The Change: Recognizing Why the Educational Revolution is Happening Now

     A reporter called me the other day to ask about our 1:1 learning program. She was good at her job, or at least she new she had called the right person, because she definitely had me talking. She was exploring why so many districts were going one to one. In her world this just happened out of nowhere. As she had me in the conversation, she began to make connections between my perspective and other dialogues she already had. The reporter commented that their doesn't seem to be one boiler plate plan that districts are following. All of the sudden the cat was out of the bag for all to see. In an era of standardization through Common Core State Standards (pardon me, the New Illinois Learning Standards), PARCC Assessments, DLM's, and soon to come Value Added Measurement Evaluations, districts were not following the same plan for implementation for 1:1 and it was strikingly odd to both of us.
      The answer, was simple of course, as districts we have different students, different teachers, different school structures, and sometimes even different beliefs and values. Sure each of us believes (or should believe) that all children can grow. How we get there, well that's wide open for interpretation. The State and Federal governments have pushed out initiative after initiative the past few years. There have been mandates from the top that have happened so quickly that in the classroom one doesn't know if we are going right or left. In fact, many of us have decided to follow our second grade students and just say "left" then follow whatever direction the herd goes. I can envision my teachers eyes when I tell them in two weeks that Illinois is no longer following the Common Core State Standards but the New Illinois Learning Standards. I can see the frustration on their faces as I try to explain the substantial differences (nothing) and that they will be assessed in the same way with PARCC, which will be our 4th different state assessment in 4 years. You see, somewhere in all of this change, teachers decided that it was a whole lot of craziness and that they were going to focus on the only thing that mattered which was children learning and growing. In doing so, whether it is 1:1, classroom learning opportunities, our understanding children's needs teachers, principals, and some district leaders have decided to go to their core beliefs and values and focus solely on helping children learn and grow.
      Things are changing. For the past two months, like many district instructional leaders and technology directors in the Apple ecosystem I have been swallowed up by Apple's latest disruptive forces: student Apple Id's and Mobile Device Management. We've been quiet about it because our Chromebook colleagues are laughing hysterically in the corner as we have worked with countless families, students, and teachers to arduously deploy devices when those in the Google ecosystem simply blinked and the devices were employed. While it's a blog for a different time on the idea that the type of device matters, those of us in tablet ecosystems truly believe there are significant learning differences, none the less as leaders we have been trapped behind closed doors for two months trying to roll out the tools of learning. It is as Douglas Adams described:

"Yes, I passed your message on to Mr. Zarniwoop, be I'm afraid he's too cool to see you right now. He's on an intergalactic cruise..." "Yes, he's in his office, but he's on an intergalactic cruise. Thank you so much for calling." - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

While we are off on our intergalactic cruises, things were happening in the classrooms. Teachers were teaching. Kids were learning. Devices were rolling in and decisions were being made. It is here, like so often is the case, that teachers were identifying what it was that students needed and beginning to work collaboratively to make that happen. Friday, I got off the intergalactic cruise and left the office. I went out into the classroom world, met with some principals, and noticed that the summation of two years of work was simply happening. The world had changed and I had missed it.
        See, the biggest myth of the Common Core State Standards and PARCC is that children learn at the same rate and same common steps. Even the public relations videos promote children taking equal steps. That has never been the case and will only be the case if we stop certain children from learning. Moreover, teachers, principals, and district leaders will be evaluated by a growth model that requires them to push the children as far as they can go. Guess what, while teachers rightfully question the tools and process of growth model evaluation, they are absolutely willing to own the concept that it's there role to help children grow as much as possible. It's liberating as they are able to put down the grade level instructional binder and start to say what is it that our children need to know next.
        What I observed was teachers voraciously looking at the data. Not because we wanted them to, but because they wanted to see if where the children had been assessed digitally matched where they perceived the children to be and matched what they believed the children needed to learn next. No longer factory workers on the line of education, these teachers have been taking baby steps to become the instructional professionals that they signed up to be with the same diagnostic power and credentials of doctors and lawyers. They are working collaboratively to share students and create structures in which each student can grow. There are signs, not everywhere and not every moment, in which it's no longer 4th grade instruction, but students regardless of age at the 210 RIT Band are going to explore an idea.
       With this change teachers and principals need tools. They are selecting 1:1 tools that help them best meet the unique needs of their students, their communities, and their instructional talents. Teachers, principals , and district leaders are identifying tools that can provide resources for instruction, engage children in the learning experience, and create products that can powerfully demonstrate learning. It is at this point, a nexus between relatively cheap personal mobile digital tools, growth modeled learning, strong state and federal requirements, and teacher professional decision making, that 1:1 has become a core path to learning success. Like the printing press or the cotton gin, we will look back at mobile learning and this brief period of time during which we debated which tools were best, and recognize this moment as key juncture that revolutionized learning. The change has come. Not simply because there were strong state and federal standards (although they will take credit for it) and not because digital tools became inexpensive enough and mobile enough that we could put them in the hands of children. Rather for the first time at the building, district, and professional levels we no longer see school as a factory producing student widgets but rather truly embraced the idea that all students can and need to grow and embraced teachers carving out the path to get there. The change has come because to teachers and principals have the power, the tools, and the training to truly make the difference. And guess what, they are changing regardless of what we mandate.

The Tools and the Talent