The World is Flat
Visionary Leadership ISTE Standards A Standard 1
Sheninger 1 & 2
Chapter 1 Evolving Educational Leadership
Chapter 2 Why Change?
The World is Flat
Chapter One ~ Evolving Landscape
Dr. Michael Barbour vs. Mark Prenski
on Digital Natives
Chapter Two ~ Why Change?
ISTE Standards A Standard 1
"Technology is a tool, not a learning outcome!" ~
p.148
Today's Tools:
Homework:
Take Self
Assessment, Screen Capture your Results w/ District and State & Post on your new blog
Circle - The piece that is still circling around in my head is, in what ways do we need to change the learning process to create better prepared students for college and/or the work force?
ReplyDeleteSquare - I agreed with the notion that school's today are not adequately preparing students for success in our technologically growing world. I think as instructional leaders we need to work to help our teachers develop students' skills that they will use after school.
Triangle - Something that changed in my thinking today is the desire to utilize social media to enhance our orchestra program. I think this can be instrumental in how we communicate with our community.
I also feel that, as instructional leaders, we must help teachers develop technology skills to support our students as they become college and career ready. Using social media to enhance your orchestra program would be a super effective way to communicate with your students and families. What social media medium would give you the greatest connection to your stakeholders?
DeleteThere is so much technology in the world!! It is honestly amazing how many different programs and apps there are out there. Students always know about them before I do. For me, I have to pick a manageable number of apps to be invested in, otherwise I would be overwhelmed. There are a lot of programs that I already use in the classroom to help engage students. I would like to learn more about how to be efficient in using technology. Time savers like setting up templates or programs that provide the best information would be great to learn!
ReplyDeleteOverwhelming teachers with multiple initiatives is something that I have seen done many times in education. I would love to provide my staff (someday) with a menu of 4-5 tech options and then allow them to decide which one they would like to integrate into their classrooms. Then teachers could not only select a resource that fits their classrooms, but also be paired up with other teachers working on the same thing to allow them to have built in support during their implementation. This could then be structured to allow more iterations to allow teachers to continually broaden their horizons.
DeleteTriangle
ReplyDelete1. I liked the conversations about being principals that share our own technology skills and capacity to show support of infusing technology into daily instruction and communication.
2. I thought I was a little more tech savvy until I started in on the class!
3.Periscope would be a great way to have teachers and students "see" how others teach specific content in which they may need help with or in.
Square - Something that squared with me is the need to use multiple platforms to communicate with community, parents, students, etc.
Circle - Something that's still circling around in my head is how to build a system within the daily school setting to have teachers observing or modeling good use of technology integration strategies to enhance student learning, teacher productivity and capacity, and engagement.
I like your idea about having a way for teachers to model technology integration and also having the opportunity to observe other teachers using it too. I think this may also be a strategy for the "frozen" people who are struggling with integrating technology into their classrooms simply because they are uncomfortable using it themselves!
DeleteTechnology with some type of model of instructional rounds and PLCs might be a really great way to get something like this going. I think that you could have technology be a PLC topic and see where that takes teachers. I really think that people just need time to play around with any type of new technology for a while.
DeleteI agree though, Ashley, that this is a really good idea to engage potentially reluctant technology teachers.
I agree with the notion of finding creative ways for teachers to model their teaching practices and/or receive feedback from others! Along with this I also think about the need to ensure that we are creating a safe place for teachers to only share the lessons they want with the teachers they want. I think starting with a safe culture is a big part in supporting teachers in taking chances both with technology and with pedagogical strategies.
DeleteRyan- I agree with you that principals have to be instructional leaders of technology. I think it is really important to model technology that can be applicable to classrooms.
DeleteI learned so many new things today! I had never written a blog before and it will be nice to get more familiar with that because I can see it being a valuable tool to use as a principal for community outreach and collaboration. I'm excited to continue to mess around with it and customize it, as well as learn about the different things I can incorporate into it!
ReplyDeleteBeing old, I had also never signed up for a Twitter account, so we will see how that goes! :) I think these ten days are going to be a whirlwind, but I can see already that I am going to learn a lot about the advantages of technology in a school setting.
This will be a crazy two weeks! But I agree, we're going to come away with many more tools!!
DeleteSquare - Our educational system is not equipped to handle the ever changing needs of our evolving learners. As future leaders, it is our job to assist in this movement and provide educators with the appropriate tools and trainings to do so.
ReplyDeleteCircle - Introducing technology is great and important, I do however have a few questions/concerns with doing so. How is this going to be equally funded so ALL students have the same opportunities? Even if it is possible to fund this in schools, how can we assure that students and parents are able to use this technology off of school grounds?
Triangle - This directly relates to me because I am piloting a new math curriculum that is all online. The district allowed me to use my own iPad cart to facilitate this pilot, and there are more issues every day trying to implement this technology into my classroom. I have parents that are wondering where is the book so they can help their child, students are not always able to access this technology at home so do I then not assign homework?
I had a similar problem with homework when I taught fifth grade and our district was pushing using Google Classroom. Students were able to access Classroom to view content because they used their parents' phones or they used xbox, but weren't able to actually do any of the assignments. We were able to provide hard copies of things, but it was still a difficult thing for families. I wonder how your district will handle the new curriculum and providing access to families?
DeleteThe idea of equity has been a struggle for me from an administrative perspective. This year I ran a paperless classroom and in doing so I realized there were many more opportunities to students who had internet at home. They were by default "able" to learn more as compared to students who were without. They had continual connectivity to each other and the documents we learned with including websites and apps. I learned there are programs through carriers to subsidize or provide free internet service if one qualifies. I will definitely be looking into this for the disadvantaged students in my new school next year.
DeleteAndy, I had the same thought in terms of equity of resources for students. Particularly as students coming from lower SES backgrounds are at a disadvantage when it comes to technology available to them at home.
DeleteWow, I learned a lot about technology today and am excited to utilize twitter, blogging, etc. as tools to connect to my school community. I still wonder how to best engage my staff and families to support technology initiatives/vision. I also have never heard of Pokemon Go before today, but my wheels are turning on how it could/would work as an educational tool in school...great day!
ReplyDeleteAgree that there is a lot of information that needs to be processed. I have a lot of ideas running around in my head now, but how can it look in a school....Pokemon Go is a great example.
DeleteToday was a lot of technology information all at once. So a lot of that information is still circling around in my head. I am always aware of how much technology is out there but what really sticks with me is how do we implement it in such a way as to make the highest impact for our students. Not all staff members will jump at the chance to have new tools to use in their classrooms, so how can administrators introduce new technology in such a way that it makes teachers want to use it?
ReplyDeleteSomething that changed in my thinking today is the way new technologies are presented to the staff. I think that we need to start smaller first, then grow. For example, I am thinking that some type of book study like group to show teachers online tools. This would provide a forum for them to discuss how they could use that tool in their classroom. It would also be a great way to send out feelers to the staff for what tools they are interested in utilizing. I think that you could find a small group to meet once a month and commit to exploring a different technology tool each time (blogger, twitter, etc.) Then teachers could come with ideas, pros and cons and discuss.
What a day! My understanding of technology continues to expand and develop each moment. I am new to Twitter, I haven't used Blogger since my high school/college days, and I am definitely not up to date on the latest social media things (I blame my two young daughters!). I can already tell that I will be using my newly learned tech skills from these two weeks. I have been toying with the idea of using Blogger for my weekly newsletters so having the time to play in Blogger again will definitely be beneficial to me!
ReplyDeleteI think using blogger for family communication is a great idea! I may piggyback on your idea and use it too! That would give us the chance to test it out and see how we like it as a medium for community communication, so that we may use it more effectively as school leaders later!
DeleteI was also thinking of using blogger for a communication tool, but more along the lines of a class website. I have always struggled with creating and updating a website consistently, but I think that the format in blogger is easier to use. It would be really easy to just post the homework each day and even notes, or reminders and it would be quick for students to check.
DeleteMy principal uses blogger for our staff. It is an efficient tool to communicate with all staff and you have one place to go for info. From the blogger page he has links for our master schedules, meeting schedules, mission/vision, etc. Super handy!
DeleteI'm glad we get to play around with blogger, so I can work on adding a feature or two to our website as one of my intern assignments.
SQUARE: One idea from today that I agree with is the notion that technology can be better utilized to both enhance and streamline processes and the communication loop for both teachers and administrators. This technology, when integrated properly and with proper training will improve education. I also believe that this technology will support our students in being more prepared for the world in which they will live and work in the future.
ReplyDeleteCIRCLE: One idea that is still circling in my head is the notion of how public schools can better educate our students on the appropriate uses for social media help improve the issues that arise in schools based on social media posts. I also would like to further explore how to more equitably disperse technology to students so that the achievement gap is narrowed as a function of technology as opposed to being widened.
TRIANGLE: One idea that is changed my thinking today was the notion of trying to find the positive use for a potentially problematic technological or social media issue. I liked the idea of not simply dismissing that but rather looking to find any benefits it could have to your school.
I really agree with your circle thoughts on improving and having discussions around appropriate uses of social media. I wonder if that could be a topic that the freshmen class tackles in the form of a socratic seminar?
DeleteHey Chris, I am right there with you in wrestling with digital responsibility among my students. We are transitioning to become a 1:1 district and this issue is becoming more and more prevalent. I know there are curriculums out there on digital responsibility but it will be interesting to see how those curriculums develop as technology abuse becomes even more common.
DeleteFrom today’s class I feel pretty comfortable with most of the platforms we are using. Technology can be a benefit to classes, but is not always necessary.
ReplyDeletePrincipals should utilize technology and social media to promote the positive things their schools are doing. If you don’t, someone else will.
The blogger website is still new to me and I am going to need some time to explore. I know there are very interesting things that can be done on the site, but I do not know how to make that happen yet.
I am still trying to think of how I can use blogger in my class. We are currently using google classroom for my day to day communication. My thought is using blogger as a class website that students and myself can update to reach out to the greater community.
I am very interested to find out how social media can aid in my day to day operations of the classroom.
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ReplyDeleteTriangle:
ReplyDelete1. I like the idea of using periscope for families that can't make it into a school event.
2. I like to use technology, but I have a lot to learn!
3. How do I most effectively share and model technology with staff?
Square:
I think with all the technology that is available to schools, there is no reason we aren't actively communicating with all families in different forums.
Circle: If I want the school blog to be viewed and have purpose, how often should I update? That seems to be the biggest point of contention at our school. One of my intern tasks is to create a staff spotlight and a point of interest on the blog. Which leads to two questions:
1) How do I create that? Is that too much for one page or should it be a link?
2)Is there a way that I can create a link of resources that can easily be plugged into the blog spotlights?
I want to check out periscope for that reason as well. Also, I think this could be a great tool for students that are out for a long absence due to health concerns.
Delete