Using the 4Shifts Protocol in the Registrar's Office

I’m taking a course called “Leader as Instructional Coach” where I am learning about The 4Shifts Protocol designed by Scott McLeod and Julie Graber.

Figure 1, Shift Happens (Soulsana, Unsplash, 2020)

In their book, Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning, they explain how teachers and administrators in K-12 can use technology to take students past the surface learning into deeper learning. This makes complete sense to me for the classroom but how does this apply to the Registrar’s Office at a small college?

Figure 2, Solution Tree Education Canada

To begin to answer that question, I need to identify what the 4Shifts Protocol is. There are four areas that the protocol focuses on “(1) deeper thinking and learning, (2) authentic work, (3) student agency and personalization, and (4) technology infusion” (McLeod & Graber, 2019, pp.12-13).

Let me break down each of the four areas:

1. Deeper thinking and learning - students move from recalling information and repeating it for the teacher to understanding the information. This means they will critically think about it, solve complex problems, and use their creativity to communicate what they have learned.

2. Authentic work - students move from doing pretend or fake work in the classroom to actual real-life work that has an impact on their own community and the world around them.

3. Student agency and personalization - the classroom moves from the teacher controlling most of what happens to the students having more choice and autonomy for what and how they are learning.

4. Technology infusion - students move from analog (pen and paper) to digital. They don’t just replicate what they have done by pen and paper to digital but they use the technology in ways that are not possible by analog. Technology enhances learning.

What would it look like for me to use the 4Shifts Protocol in the Registrar’s Office? The Registrar at any college teaches, trains, and coaches others but not necessarily in the traditional classroom setting. Some of the “students” I have are staff, faculty, and actual real-life students. The students I have do have one thing in common, they all need to use our Student Information System (SIS). Some need to know a little, some need to know it more in-depth, and some need to know different areas of the SIS. The area of the 4Shifts that would be helpful for me to focus on is the Technology Infusion. This also goes along with the ISTE Standard 4: Systems Designer quite well. This standard states “Leaders build teams and systems to implement, sustain and continually improve the use of technology to support learning” (ISTE, 2018, p. 12).

Figure 3, Laptop and notepad (Morrison, Unsplash, 2017)

Our current Student Information System (SIS) has moved past the stage of recreating what was done by paper and pencil and past the stage of recreating what was done from analog to digital. It is at the stage where things can be done better and there are more possibilities to go further because of it. The SIS is not helpful, though, if people don’t know how to use it. This is where I need to teach the SIS not only using the 4Shifts Protocols but the ISTE standards. The beauty of designing something new is that you can work backwards in your design - determining what outcome you want and deciding what you have to do to get that outcome.

In the course I am taking about instructional coaching, I see how the 4Shifts Protocol works. Every assignment I am doing is taking me deeper into learning. I have to critically think about how to apply what I am doing to my context. The assignments are not fake or pretend but I can actually use them in my real-life job. I also get to be creative and use whatever format I want to show what I have learned and am learning. Every assignment stretches me further than I thought I could stretch and sometimes it is painful! As I learn, I share those things with others, hoping they learn too by showing them what learning looks like.

Resources

ISTE. (2018). Education reimagined: Leading systemwide change with the ISTE standards. International Society for Technology in Education.

McLeod, S. & Graber, J. (2019). Harnessing technology for deeper learning: Solutions for creating the learning spaces students deserve. The Solution Tree Press.