Notes from Alan November Session: 

02-13-01 Institute Day

Session notes from Alan November’s session with decision-makers

Related activities already in progress, actions to take

Fear management--

2 Choices: Circle the wagons  and keep what you've got

or rush toward change--both dangerous.

A suggested activity to manage fear—give post-it  notes to all staff, ask them to imagine change that is coming (e.g., handhelds, curriculum online, state sponsored virtual schools, vouchers): Then ask “What's your worst fear and best hope?”

It is essential to validate the fear of an adult. Adults will hold fears inside if you don't validate; they will listen for their fears and walk out with them confirmed.

For every fear there’s a corresponding hope: e.g., a fear that technology erodes social skills has a corresponding hope that technology can connect students to everyone in the world.

The initial threat of loss does not anticipate the gain. It could be that kids will want to learn more.

In 1996 we hosted focus groups that addressed these questions, and our tech committee at the time participated in an activity like this.

Could we conduct such a post-it note session online with our staff and the community? Should we make this part of our Home Computing Survey?

A web page for every teacher. He suggests a standard design with a common look and feel for each teacher's web. Don't look sloppy on the most dominant media of our time.

Every teacher must have a web site with tests, projects, assessments, online portfolios, that stays on our web site.

Students should have an online portfolio space where they can store what they have done during high school and can further develop their work in college.

Front Page training sessions have been conducted. A number of areas of the web site have been revised and improved this year. No formal “look and feel” has been discussed.

Business Ed teacher Sue Walker recently saw an online portfolio system like this in a Milwaukee suburb.

Out-sourcing. Buy services and programs from outside sources. Academic programs will be for sale as no time before. Will be able to outsource everything we now teach. Can save money and raise standards. E.g., Microsoft does not run its own networks. US Marines doesn't either. Anchorage Alaska public schools just outsourced their tech programs; all the work for the tech people is refocused on supporting education.

Alan says that schools must learn how to outsource.

We’ve considered hosting our financial software (SchoolSmart and CBSI Apecs).

My impression is that outsourcing could help my staff shift from our current mode of maintenance into high-gear support of learning with technology. We’d welcome it.

Establish partnerships with schools, universities, agencies around the world. Partner so students can get credit while they're in school.

Some examples of current partnerships: Northwestern’s Collaboratory Project, Tech Advisory Committee, Aurora University CAP program, public library, courses at CLC, area businesses.

Risk-taking: The trick is how to support a risk-taking teacher without alienating the non-risk-taking teacher.  Innovation stops at the peer-group level, not at the administrative level.

Collaboratory/Seed Program established for risk-takers. Laptops have helped establish broad support. There has been discussion with union leadership about support for information literacy. What else can we do to provide support at the peer-group level?.

Online courses. Offer AP and other courses online that we currently don’t offer now. Require every student to take one course online.  Possibly, some students will take their whole high school experience online. Orange County launched a home schooling program.  High-end web design is another good place to start. Encourage as many teachers as possible to take an online course so they get a feel for this. All staff development should be offered online.

Best approach is a combination of online plus face-to-face.

Draft of an online course proposal. BDIT Teaching with the Internet course is being revised to include online elements. 12 teachers currently involved in Collaboratory Project, which is being offered online.

Equity. Ship computers home every summer to a family who needs the computer.  Give our older computers to families.

Laptop checkout program is first step we are taking.

Efficiencies. Save teachers time: create a committee tomorrow to get 6 years of spelling tests online and let the kids go with it.

Technology Planning/Marketing. “Learning results plan”--not technology plan. Link tech investment to serve anyone in the community. We're the learning provider of an entire community; we can provide services to more than just children. Articulate this in our plan. We're going to build them a web site that helps them link with strategic partners, like nursing homes.  Not a school plan, but a community-based plan. 

Sell the capacity to build relationships, or high test scores. Find out what the community values, and sell them that.

Grocery stores don’t sell mad cow; they sell beef.

I guess we’ll have to rename our technology plan again.

Information literacy. Technology is going to get easier and easier; what we need to teach is Information literacy.: the structure of the internet, search engines, how to read a web address (e.g., ~tilde means it's a personal web site)

How fast do we insist that every teacher be information literate?

Information literacy should be the first class we provide to teachers. UCLA, Dist. 230 (Woodstock) Orland Park (Tim Wallery, putting together an online information literacy web site). See Alan's list of favorite web sitesat www.anovember.com

Library Futures Committee has suggested a 4-year strand of information literacy, and a course to prepare teachers to create more robust research projects, ones that cannot be completed via copy and paste. We plan to begin in March.

 Miscellaneous.  100 MB connection to every desktop in the state of AZ, fully funded by the state. Goal is the GB connection.  GB is enough to have an orchestra around the world.

Become a member of a digital coop. www.vhs.concord.org  

www.stanford.edu

WTHS is 100 MB to many desktops already.

This page, created on 02/21/01, was last edited on 02/21/01 .

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