Things Changed

Read Write Web ran a story on the Real Time Web and K-12 Education yesterday. Educators the likes of Steven Anderson, Silvia Tolisano, and Kyle Pace all have interesting things to say in the piece; and Audrey Watters, the reporter on the piece, included one of my Google Wave classroom Jings -- which is way cool: thanks!

As for the article itself, Pace, in particular, voiced an issue that I think admins need to pay attention to. Namely, as illustrated in the article by the fact that

78% of teachers responding to the NCES study said that they found independent learning the best way to learn about new technologies (as opposed to 61% who said that in-district training was the best way to gain new tech skills).

Pace is quoted on his feelings about #edchat noting: "You cannot buy this kind of professional development."

And he is absolutely right. From #edchat to the daily links to research and best practices to compendiums of crowdsourced reference libraries to instant cross-cultural communication with education professionals the world over, no admin could ever have afforded this kind of professional development pre-Real Time Web.

Last month I sat on a panel in front of the heads of independent schools throughout the Baltimore area. Asked what I thought was the best way to prepare teachers for the new paradigm, I replied: "Twitter is the best vehicle for professional development our profession has ever known. Stop spending money bringing 'experts' into your schools for in-service days and instead give teachers the tools and time to explore what's happening in real-time as thousands of teachers throughout the Twitterverse take it upon themselves professionally to experiment, share, and develop as a new community of teachers."


The room went silent except for audible gasps.


Those were gasps of realization. Realization that the old system of training and development is hopefully outdated. And a new way of doing things developed among engaged teachers while most of the folks in charge didn't even realize there was a problem with the status quo.