On Monday, April 28, 2008, Dr. Don Knezek (ISTE CEO) and Dr. Robert Duron (Superintendent of a large urban district in San Antonio, Texas) had a conversation hosted by KLRN in San Antonio. Sitting in the studio with KLRN (Charles Vaughn, Malinda McCormick who imagined this particular conversation) and PBS TeacherLine of Texas (Holly Custard), I had a bird's eye view into the whole production of a new revised show at KLRN. KLRN Conversations is...

We all know that the art of conversation is a great way to communicate information, and we know that television can be a important source of information and insight into the community. Those are the premises behind KLRN new series CONVERSATIONS. The series strives to bring the people who make a difference in San Antonio together for "conversations" that will provide a look at these creative leaders of the city and highlight their accomplishments.

What an honor to have ISTE and San Antonio ISD featured together! The actual video of the show will be broadcast via KLRN on May 29, 2008.

In spite of the hard work going on in the back, I was fascinated by the conversation about the importance of leadership in achieving change and the concept of teachers as "co-learners" with their students. Creativity was also a focus of the conversation, and it reminded me a presentation by Richard Florida I saw on C-SPAN the other night where he talks about how diversity and innovation are linked. The more diverse groups you have access to when you're creating, the more innovative you can be.

Conversation between Dr. Don Knezek and Dr. Robert Duron

Show Links:

• NECC 2008 web site
• ISTE National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S)
• San Antonio ISD's Technology Integration Lead Teacher (TILT) Program
• Video of TILT Cohort 1 participant
• Video of TILT Cohort 2 Participants
• PBS TeacherLine Capstone Partnership video featuring Miguel Guhlin (San Antonio ISD) and Bruce Ellis (Dallas ISD)

They covered a few topics, and their discussion touched on a variety of items, of which the following are only those I was able to quickly type:

• Urban school districts face particular challenges.
• Don speaks to the importance of using technology well across a large school district, how students use tech and who interacts using technology. One of the big challenges for a large urban school district is drawing a shared vision from the community regarding first, education and second, technology, and ensuring alignment of the vision.
• We see pockets of innovation, but if they aren't aligned to the purpose of the school district, then those don't move forward. Frustration results from that lack of alignment.
• Where we see success is where the superintendent who expresses that vision and alignment often. If you verbalize that vision at the beginning of the year but don't revisit it again time and again, then you get a herding cats effect.
• Vision and leadership is absolutely key to success.
• ISTE's efforts are about building a solid leadership base for district leaders including curriculum leaders and building principals.
• Leadership development is important to start with.
• Essential conditions: 1) Skilled personnel; 2) Technical assistance; 3) SOlid infrastructure; 4) Teachers willingness to be somewhat at risk; 5) Importance of assessment to measure where you've been.
• Our purpose is to improving quality lives...the core competency of that is teaching and learning. How do you see tech improving teaching and learning?
• Technology clearly has a role to play in engaging our students. 2002-2003, students were on the web more than they were watching television. Look at the cell phone penetration and MP3 players...students have technology outside the classroom. Students tell us that they are powering down when they come to schools. The level of tech they are accustomed to in other places is higher than school.
• Students are learning outside the classroom and accustomed to doing so with technology.
• We have to figure out what engages students and then find out how to apply it to the learning we're intentional about. That's one piece of it.
• The opportunities to learn were limited before, but the experiences now available are more.
• Options for learning are much broader.
• Authentic projects, access to experts, work in interntional learning groups...tech enables a number of strategies that engages students who weren't successful with liner...with bland texts. Where kids have self-direction, authentic problem, they are able to transfer more to the work environment than teacher-driven activities. Relevance is enhanced, as are the resources.
• One of the challenges superintendents are aware of...technology-driven changes, we pretty much learned the way the previous generation learned.
• Teaching has been an isolated endeavour...they did student prep alone or seldom worked with others. Now, we have the ability to help teachers engage, tap into a worldwide network that they couldn't tap before and learn what other teachers are doing, air their problems and get responses back, find out what is engaging students worldwide, and ....teacher has to shift from sage on the stage to guide on the side. One more step is envisioned...teachers are becoming co-learners with their students.
• Empower kids to be creative using technology...many of the routine jobs are being out-sourced.
• What do you do as a principal when teachers are feeling constrained? Encourage teachers to find new and inventive ways to achieve and help kids perform on standardized learning. Almost to a principal, they said we have to accept and value that creativity. Encouraging risk-taking, look at what engages students, and make judgements about how to do that.