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.

I n Massachusetts there is some momentum around harnessing the energy and good will of businesses, individuals, state agencies, and other non-profits to partner with schools toward achieving some big technology goal for schools. This goal has yet to be determined, but the "shorthand" description I have heard is the "next net day." The name does not reflect that people think that schools still need volunteer wiring, but rather that net day is recognized as one of those pivotal volunteer efforts that started small, grew bigger, and accomplished something of value for schools. I think the idea of "net day" is that it will be an effort that uses the net day type framework to get various players to buy in, help organize, and to get the state to put their weight behind it.

Net Day was a volunteer, grassroots effort to get school classrooms connected to the Internet. It started back in the mid-nineties and was originally meant to take place on one Saturday. The first Net Day, March 9, 1996, saw volunteers show up at many schools in California to pull ethernet cable through the buildings to bring the Internet to students. According to Wikipedia , "20,000 volunteers helped to wire 20 percent of California schools to the Internet." The event was seen as a big success and was replicated in many more states and grew into a national effort and organization. And regardless of the fact that most schools have probably long since replaced that volunteer-pulled cable with newer, higher category ethernet cable, it is hard to deny that Net Day was indeed a valuable happening. Schools did get wired, computers were connected, and, perhaps even just as important, a new awareness of technology in education was generated. The photo of Bill Clinton and Al Gore standing on ladders and pulling cable lent validity to the notion that schools had to get wired and take advantage of what technology had to offer.

So is there another opportunity for a coalition of like-minded individuals and groups to accomplish something significant for schools and for the efforts of educators to use technology effectively? Is there some organizing goal that will galvanize interests? It seems to me that there is. My problem wasn’t thinking up ways that schools could use some outside help, but in limiting my ideas to just a few. At the moment, I’ve narrowed it down to three big areas: bandwidth, computers, and professional development. Everyone who has anything to say about education today is talking about and writing about 21st century skills and a 21st century classroom. But what does that mean?

The various accounts and many points of view seem to have a few things in common. They mention skills like collaboration, creativity, communication, and problem-solving, and they mention computer and information literacy. For example, The Partnership for 21st Century Skills says that students must use "digital technology, communication tools and/or networks appropriately to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information in order to function in a knowledge economy."
So, as a rule, visions of a 21st century education necessarily include technology, Internet access, and using computers to collaborate, research, communicate, and solve problems. In order for schools to do a high quality job of educating students, we need high bandwidth, computers for students and educators to use, and professional development for teachers so they know how to integrate technology and 21st century skills into teaching and learning.

Bandwidth
Schools all over Massachusetts deal with their bandwidth issues separately, individually. There are a variety of providers, from telephone companies to cable television companies, that schools work with for Internet access, and erate goes only so far. I wish the state would work with businesses to negotiate really good deals for high bandwidth (synchronous 15, 20, 50, 100 Mbps?) Internet access that all schools could take advantage of.

Computers
I wish schools could, to some extent, get out of the business of providing computers (or some kind of computing device) for students and teachers. I think it would be a good idea if a "new net day" coalition created a student/educator computer purchase program that was more than a token discount. I think that if teachers and students could get really amazing deals on laptops that they would actually prefer to use their own laptop and bring it back and forth to and from school. This would free school computer dollars up for computers for the lower elementary grades, some specific application computer labs, administration, and to have computers on hand for those who, for any reason, do not have their own computer to use. This idea is not without its problems. Issues to resolve would be protecting school networks from viruses, spam and adware; making sure each computer has the necessary suite of software; developing a way for lower income students to also have a laptop, and probably a dozen other issues I am not yet thinking about. Still, I think that the more personal computers we allow into our schools and onto our networks, the fewer computers schools are on the hook for buying, maintaining, repairing, upgrading, replacing . . . .

Professional Development
It seems like there is never enough money for professional development. There are plenty of ways a "net day" group could help. One strategy would be matching fund grants for schools to get some money to use toward professional development for every dollar spent on technology. Another idea would be for a coalition to provide "train the trainer" training for corporate volunteers to develop them into a valuable support and mentor corp. Professional development might offer the most opportunties for partnerships – there is so much high-tech expertise in corporations, couple that with a desire to contribute to the greater good, a mentor training program, and a free way to collaborate and the possibilities start to become apparent.

These are just the beginning thoughts of one person, meant to get the conversation started. I would love to hear ideas from others. What might the next "net day" be and how would it work and what would the impact be?