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Elizabeth Helfant Archives

Embracing Change
by Elizabeth Helfant

I’ve been enjoying spring break for the last few days and have used the time to reflect on all that has happened since launching a 1:1 tablet program in the fall. Perhaps the most interesting change is the fact that the community has learned to embrace change; to see it for the opportunity it is instead of something to guard against. There is an acceptance of the hard work necessary to carefully and intentionally move forward instead of adhering to what we’ve always done because it seems comfortable, cherished, or easier. We’ve made the transition from teaching in ways that are comfortably familiar to teachers to designing learning opportunities that are centered in what our students need, a transition from teacher-driven to student-driven pedagogy. There is a collective understanding that it is necessary to integrate the best of what we’ve always done with a continuously growing knowledge base and evolving skill set. The essential questions and enduring understandings need to be redefined. We are far from having things completely figured out but change is now not only welcomed, it is a priority. We are committed to making innovation tradition and that necessitates a culture of change and forces the emergence of a community of learners. The 1:1 program provided the impetus to move us forward and in the process, we have learned a few fundamental things.

First and foremost, everything starts with curriculum. Curriculum must be the driver, not technology. Technology is just a supporting player albeit an important one that certainly affords opportunities that otherwise would not be possible. Designing good curriculum requires planning. Nothing beats Understanding by Design as a process for curriculum design.  A UbD approach requires not just articulating a canon of content but puts equal emphasis on the skills a learner needs.  The essential skills and the enduring understandings kids need to be prepared to meet the demands of their world, not ours, have to be articulated. While rooted in the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, ISTE’s NETs, and NCREL/Metri Group, our technology leadership committee defined the literacies of a lifelong learner as:

• Basic Literacy
• Visual/Media Literacy
• Information Literacy
• Digital Citizenship and Ethical Literacy
• Network Literacy
• Intercultural Literacy

The curriculum that teaches the current literacies of a lifelong learner is not the traditional curriculum. The value and power that is possible with a 1:1 tablet environment cannot be recognized with the traditional curriculum. Therefore, we have been forced to begin redesigning everything. We have redefined graduation requirements in order to allow for more student choice. We are moving to a trimester system in an effort to offer more electives. We are exploring final projects and portfolios as an alternative to traditional exams. Teams of teachers are working together to create interdisciplinary opportunities. As an example, our traditional geometry and algebra II sequence is being integrated and consolidated to a 5 trimester course freeing students to choose one trimester from electives like Environmental Statistics, Understanding Geopolitical Data, Mathematical Modeling with Stella, or Robotics and Programming. These courses will use portfolio assessment, include networking with external sources, and be centered in real world problems and problem based learning. Recognizing that our students deserve an innovative, redesigned curriculum was a byproduct of 1:1 and can only be accomplished with 1:1.

A second fundamental principle emerged early in the 1:1 rollout. Non-traditional curriculum is not well served by traditional textbooks and support materials. Consequently, textbooks appear to be on the way out in many places in Upper School. US History has already aborted the use of texts in favor of online course materials. Math is now taking on the task of developing their own textbooks hoping to draw on real world problems and to include interactive modules instead of pdf text files. Teachers will create worksheets with embedded Maplets or Geogebra applets. WebAssign and Maple TA will provide the homework system so students get immediate feedback and hints when doing homework explorations. DyKnow will be used to make class time interactive and to increase the amount of instantaneous feedback on student understanding.  Traditional materials do not leverage the potential of the 1:1 environment and inhibit the creation of a truly powerful learning environment.

The third principle is closely related to curriculum. Traditional assessment does not provide an accurate measure of learning when an innovative curriculum is in place nor does it accurately measure the acquisition of the previously defined literacies.  Traditional assessment measures a concrete culmination of learning, an exam or final project, and fails to adequately acknowledge the learning process or provide information on how to modify that process in a timely manner. Technology and a 1:1 environment allow the learning process to be transparent, provides mechanisms for rich formative assessment with instantaneous feedback, and more adequately monitors and assesses the development of literacies. I’ve written about assessment before and will limit the discussion in this post somewhat. Suffice it to say that DyKnow is a powerful tool for monitoring student understanding during the learning process and for effectively utilizing formative assessment to measure student progress. The plethora of Web 2.0 tools that facilitate sharing and collaboration create transparency around the learning process and provide ways to give feedback while learning is happening instead of at the conclusion of a unit. Electronic portfolios provide a method for recording student reflection about learning, documenting student acquisition of knowledge and skills, and assessing institutional and programmatic progress in order to make adjustments that maximize learning. Leveraging technology for assessment in a 1:1 program can ensure that learning is more efficient, individualized, and focused on skills as well as content.

The fourth principle relates to learning spaces. Learning spaces are not redefined but become undefined. They are organic, amorphous, and evolving. They are defined more by common interest or purpose and by connections than by walls and schedules. Technology can be used to deliver traditional content outside of class allowing teachers to maximize face to face time for discussing and interacting with concepts and ideas. Social networks like Ning allow the class discussion to continue outside of the class. Technology allows access to other learners in other geographic locations. It also allows interactions with experts. Interactions can be synchronous or asynchronous to minimize time zone issues. The learning conversation becomes larger and at the same time, have the potential to become more differentiated as learners gravitate to conversations that appeal to their own interests and passions. The teacher becomes facilitator in a global classroom with diverse perspectives. The learning is no longer centralized under one guide and in one space. Authority for learning is transferred to a community. Similarly, the library becomes an extension of the classroom and helps students make connections with external resources, manage and evaluate the information they are coming in contact with and create and remix content to supplement learning goals. Librarians are key in monitoring acquisition of literacy and their virtual presence is every bit as important as their physical location. The library becomes the primary literacy helpdesk and a secondary technology help desk as their role expands to help students identify how to present their findings. The technology our librarians use to monitor student research includes delicious bookmarks, zoho notebooks, Zotero, Word Citation tools, and Media Wiki footnote notation. Librarians give feedback and even grade annotated bibliographies created and shared with google docs. When every student has a tablet, their own customized personal learning environment, the classroom, the library and learning are no longer constrained by time and space limitations. There is much freedom for learning once that happens.

The final fundamental lesson that 1:1 has provide is that Professional Development is necessary but must be individualized, blended between face to face and virtual opportunities, and available on demand. Ownership of professional development has to be transferred to teachers who need to feel supported and persuaded that it is an important part of their daily job. That professional learning is no longer confined to a workshop or class. Teachers need to have opportunities to use the tools they are obligated to use with their students in tasks that support their day to day job and growth before they use them with students.  Professional development occurs when teachers use google docs and wikis to collaborate on lesson plans. This was very effective when we collaborated as a faculty to plan an interdisciplinary learning week. Teachers should also join Professional Development ning networks like Classroom2.0. They should follow a few well selected blogs, use rss feeds to track information, and share links using delicious or diigo. Additionally, teachers need to be exposed to new ideas and to share things that are working in their classrooms. In the start of the school year, we instituted an elgg network to push teachers to post what they were doing with 1:1 and to show them how to use a social networking site. Sharing what they are learning with each other creates an internal support structure and fosters the development of a community of learners. This learning network can provide a venue for delivering curriculum ideas or tutorials and handouts on how to do things. We are moving from Elgg to a Ning and Moodle and have considered using Mahara for faculty professional development portfolios. Faculty need to understand how to build a learning network and, while that network can start internally, it needs to expand and include external blogs, ustreamed conference sessions, professional development nings, and resource wikis. There is most definitely still a place for face to face professional development. This summer we are once again bringing in several speakers who understand how transformative technology in the service of learning can be. Sometimes a face to face interaction leads to a meaningful virtual relationship. These face to face sessions will attempt to further explain literacies and will help faculty redesign curriculum using technology to do what was previously not possible. Professional development in a 1:1 program requires faculty to be committed learners, creators, risk-takers and networkers.

While our 1:1 tablet program is in its infancy, it has already taught us much and changed the way we do things. In many ways 1:1 is much like having a real infant. Day to day life is not the same as it was before the baby came home. Opportunities are abundant and the potential is new and largely untapped. There isn’t a playbook for how to do things right and what right is, is largely driven by the child and the moment. You only get one chance for everything and you do the best you can to prepare and make the most of the chances you have. Every year it will be a little different and you evolve and get better at it. Just when you think you have things figured out,the infant becomes an adolescent and the rules change and you have to evolve again. For the 1:1 teacher, there isn’t just 1 infant but a multitude of individuals who all have different interests and needs. Fortunately, those adolescents that hold the tablets we try to use effectively can become partners with us in the community of learners we try so hard to create. It is not something we learned because of 1:1 but it is a fundamental truth that our students can teach us much about how to do things if are we willing to learn from them.

It is also a fundamental truth that things will change and we as educators will be forced to learn and adapt. Fortunately I love the challenges in learning and I have a tablet that connects me to the resources I need to stay current. I love change, don’t you?

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth Helfant is the Upper School Coordinator of Instructional Technology at Mary Institute Country Day School, a JK-12 institution embarking on a 1:1 adventure. using Tablet PCs and DyKnow.