Karl Fisch—2009 Outstanding Leader of the Year
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE(®) has named Karl Fisch, director of technology for Arapahoe High School in Centennial, CO, as 2009 Outstanding Leader of the year.
Candidates were nominated by ISTE Affiliates, a network of more than 80 professional associations representing more than 100,000 educators worldwide. The nominations were reviewed by an eight-person team of education and technology professionals from around the world.
Karl has a number of significant accomplishments to his credit, any one of which stands alone as an impressive achievement. To begin, in 2005 Karl was awarded a significant grant proposal that provided laptops and carts for a number of his classrooms and professional development. This group, called the Cohort for 21st Century Learners, spent time studying the latest research on how students learn, brainstorming the practical, classroom level applications of the research, and then learning technology tools to support the targeted instruction. In this role, as a leader, he has inspired his teachers to do great things—over twenty teachers at his school run their own student-centered blog, for example.
Likewise, Karl has worked tirelessly to promote unique 21st century learning opportunities for the students at his school. One example which has fundamentally changed the way students at Karl's high school. Arapahoe, learn. It involved the language arts teachers. Karl introduced them to the Daniel Pink novel, A Whole New Mind, and facilitated the School Board adoption of the text as part of the freshman curriculum. Then, using the "fishbowl" technique of student discussions, Karl and his teachers "powered it up" using a live blogging technique to engage all the students in the inner and outer circles of conversation. Because Karl so clearly understands the power and potential of technology, he then linked the students’ conversations with the blog tool to college professors, parents, school board members and even the district’s superintendent. Finally, as a culminating activity, the students blogged and video-conferenced with the author himself, Daniel Pink-twice. The kids involved in that experience were fundamentally changed; they were not just speaking aboutthe author of a text, they were speaking to the author of a text. That's a sizeable shift.
Karl's work with teacher development does not stop at the boundaries of Arapahoe High School, though. For the last two Februaries, Karl organized the CoLearning 2.0 conference. Here, attendees from all over the Front Range of Colorado, and even from neighboring states, were treated to thoughtful and thought-provoking sessions designed to advance the conversation around the best practices in integrating technology into the classroom. Attendees were treated to a catered meal and a working lunch wherein students were invited in to share their observations, thoughts and opinions. This in particular was a signature move by Karl—his insistence that student voices be heard greatly enriched the conference experience, as indicated by our conference survey. Transcripts of the conference, including archived video clips, are available at: http://colearning.wikispaces.com/. It is fair to say that most people attended the conference for a chance to work with Karl, as most know him by his work on his blog, the Fischbowl. This award-winning blog (nominated for two consecutive years) is available at http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/, and has readers from around the world. Many folks have joined the conversation on the Fischbowl after having viewed his provocative presentation called "Did You Know/Shift Happens." After 14 million (conservatively estimated) views, (see just one version at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U) it is accurate to say that Karl’s conversation starter has been wildly successful. It has been shown by countless parents, teachers, students, school board members, and US Senators.
Among the communities influenced by Karl’s vision is the business community of the Front Range of Colorado. After having been contacted by many members of the local business community, Karl arranged for a symposium between his building and district educators and representatives from business. The resulting conversation was genuinely transformational. Business leaders representing engineering, finance, technology, service industries and manufacturing, despite never having met one another, were uniform in their endorsement of Karl's vision of the future. They challenged, questioned, and validated the good work that education is doing. But, they were all quick to point out that "Shift Happens." Even the massive, multi-national corporation of Sony-BMG has used Karl's video to graphically and pointedly illustrate the changing landscape of the 21st Century
Karl's work and products, while wide-ranging, are very simple in focus. He wants his teachers, the parents and administrators he works with, the district administration he reports to, to all do one thing: do right by students.
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