DoerDi - Learning Powered by Technology

Welcome to the musings and thoughts of a servant leader who really does think that a committed group of people CAN change the world.

[doerdi]

One-To-Many (1:n)

My vision of matching the learning task to the appropriate technology tool could be called not a 1:1 relationship, but a 1:n, or One-To-Many relationship.

I read an article in EdWeek today that talks about a school district, twice the size of Green Bay Area School District, doing what we are doing in our secondary schools, which is providing a variety of technology tools that students can use for their coursework. There are many tasks students do on computers for their daily classes. At times they may be researching online and word processing. At other times they may be creating videos or video conferencing with students from another part of the world. We want to make sure students have access to the right tools to help them complete the jobs.In order to be fiscally responsible, we did not want to "over purchase" getting all devices with all the bells and whistles, when in reality, they may not be used for all tasks/assignments.

We are providing carts of netbooks, ChromeBooks, Lenovo Laptops, and MacBook Airs to our schools. The goal for the variety of devices is to mirror what students will be encountering in the real world. We want to provide opportunities for experiences on different types of devices so that they may personalize their learning and increase engagement. Our teachers will assist in defining the learning task then work to incorporate technology devices into the classroom for seamless integration. Students are also able to bring their own devices to school and use our wifi guest network. Once our students enter the work world, their place of business may have workplace expectations that move to a completely different device. If that is the case, we would like to say our students will have enough baseline knowledge and confidence in using multiple devices that they will adapt to the new device quickly and easily.

I am glad to hear that this is the path other schools are taking as well. We could choose to deploy a 1:1 device to our students, but it may not be their tool of choice or could be more or less than they would ultimately need in a learning tool. By offering a variety of tools to power their learning, we are inviting students to personalize their learning and take it to the next level. 

[mission-revive-deactivated20160]

Here it is! My Neenah Kind Project and Revive video. Hopefully this gives you a clear picture of what I’m trying to do with my program. Thank you so much for watching!

[goodideaexchange]

Recently, a young entrepreneur named DeAnna contacted me about her tumblr blog, which is dedicated to her non-profit startup Revive. I know she’d appreciate your support so head over to her blog and see what she’s doing to help young people who might be alienated by the school social scene. 

http://mission-revive.tumblr.com/

[mission-revive-deactivated20160]

I was camping last night when I thought I would check out how everything was going on tumblr. It was a incredible surprise to see I had been promoted by Goodideaexchange! Thank you so much! I appreciate the support and love.

[doerdi]

Daughter, DeAnna, is the founder of a high school program called Revive. My s/o goes to her for her efforts to promote community and also for the recognition she's gaining through her efforts. 

My own Tumblr efforts were inspired by her.

[doerdi]

We're moving the Space Shuttle

Today was day #2 of my very first Green Bay Area School District administrative retreat. Out of all things that took place during the last 2 days, this visual spoke to me as our Continuous School Improvement Team talked about the "big rocks" in our district. Educator Effectiveness, Student Learning Objectives, Smarter Balanced Assessments, you get my drift. Dealing with all these state mandated items can be compared to moving the space shuttle Endeavour through the city of Los Angeles. Before that move took place, the whole city structure had to be changed along its route as Endeavor travelled from the Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Museum, just 12 short miles. Power lines altered, road reinforced, crowds of people lining the streets to watch (thus needing managing), this was a big deal.

This saga is a great analogy because even larger than moving the Endeavor 12 miles is the charge of helping kids succeed through education. Just like the shuttle, full of lots of big rocks, moving down the streets of L.A., our Green Bay shuttle moving process will be slow and strategic. There will surely be loads of alterations done to the existing structure to make things work - just like the LA power poles had to be revised so that the shuttle could travel under them. People will turn out to see the spectacle - both the naysayers and the supporters, but the job went on.

What I like about this picture is the wide-angle view of all the personnel involved. Traffic police, crowd control, logistical engineers, NASA employees, the shuttle moving remote control crew - the whole team. Yes, the team. I'm sure the Endeavour team experienced many obstacles as they planned the route of the shuttle through the crowded LA streets. It took time, and teamwork, to get the shuttle to its destination, but they did it.  

After today, I am convinced we can do the same. We can move our Green Bay shuttle full of those big heavy rocks in a direction that will be good for our kids. The going will be slow at first and will take loads of coordination between team members, but I know we can do it. When I moved to this district 25 days ago, I was concerned about my place on the team. Would I fit in? Would my dreams for student achievement be the same as others around me? Would I just geek my way into a corner, never to be seen? Well, I'm not concerned anymore. What I found in our administrative retreat group are individual concerned and passionate administrators who truly want to make a difference for the better in the schools they lead. With our principals' desire to improve the learning for all our students, it's our district office's charge to support them in all they need. 

Every school district is going to have a Big-Shuttle-Full-of-Rocks to bring home. It may be a tough, long, slow, and difficult journey. But I know that with teamwork, coordination, continuous reflection and improvement, we'll be able to bring that shuttle home too!

[doerdi]

We're working together folks!

Well, I did it. I just completed my first Board of Education presentation for Green Bay Area Public Schools (GBAPS). After being on the job for a mere 24 days, my first Board of Ed challenge was to provide a state of GBAPS technology report and oration. 

There are so many new and exciting things on the horizon in my school district that it really was hard to contain the enthusiasm while telling the technology story. GBAPS will continue to maintain and improve student access to technology. In 2013-2014, students will no longer be issued netbooks to take home. Instead, we will provide 3 carts with a variety of student devices (netbooks, Chromebooks, and MacBook Pros) to our Math and English/Language Arts departments at the middle and high school levels. We will also provide the carts to each school library so that early adopting teachers may work with their students and technology in their classrooms.

We will have students store their documents and projects using cloud technology through Google Drive. This way, students will be able to start or continue documents at school and continue work on them at home, regardless of their type of computer or word processing software they have available to them. As long as students have the Internet and a browser on their home computer, they will be able to work on Google Drive. If students do not have access to a computer or the Internet at home, we have a plan to address that as well.

What I find most important is that this summer our Board of Education approved the creation of 5 new teacher on special assignment (TOSA) positions to help support technology use in the classrooms. This team will work with classroom teachers as they embark on the journey of integrating technology in their field of study. The role of these technology specialists was not that different from our existing team of 4 Instructional Technology Support Teacher (ITST) so it was our decision to combine the two groups to create a team of 9 teachers whom we will be able to deploy to all our Green Bay schools PreK-12. Our technology integration specialists will be able to answer the call of a classroom teacher who would like to meet their learning targets through the use of technology.

Our Integrators will help the teacher match the learning task/outcome to the appropriate tool. (Internet research and report writing = Netbook, collaborative online writing or paperless assignments = Chromebook, flipping your classroom or creating movie trailer to promote a book = MacBook). After that, technology integrators may help the teacher create technology-rich lesson plans, model how to teach in a classroom with mobile devices, and also provide support and guidance when the assessment of the learning outcome and progression of knowledge and engagement takes place.

It is, indeed, a good time to be in the field of educational technology. Our Board of Education supports our teachers as they work through this teaching transformation that will create student higher level thinking and creativity. 

[doerdi]

I got this link from my PLN this evening.

[doerdi]

#wischat

While hanging out on Twitter tonight, I finally took the time to participate in #wischat - a chat whose participants are Wisconsin school leaders. I had trolled the chats before, but had never taken the time to participate. I truly don't know the specific protocols of this chat group, but they follow the same type of pattern: Facilitator throws out a Q1 then people respond with A1, which are their thoughts on the matter. Once there is a silence between answers we move on to Q2 and so forth. I like these types of opportunities because we get to hear answers from different viewpoints and different locations throughout the state. Tonight's questions had to do with the start of the new school year. 

The largest lesson learned is that there are no right or wrong answers. I have just joined a professional learning network where we, as a group, collectively think out loud. Some thoughts are relevant to me, some aren't, but the cool thing is that everybody has a voice. 

Not everybody is going to take part in chats such as this. Lots of people just simply say they don't have the time and I respect that. As for me, I am enjoying hearing everybody's 2¢. Those thoughts and opinions help me gut check my own values and beliefs and I am grateful for the experience. 

You can find the whole conversation of tonight's #wischat here: http://tagboard.com/wischat

[doerdi]

The first day of the rest of my life?

I read Cool Cat Teacher's blog post about returning to Tumblr and how she enjoys the #education Tumblr community the best out of all her blog sites. I have had the goal to begin a blog this year as the Chief Information and Technology Officer of the Green Bay Area School District. Now is the time to start!