A Change of Plans, Little Else

One of the biggest challenges I face in my practice as a technology integration specialist is changing the teaching and learning culture. In my mind, I have a clear and specific goal: using technology to enhance learning. Yet traditional teaching and learning practices and paradigms sabotage my team's efforts—laptops become glorified typewriters and Wikipedia the new Encyclopedia Britannica (with Google as its table of contents).

What's preventing real change? I believe it's an approach that puts plans and process before the big picture and developing human capital.

Once the need for change is identified, we usually turn to plans. We become immersed in policies and procedures to transform the status quo, yet tend to miss an important step—the big picture. What's the goal and does everyone share it?

Significant change should not start with plans, but with a shared vision and empowerment. Culture is the most important (and hardest) to change, not policies or procedures. To achieve cultural change, we need to develop powerful models of that change within an organization. My team's vision of technology needs to go viral, with infected new members joining the campaign and carrying the momentum for change. (As Derek Sivers notes in this TED talk, the key to starting a movement is finding that first follower with the courage to show others how to follow.) 

As educators, we work with struggling students by changing teaching strategies, meeting with parents, using rubrics to assess and help students individually, and designing IEPs. We help our students see the big picture, empower their development, and believe in their capability to change, yet we find it difficult to apply these practices to transform our profession.

What's preventing real change in your school, district, or the education sector in general?

Post submitted by Alline Sada, a technology integration specialist at the Euroamerican School of Monterrey in Nuevo León, Mexico, and a 2011 Annual Conference Scholar.