What does flying a drone have to do with school tech planning?

I had the opportunity to work with the Principal and staff of King George School around school technology planning (STT).  It just so happened that one of the parents at the school shared this awesome video with us prior to our engagement and we used it as a provocation to talk about how expressive activities lead to expressive outcomes (Eisner, 1979). Expressive activities precede outcomes and don't necessarily have any precise objectives.  The video below is an example of an expressive activity.  The parent decided to take his children outside to build and fly a consumer available drone. The drone came with a high-definition camera built in and they captured spectacular footage of the school yard.  He didn't plan the activity with objectives in mind. He simply wanted to have his children play.

Drone Kids at King George

So what's the connection between the STT and the conversation around expressive activities and outcomes? How do the two fit together? 

What came out of this was a rich conversation around all the possible outcomes these "Drone Kids at King George" might have experienced during and after this activity.  Teachers talked about possible scientific investigations they could engage in and the exciting narratives that could be written. They shared examples of expressive activities they experienced with students in the past and the learning that came out of it. They spoke about the need to offer opportunities for students to play and explore while designing appropriate learning tasks. 

Teachers also talked about the need to examine their digital learning environment.  How can the infrastructure support this type of learning?  What network capacity do they have?  What ed tech do they currently have in their school that can be used in different ways? Do they need additional ed tech to support their school development goals, and what would that look like?

After the conversation, teachers had an opportunity to play in the teacher studio at the Career and Technology Center at Lord Shaughnessy High School.  They explored Arduino's and Makey Makeys, built with lego and circuit boards, and dived into the world of mobile apps.

There are so many possibilities for learning.  As we are all architects in this landscape, what are your possibilities?  

Thanks to the students at King George School, Forrest and Meadow (future student) and their dad, Trevor Shaw.

Eisner, Elliot W. The Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs. New York: Macmillan, 1979. Print.

Shafina Dharamsi
Learning Specialist, Learning Innovation
@shafinad