The Not-So-Secret Goal of Technology Integration: Planned Obsolescence

In the last decade, schools have contributed significant resources to educational technology in an effort to improve instruction and to prepare students for a rapidly changing workforce. Schools have created new positions, or entirely new departments, for technologically savvy faculty members to act as liaisons between teachers and technology departments and to act as integrators of new educational technology software. In theory, for that faculty member or department to succeed--to integrate technology fully--they would have to run themselves out of a job. In other words, they would have to train a technologically savvy faculty, which in turn, wouldn’t need a Technology Integration Specialist or an Academic Technology Department. So how do we get there?

The Tech Deputy Solution

At Flint Hill, one unique way we--in the Technology Integration Department--have chosen to train our faculty is by deputizing additional members of our faculty. Two years ago, we started a new program where we recognized technologically savvy members of each department called “Tech Deputies.” Instead of having to answer every educational technology question ourselves, we could outsource it to the Tech Deputies in each department. As the Tech Deputies taught their peers, we hoped the amount of technologically literate teachers would increase. Additionally, by starting this program within departments, we hoped it would encourage departmental teams to try new things knowing they had support from within the department.

Interestingly, one of the greatest successes of this program is that we really didn’t know what was going to happen, so we pitched it as a fun idea to recognize some faculty members that are leading in the area of educational technology. That turned out to be the greatest strength of the program. The first time we met, one member thought it’d be funny to call the group, “Tech Deputies.” Of course, the title was about all we could do for them, there was no compensation involved, and they were doing us a huge favor.

Using humor as a buy-in, the deputies met with us biweekly to help us identify complications and prepare for tricky technological projects in the future. When we pitched the program to the rest of the faculty they laughed too. But it worked. The faculty was happy to recognize their peers who had gone out of their way to help out in the past and signed up to continue to do so with nothing more than a humorous (yet meaningless) title.

In the first year alone, we saw many unintended benefits grow out of this program. Our Help Desk staff saw a decrease in tickets for simple troubleshooting, like connecting to projectors or issues with Apple TVs. Our Tech Integration Specialists received fewer questions about how to use the CMS (Content Management System) and basic GAFE (Google Apps for Education) issues, which allowed for more and deeper conversations about pedagogical and instructional strategies being used in the classroom. With regularly scheduled check-ins, we successfully created a network within our faculty to learn from one another. It also allowed for a forum to explore topics beyond the scope of tech integration where we discussed institutional deficiencies and how we as a team could approach them and support each other. Finally, it led to a lot of fascinating interdisciplinary connections and opportunities.

The Tech Deputy Solution: Year Two

Continuing with our planned obsolescence mission, in year two we expanded the amount of Tech Deputies from one per department to anyone interested. Several people willingly signed up to join, again with no incentive other than this silly title. Building off of our success with humor in year one, to ensure buy-in from the faculty, we created playing cards. The cards display department, location, “specialties”, “interests,” and a humorous narrative (see below).

We unveiled these cards at a faculty meeting to highlight which Tech Deputy faculty members should see if they need technological help. And we encouraged faculty members to see deputies if they wanted to try a new application or streamline a classroom technological process. Once again, the biggest reaction we received from these cards was laughs, but those laughs have turned into questions that faculty members ask Tech Deputies all the time, in meetings, in the hallways, via email, etc. Once again in year two, the Tech Deputy program has made a huge difference for us in the Tech Integration Department and in the IT Department.

Having introduced our new and expanded lineup of deputies, we then posted the cards on a corkboard in the faculty room so that teachers will always know who they can go see if they have technological questions. The colored thread stretches from each Tech Deputy to his/her “specialties,” the applications that he/she uses and would like to help others use as well. Want to add exit tickets to your class? See Mr. Uher to teach you Go Formative. Want help with Google Classroom? See Ms. McKain, she’s an expert.

The Tech Deputy Solution: Applying Our Success

First, we intend to continue to increase the number of Tech Deputies on our team. Again, we’d like everyone to feel comfortable enough to be considered a Tech Deputy. We also hope to apply the success of this program to our students, and to other areas of student life at Flint Hill like Diversity and Inclusion, Advisory, and Instructional Support.

This year we created a Student Technology Integration Team (STIT) to support our students who aren’t as technologically savvy. The members of STIT will get training from the TIS Department so that they can help their teachers with projects and lessons that require technology. They’re also working with campus groups like our school newspaper and student council to help them use technology more meaningfully and tactfully to raise awareness and improve their products. Like our Tech Deputy group, the plan is to grow this really big. That way we can ensure that we are graduating technologically savvy students that will thrive in the 21st-century workforce.˘

We’ve also been thinking a lot about how to apply this success to other groups around campus who can benefit from this style of ambassador program. Our Diversity and Inclusion Director just added two faculty members to her team. Our Dean of Students and his grade-level deans hope to use a similar model to improve advisory programming. We’re working with these groups to help them see the same success we did. But most importantly, we’re just trying to train and support our faculty so that they have the knowledge, tools, and confidence to handle the challenges associated with being a full-time teacher in a rapidly changing world.  

The Tech Deputy Solution: Try it at your school!

This program has been a fantastic success at Flint Hill. We have more teachers trying new things with respect to technology, and we have more teachers talking about pedagogy in general. The faculty knows who to talk to if they want to revamp an old unit, if they want to add technology, or if they want to streamline one of their classroom procedures. And given the number of deputies we now have, teachers can work with a deputy that they trust. The convening of Tech Deputies once a month has led to a more proactive approach to technological issues in the building and another forum in which teacher-leaders engage in interdisciplinary conversations and collaborations. And finally, this group has freed up more time for the TIS and IT Departments to dream bigger and plan more substantial professional development knowing that not only is there day-to-day support amongst the faculty at large, but there is also an appetite for rolling out new technology initiatives and processes.  

Co-Written with Nate Green, check out his blog!

Apple Academy: Awesome and Awful All at the Same Time

A little over two weeks ago, I got the amazing opportunity to go to Cupertino, California and attend something called Apple Academy. If you try to Google it, you won’t find a website or really any information about at all. It’s all part of the “Apple Experience,” so it’s by invitation only and very hush-hush. It’s a program offered to schools that are currently or about to deploy a one-to-one Apple device initiative. It’s a week-long immersive experience with a group of educators in similar roles with similar skill levels from all across the country from public, private, K-12, and university backgrounds. So far, you’re probably wondering why the word awful is in the title of this post. So let me take a few minutes to give you the backstory.

A couple weeks before I left for Apple Academy, my grandmother had a stroke and began to rapidly decline. She was 93 years old and in a memory care unit at a nursing home in my hometown in Richmond, Indiana. Every few days, I checked in with my mom to see how she was doing. We talked about my upcoming trip and how I was worried about traveling when Grandma wasn’t doing well. We agreed that she wouldn’t want me to miss a great opportunity like this one, so I didn’t make any changes to my trip. At the end of my first day at Apple Academy, I got a text from my mom asking me to call her when I got back to my hotel room. Before I picked up the phone, I already knew what she was going to tell me. My grandmother had passed away that morning at the age of 93 and one week old. The logical side of my brain saw this coming and knew that it was the best thing for my grandmother. She would finally be reunited with my grandfather who she had missed every day for over 20 years. After I hung up the phone, I pulled myself together and headed down to the lobby to meet a group to go out for dinner. When I met up with a couple of people from the group, I quickly told them the news of my grandmother and then joined in on the discussion about where we should go to eat. We piled into the hotel shuttle and as we waited for one more person to arrive, a wave of nausea passed over me. I quietly excused myself and explained that I suddenly wasn’t feeling well and thought it would be better to just stay in my room for the night. That feeling of nausea didn’t go away for about five days. No matter how logically I could rationalize with myself that my grandma had experienced a full life and she was finally at peace, my emotional side just couldn’t let go of her. Between the time difference and grief, I didn’t get a great night’s sleep that night and woke up bright and early at 3:30 am and couldn’t fall back to sleep. By 7:30 when the first session started, I felt and looked like a zombie. I had a terrible headache, my eyes were red and puffy, and the nausea was almost unbearable. I made it about two hours into the program and in the middle of my group’s presentation, I felt so sick I had to leave the room. I went into a bathroom stall and just let go of all of the emotions I had been holding in all morning, I sobbed and suddenly my nausea started to subside. I calmed myself down and re-joined the group. The rest of the day, I took breaks to go release some of the pent-up emotions to make it through the day. I am so grateful to all of the attendees and program coordinators, despite only knowing them for one day, they rallied around me and made me feel so comfortable and loved when I needed it. Each day got a little bit better: I slept a little more, I felt a little less nausea and I cried a little less. I was able to stay for the whole program and fly directly to Indiana at the end of the week to join my family.

So what did I learn from this experience? A couple of things.

First, no matter how prepared you are for something, whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, you can’t control how you feel. It made me reconsider how I may approach people when they’re processing feelings. Phrases and helpful comments that are meant with good intentions sometimes come across as: “Just stop feeling what you’re feeling and accept it.” I know that wasn’t the intention of the people that said these things to me, but it made me feel like I had to explain why I felt what I felt - which in all honesty only made me feel even more.

Second, I will NEVER forget that week of my life. My learning that week and my emotional journey are so wrapped up into one another that it is one of those experiences that will be imprinted on my brain. What is particularly interesting about this is that part of the training that week was revisiting quite often a graphic that demonstrates a balance of emotional and instructional needs. We talked about how emotions tie into learning, all the while I was experiencing that first hand. This experience has already prompted me to think about how I approach things in the classroom with my students as well as how I approach professional development with teachers. Things that seem so insignificant like assigning seats on the first day of school or the first day for new teachers can really make an impact on emotional experience for participants. Assigned seats can lower the anxiety of those introverts that are pushing themselves to make new connections in an unfamiliar environment.

I hope that by writing this post, I help someone reconsider their approach in the classroom or their approach to someone processing their emotions. Writing this, I teared up a few times remembering that week, but it also helped me process that experience and continue to move forward.

Teaching a totally new course: not as scary as I anticipated!

For the first time since I began my career as an educator, I am not teaching a Spanish class. At first, I experienced an identity crisis. I thought to myself when I meet someone new and they ask me what I do, can I still call myself a teacher? I have met a few new people and I do still introduce myself as a teacher. The hard part is when they ask, what do you teach? I'm never totally sure how to answer this question. Until a few weeks ago, I wasn't actively teaching a class. So for a couple of months, I would awkwardly explain my role as the Technology Integration Department Chair, which to anyone outside of an independent school sounds like a made-up job title. Now that I'm back in the classroom, I feel more like my old self. The only difference, I'm teaching a class on a subject that is totally new to me!

Some time at the end of last school year, I heard through the grapevine that they were looking for someone to teach Small Business Management in our Innovation Department. I approached the department chair and asked about the class. I explained that while I had absolutely no experience in managing a small business, I'd be interested in teaching it if they'd be willing to have me. Luckily for me, most of the courses taught in the Innovation Department use Design Thinking protocols and really look for the teacher to be more of a facilitator than a leader.  So there began my journey as a Small Business Management teacher.

During the first semester, I checked in with the department chair regularly and we slowly planned and revamped the final course project to prepare for the class to begin in mid-January. By early December, I was feeling really confident - we had a great plan and we coordinated with real businesses to give our students an authentic experience.

On the first day of class, I walked into the classroom and suddenly my stomach dropped. I had this moment of panic, thinking: what have I gotten myself into?! As the students filed into the room, I saw some familiar faces and others that I didn't know at all. As I was rehearsing my introduction in my head, I realized I was planning it all in Spanish. I took a deep breath and started the class by introducing myself and setting the stage that this class would be about learning collaboratively and using interviews with real businesses as an integral tool. We spent the first class getting to know one another and completing some creativity exercises. By the end of the class, I was feeling more confident.

Over the past three weeks, I have learned so much from my time in the classroom with these students. Because I am unable to answer many of their questions, I get to push it back on them and really encourage them to seek out the information for themselves. I am watching them depend on one another for help and guidance. I leave each class energized and excited to see where the next class will lead us. There are some days I walk in feeling a little nervous about how it will all play out but those nerves motivate me to keep pushing myself further to explore more ways to embolden the students.

My experience makes me question so many times that I just answered students' questions in my Spanish classroom without pushing them to think differently or look for the information themselves. I am the beginning of this journey and it's already made me rethink so many things. I can't wait to see where I am when the class ends in May.