Lancaster+Country+Day+School

Cindi Knauer Phil Lisi Dace Eaby Mike Simpson Lori Hunter Rob Trubiano
 * Lancaster Country Day School PLP Team Project Page**
 * Project Members:**


 * 1. The “Problem” (as we see it).** Over the course of a series of discussions regarding PLP, technology, current trends at the Lancaster Country Day School, and even our own relationships on the team, we found ourselves returning to a few core issues (which ranged from “absolutely” within our team purview to “sort of” within our team purview, given a reasonably liberal interpretation of our given task):

1. **That as our school** has //grown// we, as a faculty, have grown apart; 2. **That past school-wide technology initiatives** have felt too top-down, too didactic; 3. **That much of our professional development** seems ill-equipped to truly be effective given the broad number of age groups, learning types, and backgrounds that make the student population and thus the needs of our faculty.


 * 2. The Problem (part II).** As we returned to these three core discussion topics (over and over again), it seemed that PLP provided us both with possible inroads to those above challenges, but also no magic-bullet to solve any of them (which is not a failure of PLP – just a testament to the complexity of the issues). Thus the question ultimately became – //what issues facing our school culture, both professional and personal, can be positively influenced and effected by Web 2.0 technologies.//


 * 3. The Project:** For the final hours of our final in-service days this May, we plan on:

1. **Creating** a two hour series of “drop-in” style “mini-seminars” that feature the specific area of interest unique to each PLP member. Thus, one “mini-seminar” will feature Google Docs, evernote, and “cloud notetaking”; another, applications of wikis; another, Curriki; another, Glogster. 2. **Using** those “mini-seminars” as an opportunity not only to share with each other core, applicable web 2.0 technologies but also to discuss these technologies in the classroom and our interaction with them; 3. **Further** using the framework of a school-wide “progressive party” to encourage participation, engagement, generosity, and joyful participation. Each mini-seminar will not only feature a technology, but also a food & a drink and will ultimately send each participant into the summer with full stomachs and new ideas with which to “play” before returning to school the following Fall.


 * 4. Measurable Success**. As is always the case, issues of school culture (and thus identity) are difficult to measure both in their severity and in the efficacy of their solution. We will be following up our first mini-seminars next September with a series of booster-shots, after-school sessions, and technology roundtables in order to further the dialogue and momentum gathered at our first mini-seminars. Again, the success might not be measurable in terms of wikis-per-faculty member, but perhaps in increased dialogue, interest, and discour