Much is made of the effect a 1:1 move has on students in a school district. But what about the teachers and administration? How are they affected and what can they do to better handle the change? This is the premise behind Edutopia’s piece about bringing professional development into a 1:1 district. In the article, they focus on the Salisbury Township School District and its mission to not only bring 1:1 devices to the students in the district but also change the mindset of its teachers and administration as well.
[1:1] requires a shift in mindset and in the daily practices of school leaders, teachers, and students. In order to support school leaders and teachers to become their most effective at using digital technologies with new pedagogies, it is vital that a district support the digital transformation through varied building-level and district-level professional learning opportunities.
Changing the mindset and daily practices is no small task, but Edutopia gives us some helpful hints:
Align PD goals with 1:1 program goals – with goals clearly defined, professional development efforts can be fine-tuned.
Rethink use of human resources – rethink the human and financial resources dedicated to supporting change.
Personalize the PD program through differentiation and choice – adult learners come to the work environment with a variety of knowledge.
Instructional Technology Cohorts – professional development took the form of a cohort model over three years.
Summer Academy – professional learning offerings has been provided for professional and support staff.
Conferences and Workshops – encourage staff to attend conferences and workshops offered outside the district.
Learning for School Leaders – school and district leaders meets monthly in a lunch and learn format.
Evaluate PD efforts to meet developing needs – professional development should be monitored and evaluated to stay relevant.
Digital rights management (DRM), protection of copyrighted works by various means to control or prevent digital copies from being shared over computer networks or telecommunications networks, has made downloading and using your favorite content a little harder. The Harvard Business Review (HBR) recently highlighted some examples: Kindle books can’t be read on another device, Apple songs can’t be played on another device, and DRM makes it hard to fast forward through previews while watching a DVD.
So, why does DRM exist in the first place?
Kyle Wiens of HBR tells us “we are told that digital locks and DRM protect creative content and the creative-types who make it.” Quoting Cory Doctorow, he raises some good points about how locks on something you own without the key, isn’t for your benefit.
They whole article is quick and light and worth the read. Check it out now!
Ars Technica recently had a piece about the Australian Prime Minister running his own private email server. Politics aside, there was a paragraph that caught CMLE’s eye regarding self-destructing messaging apps. In the article, they talk about the messaging apps Confide and Wickr. Both of which use encryption to ensure privacy for their users. Confide promises that you can:
Communicate digitally with the same level of privacy and security as the spoken word. With encrypted messages that self-destruct, Confide gives you the comfort of knowing that your private messages will now truly stay that way.
Where as Wickr uses peer-to-peer encryption to promise that ” We protect messages with multiple layers of encryption and set your messages to expire by default.”
Is this the new level of messaging that will protect our privacy?
Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/ozh4sn8, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
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