This is a the fourth year of our 1:1 teaching and learning initiative in Salisbury for grades 6-12, TL2020.org. During the 2014-15 school year, 1:1 access was added with iPads for K-1 students and MacBooks for students in grades 3-5. You can learn more about our first three years at TL2014.org.  On the site, you will see goals, the evaluation, policies, etc.

Recently, we were invited to participate in a research cohort with Apple.  We will join approximately 17 other school districts in Chicago, IL next week to learn more about how to collect data to answer our research question.

As part of the preparation for the workshop, we needed to complete a survey which inquired about our current data collection practices, resources, and a potential research problem.  On this snow day, after much conversation, we were excited to unearth our research question.  My colleague, Randy Ziegenfuss, shared his thoughts on increasing transformative learning experiences. You can read his post here.  His post explains our past work, the upcoming research opportunity we have been afforded, and our research question.

After three years, we are still seeing pockets of learning activities which would qualify as above the line (transformative) according to  Puentadura’s SAMR framework.  Learn more about SAMR by reviewing our Learnist Board.  For the teachers who are designing and implementing transformative learning experiences, what factors are critical to their success?

How do we increase the number of teachers who develop and implement these above the line activities?  Is our vision clear? What is working for these teachers who continually proffer these opportunities?  Do they have different professional learning experiences? Are their building PLCs structured differently? Are these educators connected through PLNs? Are their content area/grades relevant?  Do the administrators in the building play a role in regard to support and/or expectations?  Are these teachers risk-takers?  How can we create a risk-taking environment? What can we learn from these teachers, and how can we promote more of these opportunities?  What do we need to do to support them? I have so many questions about these teachers and their practices.

How do you support your teachers to learn and share with each other?

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