Last week I had a virtual book study on Leading Technology-Rich Schools by authors Barbara Levin and Lynne Schrum. We were fortunate to have Dr. Schrum join us for the conversation to give us additional insight into the book. The book included multiple case studies of schools that had successfully integrated technology into the learning environment, and most of the schools were 1:1 schools. If you’d like, you can view the entire video by clicking here. There were some things that Dr. Schrum said that really stood out to me. Those points included the importance of:
- Effective leadership
- Dr. Schrum stressed how leadership was key to systematic change.
- A clear vision
- I have frequently observed the lack of vision as one of the most common flaws with schools that implement 1:1. The school leaders in the book established a clear vision for their school.
- Risk taking
- Dr. Schrum talked about how teachers were able to be risk takers and were not afraid. Does your school encourage that type of behavior?
- Changing teaching practices
- A big focus of many of the schools was project based learning. She also talked about how many of the successful teachers focused on students “showing” their knowledge. One example she used was of students who were able to choose the format they would use to present information.
- Teachers also used technology to easily collect and sort data so that they could adjust instruction.
It may be interesting for you, or your leadership team, to consider where you fall in regards to each of these items. Can you improve the effectiveness of your 1:1 initiative by focusing on one of these things?
Nick Sauers
