Tech & Learning: Live (Chicago - May 5, 2017)
Tech & Learning is a print and digital magazine that is part of the NewBay Media Consortium. Six times a year, Tech & Learning hosts one-day live forums for educators and leaders in the technology industry. The focus of these forums is to provide educators with practical tools and best practices as well as continue conversations about Instructional and Technology Coaching. The District 230 TIF staff had the opportunity to attend the Chicago session on May 5, 2017.
If a one-day forum on Instructional and Technology Coaching could be summarized in a series of tweets, the Twitter Hashtag posted above would be the place to start. This is exactly what happens when a group of like-minded educators from various content specialties gets together to talk about better ways to do the job they are already doing. The conversations were as differentiated as the practices; some live, some archived, some planned, some impromptu, some authentic, and some scripted. With a wide variety of media on which to transpose our messages, the Instructional and Technology Coches who took part in Tech & Learning Live all came with an open mind and an ambitious goal: share and learn.
So what did we learn? And what did we share?
We learned that many districts approach coaching in ways that seem a bit formulaic: following the path of Big Data, Rubrics, Surveys, and Formative Assessment. We learned that many other districts approach coaching in ways that seem familiar: impromptu, social, teacher-led, and student-focused.
Individually, we learned some new strategies for delivering Professional Development, Augmented Reality overlays for Project Based Learning, systems of Gamification as both a PD Strategy and as a Learning Strategy, and most importantly that robots are not going to replace teachers (even though I'm personally not convinced that the presenter was not a robot.)
As a group, we shared stories of the year with each other, and as we worked through some "anything goes" style table sessions, we shared with those outside of the district some stories of how we do what we do, and what sort of reaction it seems to have among our own staff. The takeaway was rather simple; we're proud of what we have done, or more importantly, what our colleagues have done, in this first year of a Digital Learning Initiative. But that's not enough for us.
We like that this is all just the start of a new way of thinking about learning; not that it's a one-time transitional state. Surely, there will be times when we can actually answer the question, "What is the best way to do this?" but for now we're keen on the idea of finding out together. Sometimes it's a messy process, all of this learning, but it's a good reminder for each of us that these are the types of challenges our students face every day. Our own challenges for next year are starting to take shape, not just in our personal goal setting for our classrooms, but how together, as a District, we can keep technology and learning alive.
So what did we learn? And what did we share?
We learned that many districts approach coaching in ways that seem a bit formulaic: following the path of Big Data, Rubrics, Surveys, and Formative Assessment. We learned that many other districts approach coaching in ways that seem familiar: impromptu, social, teacher-led, and student-focused.
Individually, we learned some new strategies for delivering Professional Development, Augmented Reality overlays for Project Based Learning, systems of Gamification as both a PD Strategy and as a Learning Strategy, and most importantly that robots are not going to replace teachers (even though I'm personally not convinced that the presenter was not a robot.)
As a group, we shared stories of the year with each other, and as we worked through some "anything goes" style table sessions, we shared with those outside of the district some stories of how we do what we do, and what sort of reaction it seems to have among our own staff. The takeaway was rather simple; we're proud of what we have done, or more importantly, what our colleagues have done, in this first year of a Digital Learning Initiative. But that's not enough for us.
We like that this is all just the start of a new way of thinking about learning; not that it's a one-time transitional state. Surely, there will be times when we can actually answer the question, "What is the best way to do this?" but for now we're keen on the idea of finding out together. Sometimes it's a messy process, all of this learning, but it's a good reminder for each of us that these are the types of challenges our students face every day. Our own challenges for next year are starting to take shape, not just in our personal goal setting for our classrooms, but how together, as a District, we can keep technology and learning alive.
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