In order to cultivate this\u00a0type of dynamic dialogue, a common lexicon\u00a0must first be established, steeped in a clear\u00a0understanding of research,\u00a0sound theories, and exploratory ideas. \u00a0Students, teachers, and administrators, must be\u00a0encouraged to experiment with\u00a0models and exemplars and reflect upon the role technology plays in affecting learning and shaping meaning. \u00a0In order for this to happen schools\u00a0need to carve out time for their students, teachers, and administrators to explore, share, and engage with each other. \u00a0They need time to be curious.<\/p>\n
This curiosity will drive best practice, innovation, and discovery. \u00a0It will bring new ideas and new challenges.<\/p>\n
A Case Study:<\/strong><\/p>\n This year at my school, I have the privilege and honour of working with Dr. Ruben Puentedura<\/a>, creator of SAMR, Founder and President of Hippasus<\/a>, Harvard Technology Fellow, to provide a feature series of high-octane Ed Tech Professional Development to my faculty. Three visits, spanning the year, to encourage and shape the momentum of transformative applications of technology to education. \u00a0I first heard\u00a0Dr. Ruben Puentedura\u00a0speak at the Apple Educator Leadership Institute in Toronto in 2012. At that time, he was billed as the man who was revolutionizing and transforming the ways people think about technology and education. \u00a0One\u00a0of the great visionaries of our time.<\/p>\n The afternoon session provided an introduction to the Ed Tech Quintet<\/a> and was followed by breakout sessions for teachers, grouped together by grade or subject. In these sessions, teachers completed an online survey to assess their current position on the SAMR ladder. Then, in their breakout groups, they designed a SAMR ladder to transform a chosen unit of instruction, specific to their subject curriculum. Dr. Puentedura circulated among the breakout groups to provide clarification, feedback, and guidance.<\/p>\n Education has always been under a constant state of transformation and evolution. At times it seems as though the world outside our schools is changing faster than the world inside our schools. The tools are changing faster than the curriculum and we must keep asking ourselves what ways of thinking and learning exist now, simply because of the existence of new technology. If we lock in our curriculum based on how we currently use technology, we limit our curriculum, and we miss opportunities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Snapshot Overview:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.)\u00a0 Provide frameworks from which we can begin to cultivate a common language and continuous dialogue about meaningful integration and transformative applications of technology to education.<\/p>\n 2.)\u00a0 Identify and isolate small, practical steps. Provide concrete examples and time to share and reflect, to build and to wonder.<\/p>\n 3.)\u00a0 Built-in accountability of Professional Development. \u00a0Experiment, explore, and fine-tune our professional practice. Document success and setbacks.<\/p>\n 4.) \u00a0Share, discuss, reassess, modify.<\/p>\n 5.) Repeat.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n For more information on\u00a0Dr Puentedura’s work, please visit his weblog<\/a>.<\/p>\n For more information on\u00a0SAMR and Ed Tech Quintet Models, please view the video below:<\/p>\n [youtube]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rMazGEAiZ9c&list=UUqbMzyL7Cn3EVpYtdttw2tg[\/youtube]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To help\u00a0our students and faculty be at\u00a0the vanguard of technological development and innovation, we must bolster access to tools, support, and educational opportunities that are both robust and revolutionary. In my role as Director of IT, one of my prime directives is to provide authentic, meaningful, and practical EdTech Professional Development to faculty — PD … Continue reading “Crafting Authentic EdTech PD & Cultivating Community Conversation: Climbing the SAMR Ladder”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,1],"tags":[29,36,35],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-redesigning-pd","category-uncategorized","tag-pd","tag-puentedura","tag-samr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/13\/files\/2014\/10\/DSC_02961-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>In late August, we kick-started the feature series with a full day of SAMR and Ed Tech Quintet immersion. The morning session consisted of an introduction to SAMR<\/a>, followed by Q&A. \u00a0He took us on\u00a0a journey spanning 200, 000 years back in time. He reminded us of how we evolved as social beings, and that as we evolved, so too did our tools and skills. As our environments changed, we learned to adapt, to create, and innovate in order to survive and thrive as a species. Our ability and capacity to be social and share information, to be mobile, to visualize, to tell stories, to engage in games grew over time and led us to the profound awareness that we could do new things never before possible, without the existence of these new tools and new skills. We were a part of a rich ecosystem made only richer by the connections we made to each other.<\/p>\n![\"IMG_5596\"](\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/13\/files\/2014\/10\/IMG_5596-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>Teachers have been applying their ladders to their lessons and have been documenting the results. A dialogue has been sparked within the community. \u00a0A shared language that the\u00a0SAMR and the Ed Tech Quintet models provide, empower faculty and student conversation. There is momentum. We eagerly await Dr. Puenteudra\u2019s return in November where we will review, mark progress, reassess, and continue to fine tune and examine how we select, use, and evaluate\u00a0technology in education.<\/p>\n![\"Thomas](\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/13\/files\/2014\/10\/photo-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n