SIGTC Membership Breakfast

The Role of Technology Leadership in a Changing Educational Landscape

Panelists

• John Hendron – Instructional Technologist, Freelance Designer
• Thor Prichard – President/CEO of Clarity Innovations
• Will Richardson – blogger, author, educator
• Tony Vincent – Educational Consultant
• David Warlick – Consultant, Educator, Author
  

The breakfast meeting began with a panel discussion facilitated by Ted Sakshaug. This was an excellent discussion on a variety of Web 2.0 related topics. The use of del.icio.us for social bookmarking and tagging bookmarks was demonstrated. We were also introduced to the wiki that SIGTC has begun as a place for all of us to contribute and collaborate on content. Details of what people said during the panel discussion can be found on the SIGTC Knowledge Wiki. In small groups we all got a chance to use these tools to begin to add content. I think this is a great opportunity to use and model the things this group was talking about today.

Panel Discussion
First each panel member tried to kind of define what kinds of technologies, what skills, what components are a part of what we call Web 2.0.
Comments included:

• The new shaping of information
• Information without containers
• The new literacies and the need to consciously teach students and teachers how to use these
• The presence of very authentic audiences
• The ease of publishing allows us to focus more on the content than on the tools themselves
• There is a change in the relationship between individuals and institutions. Institutions are no longer the controllers of information.
• For the first time students have a place to put there knowledge in a permanent database.
• There is great power in the ability to publish
• There is also great power in the immediacy of publishing and we need to figure out how to leverage this power/potential for education
  

Ted posed the question . . .
How do we handle the fears of teachers about covering content, boundaries and roles so that they will use these Web 2.0 tools?
Comments included:

• Students need models of responsible blogging. Teachers have a responsibility to use and model these things appropriately for students.
• There is a conception that social tools cause problems. They don’t. They allow a great transparency into the real lives of students and we should be learning from this.
• When publishing to the web, there is great power and learning opportunity in the use of voice and other elements of the traits of writing.
• Kids understand the power of this communication better than adults do, and they are using it. We need to take the opportunity to actively teach skills, ethical and responsible use. We aren’t going to stop them from using these tools so we should take advantage of the teachable moments rather than imagining that we can just block it all and keep it all out of schools.
• When this publishing and communication becomes a conversation, responsibility multiplies. We need to define and describe ethical use of information and this must be an integral part of literacy instruction.
  

Ted asked the panelists . . .
to describe what types of technology they see coming along other than blogs and Wikis.
Comments included:

• The increasing presence of web based applications rather than applications that must be downloaded and installed on the client computer.
• The web is becoming a platform and a personal learning space
• Content is dynamic
• Teachers know a finite number (maybe 5 or 6) of applications and how to use them. However, 5 to 7 new applications are appearing on the web every week. Must invest in helping teachers figure out how to put it all together. Kids already know how to put it together.
• The power of RSS (Real Simple Syndication) to pull it all together and aggregate it in one place.
  

Personal Reflection

This was an excellent discussion and a nice way to summarize a very complex topic. None of this information was new to me. I’ve been listening to the podcasts and presentations and reading the blogs of all of these panelists for some time. I understand these things, am trying to use them, and integrate these things into my life and my teaching and learning. I feel a responsibility to use these technologies with students as well. I think as educators, if we don’t take advantage of the technologies that are a way of life to our students, we are missing the boat completely and increasing rather than decreasing the disconnect students see between real life and school.

However, I find it a great challenge to get teachers to invest in even looking at these technologies, let alone understand their power and use them in meaningful ways to enhance teaching and learning. In fact, I’ve met other educational technology “specialists” who have never even heard of the term, Web 2.0 and are unaware of many of the technologies we talked about today and how to use them. If people who should be technology leaders don’t bite, how can I get classroom teachers to? I am sometimes overwhelmed by how far away the horizon is and am at a loss as to how to move people toward it, before it’s a completely new horizon!