want to start to plan out future sessions, school visits, and leadership presentations. Thanks to the Twitter lists and contacts, the tons of great resources shared by so many I have connected with just this week or in the last month, I feel I am starting to have the knowledge I need to pull all of this together. I am feeling the need to continue to share the positive side of making digital citizens. I plant to create a Wakelet collection to curate resources that I can share with teachers and administrators.

My first thought is to start with helping the teachers become strong digital citizens. After chatting with a number of teachers on Friday and mentioning to them about using the hashtag one of our principals was going to use, #ncsulearns, we were surprised at how many of them had no idea how to use the hashtag.  So many of them are fearful of social media themselves.  If we want them to support students, they need to feel comfortable with the tools and techniques themselves. My first goal, as of right now, is to start to work with the teachers that need help to make stronger connections with other educators on social media.  This is a bit of a scatter post of my thoughts of the end of the week.  However, being able to say I have a goal of what I want to try to do first, helps me feel like I have closed out the week. On to the next week....

Mavens, Connectors and Salespeople: Really do exist.

After reading Charlie Gilkey’s article, “Maven, Connector, or Salesperson: What’s Your Archetype?”, I began to think about the individuals that make up our learning design department.  I also started to look and think about the other individuals in our supervisory union and those individuals that make up part of my personal learning network.  I never really thought about the three different archetypes of people.  I can see we have a representation of each type in our department with the connections each of us makes with each other, teachers, students and the community. There are those of us that are the mavens that help collect the information, who are always working on the next initiative.  We have connectors within the department that have strong relationships with so many individuals throughout the district and beyond and bring these resources back to the table for everyone to make use of the many connections.  And finally, we have the leader who is a salesperson, without selling anything. They are strong with the power of persuasion. They are able to explain a plan or an idea and have others buy into it and enjoy the process by just communicating the process and getting them hooked on the idea. I can see all three archetypes in many of the individuals I work with or reach out to for support myself.

Currently, I am finding my place on Twitter.  I have started to use this social media tool to help look more closely at someone I may be thinking of following.  I need to build connections to help me with understanding my new role of the learning design technology coordinator. It is an interesting role. I find myself playing the role of the maven most of the time.  So many projects and ideas that I need to spend time on and plan out on how I can share the information with others.  I find myself being the connector between the thirteen schools at times.  We have teachers doing amazing things in all the buildings.  Sometimes it is not easy for them to share ideas with being spread over such a large area of the Northeast Kingdom.  There are times where I am able to be the connector and share the information with others.  And finally, I do find myself falling into the salesperson type.  Where there is a new program we are rolling out, I find myself often trying to convince teachers why the change will be ok.

So, back to myself, I hope to continue to use social media to find the three different archetypes of people that I can connect with to help build my personal learning network.  Finding mavens that can share information with me about my role or about the latest tech in education.  I need to make connections with individuals that will help move me past just what is happening NEK so I can bring the info back to NCSU and support the community here. And finally, I need to learn who is the salesperson who may be trying to get you to buy into something but making sure it fits into our needs.  I am excited to now have an understanding of these roles and can see how they will impact my participation in social media and in my current work environment. I will be interested in observing how roles change with individuals over time.

Some things to think about...

As I started to read George Couros blog post "Has “Twitter” Changed or Has Our View?", my thoughts actually went to different social media and my feelings towards them lately. Then I moved on to Wesley A. Fryer's blog and his discussion on "Why You Should NOT Quit Facebook or Twitter", where my feelings bounced a different direction.  And then I thought of a TedTalk that I had to watch for a course I took just a bit ago, "Connected, but alone?" with Sherry Turkle. My thoughts go in many different directions when I think about the benefits of social media but I feel my thoughts are changing again as I work on a personalized learning network(PLN) on Twitter. 

I think the piece that often surprises people when I chat with them is that I love technology but I am the first to say it is not needed in all situations.  I see myself as a lifetime learner and that is why I originally changed majors 24 years ago from natural resources to computer science.  I love seeing the innovation, creativity and the constant change that technology can bring to the world.  However, I am the first to say put the device down, I am not always the first to know something because I limit my time on Facebook, and I often explain there is something to say to about picking up the phone and calling someone instead of sending the text or email. In Sherry Turkle's TedTalk she discusses "that we sacrifice conversation for mere connection. We short-change ourselves. And over time, we seem to forget this, or we seem to stop caring." This is exactly how I have been feeling about social media.  Finding myself wanting to be more present and disconnect more often. On the other hand, I feel I need to be connected and that my view is changing. I am seeing it in a different light. 

As I have started to really dive into Twitter and start to embrace the idea of using it to work on my PLN, I can see a positive side to all of this.  I can see how Twitter can help to expand conversations and create connections that reach further than our immediate community. Twitter can work in so many ways to help build a place to build a library of resources.  For example, as I start to finish my final plans for a session for an upcoming professional development day at the district, I am excited to find new resources on Twitter that I will be able to share with the teachers.  This is the piece that I feel brings it all back together though. It is the fact that it is great to build connections with others outside the community but then share the resources with those around you.  This helps to bring it full circle and have the face to face conversations on the topics, conversations that are still so important.  I am enjoying creating my PLN using Twitter and I am excited to see what connections I make, near and far. I have no plans to quit Twitter anytime soon, Facebook may take a little more convincing. It may be a time to say "See you later, Facebook".

Turkle, Sherry. (2012). Connected, but alone?[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together/transcript?language=en#t-438374

Who do I admire as a Leader?

Just to ask myself this question, "Who do I admire as a Leader?", my thoughts go to a number of different individuals I have worked with in different capacities in the last few years or individuals I have observed outside of the work environment.  There are two strong leaders that come to mind immediately.  I think the reason I thought of the two of them first is that they are two people that I have the most respect because of how they work with the individuals around them.

As I think about the two individuals, their strongest characteristics as far as being a leader is one that Simon Sinek discussed in his interview with Omaid Homayun, "How Anyone Can Be The Leader They Wish They Had: An Interview With Simon Sinek", practicing empathy. Being aware of different situations, understanding other peoples points of view, and being able to work with them and lead them in the direction that works best for everyone involved is an important trait for a leader.  Having the courage to take responsibility for the first step that they see fit for the organization all while involving everyone at some level to make them feel included.

When thinking about successful leaders, I think of these leaders who are there working right alongside the individuals who are less in rank.   A leader who is hard working and as involved as they feel their employees should be.  Everyone is part of the process and not one person is taking the glory for the success, everyone gets a little bit of the limelight.

This post includes a number of my random thoughts about leaders that I admire.  I will continue to use both of them as an example for myself as I move forward in this journey.

Stay tuned...

Who am I as a leader?

I never thought of myself as a leader.  I often just think of myself as a team player.  My first experience of being a leader was not related to a work position.  It was a Relay for Life team.  Sure I was listed as the team captain, but we were a team.  I was the one that had to attend meetings to gather information to bring back to the team.  I was not the leader.  It took the effort of everyone involved to do the amazing projects that we pulled off.  However, now that I reflect back to that time I was leading the team.  They looked to me for answers to questions, for resources to help them and to be the one to hold the team together.

As I think of myself as leading projects now at work, I feel I take the same approach.  It takes a team to complete many tasks.  It takes everyone sharing their point of views and giving their experiences to make a project successful. In some cases, in the position I am now in as the technology coordinator, I find my self being the one being more of the "cheerleader" for a teacher who is intimidated by the technology than the person leading their way and making them feel even worse about the insecurities with tech.

As I was reflecting on who I am as a leader, I was listening to Simon Sinek's TED Talk, "How great leaders inspire action".  I really started to make notes of what my "why" is as I start this new position and take this course.  I feel I know the basic part of my "why" which includes helping and supporting others.  I want to make it so technology is "easy" for others and they find the love for it that I have had for years.  Changing from the network administrator to the technology coordinator has allowed me to find my passion again when related to technology. I need to take the responsibility to make sure teachers are supported in their adventure of bringing technology to their classroom.  I need to have the courage to support and lead them while not making them feel like I am taking over their current practices.  I feel this will be where I need to continue to grow.  Being the person they see that use to come in and "fix" the internet or phone system to now helping them with technology in the classroom will be a challenged that I will need to continue to work on my "how" and "what" while always changing and reflecting on my "why".

I am excited to see where I will grow the most through the Leadership and Technology course.  And I am excited to see where this blog takes me.  George Couros' blog post 3 Ways Blogging Has Helped Me Grow as a Learner, gave me a direction with blogging that has helped to make it a little less intimidating.

I look forward to the future...

Welcome to Leading Technology in the NEK.

Welcome to my first official blog.  

Snowy day in the NEK.

This is a new adventure. I am excited to get started and to see where I will go.  I feel like I have a bit of a blank slate like a field with freshly fallen snow. I am thrilled to be part of a course in leadership and technology that will help kick-start this adventure in leading technology in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.