Using Technology to Distribute School Leadership

Bringing Preservice Education into the 21st Century

Emerging Tech Trends

1. Mobile and Open Learning: Learning that can take place anywhere, at anytime, with anyone. 
2. Device Agnostic Learning: Key to the device agnostic classroom is the ability to easily and quickly share and project student work from any device.
3. MOOC Makeovers: If you consider MOOCs to be the petri dish for higher education, you will see them as an essential opportunity to revise and makeover traditional approaches to teaching and learning. 
4. EdTech Start-up Mania: EdTech companies received 1.1 billion in 2012 from venture capitalist, angel investors, corporations and private equity shops (Gigaom, 2013).

Mobile and Open Learning:

One of the most profound trends affecting both K-12 and higher education is the move to support learning that can take place anywhere, at anytime, and with anyone. Gone are the notions that learning can only take place on campus or in the classroom.  Schools can now be open for learning 24-7.

Access to mobile technologies that can be used to support learning has grown significantly (see below), thus providing the majority of young people with a learning resource or educational opportunity they can take with them where ever they go.   This has the potential to put a teacher in the pocket of anyone who wants to learn.

• 78% of teens now have a cell phone, and almost half (47%) of them own smartphones. That translates into 37% of all teens who have smartphones, up from just 23% in 2011.
• 23% of teens have a tablet computer, a level comparable to the general adult population.
• 95% of teens use the internet.
• 93% of teens have a computer or have access to one at home. Seven in ten (71%) teens with home computer access say the laptop or desktop they use most often is one they share with other family members. (Teens and Technology Pew, 2013)

Those with concerns about equity and the digital divide should review the  plethora of data from the Pew Research Centre's ongoing studies that examine access to digital technology.

Use of digital technology by different income groups from Pew Research Center's Internet and; American Life Project

I appear to be one of the few people interested the EdTech endeavours of the developing world. The $50 Aakash tablet was awash in problems and has not come close to delivering on their promises. The New York Times article, An Idea Promised the Sky, but India Is Still Waiting, provides a detailed review of the problems the Montreal based company, DataWind, has faced in trying to deliver a product at price that could greatly reduce worries about the digital divide. Regardless of whether this product becomes a reality, I still think there is a lot to learn from countries trying to more with less, when we in North America still haven't gotten around to doing more with more.

Device Agnostic Learning:

Despite the overwhelming popularity of the iPad, I continue to predict that the future will be platform agnostic, even though the numbers don't support this claim.

The iPad is experiencing unprecedented adoption in the education market.  Educators are taking notice.  In the June quarter when most of educational buying takes place, iPad sales to schools doubled.  Over 2,500 schools are using iPads.  “The adoption rate of iPad in education is something I’ve never seen from any technology product in history,” Tim Cook, Apple CEO, said.“Usually education tends to be a fairly conservative institution in terms of buying, or K-12 does, and we’re not seeing that at all on the iPad.” (Forbes, 2012)

The proliferation of mobile devices means that the developers of learning resources must ensure that their tools are device agnostic and can be accessed from any type of mobile device. This will lead to a greater reliance on cloud-based and HTML 5 friendly resources.

MOOC Makeovers:

Instead of seeing MOOCs as the end of the higher education world as we know it,  MOOCs should be considered a the petri dish for higher education. As a large scale pedagogical experiment, MOOCs can provide the education community with an essential opportunity to revise and makeover traditional approaches to teaching and learning. Think MOOCs are only a concern for higher education? Be prepared for a MOOC coming to a high school near you. The flipped classroom movement, Khan Academy, and MOOCs are all are breed from the same tech-enabled DNA that attempts to take advantage of the web 2.0 world to provide students with access to world class resources and instructors. Regardless of whether you are looking to create a MOOC or flipped classroom these instructional strategies require highly skilled and highly trained educators. This could lead to the emergence of the post-modern educator.

 Postmodernism tends to be defined either as the period after modernism or as a 'condition' whereby established values are rapidly eroded by new technological advances and a general apprehension of what the future will bring. Postmodernism is therefore skeptical of explanations that claim to be valid for all groups, cultures, traditions, or races, and instead focuses on the relative truths of each person or within each paradigm, therefore having a relativistic view on reality (Wikipedia).


EdTech Start-up Mania:

Educators tend to get a little upset when outsiders begin trampling on their turf. The recent influx of entrepreneurs into the education sector is starting to show the beginnings of a turf war. The billion dollars that EdTech companies received in 2012 (Gigaom, 2013) coupled with estimates of a global education market being worth over 4 trillion (Education Week, 2013) has drawn a lot of attention from the start-up and established business community. News Corp's entry into the education sector with their Amplify tablet is already ruffling some feathers with great concerns about student privacy and profit motivated instruction (Forbes, 2013). I've never been a fan of profit-driven educational endeavours, but the recent intrusion of start-ups with dollar signs in the their eyes isn't the first and won't be the last attempt to see the school house as an ATM.  I can only hope that we will see an increase in the number Teach-preneurs or edupreneurs that pair their wealth of teaching experience with innovative approaches to teaching and learning that truly benefit students,

For the definitive review of the emerging educational technology trends 

be sure to check out the annual Horizon Reports that includes both 

K-12 and Higher Education reports

Inforgraphic and article on how teachers ranked the latest educational trends.

The Agenda with Steve Paikin: Teaching Towards the Future

2030 sees a very different classroom and different students. As part of The Agenda's special Learning 2030 series, we ask: Are Ontario teachers ready for the digital future? From Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.

Panel participants:
Dr. Michale Fullan, OISE/UT
Dr. Catherine Bruce, Trent  University
Dr. Camille Rutherford, Brock University
Ron Canuel, CEO Canadian Education Association

TCDSB 21st Century Learning Design

Workshop Resources Folder
 

Join the Partnersin Learning Network to interact with 21st century teachers from around the globe and review the searchable database of thousands of 

21st century learning activities and resources.

http://www.pil-network.com/

For the full description of the Innovative Teaching and Learning Research, Learning Activity Rubrics and Sample Student Work Rubrics please visit:  http://www.itlresearch.com

Collaborite: Why teachers should collaborate!

Partners in Learning Global Forum

I just returned from the olympics of teaching - Microsoft Partners in Learning hosts national and regional events throughout the year that recognize innovative educators and school leaders. These competitions culminate in the Partners in Learning Global Forum.

This year’s Global Forum will took place in Prague, Czech Republic from November 28 - December 1, 2012. The Global Forum brought together more than 500 of the most innovative teachers, school leaders, education leaders, and government officials from 75 countries.



You can see the excitement that filled the Prague Castle on the final night during the Gala awards dinner.

A personal highlight was witnessing the Canadian team erupt in cheers as an Canadian team won silver in the "Beyond the Classroom" category.

Check out the video to see how teachers Leah Obach and Devon Caldwell had their primary students collaborate to complete activities related to sustainability. Students develop literacy, numeracy, social studies and science skills while planning and executing an action plan to help the earth.

Be sure to visit the Partners in Learning Network for links to all of the winning projects.

Microsoft Partners in Learning celebrates the world's most innovative educators and school leaders for bringing technology to life in the classroom and impacting millions of students.

Microsoft Partners in Learning hosts national and regional events throughout the year that recognize innovative educators and school leaders. These competitions culminate in the Partners in Learning Global Forum.

On December 1, 2012, at Prague Castle, Partners in Learning announced the teachers and learning activities that won best practices awards at the Global Forum. All of the learning activities were reviewed by an international panel of educators using a 21st century skills rubric.

Collaboration
1. US – Doing business in Birmingham, Pauline Roberts and Rick Joseph
2. Singapore - Impactful Online Service Learning, Chen Siyun
3. Germany - Creating Fairytale-Radioplays, Holger Fröhlich

Knowledge building
1. Northern Ireland – Infinity Architecture, David Allan Young
2. Malaysia - The Journalist, Zamimah Binti Azaman
3. Lebanon - The Warak Warak Method, Youssr CHEDIAC

Beyond the classroom
1. Jordan – Glimmer of Hope, Ghadeer Obiedat and Rania Obiedat
2. Canada – little hands big world, Devon Caldwell & Leah Obach
3. Brazil – Ecoweb, Margarida Telles da Cruz
3. UK - The Hit Squad, Katie Boothman

Cutting edge use of ICT
1. UK - Kodu in The Klassroom, Nicki Maddams
2. US, “LYNC”ing Distance Learning Math Classes to Blind and Visually Impaired Students, Robin Lowell and Sherry Hah
3. Australia - Playing. Designing. Learning. Using Games and Project-Based Learning to Develop Creative, Innovative and Independent Learners, Alice Leung

Teacher as a change agent
1. Pakistan - Aqua Crunch, Munazza Riaz Butt
2. Nigeria – Rescue Mission, Ayodele Odeogbola
3. Cyprus - Online and Community-Based Research on Recycling Practices, Maria Loizou Raouna

Educators Choice:
1. Portugal - Oratio Classroom, João Carlos Ramalheiro
2. Macedonia – Fun, Education, Stop Motion Animation, Darko Taleski , Sofija Grabulovksa
3. US – What’s up Egypt, Todd LaVogue

A Guide for Facilitating 21st Century Learning

Students do not become 21st century learners on their own. They need learning opportunities that challenge them to utilize 21st century fluencies and integrate the five dimensions of 21st century learning. These dimensions include:

• Collaboration 
• Knowledge-building
• The use of ICT for learning
• Self-regulation 
• Real-world problem-solving and innovation

The following is a set of guidelines developed by the Innovative Teaching and Learning Research program to help educators understand how they can create learning opportunities that will facilitate the development of 21st century skills. In addition to a brief description of each of the five dimensions of 21st century learning, the guidelines include a scale/rubric which educators can use to determine the degree to which each dimension is present during a specific learning opportunity.

Similar to Bloom's Taxonomy, educators should seek to create learning opportunities that challenge their students to demonstrate the highest level on each scale. While educators may strive towards the highest levels of each dimension, it is important to note that these scales/rubrics should be applied to a sequence of lessons or unit plan and not individual lessons. Even though an individual lesson could focus on a single dimension,  it is not possible to achieve the highest level on all of the scales/rubric within a single classroom lesson.
For the full description of the Innovative Teaching and Learning Research: Learning Activity Rubrics and Sample Student Work Rubrics please visit: http://www.itlresearch.com/home

The information listed below is taken directly from 

Innovative Teaching and Learning Research: Learning Activity Rubrics

Collaboration

To challenge students to the highest level of collaboration, students need to have shared responsibility for their work, and participate in learning activities that requirs students to make substantive decisions together. These features help students learn the important collaboration skills of negotiation, agreement on what must be done, distribution of tasks, listening to the ideas of others, and integration of ideas into a coherent whole.

1 = Students are NOT required to work together in pairs or groups.

2 = Students DO work together: BUT they DO NOT have shared responsibility.

3 = Students DO have shared responsibility; BUT they ARE NOT required to make substantive decisions together.

4 = Students DO have shared responsibility AND they DO make substantive decisions together about the content, process, or product of their work.

Knowledge Building

Knowledge building happens when students do more than reproduce what 

they have learned: they go beyond knowledge reproduction to generate ideas 

and understandings that are new to them. Activities that require knowledge building ask students to interpret, analyse, synthesize, or evaluate information or ideas.

1 = The learning activity DOES NOT REQUIRE students to build knowledge. 

Students can complete the activity by reproducing information or by 

using familiar procedures.

2 = The learning activity DOES REQUIRE students to build knowledge by 

interpreting, analysing, synthesizing, or evaluating information or 

ideas; BUT the activity’s main requirement IS NOT knowledge building.

3 = The learning activity’s main requirement IS knowledge building; BUT the learning activity DOES NOT have learning goals in more than one subject.

4 = The learning activity’s main requirement IS knowledge building; AND the knowledge building IS interdisciplinary. The activity DOES have learning goals in more than one subject.

Use of ICT for Learning

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is becoming increasingly 

common in the classroom, but ICT is often used to support practice on basic skills rather than to build knowledge. This dimension examines how students use ICT—whether or not the use of ICT helps students build knowledge, and whether or not students could build the same knowledge without using ICT. 

1 = Students do not have the opportunity to use ICT for this learning activity.

2 = Students use ICT to learn or practice basic skills or reproduce information; BUT they are not building knowledge.

3 = Students use ICT to support knowledge building; BUT they could build the same knowledge without using ICT.

4 = Students use ICT to support knowledge building; AND the ICT is required for building this knowledge.

Self-Regulation

In 21st century workplaces, people are expected to work with minimal supervision, which requires them to plan their own work and monitor its quality. Learning activities that give students the opportunity to acquire self-regulation skills last for a week or more and require students to monitor their progress. Teachers can foster self-regulation skills by giving students working in groups responsibility for deciding who will do what and on what schedule.

1 = The learning activity can be completed in less than a week.

2 = The learning activity lasts for one week or more; BUT students ARE NOT given the assessment criteria before they submit their work and; DO NOT have the opportunity to plan their own work.

3 = The learning activity lasts for one week or more AND students ARE given the assessment criteria before they submit their work OR DO have the opportunity to plan their own work.

4 = The learning activity lasts for one week or more AND students ARE given the assessment criteria before they 

submit their work AND DO have the opportunity to plan their own work.

Real Problem Solving and Innovation

In traditional schooling, students’ academic activities are often separate from what they see and do in the world outside school. True problem solving requires students to work on solving real problems, and challenges them to complete tasks for which they do NOT already know a response or solution. For the result of this problem solving to be considered innovative it must require students to implement their ideas, designs or solutions for audiences outside the classroom.

1 = The learning activity’s main requirement IS NOT problem-solving. 

Students use a previously learned answer or procedure for most of 

the work.

2 = The learning activity’s main requirement IS problem-solving; BUT the problem IS NOT a real-world problem.

3 = The learning activity’s main requirement IS problem-solving AND the problem IS a real-world problem; BUT students DO NOT innovate. They are NOT required to implement their ideas in the real world.

4 = The learning activity’s main requirement IS problem-solving AND the problem IS a real-world problem AND students DO innovate. They ARE required to implement their ideas in the real world.

Here are some learning activities to review and determine where they would rank on the five dimensions:

Doing Business in Birmingham - Learning Activity Resources

Kinect Olympics - Learning Activity Resources

Creating a Global Consciousness about Poverty and Hunger - Learning Activity Resources

Consider ways to revise these learning activities so that students would be challenged to demonstrate the highest level of each dimension.

Join the Partners in Learning Network to interact with 21st century teachers from around the globe and review the searchable database of thousands of 21st century learning activities and resources.

The Need for an Innovative Approach to Education In Niagara

Why the Niagara region needs an innovation approach to education:

Results for the Canadian Education Association, What did you do in school today? survey indicate that:

Although many students are engaged at school, overall levels of social and academic engagement are quite low.

Levels of intellectual engagement – which tap into students’ sense of interest, feelings about the relevance of school work, and motivation to do well in class – are significantly lower than levels of social and academic engagement.

Levels of student engagement decline steadily throughout the middle and secondary school grades. 

Adolescent learners experience high levels of intellectual engagement when they encounter school work that is challenging, has practical and intellectual value, and engages them in authentic tasks similar to those that mathematicians, artists, or other professionals would pursue (Canadian Education Association, 2012 )

• Speaking during the Ontario Town Hall: Establishing our Economic Roadmap: Securing our Future, Walter Sendzik, CEO of the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce had a chance to present findings of the identified the key pillars Niagara needs to improve upon in order to return to a prosperous state: 
• The first pillar, is the creation of a 21st century workforce with a focus on education - from elementary students right up through post-secondary.
• Pushing Niagara forward as a supporter of innovation incubation and entrepreneurship is the third pillar Niagara This Week

• How can schools teach students to be more innovative? - Wall St. Journal
• Most of our high schools and colleges are not preparing students to become innovators. To succeed in the 21st-century economy, students must learn to analyze and solve problems, collaborate, persevere, take calculated risks and learn from failure
• Learning in most conventional education settings is a passive experience: The students listen. But at the most innovative schools, classes are "hands-on," and students are creators, not mere consumers. They acquire skills and knowledge while solving a problem, creating a product or generating a new understanding.
• Mandating that schools teach innovation as if it were just another course or funding more charter schools won't solve the problem. The solution requires a new way of evaluating student performance and investing in education. Students should have digital portfolios that demonstrate progressive mastery of the skills needed to innovate. Teachers need professional development to learn how to create hands-on, project-based, interdisciplinary courses. Larger school districts and states should establish new charter-like laboratory schools of choice that pioneer these new approaches.

• The Rise of Educator-Entrepreneurs: Bringing Classroom Experience to Ed-Tech - MindShift

  “Teachers are usually the last people to be consulted on many of these education technology companies.”
  Most teachers are happy doing their job — helping kids understand and make sense of the world around them. But there’s a growing number of educators who are wading into entrepreneurship, frustrated at the lack of tools they need, and wanting to extend their sphere of influence. As technology becomes more widely used and accepted in the classroom, teachers are taking their ideas about how to improve learning environments, sharing them online, and creating web-based tools to benefit teachers and students.

  At the same time, the fact that the multi-billion dollar ed-tech space is exploding has not gone unnoticed by investors. Programs like Imagine K12 run crash courses in ed-tech entrepreneurship, connecting fledgling companies to Silicon Valley venture capital firms (and staking out a six percent equity).

  But, as most educators know, while tech entrepreneurs can sometimes hit gold, not every newly minted site or software is useful to teachers. That’s what sets educator entrepreneurs apart — they have relevant classroom experience that can’t be gained any other way than by doing the hard work of teaching.

• Redefining Teacher Education Programs for the 21st Century

• Let's Radically Improve Teacher Training (and Stop Fighting About It) - Chronicle of Higher Education

• Building a Better Teacher - NY Times

• “The world no longer cares about what you know; the world only cares about what you can do with what you know,” explains Tony Wagner of Harvard, the author of “Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World.” (NY Times)




The Possibilities

High Tech High - Four Integrations That Make up High Tech High

 Four Integrations That Make up High Tech High

1. Integrating students across social class. 
2. Integrating head and hand (making and doing things)
3. Integrating school and community
4. Integration of secondary and post-secondary education

New Tech Network - Video 
New Tech Network is a nonprofit organization that transforms schools into innovative learning environments. Our project-based teaching approach engages students with dynamic, rigorous curriculum. Through extensive professional development and hands-on coaching , our teachers evolve from keepers of knowledge to facilitators of rich, relevant learning. New Tech Network is re-imagining education and the student accomplishments speak volumes.The New Tech design provides an instructional approach centered on project-based learning, a culture that empowers students and teachers, and integrated technology in the classroom. Our hands-on, multi-year approach gives schools structure and support to ensure long-term success.

Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning

Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning actively promotes excellence in education by providing new learning opportunities for students and future-focused Professional Development for teachers. Established as the research and innovation unit, SCIL runs a range of programs and research projects that seek to transform educational thinking and practice both at NBCS and in the wider educational community.

The SCIL Story:Embedding Research and Innovation  into Everyday School Practice

TEDxSt.Catharines

ECOO 2012

I'll be presenting Tech-Enabled School Leadership: Using technology to support the distribution of school leadership at the Educational Computing Organization of Ontario (ECOO) Conference October 26th.

Tech enabled leadership workshop from crutherford

 This session will examine the ways in which specific technology resources (Blogs, Google Docs, Twitter, etc.) can be used to support tech-enabled leadership and transform the scale and scope of traditional school leadership to facilitate the distribution of key leadership actions that contribute to school success.

Apps to use an iPad as Instruction Tool

AirServer (www.airserverapp.com)

AirServer is available for both Windows and Mac. It is $15 for up to five computers, but the Windows and Mac versions have to be purchased separately. You can connect multiple iOS devices simultaneously, making it easy to compare work by two or more different devices.

Reflection (www.reflectionapp.com)

Reflection is available for both Windows and Mac. It is $15 for each computer but includes a feature for recording a video file of the session. Like AirServer, you can connect multiple devices simultaneously.

~ Courtesy Kyle Tuck