Thinking about change
As I was reading Bradley Shoebottom’s thought-provoking post about “the only constant in life is change – the changing roles of educators” I noticed the possibly related post link below it. I was hooked once again to follow a lead. The post was “The Business of blogging”. The author was Greg Whitby. He had read an article by Ian Grayson in the Australian on blogging in the corporate environment. I read that and then returned to Greg’s site. I mention all this to let you know my habits and how I learn from wandering here and there. I just feel compelled to follow these leads, and the pay-offs are usually great! Anyway, Greg was blogging about how the education sector can learn a lot from industries who are using blogs in productive and creative ways. He went on to state how these tools are no longer fads, but proven technologies that help organizations improve the way they work. Greg asked
“Why is the education sector lagging behind? Why isn’t our industry leading the thinking and application of such capabilities? Surely we must be on about questioning, challenging and innovation, isn’t this part of our core business? Aren’t things like communication, collaboration, personalisation central to the work we do in schools?”
He followed with this:
I am beginning to suspect it’s because educators rarely venture out of their own networks or jump into this world themselves. I don’t think you can effectively engage in this agenda in the abstract, you have to be an active participant. This means that educators have to blog, use wikis, have a facebook page, use del.icio.ous and the like.
I think a big part of why educators are not out of their own networks is that their day is filled with other priorities that the teacher has to accomplish. I wish schools would make reflection and learning time for teachers a priority that nothing could interrupt. Students need the same. I agree that educators need to blog, use wikis, del.icio.ous and the like but until the educators’ learning and growth is truly made a priority within our schools , I don’t think we will make the progress we need to achieve. We need leaders that make this happen. A reflective culture of learning and growing must be nurtured in our schools. Bob Garmston and Bill Powell have written on how it needs to be a cornerstone of our schools’ culture. I could not locate their articles online so if someone has links to them, please share. I have found that using blogs with students to reflect about what they are learning and how they learn lets them write their way into their own understandings. It lets them discover answers to the questions they need to ask. A blogging class of students can work together, reflect, pass ideas back and forth and have the ability to reach out to a larger audience to share and learn from one another. We need to encourage our students to tell the story of what they are learning - not just a regurgitation of the facts but one where they explore how they might use these facts or share how they have applied those learning of facts to something that is going on in their lives. Students need help putting their experiences into words, especially at the elementary level. They are very capable of this but we need to give them lots of opportunities to write about their learning. Blogging is a perfect space for that to happen. That’s one of the ways I’d like to see students using blogging in their classrooms.
My interest was next captured by the 20 or so comments that followed Greg’s post.
Judy O’Connell shared how her professional learning would be practically non-existent if it weren’t for blogging, sharing delicious links, twitter, etc. I know it has been life-changing for me, too. Finding others who share your concerns, your hopes, and especially connecting with those who want shifts in our current education is awesome. We really need education to be leading in this area. It seems insane that we are not.
Another commenter, Roger Pryor pointed out that the internet has provided him with access to other communities of leaders, and the opportunity to learn a plethora of ways which actually enhance, rather than diminish our ability to build human capital. Again, why are our students blocked from this learning? It makes no sense.
And yet another commenter, FManning talks about the culture in her school where all of them, staff and students alike are recognizing that they each have a voice that is worth being heard. She said her Principal has always maintained that reflection and evaluation of their work is of utmost importance in effective learning. Her school’s work with Web2 tools is based on this and this is what she feels is the basis of their success with social networking tools. We need more schools of this nature. I think this is one of the most important things we need to do in our schools – make time for reflection and conversations about the learning, both for teachers and students. We spend so little time on how we learn and way too much time on what we learn. We need to rethink all this.
The changing roles of educators – all this led me back to the original post I read on Bradleyshoebottom’s Weblog. I thought about his metaphor for his world. He talked of wayfinding and how it can be a useful term for the information domain. He relates that wayfinding was originally used to describe how people find their way around in the physical world. He thinks wayfinding is a useful term for the information domain, because ultimately learners must navigate the confusing number of competing ideas out in the world around any particular subject. He asks the question,
“Can we teach wayfinding? Or is wayfinding incredibly personal?”
He feels it is both and says we can teach the elements of wayfinding and use many of these internet tools in the process. I like the way he is thinking about this and it’s given me lots of food for thought. I think we should be teaching it and then having conversations about the journeys so that we can learn from each other. And I wonder how might we get change to move a little faster in our educational world?
Flickr photo paint from buenosaurus photostream
Tags: CCK08
November 9th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
When I think about this issue - and I think about it quite a bit - I keep coming back to the fact that Google encourages its employees to spend 20% of their time working on projects not directly related to their main work responsibilities. Sounds like wayfinding on both an individual and organizational level. I’m also thinking about a conversation that I had with Charlie Kratsch (CEO of SIS maker Infinite Campus) in which he lamented that schools typically limit professional development to 3-4 conference days per year while his company has people who spend one day each week in staff development. We still have a long way to go…
November 13th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Thanks Mike, for your relevant comment. Just think what educators could accomplish if we had one day each week in staff development that we had the opportunity to design! I think the payoff could be tremendous both for students and teachers!
November 18th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
I think having the students blog with each other about things they have learned is a good idea to really put the things we teach into practice. It is good for the students to converse with each other to find out new things that one or more students did not pick up from the lesson. Also, blogging is a good way for the students to practice their writing techniques and to be semi professional. This will prepare the students for secondary education where they will have to write papers and express things they have learned.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Hi Anne,
I too agree with you on spending 1 day each week in staff development. But do you really think it is possible to implement it?
November 26th, 2008 at 7:17 am
If you think back 10+ years ago when we were all handed new communication and collaboration tools to work with we were forced to abandon many of our old ways of doing things. The PC replaced the typewriter and so forth. The biggest struggle in getting people both in business and in the education sector is it is not mandated.
You write “I think a big part of why educators are not out of their own networks is that their day is filled with other priorities that the teacher has to accomplish.”
This is exactly the same sentiment that I hear when I consult with businesses and nonprofits. The thing is these networks can enhance the work you do. It is a matter of learning how to use these tools, manage your time, and letting go of the habits that are no longer the most efficient or effective.
However I am all to aware that real success relies on the right culture shift, a shift to trust people more, being more transparent and collaborating more than controlling. That is a shift I think people struggle with much more than they do with the tools.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I agree with the comments regarding professional development (or lack thereof) for teachers, not only in primary and secondary school, but at the university level as well.
I work for a major midwestern land-grant university. Although our faculty have time to delve into professional development activities, it is limited by their constant requirement to ‘practice’ what they are teaching (medical setting). So, although there is time, it is not sufficient to allow faculty to learn about new technologies that can be incorporated into their classrooms to engage students in the learning process. My college has recently instituted an Educational Technology department to ‘try’ to determine the best-fit technologies and introduce them to our college.
I am also discouraged by the lack of professional development opportunities available on the web. I am actively participating in a research project (for publication) regarding professional development opportunities available on the internet for technology leaders in the educational environment. There seem to be very few sites that are a one-stop-shop where leaders/developers/technologists can go to find relative information on new and emerging technologies for use in the educational environment. Most sites I have found are simply links to other sites… not very useful to say the least.
From what I have found, however, is that sites that offer a ‘community’ forum (blogs and wikis) are the most helpful in that technology leaders/faculty/staff etc. can speak with others in similar situations who have either already introduced a particular technology, are looking to introduce a new technology, or have other information regarding technology, how it can be utilized, tricks-and-traps, etc. This type of community seems to be the most effective way for educators to receive professional development, even though what is being learned is not ‘professional development material’ per se.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Places like Google and upstart companies sometimes have it easier because they are establishing their own culture as they go, where as in schools we are transforming generations of tradition. It’s not surprising to me that education is behind the trend in this case, as it has been the case in the past as well. You end your blog with a great question about how we can get change to move faster and I feel that the best way was touching upon by other respondents, which is changing the view of professional development. Professional development in my district is rarely a collaborative process, and if we cannot change the collaborative effort within single districts then it will be difficult to change it across the industry as a whole. We must trust the upcoming generation of teachers that is confident in the power of change to push these concepts to their administrators in hopes that it does not take a generation to erode away some traditions. It is also up to parents, who are working in the other fields which were discussed, to take note of their child’s learning and make their voice heard as well. As all progress is, it will not come easily.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I agree with your statement about teachers being bogged down with other priorities. Our work doesn’t stop just because we left the building. I am a 3rd year teacher and still working hard to keep my head above the water. I am very interested in all the advanced technology resources available to use in the classroom yet I am somewhat clueless on how it all works or where to begin. Since I knew I would not take the time to truly teach myself how to use such resources I signed up for technology class which has forced me to become a part of this blogging world. Although I am enjoying learning all these new things I am quite stressed by all the information as I am sure is the same way most teachers feel when faced by something that is very unfamiliar. As teachers I feel that we are set in this mindset of what school is supposed to be and are sometimes directed in certain ways by administration and other groups that we do not have time to think outside the box and begin implementing these great new technologies.
January 1st, 2010 at 9:03 am
Today’s public school classroom is the product of approximately 100 years of systemic fine tuning.
As a result, at the core of the system we have School Board, Superintendent, Principal, Teacher, Student.
This structure protects itself in a very aggressive manner, no matter who says what about what.
Teachers are “given” a curriculum to teach. In many districts, steps have been taken to protect the student from teacher interference with the assigned curriculum. So called “teacher proofing” the classroom.
Texts guide the classroom, and principals are responsible for making certain that his or her teachers are teaching what the school board has approved and in the way the school board has approved.
We read often of teachers who have attempted something innovative. When that happens and a parent (just one) complains, the system has plenty of room to scapegoat, and the teacher is the most expendable and cheapest way to rid the district of the “problem.”
A student can be as inquisitive as he or she wants to be. However, the public system is not set up to address individuality. It is set up to “socialize.”
If it were otherwise, children would not be segregated by age as if they were apples on a tree maturing at the same time and in the same way, and presented a credentialed teacher who has promised to deliver the curriculum fairly and evenly to everyone irrespective of interests or ability.
Innovation is marginalized (There’s always some going on at the fringes to satisfy the progressives), but the system itself is preserved with hundreds of billions of dollars of power invested yearly to make certain all teachers are the same, teaching the same thing, in the same way to everyone, no exceptions.
If you were a teacher walking into a classroom of 25-30 students, handed a text book from which to teach, not knowing a thing about the individual interests or passions of the students you are about to address, what is the overriding message of such a structure. It’s certainly not, “Let me know who you are as a person, and I will try to excite you intellectually regarding this subject based on your individual interests.”
The classroom system of the 1950’s and the classroom system of 2010 are the same. It is only the rhetoric that has changed.
I am a public school teacher. I have taught in several districts in an attempt attempt to free myself to address the needs of my students.
I know now, as long as I remain in the public schools accepting tax payer money, I will always fail to reach the goal of putting the student first. Preserving the system comes first in the public schools. Everything and everyone else is expendable.
I have labored hard and long before accepting this harsh reality.
July 6th, 2010 at 10:50 am
I am thrilled to see all the people thinking the same as me - that teachers need far more time to learn! One day of professional development a week sounds like paradise to me. Educators often talk about the goal of instilling “life-long learning” in our students - but how many of us have very limited time for learning ourselves? If we want to teach life-long learning, we need to model it. I envision K-12 schools that share space (or maybe just cyberspace!) with universities and professional teaching academies, where teachers spend part of every day on their own learning and students can see the adults around them struggle to grow and take on new challenges.
Thanks, Anne, for your provocative post, and everyone for your fascinating comments!
July 18th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Thank you for sharing a good story.
August 31st, 2010 at 7:40 pm
wish you a great continuation. Wishing you the best of luck for all your blogging