Thanks a ton for taking time to post your notes from San Antonio! It’s literally killing me to not be there—but I’m doing a pretty good job keeping up with the conversation via blogs and Twitter.

What resonates with me in your thread of conversation here is the importance of giving school leaders opportunities to find value in using digital tools for their own learning.

So often, the school leaders that I interact with are able to talk a good talk about the important role that digital tools can play in helping students to learn, but because they lack practical experience, they struggle to “actualize” that vision because digital tools haven’t enhanced their own professional growth in the ways that they’ve enhanced ours!

Providing leadership, therefore, is difficult—it’s based on theory instead of experience.

For me, Voicethreads have been valuable in giving school leaders experiences with digital learning. My favorite experiences have been structured, school-wide conversations around school mission and visions:

http://ed.voicethread.com/share/113288/

I chose Mission and Vision because they are issues near and dear to every school leader’s heart. I can’t think of an administrator that doesn’t recognize the important role that clear mission and vision statements have in a school culture.

And when school leaders see the quality of conversations that can be had through digital tools, they’re often hooked. Their work has been made easier and the dialogue in their buildings has been enhanced.

As technology advocates, I think that should be our central goal—-finding digital tools that can facilitate or enhance the professional growth of school leaders.

It might be creating a Pagecast of school administrator blogs that our principals can follow easily. It could be a Google Doc Survey of the faculty on critical issues. It might be an asynchronous conversation between colleagues or Skyping in an expert to offer advice.

Whatever it is, we’ve got to steal Ira’s idea and show principals how to “find learning tools and use them.”

Because that’s definitely the world’s most important skill.

Anyway…thanks again for sharing. For a guy trapped in NC, it is much appreciated!

Rock on,
Bill

I was lucky enough to attend a Postman-designed alternative school. The essence was the shattering of the school’s walls and time schedules. Very little happened “in a classroom,” and not much occurred “as scheduled within a school day.” Students, individually, in groups, even as “classes,” reached out into the world for personally appropriate and effective resources - The New York Public Library or Grand Central Terminal after midnight (a psychology class). Universities across New York or the nearest hospital (most people studying life sciences). The city’s planning department (social studies), police department (sociology), parks department (biology students planted a heritage farm), museums, businesses, the New York Aquarium, random experts people had heard of or were directed to by the faculty. There were no course sequences, no required routes, no grading.

Now all of that was “relatively” easy in a school a few miles from 42nd Street (though school officials had to understand that they would have no idea where students physically were). But it was impossible in most of America until the technology of the internet came along. Now, everyone can do it.

And I remember the results to - no special ed services needed. 95% graduation rate. 85% 4-year-college attendance rate. And “alternative school kids” who’ve ended up as doctors, lawyers, teachers, diplomats, artists, authors, journalists, and everything else.

We learned how to find our learning tools and use them. And that’s the world’s most important skill.