Note: Podcast permission granted by all facilitators.Facilitators from Sam Houston University:
- Dr. Rebecca Bustamante
- Dr. Julie P. Combs
- Dr. Stacey Edmonson
Contact Info: sedmonson@shsu.edu
Listen to Podcast (listen online at the Internet Archive) and/or read my notes (which include the Powerpoint slide information)
This was a great presentation to listen to with great pieces of advice.
PODCAST INTRO TEXT:
Hi! Thanks for listening to this Around the Corner podcast. Today is Thursday, January 29, 2009. This is your host Miguel Guhlin.
Sometimes in Educational Technology in K-12 education, I feel the truth of this assertion, made in the movie Brubaker: “Every warden puts new paint on the walls, but the system stays the same.” This quote speaks to me as an educator who has been trying to bring about change--to the benefit of myself, adult learners and the children we all serve. Often, I have to ask, am I just putting new paint on the walls?
As I reflect on this quote--and I believe it is important to reflect on this so that we can continually re-evaluate who we are and what we must do--I have to wonder, when bringing about change in schools, how is that supposed to happen? When we drop a brand new computer lab into a school, provide professional development for the teachers, move inexorably towards a 1 to 1 ubiquitous computing environment for children, what must educational leaders do, or perhaps, allow to happen?
At the 2009 TASA Midwinters Conference, 3 researchers shared what they had discovered, offering the gift of wisdom to a small audience. I hope that the audience will grow as I post their presentation online. The lessons they have to teach are valuable, simple, and, as I know from experience, difficult to implement in the highly complex environments we call K-12 schools.
Here's the last 2 slides of the presentation:
What is a School Leader to Do?
Necessary Resources (i.e. staff, time, training, equipment, org, procedures, learning, management systemsFinal Considerations
- Every child had their own PC (HP laptop)
- A technical person on campus and would trouble-shoot when there were problems.
- Learning Management System - a shell that is already setup. THey are referring to Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle, etc. Having this in place could have presented a lot of the managerial issues.
- Establish a clear Student Code of Conduct to account for technology-related discipline issues
- Offer differentiated professional development for students, teachers, and parents to include content-specific strategies that incorporate technology.
- Provide teachers with clear expectations about use of tech. Focus more on quality instructional technology for student engagement and learning than frequency of use.
- Involve all constituency groups in consensus building.
- Some of the challenges and concerns are typical for program implementations, organizational change, and groups working with adolescents.
- Most of the tech-related challlenges were quickly resolved, in part due to the technological expertise and human relations skills of key staff members, including the campus admin team.
- Application of a 1 to 1 program may highlight effective teaching and student engagement, and, at the same time, intensifying ineffective teaching and adolescent-parent conflicts.
- Successful 1 to 1 implementation requires innovative and dedicated teachers, technology-proficient administrators, a shared-leadership philosophy, and trust among constituents so that the problems can be easily identified and resolved.
- Create mechanisms for consistent student input (e.g. Student Advisory Council)
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