Innovative Leadership in the Digital Age- wk. 3

     This week I'm working to organize my thoughts and refine my ideas about helping meet the technology needs in our district, starting with the creation of a Technology Integration Plan. Through conversation with our Technology Specialist, I have discovered that our district does not have such a plan and hasn't (to her knowledge) since she joined the district in 2019. In hopes of finding a little direction, I perused our state education website only to find the state is no longer requiring school districts to develop Technology plans. In anticipation of creating a plan from nothing, I searched for and found a Technology Plan from our state ("Oklahoma City Public Schools Technology Plan 2014-2015") for reference.  To ascertain the practicality of that document, I am comparing and contrasting the information and framework of that plan with that found in the "District/School Technology Plan Template-Your Blueprint for Success" document. 

     The Oklahoma City Public Schools (OCPS) Technology Plan identifies 13 specific components that align with the previously required minimum requirements for a good technology plan, as suggested by the Oklahoma State Department of Education:

1. Strategies for Improving Academic Achievement and Teacher Effectiveness/Needs Assessment
2. Goals
3. Steps to Increase Accessibility
4. Promotion of Curricula and Teaching Strategies That Integrate Technology
5. Professional Development
6. Technology Type and Costs/Timeline
7. Coordination with Other Resources
8. Integration of Technology with Curricula and Instruction
9. Innovative Delivery Strategies
10. Parental Involvement
11. Collaborations with Adult Literacy Programs
12. Accountability Measures
13. Supporting Resources

The "District/School Technology Plan Template-Your Blueprint for Success" document specifically addresses 

1. Goals
2. Professional Development
3. Technology Funding (Budget) and Timeline/Schedule
4. Coordination of Resources
5. Desired Academic Results/Tech Integration into Curriculum
6. Methods of Evaluation (Accountability)

     Despite looking vastly different, both documents share many of the same focuses. Both plans are multi-year models and include a section where the technology planning committee members are listed (along with their stakeholder role-OKCPS) so it is easy to ensure stakeholders from a wide variety of groups are included in the creation of the plan. They both identify a vision/mission statement that seeks to explain how technology will impact learning in their respective district. They each include clearly defined goals, a section for budget considerations and timelines, and a section for professional development. Additionally, both plans address resources, considerations for tech integration into the curriculum, and accountability.

      While the plans appear to be pretty much in line with one another, the OKCPS plan seems to have a broader focus which encompasses strategies for improving academic achievement and teacher effectiveness, as well as parental involvement, steps to increase accessibility, collaboration with other programs, and content delivery strategies. Further, it specifically includes a Needs Assessment and reference to the ISTE standards whereas the District/School Technology Plan Template (DSTPT) does not.  Conversely, the DSTPT appears to go into greater detail with regard to certain components, specifically budget items and funding/grant opportunities. 

     When pondering Ed Tech integration, Gura (2018, p.58) states, "...the most advantageous condition for success and avoidance of counterproductive efforts will involve clarity through common understanding," and I believe this to be true. For that reason, I believe, when developing the framework for my own integration plan, I will use a combination of the two plans I compared/contrasted.  The plan will obviously be developed with input from a variety of stakeholders, include a shared vision, contain clearly defined goals, budget and timeline considerations, and address professional development as well as accountability and evaluation considerations. 

References:

District/School technology Plan Template-Your Blueprint for Success https://www.uslegalforms.com/jsfiller-desk15/?             requestHash=ea0f9346aba2aeac65baa76ba11ac7838e33a36c5dd98504b08aeaeaf20e78ed   &ref=https://www.uslegalforms.com&projectId=969677596&loader=tips&replace_gtm=false&    et=as#17b242fa7b5745caf30dd1a61265dad2

*(In the vein of complete transparency, I feel like I downloaded and printed this resource from the documents shared on our course BlackBoard.  However, when attempting to locate the original source, I came up empty. Therefore, I am crediting the source I found online as above.)

Gura, M. (2018). The EdTech Advocate's Guide to Leading Change in Schools. International  Society for Technology in Education. https://reader.yuzu.com/books/9781564846471

 OKC Tech Integration Plan https://www.okcps.org/cms/lib/OK01913268/Centricity/Domain/2015%20OKCPS%20Tech%20Plan.pdf

 

Innovative Leadership in the Digital Age wk. 2

    Hey, Everyone! So this week my assignment is to begin to conceptualize and plan for the Technology Integration project I'll be creating as a final requirement for this course.  In keeping with the "Call to Action" I put together in EDUC 5353, my audience for this project remains the Ed Tech department leaders and district leadership. When considering exactly who the stakeholders are I'm choosing to include, I considered who will be most affected by the changes made as a result of my plan.  First and foremost, I feel like it is imperative to include teachers in this process. Helping teachers make the most of the technology they have access to and make the soundest instructional decisions when integrating technology will greatly benefit the 21st-century learners our district is molding. Who better than the ones actually charged with molding 21st-century learners to communicate what they need and what works best for them?  Their choices and behaviors directly impact the students with whom they work. Next, I chose to include students as stakeholders because, as 21st-century learners, they are looking to teachers to help prepare them for their next steps as life-long learners. Finally, I chose to include administrators as they affect the success of any change in their building. As leaders, their willingness to embrace or "buy in" to an idea speaks volumes to their staff and can either help them see the benefits or could send the message that it's just another thing to do. O'Hair's K20 model, described by Williams et al., (2008), begins with this in mind as they being their Phase 1 implementation with district administrators and superintendents, relying on these individuals to eventually foster whole school change through a shared vision. This shared vision (and subsequently, shared decision-making experiences) increases trust levels and risk-taking among the stakeholders (Williams et al., 2008).

    Currently, our district is in a newly formed partnership with K20. Thus far, we've participated in several community surveys which included representatives from a variety of groups: administrators, community members, teachers, students, and parents. Based on the data collected, a committee was formed with representatives from each of these stakeholder groups and brainstorming sessions began. This steering committee has put together a Continuous Strategic Improvement Plan (CSIP) and identified goals and objectives for our district for the next five years.  Among those objectives are two factors that I addressed in my "Call to Action" that are contributing to our current digital divide: improving student-centered use of technology and enhancing staff through training and development. For these reasons and others, I feel like it makes the most sense for me to use O'Hair's K20 model of change as the basis for my Technology Integration plan. 

     Williams, et al., (2008) identifies one of the primary strategies within O'Hair's K20 model as the use of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).  Our district has for several years required weekly PLCs within each building so that is a practice with which we are very familiar. Taking advantage of this already well-established process will signal to our teachers that this is not going to be "just another thing" but rather a sustainable commitment and an opportunity to learn and grow together as a team through collaboration. Another practice this model allows me to capitalize on is that of continuous professional development as a strategy for change. While we have fallen short of that in recent years (Covid related?), O'Hair's model will provide structured, frequent, sustainable professional development to support the integration of technology and provide networking opportunities for teachers and staff (Williams, et al., 2008).      

     To determine the degree of inequity occurring within our digital divide, I have created a survey (adapted from others) for members of each of the administrator, teacher, and student stakeholder groups in my building.  My plan is to use the information and data garnered from that survey to identify specific areas of need and areas of strength to use in my integration plan. Hopefully, the data revealed in the survey will help me write a Technology Integration Plan that, along with my "Call to Action,"  will help me lay the groundwork for becoming an agent of change for our district. In addition to participating in my Needs Assessment survey, my administrator and I had an informal discussion regarding my expectations for the Tech Integration Plan. She had some valuable insight to share as she serves on the steering committee for our K20 partnership. She mentioned that factors such as scope, funding, and commitment of time will all be influenced by the shared vision created through guidance from our K20 partners. This, again, makes O'Hair's model for change an excellent fit for my plan for our district. 

References:

Williams, L. A., Atkinson, L.C., Cate, J. M., O'Hair, M. J., (2008)Mutual support between learning community development and technology integration:  Impact on school practices and student achievement.  Theory Into Practice, 47, pp.294-302.

Innovative Leadership in the Digital Age wk. 1

    So, after the challenges Covid19 brought to teachers and students,  I found myself taking a more critical look at the state of education. We weren't prepared to meet the needs of our students "virtually" during that time and scrambled to make sense of the chaos we suddenly found ourselves in. Students and teachers had experience and were comfortable using technology for socialization and connectivity (i.e., TikToc, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) but we hadn't, for the most part, embraced the use of technology on a consistent basis for academic purposes. And therein lay the problem. It became pretty apparent to me, as I'm sure it was to every other teacher in the world, that education was about to see some very drastic but necessary changes. And that's the moment I realized I wanted to be a part of that change. Hence, my current pursuit of a degree in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Educational Technology.

     Likening recent advances in technology to the past, our text refers to this new period of change as the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" (Sheninger, 2019). The author points out that the manner in which technology is utilized for education is changing and as a result will affect the way our students learn. As evidenced by the challenges we faced attempting to teach virtually during the first few months of the pandemic, our schools are not keeping up with the rapid changes we're seeing in technology. And that, according to Sheninger (2019), is directly affecting our learners and causing a disconnect between schools and students. Sheninger mentions several tools at teachers' disposal, with which many teachers are already familiar.  However, the way we use those tools requires a more purposeful, thoughtful integration. Gura (2018) suggests that although we may have the technology resources and support to create 21st Century, student-friendly learning environments, we are far from possessing a comprehensive understanding about how to do it. Likewise, with regards to integrating technology, Sheninger (2019) suggests that, "The calling now for all educational systems and leaders is to empower students to learn in powerful and meaningful ways like never before" (Sheninger, 2019, p.6).

      Rashid and Asghar's article acknowledges that the landscape of education is changing but asks the question if students' engagement with technology actually aids or hinders their academic performance. Their study, similar to the two texts we're reading, identified student engagement, technology use, and self-directed learning as impacting students' academic performance. The part that seems to be missing in much of the tech integration currently taking place is the level of use and students' self-directed learning part. While the assumption that technology actually advances students' academic performance hasn't been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, we do know that students' learning needs have changed and we need to change the way we teach. My goal is to help teachers move from the ways of the past, embrace and develop a better understanding of how to integrate tech in authentic and meaningful ways, and teach for the future...our future.  

"Our students have changed radically, Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach."

-Mark Prensky (2001, p. 1)

References:

Gura, M. (2018). The EdTech Advocate's Guide to Leading Change in Schools. International Society for Technology in Education. https://reader.yuzu.com/books/9781564846471.  

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.

Rashid, T., & Asghar, H. M. (2016). Technology use, self-directed learning, student engagement and academic performance: Examining the interrelations. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 604-612.

Sheniger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times 2nd Edition.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Corwin. ISBN: 9781544350837

    

      Hey, there! Where've you been? I've been waiting for you, hangin' out here in the digital divide, so I'm glad you found me! My purpose in the blog this week is to share a little more information about my "Call to Action", specifically to discuss my intended audience.  

     The bulk of my intended audience is the men and women who comprise the technology department, specifically those individuals in the Educational Technology department, within our school district. Technology changes in our district begin with this group and are driven by the department's desire to "provide a better education for all students.". Of the three individuals in the Ed Tech department, one is a technology specialist with a Masters degree in Educational Technology. The other two are Teacher Tech Trainers. One of the two trainers holds a Masters degree in Library Media Science and was the lead tech trainer for the secondary schools before making the move to the Ed Tech department. The other trainer is a former elementary classroom teacher with no advanced degree but she's been in the department for four years so she is familiar with the technology issues facing the teachers in our district. The head of the department (Director of I.T.) holds a Bachelors degree in Informational Technology. For those reasons, I can confidently say these individuals are well versed in Ed Tech concepts and lingo and will have a better-than-average understanding of the topic in my "Call to Action". I have chosen to include these individuals in my audience because they are the ones who make the decisions regarding technology in our district. I also plan to include our district's Director of New Staff Development.  Her support and cooperation will be paramount to the success of any new Ed Tech program designed for new teachers as they come on board and acclimate themselves to Lawton Public Schools. My goal is to "sell" the strategies and best practices included in my  "Call to Action" and garner the support of each of these aforementioned individuals so we can eventually work on developing a partnership of sorts with the local public university. As it stands right now, our local university offers a class in Media/Technology but (for the most part) we are not seeing new teachers come in confident in their tech abilities. A partnership with the university would by extremely beneficial as it would allow us to have some input and share our tech knowledge in the development of material that would help new teachers thrive with regards to using Ed Tech rather than just survive it.

     With regards to the prior knowledge I will need to provide in my presentation, I believe my intended audience, for the most part, will be pretty well versed in and familiar with the topic. My topic is providing ongoing professional development to in-service teachers as well as pre-service teachers. However, for the benefit of our Director of New Staff Development, I will explain the meaning of "digital divide" and provide some background knowledge to give her a frame of reference. I will assume she has only a basic understanding of digital equity issues and, as a result, will be quite specific about what it is and why there is a need for ongoing related professional development. My hope is that my explanations and research will be so thorough she won't have any questions but I will continue to think about/anticipate possible questions I could expect from her. 

      There will be the matter of reviewing and/or updating the district technology plan. I have not seen one and am not even sure if we have a current one. Nonetheless, we can address that issue once my proposal is accepted. We must obtain buy-in from teachers and administrators so thoughtful, engaging presentations will be key to their acceptance of a new plan/more professional development. It must NOT appear to be "more on their plate"; they must see the value and benefits of additional training and be willing to commit to being actively engaged during the professional development. Our school community has already identified improving student-centered use of technology as an objective in our Continuous Strategic Improvement Plan.  Helping them see the connection between a teacher's use of technology and a student's use will be incredibly important to my cause.  

    

 

     Hey, there!  I'm glad you've decided to visit my little blog.  If this is your first time here, WELCOME! If not, welcome back. So after last week's post, this question was posed: "Do you see your focus on teachers' use of tools spill over to students' meaningful use of tools?"  And my answer? Absolutely! Generally speaking, a teacher's comfort level and confidence when utilizing and demonstrating technology directly correlates (in my opinion) to a student's willingness to engage with and explore said technology. Teacher's attitudes, habits, and modeling can build an atmosphere of learning, if you will.  And that, friends, is the basis of my "Call to Action". To understand where I'm going with this, consider the figure (below) representing modified levels of the digital divide in school (Hohlfeld et al., 2008) as shared by Ritzhaupt and Hohlfeld, 2019, p. 23. 

     I firmly believe my district has done a great job of providing access to our students. We're a 1 device:1 student district and have been since the pandemic.  We initially worked with local internet providers to establish emergency connections/accessibility for students lacking those resources when we closed schools unexpectedly.  When we returned to in-person instruction, our district provided internet hot-spots for students who needed them. Our district's technology infrastructure has been updated frequently and maintained over the years so all in all, we've done a good job of covering the first level in the digital divide.  Level one, check.  Our issues, based on conversations with colleagues and students, direct observations, and my own personal experiences, begin at the "use" level- level two- and progress into the "creation"-level three-stage. I completely agree with the authors that, "...if the teachers are not trained to meaningful integrate ICT into students' instruction (e.g.,, sufficient professional development),...the Digital Divide may manifest as inequitable learning experiences with the ICT resources for the students" (Ritzhaupt and Hohlfeld, 2019, p. 24).  So what accounts for our digital short-comings?  

     Let's consider dividing factors that might be impacting our community members. Is it age? Maybe. From my own personal experiences with colleagues in my building, the younger teachers seem to be more willing to embrace and explore technology for more than just online worksheets and Zoom conferences.  Generally speaking, many older teachers are failing to keep up with changing technologies and are lacking skills and a knowledge base necessary to help students make the most of the technology they have. (Note I said "many" and not "all". There are exceptions. :-) ).  What about race, geography, socio-economic status, or gender, you might ask? Well, I'm not sure I feel comfortable making any assumptions about those factors. But age, for sure, is currently a dividing factor in our school. I have to wonder, though, if it would continue to be a factor if teachers were given adequate technology training. Professional development that actually helps build teachers' technology competencies and leads to more tech-savy teachers of all ages is imperative if we're going to help students increase their own digital successes. And that, my friends, leads me back to how we choose to use our technology and the "cans" and "cannots". 

      Our district has seemingly addressed the "haves and have nots" (level one) hurdles facing our students and now we must do something about the "cans and cannots" (level two).  We are currently falling short in our preparation of students to use technology for their personal empowerment. Thus, my "Call to Action". 

Normore, A. H., & Lahera, A. I. (Eds.). (2019). Crossing the Bridge of the Digital Divide:  A Walk with Global Leaders. IAP. ISBN:  9781641133906.

     

Ritzhaupt, A.D., & Hohlfeld, T. N. (2019). An Examination of the Digital Divide and its Dividing Factors in Formal Educational Settings.

Learning Technologies to Bridge the Digital Divide-week 1

    Welcome back to my blog. I'm happy you're here!  So the Spring semester has just begun, and I find myself in the middle of another exciting opportunity to learn more about technology integration and its impact on education.  During this first block of classes, I'm enrolled in EDUC 5353 Learning Technologies to Bridge the Digital Divide and it promises to stretch my thinking, for sure.                                                                                                             

     The assignment this week is to begin thinking about a "Call to Action" that will address digital inequities in our community. Our resources this week include a photo essay of sorts as well as a podcast, both of which feature the work of Nicol Turner Lee, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation. In the podcast, Dr. Lee shares her insights into the technological inequities facing America, specifically a small, rural town in Virginia. Her thoughtful musings made me consider the technological inequities that might exist within my own community. My community, for the purposes of this blog and my impending "Call to Action", will be my local school district. 

     My school district is located in an urban city nestled within the Wichita Mountains of southwest Oklahoma. The city itself boasts a population of roughly 94,000 people, of which approximately 14,000 are school-aged children enrolled in our public school system. According to statistics and information found on the "Public School Review" website, our district's (comprised of 25 schools) test scores rank in the top 50% of public schools in Oklahoma. Additionally, our district ranks in the top 20% of public school districts in Oklahoma for the most diverse schools. Per the website referenced, our district's minority enrollment is 63%.  A public statement made by our district's McKinney-Vento liaison suggests there are approximately 600 students enrolled in our district who meet the definition of "homeless" and are being served/aided through her office. I share these specifics with you to highlight what might be considered inequalities amongst our student population and to illustrate why I feel it's imperative to address the issue of technological inequities within my school district. 

     My district has done a great job of securing 1:1 devices for our students and hotspots for those who need them and providing IT assistance for parents and students during periods of remote/virtual learning such as we're currently experiencing. Therefore, physical access is not necessarily an issue. The divide, as I see it, becomes apparent as one considers how we (as teachers and facilitators of learning) are appropriating the skills and competencies necessary to facilitate said learning and assisting those students who might be on what Dr. Lee refers to in her podcast as "the wrong side of the homework gap".  Our district has invested great sums of money in purchasing many licenses for specialized sites and student learning management systems yet hasn't invested in actually helping teachers learn how to maximize the benefits of those sites and systems. Sure, our teachers got the prerequisite "Spend some time looking around the platform and playing with it yourself; email us if you have any questions" bit before being sent on our way to muddle through and learn the basics. What's missing, though, is a concerted effort to help our teachers realize the full potential of said sites and systems, and therein lies the need for my "Call to Action".

                                                                   

     If you have an interest in accessing Dr. Lee's photo essay "Closing the Digital and Economic Divides in Rural America", you can find it here: https://www.brookings.edu/longform/closing-the-digital-and-economic-divides-in-rural-america/ .  If you'd like to access the podcast featuring Dr. Lee, "Who's Left Out by America's Digital Divide", you can find it here:   https://www.brookings.edu/podcast-episode/whos-left-out-by-americas-digital-divide/  

Until next time, Friends!

Digital Storytelling-Week 5

     So here we are in week five.  I'm currently working on draft number four of a story I thought I had a handle on. I'd planned each shot meticulously in my mind and even had some thoughts on the type of music I'd use to help convey the emotions I wanted to really connect with my audience.   Little did I know I would be stretched and unsettled over the next three weeks and my story would morph into something quite different from my original thoughts.    Although my story has taken some unexpected turns, the concept, the subject matter, and the audience have all remained the same. 

     After several re-writes over the weeks, I am now at the point of no return.  My final plan-the one I'm stickin' with- is to create a documentary style story. I will not appear on camera but rather act as an off-screen narrator.  My focus will be the stories and reactions my colleagues share during their interviews.  There will be several individual interviews and at least one interview in a small group setting.  The script (what little there is of it) will be entirely dependent on the participants.  They will be carrying the bulk of the conversation/story while I manage the story transitions to (hopefully) move seamlessly from topic to topic.  The subject matter is teacher stress and burnout and will, quite possibly, address several topics.  I have the shots in mind that I'd like to make and I have the story progression all mapped out. I know I've got the tools I'll need to record (iPad, lapel mics, iPad stand, lighting, etc.) and plan to edit through Moviemaker HD . My current timeline includes filming this week, editing over Thanksgiving break, sharing with my colleagues during our week six and being ready to share with all of you, my peers, the following week. Before I get to that point, however, I want to revisit some of the resource options Dr. Shannon shared with us.

     I guess, like any novice storyteller, I am still looking to include some kind of "WOW" factor to ensure my audience stays fully engaged.  I've kinda' wrestled with this because I know that a great story will keep an audience fully engaged without any special extras. I know my subject matter is relevant and compelling to the right audience but maybe I should include something extra "just in case".  I have experience with Chatterpix, one of the tools Byrne included in his online article. While my students love the talking animation feature Chatterpix includes, I don't think it's quite right for the seriousness of my story.  Adobe Spark, while useful, doesn't sound as though it offers the same level of "extras" as the MovieMaker HD Pro (which I currently use) does. WeVideo, however, is a resource I do plan to investigate since I am making a documentary of sorts.  I don't plan to include AR or VR so I won't be using any of those resources, nor do I plan to create an ebook or podcast.  Many of these resources, however, would make engaging additions to my tech club "tool chest", so I'm definitely bookmarking Byrne's article to refer to later with my students. Kapuler's web article included a ton of resources, most I'd never even heard of. That's definitely exciting for me as a "techie" and I'm excited to investigate and explore them all with my students. But back to this student's assignment: my digital story.

     My intended audience is the stakeholders in my school district: our administrators, school board members, parents, the education department chair at our local university, and anyone else willing to watch/listen. The purpose of my story is NOT to call anyone out or point fingers. The purpose of the story is to help these people, many of whom have been out of the classroom for a very long time (if they ever were in the classroom in the first place), see what teachers are feeling. Yes, they've probably already heard most of these points my colleagues will be making, but I want them to really see that the crisis is here at our own front door. And while my colleagues and I are grateful and appreciative of the small retention bonus awarded us earlier this year or the Christmas bonus every employee received, these issues are not going to be resolved by throwing money at the problems.  It's going to take a united effort from all of us to rectify this situation before the crisis gets any worse. I also want other teachers to find some support and solidarity through this story. Many teachers are suffering in silence, crying on the way home from work each night so their family members, friends, and colleagues won't see their pain.I don't have any answers but we do have some suggestions worth considering.  

     This assignment has helped me strengthen my video production skills as well as my writing skills. It's opened up a plethora of new tech resources for my students and I to explore and, hopefully, entice other teachers to explore. Additionally, it has helped me find my voice and courage to tell the story so many teachers are experiencing these days. I want our community, including our students, to know that teachers are fighting daily to give their students the very best they have to offer but unless there are drastic changes to how we see educators, how we treat educators, how we pay educators, education as we know it will be a thing of the past. Because as we sit and debate the issues and sweep them under the rug, the highly qualified, college trained teachers we rely on are leaving the career field in droves.

    

Byrne, R. (2019). Ten digital storytelling tools for students of all ages. Practical Ed Tech (n.d.). Retrieved from:  https://practicaledtech.com/2019/08/26/ten-digital-storytelling-tools-for-students-of-all-ages/

Kapular, D. (June 3, 2020). Top 30 tools and apps for digital storytelling.  Tech & Learning.  Retrieved from:  https://www.techlearning.com/tl-advisor-blog/30-sites-and-apps-for-digital-storytelling