Sunday, March 12, 2017

The Shift Away from "Tech Talk"

The nature of my conversations about technology in education have evolved over the past few years. Ten years ago I spent much of my time convincing colleagues, parents and community members about the benefits (and pitfalls) of technology in schools.

To some degree, I am still having those conversations but far, far fewer. Today I'm having far more conversations around meaningful learning experiences for students and teachers. I’m sharing stories of how teachers and students are collaborating, communicating and creating informed and meaningful learning experiences. I’m sharing stories of how we are communicating student learning in more dynamic and robust ways, stories of how our teachers developing classroom routines and practices teaching students how to self-regulate the use of technology, sharing examples of student projects that embed technology to enhance communication and collaboration.  

Grounded in our continuous improvement plan, we are having conversations on the need for students to be better thinkers, creators and innovators.

Ironically, although I am talking less about technology per se, a byproduct of our quest to make learning that is connected, visible, experiential and empowered we have seen a significant uptake in technology across our campus. For example, in the past two years we have seen requests for technology from teachers increase dramatically. We have gone from about 60 devices to about 400 – mainly Chromebook laptops – with demand only increasing and we are also seeing more and more students being invited by their teachers to bring in their own laptops into classrooms.

Like I was explaining to someone the other day, we don't have technology plan, we have a learning plan the byproduct of which is creating dynamic and effective uses of technology.

Still Figuring It Out......