A Mid-Year Report Card

Where to begin? The usual ebb and flow of a school year, has given way to what seems to be rushing white water rapids this year. There have been lots of great things going on, and just too little time to write about them. However, now that one semester is in the books, I thought I'd provide a little bit of an update on the Technasium and how well it's been thus far. And so just like the report cards I write for all of my students, here is the "Technasium's Mid-Year Growing Success Assessment & Evaluation Report Card Thingy" (Report card for short)

So what can we say about the results? Well although they haven't been the results I would have liked to have seen, it certainly hasn't been a failure. There has definitely been some hurdles, that still require great leaps to overcome, but none that are impossible. Answers to some of the problems facing the initiative are also unknown at this time, which can make it frustrating. But even if the room is facilitating greater collaboration and providing support to a small group, that makes it worthwhile. With anything new, there is obviously a period of adjustment and acceptance, and only with time will we see how useful the Technasium may be.

Technasium Roadshow

Well we've decided to take the #Technasium on the road - we've packed up the room, put the whole thing in a winnebago (pretty large winnebago I know!), and set out on the open road to share our idea. We have Steppenwolf blaring through our soundsystem, and nothing but freedom in front of us.  First stop is the ECOO & OASBO ICT Conference 2013 - "Bring IT, Together".

We have never presented our idea to anyone outside of our school before, and don't know how it will be received. We keep thinking it will be a very large room, filled with the sound of crickets - we just don't know what to expect?!  However, surprisingly we have begun to see some interest developing, as people have connected via email, Twitter, and other social means who wish to learn more. Some will be attending in person, others unfortunately, can not. Therefore, thought it might be beneficial to live stream our session, for those who are unable to attend. And with the support of Ustream we have created our own channel for the session - Enter the #Technasium

Live streaming video by Ustream

So if you can't make it, not to worry. Grab a comfy chair, a coffee, some popcorn, and watch it live on Thursday, October 24 @ 2 PM.

Making Connections

The #Technasium is in full swing with lots of learning going on. Over the past month, the staff has gradually trickled in to learn about various edtech tools; with more coming each day. A few of us have even made it into our own staff room, and have been hanging out there each period we have off. It's provided an environment for collaboration, sharing, planning, and just about everything else we set out to accomplish. However, even if you plan, and plan, and plan, there are still some unforeseen events that may still occur. And that's exactly what we've seen with the #Technasium.

It all started with a very simple idea to encourage greater use of the room. We began a series of 'Lunch 'n Learns' where we have invited staff to come down to the #Technasium on their off-teaching periods to learn how to use devices such as document cameras; social media like Twitter; and other tools teachers have found very useful. An email was sent out, a tweet was tweeted, and next thing you know connections were made! We fully expected staff from the building to participate, but after a colleague sent out a tweet, it was amazing what happened next...

As a high school we have plenty of connections with the community around us. Jim realized however, that we also have plenty of connections with our feeder schools (or family of schools). Learning about edtech is not an isolated learning environment, but one where many people need to collaborate, share, explore, plan, and discuss. Whether you are a secondary teacher, or an elementary teacher, learning about effective instructional technology implementation is all the same. The simple tweet Jim sent established a connection where not only the intermediate school next door jumped on the opportunity, but also one of our elementary schools a number of kilometers away.

From this one tweet we've now seen teachers from outside of our school come into the #Technasium to learn about edtech tools with our own staff. It's an environment we could not have foreseen nor planned, but one that we have gladly welcomed. It's still in its infancy, and whether we see more teachers visit the #Technasium is still too early to tell. However, these connections that have established themselves may not have happened previously; and collaboration between a family of schools may not have happened otherwise. It's as simple as that. Provide an environment for teachers to learn, and the result will not just be learning, but connections as well.

Enter the #Technasium

"Meaningful change ain't gonna happen for our kids if we're not willing to invest in it for ourselves first. At the heart, it's not about schools... it's about us"

~Will Richardson

For obvious reasons, I don't believe there is a better way to introduce the Technasium, then to quote Will Richardson first. An educator who has continuously promoted & demonstrated the advancement of education technology in our classrooms, and its benefits for our students; it just seems like the right place to start. I was struck when I saw that quote because of its direct connection to a new initiative a group of us have started this year to hopefully improve educational/instructional technology adoption and use in our school. We have termed this initiative the Technasium, and believe it will provide educators an opportunity to 'just play'.

So what the heck is it?

Well it's really just a room like any other; a former classroom that was rarely used. However, it is now a classroom that houses a piece of every technology we offer at our school for staff to use (i.e. Smartboard, PC's, iPads, etc.)  It is open every period of every day, so that staff can come in and prepare lessons using the technology they have available to them. It provides an environment for staff where they can mess around with the technology without any judgement, pressure, or time constraints. There are no students around, and so the opportunity to learn outside of the typical classroom is now available to them every day. 

So why are we doing it?

Two of the main obstacles that we have found when it comes to the adoption of edtech into lessons are time and availability. Many teachers have said they just don't have the time to try out a new piece of software, hardware, or other piece of technology; and if they do, they just don't have a space to try it out in (availability). Many of us, myself included, don't feel like trying out a website for the first time in the class with the actual students - plenty of problems may arise, and there we are standing at the front of the classroom wondering what to do next?! Therefore, with the Technasium, staff are able to access any web 2.0 tool, software, or hardware (a simple printer even) so that they can begin to integrate technology into their lessons. Our true belief is that technology should not be a side project, but integrated into every lesson; and we hope one day this may become a reality.

How did we do it?

Well that's something I don't really have the answer to. It started as a simple idea, thrown around to a couple other staff, pitched to administration, and next thing we knew we had created it. It's amazing how simple dialogue can lead to big changes and innovation.

The idea of trying something new is daunting; investing a great amount of time, energy, and resources, is risky; and we have no idea what we are really doing?!  We don't know what the results will show, but we do know we are not going to wait for evolution to take place on its own. We believe the only way for such a change to happen is to make an investment on our own to really push the change.