Natalie Priester
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“Why School?”: Be Different, or at Least Brave the Chromebooks

6/7/2015

4 Comments

 
I have read Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, and Michael B. Horn and engaged in enough conversations in the edtech community to under that technology is disrupting the social, professional, political, financial, and cultural parts of our lives. I understand that we have to prepare students for what Will Richardson (2012) explains is “the world they will live in, not the one in which most of us grew up.”  I agree with Richardon’s belief that school reform should be based on allowing technology to push the role of schools to be different instead of just better.  Even though this was my first time reading “Why School?” by Will Richardson I already follow him on Twitter and have already been exposed to many of his ideas and the ones he shares with many people in the edtech community.  Over the past few years, I have worked embrace this belief and allow it to influence by pedagogy, which has pushed me the practice what Richard summarizes as unlearning and relearning.  This process is hard work and there is not a finish line to rush toward. Instead, it is a challenging continuous cycle of learning, creating, experimenting, and reflecting.

However, I have also figured out that I cannot be the only one to do this at my school.  In order to change the culture of learning at San Pasqual Academy, I need to work with my colleagues to help them understand why and how to unlearn and relearn. For example, my site is ready to transition from one-to-one Chromebooks located in each teacher’s classroom cart to one-to-one Chromebooks permanently assigned to each student with school-supported wifi access at school and in the residential parts of campus.  However, many of my colleagues keep their current Chromebook cart locked during most class periods, give assignments such as copying vocabulary definitions onto a worksheet, and express concern about how they will manage their classes when the students have access to opening their Chromebooks instead of listening to a lecture completing a multiple-choice quiz.  This frustrates me, but they are not bad teachers.  Instead, they are part of what Richardson (2012) explains as the “vast majority of [teachers] whom care deeply for our kids and are great at fulfilling a traditional role.”  Instead, my frustration deserves to be directed at what he (Richardson 2012) explains as “the system those teachers are mired in, one vastly out of sync with the realities our children are facing.”  Even though I have tried pushing my colleagues to “just get it,” I am not making progress. More than anything else, it seems that they foresee the power of the Chromebooks.  Even though they have not yet read about it, they worry about Richardson’s sixth unlearning/relearning idea; they are afraid to “transfer the power.”  It will take a lot of time and unlearning/relearning to help them overcome this fear.  I am currently in the process of figuring out how to help them better understand how technology is changing schools and the world, so we can work together to help our school embrace technology and allow it to influence us to make our school different.

Works Cited
Richardson, W. (2012). Why school how education must change when learning and information are everywhere / Will Richardson. New York, NY: TED Conferences.

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SPA Freshmen fearlessly using Chromebooks to create a video presentation Photo Credit: Natalie Priester
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4 Comments
Andrea Jacobs link
6/8/2015 12:26:40 am

I understand how you feel when it comes to your colleagues. My school has undergone an entire change this year. Almost every class has 1:1 devices for all our students and we are being pushed by our administrators to use technology in any and every lesson in new and creative ways. We are even given paid time outside the classroom to collaborate and discuss how we can use technology. There are definitely some teachers who are not embracing this new development, but they are coming around because at this point there's so much that is required online that they are forced to adapt. I think this will happen with your site, eventually. Maybe this can be something you use in your proposal for the EDL600 class. Some PD for the staff and give them motivation to accept the changes. Our district offers digital badges to people who can accomplish certain tasks online and you get paid for it. That might be helpful for your staff. It isn't something you can do alone, although I'm sure you are doing a great job. It will have to probably come from administration. Good luck, though! They're going to be so thankful to have you around when they finally accept the changes.

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Andrea Rivera Currier link
6/8/2015 07:50:32 am

I completely agree that it cannot only be one person per school site who is implementing technology in the classroom. At my school site, iPads are checked out to students for classroom use and they are not being systematically used on campus in the classroom. Although I and several other teachers on campus have all of our curriculum online, it would be much easier if all teachers took advantage of the technology students have at their disposal. My school definitely needs more PD for implementation of lesson plans via iPads and I believe our new principal does see this need and will hopefully strive to achieve the systematic use of technology within our school.

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Candace Warden
6/8/2015 01:22:06 pm

I agree with you that it can be frustrating when you see all the resources that you have and your colleges don't use it to its full advantages. Your point that it needs to be more than one person, is so true and it is sad that some people don't realize how much students can benefit from the staff all helping each other and learning from each other that it then in return helps the students.

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Jana
6/11/2015 09:41:18 pm

Natalie I agree wholeheartedly that being a minority on campus that embraces technology is frustrating. I see this program as a step forward in helping bridge the gap and create solutions to help those 'others' embrace technology. I am looking forward to watching how you tackle this problem of incorporating these hesitant teachers into using technology to teach. Since you have been a teacher at my campus I know you understand my situation that my own school district is in the dark ages. I applaud how much support you have from your district and frankly am envious. I see and hear what is possible using technology but if I was to give an accounting of technology based learning in my own classroom I would fail miserably because without the infrastructure to support online learning can't take place.

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    A collection of my learning from SDSU EDL 680 Seminar in Personalized Learning 

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