The Mobile-Savvy Superintendent

Raise your hand if you have a smartphone. Now, raise your hand if you frequently tweet, socially bookmark, or access shared documents on your smartphone. Just as I thought: We've got a mass epidemic of underutilization and ignorance within the ranks of superintendents who vainly carry smartphones in their breast pockets. It's like using Taylor-Made golf clubs on a miniature golf course. They are only using "bars" instead of using mobile bandwidth.

So, what does the "mobile-savvy" superintendent look like? This graphic (by Brian Solis) does an excellent job of visually representing the variables at play. We use smartphones socially (professionally speaking) in real-time, where ever and whenever we want. We choose the personalized device that fits our needs the best, and then install the best apps to allow us to engage in relationships and networks (PLNs and PLCs).

For the sake of example by way of vignette: A busy (and mobile-savvy) superintendent finishes a school district stakeholder meeting early, boots up her smartphone, and posts a community member compliment about the new school nutrition program to her twitter account (an mode of communication that reaches 1200 of her "followers" instantly). She then opens her Google Reader App, and quickly scrolls through her blogroll in order to stay current on evocative issues and happenings. She notices a piece on "BYOL," then bookmarks and comments on the piece via the Diigo App to her district-wide technology innovation group, who has been looking into creative ways for allowing students to bring their own laptops to school. She'll check the groups' responses to the piece later. A Google Calendar reminder pops up to prompt her to the next appointment, so she opens the GPS App as she's walking to her car, verbally directs the App to provide her directions to downtown chamber of commerce building, hops in her car and allows the GPS to do the  dirty work as she thinks about her speech, which she realizes is sitting on her desk at central office. Upon arrival, she finds the Google Doc on her smartphone, and sends it to the chamber of commerce secretary who then prints off a fresh version for the speech. 



















Most superintendents, however, are just using their smartphones for texting, making phone calls, and checking emails. Their underutilization (or low-capacity use) of the smartphone may point to more than just a lack of technology know-how. The subscript to the squandered-away opportunity speaks to their connectedness, or their contribution to and participation in digitally-oriented professional networks and relationships.

The meaningful utilization of a smartphone is just the tangible demonstration of the extent to which a learner participates in a personal learning network and a digitally-oriented professional learning community. So, if you want to be a "mobile-savvy" superintendent, it depends less on the smartphone you buy and more upon the professional communities to which you meaningfully contribute.

What's on the "Horizon"

Many of you are already very familiar with the annually submitted "Horizon Report" by the New Media Consortium. Trend analysis is one of the most important skills a district-level leader can apply when strategic planning, designing staffing levels, allocating resources, updating polices, and the list goes on.

The NMC has been extraordinarily accurate in their forecasts over the last seven years, as seen below in a graphic that neatly arranges their previous predictions. What is most interesting is both the scalability of some trends versus the one-dimensional/false promise of others.



Recently, the NMC released this year's report, which includes recognition of innovations such as ebooks, augmented reality, game-based learning, and gesture-based learning. Below is NMC's ppt on the 2011 report.


View more presentations from New Media Consortium

NMC, however, is not the only resource a district administrator may look to in order to become more aware of upcoming drivers of change. Gartner's "Hype Cycle" of emerging technology trends is another valuable resource where information may be gleaned and applied. The format of visually seeing the excitement, disenchantment, and realized function of digital-age tools is not only comical put also alerting.

For a more global perspective, the Knowledgeworks Foundation has completed the 2020 Forecast for education, citing catalysts, trends, signals, and learning agents.

So, why look to the horizon? Why pull our heads up from the grindstone (or guillotine)? Does anyone else feel off balance with rapid changes to the learning landscape shifting our equilibrium, and techno experts volleying recommendations without research and careful consideration? Are we as district administrators at somewhat of a disadvantage if not logged on, plugged in, and growing in a personal learning network? Offline school administrators will likely be looking through a myopic, fiscal-year lens, be uninformed of emerging innovations, and recoiling from transformative forces. A visionary leader is predictive in strategic planning, experimental in programming, and engaged in trend analysis. Use the resources above to "turn your brights on" and build an awareness of what's on the horizon!

Something "Wired" This Way Comes

Recently, Scott McLeod wrote about 12 predictions for the future of learning. In an effort to demystify the list for my colleagues, I've informally set out to write about each of the predictions, some of which I've already written. On April 14, I wrote about the mobile movement. On March 25th, I presented a video on gaming from James Paul Gee, who can encapsulate the concept much better than I ever could. This is the next installment. 


McLeod's other predictions about the future of learning (beyond the two cited above) include, 

• digital learning rather than analog/ink on paper, 
• online, 
• networked/interconnected, 
• multimedia rich, 
• self-directed/inquiry-based, 
• open/accessible (in the sense of open educational resources), and 
• project-based. 

The challenge, then, is to find an example of a current tool or mechanism that embodies all of these characteristics of what learning will be like in the future. Is there a legitimate educational example that is digital, online, socially networked and open but media rich and inquiry/project-based? A tall order indeed. Enter, MOOC, or a massive open online course. 




Although a bit Utopian, the concept of a MOOC does illustrate all the characteristics of McLeod's predictions for learning in the future. No, this particular presentation of the concept does not address how it would deal with complexities such as poverty, learning disabilities, deliberately planned curricular scope and sequence, alignment to rigorous (core) standards, accessibility to bandwidth/hardware, appropriateness of content to developmental level, formative assessment and subsequent instructional adjustments, summative assessment and subsequent parental and mandated state/federal reporting of student progress, or student motivation. 


This does, however, allow us to get a glimpse of pedagogical possibility, especially possibility beyond our restrictive and traditional brick-and-mortar-school doctrine and paradigm. And, as you just read, it's easy to posit why an idea or concept will not work, but what if we imagined how a MOOC could work in K-12 education? Any suggestions?

District Administrators, Can You Hear Me Now?

I've written before about the possible elements that will drive change in the field of education; one of these drivers of change is the mobile learning movement, which gives affordable, widely accessible (in terms of cell signal and 3G), and completely persuasive opportunities for communicating, learning, and consuming. These devices require low maintenance on behalf of our tech departments, gain access to bandwidth through means that we don't provide, are low cost--student owned--and entirely personalized for personalized learning.

I know district administrators who own smartphones but only use a fraction of their capability; I know superintendents who unequivocally reject what smartphones do and what they stand for; I also know administrators who are crafty users of smartphones but still don't appreciate them as a  viable alternative in 1:1 environments. So, here's an overview.

Here is a review of the movement of mobile access:




Here's how we can use them to connect and learn:




Here's some of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as the movement of mobile access relates to learning:

Here is an example of what the use of mobile access could look like:

Using Mobile Devices with Teaching & Learning

View more presentations from Michael M Grant


Here is a framework for approaching mobile learning:

MLearning on Prezi

Here are some resources and current thinking on mobile learning:

• The Outboard Brain
• Education in the Palm of Your Hand
• Developing Mobile Learning

Scott McLeod's Predictions on the Future of Education

Scot McLeod recently advanced a number of predictions for education (if not now in some cases). What has struck me the most about the list is that most of the predictions are "cloud-based" initiatives. I was also struck with how the likelihood of these trends move in opposition to the content of most of our strategic plans. Take a moment and read McLeod's predictions. Think about the target areas within your strategic plan and how the time, resource allocation, and action steps stand in alignment or misalignment to the predictions below. 

•        digital rather than analog / ink on paper
•         informal
•        online and less dependent on local humans
•        mobile
•        networked / interconnected
•        multimedia
•        self-directed / inquiry-based
•         individualized / personalized
•        computer-based and software-mediated, less dependent on humans
•        open / accessible (in the sense of OER)
•        project-based
•        simulation–or game-based

At the end of McLeod's blog, he poses the question: "How do we design and operationalize our learning environments to reflect these characteristics? And if we don’t, can we have any hope of staying relevant to the needs of students, families, and society?" Certainly it's a difficult question, but in truth district administrators need to be logged on, plugged in, knee deep in the digital "stream" to even be able to determine how the strategic intent of the schools we are leading is in concert with the thrust and force of the predictions above. We exist in a global world that is changing 24/7. I argue that more than ever before, we need to have the presence of mind to recognize McLeod's predictions not as threats but as tools to hasten our aligned, strategic intent of facilitating the conditions for powerful learning. 

Everything is amazing. And nobody is happy.

My apologies if you've already seen this. The commentary may be the most accurate set of observations I've seen in how our relentless and insatiable need for progress reaps disorder on our gentle consciousness.

Of course, I look at this through the lens of leadership. In my estimation, people become unhappy when without direction. Vision, mission, and purpose matter. Leadership and the horizontal accountability and support of PLCs are the means through which vision is realized. Indeed, we live in amazing times with more options than we have capability. What we need are less amazing tools and more dynamic leaders who have the courage to face challenge, to embrace the resources that we have, and to activate passion behind direction in order to create transformative and empowering landscapes of amazement and enthusiasm.

Doomed to Filter Failure

It's true, I'm an advocate of helping school district administrators learn digital-age tools so that they can better realize their school districts' visions. Without that understanding, superintendents are exposed to sales pitches about false technology trends, being overwhelmed with edtech information without skills to determine what is most salient, and an over-reliance on inexperienced (in terms of district-level leadership) techno-consultants who have all the answers but no researched-centered results. Part of the solution to this leadership dilemma is to help district administrators grow in their knowledge of digitally-oriented tools so that they can filter for quality, applicability to school district vision, and sustainability for the future.

With skills that allow us to filter information for empowered leadership, we-as district administrators-will be better able to facilitate a return on investment in technology, to increase opportunities for amplified learning, to develop potential relief for overworked employees, and to impress constituents and enhance branding for enrollment of prospective students. Below, Clay Shirky talks about "filter failure." After watching the video, what skills do district administrators need to effectively handle the inefficiency of today's information flow? What dispositions do we need in order to effectively filter information so that we aren't doomed to failure in the translation between edtech chatter and boots-on-the-ground school leadership?