21st Century Learning

Online CoP

SETH GODIN is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change. Seth's most recent post came to me via Will Richardson's Google Reader.

Jobs of the future, #1: Online Community Organizer

As someone who is not only passionate about building and leading virtual learning communities, and even earns legal tender helping  others work through community creation (I am on a team conference call with IBM's e-mentoring program as I write this, helping to troubleshoot their community issues) I am excited, but not surprised to hear Seth go in this direction.

I agree with Nancy White, "First, this is not a job of the future, it is work of today." Many are doing this type of thing today. However, I also see online community organizing as a 21st Century skill set that needs to be mastered by teachers and taught to students to prepare them for the future.

An educational online community organizer is someone who understands teaching and learning and the needs of teachers that also has a well developed understanding of the changing learning landscape and what web-based tools support it. Community organizers are visionaries and must not be afraid of innovation or change.

As I ponder the VLC work I do I realize there are many questions that dominate my thoughts.

For example:

• How do different members of a virtual community create, understand, reuse, and learn from knowledge?
• How do the kinds of knowledge and learning supported by virtual communities improve the effectiveness of members' everyday activities?
• What barriers exist to knowledge sharing and learning in a VLC and how can these be lowered?
• How many participants make a critical mass in a VLC? How many is too many and how many is not enough?
• What factors predict on-going sustainability of virtual communities?
• What were the perceived merits and complaints of the VLC as a medium for learning?
• Can the positive components of virtual communities (scaffolding, facilitation, lack of group norms, time and place independence, etc.) overcome the obstacles (cultural differences, attrition, etc.) and cause communities of practice to develop?
• What are some valid measures of community development?
• How can learners be motivated to take part in virtual academic or social community activities?
• What communication/collaboration tools foster the development of a learning community?
• What tool features lend themselves to different aspects of collaboration and community-building?

What questions about virtual communities of practice do you have? Help me generate a list of what we should be thinking about in terms of this powerful learning/teaching strategy.

Art Education Community

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed with what you have to do that you find yourself in deep avoidance? The Web is perfect for moments like that.

I am part of a panel symposium on Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts in CLTNet. As the lead presenter, I have  been fast at work sharing resources and answering questions.

This morning I followed a link to a Ning community for art educators that one of the participants shared and was so taken with the intellectual  eye candy!

The pic featured here I drew using Kaleidoscope Painter, which was a shared resource in the community.

What first caught my eye though was this animation painter. The animation is done in Flash and it begins with a female skeleton which then is given flesh, underwear, and ends with a designer outfit.

I watched it 2xs and was blown away both times. I could learn to draw like this. I never got to take an art class in school, not one. And yet I come from a family of artists and gave birth to four talented artists. I have taught courses on creativity on the college level and I was known for the creative displays in my classrooms. I wish someone in my K-12 experience had seen the potential and put me in those classes. But typically, poor kids weren't the ones nurtured in the arts, maybe it is different now? Not.

Another cool video piece I found while there was this one on Women in Art.

 

Find more videos like this on Art Education 2.0

Or this video about Gilles Tréhin, a dedicated artist and artistic savant, who began designing an imaginary city, Dumont d'Urville.

Take some time and check out this Ning community, but be prepared to get lost in learning for a few hours!

Tech Enhanced Learning and Social Networking as a Degree

Interesting discussion over on Will's site.  University of Michigan is offering a M.A. specialization in Social Computing.

Here’s the list of courses you have to take:

• SI 508: Networks: Theory and Application (3 credits)
• SI 532 Digital Government I: Information Technology and Democratic Politics (1.5 credits)
• SI 583: Recommender Systems (1.5 credits)
• SI 631: Content Management Systems (3 credits)
• SI 679: Aggregation and Prediction Markets (1.5 credits)
• SI 683: Reputation Systems (1.5 credits)
• SI 684: eCommunities: Analysis and Design of Online Interaction Environments (3cr)
• SI 689: Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (3 credits)

Amusing for Sure
I responded in his comments.

The part I find amusing is the content to be covered is an established set of courses-very linear. It kind of defeats the purpose of social networking which emerges out of an organic mix of "wisdom of the crowds" and "just in time" learning.

I have had a blast this semester with a course I am teaching at The College of William and Mary. I came with a general syllabus of concepts and then a suggested tentative schedule.

From day one I told them this would be a constructivist course modeling social networking and connectivism that would be built from student passion and interest. I contacted a few practicing teachers from the international blogosphere-- as I feel the content of teacher prep courses should be developed and often taught by those who are in the field--asking them if they would like to help teach the course. I showed them the course outline and said either pick a topic from there (topics are described in general ways so lots of room for redesign) or suggest one you think should be included.

I created a wiki and as a class we began to create. I model daily how to build a network and gain access to the content you need through access to experts around the world. We do not use a text, rather we use resources we are collectively building.

Virtual Mondays
Each Monday's class is virtual and the various teachers in the blogosphere present. Each Wednesday's class is spent creating content and unpacking the things we are learning together through this experience and in their other content courses in terms of how it all translates to 21st Century teaching and learning.

Mark Wagner and Aimee Smith
The two most recent speakers were Aimee Smith, who spoke on email and asynchronous discussions and Mark Wagner, who spoke on educational gaming and constructivist theory. Aimee's archive can be seen here and Mark's can be seen here.

Electronic Mentoring

In addition, we all engage in an electronic virtual learning community that consists of student teachers (another class I have) highly accomplished tech savvy teachers from around the globe and this class of students.

 All the students have started to blog and have created their own wiki space. Several projects have developed from the students collaborating together on their own and with others in their growing personal networks.

It isnt a degree in social computing but very much an example of how you can use a higher education course to help students (preservice teachers) make sense of all they are learning (both in and out of class) through a school of the future lens. Much like in the day of Socrates -- it helps to have a critical friend there modeling and asking hard questions for self- reflection.

Giving Back

The important thing to note-- as in any good learning ecology I am learning as much as I hope they are. I am also very grateful to those in the blogoshere (especially Anne Davis and Lani Ritter-Hall) for taking time to nurture these future teachers through their unsolicited comments on their blogs.

Feedback Wanted
If you would like to check it all out I would be interested in your feedback-
http://techenhancedlearning.wikispaces.com/

Photo credit:http://diskurs.hum.aau.dk/english/dexus3/images/collaboration.jpg

Geeks and Geezers:How Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders

I figure in order for schools to experience the needed reculturing it will require strong leaders, change agents to emerge who understand the process of change. So lately I have been reading lots of books on leadership, which is a good thing since my PhD is in Educational leadership, planning and policy. 

Just finished reading Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas' book Geeks and Geezers. Awesome book on leadership that compares the powerful process through which leaders in any era emerge.

Erica Kolatch explains in her review of the book, "Past studies of leadership often emphasized the importance of age and maturity; Bennis and Thomas initially believed that one's era was a primary influence on leadership. The book begins, in fact, by demonstrating that era determines everything from the heroes people admire, to the books they read, to the worries that occupied them at age twenty-five. But through their interviews with geeks and geezers, the authors discovered that the phenomena of an era play only one part in developing leadership qualities. These phenomena feed into a personal "crucible," a critical experience (or set of experiences) that future leaders draw upon to organize meaning and develop core leadership competencies."

Core Leadership Competencies
Bennis and Thomas call the other factors in one's life that shape a leader, their core leadership competencies.  They found these four present in all the leaders they interviewed. Adaptive capacity - an ability to "transcend adversity, with all its attendant stresses, and to emerge stronger than before." Engaging others through Shared Meaning- an ability to build culture and community in an organization; Voice- a distinctive and compelling sense of conviction, or voice driven from a strong set of values (not necessarily religious); Purpose- that purpose includes vision. "Leaders have to provide some overall sense of direction" and generally be comfortable in their own skin.

The Commonality of Crucibles
Bennis and Thomas found both generations of leaders having similar factors that shaped their ability to become leaders but one was highlighted as being of critical importance  "crucibles." Crucibles are "intense, transformational experiences" from which a leader changes dramatically and emerges much wiser. Crucibles are "often opportunities," says Bennis. The key distinction between crucibles is not whether they are considered negative or positive but whether the leader "dived in versus was pushed in. … Both types of crucibles involve important learning and a degree of stress."

A buzz word that is tossed about a lot is this idea of transformational leadership. Artichoke, a blog that uses an unforgettable writing style that keep you laughing while revealing deep truths, shared some interesting ideas about transformational change and leadership. After reading this book and that blog, I was thinking, wouldn't it be wonderful if the transformations taking place in educational leaders were a direct result of their own personal crucible experiences and somewhere along the way they had become creative adaptive experts who understood how to apply what they learned in the depths of their experience to positive school reform and empowerment of teachers and students.

Adaptive Expertise
The one key asset that both young and old leaders shared was their adaptive capacity. The ability to process new experiences, to find their meaning, and then to integrate them into one's life. Being able to adapt is what enables you to come through a crucible experience and immediately start applying what you learned to survive to other situations.

Are you Developing Adaptive Expertise?
So-- what are you doing to ensure that your students are adaptive experts? How are you preparing them so that when life tosses them into a crucible experience that they will not only survive, but emerge stronger and more prepared. We are teaching the future leaders who will see us through our  years of maturity you know. How are you helping the students you have in your classroom now that are in the midst of their crucible experience understand what a powerful opportunity this experience can become in shaping them as future leaders?

For most of us, trusting our instinct, letting go of what we have been trained to do, the "unlearning" so many are blogging about is the toughest obstacle to becoming an adaptive expert ourselves. As we knowin our hearts,  habit is a great deadener! As educators we need to break out of the day-to-dayness of things in our classroom and reinvent ourselves and our profession to remain relevant. It's observing and realizing that if what we are seeing isnt working, then to not act on it with change is insane.

The observation aspect includes the ability to build an effective network or community of practice, because none of us is as smart as all of us. Bennis tells us that, "Expecting one person at the top to be able to observe, digest, analyze, and then be able to deploy that knowledge successfully is ridiculous. It obviously takes a team of people that collegially can look at the world, observe the world together, and what they don't know, they can explain to each other." If there was ever an argument for using Web 2.0 to build networks, that is it. Connecting with others from around the world and modeling how that plays out to our students is part of developing the ability to embrace ambiguity and then schematically adding what you learn to your exisiting knowledge based. Adaptive experts are able to attach new knowledge to current understanding of personal learning  and creatively see something new. That is why building on the ideas of others is so important. It is through this creative process that we unleash potential and passion in our classrooms in ways we only dreamed possible.

Shared Vision
The real beauty of teacher leadership in action is that effective teacher leaders do not impose their vision on others, rather they recruit others to a shared vision. This is especially true in this digital age where power tends to coalesce around ideas and not position.  For example, a quick read of Will Richardson's blog will serve as the perfect example of this kind of leadership. Being able to not only articulate your vision but communicating it in such a way as to help others own it as well is the sign of leadership. This is why teaching our children to be effective writers and communicators in the 21st Century by using the communication tools of the era is increasingly important. My daughter has a t-shirt I just love... Writing well is the "best revenge" Want to enable your students whose circumstance has conspired against them to break loose from the chains that bind them? Teach them to write well and to use the digital tools of the era, which of course means you too have to know how to write well and make the most of the electronic parchment that is available.

Our role as mentors in the lives of the children we teach is to learn and keep on learning and model that ability to our students. Our role as teacher leaders and change agents is to do exactly the same thing. See yourself not as the ultimate wisdom, but rather as the catalyst. In my opinion, our role as leaders in the 21st Century is to cause those within our spheres of influence to reach beyond their normal capacity, to invent something new with the ideas being shared, something innovative and then be brave enough to put it out here in the blogosphere and let the naysayers have their way with it. Knowing that the dross will fall away and the precious pieces will be assimilated into new concepts and shared vision.

Dee Hock says, "In order to thrive you need a deep love of learning and a refusal to be anywhere that didn't let you learn or prevented you from learning." The shocking reality is that for some of us that might be the schools in which we teach or lead.  Re-culturing is a hard process, most feel change is always premature.  But  learning-- not teaching, not school 2.0, not higher education, is going to be the thing that pushes you to the next plateau. I tend to make my own personal commitments based on the learning or educational potential  that I will get from the person or the situation. 

Providers of Hope
The second major part of adaptive capacity is hardiness, which relates to "the expectation of future success." There's one thing that stands out in most teacher leaders I have met: They have unwarranted optimism, they are what Bennis calls,"providers of hope."

The most important thing I walked away with from the book was the concept of neoteny. The dictionary defines it as Main Entry: ne·o·te·ny
Pronunciation: nE-'ä-t&-nE
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin neotenia, from ne- + Greek teinein to stretch  -- more at THIN
1 : retention of some larval or immature characters in adulthood

Neoteny is more than retaining a youthful appearance, it is the retention of all the wonderful qualities that we associate with our students: curiosity, playfulness, eagerness, fearlessness, warmth, and energy. For a teacher leader this means  we need to be willing to take risks, be hungry for new knowledge and experience,  be courageous, and eager to see what the new day brings. Neoteny is what keeps those of us who are on the front lines of change focused on all the marvelous things to come. Walt Disney described it as the ability to look at the world with "uncontaminated wonder". It is this ability that will distinguish the successful from the ordinary. And I am hoping for "the children's sake" most of us advocating for change will aspire to be extraordinary.

Photo credit:http://www.asaecenter.org/PublicationsResources/EUArticle.cfm?ItemNumber=11784

AACTE Teacher as Researcher

59th AACTE Annual Meeting & Exhibits
(American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education)

FROM VISION TO ACTION        

February 24-27, 2007        
Hilton New York

Had a great time at AACTE this year. This was my second time presenting at this conference! Last year was in California, this year New York and boy was it cold! I even got to drive in  a snow storm on the way home. Lots of over turned cars on the highway and in the ditch.

Before presenting, I attended the Teacher Leaders Network's presentation. I sat on the original steering board for this organization and currently serve as a Senior Teacher Leader Fellow.
It was delightful to finally meet Renee Moore and Ariel Sacks. I had been collaborating with them online and know their ideas well, but had never met them f2f. Ariel confirmed my belief that teacher leadership potential can be nurtured and developed from the preservice experience. She is a three year novice and was incredible. Nancy who also presented is a long time friend and collaborator, it was good to see her again.

Today I got this in a newsletter from CTQ, the parent organization of TLN.

Teacher Leaders Forecast the Future of the Profession

TLN members Nancy Flanagan, Renee Moore, and Ariel Sacks recently shared their expertise with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). Presenting at the AACTE annual conference in New York City alongside Center for Teaching Quality founder and president Barnett Berry, the teachers engaged an audience of education school deans, administrators, and faculty in a conversation regarding possibilities for the teaching profession in a digital world. Specifically, Nancy, Renee, and Ariel explored the potential of virtual educational communities like TLN to share best classroom practices, analyze current research, strengthen induction and mentoring processes, and facilitate high-needs instruction.

Review their AACTE presentation (PDF) here.

The session was awesome. Barnett included Dr. Gail Ritchie (also a TLN member) and me as part of the discussion being led by the three featured teacher leaders and the conversations were lively and engaging. I was even thrilled to hear myself mentioned in each of the three teacher's presentations. How humbling. Many of the professors there were very supportive of teacher leadership.

ENDAPT- Electroncially Networking to Develop Accomplished Professional Teachers

My paper presentation was on the research that Dr. Christopher Gareis and I did around online mentoring. Our paper is still under review, however, below is our slideshow sharing the result for our descriptive, quantitative study we did using a content analysis methodology. The mentoring took place in a virtual learning community. We are replicating the study this year. And I will expand the study to include various virtual learning community environments with a different a priori design for my dissertation in the fall. If you would like to see the small photo set I took in NY, here is the Flickr stream.

Giving Back to the Profession

A Multi-Literate Teacher

I found Vance Steven's Moodle course entitled Mulitliteracies for a Digital Age. Vance Stevens is a Lecturer in Computing at Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi. I am taken with the resources he has collected and can't wait to absorb all that I am reading.

His Course Description
A multiliterate teacher understands the many ways that technology interacts and intertwines with academic and interpersonal life, and actively   learns how to gain control over those aspects impacting teaching, social, and professional development. Multiliterate individuals are aware of the pitfalls   inherent in technology while striving for empowerment through effective   strategies for first discerning and then taking advantage of those aspects of   changing technologies most appropriate to their situations. These strategies include managing, processing, and interpreting a constant influx of  information, filtering what is useful, and then enhancing the learning   environment with the most appropriate applications. This course

• models effective approaches and strategies for responding to technology issues in the academic environment
• provides opportunities for training in technical skills required for coping with information overload
• utilizes video, web cam, image, voice, and social networking technologies in communicating through communities of practice which in turn model collaborative, constructivist learning settings.

The ideas in that description are so powerful I decided to break them up to allow for deeper reflection.

A Multiliterate Teacher

A multiliterate teacher understands the many ways that technology interacts and intertwines with academic and interpersonal life, and actively learns how to gain control over those aspects impacting teaching, social, and professional development.

As I read this I shouted YES! Something I struggle with in the work I do is helping teachers understand the distinction between using Web 2.0 tools because they are novel and cool and using them in authentic ways that enhance their teaching, professional development and personal connections/collaborations. The 21st Century educator (what Vance calls the multiliterate teacher) not only knows what the tools are (most basic aspect) but has a deep understanding of the pedagogy involved in using them. So many get hung up on the tool itself, and that becomes the focus, rather than seeing these technologies as a medium, a canvas, a portal used to connect, collaborate, empower, and a catalyst for deep meaningful change-- both in the profession as a whole and in  teachers/students as individuals.

This perspective allows the teachers to operate from a thematic schema where connections are illuminated and occur organically. It is obvious, but often overlooked- the interconnectedness of life.
Life is not compartmentalized. Each aspect spills over into the other. I am female, woman, mother, daughter, sister, friend all at the same moment. Even daily functions of life spill over into each other-- I teach, parent, administrate and cook breakfast all at the same time.

Somehow though, when we take it to the classroom we think life should be parceled out in isolated components. We do math and then reading. We separate grade levels as if somehow 8 yr olds are not interested in the same things that 11 year olds are  or secondary students need to be separated in to age specific peer levels to make them more successful. If we are preparing them for life-- show me anywhere in life we segregate learning. It is this "interacting and intertwining" skill set that is most important for the teacher of the 21st Century.

Technology is NOT the answer--It is the strategy

Multiliterate individuals are aware of the pitfalls inherent in technology while striving for empowerment through effective strategies for first discerning and then taking advantage of those aspects of changing technologies most appropriate to their situations.

The optimist in me believes that teachers intuitively know the potential for meaningful educational reform that exists in the diverse connections technology affords and that is the reason they are so willing to start using a web 2.0 tools without thinking through the possible pitfalls and effectiveness of matching the right tool for each learning objective.

Teachers wouldn't dream of giving students power tools without thinking through how they should be used in the safest way possible that still affords the greatest amount of learning and the most powerful outcomes. Likewise, no teacher would set up learning stations throughout the classroom without thinking through how they would embed the curriculum learning objectives in the activity, how they would organize the cooperating learning groups (which students to pair together), where to place which stations (reading stations need to be in a quiet location in the room and not next to the painting easel) and so on. Yet in our excitement of seeing how easily content is created using digital tools we often are so intent on getting students on with creating a web presence, that we do not think through possible pitfalls or most effective ways of connecting the learning to the medium being used. The 21st Century teacher needs to use these tools in her own personal learning before tossing the students the keys. We simply can't give away what we do not own.

Teacher as Information Manager

These strategies include managing, processing, and interpreting a constant influx of  information, filtering what is useful, and then enhancing the learning environment with the most appropriate applications.

21st Century educators need to become skilled at handling the abundance of information available. They need to quit focusing on memorization of content and becomes skilled at synthesis and distribution - making available what is most applicable as pieces for construction and conceptualization of content and ideas. Take the information-- sort, organize, chunk, and provide the thought legos for students to use to build knowledge around the objectives you are trying to teach. Let them build together.

21st Century educators need to make principled changes in the way we think and in the delivery of our content.  21st Century educational leaders need to have a deep understanding of the changing learning framework that living in a digital age dictates. The 21st Century is here-- and these kids can't wait. It is time for teachers to begin using these tools as professionals- for deep engagement with content and building of collaborative networks in the educating of our students and the reforming of our schools.

Photo Credit: http://flickr.com/photos/peteashton/566312

Helping the Needy Get Nerdy

At the beginning of the third millennium a man began collecting cast-off computers in the corner of his dining room in southeast Portland.

People who have access are living in a different society than those who do not have access. It seems the more social change is happening on cutting edge of technology, the more we are leaving the needy in society behind that social curve.

Free Geek is doing something about it. Working for 24 hours at Free Geek will give you a free computer-(adoption). Build six computers and you  keep the 6th computer for yourself. (education)

Free geek is a community....run by a community council.

After you check out this video...get your mind around the power of Open Source to solve resource issues by checking out this.

Still thinking about Connectivism

"When connections are weak...not more research, but better connections are needed," according to George Siemens.  I teach a variety of ICT courses to preservice teachers at The College of William and Mary. One of the common projects I have included in each course I have taught for the last three years is an electronic mentorship. The motivation behind this assignment is to help beginning and preservice teachers to build their networks.

Terry Anderson at the recent  Connectivism conference, spoke about design-based research theory and methodology. I walked away from his presentation thinking of what I do through the electronic mentorships as a form of intervention. I had never made that connection before.

MENTORING AS A NON-TRAINING INTERVENTION has grown rapidly in the last twenty years. From teacher education to aerospace, from financial firms to community foundations, mentoring       relationships are increasing in popularity, and have a variety of designs and outcomes. But thinking of mentoring in terms of a networking strategy needs more exploration.

Research has shown mentoring can promote teacher effectiveness. Successful mentoring experiences can lead to beginning teachers’ increased contentment with and proficiency in teaching, and, as a result, the professional development of mentored novices is more noticeable than their non-mentored counterparts (Spuhler & Zetler, 1994, cited in Thomsen & Gustafson, 1997).  Mentoring programs that promote teacher effectiveness recognize that early-career teachers must arrive at a place in their professional growth where practical experience and professional wisdom provide a secure foundation upon which to draw as they make their ongoing pedagogical decisions (Berliner, 1986; Ralph, 1998; Shulman, 1987).

Teacher Prep
One of the strongest attributes of William and Mary's teacher preparation program is that they pair preservice teachers with the same cooperating teachers throughout their field experiences right up to their student teaching. It provides consistency and an opportunity for a seasoned teacher to know their novices needs, strengths, and weaknesses.  However, this relationship can prove to be a challenge in that it doesnt give the students access to a diverse support network: diverse in ideology, pedagogy, and global perspectives.

By  requiring preservice teachers to participate in an online mentorship experience with highly accomplished teachers from around the world they are able to get the diverse perspective they need. In the past, the mentors involved in my project, while top educators in the field, didnt necessarily use technology in instruction. My justification was that the purpose of this experience transends any particular web-based tool.  I also wanted students to use electronic communication tools as a way of networking with highly accomplished educators that could offer "just in time" advice that wouldnt seem evaluative in nature.

Each of the technology experiences are embedded into content students need to learn to be effective in the classroom. This semester, I decided to take a different twist by choosing mentors that are both highly accomplished teachers from around the world but who also understand the importance of using Web 2.0 tools and other technologies in their teaching. My thinking was that the focus would be on both technology and best practice through a global lens, that would also help prepare these students for the changing demographic they will find in their classrooms, while at the same time showing them the value online networks can have on their growth and developing practice.

Mentor Roles and Outcomes
The role of mentors is to to weigh in on the discussion by commenting, clarifying, and asking probing questions of the mentees to stimulate their thinking. They post when they are asked a specific question or something posted by someone else resonates with them. However, many feel free to post much more than that.

In the beginning, the mentors see the opportunity as a way to "give back" to the profession and collaborate with other mentors in improving the profession a few teachers at a time. However, it becomes clear early on that the mentorship experience is as much about moving seasoned teachers along a developmental continuum toward improving teacher leadership, as it is about a one-way communication strategies to impart mentor to novice knowledge. The collaborations fast grow into a learning ecology with as many mentors professionally communicating with other mentors as novices communicating professionally with other novices -in addition to traditional mentor to novice communications.

This semester, a few days into the networking experience, several first time mentors with my project shared how the experience was impacting their ability to reflect upon their own practice.
These two comments occurred in Skype conversations with mentors who teach on the other-side of the world from me.

[2/5/2007 7:00:28 AM] P says: Hi Sheryl - how are you ?? The
conversations going on in the Tapped In room are very interesting - greatly
enjoying contributing  - thanks for inviting us to join.
[2/5/2007 7:03:50 AM] Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach says: I am so appreciative of
your time and effort
[2/5/2007 7:04:52 AM] Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach says: It will be awesome for all
of us I think-- to see how things are done in different places in the world.
[2/5/2007 7:05:03 AM] P says: It's quite good to get time for
us to reflect on practice as well - as you don't get much time when you are
actually doing it!!!
[2/5/2007 7:05:25 AM] Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach says: That is what many mentors
have said.
[2/5/2007 7:05:34 AM] P says: I think the collaborative
aspects of web 2.0 are quite awe inspiring
[2/5/2007 7:06:12 AM] P says: I am off for lunch now following
my morning maths class - take care
------------------------
[2/9/2007 3:29:41 PM] A says: Hey Sheryl- Just a note to say I am loving the debate in Tapped In. One of the first things I do when I get home is check the conversations- as you say- it is helping me think more clearly about things by sorting out what I think about the debate in my own mind. Thanks for the invite- it's great.
[2/9/2007 3:30:12 PM] Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach says: I am so appreciative of the time you are putting in
[2/9/2007 3:30:17 PM] Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach says: You are quite awesome.
[2/9/2007 3:30:36 PM] A says: It's good for me!
----------------------------------------------

This note came in an email from another mentor not living in the US.

Hi Sheryl,
just letting you know that I have already learnt heaps from participating in
this.  The student questions have given me time to reflect on my own
practices, so thanks to the students.  Then reading responses from other
teachers around the world and knowing exactly where they are coming from is
heartening.  Too often, staff have looked at me as if I had rocks in my head
when I made suggestions about using technology, but reading other teachers
uses of mp3 players in Kindegartens is what I have had in mind for quite
some time.

There are many gems here and I look forward to participating as best I can.

Thanks,
J
--------------------------------------------------------

The networking of preservice teachers with accomplished teachers who not only understand good pedagogy, but who are comfortable collaborating in a virtual learning community has positive outcomes for everyone. The learning is universal; each member builds upon the ideas of the other and the ideas grow and change within the community. The amazing thing is that participants are at very different stages in their development and yet everyone is learning something.

Generally, the mentors are encouraged to give reasoned advice that could be applied globally. Obviously, there is much US terminology thrown about as most of these students will be teaching in US schools. However, I think it is important for the students to understand just how flat the world really is in terms of learning and how by making global connections we all grow.

Tapped In
I use Tapped In rather than blogs and wikis (although they do create and use these tools as well for other objectives in the course) so that these students can be candid and not fear anything they say will be used in an evaluative way. Tapped In is a "walled garden" in that what is said in our group is not broadcasted to the search engines. It has been my experience that this aspect creates a feeling of community and trust in our groups.

The Networks Tend to Merge

The most interesting aspect of using online networks is how they feed and inform each other. For example, out of my preservice group mentoring grew ENDAPT, a mentoring project done with William and Mary first year teaching alumni and the Teacher Leaders Network (TLN). TLN is an online group of teacher leaders from around the US and Canada that have been communicating and collaborating for the last four years via a web page and listserv. Amazing things have grown out of that group. So it was a natural for me to include them as mentors both with my preservice teachers and the ENDAPT project.

In helping to lead the ABPC 21st Century teaching and learning project in Alabama, I connected with some excellent teachers who were growing in their ability to use Web 2.0 tools to collaborate online. It was natural for me to invite them to be involved as mentors in my projects.  As one of the conveners for the K12Online Conference, my network grew to include educators from around the world who were beginning to heavily influence my thinking in educational reform. Again, I invited them to join the learning communities in Tapped In and modeled for my students the importance of building on collaborations. Other mentors came from my network connections made from reading blogs and comments.

Viral Effect
Now it is clear to me that as my network has grown a viral effect has been at work. My networks have merged pulling participants from one group to another and back again. A true learning ecology.

Is it not exciting to live in a time such as this?

Photo credit: http://www.ladiesinred.org/images/dec04/connections%20006%20(2).jpg

 

Connect, Collaborate, Educate - Trussville Rocks!

I had the incredible privilege of keynoting this week for the Trussville Education Technology Conference. If there was ever a school district I would work love to work at in Alabama- Trussville has got to be it.

From the Superintendent, Dr. Suzanne Freeman  to central office staff (including the IT director) all the way to the teachers and staff-- they "get it"!!!

Shawn Nutting and April Chamberlain put together the most amazing conference built around the easily accessible K12Online content. Registration was online, bios of K12Online presenters from the K12Online blog were featured.  Each session was assigned a moderator who watched the presentation in advanced and developed a set of discussion questions and online resources related to the content to deepen the learning. All the teachers/administrators from the Trussville district chose from a menu of live (members of the ABPC 21st Century learning teams) and K12Online presentations.

A Sharepoint blog space was created to keep the discussion going for each presentation. It was the perfect mix of real time, virtual, and Web 2.0. Alabama educators were exposed to a global perspective of Web 2.0, as well as keeping discussions aligned to their local context and district mission and goals. The synergy of being together gave it the feel of a huge "LAN party" and everyone had their laptops and participated online like at NECC.

During my keynote presentation I Skyped in Jeff Utecht and Chris Craft. Their spontaneous comments were incredible and helped to reinforce my key points. It was awesome.

Superintendent Weighs In
Check out this excerpt from an email the Superintendent sent out after the conference to all the employees:

After this morning at TETC, I am totally re-energized and was chomping at the bit to get back to work for our students.

First of all, kudos to our technology staff for their vision, planning, and hard work in preparing for today. Also, thank you for all those that presented.  I learned so much from Sheryl Nussbaum Beach’s keynote address, from Lisa Moore about digital storytelling, from Erin McGuyer on how to create a blog and then again from Sheryl about leadership in the age of conceptualization and creativity.  My battery is once again charged to work toward fulfilling our mission of how we can use technology to design engaging and challenging work that results in students learning important content at high levels.  Our work is so important!

Once again, it struck me that we have a moral obligation to prepare our students for the age of conceptualization and creativity.  The skills that they will need will be different than what we needed to be successful.  This morning, I heard descriptive terms and expressions like “collaboration”, “social networking” with people from around the world, “conceptualization”, “creativity”, “innovation”, “embracing ambiguity”, and from “do your own work” to “shared work”.  The world is changing so we must prepare our students to live and work in this new (flat) world.  I know that change can be difficult and stressful; it is stressful for me too.  However, we have each other for support and encouragement because we too are collaborative in our work and thus becoming a social network. 

Sincerely,
Suzanne

Administration Responds Immediately

The conference was such a motivator that the next day principals started creating wikis to collaborate and revamping their five year learning plans based on 21st Century skills using Web 2.0 tools.  Amazing!

It seems using a blended conference format with an empowering superintendent, an enlightened distict IT director and a motivated administrative staff on hand to help and support - just might be the right mix for educational reform.

Check out the Flickr set