School 2.0 and Systemic Change

The core concept I took away from the School 2.0 map and article is that schools must be communities. A school is not just brick and mortar for students and teachers. The best parallel is an organized church. The building is not the church, it is a symbol. A church is its community of worshipers. The people make the church. Schools should be like that too. "School" needs to take on a broader meaning. School should be what and who we are all our lives. That is what lifelong learning really is.

This is a huge paradigm shift and can't happen overnight or even in a short 5-10 year span. This requires a core belief change. Not something easily achieved, which is why we continue to fail in our reform efforts. We expect great effort to produce great results. In guiding a cultural change we need to accept that great efforts might yield small changes. They aren't insignificant, but we can't beat our chests and crow about our big success. Real change is slow, almost insidious.

We can't start from scratch; it's just not possible. So, our focus should be how can we morph our current system into something that works for today. Success breeds success therefore we should tackle the easiest shifts, even though they may not be the most important. Without buy in you have nothing. A district that wants to move towards a School 2.0 model has to make minor, popular changes first. Have success and increase the comfort level of the reluctant participants. We can more easily design a modern information highway, than we can make the paradigm shift to a virtual classroom. I'm not saying we shouldn't get there, I believe we have to take as many people with us as possible and you don't do that by challenging their reality. We as school leaders have to make the process collaborative and non threatening.

We have the beginnings of collaboration now. We need to call attention to it and celebrate its successes. Incremental change with a common goal in mind will accomplish much more than an announcement that we are going to be the new School 2.0. Collaboration among all the stakeholders is difficult but worth striving for. This model should continue to be part of any School 2.0 discussions we might have.

A specific on the School 2.0 map that I would like to change or discard is seeing technology as a stand alone item. Our students and young people have technology embedded in their lives. It's not something they think about or study, it's just what is. The focus on the School 2.0 map is about acquiring technology, often times in lieu of other things. That's not a solution. Until we see technology as transparent we will continue to think of it as a miracle solution. It is never the solution. It is a tool to help us reach better solutions.

Overall, the School 2.0 map is a conversation starter. I don't know that I see it as any more powerful than other ideas and programs we have begun to explore in regards to the schools of the future. The power will come from committment, leadership, and collaboration.