The past several years have bore witness to an explosion of disruptive technologies, with many of these being collectively labeled as Web 2.0. These technologies are disruptive for a reason; they challenge the way we think, the way we operate-they create challenges to the status quo.  As expected, and rightfully so, critical questions have emerged regarding the use of these Web 2.0 technologies in education. This session identifies those questions, and explores their answers within the context of the organizational readiness required to effectively create and sustain a school culture that can successfully meet the challenges, and the opportunities, that these technologies create and afford.

Organizational readiness

1.  VISION.  What do you want learning to look like?  Do you have a clear picture of that within the context of connective technologies?  How permeable do you want your classrooms to be?  Do you know what that statement suggests? Will you have open tools or will you be in a walled garden?  What type of communities do you wish to develop? Will they be local, global, or a combination of both?

2.  READINESS.  Do you know what these tools do?  How knowledgeable are you?  How knowledgeable is your leadership?  Your teachers?  Do they have an understanding of how the connective technologies of Web 2.0 can alter the learning landscape of classrooms?  What is your comfort level with change?  How comfortable are teachers with change?  Are your students ready for this?  And how do you know?  Is your school community ready?

3.  EXPECTATIONS.  Will the use of connective technologies be expected?  Or will it be a choice?  Will it be goal-based, or left up to individual teachers to implement?  Are you interested in systemic change or pockets of innovation?  Will you have a scope and sequence that consciously and creatively matches skill development with grade level?  What type of impact are you looking for? Individual impacts on teachers, classroom impacts, or organizational impacts, or a combination of all three?

4.  LITERACY.  Have you gone beyond tools to think more deeply about these technologies?  Do you understand how these tools relate to literacy?  Have you considered the difference between 21st century literacies and 21st century skills? Are you focusing on blogs and wikis, or are you focusing on writing, communication, and collaboration?  Are you familiar with 21st Century Skills, NETS S, NETS T and NETS A, and NCTE 21st Century Literacies?

5.  BARRIERS. What types of barriers currently exist to implementation?  Have you identified these?  What is the relationship between the curriculum department and the technology department?  Are your instructional technology personnel associated with technology or curriculum?

6.  IMPLEMENTATION:  Do teachers have the skills required to be successful in this new kind of learning environment?  What types of professional development will you have?  Will you require teachers to live these skills first?  Are your teachers networked?  What skills do they have?  How do you know?  What kind of policies do you have in place?  When is the last time you re-did your AUP?  Shouldn't your acceptable use policy be reframed in the context of responsible use?  How do you rollout new technologies?  Do you have a procedure?  Have you identified a common set of tools?  Will you rely on free online tools or will you host solutions yourself, which are typically open source?  If so, have you considered Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)?

7.  SUSTAINABILITY AND GROWTH:  Do you have a plan for locating, considering and evaluating new technologies as they emerge?  Do you have targets?  How will you know when you get there?  Have you built in periodic reviews of your progress, and do you have methodologies for course correction identified?  Do you understand that this process is continual?  How will you be ready for the next step, to be propelled forward.

8.  ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION:  How will you assess the impact of the tools on learning?  Of course we evaluate learning all the time, but will you evaluate the value of the technology to that learning?  For example how well did blogging actually support the development of different types of writing and communication?  It's time to assess not only the student learning but the impact of the technology on the learning!