This blog will be used to explore, exchange, and create ideas around 21st century collaborative learning and the environments and tools that make this learning possible--with the big goal of helping teachers and those who prepare teachers redesign teaching and learning for success in the 21st century.
August 15, 2007 (Thinkerers Quest, Second Life)
- Thinkerer Studios - a network of residents in the virtual online
world of Second Life - today announced the launch of an awards program
to identify and encourage the development of creative products and
services that use Second Life capabilities to enrich or empower
experiences in Real Life. The first Award recipient will be made known
at the end of September, 2007.
Recipients of the Thinkerer Challenge Award will receive
30,000 Lindens - the currency of Second Life - and the use of a parcel
of virtual land (or an equivalent arrangement) for one year. In
addition, they will be invited to become judges of future Thinkerer
Challenges.
Cash awards will be funded by the founder of Thinkerer Studios,
Thinkerer Melville. Awards will be given as often as once a month,
depending on the volume and quality of nominations. Honorary Awards
will also be presented on occasion, depending on merit and
circumstances. All winners and their projects will be publicized and
promoted, both in and off-world.
I have decided I was born at the perfect time! I use to think I was born for a gentler time than this and only if I could have lived in the late 1800s, I would have fit in perfectly. But the ability to communicate with and learn from people around the globe at the drop of a hat, at no cost except time invested, still rocks my world.
Here is a story to illustrate what I mean. So I am on Twitter and I see that Jason Hando, a Head Teacher in a high school in Sydney, Australia is trying to organize a teacher 2.0 inservice. I quickly add him to Skype and ask him to accept me. He does. We start chatting about his ideas for his inservice. I start throwing out a few thoughts and then I get this idea. Why don't we set up something akin to virtual speed dating and move folks through a series of speakers quickly who can intro themselves and chat a bit about Web 2.0 tools they use? We both liked the idea immediately. I have decided to do it in a large NY workshop I am doing in a few days. I suggested that he create a wiki where each of his "speed dating" participants could list their information and serve as a follow-up.
Last night, at 11am on Friday in Sydney, 6pm on Thursday in Calif, 9pm on Thursday in Va Beach, and 1pm and snowing in New Zealand we all convened via Skype. First together, with
Jason Hando, Quentin Hordern, Jill Stovell, Dave Jenkins and Neil Davies sitting near by listening as Jason kicked us off and then in two Skype stations- the NZ channel with my friend Allanah King and the US channel with the amazing Jen Wagner and myself. The conversations were relaxed and revolved around who we are and what we do (all of us) and branched off from there. Jason and Allanah recorded and Jason uploaded the recording to podomatic! You are welcome to listen below or add the podcast to your collection through this feed. If you would like to be pat of my NY virtual teacher 2.0 "speed dating" adventure- please leave me a comment below!
Arti
said..."Much is made of the connectivity of ICT and its importance in
social networking, but I have yet to experience anything online that compares with
the conviviality experienced sitting around a table at the end of the day with
friends, sharing laughter, conversation and wine.
Reading that reminded me of a personal experience I had recently. Hospital Waiting Room
I found myself sitting in the hospital waiting room recently waiting on a loved
one to get out of surgery. I arrived at 6am when the lights were still off in
the waiting room and so felt some ownership of the environment as people
started arriving. I had settled at the only table in the room and strategically
placed the book I was reading, Cultivating
Communities of Practice, and my laptop around me in a semi-circle.
Thinking, maybe if I look busy others will choose the seats and leave me to my
personal bubble of table space. The plan worked well for awhile. Around 9:30 am
the doctor came in and gave the good report and the news that my loved one was
in recovery. Whew-- pressure off I began to relax.
As a side note: The hospital uses technology to track your patient on a
large monitor, you are assigned a number and can tell when they are in preop,
operating, and recovery. Very cool. And the doctor brought out pics he took
during the lapriscopic procedure to show me first hand what the problem
was an how he addressed it in the surgery. Again-- way cool.
So I packed up the laptop and made a few calls from my cell to share the good
news, thinking I would settle in with my book and make some progress. I leave
my belongings and retreat to the restroom only to return to five elderly
individuals sitting at "my" table! Good Grief! I left for 2 minutes!
Conviviality
My first reaction is to get my book and go find a new place to camp. As I start
to pickup the book one of the gentleman encourages me to stay saying we will
not bite, we are friendly, please stay. I sigh and sit down, thinking oh brother,
this will be weird. Within minutes they are deep in conversation about their
loved one who is having surgery intertwining stories with current concerns and
updates. Now typically, one would feel excluded in a moment like this and move.
But with artful grace I was brought into the conversation and filled in on the
meaning of inside jokes. I was asked opinion and treated as if I had been long
time friends with this group ages ranging 69-89.
Turns out two of the guys were retired dentists. They talked about how the
changes in technology would prevent them from returning to the profession; that
they could troubleshoot dental issues but would have to use old school methods
where their 21st Century counterparts were using technologies. It was here I
interjected that teachers would not have that problem, how teachers who taught
50-100 years ago could re-enter the profession and do just fine and how odd
that was considering we were the preparers of all professions.
The conversation became lively. We spoke of blogging and they asked questions
about how to start one and why they would want to. We laughed and cried as we
each shared various stories. The hours flew by. I felt a connection with these
people who only hours ago were strangers. I learned more than I ever could from
simply reading a book!
Small World
The next morning I awoke to this email-
Thanks so much for the education
about blogs yesterday at the hospital. As you can see I at least know how to find
blogs now and , now, and who knows, I may become proficient in the blogosphere.
Our chance meeting was an opportunity to learn a little and enjoy each others
company to lessen the tension and make the time go faster. I hope that
everything went well with you and yours
Curt Womble
Reflecting
I have to agree with Arti, nothing compares with the conviviality experienced
sitting around a table at the end of the day with friends, sharing laughter,
conversation and wine, although, personally similar chance meetings on the Web
have proven to be just as exciting and valuable. I am grateful I connected with
this group of wise individuals. It taught me to not be quite so strategic and
to look for opportunities to embrace ambiguity in those moments where chance/providential
meetings might happen.
Each Monday this semester my elementary preservice education students have been hearing from a variety of educational bloggers, many of them practicing classroom teachers, via Elluminate on how they use technology to teach content based objectives. (See the class wiki) Jeff Utecht had the tough job of his vitual Monday falling on April 16, the day of the Va Tech shootings. In addition, he had to get up at 2am (Shanghai time) to present. He did an amazing job! Here is a copy of his archive if you would like to see what he had to share. He has also created a support page on the class wiki. I especially loved Jeff's connection activity he used to introduce his session.
Jeff is such an awesome role model for us all. If you are not famlar with his work-- you should be. Thanks Jeff.
I was over on Christopher Sessums site today. If you do not have him in your feed, you are missing out. His blog is the perfect mix of art, information and intellect. This post caught my eye:Educational Technology and Teacher Preparation: Bridging Theory to Practice. Chris does a wonderful job of looking at the struggles teacher educators have with technology adoption, which in turn creates a struggle for preservice adoption, which in turn carries over to the classroom. As you can imagine a wonderful, engaging conversation began in the comments. One comment jumped out at me...Kelly says...
Christopher, so much to be done at so many levels. After reading
through Will Richarson's discussion with soon-to-be-teachers and having
several interns in our school in the past few years, it is clear that
the new teachers will not bring about the momentus change in technology
use that many thought would happen. From my perspective, we need to
look to the people in the middle, those who have been teaching for a
while yet who are willing to try new things. To me, they are the best
hope. They are not struggling with all the stresses of new teachers nor
are near the end of their careers. Most have children that are "wired"
all day and see the possibilities of what could be done. We almost need
to focus on a retraining program and then have these teachers be
mentors. As someone in the middle of my career, I would love to do more
work with technology and help others to do it but the time just isn't
there no matter how I refine my schedule. As for higher learning, it is
in the same rut. We've been waiting for quite a long time for there to
be a change in teacher education. It must become a priority and this
will only happen once we have gone the next step and begun to hire
people who see that technology is important and not an add-on because
they live with it. I feel that, until we see a movement in the upper
administrative positions in these areas, technology will not be a part
of the whole picture.
There were other comments too - all passionate and brilliant laying out well thought ideas. But Kelly's comments and one about tech integration kept gnawing at me. So I responded with this:
We have to stop thinking of it as integration and start thinking of
it as teaching in the 21st Century. At what point did we stop thinking
of the whiteboard as new technology and it became simply a medium
through which we communicated to our classes.
Not sure I agree
with preservice teachers not being part of the solution. If Ingersoll is
right and 1/3 of the teaching force is retiring or leaving, then these
bright idealist could truly become the tipping point for true
educational reform. What I have noticed is this--
1. Who we think
of when we think of netgenrs are not showing up in my ICT education
courses. It is as if we draw the technophobic/resistent to education.
2.
However, when they spend a semester in a virtual community with tech
savvy minds from the blogosohere, when they start blogging for deep
reflection based on what they are reading in their content classes and
in the edublogosphere, when they start co-creating the syllabus and
direction of the class and actually start using the tools and planning
for the kids to use the tools to create and collaborate in their
lessons--something happens. A light comes on and they see kids getting
totally turned on by learning. Then they become true advocates.
My
last few weeks are spent showing them how even as novices entering the
workforce they can be teacher leaders. That teacher leadership is when
you have an expertise to bring that can help other teachers- help their
students achieve. That their expertise in 21st Century teaching skills
makes them teacher leaders by default and advocates for children. By
cultivating an attitude of advocacy early on, these fresh minds who can
still remember why they went into teaching- "want to change the world
and help kids"- are bold in advocating for using knowledge management
tools, adaptive expertise, modeling connectivism, and being ok with the
messy side of change.
I do think we need to be breathing life
into mid-career teachers as well, but I place my money on those who
havent been tainted by the system or jaded by disempowerment- as being
the real power behind educational reform.
We really need to focus on teacher prep programs -- cant wait to read Linda's new book, thanks for sharing.
“She talked about how they teach teachers to collaborate.”
I wonder if we shouldn’t be lowering the profile of the technology
in these conversations with teachers and just focus on getting the job
done. Why do the teachers want to collaborate? What do they expect to
accomplish? What impact will collaboration have on professional
practice? These are the questions they should be getting their heads
around. The technology should be incidental, merely tools to accomplish
specific tasks.
I don’t notice “technological apprehension” in other professional
groups as much as I do in education. For instance my husband had a new
ocular imaging system installed in his office last week. This is
completely new equipment, software and processes for the office staff.
This week staff are familiarizing themselves with the camera, imaging
and analysis software, and patient database. We aren’t hearing
questions such as “Why do I have to learn this; how will I learn this;
how will I keep up?” Everyone is focussed on the end result, improved
patient care. The staff are getting some preliminary images that are
too dark or out of focus. They are practising and working together to
take clearer, sharper images that will show the healthy eye, or the
pathology, the doctors are looking for. Along the way…they’ll master
the technology…
Why don’t we do that in schools - job-embed learning opportunities
and give teachers a variety of tools to meet their pedagogical goals?
Then along the way…
It Is What You Want to Do and Learn That Matters!
I couldn't agree more. I ask teachers all the time- When do you think about the air conditioning/heating unit? They always respond, "When it isn't working." EXACTLY! Web 2.0 and other technologies should be just like that. You do not even notice them. They are so not the point. Have you ever seen this?Proving change is always seen as premature.
Change will happen when we have a reculturation of the institution of school. When we focus on what is important rather than the tools. We are like a bunch of 4th graders who have just been given math manipulatives for the first time-- we have to play and explore with them first before we can actual get down to business of using them for learning.
Go
out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light
new light in the hearts of people. -Mother
Teresa
Thinking more about the homeless issue and how to make an impact. Steve Hargadon and I have been throwing ideas around for awhile now. I plan to Skype him into my two workshops tomorrow at Preparing for Walking Home Together: Steps to a Practical Approach- NC's Conference on Homelessness to talk about using his Public Web Stations idea for setting up free Public Access computer stations for next to nothing with very minimal upkeep. Wouldn't it be cool to create immediate, affordable, maintenance free access for the homeless. Steve has figured a way to do it.
Web 2.0 and its Potential for Breaking Generational Poverty When I speak at conferences about homelessness one of the things I emphasize is the potential of the Web for helping enable those who need it most. There are lots of great examples of the homeless who are starting to realize the potential for using these tools as a way of climbing out. Now we just need to get homeless service providers and those of us interested in helping on board and connected.
The Role of Libraries? Take a look at this interesting article,
Steve shared with me about how librarians fit into the solution. If we can get librarians to offer technology instruction to their homeless clients what doors would that open? I always recommend getting an email address (an address that never changes) by using free computers in the library to the homeless Moms with which I talk.
Maybe we could set up labs of Internet ready machines using Steve's CD in libraries and offer classes for the homeless to improve their job marketability by teaching them a valuable skill set, or offer online mentors (teachers) willing to help homeless kids with homework and nurturing, and possibly help the homeless get connected to services and people that can make a difference in their circumstance. For taking the computer class, libraries could give away a free USB drive to make any files they create portable.
Wouldn't a Craig's List for the homeless be cool?I bet you--like me--have tons of portable technologies to donate that would be perfect for the homeless and others trapped in poverty.
Cell Phones for the Homeless One of the things that perpetuates the cycle of homelessness is not being contactable. How is someone going to call you back about a job application? How about if we got a grant to provide cell phones and prepaid cards for the homeless? And with the newer 3G cell phones that could even be the answer to connectivity! Because of their mobile nature, the homeless like things that are small and
portable. Everything needs to be easily moved around, everything needs
to fit into a backpack. With cell phones going for $30-$50 and the way we all upgrade continously there has to be a way to recycle older phones for the homeless. Recharging wouldn't be a problem as there are plenty of places to plug in to recharge. Invitation to be Creative I want to invite service users, service providers, grass roots organizations, and other interested stakeholders who work or care about marginalized groups such as the homeless who regard themselves as tech savvy and web 2.0 experts to help me brainstorm Internet/communication based outreach/interventions.
I hope you will take a moment to share your ideas here or on your blogs and then link them to here. If there are enough of us-- maybe we could create a social network community on Ning and start launching some of these ideas? I belong to the DDN but even there it seems to be lots of individuals doing their thing and then sharing what they have done. What if we figured out a thing or two that really worked and did it together? Please leave me a comment here if you are interested in collaborating and please spread the word to see if others would be interested. So-- please share.. what ideas do you have?
BTW...as I was writing this a family member came in and said I have an idea. The military has huge trucks that do laundry. They pull into an area where military are camped without washing facilities and do large amounts of laundry very quickly. Why couldnt they make themselves available to shelters and shanty towns? Or why couldnt laundry mats get tax credits for allowing people experiencing poverty to do their laundry for free?
Other Ideas and Sites
http://www.sparesomechange.com/ is a search engine dedicated to helping homeless find resources created by a former homeless guy.
Austin Free-Net has a cool idea. Austin Free-Net tries to involve computers in the
everyday lives of high poverty citizens. Through showing them how to look up
bus schedules, use email or even research potential employers, Free-Net
integrates the Web into their lives." Austin Free-Net is attempting to arrange classes on
using the Web and software while people wait in line each week at the
food pantry in hopes that more disadvantaged members of society will
get online.
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.
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.
Public relations professionals and journalists often work together, and sometimes they even get along. With citizen journalism on the rise yet another layer of the onion is being pulled back as we think through how networks and the resulting emerging connections will shape from whom and how we get information.
Andy Carvin features several short videos on his site from a meeting with NPR representatives and some of the top minds in social networking. The discussion explores how trust can be bridged between social networking sites and traditional media. Andy's reporting of the events that took place is brilliant. (no surprise)
http://www.andycarvin.com/ Jay Rosen, David Weinberger, Jeff Jarvis, David Folkenflik, Zadi Diaz
and Michel Martin discuss the shift of power from media outlets to
the public, and the reasons for objectivity in journalism, among other
topics. -andy
I had the best time in Elluminate on Tuesday and Wednesday listening to the Advanced Teams (ABPC 21st Century teaching and learning project) tell about their Learning 2.0 projects. The highlight of both evenings was the guest visit with Chris Craft, a Spanish teacher in South Carolina and Allanah King, a teacher from New Zealand.
The projects were created by the school teams around ideas to meet each school's academic goals using the power of networks and Web 2.0 tools. The team designed a learning contract, created a blog to brainstorm with their team and the world about their project, and then implemented their projects in a way that would impact the entire faculty and beyond. This self-directed learning was uncomfortable for some, as teachers are often use to being told what to do- when. However, some of the project reports revealed amazing work unfolding.
Ah-Ha Moment-Teacher Style
One of the most exciting moments for me was during one of the team's Learning 2.0 presentations, when another school (who was listening to the presentation) offered to have their students contribute to the wiki the presenter's students were developing on how to prepare for and pass an Alabama assessment.
A light went on for everyone in the room. They finally got it. Web 2.0 tools not only allow their students to create and engage with each other- but that other connections and collaborations would make a good project - stellar. They are beginning to realize that they are only held back with this style of learning by their own self-limiting resistance to innovation.
George Hall Elementary
One of the Learning 2.0 projects that has truly been able to utilize the power of networking has been George Hall .George Hall is an elementary high-needs school in Mobile Alabama. George Hall's teachers and students are dedicated to building student
experiences and vocabulary through field trips. They are exploring the
wonders of the Mobile and lower Alabama areas to share with the world. The most powerful aspect to their work has been the comments they are receiving from other bloggers from around the world. It has motivated the students to write and reflect in ways that are impacting their traditional learning experiences.
Here is a student podcast about working on the wetpaint site: student podcast
Collaboration in Action When Allanah showed up from New Zealand, George Hall teachers, (and others) immediately started making suggestions for how the two geographically diverse schools could collaborate. I was dancing in my chair with excitement.
Amazement- Organic Connectivism
I am traveling to New Zealand in March as a keynote speaker for the Tuanz Educational Conferences. My daughter Amber is going with me to New Zealand. We have been sharing with each other- from the various social networking sites we are networked with (which are very different) the various contacts, offers, suggestions, and connections we are making with Kiwis (New Zealanders). It occured to me how powerful it might be to diagram these organic occurrences, as a practical way to show how networks form and inform when "just in time" knowledge is needed. I will share it here when I get it done. Photo Credits: http://www.immediart.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=61_62&products_id=239 http://debtorby.typepad.com/connections/images/img_0436.jpg
Doctoral candidate, President of 21st Century Collaborative, LLC (21stcenturycollaborative.com) and Co-founder of Powerful Learning Practice, LLC (plpnetwork.com).
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