No black and white
Source: EdTech Digest
Navigating the best course forward through complex technology implementation issues.
INTERVIEW | by Victor Rivero
With the growth of technology immersion in the classroom and the rise in availability of digital content and tools, navigating the best course for implementation can be a daunting task, even for the most sophisticated organizations. Experienced administrators Dr. Julie Carter and Rob Dickson (both formerly named “20 to Watch” Education Technology Leaders by the NSBA) have launched a new company focused on helping schools plan and execute their technology goals. GreyED Solutions focuses on a personalized approach to visioning and planning for both schools and the edtech industry, emphasizing that the education landscape is not black and white. Strategies for technology implementation as well as product marketing and messaging must be personalized to represent the unique needs and challenges of every organization. In this interview, GreyED Solutions co-founders share with us their insight into the creation of their company, the challenges facing schools with implementations today, and advice on where to start and what to avoid as you begin your implementations.
Victor: Where did the vision and desire to build GreyED Solutions come from?
Julie: With our experience in K12 education we know first hand the challenges, triumphs and intricacies of well-executed implementations. Having championed some of the best technology implementations in the country we quickly realized the demand for support and assistance as we fielded questions, lent support, shared materials and worked to share our successes so other schools and districts could benefit from what we learned. Julie’s administrative experience comes from her leadership at Minnetonka Public Schools where she served as a classroom teacher and media specialist before becoming the executive director of technology. Rob’s experience stems from his work as the director of technology for Andover Public Schools and more recently in his current role as the executive director of information management services for Omaha Public Schools.
Rob: Over the past several years we have consulted with districts nationally helping with the assessment and design of technology planning. GreyED Solutions was born out of the realization that every district has its own unique culture and fingerprint, where merely replicating models and materials does not equate success. While there is an enormous amount to be gleaned from the success of others, modifications to best fit your individual organization are necessary to ensure successful implementation. The vision of GreyED is to perpetuate the success of technology enhanced learning through personalized services which recognize implementations are not black and white.
Victor: Working with both schools and the industry is unique – why did you choose to focus on both?
Julie: We believe that it is essential for the edtech industry to understand the challenges and needs of today’s learners. Bringing leading educators together to engage in collaborative discussions with the edtech industry makes for the most innovative, successful and purposeful uses of technology that will positively impact students. By using our industry knowledge we are able to impact the design and development of edtech products and we can introduce districts to great products and services that can enhance and accelerate learning in their classrooms. For us, schools and the industry work together hand-in-hand for the betterment of today’s learners.
Bringing leading educators together to engage in collaborative discussions with the edtech industry makes for the most innovative, successful and purposeful uses of technology that will positively impact students.
Victor: What advice do you have for schools beginning an implementation? Is there a place to start?
Rob: Establishing your vision and desired outcomes is the place we recommend you begin. What is it that you want your students to be doing or be able to do as a result of your implementation? Beginning with the vision and listing out your desired outcomes allows you to stay focused on your goals while designing the remainder of your plan. Don’t get hung up on the perfect vision statement, but rather focus on articulating or depicting a picture of the learner and what he or she will be able to do as a result.
Victor: Why do you think schools struggle with implementation processes? and/or How do you help districts with their implementation process?
Julie: The implementation process is a daunting task because there are so many phases to planning and development and often numerous stakeholders to plan for and report to. Often schools are focused on the “what” rather than the “why” and begin a conversation about the product or service rather than the end result. As an example, when a district begins an implementation focused on a 1:1 initiative, we often hear and see conversation and questions about the device itself, not about the rationale or desired outcomes from the initiative. The danger here is the missed opportunity to engage stakeholders, understand the desired outcomes and design the communication, professional development and infrastructure around the stated goals. Schools also struggle in large part due to the lack of internal capacity to plan and design such initiatives. Using a third party to facilitate this process allows you to seek advice from an objective party who has championed other success stories and can leverage the best of your organization to design an implementation plan to meet your needs.
Rob: GreyED’s approach is focused on our LEARN process where we 1) Listen to your needs, desired outcomes and challenges as it relates to technology and instruction, 2) engage your stakeholders through surveys and interviews to capture multiple viewpoints within the organization 3) Analyze the information gathered, 4) Recommend goals to meet your long term objectives, and 5) help you create next steps for your implementation that are attainable and measurable.
Victor: What are the most common implementations you are seeing happen in schools?
Julie: The most common implementations we are seeing are personalized learning efforts that are commonly coupled with a 1:1 initiative. While the devices remain varied in these implementations, we are seeing a rise of BYOD in districts that have an existing population of high device ownership. We believe the personalized learning approaches are naturally pairing with 1:1 as the technology is being used to leverage opportunities for adaptability and individual creativity to personalize the learning experience in ways not previously possible.
Victor: What are some of the missteps you see districts making with their implementations?
Rob: The most common missteps we are seeing are a disconnect between the technology and the teaching and learning. For example, we see initiatives that are scaled on the technical side to be successful in terms of the infrastructure, capacity for bandwidth and high-density wireless and plenty of devices in the hands of students. However, the teacher preparedness and the transformation of the teaching and learning has not grown to scale to match the technology that is in hand. While some have seen this as a ‘if you build it they will come’ scenario, we have seen this to be detrimental to implementations where the technology becomes a glorified device for taking notes or projecting content and has not transformed or impacted student learning.
Julie: The flip side is just as detrimental to an initiative when a district has well-prepared teachers who have transformed their pedagogy and the infrastructure cannot support the devices. In these cases, the frustration seen in the classroom from the teachers and students often halts any success as the technology is seen as unreliable and therefore not used because teachers feel the need to prepare two lessons in the event the technology is unusable.
We hope the impact of today’s technology immersion efforts have transformed the teaching and learning opportunities in the classroom to shift the conversation towards the products and outcomes students are demonstrating and creating rather then discussing what types of devices to implement.
Rob: When these two are in balance and the infrastructure and teaching and learning are ready, the misstep we see here is districts going too far too fast. While you may have laid excellent groundwork and gained significant progress, be careful not to spread your resources too thin to support and sustain an implementation that does require time and dedicated support from your organization. We are a big believer in going slow to go fast and recommend that curricular focuses can be one way to scale an implementation to assure all students have the benefit of devices without undertaking an entire district in one single rollout.
Victor: What benefits are you seeing from districts moving to devices in the classroom?
Julie: There is no question that one of the biggest benefits of devices in the classroom has been the increased use of formative assessments for teachers to monitor and adjust their instruction. Teachers report the ability to make corrections quickly and shorten the length of time on student follow-up creating a tighter feedback loop. We are also seeing data driven decision-making that is allowing for tailored learning experiences, saving teachers what they need most, more time.
Rob: Devices in the classroom are also pushing pedagogy out of the ‘talk and chalk’ technique and truly moving the teacher into the information facilitator role, rather than being the information keeper. Schools are seeing increases in student engagement, higher levels of collaboration and increased communication.
Victor: How do you feel your responses to these questions may be different if we asked them of you in 5 or even 10 years from now?
Julie: In 5 to 10 years, we hope the impact of today’s technology immersion efforts have transformed the teaching and learning opportunities in the classroom to shift the conversation towards the products and outcomes students are demonstrating and creating rather then discussing what types of devices to implement. We believe the ‘device’ truly will be agnostic in these conversations with the increased use of cloud-based technologies and cross platform compatible digital curriculum and we can finally say we have ubiquitous computing!
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Victor Rivero is the Editor in Chief of EdTech Digest.