Page 239 - Resources and Support for the Online Educator

Chapter 4: Your Assumptions and Beliefs

Pause and Reflect

If you lead an upcoming workshop or presentation to staff/faculty,
consider how you can model the shift to co-learning. You may decide
to ask participants to set the goals and agenda for the session; include
virtual participants/guests; and provide options for what people learn
and a variety of resources and materials to model accessibility.

Brainstorm (perhaps in a Google Doc) all the objections that might
come up when discussing profound changes to roles, learning, and
classroom culture. Then list proactive ways to acknowledge, overcome,
or go around the problems. You might also include links to videos or
blogs that dive deeper into the question. This document will help you
refine your thinking, and act as a resource as you work with other
educators. Consider sharing this document so others can add their own
thoughts or links, or create a new document with a team of educators
as an ongoing exploration of the changes that are required to keep
moving forward. Together you could also create a “Now/Future” T-chart
to compare and contrast the traditional classroom culture to one in
which ownership and learning is shared. Consider adding a rating scale
(1 - Now, 5 - Future) to assess where you are as a staff/school, and then
consider ways to move toward the future. As you work through the
process, make sure to reference the Facilitator role in the ISTE Stan-
dards for Educators.

agree, but also by those who may see things differently. Like individuals,
systems also hold assumptions and beliefs. Although we often recognize
policies, procedures, and programs are outdated and in need of change,
we fail to recognize that the underlying assumptions and beliefs, firmly
embedded and interconnected in the daily routines of the system, are also
in need of repair and replacement.
The ISTE Standards for Educators (2017) can help frame and guide discus-
sions about assumptions and beliefs at both the individual and system
level. As a leader, you need the courage and conviction to be willing to
relinquish some control as you transfer some of the responsibility for

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