Scaling Innovations in Teaching New Literacies

Scaling Innovations in Teaching New Literacies

Justin Reich

Doctoral Student, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Co-Director, EdTechTeacher.org

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My Background• Project Manager of the Digital Collaborative

Learning Communities Project– K-12 Classroom wiki study: 179,851 wiki and usage

statistics, 70 teacher interviews, nearly 40 student focus groups, observations in MA, NH, CT, VA, GA, CA

• Doctoral student at Harvard Ed School• Co-Director EdTechTeacher.org• Former social studies teacher in 1-1 classroom

Cycle of Experiment and Experience

Fear - Growth+

Institutional Capacity+

Experiment

Review (Experience)Plan

Experience

Plan

Experiment

Teacher Leaders:

Leading Innovatio

n

Teacher Leaders:

Generate Demand

Who has the most impact on teacher

practice?

Elements Supportive of a Culture of Experiment and Experience

• “Skunkworks” of experimentation• Public recognition and teaching opportunities for

innovators; ongoing PD for everyone• Increasing the supply of technology• Administrative support of innovation• Family/Community communication and involvement• Managed approach to Internet safety

Levels of Technology Integration• Adoption

– “Look, I can save my personal files to the cloud!”

• Adaptation– “Look, I can grade drafts of my students’

assignment in Google Docs!”

• Innovation– “Look, I can have my students co-construct a

writing assignment, and then evaluate their collaboration with the revision history!”

Elements Supportive of a Culture of Experiment and Experience

• “Skunkworks” of experimentation– Support small teacher cohorts of

innovators• Planning time• Professional development• Pats on the back

– Empowering Teacher Leaders:A Cohort Model of Professional Development

Elements Supportive of a Culture of Experiment and Experience

• Public recognition and teaching opportunities for innovators– Appreciate recognition in public and private– Grow the Skunkworks by giving teacher-leaders

opportunities to teach and lead

• Ongoing, job-embedded, teacher-led professional development for all adults– Watertown TIP Program– Technology literacy, Media literacy, Internet safety

Elements Supportive of a Culture of Experiment and Experience

• Administrative support of innovation– Support for experimentation/innovation from principals

and superintendents• Accountability for progress towards shared learning goals

– Innovation support from IT• Support for curricular innovations

– Curriculum support from Department Heads, Coaches, Specialists

• Common planning time

– Technology committee, with diverse stakeholders, to retain institutional knowledge

Elements Supportive of a Culture of Experiment and Experience

• Family/Community communication and involvement– Communicate early and often– Contract early– Involve in online dialogue

• Increase the supply of technology– Build community support, make the case for

new literacies– Use competitive structures where eventually

everyone wins

Elements Supportive of a Culture of Experiment and Experience

• Managed approach to Internet safety– Cultivation of personal responsibility

from teachers and students• Student trust with clear accountability• Push filter controls as close to teachers as

possible

– Integrated e-safety instruction• Media literacy• Digital citizenship• Make students responsible for one another

OFSTED Report• Ofsted inspectors visited 33 primary and secondary

schools, a special school and a pupil referral unit and found e-safety was outstanding in five, good in 16, satisfactory in 13 and inadequate in one.

• Blocking pupils' access to unsuitable websites does not encourage them to take responsibility for their safety online, Ofsted inspectors say.

• "Managed" online systems were more successful than "locked" ones at safeguarding pupils' safety, they said.

• Where the provision for e-safety was outstanding, the schools had managed rather than locked down systems

Full Report

Cycle of Experiment and Experience

Fear - Growth+

Institutional Capacity+

Experiment

Review (Experience)Plan

Thoughts?

Visit us at EdTechTeacher.org!justin@edtechteacher.orgtom@edtechteacher.org