January Tech Bucks - Monitoring Technology January 16, 2009
Posted by ijduran in : Monitoring Technology, Training, managing change , 7commentsIn recent Tech Bucks sessions we have discussed how important it is to monitor the use of technology in our classrooms. Technology can easily become really cool stuff that has superficial impact in a classroom or it can be viewed and used as dynamic tool to transform a classroom. I am more of an advocate of the latter believing that the addition of new technology can significantly increase engagement of student learning and teacher enthusiasm.
The International Society of Technology in Education recently came out with a Classroom Observation Tool that can be used in a variety of ways to monitor the use of technology integration in a classroom. I like the way they focus on student roles and teacher roles and really asking the question, “How essential was technology to the teaching and learning activities?”
Your assignment for this month’s session is to go the web site and to check out the tool. You can work with it online or you can download a PDF. Use it or some part of it in your classroom monitoring and then come back to this blog site and post a comment. What did you notice in classrooms? What questions did you focus on when visiting classrooms? Any big insights? You get the idea…
Once you go this website you will need to register and create an account. Please read the section on “Training Resources” first. This will give you some ideas and suggestions for how you can use this tool. There are also some video links here that Professional Technical can staff can view and gather some observational data as well.
You can download the tool (It will install a program called Adobe Air) or I have posted it here on this blog as well. Go for the spirit of this and I would like people to focus on “How is Technology Being Used in Your School?” Use this as your guiding question when you go and visit classrooms or watching the videos and then blog about what you have learned. That will meet the expectations. I will give you credit for the Tech Bucks Session once you have posted a blog.
Have fun!
ISTE ICOT Site: http://icot.iste.org/
ICOT in PDF Format: icot_observation.pdf
Managing Complex Change… July 17, 2008
Posted by ijduran in : managing change, blc 08 , 2commentsI have had some great conversations with some other educators here at the Learning Communities Conference. One of they threads that I have noticed is the success or failure of different projects. In preparing for a presenation next week at CASE a colleague of mine, Mike Porter, shared with me a change management matrix. It is from 1987 and when I saw it I realized that it applies to so many things in life and it can be used for any project or implementation of a new concept or idea. I have shared this with others and really believe it is a good model to MANAGE CHANGE! It starts with creating a vision and then having a plan in place to ensure what you want to create is accomplished.