Taking a break from the Common Core today to reflect.
Since I participate in a few professional learning
communities, I am very fortunate to have
a rather large network. As a result, I see and hear about how teachers and
learners around the country are using digital tools.
Last week, I spent several days learning with fellow
Microsoft Innovative Educator Master Trainers from around the U.S.A. We are
using protocols like LEAP21 to facilitate conversations with the educators we work with to step them through
the process of analyzing their lessons. As a follow up this week, we spent an
hour discussing what "collaboration" means and what it looks like in
a lesson activity. At the same time, I am reading the book Fierce Conversations and thinking about the fierce conversations that a tool like LEAP21 will spark.
It's these conversations that will transform what is happening in our classrooms.
Today, someone in my network wondered whether we, as
Mentors and Instructional Technology Coaches, are failing, despite the fact
that we have been doing "this" for some time now. That question sends
me back to a few years ago, when I challenged some instructional technology
coaches to have fierce conversations with educators who said that they did not
need a coach because they had their Masters in Educational Technology. I wanted
them to ask these educators, "What do your lessons look like?" They
told me that it was too soon to ask that question, because "change like this takes time -- at
least 5 years."
Five years have passed since that conversation. The
economy is bad. Many coaches have moved
forward into their own classrooms. Some are still working with educators as
coaches or as peers. But the conversations are still the same. We are still
working through technical problems, figuring out if websites should or should
not be blocked, buying cool devices, and then wondering why education has not
changed in any significant way.
To realize the promise of technology, we need our kids to
collaborate, communicate, create, and use those infamous critical thinking
skills. News flash! Not all of those skills require digital tools.
Back to the question. No, I do not believe we are
failing. There are pockets of transformation that exist. It is up to us to make
the classroom for today meet the needs of our kids who carry the world in their
pockets. It is up to us to have those fierce conversations.
