Perspective: ‘Learning Village’: Teamwork and technology 

California’s largest elementary school district pursues a vision

Bakersfield City School District Superintendent Mike Lingo had a vision—using technology to give teachers the tools they need to make planning, preparation and organization easier. He believed that teachers should not have to spend hours navigating multiple texts and papers to create lesson plans for the week. Lingo did not know how, but he knew that technology was the vehicle that would streamline the process.

Tasked by Superintendent Lingo with identifying the solution, Assistant Superintendent Marvin Jones and I researched and discovered an innovative new technology called Learning Village, a curriculum portal that could house digital textbooks, teacher planning materials, lessons, resources and video. Recognizing the potential to make our superintendent’s vision a reality, we began the first of many discussions with the vendor, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, to see how the technology could work in California’s largest elementary school district.

We learned, for example, how a Learning Village “dashboard” could be created to contain all the links and resources that teachers would need to simplify their planning process, giving them easy access to academic standards, lesson plans and instructional materials (standards-based and open source) and also how to readily find district best practice lessons to make their own.

At the same time, district officials recognized that they could pair Learning Village with interactive whiteboard technology. Together, the two resources could complement one another to help teachers essentially create a districtwide learning community.

The result? Last September, on a hot Bakersfield afternoon, Superintendent Lingo watched his vision begin to become reality. So where is Bakersfield City School District today, one school year later? Are teachers using Learning Village? Did the technology meet expectations? What are the lessons for educators throughout California?

Teamwork

In a large school district, any technology innovation must be approached in small increments to be a success. The skill of the users varies from novice to expert, so moving slowly allows all users to be part of the process. The novice user feels comfortable with the new learning, and expert users become leaders and trainers at their schools.

One leader is Deia Scott, a third-grade teacher at Cesar E. Chavez Science Magnet School. She immediately embraced Learning Village and began contacting fellow teachers to see if they would like to help her develop interactive Smart Board activities for their grade level. Word traveled quickly, and soon there was a team of 80 teachers and administrators from around the district wanting to be a part of the group. Now, Scott typically prepares a schedule for her “writing team” of 10 teachers— most of whom she has never met—and e-mails assignments to the team prior to each reading unit; over 200 teaching resources have been created.

“This is about giving and sharing for the benefit of our students. It is not about me as an individual; we are a team,” Scott modestly shares.

Other team members echo Scott’s philosophy.

“If we can give our work to somebody else and it will help other teachers do their job and increase student learning, then we do it,” says third-grade team member Stephanie Dodenhoff. Cesar Chavez principal Ruscel Reader proudly points out how her team of teachers uses the technological tool for collaboration. “They are a team and all about doing the work and sharing. That is who we are at Chavez.”

Scott has been a trailblazer–identifying strategies, developing content and generously sharing. When asked what’s next, she responds, “We will spend the summer reviewing and improving our lessons. I have learned so much in the last year. We have come a long way.”

And the benefits are rippling outward, beyond Cesar Chavez to other schools in the district. Ramon Garza Elementary School principal Teresa Arambula says the technology skill level of the teacher dictates the level of utilization at her school. Many of her teachers are developing interactive whiteboard resources that are easily accessed on Learning Village to accompany their lessons. “Teachers who are skilled in technology are using Learning Village for collaborative planning in math,” she adds.

As an administrator, Arambula accesses Learning Village while attending grade-level planning meetings: “I can check pacing, point out strategies, examine content … all of the links are there.”

Professional development and the future

Assistant Superintendent Jones has challenged his Learning Village team members to harness the technology to extend the professional development opportunities that can be offered to teachers. His goal is for the team to prepare a series of training videos that can be housed in Learning Village, where they would be available to administrators and teachers anytime, day or night. The videos will feature district teachers and focus on pedagogical content knowledge and instructional approaches to teach that content to students.

Teachers cannot learn by just viewing a video of another teacher teaching a lesson, of course. Teachers’ professional development occurs through analysis and discussion of a lesson, followed by applying the concepts studied in planning lessons and then putting them into practice in the classroom.

The challenge facing Jones’ team, then, is how to develop something comprehensive, so that there could be discussion and interaction with a district instructional specialist during and/or after the video lessons. To accomplish this, the videos will need to have embedded explanations and descriptions, and viewing instructions and discussion questions must accompany the videos. Production is in progress. Soon, administrators and teachers will have access to professional development videos at their convenience.

Learning Village at Bakersfield City School District is constantly growing and changing, but in its first year it has more than met the district’s expectations. Teachers have the ability to submit lessons that can be reviewed and identified as a district best practice, to collaborate during grade-level planning, and to participate in a districtwide learning community. As we move into the future, the Bakersfield City School District team is happy to have pioneered Learning Village in California and believes that it is a foundation upon which academic instruction can be improved well into the future. Like the iPod or cell phones, now that we’ve got it, we simply can’t imagine working without it.

For 14 years Kathy Walker has served as director of curriculum and standards for the Bakersfield City School District, the largest K–8 district in California. She taught 13 years before coming to the district office as the K–8 instructional specialist, mentor teacher, staff development coordinator and interim principal.