Category Archives: Technology

Building a Culture of “All In!!!”

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Yesterday at the AASL President’s Program speaker 2013 AASA National Superintendent of the Year Mark A. Edwards from Mooresville (NC) Graded School District spoke eloquently on the role that school culture and vision play in his district’s successful technology “conversion.”  While he described the investment Mooresville is making by leasing computers for every student, faculty, and staff member in the district, he focused on the idea of “all in!!!” as much or more than the tools themselves.

Although I have not yet read his book, Every Child, Every Day: A Digital Conversion Model for Student Achievement, Dr. Edwards clearly outlined a school culture context in which everyone is invested in and committed to providing students with the most engaging, collaborative, real-world learning experiences that lead to student (and educator) success.

Dr. Edwards talked about six ingredients in the Mooresville initiative. It was compelling to note that only two of them were directly related to technology: 21st-century tools and rich and intensive data used by students, teachers, and parents to guide and monitor learning.

The other four ingredients were: building the culture, building capacity through ongoing professional development, “all in!!!,” and ubiquitous leadership. (It is no surprise that Dr. Edwards is now writing a book about distributive leadership.) What should strike all educators, and maybe school librarians in particular, is that everyone has a leadership role in this model, which supports the culture of collaboration in the school.

Said Dr. Edwards: “Every school librarian in Mooresville represents leadership that is central to successful student learning.”

Thank you for an excellent talk, Dr. Edwards, and for spreading your vision far and wide across the country. You have the eyes and ears of other educational leaders. We look forward to hearing more about the success in Mooresville.

 

Teaching Teachers Technology

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To further this concept of leadership in technology integration, I hope that Building a Culture of Collaboration Blog school librarian readers will consider the importance of their approaches to teaching teachers technology. While our ultimate goal is to get digital tools in the hands of students so they can use them for accessing information and planning presentations, and producing knowledge, working with classroom teachers and specialists is the way to ensure school-wide technology integration.

On Thursday, February 6th, I will deliver the Library/Media Specialist Academy Keynote at the Texas Computer Education Association Conference in Austin. You can access the online support for my presentation “Teaching Teachers Technology: The School Librarian’s Starring Role.”

When we consider that every time a school librarian or technology integrator facilitates a classroom teacher’s integration of technology tools, we are impacting the learning of every student in that educator’s classroom this year and most likely for years to come. It is important then that we learn effective strategies for teaching teachers. Theories related to andragogy, the science of teaching adult learners, were brought to the U.S. by Malcolm Knowles. This is my summary of his ideas about adult learners.

Adult learners:
1.    are self-directed and take responsibility for their own learning.
2.    have prior experience that can be a positive or negative influence on learning.
3.    are motivated by an internal need to know.
4.    have a problem-solving orientation to learning.

What instructional problems can we help classroom teachers solve in order to effectively integrate technology tools into learning and teaching in our schools?

References

Knowles, M. The adult  learner: A neglected species. (2nd ed.). Boston: Gulf.

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Leadership in Technology Integration

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As many know, Wednesday, February 6, 2013 is the second annual Digital Learning Day. Educators from around the country will be sharing and celebrating effective strategies for integrating technology tools into 21st-century learning and teaching.

In light of this national conversation, I would like to recommend a research article by our co-blogger Melissa P. Johnston: “School Librarians as Technology Integration Leaders: Enablers and Barriers to Leadership Enactment.”

In the conclusion of her study report, Dr. Johnston summarizes the enablers and the barriers to technology integration identified by the participants in her study who were teacher leaders and school librarians:

Enablers for all participants:

  • supportive principal,
  • opportunities for a leadership role and responsibilities,
  • the desire to make a difference for students and teachers,
  • professional development opportunities,
  • and a sense of obligation to get involved.

Barriers:

  • time,
  • exclusion from a leadership role and responsibilities,
  • lack of funding,
  • and inadequate staffing.

Enablers unique to school librarians included:

  • support from professional organizations,
  • support from district library administrators,
  • serving in a dual role as school librarian and technology specialist,
  • and technology expertise.

Barriers identified by school librarians included:

  • competitive relationships with instructional technologists,
  • lack of support at the district level from a library administrator,
  • and lack of technology expertise (Johnston, 2012, p. 27).

In light of this research, educators can use Digital Learning Day to rededicate ourselves to working collaboratively with each other and with professional organizations to create dynamic learning opportunities for students that effectively integrate 21st-century tools. Let’s break down the barriers and shore up the enablers for the benefit of learners!

References

Johnston, M. P. (2012). School librarians as technology integration leaders: Enablers and barriers to leadership enactment. School Library Research, 15(1). Retrieved from www.ala.org/aasl/slr.

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