guest written by PJ Caposey

Effective educational leaders focus their energy on promoting two things: maximizing capacity for all members of their faculty and staff and aligning the goals of individuals within the organization with that of the school or district. Every school in America wants to create productive citizens that will be successful in the 21^st century, but many are afraid to take the plunge into the world of edtech. Leaders must facilitate and empower teachers to explore a frontier as foreign to them as a distant planet. This cannot be an excuse for inaction, however, because schools simply cannot prepare students for future success when our practices are not even current, let alone forward-thinking.

It is time for our schools to make a commitment to engaging students in activities that will benefit them in a global marketplace. In order for students to be provided that support, teachers must be able to ease the process. The role of the leader is to provide the service and guidance that teachers need in order achieve that end. The roadmap is daunting, but the end is worth the means:

FACE THE FEAR

Two primary fears exist for most educators regarding using edtech to promote 21^st century learning. The first is simply fear of the unknown or fear of failure. The second is the fear of doing something to get fired. These fears are normal for everybody, but must be overcome by the leader first if they have any hope of leading this type of change in their district or building.

Tips Moving Forward

• Get involved – Computers are not designed to break. Leaders must first understand the new wave of technology is user-friendly. The benefit for a school leader becoming involved is that modeling is essential when it comes to taking educational risks – which in many schools technology is considered. Explore social media starting TODAY – Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest are all great places to start. Some may work better for you than others and there are literally hundreds of different opportunities that being active on the sites mentioned above will provide you within the first few weeks of use.
• Teachers deserve support, guidance, and protection – Two or three articles a month are written about teachers losing jobs because of the misuse of social media. This is an enormous hill to climb when promoting the activity within a building. An effective means of combating this is to establish best practice social media guidelines for all staff. These guidelines should be user-friendly, promote interaction with students, and also provide a firm line for what is appropriate and inappropriate. Providing boundaries promotes a sense of security.

ESTABLISH THE WHY

School leaders far too often focus on the ‘what’ instead of the ‘why’. Doing so with edtech will result in failure. There must be a sense of urgency created. It may seem clear to you (maybe you are part of the 1%ers) but the world schools are preparing kids for is much different than it was 40 years ago, 20 years ago, or even 5 years ago. Globalization will impact this generation of students more than any other in history. Teachers must know that not embracing the technology that will define the world their students will live in doing them a dramatic disservice.

Tips Moving Forward

• The data is dramatic – There is no shortage of numbers indicating how globalization is impacting American students. Use it!! How would your staff react to knowing that there are more Honors kids in India and China than there are kids in the U.S. Use the facts to your advantage
• Create a local tie – Students that used to attend your school (and were ‘good’ kids) have tremendous influence when they speak of how well or how ill-prepared they were for the next stages in their life. Kids in college blog. Kids in college tweet. Kids in college have realized that technology has made what once was a distant afterthought a very real part of their future. That will get teachers’ attention.

ACKNOWLEDGE EFFORT (INCLUDING MISTAKES)

There is a learning curve with technology. There may be more failure than success when teachers first get their hands wet. Establishing a school hashtag (#) on Twitter or Facebook page for 5^th grade homework assignments is a HUGE deal. Acknowledge it as such. Modeling tech-aware behaviors will also allow for monitoring of use and progression among teachers so that you can better serve their professional development.

Tip Moving Forward

• Public reinforcement of a kid-centered, 21^st century learner-driven initiative is never a bad thing. At public assemblies, on websites, and even in ‘old-school’ newsletters the acknowledgment of teachers taking risks will serve to promote the activity.

CREATE A CULTURE

Culture as I define it is what a school does when nobody is looking. Using technology and social media to support learning will be cultural when it no longer would cease to exist in the majority of the classrooms without administrative push or influence. This may take years – literally. Remember, people probably had this conversation (not via blogs, however) regarding email and digital gradebooks. This is not going away – thankfully. Create a culture where your school, your teachers, and your students are on the leading edge instead of trying to play catch-up in five years.

Tips Moving Forward

•  Empower others. Leaders have a lot on their plates (as do teachers). View the championing of edtech as a capacity-building activity for a future leader. The voice of a colleague often sounds much more clear and inviting than that of an administrator. More than likely, somebody in your building is already vastly more proficient with edtech and SM than you are – take advantage of their talents.
• Start Young and Let Students Lead. The earlier kids are exposed to the benefits of learning via edtech and SM, the more impetus for all to embrace the change. Student and parent buy-in can occasionally be easier to attain than teachers and they have tremendous influence on the culture of a building.

ENJOY THE BENEFITS

The potential benefits for a school are limitless when it comes to embracing edtech with the same vigor of the rest of the professional world. Communicating via a platform that the intended audience already uses makes so much more sense than forcing students and parents to adapt to an already antiquated system. Once edtech is embraced a school will enjoy a wide-range of benefits including improved public relations, increased student engagement, access to volumes upon volumes of free professional development for staff, and an opportunity to be on the leading edge of the next major change in how kids are educated in America.

About the author:  PJ Caposey is currently the principal of Oregon High School in Oregon, Illinois. PJ is a husband to Jacquie and father to Jameson and Jackson. PJ is an awarding winning principal through IPA, a soon-to-be published author through Eye on Education, a contributor to the Ed Leaders Network, experienced presenter and active blogger, having published blogs through Edutopia, ASCD, and the Illinois Principal’s Association. PJ is also an #edchat and #cpchat enthusiast (@principalpc) and also blogs from www.pjcaposey.typepad.com.

Topic: With the need to leave comfort zones for relevant professional development to take effect, should teachers continue to control their own learning for PD?

This week’s #edchat was the third in recent memory about effective professional development in the education sphere. This seems to be a topic that teachers, administrators, and technology specialists alike are really fired up about. And I can understand why.

#Edchat is a special group. Those who participate in #edchat are the exception, not the norm. They are the stand-outs; the connected (and highly-motivated) leaders in their schools – even if they don’t know it. And they want to help the rest of their colleagues become exceptional too.

I realize that might sound elitist, but the truth is that some teachers are leaps and bounds better than others. In some cases, that’s simply a question of experience. In others, it’s burn-out or stress. Good PD can help with both, because good PD both teaches and energizes. I know that’s why a lot of #edchat participants come back each and every week.

Realistically, though, #edchat is not for everyone. Neither are conventions. Nor are online webinars. Different lessons, presented in different ways, will appeal to different people. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.

The question is: how much autonomy can and should we allow teachers in directing, choosing, and pursuing their own professional development? What’s the optimal mix of empowerment and guidance?

While I will freely admit that I don’t have any hands-on experience with this, I think there are two things that we should be working on implementing in schools right now. They are…

1) A teacher PD “curriculum,” with requirements placed on subjects that all teachers must explore, but options left open for how they learn about them. This should be developed by representative teachers, administrators, and tech specialists for each district. I am hesitant to go any broader than that, because we know how disjointed decision-making becomes the higher it goes.

2) Teacher authorities in every niche of professional development that can mentor teachers learning specifically about that subject. Example: there can be a resident social media guru to help guide teachers towards better use/implementation of social media into their classroom practices. Or a wiki-building specialist to help other teachers start using wikis with their students. The bottom line is that we need some other “go-tos” in schools. Dozens of teachers, one or two tech specialists, and a single principal just doesn’t work. It takes too long for change to be made in a system like that.

But those are just my own hare-brained ideas. I would love to hear yours!

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If you’re interested in reading summaries of the previous two discussions, here’s a link to the more recent one about providing relevant PD in schools/districts and here’s a link to the one from last November about EdCamps and TeachMeets. Enjoy!

Main themes from the discussion:

• Again: traditional PD is often either non-existent or totally ineffective. What discussion of PD would be complete without a healthy dose of complaints about how bad the current offerings are? Common complaints: it’s boring, it’s irrelevant, there’s no follow-up, it’s completely rigid and inflexible, and it’s been cut from the budget. The teachers that are pursuing their own PD often aren’t recognized and in some cases may even be penalized for it. Meanwhile, those that just go through the system seem to be rewarded. Clearly, we are placing our emphasis on the wrong things. And that needs to change if we want education to change.
• We don’t seem to apply the same lessons of education to teaching teachers. This has two very important implications.
  • Implication number one: We seem to forget that crowding a whole bunch of people into a room and talking at them for a couple hours isn’t the best way to get your point across. I guess we assume that, since they’re teachers, they’ll fill in the gaps on their own. But most don’t because they’re tired and overworked as it is. David Wees rightly wonders: what does it say about an education system when the teachers are too burnt-out to learn?
  • Implication number two: We are not following up with teachers the way we follow up with students. In fact, it seems like we’re often just winging the entire process. When teaching students, we first lay out a broad plan of what we want them to learn. Then we make lesson plans for how they’re going to learn it. Then we teach it to them, often reinforcing the lesson with homework. Finally, we test them on it to make sure it all stuck. Do we do any of that with the stuff we want teachers to learn?
• We need to simultaneously broaden what we accept as PD and narrow the focus of the PD that some teachers pursue. I find it amazing that #edchat isn’t considered viable PD in every school district around the world. I’m not even a teacher, but I learn so much from #edchat that I’m actually considering becoming one just so I can use some of these ideas! If that’s not good PD then I don’t know what is. But, lest we forget: “Different strokes for different folks.” Not everyone is going to be an #edchat type, and that’s okay. The point is, we need to help all teachers find the way they learn best and encourage/challenge them to push the boundaries. This means tightening certain requirements that have allowed teachers to not really do anything (but still technically satisfy the requirements) while simultaneously recognizing some “unofficial” but nonetheless valuable PD channels.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

tomwhitby Teachers selecting to choose a path of PD that isn’t relevant to education is always a problem. Too many things are considered PD.

juliawilson89 Teachers should design and run their PD and  schools should fully support them. Lack of school support is preventing the best PD.

CTuckerEnglish Those educators using social media like Twitter should be recognized for seeking out learning opportunities. Often social media is not recognized PD.

cybraryman1 Yes, PD is important but it does not have to be expensive as there is so much available from webinars etc. for free

tomwhitby Admin comfort zones may be even more of an obstacle to reform in Education. Many admins view PD for teachers only!

cybraryman1 How many times have you left a mandated PD session and could not use anything you heard with your students?

teacherdebra Has anyone ever asked where the districts get their topics for PD? Do they come from mandates, their needs, or what they perceive as teacher needs?

rickarcher1959 The biggest problems with PD, in my opinion, is the lack of time to follow-up and lack of funding.

sanmccarron Admin should look at PD as “what will help our students?” rather than “what is the latest edtech thingy?”.

cdsmeaton People would rather do the wrong thing competently than the right thing incompetently. Remember that when asking for change.

tomwhitby Teachers must be supported with PD and not bludgeoned with it. But there must be a path or a plan from the leadership.

RabbiRoss We still need some quality control on teacher-led workshops. Presenting is a skill as well!

vpigreenie  Big fan of the train-the trainer model: train a few, they then become the experts in house to support and model the best practices.

jlubinsky We are finding that with our budget cuts, using a cohort of motivated learners has helped to bridge the gap.

tomwhitby Teachers need some direction for PD if we are planning relevant development to coincide with where we want schools to go.

A couple resources tweeted during the discussion:

NikkiDRobertson I use Coffee Chats to lure teachers into my new tech PD lair..donuts, coffee, and light friendly conversation. My teachers love it! Example: http://t.co/ekKobN8E

mbteach Here is my obligatory @EdcampBoard tweet for this afternoon’s #edchat: http://t.co/vrnjdWpc

cybraryman1 Please listen to recording of the Connected Superintendents webinar:  http://t.co/CCnfx35Y We need more leaders like these.

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To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

guest written by Karen Greenhaus

There are a lot of resources and advice out there these days to support teacher’s use of social media in their classroom.  From creating classroom blogs, wiki’s, Facebook accounts, and podcasts, to how to incorporate Twitter into formative assessment – you name it, you can probably find it. However, for many teachers, the thought of using social media is an overwhelming task, especially trying to incorporate it effectively into instructional practice, particularly with the controversy surrounding student safety and privacy issues. What I think is more prevalent, (keeping in mind my only proof is my personal observations and anecdotal evidence), is that there are a handful of teachers in any given school that might be using social media in some form in their classroom, but for the most part, teachers are not using social media in any consistent, pervasive way.

Is this a bad thing? My feeling is yes, because social media offers so many opportunities for students and teachers to collaborate with others, learn and connect globally, and instill communication and creativity into learning. Which leads to another question – how do we get teachers using social media as an instructional tool? There are, of course, probably several answers to that question, but one thing that won’t work is simply telling them they must use social media and offering a day or two of training on specific social media tools and expecting them to change their practice. That doesn’t work with anything (if you haven’t already figured that out). My suggestions – start small and start personally.  This means make social media a learning tool for the teacher first, allowing them to see and experience the power of the medium for them personally, and then build from there into classroom integration and use with students.

What do I mean by making social media a learning tool for the teacher first? As in any profession, teachers must and should be continuing to learn – learn more about content, new technologies to improve instruction, new instructional strategies.  Teacher professional development is a requirement for recertification but also an obligation of any teacher to improve their practice for the benefit of their students. Just as we wouldn’t want a doctor using an outdated method of surgery when there are new and better methods, we shouldn’t want our teachers using outdated instructional tools and strategies when there are new and better ones available. Teacher professional development is an important need for all teachers, but unfortunately, especially in this era of budget woes, professional development is one of the first things eliminated or reduced. My suggestion therefore is to use social media as a tool for providing teachers with professional development to improve their own knowledge about their craft. This will allow them exposure to the power of social media while providing a cost-efficient resource to support continuous teacher learning – learning about their content, their practice, and how to enhance their practice to help their students.

How to start? Start small and start personally. Choose only one thing (start small) – i.e. a blog, a Twitter account, department wiki, etc. to begin. Make it personal for the teachers (start personally) – relevant to their needs (content, instructional, time) and relevant to their technical ability and interests.  Below are some of my suggestions from both an administrative view, for leaders who are trying to get social media into your school as a whole, and from a teacher view, for individual teachers who want to get started in social media but are not quite sure where to begin. (Note: My suggestions are not necessarily recommending specific tools or services, but more from an overall perspective, focusing on trying to create a culture of use and a beginning point.  Any specific social media I do name is based on my own personal experience with social media, which is still in its infancy – I am a novice, starting small and finding my own personal meanings as well).

Getting Social – School Wide/Administrative Suggestions

1. Start a school blog (or Facebook or wiki). Post events that are happening at the school or great things you are seeing in classrooms.  Have each department contribute a post each week or assign a week to each department where they post what topics are being covered or things that students will be learning in the next unit.  Ask specific teachers who are doing interesting or innovative activities with their students to share, including pictures of the classroom.  The blog can be a place where parents and students go to find out what’s happening at the school but also a place for teachers to share what’s going on, develop a culture of celebrating and valuing the great things that are occurring in your school.  It will encourage teachers to support and be interested in their school and colleagues.
2. Start a school Twitter and ask all school personnel to create a twitter account and follow the school.  Create a school hashtag so that all postings by anyone use the hashtag and it creates a record of activity specific to your school.  Much like the blog, post daily events happening at the school.  Tweet about classrooms you observe – mention your teachers.  Again, ask each department to post a weekly tweet or two about what’s happening in that department. Encourage teachers to tweet on a weekly basis about what’s happening in their classroom.  Make this be a place for sharing with teachers and the community – connecting the school, teachers, parents, and students.
3. Encourage each teacher to create a Twitter account and provide each department with a specific hashtag to follow relevant to their content (i.e #mathchat, #sciencechat…there are most likely hashtags specific to each content area). Encourage each department to check in with the hashtag at least once before the department meetings and bring an interesting article/blog/posting to discuss to their department meeting.  This sharing and reflecting on content related topics will foster collaboration, reflection on practice, bring new ideas or create topics for debate to help teachers learn and grow in their knowledge and support each other.
4. Find relevant webinars or live conferences or live tweet chats and provide the time for teachers to meet and participate in these. Everyone could be on their own computer and participate and respond or you could have them in smaller groups with a designated computer person who responds (usually these live events provide avenues for responding via chat panels, twitter responses, etc.)
5. Create an online community, such as Moodle, where resources are shared, discussion topics are posted and teachers can respond and reflect, ask questions.  Post a weekly discussion and give teachers time to respond asynchronously. Provide ‘live chat’ times where you or another teacher leads a topic of discussion relevant to content or education or strategies or new tools, etc.  This provides a non-threatening forum for participation and collaboration.

Getting Social – Teacher Suggestions

1. Start a Twitter account and choose one hashtag relevant to what you teach (for example, #mathchat, #edtech, #edchat, #science)  Once you do, simply read posts and click on links and read the articles/blogs that the links direct you to.  If all you do is read some interesting things related to your topic of interest, even if you never tweet yourself, you are learning.  And, as you read you will notice some of the same folks posting really interesting information on a regular basis, and these then become the people you start following.  Once you find some interesting, relevant people to follow, look at who they follow and slowly build your network.  Eventually, start tweeting yourself – reply to someone’s interesting comment, or thank them for providing the link, or ask a question.  You will begin to find more people with great ideas.  If nothing else, you will be informing yourself and learning and getting ideas. Eventually, try to participate in a live tweet chat (times and topics for these are usually posted by hashtags you follow – for example, #edchat has a live tweet chat every Tuesday at 11 pm Central).  The first time is a little overwhelming, but reading the reflections and thoughts of everyone participating really gives you ideas, things to think about, relevant links and posts, and when you start contributing to the conversation, you then make connections and find others who can become part of your learning network.
2. Find some relevant content-related blogs to follow.  Do content blog searches – read some posts.  Set aside time every day, even if it’s only 10 minutes, to read one post. Eventually start responding and leaving comments – participate in the discussions.  It provides again, links to others who can support your own professional learning and in turn, connect you to others.
3. Join a community forum, such as Linked In, or The Math Forum, or Learning without Frontiers.  Within a forum, there are usually group discussions – find a discussion of interest and read what people are saying.  Contribute your thoughts and ideas to the discussion.  Begin a discussion topic yourself.  This will again, let others out there hear and see your ideas and provide you with a network of peers who can challenge you, provide you with strategies, and help you with struggles.
4. Start your own blog. For professional learning, you want to focus on posting ideas relevant to what you are teaching – so content, strategies, technology, etc.  Start small and just post maybe what’s happening in your classroom.  Or, perhaps after reading an interesting article or viewing a great video on YouTube, write a reflection on that.  Comment on something happening in the educational arena, like teacher layoffs or the Common Core standards. Any article/video/blog you reference, link to it and let whoever wrote it know you are mentioning them – this begins a relationship and connections and helps get other followers.  If you respond to someone else’s blog posts, reference your blog so they can find you. It’s about building a community and networking.  But, even if you don’t have a single person following your blog (which, if you post consistently, you will eventually have folks reading you), if you are posting reflections about what’s happening in your classroom, or thoughts on things you have read or tried or seen related to your teaching or content, you are learning.  You are reflecting and considering your approaches and strategies and beginning a process of improving your practice.

Clearly, this is only a few suggestions on how to get started – I know there are so many other things that someone can do to start using social media.  The key is to start – start small and personal. You will find it leads to some amazing learning opportunities and connections.  Those of you out there with other suggestions please share them – I want to learn myself, as I am still just beginning this journey of being social.

About the author: Karen Greenhaus is currently the Director of Education Technology Outreach for Key Curriculum (http://keypress.com), a math technology company that sells The Geometer’s Sketchpad (http://keypress.com/gsp), TinkerPlots (http://keypress.com/tinkerplots) and Fathom (http://keypress.com/fathom).  She provides professional development for teachers all over the country via face-to-face workshops, blended learning, webinars, and online courses. Karen taught in public schools for over 17 years as a math teacher and math administrator at the middle and high school levels.  She has a BA in math from Virginia Tech, MA in Curriculum & Education from Virginia Commonwealth, and is currently working on her Ed. D. dissertation on professional development in education technology at The College of William & Mary.  Her passion is helping teachers integrate technology effectively into classroom instruction. Karen blogs at http://greenhauseducation.blogspot.com

guest written by Steve Silvius of Three Ring

In their foundational work, “Inside the Black Box,” Black and Wiliam demonstrated how powerful the concept of formative assessment can be when implemented as a central part of teaching and learning. Sadly, as the term formative assessment spread, the concept was largely lost, diluted, or overlooked.  At this point, there may be no rehabilitating the terminology, but we will make a serious mistake if we abandon the concept as well—it’s importance, its challenges, and the values, approaches, and tools that make it possible.

In her recent report for the Council of Chief State School Officers, Margaret Heritage reminds the education world that formative assessment is a process, not a specific assessment.  That is, it makes sense to say, “We are engaging in formative assessment,” but not to say, “this quiz is a formative assessment.”  Indeed, Black et. al. make the important point that — properly understood — “all assessment is formative.”  If we believe in lifelong learning, there is no final exam.

The most powerful tool for better assessment is the portfolio.  A portfolio, whether of a class, teacher, student, or school is a recognition that assessment is a holistic endeavor.  Portfolios work because they embody the notion that intellectual activity is at the heart of teaching and learning and because they refuse to reduce a person’s complex intellectual activity to a simple letter or number.

I agree wholeheartedly with Debra Finger that narrative approaches to grading and the maintenance of portfolios, though sometimes painstaking, allow us to build the nuanced understanding of students that is essential for better teaching and learning.  And, I am deeply impressed by Lauren Scheller’s list of guidelines to implementing portfolios in the classroom, as well as her brilliantly perceptive observation that grading systems too often obscure the point of learning, creating a situation where students are confused about how to even calculate their grades, much less improve them.  Portfolios can change this because they are tools for assessment, for communication, for intervention, and for fostering ownership.

If we believe all this to be true, it is imperative to make authentic assessment as simple as possible to actually do.  I currently am working with a dedicated team to create a platform for digitizing student work that is easy to use, flexible, and powerful for instruction, assessment, and communication.  It is my hope that tools such as these will provide teachers and learners with ways to ensure that assessment serves pedagogy.

I hope that teachers and other stakeholders will use my our product, but more importantly, I hope that they will adopt the following values of good assessment and think deeply about the implications of these values in their work:

1.  Understanding. Authentic assessment requires a strong understanding of what student work in your content should look like, where your students are creating this type of work, and where they are falling short.  This must go deeper than numerical/letter labels and marks indicating right and wrong.  Digital portfolios are an ideal tool for capturing this rich data and getting behind the grades to what really matters—student intellectual activity.

2. Communication. Authentic assessment also requires us to communicate clearly about these qualitative aspects of student work.  Digital portfolios can provide teachers, with evidence to reference, space to give descriptive feedback, and the flexibility to withhold grades until later in the process—after students have had time to incorporate feedback into their learning and work.

3. Ownership: Finally, authentic assessment requires peer and self-assessment, so  students can take true ownership of their learning.  Done correctly, this takes a burden off teachers making it natural for every student to adapt pacing and learning to their individual needs.  Digital portfolios are perfect tools to enable this.  They provide students an opportunity to curate, share, examine, and reflect on their own work.  Unlike traditional portfolios, which might often be primarily about demonstrating your best work, digital portfolios make it easy to track progress, to engage with your best and your worst, and to see how far you have come.  This is true of teachers, as well as students.

These principles are at the heart of effective assessment processes. They are not always easy to adhere to (in fact, they are very difficult) but we believe they are powerful enough that we’ve designed our entire company to make them easier for teachers to achieve. Our hope is to reclaim the term “formative assessment” from the jargon rubbish bin to which it has been banished

About the author: Stephen Silvius (@stevesilvius) is a former Los Angeles high school mathematics teacher and education researcher.  His work at Oxford University examined issues around student voice in the discourse of secondary school mathematics classrooms.  He is currently the Chief Education Officer at Three Ring—an education startup dedicated to bringing teachers and students a simple platform for digitizing student work (@teamthreering).

Topic: How can we encourage critical thinking about technology use in schools?

This week’s #edchat topic was brought to you by David Wees, which means he was commenting left and right throughout the discussion. I didn’t really want to play favorites with my selected tweets (even though he quickly became one of my favorite education bloggers after I met him by chance at ISTE11), so I encourage you to go read the archive of the full conversation to absorb all of his wisdom.

It is interesting to me to step into the world of an educator during the one hour per week that I have set aside for #edchat. I often find myself considering things in ways that I never would have before – and learning some startling truths about the world of education that I probably wouldn’t be privy to otherwise. Things like: there are a surprising number of teachers who don’t really understand email.

To me, that is unfathomable. I can’t imagine how I would function in this world without my grasp of technology. I can figure out how to accomplish most technology-related tasks intuitively, and the ones that I can’t can be Googled. That’s how life works for me – and (I’m willing to bet) how life works for a growing number of today’s students.

Perhaps that’s because I grew up with this stuff. I remember having a computer in our house since shortly after I started remembering things at all. I remember setting up video game and audio systems for my parents. And I remember the day cell phones started doing things besides making calls. I was quite young. Sure, stuff has gotten more sophisticated and complicated since then, but the basic premise hasn’t changed.

I look at technology the way someone of a previous generation might have looked at a tool chest. It’s just a bunch of stuff that is supposed to help you get your job done. Nothing more. You don’t try to make up reasons to swing a hammer, so you shouldn’t be trying to do something on a computer when it’s easier to do it by hand.

To me, the “correct” way to view technology is not as “technology” but as a tool at your disposal. It is necessary to understand it, it is necessary to use it, and it is very necessary to teach it. Unfortunately, not everyone feels that way. They look at technology (and, by extension, educational technology) as a new and intimidating thing that they don’t need.

“Life was just fine before this stuff came around, so why should I have to change my ways and start using it? Even more so, why should I have to start teaching it?”

Because these tools exist now. Can you imagine a world without pencils? Without books? Without erasers? No – because that stuff has been around since forever. Similarly, people of my generation (Generation Y) can’t imagine a world without computers, without the internet, and without social media.

This stuff is only getting more important, and failing to teach about it now would be a big mistake. That’s why Wees’ topic for this week is so important to consider. Because we need to start integrating technology into every classroom (not just the classrooms of cutting-edge educators) – not because it’s new, but because it is an essential element of modern-day life.

Main themes from the discussion:

• We need to avoid the “trendy” technologies. I, personally, am not going to be great at listing off a bunch of popular edtech products that don’t actually make much of a difference in the classroom because I’m not a teacher and I simply don’t have that experience. But many others do. Before you buy a new piece of tech for your classroom, do your homework! Some things look great, but just don’t capture the attention of students. If it’s not going to be worth the money, keep looking for something that is. There’s plenty of options out there. Also: put in the time to find the best deals. Since tech gets outdated very quickly, it’s often very easy to get deep discounts.
• There should be an edtech guru at every school. It doesn’t necessarily have to be just one person, and it doesn’t have to be someone’s full-time job (although it helps if it is), but there needs to be someone in charge of finding the best edtech tools and helping teachers learn about them. Teachers are busy enough as it is. Expecting them to come home and start doing edtech research is just not realistic (although some will). Choosing an edtech guru (or two) is, quite simply, the most elegant solution to this problem that I have heard.
• A big issue is buy-in. Some schools have edtech gurus or plugged-in administrators who are always pushing teachers to adopt the latest and the greatest edtech. They may even go so far as to train teachers on how to use the stuff. But we need to remember that the first step is buy-in. As the saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water…” If we don’t take the time to get teachers on board first, then the training and any follow-ups afterwards are just big wastes of time and money.
• We can get more teachers on board by showing them the benefits of edtech. How do you get teachers to buy in? It seemed like the best way (judging by the number of comments that basically said the same thing) is to show teachers what kind of a positive impact a particular piece of technology can have on their classroom. Show them how it will save them time. Show them how it will make their lives easier. Show them how it will engage their students. Show them how it will improve education. And get them excited about it. Then the seed is planted, and your job switches to support (which is much easier than on-boarding).
• It’s no longer okay to not use technology. As I said in my introduction, it’s no longer okay to sit on the sidelines. We can’t pretend that technology doesn’t exist, or that it’s not an important component of education. With every passing year, technology gets woven tighter into our societies and our lives. Ignoring it in school will only result in creating a generation of children who are unprepared to live, work, and play in the world that they will inherit.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

davidwees How many technologies are in schools because they were “cool” but aren’t necessarily useful?

tomwhitby How do we get educators to critically analyze something that comfort zones preclude them from using?

CTuckerEnglish Most students are comfortable with tech. It’s teachers who need to feel comfortable using technology.

baldy7 BTW: Tech itself doesn’t promote critical thinking… we do.

phsprincipal Have to demonstrate a need to use the tech. Teachers are exposed to it all the time, but we have to show how it will change learning and teaching.

stumpteacher Too much focus on flashy…not enough focus on learning. Still just a tool and power is in application, not its existence.

tkraz Someone has to show “This is what you can do” before anyone says “This is what you must do.” Buy in first.

LiamJBayerSr Who is the #edtech guru at each school that is promoting the “right” ed technologies and building a curriculum for it?

Begabungs I think the best way to encourage schools and parents to use technology is to show them the results.

dhprofdev Value of tech must hit home for educators. What is valued = what gets implemented.

davidwees A teacher came to me and asked me for a tech tool for a one time vote. My recommendation? A hat with slips of paper.

mikevigilant I get the “admin buy-in” stuff, but, hypothetically, if that’s not happening, what’s plan B? I can’t just wait…can I?

MertonTech I’m working on a collection of Google docs that are all basic lesson modifiers for my teaching staff.

Mamacita There is no longer any viable excuse for not being knowledgeable about and using tech in a classroom. None. Zip. Zero.

TestSoup I really like @MertonTech‘s idea of building wiki pages with lessons on how teachers can integrate #edtech into their classrooms.

tkraz The lack of continued nourishment is why the enthusiasm of a conference can sometimes diminishes quickly.

librario868 Sometimes, I take a backwards approach: Ask kids what tools to use and then make teachers learn it.

cybraryman1 We, who are comfortable with using tech, have to help, support, and train our reluctant colleagues.

vpigreenie  Can’t tell you how much dust I have seen on white boards, computers and software!

coreydahlevent Simply “using tech” doesn’t improve student achievement. It has to be EFFECTIVE use of tech.

TestSoup I really like this phrase that @vpigreenie just used for promoting #edtech adoption: “showing direct relevancy.” Perfect.

###

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

guest written by Nicola Petty

Lectures were invented before print was available for the dissemination of information. One person talked and other people listened. It was the best they could do at the time.

However, today we can do better. Lectures are a cost-minimising way of presenting information to a large group of people. Note I didn’t say cost-effective. The universities of the world love lectures, and their buildings reflect that. However all the research I have ever read says that lectures are not an effective way to teach. They can do a wonderful job of inspiring and even converting, and sometimes entertaining, and they can be really fun to give if you enjoy that sort of thing. (Which I do.) But sadly, they are not really a very good way to teach.

When I first started work as a “Lecturer” of Operations Research, I read up about the whole process of lecturing in order to do the best I could. I was an experienced highschool teaher, but knew that a class of 250 differed from a class of 33. I was a trifle dismayed to find that the method that I thought had served me just fine as a student wasn’t really very effective. I read that you shouldn’t talk while people are copying notes down. So I prepared my overhead transparencies (which were modern and innovative back then) and worked out my timing. Within two or three lectures I realised how boring this was for me. I would talk a bit, expose some notes, and wait for the students to copy them down verbatim. This was self-delusion – the copying process leaves much to be desired, and is especially fraught when involving mathematical formulas. In fact I brought in an unnecessary level of error.

I started to photocopy my transparencies and distribute them at the start of class. I left gaps for working problems. This definitely left much more opportunity for interaction and participation from the students. But it was still “statistical methods as a spectator sport.”

Fast forward a bit over a decade and things have changed with regard to what is available. Let me tell you about my course now. Thanks to a natural disaster, last year I have been able to abandon real-time, face-to-face lectures entirely. The course is delivered using a learning management system known a Moodle. There are eight sections, with material in various forms. Each section has open tests which the students take repeatedly until they master the material (defined as 80%). There is a bank of questions so that the tests are different each time. Then they sit through a similar test in a supervised setting, to ensure the student has done the work. Again they must gain a mark of 80% or better, but may have multiple attempts.

The most important part of the course is the tests. This is where the learning takes place. The support materials include lecture notes with audio (podcasts), lessons with step-by-step instructions, links to outside material, notes, videos of lectures from pre-earthquake, and carefully made videos which are hosted at www.youtube.com/creativeheuristics. You can read more about how the videos are made at www.learnandteachstatistics.wordpress.com. We provide daily opportunities for students to get one-on-one help, though surprisingly few take it up. The material is very carefully designed to build skills, confidence and learning strategies as the students progress through the course, so that at the end they are tackling difficult material that they would have balked at at the start of the course.

I could write much more about this course, and the success it has had, particularly for students who are not mathematically inclined. And I will – soon!

About the author: Dr. Nicola Ward Petty has taught business statistics and operations research at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand for over twenty years. She was awarded a university teaching award in 2006 and has mentored other faculty, and developed innovative and successful courses to help people who find quantitative subjects difficult. You can read her blog here and follow her on Twitter here.

Topic: What would be a better alternative to present leadership hierarchy we’ve come to accept in public education?

This week’s #edchat topic was an especially welcome change of pace for me, because once again I was forced to really think about an aspect of teaching that I, as an “outsider” and non-teacher, had never previously considered. I like topics like that. They force me out of my usual style of thinking and put myself in the shoes of someone else.

As someone who studied business in college, I sort of took it for granted that schools would have the same structure and hierarchy as businesses. There would be a couple big-wigs at the top, several layers of bureaucracy below them, and then a legion of teachers (“employees”) that were managed relatively closely but given the appearance of autonomy.

It turns out, I was at least partially right. There are several layers of bureaucracy above teachers, and there is a prevailing sense that teachers don’t exactly have as much autonomy as they need. But the point that I was missing was this: why should schools function the same as businesses? Why should it be this way?

I guess I had figured that the school my father teaches at was the norm. I would hear him complain about all the bureaucracy at his school regularly over dinner. It was just the same type of complaining I imagined I would hear if my father worked in an office or in a factory. There’s always a big boss who has forgotten what it’s like to be an employee. And there’s always stuff to complain about.

The point is, though, it doesn’t have to be that way. There were a few #edchatters this week who said that they were quite happy with their schools’ hierarchy and leadership. They were well supported and those at the top knew how to communicate and prioritize.

Unfortunately, we all know that this is not the norm – not in business and not in education either. The question is: what can we do about that?

Main themes from the discussion:

• Things are too hierarchical. One prevailing theme I saw this week was that there is too much of a division between teacher and administrator. Administrators got to make the decisions, but it was teachers that had to abide by them. That makes teaching really difficult because teachers know that the rug can get pulled out from under them at any moment and they won’t have any say in the matter. That’s not a good way to do things. We need more communication and more collaboration. Decisions need to be made together. In fact, we should even be making more of an effort to involve students and parents in the making of important decisions.
• Administration is out of touch with the needs of teachers. Even though the majority of teachers were very sympathetic towards administration, I did see quite a few complaints that administrators have forgotten (or never knew) what it was like in the classroom. That’s never a good thing. When those in charge of making decisions are out of touch (and collaboration across hierarchical levels is discouraged) they are not likely to make the right decisions. The solution? Have administrators spend more time in the classrooms for observation purposes only. They shouldn’t only show up briefly to judge a teacher and make an arbitrary decision. The “cream of the crop” administrators seem to know this already.
• The way things are is a hold-over from the industrial age. I have heard it said before (and I really do believe it) that many conventions in education were created during the industrial revolution to prepare children for factory work. America has moved way beyond that for the majority of workers, yet still we continue to do things in much the same way as we did “back in the day.” Apparently the educational hierarchy is no different. Why should there really be such a division between principal and teacher? Shouldn’t it be the administration’s job to support the teachers, and not the other way around?
• Is there too much weight on the principal’s shoulders? I was surprised to see so much sympathy for principals during this week’s #edchat. I would have thought that teachers would be ruthless, complaining that these folks get more money for doing less difficult work. Instead, I saw a lot of teachers pointing out that there are simply too many responsibilities for the average principal. And while delegation and prioritization can solve some of those problems, they can’t solve all of them. The solution that I liked best was to split the job in half (or in thirds) and have one principal look after education and the other(s) look after the business side of running a school.
• Sometimes, the current system works very well. It should be mentioned that more than a couple #edchatters seemed genuinely happy in the way their schools ran day-to-day. They felt like their administrators were in touch with their needs and had not forgotten what it meant to be on the front line. This, I think, is a very good point that gets lost in #edchat from time to time. Sometimes, things work out really well. Let’s not forget that there are a lot of great teachers and administrators out there right now, and that in general things are only getting better. The tendency for the elite is to focus on the negatives, but we need to remind ourselves that there are plenty of positives as well.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

tomwhitby I believe the leadership of schools was set up as an industrial model.

USCTeacher Perhaps we need to look at hierarchy as more of community; something we have access to and can collaborate with?

John_DAdamo I would argue this is not a phenomenon exclusive to public education. Private schools all have layers of bureaucracy as well.

cybraryman1 I personally agree with more collaboration. Must include students, parents, and community in this process.

Mamacita When opportunities for parent input do occur, VERY few parents bother to show up. They seem to prefer whining after the fact.

MrBernia Many schools around the world have a lead teacher rather than a principal. Is our setup just closest to the industrial model?

ShellTerrell Current model has a few make decisions while those who are expected to implement them aren’t included in the decision-making process.

drdouggreen I don’t think superintendent, principal, teacher structure is the problem. It’s all about the vision in this food chain. Principals and superintendents should view teachers as customers whose needs must be met.

PrincipalPC It’s not the model — it is the poor implementation of the model. We are talking about the symptoms, not the disease.

cybraryman1  I always felt there should be two leaders in a building. One for curriculum/learning  and the other for business matters.

rliberni  Much of what principals do is buildings, payroll, and everyday business that all schools have to do, so it would be easy for one “business principal” to do 2 or 3 schools.

John_DAdamo I have seen the 2-headed dragon (two principals) fail because no one was held accountable.

A few resources that were shared:

delta_dc Schools would benefit from structures like this: http://t.co/WF2rKMeC

cybraryman1  Walkthroughs are good ways to learn but I would like to see more modeling by administration. http://t.co/i7LDUk5x

###

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

guest written by Lauren Scheller

10% homework, 40% quizzes, 20% participation….. sound familiar?

The result seems to be students working to achieve a grade as close to 100% as they can, while being confused about how they can even calculate their own grades. Teachers want students to realize the power of a strong work ethic and develop intrinsic motivation necessary for deep learning, however, we often use an enigmatic grading system rather than meaningful feedback. The focus is on the grade achieved rather than the learning. This is problematic and all too common. Learning is not simply an end goal but a process as well.

I use portfolio assessments in my world language classroom according to the following general guidelines.

1.     Change the vocabulary to assessment and performance-based assessments. It more accurately describes what we, as teachers, should be doing.

2.     Start with the end in mind. The ultimate goal for our students is to develop a certain skill or content knowledge. Therefore, we need learning targets, both a mixture of skills and content, in relation to which we can assess a student’s current ability and progress towards their goal.

3.     Assessment needs to happen early and often. Students need feedback immediately to know where they stand and specifically where they can improve.

4.     We don’t need to “grade” everything. If the purpose is to give feedback, then everything does not need to be recorded. Nor is it practical to record grades as much as they could be given.

5.     Not all grades need to be numerical. What’s wrong with “meets standard, approaches standard, exceeds standard” with narrative to go with it?

6.     Informal assessments are as useful as formal assessments. They often take less time, and specific feedback can be given quickly and easily. They serve to guide instruction and student work.

7.     Grades should be disaggregated. What do you do if a student turns in a project that completed all the requirements and has acquired all the content but turns the project in one day late. Some teachers would take 50% off the total score. So instead of a 95, that student now has a 47. What does that tell the student when factored into the 20% category of projects? When a parent looks at the 45%, is it clear what the student could or could not do? Instead, have categories that represent specific skills: work ethic (turning assignments in on time and completion), collaboration, content, critical thinking, etc.

8.     Metacognition should be a part of all major assessments. Students need to reflect on the quality of their own work and the contributions they made to a project.

9.     Open-ended performance assessments that show what a student can do rather than what they can’t, perhaps given freedom to display their achievement of skills as content through the platform of their choosing.

10. Involve your students in the grading process. They can help to choose the wording of the rubrics or alter the categories. They can also peer and self-assess. Rubrics and feedback should be put in kid friendly terms, so they know what they can do to improve.

Here’s an example:

My French II students were doing a unit on French cinema. The goal was for students to gain an understanding of the place the cinema holds in French culture and how that differs in products, perspectives and practices of Americans. The main project was to create a whole class blog for the local community to encourage the viewing of French films from the library. The performance assessments were as follows. They had a conversation with a friend deciding what movie they wanted to see that night and why. They took a description about the movie Les Misérables (which we watched) that was very short and choppy and made it made it more complex using object pronouns. They chose their own French movie to watch and created a blog post about it, including brief synopsis, general opinion and recommendations. Each student then had to choose one other movie to watch based on the description of their peer and leave a comment to their review.

Each assessment was designed to show what a student was able to do with the language in order to elicit meaningful feedback. I also designed smaller assessments along the way to be informally assessed by peers or the teacher in order to check for progress.  All assessments used the same or similar rubrics with shared vocabulary. Each had component of proficiency, content and, if it was a group task, collaboration. The language of the rubrics were put in student-friendly terms, and modified based on student feedback. Each item that was formally or informally assessed was numbered and placed in the portfolio with a note from the students about the success they achieved and an area of improvement to focus on.

At several points along the way, we as a class stopped so the students could reflect generally on where they were in the process and write something longer than they did in the quicker checkpoints. This reflective process was also assessed using a rubric. These reflections can be used to create individualized work for students or serve as a general temperature check for the teacher in scaffolding the work. The half-year reflection point is especially useful for setting goals, and involving parents. With the use of rubrics, students stop discussion around topics like “getting As instead of Bs” and move to using specific language about their own proficiency and work style. This does have to be modeled in the beginning.

Portfolios give students an individualized targeted method of focusing on what they can do with the language. They analyze their own strengths and weaknesses with the help of the teacher and peers to continually improve on specific areas. They can be either housed in a paper folder in the class or digitally on-line. In my world language class, I prefer the digital version, so we can include speaking, writing, and tech-based assessments, like Voicethread, podcasts or blogs. The students are excited to have, virtually or physically, tangible evidence of their success.

My ultimate goal would be for reported “grades” to be a narrative and based on meeting a standard. This however is a larger school or district decision.  Therefore, when using a portfolio assessment, a teacher will have to decide for themselves what it would look like as translated into a numeric grade.

I hope we can all begin to contemplate the power of this type of assessment.

Think about when you were in school and received grades you did not understand, that did not in actuality assess what you knew or were able to do with the skills and content that were acquired. In most classes, grades are an end result. Learning should be the end result with grades a way to focus the students and give them direction on how to create an individualized implementation plan.

About the author: Lauren Scheller graduated from Rutgers with a double major in Biological Sciences and French. As an elementary and secondary science teacher, Lauren became the initiator and foremost authority in inquiry and project-based learning and differentiated instruction at her school. Upon transitioning to teaching French, Lauren’s student-centered approach contributed to the development of thematic-based unit plans with a focus on 21st century skill development and performance-based assessment. Check out Lauren’s blog and follow her on Twitter @Lauren_Scheller.

Topic: What does your district/school do to provide relevant professional development (PD) for you and your colleagues?

I must admit, this #edchat was reminiscent of one that I participated in back in November. Happily, I summarized that one too, and so I just gave it a quick re-read to make sure I won’t simply be repeating myself (too much).

Some repetition is inevitable. For example, I read many, many complaints about traditional PD in November, and I read many, many complaints about tradition PD this week. But the conversation  has seemed to evolve a bit since then. Which is great.

I think Tom Whitby is sort of leading the charge on this one (he does tend to lead charges in education, doesn’t he?). His big point these days is that all people, especially teachers, should be “life-long learners.” The idea is that you don’t just stop learning and thinking about how to be a great teacher just because you have your teaching certificate framed at home. You keep going.

This point has become something of a rallying cry in #edchat – and for good reason! Almost all #edchat participants are, very clearly, life-long learners. They’re already self-motivated. They’re already out there seeking ways to better themselves and help their students.

The question is: how can school administration help those teachers that aren’t willing to help themselves? How can we design a system to pull the whole group forward, willingly or not?

Main themes from the discussion:

• “Traditional” PD is just no good! I won’t waste any time going over this one again. I will simply say that “traditional” PD, which consists of a so-called expert rolling into town and talking to every single educator in a school about some random topic a couple times per year is useless. It should be quite obvious that it’s useless. But apparently it’s not (to many of the higher-ups). That’s unfortunate.
• To be effective, PD needs to be folded into the regular schedule. I know it’s hard for teachers to find time to do anything “extra” these days (what with all the grading and the testing and the bureaucratic non-sense), but PD shouldn’t be considered “extra” at all. It is an essential ingredient to a quality education system. We can’t have teachers simply regurgitating the same lessons they crafted right out of school year after year until they retire. At least, we can’t have that if we want our students to succeed later in life. We need to make time for PD – and we need to make time for PD regularly. Once a week or maybe twice a month sounds about right.
• Teachers should be more involved in shaping PD. We’re trying to move away from the “sage on a stage” method of teaching in everyday classrooms. So why are we preserving it when it comes to PD? If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander! Why fly in experts to talk about some random topic when, if we bothered to take the time to look around, we’d find experts on a myriad of topics sprinkled throughout the teaching staff of any school? It just doesn’t make sense – not financially and not any other way you slice it. If we want teachers to “buy in” to PD, then we need give them some power in shaping it. Check out November’s post for more information on that.
• Teachers should be more in charge of their own PD. One of the ways that we could likely get more teachers to self-direct their own PD (as many in #edchat and elsewhere already do) would be to allow them to pursue topics that actually interest them. This is another idea that we’re playing with for younger students, so why don’t we adopt it for those adults that we’ve put in charge of teaching our children? The rationale sounds solid to me. If you give a teacher more choice in what he wants to learn about, he’s far more likely to really invest himself in it and get something out of it. Which, in turns, makes him a better teacher. It’s all about cultivating the life-long learner.
• “No PD” is simply NOT an option. The necessary corollary to “give teachers more control in shaping PD” and “let a teacher choose his own PD methods” is this: you have to do something. Not only that, but you have to do something regularly. Again, once a week or once every other week seems about right. Of course, we need to relax our definition of PD if we’ll be requiring weekly participation. It’d be hard to attend a conference every week. Instead, online participation in programs like #edchat and many others should be included. As long as it’s something, it should be allowed. The hope is, of course, that by opening up the array of options, we’ll have more buy-in from those that traditionally opted out.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

MsDittmar One of the greatest things my district does for me is allows access to Twitter. Without it and the #edchat community I would be lost.

Mamacita In 26 years, my former district had exactly ONE good PD for us. The rest were overpriced wastes of time.

MertonTech The problem with PD is its relevance is relative to the individual. Hard for a district to provide relevance for all.

tomwhitby How can PD workshops held once or twice a year on a conference day be relevant? How many schools continue this practice? PD must be part of the work week and supported w/follow through by all.

ProjectAdvance Teachers should be very involved in the PD selection process. Without their buy-in, the information may fall on deaf ears.

ugafrank All the stakeholders in PD need to be involved in design, implementation, and evaluation.

MertonTech For tech PD, give teachers a chance to co-teach with a tech expert. I love working with my teachers, and it is working for the kids.

tomwhitby Learning about pedagogy and content should never stop when one gets a degree, teaching license, or a job as a teacher.

MeetOkema With PD, everyone doesn’t learn the same. All modules won’t work. Neither will all trainers. Same topic in different forms?

cybraryman1 Why do so many educators here on Twitter say what they learned here is the best PD they ever received?

jrichardson30 Our first attempt with an edcamp, we had great success! Teacher feedback was overwhelmingly positive; wanting more.

John_DAdamo The only PD mandates should be: 1) you actually do some (self-directed), 2) you reflect on experience, and 3) you share your learning.

mikevigilant  I offered a Twitter PD just this morning! Only 6 people came, but it still went well.

vltreadway I provide Lunch Bytes. (1/2 hour drop in sessions.) Same teachers come every time though.

teacherdebra  Time is huge factor. Allow for technology days. Get subs & let these teachers collaborate.

tomwhitby Giving choices is fine as long as NO CHOICE is not a choice. Too many have gone down that path.

Mamacita I can’t respect adults in any profession who aren’t eager, avid learners; willing to upgrade skills, experiment, change routines.

kylepace The time for PD does not need to be found it needs to be made.

SECottrell The freedom to find my own PD is the most beneficial thing my administration has done for me.

daveandcori My district offers “PD” but low quality. I go looking for my own: Twitter, EdCamp, TechForum, ISTE, etc.

John_DAdamo A good admin finds a way to share the successful PD reflections/experiences by staff members with the community.

bennettscience We used flip for a conference 2 weeks ago with HUGE success. “Lecture” part of presentation was video, so it was all discussion during day.

sdavids51 Twitter works because it’s immediate and relevant info that I control. I get what I need and also get to share what I know.

A few resources that were shared:

Mr_Brett_Clark  Here is something I do as a coach in my school: Coach’s Menu http://t.co/qMbDxlqX. We also have a summer elearning conference, July 11 & 12. http://t.co/uHYnrAmB

daveandcori Professional Development for Teachers needs to change – http://t.co/ET2VIMZd

cybraryman1 My Professional Development page: http://t.co/TMtMGpx8

j_allen A link to our recorded fall “Tech Tuesday” webinars. http://t.co/n6rZTacx

NancyW The year long PD I am leading for 21st century learning has an open Grouply site you can explore: http://t.co/v10lUSSq

###

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed the pattern yet, but I’ve started collecting guest blog posts from all the interesting people that I meet in #edchat each week. We’ve already heard from Mike Vigilant and Justin Baumgartner. This week, I’m continuing the trend, but in a slightly different way.

Debra Finger, The Incidental Techie, writes this week’s contribution on her own blog, and instead of simply reposting the entire thing here I will post up a little teaser and then point you towards it. Hopefully by now you trust me when I say that this post is worth the couple minutes it should take you to read it.

Teacher Debra (to use her Twitter handle), writes this week about the student narrative, i.e. “what parents want to know that grades don’t tell them.” A student’s achievement and involvement in school is a complex thing, and the occasional report card doesn’t even come close to explaining it.

What does? Well, here’s an example from her school:

I am fortunate enough to work in a school that values the whole child and as such, twice a year tries to capture that child in the form of narrative reports about each child’s strengths, weaknesses and efforts in a particular curricular area, including a social emotional picture of each child. These narratives, though extremely time-consuming (did I mention these take weeks and weeks to write?) offer the parent or guardian what letter grades alone cannot: a lens through which they can see their child as the teacher sees him. These narratives can show the parent that after 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 38 weeks a year this teacher knows that child as a person and a learner.

That was the teaser. But the post goes on from there to talk about other ways of showing parents what their child is doing: student portfolios. So please, by all means, go read it.

Next week’s guest post will come to us from another teacher (that I met in #edchat, of course) that has already been down the student portfolio path in her classroom. Look forward to it.