Crow....Get it While it is Warm

With e-learning EVERYTHING that is happening within the K-12 arena is NEW. Nothing is "old hat" yet. Therefore, it is apparent that the organization will hit bumps. There is a lot of research on change theory, but nothing prepares you better than your first public hurdle. There will be miscommunication that get out there.....it is too bad you can't just put the blame out on the person that caused it. But, instead you get to practice the PR part of bringing change into an organization. My boss shared with me the theory that if you have to eat crow, be sure to eat it while it is still warm. I had my first serving of crow....I survived and the program is still ticking along. I have never had cold crow....but I am thinking it would be worse.....so Crow...Get it While it is Warm!

What else I can get you to go with that?

It is amazing in the elearning arena people are so willing to share. I emailed a university web designer I had met for about 2 minutes at a conference in October to ask for some materials to help with a staff development I am building. She responded in about 2 hours with enough materials to build three courses and a statement to use as much as I wanted. WOW! This seems new to education for me. I remember, back in the day, when no one would even leave their typed notes at the lithograph machine because "Why should someone else get my hard work." Now it is, "here ya go" and "what else can I get you?"! Seems like education is learning from what the service industry figured out awhile back, help each other - help the customer - grow the program. E learning has brought about an exciting new era when we can focus on "what is the next great thing in education?"

Same Dog...Not Even New Tricks

I am worried. I am attending a staff development to learn about how to ensure we are teaching students the objectives correctly. However, the entire training is being taught as a "sage on the stage" concept. The presenter (whom is really talented, full of information, and nice) has a power point and in front of us is a paper copy of the power point (even the title and pausing slides). She is speaking, we are listening, and occasionally we are ask to discuss in our groups and write on sticky notes. Whoa! What is the message we are sending? The teaching method developed as a result of the Industrical Revolution (with the exception of power points and sticky notes) is the best we have? Are we teaching educators to teach the digital learner? It brings me back to my questions...what is the next great thing and how to we get there?

Are we there yet?

As a member of the public education world, it seems on a daily basis we are always talking about where we are and where we should be. However, it does not seem that we discuss if we ever got the place we were originally heading. In other words...we are always planning and rarely monitoring and improving where we already are.

Why is it we always seem to lead rather than follow the higher education in teaching and learning methods? Are we not capable of the great ideas ourselves? Is the funding inadequate for truly original thinking? Are the policies in place so protective that they have become stifling?

I propose we become the leaders! Public k12 education is one of the most important building blocks of every student that will later become a working member of our society. We need to "get there" quickly and not just talk about it.