January 3rd and 4th are set aside for professional development days for faculty, providing an opportunity to further develop skills around the integration of iPads into the classroom. Throughout these two days of development, faculty will be able to learn from experts who have led iPad integration at other schools, while also learning from each other. Technology Director Jim Cox has worked hard to prepare workshops that will not only move us forward in our understanding of how to best use iPads in the classroom, but perhaps more importantly, help us analyze why we are adopting this new tool.



Last week, Education Week published this article by Frank LaBanca, the Director of 21st Century Skills at Education Connection. LaBanca offers one of the best insights I've read into how schools should best integrate new technologies into their communities. His main point: just because you have innovative technology doesn't mean you are instructionally innovative.



If you were to read this blog over the course of a year, you would hopefully get a clear picture of just how unique our educational model is here at Proctor, and we believe firmly in our experiential approach to teaching content, both on campus and through off-campus programs. As we prepare to integrate iPads, the question of why 'fix' something that isn't broken has bubbled up from some faculty, providing a healthy skepticism that has better focused our adoption of new technologies.



LaBanca writes, "I often suggest to educators that before they adopt a new technology tool, they should determine what they want students to learn: information literacy, collaboration, communication, innovation/creativity, problem solving, responsible citizenship." Our conclusion as a community has been that iPads and other technologies will never replace what is good about Proctor, but they can certainly augment student experiences by offering new tools for learning.



LeBanca goes on to say, "Just because the technology is innovative doesn't mean the instructional approach to using it is…when we retrofit technology, we rarely change the paradigm. Watching a video on Youtube may not be very different than from a VHS. If we replace the inferior textbook with the just-as-expensive online digital version, we have the same lousy product that may not harness the power of authentic primary-source resources or evidence-baed practice."

Lastly, he notes, "The real question, ultimately, is 'Does technology help our students become better independent, self-directed learners?' That's the game changer. It's not about the latest fancy device, hot off the shelf. That devise is just a tool--it's not knowledge and it's not a skill."



When we stop to analyze our goals in educating our students, these 21st century skills top our list. While we understand that it is possible to achieve these goals without technology, and we must look no further than our Ocean Classroom and Mountain Classroom programs for evidence, we also recognize that when properly applied, technology can absolutely serve as an effective tool in pursuit of these end goals.



Edsocialmedia, a collaboration based web-resource sponsored by educators asks many of the same questions when seeking to adopt a new technology. This blog post highlights these questions to ask as your school moves to using a new technology:
- Are you truly being innovative or just implementing technology to say you did it?
- How does the innovation you want to implement improve student learning?
- How does the innovation improve instruction?
- What type of professional development for teachers, training for students and information sessions for parents must be implemented for the innovation to have a chance at being successful?
- What is a realistic timeline for innovation?



It is these questions that have driven our conversations about new technologies in the past, and will continue to be foundational to our professional development moving forward. We will not adopt a new technology simply to 'keep up with the Jones'', but rather because we believe the new technology will augment student-learning within our diverse population of learners in such a way that could truly transform their educational experience.



Our on-going task now is to develop the skills and cultivate the conversations within our community to ensure we continue moving in the right direction. When we keep student-learning as our main goal and work from that center-point, we will create significant intentionality in both our preparation for and implementation of new technologies in the classroom, as this previous post discussed.