The Digital Revolt

Who is with me? Are you ready to revolt? I am not talking about a digital revolution, I want a revolt. I am tired of hearing we are not ready for that. It costs too much. We do not have the money. That could be dangerous.

Every time someone talks about a new EdTech initiative, the naysayers come out. They have a reason for everything. The teachers are not ready. Our students might do something or go some place we do not want them to go. Where are we going to get money for that? It is not fair and it does not make sense.

Every time you naysayers come out and suggest updating your textbooks, did I or anyone else complain and say where are we going to get money for that so much that you ended up not doing it? Did I or anyone else complain so much when you loaded my child's backpack up with books enough that he or she could barely walk? Did that stop you from giving them work to take home? Did I cry foul at the cost of materials so much that you ended up not buying any? How about the time when you instituted a new curriculum? Did I ever tell you we could never do it because our teacher's were not ready? I think all of you know these answers.

So I ask you my tech supporting friends, why do we put up with it and allow others to refuse us to implement that which we know really will change the way our teachers teach and our students learn? How much could it really cost? How hard would it really be to get our staff and students ready for it? Would it honestly be any more dangerous for our students then if we pretended it did not exist and then allow them to go home and use it unmonitored and uninformed.

How about if we did this? Let's revolt together and come up with a modern day school. What would it look like? What would we keep and what would thankfully go away? Do we need the agrarian schedule anymore? Does 8:00 am to 3:00 pm for all our students even work anymore? Could we have school that started at different times for different people?

Let's do it. Let's start a school that has no textbooks or paper books. Lets give out students nothing but a tablet and some great apps. Lets make every classroom wifi accessible. Maybe we could even have a few laptops available too. If we did away with most of the paper print there would be little ink to buy. No printer to be repaired. No heavy textbooks to carry around. All there would be would is one tablet and possibly a laptop. Ok we can have some sheets of paper floating around here and there in case we need it. Students, family and community would all connect to the school through a LMS website builder like Blackboard Engage. All digital forms and anything that was once done on paper will now be done there.

There would be no expensive CAT 5 wiring to run everywhere. The building will be wireless with a staff, student and visitor access point to the network everywhere. Connectivity will be king. The school will be social. Students and staff will be encouraged to be social online. We will tweet. We will have digital footprints.

All of this will not go without any training. On the contrary. There will not be countless hours of curriculum training, meetings, etc. It will not be face to face training though because training will happen anywhere and anytime thanks to social sites, video conferencing and access to online collaboration tools and sites. Instead, we will invest heavily in great EdTech trainers who will be available for support for all of our staff throughout the whole building all day long. They will also be our technicians who can and also fix things for us as needed. They will be adapt at both the tech and the Ed side. Instead of staff meetings we will have app meetings. We will share great technology resources all the time. Anything business related can be said online. After all, time in education is precious.

The day and the classroom will be flipped. The course offering will be individualized to each child's needs. They will be online and customized. Their will alway be access to content, resources and results live and online daily.

How much money will we save if we do not buy textbooks. There will be no need for notebooks, whiteboards and or paper resources. There will be no two to three computers in the back of every classroom. There will be no student response systems, no interactive whiteboards and definitely no document cameras. Every student will have an iPad and a stylus. Each tablet will be loaded with word processing and note taking apps.

Students will be expected to add other app and software themselves just as we currently expect them to buy notebooks, pencils, pens and other resources to help offset the cost. The teacher will have a laptop to help them with larger more intensive work that is not able to easily be accomplished on the tablet. Content will not be blocked. The Internet will be completely accessible but there will be extensive training for staff and students from day one on leaving a digital footprint. What is an acceptable use of technology? There will be an Acceptable Use Policy and it will be followed. Violation of it will not be tolerated.

School will be engaging. It will be collaborative. It will be fun. Think of the possibilities. What if we knew nothing of school and we were to start building one today. What would it look like? What would we use? How would we fund it? Why not have corporate schools? Schools funded by companies producing the workers they want. Competition for the best workers brought about by their own schools. Couldn't we get some companies to invest in this. Couldn't we make it so kids wanted to come so much that they competed to get into it. The options here are endless.

We need to stop talking and start doing. What are we waiting for. Change will come if you wait. Why wait. Let's bring change to those who want to think or talk about it. I do not want to be a thought leader. I want to be a do leader. How about you?