Chapter+2

This one is called Law of the Few, and really gets at the crux of what I believe is the key for leaders at schools in leading technology. Gladwell identifies three key players in epidemics and draws some ideas about what they do.

On this one, think about those roles Gladwell describes and consider some individuals at your school that might fill that role. Can you tell us a bit about those people and how they might (or may already be) helping you to foster technology?

A former student in class: When I read about 'connectors,' the person who immediately came to my mind was our school librarian. I can honestly say that she finds a common thread with everyone she meets, and I'll bet that if she spent a few minutes with anyone in this class, she'd be able to come up with __at least__ one person that you have in common with her. She has that innate ability to make everyone she meets feel significant. She listens and remembers details of conversations. I am in awe of her. As a connector, faculty and staff come to her often - for help, advice, or just to talk. She has come a long way with technology since I started working at the school. When the library became automated, she would be the first to tell you that she feared computers and was anxious about the change. Now, she could not imagine going a day without using a computer. She and I have also collaborated on numerous technology activities during library, and this year, she has taken on learning about interactive whiteboards. My hope is that, as she learns this new technology and gets excited about it, she will share that enthusiasm with her very wide circle of friends at school!

Do you have an example in your work or school? Tell us about it.

Matt Allen: I'm making connections to much of this book, and I'm struggling with it. My school--which was on the verge of tipping--has since taken steps backwards. We recently lost our leading Maven, Connector, and Salesman (one person). While a few of us are trying to get things back in a forward motion, we're still new to these roles. I do see potential, as there are emerging Connectors, Mavens, and Salespeople. The reality is that we're having better luck influencing people outside of our building than those in our building. I'm planning to pay special attention to the next few chapters, as our answers may lie ahead.

Eric Mongeon -- I find myself laughing when I think about who’s who in terms of Gladwell’s triad of agents with particular respect to the tech world. For the longest time I think the problem has been that the tech world has been full of Mavens, some of whom were even connectors. But the sales department lacked. I like to think that barriers have been busted down, the stereotypes tossed, or at least in roads have been built. Anyone remember SNL’s Nick Burns?

Lauren-It was great reading this chapter and thinking about the folks that I work with and who might fill the roles. The person who came to mind as the connector, not surprisingly plays many different roles in our school and in her life. She is our ELL teacher, Community Based Learning and Service Learning coordinator, Wellness coordinator and a member of the literacy team. Outside of work she is also an accomplished writer and active in many organizations. Not only does she know a lot of people, but everyone loves her (you can't not) and she is an eloquent speaker and writer so when she stands up to say something everyone listens because you know it is worthwhile. This year I started a Technology Committee and she is one of the few folks who regularly attends our weekly meetings. I am so glad to have her on board and I hope that she can bring some others with her.

Suzanne - As I read this chapter and posts from others I found myself thinking about our former assistant librarian. What a fascinating lady! Not only was she the most educated individual in the building (she had her PhD in English!) but she knew everyone. All of the students knew her, they came to her with questions about their papers, about resumes, letter of recommendations, etc... If they needed someone to talk with about school, a job or a career interest, she could hook them up. She recently retired and I miss her tremendously. I too turned to her for assistance which she was always so willing to give and to share!

//Peter: Obviously, as you all have figured out, this chapter really gets at the heart of the ideas behind something "tipping". It is always interesting in the course to see how folks identify people with these roles. I think the key is identifiying those folks in our own ways and then as leaders trying to get them some "air time" to do their work in those roles. Great that you can all identify those people readily in your schools.//

Megan- I thought this chapter was interesting to read because of the Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. On page 69, it states, " The one thing that a Maven is not is a persuader." It was hard to think about who would fill the roles within my school. Most times, people are trying new things and trying to persuade others to try it. When thinking about a connector in my school, I instantly thought about a lady who I feel is a leader by example. She is is quiet but always models and does the right thing. She would do anything to support you, she listens to everyone and is an overall well respected individual. This individual does a lot to support other teachers and to model what it means to collaborate and team teach.

Marc Gilbertson: It is interesting that Gladwell chose Paul Revere as one of his examples of a great Connector and successful instigator of a Tipping Point. Revere may have been quite effective, and Gladwell is not writing a history book but, if I remember correctly, Revere was caught and arrested on that April night where William Dawes and Sam Prescott escaped and actually completed the work. Perhaps one other lesson that we can draw from this is that although the law of the few may be sound, good leaders surround themselves with people who can help them finish the job. Still, Revere was at least famous enough to have Longfellow write a poem about him. I am reading the current Steve Jobs biography and one of the things that is striking about his leadership is that he surrounded himself with Mavens, and Connectors. He was certainly a gifted salesman but what made him push Apple even farther was the fact that at some level he recognized his weakness and drew in people who could fill in the gaps. Perhaps as leaders we need to seek those who can help us foster great teaching with technology. This year we added a new tech. to our IT support staff. His modesty and North Carolina drawl, mask an incredible knowledge of computers and systems. I recently purchased about nine laptops for some students, when I checked with him about some compatibility issues he rattled off the stats on this particular device, gave me the pros and cons and then summarized with, and read this with a southern accent, “These will be fine, fine machines for students, you’ll be very happy with their performance”. Although he has only been with us for a semester, the staff and I have grown to rely on him. And he absolutely loves it when people ask him technical questions---he does love to share his knowledge and teach others what he knows. He is a key player in fostering the use of technology.

//Peter: Marc, yes, I do think you are correct about Mr. Revere.. he was actually arrested. I have been offered the Jobs biography as well and plan on picking it up this weekend.. I think you hit a crucial thought in leadership around Jobs.. it is true.. those very successful know how to get the best from the people that work with them. I recall a principal I had in New Mexico that was brilliant in how she was able to do that. She picked her staff, knew clearly the strengths of each person and was able to support them to bring those skills out. It was great.. over time, she had honed a well tuned machine, by knowing that everyone's part contributed to the whole. A key leadership task..// //Great story about your new technology partner as well..//

Matt: Marc, I made a similar connection while reading this chapter. Any one of these roles is not enough to cause an epidemic; it takes one of each, at least. I'm now wondering what this means for the future of technology in education. Teachers (Read: Mavens, Connectors, and Salesman) are now capable of connecting with other around the world. So, we have that much more potential of building the necessary relationships to get multiple epidemics spreading around the world. Because of this, I imagine there will be more epidemics occurring for shorter periods of time. One example of this is something happening in my own world right now. I'm currently working on a truly brilliant project (@http://www.ninjaprogram.com/) that Jeff Utecht--whom I've never met--created to teach Google Apps and search in a way that, quite literally, left some of my students complaining when all of the quizzes were not available. I would have never had the opportunity to work on it if it were not for technology (and one Connector). Also, I would not be able to share this with friends I taught with in Colorado, and people I connect with in courses or in other areas of my professional life. The reality is, I would never be a Salesman, Maven, or Connector, if it wasn't for today's technology.

//Peter: Matt, want to learn more about this project, can you tell us a bit more about it and how your students in particular benefited?//

Erica Houle: I enjoyed reading this chapter and thinking about all the people I work with and how they fit in with the three key players (mavens, connectors, and salesman) in epidemics Gladwell talks about in his book. The teacher I work with is definitely a resource that people use when it comes to figuring out things with technology. She uses several forms of technology in her classroom and will help others when they need it. She is also expanding her education of technology by going to a workshop after school. The workshop is about the Ipad and how we can incorporate it into the classroom. Also I thought of the tech person at our school. She is great with helping if something goes wrong with the computers, wiring for the computers/smartboards, and fixing program issues. The have both showed me so much about different forms of technology and how we can use them to create a better technology learning environment for children.

Emily Biolsi - I think we all, from time to time, take on the role of connector, maven, and salesman, and that our official role at school impacts that in some ways. Try as I might, though, I can't really think of anyone who fits neatly into one of these molds. Our library media specialist is a connector to some degree, consistantly tapping in with teachers to see how she can connect library media instruction (which often has a technology focus) to the classroom. Though our technology integration specialist has only been with us for a month, I think he is beginning to emerge as both a maven and a connector. He has extensive knowledge about available technologies and in the process of setting up weekly collaborative planning time after school to support teacher implementation of technology in the classroom. The fact that he is pulling the faculty together, exposing us to "worlds" and tools we had yet to discover, and is clearly a bank of knowledge - shared with the intent of helping us develop our own understanding and thus our craft, make him, in my opinion, a little bit of all three, really. I have to say though, and I'm not a pessimist by nature, that I can't help thinking about a certain character who does not fall into any of these three descriptors, but feels instead like the anti-epidemic. What do you do when one individual seems to thwart your efforts by limiting access and being, at times, unwilling to engage in discussion? Perhaps that's a bit harsh on my part, but when you run into a wall again and again, after a while, it hurts to keep trying to break it down!

//Peter: Emily, interesting that you identify the three Gladwell roles, and then also identify the anti-epidemic individual.. It makes one wonder, what is the motivation for that individual besides an odd kind of power struggle? Are there administrators that understand the situation? One of our weeks in our course, we are going to deal directly with this issue.. many times there is a divide between the network staff, and the teaching staff. We need to explore that and to help those two areas work together, not thwart each others efforts... we are all in this journey together..//

Heather Bellavance: My first inclination is that connectors will be people who have been in a school for a long time and therefore know a lot of people. But, they might easily be the individuals who feel fine about what & how they are teaching; not seeing a need to keep pace by integrating technology. So, I believe that it is more likely that the connectors will be the people who are out & about; moving from classroom to classroom or seeing many of the professionals who work in the building. In my school I think the main connector is the IT person. He is not so much out and about, but he is in contact one on one with people who come to him to troubleshoot. He is a resource for teachers when they are having issues. His areas of expertise are the mechanical and systemic pieces of the technology puzzle not the educational integration of technology. I think our school needs to add someone whose main purpose would be to teach the art of technology integration to our teachers. Mavens…they love technology, have vast knowledge and an aching desire to share what they know with anyone who will listen. So far, I’ve not found this person at my school. The nearest I’ve seen is the Librarian who seems to know about a lot of new technology but hasn’t had a lot of success getting others to buy into the tools that are available. I have yet to come across any salesmen. I think there may be one or two teachers that possess salesmen traits and I need to make an effort to connect with them. I want to have a better sense of where they see us heading and at what pace. The list is short, but if //The Law of the Few// holds true, this is a good start especially considering the point our school is at in the whole scope of educational technology integration.

Amanda: I am new to my district and work at four schools, so this was crucial for me to understand right from the start. I have identified at least two people in each of my schools that are my 'go-to' for tech help, questions, and to spread the word about great practices they are doing in their classrooms. The challenge I am thinking about is how to get more communication amongst these people across schools. Really it would be neat to create a Super PAC of Tech that I could work with to help infect others in their schools and across the district. For most of my schools the Librarian fits in this category as well as one or two teachers that are excited about technology. One of my Principals formerly had a position similar to mine so he has been a great advocate for technology, but we have to be careful that it doesn't come across as top-down directives. We have a few systems in place to help facilitate this Law of the Few idea. Each school has a Building Based Tech Team where these all-stars meet once a month to help make decisions about tech in their school. The model has been to solve problems, and I am working this year to help shift the focus to innovative tech use. Of course we want to support teachers and deal with the logistics, but we also need to talk about how to share what we know and encourage others to step outside their comfort zone.

Matt: Here's the link to the Google Ninjas website I created for my district: @https://sites.google.com/a/fcsuvt.org/ninja-training/. (I want to remind everyone this is a project I'm working with others on. Jeff Utecht is the mastermind behind it.) At this point, I'm just beginning to implement it with our school Tech Squad (a group I've put together that will become a part of our IT department) and in my own class. The students really like it, and I'm planning to take it to a wider audience once I get it fine-tuned.

Renee Provost: Although I have only been at my school since last April, I immediately know one person who fits the role of maven, connector, and, by finding those with the power to put on a bit of pressure to support her, salesman. That is my supervisor Bonnie. She is our district's Technology Integration Specialist, and I couldn't ask for a better mentor to learn from. As a newbie to tech integration side of education, I feel that I am definitely strong as a maven and slowly building my strengths as a connector. It's the salesman piece that I struggle with. How do you get teachers to buy in to tech integration when they view it as one more thing on their overflowing plate? We are also fortunate to have several teachers who are true mavens (three come immediately to mind), but I would love for them to take on more of a salesman role as well. One thing that I think needs to happen is for more opportunities to be made available for people to share what they are doing with technology. There is such an overload of information happening at our school (daily memos, a flood of e-mail, etc.) that I think the sharing needs to be done in a required, somewhat “captive” setting (staff meeting?). We offer a weekly optional technology time on Wednesday afternoons right after school, which is a time to share/develop ideas, get help, troubleshoot, whatever the teachers need. We're lucky if we get one or two teachers a week to show up. Last week our building leader sent a memo stating that all teachers must collaborate with the tech integration team on at least one project this year. I feel it's kind of sad that it had to come to that.

//Peter: Bonnie is very good at what she does.. provides great ways or teachers to collaborate.. A real twitter advocate as well. I do understand your struggle with the salesman piece. Many teachers I visit seem one step away from just being overcome with what is expected of them. I am often amazed at those that do make technology a priority with so many other conflicting things in their lives. A real challenge. Too bad in a way your building leader had to send the memo, but on the other hand, this puts some kind of movement into the game.. the key here would be how the administrator assesses that progress and rewards or makes good on supporting their initiative.//

Dan Greene - In my school, one person acts as both the Maven and the Connector for technology. This is the tech integrationist. Presented with a technology challenge or problem, she usually knows the solution immediately. She is never dictatorial, she will offer up two or more ways to do something, and then let the teacher decide which one he/she would like to use, hence her "Maven" role. She becomes the connector by connecting teachers with ideas, but not actually people. As the integrationist for our district, she has an idea about what is going in my school and she is knowledgeable about what is going at our elementary schools. She tells of successful technology use in the other schools and how we might use it. She does a great job of transferring technology integration methods and ideas from one person to another. The salesman role is probably belongs to our business teacher and me. We both are enthusiastic about emerging technologies, are "gadget crazy" and often meet with teachers about new technology possibilities. We both have teachers that visit us regularly to find out what is new and exciting in education technology possibilities. We often send out emails to staff members with headings such as "Take a look at this" or "did you know you can do this?". I think of us as technology cheerleaders.

Jamie: My school is a unique building because we are PreK-8, and have many part-time teachers or teachers that have a different schedule than the traditional 7:45-2:45 hours of the school. I also deal the most with the middle school teachers, which is considered 5 and up. But within this group of teachers, the connector is a 5th grade teacher who has been in the school for about twenty years and in the course of technology, people really know her. She is the connector because she has been there for so long, and teaches an age group that helps her to bridge to the younger grades and the older grade teachers.

Having a history background, I LOVED the background on Revere, too. It made so much sense to hear this analogy explained in this fashion. It made the content less dry and put it in a unique perspective for me.

//Peter: I too loved the Revere part.. great context to put that in..//