Hacking the school system softly: first hack #clmooc #systemhack

Day One of #schoolsystemhack. If you are confused please read previous post explaining this.

Location: Staff room.

Limitation: Staff stay mainly in their faculty staff rooms but some use the central staff room occasionally eg lunchtime.

In the wee hours of Monday morning, before anyone else was about, I executed the first hack in the main staff room.

And then I lay low. And waited.

Feedback on the first day: We got some good feedback from a teacher who will remain nameless. She loved it. We were amused by her retelling of general staff reaction at this early stage. People were not sure how to react and so they pretended it wasn’t there and didn’t talk about it. They didn’t touch it (too risky; no instructions). She grabbed one of the colouring in templates and coloured pencils and started – “What are you doing?” from a teacher. Shock. Uncertainty.

Feedback on the second day: Things had been moved around. Another teacher told me he suspected I had set this up. He reported that the magnetic words on the pizza tray had been moved to a different table and play had begun. The principal had been seen moving words around before the staff meeting. Teachers had been heard saying that they intended to play during the meeting.

It’s a start. The Way Things Are is perhaps not the way The Way Things Will Be or Could Be.

I’m content. I have more things to add but all in good time.

 

 

8 thoughts on “Hacking the school system softly: first hack #clmooc #systemhack”

  1. That is fabulous… I’m feeling a little inspired…! And I followed the “professional conversations” comics to Pool lane 8 – you made me chuckle 🙂

  2. Definitely stealing this! Good luck fostering connected learning for all at your school. I so know how it feels to sometimes feel like your the only one who believes on the possibilities.

    1. Thanks Deb. Good to know we have company in our situation. Hope to see what you get up to – do you have a blog or something similar where you will share?

    1. I will keep updating but I wish I had a camera to observe staff behaviour around this like an experiment. It’s only 2 people who suspected me. Others wouldn’t have a clue. Still funny, yes.

  3. A Great Start!
    You also motivated me to do a soft hack.
    (Unfortunately we don’t have a central staff room!)
    Limitation: Communication: I am trying to get the campus to setup a central calendar (online) to improve communication across about 21 different teams on a very small campus.
    I created a mock up of the calendar and printed it out and put it on the main noticeboard (without asking permission! shock!).
    Within one day I had an acceptance to a meeting I’d previous requested to discuss this posibility!
    Outcome: Meeting done, request into the official system to get the calendar created and soft-hack approach agreed to get this working within 6 months!
    Thanks for this idea.

    1. That’s brilliant, Wendy! I know what you mean about doing something without permission, haha.The Super Serious Police might come and lock us up! Well done with your hack and the results. Keep us in touch with what else you get up to.

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