Educational Discourse

I’ve just returned from a week of holidaying and relaxing. I was away from access to all technology and that was good. I enjoyed not going through my gmail, RSS feeds, email, Classroom2.0, twitter, blogs and online information. Now that I’m back, I’ve spent time sifting through these and getting caught up which, to my relief, really wasn’t nearly as difficult as I expected it would be.

Before I left, I wrote a post about being able to partake in BLC virtually and wondered why our schools were not looking at this type of technology given that most schools have access to the technology and would be able to provide it with little effort. I also mentioned that I would be willing to pay a fee to attend virtually thinking that this would be more than Skyping into a session and include live video feeds and the like. Of course, I’d still be able to attend through the Skype option but would like to “see” what is going on and maybe participate live in the skypeforums or something similar.

Cathy Nelson at technotuesday has a good post regarding the whole idea of attending a conference and the issue of paying for such a thing. This made me think about schools and the whole idea of how we might be able to provide students with the opportunity to access classes. I did some inquiring about this with our IT and found that we would have a slight problem because of the limited bandwidth available through our network. Although it would not be impossible, it would cause a slowdown of the whole system while the Skype was in use.  This would possibly mean that, in order to provide such a service, we might have to have a dedicated line for this and it would then need to be covered through user fees. Is this a bad thing? I know many conferences that I have attended via the web have been without fees but they haven’t included streaming video or that “being there” feel for which I would be willing to pay a fee. For students who would like to choose another option other than attending classes, would it be unreasonable to charge a fee for services in order to cover cost? Or does this go against the idea of free public education? Of course, many schools charge fees for various educational activities so would this be any different?

In order to try this out, this year, I am going to be recording my Communication Production Technology class and offering it via podcast to another school. I will also be using a wiki for notes and information for the class. I am considering using video for a class or two, especially when it comes to some of the technical aspects where I will be demonstrating and then offering it in a similar manner as the podcast. I mean, the whole course is dealing with communication and technology and I want to use as many of the tools available so that students can have greater access to what we are doing. I taught the class last year and wasn’t happy with the results so this year I’m revamping the course and adding some different options for students. I want it to be as accessible as possible for students and parents so that everyone can see what we are doing.

For such a class, there really isn’t a need for the students off campus to join us but if it were and we needed to use a Skype in order for someone to attend the class, having that available for a fee would, I believe, be a viable option that would be worth the cost. I’m all for free use and free access but, sometimes, we need to realize that not all is for free and, for our learning, it would be worth the cost that we would have to put forth.  I enjoy being able to access SL, twitter and the rest for no cost but as we make the jump from where we are in schools to somewhere else, there may be a need to charge for some of the services considering we don’t want advertising and such to become part of what we are doing.

What do you think? As Christian commented on my last post

 as a new papa who has video access to his kidddo in daycare each day, I am already preparing to be blacked-out once he arrives in a traditional school that considers ‘parent teacher nights’ to be the equal of ‘access’ that I have n0w. Whether regular or semi-regular podcasts (or something more or less dynamic), I’d like to think that by the time my kiddo goes to kindergarten it will be possible for me to regularly ‘attend’ his classes from a distance.

Would it be out of line to charge a small fee for such things especially if there was live streaming video? As a parent, would you consider such things to be too much? I know as an administrator, I’d welcome the opportunity to have such things available for parents. There would probably be some legal aspects we’d have to work through but if parents could actually see what is going on in the class and see what their children are doing, it might deter some of the behaviours that keep popping up and maybe encourage educators to stretch.  It might also encourage students to act out, who knows. My point is that it would provide parents who are interested in their child’s education another opportunity to see what is actually going on, making education more transparent.  Besides, it would allow teachers to see what they are doing and assist them in their professional growth. Kind of like when teams review game tapes to see what they did well and where they need more work.

What are your thoughts? How would you feel as a teacher? What are the drawbacks? Is this even possible given the climate surrounding education at the moment?

The BLC conference in Boston just wrapped up and I’ve been busy catching up on various feeds from my usual reporters such as Dean, Darren, Dave and Will. (DDDW ) I’ve been interested in how they have been able to keep those of us who are not attending informed of what was going on and the connections that they have made. I’ve also been doing a bit of tracking of other bloggers who have been posting. Today, I found Diane at Nexus who is a teacher from Ontario visiting Saskatoon. (Hi Diane!) I’ve also been following some of the discussions via Twitter although I find that I have to spend time going through the back pages as I have been out doing other things and not at my laptop - which is a good thing.

What struck me was the ease at which those of us who are not attending can find information and, with an invite or two, actually join the presentations via Skype. I know that there will be a some podcasts that I’ll have to download and listen to next week while I’m camping. I’m also going to take my laptop just to catch up on the reading I’ve missed so that when I get back from the week away, I’m ONLY a week behind!  I’ll be able to do take time to mull over what was said about the conference and the insights that people have had from their attendance.

It also struck me that, if this is possible, what is keeping us from moving in this direction in schools? I know that change is, indeed, something that takes time but ….. I think of meetings where people drive when the exact same could be done via any number of online conference or meeting software. Would it not be possible for a teacher to attend a conference and, at a specific time, Skype other teachers in the school who could then attend the session with them yet never leave the school. With all that goes on in educators’ lives, would it not make sense to provide them tools that would allow them to use their time in ways other than commuting between meetings? Especially in rural areas, where driving can become a full time job, these tools would reduce the stress and workload of rural teachers and provide them more time to do other things.

This made me wonder about the whole idea of podcasting different classes for students that are unable to attend. I mean, if we can do it for “strangers” who are interested in the same conference surely this could be a viable means to provide students who are away for extended periods of time (like that winter vacation in Mexico) to catchup. It wouldn’t mean that teachers would have to record their classes as they were taught but, instead, provide oral instruction that would supplement the other information that the student would get upon returning. This all could be done while the teacher was at home after having taught the class. I know that I am going to be doing something similar for a class that I am teaching at school but am sending to another student via the net. I will provide information using a podcast format for this particular student. I am also going to set up some sort of system that will allow the student to ask questions using voice instead of type. This way, I’m hoping to make things easier and more accessible for this student. I’ve thought about using video but I look terrible on the screen!

So as I go through the significant number of readings about the conference, I really wonder why these technologies are not being provided to every teacher and, in some form or another, every student. It’s not like the net couldn’t handle the traffic! Besides, it would be better for the environment and give teachers something they cherish - time. I know that I was grateful that I could “attend” BLC without having to leave my home. Not that I wouldn’t want to rub elbows with the likes of Christian, Chris or Will but, at this time, it just wasn’t possible and this is certainly a great option. Wouldn’t it be great if these conferences had a fee to attend virtually for those who couldn’t do the f2f.

I am working on finishing my post on my action plan for the upcoming year but I keep being pulled to see what is going on around the blogosphere and trying to digest the information from the posts regarding  BLC. This week away will give me some time to just focus on reading and putting my thoughts in order amidst some fine fishing, sand play and nightly visits to the ice cream shop! My family and I are looking forward to getting away and we’re hoping the weather cooperates. Who knows, I may even decide to get into the flickr stream like so many others are doing! Just what you want to see, my family on vacation

I’ve been looking at my blogroll and realize that it hasn’t changed since I first began blogging. I have spent time getting things organized on the blog and trying to find a voice for myself. I know that I often scan the blogroll of other bloggers but I just didn’t give much thought to my own. Tonight, I’ve been visiting different blogs and scanning their blogrolls. What impressed me was that on many of the blogs, the contents of the rolls are no longer just educators or those speaking on educational matters but people from all walks of life. This made me wonder if, as educators, we have reached a new step in our “learning”, beginning to expand beyond what we do and looking for people who have the same interests and hobbies or who catch our attention beyond our teaching.

missprofe has a very interesting post on when she begins to get back to the “groove” for school. I know that I posted my thoughts earlier this summer but I’ve found that those thoughts didn’t quite go as planned.

As a school principal, I have come to realize that summer holidays is just a time when students are not present. I’m not doing the paperwork or the other things that are connected with school administration. Instead, I find myself doing things that will allow us to achieve our goals for the upcoming year, planning out our staff pd times dealing with goals and looking at what we might be able to do for those students that are not engaged by school.

As the third week of holidays come to a close, I’ve spent very little time actually at the school, other than to check in to see how the renovations are going and to discuss getting our football field seeded and watered. Otherwise, I’ve been occupied do construction. This doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about school or, when I have the chance, doing some reading. But, it wasn’t how I actually saw my summer going. I was going to take time to do a bit of planning, focus on some key areas and slowly work through them, using the tools I’ve found to assist me in doing this. I was hoping to begin using my flickr much more and begin to build a catelogue of pics to use along the way. It hasn’t happened.

This is like my blogroll. I did plan to add to it and keep it up to date. I thought it would be a great idea to add new blogs and remove those that I don’t really visit anymore. However, like so many well made plans, life seemed to get in the way of such things and, on the importance scale, it soon fell off. Now, it’s not like my planning for next year isn’t important but I realized that there were other things to do this summer and, with all the time I put into various initiatives during the year, I just found that it wasn’t important at the time. As administrators and leaders, it is sometimes difficult to remember that we, too, need time for other things outside of education. That is why I was so impressed with the non-educational blogs that I’ve run across throughout my reading. They were refreshing king of like the people I’ve been working with these past three weeks. They’re non-educators and have reminded me that there is a world outside of education that isn’t necessarily caught up or even interested in school change. They see that things are changing but don’t necessarily see an immediacy to change what is going on in schools. They’ve been teaching me a great deal these past three weeks!

With this, I’ve decided that I should update my blogroll - it won’t be tonight or tomorrow so don’t be looking right now. It will take some time as I decide which blogs are on the “essential” list and which, although good, can be removed or maybe recategorized. Maybe I’ll have to do a bit more “research” to see how others are dealing with this. If you have any ideas or thoughts about the whole blogroll thing, I’d like to hear from you.

Douglas B. Reeves in his book The Learning Leader discusses The Law of Initiative Fatigue.

The Law of Initiative Fatigue is my adaptation from the term originally used in the Harvard Business Review. The law states - When resources of time, money and emotional energy are held constant while the number of old, continuing and new initiatives rises, organizational implosion is inevitable.

Reeve goes on to state that:

When leaders cling to previous initiatives while attempting to add new ones, they can experience some apparent early success. … [but] enthusiasm gives way to organizational overload, which is precipitously followed by burnout. Not only will the new initiatives fail under such circumstances, but the energy and resources available to old and continuing initiatives are dangerously compromised as well.

Reeve gives some great examples of ways that schools can reclaim time within the building. What struck me about this whole part was that, as leaders, we sometimes fail to see that we are living examples of this law in action. For me, I have noticed that I have taken on many new initiatives without taking time to reassess what I am doing, parring back and deciding what is vitally important and what can be 1) eliminated 2) given to others to do 3) rolled into a new initiative so no new workload is added.

I don’t know about anyone else but, as a leader, I sometimes become so enthused about new initiatives and ideas and add them to what I already doing because I see the potential they will have for the students. In particular, I have noticed that in the last six months or so, I have added many new technology tools and strategies to my repertoire but have not taken the time to fully incorporate them in my teaching and so I was trying to do more in the same amount of time. I have added new methods of supervision but I have not taken the time to completely incorporate a new method of reporting back and talking with teachers. I have taken on new roles within the school division without fully reflecting on what each role will mean to my time commitments. I have begun new projects with the School Community Council without, again, reflecting on what they add to my time commitments. There are a number of books that I want to read and articles that have peeked my interest that I have yet to get to even though summer is here. I have joined a number of networks (Ning, Facebook, MySpace) that all take time. Besides these, the school division is focusing on a number of initiatives that require my being a leader for my staff in a number of areas. None of this includes the extra-curricular that I coach or time with my family. By the end of school, I was feeling extremely drained. However it was not until I did a principal evaluation with my staff at the end of the year, did I see, through a few comments from teachers in my building (who are very perceptive) that I was taking on too much. Each of the things I was doing seemed to be important and, when I looked at my calendar, were doable.

As I’ve been working through the first two weeks and reflecting on what Reeves is saying, I’ve realized that the Law of Initiative Fatigue is, in fact, very real and has affected my ability to be an effective leader. This means that in order to reduce the number of demands on my time and focus on the areas that will bring the greatest development, I will have to sort through what I “NEED” to do and what, although it might be important, can be delegated to someone else or needs to eliminated. So how do I go about this?

I’ve decided that I needed to choose areas that will reduce my time and prepare to focus on key areas.

Area 1 - School division focus

The school division has chosen to focus on reading and math curricula and PLC’s for staff development. As I have mentioned, I have a number of areas that I have been focusing upon but I have decided that these three educational areas will be where I concentrate and focus my energy. That will entail me helping teachers to make sense of the data when it arrives, working to identify key areas of concentration, comparing it to our last set of data and celebrating what we have been able to do well. I will continue to build my understanding of PLC’s as they relate to our school and look for ways to involve community in building links to what we are doing within the school.

Area 2 - Professional Development

The first thing that I am going to do is work on a daily journal. This way I will track what exactly I am doing. This will allow me to see where my time and energy is going and will help me to focus on the areas that I have identified. It will also give me a chance to reflect on how I spend my time each day. Not that every moment needs to be full and accounted but to ensure that I’m remaining focused. I do have a tendency to become “focused” on one thing at the expense of others. This, I believe, will help me to manage my precious time.

I will continue to blog and discuss what I am doing and what I see as being important in education. I find that the feedback and discussion that takes place is incredibly helpful and challenges me to “stay the course”. Besides that, the ideas and insights that I come across help me to grow and learn which is essential to me being an effective leader.

Reading - I have decided that, although there are hundreds of great books that I could read, I don’t have the time. I will focus my reading on leadership growth and development, PLC’s and staff development in the areas of reading and math. As the educational leader, I want to be a help to my staff and assist them in their growth and development and focus on improving the learning in the school.

Conferences - I’m not sure what I will do here but I know that I will again focus on the areas of learning that are central to the division initiatives.

Mentoring - I have been working with my Superintendent, using my Administrator’s evaluation, to key in on particular areas that were identified by the staff. Reeves points out that:

Leaders need not, indeed they cannot, be every dimension themselves, but they can and must ensure that every leadership dimension is provided by some member of the leadership team. [these dimensions are described later in the chapter]

At present I am the official leadership team but I know that there are particular people within my school whom will be able to fill various dimensions within the context of the school community. That is why I chose to have the Admin evaluation completed by my staff. They are the people who will be able to give me the clearest picture of where I have strengths and where I need to grow and look for others who have that strength.

I am mentoring our Teacher Association President this year. Being vice-president, I will be able to assist her and offer her some insights from my tenure in various local and provincial positions. My goal here is to assist her to become the leader she can be and be able to look for people who will be able to fill the roles that she needs.

There you have the first two areas I will be concentrating on this year. My next post will look at the areas of School, School Community Council, Teaching (my own) and Supervision. As I have done here, I will outline what I plan to do to bring focus for myself this year in these areas. If you have any comments, feedback or ideas, feel free to drop them off. I’m open to suggestions or critiques (as long as they are progressive with a focus on growth!)

I’ve just enjoyed a fresh glass of lemonade. The summer has been a very hectic one. I’m doing way more work building houses that I thought I would be and this has really cut into the time I was expecting to be doing other things. I have not been keeping up with my reading or my writing as I had planned but, I’ve learned, that’s sometimes how it goes. See, in a life before education, I worked in the construction sector as a painter. It evolved from a summer job to a company with 20 employees then back to a two man operation. Since entering the education field, I’ve kept up my skills, redecorating and remodeling each house that we have moved into each time we move. Since moving to our present community, I have done some work in town which has led to the present situation in which I am building houses that, eventually, I will be painting. I really didn’t plan that this “2nd” job would take up so much time.  With the heat and the days being rather long, I’m usually wiped by the end of the day which means very little online activity and absolutely no blog posting.

However, one of the benefits of this is that I’m learning all sorts of new skills that will help me along the way. I get to work with my hands and work in a totally different environment. It has removed me from the educational world that I spend so much time in throughout the year and gives me a different perspective on how things look according to the people with whom I work. I also found this was the same when I was painting, working in various new building projects where the individuals had a different perspective on how things looked given their background and what they did. I often worked with people who were immigrants and their stories and views were very interesting.  These people were very good at what they did - good enough to make a living. I knew that I could make a very good living doing this but it wasn’t challenging me intellectually. I wasn’t being pushed to think and try new things or experience new ways of doing things. The money was very good, probably what I make now but the hours were long and I just didn’t think it was where I belonged.

Now, 17 years later, I know that I made the right decision. I am constantly learning new things and getting to experience life through a great number of different avenues. It has allowed me to stay connected to what is going on in technology and how technology is shaping and affecting people’s lives. It has allowed me to move to different locations and experience the different areas of this great province, Saskatchewan and meet and make some great friends along the way. However, it’s always good to get back to do some work and get out of the educational environment and realize that, for the vast majority of people, how I see the world is not how other people see the world. In fact, in the past two weeks, I have been reminded on a number of occasions that what surrounds me daily and is the world in which I live isn’t the reality of other adults.  They work with other adults and their is a structured hierachy, however loosely structured it might be. So, as I work with the crew, they remind me that here, I’m the student and the results are immediate, observable and have consequences. Like, who knew that 1/4 inch could be so important! It’s just a 1/4 inch!

What we do in schools is so far removed from what I’m now doing every day. Although our students need to learn how to read, write and do math, they also must learn to work in an environment that is totally opposite to what they are doing now. On the job site, everyday is a collaborative effort to get things done. Without knowing who does what job and accepting that role, things take twice as long to complete and there is often things that go wrong. (note 1/4 inch is a big deal!) So what does this have to do with school?

Everything! We continue to discuss and talk about how we want to see schools change and move away from the current model but, as I’ve been reading, I wondering what model will replace it? What will we do in schools that is going to radically change how our students are educated that will introduce them to the skills that they will need? How will they learn to work collaboratively using new technology. (Like how to run a power nailer without nailing your shoe to the floor!) Will they have the ability to ask questions and listen so that mistakes, when they happen, build their experience and take it to the next “level”?  How do we teach them to problem solve in a dynamic manner so that they can use previous skills to solve problems and apply previous knowledge to new and unique situations?  Our present system does not do this as it is focused on knowledge retention for the sake of testing. We add new ideas to the present system like PLC’s or other such things but we continue with the same system, just with a new paint job. The underlying foundation is still the same and it needs to be changed.
Like Greg Farr, I believe that it is time to for action. After having many conversations the young men with whom I am working one of which is still going to school, I’ve learned many things  about school and what they have found lacking - and what was good. But, I’ve also learned that school is not providing them with the skills that they will need after they leave school - new technologies being just one of these. To wait any longer is just to prolong the current situation. Like Greg, I’ve been thinking about how I, as the school leader, will be required to move away from the status quo, helping teachers to broaden their experiences and look at school and education in a different manner. Really, this post is the prelude to my next few posts as I establish what I, as the educational leader in the school, will need to do to bring about changes that will directly impact student learning and not just for tests.

I’m off to reread Greg’s and do a bit of reflecting.  Maye I’ll just pour myself another tall cool glass of lemonade before I begin. After all, it is summer!