21st Century Learning

NSDC 2006

It has taken me awhile to get this up.  Spent a few days at the National Staff Development Council Conference at the beginning of the month.  I stayed at the Gaylord Opyland hotel which was like a "Disney" experience in and of itself. I presented two three hour workshops.

One  was for Microsoft about their Partners in Learning program. I co-presented with John Norton, Teacher Leaders Network and Kathleen Fulton, NCTAF and we  Skyped in Allyson Knox, Microsoft and Emily Kornblut, Taking ITGlobal.

The other was about our work in Alabama with the Alabama Best Practice Center and was on 21st Century teaching and learning. John Norton and Jeanee Simpson, Cedar Ridge Math Teacher co-presented and we Skyped in April Chamberlain, Trussiville City Schools, Suzanne Culbreth, Oak Mountain High School, Erik Myers, Spain Park High School, and the fantastic team from Wrights Mill Road Elementary.

Jeanne and John  did a fantastic job of engaging the crowd in conversation.  NSDC  encourages longer presentations so that the presenter will work many opportunities for engagement and networking into the workshop. I really like the format.

One of the first activities we did to make things more engaged was to do a quick needs assessment of those in attendance.

It was Cathy Gassenheimer's( of ABPC) idea and I really liked how it went over. Everyone had a dot and simply went up at the beginning of our session and rated themselves on this scale. You can see our audience of IT folks, professional development people, administrators and teachers were evenly dispersed.

The categories were:

1. Know Nothing- Clueless but interested...

2. Newbie- A newcomer to cyberspace, Web 2.0 and/or social networking.

3. Explorer- Willing to try a few new things, ask questions, and starting to gain an awareness around using  blogs, wikis, podcasts, and vidcasts in instruction. You have possibly joined a listserv and are sharing ideas with other teachers.

4. Pathfinder-You or your students have created a blogs, wiki, or podcast. Some of your teaching is delivered in a student centered, inquiry-based format. You are reading articles/books about how to use Web 2.0 tools with your students. You understand the term digital native.

5. Power User- You blog and teach others how to blog. You use flickr, RSS, del.icio.us, and a wiki regularly. You can give at least three traits of a netgener and confusion and chaos do not bother you anymore. You regularly use project/problem based teaching in your classroom.

6. Know Everything- Should be teaching this workshop.

Walk-About

We also did a walk-about with five charts. Folks traveled in groups and answered questions about their perceptions of 21 Century concepts. This activity gets their ideas on the table and gives participants a chance to move.

We got into an excellent discussion about filtering and funding issues. You could tell it was a topic close to the IT director's heart.

The interesting thing was that when I asked folks why they chose this session, many of them said because it was of only about three being given at the conference on technology! There is a whole world out there of teachers who really aren't involved in the conversations. We need to think about ways to bring them into the blogosphere.

To help establish the reason why we need to be using these tools we got into assumptions about how students learn best. I asked them to discuss in groups...
What are some key assumptions about how students need to learn that are stressed at your school?

Finish this statement….Students learn best when…

If you would like to see the rest of the pics that Jeanee took while we were there check out her flickr set...http://flickr.com/photos/43204815@N00/sets/72157594419440428/

Auburn Regional Inservice Center Gives Birth to over 50 new Educational Bloggers

Cathy Gassenheimer, of the Alabama Best Practice Center, opens Day 1 of the two day workshop on 21st Century teaching and learning hosted by the Auburn Regional Inservice Center.

A big thank you to Suzanne Culbreth and April Chamberlain, both ABPC fellows who helped facilitate the event and to the Technology in Motion group who did a tremendous job setting up and managing all the technology we used over the course of the two days. And additional thank you to the incredible team of teachers at Wrights Mill Road Elementary who also gave of their time and energy to make the workshop a success. Wrights Mill Road's professional development team was recently selected as

The participants were made up of K-12 teams from 13 systems in the Auburn region and one private school as well as central office administrators, school administrators, Auburn University administrators and faculty, Alabama Department of Education staff and others.

Janet Womack of the Auburn Regional Inservice bought copies of Will Richardson's book for all the participants.

It was an action packed 2 days. In addition to being exposed to a vast array of social networking tools and 21st Century teaching and learning concepts, those in attendance listened to Darren Kuropatwa via Skype share about blogging in his classroom and participated in an Elluminate IT Safety discussion which included a panel of knowledgable guests.

Guest's included:

Shawn Nutting - IT Director- Trussville City Schools, Alabama
Miguel Guhlin - President, TCEA TEC-SIG; Director of Instructional Technology- San Antonio, Texas
Rob Mancabelli - Director of Information Systems, Hunterdon Central Regional High School- New Jersey
Dr. Gene Roche - Clinical Associate Professor; Director of Academic Information Services -College of William and Mary
Darren Kuropatwa - Department Head Mathematics, Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute- Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

To Listen to the recorded Elluminate session Click here:

On day two, most of those in attendance created their own blogs for various self decided purposes, wikis to use in the classroom, and joined a virtual community of Auburn Educators inside Tapped In.

If you would like to hear a podcast of some of the conference- then download this file.

Download WS_10013.WMA

If you would like to see the Flickr set of the event Click here.

Microsoft Mid-tier Meetup

The Seattle trip certainly exceeded my expectations! It was such a high ...meeting all the other grantees and hearing about the success and progress of their projects. 

On Day one we all met at the Microsoft EBC and were given a computer graphics tablet  to use for taking notes. The handwriting recognition software was amazing.

Three projects (one of them ours - ABPC) presented to the group. Then it was the Dr. Chris Dede, Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard and Saul Rockman, CEO of Rockman et al show, where they presented on The Technologies for Scaling, Looking Back on the Mid Tier Grants and Rolling Out Year II Evaluation Process.

We ended the meeting with a cocktail reception at the MS Visitor's Center (which was an incredibly cool place with lots of technology to play with and a history timeline of the company) where the US Partners in Learning National Advisory Council and National Advisory Board mingled among us to find out about our projects and look for possible ways to network.

Next was dinner where we got to know each other even better. I sat near Luke Walker, Education Program Manager with TakingITGlobal, Rich Ingram a professor at James Madison University in my home state, Sammy Micklus of Odyssey of the Mind, and Kathleen Fulton, Director for Reinventing Schools for the 21st Century at NCTAF. Day two we were back at the EBC to hear Trish Millines Dziko speak on Non-Profit business planning, followed by a "speed-dating"version of small group sessions.

I'll have more to say soon about what stood out from the discussions-- after I finish with preparations for the upcoming Auburn workshop and the courses I am teaching at William and Mary --which start on Wednesday. YIKES!

Microsoft Plantation

Leaving for Seattle in a few hours. Off to the Working Session for the Mid Tier Grantees (Alabama Work).This years Working Session is going to be at the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center in Redmond Washingon.
Our team was one of the few selected to do a panel presentation on our work. After the presentations we will be going to a reception with members from Microsoft's National Advisory Council at the Microsoft Visitor's Center followed by dinner with the other US Partners in Learning and Chris Dede.

National Advisory Group Members include:

1. Gene Carter, Executive Director - Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

2. Dan Fallon, Chair of Education Division - Carnegie Corporation of New York

3. Tom Houlihan, Executive Director - Council of Chief State School Officers

4. Tim Waters, President and CEO - Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning

5. Brenda Wellburn, Executive Director - National Association of State Boards of Education

6.Blake West, Vice President of Kansas NEA - National Education Association (NEA)

7. Anne Bryant, Executive Director - National School Boards Association

8. John Bransford, Co-Director - College of Education, University of Washington

9. Kathy Klock Persing, Council Co-Chair

On Tuesday we will listen to a presentation by Dr. Dede and Trish Millines Dziko, a former Microsoft employee (8.5 years) who has now switched to non-profit work. She runs an organization called Technology Access Foundation (TAF) which prepares underserved students of color for success in a technology-driven world by providing technology and life skills training. She uses business strategies in her non-profit to create success. I am quite excited about hearing what she has to say.

We will be collaborating with the other teams and discussing evaluations of our projects. All in all, it sounds like a pretty interesting couple of days. I'll let you know how it goes.

AETC

What an awesome time I had in Birmingham at AETC! The Alabama Best Practice Center Fellows rocked!
We began the day with  Aimee  Smith and  Brandi Caldwell's presentation on Teaching with Blogs.

They shared their wisdom with a packed house and were fabulous.

Most of their examples were from Alabama educators created during the first year of the 21st Century teaching and learning initative. They also talked about Darren Kurpatowa's work with his students. Aimee was first introduced to Darren via Skype at the Powerful Conversations meeting last November. He has been working with Alabama Fellows since then to help nurture them as educational bloggers.

Following their presentation was 21st Century School Initiative: Blogs, Wikis and More! John Norton, Cathy Gassenheimer, Suzanne Culbreth, Felica Myers, Brian Bratonia, and yours truly presented about our first year as a Microsoft Partners in Education Grantee.

     John Norton                     Brian  Bratonia

Suzanne Culbreth presented on "Using the Internet to Solve I Forget my Homework Assignment" and Wendy Stephens and April Chamberlain presented on "Brainstorming about Podcasting"

Later that afternoon Brian presented on the great work the MS Partners in Learning program is doing which included a cool teacher evaluation piece. It was during that presentation that Brian shared that the work the Alabama Best Practice Center was doing was "Rock Star" quality! Rock on Alabama!

That evening Bill Smith from Royal Cup Coffee hosted a perfect dinner at THE Club. It was the perfect end to a perfect event. Thanks Bill Smith!

 

Thank you ABPC 21st Century Fellows for an awesome year!

Miami Dade Schools Summer Heat

A big thank you to all who helped with the Building Virtual Learning Communities workshop in Miami via Skype or Elluminate!!!

Last week, I had the opportunity to meet and collaborate with some of Dade Schools teacher leaders-- what an awesome bunch of educators. Their hospitality blew me away.

The purpose of my session was to prepare the teacher leaders going through the leadership strand to be able to use the district's virtual platform for communication and collaboration. We met at John Ferguson Senior High, who has the most amazing computer resource person-- Jorge Suarez. Jorge tirelessly helped me prepare the equipment for the two day session.

I presented over two-half days --- to two groups of teacher leaders, most of them NBCTs. Carolyn Guthrie, Executive Director of National Board Certified Teachers in Miami Dade County Public Schools and a TLN colleague, helped to coordinate the event.

These teachers used a whirlwind of technology tools that support virtual community building over the two days and had an opportunity to work online with some key leaders in the field.

The morning group met with Darren via Skype and he rocked their world! They also collaborated with Jeanee Simpson, Aimee Smith, and Scarlett Gaddy in Elluminate.

The afternoon group met with Cathy Gassenhiemer , of the Alabama Best Practice Center, Edith Pickens, Lynda Tramaine, both principals of Alabama schools that participated in the 21st Century Teaching and Learning project, and John Norton of the Teacher Leaders Network via Skype and collaborated with Will Richardson, Gail Ritchie, Suzanne Culbreth, and John Norton via Elluminate.

Turns out the virtual platform crashed and we ended up creating a room in Tapped In. As we speak these teachers are exploring and creating blogs, wikis and other tools that will enable them to grow professionally. Deep discussions around new teacher mentoring and the NBCT process are also taking place.

I am looking forward to going back in two weeks to work with two more groups of NBCTs who will become a part of the virtual learning community.

End of Year One

Now that the last of the four 21st Century Learning sessions in Elluminate is over-- it's a good time to pause and reflect on where this work has taken the Alabama Best Practice Center's 21st Century schools that are involved in the Microsoft 21st Century Partners' project.

Last night we had the final virtual 21st Century Learning Fair presentation from the ABPC 21st Century schools. These schools have been hard at work since February learning what it takes to be a 21st Century School.

These teachers (with average techie ability) had to configure for and master two communication platforms (Elluminate and Tapped In) while at the same time being exposed to an ever-growing list of social networking tools and how by using these tools they could positively impact student achievement and meet AYP in their schools. The Alabama school teams were encouraged not only to take what they were learning, during the busiest time of the school year, and apply it to their teaching- but to share all they were learning with their faculty in true "change agent" form. Here is what the learning fair was all about...

21st Century Learning Fair .... an opportunity to showcase, reflect, and celebrate!

The focus of our 21st century learning fair is to reflect on the successes and challenges of our journey in our ABPC 21st Century Teaching and Learning Initiative and to share and learn from each other.

Each school team was asked to showcase their work through collaboration in the creation of a visual representation of the learning that has emerged at their schools from this initiative. Each school team had an opportunity to discuss their work using the tools in Elluminate. A showcase should reflect: ~ One or more Cool Tool (blogs, wikis, podcasts, videoblogs, or other) creations each school team has used for professional development or for instruction in their classroom.
Included in their presentations:

~ Sucesses and outcomes of the project
~ Challenges and solutions
~ Lessons learned

The showcases were simply amazing. I was struck with how this was so much more than a "one time- shot in the dark" like so many inservices are in a school. And the feedback we got from the participants echo'd the same sentiments.

Here is a delicious list, that my colleague and friend John Norton has put together, that will enable you to view some of the developing projects in the schools-- http://del.icio.us/abpcjohn

An ABPC staff member reflected recently – "In the mainstream media and in the education publications we all read – people are talking about 21st Century Learning. It's becoming increasingly apparent that the world our youngsters are growing up in is vastly different from what most of us experienced ten or twenty or thirty years ago. And the future they face is different, too. We all feel some obligation to help them prepare for that future – a "digitally enhanced" era where they will not only need to be technologically proficient, but also be able to use technology to communicate effectively, work in teams, solve problems and create new knowledge and understanding."

My colleagues and I do not presume that this project is going to fully prepare participants to deliver on all these obligations. But we do believe it is a good model for setting a school's feet firmly on the path to full-scale 21st Century Learning. In fact, in a recent conversation with Microsoft, they told us they believed our model to be one for the nation. As you can imagine, that was an incredible thing to hear.

Here, in a nutshell, is what we think this project is all about.

Purposeful Design
Although online learning offers many advantages – convenience, privacy, self-pacing, modeling of best practice, the chance to sharpen technology skills – Web-based professional development comes with its own set of challenges. In designing our framework for this 21st Century Learning project, we grappled with some key questions: How do we bring a group of individuals together online and nurture a sense of community and trust? How do we connect with local practice and context? How do we get the change effort to resonate, not only with the individual teacher, but also with the school and district? And how do we do all this in ways that respect teachers' time and many responsibilities?

Framework
With these important questions in mind, for our first "adventure" in 21st Century Learning we designed a four-cycle framework built around three components.

We imagined that: (1) school-based teams of 4 or 5 would attend four live Web conferences (in Elluminate) with the purpose of concept development;
(2) these live, two-hour sessions would be followed by participation in a collaborative community (Tapped In) where teams would further explore the ideas presented in the conferences – and because the Tapped In discussions are "asynchronous," they would do so at times that best suit their schedules. Finally, we imagined that;
(3) teams would find opportunities to use what they are learning and experiencing, applying it in a local context, experimenting with various web tools and digital teaching strategies in their own classrooms and schools.

Our Curriculum Sessions
Our first year curricular framework occured in the following four sessions:

Session #1: "Introduction to 21st Century Learning: The Digital Natives Are Restless" – What is 21st Century learning? Why is it important? This session introduced the teams to the research about why 21st Century Tools and learning strategies are critical to student learning in a digital age.

Session #2: "Cool Web Tools for Teaching & Learning" – This session moveed us from talking about 21st Century Learning to actually examining some specific tools and gadgets available on the Web.

Session #3: "Cool Web Tools: The Sequel" – delved deeper into the cool tools, focusing on their seamless use in instruction and the concept of developing adpative expertise.

Session #4: "21st Century Learning Fair”- Between Session #2 and Session #4, we encouraged teachers to begin to experiment with some of the web tools and digital gadgets that were introduced and explored. In the final session of 2005-06, teams had an opportunity – individually and/or in teams – to showcase, reflect upon, and celebrate the success and outcomes of your learning with all the educators participating in this project.

The real questions we posed to the teams are these:
Are you willing to change – to risk change – to meet the obvious need for better alignment between "school as we know it" and the needs of 21st Century learners? Can you accept that Change (with a big "C") is a sometimes messy process and that learning new things together is going to require some tolerance for ambiguity?

The outcomes have far surpased what we thought was possible. Here are some other resources that were the result of other aspects of our work this year.

Internet Safety Session

Teaching with Blogs sessions

ABPC 21st Century Teaching and Learning

I am co-leading the most rewarding project with the Alabama Best Practice Center  that is being funded with a grant from Microsoft.  We have design a professional development program aimed at introducing schools to 21st Century Learning principles. Over a two-year period, 40 schools in the ABPC Powerful Conversations network will be invited to participate in "Powerful Conversations about 21st Century Learning." Each school has selected a team of 3-5 educators and are taking part in this online professional development experience (in Elluminate and Tapped In) and sharing what they learn with their own school-based professional learning communities.

We recently dedicated the most current issue of ABPC's Working Toward Excellence Newsletter  to describing, interviewing, and sharing the people and ideas involved with this work. Take a moment to check it out!  Will Richardson, David Warlick, and Darren Kuropatwa are all quoted, as are many Alabama teachers who are trying their wings at blogging and using other social networking tools.

Here is a sample of what you will find...
WHEN THE TRUSSVILLE City Schools went online as a brand-new school system in July 2005, Shawn Nutting was there to turn on the switch. The fledgling district’s newly minted Director of Technology was barely 30 days into his first full-time job in public education, after a corporate career in which he served as an Information Technology (IT) manager and designer for several Internet-related technology companies.

Nutting brought a business perspective to his new work— a belief that students are “customers” whose needs should be met by school and district staff. Nutting also came with the attitude that schools must either adopt a technology-infused approach to teaching and learning or risk leaving their students on the education-and-career sidelines.

Nutting’s progressive views about balancing Internet safety with the ample access necessary for a rich 21st Century learning experience matched the vision of new Trussville Superintendent Suzanne Freeman, who shares his conviction that safety and access are not incompatible notions and that school systems are obligedto provide both.

In a recent interview, Shawn Nutting explained his outlook on school district firewall and filtering policies and described several steps the Trussville Schools are taking to realize the full educationpotential of technology and the World Wide Web.

Fact Checking...

http://www2.districtadministration.com/viewArticle.aspx?articleid=135

Nice interview in District Administration. Will and I are quoted throughout and I think for the most part it was well written and a positive piece about using technology as a communication tool within school districts. However, they sure didn't follow through on their fact checking-- they missed some basics with this one!

For example, I am cited as being a Professor of Instructional Technology at the College of William and Mary. YIKES! I am a lowly full time adjunct instructor. I have been so for two years. And while I identified myself as such, I assume the author heard instructor and equated it with professor. I cringed as I read it, fearing my colleagues will assume I am probably just arrogant enough to call myself a professor. I finish my PhD course work in the Fall-- not quite a prof.

Then if that wasn't enough, I was also credited with creating a listserv and implementing several initiatives associated with the listserv I created. To begin with, as anyone in central office knows... nothing in central office happens in a vacuum or solo. We purchased a listserv product (Lyris) and I simply was the admin of the various district lists and oversaw the roll out and implementation of the project. I also did training for all the school sites to implement the next year.

We did talk about YOURVIEW, an employee opinion board that I helped launched and moderated-- I am assuming she got the two confused.

Of course it wasn't just me, the author referred to Will Robinson (instead of Will Richardson) at one point -- Will tells me this is probably a reference to the "Will Robinson" character he made famous in "Lost in Space." (wink)

We decided we could probably blame all of this, of course, on the fact that blogs are lowering the standard for published writing. <rolling of eyes>