Extras from week 9

I am completely enamored with Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. I cannot stop reading in order to write my discussion post.  I am inspired!  But sadly, also defeated!  How can I share this message with the stakeholders of my school district?  How can we implement a true blended learning model in our school?  How do I get my teachers to understand that technology-rich instruction is not the same as blended learning?  Our district has invested heavily into providing access for our students.  We are 1-to-1.  We have a district technology integration specialist.  We are making progress, but we are still missing the mark.  Our district's mission is "to provide a quality, student-centered education."  How do we live up to our mission?  New inspiration that wants to be fueled met with frustration at how things really are.  One recent example - a math teacher tries to implement a flipped classroom.  Spends a good portion of her summer converting her old lecture slides into videos hosted on EdPuzzle.  Weeks into the semester, she is flooded by complaints from parents.  Students are saying she is not "teaching" them.  They have to teach themselves.  More time should have been spent educating the parents.  We need them as stakeholders to "buy in."  Instead, she stopped assigning the videos for homework and they listened to them during class time instead.  What??!!  Our teachers were initially overwhelmed by pressure to integrate technology into their classrooms.  They now have, but they don't seem to have made the connection that all they have really done is substitute (SAMR model).  Technology-rich instruction is not personalized.  It is not student-centered.  Sometimes it is more engaging.  Sometimes it addresses different learning styles and modalities.  Sometimes.  Sometimes it proves what teachers (with their eyes open) fear - they are making themselves irrelevant.  You can't sit a student in front of a hyperdoc for an entire class period, day after day, with no direct instruction.  I'm sad.  We've added technology resources but we've maintained our traditional school factory environment.