LOTI Level 5 - Beyond the Walls

Source: http://www.jimcollins.com/lab/level5/index.html

"Is there something in the LOTI that's equivalent to Level 5?" asked my superintendent when we first met. I wasn't sure. I had no idea what "Level 5" meant. Now, I know he was referring to Level 5 leadership as discussed in Jim Collins' book, Good to Great. According to the web site cited above, Level 5 leaders...

...channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It's not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious--but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.

As I review the table on page 2 of Collins' web site, I realize that I fall short as a leader. In particular, this point hits hard...the level 5 leader...

...Looks in the mirror, not out the window, to apportion responsibility for poor results, never blaming other people, external factors, or bad luck.

Looks out the window, not in the mirror, to apportion credit for the success of the company—to other people, external factors, and good luck.

These are powerful ideas or perspectives on leadership. But back to the original question. As I reflected on the Levels of Technology Implementation earlier this month at a presentation to another school district, I realized that the expectations for students and teachers has changed.

The expectation is no longer that we use technology as a tool for identifying and solving real life problems in the classroom. Why? As Dr. Don Knezek shared in his presentation at the ICTT 2007 Conference held September 15 at the UTSA Downtown campus (listen to it here as a podcast), classroom teaching can no longer be limited to classroom activities. Technology and learning that occurs has to EXTEND beyond the classroom. The refreshed ISTE National Education Technology Standards for Students expect students to interact with others and solve problems...at a distance! It's not enough to do a nice project in your classroom, you have to have students working with students from other countries.

As I was reflecting on the power of level 5 leaders, I realized that level 4 of the levels of technology implementation (LOTI 4) isn't good enough anymore.

In LOTI 4, technology is routinely used as a tool to identify and solve real life problems. But the truth is that it is often used within the 4 walls of a classroom. What's really needed, especially in light of the refreshed ISTE NETS-S, is LOTI 5. This is where technology access is extended BEYOND the classroom.

Now imagine that our district is still chugging along, pushing the same old productivity tools, offering adult learners workshops on how to use productivity tools, and Career and Technology Education (CATE) classes for students that focus on how-to. Are these classes valuable? No doubt. But are they what our teachers and students need for the long-run? No...they are not. Those are the "brutal facts."

So, I need to go back to my Superintendent and give him the news. Level 5 leadership--with its emphasis on superb results, high standards, personal responsibility, public success--fits hand in hand with LOTI 5.

LOTI 5 encompasses the use of Read/Write Web tools especially when they are used to achieve communication and collaboration at a distance. Why didn't I see this before?

Here's what Level 5 Technology Use--where technology extends learning BEYOND the classroom--should look like...

If you want to see the potential of what we can do with this stuff, take a look at what Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis have created in their Flat Classroom Project. Julie, who is at the International School Dhaka in Bangladesh, and Vicki who is at Westwood High in Georgia, have collaborated on an amazing undertaking that will connect their kids in a study of the 10 Flattners from Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat. In small groups comprised of students from both schools, they’ll be taking the next few weeks to really dig into what’s happening in the two countries from a global perspective and report out in a variety of ways using Read/Write Web tools. In the end, if the grading rubric is any indication, these kids will know a heck of a lot more about their places in the world, the complexities of the age, and the ways in which these tools are changing the way we do business in more than one sense.

Pinch me, but is there all of a sudden a little string of interesting examples of Read/Write Web projects coming together? I know…this example in particular is the result of some amazing and intensive planning. (Did I mention the rubric?) But it makes clear what I think are the two most important aspects of using these tools…first, we have to stop seeing our classrooms as spaces with four walls. Teachers must be willing to be connectors. And second, in the context of those connections, we can give our students real, meaningful, relevant opportunities to teach the rest of us what they know. The fact that the work of these students will be published in its many forms to the world as a whole is just so radically removed from the ways most educators still look at what happens in the classroom. If we are simply content to shuffle paper back and forth only for the sake of slapping an assessment on the work, we are doing our students a grave disservice.

Go and listen to the voices of these kids.
Source: Will Richardson's Web-logged

Are you ready for LEVEL 5 Technology Use? If you are, join us at SAISD Connections or call us at 210-527-1400 for online collaborative learning projects!