Proactive Visionaries (EdTech Leadership)

This term, I have been greatly enjoying participating in the second in a three-part series of additional qualification courses through the Elementary Teachers' Federation called Integrating Information and Computer Technology (Part 2).  As the course draws to a close and I reflect on which aspects made the greatest impact on my teaching, one learning experience stands out in my mind.  During the second half of the course our focus has been on staff development and EdTech leadership.  One of the Articles we read, which has had a significant impact on helping me to refine my thinking was the article by Lisa Mills, entitled Qualities of a Good Leader.  The article lists many important qualities and I agree with them all, but we were asked to identify which two we thought were most important.  I chose being proactive and being a visionary as being the two most important qualities in an EdTech Leader.  It really is essential to have both of these qualities to lead anyone anywhere but especially in this field.  Having one or the other won't be effective.  What good is having a vision of the direction of education technology if you aren't proactive about implementing anything?  Even worse would be to be proactive without a vision.  That means you're an early adopter of technology but haven't thought through what the educational benefits might be if any.  That is just busywork not leadership!  By the time we were given the task of developing a three-year strategic plan, I felt that I had a much clearer focus.  To complete my plan, I would just need to get in touch with my vision and think about what proactive steps I could take right now in the role I currently have in the school where I currently work to help achieve that vision.  That's what I did and the ideas just flowed.

I am not a principal, vice principal, chairperson in my school or digital lead learner for my area, however the Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession  states that, "Members are to promote and participate in the creation of collaborative, safe and supportive learning communities. They should recognize their shared responsibilities and their leadership roles in order to facilitate student success."   So that says to me that even without an assigned role or title I have a mandate.  ANY teacher has the authority to be an EdTech leader in their school and ANY teacher can collaborate with colleagues to achieve their vision.  I may not have control of the purse strings, but working with the technology available to me and by putting together numerous small learning communities at my school around common interests, there actually is a lot I can do to make my vision a reality.

The great thing about taking this course is that I already have a learning community within that course of like-minded individuals.  I love how we bounce ideas off of one another in our online discussion forum.  One of the things we also do frequently in this course, is post our assignments for peer review and feedback.  I have benefited greatly from input of my classmates and before sharing my plan with anyone at my school, I posted it in our D2L virtual classroom, As always, there were helpful hints and insights.  Then, after that, I shared with my principal, using Google Forms and Docs of course!  He is super supportive about teachers using technology to enhance learning so I know that he'll encourage me to form learning communities to pursue some of the things I am keen on doing such as going paperless to help our environment, redefining how we deliver feedback and take anecdotal notes with Google Forms and DocAppender, as a well as connecting classrooms across divisions via Google Classrooms.  

The learning doesn't end here for me.  I'm looking forward to taking the third course in the series this summer so I'll be ready to hit the ground running with new educational technology skills and leadership abilities.  I don't know what the future holds, what roles I may play in the future, but I know one thing, for the rest of my teaching career I want to be an early adopter. of many new educational technologies, some of which I can't even imagine right now...a very reflective early adopter.  In brief, I want to be a proactive visionary!

These are a few of my favourite things! (EdTech blogs)

 I don't mean raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens.  In this post I would like to share my favourite EdTech blogs.  

Here for your reading pleasure are a few of my favourite things!

Inspire / Try / Share:  Learning with Each Other in a Connected World

I love this post by Julie Millan. Sometimes, when we go to a conference or a workshop we can feel so overwhelmed by all the new learning that we don't know where to begin.  This post reminds us that the important thing is to begin somewhere.  Just try one thing!    

http://juliemillan.ca/2016/03/tryonething/

HackTheClassroom:  Adventures in Transforming Education

Below are two great posts from Michelle Cordy's blog Hack the Classroom.  I got the chance to listen to her speak at the Kitchener #gafesummit and was so impressed by the creative ways she uses educational technology.  I have her to thank for showing me a great many ways to use Google Apps for Education to be more organized in my teaching.  If you ever get a chance to attend one of her presentations do!  I particularly like  these two blogs in which she reflects on inquiry based learning:

6 Ideas to get going with Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) and Problem …

Making Sense of Inquiry-Based Learning: An Ontario Perspective

MapleSyrupEdu.ca

Here's a post by TDSB's own Sandra Chow.  You'll find many great posts on MapleSyrupEdu.ca , a blog "by educators, for educators."  I've had several chances to learn from Sandra Chow as she is a Digital Lead Learner in TDSB and presenter at #gafesummits.  I love that she doesn't just show what an EdTech tool can do but that she always says why we should use it.  Her presentations are hands-on and lots of fun yet jam packed with great information.

http://www.maplesyrupedu.ca/blog/reflecting-on-milestones

Sylvia Duckworth:  Connect, Collaborate, Create!

I've watched Sylvia Duckworth win the Ilast 2 demo slams in a 4 in a row winning streak.  What's a demo slam.  Well the second time I saw her present I had just done one myself and was shaking like a leaf.  A demo slam is the scariest most exhilarating 3 minutes when conference presenters "demo" (show live) how to use their favourite EdTech tool in front of pretty much the entire conference.  I did it once.  I feel lucky to have survived it unharmed given that my knees were actually knocking as I descended the stairs from the stage and I had a very real fear of falling off.  I don't know how Sylvia Duckworth does it or all the other amazing EdTech things she does, seemingly with such ease, but if you ever get a chance to watch her present one it's a real treat!

https://sylviaduckworth.com/2016/04/22/how-to-win-a-demo-slam/

A.J. Juliani, Intentional Innovation

Last but not least, I must recommend A.J. Juliani's blog.  He is the author of  Inquiry and Innovation in the Classroom, Using 20% Time, Genius Hour and PBL to Drive Student Success. , a book which has been a great reference tool for me as a Genius Hour teacher this year. Here's a post he wrote about inquiry and that it is not a new idea.

http://ajjuliani.com/inquiry-its-not-a-new-idea-launchbook/

Today is a Great Day for Learning

I like this post by Dr. Hugh McDonald on the best Genius Hour videos to inspire "resiliency, grit and hope."

https://hughtheteacher.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/23-videos-that-sparked-genius-hour-thinking-collaboration-and-actions/

Using Google Docs to Facilitate 21st Century Collaboration

Judith Bilinger, Washington State Superintendent said “Children are the Priority. Change is the reality.  Collaboration is the strategy.”  I think this quote could be seen as a call to respond to the challenges and changes of the 21^st century by collaborating with other educators and also as a call to foster collaboration among our students.  For the past two weeks this has been on my mind and seems to have cropped up as a theme at every turn. 

In the Additional Qualification course I am taking through the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario I’ve been enjoying using Google Docs to collaborate with two colleagues who live far apart on a list of Language, Math, Coding and Integration resources for the Junior Level.  It has been an overly busy two weeks.  I had my coursework, my teaching, lots of assessment to do in preparation for report cards, E.Q.A.O. and in the middle a whole weekend at the EdTech Team’s London #gafesummit.  My members were equally busy and our individual schedules were totally at odds with one another.  Despite the challenges of time and distance we were able to work together in a truly collaborative manner.  We began by contacting one another through email, but once a Google doc had been opened and shared, we were able to communicate exclusively in the comments section at the side of our assignment.  It was absolutely seamless.

More and more 21^st Century workplaces do their projects this way.  Team members can be found at all corners of the globe in all different time zones and languages.  Collaborative platforms like Google Docs with Google Translate can make such teamwork possible.  Given this new workplace reality, this model must be extended to the classroom to ensure that students will be adequately prepared to work as effective members of a multinational team.  As a teacher I have often used cooperative learning up to the point of summative assessment, when I felt it necessary to switch to an individual task.  How else could I judge individual performance?  Well, that shift is no longer needed.  I can simply look at the history of the Google Doc to see exactly what each student contributed.  So, now students can work collaboratively at each stage of learning and I can still assess their individual contributions.