Peering inside the Black Box of Learning

This is a guest posting by one of my team members.  It covers some of the most interesting work we are doing here at Appleby College using Microsoft OneNote to enhance the learning experience. This is in addition to a number of other applications and technologies in place.

Appleby College has been a 1:1 computer school for over 14 years.  First as a laptop, then a pen-based tablet to support education.

We are delighted to share this story.  The paper below has been shared on Microsoft's Partners In Learning Hot Topic site.

If you are interested in further discussion on how this might be applicable to your school, send me an email (kpashuk(at)gmail(dot)com) with your contact information and I'll get back to you.

Comments and questions are welcome.  Enjoy the post below.

How to Bring Lasting Change to Education Through Technology

This posting is slightly different from the others.

I was reviewing a document I had written in 2009, and thought this portion would be very appropriate to share with you, my readers.

This could be construed as proof that I don't always insert bad humour into my writing... that I can be serious at times.

More importantly, it succinctly covers my observations over the years about bringing lasting change into the educational sector.

What is "Invisible" Technology?

With the wonders of site analytics, I was led to a site for educational librarians that referenced my blog, TurningTechInvisible in a comment. While I enjoyed the discussion, there was a misunderstanding (at least I felt there was) around the using the word "invisible" to describe technology. Many of the commenters preferred "transparent", and even the author of the post felt that "invisible" meant "absent".  I felt I should weigh in for clarification around the concept of "transparent" vs. "Invisible".

Image: Mojo40.com

I derived the name of the blog from reading Jim Collins' book Good To Great.  All of the companies profiled leveraged technology heavily, but NONE of them would attribute technology as the key factor for their success.

When you combine this thought with the changing face of the world we work in, the tried and true business models for the delivery of technology are being impacted by forces that will make IT departments obsolete, or cause them to adapt to be of value.

So I began a quest to "get technology out of the way", to make it "invisible like oxygen", critical for life, ubiquitous, but not thought about much until it isn't there...

That meant creating an IT organization where technology ceased to become the perceived gatekeeper, killer of great ideas, and controller of all, to a group of people who understood the needs of the organization and could actually provide high value for the organization to do things better, or do new things they couldn't do before.  I took the focus off technology, making it invisible, and put the focus on the delivery of strategic services.

There is no sense fighting for the old model.

The people that approve budgets won't fund what they think is unnecessary.

They will fund things of value (as defined by the organization, not IT).  So as an IT leader, I needed to frame the value of my organization in terms of value they would understand.

Has it worked?  I've been able to secure operational budget increases in the double digits over the last 3 years.

My sense is that libraries are being impacted by many of the same forces as IT.  I've blogged about it in a recent post "Why School Libraries are More Important than ever".

So, my message to school librarians? You have a lot of work ahead of you, but your success is dependant on your ability to adapt.  Just like IT.

Thanks for hearing me out.

No New Tech in Our School!

What? Wait? What did you say?

"No New Tech in Our School!"?

I thought this blog was about technology (among other things)?

It is.

And it isn't.

Let me explain in my usual roundabout way.

Homogeneous is Good for Milk, Bad for Schools

We want to be the best.

Who doesn't?

If we just wanted to be good, my organization doesn't need a strategic IT leader, it could get by with a manager.

Someone who delivers IT services at the lowest possible cost.

Nothing new, nothing exciting, nothing differentiating.

Safe.

Predictable.

Easily managed.

(Sound like much of IT delivered now, doesn't it?)

And one of the key tools of Safe IT leadership, is the concept of standardization, or homogeneity.

Homogeneity is the state of conformity. Milk from various sources is mixed together to become homogeneous so that every sip will taste consistent.

Now before you jump down to the comment section and furiously type what's going through your mind right now, I'm not against standards... but the concept of universal application of technology to the lowest common denominator so that everyone gets the same level of service, or everyone has the same equipment.

This works well with milk because everyone who consumes milk has pretty much the same requirement from the stuff.  Not so with technology.

My Latest, Favourite Learning Technology



Image via: denablizzard.brinkster.net

Something happened recently at our school that thrilled me to no end.

We introduced some new technology into the classroom that supercharged the energy in the room, got the kids up out of their seats, and had them excited about the lesson - which happened to be economics.

I don't know about you, but when I was in high school, an economics lesson wasn't exactly where I'd go for excitement.  I would put it right up along licking the paint off a house in terms of the wow factor.

So what exactly was the new technology? And what does a picture of a toddler drawing on the wall have to do with this post?

Read on, dear reader to find out.