Vicki Davis gave a presentation at the 2010 Teaching and Technology Conference about influencing change through vital behaviors. She discussed 10 vital behaviors for individuals and organizations to focus on, including connecting to a personal learning network, embracing multiple modalities, and having an agile curriculum. Davis emphasized that successful technology integration depends more on influencing people than the technology itself. The key is determining the right focal points and behaviors to change in order to influence outcomes.
4. ITEMIZED BILLBrian Tracy, Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Production and Achieve All Your Goals, p 8 For placing “x” on gauge $ 1.00 For knowing which gauge to place the “x” on $9,999.00
5. My Most Essential Skill Write this Down! Determining the focalpoint for myself and my organization at each moment.
11. Write this Down! “Discover a few vitalbehaviors, change those, and problems – no matter their size – topple like a house of cards.” Kerry Patterson et al, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, p 28
12. The vital behaviors that move us towards effective Twenty First Century Classrooms
28. Write this Down! B. “A Flat Classroom™ evolves and connects with multiple audiences …”
29. Audience is Important “Technology creates opportunities for students to do meaningful work that has value outside school, receive feedback on their work, and experience the rewards of publication or exhibition.” Peck & Dorricott, 1994http://caret.iste.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=evidence&answerID=9&words=audience
31. Teams “Working with people across the world has challenged me.” “The majority of my partners wanted to contribute something meaningful to the project.” Horizon Project Studentshttp://horizonproject.wikispaces.com
32. Write this Down! “B. A Flat Classroom™ evolves and connects with multiple audiences, peers, and cultures using both synchronous and asynchronous communications methods.”
48. “Institutional leaders will need to seek out ‘reverse mentors’ among (often younger) individuals who can help them understand and master edge practices.” John Seely Brown et al, The Power of Pull, Kindle loc. 495
49. Write this Down! “In the Flat Classroom™,students are involved in the evolution of school technology integration.”
73. “The budget cuts have become opportunistic because we are having to think outside the box.”Jody Kennedy, Teacher White Plains Middle School New York
92. How long does it take to overcome a phobia of snakes? Albert Bandura, N. Aclan, J. Beyer “Cognitive Process Mediating BehavioralChange.” Cognitive Theory & Research, 1 (1977): 287-310.
110. Learning Capital Created when you pilot or implement new technology programs. Invest in people who can and will teach others to stimulate vicarious learning (opinion leaders.)
113. “Access to this participatory culture functions as a new form of the hidden curriculum, shaping which youths will succeed and which will be left behind as they enter school and the workplace.”Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture, McArthur Report Hidden Curriculum
114. Curricular agility – the ability to detect hidden and known curriculum opportunities and bring into widespread use to promote effective learning.
122. Interoperability “ Rather than dealing with each technology in isolation, we would do better to take an ecological approach, thinking about the interrelationships among different communication technologies, the culture communities… the activities they support.”Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture, McArthur Report
123. #9 Successful organizations have participatory and evolving technology ecosystems. Organizational Vital Behaviors
132. “Every day is a new dayto a wise man.”Dale Carnegie,How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, Kindle location 449
133. What you can do TODAY List your Big 3 Build your Personal Learning Network Find the “X”
134. My Most Essential Skill Write this Down! Determining the focalpoint for myself and my organization at each moment.
135. Write this Down! “Discover a few vitalbehaviors, change those, and problems – no matter their size – topple like a house of cards.” Kerry Patterson et al, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, p 28
Brian Tracy in his book, Focal Point, tells the story of a nuclear power plant that was having trouble. Something was wrong in the control room, but they couldn’t figure out what. So, they called for a consultant. The consultant spent three days observing and scribbling notes on a clipboard. Then, he asked for a step stool and stood up high on the stool, pulled out a piece of chalk, and drew an “x” on one knob. He gets down from the stool and turns to the control room manager and says “replace that knob” and strolls out. The next week, the plant manager received a bill the next week for $10,000. The plant manager called the consultant and questioned the bill, asking for an itemized list of expenses, and this is the bill he got…
For placing x on gague $1.00 – for knowing which gague to place an “x” upon - $9,999.Knowing where to put the “x” in each part of your life is the critical determination. Additionally, according to influence research, you must find the vital behaviors – the few things that you place an “x” upon to work to change.
Who is the one person I can control in my district? ME!
Who is the one person I can control in my district? ME!
Who is the one person I can control in my district? ME!
So, to talk about technology change, let’s talk about real change – life or death. Live or die kind of change by talking about the guineau worm. In 1986 there were 3.5 million cases in 20 countries. This parasitic worm can only live in a human host and its larvae are carried in the bellies of fleas in stagnant water. A person drinks the water and after the worm has grown for a year, it emerges through a blister in the skin as it slowly starts to exit the skin. It is horribly painful and the only relief from the pain is to submerge in water. So, as people with this worm immerse in water, the worm lays eggs which are eaten by the fleas and the cycle begins again. So, to get rid of this worm, they have to convince people to not only use special filters but also to completely care for the person who has the worm to keep them away from water –they have to feed them and their families for the one month it takes to get the guineau worm out of a person. By influencing change in this way, in 2009 there were only 3,190 cases in four countries and after smallpox, this looks as if it will be the second eradication of a major human disease in the world. To eradicate the guinea worm they identified the VITAL BEHAVIORS!.
So, in order to influence change, Researcher Kerry Patterson says, “discover a few vital behaviors, change those, and problems –no matter their size- topple like a house of cards.” Today, we are talking about the vital behaviors to move our schools into the 21st century.
We are working to determine the vital behaviors that will move us towards effective twenty first century classrooms. We’ll call this Flat Classroom. But I want you to remember as we look as the vital behaviors that there is one thing you can completely influence. What is the one thing you have complete and total control over in your district?
Who is the one person I can control in my district? ME!
The first thing to understand is that technology integration and improvement EVOLVES! The globally connected twenty first century classroom does not happen overnight! So, let’s look at my story a moment…
During that time, in December 2005, I began blogging at the Cool Cat Teacher blog and used my experience from the business world as a general manager as well as my teaching, professional development teaching I’ve done for adults in technology at the college level, and my experience as IT director for my school to this blog. But you see, I still view myself as the
, the ”poster child for the beginner” Like my youngest son, who has just learned to read, I’m a relative newcomer to these technologies. In November 2005, I attended the
Georgia Educators Technology Conference in Atlanta with a commission from my curriculum director to bring technologies back to my classroom that would enable me to better facilitiate
Understand that flat classrooms are based upon things you already understand – Research Based Best Practices such as differentiated instruction, authentic assessment, cooperative learning, and project based learning. The only difference is that your classroom is merged with other classrooms and your student’s partners are in other time zones and locations.
This is how I felt!
event for my classroom and I when I wrote a blog post in October 2006 called “My students weigh in on Friedman’s Flat World.”
Julie Lindsay, now one of my dearest friends responded with a simple request:“It would be great if we could interact with your students! Would you be willing/ have the time to participate in an online debate or discussion? My students are Bangladeshi and Indian nationals and have a perspective from the ‘other side of the flat world.’”
She was at the International School Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her students were primarily Indian and Bangladeshi nationals who practiced the Muslim, mine, primarily Anglo Christian background.
So, Julie and I began to correspond and kicked off the first Flat Classroom project in November 2006.
write a group report on a collaborative tool called a wiki
In addition to the wiki, the students also created videos about their topic where that to outsource, or receive video from their partner on the other side of the world and this is the type of video that emerged.
Describe projects – global
Connecting with others – audiences are important as per the research.
Peck and Dorricott 1994 demonstrated that audience gives meaning to the student work and improves student performance. Peers and cultures.
We also have to connect students with other cultures. I love this photo from a chat in 2008 where one of my students was connecting with her partner in Doha, Qatar – the first thing they had to discuss was the stereotypes. In fact, the first Flat Classroom project, I had three students line up at my desk and told me “the news media is wrong, Mrs. Vicki” – “How?” I said, “Well, our new friends in Bangladesh are Muslims and they are cool – they don’t want to kill us. And the same thing was happening in Julie Lindsay’s classroom in Bangladesh. Students were making up their own mind.
So, literally, you can see my student Casey here who graduated from Westwood being able to say that she served as project manager for a group of students from China, Australia, and Qatar in a global collaborative team experience. This is where we need to go in all of our schools… but how do we get there.
It depends upon selecting two types of communications: sychronous and asychronous. You can’t always link up simultaneously because of time zones especially if you want to collaborate outside the United states, so let’s take a look at these technologies.
Synchronous means doing things at the same time and in the same place such as these synchronized swimmers. The classroom is a synchronous environment – we are synchronized and all inhabiting that classroom in the same time and space. We are together. Schools are already good at enriching our synchronous classroom environment using tools like video conferencing, webinars, and live broadcasts from around the world. However, synchronous is no longer enough.
Asynchronous means NOT at the same time – for example this famous statue by Rodin was created by him over 100 years a go and we enjoy it now. We did not get to enjoy it or interact with him while he worked.
So, the effective twenty first century classroom evolves as it connects with multiple audiences, peers, and cultures using sychronous and asychronous communications methods. However, remember that there is only one thing in your district you can completely control and that is:
So, the question is that are you evolving and connecting with multiple audiences, peers, and cultures using sychronous and asychronous communications methods. So, how do you decide what technologies to use as you integrate technologies? Where do you start?
Wonderful book called the “power of pull” by John Seely Brown et. Al, talks about empowering innovation and change - he says “institutional leaders will need to seek out ‘reverse mentors’ among (often younger) individuals who can help them understand and master edge practices.” Well, who are the reverse mentors we should empower?
Our students! Some schools have tech angels programs at our school this year, when I took a group of students to our Flat Classroom conference in India, the rest of the school immersed in everything India and the students we left behind in the 10th grade worked with the technology integration! Empower your students and make the part of technology integration. But again, even if your school does not – there is only one thing in your district that you can control – what is it?
Are you finding “reverse mentors” are you asking and involving students in the decisions you make? The last day of school I always do a survey and ask my students to give me feedback on the course – what did they learn, what did they like, what did they hate? LISTEN. But, we’re talking about change here – and it is more than just me that determines change – so we’ve got to
Influence Behavior! But here is the problem, we are
We are better with coping with problems than exerting influence to change them. Last January, I was the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life and decided to change. In July, I took up running, now I’m almost 20 pounds lighter. It was a struggle, but what I was doing before was just buying larger clothes, moving my seat back in the car – I was coping – but when I started exerting influence and self control that was when positive change happened.
We’re too busy having a pity party to exert the influence to have a victory party.
The tools of influence are value neutral. The same methods of influence that took
Belting pants below the waist in one inner city to a nationwide trend and problem can be used to influence positive change because we
Mirror those we are around.GiacomoRizoolatti and LeanoardoFogassi were studying a monkey’s brain when an accident happened. Fogassi reached for a banana and the neuron’s in the monkey’s brain fired not as expected – the neurons that fired were those that fire as if the monkey was reaching for the banana himself. They called these MIRROR neurons. Our brains fire and imitate those we see and who is around us!
Researcher Kerry Patterson says, “discover a few vital behaviors, change those, and problems –no matter their size- topple like a house of cards.”
Researchers from the University of Georgia had people list friends and family in 2 lists: those with self control and those without. Then, they had the subjects take a computerized test to measure self control. The name of a person flashed on the screen in 10 milliseconds – this was enough time to go into their subliminal mind but not slow enough to be read. What they found is that Those who saw the name of a person in their subconscious mind who had self control showed more self control and those who saw the name of one without had less. They found self control is contagious – that is why many overweight people report losing weight after watching things like the biggest loser.But how does this relate to technology and change – it relates heavily. Remember, the only thing I can change is --
Me – so I have to be careful who I surround myself with. So the first VITAL behavior for positive technology change has to do with ME.
Connect to yourself through exercise, humor and time alone.
Flattening your classroom is connecting yourself. And the first step is to connect yourselves to others. Your teachers should also connect themselves. Have an RSS reader, join the diigo educators group, listen to the current conversations at edtechtalk – join Twitter and follow at least 50 educators before you make your call on it – watch videos at the free k12 online conference and encourage networking in organizations like the Google teacher Academy, Discovery Educators, Flat Classrooms Ning.
Me – so I have to be careful who I surround myself with. So the first VITAL behavior for positive technology change has to do with ME.
Connect to yourself through exercise, humor and time alone.
Let me ask you this? How many of you would like to reduce your chances of getting alzheimers?
The answer is related to why having kids jump up and down for 60 seconds 3 times a day improves test scores – YES IT DOES!
You see, exercise boosts brain power. Some of you get this – was impressed with Melissa here in Bismarck and her district using Sonic Boom to encourage walking.
This is my method – started using couch to 5K and now I run about 6 miles a week. It is tough – but I had to stop just. Aerobic exercise twice a week halves your risk of general dementia and cuts your risk of Alzeheimers by sixty per cent. But you have to run your own race. So, let me ask you.
If people mirror you what will they look like? Lazy, crabby and unmotivated – we’ve proven that these things spread from person to person. So, it is vital that you.
Connect to yourself through exercise, humor and time alone.
In Dale Carnegie’s book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, he interviewed a woman with cancer who said “My doctors later told me there are two kinds of people when it comes to cancer: transmitters and transformers. Transmitters take the negative experience and transmit the negativity to everyone around them.
Transformers turn the negativity into something positive.”
You, see, Jody understands something – that in my district the only thing I can control is
Me – so I have to be careful who I surround myself with. So the first VITAL behavior for positive technology change has to do with ME.
So you should be a transformer of others – turn the negativity into something positive. You can do that! But also, you have two choices.
The way I see it, administrators have two choices – to remove the obstacle or to be the obstacle – that is it!
When you look at your policies realize this – if you want to get technology into the classroom, you need the teacher on board. But if the teacher wants to get out to the world - -they need YOU!
So you should be a transformer of others – turn the negativity into something positive. You can do that! But now, we want to talk about influencing – I know that the only person I can completely control is…
And you’ll be surprised at how quickly me turns into We!
You don’t have to influence veryone at once –the formal leaders are easy to find – the opinion leaders are a little tougher, but if you ask around, you know who they are. Work on them when you are promoting acceptance of technology. And here is one thing about influencing them.
You don’t have to influence veryone at once –the formal leaders are easy to find – the opinion leaders are a little tougher, but if you ask around, you know who they are. Work on them when you are promoting acceptance of technology. And here is one thing about influencing them.
You don’t have to influence veryone at once –the formal leaders are easy to find – the opinion leaders are a little tougher, but if you ask around, you know who they are. Work on them when you are promoting acceptance of technology. And here is one thing about influencing them.
Opinion leaders have three characteristics – they are knowledgeable, trustworthy, and generous with their time to others! The best thing is to become an opinion leader yourself! And Remember
This is our bridge to the next few vital behaviors. People-related vital behaviors. Because the only thing I can transform in my school is
Me but we have to change me into
And you’ll be surprised at how quickly me turns into We!
So you should be a transformer of others – turn the negativity into something positive. You can do that! But now, we want to talk about influencing – I know that the only person I can completely control is…
Let’s go back to my irrational fear of sharks. I live in Camilla, Georgia – and let me tell you, we don’t have sharks in Camilla!
But we’re dealing with different phobias here, perhaps, which the biggest of which is Techno-phobia. You’ve got a lot of teachers to lead, how do we apply current research on promoting change AND what needs to happen with 21st century skills in your classrooms to help move your schools forward.
Let’s look at the research on phobias as discussed with Kerry Patterson’s book Influencer: the Power to Change Anything. On your pencil or piece of paper, I want you to jott down, how long do you think it took researchers to help someone overcome a fear of snakes?
Well, what the researchers have found is that lectures don’t work. You can talk to someone all day, however, it will not change them. Additionally, when someone has a phobia, you CANNOT, I repeat CANNOT just force them to do it. They respond with such fear that they become dysfunctional. The only way to help a person overcome a phobia is through Vicarious experience. A vicarious experience is when someone watches another person do the thing in which they fear. So,
Back to our question. How long does it take to overcome a phobia of snakes? The researcher Albert Bandura proved that this only took
An average of 3 hours! Three hours!!! First the person watched someone through the glass and then were allowed to get closer and closer, until finally, they were sitting in a chair with a snake across their lap, petting the snake! We can do the same with technology! We must empower key teachers to pilot programs and experience technology transformation in schools and allow other teachers who may be techno-phobic to learn vicariously.
when I take students to the Flat Classroom Conference in Qatar last year and in Mumbai, India in two weeks, grades 2-8 will travel with us virtual and connect with those who are going via skype, voicethreads, and our blogs to learn about and immerse in India.
This is also the transformation that allowed this picture to happen last year – with these five students from four different continents including one from my school, one from the Middle East, another from Africa, and a fourth from Australia.
So you should be a transformer of others – turn the negativity into something positive. You can do that! But now, we want to talk about influencing – I know that the only person I can completely control is…
Our professional development looks like this – we put so much into 10 hours that they cannot digest it all. It is too much and overloads them.
Instead your professional development should be in small succulent bites – on a weekly basis through these global connections – reading our RSS reader. In fact,
So, I embed my learning and take 15 minutes 2-3 times a week to learn and explore new technologies and this, has been the thing that has led to the complete transformation of my classroom! But you don’t have time – you say.
If you look at change – Kaizen as advocated by the japanese is the best method of change – slow and steady
In today’s society everything changes except the law of change…As Heraclitus said, “you cannot step in the same river twice.” Once you’ve stepped in the river, your simple stirring of the mud at the bottom has changed the nature of the river itself. WE must realize we all have our own story and must keep learning so we must adapt – the river has changed since someone else stepped in a river before us.
Our professional development looks like this – we put so much into 10 hours that they cannot digest it all. It is too much and overloads them.
Use your brain – Hurst’s law – An unbounded data stream becomes irrelevant.
We looked at slow, steady improvement
Remember that learning capital helps you improve
There is too much information and you need to rely on your friends as your filter. Additionally, this isn’t just about lifelong learning but about lifelong renewal – we have to keep relearning or we FORGET!! As Socrates said, “we lose the remembrance of them.” Additionally,
This is where connecting with reverse mentors do very well.
Build a participatory culture – if they help build it, they are already there.
Include admin, teachers, it and students when you implement new programs.
And remember that there are safe ways to do what some consider dangerous. So,
The technology misconception is that it is not about the technology.
The technology misconception is that it is not about the technology.
There is too much information and you need to rely on your friends as your filter. Additionally, this isn’t just about lifelong learning but about lifelong renewal – we have to keep relearning or we FORGET!! As Socrates said, “we lose the remembrance of them.” Additionally,
I’d like to ask you if Helen Keller were in your school today, would she become Helen Keller? It took one of the greatest teacherpreneurs of all time, Anne Sullivan, to reach and unlock this student!
How do you eat a watermelon?
If you eat it whole, you’ll choke.
No, the way you eat a watermelon is one bit at a time.
And that is what I suggest for you to do today. Your assignment for this webinar today is to come up with your “Big Three” at the end of the webinar. Pick three things – start there!
Me but we have to change me into
“Every day is a new day to a wise man.” Start now.
We don’t teach blogging, wikis, podcasting for their sake, but for what they let us do.
Researcher Kerry Patterson says, “discover a few vital behaviors, change those, and problems –no matter their size- topple like a house of cards.”
Me but we have to change me into
And you’ll be surprised at how quickly me turns into We!
Do the things that sit at hand like Thomas Carlyle said. “Our job is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” Investigate your next three things.
And you’ll be surprised at how quickly me turns into We!