Thanks, Jason, for giving me the opportunity to guest post here. I thank you for being so patient!  Best wishes for your new baby and your new job!

The title of this post reflects many of the conversations I have had on Twitter and with my colleagues face to face.  As I mentioned in a recent blog post, I tend to find myself surrounded by people who are smart, dedicated and who challenge me to think deeply and reflect. This has, in my opinion, made me a better teacher and a better person in general.

However, while my colleagues challenge me, we tend to agree on most levels.  We discuss tech integration, education reform, homework, student motivation and we share Web 2.0 tools and projects amongst ourselves, but these conversations rarely leave our small circle. We often say that we are stuck in an echo chamber.

So how do we open the chamber up?

Without repeating too much of what my friends and colleagues Kyle Pace and Steven Anderson have already said on their posts on this blog, here are some suggestions.

• Find a colleague who seems open to new things: Even if it’s only one colleague, you can open someone’s mind to new ideas and strike up a conversation.
• Share: Not only share links, articles, ideas and viewpoints, but share lessons, resources and feedback. Model the “what’s mine is yours” mantra and give, give, give.
• Don’t keep quiet: When you have an idea, say it. When you see a problem, mention it. When you see something amazing, praise it. When you think you’ve got something really exciting going on in your classroom, drag an administrator in to see it.
• Be a model for what you believe teaching and learning should look and sound like: The best way to share what you have learned or show a new method or approach is to model it in your own classroom and share it with your colleagues by inviting them in or discussing it with them.
• Keep the conversation going in the Echo Chamber: You need this conversation for support and to hash out your ideas with people who understand your perspective.

While we’d all love to open the flood gates and immerse our colleagues in the fire hose of Twitter, blogs, online communities and innovative conferences we attend, the reality is that we have to open the gate slowly and at the right times.  We also need to be patient. Change, at least meaningful change, is a slow and deliberate process.

I was really honored that Jason asked me to write a guest post on his blog for the series entitled Diffusion of Innovations. At first I was more than a little frightened about writing about technology when I looked at who else he had asked- Stephen Anderson, Will Chamberlain and many others who I follow faithfully on Twitter to get THEIR technical expertise not to offer mine! But when I thought about how new ideas are diffused in our school district I think that I do have some ideas that worth sharing.

I’m not the typical techie person that comes to mind. I’m an older female (let’s just say that I celebrated the midcentury mark several years ago!) and I don’t enjoy technology. Or maybe I should say that the tech hardware often stumps me and I have a long learning curve with some of the Web 2.0 applications. What I do enjoy is learning how to improve how I teach to help my students learn better. I was always an excellent student who finished near the top of my high school class as well as my undergraduate class. So taking on something that wasn’t easy for me to learn was a risk that I had to take in order to succeed in my new profession as a school library media specialist. Because the use of technology didn’t come easily for me I felt like I had a unique opportunity to reach out to other teachers who struggled with implementing these innovations. It was a great opportunity to collaborate.

As Kyle Pace mentioned in his recent post in this series, the human element is important. It is very critical to remember that not only is change hard because we get set in our ways but also sometimes people may be fearful that they will fail, that they just won’t be good at this new practice. If you can offer a helping hand it goes far in soothing a fellow teacher’s concerns. If you can offer to collaborate with a colleague you may just be able to bring them along. Just showing someone a new tool may not be enough. I am fortunate in my role as a school library media specialist at Morristown High School that I have a flexible schedule which allows me to work with teachers when they need me or my colleague and not when a fixed schedule says that their class will come to the library. I have gotten to know many of the teachers and know what they do with their classes. So when I see a web 2.0 tool that might enhance one of their lessons I offer to work with them. They introduce the content specific material and I work with the class on the technology part. Some teachers run with the new ideas, others need me or my co-librarian to continue to work with their classes. And, sometimes it just doesn’t work out. But usually the teacher is open to try something else.

One inspiration I had for this post was from a slideshare someone tweeted about called “Let Out the Creative Beast” by Betsy Streeter http://www.slideshare.net/betsystreeter/let-out-the-creative-beast In it Ms. Streeter declares that in order to become more creative we need to not judge ourselves when we are trying something new, that we need to be able to experiment, scribble and laugh and that most of all we need encouragement. I thought about what it was that she said and realized that it is exactly those sentiments that we need to convey to our less “techie” colleagues. Reaching out a hand to those you may consider beyond hope of ever being able to grasp the concept of Web 2.0 may be just what your fellow teacher needs; you might find that they may actually be very willing to take a journey with you if you just offer some encouragement and help. It may be hard to work with someone who is afraid of change and sticks to their old habits but the rewards can be great. And what a role model for students to see and emulate you can become by not giving up on someone just because they may be reluctant to embrace change.

Being a teacher at this point in history can be an undeniably frustrating experience. We have politicians with no classroom experience writing curriculum from soap boxes, special interest groups chastising teachers for their supposed role in losing government money, parents calling calling principals demanding grades be raised so that their children can be accepted to a college that will plunge them into suffocating debt, and on top of all that, colleagues who staunchly refuse to adopt what you feel to be the simplest of technologies.

I’m here to tell you that your principles are not wrong, but your approach might be. Leading whole staff workshops or discussions are often fruitless and if you have ever led one or attended one you know that is true. There are a couple of reasons that these large workshops fail in my experience. One of them is that teachers are notorious multi-taskers who will take any opportunity they can to goof off during your important presentation like grading papers or scheduling parent conferences. But the main reason I have found for the futility of large presentations is that the presenter has a very difficult time making the material relevant for everyone. If you can’t answer the question, “How is this going to help my students tomorrow?” in ten seconds or less, you’ve lost them. But do not despair. What do we as teachers do when the politics and gaming of the system become too much to bear? We retreat to the sanctity of our own classrooms, where between those four walls, magic happens. In that room we are make things happen and we affect the world for the better one student at a time.

Over time I have discovered that this is precisely the approach to take when it comes to changing and innovating your school. If you really want to see measurable change before they give you a gold watch and you move to Del Boca Vista you need to continue to think big, but begin to act small. Confused? Here is the plan:

1.   First do it yourself

• Whether it is a new technological toy or the latest pedagogical technique you had better make sure that it really works and that you really know how to use it before you try to extol its virtues to others. If you don’t do this, you know as well as I do that the naysayers will poke holes in it and the status quo will beat your burgeoning revolution into a bloody pulp.

2.   Pick your target

• Pay attention to your staff.
• Listen to who is saying things that might suggest that they are open to trying new things.
• Find out what they are already working on

3.   Move in for the change

• Approach this person in a casual way, either in the hallway or pop into their room as you are walking by (curiously these people who are open to change frequently have their doors open)
• Show them how something you are doing could make what they are already doing easier

4.   Follow-up and support

• Once you have introduced this person to whatever it is, be sure to follow up with them to make sure that they are not getting frustrated and abandoning it. How often have you attended some workshop on the new-new thing only to get no follow up support? How many of those new-new things have any staying power?
• Don’t be a know-it-all. Let them show you something about whatever it is that you don’t know (even if you already know it). This will boost their self-confidence and make them excited to continue.

Try this technique at your school and see if over time your influence doesn’t expand, and remember to stay positive no matter the setbacks. No one ever said that being a change-agent was easy!

In promoting change in my district I have two competing thoughts. One is that teachers want to grow with their students, the other obviously being that teachers just want their students to grow.
With my job as the technology coordinator for the district and the only person who’s sole job is to work with and on the technology, I have taken heart to helping my teachers make use of new technology in the classroom. For some this can be as simple as sharing a link to a new and exciting website. For others it may involve directly showing them something new and probably helping them work with that item a couple of times. Does that take me away from other parts of my job? Yes, but I feel it is worth my time and effort. Usually, I’m going to relate that type of teacher as those that want to grow with their students. You know the type, the ones that get still get that twinkle in their eye when they come across something new that gets them excited about presenting to their students. For this type of teacher its usually as simple as sharing that web 2.0 link via e-mail and they will do their best to take it from there.
On the other side of the mountain I see the type that know they do a good job educating their students and feel very comfortable in their methodology. These are the type that I’m just happy that they check their e-mail let alone click on one of those web 2.0 links that I send out. Sending them an e-mail to get them to try something new out usually isn’t enough push. For those an extra nudge is needed. Sometimes that nudge could be face to face or it could be demonstrating to a group of staff how something works. I believe power is always in numbers and those numbers can grow exponentially very easily.
In the end though we all know that everyone learns in different ways and not everyone is open to change. My superintendent said it best and to paraphrase him, students handle change better than adults. I often hear through twitter how the people that really need to come to the table to see how technology can assist them are more often than not “away from the computer”. Is there a magic answer for that? No, but we must not give up in our efforts promote technology even to those who we least expect to use it.

Update: I would like to thank Steven Anderson, Kyle Pace, Christopher Franzen, Will Chamberlain, Christopher Rogers, Milton Ramirez, Aaron Eyler, Dave Andrade, George Couros, Bernadette Roche, Howard Chan, and Debra Gottsleben so far for volunteering to help out. I very much appreciate it.