21st Century Learning

Australia- ELH Conference in Lorne

I met Bruce through Will and I have to tell you from Day 1 I was impressed. Bruce Dixon is the founder and president of the Anywhere, Anytime Learning Foundation and consults to schools, school districts, education departments, Ministries of Education as well as technology companies such as Microsoft, hp-Compaq, Apple, Bertelsmann and Toshiba on 1-to-1 and technology in education. Bruce has more than 25 years experience working with schools and technology and besides that he and his staff really know how to put on a first rate conference. 

It was a joy to meet  Bernajean Porter and Mary Burns, other keynoters at the conference and very smart women who understand the importance of 21st Century educational reform.

I left John's home and started the trek toward Lorne where the conference would be held taking in the beauty and history of the Great Ocean Road.

 

  

 

We all met for lunch at a place along the way called "At the Heads" and then on to the conference hotel in Lorne called the Mantra Erskine Beach Resort.

One of the most amazing things to us in Australia was the variety of animals and plants. Here at the resort cockatoos from the wild congregated on our porch. They would eat right out of your hand.

The beach was right out our hotel room back door and was so beautiful.

Some of you may remember this famous Indian.

 The conference itself was excellent. I got to meet so many smart people, some of whom I knew online and some I met for the first time.

The secret here is that even though I looked calm and collective my zipper broke on these pants minutes before I went on stage and I had to use the AV guy's duck tape to tape them to me so they wouldn't fall down. Hahahaha!

Another highlight of the conference was the critical conversations around broad themes. I learned so much during these sessions. I wish these were a key part of all f2f conferences.

    

The social events at the conference were just as educational as the sessions. Lots of networking and deep dialog.

Here I am talking to one of the other keynoters, Mary Burns. The gentleman is Mike Valentine who is a leader at Hale School where I presented in Perth. He was amazing and did a wonderful presentation on passion-based learning at the conference.

We ended our time in Lorne by celebrating Bernajean's significant birthday. Can't think of a more perfect place to celebrate a milestone than with Bruce and gang in Australia. Thanks for the memories.

 
The next post will be the last of the Australia posts and will cover my time in Perth!

Learning to Learn

My life has been a whirlwind of activity since NECC and I have found it hard to keep up with blogging. I don't know why, but I feel guilty blogging when I have other deadlines looming. Do any of you experience that? Is it illogical? Should I blog anyway, much like we still get the day to day things done at work or home, even when we have extra tasks on our "to do" lists. Or should I put 100% of my attention toward the deadlines and follow Grandmas' rule of "work before play"?

I'd love to hear your take.

Disclaimer: Blogging is like play for me- sheer enjoyment. Not necessarily the writing, as for me the writing doesn't come easy, but the thrill of the hits and conversation that follows does.

Community Driven System
The purpose of stealing moments away from my already full agenda this morning though to share my experiences of the last week. I came to realized more than ever that I am a community driven woman. I believe in the power of the community, the wisdom of the crowd, that the network is more powerful than the node and that none of us are as good as all of us. I believe that School 2.0 means moving from a classroom system to a community system. And now more than ever I also believe that about PD and I mean all PD- conferences(e.g. K12Online08), workshops (e.g. most recently CABOCES Summer Instititue), ongoing, job embedded sync and asysn (e.g. PLP) and as a result I am going to change my keynotes even more to flow from a community model as well. As I reflected over the last week, I realized even my family operates as a community. I am no loan wolf.

CABOCES Summer Institute
One week ago I landed in Buffalo and was greeted by Rick Weinberg who took me to Selemanca where I would be spending the next week working with educators from the surrounding area. When the day drew closer to the conference Rick shared that unexpectedly numbers were down. I gave him the opportunity to cancel rather than bring me out for just a few people, (I am knee deep in buying my first home in Va and could have used the time) but Rick was firm that they wanted to move forward. I am so glad he made that decision because this week was an incredible week of learning for me personally.

Here are my take aways...

1. When you are focused on educational reform from a community perspective- more is not always better.

 Monday- I had 10 administrators who were with me for one day. The small number enabled me to spend time personally getting to know each attendee. I invited Karen Richardson, Chris Lehmann, and Jon Becker to attend a panel discussion answering their concerns and questions. You can listen to the panel discussion here. The strength of intimacy because of such a small number of participants in the room made me realize that relationship is a more powerful tool when trying to leverage change than having large numbers of people in a room who are passively listening to you talk.

John Norton's wine glass metaphor rings true here- (He was drinking a glass of wine when it occurred to him- hence the name) that it is better to have small numbers of highly engaged people when influencing school reform than hundreds of folks who show up but walk away unchanged by the experience.

Also, on Friday when we knew our numbers would be minimal and we had such brilliant panel members coming from the community (Darren Kuropatwa, Kevin Honeycutt, Allanah King, and Mark Clemente) we made it a teachable moment. We spontaneously opened the Elluminate session up to the world (and the world indeed showed up) and we used Ustream and a chat channel as well to show if you offer quality the community will come to you- no matter how rural or small you are.

2. My belief was reinforced that for most newbies, teaching tools in isolation is too overwhelming and a waste of time.

Tuesday I tried to lay the foundation and set the context. I also wanted to help attendees understand today's digital learner. Wes Fryer (Oklahoma), Laura Deisley (Atlanta), Meg Ormiston (Illinois), and Sue Waters (Australia) talked about personal learning networks and the tools that support them (listen in here) on Wednesday. On Thursday my plan was to look more closely at tools and their pedagogy and how they best relate to various instructional activities and then on Friday to create inquiry based instruction with an interactive model of building a PBL mini-unit. For the most part things went according to plan, but Thursday's tools, tools, and more tools left me feeling overwhelmed and tense. I know if I had been a newbie in that audience not having been given the opportunity to use the tools in a meaningful application, I would have been frustrated. The idea was to create an awareness of the tools, not mastery, so that on Friday when we created lessons using the TPCK model we would have a web 2.0 list of applications from which to choose. The result though was painful, at least for me.

I brainstormed with Rick Weinberg and Tim Clarke afterward and what we felt would have worked better was to have four tables- with one of us at each table presenting a tool. Our presentations would include the tool, an activity using the tool, and a chance to reflect on best uses of the tool. Then after 45 minutes we would break for 15 and then could present another tool. We would do that three times (12 tools) and participants could choose which tools they wanted to learn.

I really believe that the best examples of tool instruction are within the context of what you are learning. Like our heating and cooling system they should be invisible. The only time we focus on our heating and cooling is when they aren't working properly. Then we have to focus on the tool itself and decide why it isn't working.

Even Bill Fitzgerald (Funny Monkey) after his discussion on Open Source tools left the attendees with the idea of forgetting the tool- focusing instead on what you want kids to know and be able to do- then figuring out the right task and tool for the job to help kids achieve their goal.

3. What is most important to 21st Century educational reform is to listen to kids.

On Tuesday, I decided to create a panel of kids from 11th grade to college juniors and talk to them about their reflections on technology. It was the most inspiring part of my week long work. I am still learning from all they taught me during that hour. Meet Gracie, Maegan, Ryan, Jay, Danny, Christian, Thomas, Will and Jesse. You won't be sorry you did.

4. Teachers need time to reflect, explore, and build in the safety net of your workshop.

Teachers, like kids, need you to model and then let them explore authentic use with you there to help. They need to understand how to create lesson plans that use the tools in meaningful ways, but then they need to actually collaborate together to build activities that they can use in school; activities that leverage the potential of these new mediums for connecting and collaborating.

Typically, in my workshops I only have time to present the shift and the tools- never to actually jump to the most important step of helping teachers contextualize what they are learning. I walked away from this week realizing that this step is what is missing in school reform and is why in my opinion, that change is happening so slowly.

The most exciting time of the conference for me personally was to watch the groups choose a topic- create a concept web, a curriculum web, choose appropriate standards, an essential pedagogy, an appropriate tool and develop several lessons that all integrated not only core disciplines but fell together under a theme, project or problem. The creative juices really began to flow as we constructed together a killer initiating activity that would usher in our year long project and the lessons we would use to teach state mandated content from a passion-based perspective. The tools made sense because they were merely a means to an end- helping students learn about things that interested them from the perspective of a scientist, historian or author.

I am thankful to CABOCES for being willing to invest the time that allowed their educators to not only gain an awareness but to deeply reflect, discuss, and wrestle with the concepts- while facilitators and their newly formed PLN stood by to help them make informed choices about change.

Letter to my Colleagues

I have been spending some time recently responding to a listserv discussion that has many brilliant, award winning teachers on it who are not sold on the idea that we really are going to have to change education to remain relevant; that *they* are going to have to change.  I thought I would share my most recent letter.

One member writes-
I've been waiting and wondering when someone would take up the thread that Mark began during our "Here Comes Everybody" discussion, wherein he talked about how the printing press put scribes out of work and wondered whether or not technology would have a similar effect on teachers.

I am often asked as I travel to various places to present why I would spend so much time talking about technology knowing that with outsourcing and such that I am undermining job security in that computers could replace teachers. To that I respond,  If you can be replaced by a computer then you probably should be! The truth is that technology will never replace teachers, however teachers who know how to use technology effectively to help their students connect and collaborate together online will replace those who do not.

Change is Here
The way we "do" school in the 21st Century will change. Teacher will be/is being redefined. (Lord knows it is time- while the rest of society has changed in its response to technology, education has
remained timeless the last 100 years.) What we have to do is ask ourselves what principled changes need to take place in order to remain relevant in the lives of the students we teach?

It Doesn't Change Some Things- It Changes Everything
With knowledge expanding at the rate it is and the world changing at a dizzying pace- to keep the status quo is to accept obsolescence. Teachers will need to accept the fact that even with all we have invested, the pace of change is going to demand us to unlearn and relearn. Every major technological innovation through time has demanded it of its users.  Think of the world and how it functioned before electrification and the how it functioned after electrification- before television- after television (the way we fought wars and politics alone because of TV changed drastically)-- As Mark alludes to, technology doesn't change *some* things, it changes *everything*. Before TV, the thought of allowing someone to interrupt you constantly trying to sell you things you didn't want was unheard of- people were run out of town for such antics. But now it is part of our culture- to the tune of 500 channels-- which have figured out that by providing mediocre content (like reality TV)  we will sit still and let them sell us things we do not really need and we will hum their jingles and use their products, all the while our culture becomes more and more superficial and kids lose out on developing deep, meaning (which they are so capable of grasping).

Incremental is becoming Exponential

Technology is and has changed society and the students we teach. The question isn't are you preparing for 21st Century teaching and learning- rather the 21st Century is here. The party has started. The kids have already arrived. We are 8 years into it.

Ask Them- They Know
Want to know how a 21st Century learner learns? Ask them. You will be amazed at what you hear and if you are smart- you'll act upon it. Sylvia Martinez says we are trying to solve this 21st C PD issue in schools with 6% of the population (teachers) when 94% of the population (kids) are better positioned to help us learn what we need to know to be successful. Turn your classrooms into learning ecologies- learn with and from your students. Get rid of top down, expert driven instruction methods and nurture self-directed discovery- both your own and theirs. Turn your passions into classroom curriculum. Get excited and mentor your kids integrating your passions with core content and foundational knowledge. Help them develop a love and understanding for culture and our rich heritage. Advocate hard to get the metrics we are using to measure classroom effectiveness changed- for we teach what we measure. Leverage NCLB to push for personalization of curriculum in an effort to meet AYP and all the various needs of your subgroup populations.

It Isn't "If", it is "When"
Technology WILL redefine schools- good or bad- it will/is happening. We are one node, one means, one stop in a 21st Century learners learning journey and options. We need to be having conversations about how to make sure that their time spent with us is preparing them for jobs that haven't been invented yet and enabling them in authentic ways to be a productive member of society now. As Dave Mathews says, "The future is no place for your better days." 

And teachers need to be driving these discussions and this change- not policy makers. However, it will require you to redefine yourself. It will require you to unlearn and relearn which means an implementation dip in terms of personal power and knowledge-- but oh well, you are in this for kids remember? This will be messy, but you can't give away what you do not own. You have to own these tools and concepts before you can give them (empower) your students with them. However, once you do- get out of the way and let them show you all the ways to use them to learn that
you never dreamed possible.

Want to be amazed? Check out Laura (a 5th grader's blog) from a project I helped lead in WNY. How many of you can say you have the attention of 30,000 readers and that companies who are known for their giving acts are in regular contact with you? http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com/   

We think as teachers -- oh ok blogs can help kids learn to write - they will supplement what I,  the teacher does. When the kids think-- hmm blogs, you mean people can hear me? Watch what I can do with this- outside of school- in another node (space) of learning- my home.

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Virginia Beach
Networked Learner

photo credit: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/careers/images/articles/stages_of_change.png

ABPC 21st Century Learners Quarterly Meeting

While I obviously haven't been blogging- I have been fast at it. I would say I have been busy, but Dean Shareski (our new convener for K12Online)  has taught me we are all busy and I am not suppose to talk about how busy I am, but rather just talk about what I have been up to lately.

I keep a running "to-do" board above my desk. Lately, there have been too many "to-do" items to fit them all. My life is full of meaning, exciting and that word I am not suppose to say (whispering ...busy). So busy in fact that I forgot to share about one of my most passionate interests.

ABPC 21st Century Learners- Year 3 Culminating
Anyone who has followed me knows that one true passion I have is the incredible work I am helping to deliver in Alabama around 21st Century literacies. On May 1 we had our culminating celebration for this year's 21st Century Learners journey.

What Was Different in Year 3?
In a word-- students. ABPC's leader, Cathy Gassenheimer felt this year's project with schools needed to have an clear connection to student achievement.  We wanted to developmentally move teachers along the continuum of use and understanding of the transformative potential of 21st Century teaching and learning strategies to actually applying them in the classroom.

We created a student strand and added students as members of the team. Together we looked at how to change teaching to a self-directed process tied to student passion and rigor, as well are core curriculum standards.

During the culminating event students and other team members were led in a fishbowl exercise that turned out to be the most enlightening experience I have had so far in working towards 21st Century educational reform. Students were asked hard questions about how they learn best and evidence of those strategies used by teachers in classrooms. They were asked what do teachers need to change to be the kind of teachers that would help you learn best? Their answers were profound and I realized for the first time I think-- if we would just ask kids what they need, they know and would tell us. Wow. What a concept.

Here are some of the projects from Alabama this year:

WinterboroSchool
Our theme is:  Taking Technology to the next level- The competitive level. Our teachers have worked in harmony to help our students take their individual projects to the competitive level.  We decided to encourage and help our students to compete on the local and state level using 21st century skills we have introduced and use in the classroom throughout the year. Winning at this level helped validate that we can compete in the local and state arena using these newly acquired skills.  The publicity has also been great for the entire county.  It has been a great success.  We will display our students’ medal winning projects along with the bling bling they have won in the process. 

West Blocton
For our student project, we created a wiki. On this wiki, the students would choose a book to read that they wanted to carry on a conversation about in the wiki. Then, they would rate the book. Next, they would write why they rated the book the way they did. The next few sentences had to include a comprehension strategy that they used while reading the book. Whichever strategy they used, they had to support it with text and tell what detail from the story made them use that strategy. Then, they would write a sentence to try to encourage others to read the book, even if they gave it a low rating.

Finally, they would look at other responses other students had made and carry on a conversation about their book.

Hewitt-Trussville Middle School
Our team created a wiki as a resource for the teachers.  The wiki contains descriptions, examples, and uses for 21^st tools in the classroom.  The wiki also contains information about project based learning. 
You can find out wiki at http://21centurylearners.wikispaces.com .

Challenger Middle School
Challenger 21^st Century Team Group project:
Our professional development project is called "iTeach 2.0" and we invited the middle schools in our district to become a part of iTeach 2.0. Each school sent two teachers to a workshop we sponsored to learn about 21st century tools. We established a wiki for our team and participants to use to share ideas. Our April face to face meeting was a type of fair where each school shared a tool or project that they successfully used this semester. Our computer will display screen shots from our wiki and our display board will define data collected and cool tools explored during this year’s iTeach workshops. Our wiki is http://iteach2-0.wikispaces.com .

Student Project:
We invited 18 students to commit their own time to work on a project they would select. Twelve saw the project to completion. We gave three basic guidelines: the students must develop their project around an issue that affects teens, the project must help someone, and the project must be communicated using technology tools.  Our students brainstormed on their own private wiki and were very passionate about teen issues! They decided that they wanted to work on a project related to poverty. The students then researched and decided that they wanted to adopt an impoverished school in another country, which led them to Uganda. They formed an Invisible Children Club to raise money.

The students created posters, a website and a multi-media embedded PowerPoint to present to the student body. They learned so much about war torn

Uganda and the suffering of the children there. They have a basic knowledge of how this war started. The amazing part is that we have not taught this information to our students. They have taken a project with very few guidelines and have learned so much! For this year, the project culminated in a fund-raiser, which raised $1778 in 3 days! This has become a project that encompasses many of the 21st century skills. Our students are learning about society, geography/history, communication, discernment, teamwork and many other skills.  We will display a computer with a timeline/info about their project work and their presentation.  We will have an additional computer with screen shots of their webpage. Their website is http://www.freewebs.com/guluschoolproject/

George Hall Elementary
Collaboration is the main thesis for our project. This year collaboration projects includes Skype interview with Janis Kearney, diarist for Bill Clinton and author of "Cotton Fields of Dreams",  Elluminate session with children from the Dominican Republic and a weekly Skype collaboration with 5th grade students in West Blocton Al. We continued the wiki field trip project using Scaling where the students were proactive in the production of the projects to go online.

Blossomwood
Blossomwood Elementary's team project for 2007-2008 has been to obtain more technology resources for classrooms and adequately train teachers on how to use these resources.  Promethean ACTIV boards have been purchased for all classroom units and teachers have attended both training at school and online training from Promethean.  Today, Blossomwood is displaying some sample classroom flipcharts, as well as flipcharts that were used to train the faculty.

Clay-Chalkville High School
We will be presenting a Power Point presentation that highlights some of the work that our teachers have created with their classes to enhance student learning, as well as to promote communication between the classroom and the home.

For instance, we have teachers that have created wikis with the main purpose to keep the students and parents updated on assignments and projects that are coming up. At the same time, other teachers use blogs to allow the students become more involved in the learning process.

Discovery Middle School

Middle School will showcase our journey from local to global connections through a photostory.  We will highlight our challenges and how we have overcome them.  We will also share our current projects that will lead us to district wide integration of Web 2.0 tools.

Mt. Laurel Elementary
Sharing Web 2.0 Tools
Mt Laurel Elementary School is a K-3 school right outside of Birmingham. We are in our second year with the 21st Century Learning Team.

Our team's focus project was sharing Web 2.0 tools with our faculty. We conducted a survey to determine awareness and use of Web 2.0 tools and found that very few were aware of Web 2.0 tools, and even fewer were using them.

As a team we compiled a resource list of Web 2.0 tools. We held a meeting with our teachers and presented an awareness training to share the uses of each tool. We shared examples of how we had been using these tools and how students could benefit from using Web 2.0. We also encouraged them to let us help them set-up any of the tools they would think they would like to use in their classroom.

As of today, the number of teachers that are using Web 2.0 tools has changed by 60%, compared to when we initially took our survey. We now have grade levels participating in projects and teachers using these tools to create works with their students. We have teachers participating in book studies using Wiki’s, classes and parents blogging, podcasting galore, but most of all the awareness of the many tools that are available to each of them to enhance their class lessons and projects.

Cullman Middle School
Collaborative project-based teaching aligned to state content standards, reviewed by students. That is our lofty goal with this wiki. For 2008, we have selected 4 courses to focus on: Social Studies, grades 7 and 8 AND Computer Applications, grades 7 and 8

This project is designed in conjunction with the Alabama Best Practices Center's 21st Century Schools professional development. The project will be developed by a team of teachers and students from Cullman Middle School.

We hope that this will be a treasured resource for educators across the state, the country, and the world. Depending upon the success of the site, we hope to add additional areas of study in the future. We recognize the level of learning and retention of learning that project-based lessons hold for students, as well as the interest it adds to classes. On the outset, this seems like a project designed to aid teachers, and it will do that, but more importantly, this project will aid students in fostering a deeper interest in learning. With the Computer Applications courses, we are fortunate to be embarking upon new territory. At this time there are not specific standards for grade levels, only grade bands. This project will assist us in focusing on learning objectives and organizing those objectives in a sensible format. The student team will be comprised of students involved in

Cullman Middle School's SWAT (students willing to assist with technology) team. The teacher team will select a student team leader that will serve as a liaison to the teacher team.

Dean Road Elementary School
Our team sought to showcase the various ways we use the Smart Board to communicate more effectively among staff members and students. An immense part of our daily communication begins each day with our morning broadcast, WDRE, which features fourth and fifth grade students as broadcasters. Other grade levels are involved by reciting the pledge of allegiance and sharing the daily weather. All parts of the broadcast are viewed through the use of the Smart Board.

Not only do we begin our day with the Smart Board we also use this valuable learning tool in many other ways throughout the day. We display our morning messages, share interactive websites embedded in our daily lessons, and research an endless amount of information that can be easily displayed for all to see. This beneficial tool as helped foster communication through shared lessons created on the Smart Board software that assists teachers in planning and presenting the curriculum in a way that increases the students’ motivation to learn. The Smart Board, found in all classrooms, has become an irreplaceable learning tool that teachers and students just can’t seem to live without.

Fayetteville High School
The Fayetteville High School team has led a 21st Century Learners initiative for 10 schools throughout Talladega County. Modeled after the training sponsored by the ABPC, the FHS team, along with other teachers from Winterboro School, have served as mentors to over 20 teachers in their school system.  The team will display the materials used for this project as well as evaluations from some of the participants in the program.

Wrights Mill Road Elementary
Tech-Know Expo
5th grade students brainstormed topics related to technology that interest them.  Then, they volunteered to teach those topics they felt they were “Tech-sperts” in.  The students prepared presentations for the younger grades and invited parents and members of the community to attend.  Topics ranged from “Lights, Camera, Pinnacle in Action,” to iPod 101 and “How to Convince Your Parents to Let You Get A Cell Phone.”  Students taught about blogging, making avatars, using Blabber, and the latest and greatest in text messaging.

WNY-Powerful Learning Practice Culminating Celebration

What does music, film, live performances, laughter, passion, reculturation and blogging for charity have in common?-- Western NY's Powerful Learning Practice's culminating celebration!

Holland's team performing a remake of "This Land is my Land" into a Web 2.0 Song

May 22, 2008- 20 school teams in the Western New York region came together to celebrate their learning journey that took place over the last 6 months through a job-embedded professional development opportunity called Powerful Learning Practice. Schools met as teams to master the following outcomes over the course of the year:

Knowledge: An understanding of the transformative potential of Web 2.0 tools in a global perspective and context and how those potentials can be realized in schools

Pedagogy: An understanding of the shifting learning literacies that the 21st Century demands and how those literacies inform teacher practice.

Connections: The development of sustained professional learning networks for team members to begin experimenting and sharing with other team members and online colleagues from around the world.

Sustainability: The creation of long term plans to move the vision forward in participating districts at the end of the program.

Capacity: An increase in the abilities and resources of individuals, teams and the community to manage change.

The culminating celebration is one of the two face-to-face meetings that take place in PLP. It is a time when the schools teams come together and share what they have learned with each other through learning displays, presentations, informal sharing in groups, and a facilitated process that results in bulleted action plans.

PRESENTATIONS While all the schools teams had an opportunity to share their team projects and what they had learned from being involved in PLP this year, three projects were asked to share more fully from the stage. It was very difficult to decide who should present because most of the projects were just incredible. Those that presented were: Webster Teams, Holland Team, and Niagara Academy. But the presentation that stole the show was given by Laura, the 5th grader who authors the blog: Twenty Five Days to Make a Difference.

Will writes about her presentation,

She talked about how she started her quest to get donations for charities by finding sponsors for her daily good works, how surprised she is that over 30,000 people have visited her blog since last December, and how she’s been able to donate over $1,600, 50 pairs of pajamas, and over 400 books to charities in her area. It’s a great story and example, one that I’ve shared with Tess on a number of occasions."

Another PLP participant Mike Maloy adds,

I’ve written on the group’s Ning and in comments on various blogs about how my learning has been completely transformed. I’ve written on my own blog about how inspiring and “human” the web can be. I’ve been awed by Jill Bolte’s “My Stroke of Insight” and Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture”.

I can honestly say that Laura’s presentation was one of the coolest, most enlightening experiences of all my years in education. Since her presentation I’ve been wondering…If Laura can do what she is doing as a fifth grader, what will she be able to do in the future? If Laura can do what she is doing as a fifth grader, why the heck can’t I be doing more? Will my daughter be inspired do something so special.

I was also incredibly impressed with the creativity in Western NY. For example, Holland's team opened with a Web 2.0 remake of This Land is My Land and closed with Eric Lawton singing an original song he wrote entitled, You've Got to Learn Web 2 Point Oh. You can listen to 2 minutes of that here--> Download youve_got_to_learn_web_2_point_oh.mp3 What a hoot! Not to be outdone Holland's superintendent followed in "American Idol" style with a song he sang A cappella to Will and I. All in all it was as touching as it was entertaining.

Reflecting on how PLP has impacted participants
When asked how has PLP impacted or changed your professional or personal practice those who attended the WNY celebration give many reasons. Here are a few of their responses.

• The resources shared and the connections with the community...I have started to build my network outside of my building.
• Broadened exposure to web 2.0 tools beyond personal use.
• Facilitated collaboration with colleagues within my district (but outside my building) that was little-to-none prior to this.
• It gathered all of the teachers using tech together to work on one common goal. Otherwise, we would have just kept working independently on our own path. It really pushed our district to start a plan to implement and educate others in our district.
• It gave importance to technology and gave those of us with a passion and knowledge around technology a voice with our schools.
• Working with other members from my district that I usually don't get to see. Their ideas and perspectives during this learning process were greatly valued.
• I am no longer embarrassed about what I don't know and I am excited about learning and moving forward.
• I am using tools I didn't even know existed before this year. I modeled in a regular meeting and taught other staff through the process enough for them to say they will go back and use it in their classrooms. I want to learn more and use it to help teachers in the district support one another to excellence.
• The level of support that is available in this network is comforting. There is a lot of knowledge among the PLP community.
• Thanks for the opportunity. It has been an excellent, life changing learning experience. I hope we can sustain and spread our learning. If I can inspire one other person like I have been I would consider it a great accomplishment
• You've opend my eyes to the potential of 2.0 and have created a more technologically literate individual! I felt both Sheryl and Will's support was awesome very encouraging and empathetic.
  
  

  Kickoff Meeting

Culminating Meeting

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?

 

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.

Culture Change- Breaking Down Tradition

Interesting discussion over on Student 2.0 by Sean (the bass player) a student in Scotland and a group of teachers.

The post was inspired from some well meant questions from a caring American adult (teacher) who was chatting with Sean at 1:30am (Scotland). I think it was more the perceived inferences Sean drew from the questions that inspired his post, not necessarily the intentions of the asker, but regardless, the conversation struck a chord with me.

Where do we draw the line?
Sean asks, "Where do we draw the line?" in response to the question- “Does it seem strange to you to associate with a bunch of adults?”  There is more to the conversation- I encourage you to go read Sean's post for contextual reference for this discourse that follows.

The line Sean is talking about has more to do with the hidden rules of tradition and territory than it does with a moral or digital citizenship line of sorts. It is one that while more visible in the 21st Century has been around since Amateur radios began showing up in homes.  It also has a bit to do with motivations, goals, intellect and family culture I think. Let me explain.

It is a matter of family norms and culture
Sean's preference for adults is not new and he certainly isn't the only one. There are others who don't quite fit the mold and in some families it is by design. I homeschooled my four kids. Amber, my oldest (http://myaimistrue.com), only attended 1 year of conventional education. And Grace, my youngest, entered the traditional system in 5th grade(11-12 year olds).They mostly hung with adults and each other- which had some real advantages. Sure, they had some friends that were their own ages who they mostly saw at church or later in the collaborative school I created, but mainly they preferred adults. Why didn't that bother me? Because in our family the culture (mantra) was- I am raising adults, not kids. I wanted the end product to be adults, so having lots of interaction with adults seemed to make sense.

My kids were mature for their age and had lots of questions and interests that other kids simply were not into, so it just made more sense for them to connect with folks who could help them learn what they wanted to learn. Besides, learning in our family took place 24/7 even at 1:30am-- as we all had people we spoke to around the world. And I do not think that is so different than it was for my father as he was a Hamm Radio nut when he was a kid and up at all times of the night trying to accommodate for time zones.

And being a homeschooling family, the more interesting or diverse the adults my kids befriended, the better. Since my kids could pursue their passions in terms of content studied, we actively sought out adult mentors who could serve as SMEs (subject matter experts), and technology helped a great deal with that. My kids would often attend the college classes I taught and participate in the discussions. They felt as comfortable around adults as they did children, not because they were so different- but more because our culture and experience was different. 

Tools today are more powerful
While we didn't have the same tools we have now, we did have some. Bulletin boards and asynchronous chat boards were popular, IRC chat, and various protocols that gave us direct access to each other's machines. Sometimes I would make the relationships online and introduce my new found friends to my kids and sometimes they would introduce me to who they had met. I will admit- in the beginning of all this- there were typically more "techie types" online than there was Joe average, so less chance for a need to exercise digital citizenship (safety)  skills. It simply hadn't caught on yet. However, if I had been given a choice between my kids being online at 1:30 am talking to someone in Scotland who was a responsible adult or having them out riding around in a car, breaking curfew with other immature, age-specific peers-- well you get the idea. Plus, when you raise your kids to be responsible online and have open lines of communication there is a level of trust that is developed. And until that trust is broken, there is no reason to doubt that the relationships  they are making in person or online aren't healthy. Staying involved is the key.

I say all this to say- not all kids are the same. Not all parenting styles are the same. My kids now are all very successful and madly creative. They are well adjusted and have lots of friends. They all say they have fond memories of growing up in a house that included such different learning opportunities and access to a variety of interesting adults through both hands-on and virtual experiences. And they all have continued to develop relationships with interesting adults from around the world.

Teachable Moments and Networking

Let me help you understand the different mind set. Because the culture in our family was learning as a life style and not just when school was in- we were always on "game" in terms of teachable moments.
I remember going to WalMart and seeing two young adults (my age at the time) on bikes who were traveling long distance. I thought, what a cool experience this would be for my kids. I struck up a conversation with these strangers and invited them to stay at my house for a few days. Turns out, Jenny and Dan were from Seattle and had just gotten married. As part of their honeymoon, they decided to take a cross country bike trip for a year and Jenny, a writer was documenting it all on a laptop!!! (Remember 15 years ago laptops were not as common). Boy did I score. Here we had young, interesting adults who used higher order thinking to plan a year long trip, one was a writer, they were traveling and could share their experiences with my kids.

We got out a map and documented everywhere they had been with pins and yarn. (picture shows how we used this technique to study other things too) We researched the geography, culture, and landforms. We talked about how you plan a year long trip and the kids planned their own using their newly found skills. We  looked at bikes in general, the mechanics, how to wrench, the science behind them and the environmental impact. The curriculum we discovered in Jenny and Dan was endless. When they left- they emailed back their locations and we continued to track them on the map.

Well meaning friends asked-- How did you know they weren't mass murders? What if they had been drug addicts or had hurt your children while you slept or what if they had stolen things? All valid questions I guess but  not part of our reality, much like Sean 's feeling of  surprise, " I surprisingly hadn’t thought about it before."

Not Wrong- Just Different
That isn't to say this way is "the" way to raise a family. Homeschooling sure has gotten its share of criticism as well. It is to say that there are different ways to raise kids that are acceptable even if they do not fit into the traditional vein. And adults are not the only ones who feel discomfort with breaking tradition (Sean's post).  Teens also feel territorial about places like MYSpace. My kids use to get asked all the time if it creeped them out that I was on MySpace and Facebook. They would laugh and say not at all as I was there first. 

Bottom Line
I think the most important message I got from what Sean wrote was this- Teachers we need to ask ourselves...

Do we want what we are preaching or not? Do we want kids who know how to use these tools in powerful and pervasive ways to connect and collaborate with others from around the world-- even at the cost of breaking our comfort and relationship with the status quo. Are we willing to unlearn most of what we know and relearn new ways -- new norms-- for how healthy relationships are established and nurtured in the 21st Century? Do we believe in learning ecologies made up of very diverse people who help inform our student's interests and passions?

Model for your students how to build a personal learning network
The kids are ready for relationships defined by community and what each learner has to share- and not bound by the traditions of teachers having to be the expert. I feel I have come full circle. Now rather than looking for teachable moments with interesting adults so my kids can learn what they need to learn, I find myself looking for opportunities to learn with/from interesting students who have garnered skill and wisdom through their use of these participatory medias. I want to learn all Sean has learned in his late night ventures with interesting adults. I hope he doesn't hang with kids all the time and that his parents continue to allow him to be part of a learning community that is trying to leave education a better place.

As educators we need to get ready for a real shift in culture. The shifts that are coming will not allow "business as usual" rather it will be "business as unusual". That is why it is critical for all of us to first own these emerging technologies and the pedagogy/culture that surrounds them, by using Web 2.0 tools to connect- in an effort to chase our own passions. Through the experience of building of your own PLN, not only will you model for your students how this should be done, but you might find some transformational moments along the way -that like mine with Jenny and Dan- will leave you a better person. And do NOT discount what those younger or older than you have to offer. Use expertise and passion- not age- as criteria for who you should learning from and for who should be part of your learning network.

I look forward to your comments, concerns, and push back. Let's have this hard conversation.

Photo credit: http://www.ky4ky.com/yhn.htm

Looking for New Voices?

Quite a few teacher leaders have been joining the blogosphere as of late. Looking for some provocative new bloggers to add to your aggregator? These thought provoking practitioners will NOT let you down.

Teacher Leaders Nerwork BLOGS

Bill Ferriter - The Tempered Radical
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/

Nancy Flanagan - Teacher in a Strange Land
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/teacher_in_a_strange_land/

Renee Moore - TeachMoore
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/teachmoore/

TLN Teacher Voices (excerpts from our daily conversation - group blog)
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/tln_teacher_voices/

Teacher Leadership Today
(A newsy blog by John Norton)
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/teacher_leadership_today/

TLN-RELATED BLOGS

Susan Graham - A Place at the Table (Teacher Magazine)
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/place_at_the_table/

Betsy Rogers - Brighton's Hope (we help with it)
http://tln.typepad.com/tln_betsyrogers/

Barnett Berry - Building the Teaching Profession (at CTQ website)
http://teachingquality.typepad.com/building_the_profession/

OTHER TLNer BLOGS

Emmet Rosenfeld - Eduholic (Teacher Magazine)
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/eduholic/

Teaching in the 408
http://roomd2.blogspot.com/
 
John Holland - Circle Time
http://circle-time.blogspot.com/

Dayle Timmons - Timmons Times
http://timmonstimes.blogspot.com/

Cossondra George - Middle School Day by Day
http://cossondra.blogspot.com/

Jennifer Barnett - Reflect to Redirect
http://jenniferbarnett.edublogs.org/

Marsha Ratzel - Reflections of a Techie
http://teachingtechie.typepad.com/learning/

Anne Jolly (new) - Learning Spot
http://jollylearningspot.blogspot.com/

Kitty Boitnott - Her campaign blog for VEA president
http://kittyboitnott.blogspot.com/

Brenda Dyck - Brenda's Blog (Education World)
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/columnists/dyck/dyck.shtml

PD 2.0: It's All about Building Community

This is my most recent entry over at techLEARNING. I would love for you to stop by there an leave your comments! Let's put our ideas all in one place and get our collective PD 2.0 together.

When preparing for the recent three day workshop- High Schools New Face I tried to model the concepts I would be teaching and designed what I hoped would be seen as Professional Development 2.0. I wanted the secondary teachers, administrators, and superintendents attending to experience personalized learning, development of their own personal learning networks and virtual communities of practice.

Using Wikis to Build Learning Communities

Wikis are a wonderful tool for building community in a blended environment. My first goal in building community with my conference cohort was to have everyone join the wiki so that we could all edit and add to different pages. My thinking is that by creating a collaborative space we all experience a sense of ownership in that process.

I also wanted to use the workshop wiki to connect the face-to-face participants to the synchronous online guests giving them a way to connect and feel part of the same community. 

I also used the wiki to:
--- access the workshop goals
--- deliver my curriculum
--- give everyone access to all the resources
--- store the materials and movies I used during the workshop
--- promote collaboration
--- link to all the content being created

The workshop goals for the three days were as follows:
 
1. PRIMARY OBJECTIVE - For you to go back and change at least one thing your are doing in your typical practice in the classroom. We will revisit this goal.
2. To expose you to several tools and strategies used to make connections with content experts beyond the four walls of your classroom.
3. To network you with some of the widely recognized 21st Century learners/teachers in the blogosphere for ongoing professional development.
4. To establish a virtual community of practice where you can continue to connect with each other long after the workshop ends.
5. To help you become comfortable with and create your own blog, wiki, podcasts and other social networking accounts in an effort to help you gain ownership of the new learning landscape.
6. To promote the knowledge, skills and sense of urgency for 21st Century teaching and learning.

Blogging for Reflection and Building a Sense of Trust

Another tool I used was a workshop blog. My purpose in doing so was three fold. I wanted to model the use of blogs, help participants understand the strength of comments, and allow a place for reflection. Using a group blog is a perfect "first step" towards encouraging the adoption of blogs as an educational strategy. This also gave the cohort a place to start sharing ideas and a way to get to know each other. Having introductions happen via the blog saves time and yet works toward instilling trust as we get to know a little about each other, while at the same time giving practice to those who have never used a blog.

In an intentional effort to build trust for our developing community I also created a team building activity within the wiki. This activity enabled participants to engage as a team, practice posting to a wiki, explore and discuss Creative Commons licenses and copyright issues. It also taught the skill of finding and posting a copyright free picture using proper citation. Once team identity was established the small groups discussed a few prompts that deepened their understanding and ownership of the changing educational landscape.

Developing the Professional Learning Network

The most powerful component of participatory media (Web 2.0) is the ability to build diverse personal and professional learning networks. Using a connectivism framework and Gizmo, a VoIP tool, we engaged in an activity called Virtual Speed Dating-Web 2.0 Discussion. While there was no dating intent involved, the quick introductions, high energy conversations and 15 minute per conversation time frame helped earn the  provocative name. Educational bloggers who use Web 2.0 tools with their teachers or students  from Australia, New Zealand, Wales, and across the US agreed to participate.

Speed Dating Set-Up

I asked ten tech savvy, blogging, Web 2.0 using, professionals to each download Gizmo and add me. Ten computers with Gizmo loaded were placed in various places in the training space. At the designated time we called each guest via Gizmo. Five to six participants sat at each table and began to introduce themselves. The invited guest had 15 minutes to lead a fast, succinct, informal conversation around how they use participatory media in their own teaching or PD opportunities and encourage a back and forth conversation.

Getting to know each group and sharing was fast and furious (like speed dating) as they only had 15 minutes before we transitioned to another fresh group of 5-6 people and the process started over again. We did this four times.

Outcomes of the Exercise

For the most part this wildly fun event went like planned, but even when the live events like this do not go exactly as planned they are still very valuable in terms of experience and learning. Wes Fryer, one of the virtual "speed daters" described the questions as "very challenging and thought provoking... reminded me of college debate cross examinations!" Paul Harrington, another one of the guests who actually podcasted his experience had this to say,

While I know some of the speed daters had technical problems, this happens with this technology sometimes. In fact, I often marvel at the way it actually works at all. We have all tried to push the envelope in our own ways, many of us trying out the technology in presentations because we are following your very considerable lead in tech use both in the classroom and the lecture hall.

I found even the pre-meeting Skype chat with fellow 'daters' an invaluable experience. I also appreciate how much the whole experience meant to the most important people there -the attendees at your course. After all our driving aim as educational technologists is to push more educators to join this phenomenal way of re-defining teaching and learning in our own classrooms.

The attendees enjoyed the experience as well. Several principals who were not in my cohort came up to me at dinner and shared how excited their staff was in describing the "speed dating" event. In addition, many listed "speed dating" as the most valuable part of the workshop.

Elluminate Me

Another networking strategy I used was to offer an Elluminate session with four of the Alabama Best Practice Center  21st Century Fellows. The Fellows were new to Web 2.0 tools just two short years ago. I felt that by having them share their stories in Elluminate breakout rooms participants could get a feel for a virtual classroom, while also learning about how these teachers developed their 21st Century pedagogy using Web 2.0 tools to create projects that aligned with school and district goals. Everyone put on head sets and logged into our virtual classroom. After a quick overview of the tools we went into virtual break out rooms with about 10-15 participants each. After a brief presentation (inside Elluminate) showing wikis, slides, and blogs related to the projects, the Fellows opened the room up to questions. Participants raised their hands virtually and used a microphone to ask teachers in Alabama to explain details. After 20 minutes we switched rooms and the participants got to hear a different Fellow speak.

Twitter Camp- (picture is from Alan's NMC conference- not ours)

Another networking tool that provided connections and yet another way for participants to build their own personal learning networks was Twitter. I had each of the participants create an account and to add me as a friend. Like in the picture above, I added a message that showed how they could post to our camp. I also alerted others who were my friend in Twitter to please add our @hsnf account. So that throughout the first day of the workshop participants and my friends in the blogosphere communicated and made connections.

Blogging Begins with Reading

As a way of introducing blogging for scholarship and how just like good writing begins with reading, so does blogging, I had participants visit the blogs of Edubloggers who came to the NECC Edubloggercon.The participants were asked to spend sometime reading and exploring these blogs and then post a reflection on the workshop blog of what they found interesting. We also practiced embedding the link of the blog they read by using html code.

The activity was an intentional way to model the building of personal/professional networks by locating blogs and adding them to an RSS feed. We created our own feeds and practiced adding some newly favored blogs.

Virtual Learning Communities   

The component I think is really missing from most professional development opportunities is follow through. Typically, we send teachers to workshops and they get fired up and come back unable to sustain the momentum without support.

One solution to this problem is to create a virtual learning community (VLC) using one of the available platforms like Tapped In or Ning. Getting the participants established in the community while you are still together face-to-face helps ensure use of the resource after the workshop ends. Obviously, most of us who deliver professional development will not have time to facilitate a learning community for each workshop given, so it is imperative that ownership for the community is given to several interested attendees while you are at the workshop. They take on the role of moderator.

We decided to create a learning community inside Tapped In as a way of staying connected long after the workshop ends. We explored Ning too and many joined Classroom 2.0. One superintendent even created his own Ning community to use with his teachers.

It's All about the Learning

Teachers like tangibles. I think the reason there is so much focus on the tools, rather than how to use the tools to support learning is because when we are learning something new we want something concrete to manipulate. Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis and podcasts give us that concrete fix. Teachers, like their students, need time to explore the tools before getting on with the learning. However, at some point in a PD 2.0 workshop the focus needs to switch from the tool itself to making the tool a seamless medium for mastery of standards-based objectives and 21st Century life skills.

After looking at many examples of 21st Century teaching and learning, we broke into groups based on disciplines. Using Post It notes each person at the table generated one idea per note for how these new concepts and tools could translate to learning in the classroom. Next, we worked in pairs to chunk the ideas into manageable categories. Finally, as a group we used chart paper and synthesized the information into workable lesson ideas. A reporter in the group then captured what was generated for the wiki so everyone could benefit.

The final activity was a Birds of a Feather exercise where we grouped by interests: blogs, social networking tools, podcasting, Second Life, or virtual learning communities. Groups then took an unconference approach to what was discussed. The activity was intentionally unstructured and the learning needs/wants of the individual were met by others who could informally show them what they needed to know. The discussions and demos developed organically based on learner interest and "just in time" learning needs.

Next Steps

One distinctive factor of PD 2.0 is that after the workshop ends the communication and collaboration doesn't. Using our VLC, linking to and commenting on each others blogs, and bumping into each other on Twitter, Skype, delicious and other social networking tools will ensure that we all continue to learn and grow from each other. Individuals involved in my cohort in New York become part of the larger international community and as champions develop and teach others, the ideas spread and educational reform takes place through a "none of us are as good as all of us" mentality. Even as we speak, Paul Harrington has joined the Tapped In group and is answering questions from the NY teachers about how he uses Classblogmeister.

Professional Development 2.0 is about personalized learning for teachers. It is about ownership, developing your online voice and joining professional networks. As teachers we must first own these concepts and skills before we can give them to our students. And by using these 21st Century strategies to create networks of 'teachers teaching teachers' we can ensure that none of us get left behind and that every child will be prepared to meet the future that awaits them.

Your PD 2.0 Ideas Needed
What 21st Century strategies have you used in a PD 2.0 workshop? What ideas have you tried that worked or didn't work in helping teachers to understand the changing learning landscape? Do share!
As my friend in New Zealand, Jane Nicholls likes to say, "Problem solving is more fun with a friend."