Who Drives 21st Century Learning? Technology or Curriculum?

I just looked at our Professional Development calendar put together for the school year.  My immediate reaction is.........where are the 21st Century Skills that we all keep saying are so important?  Then I saw the day in January labeled Technology PD where the Technology Team is the responsible party.  (I put together tech training in Jan every year for one full day)  And at the end of the school year, there are another 2 full days of 'tech training' where the tech team is responsible.  Now don't get me wrong, I think 3 full days of 'tech' professional development is awesome.  BUT......is it really the technology department's role to determine what this should be?  

We don't have the role of a curriculum integration person in our district.  We have the curriculum coordinator, and the technology director (me).  Curriculum includes everything except anything that includes a computer, the web, multi-media, electronic communications, ........the standards in....reading, writing, math, science and social studies.  We promote the importance of 21st Century skills and are full of all the related buzzwords.  However,  the Technology Team decides upon 3 full days of tech training that is needed.  This tech training is the only "21st Century Skills"  training that will be on the schedule. Anyone other than me see the problem with this picture?!?  

I'm frustrated and frazzled and wish others would see the value in looking at the curriculum in a holistic manner with 21st Century Skills AND technology.  WHY does it have to be separate!? 

If we really want to successfully prepare our students for this future we don't know, then we need to stop treating technology as this separate entity unless we are truly speaking of specific hardware, software and infrastructure.  If we are talking about it the context of student learning, then it needs to be all in one, one in all.  

Social Media Allows Grown-Ups to be Kids

Young children easily play with whatever children are around them. As children grow it becomes a bit more awkward to simply befriend another. As one enters the teenage years, the saga continues where it takes longer periods of time of being together or similar interests to draw teens together into friendships. There are a few exceptions to this rule like my 14 year old daughter who started a new school for 9th grade this year. She did have an immediate group of new friends because of joining the swim team but that wasn't enough. She has become much more outgoing this year....she literally walked around asking other kids if they wanted to be her friend. I thought she was kidding with me when she told me she was doing that, but she wasn't. Luckily, she met many very nice friends this way.

Well....as we move into adulthood, college and the workplace, it takes more time to develop these friendships, relationships, acquaintances, or whatever you want to call the interactions betwen two people. As I have started to use social media tools, and especially today as I started posting and commenting on the network created for the Laptop Institute Conference, it got me thinking how easy these tools make it to do what is difficult for adults to do in real life. Many adults, myself included, are hesitant to muster up conversations with others. As much as we are all at this type of event to do just that, I am often quiet and shy. I am less timid having tools such as the ning created for NECC, and this interactive site for the Laptop Institute.

This got me to thinking and wondering about this phenomena of how these social online tools are really changing behaviors.  I know that I feel like I am gaining so much more from the summer conferences and trainings I am attending because of these tools.  I'm sure I'm not alone in this adult world of making new friends as easily as one does as a five year old.

Summer Learning Continues

I spent a week in San Antonio at NECC with my husband and daughter. We spent an extra day at Schlitterbaun Water Park and the Como River. I had two days at home for the holiday weekend and flew out to Boston for PowerSchool University. I returned for less than a day to fly to Memphis for the Laptop Institute. I am in my room this morning trying to spend a some time planning my attack for the next few days of more learning. I feel like a giant sponge taking in so much information and sharing. The downside to these back to back conferences and training is the lack of reflection time. I haven't had time to unwind and regroup and really reflect on what I have heard, watched, talked about, learned or shared. In between it all, I've been trying to keep up on the continuing tasks that come my way from the home front. My email is out of control. I'm trying to respond to the most urgent needs. The summer project list is growing. My fear is not spending the needed time to truly reflect and gather thoughts on all of these opportunities before too much time elapses.  I need to make that time, regardless of the monstrosity of other tasks waiting for my attention.  

The biggest ponderment I have is.....When do I get all this time off in the summer that non-educators presume happen when one works for a school?  Although, I suppose if I ever really had it, I would still spend in on learning and finding ways to better do what I do to support teaching and learning in our schools.

Yeeehaaaaa!

Enjoyed the inspiring talk and learning more first hand about the wisdom of crowds today at the Keynote for NECC.  Everyone received their very own cowboy souvenir hat.  Well, who couldn't resist the leftovers to bring home for the family.  I put them to good use for this family mugshot.  

Tomorrow will be a long busy day. I'm looking forward to taking it all in.

#NECC - Icing on the Twitter Cake

I am so excited to be at NECC this year.  I moved from a global company in their IT department to K12 Education exactly 5 years ago.  It's been an eye opener and a wild ride that I wouldn't trade in for anything.  I walked into a position where there was no turnover and a sole person who had the keys to the kingdom….and I replaced him.  I knew nothing about technology in education.  I knew that I was thrilled to be working in a position where I could help teach teachers how to use technology in the classrooms and where I could feel like I could make a difference.  I didn't realize it would be five years to get to a point in my career where I would begin to have time to do what I had envisioned.

My first month in I saw the importance of NECC and signed up.  I had NO idea what I was getting into.  I flew to Seattle and blindly started my immersion into the educational technology arena.  I left there feeling even more geeked than when I decided to take the job.  I came back thinking I would be able to work closely with our curriculum coordinator in creating programming for our students.  I later learned that there is a distinct difference in what our curriculum coordinator sees as curriculum and what I see as curriculum.  I've since accepted the fact that if it has anything to do with a computer or the Internet or anything you plug in that it falls under the Technology department, thus me.  I'm okay with this.  Fortunately, for our students and programming, I am excited about education, educational theory, educational reform, and just plain old education for kids.  All decisions that I make that relate to the technology and underlying infrastructure, I make with student success in mind first.

I've spent a lot of time working on the infrastructure, building my team, and creating an environment where technology can thrive. I don’t know that we’ll ever be there completely….who is? It is a constant work in progress where I will always seek more and better. I have attended NECC each year since that first year. Every year it brings a level of excitement and renewal in the feelings that brought me to my job. However this year, I see the value more than any other year. And I must say I think Twitter is the reason why. I have gotten to read and know so many educators through twitter. I still do not have the time to fully participate in the edublogger community the way I would love to but the time I do spend has been invaluable. I have learned so much from all of you.

My eyes have been opened and they are wide. I am giddy with excitement in what I can do next in my job. I’m thrilled to be in a position where I know my decisions can and do make a difference in the lives of kids every day. I know that I am seeking out ideas and thoughts to help promote and implement with our teachers and administrators. So, even though I feel like an outsider with many of the conversations taking place….I’m okay with that. I know that relationships will be built in time. I know I have had a few conversations that I hope will build into a lasting professional relationship.  

Having the opportunity to attend NECC again this year is icing on the twitter cake. So if you read this and have the chance to meet me or I come up and say hello, please give me a big Texan howdy!

Admin Access for Teachers or Not?

Should teachers have administrative access on their school-owned computers? In our district we have a mixed environment of Windows and Apples for teacher laptops. Years ago we revoked all administrative access on teacher laptops. Life from a tech-support perspective got much better!

All teachers were then using Window machines. There weren't clear guidelines on what was allowed to be installed. Teacher laptops were full of viruses, spyware, and software (personal versions of finance programs, Peer to peer sharing programs) that should never have been installed. Admin access was revoked and the support issues releated to these rogue applications were eliminated. We have since then brought on Apple laptops of which I have allowed administrator access. Teachers have the freedom to update and install educational software as needed. This has not caused problems like we saw earlier when access was open on the Windows laptops.

Now I am at a new era, where I would like to open this option back up for our teachers using Windows laptops. (We run both.) I can already hear our technicians telling me what a bad idea this is going to be. I will be arguing on the side of giving teachers the flexibility to use their laptops to its fullest extent which includes running an update when needed to iTunes, or Firefox, or whatever, or installing a great open source application they have found. I am considering the security risk and the support time involved if there are problems. However there are also support costs incurred when we have touch each machine to fix or add another application we'd like them to use.

Do I turn on the flood gates on teacher Window laptops and give them Administrative access despite what I know our technicians will tell me when I bring it up??? Do I allow this freedom for teachers to explore, update and install so they can use their laptops more fully, risking the added security breaches and support issues that will likely also occur? I can hear them arguing with me already.

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us