Are you a prophet in your own backyard? by Scott Meech

Bingo! I often am humbled to meet someone f2f who has 'followed' me for a bit in the blogosphere. For the most part the people in my district don't follow me and may have no idea the network I am involved in. That being said, I often find myself tempering how and when I work with teachers and students in my district. Last month I said, "I want you to be involved in this project. I will support your involvement as much or as little as you need." Then I reminded the teacher that while the project we were collaborating on seemed easy to me and difficult to them, that if I were responsible for the class content the table would be turned and content would be hard for me. It was at that moment that I gave both of us permission to do what we each to best and continue to collaborate and work together. So, in my own backyard, I am not a prophet, but rather a hard working collaborator, one teacher and student at a time, and that is just fine with me.Great post!

Are you a prophet in your own backyard? by Scott Meech

And that's the hardest part - that the only thing that works effectively to convert people is the one-on-one interchanges. For the "believers" it seems inordinately slow and ineffective, like being just a drop of water in the great blue sea. But the only thing that ever filled a bucket (or made up a sea) is a whole lot of drops of water collected together in one place. One of the real values that blogs bring to the table is that they provide us with an opportunity to reflect on and fine tune our one-on-one practices, as well as to "meet" other believers which helps keep our enthusiasm fired. They also give us the perspective that allows us to "see" the "places" we're trying to fill, rather than feeling like our drops of water are just hitting random bits of parched earth. It's easier to continue prophet work when one doesn't feel like a lone voice crying in the wilderness!

Are you a prophet in your own backyard? by Scott Meech

I am an elementary school media specialist who works in a school system that is rich in technology. We have an Instructional Technology Specialist at our school who is fortunate enough to be able to focus on instruction more than software or hardware problems. Tim Clark and I work together to collaborate with teachers and support student instruction. I have to give him total credit in our focus last year. We have become leaders in giving the learning torch to our students who, in turn, are helping our less techie teachers get on board with learning products built around technology possibilities. We have been excited at the learning that has taken place with our students and faculty. Our plans for next year include RTI groups that will go back to the classroom and share their learning. So, back to the original analogy, we are empowering disciples of technology because there is no way we can work with every individual.I am an elementary school media specialist who works in a school system that is rich in technology. We have an Instructional Technology Specialist at our school who is fortunate enough to be able to focus on instruction more than software or hardware problems. Tim Clark and I work together to collaborate with teachers and support student instruction. I have to give him total credit in our focus last year. We have become leaders in giving the learning torch to our students who, in turn, are helping our less techie teachers get on board with learning products built around technology possibilities. We have been excited at the learning that has taken place with our students and faculty. Our plans for next year include RTI groups that will go back to the classroom and share their learning. So, back to the original analogy, we are empowering disciples of technology because there is no way we can work with every individual.

Are you a prophet in your own backyard? by Scott Meech

I could echo so many of the concerns and thoughts in this post and in the comments. Very few of my colleagues are fully aware of the "work" I do online and I do find myself frustrated at times when I feel as if the progress isn't happening as quickly as I would like for it to. The best solution that I have found for being more influential is to look for opportunities to help people one-on-one with specific problems and to provide them with a tech solution that solves their problem. For example, a teacher wanted students to work on collaborative research papers and she heard me speak about Google Docs at a beginning of the year session. I worked one-on-one with her to set up an account then I went in and team-taught with her to help the students learn how to use Google Docs for their papers. This was a very successful example. This year I have been very successful at influencing the spread of wiki use across our curriculum department (at the district level) and this is beginning to filter out to the schools through the teachers who have access to the various department wikis. I started this by creating a wiki with my two colleagues and as we "showed off" our wiki (and how it works and helps us communicate with/collaborate with our network of teachers) other teams became interested and I worked one-on-one with members of each team to help them get started. It was a lot more work than just doing a one-day wiki workshop with the entire department, but it has been more successful than that as well. It would be nice if I could get them all to buy my new book on using wikis :-), but I can't really promote it in my district (ethics, ethics, ethics!)

Are you a prophet in your own backyard? by Scott Meech

I'm the tech coordinator in a fairly traditional K-8 school. I'm getting better at allowing the stubborn few who don't care to see the "promised land" to remain in their non-technological wilderness. Trying to force this issue as colleague to colleague only caused tension and animosity. (My administrator supports me, but it doesn't extend far enough to get all on board.) I'm hoping to guide and support the rest of my flock to the point where PARENTS begin asking the non-believing teachers why kids aren't doing important technology-enhanced projects in their classroom. Therefore, it can only help my cause to publicize our successes as much as possible-something I'm only beginning to fully realize. The trumpeting of parents will bring the walls down on the non-believers holed up in their Jericho quicker than I can on my own. (apologies for combing stories/metaphors!)

Are you a prophet in your own backyard? by Scott Meech

'It's a a mistake to give teachers computers and demand that they find useful things to do with them. Instead, we need to create opportunities for teachers to use online technology and say, "I must have this." ' (Edutopia June/July 2009- Michele Knobel article: Hungry for Help) So, I say, It's not enough to 'preach' how to integrate technology to improve student learning- we need to create opportunities for teachers so that they are the ones saying,"I must have this'-