Sustaining Change in Technology Practices in School

Top Six Ways to Model and Sustain Change in How We Use Technology with Students

1. Host a staff Professional Development Day during which staff members share what they are using successfully in their classes.
-at a Professional Development day which I co-chaired this fall, we invited teachers to share their expertise and were able to offer sessions on SmartBoards, Delicious, Senteo student-response systems, SchoolZone classroom website software, digital storytelling and assessment of technology projects. Teachers were excited to see what their colleagues are doing, and hearing what they have to say. The professional conversations were sustainable and collegial because the experts are at the school everyday! This allowed staff members to process what they had heard/seen and implement ideas at their own pace (even two months later people are still following up on inspiration from the day.

2. Give professionals time to learn, play and work! During our professional development day, each presenter agreed to allow at least 20 minutes (of a one hour session) to explore the technology/software. Teachers were able to set-up accounts, create sample projects, and collect ideas and resources. One of the most common pieces of feedback we received from teachers was that they appreciated the time, and that they looked forward to more. By arranging administrative coverage, staff meetings re-designed/shortened in order to allow work time for teachers to work collaboratively on a project that they can directly apply to work with their students.

3. With this applicability in mind, it is imperative that teachers be permitted to choose which technologies are most applicable to the work they do with students. Teachers, like students, must be able to relate new learning to something they already do or a need they have identified in their teaching or their students’ learning.

4. Delicious has been a great way for teachers and students at our school to share great websites. While it is a simple Web 2.0 tool, it allows teachers to collaborate and share resources on their own time. I have also learned of a number of websites that my students already use and enjoy that I am able to incorporate into my teaching. One of the biggest obstacles expressed by teachers is the shortage of time. A social bookmarking tool such as Delicious allows colleagues to follow each other’s favourite sites and to explore the sites to determine how they might be useful in their own teaching.

5. Lead by example – by exploring, playing and challenging myself this semester, as a part of my university course, I have modeled professional growth as well as new ideas for teaching. Others have heard/seen what I am doing and have chosen to add a number of the Web 2.0 tools into their own teaching. Some have become desperate for their own SmartBoards, others have created Delicious accounts, several have created VoiceThread accounts for their students, and others have expressed interest in setting up blogs for their students. I most certainly do not take credit for all of these changes, but by being open about my own professional development I believe I have become more aware of what others are already doing as well as have shared a few new ideas.

6. Share the ownership of learning and change with all stakeholders – support staff, parents and students. By engaging our entire learning community we have helped support staff to understand the efficacy of technology beyond gimmicks. We have inspired parents to raise funds for our wireless laptop labs and our SmartBoards. And finally, we have learned from our students about what they already know and use, and how we might more effectively use the technologies available to us. In the spirit of Web 2.0, we have engaged hundreds of minds to work collaboratively rather than a small group holding the information and handing it to the others.


I have been exploring the question of engaging staff in integrating and showcasing technology during this entire semester. As the co-chair of our Instructional Leadership Team. As such, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on what has worked for us, and what experts would suggest we should keep in mind for the future. The challenge here is to be brief!
Dennis Sparks has written "Leading for Results – Transforming Teaching, Learning and Relationships in Schools" and now facilitates change in a number of school districts across North America, including Edmonton Public Schools (Corwin Press, 2007). Sparks’ book centres around the premise that teachers and leaders posses "the human energy required to actualize potential [but it] often lies dormant until it is aroused through the means described in [his book]." Sparks suggest that these means include
-connections with others in ways that enrich and energize us
-clarity of thought regarding our values and beliefs
-commitment to a compelling purpose
-the magnet-life force of a richly detailed vision of that which we desire to create
-the motivation produced by an expanded set of possibilities.

By keeping these principles in mind, I believe it will be possible to sustain the energy and momentum at our school surrounding new technologies. Our professional development day in which we truly collaborated was rich with connections with others. Our compelling purpose for change is the needs and demands of our students who are living in a technology-rich world and must be engaged and challenged at school. Our motivation is our students, but also the expanded set of possibilities with which we have been provided: SmartBoards, Senteos, portable wireless laptop labs, document cameras, social bookmarking, podcasting, digital storytelling software, wikis, blogs........Inspiring (and expensive) hardware, and endless, free possibilities with Web 2.0.
The means which our staff may need to go next are those involving vision and beliefs. As a staff, we do not yet have clarity of thought regarding our values and beliefs, nor do we have the magnet-like force of a richly detailed vision of that which we desire to create. I imagine that many teachers (not only on our staff, but everywhere where technology is changing the face of teaching) are wondering Why on earth are we doing this, anyways? It is only when we discuss this question and work to create a vision, and shared beliefs that we can move forward. As I discussed in an earlier blog post, it is important to be reflective when introducing new technologies, rather than simply using every technology we hear about.

After much reflection about technology this term, and discussions with my grade six students, I am more convinced than ever that we must select applicable, engaging technologies for our students and use them!!! Pay Attention, a video on YouTube to which I referred to in my initial blog post, alerts us to the fact that students ‘power down’ to come to school (this video was also shared at our fall Professional Development Day). If I want to
engage
inspire
educate
my students, I will need to use meaningful and authentic technologies that relate to their ‘real world.’
Teaching with technology in this way requires all of us to change: to change our thinking, our practice, our understanding, our beliefs, our values, our spending, our planning, our vision.....our teaching. Dennis Sparks states that "human potential and energy become visible as they manifest through our words and actions and the world changes." Keeping his five means to change in mind, I will commit to sharing my potential and energy that I have gathered about technology this term, through my words and actions. My hope is that through these means, and the five strategies I shared at the beginning of this post, I will be a part of the change in my part of the world!