Leadership and 1:1

On Wes Fryer's blog The Speed of Creativity, Dawn Danker's guest post has some incredible language that caused me to pause. Oklahoma's State Superintendent Leadership conference offered a panel of wonderful thinkers.

The basics from her post are the 5 pillars of success for 1:1. They include:

1. Leadership - the comment especially that everyone is a leader and that technology must be part of the actual culture of the school.
2. Professional development - Please go to her post, I feel like I am beating a dead horse discussing stepping out of comfort zones, collaborating, and creating ongoing and meaningful PD...
3. - 5. Hardware/Software infrastructure - This has to be individual for the needs of each 1:1 school. An emphasis on open source is unmistakable:

All the panelists agreed that web based applications gave them the most flexibility with minimal in-house support.

She quotes Steve Shiever from early in the session and a great thinking and discussing point that every district should be engaged in:

Let the curriculum drive the technology.

This is followed by words from Scott Parks:

“Think about creativity, think about authentic assessment, think outside the box and be prepared to make a positive change in your schools.”

It sounded like a great opportunity and many great discussions that should be occurring everywhere.