Note: Podcast permission granted by all facilitators.

Facilitators from Sam Houston University:

• Dr. Rebecca Bustamante
• Dr. Julie P. Combs
• Dr. Stacey Edmonson

Contact Info: sedmonson@shsu.edu

Listen to Podcast (listen online at the Internet Archive) and/or read my notes (which include the Powerpoint slide information)

This was a great presentation to listen to with great pieces of advice.

PODCAST INTRO TEXT:
Hi! Thanks for listening to this Around the Corner podcast. Today is Thursday, January 29, 2009. This is your host Miguel Guhlin.

Sometimes in Educational Technology in K-12 education, I feel the truth of this assertion, made in the movie Brubaker: “Every warden puts new paint on the walls, but the system stays the same.” This quote speaks to me as an educator who has been trying to bring about change–to the benefit of myself, adult learners and the children we all serve. Often, I have to ask, am I just putting new paint on the walls?

As I reflect on this quote–and I believe it is important to reflect on this so that we can continually re-evaluate who we are and what we must do–I have to wonder, when bringing about change in schools, how is that supposed to happen? When we drop a brand new computer lab into a school, provide professional development for the teachers, move inexorably towards a 1 to 1 ubiquitous computing environment for children, what must educational leaders do, or perhaps, allow to happen?

At the 2009 TASA Midwinters Conference, 3 researchers shared what they had discovered, offering the gift of wisdom to a small audience. I hope that the audience will grow as I post their presentation online. The lessons they have to teach are valuable, simple, and, as I know from experience, difficult to implement in the highly complex environments we call K-12 schools.

Here’s the last 2 slides of the presentation:

What is a School Leader to Do?

Necessary Resources (i.e. staff, time, training, equipment, org, procedures, learning, management systems

• Every child had their own PC (HP laptop)
• A technical person on campus and would trouble-shoot when there were problems.
• Learning Management System – a shell that is already setup. THey are referring to Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle, etc. Having this in place could have presented a lot of the managerial issues.
• Establish a clear Student Code of Conduct to account for technology-related discipline issues
• Offer differentiated professional development for students, teachers, and parents to include content-specific strategies that incorporate technology.
• Provide teachers with clear expectations about use of tech. Focus more on quality instructional technology for student engagement and learning than frequency of use.
• Involve all constituency groups in consensus building.

Final Considerations

• Some of the challenges and concerns are typical for program implementations, organizational change, and groups working with adolescents.
• Most of the tech-related challlenges were quickly resolved, in part due to the technological expertise and human relations skills of key staff members, including the campus admin team.
• Application of a 1 to 1 program may highlight effective teaching and student engagement, and, at the same time, intensifying ineffective teaching and adolescent-parent conflicts.
• Successful 1 to 1 implementation requires innovative and dedicated teachers, technology-proficient administrators, a shared-leadership philosophy, and trust among constituents so that the problems can be easily identified and resolved.
• Create mechanisms for consistent student input (e.g. Student Advisory Council)

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure