Terms travel easily, meaning doesn't (Michael Fullan)

Thanks to those of you that want to be part of a team to put together the Tahoma version of a video or some other visual tool to convey our rationale for change. Technically, I know very little, but I will bring much energy and commitment to this effort. I am excited about the potential to put this on the district web page for community and staff. I would also like to use it in a presentation with our Rotary Club.

In some way I would like to also address the issue of terminology in a visual format and perhaps in a district wiki (or some other format I don't know about yet.) When we get together about the use of technology in our schools and classrooms we use terms in interchangeable ways and without all having a common understanding of these terms. You know, words like information fluency, digital literacy -or- is it the other way around? I sometimes get confused. Then there are the others like embedded, not integrated. These don't even take into consideration the terms associated with the Web 2.0 possibilities for classroom use.

I am reminded of how difficult our PLC work is and of what we have learned from reading the DuFour books.

It is difficult enough to bring these concepts to life in a school when there is a shared understanding of their meaning. It is impossible when there is no common understanding and the terms mean very different things to different people within the school.

I think we face the same problem with the terms associated with this work and need to intentionally address this issue now, as we create a vision for what Classroom 10 looks and sounds like in our classrooms.