Circle of Support: A Systemic Approach to Equitable Technology Integration
By: John Laskarzewski and Lauri Susi
Technology is being recognized frequently as a change agent in education. Business leaders and community members recognize the need for graduates to be competent in the use of technology. Oblinger and Verville in their 1999 Educom Review article Information Technology as a Change Agent report that "technology is generating more jobs, especially those requiring problem-solving ability, and those jobs are paying better and better". National organizations such as ISTE and most states have identified and adopted technology competencies for both students and staff. Assistive technology is commonly recognized as an important and necessary tool for students with special needs to access the school environment and curriculum. There is a greater understanding of what it means to integrate technology into the curriculum so it directly relates to what students are learning and producing. Districts pay substantial attention to developing technology plans and designing infrastructure. Too often these efforts do not consistently reach each and every student in each and every classroom. Even in districts where funding and infrastructure is not an issue, equitable student experiences implementing technology is rare. (Kimble 1999). Although various media report that technology has considerable potential to enhance learning and teaching, the effort to implement this potential in all classrooms throughout the United States has not been achieved. (Education Week: Technology Counts 2001) For technology to have a powerful impact on both student and staff learning requires a change in organizational delivery or what we refer to as a systemic support structure called Circle of Support. Each support arm must be in place and balanced for meaningful, equitable technology implementation.
We have identified six essential systemic elements that result in an equitable and consistent implementation of the technology plan. Each of these elements provides classroom teachers with the structure they need to successfully implement technology to support improved learning. The six elements are:
- a clear vision of the role of technology in the learning process
- curriculum design and expected outcomes necessary to reach that vision
- professional development focusing on technical skills and pedagogy
- well-designed infrastructure and learning environments
- well trained technical support staff who are organized and efficient
- leadership at every level within the district
Vision and Goals
Peter Scholtes states in The Leader's Handbook, "Organizations have a continuous need for a sense of purpose and vision. Caught up in the daily absurdities, we need to be reminded of why we are out here doing what we are doing. We need a means of determining whether what we are doing as individuals has any relevance to the greater good."
School districts have worked diligently to create a vision for the integration of technology, but too often this vision reflects the ideas of a small group rather than the broader community. All staff and community members need to understand the role of technology in the learning process and be involved in creating the vision. This does not mean that the small group cannot draft a vision, but it needs to go beyond the group for feedback. Only then will everyone understand where the system is presently and where it needs to go. From this vision, goals and benchmark competencies are created to specify the expected results. Best practices are then identified and implemented. Goal attainment can then be measured through data collection. Although this can be a time consuming process it is a necessary first step. It ensures that everyone is on board with the way technology will be supported financially, with personnel and how projects will be identified and prioritized.
Curriculum Design and Implementation
There are three curriculum components that must be in place in order for classroom teachers throughout the system to effectively integrate technology in a format that supports improved learning for all students. Effort and time must be spent establishing a coordinated curriculum design process, a functional communication network, and an assessment methodology.
A coordinated curriculum design process requires departments and grade-level professionals to work together toward aligning their objectives with district objectives so the whole education organization is moving toward the same goals. Barriers between areas (i.e. special and regular education) need to be dismantled so that groups are not competing with each other for funding and other staff development resources.
School systems develop this design by coordinating curriculum revisions that include the integration of technology into projects, lessons and learning outcomes. An effective approach is to begin integrating into one curriculum, PreK-12, so that teachers, technology resources and support services are not functioning beyond capacity. Designing curricula to include well-planned technology units, activities, and assessments enables teachers to focus on curriculum development and delivery. Additionally, technology lessons written into the curriculum ensures that all students in each grade have specified learning experiences that develop technology and curricular competencies.
Ongoing communication is needed to attain the vision and goals even when the curriculum is coordinated between buildings and between levels. Expected learning outcomes need to be developed, shared and reported to all staff. A continuum of skills needs to be available so that all staff knows the expectations of students in their classes as well as the expected learning outcomes as they progress through the grades. Available support needs to be communicated in a variety of formats so that all teachers know how to access help. Teachers need time to meet as teams to debrief and revise projects and lessons.
Finally, it is important to develop an assessment methodology. Within the organization, data which reflects teacher skills and student competencies should be routinely gathered, analyzed and used to develop future support necessary to maintain the vision. Assessment is the key to identifying strengths and weaknesses of any program. Developing a variety of useful assessment tools helps ensure that all students are acquiring the same skills through standard experiences. Mike Schmoker states in his 1996 book Results, the "litmus test for a good school is not its innovations but rather the solid, purposeful, enduring results it tries to obtain for its students."
Project and lesson results need to be shared with teachers throughout the system so they can track progress and understand the impact of technology on learning. Only then will it be meaningful enough for everyone to pursue the vision with vigor.
Professional Development
A viewpoint often expressed by people within and outside of education is that teachers are reluctant to use technology. This reluctance may come from the style of staff development often provided. Pull-out instruction in how to technically use a software program does not address the pedagogy of how to use a particular program to support learning, modification of the software for students with special needs, or integration into instructional models. Training offered sporadically and in a pull out fashion rarely provides enough support to ensure success.
Consider instead a team-teaching model in which a computer teacher meets with a group of grade level or discipline area teachers to design lessons and review the technical skills required. Then the computer teacher and classroom teacher can co-teach lessons integrating the technology. Follow-up lessons and other supports, such as direction sheets and pre-lesson training sessions, increase the classroom teacher's confidence, skills and success rate.
The classroom teacher as well as the computer teacher both gain a better understanding of the content, expected academic outcomes, technology skills and student ability levels through this collaborative method. Modeling lessons helps teachers observe behavior management, pacing, and lesson design as well as help them gain technical expertise.
This pro-active model ensures success for both teachers and students by building trust through a collaboration that focuses on results and mutual respect. Teachers trust the team-teaching or peer coaching concept in which the computer teacher handles the application while the teacher instructs on the content. Involving the library information teacher and the special education staff also provides a wider circle of support while addressing the variety of student needs. This immerses the teachers in an environment in which they are not only learning but have to immediately reinforce that learning through teaching. The repetition of teaching new skills within the curriculum builds confidence and competence and gives meaning to the use of the technology. In return, the computer teacher provides instruction within the classroom where they experience first-hand the difficulties and frustrations that can occur when using technology with students. Most importantly, this approach can benefit students by providing higher success rates, higher on-task time, and individual instructional support. Joyce and Showers, in the 1995 book Student Achievement through Staff Development, state "The student as learner is the key. The closer and innovation is to the interactive process that helps the learner manage learning better, the greater the effects will be. The choice, then, is innovations that directly touch the child. Reciprocally, the farther the innovations is from the environment where teachers and learners interact, the slower and lesser will be the effects, if there are any."
Teachers become excited, but not overwhelmed, when they are provided with an opportunity to gain skills independently while at the same time having in-classroom support, dialog, and coaching. It is a nurturing work environment that encourages risk-taking and still respects the expertise of staff by putting the content first, where it belongs.
Environment/Infrastructure
Designing school networks is best left to experienced professionals who are guided by the basic demands of the school environment. The key to truly effective school technology integration is a focus on the ultimate end users: the students and their teachers. The goal should be to put the very best, most powerful, intuitive tools in these users' hands. With more to learn and no increase in instructional time, kids no longer have time to wait. A network infrastructure can help to maximize meaningful contact time. The network needs to be fast and peak use still should allow for quick access to information. Computer integration into curricula should provide for better use of instructional time and in theory should reduce the time students spend waiting for information access and storage; it needs to increase the time students are on-task. The information that students and their teachers need or create should be accessible and virtually should follow the user, establishing a "from anywhere to anywhere" environment.
The first step in this process is to understand what tools are needed and what type of environment best supports the use of those tools. This is accomplished by spending time in classrooms and examining the tasks that users are performing while remaining focused on the vision and goals. Working toward the vision and goals will help to plan an implementation for the present as well as provide the solid infrastructure on which to grow in the future.
The systems and components required for supporting the instructional units and lessons need to be flexible. The network infrastructure must have the capacity to support system growth and change as the needs of users change. The infrastructure design must provide for the elements of standardization, upgrade cycles, repairs, and new technologies.
The dependence on information access for students and staff and the need to effectively provide access dictate the design and implementation of a dependable infrastructure. This dependable network needs the parallel characteristic of being easily maintained. Limited school budgets need to provide the upfront money for quality infrastructure. Future increases in both personnel and dependable equipment, if not in place in the original structure, will cost substantially more in the future years of network functioning. Translation: Budgets are always tight but will only get tighter with a poor design and implementation as more funding will need to be spent "fixing the network".
Technical Support
Technical support is an absolute necessity because the teacher, using technology as a means to enhance the delivery of instruction or as a means of getting the latest information, needs it for reliability. Many others share the use of the equipment and have it working for them, but do not "put it back the way they found it." It is then left to chance that the next user, a teacher who has been practicing a lesson for days, will be able to problem-solve technical problems (such as the black screen on the demonstration monitor as in the opening scenario) in a matter of seconds so as to maximize the instructional time available.
A team of individuals needs to be organized to coordinate and provide the technical scaffold so necessary for the integration of technology in the instructional delivery and support of the curriculum. A team focused on providing a working infrastructure needs to make it "all" happen with a ghost's transparency. A complete team should include a balanced number of technicians, secretaries, and computer-savvy experienced classroom teachers (in the role of district computer teachers). The numbers need to be adjusted based on the physical and educational environments that make up the school district.
A technician is necessary to maintain a working, fast, reliable network, functioning software, and a few helpful hints as to why this or that went wrong. A good technician can provide the basic knowledge necessary for a positive first use of technology or the inherent details for the successful implementation of a complex classroom computer center.
A help desk of some sort with secretarial personnel helps to organize and focus requests for service. This part of the team is a permanent contact point, the first line for making transparency into reality, the data collector, the processor of "paper" or "paperless" electronic documents that still need sorting.
A computer specialist (computer teacher) can provide the support for a classroom teacher's planning and implementation of a technology-rich unit of instruction. Whether this means being a resource, a mentor, a modeler, or a member of a team, this individual can be the bridge providing continuity or can be a built-in change agent. The computer-savvy professional knows how a technology-rich environment can support learning and integrate subject matter with the knowledge-producing population. This individual can be an in-house provider of professional development providing links directly to the newly developed curriculum and can ensure a district continuum for skill development. This person also plays a key role in communicating to the technicians what the network and software needs to be able to do to support learning.
Support of a technical nature, whether provided by a "techie" or a "computer teacher," is absolutely necessary during a new implementation. This simple support structure is a pro-active means of encouraging continued use and helping to maintain the transparency of the technology so that it does not become the focal point of the integrated curriculum. Kids do not have time to wait.
Leadership
For technology use to be fully integrated into learning and teaching, it must be considered valuable by the district leadership. "In a learning organization, leaders are designers, stewards, and teachers. They are responsible for building organizations where people continually expand their capabilities to understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental models--that is, they are responsible for learning." states Peter Senge in his 1990 book The Fifth Discipline.
Successful technology integration requires leaders who continually take the technology plan off the shelf and focus the efforts of all community members and staff towards achieving the goals and vision. They are good communicators who encourage good communication. Leaders are technology users and value high-quality use of technology. They support teacher learning through training, assessing, communicating and funding. Leaders make sure all the elements of the circle of support are functional.
Leaders banish fear by creating an atmosphere in which teachers are frequently encouraged to ask questions and question reasons. They explain why changing instruction to integrate technology is important and they support teachers in learning the skills to effectively change. They do not coerce teachers into adopting technology, but rather assist teachers in adapting technology and creating powerful learning environments.
Leaders in this structure keep promises. They have integrity and build trusting relationships. Their words of encouragement regarding the importance of technology integration and staff training are enacted by providing follow-up with critical planning time and the development of a support structure. True leaders recognize that good intentions alone do not help the teacher provide improved instruction. Stephen Covey states, "If there is little or no trust, there is no foundation for permanent success".
Summary
This article outlined a circle of support that provides a structure in which teachers work with students in an atmosphere of trust, energy and vision. Leaders, community members and teachers need to work together to create an organizational structure which supports the effective use of technology in improving learning for all students and preparing them for the future.
Just as the settlers circled their wagons to provide a support structure for safety and defense, school districts need to develop a circle of support for technology integration to be successful in all classrooms. Every wagon you leave out makes the circle of support smaller.
References
Oblinger, D. Verville, A. (1999). Information Technology as a Change Agent. Educom Review. 34 1 [Online]. Available: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/erm991a.html
Education Week--Special Report: Technology Counts '01 The New Divide [Online] Available http://www.edweek.com/sreports/tc01/
Kimble, C. (May 1999). The Impact of Technology on Learning: Making Sense of the Research. Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory. [Online] Available http://www.mcrel.org/pdfconversion/policybriefs/pb%5Fimpacttechnology.html
Schmoker, M. (1999). Results: The Key to Continuous School Improvement. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Publications.
Covey, S. (1991). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Simon & Schuster.
Senge, P. (1990). The Fifth Discipline. Doubleday
Joyce, B. and Showers. B. (1995) Student Acheivement Through Staff Development. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Publications.
