A Tale of Two School Realities

Teaching EdTech Leadership courses for 2 universities, I receive through interactions with my students a stream of insights into the state of Education and the progress of the great movement to apply technology to impact it positively.

My students tend to be early or mid career, practicing teachers. And while their goal in studying with me is often to qualify themselves for state certification as School Technologists, I find that, quite understandably of course, their comprehension of the depth, breadth, and variety within the field of EdTech is far from complete. This partial apprehension of the dimensions of EdTech is something I attempt to address strongly in the courses I teach. 

Explaining their goals, many students verbalize a desire to simply know technology better so that they can apply it in their own teaching. These folks are invariably core subject based teachers in math, science or other areas or to move from such a teaching position to become a school’s Computer or Technology Class teacher. 

I understand and agree that in these times of uncertainty about careers; in choosing EdTech they have selected an area of apparent, continued growth and importance. However, based on long term observation of the ways schools are evolving, it’s clear to me that to hold a School Technologist certificate and position at this period of time, and over the next number of years in which the Digital Shift plays itself out in our schools, is to assume a role that potentially will include a significant degree of EdTech Leadership.

Importantly, my students, a group who overwhelmingly teach in inner city areas, most often in New York City, seem to hold to the view that the Digital Shift, a situation in which most of a school’s business will be conducted digitally, exists still as an idea only and that at best, there are rare schools ‘out there, somewhere’ which have made important progress toward achieving that state.

Conversely, when I go to the annual ISTE Conference, and to other gatherings like it that address EdTech, I often find myself in conversations with individuals whose day-to-day work reality is the opposite. There are, in fact, a great number of schools in the US who do a very significant amount of their daily business on a platform that involves small connected devices that access content and materials and tools from a broad range of sources on the web. And when the conversation at these gatherings turns to the current state of EdTech in many of our urban schools, they accept my descriptions, but don’t quite comprehend how it could still be possible that other schools could so far behind in the adoption of technology.

So what’s the greater truth here? Is EdTech still a novelty, an extra, special add-on in our schools? Or is it already, in a very significant number of schools across the country, the primary platform on which the school’s business (especially, Instruction) is carried out?

My personal conclusion is that there is a very significant sub-set of American schools in which the level of technology saturation (technology available for use in teaching and learning), actual technology use, and acculturated body of practice that is based on the frequent and favored use of technology, is high enough to consider that the school has either already achieved or is close to having achieved what could best be described as a transformation from the traditional classroom to the 21^st Century Digital Learning Environment. 

In understanding all of this we should focus on 2 dimensions of technology’s penetration and impact on our schools: 1) The level of technology available for use in the schools, and 2) The level of technology use in the schools – for their core business, Teaching and Learning, and for the other things that schools do that above all, can be seen as supporting the core business.

Considering available resources, I have included a section below that supports this personal conclusion; if not beyond a doubt, then at least to the level sufficient to illustrate its soundness.

However, I want to point out that the presence of technology itself is NOT indicative of a successful Digital Shift. For that to happen the technology would have to be actively used as the prime (or one of the prime) resource types for teaching and learning. Further, the school would have integrated technology not only into its body of teaching practice, but also into its culture of teaching and learning. And in that regard, the ways that technology has and continues to transform the philosophies and goals of education in the school community would be integrated along with the technology itself.

As a way to visualize how technology can transform schools from traditional to 21^st Century Digital Learning Environments, the tables below list defining indicators.

Table 1: Approaches to Instruction / instructional practices indicative of 21^st C. Digital Learning Environments. The table below offers some common transformational practices indicative of the Digital Shift. These tables might be used as something of a check list, too, to determine how far along the process of shifting to the new paradigm a school has moved.

Project Based Learning

From Content Consumer to Student as Content Creator

Creativity (in other ways than simply creating what has been traditionally consume)

Research

Collaboration

Expanded Platform (beyond traditional, brick and mortar space and time)

Thinking Curriculum (movement of instructional goals to higher level of Bloom’s Taxonomy)

Student Voice and Choice

Communication (e.g. writing, publishing, oral/audio learning products, presentations, etc.)

Table II: Transformative Resources to support the approaches above. What are the characteristics of such digital resources?

Media Rich Content (informational content with interactive elements, video, links, etc.)

Annotated and teacher/student ‘processed video’ (teachers and students add to or edit video to personalize and customize it for teaching and learning)

Data Driven  (resources collect information on which to make ‘next step’ instructional decisions)

Interactive – Students input ideas and preferences and react to content and tools.

A.I. for Adaptive Learning (content to changes based on collected data about student needs, interests, abilities, etc.)

Table III - Resources to support and enable the above

LMS (Learning Management System)… (e.g. Edmodo…)

Student Data System/Resource(s)

School Communications Network (portal, web site, blog, social media, etc.)

Personal Connected Devices for Students and Teachers

Classroom large digital display

Ongoing Professional Learning

Digital Learning Resources

Non-specific resources to support the above (e.g. security, storage, inventory, bandwidth, etc.)

Looking for a big picture, ‘whole enchilada’ understanding of what’s involved in bringing schools to, and guiding them through, the Digital Shift, I’ll expand this body of reflection yet further, beyond The Availability of Technology and The Level and Type of Use of Technology, to include a new, Transformed Paradigm of Education that is made possible by the emergence of technology, as well as shaped by educators and students reactions and responses to it.

(Highly Simplified) Big Picture of
What’s Involved/Required in Schools’ Digital Shift

Transformed Paradigm of Education  - New  Understanding Education’s Goals and  Teaching and Learning to Address Them

School Culture that Embraces Technology

21st Century Learning (Instructional Practices and Activities)

Skill Set to Support the Use of Technology

Resources/Infrastructure

Support Foundation / NON-instructional practices and resources

So… using the reflections and indicators given above, where is your school in relation to The Digital Shift? What do you see happening in the short run? Longer Term developments? What role do you plan to have in making change?

Progress Report on the State of the Digital Platform

While there are sources of data that may give good indications about the digital state of America’s schools, I don’t believe there is a definitive report. Here are some ‘bread crumb data points’ which may be cobbled together to give an idea of the digital state of things…
-

34.9M US Students—88 Percent of School Districts—Now Connected Online

Jan 17, 2017

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-01-17-34-9-million-us-students-up-10-4-million-since-2015-now-connected-online

Analysis: 94 Percent of School Districts Nationwide Meet Federal High-Speed Internet Access Targets –

94   Percent of all school districts in the country meet minimum federal connectivity target.

Education Week / September 19, 2017
http://www.govtech.com/network/Analysis-94-Percent-of-School-Districts-Nationwide-Meet-Federal-High-Speed-Internet-Access-Targets.html

​94 Percent Of Teachers Say Students Equate “Research” With Using Google

November 2, 2012 at 8:57 am

It’s almost unanimous: 94 percent of U.S. teachers say their students equate “research” with using Google or other search engines — more so than Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias.

https://searchengineland.com/teachers-say-students-equate-research-with-using-google-138542

In 2015, 94 percent of children ages 3 to 18 had a computer at home and 61 percent of children ages 3 to 18 had internet access at home…  For those children who had access to the Internet in 2015, the two locations with the highest reported levels of internet access were at home (86 percent) and at school (65 percent), and the two most common means of internet access at home were a high-speed internet service and a mobile internet service or data plan…


SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2018). Student Access to Digital Learning Resources Outside of the Classroom (NCES 2017-098), Executive Summary.

More Than 50 Percent of Teachers Report 1:1 Computing

A survey finds that more teachers have devices in their classrooms than ever before.

https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2017/02/more-50-percent-teachers-report-11-computing

A recent report from Front Row Education shows encouraging progress on the one-to-one ­computing front. More than 50 percent of teachers now have a one-to-one student-to-device ratio, up nearly 10 percentage points from last year.

In 2013, 45% of classrooms in the United States had implemented IWBs (Interactive White Boards); although this pales in comparison to the United Kingdom, which doubles that percentage to 90% (Orbaugh, 2013). The data presented through these statistics shows a significant increase over the past decade and signifies the relevance of understanding and analyzing their use in the educational system due to their rising abundance…

Interactive Whiteboards in the Elementary Classroom: Efficacy and …

https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1131&context=honors...

https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2017/02/more-50-percent-teachers-report-11-computing

*** https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/snapshot-k-12-tech-landscape-districts-reach-1-1-equity-gaps-persist/

https://cosn.org/information-technology-schools

The EdTech Advocate’s Guide to Leading Change in Schools: Up close with Mark Gura on the release of his new book,

NOTE: This book is the result of my reflecting on what my students showed up for class knowing about the uses of technology in our schools and its impending impacts - AND my decision to write for them what they really need to know, as practicing teachers and as leaders guiding colleagues into this new phase of mass education.

leadership

An Advocate for EdTech

October 04, 2018

Up close with Mark Gura on the release of his new book, The EdTech Advocate’s Guide to Leading Change in Schools.

INTERVIEW | by Victor Rivero

Mark Gura, the former Director of Instructional Technology of the New York Public Schools (retired), now edtech journalist, ISTE workshop and network leader, and graduate school professor, recently released a new book, The EdTech Advocate’s Guide to Leading Change in Schools (ISTE Publications), a good reason to sit down with him to see where he sees the field of Education heading.

I’m sure you’re already aware of this, but the title of your book is, “The EdTech Advocate’s Guide to Leading Change in Schools.” Explain.

Mark: I think that there is and will continue to be a rapid increase in the use of technology in our schools and I think that many schools will not be prepared for it. Leadership will be the crucial factor for schools to keep their heads above water. I don’t think districts are preparing a sufficient cohort of leaders for what’s coming.
Fortunately, edtech leaders don’t necessarily have to be prepared in a single, set, formal way. Those who see developments, possibilities, impending needs, those who understand how to work with colleagues to guide them through this next major phase in the evolution of mass education, will be able to fill this acute need for leadership. And in many cases, those people may be teacher leaders.

At any rate, a good deal of the leadership that will be needed will be focused on a local level, colleague-to-colleague basis. I wrote the book for those people who will step up, as well as for those who are officially designated as coaches or tech resources people. Those folks will need more direction, too, as things speed up and schools become more and more reliant on technology.

And what is coming?

Mark: Many of us in the field have been talking about a “digital shift” in schools, a change in which “digital” will become the preferred platform for just about everything. Some have called it a transformation from a traditional, hardcopy school to a digital learning environment—that’s a good start in envisioning what’s coming.

I think we are further along in that change than many suspect, particularly in places where this isn’t even close yet. They are aware of edtech and that there are many ways in which it makes things easier, more effective, and breaths fresh life into the things that happen in schools, but not aware of an impending critical mass, a tipping point that will be unforgiving for those who aren’t up to speed. I see the strong possibility of there being what I’ll call a “digital tsunami,” a situation in which seemingly without sufficient warning, just about everything is best done digitally.

Why do you think that is what’s coming?

Mark: At the 2017 ISTE Conference this realization hit me hard. As I perused presentations and product offerings I realized that for those things that really matter in schools: instructional practices, student support (e.g. attendance, parent communications, record keeping, etc.), ‘housekeeping’ practices (e.g. purchasing of materials, scheduling, etc.), and especially, instructional resources—the digital version is increasingly the best, most effective, most cost effective, and most accessible.
Further, there are things, like the soon-to-be LMS, that, when used properly in ways that gets maximum benefit from the resource, truly redefine the school experience in the same positive ways that technology has redefined business and the personal lives of individuals.

I’ll take it a step further, I think there will be tipping points at which the proliferation and ubiquity of digital will make life very difficult for those schools that remain primarily traditional (either in whole or in part), although those school may have some technology-supported practices and offerings along with their traditional approaches. They simply won’t be able to get “the good stuff”, any longer, or be fully in touch as equal partners with those who have made the shift to digital.




So what’s in the book that will help?

Mark: The short answer is everything that I believe will be needed by someone who, for whatever reason, is stepping up to the plate to guide a school further into the Digital Shift. But not too much, my editors at ISTE and I agreed that this book should be relatively short, that this book should be accessible and manageable and encouraging—in keeping with that old adage, “Just enough, just in time” — well actually, more than ‘just enough’, but you get the idea!

And the long answer?

Mark: Well, the book explains the situation we are in as well as how it will continue to deepen and why becoming a digital learning environment is inevitable and important. I explain the differences of traditional vs. digital and the advantages that result from digital as well as understandings about removing barriers to meaningful technology integration. Importantly, I provide proven Digital Transformation Tools and Frameworks and how leaders can use these to good effect.

The book was created for the “Digital Change Agent”, that is, whoever assumes or finds themselves in that role. And I discuss the many types of positions those people may work in or from which they will adopt this role; I give insights into the various hats this leader may wear and how to grow into the role to offer support and guidance to colleagues.

I take the technology leader through the process of formulating a vision and sharing it, as well as supporting a school—or district—community in moving from vision to reality.

Importantly, the book discusses resistance to change as well as ways to get past it.
And there’s a large body of tips and resource recommendations and very importantly, interviews with other tech leaders who have gone through this process before.
I’m thankful that ISTE gave me the opportunity to put what I’ve experienced and learned over so many years between two covers!
—
The EdTech Advocate’s Guide to Leading Change in Schools (ISTE Publications) by Mark Gura, is available from Amazon or from ISTE Books, its publisher, who provides    a description, an excerpt, and a table of contents.

Victor Rivero is the Editor-in-Chief of EdTech Digest. Write to: victor@edtechdigest.com


SOURCE: https://edtechdigest.com/2018/10/04/an-advocate-for-edtech/

The Coming Change to a Digital Platform in Our Schools and Classrooms: Shift or Tsunami?

copyrighted material/Mark Gura/2018

In virtually every corner of our current lives technology has not only shown up but has made profound changes in the way we do things.  In banking, for instance, deposits and withdrawals, balances, tracking of checks and on and on; just about every process is done through the application of ever more complex and efficient technologies.

The field of medicine, similarly has been transformed by the development and adoption of technology. Not only are records kept digitally, but diagnoses are made through instruments that increasingly are showing up in their latest and best version as digital. Serious medicine can no longer be done without a host of complex imaging and measuring processes that are done digitally. The vast record keeping of patient status, pharmaceuticals dispenses and tracked, schedule, billing and more are all digital, as well.

The business of education, not just the support dimensions, like record keeping, purchasing, and scheduling, but the core business of teaching and learning have become digital. There is a vast array of content suitable or specifically created for instruction available in accessible digital form. And there is an equally vast array of instructional tools and resources to use in the work of teaching and learning already developed and available. Still, schools that have gone ‘all in’ on technology and that have transformed themselves through their adoption of it from traditional classroom to contemporary digital learning environment are in the minority. Most schools are in transition and their progress lies along a continuum of adoption.

Fast forward to the not too distant future and we will see the following situation globally in the area of Education, along with one of 2 scenarios being true of every school. We are entering an educational era that can be well described as the Digital Shift. The following will be important characteristics of this era:

1) Best Instructional Practices will be those that rely heavily on digital resources. Best Practices are those practices that the field considers the best ways to achieve important goals. In a very real sense they define the field and provide direction and guidance for those looking to improve their performance. We are in an era now in which best practices involve Digital and truly cannot be practically implemented without it.

2) Similarly, Best of Breed Instructional Resources are digital resources. The best tools and instruments needed for teaching and learning are digital. It’s not their digital identity that makes them best. Rather, the technology is what enables them to function so well as they support Best Practices.

3) Virtually all aspects of School Housekeeping are digital. Everything from student ID cards to student records, to attendance, communications between educators and between educators and parents, purchasing, scheduling, budgeting, and a very long list of other essential support items are all now digital.

4) An EXPANDED SCHOOL PLATFORM: The traditional platform for school; typically 160 (or slightly more) days a year, 8:40am – 3:00pm (or similar schedule), instructional activities only rarely extending beyond the 4 walls of the school building, student access to only a small group of teachers or others who deliver or support learning experiences, students grouped in classes of (roughly) 30 – managed by a single teacher and held in an isolated classroom space, with students required to conform to behavioral norms that support instruction in that traditional configuration and resulting set of conditions, will be expanded.

Who and What Will Change and How?

With Best Practices and Best Resources ACROSS the Curriculum redefining themselves as digital, soon virtually all school employees, particularly teachers and those who supervise and support them in their teaching, will have to become deeply engaged in conducting their work digitally. This will include newcomers to the field and those who've been on the job for a good while, but who have managed to ignore or resist the change to digital.

For schools that have been conducting themselves as organizations that anticipate this change, in other words steadily building capacity to handle this challenge, things will escalate manageably.

For others that have been oblivious, in denial, or procrastinating intentionally, the change will be difficult with much scrambling to catch up to do. In the field of Education, one that is often a moving target in terms of professional preparation, schools that have been deferring preparation for the coming change will have to struggle greatly to what will be a new and all defining square one!

The current staffing of a great many schools and districts is not sufficient to step in as the velocity and depth of the change increase. Yes, schools have School Technologist, often in the role of tech support person (overwhelmingly focused on the acquisition and maintenance of hardware and other digital resources and training other staff in the mechanical/operational aspects of using them) or the Computer or Technology Class teacher. These folks, though, are not charged with or aware of the need to hone a very global understanding of the uses of technology in a school. Even if they are, on occasion, directed to coach other members of the teaching staff in specific technology uses, they are not prepared to take on the massive task of supporting a full staff in the very broad shift to a largely, exclusive commitment to doing things digitally.

The same is true for district level tech coaches, who, while they may have experience in working with targeted segments of the district teaching staff, have not had the opportunity to wrap their brains around, and develop their understandings and skills to handle the full depth and breadth of skills and knowledge that will be needed to move fully into a digital platform in our schools.

The proposition ahead seems to be, therefore, will the school/district experience this profound change as a challenging, yet inspiring Digital Shift or will they scramble to keep from drowning in what will be sustained EdTech Tsunami bearing down on them?

For schools that seemingly must, all of a sudden, greatly increase the level of  technology they use in conducting instruction – who find themselves in a situation in which the professional development they need is best accessed online – in which providing student access to learning opportunities beyond the four walls of the classroom and the 6 and ½ hours a day spent inside the school building has become the standard – in which parents have rightly come to expect a steady, rich stream of information about their child and the goings on of the school… and a good number of other areas that will be primarily done on a digital platform, the period of transition will, indeed be very challenging. The good news is that being conscious of the nature and above all, the extent of the coming Digital Shift will help school communities from experiencing it as a Tsunami. 

Additional Note:  A common and understandable response to the above is the funding issue. An analysis of this situation would take at least another full article. However, funding has long been a reason stated for keeping school technology use shallow and limited. Some questions and concepts, therefore:

Schools traditionally consider that technology is an extra, an add on. Consequently, these communities set up an "either/or" narrative as their understanding. But is this a good, clear understanding?
- Must a school choose between technology OR traditional, hard copy materials? Must a school purchase expensive hard copy textbooks AND connected devices for students? Might not the school purchase for instance, Chromebooks and then opt for free or low cost digital Social Studies content online. The cost currently of a Chromebook is approaching that of some textbooks and certainly that of 2 new text books. This is just one possible reorganizing of budgetary thinking that would allow for schools to modernize their platform. There are numerous others and a short online search will turn up articles that explain.
- Another consideration often voiced is that many students don't have internet access at home. If the rationale for moving to a digital platform is increased hours of access to materials for students, then this is indeed an  important consideration. However here, too, there are numerous items online that explain how some districts have decided to address this without ignoring their budgetary considerations.