Elizabeth Helfant from MICDS in St. Louis, MO has an amazing post outlining their school's transformation. Julie and I spent time there this summer giving them a "crash course" in flat classroom. The teachers are impressive as is the leadership of Eliza
Elizabeth Helfant outlines the changes at her school as they implement 1:1 laptops. The change and plans are comprehensive and stunning, from altering the work day and school year, to integration of technology.
CoSN has long recognized that superintendents can make or break technology initiatives. For example, in a 2004 nationwide survey of 455 technology decision makers, CoSN found that visionary technology leadership - and the community support fostered by district leaders - made the difference in districts that were able to bolster their technology plans, budgets and implementation.
Some would argue that the tension and irritation between "why" and "how" is by design. That these shifts are creating a permissive framework in education where there are no clear answers (Turner, 2004). And that in a changing educational environment the needed changes in education should be negotiated from a why approach rather than a how approach.
It is no longer about information management and prescriptive outcomes, but rather about building capacity- in ourselves, our faculty, our staff and in our students and then being able to contextualize the collective wisdom we gain through those relationships to making the world a better place.
It is about building capacity! That is where leadership on all levels is needed!
It needs to happen across districts, in schools, and even 'one teacher at a time'!
It is about building capacity! That is where leadership on all levels is needed! It needs to happen across districts, in schools, and even 'one teacher at a time'!
CoSN Receives MacArthur Grant: Exploring Policy and Leadership Barriers to Effective Use of Web 2.0 in Schools The $450,000 grant began July 1st and over the coming year CoSN will focus on the following key objectives: 1.Identify findings from existing empirical research relevant to the use of new media in schools and the barriers to their adoption and scalability. 2. Assess the awareness, understanding, and perspectives of U.S. educational leaders (superintendents, district curriculum and technology directors/CTOs) and policymaker's on the role, problems, and benefits of new media in schools within a participatory culture context. 3. Investigate and document the organizational and policy issues that are critical obstacles for the effective deployment of new media. 4. Develop a concise report of findings and construct an action plan for intervention.
MITS Freedom Stick 1.0
The MITS Freedom Stick is the result of global collaboration and the leadership of Ira Socol. The design and primary technical work was all done by the Regional Support Center - Scotland North and East. We are extremely grateful fo
I love this trip that is happening in Finland, especially the transparency. I'm going to be "hanging out" with some of those in Finland in the hangout on Wednesday. You can look at what they are doing and how they are traveling and sharing. I think more information-gathering trips should be this transparent.
"Doctoral learners from the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education will spend a "week in the schools" -- the schools of Helsinki, that is -- looking at a variety of research areas through the lenses of students, teachers, parents and leaders. These lead learners will use that week to reflect upon where the United States and Finland agree and disagree on core beliefs surrounding teaching, learning and leadership."
The Project-Based Learning designs on this website were created by West Virginia teachers who worked with the WVDE Office of Instruction through participation in the Teacher Leadership Institute, the Secondary PBL project, content-specific professional de
I'm interviewing Gallit Zvi from British Columbia, Canada today on Every Classroom matters (should post in about a week) about genius hour and I was intrigued by this post on her blog about how her school "looks." While some of these points have inspired questions (they can cook for their family in lieu of copying spelling sentences, for example) others have me wishing we could do the same thing (entrepreneur fair where students have a sales idea, craft a business plan and make and sell products.) It is worth a peek inside this fascinating classroom and school which uses genius hour among other things.
We are a happy and stable staff, and my colleagues are a fabulous group of people who look after each other and genuinely care about one another. We have an experienced leadership team, and always aim to take account of how people are feeling and the pressure they are under when trying new approaches and changes to practice. Even so, it has become more and more clear that workload is becoming untenable and wellbeing is suffering a result. I feel that we have felt obligated at times to put policies in place that seem to be there to collect evidence for Ofsted rather than solely to improve the learning of the children in our care. We want to change this.