21st Century Learning

Twitter Takes- 6 word memoir

John Norton on TLN threw out an interesting challenge around a six-word memoir. Someone on the list called this game a limited-word writing   activity "American haiku". I found the activity so interesting I tossed it to my Twitter community. The results were delightful!

I Tweeted: On TLN we are playing a game- Six-Word Memoirs- if you were writing a mini-memoir of your teaching life, what would your six words be?

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snbeach- Mine is- "A Networked learner: learning never stops" What's yours?"

Stephieand - mind often moved faster than time.   

robletcher - "Meet kids where they are...here."

henrythiele - Made the world a better place

robletcher - Mine is "Truth and hope: they always work."

jennyluca- public to private kids great everywhere

LParisi - Someday I'll get there. Still learning.

scottmerrick -  hmmmmm, "blessed to be amongst young minds"

mcleod - Began clueless. Starting to catch on.

jonbecker - "Still learning; still finding my voice."

paulrwood - Another day to make a difference

montgorp - "lets get rid of the walls"

alicebarr - Always flexible while learning, "Semper Gumby"!

featheredflower - Constant Collaborative Creative Cooperative Collective Change

smeech - Techology Isn't Future, It is Present!

csessums - Went native. Discovered meaning with others.

mrscienceteach - Get them laughing, keep them learning

samandjt - 6-word memoir: "No such thing as too challenging"

Stuart Ciske - When learning stops, minds stop expanding.

beil - "Thirty-four years long, still going strong!"

SheilaT - "Inspired students to achieve and believe"

BarbGoldammer - students first, mentors, mentoring, love math

BarbGoldammer - "Teacher believed in me...pay forward"

CPence - Smarter and wiser but remain optimistic.

gmudge - Taught heart, body, mind and soul.

traymur - "teach for tomorrows not for yesterdays"

traymur - "learn to teach teach to learn"

wsigele - Life's too short to spend angry

tabor330 - Needed an excuse to read books

Please add yours below!

 

K12Online08- Call for Proposals-Amplifying Possibilies

We are pleased to announce the call for proposals for the third annual “K12 Online Conference” for educators around the world interested in the use of web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice. This year’s conference is scheduled for October 20-24 and October 27-31 of 2008, and will include a pre-conference keynote during the week of October 13. The conference theme for 2008 is “Amplifying Possibilities.” Participation in the conference (as in the past) is entirely free. Conference materials are published in English and available for worldwide distribution and use under a Creative Commons license. Some changes in the requirements for presentations are being made this year and are detailed below. The deadline for proposal submission is June 23, 2008. Selected presentations will be announced at NECC 2008 in San Antonio, Texas, USA on July 2.

OVERVIEW:

As in past years, K12 Online 2008 will feature four “conference strands,” two each week. Two presentations will be published in each strand each day, Monday through Friday, so four new presentations will be available each day over the course of the two weeks. Including the pre-conference keynote, a total of 41 presentations will be published. Each twenty minute (or less) presentation will be shared online in a downloadable format and released simultaneously via the conference blog (www.k12onlineconference.org,) the conference Twitter account, and the conference audio and video podcast channels. All presentations will be archived online for posterity. A total of 82 past presentations are currently available from K12 Online 2006 and K12 Online 2007. If you are planning to submit a proposal, please review archived presentations from past years to determine what you might offer that is new and builds on previous work. A variety of live events will also be planned during and following the weeks of the conference.

FOUR STRANDS:

Week 1

Strand A: Getting Started

Everything you wanted to know about getting started with web 2.0 technologies for learning but were afraid to ask. The presentations in this strand will focus on specific, free tools for newcomers. Whether you have one classroom computer or a laptop for every student, digital technologies can provide new opportunities to connect with other learners, create new and exciting knowledge products, and engage students in an expanded learning process beyond the traditional “boundaries of the bell.” Teachers first introduced to Web 2.0 tools are often unaware of the new possibilities for teaching and learning afforded by the Read/Write Web. Presentations in this strand will amplify and model what is possible in terms of pedagogy, student creation of content, and collaboration. Practical classroom implementation ideas will be emphasized. Presentations will focus more on the ways new tools can be used to engage students in learning, rather than focusing exclusively on how specific tools are used. If you’ve ever felt like everyone else knows more than you about teaching with technology and you need help getting started, this is the strand for you.

Strand B: Kicking It Up a Notch

You’ve been using blogs, wikis and other technologies for awhile but perhaps haven’t seen them transform your classroom and the learning environment for your students in the ways you think they can. This strand amplifies ways new technologies can be used to transform classroom and personal learning. Rather than merely replicating traditional, analog-based learning tasks, how can digital technologies permit teacher-leaders to “infomate” learning to add greater interactivity, personal differentiation, and multi-modal exploration of curriculum topics? Fresh new approaches to using Web 2.0 tools for learning and authentic assessment will be highlighted. Presentations will explore innovative ways Web 2.0 tools can be blended together to help students create, collaborate, and share the knowledge safely on the global stage of the Internet. Maybe it’s time to share your insights and experiences with your teaching community. Join these sessions to gain insights on amplifying the possibilities of learning in your classroom and/or your professional practice.

Week 2

Strand A: Prove it

Although some teachers are excited to “amplify possibilities” using computer technologies, Web 2.0 tools, and 21st Century learning strategies in their classrooms, how do we know if these innovative instructional strategies are really working? Since information technologies and emerging brain research continue to rapidly evolve and change, it is challenging as well as vital to find current, meaningful research to undergird the learning initiatives we are using in our classrooms. What are “best practices” for teaching and learning with the new participatory media? This strand will share research results from the field that support students in using knowledge to communicate, collaborate, analyze, create, innovate, build community and solve problems. In addition, successful methods for developing and/or delivery of action research projects or research-based instruction in today’s digital world will be explored. In some cases, participants may be invited to participate in ongoing or beginning research on Web 2.0 tool use, constructivist pedagogy, or other 21st Century research issues. Educational research about emerging professional development strategies, contemporary learning theory, systemic school reform, and other current themes of educational change are also appropriate for inclusion in this strand.

Help us to examine such research questions as:

•  What does research in learning science, instructional design, informal learning, and other fields tell us about today’s learner and their success?
•           What design features must teachers incorporate into their instructional activities to support meaningful learning?
• What is the role of assessment in today’s changing classroom? How should assessment be structured to meaningfully assess student achievement in the context of the modern classroom?

Strand B: Leading the Change

Innovative approaches to teaching and learning using web 2.0 tools are often utilized by a limited number of “early adopter” teachers in our schools. This strand seeks to amplify ways educators in a variety of contexts are serving as constructive catalysts for broad-based pedagogic change using Web 2.0 technologies as well as student-centered, project-based approaches to learning. Presentations in this strand will both showcase successful strategies as well as amplify critical issues which must be addressed for innovative learning methods to be adopted by teachers, librarians, and administrators on a more widespread basis. These issues may include (but are not limited to) issues of copyright, fair use and intellectual property, Internet content filtering, student privacy and safety issues, administrator expectations for teacher utilization of Web 2.0 tools, pilot initiatives utilizing key Web 2.0 technologies in different content areas, and innovative ways students and teachers are providing just-in-time support as well as formal learning opportunities for each other focusing on Web 2.0 tools. Successful approaches for both large and small schools, in rural as well as urban settings, will be included. This strand will explore and amplify a menu of practical ideas for educators in diverse contexts who want to continue amplifying possibilities in our schools.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS:

This call encourages all educators, both experienced and novice with respect to Web 2.0 learning tools, to submit proposals to present at this conference via this link. Take this opportunity to share your successes, strategies, and tips in “amplifying the possibilities” of web 2.0 powered learning in one of the four conference strands.

The deadline for proposal submissions is June 23, 2008 at midnight GMT. You will be contacted no later than July 2, 2008 regarding your proposal’s status. The conveners reserve to right to reposition a presentation in another strand if they believe it is best placed elsewhere. As in past years, conveners will utilize blind review committees to evaluate all submissions.

Presentations for K12Online08 must conform to the following requirements:

1. Presentations must be a single media file of twenty minutes or less in length.
2. Presentations must be submitted in a downloadable and convertable file format (mp3, mov, WMV, FLV, m4a, or m4v.) Presenters wanting to use an alternative format should contact their respective strand convener in advance.
3. Presentations are due two weeks prior to the week the relevant strand begins. (Week 1 presentations are due Monday, October 6, Week 2 presentations are due Monday, October 13.)
4. Presentations must be submitted only one time and on time. Early submissions are welcomed! Repeat submissions (with changes and additional edits) will not be accepted. Presenters should proof carefully before submitting!
5. All presentations will be shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.

The following are optional but encouraged presentation elements:

1. Prior to September 13th, presenters are invited to submit a “teaser” (maximum video or audio file length: 3 minutes) about their presentation. This can be any type of online artifact and does not have to be downloadable. Examples may include videos, animations, posters, audio interviews, etc.
2. In addition to marketing the presentation, teasers can be designed to encourage and solicit community input related to the presentation topic in advance of the presentation submission deadline.
3. View teaser examples from 2007 at http://k12online07.wikispaces.com/Teasers
4. Supplementary materials supporting presentations are welcomed. These can be wikis with supporting material links, linked examples of student projects, school district exemplary initiatives, social bookmarking collections, and/or other related content.
5. Follow-up projects and/or live interaction opportunities for conference presentations which further amplify the possiblities of the presentation topic may be included. (This can include sharing and building of content prior to, during and after the conference.)

As you draft your proposal, you may wish to consider the presentation topics listed below which were suggested in the comments on the K-12 Online Conference Blog:

   
• Special needs education
• Creative Commons, Intellectual Property, Copyright and Fair Use
• Student voices
• Community involvement
• Games in education
• Specific ideas, tips, mini lessons centered on pedagogical use of web 2.0 tools
• Overcoming institutional inertia and resistance
• Aligning Web 2.0 and other projects to national standards
• Getting your message across
• How web 2.0 can assist those with disabilities
• ePortfolios
• Classroom 2.0 activities at the elementary level
• Teacher/peer collaboration
• Authentic assessment
• Overcoming content filtering issues
• Navigating “open web” versus “closed web” publishing of student work

Prospective presenters are reminded that the audience of the K12 Online Conference is global in nature and diverse in their educational context. For this reason presentations and presentation materials which address issues from a variety of perspectives are welcomed.

EVALUATION

Acceptance decisions will be made based on RELEVANCE, SIGNIFICANCE, ORIGINALITY, QUALITY, and CLARITY. Borrowing from the COSL 2008 call for proposals:

A submission is RELEVANT when

• it directly addresses the conference and strand themes

A submission is SIGNIFICANT when

• it raises and discusses issues important to improving the effectiveness and/or sustainability of 21st Century teaching and learning efforts, and
• its contents can be broadly (globally) disseminated and understood

A submission is ORIGINAL when

• it addresses a new problem or one that hasn’t been studied in depth,
• it has a novel combination of existing research results which promise new insights, and / or
• it provides a perspective on problems different from those explored before

A submission is of HIGH QUALITY when

• existing literature is drawn upon, and / or
• claims are supported by sufficient data, and / or
• an appropriate methodology is selected and properly implemented, and / or
• limitations are described honestly

A submission is CLEARLY WRITTEN when

• it is organized effectively, and / or
• the English is clear and unambiguous, and / or
• it follows standard conventions of punctuation, mechanics, and citation, and / or
• the readability is good

KEYNOTES:

The first presentation in each strand will kick off with a keynote by a well known educator who is distinguished and knowledgeable in the context of their strand. Keynoters will be announced shortly.

CONVENERS:

• Darren Kuropatwa is currently Department Head of Mathematics at Daniel Collegiate Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is known internationally for his ability to weave the use of online social tools meaningfully and concretely into his pedagogical practice. Darren’s professional blog is called A Difference (http://adifference.blogspot.com). He will convene Getting Started.
• Dean Shareski is a Digital Learning Consultant for Prairie South School Division in Saskatchewan, Canada. Dean is an advocate for the use of social media in the classroom. To that end he works with teachers and students in exploring ways to make learning relevant, authentic and engaging. He also is a part time sessional lecturer for the University of Regina. He is celebrating his 20th year as an educator. Dean blogs at (http://ideasandthoughts.org). Dean will convene Kicking It Up A Notch.
• Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach, a 20-year educator, has been a classroom teacher, charter school principal, district administrator, and digital learning consultant. She currently serves as an adjunct faculty member teaching preservice teachers at The College of William and Mary (Virginia, USA), where she is in the dissertation phase of completing her doctorate in educational planning, policy and leadership. As the cofounder of the Powerful Learning Practice Network she helps schools and teachers from around the world use community as a powerful tool for systemic change. You can find out more on her website at www.21stcenturycollaborative.com. She will convene Prove It.
• Wesley Fryer is an educator, author, digital storyteller and change agent. He summarizes his ongoing work with educators and students in social media environments with the statement, “I’m here for the learning revolution.” His blog, “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” was selected as the 2006 “Best Learning Theory Blog” by eSchoolnews and Discovery Education. Social media sites to which Wes contributes are listed on http://claimid.com/wfryer. Wes will convene Leading the Change.

 

QUESTIONS?

If you have any questions about any part of this call for proposals, please contact one of us:

   
• Darren Kuropatwa: dkuropatwa {at} gmail {dot} com
• Dean Shareski: shareski{at} gmail{dot} com
• Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach: snbeach {at} cox {dot} net
• Wesley Fryer: wesfryer {at} pobox {dot} com

Please duplicate this post and distribute it far and wide across the blogosphere. Feel free to republish it on your own blog (actually, we’d really like people to do that ) or link back to this post (published simultaneously on all our blogs).

   
• Conference Tag: k12online08

   

 

           

New policy at Rockefeller University Press allows authors to retain copyright to their published work

Hot off Net-Gold list via Sue Fraser

Citing the growing demand from the public and the scientific community for access to research data, The Rockefeller University Press has revised its copyright policy to allow authors to retain the rights to work published in its three journals. The policy, which became effective May 1, applies to all three Rockefeller University Press journals: The Journal of Cell Biology, The Journal of Experimental Medicine and The Journal of General Physiology.

The new policy allows authors to reuse their published work in any way and provides for third-party reuse under the terms of a Creative Commons license, say Mike Rossner, executive director of the press, and Emma Hill, executive editor of The Journal of Cell Biology. Hill and Rossner lay out the terms of the new policy in an editorial published in the May issues of all three journals.

Under the terms of the policy, authors may reuse their published work for any purpose, including commercial profit, as long as each use includes attribution to the original publication. Third parties can reuse and redistribute work published in Rockefeller University Press journals, without permission, for any noncommercial purpose, with the same requirement for attribution that applies to authors.

The new policy breaks with common practice among scientific publishers, the vast majority of which require authors to relinquish copyright to the publisher in full as a condition of publication. The press, which now retains licenses from its authors instead of copyright, made its first move toward policy reversal in July 2000, when it gave authors the right to post their articles on their own Web sites immediately after publication. Since January, 2001, the press has released all of its content to the public six months after publication, but permission was still required for any reuse beyond self-archiving.

“Our copyright and public-access policies simply acknowledge who did the work and who paid for it to be done,” says Rossner. “Clearly, the peer-review and publication processes add value to the work, but, in our opinion, that does not give the publisher an exclusive right to it.”

http://newswire.rockefeller.edu/?page=engine&id=751
The entire article can be read at the above URL.

Capacity Development

One of the current trends or drivers in the shift we are experiencing in education is around the concept of the new economy shifting from products to people and what they know, more specifically human capital. (see: Ten Trends: Educating Children for Tomorrow's World- Trend 3)

Capacity development reclaims the importance of people, rather than products. In a 21st Century world,  where globalization drives the economy and what we can create becomes as important as what we know, helping children to realize their full potential- beyond being an industrial worker, will mean providing a wider range of learning options for our students.

Building capacity is all about:

• a shift from compartmentalized courses or streams of thought to integrated units of study that have more meaning and purpose in terms of educating the whole child and valuing the experiential base teachers bring with them to the classroom.
  
• taking a proactive and positive approach to learning- with teachers (in their professional development offerings) and students (in their self-directed learning aspirations in the classroom).
• establishing balance and seamless integration in individual's lives between work, learning, and knowing.
• recognizing and celebrating all learner expertise in the classroom and school as being of value and a legitimate part of the core curriculum.
• commitment to the idea of self-directed, organic learning by both the learner and those creating the environments that support the learning.
• passion - in becoming confident, connected, learners (or learning ecologies/communities in terms of classrooms) whose sense of wonderment serves as the catalyst to mastery of wisdom and success in both work and home.

I love this quote from Konrad Glogowski

I wanted to show that teachers need to redefine themselves as individuals and not automatons that focus on outcomes and expectations. I am passionate about human rights. I spend a lot of my own time reading about human rights and human rights abuses around the world. What I do in my classroom, how I do it, and who I am as a teacher is based to a large extent on my passion for social justice.

Want to see a beautiful example of this in action?  Thanks to Erin Ells a member of the Western New York Powerful Learning Practice community I was pointed to this excellent description from Anthony Chivetta who recently experienced his teacher's passion first hand.

Rather than have 6 classes per day, rather than divide learning into 45 minute blocks, we opened the schedule and challenged teachers to engage students in their passion.

Mini-terms were taught by teams of two or three teachers. These teachers were encouraged to teach their passion and were free to design their courses around topics of their choosing, with an emphasis on cross-departmental work. The only guidelines for teachers were broad such as a required reading and writing component. The classes ranged from 18 to 25 students each from all four grade levels and met all day, every day for a four-day week. Students selected their top 6 choices, and were sorted into classes accordingly. Teachers were encouraged to take field trips, and engage in hands on projects.

The student goes on to describe his personal experience in the “Zen and the Art of Furniture Design”, it was taught my his science teacher (Mr. Skinner) who has an independent passion for carpentry and an art teacher (Mr. Huber) with years of experience in scenic design and construction.

I will be posting a lot about this idea in the coming weeks. In the meantime, brainstorm with me. What is building capacity in children or their teachers all about for you? How do you do it? How would you want it  done with you? What does capacity building look like in your classroom and in your home with your own children?

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beija-flor/1401317415/

Internet Safety? Or Just Plain Weird?

A primary school has been accused of being alarmist for covering up the faces of pupils on its website – apparently to protect them from pedophiles.

Bizarrely, the images have been altered with the type of smiley faces popular during the Acid House dance craze of the 1980s.

The decision was taken at Cann Hall Primary School in Clacton, Essex.

Read the article here.  (thanks John Norton for the article via email)

Here is the part I am having a hard time understanding in all this. Traditionally, (think back to your school years) newspapers have published student's pictures and names together when highlighting accomplishments that warranted kids getting their name in the paper (eg. touchdown in football game, winning spelling bee, won scholarships etc.). Can you imagine the lessening of the "pride factor" for Grandma and Grandpa if their loved one had been recognized with a smiley face covering what should have been their 15 minutes of fame? And what about newscasts? I mean my children have made the TV news (in a good way hahaha) and the newspaper several times- somehow it just wouldn't have been as exciting if they had been unidentified in such a way as this.

Seriously- aren't we taking this a little too far?

9 Principles for Implementation: The Big Shift

Every blog, conversation, Ustream and conference session I engage in I always hear the same questions asked over and over-- How do we do this? It seems we know what and we know why- but PLEASE someone help us with the how!

Some would argue that the tension and irritation between "why" and "how" is by design. That these shifts are creating a permissive framework in education where there are no clear answers (Turner, 2004). And that in a changing educational environment the needed changes in education should be negotiated from a why approach rather than a how approach.

When we focus on the how, it prepares us for a linear, prescriptive learning experience. We determine what's missing? What do I want my students to learn that they do not know now? Yet, what is more appropriate when preparing students for their future is to realize we do not know what the "end" is. We can't be prescriptive in determining what is missing from our conception of what we want the end state of the student's learning to be, especially when we have no idea what is coming. Rather in an era that is not about precision or predetermined ways of doing things- we need to adopt a anticipative approach, not  a prescriptive approach.The great thing about this shift is that even if we get some of it wrong-- (and we surely will) that those wrong approximations in and of themselves will help to create climate to support the needed shifts.

Screaming for Something Concrete to Hold on To

Yet, even knowing this is not "business as usual, but business as unusual" and that we have to unlearn and relearn- our inner teacher screams out for the concreteness of How. Give me the 10 simple steps to mastering the changes needed in education and I am there. Oh, if only it were that simple.

But in an effort to share "lessons learned" from the change management projects I find myself immersed in through my work with the ABPC 21st Century Learners project and Powerful Learning Practice (the work I do with Will Richardson) I am going to attempt to give you principles (not how to prescriptive steps)  by which to guide your why approach to managing the needed changes in your schools and school systems.

Principles for Managing Change

Long-term transformational change has four primary aspects: scale (the change affects all or most of the school), magnitude (the degree to which it challenges the status quo), duration (the change is incremental at first and then moves to exponential), and strategic importance (how ready the culture is for adapting to change). Yet schools will only see significant change when the change occurs first at the level of the individual educational leader- be that principal, superintendent, or teacher. Real change, transformational change happens when there is personal ownership of the new technologies and concepts. Today's new economy is all about human capital, which starts with the educators in a school and then extends outward to all members of the school community.

1. People before Things (or test scores)

Any significant educational transformation creates “people issues.” Teachers will be asked to challenge the status quo, engage in mutual accountability, changed job descriptions, development of new skills and capabilities, and in general school staff will be unsettled and resistant to these changes. A shared approach for managing the change through learning communities — beginning with the leadership team and then engaging key stakeholders and teacher leaders — should be developed early, and utilized often as the change moves through the school or district. Trust will be developed overtime within the local community under an effective community leader. Once that happens, the community will become self-directed in how they help others through the change, and the leadership in the learning community will become shared. Working in teams ensures that individual issues are addressed without putting speed of adoption, morale, and results at risk. Teachers will need to perform and use action research to inform the reasons change is needed. Together, teams of teachers should embark in data collection and analysis discovering why a redesign of strategy, systems, or processes is needed in the 21st Century. The result-- champion building, as these teacher researchers become the biggest advocates for the change initiative and key to helping implement the ideals throughout the school.

2. Start at the Top

Because change is inherently unsettling for people at all levels of any organization and especially schools, when rumors of change begin to surface, all eyes will turn to the principal and other members of the school's leadership team for strength, support, and direction. Which means- the leaders must do more than talk a good game. They themselves must embrace the new approaches first, both to challenge and to motivate the rest of the faculty. They develop their own online voice and model the desired behaviors.Which means that superintendents, principals and teacher leaders will also be going through a learning curve and need to be supported. My personal experience in helping schools and school systems through change has been that the most successful stories come only after the leadership team went through the process of aligning and committing to the change initiative. Remember- change is caught- not taught.

3. Everyone is a Player in the Change Game

Transformational change in a school needs to include everyone. That means all staff, from the custodian to the secretary and even the lunch room staff. As you plan for change by defining your strategy and setting targets for design and implementation, remember to include all levels of the organization. At each layer of your school, create professional learning teams with leaders who have a shared vision and are motivated to make change happen and understand how the change relates to their area of influence and control.

4. Garner Buy-in

Teachers are inherently rational and reasonable folk and will question to what extent the change is needed, whether the principal is headed in the right direction, and whether they want to commit personally to making change happen. They will look to the leadership for answers. The articulation of a formal case for change and the creation of a modified, shared vision statement are invaluable opportunities to create or compel buy-in. Teachers and leaders who champion the change need to be able to articulate why and what they believe, as well as why it is in the best interest of children.

5. Can't Give Away What You Do Not Own

To truly be successful at implementation of 21st Century change there must be ownership by those  willing to accept responsibility for making change happen in all their areas of influence. Ownership is often best created by involving people in identifying potential problems and crafting solutions- which happens naturally in a community of practice. Willingness to "own it" can be reinforced by incentives and rewards. These can be extrinsic or intrinsic (for example, camaraderie and a sense of shared destiny will go a long way when accomplishments are recognized by school boards and in district publications).

6. Communicate and Often

Too often, those involved in the change make the mistake of believing that others understand the issues, feel the need to change, and see the new direction as clearly as they do. The best change programs reinforce core messages through regular, timely advice that is both inspirational and practical. Often this will require overcommunication through multiple, redundant channels. I am continually amazed at those who still act as though they are hearing the goals of a project for the first time - even with countless streams of communication about what the plan was for the project. Web 2.0 tools provide the perfect megaphone needed to communicate the emergent and evolving messages in a conversational way. The community needs to develop a collective plan for how they will "roll out" the communication of the change project and how they will keep the communications coming as a way to celebrate success and share concerns.

7. Know Your Culture and Predict Possible Impact

21st Century change tends to pick up speed and intensity as it cascades and spirals through a school environment, making it critically important that leaders understand and account for culture and behaviors at each level. Participatory media has a tendency to create viral change and scale fairly quickly and if cultural impacts are not planned for- the result can become less than desirable.

Educational leaders often make the mistake of assessing culture either too late or not at all. Ask yourself, do you know your school's readiness factor in terms of accepting change? Does your school already have strategies in place for how to bring major problems to the surface, identify conflicts, and negotiate outcomes? Do learning teams, and ultimately your learning community know how to identify the core values, beliefs, behaviors, and perceptions that must be taken into account for successful change to occur? Asking these hard questions before starting to implement a 21st Century change initiative can serve as the common baseline for designing essential change elements, such as embedding 21st Century skills into the core curriculum or determining what new literacies your students will need to know and how delivery of curriculum will need to change in order for students to be successful in mastery.

8. Expect the Unexpected

21st Century change is by design emergent and organic in nature. Implementation from my experience never goes completely according to plan. People react in unexpected ways; areas of anticipated resistance fall away; and the external environment shifts etc. To manage the needed shifts in your school, the community will need to continually reassess. This is why ownership is so important. Each wave of adoption of the transformational change process will have its own tensions and unexpected outcomes. Data driven decision-making will help inform your strategies somewhat, but realize along the way that much of this is so new- that we do not know what we do not know. We are often "building this airplane while we are flying it."

9. As the Individual Grows so Will the Collective Wisdom of the Community

Change is both an institutional journey and a very personal one. Educators spend many hours each week at school; many think of their colleagues as a second family- and as their community away from home. Individuals (or teams of individuals) yearn to know how their work will change, what is expected of them during and after the change, how they will be measured, and what success or failure will mean for them and those around them.  But the truth is- so much of this change is emergent that we simply do not know how to answer these important questions. To quote Peter Vaill,"... it as if we are all in constant whitewater."

As you contemplate the needed change in your schools, make it your mantra to chant "people matter." It is all too tempting to dwell on the tasks at hand and the rationale behind what you are trying to accomplish rather than deal with the more difficult and more critical "people issues." But in the 21st Century, bottom line is that relationships are all that matter. It is no longer about information management and prescriptive outcomes, but rather about building capacity- in ourselves, our faculty, our staff and in our students and then being able to contextualize the collective wisdom we gain through those relationships to making the world a better place.

Resources:

Turner, D. (2004). Privatisation, decentralisation and education in the united kingdom: The role of the state. International Review of Education. 50,11,pp. 347-357(11).

Extreme Eco-Friendly School Makeover

This looks like a no brainer to me...

If I was in a K-12 school- I'd enter.
Ford's partnership with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition eco-friendly school makeover campaign. 

 

As part of the campaign, Ford is sponsoring a nationwide contest that awards one lucky K-12 school with an eco-friendly makeover up to $250,000. More details on Ford's Educate to Escape Contest launching in March below: 

 

• Ford Motor Company and Paige Hemmis   from ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” is calling for entries in its   Educate to Escape green school makeover contest.

• Students, parents, community members,   school staff, and teachers are encouraged to nominate a school for the green   school makeover by submitting an online survey to www.educatetoescape.com.

• Consumers will also have a chance to   win a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid in the Educate to Escape   sweepstakes.

Green School Makeover. Green Car possibility. Rallying support and attention to the school. What's not to love?

It ain't Sci Fi- It's Reality

I have been told by some that I am visionary. I don't know if it is vision or an eye toward the future. I have always been so interested in what was to come. I remember as a kid always asking- what's next? We could be at Disney World and I would want to know what will we do next summer or tomorrow. As a result, I find myself often daydreaming about what's to come and how to get ready for it.

It's All in Your Head
So I am flipping through the latest Wired and I come across this title that caught my eye, "It's All in Your Head: Why the next civil rights battle will be over the mind." Long story short-- Minority Report is no longer Sci Fi as marketers have figured a way to use hypersonic sound to broadcast an audio beam so that it is focused in such a way that only a person standing directly in its path hears the message. The interesting part is it is done in such a way that the message seems to emanate from your skull. The article goes on to talk about other innovations for reading brain waves and how these tools could be used to conduct "truth verification" scans in the workplace and "what if" it became part of your yearly review process for employment? Bioethics, it seems, will be a great career for those entering college to pursue. But who would have guessed it 5-10 years ago?  Drives home the idea that teachers today have to be visionary and creative about what we are teaching kids- I mean we really are preparing them for jobs that haven't been invented yet, or are we?

Future Dreams Now a Reality
Then shared on the TALO listserv this morning an article entitled, "Future Dream Now a Reality, at least in Part"  and there it is again--

CASHLESS transactions, artificial organ transplants, space tourism and newspapers you can read on a screen may sound like common fare today, but 40 years ago they were the stuff of science fiction fantasies.

As I read through the list of predictions that folks made of what the world would be like in 40 years it was amazing how many of them came to pass. The article was written in Nov. of 1968 and readers were asked to imagine what life would be like in 2008- 40 years into the future.

Fast Forward Ahead- 40 years
I wonder if we would be as accurate in our projections as they were in 1968? Let's give it a shot. What do you think life will be like in 2048? It is a tough task, but one I think will help us realize the importance of being visionary in terms of the future for which we are preparing our students. We have got to stop seeing these conversations about the future as science fiction and start thinking about how we will prepare ourselves, our classrooms, and our kids for what lies ahead.

Imagine with me-- What do you think life will be like in 2048?

Powerful Learning Practice- Powerful Indeed

This post may be premature as I have only seen 2/3s of the PLP Independent Schools' team presentations of their impact journey through PLP and team projects- but I must say, Will and I were more than impressed. It was more on the level of WOW.

From extensive summer institutes with a Web 2.0 registration process for other schools to attend (all taught by the team members) to an 8th grade project that will utilize the best that Web 2.0 has to offer in a project based format implemented by all 8th grade teachers next year to a creative Lunch 2.0 project or school-based wikis with all digital curriculum shared and more, we found ourselves renewed in the faith that schools can make principled changes in the way we "do" school as a way to remain relevant in the lives of the students we teach. Independent school culture is such that teachers need to make certain they build on the rich heritage of what works and yet make room to rethink delivery of AP courses and such so that these kids not only get into some of the most prestigious colleges around, but they are fluent in the new literacies when they arrive.

All the project plans will be shared on the Independent School wiki after the remaining 1/3 of the teams present next week.

Cohorts are forming for next year's Powerful Learning Practice opportunity. If you are interested in learning more visit http://plpnetwork.com

Letterboxing

My daughter Amber has taken on a very cool new hobby that is sure to be a hit this year for the family. It is called Letterboxing.

Letterboxing combines hand-carved stamps, treasure hunting and usually a scenic, outdoor place and a hike or walk. Each letterboxer has their own logbook and signature stamp. Each hidden letterbox also has a logbook and a stamp. Clues to the locations of the boxes are posted on the internet, and once you find the box, you stamp its logbook with your stamp and then stamp your logbook the stamp from the box. So you got to see a special location or go on a fun hike, and get a little art at the end of it!

A couple Sundays ago, several in our family set out I set out on a letterbox hunt. We stopped at the Flame of Hope monument in Virginia Beach, which I’ve driven by a zillion times but never stopped to look at the monument.

The box was hidden under a tree. We followed the clues much like a treasure map. It was really kind of exciting.

Everyone stamped in with their thumbprints and Amber used her hand carved stamp.

Then we headed over to Red Wing Park where three boxes were hidden on the nature trail.

It seems like it will be a great new hobby and a way to get the family out in the woods as well. I so enjoy spending time outside.

Amber and me on our first letterboxing outing.

If you’re interested in learning more about letterboxing, check out Atlasquest or Letterboxing.org. Any other letterboxers out there?

Building the Machine

My son and I finally built my new PC. My killer machine.

Processor

• 2.40 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad  Q6600
• 64 kilobyte primary memory cache
• 4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Memory

• 4096 Megabytes Installed Memory
• Slot 'DIMM1' has 2048 MB
• Slot 'DIMM3' has 2048 MB
• Slot 'DIMM2' is Empty
• Slot 'DIMM4' is Empty

Drives

• 934.79 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
• 2 LITE-ON DVDRW LH-20A1S [CD-ROM drive]
• ST3500630AS [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 1
• WDC WD1500ADFD-00NLR5 [Hard drive] (150.04 GB)
  

Display and More

• EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP (Ready SLI Supported Video Card )
• Samsung SyncMaster [Monitor] (22.0"vis, )Wide screen LCD Monitorr
• Logitech X-230 32 watts RMS 2.1 Black Speaker System
• Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
  
  

  Everything, from the case to the power supply and memory slots was built with a cutting edge perspective. I want this one to last five years before it is totally outdated.
  
  I mean check out this power supply-- sheesh.

  

Almost Ready on My Desk

The Other Desk in My Office

Dave and Noah Admire Our Work

So Much to Say-- So Little Time

There is a price to be paid for community driven learning- TIME. There are only so many hours in a day to invest in reading, learning, writing, and all that goes with being part of a community of learners. The benefits far outweigh the cost, so I am not complaining, however, it is beginning to impact the time I had previously devoted to blogging.

I was reading a post on Our Virtual Class Blog called 2.0 Riptide. He quotes Konrad Glogowski who after finishing his dissertation establishes research questions that  he hopes to be able to work on in the near future:

1. How do we prepare teachers to teach 21st century learners whose lives are based on rich interactions in multiple online environments?
2. How do we help new teachers move away from what Marshall McLuhan once called the “imposing of stencils” and adopt a practice of probing and exploration?
3. How do we help new teachers acquire the courage to transform their classrooms into communities of learners and transform themselves into participants who can embed themselves in those communities?

These questions are near and dear to my heart because they are the very questions I have found myself grappling with for the last four years. As I have shared before, years of experience working in several large projects that look directly at these very  issues (ENDAPT, TLN, ABPC 21st Century Learners, ASSETOnline and now Powerful Learning Practice) it seems I keep coming full circle to networking, community of practice, true collaboration and what my friend John Norton terms "mutual accountability" among teachers.

MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY
John asked recently on TLN, "What's the difference between "negative competitiveness" and a willingness to trade narrow accountability measures from the outside for collaborative accountability -- where teachers hold one another accountable for teaching quality? He suggests that until teachers seize that ground, they will always be on the defensive and easy targets for top-down reform.

One teacher's response caught my attention-

Teachers need to be seen as professional leaders in their districts and communities, leaders able to work together to improve student learning...  Teachers are either working as silos, not interested in collaboration, or scared to show their areas of vulnerability for fear of ridicule or reprisal.

To "[seize] that ground", convincing administrators, public opinion, media, etc. that collaborative accountability is the best method for improvement, I believe we must expand our playing field.  We need to seize the grounds of media and public opinion regarding education, testing, school and community partnerships, and the nature of improvement and change.  This requires organization.  Where is the teacher voice?

Then it hit me, this is exactly where participatory media can make its biggest impact. Allowing teachers to network together online first - forming personal learning networks around areas of passion and interest and gaining comfort and trust in the nonthreatening use of the medium helps to give teachers the confidence they need to use these tools to hold each other accountable for learning.  Using tools like Twitter, Tapped In, NING, Blogs, wikis, Ustream, Diigo, Elluminate, etc, teachers who understand how to "seize the ground" can apprentice teachers who are emergent in their understanding of such concepts. Conversing and working at it together in spaces that are somewhat separate from the local context, educators can learn within the safety net of the community and develop the self-efficacy skills and boldness needed to generalize what they are learning to their local context.

WHY IS IT EASIER TO COLLABORATE TOGETHER ONLINE THAN IN OUR SCHOOLS?
One of my consulting projects this year has been CTQ's ASSETOnline project. I have had the wonderful experience of working with Anne Jolly, a professional learning community expert. In a recent conversation online she asked teachers if they liked collaboration and if not, why not. In her true researcher form she compiled the results.

Frustrations that lead to a preference for working alone in some cases.
These include . . .

1.  Not knowing what collaboration really means
2.  Not knowing what is actually expected from those collaborating
3.  Insufficient implementation support
4.  Not finding real value in collaboration
5.  Different teaching philosophies among participants/ little to share
6.  Doesn't spring from teacher's needs
7.  Dictates and limits from administrators about content for collaborative meetings
8.  Teachers left out of decision-making
9.  Lack of modeling/understanding of collaboration by administrators
10. Need space to be creative - tricky to do this in teams
11. Lack of training for collaboration
12. Lack of trust and comfort in sharing with other teachers - feeling threatened
13.  Not enough time
14.  Getting everyone on the team on the same page is hard
15.  "I don't like meetings!"  :-) - a waste of time that could be spent grading and preparing
16.  Need more time for self-reflection rather than group reflection
17.  Others on the team pass off other's work as their own
18.  Too much talk and not enough action
19.  Not enough clout - except in the classroom
20.  One person does all the work
21.  Merit pay breeds competitiveness rather than sharing
22.  The education system is designed for isolation - and the status quo is strong
23.  The atmosphere can be punitive
24.  The school setting doesn't support collaboration
25.  Teachers are overwhelmed and trying to survive difficult situations
26.  Lack of communication about changes and the reason for changes

Feeling that collaboration works at times too, such as when  . . .
1.  Teachers see value in the collaboration
2.  Teachers have similar teaching philosophies and complementary skills
3.  Collaboration is more natural and spontaneous than structured
4.  Collaboration springs from teachers' needs
5.  Collaboration is not mandated
6.  Teachers make decisions about what they collaborate on
7.  Administrators practice what they preach
8.  The atmosphere is trusting, respectful, and comforting
9.  The school is successful at supporting collaboration
10. Teachers have time to think through together what they want for their kids
11. There is time for introspection as well as collaboration

I am curious-
How do you feel about collaboration?  Do you feel safe enough in your school to "seize the ground" or do you hesitate to share for fear of ridicule or reprisal. Do you feel collaboration online is easier than it is locally in your own schools or organizations? Or do you feel the same hesitancy to publish and as a result become "clickable?" Do walled gardens (private online communities of practice)  make you feel safer in terms of being transparent enough to hold each other accountable for what kids are learning in our schools?

What is your take?

 

Video Podcast - Chillin' with Kevin

Do you know Kevin Honeycutt? If you do not, you should. He is wise, talented, sincere, loves kids, and wildly funny. Here is a vidcast we did at the recent NCAETC conference. The most fun I have ever had in an interview.

Wedding Plans

In case you haven't heard my oldest daughter, Amber, is getting married. She is so creative. Check out her Wedding Site- homemade of course.

We are deep in the wedding planning stages. June is fast upon us. The event is going to be the kind of wedding I would have had- if my circumstance had been different. So much of who Amber and Jimmy are as a couple and individuals is embedded in everything they are planning.

We Got Your Back

The disruptive "anytime, anyplace, and that means right now darn it" nature of the tools never ceases to amaze me. So I am in NYC with Will Richardson presenting and a Skype window comes up where someone just added me to their "friends" in Skype. The audience giggles and Will walks behind me and whispers, "Close Skype." I notice it is Al Upton as I am shutting down and smile. I then describe to the audience the battle that this Aussie, who I know through the blogosphere, is going through. You can read more about what happened here.

Short story Al's blog has been disabled in compliance with DECS wishes (Department of Education and Children’s Services - South Australia) It seems that this blog in particular is being investigated regarding risk and management issues.

So this morning I Skype Al to apologize for yesterday and let him know I wasn't being rude but that I had been in the middle of a presentation and the following takes place in Skype:

[7:53:48 AM] Al Upton says: want to be added in?
[7:53:59 AM] Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach says: added in to?
[7:54:08 AM] Al Upton says: skype conference
[7:54:15 AM] Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach says: is there one right now?
[7:54:26 AM] Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach says: yes, I would love to..
[7:54:39 AM] Al Upton says: yep ...  I'll ring stay as long as you like
[7:54:56 AM] Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach says: k I will just listen
[7:55:01 AM] Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach says: getting headset

Anytime, Anyplace, Right Now
Then I am dropped into a voice conversation with several well known Aussies from the blogosphere. Alexander Hayes, Sue Waters, Graham Wegner, and Al Upton. I listen for a moment and then decide to jump in. They are discussing Al and his student's plight and how incredible the response of the network has been (blogging community) in support of what he is going through. (Last check there were 164 comments to his post announcing the closure.) I was invited to attend a meeting on May 2 (Aussie time) that was being held to talk about the advantages of blogging with students. I not only agreed to attend but offered to create a room in Elluminate for many (up to 100) of us in the blogosphere to attend as well. It felt good to have something to offer Al as he walks out this ground breaking case that will have a ripple effect on us all.

Teacher Leadership
My take on what Al is going through is that it could be any of us and what he says and does from this point forward will be very important to watch. We all need to know how to advocate for our students- and how to explain how principled changes in education need to occur if we are going to remian relevant in our student's lives.

Think this is isolated to Australia? While I was in Buffalo, NY a week or so ago I caught a news cast of a Canadian who faces being fired from his teaching position for allowing a chemistry study group to be constructed in Facebook that related to students helping each other study for his course. UPDATE: yikes-- it was a student who faces expulsion-- not a teacher losing his job. The Canadian news station I was watching in Buffalo interviewed the teacher(professor) who was put on suspension. Guess the heat got switched to the student.

How would you respond if faced with a similar challenge. Can you articulate what you believe well enough to defend why you are using these tools? Do you know the foundational research that undergirds why students using social networking tools is important to their future and success? Have you done any action research in your own classrooms that point to similar findings? Do you know where to begin to set up a simple comparison project that would yield those results?  Do you know how to talk to policy makers in short 2 minute elevator speech formats that preach like poetry in terms of the least amount of words to convey the biggest message? Do you know how to approach the media effectively so that what gets written from your interview is similar to what you thought you said? Basically, are you a teacher leader?

These are the roles of a 21st Century educator: Teacher as leader, Teacher as writer, Teachers as 21st Century literacy activist.

Action Research- Documenting your Legacy
Here is one idea for garnering the kind of data you need to help defend your position should you ever be put in a position similar to Al.  You and a couple teachers get together and decide to teach a lesson that covers the standards you typically teach in class. For example, let's say several of you teach the US Civil War in your school. Together you decide on the objectives and assessments. You develop a common assessment (teacher made) that you work on together that measures if the objectives in your Civil War lesson are met. A couple of you deliver the content of your lesson using blogs and other 21st Century tools. Others deliver their content traditionally. Both groups give the common assessment at the end of the lesson. Compare the data.

Here is an example...

Bertelsmann Foundation Report: The Impact of Media and Technology in Schools
http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Stu/ashidele/The_Impact_of_Media_by_Bertelsmann_Fdtn.pdf

2 Groups
Content Area: Civil War
One Group taught using Sage on the Stage methodology
One Group taught using innovative applications of technology and project-based instructional models
End of the Study, both groups given identical teacher-constructed tests of their knowledge of the Civil War.

Question: Which group did better?
Answer: No significant test differences were found

However 1 year later...

Students in the traditional group could recall almost nothing about the historical content

Students in the traditional group defined history as: “the record of the facts of the past”

Students in the digital group “displayed elaborate concepts and ideas that they had extended to other areas of history”

Students in the digital group defined history as:
“a process of interpreting the past from different perspectives"

If you are interested in Teacher leadership and how to become an advocate for the profession I would love to talk. Here is a great document you need to read. It is a bit dated in computer years (2001) but pretty state of the art in terms of teacher leadership research.
http://www.iel.org/programs/21st/reports/teachlearn.pdf

Also, the Teacher Leaders Network is another resource I would check out. I helped to develop this vibrant community of practice and it continues to inform and rock my world in ways I never thought possible.