#beyondlaptops: People over Products
“Isolation is the enemy of innovation.”
#beyondlaptops is a 3-day conference at Yokohama International School. Facilitated by Kim Cofino (@mscofino) and Clint Hamada (@chamada), #beyondlaptops seeks to provide a space for educators to collaborate on issues in schools today, addressing such concerns as technology integration, collaboration within schools and amongst them, digital literacy, and implementing and evaluating change in schools and education in general. A place where “the conference is the participants,” #beyondlaptops makes a bold move here, primarily focusing on the human capital needed to move any digital program forward.
They have an interesting model, only taking 4 faculty members per campus where each person on that school’s team must have a different position- for example, one tech coach, one middle school teacher, one administrator and one high school teacher. This lends the conference a nice balance, allowing voices from each sector of a faculty community to chime in.
As my first international school conference and my first conference centered around technology in the classroom, I didn’t know quite what to expect, but I did anticipate a lot of product- pushing. For example, “iPads are the greatest!” “You can use this app, and this one, and this one, and this one!” I was wary of this; I see kids juggling an increasing number of digital platforms and apps, especially when teachers get super excited about the next big thing. #beyondlaptops is decidedly not that. The conference is certainly supported by a comfortable cushion of technology— most people use a variety of social media like Twitter, Google+, Flipboard, Instagram regularly; everyone there comes from a one-to-one and in some cases two-to-one campus; Skype and Google Hangouts are regularly featured; educators present projects where kids used iBook Author or Youtube Capture. Technology is certainly present. However, the conference organizers prioritize communication, collaboration and both structured and unstructured conversation just as much as the tech that people use in school. Without people, the product just doesn’t matter.
Conversations centered around action research plans that sought to evaluate how effective a given implementation is in a school, how coaching can be used most effectively, and how to foster creativity and change. Each of the these topics are predicated on the assumption that you have to recognize and foster the talented people that work in these environments for the tech to take off. For example, presenters and session leaders like Tico Oms from Singapore American School (@ticooms), who focused on the importance knowing your colleagues when implementing change, and John Burns from Shekou International School (@j0hnburns), who led a session about the qualities of good leaders in schools, emphasized the importance of purposeful communication in schools. Their sessions prompted questions such as: Do you want to implement change on your campus, like a switch to standards-based grading? Then, you have to recognize that each person on your staff has something different to bring to the table. Some folks will jump on board right away, some will take a little more time to see the pros and cons, some will take some serious convincing. But, without spending time on buy-in with those people, the change will backfire.
I appreciated this focus on people. Every day, articles, blogs and tweets blast through the virtual world about what changes are needed in education, and often they focus on products and tools. We certainly must recognize the power of technological innovation: it’s exciting, it’s progressive, it’s so present. But, without building strong relationships and strong teams, it’s just another idea that passes on by. #beyondlaptops is not only wise for recognizing that people are prioritized, but it’s refreshing, too.
— quoted by Tico Oms, originally written by Richard Elmore (2000)
