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In the 2009 - 2010 school year, Columbus Academy's Board of Trustees asked the Technology Department for a technology vision for the school. The Technology Department quickly determined a technology vision should not be about technology but rather about how technology would be used to enhance teaching and learning.
With that in mind, a committee made up of teachers, librarians, and technology staff looked at the resources and programs at the Columbus Academy. We wanted our vision to take advantage of and enhance what was already in place. CA was focused on major initiatives in ethical literacy, differentiated instruction, and diversity and multiculturalism. We also looked at our existing technology resources, which included computer labs; laptop carts; SMARTBoards in many classrooms; and each teacher having a MacBook.
In addition to looking at our own programs, we also went out to see how other K-12 and higher education schools were using technology to enhance teaching and learning. We looked at schools like The Ohio State University, the Urban School of San Francisco, other National Association of Independent Schools, and Stanford’s EPGY Online.
Two things that jumped out at us were:
1. Students who had 24/7 access to reflectively engage curriculum took advantage of that access to spend more time engaged with their curriculum, improving their learning.
2. Increasing student-student communication was just as important as increasing student-teacher communication to student learning. (Collaborative invention)
After doing our research, the Technology Committee came back with a broad vision that we called Vision 2015. Vision 2015 calls for:
1. providing 24/7 access to reflectively engage the curriculum.
2. expanding learning outside the four walls of the classroom.
3. teaching students to better use the tools they already use today.
For more information about Vision 2015, click here to view the About Vision 2015 Prezi.
It's worth noting that CA's Technology Department employed the step-by-step formula for implementing change described in Switch: How to change things when change is hard by Chip & Dan Heath.
- Direct the Rider: Provide crystal clear directions to the rational part of a human nature. The rational part of the brain is the one that deliberates, analyzes and looks into the future. It’s also called the reflective or conscious system. What often looks like resistance from the rational part is frequently just a lack of clarity. To direct the Rider, you thus have to find the bright spots in a situation and script critical moves of how you will get to the goal.
- Motivate the Elephant: The rational part demands a tremendous amount of self-control, which comes in limited resources. That’s why laziness often seems like exhaustion. The only way for a change to last is to have an emotional drive. That’s why people’s emotional side needs to be engaged and they must believe they are competent enough to make the change. The emotional part of human nature is the part that is instinctive and feels pain and pleasure.
- Shape the Path: What many times looks like a people problem is only a situation problem. The situation, including the surrounding environment, is called the Path. When you properly shape the Path or, in other words, tweak the environment, you make change more likely to happen.
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