Much thanks goes out to the work of Frank Duffy who served as conference planner, the AECT members who served as reviewers, and to the many wonderful scholars who submitted proposals to the CHANGE division for this year’s AECT Conference in Orlando, FL (Nov. 4-8, 2008).

While presenters were notified a few weeks ago, we wanted to share this list of accepted proposals to whet your appetites for the conference and to assist you in planning your week in Orlando. Some of these times/locations may change as conflicts arise, and those changes will be posted here as they come up. If you notice errors in this posting, please contact Frank Duffy or Mary Herring.

One-to-One Computing can Change How and What Teachers Teach

Description:    This session describes year one results of Pennsylvania’s “Classrooms for the Future” program, a high-school reform program that involves one-to-one access to laptop computers in the classroom. Results from surveys, observations, and interviews reveal that the program has significantly: reduced the time teachers spend lecturing; increased the time teachers spend with individuals and groups; increased the attention paid to “21st Century Skills;” increased the “authenticity” of assignments and student activities; and increased constructivist practices.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Barbara Rosenfeld, Brooklyn College

Length:    1 Hour         Timeblock:  8:00 AM – 9:00 AM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Captain 

Keywords:    Technology Integration, Research Studies         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Kyle L. Peck, Penn State University

 Copresenter(s):   Robin Clausen, Penn State University 

 

Large Scale Innovations in Dutch Secondary Education: The Voice of School Managers, Teachers, Parents and Students  

Description:    This research gives a voice to school managers, teachers, parents, and students on their experiences concerning three recent large scale, country-wide innovations in Dutch secondary education: the introduction of (1) Basic Secondary School Curriculum in the first few years of secondary education, (2) Second Stage in the upper years of senior secondary education, and (3) pre-vocational secondary education. Results indicated that the stakeholders experienced only minor educational benefits and major negative effects.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Sunnie Watson, Ball State University

Length:    30 Minutes (Paired Session)         Timeblock:  8:00 AM – 9:00 AM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Event Center I 

Keywords:    Systemic Change, Evaluation         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Paul Kirschner, Utrecht University

 Copresenter(s):   Frans Prins, Utrecht University 

  

A Case Study of Participatory School Reform in a High-Poverty District

Description:    While there is a consistent call for broad-based stakeholder participation in systemic school reform projects, the costs and the uncertainties of this process have discouraged many schools from involving more than a token number of stakeholders in the reform process. This case study of a citywide attempt at involving citizens in a redesign of an urban school system shows the challenges and successes of this ambitious effort. The impact of political power, both internally and externally is described as a major challenge to such inclusive efforts.

URL:   http://fs.uno.edu/bbeabout/index.htm

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Sunnie Watson, Ball State University

Length:    30 Minutes (Paired Session)         Timeblock:  8:00 AM – 9:00 AM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Event Center I 

Keywords:    Systemic Change, Transformational Change         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Brian Beabout, Pennsylvania State University

 

New Ways to Measure Systemic Change: Map & Analyze Patterns & Structures Across Time (MAPSAT)  

Description:    Transforming a school district is a daunting task, likely to take many years. How do we know we are moving in the right direction? Results from standardized tests tell only part of the story. For example, if curriculum structure has substantially changed, how can we measure change in that structure? The authors have developed new methods to measure temporal and structural properties of systems, called MAPSAT. Examples of how MAPSAT can be used in evaluating systemic change will be discussed.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Jim Ellsworth, U.S. Naval War College

Length:    1 Hour         Timeblock:  8:00 AM – 9:00 AM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Emerald 

Keywords:    Systemic Change, Assessment         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Ted Frick, Indiana University®

 Copresenter(s):   Rodney Myers, Indiana Uiversity® | Kenneth Thompson, System-Predictive Technologies | Sean York, e-College 

 

The Future of Systemic Educational Change – Across Two Horizons  

Description:    This concurrent session will discuss a recent proposal for educational reform in K-12 education in China, and a proposal for transformational systemic change that was implemented last year by AECT, call the Futureminds Initiative. The session will discuss the similarities and contrast between the initiatives in the two countries in terms of historical context and current economic and cultural issues. The last third of the session will be left for discussion and questions.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Paul Kirschner, Utrecht University

Length:    30 Minutes (Paired Session)         Timeblock:  10:30 AM – 11:30 AM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Captain 

Keywords:    Systemic Change, Transformational Change         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Hoyet Hemphill, Western Illinois University®

 Copresenter(s):   Lixin Zhang, Hebei University | Leaunda Hemphill, Western Illinois University® 

  

The Use of Virtual Workshops: A Study of Innovations in the Systemic Change Process    

Description:    In this presentation I discuss the results of a study of the innovative use of technology to facilitate learning within the systemic change initiative. This initial case we refer to as a virtual workshop, and it allows further understanding of the use of web based learning environments within the context of systemic change. This study serves as a formative evaluation of the use of such workshops while simultaneously constructing a model for future virtual workshop design and implementation.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Paul Kirschner, Utrecht University

Length:    30 Minutes (Paired Session)         Timeblock:  10:30 AM – 11:30 AM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Captain 

Keywords:    Distance Education, Systemic Change         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Claudius Rodgers, Indiana University

 

Variables Affecting the Performance of Leadership Teams Pursuing Systemic Change in their Educational Systems

Description:    This presentation will discuss results and ongoing research about effects of different group dynamics (e.g., personality type, attendance, decision-making) affecting the performance of a Leadership Team attempting to implement systemic change in a school district. This presentation intends to provide meaningful information for educational systems that could result in powerful analytical and evaluative tools, and may become instrumental to the improvement of their own design/redesign and implementation of practices and transformation.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Brian Beabout, University of New Orleans

Length:    30 Minutes (Paired Session)         Timeblock:  10:30 AM – 11:30 AM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Event Center I 

Keywords:    Systemic Change, Leadership         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Daniel Pascoe, Indiana University

 Copresenter(s):   Sari M. Pascoe, Indiana University 

  

Characteristics of High Capacity, Semi-Autonomous Systemic Change Teams: Leaders – Are You Prepared For This?

Description:    Are your large scale innovation/change efforts staying on track? Do you understand the nature of flexible, semi-autonomous teams that mark the organization of the future? This interactive session uses research findings and new models for systemic change to help participants understand what key characteristics are necessary to lead successful, powerful system-wide change teams. Please join us.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Brian Beabout, University of New Orleans

Length:    30 Minutes (Paired Session)         Timeblock:  10:30 AM – 11:30 AM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Event Center I 

Keywords:    Systemic Change, Strategies         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Eugene Kowch, University of Calgary – Faculty of Ed.

 

Innovative Results and Products within the Instructional Technology Academic Community

Description:    This session will explore innovation as a desired result in academic institutions. Innovation will be defined and reasons for having innovation within an organization will be presented. Suggestions for creating an environment for institutions, instructors, and students will be discussed. An instructor with a Ph.D. in Instructional Technology and forty years of experience as a practitioner and teacher will be accompanied by a doctoral student in this presentation.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  TBA

Length:    1 Hour         Timeblock:  2:15 PM – 3:15 PM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Great Hall East 

Keywords:    Faculty Development, Instructional Design         Session Type: Roundtable

Key presenter:   Jessica Frumkin, WSU College of Education IT Offices

 Copresenter(s):   Timothy Spannaus, Wayne State University 

  

 

Presidential Session

 The Purpose of Education in the United States and How Systemic Change can Help Achieve that Purpose  

Description:    In this 60 minute presidential session, Dr. G. Thomas Houlihan will share his views on what he thinks the purpose of education should be in the U.S. and talk about how he thinks systemic change can help achieve that purpose.

Sponsor(s):    Presidential Session, Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Francis Duffy, Professor of Change Leadership in Education

Length:    1 Hour         Timeblock:  2:15 PM – 3:15 PM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Great Hall West 

Keywords:    Systemic Change, Transformational Change         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   G. Thomas Houlihan, invited by Francis Duffy  

 

 Conflict Management in Leadership Teams Implementing Change in Educational Systems: A Workshop

Description:    This workshop will provide attendants with a theoretical framework and facilitate interactive exercises to assist the participants’ estimation of important variables of their personal profiles. Participant’s data will assist in the application of team-dynamic and conflict-management taxonomies that could help them learn, develop, and design consensus-building and/or conflict-resolution strategies in their leadership teams; strategies that could be instrumental to their team’s design, development, and implementation of development or change in their educational systems.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Beth Rajan Sockman, East Stroudsburg University

Length:    1 Hour         Timeblock:  3:30 PM – 4:30 PM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Event Center F 

Keywords:    Systemic Change, Leadership         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Daniel Pascoe, Indiana University

 Copresenter(s):   Sari M. Pascoe, Indiana University

 

Integration of a Decision-Making Process and a Learning Process in a Newly Formed Leadership Team for Systemic Transformation of a School District    

Description:    This study sought to improve some of the process guidelines described in the Guidanace System for Transforming Education (GSTE) by using the qualitative research methodology described as formative research. This methodology asked what worked well, what did not work as well as it could have, and what could be done to improve the process. The current study examined the application of the GSTE in the Leadership Team formation stage of the transformation process.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Rod Myers, Indiana University

Length:    30 Minutes (Paired Session)         Timeblock:  3:30 PM – 4:30 PM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Event Center G 

Keywords:    Transformational Change, Leadership         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Kurt Richter, Indiana University    

 

What Not To Do in Systemic Change: Lessons from a Middle School Change Process

Description:    Change is a difficult and treacherous process. It frequently generates divisiveness and resistance. However, the change process is even more difficult when it attempts to bring about fundamental changes in the culture and structure of a school. This presentation describes the process that one middle school has used to try to bring about such fundamental, systemic transformation, identifies negative consequences that arose from that process, and identifies what the literature on systemic change says about avoiding those problems.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Rod Myers, Indiana University

Length:    30 Minutes (Paired Session)         Timeblock:  3:30 PM – 4:30 PM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Event Center G 

Keywords:    Systemic Change, Strategies         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Charles Reigeluth, Indiana University Bloomington, Dept of Instructional Technology

 Copresenter(s):   Kurt Richter, Indiana University

 

Factors and Components of Mindset Change: A Study of Mindset Change in a Systemic Change Initiative

Description:    The systemic change efforts in a mid-western school district provided an environment for participants to interact with several concepts. These concepts included systems thinking, participatory leadership, and the learner-centered paradigm of instruction. Helping participants to integrate these concepts into their existing ways of thinking is one of the keys to transforming the education system in the district. In this study we identify the factors that influenced the mindset of participants as well as the components of their new mindset.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  TBA

Length:    1 Hour         Timeblock:  3:30 PM – 4:30 PM        Date: 11/6/08        Location: Great Hall East 

Keywords:    Systemic Change, Transformational Change         Session Type: Roundtable

Key presenter:   Claudius Rodgers, Indiana University

 Copresenter(s):   Chun-Yi Lin, Indiana University

 

Learning Management System Features for Learner Centric Schools  

Description:    The purpose of this session is to; a) present the results of our analysis of the functions and features for an Information-Age LMS that we think will be ideal; and b) present the results of the information sent to us about the features of current LMSs. In addition to presenting our findings, a primary goal of this session is to seek participants’ feedback regarding our ideal features and vendor information, as well as additional ideas that we may have overlooked.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change        Session Facilitator:  Cynthia Holubik, Texas Tech University

Length:    1 Hour         Timeblock:  8:00 AM – 9:00 AM        Date: 11/7/08        Location: Knave 

Keywords:    Management, Technology Centers         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Sunnie Watson, Indiana University

 Copresenter(s):   Charles Reigeluth, Indiana University ® | William Watson, Purdue University ® | Pratima Dutta, Indiana University ® | Clare Chen, Indiana University ® | Nate Powell, Indiana University    

 

High School Evaluation: Determining the Effectiveness of Small Learning Communities

Description:    The purpose of this research study is to determine the effectiveness of the redesign process for a high school into small learning communities.

Sponsor(s):    Division on Systemic Change     Session Facilitator:  Jason Ravitz, Buck Inst. for Education

Length:    1 Hour      Timeblock:  2:15 PM – 3:15 PM      Date: 11/7/08      Location: Coventry Board Room 

Keywords:    Evaluation, Research Studies         Session Type: Concurrent

Key presenter:   Pamela Green, Indiana University

 Copresenter(s):   Charles Reigeluth, Indiana University | Kurt Richter, Indiana University | Sunnie Watson, Indiana University | Chun-Yi Lin, Indiana University® | Clare Chen, Indiana University® 

 

Systemic Change Membership Meeting  

Description:    Systemic Change Membership Meeting  

Length:    1 Hour      Timeblock:  3:30 PM-4:30:00 PM     Date: 11/7/08     Location: Coventry Board Room 

Keywords:    Meetings,         Session Type: Governance Meeting

Key presenter:   Systemic Change Division