always learning

Back in November and December I worked with a small group of grade 5 students on the Flat Classroom Project. Our group acted as a Sounding Board for the project participants, and after finishing their part of the process, were very interested in actually speaking to some of the students whose work they had peer reviewed. Thanks to the wonderful Anne Mirtschin in Australia, within days of our request to find a class to Skype with, we were chatting about the project with a few of her high school students.

In order to get ourselves prepared for the call, we determined a list of questions in advance and wrote them on the board, along with the name of the person who would ask the question (and then answer the following question from our Skypers in Australia). We set up the room so that everyone could see the Smart Board, and so that our friends in Australia could see all of us. We left one seat open at the very front of the room, in the perfect position to plop down right in front of the webcam, so that each student can walk up, one at a time, to ask and answer questions.

We spent about an hour online with Anne’s class, learning a little more about how her students created their final projects and what it was like to collaborate globally on such a challenging project. They did an excellent job answering all of our questions and they also shared a few interesting facts about life in Australia (there was some eating of Marmite on camera for proof). Next time around I think we’ll have to prep a little hands-on demo for life in Thailand as well!

After the chat, the grade 5’s shared their thoughts about being able to connect with other students around the world via Skype:

• I enjoyed meeting new students because it’s fun to connect with other people from around the world
• I liked learning about another culture from a person in that country
• I liked learning about the process of how they worked with other students around the world – we could do that too!
• It was fun to be able to talk to them “in person” and to tell them that we enjoyed the project and to see if they enjoyed it too. I like to talk with other people better than writing.
• I liked Skyping with other students, not from our class, because then you get different opinions and you get to interact with different students.
• I learned a bit about Australia
• I learned how a Skype connection works, and to be a little patient because it has to travel very far!
• I learned that the FC students worked with more people than I thought they did
• I learned that they didn’t know that much about Thailand – so it was helpful for them to talk to us too!
• I learned about their school – they have very small classes.

This is just one of the many Skype experiences these students are fortunate to have in their regular classes. Last week I was able to watch Chrissy’s class participate in Silvia’s Around the World With 80 Schools project as they Skyped with a very small school in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Our students came in a little early and the class in Canada came back after school to get to know each other. Watching their mouths drop in surprise when they find out our school has 7 fifth grade classes and they only have 11 sixth graders and that our lowest temperature is around 15 degrees C, while there’s is -50 degrees F, was priceless.

Such a simple tool, with such a powerful impact!

Even though a Skype experience certainly can’t beat a real-life visit to Australia or Canada, our students certainly have a more in-depth, personalized understanding of their peers around the world than they would have without Skype. Making these personal connections is such an easy way to give students a more global perspective – and it’s free! What are you waiting for? Get Skyping!

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