Ideas converging
Our technology subcommittee met last week to work on our technology initiative, which we’re calling “WHS 2.1.” (Meaning both 21st century and one step beyond web 2.0.)
Our chairperson(and student) Christina Chang defines web 2.0 in our planning document:
“Web 2.0 provides the ability for students and educators to connect, share, and publish online and it allows for more individualization and self-directed learning.”
The theme of our initiative is “Connect, Collaborate, Create.” We wanted a mission statement that was short and to the point, and that would be something students could identify with. As Christina wrote in our planning document, the theme emphasizes using technology:
to continue to make inter- and intra-campus connections, to use this growing foundation for collaboration, and finally to create new opportunities for learning, expansion, and extension of knowledge at Westlake.
Our art teacher, Dale Baker, is going to redesign a logo and add the motto to it for us so we can “brand” the technology effort. We want this to be a mission that our staff and students can connect with.
The staff development committee’s survey will help us identify some preferred methods of delivery for inservice. We’re looking at both short term training goals for the rest of this year, (like use of the document cameras), and longer term goals.
Also, we discovered that we’ll be able to gather data on our incoming student competencies from student surveys being done currently by 8th graders on Learning.com at both middle schools. It’ll be very helpful to know what technology competencies our students are entering our school with.
We also have discussed surveying the staff about how they would like to be supported relating to technology–what computer configurations they see working in their classrooms, what software is needed, what amount of time is needed for training, etc. We’ll be working on the survey at a future meeting.
We’re also hoping to tie in with work from other committees on guest speakers.
One aspect I’m hoping we can do more on is identifying some best practices for using technology in “transformational” ways. There are a lot of models out there, but I think finding some links or examples we can point teachers to would be helpful. The Partnership for the 21st Century has a lot of helpful information, including a self-assessment for staff of their technology use, and some best practices models that we can consider.
Another piece we’ve been discussing is how to share this initiative k-12 so that the other schools see what direction we are trying to take. This idea for a community-wide book relating to technology has been floating around, and I would like to look into that more.
It’s interesting to see work from various committees and at the district level converging all at the same time, and it’ll be exciting to see how we can move forward.
