Reading, reading, reading....

For this assignment, I read from Jamie McKenzie’s “Making Good Change Happen”.

McKenzie, J. (2000, June). Making Good Change Happen. Chapter One of Planning Good Change: From Now On.The Educational Technology Journal, 9(10).

“My staff is willing to integrate technology into the program only when they see how it can help them address the state curriculum standards and improve student performance, but they are quite reluctant to use technology for technology’s sake.”

“Change doesn’t happen in a school simply because you install new equipment,” he continues, his tone quite serious now.

Almost two-thirds of teachers say they rely on software or Web sites for instruction “to a minimal extent” or “not at all.”

Teachers have seen bandwagons come and go. They are appropriately skeptical about untested, expensive changes that seem peripheral rather than central to their purpose. They want to know how this venture will improve student performance.

Much of what I would say on this topic, I’ve already stated in my previous posting on being a “change agent. That posting details the situation in my district and how I came to be doing what I’m doing.

I’m very lucky to work where I do for a number of reasons:

Ø The previous government wanted to go out with a bang, so they spent lots of money on machines and infrastructure. It’s too bad we couldn’t have started out a bit more slowly (fewer classes), but the results have been good.

Ø My Supervisor is a stickler for wanted to know why we are doing what we are doing..or why someone needs “stuff”. He wants to see the learning outcomes that will be touched upon and gets very annoyed when people send him “wish lists” of items.

Ø The staff that we are working with in the notebook schools are very willing to spend time learning, and are flexible when it comes to working us into their schedules so that we can present/teach what we feel are the “essential learnings” (still being defined, as mentioned in previous post) and they are attentive and learn with the students.

Ø We have had the opportunities to work one-on-one in schools so as to meet individuals where they are and go where they want to go. That’s not to say that we’ve reached everyone, but we are making a positive impact.

Ø Our district is in the process of evolving into a professional learning community (a good band-wagon to be on). We saw Anthony Mohammed this fall and everyone is making a considerable effort (more meetings, more common assessments, more marking…but more accountability and so far, improvement in scores!). Because technology can make some of this tracking and collaboration easier, we are welcome to teach and share more skills to teachers who may have not been so willing before.

We still have a lot of work to do in getting more teachers using technology more effectively than email and basic Word, but I think we need to concentrate on “bringing the bottom up” and doing a good job of the basics. I would far rather have a large number of teachers with a solid foundation in the basics than have a few teachers go off the charts with only half of them having of a focus on the outcomes (the other half on the “shiny stuff”).