District Leaders: Focus on Content First, Tech Second

“True teams are made when you put aside individual wants for collective good.”
– Chiney Ogwumike

Today I’m attending a professional conference hosted in our district and jointly organized by local school districts – North Shore School District 112, Township High School District 113, and our District, the Deerfield Public Schools – District 109; we also welcome our friends from the Bannockburn School District 106. At #TechCampNS, Tech Camp North Shore, we have an impressive collection of workshops, presentations, tools, messages, and professional camaraderie that strengthens our community and our communities as we educate all children PK-12th grades.

One of the main messages about our innovative future focus is that at the heart of all of our purpose is, has been, and will remain STUDENT LEARNING! We are fortunate to have an abundance of high quality devices and resources and it’s important to keep the human factor in content curation and it’s essential to keep the teacher-student relationship at the heart of our work!

I published the following information, related to the TechCampNS focus at http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2015/08/20/district-leaders-focus-on-content-first-tech-second/

Much has been written about districts and schools “going 1:1,” issuing tablets, computers, or other electronic devices to every student. As the quantity of devices in the hands of students grows, many leaders like me believe these changes cannot succeed without supporting transformative change in student learning experiences. Namely, I’d like to see a focus on content first, tech second. It is far more important to enhance learning via high quality content and instructional transformation than it is to simply replace a pencil with a tablet and hope for the best.

There are numerous recent blog posts in the wake of #pencilchat on Twitter, where educators and others discussed the popular “pencil analogy” regarding technology in the classroom. The points made (no pun intended) in this discussion are varied, but an important theme emerged that I feel warrants attention: simply putting a pencil in a child’s hand won’t make them a great writer. However, if you give a student a pencil coupled with powerful, meaningful content and exceptional instruction from an energized and committed educator—a great writer may just emerge. When that occurs, is it the pencil or the content that deserves the credit?

As Andrew Marcinek writes in his book, The 1:1 Roadmap Setting the Course for Innovation in Education: “Technology is more than just ‘Computer Class;’ it is a literacy that must be threaded throughout the fabric of a school. In a 1:1 environment, you’re preparing students to be responsible citizens of the physical and digital worlds. But it’s easy to get overwhelmed with devices; you have to have a plan for technology that keeps learning at center stage.”

Marcinek’s point regarding keeping the focus on learning cannot be lost in the rush to embrace ed tech as a panacea. Though I am a strong advocate for instructional change as the catalyst for a substantive change in student outcomes, content is as important as instruction in the classroom. Content is curriculum, content is resources that support curriculum, content is the “what” being taught in our classrooms.

device-tablet-2

In the recent era of No Child Left Behind, accountability has been “king.” Many who advocate for the Common Core State Standards or other Learning Standards believe content is “king.” I believe that transformative instruction combined with exceptional content is “king.”

In the 1:1 Transformative Learning Environment era, it is incumbent upon leaders to insist on a new instructional focus. One that is student-centered with supportive, rich, and dynamic content. We must also be certain we are teaching actual digital content, rather than merely digitized content. Simply taking a standard textbook and making it available as a PDF is not digital content—it will not transform our schools or help students achieve.

True digital content is accessible on the myriad device options in classrooms and supports progressive instructional practices that focus on the student as the driver. Digital content changes, updates, and links to real people and current events as they are happening. Textbooks are decades old in many places, making content outdated and stale. Tech books and truly digital content is updated, revised, refreshed, and real. This allows for and supports a concept of content rich and instructionally fresh approaches to learning.

These devices are often revolutionary. But a device does not magically create innovation, nor does a device magically increase student engagement. What we need are devices deployed in an environment rich with dynamic content and full of engaging instruction. Only then will we produce outstanding results. I see it every day and my aim is to support every classroom’s transformation into an engaging, motivating, challenging learning space for our nation’s most precious assets – our children!


lubelfeld_4About Mike Lubelfeld (on the Discovery Blog site)

Mike is a public school superintendent who believes in the writings and messages of Michael Fullan, Thomas Sergiovanni, John Maxwell, and others in the field of leadership. They give clear guidance in areas of leadership like culture building, relationship building, servant leadership and effective change agency. Mike finds great value in both the boardroom and in the classroom as all decisions for his superintendency are based upon what’s best for students. Conscious of the impact on staff as well, his aim is to cause enough disruption as needed to move the “organization’s needle to the right” on its transition and transformation into becoming a highly disciplined school system whose focus is on excellence at all levels. The motto Engage, Inspire, Empower is alive and well in this superintendent.

Modern world is technology infused – Meet the needs of all learners

“The best kids are going to become the best. But the best thing about it is that you’re going to learn lessons in playing those sports about winning and losing and teamwork and teammates and arguments and everything else that are going to affect you positively for the rest of your life.”
-Carl Lewis

From time to time people ask “why did you go 1:1?”, or “what are the students getting out of all of this technology?”, or “what is our return on investment (ROI)?”. For me and educational leaders all over the world there are many reasons. I have been a champion of and for individualized expression and differentiated learning since I set foot in my first 8th grade social studies classroom in 1993. With the U.S. History Workshop instructional model students had guided practice, options in assessment, consistent expectations – high expectations for all – and we brought history alive so to speak. An amplifier for student learning was is and continues to be technology tools. Do you remember Netscape? I do – Do you remember HyperStudio>? – I do – Do you remember music/video clips to aid instruction (we still do with Discovery Education for example).

I’m proud to lead the 1:1 transformative learning movement in Deerfield with the outstanding leaders and teachers with whom I work every day because our students – like all students – deserve a world class education and learning environment.

Though I’m somewhat conservative in many ways, as a leader my record shows that more often than not I challenge the norm. I read a lot as most educational leaders do, and I aim to engage, inspire, and empower each and every person with whom I work and interact. Thankfully the Board of Education at DPS109 “gets it” and supports that our change and transformation is part of the new normal that we are creating and more importantly we are allowing our students to create.

At a conference recently I was reminded of some deeply relevant and comprehensive studies conducted by Apple including their 1985-1997 longitudinal study of the “why” in terms of using technology tools to amplify and expand student learning opportunities and teacher pedagogical opportunities. In brief, as the speaker shared, the study found that engaged learners supported by great teachers learn more than disengaged learners with not so great teachers. A great deal of engagement is shown to take place when technology and personalization are infused in the learning environment. That is the environment I want in every classroom every day – ENGAGE, Inspire and Empower is our mission/vision/tag line. Engagement is key – excellence is key as well.

The speaker went on to share the key findings from their follow up study from Apple’s Classroom of Tomorrow Today – 2008-2010. Not surprisingly, findings included that student growth and learning is most impacted when the learning environment is: creative, relevant, collaborative, and challenging. High expectations and challenging learning exercises support learning and growth.

Especially in our new leadership experience in DPS109 we review, consider, analyze and refresh the dialogue about our Vision -Why does our institution exist?

Our institution (Public school district) exists so that teachers may teach and students may learn. In addition we exist to allow teachers to provide excellent personalized learning with the best and most effective and impactful methods, resources, plans, and partners. I want our teachers and students to stretch their abilities and growth beyond where they are – technology amplifies – technology tools transform – technology tools open doors that exist all around us and infuse our lives. The partnership of teachers, students, community in support of relevant, challenging and modern learning environments – these are cornerstones of our educational mission, vision, values and goals.

A hot topic is how to meet the needs of different learners in the same classroom. There are volumes of literature and research about this topic, for the purpose of the blog and for this post in particular, I share a term I learned at the leadership institute:

Targeted Pedagogy – (instead of personalized learning or differentiated instruction)

We contemplated a very realistic Personalized Learning Challenge – We consider a typical 5th grade classroom in “anytown” USA (or Canada, Australia, the UK, etc.). This is a classroom where one child is reading at 1st gr and one at 8th grade level, one is reading at the 12+ grade level. With 23 learners, in my opinion, teachers need technology tools to transform the learning experience so the “normal” class can target pedagogy to challenge and meet the needs to close gaps for all children regardless of their individual reading level and remediate 1st grade level. I’ve written about the vast resources our Board provides for our teachers in that we are starting to learn how to leverage individual learning paths based upon valid and reliable metrics so that students are reinforced and challenged for growth and new learning each and every day.

A challenge shared with us at the conference was to ask teachers to shed their rooms of their file cabinets … reach out into the future – not the past – to curate, create, collaborate, and construct learning environments where each and every child is taken from their point to points far beyond any limits.

Engage, Inspire, Empower

Superintendent growth and learning – Some Questions and Statements

No individual has any right to come into the world and go out of it without leaving behind him distinct and legitimate reasons for having passed through it.”
– George Washington Carver

People don’t really understand what a superintendent does … I can state with confidence that it is quite possibly the most rewarding “job”/”calling”/experience one can have. As the lead learner in the school district I am surrounded by amazing teachers every day. I’m surrounded by amazing administrators every day. I am surrounded by amazing students every day. And in Deerfield, I’m surrounded by an amazing community each and every day.

In our District we are so fortunate to have the latest and greatest training, support, working conditions, parent investment, and on and on and on. Often, as a superintendent, I lead through asking questions … some questions are shared in this post:

What is it all about in education?
Why do we devote our lives and professional mission to Engaging, Inspiring, and Empowering students, staff, and community?
Why do we support technology as an accelerator to enhance excellent pedagogy?
Which “OGY” should drive our work?
Do your students know how you learn?
Given pictures would you be able to clearly articulate which of those would look the most like 21st century/modern learning – learning we want to see in our own schools, communities and district?

In my opinion Pedagogy – that’s the OGY about which we focus on … The study of becoming a teacher … looking at the word origins (from WikiPedia): child – paidos, lead – ago

Pedagogy – to lead the child – LEADERSHIP is what it’s all about!

At a conference I recently attended, the presenter, Lance Rougeux from Discovery Education, shared the 5 top traits/skills desired from/by employers

-work in a team
-make decisions solve problems
-plan, organize, prioritize work
-communicate
-obtain and process information

I’m proud to report and share often – via Twitter (#Engage109) all of the amazing examples of modern learning from our teachers – teachers who are leaders – from our students – students who are leaders – and from our administrators – who are leaders!

As I close this blog post – hopefully you’ll reply to one or more of the questions with a comment or two – or three – I share a radio chat in which I was recently interviewed about a leadership program in which I am participating through the American Association of School Administrators – AASA.

National Superintendent Certification AASA and The SUPES Academy

Check Out Education Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with EduTalk on BlogTalkRadio