Musings from Mumbai: Fostering a climate of innovation in the middle and high schools

ASB Unplugged is a 1:1 laptop conference for international schools, hosted by the American School of Bombay and the Laptop Institute. These are notes from a session I attended on technology-related change at the secondary level…

• Andrew Hoover, middle school principal
• Devin Pratt, high school principal
• Dianna Pratt, middle/high school tech coordinator

[the educators in this room are from more countries than you probably can place on a map!]

• Change is not linear
  • Expect both bursts and delays
• Complacency and resistance come from…
  • Being busy
  • Maybe being risk adverse
  • Perceived (and actual) threats to professional identity
• DyKnow software really takes advantage of the tablet PCs’ functionality, making it worth the tablets’ extra cost
• Key implementation stages (from John Kotter)
  • Establish a sense of urgency
    • Generate cognitive dissonance!
  • Create a guiding coalition
    • The leadership team has to be on board
  • Develop a vision and strategy
  • Communicate the change vision
    • Repetition of message, vision, goals, etc. is key
    • Lead by example
  • Empower educators for broad-based action
    • Lots of just-in-time professional development
    • Ongoing instrucational support
    • Reliable technology and infrastructure
    • Small, frequent, purposeful meetings
  • Generate short-term wins
    • Teacher-sponsored demos and highlights, tied into concept of enduring understandings
      • Repetition of this gradually overcomes the resisters
    • Teachers are asked to use DyKnow just once and have the lesson observed to get feedback
    • There is a curriculum to foster a sense of responsibility among students
      • Students carry around eggs first; if an egg breaks, the student has to go through a process before she gets another one
      • Later students graduate to laptops but have to leave them at school
      • Finally students get the laptops 24–7
  • Consolidate gains and produce further changes
    • “You don’t know how comfortable you are until you start moving on”
    • Keep stressing ‘here’s where we were 2 years ago and look how much progress we’ve made’
    • Andrew is using a blog to keep staff, students, and parents informed of progress
    • Work on facilitating dispersed leadership
  • Anchor new approaches in the culture of the school
    • Recognize how culture already has changed and build upon it
    • Foster a climate of continuous improvement (kaizen)

Scott’s trip to Mumbai: pics at Flickr, movies at YouTube.