Every great endeavor begins with an idea, an attempt, and regrettably, some failures. Every blue moon, something great happens. You can call it a chance, luck, or destiny. It begins as an accomplishment, but it grows far bigger than you ever hoped. I am lucky to be in a district that desires "to create a different and better culture defined by actual outcomes aligned with improvement" (Sheninger, 2019, p. 208). My idea was to negotiate a school contract with Newsela. Newsela is an application that provides differentiated instruction by distributing assignments at an individual student's reading level. I feel I must say, my administrator values teacher input toward technology purchases. This fact stands in the face of research suggesting "very limited teacher involvement in the procurement of educational products" (Morrison, et al., 2019, p. 391). This ability to individualize instruction to each student is at the heart of using technology to elevate student comprehension and engagement. As with everyone during the pandemic, things did not go as planned. Our contract negotiation went smoothly, and the customer service from Newsela was superior, to say the least. The ability to utilize Newsela for cross-curriculum instruction was my dream. The idea that every educator across the district could benefit was beyond comprehension. Still, it is part of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) framework to "provide leadership in strategic alignment of technology" (Consortium for School Networking, 2018, p. 4). Try as I may, I still can't believe how things turned out.
We all know technology costs money, and budgeting for technology while in a pandemic is a challenge. Translation: we don't have money for that! The issue came from our implementation with Schoology for the 2020/2021 school year. Before COVID19, every school in the school district was relatively autonomous. My district's alignment with Schoology paired my school with a high school in the district. Yes, this is all on the networking side of things, but we were paired together nonetheless. When the time for implementation came, Newsela could only be deployed by the entire district or not at all.
Failure was imminent!
Thanks to possibly the greatest customer service ever, Newsela stepped up big! Newsela rolled out the implementation for the whole school district. One small step for technology in two schools became one huge leap for our school district. This became a district-wide "strategic alignment of technology" (Consortium for School Networking, 2018, p. 4). Now Newsela is an additional resource for every teacher in our district via the Schoology platform. We have it, now what? Remember, "because you purchase the latest technology doesn’t mean everyone will use it correctly or productively" (Sheninger, 2019, p. 256). What was going to be a little professional development, now stomps all over Tokyo!
Technology Coordinators Getting It Done!
I did not create the directive to increase technology integration in my school district, but it is a directive that I believe in wholeheartedly. Like many others during the pandemic, my school district rose like a phoenix to utilize technology quickly and effectively. We have an awesome I.T. department and Technology Coordinators in every school. I truly do not know what shape we would be in without these unsung heroes. Professional development continues, students and teachers still perform well, and we all wait for the next challenge. I can't help but think about the evaluation process of our using Newsela this year. Every school district knows "evaluation is essential to procurement, and most commonly entails pilot studies" (Morrison, et al., 2019, p. 409). Will we see the student gains we hope for? We can't purchase another year of Newsela without evaluating its ability to enhance student learning goals, outcomes, and achievement. Only time will tell, but I am hoping for the best. Until the next blog, drive straight into the educational technology of the future!
Our future is right in front of us!
References
Consortium for School Networking. (2018). Framework of Essential
Skills of the K-12 CTO. cosn.org.
https://www.cosn.org/sites/default/files/Framework%20December%202018.pdf
"Failure - Try again" by Tatiana12 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
"From Cash To Digital" by FamZoo is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Giphy. Deal With It Godzilla. https://giphy.com/gifs/deal-with-it-godzilla-d0SEajOmMna1i/embed
Giphy. Failure Mortal. https://giphy.com/gifs/failure-mortal-HKch5zpaH97ck/embed
Morrison, J. R., Ross, S. M., & Cheung, A. C. K. (2019). From
the market to the classroom: how ed-tech products are procured by school
districts interacting with vendors. Educational Technology Research &
Development, 67(2), 389–421. https://doi-org.ezproxy.montevallo.edu/10.1007/s11423-019-09649-4
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for
changing times (2 nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
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ReplyDeleteDarren,
ReplyDeleteThat’s amazing! I love the fact that instead of it ending with a loss for everyone that the entire district was able to benefit. It seems like teachers were inundated with programs this year. When teachers can see a good program in action, they will be more likely to use. Maybe it was even better received this year than it might have been in previous years. Sheninger (2019) posed the question, “Why do some educators resist change?” (p.29). I think it comes in not seeing the value of it or being provided with sufficient professional development. I would say that this year in particular that the value of quality educational programs was essential. Frazier and Hearrington (2017) discussed the value of technology coordinators in being well-versed in in implementing effective professional development. It sounds like your district has a great system in place!
References:
Frazier, M. & Hearrington, D. (2017). The technology coordinator’s handbook (3rd ed.). International Society for Technology in Education.
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times (2nd ed.). Corwin.
Darren,
ReplyDeleteI love this idea that you had and I think it is cool that you just went for it. It sounds like you had some hiccups along the way, but came out on top. Congratulations! I really enjoyed your thought process about how Newsela could help individualize instruction. I personally believe that more individualized instruction leads to greater student engagement. As Bond et al (2020) explain, “Student engagement is the energy and effort that students employ within their learning community, observable via any number of behavioral, cognitive or affective indicators across a continuum” (para. 5). When you are able to meet students where they are, I believe that leads to less behavioral issues and greater engagement from students. Using online resources to reach that goal has to become the new norm. Sheninger (2019) agrees, “For our learners, a big part of their world is now online in some way. Understanding these shifts is key to developing a culture of learning that best meets the needs of our students while showing value to stakeholders” (p. 4).
References
Bond, M., Bedenlier, S., Buntins, K., Kerres, M., & Zawacki-Richter, O. (2020). Facilitating student engagement in higher education through educational technology: A narra-tive systematic review in the field of education. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 20(2).
Sheninger, E. C. (2019). Digital leadership: changing paradigms for changing times (Second). A joint publication of Corwin ICLE.