Okay, I'll admit it. I came into my position as Tech Facilitator at my school thinking that I knew what was what in tech integration.  I mean, come on, I integrated SMART Technology into several subject areas and I was savvy with my devices on a personal basis.  How hard could it be to bring those things into the classroom?  Could I support other teachers in the process? No problem!  Compared to most of my colleagues around me that had difficulty with things as simple as email, I was a pro!  Beloved readers, you all know how this ends: I swiftly became a small fish in a very big pond. 

I'm not someone who takes failure lightly;  I persevere until I get it right.  So that's what I'm doing now.  My largest growth has been since I became more active on Twitter in the last two months.  I now regularly participate in different #edchats, have grown my PLN substantially, and I've even moderated a chat for pre-service/new teachers (#edteach).  I've learned about all things iPad and about many new software tools that I'm beginning to pilot in my classroom.  Things have been going really well in that world.  

But that's just it... it's a different world.  A PLN is a world where ideas are so plentiful that it's extremely easy to compare yourself to the success stories of others.  Are these wonderfully resourceful people continually posting their techno-failures? Absolutely not.  They're telling you about the times that they've innovated, created, re-imagined, and re-designed learning for their students.  If you ask, sure, they'll tell you what did and didn't work for them or their school, but when you first jump on Twitter, there's no way to see a clear picture of their entire journey in their field.  You just see a snapshot of the present.

It was in reading this article that this notion became clear to me on a personal level.  I actively compare myself to my PLN colleagues despite the fact that our school and our access to tech is severely less than most of those I read about.  I'm continually criticizing myself for where our school is at, yet I forget the staggering distance we've come since September. 

Here is a piece of commentary from the same article that inspired me to write this post:

So there it is, folks.  Don't compare yourself.  It's not worth it.  If you make a valiant effort to better yourself, make goals to progress on that continuum, and you engrain that attitude into your teaching, then people will undoubtedly see the value in what you're doing for kids. And hopefully, you will too.

Part of the technology plan at Gordon Greenwood has been to get iPads into the hands of our teachers and support staff in order to give them an idea of the possibilities that technology can  present for their students. A few weeks ago, Sarban Sangha, a principal at Lochiel U-Connect here in Langley, was kind enough to offer his services to provide a discovery session for our special needs educators. And more recently, I was able to finish the preparation of our teacher sets of iPads to release into the hands of our teaching staff.

In my opinion, there is nothing more empowering for a learner than hands-on experience. I could stand in front of a group of staff members all day and show them what they could do on an iPad, but none of it means anything to them unless they actually have the iPads in their hands. Moreover, I find that learning on devices is more authentic when the learner makes the discoveries themselves rather than through delivery of app knowledge. The part of these sessions that excites me the most hearing the little murmurs between engaged staff members, "Oh, this would work really well with [Student A]!" or "My low reading group could really benefit from this app!" or "This is a great extension for [subject area]." For teachers who are really stuck in the discovery process, I get them started with  apps like GeoBoard or FindSums that are user-friendly and immediately engaging and they usually move on on their own from there. 

After a few discoveries have been made and some play has ensued, most of the educators I've worked with have aligned themselves with the idea that the devices have something to offer their students.  Following this process, there will certainly be a more vested interest if you do want to introduce increasingly complex apps such as PDF annotators, note-taking, or file sharing apps. Or maybe you just want to show them how to buy an app. It's a neat challenge for teachers to look for apps that matter to their students and classroom, and I'm finding this far more valuable to staff than just me calling all the shots when installing apps. (And it's really fun for me to monitor their discoveries as my device is the Master iPad on our iCloud)

Over the past two weeks, I have been developing a technology action plan for our school for the coming years. The plan is to be carried out over the next five years with a major focus on the budget and teacher professional development as we move forward. It is my job to promote this initiative for the school to the teaching staff and to support the implementation of that idea.

To begin, we held a meeting for tech direction, which I previously discussed in this blog posting, and there seemed to be a bit of resistance toward the idea of "more tech stuff." The money that our PAC is graciously donating to the project is specified for tech, so I came back to staff with some options: do we replace a computer lab or do we take the leap into the world of iPads? 

Now, if you follow me on Twitter or my blog, you know what my answer is: iPads all the way. But some of the teaching staff at GGE immediately had a few concerns at the delivery of this suggestion. One of the people pushing back gave me something to think about - What if iPads are a fad? 

This teacher went on to explain that she's seen things come in and out of education over the past 20 years. Math programs, reading programs, manipulatives, learning tools... fair enough. Her argument was that a school continually invests thousands of dollars into things that may not eventually be used. So are we getting the best bang for our buck?

To this I replied that iPads may be a fad, but the Internet isn't. Even if you just scratch the surface at elementary stuff like emails and file-sharing, you should be able to convince any traditional educator that the Internet plays a substantial role in our ability to communicate, to work, and most importantly, to LEARN in the 21st century. 

After the meeting, I let everyone cool down and think about it for a week. I made a choice to speak with each staff member individually to see what they had to say about the situation and vote for their preferred choice of technology. This is where things got interesting for me. There were SO MANY voices that weren't heard in that initial meeting!!! The conversations I was privileged to have with my colleagues were eye-opening and enriched. Some of their commentary on the possibilities that tech can provide kids just made me want to thrust an iPad into their wondering hands. The funny thing was that even though there seemed to be so much resistance to the thought of iPads initially, about 95% of our staff ended up voting for iPads rather than a computer lab!!! And it's not like I was going in with a sales pitch - just a conversation.

This process taught me something important. In tech administration, pursuing these progressive conversations with each staff member is imperative to make them feel supported and included. It is extremely easy in this job to support only the people who ask for it or to target specific individuals who need to get off the ground. Teachers from each level of tech-ability gave me things to consider as we move forward with our 5-year plan and I loved the collaborative input throughout this process. The next step is getting a class set of iPads into the hands of our kids.

After weeks worth of work setting up iPads, purchasing and configuring apps and set-ups, and making small but important choices about logistics like log-ins and passwords, today was finally the day. 

What day, you might ask? It was the day that a few of our school's first 10 iPads made their way into the hands of our Learning Assistance students. 

I've been sweating about this because I want to make sure that lessons run as seamlessly as possible. The last thing I want is the teaching staff not recognizing the value of this connected learning tool. But today, I didn't need to worry about that because it turned out to be absolutely amazing. 

This pilot lesson took place in the block right before our first recess break - 10-10:30 am. The group of children in the lesson were learners who struggled with literacy concepts (all 3/3) as well as behaviour issues (2/3 of them). Our goal was to use this app to introduce some vocabulary in a story they had been working on. The kids each made a customized vocabulary list where they had to type in the word from the book's glossary and record themselves saying it. The app then integrates the vocabulary words into activities such as spelling, reading, and identification from a list with motivation to build characters like the one seen below. If they get stuck with the reading aspect, they are able to play back their own recorded voice to identify the word. This was something that got them very excited!

Previously, this group had a lot of issues completing their work before the recess bell rang. And if the recess bell rang, you might as well have packed it in anyways, because nothing else was going to get done with everyone else playing outside the classroom's windows. But not today. 

The kids finished up recording their vocabulary words just as the bell rang. They didn't even flinch and continued on playing with the language activities. Not even a glance outside toward the playground! Amazing. 

On Tuesday, when the group meets again, we will continue with a small review on the iPad before reading the story. Therein lies the crucial portion of the lesson - will we experience positive transfer from tablet to storybook?