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Personalized Learning Network - Leadership

Organizers: Tom McGee Bill Dolton Kurt MJ DeVore Robert Hudson Jeanne Biddle Andy Crozier Jonathan Rebar

Our initial Challenge statement:

Model and facilitate best practices with administrative leadership for supporting personalized learning.

mobile - audible.com, iTunes U podcasts twitter reading blogs conferences, seminar

Thoughts: Break the mold of "old school" meetings and gathering information What tools can you utilize to do the daily "stuff" and make it 24/7 Tools: Twitter, Ning, Blogs, iPhone Cut down on Staff Meetings- Utilize PLN's in buildings to make meetings more effective and publish information that can be retrieved by all Publishing note before meetings that can be discussed prior to, and start threaded discussions Issue of changing from hierarchical to associative structures Challenge of dealing with cultural issues, concerns, barriers -- and will be unique to district or institutional situation Administrators following colleagues in Twitter to stay informed at conferences and events - Viral Vicarious Participation?

Inspiration Outline of "whiteboard work"

Kicking The "BUT" Out Of Leadership

Model and facilitate best practices with administrative leadership for supporting personalized learning I. What? A. Culture Shift 1. Embrace Change 2. Transparency 3. Dialog 4. Collaboration 5. Sharing 6. Welcome Engagement 7. Builds Community II. How? A. Collaborative Agenda Creation III. Processes? A. Decision Making B. Wiki Agenda (Collaborative Creation) C. Twitter (Influence Amplifier) IV. PD A. Fun B. Risk Free C. Ongoing D. Scheduled E. Necessary V. Communication A. Daily Principal Podcasts B. Parent portals C. PTSA/PTO/PTA D. Blog News letters E. Invokes dialog (bi-directional F. Associations VI. Barriers (Shaking the Tree) A. Parents/Families?without access B. Policy Barriers C. Top down not Flat D. Time 1. Perceived ability of Admin to do it 2. Lack of risk-free Prof Dev 3. Lack of honest sharing 4. Lack of honest sharing of Personal Evolution to 2.0 a. 2.0 not an add-on b. 2.0 can wait ("this too shall pass") VII. Destination(s) A. Student Learning B. Teacher Learning & Practice C. Essential Conditions D. Leadership behavior & practice

Guiding Questions

How do we reduce complexity or perception of complexity for administrators How do we get the "top admins" to buy-in so that modeling can occur? What would it look like if a parent confronted a principal because teachers are not using technology? What policies exist that act as barriers to the effective use of student-owned technology (e.g., video cell phones)? What policies exist that support use of technology within compliance of confidentiality (i.e.: use of Twitter to share faculty news, emergencies, etc)? How can leaders be expected to embrace tools for personal productivity and professional practice? How can 2.0 tools be introduced in such a way as to meet the learning needs of the culture? How might administrators utilize the technologies relevant to their personal life and integrate into professional life? What are the barriers preventing administrators from using technology? What are the priorities of an administrator and their needs related to technology? (administrative, communication, etc.) How do leaders use their PLN to increase their capacity to be an instructional leader? (How do they share their learning?) What is the ideal way to train administrators to use these technologies? How can professional development for administrators embrace modern technologies without being seen as an "extra"? What technology tools are administrators currently using (benchmark) for scaffolding/development of proficiency? What's the motivation for change? How to create the flow, challenge and ease, time committment, fun and not frustrating? How to incorporate incentives and challenges as part of developing use/proficiency/modeling? How to create a risk-free environment to request for help and learning opportunities with technology? (with their own kind) What are you reading? What's on your bedside table? Book reads for administrators?

Resources:

http://www.simpleassessment.com (free assessment aligned to NETS*S)

NETS•A -- http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForAdministrators/2009Standards/NETS-A_2009.pdf

ISTE Technology Observation Tool - http://icot.craftyspace.com/

Edutopia - http://www.edutopia.org/

Administrators to "follow": Chris Lehman, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy, Philadelphia, PA - blog: Practical Theory -- http://www.practicaltheory.org - twitter: chrislehmann

From Jonathan: This is a short article describing Game Flow and the elements that need be included in an activity to make it fun as well as a chart that shows the relationship between ability and challenge, a cornerstone of the Flow theory. Take a look. I think it has some direct application that could be useful as selection criteria for possible solutions to our challenge.

Game Flow Article.pdf http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.9bf37437-7c9e-4056-be61-462e22453522

Agile vs Waterfall resources Agile Development - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development Agile Software Menifesto - http://www.agilemanifesto.org/ Scrum - Pigs/Chickens - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development) Planning Poker - http://www.planningpoker.com/ The idea behind Planning Poker is simple. Individual stories are presented for estimation. After a period of discussion, each participant chooses from his own deck the numbered card that represents his estimate of how much work is involved in the story under discussion. All estimates are kept private until each participant has chosen a card. At that time, all estimates are revealed and discussion can begin again. Collaborative software development model - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_software_development_model - A style of software development whose focus is on public availability and communication, usually via the Internet. Agile Modelling - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_Modeling - A construct for documentation User Stories - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_stories - User stories are a quick way of handling customer requirements without having to elaborate vast formalized requirement documents and without performing overloaded administrative tasks related to maintaining them. The intention with the user story is to be able to respond faster and with less overhead to rapidly changing real-world requirements. User stories define what is to be built in the software project. User stories are prioritized by the customer to indicate which are most important for the system and will be broken down in tasks and estimated by the developers. When user stories are about to be implemented the developers should have the possibility to talk to the customer about it. The short stories may be difficult to interpret, may require some background knowledge or the requirements may have changed since the story was written. Every user story must at some point have one or more acceptance tests attached, allowing the developer to test when the user story is done and also allowing the customer to verify it. Without a precise formulation of the requirements, prolonged nonconstructive arguments may arise when the product is to be delivered.

XP and other agile methodologies favour face-to-face communication over comprehensive documentation and quick adaptation to change instead of fixation on the problem. User stories achieve this by: Being very short. They represent small chunks of business value that can be implemented in a period of days to weeks. Allowing developer and client to discuss requirements throughout the project lifetime Needing very little maintenance Only being considered at the time of use Maintaining a close customer contact Allow projects to be broken into small increments Suited to projects where the requirements are volatile (change often) or poorly understood. Iterations of discovery drive the refinement process. May be easier to estimate development effort

Waterfall method -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model - A sequential software development process, in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of Conception, Initiation, Analysis, Design (validation), Construction, Testing and Maintenance. Requires early commitment in concept and design phases with little deviation in lower stages resulting in poor agility to deal with new circumstances, challenges, and requirements during the development porcess. Leaves you with a solution that may have worked when you began but now that you are done does not meet all the requirements of your users.

What kind of Leader are you? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo1R17Gq6dg

Models of Leadership 2.0 in action

Tim Tyson/Mabry Middle School http://mabryonline.org/

Michael Hyatt- Leadership 2.0 http://michaelhyatt.com/2009/05/leadership-20.html

Fast Company - Leadership 2.0 http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/25/edlet.html

Control Vs. Influence? http://michaelhyatt.com/2007/09/leadership-control-vs-influence.html

http://www.simpleassessment.com (free assessment aligned to NETS*S)

NETS•A - http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForAdministrators/2009Standards/NETS-A_2009.pdf

ISTE Technology Observation Tool http://icot.craftyspace.com/Edutopia http://www.edutopia.org/ http://www.edutopia.org/ Guiding Activities

Proof of Concept Survey; Needs Assessment (possible use/invitation/initial collection during Monday preso) set up on-going data collection using Google form Leadership User Stories to develop testable implementations/solutions Identify a barrier than can be over-come to demonstrate efficacy (esp. for those that are reluctant)

Characterisitcs of Leadership Personalities

The Cowboy- the control freak The Laz-ay-Fair- hands-off The Gung –Ho- Let’s do everything The Glitz- Legacy Development

Accessibility Content Upload Supervised submission/Organization Centralized Open Discussion/Directed Discussion Linkable Resources Sustainable Demonstratable Implementation Embeddedable Content Support Modulary/Movable Media

Big Idea -- Personal Learning Networks

Essential Questions: What is personalized Learning and how does technology make it possible?

The Challenge: Model and facilitate best practices with administrative leadership for supporting personalized learning.

Guiding Questions (see Guiding Questions above) Guiding Activities Guiding Resources

How do we reduce complexity or perception of complexity for administrator? How do we get the "top admins" to buy-in so that modeling can occur? What would it look like if a parent confronted a principal because teachers are not using technology? What policies exist that act as barriers to the effective use of student-owned technology (e.g., video cell phones)? How can leaders be expected to embrace tools for personal productivity and professional practice? How can 2.0 tools be introduced in such a way as to meet the learning needs of the culture? How might administrators utilize the technologies relevant to their personal life and integrate into professional life? What are the barriers preventing administrators from using technology? What are the priorities of an administrator and their needs related to technology? (administrative, communication, etc.) How do leaders use their PLN to increase their capacity to be an instructional leader? (How do they share their learning?) What is the ideal way to train administrators to use these technologies? How can professional development for administrators embrace modern technologies without being seen as an "extra"? What technology tools are administrators currently using (benchmark) for scaffolding/development of proficiency? What's the motivation for change How to handle the diversity of motivation, toleration, style, etc. for each individual? How to create the flow, challenge and ease, time commitment, fun and not frustrating? How to incorporate incentives and challenges as part of developing use/proficiency/modeling? How to create a risk-free environment to request for help and learning opportunities with technology? (with their own kind) What are you reading? What's on your bedside table? Book reads for administrators? Barriers to accessibility/digital divide?

Solution-Action

Assessment Destination(s):

Student Learning ^ Teacher Learning and Practice ^ Essential Conditions ^ Leadership behavior and Practice

Pre-Test- "What is your leadership style?" Have admins define who they are. (Use prompting questions)

Publishing Student Samples Publishing Student Observations