Re: Welcome to Sustainability & Insitutionalization
Ellen Miyasato (ellenm@kalama.doe.hawaii.edu)
Sat, 29 Mar 1997 09:07:49 -1000
Hey, David...
Happy Good Friday everyone...on with sustainabilitiy and
Institutionalization.
What??
Teachers will never change, so reform begins at the top? I agree with
you 1/2 ...IF we (teachers as well as staff development models) continue
with our current "view of education and learning-for both students and
teachers," we'll never change.
Reform from the top will last only as long as the leader lasts.
Throughout HERN, and entering into our third year...we are witnessing
several evolving patterns on teachers making changes:
- multiple dimensions of collaborative efforts among past
partcipants infusing their influence in other organizations
in Hawaii - like science, reading, foreign language,
professional teacher orgs
- multiple level resource collaboration among elementary,
high school, community college teachers and students
- teachers teaming with administrators in exploring the
restructuring of learning
During our third year, as the grant period ends, we're looking at two
leverages for the continued evolvement (more than sustaining) of the
reform efforts: engage educators in directing their own learning - an
opportunity to grow in a professional community focusing on developing,
providing ways of learning that are more in keeping with their
professional lives and building collaborative networks. The second has
been a challenge..during our first two years..
What are your thoughts on David's statement: Teachers won't ever change
so reform should start at the top?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ellen Miyasato phone: (808) 956-2854
Hawaii Education & Research Network fax: (808) 956-5025
ellenm@kalama.doe.hawaii.edu
http://www.hern.hawaii.edu/hern/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Mon, 17 Mar 1997 david@hawaii.edu wrote:
> Aloha to you all!
>
> Ellen Miyasato and I have agreed to moderate this forum and look forward to a
> lively interchange with you over the next several weeks. And who knows, maybe
> even longer! Our mission, should we decide to accept it, is to consider
> issues such as:
>
> Technology planning
> Administrative use of technology
> Bringing all players to the table
> Interacting with the bureaucracy
> Overcoming inertia
> The tension between politics and educational reform
> Harnessing existing funds for educational reform
>
> Of course, there are no grownups in the room so we can ignore these
> suggestions and take off in direction you would like.
>
> One of the benefits of being 5 hrs behind the East Coast is that this is one
> of the last "welcome" messages to go online and I got to check out the others
> before posting this. There's a lot of text and content on-line already and no
> interaction yet. I'd say if we can get just a couple of lively discussions
> going with *real* interchange among us that we can consider this a success.
> So let me throw out a few provocative (I think) statements and see if any of
> you agree/disagree. As this develops it may be useful to try to focus our
> discussion, but for now, let's just see if we have anything to talk about.
>
> Any technology plan with user involvement and buy-in will be obsolete by the
> time it's completed.
>
> The only way to fund educational networks is to integrate them completely with
> administrative networks.
>
> Unless we "fix" colleges of education then everything we do in the field is a band-aid.
>
> There weill never be adequate technical support for schools, so teachers must
> learn to support themselves with the help of their students.
>
> You can't change anything unless the teachers are all on-board.
>
> Teachers will never change, so reform begins at the top.
>
> The Universal Service Fund will solve all the technology problems in our schools.
>
> Reactions / comments / corrections???
>