School Librarians as a Literacy Specialist...Not a Babysitter

In our district, the Library Media Centers (LMCs) are a dumping ground.  

As per the contract, K-5 teachers send their students to the LMC for 30 minutes a week as a Special, like Art, Music or PE.  During the 30 minutes, students receive a mini-lesson on a variety of topics including digital literacy, library expectations and procedures, keyboarding practice, digital citizenship and more.  They are also allowed, clearly, to check out books.  The checkout process can take around 10-15 minutes which doesn't leave very much time for the LMC director to execute their curriculum.

The LMC Directors want change!  In a recent article put out by The Guardian, "...[revolutionizing the school LMC] means a great deal...the library has the capacity to enjoy its own renaissance. Because of the digital revolution it is no longer just about the printed book. As a space, it is about inspiring young people." 

Our LMCs have that potential.  I've seen it happen.  Just yesterday, I popped in on one of our LMC Directors, Ms. Erin Preder, in the middle of a collaboration session with a fellow 5th-grade teacher and his students.  She and the class used Story by Disney, a FREE iPhone/iPad app, to create a Digital Story of the LMC Expectations.  The entire process took only 27 minutes from start (brainstorming rules) to finish (watching what they created).  Unlike the regulary scheduled 30-minute LMC blocks, the teacher stayed with the class and handled the management of the class while Ms. Preder led the class in collaborating, creating and technology instruction.

Ms. Preder displaying the final product to the participating class before publishing

As witness to this project, I can attest that it was collaboration at its best.  Both the teacher and Erin were working together to manage the class and maintain an authentic learning environment.  Erin and the students were working interdependently to create the final product.  Students were engaged from start to finish because they saw the relevancy and reward of the lesson design, the process, the procedures and the final product.  The students had buy-in because they were to be featured in the LMC Expectations slideshow that is to be viewed by the other classes; they were kept accountable, which also focused their efforts and minimized behavior issues despite the fact that only a single iPad was used for the lesson.  See the final product below:

For me, the entire experience was a glimpse as to how the LMC director should be utilized given the freedom to collaborate and cocreate with fellow staff members.  It's my personal opinion that if all LMC Directors were on a flex schedule, more opportunities like these would be possible, which would ultimately improve school climate, relationships among colleagues, and student engagement.

See below to learn more about Ms. Erin Preder and all the wonderful things happening in her LMC.

Visit her Blog

Follow her on Twitter

Follow her on Pinterest

BYOT: 4 Suggestions for Teacher Device Deployment/Management

It's been almost a week since teachers at our Lighthouse School received their student iPads and ChromeBooks, and honestly, I'm unsure as to impact the devices have had on teacher instruction or student engagement to this point.

To be fair, teachers were given 1 ChromeBook and 1 iPad to pilot in their classrooms. Since these are meant to be student devices, they were set up with student (restricted) permissions.  My frequent observation: teachers didn't anticipate that the iPads would be locked down to the point of near-uselessness.  With the level of restrictions placed on the iPad (including the inability to download apps), it's no wonder teachers seem disappointed.

Wearing my Technology Administrator hat, I fully understand the rationale for the restrictions placed on the devices.  Testing the waters, fear of the unknown and all that.  However, through the eyes of a teacher, trainer, instructional leader and (by-golly!) tech-enthusiast, I can't help feeling...deflated. 

Don't get me wrong, the teachers are appreciative of the new technology and are extremely interested in using it to enhance student learning.  However, I feel they are spending most of their time getting creative with figuring out how to access the technology rather than having the freedom to allow students to creatively using the device to propagate their learning.

With this in mind, I've come up with 4 suggestions for instigating a successful BYOT program, one that empowers teachers by allowing them to personalize their technology:

1. Flip the professional development.  Give them the devices and guidance first, then provide the hands-on training.  See my recent blog post about how I plan to distribute classroom devices next time.  Live and learn.
2. Remove the chains by giving them ability to install apps!  Our role should be to encourage and support them in how they best want to utilize the devices to promote student learning, not limit and frustrate them.  By denying them access to the app store, we are effectively telling them that we don't trust them.  This has the potential of fostering a frustrating, negative work environment, which leads to teachers under-utilizing expensive technology, which results in the needlessness of teacher collaboration or forward-thinking.  
3. Let teachers have some level of management of student devices. Turn around time is key.  Teachers should have them ability to realize a concept or inspiration of theirs with the press of a button.  Allow them to install apps on student machines (most likely via the MDM).  Afterall, who understands the level of their students' ability better than the teachers?
4. Provide perpetual PD to teachers through the formation of a building tech committee and the advocation of teacher PLNs.  Teachers need to know that they are not alone and that they are their best PD.  Don't enable, empower.  Don't spoonfeed, give them their choice of cutlery.

And there you have it. Let us know what you think by commenting below!

Teacher Highlight: Ms. Bachara's First iPad Experience

Below is a brief slideshow of Ms. Bachara's initial takeaways from her first experience of using iPads in the classroom!  Enjoy!

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

BYOT: A Deployment Dilemma

A couple of days ago, K-5 teachers at Beverly Skoff Elementary School (BSE) arrived to school with a bounce in their step.  That was the day they were to receive their classroom ChromeBooks and iPads as part of the Emerging Technologies Pilot Program.  

One at a time, BSE staff came to the LMC to receive their devices and to ask questions of the technology staff before heading to their classrooms for the day.  

By 9:00 am, all the devices had been distributed.  By 10:00 am, all was quiet...  

...too quiet.  

At first, I chalked the the absence of teacher communication up to the fact that teachers were probably performing their morning routines with their students.  However, I soon become a bit unnerved when I hadn't received a single email, visit or post to the backchannel I had set up through TodaysMeet.  I soon found myself reflecting on how we managed the technology distribution and whether we had missed a step along the way.  Turns out, we probably missed a few.

Let me attempt to summarize the course of events prior to device distribution:

1. BSE volunteered to become a Lighthouse School, one that would pilot and showcase emerging technology for the district.
2. The Technology Department met with BSE Administrators to discuss the Pilot Program
3. Teachers were polled to see what devices they would want to pilot.  They agreed on 1 iPad and 1 Chromebook each.
4. Teachers contributed to a list of resources that they would want to access on the devices.  Web links or apps were installed on the devices to those resources.
5. BSE staff attended a 30-minute overview (PPT lecture/Q&A) of the devices at their staff meeting this past Monday, 4/29/13.
6. Staff received their devices on Tuesday, 4/30.

Notice something missing?  I do too: "professional development" and "time to explore the devices before utilizing them in their classrooms".  So, I can only surmise that teachers weren't contributing to the chat, asking questions or sharing ideas, because they were at a loss as to how to use the devices.  

As a result of my reflection, I decided that the process prior to device deployment must be revamped so that the teachers would be arriving to the PD session already empowered with .  That's right, I would flip the PD session!

Below are the changes I will implement before our next distribution:

1. Provide the 30-minute overview presentation to the teachers 2-3 days prior to distributing the devices.
2. Hold a technology "petting zoo" where teachers can come to explore the devices before receiving their own.
3. Distribute devices to teachers in the afternoon PRIOR to the commencement of the 30-minute overview.
4. Remind teachers to preview the 30-minute overview presentation prior to the F2F staff meeting.  Require them to come with questions and concerns.
5. At the F2F meeting, provide a link to the presentation (ideally through http://beta.swipe.to/ once my account is active) that could be accessed on either device.
6. Provide teachers with hands-on training and opportunities for Q&A during the F2F meeting.
7. Provide the link to the chat/other online resources immediately following the overview.
8. Hold a follow-up session the next morning at the building before school begins.

I would love to see your responses to the proposed idea above!  Your insight matters to us, so, leave your comments below!

Our First Step

Hello world!  

We are excited for the opportunity to share our BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) journey with all of you!  To introduce ourselves, we are Robert Petitto and Cathernine Neumann, the PreK-5 and 6-12 (respectively) Instructional Technology Specialists for Valley View School District 365U in Romeoville, IL.  

For a bit of history, our district serves the educational needs of more than 17000 students in over 20 educational facilities across the Bolingbrook and Romeoville communities. Valley View School District 365U is one of Will County's largest employers, with more than 2000 full time employees.  

 Current barriers: 

cc licensed
flickr photo by seantoyer
http://flickr.com/photos/seanhobson/4504828599/

• a large student population spread out over 23 buildings

• non-existance of teacher PLNs

• an outdated wireless infrastructure currently housing about 10 SSIDs

• teacher and student laptops running Windows XP that have been known to take over 5-8 minutes to start up

• an outdated SIS that doesn't always "play nice" with the other 15 teacher and student information systems

• no social media policy for students and/or teachers to collaborate or share successes

• heavy restrictions for teachers to customize their technology.

• Restricted to IE7

• Cannot mirror iPads

• Cannot download software/apps

I'm sure you can only imagine the amount of work we have before us during our transition to BYOT.  Our greatest consideration and largest obstacle has always been the sheer size of out district. It's the principle reason we decided against adopting a true 1:1 program.  Not that a BYOT program is any less labor intensive, but with BYOT, we have the freedom to allocate funds into a more reliable infrastructure rather than into the devices themselves.  And let's face it, any classroom technology integration initiative should be purposed to foster student success.  With BYOT, students are free to bring in the device that they are most comfortable with!  

Speaking of success, here is a list of some recent successes:

• K,1,5 classrooms have standardized technology resources including mounted projectors, SMART Boards, and document cameras

• provided cloud access (Applications and Shared Drives) to select HS students

• piloted HoverCam T3 and Neo3 devices to replace current document cameras

• deployed carts of iPads and Chromebooks to select HS depts.

• piloted iPads in select K-5 classrooms

• deployed iPads to K-5 LMCs

and (in my humble opinion) one of our largest steps forward:

• Upgraded wireless access points in one of our HSs

• distributed an iPad and a Chromebook to 33 teachers at one of our elementary schools as part of our evaluation technology pilot

• deployed a cart of iPads and a cart of Chromebooks to the LMC of the same elementary school

So, I'll make you a deal.  In exchange for our insight in starting, promoting and managing a BYOT program from scratch, provide us with your experience by commenting early and often here at 24/7/365U!