R emember the old parable from India about the blind men and the elephant ? The parable tells the story of a group of blind men, each trying to describe the elephant from the one bit of the elephant he is touching. The blind man at the tail says the elephant is a rope, the blind man at the side of the beast says it is a wall, and the man feeling the tusk claims that the elephant is a spear.

Well, I am sometimes reminded of this fable when I think about how we all define good technology use and best practices. We all do our best to bring meaningful technology integration to our schools, teachers, and students. Naturally, we each bring our own perspective about what really exemplary use of technology looks like.

As I read journals, blogs, and books, I work to envision the big picture, the whole elephant. I continually learn from my colleagues, and as I integrate their great perspectives into my framework my understanding grows. I know I am more effective when I am part of a bigger team.

I suggest that all educators must enter the technology arena and contribute their unique perspectives and understandings. When all points of view are articulated, all facets of technology literacy and 21st century skills come together to form a comprehensive picture, one which we can all embrace. We have to put all the parts together to get an accurate picture so that we aren’t all seeing just our part of the “elephant.”

I share here some elements of my own personal journey . My own Personal Learning Network has developed in a number of spheres. Like many of you, locally, at the district level, I participate in many committees that are not directly technology-related and I reach out to connect with educators at every level and discipline. This really helps my picture of school level and classroom level needs and concerns, successes and challenges.

A little bit wider in scope, I attend the job-alike meetings of the Assabet Valley Education Collaborative . The collaboration with my remarkable local colleagues is incredibly rich. I learn so much from each of them and together we accomplish more than we could separately.

At the state level, as many of you do, I serve on several boards and advisory panels. Such commitments require my effort beyond the work day, but they are all incredibly enriching. They each offer a really good return on investment (ROI), if you think of investment in terms of time and energy. I learn so much from being active in these organizations. I can draw on the wisdom, experience, and knowledge of my colleagues.

Many of you are members of national organizations, as well. You belong to ISTE or ASCD or NSDC or CoSN – or maybe all of these! I encourage you to actively participate. Rather than be a passive member who receives the emails and publications, volunteer for something. It’s fairly easy to volunteer to be a reviewer of RFPs for a national conference and the experience if very educational.

Another excellent opportunity to collaborate with others and work in a team and bring others in your district into the dialog about technology is to bring a team to the MassCUE – M.A.S.S. Technology Conference . There are sessions in many content areas and at all levels, for teachers, technicians, administrators, and technology specialists. Maybe bringing a district team to Gillette Stadium for the conference will kick off a personal learning journey for your whole district and can jumpstart technology initiatives. Involve many people, as they will each add their perspective and help your schools to see the whole elephant.

E.W. Dijkstra, the Dutch computer scientist, once said that, “Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” If one takes this line of thinking and applies it to computers in education, one can assert that the use of computers in education is not about the computers; it is about education. More and more, people of widely varied backgrounds – educators, technology experts, education policy makers and futurists – are in agreement that technology should be used to help students achieve learning goals. I hear less often that students should be learning about technology for the sake of “knowing technology” and having marketable skills. That means that there is a great challenge for educators to be “able to integrate technology into the curriculum to improve student achievement” (www.nclb.org).
Meeting this challenge well, will take practice and professional development.

“Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”

The NCLB Act refers many times throughout the 670 pages of the act to professional development for teachers and administrators, and encourages states and school districts to support and offer technology professional development. Professional development is a necessary component in working toward the goals of NCLB. “It’s not enough simply to have a computer and an Internet connection in the classroom if they are not made part of the learning process. Technology is a tool like any other, and the value does not come from having access to it, but rather how it is used” (www.nclb.org). This reminds me of an analogy that I heard Chris Dede make at a conference about ten years ago. He said that a computer in the classroom is not like a fire. You can stand near a fire and get warm and reap the benefits of the fire simply by proximity to it. You can’t simply huddle around a computer and reap educational benefits from being near to it. It has to be used and used well.

When I think about bringing the power of technology to bear in our teaching in all subject areas, planning, and assessment, I automatically think about professional development – constant learning. The kind of professional development is a deeper level of professional development (PD) than the simple “how-to” of a software tool. I don’t think schools should offer any how to workshops or courses and envision that it will substantially change teaching and learning. I think instead, that we should be weaving technology into every single professional development activity we offer. By this I mean that whether the workshop is about teaching math at the elementary level or developing units around essential questions and problem-based inquiry or creating rubrics, the workshop should have technology as an essential component.

One successful way to offer such PD is something I will call a “hybrid model” of teaching technology integration. The “hybrid model” calls for a focus on a content area or pedagogical skill that is not in the technology arena, but also calls for the course or workshop to use technology seamlessly to achieve the goals of the course. A “team” of teachers, one with a stronger content knowledge and another with stronger technology expertise might work together to facilitate such courses. If you have had success in your district with a “team-teaching” approach, a content expert paired with a technology expert who will help to include an essential technology dimension to the class, I’d love to hear from you – would you be willing to share your successes? If so, you could share by a comment on this post, or you could write a guest blog post that you could send to me and I could post for you.

I am so looking forward to the MassCUE fall technology conference this year.

Title of conference and dates:
Tackling 21st-Century Learning
Be sure to save the dates: October 28 and October 29 with the pre-conference on October 27!
Registration is open now.

There are four big reasons that have me so pumped!

1) NEW LOCATION
The conference has moved from its location of the past several years to GILLETTE STADIUM. The location is awesome. We’ll be using the clubhouse level for keynotes, exhibitors, and food, while the breakout sessions will be in the corporate boxes. The space has made it possible for us to have hands-on sessions, a cyber-cafe, and more room to just sit together and chat between sessions.
An extra bonus of this location is that it is close to Rhode Island. I have heard from some of my friends from other New England ISTE affiliates that people will be coming from all over New England, but that we should especially expect an influx of attendees from our neighbors from Rhode Island. Nice for networking, getting fresh ideas, and meeting new friends.

2) NEW PARTNERSHIP
The Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents (M.A.S.S.) and MassCUE (Massachusetts Computer Using Educators) are co-sponsoring the event this year. Each organization has, in the past, each had a fall technology conference. Bringing them together, the resulting conference will be MORE than the sum of their parts. Technology using teachers will be at the same conference with superintendents…hearing the same messages, talking to vendors together, and talking over lunch about how they can move forward back in their school district. It’s a great opportunity to kick off new initiatives with a unified vision.

3) GREAT KEYNOTE SPEAKERS, SPOTLIGHT SPEAKERS, AND BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap, will present a provocative talk about the skills that students need in order to get—and keep—a good job in the new global economy and to be an active and informed citizen.

Donald J. Leu, with J. Gregory McVerry, W. Ian O’Byrne, Lisa Zawilinski, all of the University of Connecticut and the New Literacies Research Lab, will talk about The New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension. Very timely and important topic!

In addition, there are so many really exciting and cutting edge breakout sessions that it is hard to select just a few to tell you about here. You can see the complete list at:
http://masscue.org/Conference2009/pdf/Complete-Workshop-Schedule.pdf

From Information Literacy to Information Leadership
In this interactive workshop, participants will have an opportunity to: 1) consider some implications of a focus on teaching and assessing 21st century skills; 2) look at a model for assessing 21st century skills; and 3) consider next steps for their classroom, school, or district.
Tony Wagner, Co-director, Change Leadership Group, Harvard Graduate School of Education

GoogleDocs/Netbooks/Moodle
Lee McCanne, Director of Technology and School Libraries, Weston Public Schools

SCORE: Winning Strategies to Conquer Information Overload
Kathy Schrock, Director of Technology, Nauset Public Schools, 1996 Pathfinder

Cyber-Bullying in Massachusetts: Current Trends & Compliance with the Broadband Data Act
Elizabeth Englander, Professor of Psychology and the founder and Director of the Massachusetts
Aggression Reduction Center (MARC), Bridgewater State
Sharon Grover-Renda, Director of Sales and Marketing, MECnet

The Educational Administrator’s Role in Advancing Technology: Issues, Considerations, and Challenges Inherent in Moving an Educational Organization Forward
Nicholas D. Young, Superintendent, Hadley Public Schools
Patrice Dardenne, Superintendent of Schools, Monson Public Schools
Suzanne Marotta, Superintendent, West Springfield Public Schools

The iPod Touch and Mobility Considerations for the School Leader
Paul Facteau, Marketing Development Executive, Apple Inc

There are sessions on using Moodle, Maximizing Collaboration using Technology, Creating Sustainable Professional Development Programs, Cloud Computing, and Using Data. I see sessions about the arts, science, math, writing, and more. Dr. Chris Moersch, the Executive Director of LoTi Connection will be presenting HEAT, and Beth Knittle, Massacusetts’ own second life expert is presenting a session. Do you use (or want to use) SCRATCH in your classroom? Want to meet Mitch Resnick, one of the primary developers? He will be presenting at the conference. Michael Purdy’s breakout on Classroom Twittering sounds really cutting edge and Isa Zimmerman’s session on STEM in pre-school should not be missed. You can learn about voicethread, robotics, universal design, smartboards, Eno boards, wikis, social bookmaking . . . . OK, you really have to check out the program yourself!

4) HANDS-ON!
Apple is back at our conference and will be running hands-on sessions all day both days.
At the pre-conference hands-on sessions attendees will take away software and all the tips and tricks about using the software.
During the main conference days there will be some hands-on (make it and take it) sessions. These will require a separate registration fee, but those who sign up for it will have a hands-on session learning to use something in the classroom (like a flip camera) and will take away the flip-camera at the end of the session – price included in the price of the session.

See you at GILLETTE in OCTOBER!!

Tomaz Lasic comments, in his blog post entitled, How can Moodle change a school ,  on the “one big thing” he would bring to his school as a technology facilitator.

“Before starting to work as a part-time technology integrator at our school this year, the principal asked me to come up with one ‘thing’, one key strategy for staff and students to ICT to improve their teaching and learning. After seeing the flexibility, robustness and ‘organic’ nature of Moodle the choice was pretty simple to make.”

Read the entire post at: http://human.edublogs.org/2008/08/06/how-can-moodle-change-a-school/

I love his answer, but find myself resisting it. I, too, am enthusiastic about using Moodle in my school district. As a matter of fact, Moodle is the latest in a series of tools that I have been promoting in schools. In the mid-nineties I put together a consortium of six school districts to work together with Lotus-IBM and a developer to create an online education space that we called Compass. It was an internet-intranet for collaborating, asynchronous discussions, and posting news and assignments. We managed to involve the support of IBM-Lotus to the extent that they donated Lotus Notes to each of the consortium districts and committed an advisor from their education sector to work with us.

We received some funding from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) to help defray development costs. A member of the ESE visited us and was so impressed that within weeks they had their own RFP out to develop the same thing on a state-wide basis. It was known as VES (Virtual Education Space), a name that came directly from our description of our project. VES, which was never adequately funded or supported with sufficient staff, has since morphed into MassOne, an online education space for all public school educators in Massachusetts. The lack of sufficient resources in the past created both some real unreliability as well as a more widespread perception that it was unreliable. Only time will tell whether it can fully overcome its past issues and reputation, especially in light of the stiff (and free and reliable) competition from Moodle, Wikis, and blogs.

My own project (Compass) never really took wing and soared, although we had some successes. I think that educators were not ready at the time; it was a concept that still needed to ripen for many of our teachers. Of course, it was about fifteen years ago, but I still recall that one of the primary obstacles that teachers said kept them from wanting to use it was that they had to log in, and that was one step too many. We have come a long way since then.

I share this background to positively affirm the extent to which I support online learning spaces (like Moodle). I do this so that I can respectfully explain why I find myself so resistant to the idea that the “one big thing” could be software or hardware at all. I think that the “one big thing” that I would ask of a school, would not be about any specific tool. Instead it would be to use technology to further COLLABORATION. I would encourage communicating and sharing among and between groups – teachers, students, and parents. It’s not about the tool – it’s about the collaboration. In fact, I bet Tomaz Lasic would agree, and I’m sure his blog post was describing a specific answer to a question that was actually expecting a “tool” answer. I think I have answered similarly many times. My point is simply that I am going to (try) to refuse to be drawn into conversations that are tool-focused when they should be learning-centered;  I will try to shift those conversations more and more toward student learning, communication, collaboration, and contributing online.

This is easy in principle, but not always easy in practice. Lots of planning and budget meetings I attend seem to gravitate toward talking about technology programs as numbers of computers, age of computers, bandwidth, and operating system. I am pledging to myself that instead of sighing inwardly, I will make more of an effort to shift the conversation to include learning outcomes. Sometimes we have to talk about the hardware and the software, but we can’t stop there.

I think it was Bill Moyers who said, “Sharing is the essence of teaching. It is, I have come to believe, the essence of civilization.”

That could be the battle cry of edubloggers.

The ISTE NETS section on Communication and Collaboration appears below.

“Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance,
to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments
and media.
b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
c. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.
d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.”

excerpt from:

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007_Standards.pdf

A s Director of Technology for a K-12 school district, there are times when a specific project or topic usurps a majority of my time and attention. For example, there may be a network upgrade project that commands my attention, or at other times it could be strategic planning or grant writing or goal setting or team building or curriculum planning and development (this list could go on and on) that needs my focus and pushes itself to the top of my list for an extended period of time. Lately, my recurring preoccupation has been all about professional development (PD).

I’ve been reading and writing about PD, writing grants focused on PD programs, and working with colleagues planning PD conferences (MassCUE and METAA Technology Leadership Symposium and the Fall MassCUE and M.A.S.S. Technology Conference ). In both monthly technology department meetings and in our district administrative meetings, I started a practice of having some technology PD as part of every meeting. We have held to this more closely in department meetings, but did indeed include PD using technology in some of our district administrative meetings. Lastly, the most recent issue of on Cue , the professional journal of MassCUE for which I am the managing editor, is a themed issue with a focus on PD. Phew! So much to learn, so little time.

One of the grants is to create opportunities for teachers to participate in PD so that they will become purveyors of PD to their colleagues (train the trainer, is the popular terminology). The other grant is for online courses for teachers to become proficient in online teaching. The conferences will include keynote speakers, presentation-style sessions, a cyber café, hands-on workshops, and “make it and take it” sessions (learn on a new device and take the device with you at the end of the session).

If you are a MassCUE member, you recently received (or are about to receive) your Spring 2009 on Cue issue. This issue, delivered to the post office in April, started ten to twelve months ago. The theme was developed and publicized during the spring and summer last year. Starting with the March 2008 Technology Leadership Symposium and the fall conference I connected with presenters, educators, bloggers, and authors and invited them to contribute articles about PD. The work continued through the winter, soliciting articles from around the country, reading, editing, and planning out the issue. By the time on Cue finally went to press I felt like I had been engulfed in PD forever. Not such a bad thing, since I am a “true believer.” I think professional development and personal growth are the most important factors to improving the state of education. So, in your on Cue issue, authors share perspectives, disclose personal stories of growth and learning, and offer concrete suggestions. Thank you to all of the contributors:
Justin Reich (co-author Best Ideas for Teaching with Technology )
Thomas Daccord (co-author Best Ideas for Teaching with Technology )
Miguel Guhlin (blog: Around the Corner – MGuhlin.org )
Peggy Harvey
Walter McKenzie (site: SurfAquarium )
Carol Holzberg (profile )
Romeo Marquis (The Learning Curve )
Julie Koven (at Gann Academy )
Jason Schneider (in the news )

I hope that each reader of  on Cue is inspired to take steps toward building his/her own personal learning network and commits to sharing his/her journey with others.

I t’s that time of year. People are talking and writing about New Year’s resolutions. What promises are we making to ourselves for 2009? I decided to forgo a traditional resolution in favor of a commitment to a disposition. Aun aprendo – I am still learning (thank you, Goya) is a maxim that I hold dearly. In 2009 I plan to hew even more tenaciously to that concept. I have a strong belief that constant learning is fundamental to a happy life. But for educators, especially, the adoption of an open learning stance is indispensable.

• We continue to learn in order to renew our passion for our subject, our students, and our love of education.
• We continue to learn to model for our students and colleagues, a learning behavior and an openness to new ideas.
• We continue to learn to satisfy our own curiosity about the universe and our place in it.
• We continue to learn because that is the business we are in – the learning business.
• We continue to learn so as to improve our craft, learn new pedagogies, and master unfamiliar tools, strategies, and techniques.
• We continue to learn in order to renew ourselves.

I’m sure every single person who reads this list could add a number of substantive and important reasons for us to commit to lifelong learning. We all develop our own reasons, and if you are reading this post you are already likely to be one of those educators who has embarked on his/her own learning quest.

I believe that when we commit strongly to learning, the result will naturally infuse our teaching and influence others. It will help us to be thoughtful and reflective practitioners of the art of helping others to learn. Learning and mastering new ideas and being open to listening to others and “trying on” their points of view make us more critical and discriminating thinkers. My last thought I would like to share is that learning is fun. I want to have fun learning and pass on to others that they can take learning risks and have fun doing it.

Aun aprendo.
Happy 2009.

I have gathered some quotes about learning – enjoy the words of others:

“the illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

~ Alvin Toffler

“Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival.”

~ W. Edwards Deming (1900 – 1993)

“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.”

~ Hebrew Proverb

“Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient.”

~ Eugene S. Wilson

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

~ Bill Gates

“Learning makes a man fit company for himself.”

~ Thomas Fuller (1608 – 1661)

“By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.”

~ Latin Proverb

“There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning, and yearning.”

~ Christopher Morley (1890 – 1957)

As a board member of MassCUE , I was really pleased that the attendance at our recent conference was up 33% from 2007. Talking to people at the conference I listened closely when attendees talked about how good the conference was. I heard positive comments about exhibitors, keynote speakers, and breakout sessions.

In the days since the conference, I have been thinking about the success of the conference and wondering why. Why attend a conference? It is easy to imagine all of the barriers to going to a conference – money is tight; budgets are frozen; it is difficult to be out of the classroom or school district for even one day, never mind two; there are plentiful opportunities for professional development online . . .

Now, for the reasons TO attend. Attendance at a good face to face conference means many opportunities to make connections. Conference participants network with colleagues and share ideas, successes, and frustrations. I think the sharing is more powerful when people are together because there is also an emotional connection and chances to just have fun together. I heard lots of people say it was worth coming to the conference just for the keynote speakers. Wesley Fryer and Hall Davidson were exciting, thought-provoking, and charismatic. Charisma is sometimes lost in an online, textual exchange.

Making personal connections with the exhibitors is also a huge benefit to attending the conference. One quick conversation could solve what you’ve been trying to resolve by phone call for weeks. Attendees told me they got free trials and found out about free training resources at the conference, learned about software and hardware, and met people they had previously only dealt with by email or phone.

When I think about my own highpoints of the conference they all have to do with personal connections – working with all the MassCUE members who bring you the conference every year, Beth Knittle helping me with a technical issue on my blog, Will Richardson ’s session, From Information Literacy to Information Leadership , so conversational and participatory, conversations with people who came up to me to ask “What’s new at MassCUE?” I can’t list here all the great conversations and personal connections that made the conference worthwhile. Given all the constraints on our time and money, I have to guess that the personal connections are part of the reason other people attend.

How about you? Why do you attend conferences?

The Building Learning Communities conference (July 16 – 18) (BLC08) has been very good. Keynotes Ewan McIntosh and John Davitt were excellent – funny, informative, and challenging my thinking. I attended several quality breakout sessions; I took notes and thought about how I would share what I have learned when I get back to my school district. At a breakout session today, Ewan McIntosh challenged the attendees – he asked us all to write down, by the end of the conference on Friday, the next steps for our own learning as inspired by the conference.
Good one. I was already dealing with mild cognitive overload from attending NECC, which had more vendor displays and breakout sessions than any person could wish for, and BLC08 has only served to increase the buzz, not clarify it. I think Ewan’s suggestion to map my own learning may be a good way to begin to process the conferences. To keep it manageable, I’ll stick to four items in my list.
First big thing I need to learn: I am in a new school district after 16 years in a single district. That means that the most important thing I need to learn is what is happening in my new district (regarding teaching, learning, and technology). I then need to find out what obstacles teachers perceive are limiting their own use of technology.
Second: I have many ideas about what is meant by “21st Century Skills” and there are many resources on the web telling us what others think those skills are. I need to learn how to distill this down into a meaningful list, with the help of my school community, so we can decide what we can manage to take on from that list – what can we accomplish this year? Next year?
Third: I have no idea how to “infect” my fellow administrators with the sense of urgency I feel around this. I will continue to research and reach out to others for ideas on how to do this.
Fourth: I will find out more about: Digital Buffets, wikified research papers, the innovative blogger, bebo, two stars and a wish, cmap tools, and configuring my wordpress blog (it’s not quite where I want it yet).
Whew – what a list. It’s going to be a busy year.