Ruminating on the OLD House

June 1, 2008 Education, Leadership, MGuhlin.net

There is nothing like a dream to create the future
–Victor Hugo

Some time ago, I made what Jim Collins ("Good to Great") calls a stop
doing list. Schmoker describes this list in this way:

Collins writes that we must all make a "stop doing list." We must "stop
doing anything and everything" that doesn’t get us the results we want
(Collins, 2001). Results will require tough but intelligent decisions
from us. To gain the results we want will require that we systematically
review and eliminate unnecessary, ill-wrought goals and committee work,
that we abandon ineffective but so-called "research-based" programs and
strategies.

I revised the mission of my department as follows:

Model and mentor staff and students in the everyday use of
technologies that enable them to learn, create, collaborate, and
innovate in their work.

As I re-read that mission statement, I wonder if the bold section
needs to go. The new mission needs to focus on modeling and mentoring
staff, not students. Our goal is to impact student learning, but
it is critical to do so through the staff. My stop doing
list reflects everything that isn’t professional learning. I came up
with this list for the Office of Instructional Technology Services that
I’m responsible for. The list includes the following:

Electronic Gradebook
Computer Donations
Managing Electronic Resources
CTR Data Center
ePlan
Handheld Reading/Math Initiatives Support
Technology Applications:TEKS

At the time, I imagined a shift in approach to what we should be doing
would switch from the traditional work of instructional/educational
technology to handling professional learning opportunities for staff. To
that end, I designed this crude image (using Skitch).

As I reviewed this image, I decided I wasn’t quite happy with it. It
looked terrible, so while I meditated on substantive changes, I asked
one of my team–our resident graphics designer–to re-do the image to
show off. Below is what she came up with:

Image Design Revised by Tonya
Mills

Of course, what I like about this model or idea is that we use our
district’s learning management system as a true way to transform how we
approach professional learning in our district. But the more I reflect
on that, I wonder if I have the right team, and whether my team has the
right leader, to get this transformation going. In fact, at the very
moment when our District is showing signs of recognizing the value of
technology to transform teaching, learning, it’s at this moment that I
recognize the importance of moving onward in a different way. You have
to wonder, is it that they lag behind or that I like to move too much?
<smile>

So, if the Office for Learning and Development (the acronym is a joke,
since this is the opposite of OLD) is the new way, how can I restructure
my functions and then check to see what staffing holes are left after
reconfiguration? More reflection needs to happen.