A Word, by any other name…

What’s in a name?  I am still thinking about the ISTE School 2.0 workshop.  I love what the name suggests, an UPGRADE to learning – encompassing the how, the why, the where, the what!!!

But one of our School 2.0 groups had an interesting take on the inherent bias that can accompany words.  They suggested that the mere use of the word ’school’ leads us to conjure images of traditional schools, the environments of our upbringing and our personal life experiences and educational beliefs.

What do you think?

I find great merit in this observation.   As we talk about agile and flexible and adaptable learning environments; as we talk about anywhere, anytime, anyway computing; as we talk about wireless, mobile devices, eTextbooks, no textbooks; as we talk about “flat classrooms” and schools without walls; as we talk about the trends toward eLearning and global connections — it is valid that we strive to find new language that defines a new vision.  Edu.gov did a great job on the eToolKit that helps prompt the conversation, but I agree with Marc, Rick and Emily.  School 2.0 by another name, could make the message even clearer!

Getting From Here to There… School 2.0 The Upgrade

ISTE hosted the traveling School 2.0 workshop at SkySong (ASU) in Scottsdale , yesterday.  This robust 3-hour conversation was wrapped around what it means to move from School 1.0 to School 2.0.  Facilitators, Adam Garry and Tom Woodward, both of ISTE led a diverse group that included state and national leaders and champions of instructional technology, ISTE President-Elect Dr. Helen Padgett of ASU, technology specialists from central, eastern, southern and northern Arizona, trainers and school district leaders, Arizona Department of Education – Educational Technology Department, representatives of corporate interests, ASU Faculty and Staff, IDEAL, PBS, ASSET, and several AzTEA Chapter, Governing and Executive  Board Members.

The purpose of these traveling workshops is to give structure and voice to this complex topic:  Upgrading Schooling to Version School 2.o. As Adam and Garry craftily introduced ideas and then engaged us in small group discussions, several important ideas arose.  Each of us undoubtedly came away with different highlights that rang true or of great value to us.

Here is the essence of what I took away:

We are each of us wrestling with the same (or similar) issues and interests while drawing vastly different conclusions and priority and action lists.  In a good discussion about what makes a 21st Century Classroom, my group engaged in  a dialogue about professional development as opposed to equipment.  If computers and internet and broadband and wireless has not yet succeeded to SHIFT how learning is developed and delivered, can MORE equipment alone make a 21st Century environment?

There has been (for quite some time) a HUGE push in educational technology to remind/inform decision makers that gadgets without purpose and meaning are as valuable as that exercise bicycle that used to hold my clothes and has now been further downgraded to the back porch.

To develop an authentic 21st Century Classroom experience we will need what we praise, train and develop in the classroom.  Differentiation!

And WE must mean all of us – school boards, administrators, teachers, community members, students, corporate partners…  To develop sustainable change, to be agents of change, we must allow for “innovations to bubble up” allowing “new ideas to spread.. via peer networks”. (“Diffusion of Innovation, p. 395″)

If a district has infrastructure and hardware, what do they need?  If a district has a professional development plan and structure, but no hardware or an out-dated delivery system (architecture), what do THEY need?  If a district has infrastructure, hardware, professional development, but are in the a School 1.0 mind-set, what do they need?

As educators we celebrate diversity and champion differentiation – for the students, in the classroom.  When we talk about School 2.0, maybe we should differentiate based on need and capacity.  For the foreseeable future, School 2.0 will mean vastly different things to different groups and environments.

What does School 2.0 mean to you?

Should we begin to create conditions and structures, so that in some not-so-distant future, perhaps the playing field (or better yet, the learning field) will begin to level?

Maybe, just maybe, when educational environments have similar needs, we will begin moving toward School 3.0!

Find more at ISTE, School 2.0

US Dept of ED   Office of Educational Technology (OET)
Educational Technology Division
School 2.0 eToolKit
Transformation Toolkit

We did not formulate an answer, nor construct a definitive path.  What we did was open to ideas, share and be shared with, plant and water seeds.  It is a beginning.

At CGUHSD we are planting seeds based on our needs, interests, capacity and expertise:

• A core team of teachers, representing each of our 4 High Schools, is working to craft a teacher stakeholder vision of the Digital – 21st Century Classroom
• Administrators are meeting to discuss pathways to move toward a Digital-21st Century Vision
• Administrators and Board Members are discussing the merits of social networking as a communication tool with community members.

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam

- Hannibal