J+-+Cliff+View+Room+-+How+to+Get+Your+Faculty+Past+the+Negatives

Facilitator: Sean Dagony-Clark

Attendees: Raul Cuza Bill Castell and a lot of other people who will put there name above this line.

ROUGH:

How can we build our systems so it doesn't encourage negativity?

How can we build our systems so they enable growth? Can blocks be used for growth.

"When you learn from failure in a class, you can't get better than a C."

If the teachers feel negative about their own skills, stability or (anything?) then that is going to be a seed that keeps growing negativity in the school.

We have the ability to use tools and training to reduce frustration which will reduce negativity in the school. "Frustration breeds contempt"

Availability is important for people feeling "safe" to ask for help. Availability is a physical thing, a time thing, and an attitude thing.

"Technology integrators are some of the best con-artist in the world. We come in for one thing and ..." push our agenda on the down low (or not so low).

Agents for the change, here are the positive that are already happening.

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(this could use editing...) Charles Fadel put up a list of negatives for tech use distraction, utility, etc. How do we help reticent faculty to try new things, change how they teach? How do we get past these fears and help people see benefits?

Sean: iPad pilot program (sixth grade) big thing from faculty, negative feedback, about experience — lack of time and preparation sean said that professional development time must be built in to the rollout, but that didn’t happen. result is that teachers say kids are distracted, screen-writing software not as good as paper, things don’t work quite right how to turn around a PR nightmare around iPad use without time in front of faculty, with limited time, productive time — towards mindset of “here’s why we’re doing it, here’s what we get out of it”

robin newman: is there a spirit of negativity in the school already?

Aidan lucey: parents, faculty like to emphasize the low-tech pieces (clay shirky banning laptops, steve jobs being a low-tech parent) enthusiasm gets in the way sometimes if paper is better for some things, then use paper who ever wrote textbooks in two months before? put a spotlight on those that succeed, let them lead others

what COULDN’T you do before? that’s what should be emphasized.

pat hough: stay in the middle who is already doing good things without formal PD — experiment reasoned approach. what’s working for our culture?

learning goals piece of this gets lost. we need to pay more attention to the learning goals, greater objectives. group kids by what their interests/learning style is and then have

fitting in tech with teachers needs

“technology often doesn’t do it as well as” how do we shift to learning goals and away from existing curriculum

technology expertise vs. classroom expertise when do you shift and what to shift to

7 years to shift a culture ipad pilots don’t last 7 years

colin: time is the biggest problem. “i sell time” when smart notebook came out, colin told people that they could shift their instruction by pre-writing notes rather than spend class time with backs to students. instant time.

eli: my role is to be a therapist to my faculty changing tools, even interface, can be a pain for faculty still getting comfortable

intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation

PH: "only theoretically are things either completely yes or completely no”

crack the hardest eggs first “i’m not forcing this on you”

create an ecosystem of technology if we expect teachers to use technology in a constructivist way, that needs to be modeled, they need to be taught how to do that “learning labs” for faculty technologists/integrators should position themselves as EDUCATORS FIRST if we want to change culture, we need to address that in a systematic way

distraction is the biggest problem teachers want answers about how to solve problems

teachers safe to fail — it sounds like this isn’t ok

“the reason your kids are distracted is that you suck” we’re ALL distracted

substitute the word technology for an issue fifty years ago. same thing.

keep everything in context

when we’re there with each other, we need to be really present with teach other

admin need to set faculty expectations tech directors/experts need to manage up and get admin to set expectations

SD-C:“where are we going, not with technology, but with education?” this needs to be a schoolwide, admin-started discussion “we can’t drive the change with technology” what works is finding the way to extend learning and change learning. if technology makes that happen, great. if face-to-face interaction makes that happen, great. let’s base our school around what works.

we have to remind people that not everything will go smoothly. people need to be reminded that there will be bumps. teachers recognize this with their students, but they can also be very hard on themselves.

integrator time can’t be like it used to be with being lucky to get time on a mainframe technology needs to be everywhere in a meaningful way

sean set up a help table in the riverdale cafeteria that helped everyone with anything related to technology (school-related, home DVR, etc.) — used a lucy sign from peanuts, 5 cents for tech help. now done at breakfast and lunch. huge time commitment but it’s an investment that has paid off.

you have to sell the changes you make, successes you see

set up an LMS class for student tech “geek squad,” enrolled all faculty into it.