always learning

Over the past few weeks of organizing and hosting K12Online LAN parties, reading about Seth Godin’s new book Tribes, and following the various blog posts from the Connectivism & Connecting Knowledge course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes, I have made a bit of a realization:

As much as I love working with students and teachers, and being at the center of 21st century learning at ISB, what would be most useful for our teachers is actually being connected to other teachers at school that share their interests, and can help them learn and grow in the direction they want.

It’s not that I can’t do this with and for our teachers, but if I want this growth to be sustainable it can’t be about me (or about any individual at the school). It has to be something that teachers can do themselves. They have to know who they can reach out to, who has the knowledge or information they need, and who can help them move to the next step.

So, really what I need to be doing is figuring out how to connect our teachers to each other. As odd as this may sound, considering that we all work in the same physical structure every day, many of us don’t know teachers in other divisions (I hardly know any high school teachers, even though this is my second year at ISB) and we most certainly don’t know who is interested in which aspects of teaching and learning in a digital world. Because our days are so jam-packed and busy, we actually need a way to connect asynchronously – even though we are in physical proximity most of the day.

I’ve known for many years just how powerful a network can be, but I seemed to always focus on making those connections with individuals outside my day-to-day work environment, the benefits of being able to find a like-minded colleague without having the fortune of physically sharing a teaching space. But, over the last few years, we’ve planted enough seeds around the school, spread out throughout each division, that we actually may have a network of learners right here, working together every day, and we just haven’t realized it yet.

At our last ISB21 Team meeting, we talked about this and Jeff and I came up with an idea: start a social network at school using our Elgg install. We can create a group, Jeff and I will populate it with relevant information, videos, images, etc before inviting other teachers, and then share it with our dedicated early adopters so they can add even more. Eventually we can share the group with the whole school to see where it goes. Even if we only connect a small group of teachers that wouldn’t otherwise be connected, it will be worth it!

Here are the benefits we’ve thought of:

• It’s hosted at school, so it’s fast and we don’t have to rely on an outside connection (often tenuous at best in Bangkok) – a better choice for us than something like Ning.
• It’s private, just for ISB staff, which may help teachers feel safer sharing and learning in a new environment.
• We’re planning to run a survey using ProfilerPro in January (Chad’s brilliant idea) which will graphically represent areas (and individuals) where the school is strong in their use and understanding of technology. This survey would allow teachers to find other individuals in the school that have the skill set their looking for and the social network would provide a place for them to connect outside of their extremely busy school-day schedules.
• By allowing teachers to learn from each other we’re enabling them to be self-directed and independent, while still providing a basic structure for how to get started. This could be a gateway to developing a more international personal learning network once they see the value of connecting this way.
• By connecting our various seedlings around the school, we’re hoping more will grow. The “look what she’s doing – I want to do that too” mentality.
• By using this tool for their own learning, teachers will be more likely to see how relevant appropriate it can be for classroom use.
• By connecting peers to each other, we’re taking away some of the dependence on us, allowing individuals to continue to sustain their learning beyond our tenure at the school.
• We could invite incoming teachers into the group before they arrive, allowing them to get a first-hand look at what teachers are learning about at ISB.

What do you think? Are we onto something? Is something important missing? Has anyone else tried this at their school? What were the results?

Marietta Diner by The Rocketeer
Interlocking (fins) toy #2 by Ctd 2005

One of my favorite things about working in international schools is the consistent, quality professional development on offer. Because we are, in many ways, isolated from the wealth of PD offerings available in our home country, we get to pick and choose exactly what we want and bring it to us!

This year ISB is offering a very exciting Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy course through Buffalo State, State University of New York (SUNY). Not only is this course a direct reflection of the work we have been doing on our ISB21 Team, but we get to teach it as well!

The course will be a direct reflection of our vision of the 21st century learner:

Here’s the general outline of the 5-course certificate program:

Course 1: Information Literacy and Ourselves as Learners:

A foundation course, introducing learners to the methods of information literacy in the 21st century. Independent learning requires that students and teachers are able to evaluate the authenticity, relevance and bias of information that inundates us. Tools and strategies for teachers and students for accessing, filtering, evaluating and applying information will be addressed. This course will address meta-cognition and an awareness of how we learn in a digital landscape. Students will be provided with strategies for reflective practice and using prior knowledge to build understanding and deal with new technology will be incorporated in the course.

Course 2: 21st Century Literacy Ideas, Questions, and Issues:

The 21st Century learner has been bombarded with new technology, access to wide ranging global communication, and a plethora of information. Accompanying this new world of learning are ethical, moral, social, and emotional considerations that are changing the way in which our students are interfacing with the world. This course will explore current issues inherent in our technological world.

Course 3: Visual Literacy: Effective Communicators and Creators:

The curriculum of design and attention to aesthetics has always been the property of the visual arts, however as so much our media is now consumed and created electronically a new set of visual literacies have emerged. Awareness of how an audience interacts with that medium and how to take advantage of this to strengthen their message or purpose for communication will be addressed.

Course 4: Technology: A Catalyst for Learning

Research based best practice for the embedded use of technology for learning will be shared and practiced. The focus will be on the habits that provide students with the ability to use technology for its greatest learning advantage. The best use of laptop computers, Smart boards, etc will be addressed as embedded tools to foster optimum learning of the curriculum. The optimal use of communication tools such as podcasts, blogs, nings, wikis, and voice threads will be addressed with tips for management and strategies to promote maximum learning in classrooms.

Course 5: Alive in the Classroom: Applied Web 2.0 Technology for Learning

The course will be about the classroom application, and reflection on the use of web 2.0 technology in the classroom. Participants will be asked to create a plan for the embedded use of technology to foster learning, share with the group and offer feedback on their cohorts’ embedded use of technology for learning. Did the use of technology lead to deeper learning?

Each course will focus on specific ISTE NETS For Teachers as they relate to our Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions for the 21st century learner.

Jeff and I will be teaching the first course starting in January 2009 (more details here). We’re looking at running 3 face-to-face Saturday sessions between late January and the end of February, and also offering several evening sessions via Elluminate to bring in some experts in the field and to make authentic use of online professional development tools.

Dennis and Chad will be teaching the second course from March – April 2009, and then we’ll most likely pick up again with the third course in the fall of 2009, with the goal of finishing the full certificate program by the end of the 2009-2010 school year.

We had our first introductory meeting with staff last week to see how many teachers would be interested in participating and the room was packed! It’s exciting and inspiring to see how many of our teachers are ready to jump into this kind of course. It will be very interesting to see how this course further develops our growing grassroots professional learning community. I can’t wait to get started!

Have you ever taught or taken a course like this? What advice do you have for us?

I love conferences. I love spending day after day talking and thinking about learning with people who are as engaged and energized by the time to reflect as I am. I love sharing a common experience that can build momentum to re-think and re-evaluate our daily practice of teaching and learning when we get back to our “day jobs”. Mostly I just love the conversation.

This is what is so special about Learning 2.008 for me. All the unscheduled time set aside for unconference sessions, quiet reflection, or side conversations, allows us to take the time to process what we’re learning right there, in the moment, surround by those we’re learning with. It was an amazing experience last year, and continued to be my favorite part of the conference this year.

And what fabulous conversations we had…

Having the chance to sit, together, face to face, with Julie Lindsay, Jenny Luca, Jess McCollough, Anne Mirschin, Brian Lockwood, Brian Crosby, Alan Levine, Clarence Fischer, Simon May, Susan Sedro, Jabiz Raisdana, Tod Baker, Jeff Plaman, David Jakes, Ann Krembs, Mike Romard, Dave Navis, Chris Smith, David Warlick, Paul MacMahon, Amanda DeCardy, Simon Power, Andy Torres, and of course my partners in crime at ISB: Chrissy Hellyer, Tara Ethridge, Dennis Harter, Chad Bates, and Jeff Utecht, was certainly a recipe for rich and engaging conversations.

Plus, of course, the chance to see my “conference buddies” – those people you always run into at conferences, but may not keep in touch with over the course of the year (because, sadly, they’re not Twittering or blogging or Ninging).

And then there are my favorite people, the people I am meeting for the very first time, but who have been reading my blog or attended one of my sessions and took the time to come up and say hello. It is constantly amazing to me that anything I say here is helpful in any way to anyone else and I just want to say thank you to those of you who read, and who make time to share your thoughts with me.

The conversations started with the first Shanghai Edubloggercon the day before the conference. This was my first edubloggercon ever and I just love the idea of bringing together a small group of engaged learners in a loosely structured environment to talk about their common issues, and to share what’s working well in their schools.

With the conference kick-off that evening, the group of attending edubloggers and twitters continued to grow, and the “formal” presentations and unconference sessions provided excellent fodder for discussion.

A few things that struck me during the conference:

• I’m surprised at my mixed feelings about having everyone with a laptop. I could see so many people twittering, sharing, researching and reflecting, which is what I expected, but I also saw people playing solitaire during the TED Talk style keynotes, and other people playing games or chatting, and not really focusing on the presentations. I know I couldn’t attend any PD session without my laptop because I can type faster than I can hand-write and I need notes to help me reflect on what I’ve learned. But, what about the others? Are they playing games because the content isn’t engaging? Or are they not engaging with the content? I don’t know, but I surprised myself thinking about it.

• During one of Clarence’s sessions an attendee asked the question: “Isn’t it the nature of teenagers to want to be doing something different than what they’re told? The more we try to do what we think they like, aren’t they going to go further and further underground? Is it unrealistic to expect that we can even tap into their interests, because their intrests might simply be the opposite of what they see us doing?” I don’t think there was an answer in the session, but wow, that really got my attention. As a teenager, if my teacher was trying to do something they thought I thought was cool, it most likely was not very cool at all. Is that what I’m doing? Yikes!

• In that same session of Clarence’s there was a student there to set up the recording, but he ended up staying the whole session (not sure why, but he did). At the end, he asked Clarence: “I’ve sat through your whole session and I still don’t understand how the research project my English teacher just made me do is at all relevant to the world I’m going to face when I leave high school. Why do I have to do assignments like this?” Bam! It hit me, here we are talking about them, trying to make our teaching more engaging and relevant for them, trying to help them connect, collaborate and create, but do we ever take the time to explain to them what we’re doing and why? Do we ever ask them if this is what they want? Do we take the time to make our goals transparent to them? Do we ask for their feedback in a meaningful way?

• I happened to mention this to Jabiz just after Clarence’s session was over and he had been having the same thoughts, so he was able to coordinate an unconference session where we could hear from some of the Geek Squad students that were working at the conference. Unfortunately, I had already signed up to lead a session on Presentation Zen, so I missed the face to face interaction, but I’m looking forward to learning what what was said. And I’m going to make a conscious effort to involve them in my planning process from now on. What a wake-up call. I’m not sure how to do it, but I’m not so sure how I can’t after that…

• I was very surprised to see the lack of female presence in the conference. There were no women involved in the organization of the conference (that I could see during the three days there, or during the final closing thank-yous), even the student-run Geek Squad only had one girl, and there were no female keynote presenters (if only Sheryl had been able to make it, but still, that’s a 1:5 ratio). I remember Wes’ post about a year and a half ago about the need for open conversation and diversity (and a list of excellent female bloggers), it was relevant then and continues to be now.

• I have to admit, I was a little disappointed to realize that although there were 6 keynote presenters, they were all on at the same time, during only 3 sessions – so either you had to split each session in half to see each keynote speaker or you were just out of luck and could only see 3 of the 6 fantastic speakers that were brought all the way to the other side of the world to speak with us. (Although I was seriously thankful that my sessions weren’t on at the same time as, say, David Warlick). Of course there are still the unconference sessions, but those weren’t announced until someone thought one up, so if you’re like me and you wanted to actually plan in advance to see all 6 keynoters, it was pretty much impossible.

• I haven’t had a chance to go back through the Ning in detail yet, but I absolutely love how there is one central place to find all of the conference resources. Not only is it incredibly powerful to be able to learn from sessions that I didn’t attend, but I also love being able to see the notes that people took at my presentations. To realize what came across as my main points and to see, first-hand, the ideas that struck a chord with the attendees. Sometimes you don’t realize what the most powerful pieces of your presentation are until you see what others have to say. I will certainly be watching all of Sheryl’s uStreamed sessions, and listening to the many podcasts that were created for about 70% of the sessions.

• Once again, I was struck by the power of the unconference format. Last year I ran two unconference sessions and I remember being concerned that no one would want to come to a session on those topics, and then being so shocked at how many people had the same questions, ideas or inspirations that I did. This year was no exception. For the first time, I used the Presentation Zen approach to design my presentations and was surprised by the number of people that asked for an unconference session about the topic after seeing my slides. Being able to coordinate a session on a topic I know very little about, but then learn from the group is so empowering and authentic. And now, having all those notes on the Ning to go back and read through gives me the opportunity to deepen my understanding whenever I have time – and this session never would have happened if the conference didn’t include these kinds of unscheduled sessions.

David Warlick Podcast Interview with Dear Librarian by CogDogBlog
Learning 2.008 by Julie Lindsay