Amy Musone, a year 1 team leader in the IU 13 community from the Central York District, PA, encouraged her team members to reflect with her as they wind down this year of Powerful Learning Practice professional learning. The team had been immersed in an action research project, examining how their teaching would be transformed as they engaged in PBL in order to promote 21st century learning.

Our goal for this post is to reflect on where each of us started and where we have come.  Remember our driving question:

 

How will the Pringles Project transform our teaching practices to promote 21st century skills within our students?

 

Our beginning: We started with a survey to gather information about how each of us perceived ourselves along with information about what we felt comfortable and uncomfortable with. We inputed data using a Google form and shared our thinking when we met via Skype and on the Community Hub.

 

Now: Now it is time for us to reflect on what we have done, how we’ve grown, and struggles that still hold us back. It is also important for us to consider and share where we plan to go from here.

 

Looking forward to hearing your ideas!

Amy being the leader that she is, modeled her own reflection for them:

Okay…when we began this venture, I felt unsure of myself and a little self-conscious that I just wasn’t “getting it.” One thing I wasn’t sure about was what exactly was expected of me. As I became more involved I came to the conclusion that the expectation was going to be set by one person…myself. I could get guidance and encouragement from my team members and the PLP community at large, but ideally, the motivation to move forward and become a more effective educator came from within. I knew that I alway wanted to engage in PBL, but never knew how to fully embrace it. Through our meetings both with my PLP Year 1 team and the larger community webinars I felt like I could wrap my head around this idea.

 

So…my head was in the right place, finally. My students are just completing their projects. My room was a disaster (we were using packaging materials), there was a constant buzz of excited and on-task conversations, and the creative juices were flowing. There is NO way that I could have “taught” them everything that they discovered (technology, and science) and that made me glow. ….

 

This project has begun to infiltrate other activities that happen throughout the school day. I worked to devise a project with another teacher in my classroom and have collaborated with the gifted support teacher on a project. I am truly excited about this. My hope would be to work with the PLP group on other projects…. I know that in order to do this, we are going to need teacher and administrative buy in. Luckily, I have plenty of artifacts created by kids to demonstrate learning, problem solving, critical thinking skills, and collaboration. Still have a hill to climb…sure, but I’ve taken a couple of steps!

With Amy’s powerful reflection on her PLP journey, I decided to “follow” the discussion; sure enough, the next day Melissa Wilson responded. She shared in part her challenges and her beliefs in the power of PBL:

This has been a very challenging project.  At the fifth grade level there are many obstacles to overcome just to find the time to proceed with a problem based assignment. …

 

I believe that there is a real need for problem based learning. …  The challenges created by this type of project parallel the types of challenges the students will face in real life….

 

Next year I plan to look at ways that I can create projects such as “The Pringle Project” that will fit in the curriculum.  In designing these assignments the plan is to be able to deliver instruction covering the curriculum and then allow the students to use what they have learned in creative real world problem solving. With support from my colleagues I hope that this will help my students to learn and prepare them for the future.

And then Barb Ream chimed in a day later attributing their success and learning to their coach; Amy, their team leader; and their collaboration:

I know that the point of this whole project was to think differently about education by experiencing it firsthand. I am an old fashioned learner who is used to having everything laid out for me. ..

 

I felt like I was floundering – a fish out of water. I felt like it must just be me, however after talking to the rest of my group I realized it wasn’t just me. We all floundered together and somehow we managed to figure it out in the end.

 

I feel the reason we were able to pull it together was for a number of reasons. The first was we had a great coach. Peter Skillen really guided us through the process and made us think outside the box. Our fearless leader, Amy, was invaluable. Her insight, leadership, creativity, and motivation pulled us through. We would have been lost forever without her. Lastly, my team members. It was such a great experience getting to know members of my school community better. We met through skype and in person. We had great collaboration sessions and worked very well together.

 

I think this project taught me many things. The first is that it is ok to be messy learners. …. I learned that if you give students an interesting project, they will come up with some amazing solutions to problems.

 

My plan for the future is to continue to create more Problem Based Projects. I actually enjoyed how all of the students came up with different solutions to the same problem. I also plan on sharing this with more colleagues in hopes of having them do something similar.

Deep reflections with common themes–

• Initially overwhelmed with uncertainty and challenges yet persevering
• Floundering and figuring it out together
• Appreciations for collaboration, the risk taking that enables, and hopes to continue that
• Recognition of the power of a collegial team working together and of PBL in learning
• Evidence of profound, collegial professional learning– absorbing, doing, interacting and reflecting

Although this team is winding down their formal time together in year 1 PLP, these reflections portend a gearing up–

• for future collaborations, collegial learning,
• for more in depth journeys into transforming their teaching practices to promote 21st century skills within their students.

Cross Posted

We’ll be posting a series of featured action research projects from our 2011-12 teams as they prepare for their culminating presentations. First up is this interview with our team from Fredericksburg Academy and their electronic portfolios for students project.

Founded in 1992, Fredericksburg Academy provides a strong liberal arts education within a safe, nurturing environment, offering students a breadth of challenging academic experiences that prepare them for the country’s best colleges and universities. The Academy is celebrating its 20th school year in 2011-2012. They enroll more than 400 students in prekindergarten through grade 12 with an average class size of 12 students.

View this exciting sneak peek into their project, entitled Reflections

Your action research project tackled the possibility of using ePortfolios to measure students’ educational development over time. What made you aware of this particular challenge in your school? Why did you land on this issue as the focus of your action research project?

Students tend to judge their academic progress in terms of their grades. We want our students to be able to understand and define their own educational growth rather than relying solely on teachers assessments. We want them to be able to recognize their particular strengths and weaknesses. We want them to learn ways to compensate for their weaknesses and likewise to fully utilize their strengths. We believe the reflective aspect of the digital portfolio will facilitate this understanding. We also want our students to actively participate in goal setting. The portfolio process will foster that as well.

We wanted a student centered project. We believed we could get the most faculty buy-in on a project that benefited students rather than just faculty. We also wanted a project that would incorporate web 2.0 tools and one that would require our students and faculty to begin integrating those tools into their repertoire.

Left to Right, Seated: Michele Redding, Abi Haymes, Standing: Darlene Kolotos, Patty Estes, Sharon O'Connell, Camille Atkins

Tell us a little bit about the process you went through during your journey through PLP’s professional development this year? How did your action research come together? Who did what and how did you identify who would be good at different aspects of the project?

As we were going through the pre-game activities, many of us were wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. Some of us felt overwhelmed, most of us were worried about time constraints. Then we attended the opening meeting and we were inspired. We were motivated for change. Then we attended the first webinar and once again many of us felt overwhelmed by the intensity of the webinar itself, and a little intimidated at being held to task. We knew then our feet would be held to the fire. We did our share of “storming”, mostly about time. Then we started lurking and stalking on the ning, but we didn’t all feel safe to put our voices out there. Our team leader got out on the ning very quickly, and she nudged the rest of us to get out there too. Very soon we were all in. We joined discussions, we collaborated with other teachers and we gathered information centered around our own individual interests. When we began focusing on the action research project we coalesced. We had a common interest and that led us in a common direction. We worked as a team and it gelled. When someone was good at something they just took that thing and ran with it. We were all comfortable enough to let that happen. We acknowledged our strengths and weaknesses and worked together to support each other. One member was good at note taking, one member didn’t like presenting, we took those preferences into account. The mundane work we just divvied up. We met face to face at least once a week and we left each meeting with a task. We sought each other out between meetings for advice, direction and to celebrate successes.

What was your biggest revelation or aha moment during this year’s action research?

Reflections: electronic portfolios for students

Our biggest “aha” moment was at the opening meeting when Will told us that we either need to embrace technology in the classroom or get out of the classroom. We don’t know if those were his exact words, but that is the message we all heard. That had a profound effect on all of us and we have reflected on it many times over the past seven months.

How did the concepts and strategies you learned during your PLP journey help you along the way?

Overall, the idea of networked learning and connectivism helped us the most. The process of developing connections with people and information and then communicating in order to support each other’s learning was powerful. Our collaboration within the Fredericksburg Academy community, the collaboration we experienced in the ning, and our research on the web were empowering. The PLP strategy of having a community leader and connected coach support us as we grew was very helpful. We are planning to utilize that model as we move forward with our faculty.

What was a major challenge or roadblock you encountered during your project? How did you mitigate this difficulty?

Obviously the first challenge we faced was finding time. We committed to each other to spend a small amount of time each week on the ning. We found that once we got involved it was rewarding and self perpetuating. Additionally we established a schedule of weekly meetings. Sometimes we just sat in the same room while each of us was on the ning; sometimes we shared things we had discovered on the ning. We encouraged each other to make the time, and relied on each other to push past excuses.

We all had personal issues to deal with. At one time or another someone in our group had to deal with a death, a wedding, illness, a second job, and teenage drama. During these crises we pitched in for each other.

The team settled on Google Sites for their students' portfolios.

Another challenge we encountered was choosing what platform to use for our student portfolios. We explored blogs extensively since we were familiar and comfortable with them. We were just about to begin developing a template when one of our connected coaches suggested we investigate google sites. Within a day of that recommendation we had all played around with a sample site and really liked the potential. We concurred almost immediately to shift our focus. We settled on google sites as our platform and started developing a template that week.

What was the most positive or transformative thing to happen as a result of your project?

We will now have digital student portfolios at Fredericksburg Academy and our students will benefit by it because of our work with the PLP. We are fortunate that our Head of School supported our efforts from the beginning. She is willing to stand behind our vision and make it a reality. That kind of respect from above is rewarding. It gives value to the work.

Relationship building has also been transformative for many of us. We have developed significant relationships among our team members. We have also developed more meaningful relationships with other (pre-existing) PLPeeps here at Fredericksburg Academy and with our head of school. We’ve extended our network of colleagues on the ning and have begun developing relationships there.

Do you think this project will have implications into the future? Is it ongoing?

Oh yes. We think this project will have long lasting implications for every member of our school, students, faculty, administration and parents. We have already discovered a new avenue to explore to utilize the digital portfolios in student-led parent conferences. Our action research project has been embraced by our head of school, faculty, and parents.

It is also ongoing because it utilizes technology which is in constant shift. The tools we use today in the portfolios will certainly be different from the tools teachers are using for the portfolios in five years. We will have to be in a constant state of training. Our team will continue to work to support the faculty in their technology proficiencies. Our immediate focus will be google for education and web 2.0 tools for the portfolio, also we will encourage transparent integration of technology into the classroom.

How has being a part of PLP changed you as a teacher or leader?

We are all more confident with our students and colleagues. We are more willing to express thoughts and ideas and we are using technology more. Our work, our lives even, have become more collaborative. We’ve learned new venues for collecting information and sharing information with others. We are confident and connected.

Join us for a year of action research and learning

Check out the complete details on Fredericksburg Academy’s ePortfolio project here. Like the idea of using action research to solve problems in your school? We have built an entire year of job-embedded learning around action research and social media tools called The Connected Learner Experience. Teams are forming now. Check it out here and join us for 2012-13.

For 3 years now, here in NE Ohio on many Tuesday or Thursday afternoons and evenings, I’ve been facilitating sessions and monitoring chats with passionate educators from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in a myriad of different webinars. My calendar reminders simply say VA–  reminding me of the Virtual Academy sessions. And on those same days, as soon as buses leave the Archdiocese of Philadelphia schools in the afternoon, a number of teachers have hurried back to their classrooms. It’s likely time to log into the Virtual Academy webinar sessions sponsored by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia with Powerful Learning Practice. Many times, these dedicated educators have extended their school day by a number of hours and joined the later webinar that evening. Why? In the service of their children, they have aspired to learn more about technology infused learning and become more accomplished connected educators. Following each session, I’ve had the privilege to engage in discussions with these educators around the topic of the week in our private online community of practice.  I’ve had the opportunity to come to know caring, passionate educators who want the very best for their children and who are willing to step outside of their comfort zone to do just that. My role of community leader in the PLP Virtual Academy is one I’ve come to cherish.

Together we’ve explored TPACK in English, Social Studies, Math and Science classrooms as well as digital creativity in each of these disciplines. We’ve examined digital images and videos in learning. We’ve gone deep into implementing Common Core Standards and Understanding by Design into personal practice and classroom instruction. You can view some of the sessions here and see descriptions of others here.

And the Virtual Academy impact? Kay and Tina share:

Virtual Academies gave me the opportunity to network with, share new ideas for engaging students, and learn how others are using technology in their classroom. The Virtual Academy gave me an outlet for assisting my peers and discussions about providing effective student collaboration. The sessions gave me a way of talking and sharing with other Archdiocese teachers and educators from different parts of the country in a relaxed atmosphere.

The Virtual Academies are by far a great and powerful way of providing teachers who may be unable to attend a workshop with online professional development.   When school was closed because of snow or ice the Virtual Academy still provided professional development for us. If I had missed a session all I needed to do was go online for an archived session to help improve my teaching skills.   –Kathleen Burgess, Library/Media Curriculum Chairperson, Conshohocken Catholic School, Kay on Twitter

I thoroughly enjoyed my experiences with the Virtual Academy classes over the last 3 years. There were many times that I learned an exciting new tool and was able to incorporate it the very next day in my classroom. Even if I didn’t know all of the ins and outs of the tool, my students and I gave it a try and had fun learning from each other. Not only did the teachers learn some fantastic new Web 2.0 tools, but we also had a place to converse and try out these new skills in the discussion group with Lani there to answer our questions and lend us a hand. Another important aspect was the chat discussions which lead to the exchanging of more great ideas and support from our colleagues. I was thrilled when I was asked to present at a Virtual Academy class this year! I enjoyed sharing my ideas and I hope I was able to encourage others to try something new.  Special thanks to the Archdiocese for making this available to us!  — Tina Schmidt, 3rd grade teacher, St. Ignatius of Antioch, Tina on Twitter

Tina’s classroom blog and her participation in a Flat Stanley Project with Romania evidence the sharing and collaboration in her classroom. In so many other classrooms, educators proudly share in chat and in discussions on how technology is changing learning for their students– that students are blogging, collaborating on wikis, creating and commenting on Voicethreads, making posters using Glogster, and creating stories on Storybird.

We’ve explored new learning landscapes. And as a result, the design of students’ learning experiences are more authentic, more collaborative and full of sharing. And we, our lives are the richer for the time we have spent sharing, collaborating, laughing, and learning together. Now connected educators, I know these Virtual Academy members will continue to guide both their colleagues and their students deeper into connected, collegial learning.

Cross Posted

The daffies’ green leaves, the red nubs of the peonies, the green points of the Japanese Iris, the maple’s baby leaves, the buds on the weeping cherry hold a special promise for what is to come. These harbingers of spring and summer, in a climate of often difficult winters, lift the spirit and the hopes for better times — gardens full of color and trees leafed in green!

So too, from the year 2 teams of Powerful Learning Practice, precursors begin to appear that portend the exceptional problem based learning units they are designing. Signs of exciting plans for learning from accomplished and passioned educators pop up on Twitter, blogs, Google Docs and Posterous where they are sharing.

From Cori on the Instructional Focus team whose students are exploring how they can share their stories:
Alan, the team leader, illustrates how his 4th grade students explore this question here and here

In classrooms in PA, Texas, and Saskatechwan, students are asking “How can making global connections help me learn and grow in different ways?” Their teachers on The Whole Teacher/Child team recently posted how they are making their own connections. The team is currently collaborating on a Google Doc on a connections menu for their students. Becky, the team leader offered a window onto their process on Twitter:
And Kathy’s grade 1′s composed, narrated and filmed their introductory video for the other students with whom they will be making connections:

The Inquiry Driven team has been blogging transparently sharing how in classrooms their students are asking “How can we make a difference? The posts from Renee, from Gail, and from Kristine illustrate the diverse and unique perspectives from which students are exploring this question. Tweets from Beth encourage us to support her students in their Peace projects.

You can support them too by following the this link to their projects.

A group of accomplished administrators from PA, Ontario, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.is asking “How can we design problem/passion-based professional learning to engage our teachers for 21st century learners?” Leading the Shift transparently blogs as they capture just a bit of their rich conversations from Blackboard Collaborate sessions.

Our third Elluminate Session consisted of great dialogue about creating a framework for our project. We began the conversation by asking questions about how we can design units for our own contexts, what the framework would look like, and the planning and refining process. –source

Students in PA are asking “How can we pay it forward?” The educators on the Collective Action team collaborate on a Google Doc where they have already mapped their unit to standards, identified resources, initial and culminating activities and planned Skype sessions for their students.

Across PA students are exploring “How can art illustrate a culture of learning? The Arts and Crafts team has been blogging and has begun sharing on a wiki. Their passion based approach to this unit has generated great excitement among them as each teacher has brainstormed how this will become a part of their curriculum.

So much like the garden, these are harbingers too–only this time of meaningful, deep learning to come. Perhaps, even more exciting– I have some notion of the garden I hope to see in May and June. Yet I’ve only these hints and peeks at what may well become entirely new learning landscapes for these educators and their students. I’m impatient for both the garden and more about these projects– Yet I know both will be more than worth the waiting–

Join Us

Powerful Learning Practice would love to help grow your 21st century garden.  To make sure we are planting the right seeds, we are shifting our Year 2 experience to a 3-series eCourse with the renowned authors of Reinventing Project Based Learning.   Jane Krauss will lead the eCourses with co-author Suzie Boss assisting.  So whether you are joining us for your first or second year of PLP, we’re going to ensure every child blossoms in your classroom!  Stay tuned to the PLP blog as more details are forthcoming on the Year 2 experience.

Photo credit

The whole Canadian community is benefiting from the discussions that have been initiated by our members. Here’s a sampling!

Trading Post

Alan Fletcher’s ‘Connecting Students’ discussion led to a new space called PLP Trading Post where teachers can share connections they’d like to make with other teachers about classroom or personal ventures – check it out!

Gathering and Validating

Tony Hardy initiated a discussion that concerns us all – ‘Gathering and Validating Information’. He suggests, “If not careful, won’t we possibly increase the opportunity for misconceptions based on poor information?”  This led to some great practical resources being shared about the Ontario Institute of Education’s Knowledge Building research and the Critical Thinking Consortium’s classroom activities on this topic. Brian Smith also speaks of discussing a hierarchy of trust with students to help them determine validity.

‘Inquiry Based Learning’ discussion

After Webinar #2, folks began sharing resources and thoughts about the importance of inquiry.  Alastair McGillivray said it well when he describes the opportunity to explore in PLP this way, “As system educators we’re often challenged to think critically and even creatively to solve problems but that challenge is directed by those around us who need to see results.  How often do we get this chance to identify a particular set of needs, devise a strategy for exploration, determine our own success criteria and complete all of this on our own time BEFORE moving to implementation.  Thanks PLP!!!”  Lucie deLeBruere brings in the work of John Seely Brown and Colin Jagoe notices that “once you start thinking about teaching in an inquiry fashion, it starts to infiltrate all aspects” of your teaching – a great thing!

Excitement building

Some members of our Pick One are just returning from two weeks of holidays and team spaces are starting to come alive with thoughts of the new year and of the upcoming webinar.   Many team leaders participated in a valuable webinar and shared some practical ideas in support of the whole community.

Celebrations and awards

• Chad Reay had a second baby boy, Oliver, in November
• Brenda Sherry and Peter Skillen were awarded the ISTE Making IT Happen award.

Communities are forming now

A Powerful Learning Practice Community is an ongoing, job-embedded professional development experience built around emerging, social Web technologies. Within these communities, participants are supported in an intensive community-building process online and in person by a passionate team of experienced experts and educators. Our professional development model encourages you to learn through immersion and then as a team develop an action plan for how you will scale what you are learning with others. Communities are forming now! Learn more and sign up for an info session.

Photo credit: Flickr

Curious about our Passion-Based Learning Community?

Our Year 2 experience focuses on project, problem, and passion-based learning. We teach you how to use inquiry-based learning through the lens of social technologies. You’ll have provocative conversations and explore collaborative solutions to assessment. We work on re-envisioning classrooms and curriculum through hands-on, online, student/teacher collaboration. These teams will develop a cross-curricular project aligned with state standards and embedded with 21st Century skills and literacies. We look closely at how to scale learning while involving students in the PLP process. See an example of how our students and teachers saved the world through their problem-based learning experience.

Learn more about Year 2 and save your spot for the Communities forming now!

Photo credit: Flickr

Deep breaths. Some questions. Uncertainty. More quiet. And then they jumped in.

In their new private team spaces in the PLP community hub, they chose team leaders. They introduced themselves and shared Twitter handles. They created team blogs on which they will transparently share their journey. Given a simple activity to get to know each other, to co create content together, each team approached it in a different way bringing their unique talents and gifts to the task. (The Diamonds of Inquiry task: Given a graphic, as a team select 9 words that best describe inquiry in the classroom.  Put the words on the image, prioritizing from most to least importance.) Two teams took this activity to an additional level as it became part of the foundation for their moving forward.

Each member of the Arts and Crafts team listed their choices in their private space on the PLP Community Hub; one their members manually prioritized their selections by number of times each word was mentioned. Another member used Picnik to add the words to the image. Subsequently in a webinar, Sister Geralyn, team leader, posted their completed image on the white board stimulating their first deep and meaningful conversation around their project.

The team with the Instructional or Discipline Focus began the task with a shared Google drawing created by one of its members. The image below illustrates their “diamond building” in progress.

In their team space days later, Sheamus Burns posted an idea:

“I thought we could rate the words we came up with on a scale of importance. Our project will have particular outcomes and the words we chose have to do with the nature of those outcomes. The words that we rank the highest can become categories in which we start determining what our intended outcomes for the project might be. I imagine we could have a set of shared intended outcomes and then our own personal intended outcomes.”

A link followed to a Google form he created to collect everyone’s input.

Undaunted by time zones and geographical distance, year 2 PLPeeps rise to the challenge. Their passions fuel their journey; the technology enables it; the collaboration exponentially enhances it. Their taking a simple activity and leveraging it as a foundation for their journey is telling. With their diverse talents and perspectives, they are on their way to extraordinary PBL units.

Stay tuned. They are just getting started! And I get to tag along, to marvel, to learn, to celebrate — what could be better?

You can vote here for any or all of the 18 categories until 11:59 p.m., U.S. Eastern time, Tuesday, December 13.

I’m particularly proud that our group blog Voices from the Learning Revolution, launched just nine months ago, made the shortlist for Best Group Blog. With curation and editorial support from PLP consultant John Norton, we’ve posted more than 100 essays and articles written by nearly two dozen public and independent school teachers, principals, instructional and tech coaches and central office administrators. As one nominator (Tempered Radical Bill Ferriter) put it:

I’m still in the classroom full-time, so I understand better than most the sacrifices that we make when we choose to teach.  I also understand just how risky it can be to make our practice transparent in such a public way by choosing to blog.

 

That’s why the Voices from the Learning Revolution blog — a PLP Network project — means so much to me.  It’s chock-a-block FULL of real-live classroom teachers writing with great detail about their instructional practices — and it changes what I do in my own classroom almost every time that I stop by.

You can learn more about our Learning Revolution project and see a complete list of current Voices writers here. After you check out the blog, I hope you’ll consider casting your vote in support of this amazing writing community!

More PLP friends on the Awards shortlist!

Other folks involved in our Powerful Learning Practice communities who are nominated for EduBlog Awards this year include:

Best Teacher Blog (vote here)

Ann Michaelsen, Teaching English with Web 2.0
Shelley Wright, Wright’s Room

Best Student Blog (vote here)

Sara (Ann Michaelsen’s student)

Best Librarian Blog (vote here)

Jenny Luca, Lucacept

Best Class Blog (vote here)

Kathy Cassidy, Mrs. Cassidy’s Grade 1 Classroom Blog

Best Administrator Blog (vote here)

Lyn Hilt, The Principal’s Posts

Best Individual Blog (vote here)

Will Richardson, Read. Write. Connect. Learn.

Best Individual Tweeter (vote here)

Alec Couros, @courosa
Dean Shareski, @shareski

Most Influential Blog Post (vote here)

Will Richardson, “My Teacher Is an App”

Lifetime Achievement (vote here)

Bud (the Teacher) Hunt
Will Richardson
Dean Shareski

If I somehow missed a PLP friend (there are literally hundreds of nominees across the categories), please add yourself (and a link) in the comments below.

And congratulations to everyone who does the hard work of sharing and staying connected. We don’t do it for awards, but they often help us find new audiences.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

Before the main part of his presentation, Alan set up a few activities based on the Alternate Reality Game PLP had set up for the participants here - a story about the PLP penguin, Periwinkle who had somehow gotten himself tied up in a boxing match with a tough kangaroo named Joey.

Alan had our PLPeeps think about these characters do some creative activities to develop their personas.

He split the room in two, and had half the room work on the questions about Joey’s character and half do the same questions about Peri (created in open Google docs) — they took to it with plenty of  energy!

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

Alan ultimately had to pull them out of the google docs while they were still writing and laughing. Then he asked for a volunteer to come up on stage and lead the choices of photo for a 5 card flickr story (he had gotten people to tag about 300 photos with the project tag plpconnectu). Lois was a great sport (see her story here) and then it was the group’s turn. Once again, they really ran with this activity.

Then he extended the story development process, and had the groups switch, the people who had worked on Joey’s character, now had to review the traits about Peri, and enter the responses to the Call to Adventure stage for Peri — and likewise, the other group do the same for Joey’s Call to Adventure. He then got two more volunteers to come up on stage and do a pechaflickr round of improv with those plpconnecu tagged photos.

The 50 Ways Tool Picker

He then unveiled his secret weapon – a tool that would help decide which Web 2.0 tool was best for the job. All they needed to do was click “pick” on the 50 Ways Tool Picker! Click below to check it out!

Our PLPeeps were truly on the edges of their seat and willing to jump in and play. A big thanks to everyone who participated and to Alan for an energetic and fun keynote!

Keep your eyes out for more posts soon all about the team projects, alternate reality game and the other adventures at our culminating activity!

Resources

See photos from the culminating activity on Flickr. All of the presentation slides and links are at http://50ways.wikispaces.com/plpconnectu. You can also listen to an Audio archive of his presentation.

Australia Community PLPeep Delia Jenkins

In the beginning.
A colleague and I arrived at the first F2F (face-to-face) day after a very early rise and 3.5 hour drive. I had been asked if I would like to go to the PLP professional development and was told it would be a great opportunity to further my IT skills. Always up for something new in IT, I thought it would be a worthwhile day. After the first 5 minutes of Sheryl’s introduction I was already worried that I was way out of my depth. It was clear that every one else in the room had far more knowledge and was more comfortable with their skills than I was. I listened intently and did my best to keep up with the Ning, wiki and tweeting. So much information in a short period of time and a 3.5 hour drive home to try and figure out what had just happened.

 

I am actually a bit of a perfectionist and never like to let something beat me. This isn’t always a good thing, and I have learnt to control these feelings on most occasions, but after the F2F day I felt I was honoured to have been given the chance to be a part of this and I was going to give it 100 percent. I made it a priority to follow all the instructions, post as often as I could and get involved in all the different activities that were going on.
When it came time to select a group, I immediately chose the Environment group as it was an area that I felt I had most knowledge in and one where I could incorporate the topic into the Yr 7 Science class I teach.
I was disappointed that the group was slow to fill and it looked like some that chose it did so as there was nothing else left. Little was I to know that this was to be a very strong group of special, dedicated teachers that all have similar passions and abilities.
Got to put your trust in the powers that be and accept that all things happen for a reason.

 

How did working together change you?
Being able to work as part of a team where we hadn’t met face-to-face was an interesting experience at first. Communicating initially via the Ning and getting to know a bit about each other was a good introduction and everyone began to find their feet. For me, having the courage to communicate via Elluminate and Skype, where we got to see and hear each other, was a little more daunting but very rewarding and I have built some great professional relationships through the project. Being prepared to have a go at new experiences is getting easier and easier and the more you do it the more benefits you reap.
We often ask that of a lot of our students and really don’t appreciate the challenges that it puts to them. Collaborating as we did and then using the same format in the PBL gave us a deeper appreciation of the challenges put to the students and also gave us the insight in how to best support them in their learning using these ‘new’ technologies.

 

How was it collaborating?
I think because our team got up and running so early and everyone was very keen and interested (how fortunate were we!), the collaborating happened easily. We all had lots of different experiences to bring to the table and were happy to share these freely. The sharing of professional knowledge and experiences and the support from each other was definitely a major plus for me. To actually be able to put into use – in a meaningful way – many Web2.0 tools that I had heard about and looked at before but never found an application for in the past was wonderful.
Barring the occasional technical difficulties and availabilities of all the team members, we did a pretty good job of collaborating. With the use of the Ning, Elluminate, Skype, texting, e-mailing, etc., we managed to keep the project running smoothly.

 

What are your thoughts now about PBL?
I had actually done a PBL with a teacher from another school 2 years ago. I already knew this teacher which made communicating easier and we used mainly Skype. The project was a very simple one and we had a lot of technical difficulties. We did struggle through it and felt we had put in a lot of work for a small return.
When we started this PBL I was worried about the amount of time it was going to consume and yes, it did feel like I had a whole other job on top of what I already had to do, but the difference this time was the huge amount of extra support and professional direction from people who clearly knew what they were doing (Thank you PLP ConnectU and especially our coach John P.).
My main issue with our PBL was wondering what if anything my students learnt about the environment. We were initially going to assess what they learnt about the environment and decided that was going to be a near impossible task and changed our assessment to reflect their learning about collaboration, team work and communicating globally using web2.0 tools. I think all our students did extremely well and the assessments indicate that from a collaborative point of view our PBL was a great success. I was still a little worried that I had spent an entire term of science classes on a project where they hadn’t actually learnt any science (how was I going to report on that?!!). Well, how wrong was I?
Four of my students were interviewed and filmed about our PBL, by the DEECD. They were asked specifically that question – What did you learn about the environment and how did you learnt it? I was looking the other way and sinking in my chair thinking they aren’t going to be able to answer that question. Wrong again. All four very eloquently went about telling the chap amazing things about how they had researched, asked opinions, edited video drafts, created songs, discovered new information and so on. I had no idea. I don’t recall actually seeing this learning happen. They had learnt a great deal about the environment, specific to the topic for their group and when we get time to have a look at each of the groups work I am sure they will also learn from the collaborative work that they have all done. I still don’t know how to assess it though. Does it need assessing?

My final thought about PBL is, that it’s like learning to ride a bike or learning any new skill. We ask our students every day to learn new things and challenge themselves. Some persevere and others don’t. The more you do something the easier it gets. Yes it is a lot of hard work and sometimes you will fall off the bike and want to give up, but if you stick to it, it will be worth it in the long run.

Thanks, Delia, for leading, learning and sharing as part of the PLP Australia community, and congratulations on your outstanding accomplishments!