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?