A Fresh Start
By Doug Peterson
Fellow, Ontario Cohort 2009
One of the true benefits of a job in education is that you get a chance to reinvent yourself every school year. There are a lot of careers that you might have chosen otherwise that just don’t give you that luxury. Things may change in terms of products that you build, tools that you use, projects that you’re involved with, etc., but it’s only in education that you get a fresh batch of faces and an opportunity for a total refresh every year.
It’s not just K-12, higher education gets that opportunity as well. A brand new set of faces; perhaps new curriculum; a new chance to establish learning routines; an opportunity to try out new tools. These are the parameters that make teaching the profession that it is.
You’ve got the curriculum that needs to be addressed but typically, you’re asked to rely on your professional discretion as to how it will happen in your classroom. While there is the lore of people who have taught a course so often that they have lesson plans laminated and dated, that has to be the stuff that needs to be taken with some scepticism.
It can be difficult to bring in massive change in the middle of a school year, but starting on Day 1, new routines and approaches can be implemented to motivate both teacher and student. Judicious use also can deliver on the promise of engagement and differentiation.
Think of the possibilities.
Textbooks – Do you really need to dig out and assign those moldy old static content deliverers? Does your science textbook still have Pluto listed as a planet? Learning and research is more robust and transparent on the web.
Software – The bane of teachers and IT Departments is ensuring that all of the applications that are installed on classroom computers is done properly and working as it should. Even when they are, they’re only available at school. Ironically, computer use and javelins may be the only things that can’t be sent home as homework. (OK, just kidding about the javelins) Student workspaces are configured and permissions properly assigned. A slip and it leads to frustrations. Change your thoughts from applications needing to be installed to applications web-based that just work. It opens up a whole new world. There are even classroom management environments if you’re in search of one. Flexibility is also required for times of slow connections or maintenance but that’s the world that we live in.
Blogging – There are so many Rs that effective blogging can address. Reading, writing, reflecting, responding. The only challenge will be making the decision about whether it’s a classroom blog or whether each student has her own. Or both? It’s not just a language tool. Think of it as an introspection opportunity in all subject areas where students can dig just a little deeper and comment on the thinking of their peers.
Connecting – Can you remember when an expert might be a short term event with a guest appearing in the classroom? It might happen once a year if the students are lucky. With the proper connections, everyone has the potential to be an expert. Instead of collecting monies to hire an expert for a day, make the connection with another class doing the same thing where they are the experts. Sessions can be as long as they need to be rather than a timetabling nightmare.
Storytelling – There are awesome tools available that allow for remixing, reshaping, and constructing the new story. The tools can also be used in very trivial ways. When I talk, I warn against the “low hanging fruit”. Used properly though, these tools can go far beyond Friday afternoon activities to being a crucial tool for engaging stories to support curriculum. Look for innovative ways of using tools like Google’s StreetView, for example.
Home and School Connection – The use of online tools open the home/school connection in ways never before possible. Rather than a paper newsletter that goes home monthly/weekly, web communication can become a true communication enabler. Find out early if anyone is going to be disadvantaged. You may be surprised at the various ways that parents and students are connected outside the school. Consider this a message to go and make all of the online learning transparent to everyone.
Connections – The personal iPod or cell phone can be the elephant in the room. It’s going to be a fight that you’ll lose so embrace it. These are really powerful devices and banning them leads to under desk one hand texting. Have them out and on the desktop for all to see and establish a protocol for their use. There are times when they are clearly inappropriate but also there are times for learning and active use and discovery. Use them to expand the connectivity in your classroom.
Amalgamating Content – It’s also important that access to all of these resources is easily available to all involved whether it be students, parents, other classes in your school, collaborating classes world-wide, and principals. Make it easy on yourself by looking at a class wiki that’s easily updated without extra tools, FTP, etc. Remember that the wiki isn’t just about you. The more collaborators, the richer the content.
Movies – There was a time when making movies in the classroom involved high-end equipment and specialized lighting, sounds, etc. There still is room for that as a discipline but the world has moved on. Online movie sharing has made this media available to everyone. Cell phones and mini-cameras bring movie making to the masses. Everyone has a story to tell. Even if you aren’t ready to move in that direction, your students are! Don’t forget that screencasting can be equally as compelling. The cool educational thing – making a movie requires a lot of thought and research!
The News – There was a time when current events was an important component of every day but that has faded in some quarters. The connected classroom can bring that back with a vengeance. Subscribe to news feeds or content and you’ll be amazed at what’s available daily. Imagine a click and you’re watching a movie about something relevant to today’s lesson. Or, use any of the earth viewing tools to zoom in on locations and put studies in context. You don’t necessarily have to do the work for yourself. Follow some great blogs or online bookmarking feeds. There are lots of people documenting the best of the best. Why start from scratch?
Do Some Good – As the world becomes smaller when connected, so does awareness of global and local issues. Good global citizens are aware of these issues and can direct their fundraising or benevolence efforts toward them. Once students are aware of the need, it may be difficult deciding where to direct their energies.
Make Something – The availability of all of the reading can lull you and students into being passive consumers of it. You’ll never read it all anyway so don’t try. Read enough and then get moving. Write a program; solve a problem; develop web content; solve a puzzle; take and analyze some measurements; build a birdhouse…
Professional Growth – Before this turns into a book, take time to do something for yourself. You can’t beat going to a conference or other Professional Development event but I would urge you to think of them differently. Instead of a place to go to learn something new, think of them as a place to make connections and consolidate your thoughts. Instead, get yourself a Twitter
account and follow some great educators and others, read some blogs, grab some RSS feeds and do the reading and thinking daily. Don’t just subscribe to people that you can easily agree with. If you consider yourself a liberal in thinking, latch on to one or two conservative voices. They’ll make your blood boil but open up windows to new sides of the discussion.
Yes, it’s September and classrooms and lecture halls can be exactly what you want them to be. The first lessons establish the norms and expectations for the new year. It’s a chance to be exactly what you want to be. So, what do you want to be as you get a fresh start?
image: By tillweTill WestermayeArchdiocese of Philadelphia Cohort wraps things up
By Mary Worrell
The teams from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia cohort gathered to celebrate at a culminating event last month and share their projects.
Nancy Caramanico, director of technology for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Catholic Schools, said having full participation from all of the district’s high schools enhanced the experience for all the teams involved.
“We have 20 high schools in our system and I was looking for something that would be able to impact the schools,” she said. The district formed their own cohort and invited six people from each school, including teachers, administrators and high school technicians.”We were interested in professional development that harnesses both innovative technology and sound and rigorous pedagogy.
“It was a perfect blend of important parts of the puzzle,” she said. “Having every school involved allowed them to collaborate and connect with one another and share resources and best practices on a broad scale.”
Jim Meredith from Archbishop Ryan High School was initially skeptical when told his school would be participating in PLP.
“When the Archdiocese told us about this, I thought ‘great, something else we have to do,’” he said. “But I got into it and to make a long story short, after teaching AP Government for a few years, I’d never done anything new until this year.”
Meredith decided to take a chance with social networking in his class, but didn’t dive in head first. If he was going to use Facebook in his class, he wanted to do it right. He shared his experiences and ideas with other teams on the PLP Archdiocese of Philadelphia cohort virtual learning community.
“Will and Sheryl talked about Web 2.0 tools and going where the students are. Many adults have such a negative feeling about it like I did, but I thought, if I can just get my students on Facebook and do it educationally and ethically,” he said.
Meredith decided to include his AP Government students in discussions about considering Facebook and his reservations.
“They went crazy in a positive way and I knew I needed to go forward and strike while the iron was hot,” he said. “I had two lessons about what to do on the Internet and use Facebook ethically. I talked about their digital fingerprints. I don’t they ever had an educator talk to them like that.”
Meredith’s class created a Facebook group where they posted discussion topics. The class plans to keep the group going after graduation, Meredith said.
Members of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia cohort shared their projects at a recent culminating event.
Caramanico said Meredith put plenty of time and thought into utilizing Facebook.
“The best part about Jim’s story is that he really thought it through, the ethics and responsibility, the use policy. Everything he did was within the parameters of our existing policy,” Caramanico said. “He talked to the students about the safety piece and conducting themselves online – really modeling safe and ethical activity online.”
While Meredith pursued Facebook on his own, his team focused on cultivating professional development within the school walls.
“We always have the professional development where people come in, they leave, and nothing happens,” he said. “If we showed them success in the building it’s more effective than sending them somewhere. We got some buzz from our presentation.”
Nancy Summers of J.W. Hallahan High School said her team focused its project efforts on promoting collaboration among the teachers and taking small steps.
“At each of our in-services, we discussed things that came up in PLP – changing our approaches, getting away from lectures, interactive work with students, embracing social technology,” Summers said.
The team from J.W. Hallahan decided to focus their final project on professional development for teachers so that the skills and tools could be passed onto students. The team developed a virtual learning community for teachers to collaborate and share ideas.
“The main focus is collaboration and teachers have shared lesson plans and ways to deal with struggling students,” Summers said. “Everybody is definitely more confident with their tech skills. I think that’s the best change -everyone is more open and not afraid to try something new.”
You can read more about each team’s project by visiting their wiki pages below.
Conwell-Egan Catholic High School
The team at Conwell-Egan took an international approach with their project. The school set up communications with another school in Beunos Aires, Argentina using a wiki and Skype. One of the many goals of the project is to give students real-world practice of a foreign language. You can read more about their project here.
Archbishop Wood High School
The team at Archbishop Wood developed a faculty wiki and a faculty virtual learning community. You can read more about their project here.
Bishop Shanahan High School
The Bishop Shanahan team developed a school-wide, virtual learning community involving administration and department chairs as a way to share ideas and information and to lay the groundwork for the rollout of the social network to the faculty. You can read more about their project here.
Kennedy-Kenrick Catholic High School
You can read more about the Kennedy-Kenrick’s team project here.
Lansdale Catholic High School
You can read more about Lansdale’s team project here.
Bishop McDevitt High School
You can read more about the Bishop McDevitt team’s project here.
Saint Pius X High School
The team at Saint Pius X developed a faculty network to enhance communication among faculty members and between schools. You can read more about their project here.
Monsignor Bonner / Archbishop Prendergast High School
The team at Minsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast surveyed administration, faculty and students on their use of technology in an effort to identify experts that can communicate their knowledge to the rest of the campus community. You can read more about their project here.
Archbishop Carroll High School
You can read more about Archbishop Carroll’s team project here.
Cardinal O’Hara High School
The team at Cardinal O’Hara developed a virtual learning community for thair faculty to share ideas and new Web 2.0 tools. You can read more about their project here.
John W. Hallahan High School
The John W. Hallahan team’s project involved developing a virtual learning community for the faculty and in-service where faculty members were asked to create profiles on the community and collaborate on a Google document. You can read more about their project here.
Saints John Neumann and Maria Goretti Catholic High School
You can read more about the Saints John Neumann and Maria Goretti team’s project here.
Roman Catholic High School
You can read more about the Roman Catholic’s team here.
West Philadelphia Catholic High School
The team at West Philadelphia helped team leader Gina Joceville develop a virtual learning community for her honors biology class. You can read more about the project here.
Cardinal Dougherty High School
Cardinal Dougherty’s team developed a school-wide wiki. You can read more about their project here.
Father Judge High School
The team at Father Judge is working to develop a professional digital learning community for the next year. Red more about their project here.
Saint Hubert High School
You can read more about Saint Hubert’s team project here.
Little Flower High School
The team at Little Flower has a detailed plan for implementing school-wide usage of Web 2.0 tools next year. Red more about their plan here.
Mercy Vocational High School
The team at Mercy Vocational developed a cross-curricular learning project for students on Greece. You can read more about their project “It’s All Greek to Me!” here.
Northeast Catholic High School
The team at Northeast Catholic is working on a virtual learning community to immerse teachers in Web 2.0 tools. You can read more about their project here.
Archbishop Ryan High School
You can read about Archbishop Ryan’s project here.
Office of Catholic Education
You can read about the OCE’s team project here.
Illinois-Ohio Cohort celebrates at culminating event
By Mary Worrell
Earlier this month teams from the Illinois-Ohio Cohort gathered at the Marie Murphy School is Wilmette, Ill. to celebrate the end of their year-long PLP experience with a project showcase.
Gail Soriano from the Avoca School District 37 said the PLP experience gave her team a chance to get to know others in the district. The Avoca district hosted two PLP teams.
“It was amazing. The thing I enjoyed the most was working with people in my district from both schools,” Soriano said. “A lot of times we don’t have the opportunity to work with teachers in the other building and from different grade levels. It brought our district together in a way I’ve never seen before – we were working toward a common goal.”
Kim Zimmer, from the other Avoca District team, acknowledged the importance of the collaborative aspect of the PLP experience.
“The transformation came in the conversations we’ve had since – it brought together teachers that might otherwise have never crossed paths,” Zimmer said.
The technology integration aspect of PLP shook a lot of team members up, Zimmer said.
“Which as a tech facilitator was great to see,” she said. “We came out knowing a lot of more about technology and tech integration. I really came away with the concept of a personal learning network – it’s changed the way I do things and the way I help teachers.”
Mark Emmons and his team from Leyden High School had to celebrate failure before they could find the right strategy for implementing their project.
“Like many, we went in thinking we would develop professional development sites, connections between our colleagues, and everyone was going to jump on the bandwagon. We thought 300 teachers would embrace technology,” Emmons said. “The good news is we quickly changed our focus. Instead of throwing a blanket over all of the teachers, we started communicating one-on-one and grew it that way. We started to create evangelists not talking about tech, but talking about engaging students.”
Alison Cox from the Bedford City School District said her team struggled at first before finding their footing.
“It was a long process for us and sporadic initially. A year ago we were disjointed, not working toward any particular goal, but we are now,” Cox said. “The six of us in this district are on the same page and working toward a reachable goal. We’re really excited about the future.”
The Bedford team is developing a wiki to serve as a database of information to share with teachers without having to meet in-person.
Emmons from the Leyden team said the PLP experience was hard, but necessary work.
“You either figure out how this is going to be in your teaching toolkit, or you’ll relegate yourself to the back of the bus,” he said. “When the objective is to use technology, we’re in the wrong place. When technology becomes ubiquitous, that’s when it gets really cool.”
Visit each team’s wiki page below for a peek into how they planned their culminating projects.
Illinois Teams
Avoca School District 37 – Teams One & Two
Avoca Team One developed a menu of tutorials for its teachers called TechBytes. Avoca Team Two focused its project on student blogging. You can read about both teams’ projects here.
Leyden High School District 212
Read about the Leyden High School team’s project here.
Northbrook School District 28
Greenbriar School: Team Sprockets
The Greenbriar team’s project, “No Teacher Left Behind,” was developed with the goals of increasing the use of technology across the building and creating a venue for efficient professional collaboration. Read more about the project here.
Meadowbrook School: Team Polaris
The Meadowbrook team focused its project on enhancing communication and collaboration among staff members. Read more about their project here.
Northbrook Junior High: Team Apex
The Northbrook team aimed to foster online collaboration and professional development for its staff through its project. Read more about their project here.
Westmoor School: Team West ‘Site’ Story
The Westmoor School developed its project with the objective of changing the behavior, temperament and culture of the school to use 21st century learning practices. Read more about their project here.
Sunset Ridge School District 29
The Sunset Ridge team is in the process of developing a wiki for its Sunset Ridge Learning Network, which will focus on disseminating information about a 21st century learning seminar series. You can read more about the project here.
East Maine School District 63
The four East Maine teams focused their project efforts on staff development. You can read more about their project here.
Ohio Teams
Forest Hills School District-Secondary
The secondary Forest Hills team is building a wiki that will share the team’s 21st centurized lessons and foster collaboration among teachers. You can read more about the team’s project and find a link to its wiki here.
Forest Hills School District-Elementary
The elementary Forest Hills team developed a professional learning community for its culminating project. You can read more about the planning involved in the project here.
Bedford City School District
Team Bedford is developing a virtual learning community to build awareness of 21st century skills like collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. You can read more about their project here.
U.S. International Cohort teams reflect on the past year
By Mary Worrell
Members of the PLP International Cohort’s U.S. teams celebrated the end to their year-long experience together with a culminating event in Fredericksburg, VA earlier this month. Even though it was the U.S. teams celebrating and presenting their projects, teams from Australia and New Zealand attended the event via the PLPLive Ustream channel. It was 11 p.m. for the Australians and 2 a.m. for the New Zealanders, but they were still on hand to support their fellow U.S. teams. (The Aussie teams will have their learning showcase event in July.)
The projects presented at the event showcased the learning of participating teams over the last year. But the event was also about book-ending the PLP experience with another face-to-face event where people who had gotten to know each other online could catch up and collaborate in person.
Alex Ragone and Melanie Hutchinson said each member of the Collegiate School team in New York City got something different from the year with PLP.
“It created some really clear ideas of what we have to do and how we can get there,” said Ragone, director of technology at Collegiate.
“I didn’t realize how far along we’d come until the end,” said Hutchinson, lower school curriculum coordinator at Collegiate. “My whole life has changed and this whole new world has opened up to me.”
Ragone said the Collegiate team started utilizing what they’d learned by dipping just a toe into the pool with some digital communication tools for faculty and parents, but since then they’ve begun to expand and have started to try and communicate what they learned through PLP with the rest of the faculty. For their project, the Collegiate team created a Yammer for their faculty, which Ragone described as an internal Twitter network for faculty members.
“It’s just another place to have conversations,” Ragone said.
For the team at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, Va., the PLP experience has been more of a journey than anything else, said Hiram Cuevas, director of academic technology at St. Christopher’s, team leader, and PLP 21st Century Fellow.
“When our team started to branch out within PLP, we realized we were growing at different rates, but that we were all growing,” Cuevas said. “There was a realization that it was okay to take your time.”
Cuevas said many of the teachers on his team, and he personally, took the PLP experience as a chance to expand their personal learning networks.
“I found myself gravitating toward increasing the size of my PLN so I could grow personally, but also provide support for my team and support for other teams within the cohort,” he said. “The other thing that two of my teachers have learned is that it’s okay to lurk, but don’t make a habit of doing so. Learn how to be contributors.”
The St. Christopher’s team developed a wiki for faculty members populated with how-tos for Web-based tools and technologies.
“We wanted to create a safe environment and one in which everyone has an opportunity to flourish,” Cuevas said. “We also included tips for working internationally with other schools.”
Susanne Nobles, an English teacher at Fredericksburg Academy in Virginia and a member of the school’s PLP team, said being a part of PLP helped her overcome the overwhelmed feelings she had about technology.
“The year was powerful. They said ‘do this for yourself and that’s enough,’” Nobles said. “I didn’t have to worry about putting it into my classroom. I could spend time figuring it out for myself, but I ultimately did use it in my classroom.”
Susan Carter Morgan, team leader, instructional tech coordinator and English teacher for Fredericksburg Academy, said the team of peers put faculty members at ease when the group presented what they’d been learning through PLP.
“I had a comment after our presentation that ‘this is the first time I’ve been this comfortable talking about technology ever,’” Morgan said. “Having a team of people is wonderful. It woudl be very hard to be alone and have this voice of authority because I’m not an administrator. But we have this team of people research, work on projects, learn for themselves and apply it to their classrooms.”
Morgan said that the PLP model, which involves giving teams little direction in the beginning stages, was initially frustrating but ended up allowing the team to flourish on its own and find its own direction in the learning process.
“Because we took up this intentional time to meet monthly, we grew, pushed back a little bit, and tried to change each other’s thinking. We focused on our thoughtful approaches to teaching and learning,” Morgan said. “We shared things that worked, we learned them ourselves and realized how we could use them in our classes. When we learned together we realized that’s what we wanted our faculty to do.”
Team Ravenscroft went from feeling required to learn about technology to wanting to learn about it, said Kathleen Christopher, academic computing coordinator, team leader and PLP 21st Century Fellow.
“I think the biggest thing that is different is that at the beginning they felt a sense of obligation to participate and try new things because they were a part of the group,” she said. “Now they actively seek out new activities because of their own developing interest in what the tools can help them accomplish with their students.”
The Ravenscroft team developed a professional development wiki as a way to pass what they learned through PLP onto their fellow faculty members.
Matt Scully is director of technology at Providence Day School (PDS) in North Carolina and his team’s leader. The team is trying to get faculty members revved up for a professional development day in October to be led by the PLP team.
“A lot of what we’re trying to do is make sure we’re having conversations,” Scully said. “Not necessarily about technology, but about curriculum, differentiation, assessment, and mention where tools can help.”
One of the PDS team members expressed some skeptism at first about whether his students were learning as much through the new methods. After a gentle push from PLP he conducted his own action research project to see just what was happening in terms of student achievement and was surprised at the results, especially when aggregated by gender. It appears that his female students did better using social means to learn and study.
Like Cuevas, Scully said the year-long PLP experience helped him expand his personal learning network.
“It has made all of us very reflective on our practice in the classroom,” Scully said. “We had to step back and ask ourselves why we did what we did and why.”
Each PLP team developed a project to culminate the year-long experience. Please visit their wiki pages to review their hard work and innovation:
Virginia
Fredericksburg Academy- VA
The team at Fredericksburg Academy created a school-wide, virtual learning community to introduce faculty to the idea of reflective collaboration and sharing. They are also planning monthly, after-school sessions to share Web 2.0 tools. You can read more about their project here.
Christchurch School- VA
The team at Christchurch is working to implement 21st century skills and Web 2.0 tools into its existing curriculum. You can read more about this transformation
here.
St. Christopher’s School- VA
The St. Christopher’s team developed a wiki where teachers can learn Web 2.0 tools and see how other teachers have utilized them. You can read more about their project here.
Flint Hill School- VA
You can read more about Flint Hill’s project here.
Norfolk Academy- VA
You can read more about Norfolk Academy’s project here.
North Carolina
Ravenscroft School- NC
The team from Ravenscroft decided to develop a school-wide, professional development wiki to share and scale what they’ve been learning with the rest of their faculty here.
Providence Day School- NC
You can read more about Providence’s project here.
New York City
Collegiate School- NYC
The Team at Collegiate School created a Yammer for the school’s nearly 100 faculty members to share ideas. You can read more about their project here.
Missouri
Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School- MO
You can read more about Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School’s project here
Self Directed Learning Teams
By Robin Ellis
In the November issue of Educational Leadership there was an interesting article, Students at Bat, as I read it I saw a correlation between the article and conversations about self-directed learning, both for students and adults. The article used an analogy of how playing neighborhood baseball taught many skills to children, for example: they chose teams, picked positions, decided where bases were located, what was considered a home run, and determined batting orders. Older children taught younger children how to bat, run the bases, and how to field the ball. Children resolved their disagreements through conversation, compromise and consensus.
Today most children don’t have the chance to play neighborhood baseball, their leagues are structured and run by adults who pick the teams, determine who plays what position, and create the batting order and the schedule of when games are played. Organized sports today are much like school, kids are told where to sit, who they will work with, when to eat, when to get up, when they can talk, what they will learn, and how they will be measured on their learning. As students move up in grade levels their choices become fewer and fewer, schedules are more structured, and course requirements make their time in school more restrictive. They have fewer opportunities to learn about sharing, resolving disputes through compromise and consensus. They are rarely asked to participate in conversations to decide about their learning goals, rules of conduct, or classroom procedures. In some instances these same structures apply to educational professional development as well.
Yet, we talk of self-directed learning and its importance in education today. Usually the conversations are centered on students being self directed learners and the difficulties they seem to have understanding this concept, but this is a new experience for many teachers as well. I believe most people are used to menu option of professional development sessions offered through their employer. Many chose to attend sessions that fit into the time constraints of their lives, whether they are the most relevant or not. Through PLP it has been my pleasure to watch throughout all of the cohorts; strong, self directed learners emerge. For many this was a new experience, a yearlong job embedded personal learning opportunity, in which all participants had choice, not only of where and when they would participate, but also choice in topics of interest they wanted to learn more about, have collegial conversations with others, ask questions to clarify understanding, dig deeper, and grow personally and professionally. It was not an easy journey for everyone, the reality everyone was responsible for their own learning was a shift, and a revealing one. I remember last fall one day Scott Godshalk, a teammate of mine said,
“I’m just not sure what I should be doing, I keep waiting for someone to tell me what to do”. Once the words were out of his mouth, he seemed to realize he was in charge of what he was doing, and ultimately of what he would learn throughout the year. The benefits he would gain would stem from the time and energy he invested in the experience and conversations he felt were relevant to his learning.
As all cohorts participate in their last Elluminate session, a time designated to sharing their projects before coming together face to face for final celebrations, there is overwhelming evidence teams of strong, self-directed learners have formed within the communities of cohorts. The projects for sustaining and scaling the learning which has taken place this year are varied in scope and delivery methods. Most importantly, all are rooted in change and evidence of the collaborative learning environments we have been immersed in.
On Growing Mushrooms and Community
By Karen Richardson
As an early birthday gift, my husband gave me a mushroom growing kit. It was pretty much a box of dirt with a bag of “starter,” which I think were spores in peat moss. I spread the contents of the bag over the dirt, spritzed with water, and then covered it up with plastic. Waited patiently. When I opened the plastic, I discovered that the contents of the bag had begun to grow, not into mushrooms yet, but into a white web of organic material that spread over the dirt. There were some areas where the web was thicker. In other places, only thin strands made the connection. But the web was there. I spritzed some more and covered it with cloth to protect from drafts. More patient waiting. Then, one day I lifted the cloth, and there were tiny white heads in amongst the web. Teeny tiny mushrooms! I spritzed a bit, covered and…you guessed it…waited patiently. The next time I lifted the cloth, I discovered full-sized mushrooms rising from the web.
As I harvested a few this morning, I couldn’t help but think about the community that I have been a part of for the six months or so. It’s grown in a very similar way. In the case of my cohort, independent school teachers from across the United States came together. Sheryl and Will spread the starter and did the initial spritzing by developing a compelling professional development experience for these teachers. And they made sure they didn’t forget about the dirt: there was a strong support structure of both people and tools of which I was just one piece.
Then, we waited patiently. Probably the biggest difference between mushrooms and learning communities is the time involved. Mushrooms…about six weeks. Professional learning communities…potentially a lifetime. But, at the least, several months. Being part of this community was a reminder to me that change, especially in education, takes time and patience. But the web began to grow, supporting the voices of participants as they learned and grew together.
Mary Lou shared her hopes and fears as she faced the journey ahead:
“I teach fifth grade math, and I am struggling with how I can incorporate technology tools in what I presently do in the classroom. Misty May Trainor on Dancing with
the Stars tonight made a statement about learning to dance that seems very appropriate at this time. She said that learning something you have never done before is the most uncomfortable feeling. I think it will take time and practice in order to be comfortable with the tools to the extent that their use becomes somewhat second nature. I am also excited, and I share your fear of not having time to thoroughly explore the facets of Web 2.0/technology tools on a day-to-day basis.”
As some participants expressed concerns about how they would find the time to get involved, Shelley offered her gentle support:
“I think it can be challenging for educators to embrace the process/journey approach for ourselves because we tend to come to this profession after being very successful at “doing school.” It’s hard to face all the unlearning, and non-linearity and “gray” and not feel unsettled. But stress kills learning, so we need to find a way to make peace with the journey, or we risk shutting down. Though it may sound simplistic, one thing I try to do is remember to be forgiving of myself for not having “the answers,” and proud of myself for being willing to ask questions, consider big ideas and push myself into uncomfortable territory. The fact that we’re all here learning together is no small thing. It’s something that many of our colleagues — master teachers though they may be — are not yet ready to do. That’s something.”
The community became the place where they could return to share their new knowledge. Nanci wrote, “Since the consortium and Ning I feel like I’ve been all over the place – blogs, rss readers, google apps, and so much more. So it’s been a hands-on period of processing, experimenting and sampling . Thanks for the reminder to come back to where it all started and to share the resources. I am reminded that an important part of this process is to share as I go along rather than waiting until I have a finished project.”
Now, as the teams plan and implement their projects, we see the potential for expanding that web. The teams are spreading the starter and doing some spritzing in their own schools, providing the fertile ground where the web can grow, nurtured by patience, time and support. At least one team has already implemented a learning fair at their school. You can learn more about it at the wiki and read Julia’s reflection as well. The purpose of the fair was not just to spread the word about cool tools but to help teachers begin to see the potential of these tools to support student-centered pedagogies. Wendy wrote about how their conceptual approach has moved away from the tools:
“The theme of our discussion was to focus less on the tools and technology and more on teaching strategies and learning outcomes that support active authentic learning. Our ultimate goal is to increase the number of teachers at our school who think in terms of active learning and begin to incorporate technology that supports this framework. However, past experience tells us that change is more difficult for some than for others…The nice thing about the conversation is that teachers really started thinking about how to put more of the learning responsibility on the students. Our final challenge at the end of the discussion was to try one thing in the classroom in the next 3 weeks that reflects “more them, less us”. In other words, one activity that puts the responsibility for learning on the student. I know this seems small, but we were pleased with the direction of the discussion. We hope to share the results in April…Sometimes small starts turn into big leaps.”
As Confidence Builds
by Robin Ellis
One of the challenges of my position in the district where I work has been how to “teach” others about social networking, how do you convey the benefits of virtual personal learning communities / networks, in a 3 hour workshop? How do you cover all the options, explore all the tools available to assist in creating those communities, and also build a comfort level for those interested, but who most likely have never been involved in something like this? As I reflect on my participation in PLP over the past several months and look at the foundations that have been laid for all teams across the cohorts participating this year and examine the structure in place it helps to answer the questions I struggle with. My conclusion is I don’t think you can adequately teach these concepts in an hour or two, to honestly understand the value, having the opportunity to be immersed in the conversations/immersed in the environment is the best way to learn.
What I have been able to see throughout all of the cohorts is the growth of individuals in this environment, there are emerging voices, those who are becoming comfortable are beginning to start discussions, add comments to posts others have made, share their own teaching experiences, as well as personal experience. Here is an example of one who has begun to incorporate some of the tools we have been learning about in PLP in her personal life.
One of the things I remember Will saying at our first meeting was a way to be successful with technology this year. He said that we are all so busy, so technology can’t be added to your life, but must take the place of something you already do. He used the example of how he used to watch the news, but now he uses technology to stay informed. I really thought that was important for me to remember this year. So what I’ve tried to do is use and learn about technology in the things I am already spending much time on. I attended a workshop on gifted students. The keynote speaker was talking about using technology with gifted students, he talked about 21st century skills, web 2.0, wikis, blogs, nings, etc. I understood everything he was talking about and used much of what he talked about with my students. This is the first time ever that I have understood more technology than many other teachers. I am so proud of what I have done the past few months and how much I have learned.
New Jersey cohort member Laura Sipes.
She started using tools she had been introduced to in her cohort, in her personal life, and as a result has gained confidence and understanding in the value of using technology as an integral part of what you do every day rather than add it on to your daily life.
Another portion of a post, from Scott Godshalk, principal, Tohickon Valley Elementary School.
Last year, I tried, unsuccessfully, to facilitate the use of a wiki at our school. I asked teachers to post a reflective document of their work during their Collaboration Sessions. As I reflected on this, I realized I dove in headfirst with the concept of a wiki. This was a new idea for the teachers, and a new way to collaborate. Teachers followed through with this expectation, and posted their Collaboration Session reflections, but there weren’t any additional comments, posts, or discussions about the content of their work. This year, I took a couple steps back, but pushed forward with the idea of a wiki. I send out a weekly bulletin to share my reflections and give teachers my thoughts on school and district initiatives. I spend a great deal of time preparing the weekly bulletin. Recently, I had an epiphany. Why am I working so hard on this? There is a school full of brilliant teachers who have fantastic ideas. They should help me with this! For the last two weeks, I posted a simple question on the wiki site, and had the teachers write a brief response to this question. The results have been phenomenal. Last week, I asked teachers what it means to teach in the year 2008. To be an effective teacher, what are the words that come to mind? Their response was awesome. Our staff is beginning to enter a new phase of collaboration.
Others are beginning to blog, some are sharing classroom experience, resources for teaching and professional development, creating Delicious accounts and sharing web sites with their cohorts. It is remarkable to see the growth of individuals who are supported and encouraged as they expand their knowledge and level of comfort in an area, just a few short months ago; many had never been introduced to before. This is the work of PLP, creating environments for collaboration and learning in ways that are relevant to all of us.
What Makes PLP Work
By Dean Shareski
Being part of 3 cohorts and witnessing and hearing the work of 4 others I’m trying to get a feel for these geographically diverse communities.
As someone who is charged with a leadership position in my own district and trying to achieve much of the same kind of work as PLP, it’s a wonderful learning experience for me.
It seems questions like, “How do we systematically move our teachers forward?” “What do we do with resistance teachers?” “How do we sustain momentum?” “How do we get momentum?” and you can add a few more standard questions are ones that leadership deal with all the time.
What’s exciting is the model of online communities that is now gaining validity among these districts. I don’t think all districts are ready to invest in online communities as an integral part of teachers’ professional learning. That’s because most of our leaders have never experience it. Fortunately with at least the leadership in these 7 cohorts somebody gets it.
I’ve been teaching pre-service teachers online for the past few years and while I still long for face to face experiences, it’s what happens online that make face to face experiences rich and meaningful. Teachers and students are busy people. Spending even 3 hours a week in a class usually offers little time to engage with each other. That’s the power of these communities. They provide an opportunity not only to learn beyond face to face experiences, but provide a space for people to get to know one another. I love this quote from one of my students as she reflected on our class experience.
…this is my only university class that I know every student by name, and know at least one important thing about them. This is really weird, because I wouldn’t have been able to do that even in high school.
PLP is based upon building communities and building communities doesn’t happen in the limited times we gather face to face. Inside many of the NING communities, I’ve enjoyed looking at people’s pictures, seeing them challenge one another and asking good questions and even having a little fun. You come and go as you please, you choose topics and conversations that engage you and you decide when you’re ready to jump in. Many of these things are not easily replicated in face to face settings for many reasons. Getting to know people is often overlooked as people jump into an online learning experience. If learning is truly social, then these spaces must allow people to be themselves and be social.
So as I reflect on what’s working here, I know that ultimately sustainability and change only occurs with a culture that values risk taking and innovation combined with strong support. PLP is providing this with the use of expert voices and the constant activity within each group.
One thing I do know. When I have discussions with teachers about change, many understand we should change but complain about the lack of time to do it. Meaningful change will never occur if teachers only want to invest in a few PD experiences throughout the year. Meaningful change does occur when strong communities are developed and that takes time. The online experience of the PLP cohorts is creating this exact environment. I’m just happy to be part of it all.
Expert Voices
By Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
I am happily paddling, running in and out with the discussion waves, splashing a bit in the groups, occasionally sticking my head under and blowing a few small blogging bubbles. Feeling I can’t yet go too long with out taking a breath to edit and definitely still need my Google goggles, although am learning to keep my eyes open for new ideas and applications. I’m still, perhaps irrationally, scared of sharks and so sticking close to the shore. Perfectly happy to watch and learn from those who can swim competently. Enjoying my day at the beach.
International Cohort Member- Amanda Ritter, Melbourne, Australia
For many educators sharing and posting in a situated community of practice is awkward and risky business. It is a process of slowly building trust and taking small steps while trying to find their online voice. It takes time before many of the team members in PLP feel like their input is going to contribute much to the discussion. Amanda describes it as not wanting to get in over her head but looking towards relinquishing her “Ning floatie ring” and “swimming on her own into open water while building her cyber confidence.”
Part of the mission of PLP is to help participants build their cyber confidence while at the same time starting to build their personal and professional learning networks. One way we do that is by bringing in Expert Voices. The idea behind “Expert Voices” is twofold. First, it’s to bring into the PLP communities folks knowledgeable about both the tools and the pedagogy, and have them help PLP members explore various topics related to teaching and learning in the 21st century. Second, it’s a way to help PLPers slowly expand their learning networks by giving them some thoughtful folks to learn from and to follow.
It is with great pleasure that Powerful Learning Practice welcomes this year’s Expert Voices.
International Cohort
Graham Wegner – Building a Personal Learning Network
Ben Hazzard – Classrooms as Communities
John Evans – Podcasting Purpose
Chris Harbeck – Classroom Blogging
Alanah King – Collaborative Tools
Independent Cohort
Kim Harrison – virtual worlds, particularly Second Life
John Hendron – blogs and other read/write tools in education
Chris O’Neal – developing technology leaders, particularly school administrators
Meg Swecker – Voice Thread as well as other collaborative tools such as wikis
Paula White – Web 2.0 tools in the classroom
Illinois/Ohio Cohort
Kathy Cassidy – on Blogging
Alec Couros – on Building a PLN
Brian Crosby – on Collaborative Tools
John Evans – on Podcasting
Jo McCleay – on Social Networking
ADVIS Cohort
Kim Cofino – Collaborative Projects with Multiple Schools
Ben Wilkoff – Blogging (with RSS and Social Bookmarking thrown in)
Scott McLeod – Disruptive Innovation: What School Leaders Should Be Doing Now in Their Schools and Classrooms
Kristin Hokanson – My Digital Responsibility in a Global World
Wes Fryer – Wikis and Digital Storytelling
Archdiocese of Philadelphia Cohort
Barbara Barreda – Leadership and Change
Bill Kist – Wikis and Digital Storytelling
Susan Sedro – Technology Integration
Sara Kajder – New Literacies
Jo McLeay – Social Networking
New Jersey State Cohort
Michelle Bourgeois - Collaborative Learning
Scott Elias – Balancing Your Real and Virtual Lives
Dean Shareski - Lesson 1- Share
Brian C. Smith – Educator as Learner
Adina Sullivan – Audio and Visuals to Support Learning for All
PEARLS NYC Cohort
Tom Barrett- Publishing Tools
Graham Wegner- Blogging
Lee Kolbert- Social Networks
Darren Draper- Dimensions of Change
Jeff Utecht- PLN
Many Voices
By Lani Ritter Hall
On the side, in the middle, questioning, nudging, modeling, holding back sitting on my hands –as the many voices of the members of the Illinois/Ohio cohort storm the NING in conversations related to 21st Century learning. Rich and thoughtful contributions have grown this community and its members’ learning in exciting ways . The many discussions, pensive and reflective, as well as light and spirited, led Darren Persino from Avoca School District 37, Wilmette IL to note:
“Using this (PLP) NING over the last month I have focused, developed, and deepened my thought with in-depth discussions on education more that I ever had before. This venue has allowed me to ask thought provoking questions and also respond to them about the idea of education and technology. The (PLP) NING allows me to communicate my ideas to others as they do the same for me, and it has also has given me the motivation to think about and expand my thoughts. I’m not sure when and where I would’ve done this other than here on the NING.”
One spirited conversation focused on strategies that would help to assure that parents would support and understand the uses of 21st century pedagogies and technologies in the curriculum. Judith Congren from Leyden High School District 212, St. Franklin Park IL shared the success of her district:
“We had a large meeting and invited parents, students and tech experts to discuss our hopes, dreams and our fears. It was one post-it note board of comments. The person MC’ing our “meeting” did a fantastic job of monitoring the discussion. Overall parents wanted their children to have the opportunity to become …digitally literate.”
And voices from across the cohort added their thoughts– from a student run tech night, to surveying parents to learn their comfort level with these technologies, to creation of a social networking site for parent organizations, to asking parents to communicate with students through the 21st Century technologies of blogs and wikis. Now, far more comfortable as a result of the voices raised, they have moved on to deeper explorations of 21st Century Learning in their teams.
The 14 school teams, in face to face meetings and on the NING, are exploring the shifts required by educators in 21st century learning with ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards as a reference. Cary Harrod, a 21st Century Fellow from Forest Hills District in Cincinnati OH, describes this power of this process with her team:
“We spent some time examining the ISTE NETs-T. This has been eye-opening. We all decided it truly gives us a nice “roadmap” of where we’re going. It doesn’t seem quite so nebulous. In looking at the standards, we determined that standard #2 would be one of the biggest learning curves; so we decided to have everyone take that standard, along with a “unit” or lesson we currently teach and look at ways of using technology to enhance students’ understanding of the content. We will share the before and after unit and then discuss whether or not the technology truly enhanced the learning. This group is absolutely beside themselves with the possibilities. They are enthusiastic, open-minded and excited to soak it all up. It has had a profound effect on them already.”
A true sense of community begins to emerge as the many voices contribute to the wisdom of all. Strong passioned voices lead and guide others who are not yet comfortable with the transparency and messiness of 21st Century learning. Where I once might have suggested or pushed in a conversation, now others begin to take that lead. As an almost out of body experience, I hear my voice slowly morphing from that of leader as trust builds and the voices of the community grow and mature. We are on a path to extraordinary learning.
