Sunday, August 23, 2015

Winning With What You Have

This past week Illinois Vision 20/20 announced the launch of its 21st Century Learning Center.  It is a free resource for high school teachers that provides lesson plans, lecture and videos in a multitude of disciplines.  Through iTunes U, students and teachers can now access materials they may not have had resources for in the past or be able to enrich their current course offerings.  This is truly a step in the right direction.  Using technology to bridge gaps for teachers and students to enhance learning.  What a concept. 

Despite these breakthroughs, some schools still do not embrace the possibilities that technology can bring them.  In schools we still hold on to outdated methods and approaches in the name of routine and proven student outcomes.  Usually those outcomes are content delivery with a degree of control over the students.  But as our society, workforce and attitudes change with the times schools as a whole are slow to follow.  Don’t get me wrong, there are many schools doing this right.  But still we look at them as exceptions and not the rule.  Educators might look at innovative programs as just a show to be watched and not an example to be followed.  Or, they dismiss the possibility of replicating innovation because of a lack of resources or staff.  I say do what is within your reach.  It may not seem like much if you don’t have much but it’s far better than doing nothing.

I’ve had the opportunity to coach on and off in my career and if there is one thing I learned it’s that you survey the landscape and find a way to win with what you have.  This year my school building went back to a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach to the technology gap in our school.  We don’t have much and like most Illinois school getting more is not exactly an option.  To ensure that technology is a fixture in our school, the students bring their own devices to use.  This sparks a lot of conversation about how and what the students would use their devices for.  How do teachers control their behavior?  And certainly, how do we reach them if we are not always the experts ourselves?  This was a great session at EdCamp West Frankfort and many viewpoints were considered, all of which had merit. 

But let’s say we continue with debate and do nothing in our building.  Who are we failing?  The obvious answer is our students.  If we use my poor coaching analogy from above we could say we like talking about winning but we really don’t have the courage to be winners.  This is what a winning attitude towards BYOD looks like:

·        - Students learn far differently than we did.  They can multitask and engage on multiple levels.
·        - Mobile devices are not only their tool of choice but it will be for a long time.
·        - Students need responsible adults to teach them digital citizenship. (Teachers and Parents)
·        - Students need to be treated like the digital natives that they are.


For us, our resources are our teachers, students and their attitudes towards technology in learning.  This can have a much farther reach than money to buy gadgets.  I fully anticipate there to be bumps in the road and conflict as we move forward but the end result should be engaged learning through student owned devices.  That’s how we will win with what we have.

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