Three Take-Aways from ITSCO Symposium

I attended and presented at the ITSCO Leadership Symposium on October 15 in Worthington, OH. The theme was, “Today’s student relies on mobile technology to access information in real time, in any environment, without situational constraints. How do educators harness this new Education Everywhere environment to build critical thinkers ready for the demands of a new and constantly shifting job market?”

I would like to share a few key things that I took away from the conference.  First, students need to be literate and not just in the simple sense of being able to read and write. Will Richardson’s Huffington post article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-richardson/my-kids-are-illiterate-

mo_b_750177.html) says it far better than I could.  Second, technology can not just be looked at as nice to have in the classroom; it has to be engrained in lessons and leveraged to push rigor, creativity, collaboration, personalization, and intervention.  Lastly, in the information age (information is at the tip of everyone’s finger), education has to be more than just learning and comprehending facts/information.

Outside of these three-take aways, I was able to attend four breakout sessions after the keynote by George Couros.  The round-table sessions promoted a dialogue and interaction of colleagues, instead of sit-and-get.  Kudos to ITSCO for planning a great day of collaborative learning.  The first session was by Dwight Carter on the Connected Leader.  This discussion focused on the importance of connecting and communicating with peers and stakeholders using Twitter and blogging.  It was interesting to hear how various administrators sitting around the table were using these sites and where they were at with implementation.  The second session was a discussion with George Couros, which focused on questions we had such as implementation, connection to standards, rigor, etc. The third session I attended was Blended Learning with Marcy Raymond.  She shared a lot of great things about her district and the direction they are going with STEM and Blended learning. The fourth session I attended was Creativity in the Cloud with Tracy Cindric.  She provided a bunch of web 2.0 tools (with time to play) that we could immediately start using and take back to our schools/district.

Overall, a great day of professional development.  It was great to connect with a lot of fellow educators and to actually meet and discuss with some of the people from my PLN.  However, I am left thinking about the following:

• What should the role of the teacher be?  
• How do we effectively implement these tools?
• What should teaching, learning and overall education look like?  
• How do we facilitate and make change happen?

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers,

Aaron

Design Thinking: Technology and Space

I will be co-leading with Stan McDonald a roundtable session tomorrow at the Ohio ITSCO Leadership Symposium.  Below is the framework for the Table Session Discussion . . . 

Design Thinking: Technology & Space
So what is Design Thinking: Technology & Space?  It is your team’s creative vision for the educational environment in regards to technology. It should shape your Personal Learning Network and your leadership decisions.  Discussion points will focus on the following:
•Vision
•Space
•Technology and Instructional Practice
•Faculty Meetings

Guiding Questions for the Table Session*:
What is the vision and/or design drivers for your school?
How do you utilize school space and technology to shape teaching and learning?
*We are looking to have a discussion where everybody shares what they are doing in regards to the guiding questions and talking points.

Vision/Design Drivers

What is your vision for your school/district?  Is it clear where your school/district wants to be in a year, three years, five years, ten years? What are your design drivers or big rocks (i.e. collaboration, project-based learning, interdisciplinary curriculum, etc)?

What we have been doing: We have focused on being a great high school that strikes a balance between implementing the best of traditional educational practices with the best of progressive practices. Part of that focus has been how to we leverage technology and create inspiring learning spaces that promote a rigorous and relevant curriculum that allow students to collaborate and harness their
creativity.

Space

“And you walk up and down and you see that relatively few people are using our books. Right? Which raises an interesting question. Why are they here? Well, partly they’re here for computers and Wi-Fi, but mostly they’re here because it’s an unbelievably inspiring space. And because people actually want to work in inspiring spaces together, not at home alone. And that’s not going to change.” -- From the NY Times article, The Education of Tony Marx

How are you designing instructional space around your school?  Is the focus on classroom space or commons space or something entirely different?  How has it effected teaching and learning?  What have been the goals related to the changes?

What we have been doing: We continue to look at ways to maximize and creatively use our space.  This summer we created a student lounge, a PBL classroom, and are re-inventing our Library Space.  Moving forward, we are looking at more of our classrooms, Academic Center (Credit Recovery, On-line Learning, Tutoring), hallway areas, commons, and under-utilized space in the building.

The child starting kindergarten this fall will graduate in the third decade of the 21st century.  All we can know abut the world she will step into is that it will have challenges and opportunities beyond what we can imagine today, problems and possibilities that will demand creativity and ingenuity, responsibility and compassion.  Whether this year's kindergarten student will merely survive or positively thrive in the decades to come depends in large measure on the experiences she has in school.  Those experiences will be shaped by adults, by peers, and ultimately by places, by the physical environments where she does her learning.  United in the conviction that environment is our children's third teacher, we can begin anew a vital mission: designing today's schools for tomorrow's world. --The Third Teacher

Technology & Instructional Practice/Curricular Decisions
What are your thoughts when it comes to Textbooks, e-Books, Learning Management Systems, blended learning, on-line learning, traditional classroom learning?  What about purchasing pre-packaged products vs. self-designed?  What about day to day, unit to unit lesson design when it comes to technology? 

What we are doing: Truly trying to find that right balance.  We have faculty experimenting with Blended courses using Moodle and we have a credit recovery and on-line learning center.  We also have faculty using Schoolology and Edmodo as an LMS.  Next year, due to growing enrollment, we are looking at how to increase our blended and online options while still providing a
rigorous and relevant curriculum.

Faculty Meetings
How are they structured? Traditional, Flipped, Departmentalized, Cross-Disciplinary. 
What is the focus?  CCSS, Rigor, Technology, Project-Based Learning, Creativity, Collaboration, etc.

What we are doing: We have flipped faculty meetings this year to provide staff with professional  development time.  The planning for this time is designed with the department chairs and our library director. For example, on a teacher work day this week, department chairs are leading work on curriculum design and assessment with the new standards for part of the time, our Library director is going to be running studio sessions on technology that can be leveraged in the classroom to enhance the creativity, relevance and rigor of lesson design, and the principals are reviewing information with groups of teachers on value-added, and wrapping up with a whole class faculty meeting.

In the end, we make a lot of decisions ranging from the above topics (space, technology, instructional practices, and faculty meetings) to professional development to hiring to master scheduling, etc.  In creating a design thinking environment, all of these items should support your vision which in turn supports The Connected Learner.

Cheers,

Aaron

Design Thinking: Environment

From the Stanford d.school, Our Point of View . . . 

The d.school is a hub for innovators at Stanford. Students and faculty in engineering, medicine, business, law, the humanities, sciences, and education find their way here to take on the world’s messy problems together. Human values are at the heart of our collaborative approach. We focus on creating spectacularly transformative learning experiences, and inevitably the innovations follow. Along the way, our students develop a process for reliably producing creative solutions to nearly any challenge. This is the core of what we do.

In a time when there is hunger for innovation everywhere, we think our primary responsibility is to help prepare a generation of students to rise with the challenges of our times. We define what it means to be a d.school student broadly, and we support “students” of design thinking who range from kindergarteners to senior executives. Our deliberate mash-up of industry, academia and the big world beyond campus is a key to our continuing evolution.

Education in and of itself is a messy problem.  There are not nice, easy solutions on how to change education in the broad sense or how to engage students at a rigorous level or how to bridge the poverty gap or how to prepare students for jobs that don't yet exist.  As a result, we need to have a design thinking mentality when it comes to education.  Everything we do and the decisions that are made in the classroom/school/district needs to come back to one's vision and goals, or design drivers as Christian Long would state.  As a teacher, everything you do from lesson design to technology integration to creating collaborative opportunities to assessment should get at those vision and goals.  As a building leader, it comes down to designing faculty meetings to focusing professional development opportunities to aligning the budget to master scheduling should all come back and support the design drivers.

A critical piece to having a design thinking mentality as an educator and to create a culture where students crave challenging problems that require creativity and ingenuity is designing an environment that promotes these experiences.  It could be something little such as do you set up (design) your classroom space.  It could be something a little more robust such as painting your walls with dry erase paint to encourage spontaneous thinking and collaboration.  It could be something larger such as designing and repurposing a classroom or library.  Check out the Lovett School and The Story Studio Project.

In closing, think about this quote from The Third Teacher:
The child starting kindergarten this fall will graduate in the third decade of the 21st century.  All we can know abut the world she will step into is that it will have challenges and opportunities beyond what we can imagine today, problems and possibilities that will demand creativity and ingenuity, responsibility and compassion.  Whether this year's kindergarten student will merely survive or positively thrive in the decades to come depends in large measure on the experiences she has in school.  Those experiences will be shaped by adults, by peers, and ultimately by places, by the physical environments where she does her learning.  United in the conviction that environment is our children's third teacher, we can begin anew a vital mission: designing today's schools for tomorrow's world. 

I'm curious to hear how you as an educator are creating the school environment that promotes design thinking.

Cheers,
Aaron

Digital Footprints

Are students aware of the power of their digital footprints?

Looking at this pictograph from Connected Learning (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), students are on-line using a variety of networking tools to create, share, explore, play, learn, and publish. Their online presence is creating an indelible mark about who they are as a potential employee, college student, or member of the military.  Too often, I see the negative side of how students use technology and social networks.  How do we help our students be their best?

In the blogosphere, educators are constantly discussing the need for teachers and administrators to have a PLN and August has been Connected Educator month with lots of free professional development to help educators network and grow as a professional including their digital footprint. Should we be discussing and creating a connected student month that focuses on helping students network "academically?"  By academically, I mean that students start to think about how their on-line presence is going to help them for college and career readiness.  Or should this type of learning just be a part of students' daily/weekly learning?

In the end, students need to have a balanced education that includes learning to create a positive digital footprint for themselves.  What are your thoughts?

The Start of School

104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it.  -- Phineas and Ferb, Disney

It is crazy to think that this first day was my 28th (as student and educator) and will be my dad's 55th (I think, you can scold me if I am wrong).  I am very excited to get the year started; faculty had their first official days back last week; Freshmen Orientation was Friday; and our whole high school was  filled today.  I hope that I can continue to have the same passion, drive, and excitement that my father has continued to exhibit in his 30 plus years in education. 

I am excited about about the future of education and I am constantly thinking about the possibilities.  Eric Sheninger shared a video called the Voice of the Active Learner on his blog: http://esheninger.blogspot.com/2012/08/voice-of-active-learner.html (check it out).  This video really captured one of the things that has been weighing heavily on my mind this summer; and that one thing is providing a world class education to a generation of students that "pack a smart phone" and has choices on how/when to learn.  How do we take the best of what we do in education and leverage technology to individualize education, as well as providing the opportunity for national and global collaboration, while upping the level of rigor and promoting creativity?  I shared the video with our faculty to promote a discussion and to get all of us thinking, developing and implementing new strategies and ideas into lesson plans. As always, I believe a balanced approach is critical to what we do.  

Whether you have had your first day or you will shortly, have a great start to the school year! As Phineas states, "We've got fun to make." 

Cheers,

Aaron

Back to School PLN

It's funny how as an educator my year revolves around the "school year."  I was talking with my wife and I said something to the effect of "this upcoming year . . .", and she asked, "are you talking about 2013?".  Any way, another year (2012-2013 school year) is getting ready to begin and I can't wait for all of the students and faculty to be back in our building.  I'm excited about where we have been and the direction we are going.  Yesterday, we had our annual back to school department chair meeting and I attended our marching band preview.  Things are definitely picking up steam and as they do, my mind is beginning to swirl with a myriad of "to do" items/ideas and also thinking about finding that right balance of time with work and home.  While, I do not want to go into all of my professional and personal goals for the year.  I am wrestling with what I want to get out of my on-line PLN (Professional Learning Network).  I have read some great blogs and tweets with informative links this past summer, but I also want to be a contributor as well, which I have tried with my limited number of tweets and blog entries.  I often times come back to the question of why am I taking the time to do this on-line PLN thing?  What am I adding to the equation (my inner math geek is showing)?

First, this past winter I actively joined Twitter and started following educators after attending a conference and seeing the ability to have a conversation during a keynote as well as recognizing the amazing amount of information and PD that various educational leaders are sharing.  Second, I started a blog because I wanted to learn another valuable, educational web 2.0 tool and hopefully contribute to the blogosphere conversation.  After about six months, I am averaging about 10 tweets a month and 1 blog post a month, hardly significant.  I want to produce original content or at least add a new/different perspective to an idea or article, which brings me back to my two questions above.  So, I plan on writing a blog entry a week and doubling my tweets to 20 a month.  Will spending more time actively engaging in producing content help me see why I am doing this and what I am adding to the equation?  Time will tell.  For those blogger and twitter sages out there, what advice/encouragement do you have for me to meet my goal and answer my questions.

In the meantime, I wish all of you educators out there a great start to your school year.

Cheers,

Aaron

On Leadership and Building an Enduring Great Institution
I have been reading Jim Collins' Good to Great along with Good to Great and the Social Sectors as part of a book study with fellow educators.  I also recently read a faculty address by Dr. Gordon E. Gee, president of The Ohio State University, on A Blueprint for the 21st Century University (see the link at the bottom of the page for the full address).  So where is the connection?  It's two-fold: Leadership and Building an Enduring Great Institution.

In his address, President Gee espouses a blueprint for the 21st century university that includes thinking outside of the box when it comes to funding, achievement, learning environments, research, and developing programs to ensure student academic success. I believe much of this blueprint requires a Good to Great mentality or as Dr. Gee states in his address Excellence to Eminence.

Jim Collins speaks of level five leadership, which embodies a mix of professional will and personal humility.  Additionally, he speaks of building greatness to last.  These type of leaders are driven to do whatever it takes to create great companies/institutions that are lasting and they are quick to take the blame when things are not working but quickly give credit to others when things are working. As Dr. Gee states,  "It is about something larger than any individual in this room or any group of individuals on campus. Frankly, we will all come and go. It is about a University with 140 years of history."  Based upon these quotes and others in the address, Dr. Gee is definitely interested in OSU being a great and lasting institution of higher education.  Further throughout his address, there are numerous snippets praising specific people for their roles in OSU's continued march toward eminence and pointed nods on continuing to cultivate leaders amongst the faculty, staff and administration.

As I think about the future of K-12 public education, there are many parallels to Dr. Gee's blueprint; you could easily substitute out university/higher education with the blueprint for K-12 public education.  There are many forces such as student learning styles, economics, technology, public expectations, and politics to name a few that are colliding to reshape the landscape of education.  As a result, we must, as Dr. Gordon E. Gee states, "re-think, re-imagine, and reinvigorate how and what you teach."  In the end we must, honor our best traditions and practices, while continuing to pursue the necessary changes when it comes to student learning, achievement, learning environments, funding, research, and developing programs to ensure student academic success in the 21st century.

http://president.osu.edu/speeches/address-to-the-faculty-a-blueprint-for-the-21st-century-university.html