Action+Plan

Buy In: 54 dots

 * Administrative program showing practicality of implementation
 * Educate administration about the needs and the blocks and safety elements of different programs, blogs, etc.
 * In "one fell swoop" replace our entire administration with 20 something recent college grads
 * Administrative encouragement/support
 * Teachers who care to learn
 * Deeper conversations about ends of education. Seminar groups, leaders that draw on fields of humanities and social sciences
 * All teachers get job security to boost morale
 * Model the behavior yourself, it it works, it will catch on naturally
 * Faculty partnerships/ in school think tank for project ideas
 * Incentive program for teachers for collaboration with each other
 * If you want us to use it teach us first why we should us it and how to use it
 * Be positive
 * 1 new lesson per marking period
 * Added value
 * Student interest
 * Give the kids the ideas, let them work
 * Get all faculty on ning
 * Teachers need to be convinced of their value beyond being sources of information. They are more than encyclopedias/dictionaries, but they don't treat themselves as such
 * Acknowledge fear, talk about its power over us, take small steps to overcome tech fears 1:1 support buy in
 * Teachers will be held accountable for trying new "small" technologies. Start simple!
 * Offer time incentives to faculty who want to demonstrate and teach others the working basics of new technologies
 * Provide a forum for teachers to model and demonstrate knowledge which is derived from classroom action research
 * Student presentations
 * Prioritize work within schedules
 * Do a tech crawl with the students to show other students what is possible with buy in
 * Start small, PLN in just your school
 * Create effective examples for each subject area of lessons based on this principle
 * Focus on one tool at a time
 * You can't pretend that everyone buys the premise, folks need to be brought on board. People need to see the walk away value
 * Parent focus groups, what types of skills do they expect their children to have developed by graduation?
 * Administration: pull together research/proven real life examples to support
 * Parent education
 * Willingness
 * Get parents to buy in to the idea
 * Some way to assure parent buy in (parent education, better recruitment)
 * Unmasking of assumptions, claims. Cultural analysis project
 * Electroshock therapy
 * Parent buy in thorough education parent inservice day, agreement between admissions vs. actual "walk the talk" advertising

Infrastructure: 24 dots

 * Equipment
 * One to one computers (of same type) for students to solve sticky cross platform issues
 * Focus on the "web" you just need a device to connect. Keep it simple and cheap
 * Hurdles. Infrastructure one to one. Hardware
 * Job #'s or tickets for repairs
 * Encourage people to report problems
 * Eliminate all paper and photocopy machines from school. Make everything digital
 * Technology is purchased and professional development new teaching methods
 * Get laptops working
 * Start a 2 to 1 (Instead of 1 laptop per student, we give each student a laptop and an iPhone
 * Encourage grant writing for tech equipment
 * Infrastructure/network and hardware that work
 * Make sure that the tech available works consistently (IT position)
 * Connectivity Issues: Take issues to tech department or to head/division head
 * Cool looking stuff
 * Purchase a laptop for each student to overcome socioeconomic inequity that hinders technology in the classroom
 * Wireless connection for school
 * Allow teachers to determine what software goes on their computers, move beyond "one impression" fits all
 * Dedicate enough IT people to make sure network is stable and there is an educational technology support person
 * Create collaborative learning spaces where the physical seats/desks can be reorganized flexibly
 * Laptops for all 6th to 8th graders levels the playing field
 * Wireless connectivity
 * Create 1 to 1 environment
 * Technology in classroom. Bring in more tools for student use
 * Make sure the infrastructure support staff equipment can adequately sustain the increased demand and use
 * Access to technology: Every student must have a "connected device" with them for class. Cost can be justified by not spending $150 million on a calculator that doesn't do as much as wolframalpha.com or Microsoft Mathematics ($0)
 * Every classroom has laptops assigned to it that don't move with students
 * Laptops (iPads)
 * Small enough classes that I have time to innovate, integrate and give real writing instruction
 * A schedule that doesn't have classes everyday
 * Re-imagine what a typical school day looks like

Pedagogy: 47 dots

 * Expectation of integration of other disciplines
 * Educate public on a new definition of successful education
 * Take over the Department of Education
 * Give students opportunities to solve real world problems
 * Eliminate old ways of teaching; text books, binders with lots of paper, tests and quizzes
 * Focus on learning not content
 * Assess students based on how much they have changed the world not on what "grade" they received
 * Ask the question, What does America need to become a better country? Teach that.
 * What's the point of learning?
 * Collect data (if possible) how implementing webtools change the student's learning
 * Value learning and reflection on learning over content
 * Redefine what constitutes a "goo" education
 * Exit exams to test whether students learned what we thought they learned so we can revise curriculum
 * Get rid of the notion of teaching to the test
 * A clear differentiation between when learning is enquiry based and when it isn't and why
 * Allow time for individual learning separate from collaborative technology learning
 * Adapt/change your curriculum to the needs and demands of today's world
 * Aging teachers who are unwilling to implement technology into their pedagogy. Action: Lock them all in a room and throw away the key...hire new people
 * Every year students take a class entitled "Your Passion". They focus on developing a PLN around their topic and share it with the world
 * Make student centered learning required and mentor to help

Communication Celebrations: 18 dots

 * Celebrate the innovative practices of others at faculty meetings or on a ning
 * Educate parents about covering content and still learning 21st century skills, provide data on student performance
 * Technology showcase during Open House or Parent's Night
 * Promote celebrations of "messy" learning so fear is overcome
 * Trying something new takes risks, the risk of failure. Learn to celebrate failure in the professional community. Use failure as a learning experience
 * Teach students how to teach each other the products of their inuiry based learning
 * More help from other teachers on specific projects
 * Ask for help with new things
 * What can an individual do? Experiment fail/succeed share

Organization: 25 dots

 * The school living these technologies so the teachers live what's expected and model what's possible
 * A system approach where the school envisions real 21st century learning at the systems level
 * Individual planning time built into classes
 * A space for the collection of results of experiments in classroom
 * Flexible scheduling
 * Experimental school within the school
 * Low student teacher ratio
 * 1 on 1 tech mentors to help less tech savvy feel invested
 * Write technology into curriculum
 * Support at all levels for learning/teaching in new ways
 * Skilled, qualified academic tech help
 * Updated infrastructure (switches, hardware)
 * Develop a common framework/rubric for evaluating the effectiveness of incorporating 21st century learning skills
 * Strategically, as an institution, clarify long term goals and objectives around teaching and learning. Use those goals/objectives to develop pragmatic plans

Assessment: 18 dots

 * Rethink the nature of assessments
 * Each topic taught needs to incorporate multiple types of assessment tools because our kids have multiple types of learning styles
 * Replace grades with portfolios
 * Q: How to be certain that students are developing common skills and bodies of knowledge while having passion based learning? A: Performance based assessment tests. (Set up rubrics, area of skills/studies, due dates and students present to committees orally, technologically independent project or experiment)
 * Do honest assessments of what is working well and what is not working well in status quo and new teaching methods, start with what most needs to change
 * Q: Do we need to abandon common standards, skills, knowledge in student directed inquiry? A: No, begin with a set of essential skills, areas of knowledge, within which students choose their focus for inquiry and develop projects
 * Develop assessment models for inquiry based learning using technology
 * Define your objectives first, then find a tool that fits, to make your purpose clear and to ensure you aren't using technology for the sake of using technology

Curriculum: 21 dots

 * Go to block schedules to allow greater time for each class (not necessarily course)
 * Lack of time/space in existing curriculum to incorporate technology. Action: Supplement only segments of technology (i.e. PBL) into existing curriculum
 * Develop a course all about the cognitive nature of learning and the role technology plays in learning
 * Challenge teachers to rethink one lesson or assignment using web 2.0 tools
 * Look within each subject area for means in which to incorporate century 21 skills without it being an "add on"
 * Revisit core curriculum. Are two units so closely related that they can be taught simultaneously?
 * Obstacle: Time schedule. Solution:Revamp schedule to support inquiry based learning and interdisciplinary work. Just dump the little disciplinary block schedule and integrate the curriculum into a whole to support collaboration and PBL
 * Students/parents who are not motivated only by grades and college admission
 * Come to a clean idea of what the goal of a 21st century educator looks like
 * Honest discussions about what to cut out of curriculum so there is time for more depth
 * Replace old, paper projects with videos
 * Try to fit the curriculum into the inquiry based and passion driven learning
 * Obstacle: Its hard to know how to transform teaching practices and strategies when we haven't agreed on our goals "How do we define success, what is a successful student? Solution: Focus our efforts on developing models of success, defining goals and working backwards
 * Student inservice days
 * Teachers must become proficient in one 2.0 tool each year and use it i the curriculum
 * Give up AP courses. Content kills creativity
 * More PBL
 * More team/collaborative planning for interactive classes

Play/Fun: 22 dots

 * Schedule time for teachers to present web 2.0 tools that work for them
 * Provide 1/2 days to groups who want to meet and make something new
 * Relax Smile Chill
 * Working now? Interest, enthusiasm, experimentation
 * Play a few video games, I haven't in years

Resources: 30 dots

 * Redesign classrooms to be more student centered. Integrate this into the physical environment
 * Allow students to bring laptops, iPads, iPods to school. Over time they value the educational aspect of these tools
 * School needs to have wifi
 * Shifting tools. Commit to a select few and see them out, realize their potential
 * Allow each student/faculty member/parent access to an electronic device loaded with all pertinent software, easy organized access to it as well as a personal IT person to troubleshoot in realtime
 * Individual: make one change, try one new tool, master one idea, commit to one
 * Make sure that a school has network capabilities for this work
 * Free oneself from rigid textbooks
 * Technology tools: write grants for tools. Allow children to bring their own tech tools to school. i.e. Laptops
 * Requiring students to bring own laptop, iTouch etc., many already have them
 * Specialist; art music, science are on a "doctor" schedule, making the rounds
 * More time to meet
 * Laptops for all students
 * Pay teachers more professional wages
 * Tablet PCs included as part of tuition
 * Time: Be clear about priority and what will be given up
 * Lack of funds for tech: There are lots of free programs, start looking around and be resourceful
 * Buy Macs for all students and teachers
 * Student enthusiasm, time schedule
 * Provide everybody in the school (students and faculty) with pieces of enough technology equipment (computer, smartboard, etc)
 * Redesign the architecture and design of the classroom for collaborative learning
 * Action to barrier if barrier is technology; consolidate learn less quantity more quality
 * Less options: tools need some level of carry over between disciplines
 * Funding for all to have a computer, wifi, personnel to help
 * Spend money
 * Manage cost

Parents: 1 dot

 * Teach parents a tool so they can see its usefulness
 * Parent teacher student summit "redefining success"
 * Educate the parents and students on the differences in this philosophy
 * Have one of the family/parent nights based around getting out information on this
 * Tap into parent body as resources of ideas, expertise and simply a pair of hands
 * Get parents on board with the idea that students should be sharing and doing work that matters to them
 * Bring parents into the equation get them excited and inform them
 * Educate parents, overcome fears associated with technology

Incentives: 0 dots

 * Incentivize innovative teachers
 * Incentives for devoting time toward incorporating tech into class
 * Free liquor!
 * Reward and highlight steps in the right direction

Community: 16 dots

 * Help others overcome their fears they have with technology
 * Get students to be responsible for delivering web 2.0 tools to each other and to the teachers and admin
 * Lack of IT help: Find someone who is well versed that can help you, outside or within school community
 * Lack of training across grade levels: Take issues to teacher reps or division heads (perhaps as a group, there is power in numbers) asking for appropriate training
 * Pick one web 2.0 tool and work with one lower school teacher to help her develop a project with that tool
 * Educate teachers and parents to the benefits
 * Highlights and low-lights and sharing about them
 * Individuals can share their success/failures and support each other
 * CFGS
 * Integrated learning: art, music computer, science etc. Integrated, bring specialists into the classroom
 * Student based focus groups that teach us what they feel is missing
 * Add students to our curriculum program committees
 * Keep on doing what you're doing despite barriers, teacher deadlines
 * Use the already existent talent in your schools, they are the best mentors/advocates for change
 * Find independent schools that are successfully and productively creating a new paradigm

Faculty: 7 dots

 * Have learning the use of a new social network tool for educational purposes be the context of a lesson include students in the problem solving
 * Set up ning or wiki specifically for a help hotline/good ideas or examples forum
 * Add tech coach
 * Interview all incoming teachers to look for candidates who are excited about tech integration
 * Add teachers for better student to teacher ratio
 * IT software specialist (resource persons)
 * Hold teachers accountable for failing to observe individual expectations
 * Laptops for every faculty member
 * Double teaching staff immediately, all classes are co-taught by a team of two
 * Faculty wide discussion, what does successful graduate look like?
 * Have a backup plan in case your brilliant idea/project/lesson gets taken down by a technology glitch
 * Sit with different people for lunch each day and listen to each other

Fear/Culture: 12 dots

 * Confidently and unapologetically model the change you wish to see
 * Teach to the test/parent expectations: try "flipped" teaching instructor
 * Technology will come between the rich personal relationship; build a class discussion forum so that all students, even the quiet ones have a place to participate in the discussion
 * Make it safe to talk about and have technology skills in the classroom
 * Make technology skills as important as lunch duty in the school
 * Showcase situations in which there has been success as well as failure in taking risks
 * Bring in experts on computer security to educate faculty
 * Establish some best practices some structure particularly around safety
 * Have a place and plan to discuss pitfalls and risks of entering digital world
 * Define a common vision (Heath and Heath call it "providing a destination postcard" in Switch) that describes to people specifically what you're tying to do, but give them the freedom to decide how to get there
 * Can these goals of student directed learning inquiry and collaboration be met without technology, many barriers we discussed were specifically about the tech part, can we do it without tech and allow all to be successful?
 * One on one mentoring I think would help with this. Meet for several times to solidify new knowledge and build on it as comfortable
 * Post the technology integration and web 2.0 initiative on the front page of every school's website
 * Articulated acceptable use policy
 * Narrow the scope of web 2.0 tools down to a handful of user friendly robust tools and remove the "overwhelming" factor for teachers
 * Parent resistance: Schools can form cross school initiative in inquiry based classes

Collaboration: 55 dots

 * Build teacher collaboration time into the schedule. At least 2 blocks of one hour time per week
 * Create common time per grade level/cross grade level for collaboration focused on web 2.0
 * Summer "camp" weeks with other faculty who want to develop collaborative interdisciplinary lesson
 * More collaborative teaching, time for teachers to meet and plan
 * Give up some of my control, let kids take the lead
 * Coerce and cajole teacher to share their experiences (successes and failures) so teachers see its possible and the possibilities
 * Use PLP members as tech committee
 * Play and explore
 * Have partners to work together on tech learning
 * Create a system of student teachers who can work with teachers to effectively use tech in learning environments
 * Teacher mentors, PLN
 * Share effective lessons that demonstrate a tool with staff utilizing technology
 * How to make it fun: PLP, mentors, create an atmosphere where its encouraged, different assessments
 * Individuals should share experiences more, both successes and failures. Don't be afraid to ask for help
 * Have the history department share web 2.0 technologies with each other
 * More connections with teachers from other schools, states and countries
 * Ask a friend
 * Establish communities to explore, share ideas and to collaborate. 1 group among the faculty and PLP
 * What can individuals do? PLN, work with others, ask for help
 * All teachers should develop a PLN in order to learn from each other
 * Create a professional atmosphere where exploring new ideas is valued and encouraged
 * Help each other with barriers. Networking with sister school to brain storm creative resources
 * Try to instill the process of people working across divisions to share technology curriculum ideas
 * Community based learning
 * Model the use of 21st century learning skills during faculty meetings while giving presentations
 * Teachers should spend more time exploding with their students
 * Have students be part of planning and feedback loop
 * Collaboration between faculty/librarians and students
 * See if we can gather a cohort of coaches that will serve as technology drivers/coaches/supporters
 * Define best practice as what it means at your school
 * Develop curriculum
 * Curriculum restructured to combine and/or eliminate topics to reduce student burnout
 * Finalize (solidify) curriculum
 * Identify 1 to 3 "big" problems or themes for the content
 * Put together not just copy
 * Cross the curriculum
 * Challenge people in department to be committed to one new thing a term
 * Collaborative revamping if the curriculum
 * More work and contact across divisions; lower school, middle school, upper school

Professional Development: 51 dots
How do we move from the general idea of professional development to specific goals? What are the critical parts that administration need to know about the value of PD and the role of PD in change/growth? How can we think of activity accountability around effective participation in PD? How can we transform the perception of summer as just vacation time to summer as a time for learning and PD (online learning can make this possible/attractive) & Can we require teachers to participate in 2 weeks of PD in summer (find time at the end of the year)


 * Problem based inservice training
 * Teachers are all at different places in comfort, shift to individual professional learning rather than command performance one size fits all
 * Tech workshops for faculty, differentiate to address the huge groups in tech ability
 * Read "A new culture of learning" and similar books
 * On demand professional development with class coverage a nonissue
 * More focus on inquiry based learning practices that are not technology/web 2.0 driven or dependent
 * Create a schedule that allows teachers 20% time to experiment with new wage to teach "like google" each year "some teachers" have this time build into their schedule
 * Denote inservice faculty meeting time to professional development and training
 * PD time could/should be built into schedule
 * Send administration to PLP
 * Send the head of school to tech boot camp
 * Teach teachers the value of using technology in a meaningful way by example and starting in your discipline
 * Assigned reading that inform teachers what passion based inquiry and learning is and that it works
 * Be selective about the tools you use in the classroom
 * Acknowledge that master teaching does not require the use of a computer
 * Use technology but understand that certain activities do not necessarily require it
 * More education less giving of technology without resources proper background knowledge
 * Year long PD for incoming faculty
 * Provide hands on training over the summer to prepare teachers for the coming school year, work in teams to develop projects
 * Tech workshops during the summer
 * Training in resources already in school
 * Summer "camp" with other faculty who want to develop collaborative interdisciplinary lessons
 * A summer long intensive to bolster tech knowledge base to use in classroom
 * Better workshops for teachers that focus on the creation of lessons in this style
 * Continue to send faculty to participate in PLP
 * Provide effective PD to reluctant faculty
 * Meaningful professional development
 * More PD on technology
 * Concentrated, sustained PD
 * More specific professional development

In house PD and Presentation:
How to get administration to encourage this type of PD? How to promote teachers teaching teachers in school culture? How to bring in people who are reluctant? How to schedule this type of PD?
 * Tech expo; teacher present lesson incorporated with new tools, done at department meetings. All members present over course of year
 * Talk about own school's mission in conjunction with 21st century skills. Share as faculty what is congruent and what is not. Philosophy
 * Monthly inservice day for faculty to work on specific areas
 * Share information of what tools are available
 * Teachers sharing projects during meeting times that explain the benefits of web 2.0 skills
 * Inservice days
 * Use professional development days to learn hands on how to use technology
 * Build into already tight schedule regular professional development time, flex time, to work on development of programs
 * Select "experts" in a particular technology, that will periodically teach mini workshops or do 1 to 1 help. (Must be compensated)
 * One to one culture of collaborative coaches to help move teachers beyond traditional model of teaching
 * Schedule 1 faculty meeting per month designated for this
 * Devote one faculty meeting per month to faculty showcase of a technique/activity/tool that works well. Month at a time accountability

Networking:
How do you compensate mentors? How do you track the impact of the mentoring? How do mentors increase their knowledge? How do you document what was learned? How do you make sure everyone is involved? How do you choose mentors? How do you find the right mentor for a teacher? How do you train the mentor? How do you deal with turnover?
 * Send out guided dialogue questions on the ning (school)
 * More teacher to teacher professional development opportunities
 * Make time in the school day (ex 1/2 day each week school ends early) and use this time for faculty to work together to 21st centurize curriculum
 * Let teachers drive inservice training, more peer to peer learning
 * Invite faculty to join teams based on a year long focus. Inquiry based learning, collaboration, assessment, digital portfolios. Goal: to learn and then share with faculty
 * Lunch and learn tech sessions
 * Offer more professional development time to meet with other teachers and begin to make changes to our units of study
 * Create student faculty teams of web 2.0 mentors. Develop teacher learning circles for teams to support faculty members with new tools
 * One to one mentoring for teachers
 * Professional development time specifically for collaboration
 * Mentoring program
 * Have each teacher work with one mentor focusing on one type of tool/project
 * 1:1 Mentoring
 * Individual or small group mentoring to gain proficiency
 * Each teacher mentors partners in his/her area of expertise
 * Paired up with another teacher throughout the year to bounce ideas off
 * One to one mentoring for teachers wanting or needing additional support
 * Individuals can form "buddy" groups to support each other's risk taking to suggest ways to improve innovation
 * Formal; pay it forward one to one mentoring
 * Publicize your abilities to be a mentor to others in your community
 * Peer mentors for senior faculty staff who are resistant to moving forward/change
 * Teacher training: use peer training. Train a few to train the rest
 * Have a critical friend
 * Faculty tech fail to excite and inform faculty as to what is available
 * Visit others' classes where inquiry is valued/used/successful and have time to debrief visits (in faculty meeting etc.)

PD Individual: 73 dots
Do you compensate for someone just starting out vs a vetran? Does more money truly motivate the teachers? Do the financial resources exist to pay teachers for this? What are the parameters for compensation? Would it be good to combine goal setting with existing faculty evaluation tools? What plans exist already? How to create buy in if we are mandating this? How do you select someone from the outside? Is there a way to reward teachers for time invested? What can be eliminated? What are we creating time for? Is there a school day schedule that can be created to meet all needs How do we prioritize Professional Development so that it is meaningful?
 * Hire/provide a technology coach to assist faculty with implementation
 * Send teachers out to observe great classrooms that are succeeding in terms of collaborative learning, inquiry 21st century learning
 * Send core teaching teams to visit (3 times) a school that has a strong tech initiative; 1 tech crawl, 2 one observation, 3 round table discussion
 * Find a school that's doing this well and send a team to visit (as part of inservice)
 * Create cross pollination programs that let teacher experience the innovation going on in successful companies and organizations
 * Paid professional development
 * Relief time for faculty who want to pursue new ideas in the classroom
 * Create a PD model that supports institutional goals and provides incentives for both participation and innovation
 * Pay teachers a typical conference rate to gather and collaborate on specific innovations in the summer. Could combine schools for this activity (for smaller schools)
 * PLP is working now for me
 * Make developing a PLN part of professional learning goals and expectations
 * Professional Development goals: more than one teacher to increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning
 * Commit to learning more skills and exploring more resources
 * Make improvement in web 2.0 skills a faculty evaluation item for every teacher and every administrator every year
 * Personal learning plans and teachers
 * Try one "new tool" per quarter/trimester/school year
 * Training
 * Build time into schedule 1/2 day monthly inservice, block scheduling, team release time
 * Establish and enforce a time into the weekly schedule to be used exclusively for continued learning. Make people accountable for what they accomplish
 * Schedule 1 afternoon twice a month where all faculty meet together. Time could be used to deep curricular discussion, identifying goals and sharing what works and what doesn't
 * Rethinking the day to day class schedule
 * Time obstacle: School wide schedule change so all teachers have some block of time to collaborate and/or learn
 * Review and revise schedule to allow for longer teaching blocks
 * New schedule maybe too long per day
 * Redesign the schedule of the day, not short 45 minute blocks, longer chunks of time with more freedom
 * Create more flexible schedule
 * I think its possible to do passion based, student centered learning in primary and middle grade. Teach core competencies to them, let them explore
 * Make the passion based learning incremental every year. For example, make the PBL start at one week in 5th and then increase to one month starting in 8th grade
 * Increase school time in courses to build in time for experimenting and exploring new options
 * Change the school schedule so it goes from 8am to 8pm. Kids pick times that work best and teachers do too. Creates some overlap and potentially creates time
 * Have everyone stay home on fridays, all classes are virtual (and in pajamas)
 * Time: Block scheduling 1/2 day inservice
 * More time=new schedule
 * Revamping/tweaking extra and co-curricular responsibilities to address the need for more time to research tech possibilities in classroom
 * Relief of duties for staff that can train/work 1:1 (1:2) for implementation of lessons with technology
 * Give teachers a course/coaching reduction to allow time to explore new tech/netbooks
 * Use what has already been created active board lessons and "edit" them to meet your needs
 * Time=$ Pay teachers more
 * Assign students a tool to learn and teach the class
 * Time: Invest some of your own time (at least initially)
 * Use parents to run special interest groups/clubs once a week to free up in school time
 * Speak with admin about needing the time to create a technologically based curriculum
 * Tech projects are incorporated into each area of the curriculum to accommodate time
 * Alternative year of school focus between working on content (curriculum) and process (delivery) to create time not additional work
 * Putting subjects together
 * Have classes for longer periods of time or more days a week
 * Extend the school day and year to allow for increased learning opportunities allow teachers extra time
 * Add 45 min to the school day without adding another curricular specialty
 * Aides, to allow for common planning time to integrate technology
 * Helpers (aides)
 * Aides or admin fills to give more time
 * Allow faculty collaborative time to work together
 * Scheduled time paid or sub filled for brainstorming/implementing tech into current curriculum
 * Keep time to reflect and be introspective build short mindfulness exercises into school day
 * Commit to weekly blocks of time specifically for teachers to plan, test, explore and learn new tools and how to incorporate tools
 * Time for colleague collaboration built into schedule
 * Negotiate for one less class for one term, which would allow for time focussed on using, reviewing, prepping tech in classroom
 * Time and incentives for PD
 * More informal (without an agenda) time for teachers to share ideas and new learning
 * Designate PLP participants as an ongoing committee assignment, to collaborate and to build progress throughout the school
 * Planning time built into schedule
 * Schedule our new "Tech Committee", lunch ahead of other duties so people can attend (if interested)
 * Allow for professional development courses or discussion in exchange for time devoted to tech projects in classroom
 * Steal time away from faculty meetings to use for web 2.0 learning time
 * Create ongoing once per week technology sharing/teaching sessions for teachers

Support: 41 dots
Where is the funding for this support? Is teacher/mentor approach 1:1 better than bringing in coach or consultant? How can you structure faculty meeting time to effectively support 21st century teaching? How do you get admins and teachers on same page? How can admins better understand needs of faculty?
 * Inservice devoted to "in-house experts" to share new ideas
 * Geek squad made up of faculty
 * Educate teachers on how to manage and support inquiry based classrooms
 * Friday "Happy Hour" ideas and weekly about technology to staff one resource at a time
 * On what innovative ideas can you suggest that aren't related to overcoming barriers. Somehow make it fun or other incentive
 * Ask tech coordinator for assistance in setting up a safe place online
 * Unstable network: upgrade bandwidth (required for more 2.0)
 * Ability to hire more techs
 * Time: flexible schedule
 * Educate parents and teachers about the value and advantages of teaching 21st century skills through pilot programs and ongoing learning showcases
 * Parent education on goals of teachers
 * Cultivate administration's support for those initiatives; send to PLP, show the benefits
 * Get assurance from admin that risk taking by teachers is expected and celebrated
 * Admin support: e.g. not negative evaluation when new idea doesn't work
 * Change our headmaster and top 2 to 3 administrators to people who communicate well and have a 21st century vision
 * Unsupportive admin: work in as much as you can through skills you can use elsewhere (facebook, blogs, twitter). Extend yourself naturally
 * Back up from administration to parents about goals
 * I can ask for help, insist on it, from my teaching peer. Offer a time trade for their help
 * Mandatory training hours
 * Time: work on leadership to rework schedule
 * Volunteer "coach" network: i.e. go to people for century 21 skills technology and curriculum
 * What actions can be put into place to overcome the barriers mentioned? Teacher mentors, PLN
 * (1:1 Mentor) 1 Teach 1 other teacher or a small group of teachers to become more facile with web 2.0 tools
 * Workshops required for students during orientation
 * Students helping teachers
 * Start classes by asking questions that you don't have answers to
 * Students and teachers learning and solving problems together

Barriers Discussion:
The first thing that came to mind is time”, adding things without taking something off the plate “Why add something”, curriculum takes time, maybe I can get to it by summer Administrative buy in “they are a little behind” in terms of what they are doing Time and curriculum, what will you take out b/c you can’t do it all well and get it all in Time and support, “told it is something we want, but” time to meet is hard. Say there is commitment (from admin) but not the time given Along with time, “funding isn’t there for us”, we have guest speakers we get inspired, but then we don’t have the money to implements the ideas that speakers inspire “We have no contracts next year so overall moral is very low”, don’t have resources in our classrooms I agree with what has been said so far, “my spin on it is priority. Not everything can be of prime importance” Parents feel that they are paying and should have a lot of say in how things should go First thought was time, “schedule is often difficult”. Segmented day and schedule (separate classes) should teachers come to you and we do this together Not just the time in the moment, “but often time spend developing, hard to throw that out, we feel confident in what we have been doing”, “hard to suddenly feel stupid” Time, money, sharing netbooks, “most of resources tend to go to the upper school,” age of students (younger elem) Fear, when I think about my colleagues fear of the unknown, “what if it doesn’t work, what to do to trouble shoot”, “there is security of doing something the same way year after year” There are a lot of people around me who w/o tech are pretty innovative, if they aren’t then “the onus has to be on administration to do something, someone has to hold teachers accountability”, lack of accountability “Faculty are unconvinced, our group is trying to make the case”, we’ll see where it gets, important to get everyone on board b/c they want to be, “we haven’t made the case yet” “The kids are unconvinced about pieces of it”, “kids don’t know everything about being online even if they are the wired generation,” “makes teachers scared to teach them when they think they know everything already”, “the kids are overworked, they need a break and don’t want to pursue their passions b/c when they get to me they don’t want to learn anything new either” Juxtaposition of traditional methods, “my major concern is pushing too much onto the students and letting the teacher off the hook,” “there is a benefit to having a leader in the classroom” Our school culture is evolving to enable and encourage more sharing among faculty, “in the past they have been hesitant to share what they have come up with” and found, making it desirable to share is a hurdle “A mindset that is a barrier,” “we have this tradition of teaching in our own classrooms and not learning with or from each other as much as we might,” not be so set on this end product, focus more on student process of learning rather than final grade. Going along with time and resources “I think its also training, we have the hardware” that none knows how to use, We told to go somewhere and find what we wanted to know, we don’t know enough Teaching students the positive parts of engaging with social media Parental fear―not allowing students to have accounts etc Fear of the worst happening, how do we as teachers know where to go (a few years ago told not to have accounts anywhere as teachers, now told to have accounts) Students not making the connection between what we teach about cyber safety and what the kids do anyway Kids feel that technology is theirs, they tune you out Furniture- “individual desks are not conducive to collaborative and connected learning” Have started going to tables on wheels An unstable network—losing work, students can sometimes not log in Unreliable network, “parents’ focus on short-term measurable achievement” Very old computer equipment and connections are not very good at all, losing connections all the time, crashing, “my classroom in particular is divided into two different rooms. They are both small and crowded, hard to have everyone in one room” The overall equipment, not all the classrooms have the computers and ActivBoards or projectors, “I think we don’t have a person to go to to ask, if this doesn’t work, can you please help me?” We are kind of on our own. Part is resistance on the part of the faculty and the administration. Parents and admin. are afraid to have the students out exposed to the public, unsure about finances, a lot is done through donations. Lack of training. Attitude of the faculty, resistance to change and No shortage of computers, laptops, have a strong network. It is difficult to keep up with all of the technology that is coming on board, but they don’t have a specialist for the middle and upper schools. The furniture also makes it difficult. About 1/3 of students broke netbooks due to droppage. Barriers with faculty resistant to technology, some faculty will pay someone to type their comments. Two tech. labs in the entire school, some computers in dorms, just not enough. Bought a bunch of laptops for 1:1 but no one had any training, “It’s like the blindleading the blind.” There are some faculty members willing to learn and some that are very enthusiastic but not necessarily helping to teach others. Double-locking 3-inch wheels help move lab tables around the room. Greatest barrier in the Lower School is scheduling. Hard to collaborate across grades or across divisions. Need to find common time to put the grades together—finding that the students really create great projects across the grades when given the chance. An unstable network is the biggest barrier. This should be better in two months. Time is also a barrier. The two biggest are time for collaboration and a schedule with days that are very full, which makes it hard to find collaboration time. Pushback from the kids to not want to go to digital textbooks, don’t want to deal with the different tools and don’t want to have to think about it. “We lack a comprehensive assessment model to see whether the tools we use are effective.” Staff development is the biggest challenge and it’s hard to develop differentiated staff development. Faculty mindset seems to get more traditional as the grade level increases, not as open. We have a problem with time (students taking APs, feel that they need to learn a certain amount). Apathy on the part of the teachers who have been teaching the Same way and are near retirement. See time and reluctance as related; how can I Add one more thing to the plate. Also equipment—how are we going to have the Equipment to do what we need to do. Learning and connected learning is a better way to empower teachers, engage students with the content Parents teachers, students, technology, everything that is in place, pedagogy. Everything is a barrier because people are used to the way things are. Lonely to implement—the only one doing it. Discouraging. Fear is the biggest barrier. Time & comfort zone Fear, not knowing what to do next. How you’re going to be graded, how is it going to be assessed. Time, inertia, not the way adults learned. Lack of training and buy-in. finances-structured in a totally different way. Fear,\ to take a chance and messing up, not having the outcome you want Keeping things going, lots of planning and resources Incompatible vision between teachers and technology desing team. Lot of resources, feels like program is last not the top where it should be. Clash between program providers and tech. Time commitment. Too much time connecting together even though there would be release time, things would fall behind. Depth vs breath. Traditional way. The way things were always done. Time seems exponential Depth over breath. Grant Wiggins futility of importance. Faith in the fact that everything will be there. Fear will it all work out. Systematized to do things: country obsessed with success Lot of work as a teacher to say ok, and redesign what you do. To start from the beginning—esp teachers there for a while—this might be just another new fad. Where does the time come from while they supplement. Problem is mindset – change the mindset and you’ll find the time. Time is huge. Quality professional development. Feel cheated if the professional development is bad. Fear is another. Tech support is definitely needed. One person can’t do it all. Infrastructure –if it goes down, it’s a problem How does Quaker philosophy and best practices conflict with web 2.0. driven by Quaker principles – simplicity is a principle. Does not fit with principle If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Teachers have done it this way for a long time and it works, and time to buy in. Working on a 20th century schedule. Often we have more than we have—resources. Not enough money. What is success. How do we define it, parents, and kids how do we all define it. Are we on the same page. Bandwidth is a problem--insufficient Tradition and schedule. No wiggle room for teachers to talk and plan. Passion based learning. Doesn’t happen in a set period of time. Take on initiatives. Teachers want to please, but noting is taken off our plate. Taking on too much, Faculty mistrust. Get to the key pieces of a lesson. Mistrust of the technology being there. Time and access to technology. Number of tools, and finding one. Number of options, and everyone is doing something different. Student centered learning process—communicating to parents. Parents think they learn a lot of education. We’re about selling our school to our parents. They’re buying one thing and we’re selling something else. The pressure to prepare students for standardized tests. Can’t cover everything. When a student finishes course should be able to pass. Real intense learning is subjective. Hard to show parents. Can’t buy that curriculum. You need to create your own. Time constraints. Parents Teachers student and technology as well as pedagogy in place is a barrier. People are used to it being the way it is. Lonely to implement change in the classroom- you are often the only one doing it. Discouraging as a result Art Teacher Fear is biggest barrier for most people from children to adults. Can be paralyzing but teachers can turn this around. Time and getting out your comfort zone Fear is a big problem-not knowing watt to do next. How will i be assessed. Time and intertia- it's not how we learned nor how parents have learned Lacking training and buy-in Classrooms are not set up and structured for this type of learning Fear: despite a great group of supportive people we are not willing to take the risk due to needing to get students. Incompatible vision between teachers and technology design team at the school Hardware structures are formats rather than the learning program clash between program providers and technology designers Time is difficult even if the team is committed to the process. Even breaking down to work with partners rather than a whole group. Did not take the release time we expected to have. Deep conversations with the entire community about the need to change things. It is rewarding but hard to do. Depth over breadth student led inquiry based learning may leave out important things. Teachers are afraid that the kids might not get what they need to know in the model. A lot of work as a teacher to redesign/supplement what they do. Starting over or going back to beginning is very hard for experienced teachers. This is probably not a fad- they need to make this change but need to have support while making the changes. Teachers need to believe so that they can make the time to make the changes. Time is a huge problem. Also quality time for professional development that encourages people. Tech support for the program that is not there is a difficult reason to overcome. Nature of the elementary school program (preschool as well) best practice is in some conflict with web 2.0 methods of social learning. Traditional Quaker principles of simplicity and equality are also in conflict with some aspects of technology education If it an't broke don't fix it- venerable teachers who are masters without technology. Getting this group going with new technology would take a great deal of time if they wanted to. Still operating on 20th Century time schedule this gets in the way of the newer programs. We don't have the money resources that we think we do. How do we define success how do students and parents define success-these may be at odds. Bandwidth is a problem- insufficient for some tasks we want to do No room in schedule for teachers to collaborate and plan together Blocks are sometimes too short for passion-based learning to develop. We add new stuff but never take anything away not Faculty mistrust that students will get to key parts of a subject area on their own Technology might not be albe to support this very well Time and access to the technology may not be sufficient Number of tools and finding one that fits your teaching style and needs Everyone does something a little different each time a tool changes. Parents like to think they know a lot about education and they really do not know We are selling inquiry based learning and learning how to fail- parents do not necessarily want this product they want college acceptance and status that elite school attendance confers on their family. Students may miss subject areas when they follow their own intense courses. Student assessments are quite difficult when developing your own curriculum ideas. Teachers who have been there for a while – set in their ways – teacher resistant to change Is it discussion or chaos – the quiet classroom expectation Mindset of the children that are coming to us. Fear on the part of administration - privacy laws Time, lack of money Time to make a lesson that is meaningful and creative, to have the students be able to discover Covering the required amount of material that also allows time to review + new? Actual class period time length. Set-up & move on to the next class Too much technology can make extra work for the students on top of what they already have to accomplish TIME Changing from “product” to “process” getting the parents to be on board with this. So many tools to use and they change so often Professional development time to create lessons and discover tools Want to do more than just “use” technology but to have lessons to be meaningful Safety of the children “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!” Passion based learning or exposing them to things that they don’t know that they are going to enjoy What is the point of all this? It is not just about the tools Having time to reflect – this seems rushed and self-pased New curriculum coming – how do we create when we don’t know the new curriculum This process seems “crazy active” - hard to have private thought time – is this counter-active – how do also find a way to have time to ourselves Generational differences in adults, and even in the students today, what are the things that are okay to say goodbye to and what are the “evergreens” that we should embrace. “that changing the paradigm requires risk and then failure” new things, when tried, mean the risks are greater; parents are involved; when you change the model, the risk is that it’s not going to work out well for a few years…this is an obstacle “Change is scary” – convincing the faculty to come along “Time restraint” - inquiry based work takes time “Tools are sometimes seen as gimmicks” – determining what is richer for the students, how to access it and start using it “Uncertainty” – since there no agreement on what is best how do you determine what is good; a fear that student led inquiry will “not necessarily lead them appropriately” into the future; as teachers, knowing what’s best for the students “Unevenness of buy in of risk and change” – the infection model doesn’t always work – three ppl go to a conference and they take this back to their school; those ppl can’t always infect others; a “lack of academic vision” prevents change and moving in a different direction; no upper level support makes the “infection” die “Lack of equipment” – small number of computer labs and the time shared between teachers who need them – “funds” and “technology” Varied experience and understanding of technology – the novice vs. the expert; “technology is not going to touch everyone”; best Practice in tapping into all the learning styles “Technology is not in the way, as technology is not the center” – we are teaching and not everything is content driven; “to move forward will need to include” a combo of disciplines, arts, sciences, history. Other teachers “may feel lost and not know where to begin.” Technology is “evolving so rapidly”; keeping teachers together Lack of ”high level administration to support tech”; prevention to change trickling down from the top “Time management” – the time to try new things, self-teach so as to meet classroom goals New tools – “serious differences between what students can do on their computers and what” a teacher has access to; things that the teacher had permission to do, while the students couldn’t; difficult to manage technical difficulties; barrier is lack of knowledge of the depth of the tech system within the school and how websites and software is used – “lack of systems thinking” “What independent schools do well is maintaining face to face relationships; won’t the tech come between the teacher and the students” “We know the model of the classroom from recent years,” but we don’t know what the newer classrooms ahead will be, need; Lack of conceptual frames How will other disciplines use/treat tech in class Within a traditional class framework, the entire classroom schedule “needs to be rethought” “Faculty buy in” is a major issue; addressing the faculty with the threat of technology; the “means aren’t there for all students to” connect; shared platform “Until the faculty answers 'what does a successful student need to have/be?' we don’t know how to use this” “If you are going to add more to the classroom, what do you take out?” the trade between these; “access to technology”; we need to reconfigure our school day, the model of ”a block of social studies, a block for English” needs to be re-examined