What an exciting-mind-blowing week I’ve had! I have “Skyped” with people from all over the world, participated in Google Hangouts, recommended materials for a peace education project in Indonesia, introduced a few European schools to Canadian child advocate Mary Gordon’s Roots of Empathy, tuned in teachers to the work of Sugata Mitra, the 2013 TED award winner, and his experiment, “Hole in the Wall”, and started work with a number of schools who would like to create an action plan to become compassionate schools.

I am part of an organization called the Compassionate Action Network (CAN) International. Our work started in 2008, in Seattle following an event called Seeds of Compassion. “Seeds” was an historic series of public gatherings, discussions, and workshops that galvanized individuals, networks, and organizations around the world. More than 150,000 people participated in the 5-day event, and another 7 million viewed it on line.

Anchored by the deep wisdom of the Dalai Lama, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and other luminaries, this community-focused event celebrated and explored the relationships, programs, and tools that nurture and empower children, families, and communities to be compassionate members of society. Each of the days provided those present an opportunity to better understand the real benefits of compassion and concrete steps on how to bring compassion into their lives.

“Seeds” morphed into CAN and continued to work on the concept of compassion locally and globally. Also in 2008, Karen Armstrong, the British historian won the TEDx prize wherein she asked TED to help her create and launch a Charter for Compassion based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect. In November of 2009, the Charter was born, having grown from contributions of more than 150,000 people from 180 countries, crafted into a succinct, 312-word pledge. Today the work of the Charter is facilitated by the Compassionate Action Network within several sectors: business, cities, education, religion and with a strong growing interest in the health care industry.

At the heart of CAN is our work with partners. We are now over 200—collectively sharing the important work each does individually and with the end goal of partners helping partners build new collaborations. Partners have an opportunity to post information about their work on our website, through our Facebook Partner page, and through partner calls.

My role with CAN is directing the education sector and includes overseeing our primary
objectives of:

1. working with partners so that their work is more broadly known,
2. helping schools, colleges and universities explore compassionate status,
3. sharing research that demonstrates how practicing compassion leads to many benefits for the individual and ultimately for society as a whole—physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially; and
4. sharing the work of educators who are exploring innovative programs that challenge outmoded assumptions of human nature, and provide a new blueprint for creating a more compassionate world.

As Karen Armstrong wished in her TED talk, we want to reach every school and reacquaint ourselves, colleagues, students and parents with the importance of following through on the Golden Rule, rethinking civic responsibility, acting kindly towards others and being open to compassion.

Learn more about becoming a compassionate organization or school.

Follow the Charter and CAN on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Scoop. it!

A couple of years ago, prompted by my studies of Arnold and Huxley as well as the work of Professor Keri Facer, a former colleague and I asked the question to a 21st century audience: just what is the purpose of education? The results were many and varied but, interestingly, few (if any) defended the status quo. In particular, many teachers thought we don’t do a good enough job of treating children as individuals, as holistic people with hopes, interests, dreams and aspirations. Too often, they commented, we see them as means to an end: test results.

Tests, of course, can give us answers – but only if we’re looking for the right thing in the first place. The way that politicians tend to compare the education system in their own country with that of others is through the league tables published as a result of the PISA tests. These tests are taken by a sample of children from countries all around the world focusing on things like mathematical dexterity, verbal skills and logical reasoning. The countries that do well, such as Finland and Singapore, tend to be those that are relatively small in size with a reasonably homogenous culture. However, because PISA is the only measure politicians have to legitimate their educational policies, they tend to wield the results as a large stick to drive preconceived and ideologically-prompted changes.

It may surprise those who haven’t been paying attention to recent changes in education in England that we are on the road to privatising state education. Local authorities are slowly being abolished in favour of academies. These are schools that receive funding directly from the government, removing either a layer of bureaucracy or a method of collective bargaining, depending on your point of view. The remaining ‘legacy’ state schools are being forced to teach an increasingly reactionary and prescriptive curriculum. Academies are free to construct their own. 

There is no doubt about the direction of travel. Any individual deemed suitable by those in charge of an academy, qualified or not, can be a teacher. Teacher training happens on the job and both performance-related and ‘regional’ pay are being mooted in a thinly-disguised move to drive down teacher pay. There are suggestions that the education budget to state schools may not be ring-fenced next year and so could be cut in real terms. It looks increasingly as if Chomsky was correct: right-wing governments defund state education until it breaks under the strain. Private providers coming in and operating in a newly-created marketplace are then welcomed as saviours.

As a parent and as an educator, this concerns me. I believe education to be public good, as something that profits the children’s mind, body and soul – not as something that should lead to financial profit for large corporates. I want teachers to do things in the classroom with an eye on my children’s learning and development, not on making sure they can pass a performance review in order to meet their mortgage payments. 

Schools can, and probably should, be run in line with some business principles. But allowing schools to ‘go to the wall’ (as has been suggested in some quarters) because of the vagaries of the market sounds horrendous. Schools are place where human interactions should take place, not financial transactions. So, while we can (and should) debate at length what should be on the school curriculum, let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture. Education is not something to make some distant shareholders a quick buck. It’s about profiting the people who are going to inherit the earth: our children.

Flickr: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessicamullen/4431643843/]

The principal of the elementary school I attended as a little kid was obsessed with the baking-soda-and-vinegar-volcano “lab.” You know that activity– you spend a ton of time building a volcano out of clay (for best results, add little trees, dinosaurs, etc.), you dump baking soda and vinegar into the hole, and you get to make a mess. It was awesome, and resulted in years of colorful first-grade misconceptions about the chemical structure of lava. Obviously, the real “enduring understanding” of that lesson is supposed to be about chemical reactions: when you combine two substances you can sometimes end up with a very exciting new situation.

This spring, a small team of us at New Tech Network conducted a little volcano experiment of our own. We took two relatively familiar ingredients and combined them to develop and launch two fully online project-based learning courses, offered to students across our national network of innovative high schools. In each course, students were challenged to collaborate virtually with classmates around the country to solve authentic problems.

Flickr: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/25944494@N00/4194944679]

Student teams developed news reports to unpack and analyze unemployment data in their respective regions, planned and mapped sustainable school gardens for elementary schools in different climate zones, and designed and tested parachute prototypes for emergency disaster relief. Just like in our face-to-face schools, learning was driven by student need-to-knows and an authentic purpose, but all of the work was done online, using Echo, our learning management system. And just like in the volcano activity, combining these ingredients led to messy and exciting consequences– and lots of surprising and unexpected lessons.

I don’t want to sugar-coat this– none of us had ever done this before, and our staff, students and teachers struggled. Kids got frustrated when they couldn’t coordinate with teammates across time zones, teachers got discouraged when students’ virtual project presentations crashed and burned, and our national staff had many “how-the-heck-is-this-going-to-work” moments? But students also shared how much the courses taught them about working with people from different communities and using technology to collaborate. They commented about how the projects challenged them to manage their time and communicate problems and tasks really clearly– and how much these skills would benefit them in life beyond high school. Our teachers frequently reflected on the transformations taking place in their face-to-face classrooms as result of their experiences teaching PBL online.

This process has been bang-your-head-against-the-wall-frustrating and heart-exploding-exciting all at the same time. We all get to spend time exploring questions that feel entirely new: What does a developmental rubric for Virtual Teamwork look like? How do we help a 14-year-old develop the kinds of life and work skills that challenge us in our 30s and 40s? What can we learn from our pilot to make the experience better next year? How do we plan and innovate at the same time?

I’m excited about what we’ve learned from our first implementation, and am looking forward to continued learning and refinement in the years to come. I’m also incredibly grateful that this work has given me an opportunity to put on my Curious Second Grader Hat, and remember that new combinations of familiar ingredients can create all kinds of magic.

About the Author: Sarah supports New Tech Network’s team of digital facilitators in the design and development of project-based online courses for students. In 2011, Sarah joined New Tech Network as part of the Network’s virtual professional development initiative. Prior to joining New Tech, Sarah developed curriculum and professional development resources for Teachscape, Kaplan K12, Scholastic, WIDE World, Harvard Law School, and the Smithsonian Institution, and taught bilingual third and fourth grade on the Texas/Mexico border and in New York City. She holds a BA in American Studies and Spanish from Smith College, and an EdM in Technology, Innovation, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

In the beginning the app developer’s pool was made up of geeky parents with toddlers creating apps for their kids or computer engineers who were intrigued by the platform. Many of these early apps packed a lot of zing and sizzle in them. Since most of these early developers had fulltime jobs, they were in the app creation game as a lark or to show their children and friends what they could do for them – ie they were not in it for the money. The majority of the early apps were either free or sold for .99. But when there are only a few thousand apps in the store but millions of users, those who had a half-way decent app could make a really decent income out of lots of .99 purchases. Unfortunately this set the tone. App buyers began to expect cheap apps.

Roadblocks to Success

On July 11, 2008 there were roughly 500 apps available when the app store launched, just one year later, over there were over 55,000 apps. This January the number exceeded 800,000. But today’s developer faces a number of roadblocks on their way to winning the gold.

First off, no app store navigation is intuitive. It is a needle-in-the-haystack-hunt at best and even then, one often does not get the same search results as doing the same actions the day before. There is no internal organization that mirrors how educational content is found and used. The only organization a teacher can use is a search connected to any of the ten keywords that a developer is able to identify. How much easier it would be if the developer was able to note at posting whether their app was preschool, elementary, intermediate or secondary and then checked the content area the app supported.  As it is now, it is impossible for a teacher to find a book app appropriate for a third-grade reader. The current process also leaves developers with the task of doing all the marketing to try and direct potential users towards their app.

All developers using the Apple app store must use Apple’s Software Development Kit (SDK) and all apps must go through Apple’s approval process.  This is OK for quality but bad for innovation. There is no way to incorporate, much less discuss alternative deployment methods or to suggest new ways to do things. All developers must execute everything about their app in the sanctioned Apple way. When developers try new ways, Apple rejects the app and more often than not, provides little information why the app is rejected and no phone number to discuss alternatives. Developers are left to go back to the “way it was done before.”

In addition, consumers have grown to expect an app price of free, or at the very most $2.99.  This pricing structure makes it very hard for a developer to take a risk and do something innovative and new with the technology as it gives them little room to get a return on their investment. As an example, the very creative book, Pedlar Lady, took advantage of the accelerometer built into the iPad greatly increasing its engagement factor. It was released at $7.99 – still way below what the book would be in a print form. Today, it has been reduced to $3.99 to better meet app buyer’s expectations.

What is the Future?

Recent discussions with some app publishers confirm they have slowed down the number of apps they are producing and are rethinking their app strategy.  Where many of the app developers started off producing multiple apps, each employing and testing different capabilities, they have since learned that following a plan of picking one way to a execute an app and just varying the content is the only way they can now get a return on their investment. The low or no cost culture does not support the costs of creating cutting edge technologies within the app and certainly has no room for adding multiple technologies. They add that there are just too many apps and with its poor navigation users just cannot find their app to enable a purchase.

I predict we will see increasing stagnancy in app innovation within the education app pool. If app purchasers become willing to pay more than $2.99 to get apps with cutting edge elements and high-end content, if app store personnel open more pathways that allow app developers stronger communication lines so they can proffer their own ideas for growth and innovation and if app stores took a look at their organizational structure and do a better job of making it easier to navigate; then perhaps some of the education app developers will start taking risks again. One of the beauties of technology is that it has the ability to invite full incorporation of innovation. Let’s not let human intervention accidently close that door.

In my current position with Illinois Computing Educators, I am fortunate to come into contact with many wonderful leaders of schools, school districts, associations and other organizations.  Most of the time, my first conversation with those I meet consists of explaining to each other what we do and a bit about our respective organizations.  Almost always, I learn an amazing amount about their organizations in these brief conversations; their organizational culture and values are revealed in the projects and accomplishments they enthusiastically and joyfully share.   Some of these new contacts are informal or emerging leaders, without positional power in their organizations, though they are making things happen and are influential nonetheless.   Whether emerging or established, these leaders share the ability to tap into organizational qualities, practices and traditions and retell them as a narrative or story that rings true to those both within and outside the organization.  This story provides a shared identity, source of pride and recognition for both individuals and the group as a whole.   If the prevailing narrative is negative, disjointed, or cannot be pieced together because there is no cohesion within an organization, the school or organization is sorely in need of a Storyteller-in-Chief.  Vision setting, reaching consensus on shared values and commitments, and monitoring the implementation and practice of these agreements is really building the “story” of the organization, a shared narrative that gives ownership and meaning to the work they do.

At our recent conference, ICE 2013, the importance of storytelling was a common theme for many of our speakers.   Whether described as student voice, agency, or empowerment, our keynote and spotlight speakers shared powerful examples of the learning that occurs when students create, communicate, collaborate and demonstrate their learning by publishing ideas that make things happen in the “real” adult world.   I learned about WOW projects that are “worthy of the world,” and saw example after example of how student ideas and actions made a difference from funding a library in an African school to improving the quality of school lunches in the United Kingdom.  While these examples are not necessarily commonplace, they are multiplying and they provide a glimpse of what is possible when the right combination of creative freedom and skilled support intersect in a student’s life.  Powered by technology and a myriad of online self-publishing tools, video and image editing tools and social media, the possibilities are truly boundless. 

These boundless possibilities pose both a blessing and a burden for today’s educational leaders.  How can we begin to empower our students to be worthy of the world if we do not use the available tools to promote and fund the kind of programs and resources required to facilitate students as contributing global citizens?  It’s no longer adequate to simply have a compelling organizational story; today’s Storytellers-in-Chief must also be skilled in promoting and sharing their stories so that they reach local and even global audiences.  In a recent blog post, Daniel M. Russell, Google’s “anthropologist of search” ponders the question, What does it mean to be literate?  He introduces the idea of metaliteracy, or knowing how to be literate about your own literacy. 

Metaliteracy becomes critical in a world with new media genres emerging rapidly and continually.  Russell describes a new digital book, Our Choice, from PushPopPress as a “wonderfully genre-bending thing that has interactive graphics, embedded videos, and text that weaves through and with all the media.  “Reading” this kind of text is very different than traditional reading—you turn the “page” with a swipe gesture, but go “into subsections” with a pinch-expand gesture.  What was once a footnote is now an animation of how geothermal works, or an interactive visualization of wind energy resources.   Audio isn’t just layered on, it’s integral to the work.”  This is a far cry from the books any of us experienced in our learning to read days, so learning to read becomes our life’s work.

And so we enter this world of metaliteracy, knowing that this is the logical extension of the idea of “life-long learning” that is written into so many of our mission statements.   While it may be daunting to think that learning to read can no longer be a goal accomplished and checked off of one’s list, this is where connecting becomes truly important.  Those narratives others share about their organizations’ accomplishments are worth probing.  Why did they decide on their particular device of choice for their 1:1 implementation?  How are they using tablets as creation tools rather than as digital worksheets?  What policies did they implement to provide students with publishing and online collaboration opportunities?  Which new tools and resources are they finding most promising for use with students?

This probing is not limited to colleagues we have actually met in person.  I would not have known about Dan Russell’s literacy blog post without my Twitter PLN (Personal Learning Network); it was a link in a tweet from Andrea Hernandez, @edtechworkshop.  Until just now, I did not even follow Andrea on Twitter, but she has been retweeted by @AngelaMaiers, @LeydenASCI, @coolcatteacher, and @langwitches, among others.   My PLN has once again connected me to an important post that has helped me articulate my thoughts for this piece.  My PLN is loaded with amazing Storytellers-in-Chief.  I followed Wes Fryer, @wfryer, and Scott McLeod, @mcleod, for years before I heard them speak at ICE last month.  I am delighted to be able to keep up with Pam Allyn, @pamallyn, now that I have had the opportunity to learn about her work.  I felt like I was part of recent MACUL and GAFE events by watching the event hashtags during presentations by Kevin Honeycutt and Jim Sills, though I was working at home or at the ICE Office during these sessions.  I am “connecting” today in ways that Rosemarie and I could not have imagined in 2002, which is really just a smidge over a decade ago.  How will we be able to connect a decade from now?  You must first connect.

In a recent online presentation for the TICAL Leadership Summit, I talked about my vision for leadership in a future that is global. Let me share some of these thoughts here. In many respects this is not a post that has all of the answers – but it does ask many of the questions, and shares these with the encouragement that you, the reader, also ask these questions across your school and with your school administration.

The future of learning is global and ‘flat’, or you may prefer to think of it as ‘connected’. The future of learning is now! We use technology to flatten the classroom walls to bring the outside world in and to open the classroom to the world. Opportunities for discovery, engagement, and more importantly collaboration and co-creation with others not in the same physical space now connects learners across the world and impacts the context in which they learn. An essential recipe to flatten the classroom and go global includes connected learning, citizenship (digital) with a splash of global competency and collaboration (but must include co-creation). What is the essential recipe for school leadership to support this?

The ISTE NETS standards for both school administrators and for technology coaches are a good starting point here, especially with ‘Visionary Leadership’ as their first standard. Words such as  ‘..inspire and lead development and implementation of a shared vision…’ and ‘….support transformation throughout the organization…’ in conjunction with being advocates at all levels for appropriate funding and support. Carefully chosen, powerful words – but how do we make sense of this, and how does this relate to the synergies and relationships within a school or learning community? The NETS.A standards also list Digital Citizenship where leaders should ‘model and facilitate understanding of social, ethical and legal issues and responsibilities related to an evolving digital culture’, indicating a need for leaders today to have more than an understanding of digital tools but be able to lead and model for effect as well.

Given learning communities come to a shared vision of what it is they want to be, and where they want to go, how is this vision then implemented? How do we allow students and teachers to find their own voice and take charge of their own learning? How do we promote a culture of sharing and learning? Do leaders have the courage to do this? Is change considered a normal process? Are leaders and schools seduced by the mission of technology and ignore/avoid the deeper learning opportunities?

It is time for a new paradigm for educational leadership. Online learning communities are now leveling the playing field to advantage learners. Leadership therefore must address school revitalization in a digital world, teachers as providers of new forms of leadership in schools and communities, and support for the ‘teacherpreneur’ needs to emerge.

A teacherpreneur is, ‘A teacher who sees an opportunity to make a profitable learning experience for students through the forging of partnerships with other classrooms with common curricular goals and expectations’, and ‘The teacherpreneur accepts the responsibility and risks for the endeavor and is accountable for the outcome.’ (Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds, pg 44). Teacherpreneurs blaze new trails using emerging technologies and connection and collaboration strategies. A teacherpreneur is a champion for change and a realizer of the vision, knows how to use social media and new publication methods to network and share, is a researcher, a networker, an online community builder, innovates from within, and models pedagogical excellence. They have the ability and in fact do exercise new and dynamic leadership in schools, thereby enhancing the possibility of social reform. Leadership by school teacherpreneurs can be described as a 3-step process: 1) The teacher gets an idea for learning, 2) Excitement is fostered amongst other teachers, 3) A group of teachers then come together to do something significant (and probably new) – this can be local and/or global in concept and implementation.

School leaders can foster the teacherpreneur leader by encouraging customization of learning experiences to local standards while being flexible to embrace the world; supporting innovation and encouraging pedagogical excellence; encouraging an agile curriculum; equipping teachers to investigate new global relationships and design solutions. The school leader needs to act as an enabler of teacher leadership and know when to step back. They need to make space for individual innovation and build on achievements to create a culture of success.

The model of Parallel Leadership (A form of distributed leadership researched by Frank Crowther – Developing Teacher Leaders, 2009) is seen as effective in terms of broadening responsibility within a learning community, promoting teacherpreneurship and encouraging diversity. It is also a leadership style that will effectively allow a learning community to look for new pedagogical models to support flat learning in a local and global context. Parallel leadership has three distinctive qualities: mutual trust; shared purpose; and allowance for individual expression. I encourage you to explore this real life example of enlightened and distributed school leadership by Showk Badat, Principal at Essa Academy, UK.  

What do others think about leadership models? In his blog post, Leadership in Time of Change, Brad stated, ‘Good leaders don’t take the lead. They give it.’ By doing this they build capacity and trust for times of change. In terms of being a ‘change leader’ Tony Wagner talks about teachers needing time to learn and to collaborate and leaders needing to take risks, ‘Managers do not take risks. Leaders do. They model the behaviors of learning, collaboration, effective teaching, and risk taking that they expect of their teachers.’ I especially like the way Sylvia Martinez, blogging about future school leaders, talks about supporting student leadership, and in fact listening to the student voice in a more collaborative and on-going capacity (rather than the token student panel – yes!), ‘When students aren’t included in the effort to improve education, we lose more than their technical know-how; we lose the opportunity to shape the leaders of tomorrow.’ 

In summary, in order to implement a pedagogy that provides ‘flat’ connected learning, sustained global experiences, and rich learning outcomes for all stakeholders, we need a certain approach to leadership in education. We need leaders who understand the advantages of connectivism in a global context, who understand how to harness the technology and who understand how to support teacherpreneurs to achieve this.

“Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.” —Vince Lombardi

Was I born with the propensity to lead or was it thrust upon me? I wasn’t always a leader and I don’t always choose to lead. I think my ability to lead has always come out of necessity. Regardless of the problem or issue, if I felt that something might be better achieved in a more effective and efficient way with greater positive impacts, I would first analyse the problem from the inside out. I would research the needs and then work towards possible solutions. This was the case with the various committees’ work and leadership roles I took within my school and when I decided to create Education Beyond Borders (EBB).

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.

—Marian Anderson

After direct observations and talking to education stakeholders in various emerging countries, the prevalent thought by the education “authorities” was that the teachers were to blame for the abysmal results. The consequence over time has been a push to a user pay system of well-equipped and staffed private schools leaving the majority of the student population in these countries with no access to or hope for a better education. So it became important to find a way to not only improve the delivery of quality education to all, but to prove to the powers to be that the blame lies with the system itself and that teachers needed to be empowered to be the solution.

Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems. —Brian Tracy

I vividly recall the first time we met with the teachers in Kenya. Our first workshop was to connect with our colleagues through a carousel activity that reflected on the issues facing teachers. Not only did we build trust and camaraderie through our shared concerns and hopes, but it soon became very clear that the system had so oppressed these teachers that the only change they envisioned had to come from the “authorities” in the government offices. The goal became to build vision and the confidence with the teachers to see that the solutions lay within their own collaborations and expertise and not with the people and resources that remained so far away and rarely made it to where they were needed.

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish. —Sam Walton

When I reflect on the creation and implementation of our peer-led and augmented teacher professional development model, I can most certainly say that the success and the sustainability of this program can be attributed to a foundation that is built on trusting relationships and shared vision for the delivery of quality education. In collaboration, we were able to articulate not only where we wanted to go and how, but more importantly why. Our train-the-trainer model aims to develop teachers into community leaders and facilitators of workshops on student-centred methodologies and global issues. The strength lies in honest and open discussions, and the ability of peers building the confidence of each other to affect positive change in their education system.

Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing. —Mary D. Poole

Our work is extremely collaborative, working shoulder to shoulder as we mentor and engage in dialogue with all stakeholders. It is the only way to engender change especially in education. When the people that are impacted the most (students, teachers, parents, administration) are the ones that are part of the design, change will happen because there is ownership.

I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

—Ralph Nader

Every year within the life cycle of each program (4 to 5 years), we leave a growing number of teacher leaders in their communities who continuing to share, collaborate, mentor and empower. Due to the nature of our train-the-trainer approach, the number and reach grows exponentially.

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. —Harvey Firestone

When I look at what has made our work successful, it would be that I chose a shared leadership style. I wanted this organization to be organic in nature—to grow and improve with the people and collaborations that fueled it. That is why we are enjoying an almost 100% return rate for volunteer facilitators and why teachers, who live and work in a hand-to-mouth environment, choose to volunteer to be facilitators and coordinators of a model they helped to build.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. —Bill Gates

Teachers who before felt hopeless in their work are now leading their professional learning networks at the local, district and country level. Besides the numerous teachers who are now trainers and community leaders, one of the teachers, Moses, from our first workshop in 2008 is now the country coordinator for Kenya. He went from never having a professional development opportunity in his teaching career to being a role model and leader for his peers, hosting stakeholder meetings and guiding district educational officers along a path for improvements for teaching and learning.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. —Lao Tzu

We have seen disillusioned teachers become articulate facilitators and leaders in their community. We have witnessed a growing confidence and exciting collegial debates with authorities regarding educational reform. More importantly, it is through their commitment, efforts and collaborations with stakeholders that there have been many reports of improved performance and highly exciting learning environments led by teachers with a renewed motivation.

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the only means. —Albert Einstein

Motivated teachers will inspire their students.  Teachers by their nature are leaders. Good or bad, we all need to realise that, through our actions, we will be setting an example for the next set of leaders to come.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. —John F. Kennedy

It is important that we are honest with others and ourselves and know that one person alone cannot affect the change we are talking about. Alone we do not have all the answers. There is a growing network of global educators out there and there are many who are all saying the same thing. We need to educate ourselves on the issues and look beyond our classrooms at the system as a whole and not just on a local, regional or national level, but a global one. It was important for me to lead by listening and act through learning.

In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. —Eric Hoffer

Despite its crucial connection to economic and social development, teacher training is often uneven, protracted, or unsupported. In addition, teachers are rarely included in educational policy change or significant decision-making. Education is a huge global business and the ones pulling the strings are those that control the resources: the suppliers and vendors. I have witnessed educational authorities continue to make decisions with limited research and on the basis of the promises of salespeople. Or because their system has been so ingrained from decades of colonial influences that nothing short of a global reformation will initiate change.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. —Margaret Mead

So what will it take to affect change that will be the catalyst for global reformation of our education systems? Do we need to start small at the local level? (How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.) Or because we are really talking about education on a global scale, should we be looking at a more coordinated effort? One thought leader would not have the clout or the audience necessary to influence the many decision makers. What it will take is our collective leadership to be heard. This I call the “Horton hears a who” approach. We need to coordinate our voices so that we speak loudly as one.

Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach! —Rosabeth Moss Kantor

Looking back, here are the key points from my experiences in leading change in an educational setting:

• Lead with your ears and eyes, not your mouth;
• Those most impacted by the change need to be involved in designing and implementing the vehicle for change;
• Acknowledge your limitations and fully understand the challenges in your way and how best to overcome them. Don’t be naïve to think you are the only one on the “right” path or that you can do it all by yourself;
• Important change needs to be sustained. This is achieved through having a shared vision and rationale. Collectively examine whether change is necessary and why;
• Involve many stakeholders and take in many perspectives; and
• Always seek to empower.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. —John Quincy Adams

A priority for the district is to have sustainable technology use throughout the classrooms. The model we use in our schools is the Instructional Technology Integrator, a teacher, at each level K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Each integrator is on the building leadership team and is part of the conversation for leading change in the district. They meet individually on a monthly basis with the building principal and monthly as a team with the superintendent. The team of integrators meets weekly. Strategies for long term use and ongoing professional development is part of this planning.

The integrators are available to teachers and students. They model and promote the use of technology. Part of the job is to work side by side with teachers in their classrooms. If a teacher is teaching a lesson that incorporates technology, the integrator can be there to assist the lesson, help troubleshoot, and help with publishing student work. The integrator can also be scheduled to work with a group of students. Their schedule is fluid and dynamic. They also identifies students and teachers that can promote technology use in the building.

Strategies for Sustainable technology use in all grades:

1. Differentiate – When professional development opportunities are offered, we make sure that we differentiate for our teacher learners as we would with students. Understanding the need for multiple instructional strategies has been key to our success. Students are always a part of the teaching team and are invaluable for helping a teacher plan a project as well as assist with technology issues that arise.
2. Summer Technology class – We offer a 3 credit class (good within the district only) for any teacher in the district. A principal can recommend the course to a teacher and all new staff must take it within 2 years of starting. It meets for 3 days in the summer and 2 Saturdays in the fall. At the start, they choose learning some new tools on their own or with an instructor. Next, an idea for a lesson or unit that will be implemented in the fall is developed. The teachers continue working on that project over the summer, keeping a journal of their progress and doing assigned reading. For the last 2 years we have supplemented the class with the books Teaching the iGeneration and Playing With Media. In the fall the class meets for support and help. Students are helpers and project testers. On the last day of class we share. This is a tremendous way for teachers to learn what others have been working on in class, and leave with a whole new set of teacher tested ideas. Everyone sees a wealth of opportunities, and has support from the group to implement them.
3. Professional Development Days –  For the past few years, we have offered a full day of technology professional development. One example was to assist K-12 staff in the transition to Google Apps for Education. Another year, we focused on learning more about using media in the classroom. The technology integrators created and ran the days as full day conferences. We gave lots of choice for sessions. Students assisted and we made sure to offer lunch so that people could cross pollinate and share their learning.
4. Time and support – During each professional development session we make sure that we build in time to work and support for our learners. Time to work can be in a classroom that is designated for people to get together and learn a new skill, or it can be teachers working on their own. The technology integrators and students are available for support. Often we set up a space in the library like a help desk so teachers who work on their own can come and get assistance.
5. Feedback – We always do an exit slip at the end of any professional development so that the integrators can improve and get suggestions of who may need follow up help after the PD day. We also ask what sessions people chose, and what they did on their own time.
6. Model – When a new tool comes out that we think is valuable, or that another teacher finds works well in the classroom, we share it publicly or model it in a meeting. When Google Forms first came out, the principal at the high school was quick to use it in his practice of collecting survey data. He modeled how he set it up and how easy it was to use during a faculty meeting.
7. Choose a theme for the year – Choosing a theme for technology learning helps focus the work. Last year was playing with media. This year is publishing student work. It helps that everyone is learning around a common language and ideas.
8. Tight/Loose – All teachers in our district have to have a web page so that they can communicate with parents. In grades 5 – 12, they have the same style of home page, a Google Site with their contact information on the left side. They must have homework published on it. But while they can use that as their class web page, they don’t have to. If they are already working in a wikispace or blog, they can link to it from their teacher page. This gives teachers ownership and honors the choice they made for the tool.
9. Encourage teachers to present – If a teacher has some exemplary work to share, the integrators often encourage him/her to share either during a school professional development day or at the State Technology conference.  These folks often become another go to person in the building and promote new models of instruction.
10. Lead Learners – This year, we are trying a model that we learned about at EdCamp Maine. Teachers applied for the opportunity to be a lead learner for their building. We meet monthly and share strategies and apps for good classroom practice with technology. Each lead learner was given an iPad to try. We are working out the process for them to help us teach the the summer class.
11. Digital Citizenship – We build in as many opportunities as we can to promote positive Digital Citizenship. It starts with the teachers modeling for their students and the older students modeling for the younger students.
12. School Climate – We have worked hard to build a positive school climate where we work in collaborative learning teams. Setting up the conditions for positive risk taking and honoring work time and choice has helped to promote exciting new opportunities for learning.

Technology use in the classroom is one of our district’s priorities. We have found that we need to offer more professional development, not less, the longer technology is used to support learning. We have many visitors come to see our “laptop program” but what they actually see is schools with a culture of using technology to support quality teaching and learning.

But in a decade the United States could face a shortage of one million STEM graduates. The nation’s economic vitality hangs in the balance.

A major barrier to graduating more STEM majors is the way we teach these disciplines. My own personal experience is a good example. Until sixth grade, I was not good in math. This was partly due to the poor pedagogy and some teachers who were not able to contextualize the material to make learning fun and enjoyable.

Many decades later when I think of my math teacher in fourth and fifth grades, he embodied the angel of death. Going to class was unpleasant, and taking exams was a horrible experience. Consequently, my grades were mediocre at best.

When I began sixth grade, we had a new teacher who made math really fun. He was successful in changing my attitude toward math. Not only did I develop a deep interest and appreciation for the subject matter, but my grades dramatically improved. Most important, that enjoyment of a STEM subject has continued throughout my life. That is why I have an incandescent passion for this issue. It was only that chance of having a different teacher that changed the course of my academic career and, more than likely, the trajectory of many professional opportunities.

Making STEM Topics Relevant

It is unfortunate that in the current zeitgeist we have implicitly accepted child obesity, diabetes, and poor math performance as “a new normal.” We need to increase the number of students we graduate in STEM by focusing on participation of underrepresented populations, like women and minorities, and by teaching STEM in new ways that engage students.

The prerequisite for accomplishing this mandate requires a significant improvement in the math competency of all students, but especially for women and students from underserved communities. We have to make the learning social, contextual, and relevant for these students. New instructional methodologies and innovative use of technologies can be a major tool in accomplishing this mandate.

Flipped classes and blended learning, where students watch online videos offered through companies like EdX and then participate in classroom discussion, are one way to use technology in higher education. Such a blended model helps students learn at their own pace before coming to the class and creates more peer-to-peer learning opportunities.

Fixing a Broken Funding Model

Another factor is contributing to the lack of STEM graduates: the poor funding model for higher education.

Affordable higher education is becoming available to fewer people. Research from the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education shows an alarming trend of dramatically diminished state support for public higher education. Our public universities and colleges have increased tuition and fees and reduced administrative costs, but these efforts are not enough.

Finding new ways to reduce costs requires radical thinking. There are untapped sources that can yield significant savings while also increasing access to higher education. Unlike most other industries, higher education has not taken advantage of technology to reduce costs. Certainly, there has been discussion in the media and on campuses across the country about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offered through companies like EdX, Udacity, and Coursera, but public higher education needs to take technology to the next level.

In addition, the inefficiency of transferring credits from one university to another costs the nation an estimated $30 billion annually. An overwhelmingly large number of students attend more than one institution, and they often lose some of their credits in the process. Due to the cottage industry nature of higher education, every institution believes its set of courses—even introductory, lower-division courses—must be unique.

On average, students in who attend a community college and transfer to a four-year college complete 154 semester credits, while only 120 are needed for most majors. Students end up accumulating one year of additional schooling while pursuing a bachelor’s degree, which is clearly a waste of valuable time and money—an estimated $30 billion a year.

Imagination and Innovation is the Solution

Public higher education can do better. Let’s start now by consolidating, redesigning, and standardizing 25 to 40 introductory, lower-division courses across institutions and making them available to everyone online. Entrepreneurs and academics must partner to develop ways to assess learning online. And public colleges, universities, businesses, and community members must work together to innovate.

I said at the beginning of this blog that 5 out of 8 new jobs and 8 out of the 10 highest paying positions in the United States will be in STEM-related careers. So, shouldn’t common sense tell us that if we have daughters and sons, nieces and nephews, or other young loved ones, we should encourage them to attain STEM competency so they have a higher chance of a successful career ahead? Each and every one of us can make a difference in this regard.

We must increase the nation’s graduation rates, particularly in STEM fields, if the United States is to continue competing globally. Advances in technology, the expansion of online learning, and the needs and expectations of today’s tech-savvy students make now the time to embrace the changing role of colleges and universities. Our imaginations can shape a new reality for higher education.

Learn more at the Cisco Virtual Education Forum for Leader on March 19 http://bit.ly/ZNK0xZ

Read more about Education leadership at www.GETideas.org

It would be difficult to find a part of our society more in need of change than the education system.  Most classrooms today are mirror images of those from the 19th and 20th centuries; students are walking into the same school buildings and taking the same classes as their ancestors did more than 100 years ago.  It is time for a different approach.  At the top of the list of educational processes in need of a reboot is the way in which students progress through the educational system.

With robust educational standards like the Common Core here in the United States, it no longer makes sense for students to travel through the education system in cohorts reductively defined by age. Standards are now available which outline skills and knowledge that a student can be assessed for irrespective of age. Schools should be able to determine where a student is in relation to these standards and design a personalized educational path for that student that builds on their strengths and challenges their weaknesses. 

The assembly line approach to education stunts academic growth and keeps students from getting the personalized education that they deserve. The idea that 25 unique students are forced to sit in a classroom, receive the same lesson and are expected to demonstrate mastery in the exact same way is preposterous. 

Fortunately, with the emergence of blended learning content tools that adapt to student performance and the spread of affordable computers, it is becoming possible for teachers to meet the individual needs of the students in their classrooms. By combining the power of great educators and powerful technology tools, schools can rethink what teaching and learning looks like in their schools.

Similar to the university system where students are presented with a menu of classes that fit their individualized needs, schools can take a similar approach by replacing the antiquated A-F system with a badge system that reflects the attainment of specific learning milestones and permits individualized learning paces.  Schools can outline the badges a student needs to earn and students are able to earn them at their own pace. Rather than expecting each student to master each lesson on the exact same day, schools can develop a learning community where students are thought of as individual learners and not simply age-based cohorts. Like in the university system, there should be a basic set of badges that each student needs to earn before they complete a given curriculum, but they should also be allowed to take a variety of classes outside of the core curriculum. 

Due to budget constraints and other factors, schools only offer a few classes outside of the “core” curriculum. In many schools optional courses are so limited that calling them electives is simply inaccurate–every student in the building is taking the same set. Because state budgets are not likely to change any time in the near future, I’m proposing another approach to providing students with the variety of learning choices they deserve.   Summer camps, reading clubs, trips to museums, community science fairs, etc. all fall outside of the formal education system but are hugely valuable educational experiences.  Transitioning to a badge-based system will allow institutions that offer educational experiences to play a formal role in the education process. In such a system, students would be able to gather their badges from a variety of sources and teachers would be able to leverage the numerous educational resources in their communities.

State-required badges might be earned at the school itself while “elective” badges could be earned through a variety of online and community experiences. Importantly, such a system would allow students to nurture their passions and truly have a personalized educational experience.

Big change takes time. A transition to a system based on badges rather than grades like I’ve described starts with creating tools that empower teachers to implement badging systems in their classrooms.  We created ClassBadges so that teachers can experience the power of badges in their classes firsthand.  Our hope is to help move education forward by starting a conversation at the ground level — with a useful tool right in the classroom. We can talk all day on the web and at conferences about innovative solutions, but if these changes don’t make it into the classroom it is all for naught.