Embracing change

Excerpts from Embracing change (reflections from going one-to-one). All of the bulleted points are from the post:

• We’ve made the transition from teaching in ways that are comfortably familiar to teachers to designing learning opportunities that are centered in what our students need, a transition from teacher-driven to student-driven pedagogy.
• Curriculum must be the driver, not technology.
• Traditional assessment does not provide an accurate measure of learning when an innovative curriculum is in place nor does it accurately measure the acquisition of the previously defined literacies. Traditional assessment measures a concrete culmination of learning, an exam or final project, and fails to adequately acknowledge the learning process or provide information on how to modify that process in a timely manner. Technology and a 1:1 environment allow the learning process to be transparent, provides mechanisms for rich formative assessment with instantaneous feedback, and more adequately monitors and assesses the development of literacies.
• Learning spaces are not redefined but become undefined.
• The final fundamental lesson that 1:1 has provide is that Professional Development is necessary but must be individualized, blended between face to face and virtual opportunities, and available on demand. Ownership of professional development has to be transferred to teachers who need to feel supported and persuaded that it is an important part of their daily job.
• Every year it will be a little different and you evolve and get better at it. Just when you think you have things figured out...the rules change and you have to evolve again.

This really is an exceptional post about massive changes in not just providing a computer to every student, but in complete transformation about what can be.