19 Bold Ideas for Change (EdTech)
ISTE (International Society of Technology in Education) hosted its thirty-third annual conference and exposition in San Diego. The conference theme involves how educators from around the world are using innovative technologies to help students expand their horizons.
Will Richardson presented an "ignite session" (5 minutes for 20 slides) where he shared 19 Bold Ideas for Change. The presentation was as great as it was fast. My synopsis of the video is below.
Will Richardson presented an "ignite session" (5 minutes for 20 slides) where he shared 19 Bold Ideas for Change. The presentation was as great as it was fast. My synopsis of the video is below.
- Give open network tests - I agree that it might be a good idea for a school to utilize the BYOD concept with technology. It would definitely be a fun experiment and responsible risk. Having student use their own technology beyond the technology that is given to them can help them own the concepts more on their terms. It allows an open door to the rest of the world and gives students a little more choice to where they want to go. Who's knows... maybe they will find out even more about the educational power of their device that they never imagined before.
- Roll your own text - I strongly agree with this one. I am currently in the process of developing two textbooks for use by my students for my students. This offers so many options for students to use their voice and help create a meaningful place of concepts and information as I hope to get their input and continually evolve the texts. Being that I am cheap, this also offers a great way for the school to save money.
- Be Googled well - This relates to our school's initiative to make students understand their "digital footprint". These lessons need to be explicitly taught in all classes especially college and career readiness courses as it directly relates to their future.
- Flip the power switch - Student choice, student choice, student choice! Having students help structure the class allows for students to feel ownership over the class and also opens up teacher-student negotiations/conversations. This helps students see the reasons behind why teachers have the expectations they do.
- Change the world - Focusing on "big picture" ideas can empower students to complete tasks/goals that can make a systemic change in their world. That could greatly help with motivation.
- Don't "do your own work" - Allowing, supporting, facilitating collaboration with others helps prepare the students for the real world. I'm lucky to have taught science for so long that this has seemed to be the only way I'm used to. However, it is important to note that some students need some solo time before committing to working and collaborating with others.
- Learn first, teach second - We tell our students to be life-long learners, but sometimes do not follow our own advice. Among other sources, we need to be learning from students as much as they learn from us.
- No more workshops - The issue with how-to workshops is that they are often not differentiated for staff. The undergraduate classes taught in the 90's differ greatly from the 2000's. What's new to some teachers may be old news to others. This also does not include the many different post-undergraduate work by teachers. A teaching staff can be just as diverse as students in a classroom. During PD's I have led, I try to recruit other experts to help teach other concepts to teachers. By following this co-teaching model, teachers can benefit as much as students do from co-teaching.
- Share everything - With blogs and wiki's being unblocked from school networks, the work of teachers and students can be shared online for others to see. This can help foster discussion and ideas between people on different sides of the world with different perspectives.
- Ask questions you don’t know the answer to - Append to this "and have your students do the same". Oftentimes, students are scared to speak up and voice their questions. Technology can be used to help to foster this voice through various forums, mini-blogs, wiki's, and Tweets. Sadly, students are used to the learning of high stakes tests with predetermined answers. This is not as powerful as the learning that comes from finding our own new and unique answers.
- Repeat after me "I want to be found by strangers on the Internet" - This can be a scary thing for many people. The media has not helped with this belief. I find it funny that people know not to believe everything on the Internet, yet believe everything on the news as if it weren't "spun". We need to educate students about being smart when communicating on the Internet. A better saying might be "don't talk to strange strangers". We just need to teach students the real definition of "strange".
- Unlearn, relearn - I believe Einstein said it best, "insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Teachers should not be doing the same thing that 20th century teachers did. Contrary to popular belief, things were not better before (well for math and science anyway). There needs to be consideration about how technology can and should change our roles.
- Résumé schmesume - I don't know enough about this topic to make an opinion. However, this does relate to the previous discussion about a student's digital footprint.
- Stop Googling, get a network - This one is my personal favorite. Although Google is great for many, many things, nothing beats person-to-person interaction from an expert in their field, someone that goes beyond text and summaries from Internet writers. Twitter is invaluable for this!
- Go free and open source - There is nothing I hate worse that wasting money. There are so many things available online for free that it's mind-boggling about how and why they are (at least to me anyway). Moodle and Google apps offer near limitless possibilities for helping students.
- Create an "uncommon" core - Common Core is not yet finalized so I don't think it's fair to comment on this yet. I do agree that other things not on the Common Core also need to be addressed. This relates back to #5 about changing the world.
- Don't deliver, discover - Information can be accessed anywhere at anytime. Inquiry-ful project-based learning offers students to practice real world skills they will need for the rest of their lives. Previously, I posted a blog about how I will use this in my precalculus course.
- Disrupt the system - ummm...
- Scream! - Communication is key. Students first! Teach to the student!