"One More Thing..." Reflect on the Big Picture

When I heard the idea that my district was going to host a Student Tech Conference, I have to be honest, my first thought was “it’s one more thing.” I didn’t need one more thing, I really didn’t. Well, “one more thing” happened this past weekend and I am grateful for the experience.

A student tech conference is a platform for students to present, reflect and share how access to technology has played a role in their learning. My District launched “PowerUp” in high schools 4 years ago. The initiative placed laptops in every high school student’s hands in phases. The campus that I am on was in the first phase, so we have had devices for 4 years. 

Both the content and motivation for each presentation was left up to each campus to decide. I cannot speak for what other schools chose to share, but I want to reflect on what my school shared and why. At first we began thinking of what kind of project we could develop and how students could present it at the conference. Then we stepped back and pushed ourselves to think around the central question of what has access to the device enabled us to do differently this year? The reflection process in and of itself was a great one. 

• What had changed?
• How had we grown?
• Where were we shifting our practices?

Through reflection we were reminded of an English I team meeting where we asked the question “How can we do this differently?”  We realized we didn’t need to create “an experience” for the Student Tech Conference, we had something we could share that was powerful.  The project that our English 1 team had designed with 1:1 technology made it possible to combine different modes of communication (e.g. words, art, audio) to share an idea, making words more powerful. Our students decided they wanted to show how a static essay could come to life and have a totally different impact on an individual when transformed into a multi-modal project. ​

Four years into a 1:1 initiative and it’s hard to assess the initiative with hard data. Tests scores cannot capture the effect technology has had on learning, in my opinion. Seeing, hearing, watching examples that were shared at the Student Tech Conference made it apparent that learning was changing and changing in a variety of ways.  The students that presented from my school reflected as we drove home. First, they were proud of what they shared, second they had a lot of questions about what other schools had shared, and third they openly shared feedback about what they would do differently if they had the opportunity to present again.  The Student Tech Conference gave us all a chance to celebrate the progress and innovative paths that we have all ventured down.

The multi-modal essays that our students shared can be viewed here. I encourage you to watch at least one of them and see the power that multi-media brings to the written word. A huge shout out to Kelli Tomlinson, @MsTomilnson, for sharing her students products and working with our students to present at the conference. She’s a courageous educator, ready to innovate and take risks to change what learning looks like in her classroom. It was a privilege to work with her and her students. I suggest following her if you aren’t already!  

Check out the HISD  Together With Tech Student Conference Website  and see how the leaders in our district structured our event. Your district or school might be able to create a similar experience and celebrate the innovation that is happening where you are! 
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Change is hard and it’s good to have a reason to step back and reflect on progress and what’s working!