Stickiness...



**STICKINESS.......**

Stickiness in Gladwell's world.. We have begun to explore the ways that we see the "epidemic" in schools of technology or NOT. Now consider Stickiness... and especially in this context.. We all go to professional development. Recall the last one you attended that had a technology component. Most of the teachers there probably got excited about some aspect of it, right? (well, OK, maybe not, but work with me here..) When everyone got up to leave, there was some discussion about how this might excite the kids, etc. But, come the next Monday.. how many of them actually did this in class? Or started to figure out how to do it? The example Gladwell uses.. the tetanus shot students from Yale. How can we use that example in making our next professional development "stick"? What creative, engaging tactics can we use?

Marc Gilbertson: “There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it.” (Gladwell, p. 132) Professional development is tricky; getting it to stick is tough. And the way to package it may not be as simple as a map. As a brand new Technology Integrationist, one of the first things that struck me is how much I felt like a salesmanand I am no Tom Gau. We have offered workshops, one-to-one help, and trips to tech conferences but with few exceptions it always feel like I am selling something and even if it does stick with a few, certainly it could be improved. One hurdle is the number of initiatives that clutter our professional development like the commercials Gladwell writes about. Teachers can feel the clutter, and even if they leave the workshop excited, many soon get distracted by other priorities. One goal I have is to work with the administration to focus these initiatives---to get rid of the clutter and focus on one theme for enough time to actually get it to work. Another lesson from “Blues Clues” might be the narrative. Teachers need to know that the “tech. story”, doesn’t end when they leave the workshop---they need to know that there will be other opportunities for support and training and that there is some sort of plan in place to help them move from start to finish. Then there is engagement—the “find the Golden Rectangle” reminds me that people need to actively engage. At this year’s Vita-Learn VT Fest, one speaker said that some of his most successful p.d. involved offering trainings that included course credit, and a device. Some of the most popular involved iPads. Perhaps that is one way to actively engage teachers in their learning about tech. It certainly worked for me when I went to VT Fest a few years ago and came home with a flip camera to use in my classroom. Renee: Marc, I feel like you just described my work situation exactly! Your analogy about teachers needing to know that the "tech story" doesn't end after PD is a good one. I wonder if offering a new device after attending PD is the key to making it stick? I'd be curious to see how many teachers that receive a device actually go on to use it in their classrooms. //Peter: The device piece is a double edged sword..as one who sometimes plans these types of events.. there is always the fear that simply giving the device does not actually bring about any real change. And often, leaders will cry about why do we have to give a device, won't teachers come because they want to learn? Isn't there value in that alone? But as you say .. the factor with technology is that they can't be expected to do the work without the device in their own hands to demonstrate to the students. stickiness.. what sticks? The learning or the thing they get?//

Lauren: I have to say I was a little disappointed to finish this chapter and not have an "answer." The same quote that Marc provided "All you have to do is find it.” left me a little deflated. Stickiness is definitely something I struggle with. I am also battling against the other responsibilities and initiatives that are pushed onto teachers (and are mandatory - tech integration seems like a choice). I don't think there is one answer, but I am using a tool to try to find it. Google Forms is a great way to collect data. I have teachers complete exit surveys after workshops. I haven't figured out the key to stickiness yet, but I do know that my faculty prefers hand-on workshops and examples of successful tech integration. When working with kids, I have tried a number of instructional methods and the one that provides the most stickiness is instructional videos. I have made short instructional videos to introduce setting up a blog, getting started with garageband, creating PDFs, and a few other types of tools that require a base knowledge. I found that when I typed directions using text, provided printed screen shots with notes, or simply gave a live demo the majority of the students would immediately have questions and need one-on-one help. When I show the videos, the class is silent as they watch and the minority of the students have questions and most of these questions can be answered by a peer. This was the best discovery ever.

Erica Houle: I found this chapter to be very interesting especially since it described how children's shows stick in children's minds. As I watch my little one dance around to the Gigglebellies dvd I realize how much the music/shows stick in their minds. If he hears a song from the Wiggles he turns towards the t.v. expecting to see the Wiggles dancing around on the screen. This shows how much stickiness affects our youth of this generation. Stickiness can be hard to be able to establish and sometimes we may never reach it. I have had to sit through a technology workshop while I was working at a child care center. It wasn't very hands on. It was mainly a bunch of information being thrown at us about a program were were going to use for the children's portfolios. We were really excited to be able to start using the program. However, soon after we started the task of importing pictures and information into the program the excitement started to wear off. The center decided to end up not using the program because a lot of people struggled with it. I think if it had been more hands on and if we had more time to experiment with the program we would have been able to be more successful with the program. To be able to reach the point of having the message stick we need to consider the different learning styles of our audience and how we can reach everyone.

Heather Bellavance: Since the promethean systems are relatively new to our school, there have been a series of workshops designed to help teachers become more familiar and confident in their use. These trainings are the stickiest professional development opportunities that I’ve seen this year. The fact that they have been offered as an option 3 times this year versus once is huge. Because of this, teachers have been able to take ideas back to the classroom, practice them and then come back to revise and learn more. It has created a common thread among the teachers regardless of the level they teach. Part of what I took from Gladwell’s discussion of //Sesame// Street and //Blue’s Clues// is that if we want something to stick, we have to use some amount of repetition. With these trainings the repetition has been achieved by offering them multiple times. We also must be flexible enough to realize when something isn’t working and figure out how to change it so that we get the desired outcome. Lastly, I think our promethean trainings were received more positively by being an option rather than a mandate.

Amanda: This question is the core of my position as an integrationist. If I can't sell my product, I am not effectively doing my job. One of the ways I have tried to make products sticky is by taking away the fear factor. When I have met with teachers about trying a new lesson, I offer/insist that I come to the lesson where they are going to try it out for the first time, or I offer to co-teach. This, hopefully, allows the teacher to view the 'product' for what it actually is and not to focus on the concerns they have about implementing it. If the lesson is successful they can then attach that feeling of success to trying something new and to using technology, and hopefully that encourages them to try again or something new next time. I also agree with the example about providing the map. I think the more ways we can provide our teachers with explicit instructions and support materials, even though they might already know it, the easier the task seems to them, and thus they are more capable of accomplishing it. Like Emily suggested, another way I think things become sticky is when teachers are able to try something right away. This is not new, but any time I can have teachers try something new while I am explaining it they have already made that first connection and are more willing to follow up and try it again on their own.

Eric -- Amanda, that’s a great point about trying something right away. Often the professional development, even if hands on is pulled away from the real learning environment.

At my school I would like to see a handful of staff meetings be used for technology professional development. In the same way that VITA-Learn calls out for presenters, our administrator could call out to the faculty for presenters. If one meeting or two per quarter were devoted to technology then maybe the repetition would sink in and encourage people to try new ideas and hone in on their skills. I am not sure if knowing the presenter would contribute to the stickiness, but our staff is smaller in number than any professional development I have been to so I think there would certainly be more opportunity to be actively involved. Perhaps the comfort level would encourage more active participation. On top of this and this goes back to the initial comment of how good it is to be able to try something right way, our staff meetings are in the morning before the students get there. So if someone was inspired, the way we often are after a dynamic presentation, they have the ability to dig deeper right away…

Marc Gilbertson: Eric--I thing you are right on with the teacher presenters making things "stickier". We are going to try this for our February faculty meeting. I am excited about it and how it will go. That peer-to-peer teaching is so important not only for kids but for adults as well.

Eric -- I would love to hear more about the details of any faculty meetings that utilize teacher presenters for technology. Is it just one topic presented. Is it small break out sessions? What kind of follow-up is there? I am feeling more and more motivated to push for something like this, but I want to the mechanics to be solid so it doesn't derail the whole thing from the get go.

Suzanne - Eric in our faculty meetings that only last 15 minutes we have "Tom's Tech TIps" every meeting. He has typically 3 - 5 minutes and he uses them to show us how to download you tube videos into google docs, how to use different tools, sometimes he has found a web site that is really cool. He is always so excited about what he wants to show us that he looses track of time and he has to be cut off! His enthusiasm for what he does rings thru loud and clear or maybe it is the caffeine that he is high on!

Megan: My school had a "Gallery Walk" where teachers were able to show ways in which they differentiated their lesson plans to meet students needs. Most of the differentiation had some kind of technology involved, which encouraged other teachers to try new programs. This event allowed for great collaboration among our colleagues and it opened the possibility of learning these new programs at faculty meetings. In fact, so far this year, we have had six teachers share web 2.0 programs that they have used and wanted to share with others. I don't know if this is an option at your school, but you might want to consider it. It has been a slow process but it is rewarding and definitely impacts student learning and pushes our staff to integrate technology in the classroom. This is especially true when there is a tight school budget and they are trying to save money. Our district is really looking at utilizing resources within the building rather than paying others to come in.

Amanda: Eric, teacher presenters were used in my old school. When I was an English teacher I was often asked to share things I was doing in class or lead small trainings. While I probably would have helped out anyways, my school was smart and it was an obligation that came with receiving new technology. This was a very effective model and one that I would like to install in my district, but the problem is always the money.

Matt: Marc, keep us updated on how that meeting goes. We've tried something similar at our school, but the "resistant" teachers don't connect with the teachers who are willing to present. I'd recommend having the presentations come from the newest of the tech converts, as opposed to the Mavens. This chapter made me realize/remember that we need to think of how we're packaging the epidemics (professional development, messages, etc.) we're trying to spread. As I've stated previously, I'm reading this with an eye for how I can help one person, whom I have to work with for the foreseeable future--along with the idea that I'd like to step into a tech integrationist position sooner rather than later. The last chapter gave me ideas for spreading some of the ideas and projects I'm involved with or starting. This chapter gave me ideas for creating professional development and working with that one person who is resistant to learning technology.

Emily - I agree that teachers presenters can be a highly effective way to provide a "skickiness" to a message, for a large reason because the presenters are trusted and credible! Being the sort who does, from time to time, attend a professional development meeting or a conference and come away with an idea that is truly excites me. One I'm convinced will promote teaching and learning. I return to the classroom and jump in right in, though this requires being comfortable learning with students and tweaking as we go, I think that is a natural part of the amazing flexibility we develop when we become educators. As I think about it, I can't quite pin point what it was that made those ideas and messages stick, while others, which had just a much educational potential, or even excited me just as much in that conference, did not make their way into my teaching. I keep coming back to the fact that there must have been something that really resonated for me, that I truly bought into, something in the message that really "moved me to action." What though? The reasons I keep coming back to are these: I believed in the message and that it would enhance student learning; it aligned with my personal philosophy about teaching and learning; I was convinced the students would connect with it; I could envision the idea, or a modified version of it, successfully implemented in my classroom; and implementation was manageable, meaning that either I didn't need additional support (materials, technology, fiscal, or human), or - and perhaps this is key - I felt there were enough supports available for me to try it anyway.

I think that for professional development to stick, it has to connect with teachers and, for me at least, meet some of the criteria above. There are so many different concepts, theories, ideas, and expectations presented at professional development, I think that being aware of the saturation point is imperative. You can't possibly expect each idea to tip. The question remains though, how do you make a message stick? What small thing, what tinkering, can be done to really engage the audience and make your message memorable? I think that a variety of strategies could help: teacher leaders running workshops based on the input and suggestions of other faculty; ongoing support, taping in, and sharing of how the ideas are being used in classrooms afterward; providing a district wide resource web page which is easy to access and navigate to find links to tools, descriptions, tutorials, application suggestions, examples of successful implication, and links to teacher leaders; regular collaborative planning time in district wide grade level, subject area, or interest based professional learning communities, flexibility and support of administration and IT department. I'm not really sure if I'm clearly getting at ways to make professional development stick, but looking at it through my teacher lens, these things would certainly make increase my level of buy in, helping me feel supported to move into action.

Megan: The most memorable professional development experience that I have had was during in-service time at the beginning of the school year. The thing that "stuck" with me was the freedom to explore any types of technology programs that we wanted. The in-service was very open ended and anyone who had signed up for the course filled out a survey prior to meeting with the facilitator. That day was relaxing because it allowed us the opportunity to explore those resources that we had read and heard about but never had the time to learn. What stuck with me was the technological resources that I built into my classroom and into my lesson plans. There were about 24 individuals in the computer lab and each of us conveyed different experiences. We began learning from each other by discussing our experiences and what they had taught us. For example, one teacher highly recommended Weebly as a tool to organize units for students to explore. They said it was very user friendly and then proceeded to show the websites they created. I was so excited to try it out, by the end of the day I had completed three pages. It really engaged me and made me want to add more content to fulfill the GE's. I walked away from this in-service with something I could immediately use in my classroom.

Renee: A couple of years ago I had a great technology PD experience through the South Burlington School District. It was a summer course, but since I was taking it for credit, I was required to develop a unit plan that incorporated technology. We basically spent the week exploring many web 2.0 tools, and then collaborating with another person to develop our unit plan. Some of the tools really stuck with me, because in one of our assignments, we had to choose a web tool to explore, and then present it to the rest of the group. I still remember that my colleague and I used Jing to create a screencast for the story creation website Kerpoof. Requiring that we introduce our web tool to the group contributed to the stickiness factor for me. Although I felt that everyone was very excited about the possibilities,it was hard to carry that momentum forward since the course took place two weeks after school ended for the summer. I'm not sure what the presenters could have done to make the content more sticky. We've actually had this conversation at work, and have even thrown around the idea of offering food and door prizes to get people interested in attending the technology training opportunities we offer. I don't think that's the answer. It may get more people in the door, but it doesn't assure the content will stick. "All you have to do is find it" is easier said than done!

Dan- I am a firm believer in professional development, but in the 22+ years I have been at my job, I cannot think of more than one or two professional development sessions that have had the stickiness factor. They don't stick! The technology PD sessions have stuck even less, if that is possible. I must have too much time on my hands, because I have given a lot of thought to this, and with technology PD sessions not sticking there seem to several factors working against each other. One factor that is present in all PD sessions is teacher overload. Teachers are feeling that they have too much to do, not enough time to do it, and then our administration comes along with the next "new thing" to be done, that will just be ignored when the next "newer new thing" comes along. Secondly, in the past, we have had reliable band width problems. Systems that depended upon internet access or wifi access often were not dependable. Many teachers would find themselves repeatedly standing in the middle of 20 students with the systems crashing, and work lost, and tech confidence very low. There was also an unwillingness, especially in the older teachers to embrace new ways of doing things using technology since the old ways had worked so well. And finally, the technology being introduced would be demonstrated and taught, with no follow through at a later time, and very little opportunity for hands on, or one-to-one training. This is the old. I learn by doing thing. Knowing the above, a small group of us: a business teacher, a science teacher, the tech integrationist and I have been having weekly short technology sessions currently focusing on Google Apps, but slowly expanding. By having the weekly session we are finding things are starting to stick. Repeated, small group instruction is converting some teachers and staff to using Google Apps. We are very far away from a tipping point, but we are going in the right direction.

Jamie: The last PD I participated in that used technology was one based on learning and using powerschool. Luckily, this program was a requirement for our teachers to use, so there was stickiness to it. Unfortunately, the presenter, our district technology coordinator went way too fast and way too complex into her explanations, and did not make it easier for the teachers. This was frustrating to me because immediately afterwards I heard people complaining about the program and how hard it looked and how it was a waste of time when they never had a chance to use it. Instead, they had just sat there and watched. The BEST tech PDs are when teachers can work alongside the presenter/instructor-and ONLY if they want to. I really think you cannot force this on teachers when they are not ready. The stickiness remains for those who are able to use the technology, and then it is spread through word of mouth. That is the most effective means of using a PD on technology.