Systems Theory and a vision for Technology

I am reading a great book by Peter Senge (Sen-gay) entitled "The Fifth Discipline." He talks about Systems Theory as the fifth discipline that integrates the others which are personal mastery, mental models, building shared visions and team learning. He uses a word which isn't commonly used in organizational settings but I have heard it in church!

Metanoia- literally, in Greek, means a "transcendence of mind." Dr. Senge says if we understand the meaning of metanoia, we can understand the deeper meaning of learning. Not learning as in taking in information and then spitting it back out but learning that "enhances our capacity to create." That's the kind of learning we want to foster in our students and in each other as their teachers.

I spent last week at the ISTE conference in Denver listening to and engaging in dialogue with experts in integrating technology. The focus is on using the technology as tools. Project-based-learning or PBL was bandied about everywhere I went. Much of what I walked away with was encouraging. I am exhilarated thinking about the possibilities.

I am back at TC for the month of July. What I have learned this week is that sometimes we use PBL in the classroom to provide our students with opportunities for learning that look like learning that enhances our capacity to create but unexamined mental models keep our students from moving forward. If we believe our students are not capable of learning complex processes and assume that they won't need to learn them, we eliminate any possibility for their learning them.

We fail our students and we fail ourselves. So my goal for the summer and the rest of my life is to begin to break open my own ingrained assumptions about the world and learn how my actions affect how I relate to the world. Our school has a lot right with it. We also have a lot of "untapped potential for creating our future." We tap that potential by being a learning organization. More on what that means specifically later!

What an Exciting Time to be Alive!

The intensive summer session at Teachers College has ended and I am back home trying to absorb it all. I come away with two essential ideas now deeply embedded in my own sense of mission. First; tools on the Internet will continue to be a ubiquitous part of some of our lives. If tools remain free which is the goal of Open Source software then more people will have access. We have a responsibility as educators to know what exists and how it is and can be used. Second; our students will come to us with an intuitive awareness of what exists and how it is used. Many will know way more about it than any of us do. We have so much information at our disposal and that will probably continue to be the case. Helping students and adults learn how to critically evaluate the information they find on the internet is essential to helping our society learn how to use the internet in ways that benefit us rather than debase us.

Ironically, I sat in a face-to-face discussion group yesterday in church. At my church, we have a discussion following the sermon. The themes of the scripture readings yesterday had to do with the consequences of abusing power and using our gifts with a sense of humility. To recreate the path that got us talking about too much information on the Internet would take too long here and my point would be lost in the telling. People railed against the evils of too much information and too much freedom to select information. Everyone had a story of someone who shares information sent to them on the Internet that is blatantly wrong and yet people, even educated people, believe it because the shear volume makes it credible. Then, of course, there are the stories of the rise in polarizing groups that stir up fear and hate. These groups are not that big but the Internet allows them a long reach.

I am not an apologist for the Internet as an information source; yet, I think we need to step back and take a deep breath. Besides all the inaccurate information that is accessible, we also have access to solid information that many of us would not be able to get any other way. Wikipedia gets slammed a lot as an inaccurate source of information but Wikipedia is also an easy way to begin if you know nothing about a topic. Look at the sources listed and that gives anyone a place to begin research on the topic. We cannot use Wikipedia as a primary source in school writing but I think we can use Wikipedia to help us find a starting point if we don’t know where to begin.

The critical piece that is missing is being able to discern what is good information and what is not. Telling students is not enough. We need to practice with them over and over again how to evaluate any information they find, reading or listening, with a critical eye and ear - systematic, concrete, synchronous, repeated practice. Developing critical thinking skills is one of our responsibilities as educators; but it seems to have taken on greater importance because all the traditional information gatekeepers are disintegrating. We have greater freedom allowing us to make our own decisions about issues, topics, people, and ideas. We need the skills to be able to make those decisions well. What an exciting time to be alive!

Evolution of sharing information from 1690 to 2009

In one week, I have read, listened and thought about nothing but technology and education. My peers and professors are engaged and passionate about understanding the challenges and the benefits of technology as part of the educational process. I have only begun to scratch the surface.

I have had at least 50 ideas thrown at me this week that are good, solid, usable resources from the Web. At least half of them are good for K-8. We are expected to go in and try them to see how they can be used, so I have tried out as many as I can.

Competent people have been researching the current issues in educational technology for at least the past fifteen years. Before that, it was not considered a real field of study, yet administrators have been putting computers in their schools for closer to twenty-five years, sometimes with only the hope that their teachers would figure it out.

The teachers in the program here come from all over the world and from all kinds of schools but we all wrestle with similar issues around the use of technology in school. Each one of us faces slight variations on these same challenges but everyone is determined to figure out how to make technology work for us.

Newspapers were first published in 1690, but they didn’t hit critical mass until the 19th century and readership has been declining through most of the 20th century. The Internet is about 40 years old and the World Wide Web started in its current form in 1992. The Internet has been a ubiquitous part of our lives since 2002. We have more equitable access to information and access to more information than ever before. The quality, accuracy and validity of that information varies widely and we need to educate ourselves and our children about how to be discerning consumers of information.

Human beings are social creatures and it is one of our basic needs to communicate. These technologies have allowed us to communicate more widely, more often, more easily than at any time in history. We need to learn a new set of rules around ethics and etiquette because the old rules don’t apply anymore. I think about that fact that many people lament the loss of face-to-face communication but this new communication allows us to stay even closer in touch with family members and friends even when their lives take them far away from us.

These technologies are slowly breaking down the barriers that kept the atrocities in Rwanda quiet. Handheld devices, cell phones and Twitter allowed the world to see the election in Iran and its aftermath. These technologies may have indirectly influenced some of the Mullahs to speak out against the outcome of the election. It is our responsibility as educators in the 21st century to learn about what these technologies are and work to understand what their potential is. Our students will know what they are. Lets help them learn how to use them for good.

Finding vision at NECC, Washington DC

Last Monday I set out to attend my first NECC (National Educational Computing Conference) after being in my new job as Director of Technology at my school for just two weeks. My sister-in-law handed me a polished stone as she was dropping me off at the airport and the word vision was etched into the dark, smooth stone. I slipped it into my pocket as I stepped through the airport doors. I am excited about my new job which will require an expansive and expandable vision. After two days at the conference which culminated in a keynote address by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary, I am filled with the possibilities for a vision that engages students and teachers in learning that is relevant, authentic and all those things learning in the 21st century is supposed to encompass, a vision that includes our parents an administration and board in creating exactly what we want for our children today and tomorrow. I am inspired by the teachers and professors and business people I met at the conference who are working to make technology accessible and affordable for all so our children can be prepared for a future that we adults cannot quite see because it is nothing like the future we saw when we were their age. So as I try to process all the ideas my conference colleagues shared with me, I keep finding the polished stone in my pocket to remind me to keep the vision in front of me as it takes shape. I am exhilarated by the enthusiasm and passion of these progressive teachers and schools I saw and am committed to making our school progress towards becoming better than it already is. Just like the Marines, I want our school to be all it can be. The conference confirmed what I believed intuitively and gave me ideas about how to make it happen!