How Your
Nominee Has Shown Leadership Successfully Implementing Technology into
Instruction?
Robert Baker has been instrumental in developing
technology programs both locally and internationally. At Cincinnati Country Day
School, Rob has become our self-proclaimed resident “environmentalist,”
creating an atmosphere where the most innovative and meaningful technology-based
education can happen. To do this, Rob works from the ground up, inspiring
faculty members to test new technologies, all while providing one of the
premier hardware and software infrastructures in the world. To be clear, Rob’s
technology philosophy is not based on a top-down, administrative structure; he
starts with significant experience as a classroom teacher (mathematics and
computer science) and builds on the empathy he has for each and every faculty
member and student. By using his educational experience as the foundation for
developing and enhancing this collaborative atmosphere, Rob has continued to
ensure that Cincinnati Country Day school leads the world in meaningful
technology integration, PK-12.
This happens locally in a multitude of ways, but I’d
like to highlight two. One, of course, is on an ad hoc basis. Faculty members
frequently come to him and ask how to use technology in teaching a particular
concept. Note, please, that the atmosphere has led to just this kind of
question, not so much, “How do I use technology X, Y, or Z?” (though this does
get asked, of course), but questions more like, “How can I solve this
educational problem using technology?” Classroom teachers are simply better
equipped to address these kinds of dilemmas. Rob builds our program on this
principle. The other way he helps ensure the success of our program is through
a yearly technology in-service. Faculty members are asked to choose two of four
technology sessions on a pre-service day in August (the other sessions are devoted
to planning and pedagogical development meetings). Of the 15-20 sessions
offered, only a handful are taught by members of the technology department; the
rest are taught by individual faculty members. This serves as yet another
example of the power of virtue over venue (ground-level collaboration with
teachers, not mandated programs by administrators). As a result, I would argue
that
CCDS has one of the top technology programs in the
world. Our international reputation bears this out. In addition to his significant successes here
at Country Day, Rob has exerted enormous influence by helping other programs
develop their own technology programs. He and I run three “Tablet Conferences”
per year, each of which, over the last six years has been to sold-out audiences
of educators from every continent except Antarctica and South America. He has
worked hard to make the conferences both affordable (recently reduced to $550
per attendee for three full days of experiential instruction) and authentic.
The affordability of the program ensures that the message gets out to as many
educators who are willing to listen and experiment. We believe in what we do,
and we know that, once educators see the great things that happen here, they’ll
be converts. The authenticity of the program harkens back to the ground-up,
grass-roots philosophy we hold dear here and that Rob has worked so hard to
develop.
Yes, Rob and I present several of the sessions at the
conference, but we also involve over twenty (of eighty) full and part-time
faculty members because we want to demonstrate the power of the program as much
as the power of technology (and because many teachers are just better at doing
some technology workshops than are we!). This is achieved through a variety of
presentations that are different from one another in scope, scale, time,
philosophy, and the like. One faculty member might do a fifteen minute “Dart n’
Dash” in which the power of a swiveled tablet in a pre-school classroom is
demonstrated (One cannot put a desktop on the ground and ask the students to
hover over it). Another faculty team might offer a plenary session on the power
of research in a one-to-one environment.
Yet another faculty member might open the doors to her classroomso that
attendees can visit while a lesson is being taught and technology integrated
authentically.
Finally, Rob has done significant work in fostering
relationships with the corporate world (Toshiba, Microsoft, Intel, and DyKnow,
for example), and he has also reached out to research institutions exploring
the power of digital ink (Carnegie Mellon and Virginia Tech, for example). Rob
also does significant consulting work for schools interested in developing
one-to-one tablet programs. I hope I
have made an effective case for the influence Robert Baker has had both at home
and abroad in terms of ensuring that educational institutions around the world
and right next door have in their hands the collective experiences he and his
colleagues have amassed together. Rob would not be where he is without
countless other people who implement technology, and he knows this.
More than any other crucial 21st century skill,
collaboration serves as the guiding principle for Rob as he works to build a
technology atmosphere at Cincinnati Country Day School and around the world. I
strongly recommend him for the CRSTE Leadership and Vision award. You will find
few other educators with such effective 21st century skills and a vision of the
future of technology in education.
Sincerely,
Gregory K. Martin, Ph.D.
Dr. Robert Macrae, Head of School, Cincinnati Country
Day School
Laura Konkle, President, DyKnow
Jennifer Buonafede, Director of Technology, Sacred
Heart Schools, Atherton, California
Kelly Hammond, Chapin School, New Yory, NY
Web Resources
Displaying Nominee's Work:
Description of CCDS
Technology Program
Tablet
Conference Info
Microsoft
Case Study
Forthcoming, Toshiba Case Study
|
