The Systemic Change Division, which is made up primarily of teachers,
educational policy makers, administrators, and change consultants and researchers,
offers a variety of services to its members. A regular newsletter (available
in electronic and/or print format) provides information about:
o qualified consultants/facilitators
o possible funding sources
o division news
Each newsletter also contains a feature article on ideas, techniques,
or tools of interest to those engaged in a systemic restructuring effort.
In addition to the newsletter, the Division offers contacts and collaboration with others who are restructuring. A directory of institutions involved in systemic change will help you to find others close to you geographically or programatically. This will allow you to benefit from what they have learned, as well as share what you have learned in your change process.
A third service is provided by a clearinghouse of resources and information on systemic change. It provides articles (including case studies and change process guidelines), and tools (videos, quote library, and presentation tools). Information about these resources, and in some cases the resources themselves, can be accessed electronically as well as from standard print materials.
A fourth service is the annual AECT Conference, at which the Division provides workshops, presentations, informal meetings and discussions, and demonstrations of resources and tools to help in a systemic change effort.
For more information about the Systemic Change Division, look at its WWW home page. You can also contact its president, Atsusi Hirumi (Center for Professional Development & Technology, 2700 Bay Area Blvd., University of Houston--Clear Lake, Houston, TX 77058-1098 Phone: 713-283-3556 Internet: hirumi@cl.uh.edu) or one of its past presidents, Alison A. Carr (School of Education, Penn State University, College Park, PA Phone: 814-865-0624 Internet: ali.carr@psu.edu), or Charles M. Reigeluth (Education 2276, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 Phone: 812-856-8464 Internet: reigelut@indiana.edu).
To become a member, contact: AECT,
1025 Vermont Ave., NW, Suite 820, Washington, DC 20005 Phone: 202-347-7834.
If you are already a member of AECT, membership in the Division only costs
$10.
In keeping with the philosophy underlying systems design, we used an
inclusive process for preparing this strategic plan. All our members were
invited in our last newsletter and in an e-mail distribution to be involved
in the process, which entailed five rounds of "conversations" by e-mail,
with one round for each of the following activities:
Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Completion
The Division's mission and vision statement . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .June 5
Our goals and objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . June 12
Rationale for fit into the overall AECT Vision 2000 plan . . . June
26
Activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 3
Timelines and budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . July 10
Participants included: Denise Doricott, Jim Ellsworth, Barbara Gillespie,
Mary Herring, Rich Ingalls, C. Larson, Phil Reeves, Chuck Stoddard, Andy
Walcott, and all the CHANGE officers. Through close to a hundred e-mail
messages, the following Strategic Plan emerged.
Mission
The mission of the CHANGE Division is to serve those who are interested
in systemic change in education in a wide variety of environments, including
public and private schools, businesses, government, higher education, and
technical institutes.
Beliefs
We believe that fundamental (systemic) change is necessary in education,
to meet individual learners' needs and community needs, to dramatically
improve the quality of education, and to enable technology to reach its
potential contribution to education. We believe that such change must be
systemic: that it must consider all components in an educational system,
their interrelationships, and the effect of change on other systems of
which they are a part. Consequently, we believe that systems approaches,
most particularly systems design approaches, and active involvement of
all stakeholders are necessary for such fundamental change in education
to succeed. Finally, we believe that our members want to lead and participate
in the development, use, and dissemination of ideas that foster fundamental
change in educational systems.
Vision/Goals
We envision the CHANGE Division serving our members by providing them
with:
o networking with others involved in similar systemic change efforts,
o a mechanism to engage each other in dynamic conversations through a variety of media (on-line, e-mail, CU-see me, etc.)
o on-going opportunities to expand one's definition, personal understanding, and commitment to systemic change in education.
We also envision the CHANGE Division attracting many people who
are interested in systemic change in education and who are not currently
members of AECT, to join the Association and the Division.
Objectives
To work on attaining its vision/goals, the CHANGE Division will form the following special committees:
1. Info Generation Committee, which will produce or solicit write-ups
on:
o recent publications on systemic change, and
o tools for facilitating systemic change.
2. Electronic Communications Committee, which will:
o generate and implement ideas for the CHANGE server, and
o maintain and further develop the CHANGE server, and help other committees and members to put their contributions on the server.
3. Publications Committee, which will:
4. Publicity Committee, which will:
In addition to forming these special committees, CHANGE will also
form the following standing committees, as required by our by-laws:
5. Program Committee, which will:
o generate and implement ideas for special events and socials at the AECT annual conference.
6. Membership Committee, which will:
7. Awards Committee, which will:
The following standing committees have been formed and will perform
their functions:
8. Long-Range Planning Committee, which will:
9. Elections Committee, which will:
Each of these committees will review and modify the long-term goals
presented in this strategic plan, and will establish its short-term goals
for accomplishing prior to the 1996 conference in Indianapolis.
Each of these committees will develop a communications plan for frequent
communications among its members, and each will have a designated CHANGE
board member to serve as a communications link with the CHANGE board of
directors. The designated board member should receive copies of all communications,
and should be encouraged to provide input to the committee. That board
member will in turn forward any important information to the other board
members.
Fit with the AECT Vision 2000 Plan
The mission of the CHANGE Division supports AECT's mission because the effective application of technology in the teaching/learning process will have significant effects on other parts of educational and training systems, and other parts of those systems will have significant effects on the effectiveness of the application of technology. Further more, in the current, industrial-age paradigm of education, which is based on standardization and focused on sorting students, technology must of necessity play a peripheral role. Technology simply will not be able to reach its potential contribution to education as long as we have a time-based system with group-based progress and standardized content. In an information-age paradigm of education, which is based on customization and is focused on learning, technology must of necessity play a central role. For both these reasons, effective application of technology in the teaching/learning process is highly dependent upon systemic change (and, we might add, systemic change is highly dependent on educational technology).
The vision of the CHANGE Division supports AECT's vision. It supports vision 1, anticipating and planning for the forces of change affecting members and the field, by calling on CHANGE to prepare its members to perceive and understand the changes that affect them and processes for dealing with those changes effectively. It supports vision 2, providing a fluid structure for professional interaction, by calling for CHANGE to provide mechanisms for such interaction among Division members. It supports vision 3, continual professional development and personal growth for its members throughout their careers, by calling for CHANGE to provide opportunities, training, and information to foster such growth and development. And it supports vision 4, that AECT will be recognized as a leader in the field of instructional technology, by fostering the successful application of technology to the teaching/learning process and by making AECT one of the international leaders in one particular soft technology: systemic change.
The objectives of the CHANGE Division support AECT's objectives by entailing the formation of task forces (committees) of its members, whereby each committee is charged with reviewing, revising, and generating specific objectives to realize an important aspect of CHANGE's mission and vision. Most of those committees deal directly with one or more of the goals in AECT's Vision 2000 Strategic Plan. For example, the Electronic Communications Committee's objectives directly address AECT's Objective 2.1.1, 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.2.4, and 3.2.1. Every one of our objectives is consistent with AECT's objectives.
Furthermore, the considerable number of committees we are forming will
get more of our membership actively involved in contributing to the Division
and Association, thereby increasing the benefits that they and others receive
from the Division and Association, and building greater commitment to the
Division and Association. This will also provide a mechanism for cultivating
leadership in our members. Both of these are important AECT objectives.
Activities
It is a major objective of the Board to empower the Division members
and facilitate and coordinate their activities. Therefore, the activities
of the Division will be those which each committee decides to undertake,
based on the goals of the committee and the Division. The Board1s role
will be one of helping members to reach a common vision, an organizational
structure that allows self-managing teams to work on diverse objectives
which support that vision, and a communication mechanism that allows the
teams to share progress and ideas.
Timelines and Budget
As self-managing teams, the committees will set their own timelines and resource requirements, with input from the Board. The Board will help each committee to find the needed resources, including institutional resources of our members, as well as the CHANGE budget from AECT.
| Home |
| Systemic Change in Education |
| What is systemic change and is it needed?
|
| How can we help schools and communities with
systemic change? |
| Services that I offer to people interested
in systemic change. |
| Experiences I have had with systemic change
in education. |
| Things that I have written about systemic change
in education. |
| The Indiana University Restructuring Support
Service. |
| The Division for Systemic Change in Education.
|
| The International Systems Institute. |
Last updated: February 7, 1999, by C.
Reigeluth
URL: http://php.indiana.edu/~reigelut/home.html
Comments: reigelut@indiana.edu
Copyright 1996, The Trustees of Indiana
University