Final Project Proposal

AnySchool is a fictitious school modeled on the many real schools in the U.S. that are trying to provide their students with the best education they can while struggling to deal with changing technologies and the pressures imposed on them by decreasing budgets and the demands of NCLB legislation.

AnySchool's principal, aware of the inherent benefits of collaboration, has mandated this year that all teachers must teach one co-curricular lesson or unit with someone from another department at least once per quarter.  The teachers, who also understand the theoretical value of this idea, cannot fathom how it is practically possible to accomplish such a goal amidst the tremendous workloads they are already juggling.  Most of them also have no idea how to go about initiating such partnerships with their colleagues.

While social software seems to be an obvious answer to help rectify this situation, most teachers are not using such applications in their schools (either with their students or among themselves) because a.) they perceive there to be a high learning curve, and b.) many 2.0 sites are blocked by the district.

Even though there is tremendous educational value in many Web2.0 tools, there is definitely a negative perception of them higher up among the educational-powers-that-be such as principals, superintendents and school boards, who tend to err on the side of conservatism.  Rightly so, they worry about privacy and Internet safety issues, but setting school filters to block any 2.0-type site, denies students worthwhile learning opportunities and teachers useful and time-saving tools.

As the media specialist in this school, I have developed a “social software solution set” that, pending school board approval, will be utilized by teachers, administrators and support staff.  Providing staff with the opportunity to use some of these different software applications in a “safe” (ie, private and password protected) environment allows us to address their concerns while also letting them experience the benefits of these technologies firsthand.  Once teachers and administrators become comfortable using the various social software applications and see how they can increase learning, collaboration and productivity, they will be more apt to use them with their students.  This would be one of my ultimate goals as the media specialist in this school since actually using such tools can have such a positive effect on student learning outcomes.  Getting the teachers and administration “on board” with the idea of effectively using Web 2.0 technologies is the first step towards achieving this.

While it is my intent to introduce the teachers of AnySchool to as many useful social software applications as possible, my plan is basically structured around three main components: a wiki, a blog, and a ning.  Each of these three tools will serve a unique purpose, but all will be easily linked together (as well as to other applications) in order to create an informative, interactive and useful social software “space” for the staff of AnySchool.  The AnySchool blog is written by me in order to highlight different social software tools and to make media center announcements for the teachers.  Staff can use the comment section of the blog to ask questions, make suggestions and share additional information.  The AnySchool Staff Ning is a place where staff can discuss various issues and ideas and the AnySchool Staff wiki is where we can all work together to develop lesson plans and share ideas and resources.  It is my hope that the wiki will continue to develop and grow over time and become a valuable resource itself as more and more teachers in AnySchool become comfortable with the medium and contribute to it.

One of the primary ways I would assess the success of our new social software system is by keeping track of the number of teachers using the different accounts we have set up.  I would try to use the different blog post announcements I write each week as a “hook” to draw new users in.  Delicious would be one of the first social software applications I would feature since it’s easy to use and has benefits that are immediately apparent.  Putting our staff’s tag cloud on all three of our main social software sites reminds teachers of it, makes it easier to access, and encourages them to add to it.

I would also be sure to ask teachers who are using the new system how it is helping them and would illicit their feedback regarding what other kinds of online tools they would find useful.  For if any social software solution is going to be successful, it must cater to the specific needs of its users and must also continue to change as their needs change.