The What, Who, Why and How of Building an iCentre: Part 1

Editor's Notes

• #3: Schools need to brave the convergence of facilities, technologies, people and resources, to develop an iCentre which becomes the central facility within the school where information, technology, learning and teaching needs are supported by qualified information and learning technology specialists. It is a centre that provides students, teachers, administration staff and parents with a one-stop shop for all resourcing, technology and learning needs on a daily basis.
• #4: The iCentre is a high-end multimedia production facility which acts as the information-technology-learning hub for a school. While it is the technology engine of a networked school connecting classrooms, specialist learning spaces, offices, corridors, homes and mobile devices to the wider networked world, it also provides the school community with a large, flexible learning space based on fluid design principles to support collaboration, performance, creativity, interactivity and exploration, both online and offline.One would expect the layout of an iCentre to look different on a daily basis depending on the range of individual, small group, class-based, or whole year- or discipline-based activities it accommodates at any given time, ie. the form it takes reflects the function.
• #5: An essential component of the iCentre concept is that the technical and administrative aspects of technology management are secondary to the learning agenda within the school. Schools can reshape their existing information and technology infrastructures to ‘build’ an iCentre. Keeping in mind that the form involves not just the blending of physical and online facilities, schools will be required to rethink the way existing information and technology staff are ‘blended’. This would include executive or leading teacher positions such as curriculum coordinator, ICT coordinator, learning technologies facilitator, head of information services or TL; teachers involved in the provision of professional development for staff and learning technology mentorship; and a range of support staff. Ultimately the goal here is to ensure the necessary staffing reflects the same convergence of information, technology and learning in society.
• #7: What about the vision, perceptions, motivations of the Curriculum Coordinator, or the Director of IT, or the e-Learning Technologies Coordinator, or the Head of Information Services, or the Teacher Librarian? Is the technical tail wagging the dog, or is pedagogy driving technological innovation at your school? Each of these stakeholders will more than likely have a different vision for an iCentre. This vision will be influenced by their own perceptions and motivations, the problems they predict will be resolved by developing an iCentre may be different to other stakeholders. Each stakeholder will have some kind of agenda, I think we would be naive to think otherwise. What silos exist in your school that may hinder the convergence ofinformation, technology and learning domains that I am proposing with this iCentre concept. Whose ‘territory’ will be threatened, and whose territory (and power) may be expanded?I think these are very hard questions that a school community needs to face when exploring the idea of building an iCentre.
• #9: Further reading on differentiation:Extract from Tomlinson, C.A. & Allan, S.D. (2000). Leadership for differentiating schools and classrooms. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/policies/gats/assets/pdf/gdldiffprog.pdfSet of beliefs listed on the website: A Different Place http://www.adifferentplace.org/differentiated.htm
• #10: I see Inquiry-Based Learning as central to the provision of differentiated learning and more recently with the emergence of Guided Inquiry as an instructional framework for supporting differentiation in the increasingly complex information and digitally-driven world in which we live.
• #11: Essential reading on Guided Inquiry:Kuhlthau, C. C. (2010). Guided inquiry: School libraries in the 21st century. School Libraries Worldwide, 16(1), 1-12. Available http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~kuhlthau/docs/GI-School-Librarians-in-the-21-Century.pdfKuhlthau, C. C., & Maniotes, L. K. (2010). Building Guided Inquiry teams for 21st-century learners. School Library Monthly, 26(5), 18-21. Available http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles/Kuhlthau&Maniotes2010-v26n5p18.htmlKuhlthau, C. C., Maniotes, L. K., & Caspari, A. K. (2007). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited. Chapter 1 is available at http://cissl.rutgers.edu/guided_inquiry/introduction.html And an overview of Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process (ISP) is available at http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~kuhlthau/information_search_process.htm
• #12: I think 1:1 computing is the greatest challenge for teachers because it will demand differentiated programming, and teachers will need to draw on the support of other specialist teachers to form teaching teams for specific purposes.Refer to Gary Green’s (Head of Library, Presbyterian Ladies' College in Western Australia) “1 degree bar” concept in the PLC Libraryto provide timely, responsive service to users. The final challenge regarding PLEs is one that I think few schools have really come to grips with just yet, and see this was noted in the latestWith PLEs being predicted as taking Four to Five Years on the Horizon report’s Time-to-Adoption scale.
• #13: “Widespread adoption of PLEs, once the tools and approaches are clearer, will almost certainly also require a shift in attitudes toward technology,teaching, and learning” in schools… Despite the fact that there is a range of easy-to-use tools that could be used to construct personal learning environments, they have not yet garnered widespread adoption. The reason why PLEs are poised on the far-term horizon is because they are still in the conceptual phase, lacking robust documentation or relevant case studies. One of the preconditions for them to take hold in the long run is for students to have perpetual access to their own Internet-enabled devices. Ultimately, however, widespread adoption will hinge on a shift in attitude about the role of technology in learning that simply has not occurred yet.” (p. 31)Johnson, L., Adams, S., & Haywood, K. (2011). The NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition. Austin, TX: The New Media Consortium. Retrieved fromhttp://www.nmc.org/pdf/2011-Horizon-Report-K12.pdfI see PLEs as being the next phase in the development of differentiation, and I think this will be driven principally by 1:1 computing, mobile computing and greater use of cloud computing over school-based technology infrastructures such as learning management systems.
• #14: In terms of the physical look and feel, that’s up to each school community. However, there are set of indicators which I believe help ‘define’ an iCentre
• #15: The iCentre brand can provide educators (particularly those working as information learning specialists, curriculum leaders and learning technology or e-learning specialists) with an opportunity to re-engineer ‘what we do’ within the context of 21st century learning. The key construct of the iCentre brand is that of a dynamic, responsive, fluid ‘instructional zone’ within and beyond the school. It is a learning centre of information, inquiry, innovation, immersion and instructional intervention. It is a learning centre that supports connectivity and collaboration, critical engagement and creativity, construction and consolidation.
• #17: The core business of an iCentreinvolves:• a qualified team of information, technology and learning experts whose knowledge, skills and motivations support 21st century learners with relevant, flexible, 24/7, customised information, technology and learning services — in school, at home and via mobile devices• pedagogical fusion — bringing information, technology, people, and pedagogy together to support student learning, where pedagogy is central to all decision-making, policy and practice • the provision of customised ‘i’ support for students, teachers, school administrators and parents (face-to-face and online support for all information, technology and learning needs)
• #19: Learning21@ISB is an excellent model of curriculum convergence that I refer to on the previous slide, in particular the blue skills section of this diagram.
• #20: Highly recommend you examine this global competencies matrix to inform an inquiry-based learning approach
• #22: The three principles of form, function and brand provide a useful framework for schools wishing to explore the convergence of facilities, resources,people, funding, policy, programs and services to develop an iCentre. The information, technology and learning specialists in your school can play a leadership role in building a vision towards an iCentre approach. Begin with starting strategic conversations with your school community, and please come back to attend Part 2 in this webinar series at the end of August 2011 where I present a blueprint for the “Who and How of Building an iCentre”.