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The freeze-thaw method of technology integration.

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

This post springs from 3 things:

  • My experiences as Director of E-Learning
  • Discussions I’ve had with James Michie and Nick Dennis about #edjournal
  • A conversation I’ve just had with colleague Steve Bailey about ‘cloud’ apps from a records management perspective

The further down the rabbit-hole I go, the more reports I read, and as I talk to increasing numbers of educational technology leaders, I’m realising how problematic my actions as a standard classroom teacher actually were. Why? Well as a ‘maverick’ my actions on a small scale could potentially have undermined the larger-scale roll-out of technology in that institution. I acted in a somewhat cavalier manner to legal issues and could potentially have affected cultural acceptance of educational technology writ large.

I’m going to propose a 10-stage ‘freeze-thaw model’ of technology integration. It goes something like this:

  1. Draw up a list of minimum specifications.
  2. Explore the app/service/solution that has most traction.
  3. Talk to people who can do ‘due diligence’ regarding the legal side of things (especially terms & conditions, service level agreements)
  4. Do some small-scale testing with a pilot group.
  5. Agree upon how the technology is going to be used.
  6. ‘Freeze’ it – i.e. no more new features for a given amount of time (e.g. a term or academic year)
  7. Discuss new features and have pilot groups.
  8. ‘Thaw’ it – let people play about with a sandbox and go through due diligence again.
  9. ‘Re-freeze’ – i.e. add features and then freeze for a given amount of time.
  10. Repeat.

I’m aware that this goes against almost everything I’ve done before. For example, at the Academy I just opened up all of the tools available with Google Apps Education Edition to see what people did with them. I was pleasantly surprised. But, leaving after a year I didn’t have to deal with the data security, workflow or sustainability aspects of this.

Any type of project that is successful is sustainable in some way. I see the freeze-thaw model as a way of encouraging responsible experimentation. šŸ™‚

Image CC BY jenny downing

What I learned about education whilst in the UAE

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

Photos from my trip to the UAE

I’ve reflected before on my difficulty in answering the question, “So… what do you do?”. From that post, however, the answer I’m increasingly keen on giving is:

  • I tell stories about how learningĀ can be.

Invariably, given my predilections, this involves the use of technology. No matter where I go in Europe, in Turkey or the Middle East, there are three barriers that educators see as almost insurmountable:

  1. I don’t have the time – I’m working flat-out as it is!
  2. The curriculum doesn’t allow it.
  3. We haven’t got the hardware/software/internet connection speed.

My responses to these?

  1. Whilst there may a learning curve involved, you will invariably save time by making learning more available to students.
  2. I ask them what the curriculum prescribes. More often than not it’s based on a false assumption – or, more dangerously, a textbook.
  3. There has to be a reason for the school/local authority to upgrade the hardware/software/internet connection speed. Are you providing them with that reason?

And this is where the storytelling comes in. Because I’m not actually that interested in the technology itself. I’m interested in students reaching their potential, social justice and transforming education so it has some semblance of relevance by the time my son ends up in secondary school (2018 if you’re wondering).

So I came across the same issues when I visited the two schools my Dad works in near Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates. But what I came across there was the willingness of teachers to learn. They really wanted to improve and get better – so much so that they availed themselves of every opportunity to ask me questions, quiz me about practicalities, and pick my brains.

I didn’t present anything groundbreaking or revolutionary whilst I was in the UAE. In fact, it was pretty tame stuff. What I did do, however, was tell a story. And that’s a whole lot more powerful than pointing educators toward a rag-tag bunch of loosely-related technologies we refer to as ‘Web 2.0’… :-p

Slides and presentation video available here. šŸ™‚

#eduhivefive (a suggestion).

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

This follows on a previous post r.e. the problem with (non-OSS) free stuff.

Image: ‘Bees‘

I’ll keep this short.

Lifehacker has a great regular thing calledĀ Hive Five for software/productivity recommendations. It goes like this:

  1. Question asked: ‘What’s the best x for y?’
  2. People respond.
  3. Five most mentioned in a positive way become ‘recommended’.

We shouldĀ totally do this for education. I’ve created a wiki atĀ http://eduhivefive.wikispaces.com in anticipation. :-p

Perhaps, given the demise of Etherpad, we could kick off with: “What’sĀ the best online tool for collaborative writing?” and useĀ #eduhivefive and #writing as hashtags?

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