So here is one of the burning questions in my brain these days: How do you take a fairly “typical†school that is currently steeped in a 20th Century model of teaching and successfully move it forward in a systemic way toward a more relevant 21st Century, or, if you will, School 2.0 model that fully takes advantage of a more connected, collaborative, creative world?
With any luck, I’ll be able to begin answering that question here over the next few months and years. My colleague Rob Mancabelli and I are working with a medium-sized, rural school district to help plan and guide a project that, if successful, will serve as a model for other schools to follow in their own re-envisioning process.
Needless to say, I’m a bit excited.
Ironically, I’ll be spending the next two days at Chris Lehmann’s Science Leadership Academy which is probably as close to School 2.0 as you can find right now. But while I absolutely love what Chris is doing, his is not really a scenario that is easily replicated…a new school pretty much from the ground up, a student body that has been selected through an admission process, etc.
While I can’t get too specific with names and places at this point, we think that this project, should it be successful, would come much closer to becoming a roadmap for other districts to follow. So, here’s the scenario in broad brush strokes. The district has three schools and serves a primarily rural area about six squares miles in size. There is some racial diversity, but the vast majority of students are white and come from lower middle to middle class families, many of which have owned farms in the area for generations. The town center has one stoplight and lies about 30 miles from the nearest city, and while economic fortunes and enrollments have been on the decline of late, there has been an upswing of home building of late that indicates the community may be on the cusp of change.
Rob and I spent the day with the district leadership and others recently leading conversations about why were all at the table, what our purpose was, what we envisioned as “wild success†some years down the road, what strengths and opportunities were already in place, and what weaknesses and threats we would need to address. It was an amazing conversation that reflects, as one of the participants described it, almost a “perfect storm†for change in this district. The leadership team, despite already having a highly successful school in terms of test scores and traditional standards, recognizes what’s coming and wants to be proactive in helping teachers and students practice real 21st Century education, understanding that there is no set definition of what that is. The regional state entity that was also represented is totally supportive from a technology and pedagogy sense and is committed to invest in an “R &D†project of this type to see how it can help other schools it serves move forward. What Rob and I hope to do is inform the vision and guide the process over the next few years, hopefully, as we work together to figure out what the unique recipe for change is with this district at this moment.
While there is much more to write and to tell, let me just end this initial post with some of the things that really get the butterflies going about this project. First, everyone in the room realized that this was about more than just the district. This was about the community itself. To that end, we’re in the process of creating a project team that includes every constituent group, from business owners to parents to industry representatives to town leaders and others. There is already talk, and this might be premature, of providing a broadband wireless cloud over the six square miles that will at least make access available for every resident. That in itself could be quite an interesting step. And, second, what really struck me about these initial conversations was the willingness to look at change from a systemic way, understanding that this means re-envisioning almost everything they do. It’s not about tools, in fact, technology was rarely mentioned in Monday’s meeting. It was about learning, the willingness of the leadership team to model new ways of learning and communicating, the need to create a new vision for what all of the looks like in the classroom. And it was a willingness to face head on the disruptions that come with all of this.
No question, there are many hurdles yet to be overcome if this is to work, and many, many, many conversations to start. There is a huge education job in front of us to make sure the various constituent groups have the context for the conversation. And there are, as always, the issues of money and time.
But I am incredibly humbled and excited by this opportunity. And I would love your thoughts along the way. More in the coming weeks, I’m sure…
Technorati Tags: school reform change education learning
I just watched you post this blog in your Web 2.0 workshop – neat!
Echo Mary W’s comment. Great seeing you show the process of posting — both sharing the technology you’ve formatted to make it easier over time and also the blogging mindset of how you select a title, what you tag, etc.
Offered my own early-hour post about your session today, Will: http://thinklab.typepad.com/think_lab/2007/02/learning_has_no.html
Favorite moment of the day (so far) was when you told the group: “Everyone that comes to my blog is a potential teacher of mine.”
Great to have met you live F2F today. Long overdue. Cheers, Christian
Coming from a small rural town about 30 miles from the nearest city, though without a stoplight, I wonder at how you were able to bring enough of a constituency together to converse about this kind of paradynamic shift! Many small towns see the school as the center of the community, but usually in terms of extracurricular activities…athletics as the focus of community spirit, loyalty and entertainment. In my fif…many years of experience with rural communities, being on the cutting edge is less important than the comfort of familiarity. And I’ve tried. I applaud your efforts and hope your plan joined with the community’s enthusiasm and creativity becomes a working model other rural communities may eventually adapt and embrace.
As this sounds an awful lot like the township I live in (even to the six square miles) I’ll be following your adventures with great interest. We are, as a town, trying to get covered with wireless broadband. At present broadband is available only to the schools and the library with some scattered wireless coverage to households. DSL and cable is not available here so wireless is our only option.
However the conversation has, so far, been more about the access than about how to make it part of a broader plan to make us more of a community, both the town and the world. I’ll be looking forward to more posts on the subject.
I am the school librarian in a small rural district. My schedule is very rigid and skills oriented, with little time for meaningful information literacy instruction. I’ve been given the chance to meet with our district administrators and present my ideas for introducing some 21st century content into the curriculum. My goal is to work with both students and staff in collaborative and cross-curricular projects. If I can assemble a portfolio of projects, plans, units of instruction (that involve no additional funding, at least to start) for them to consider, I think they’ll permit some carefully-monitored innovation. I plan to visit your site often, as I prepare my case!
Will,
I have been watching your mood shift over the last few months. It can be hopeful and excited, as it is here; or doubtful and resigned. You run up to the edge of calling for action and then back away. This is a credit to your authenticity and thoughtfulness. I am confident that your work you describe here will benefit us all.
How do we lead so that our actions don’t just produce insights; but real educational change?
pete
Will,
Try to include some K-12 students in your stakeholder groups and planning teams. And not just the straight-A students that will be put forward by the adults. Find the ones who will not just say what they think the adults want to hear.
You can visit our site for some resources on pracical how-tos of incorporating student voice into efforts like this. http://wwww.genyes.com
It’s crucial that the people you are most trying to impact be included in the discussion.
Your first sentence captures what I see as a major roadblock to moving forward in our schools: the good is the enemy best. While politicians talk about “America’s failing schools,” most schools manage to get enough students over the testing hump to stay out of trouble and to avoid notice. Truly failing schools eventually do get noticed, get money, get shaken up, and maybe they even improve their scores. But the “fairly typical” suburban or rural school with a relatively low dropout rate and decent scores on state assessments has little incentive to change, even if the students it’s graduating are ill-prepared for the world that will be theirs a few years down the road. What is the “carrot” that will get these “good enough” schools to change?
What a joy in reading this post as well as the responses. To respond to Mike Curtin…the “carrot” that will make this school and community change is the desire to breed success. How can a community be successful without any access to the Internet for the children and the parents. In response to Sylvia…AMEN! Students will be involved every step of the way with this project, there is simply no other way. Even with the great minds around the table, we simply cannot plan for what the student mind can see, only guess and we need more at this point. This is going to be a long journey, but one that every school in America can benefit from. The lessons learned along the way will inform policies, legislation and municipal engagement as all schools move closer to the School 2.0 model. I look forward to continuing the journey!
Will —
From your description of this school system, it seems as though — and this is an assumption on my part — that the leadership feels that their test scores/student achievement afford them the luxury of exploring what 21st century learning can become.
While this is encouraging, I still feel impatient with the lack of similar interest on the part of school systems that aren’t “making AYP” — school systems where leadership is opposed to this kind of thinking because they believe we can’t focus on anything except getting the kids to pass the tests. That “get them to pass the test and then we can consider alternatives” mentality — when maybe considering alternatives is EXACTLY what we really need to be doing for the students who are struggling.
I’ll be reading your posts on this with great interest. The conversations that you describe do seem encouraging.
Stephanie
Will –
I am still of the opinion that grass roots movements, like the one within the district you are talking about, may create the greatest momentum. Experiencing the same shift within the high school I work, I could not help but notice several similarities. It is important there exist a proactive approach, coming from both administration as well as a group of core teachers. I also believe that there does not exist one individual framework that will be universal for all schools, as detailed by several technological obstacles such as access. It is important that those individuals leading educational change, recognize the need to connect traditional pedagogy with new technology. That being said, teachers will achieve a level of comfort with change, once they are able to adopt new technologies within the framework of pedagogy. The overarching structure needs to be extremely flexible, taking into account the many expertise within the teaching community within a district. Ownership of change must come from those who are on the front lines. I absolutely like the community approach of including business and those groups outside of the traditional realm of education. I also see the vehicle of future educational change focusing on redesigning the idea of staff development and professional communities within a district. What has traditionally been top-down initiatives may become a middle out momentum, that aligns with administration’s objectives. In the end, change within a particular district, will inevitably depend upon the influence teachers have on the design of that districts framework for change. Great post!
This sounds like a great project – just remember to include students in the process too, we do think.