ConnectedTalk

Our OpenPD session this afternoon was designed to introduce blogging, my hope was the conversation would be beneficial for those in the class who are new to the concept and thinking about starting a blog of their own. Well once again my expectations were exceeded, and I am so grateful to all of those who participated today. Sue Waters was asked to join us and speak to those participating in class why she blogs, how she got started and if she would share any thoughts, and tip, for writing good posts. Well, Sue wrote a post about our OpenPD session, the topic for class, asking others contribute a comment on the impact their own blogging has had on them, their learning. It is full of interesting stories and suggestions, please take some time to read it. Sue also invited some other bloggers to join in the conversation as well; we were fortunate to have with us the following people:

• Jenny Luca recently wrote a post on PLN’s and balance great, worth reading
• Sue Wyatt as known as tasteach her blog on Smartboards and a classroom blog
• Joe Dale Integrating ICT into MFL classroom
• Kevin Honeycutt – Driving Questions as well as his blog The “Rest Area”
• Sarah Stewart Sarah’s Musings
• Mr. Plough The Next Step
• Carolynn Bruton Carbru’s
• Mrs.Durff Writing a Blog Post and Classroom blog
• Kimberly McClain Terrible Teacher

Thank you all for making another session of OpenPD so worthwhile, I learned a great deal once again. I am grateful for the true sense of collaboration, and sharing everyone brings with them to class, what we are able to learn from one another is phenomenal. This is a wonderful experience for me. Sue thank you for all of your wonderful contributions to this class as well as your work in the edublogger world. On the wiki we do have an assignment for this coming week, look at and respond to 4 other blogs we have some listed on the participants page as well. Also to set up a blog at Edublogs so you are ready to start. Hope to see you all again next week.

This week I am speaking to curriculum leaders in my district; I will be speaking to them about ISTE’s revised NETS for students and how they lend themselves to 21st century skills. On Friday I was surprised to have someone tell me my conversation should be one of explanation, there exists a need for me to explain 21t century skills and their place in our thinking as we go through the curriculum review process. What struck me as odd is the fact that this will be a NEW conversation in my district. That teachers in my district are not aware of what 21st century skills are, or why those skills / standards put forth through ISTE should have an impact on classroom practice. Am I so out of step to think this should not be a new conversation? I do not pretend to be at the forefront in educational thought, but I have known about the push for classroom reform to incorporate creativity, global awareness, diversity, critical thinking, problem solving, and digital citizenship for some time now. The NEA is a contributing partner in the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, teachers from across the US and 22 other countries worked to update the NETS Standards for students. I guess that is why I am surprised that I have to define what 21st century skills are on Monday. In the state of Pennsylvania, for the past three years PDE (PA Dept of Education) has funded $200 million dollars for Classrooms for the Future, a grant described in short this way:

Pennsylvania is committed to creating schools that can change to meet the needs of students by providing instruction grounded in rigor and relevance that prepares students for career and college. Our society has transformed into what Thomas Friedman refers to as a “flat world” — a global marketplace that is highly competitive and where every citizen has immediate access to unlimited information and to an abundance of continually newer and better services and goods. This environment demands that one possess 21st century skills such as collaboration and problem solving and the ability and knowledge to use technology resourcefully as both a consumer and a worker. High school students are poised to enter the global marketplace or to continue their education beyond preK-12 and it is our obligation to prepare them, within a short window of opportunity, for a “flat world” in which opportunities for jobs and higher education are highly competitive. By focusing on high schools, we will be providing these critical 21st Century skills while expanding learning opportunities, creating relevant and personalized information-driven learning environments, and ensuring in the success of these students. Pennsylvania is committed to creating schools that can change to meet the needs of students by providing instruction grounded in rigor and relevance that prepares students for career and college.

Are conversations regarding preparing students for their future taking place in your schools? Do people elsewhere understand what 21st century skills are, and the importance they hold for all students, for that matter, for all of us as the future unfolds?

Image Source Flickr user: oberazzi (Tim O’Brien)

Darren Draper’s blog post yesterday entitled Who’s Afraid of Digital Natives echoed some thoughts I have had myself about teaching, learning, education in general. I left a response over there, please go and take a look, here I have cross posted what I said there.
Darren, as we all know the future is now, the world has changed and it is not going back. We in education have to face the fact that it is not acceptable to teach the way we were taught. We are doing students a disservice in not using the tools they use in their daily lives, whether it is cell phone, iPod, MP3 player, digital camera, or online tools. We talk of modeling learning for students, the educational community needs to update their skills with the use of tools to engage students in their learning. I agree with you we do need to start thinking about what we do, and how we do it, and it will require time on everyone’s part. Yesterday Carolyn Foote was conducting a workshop and I had the pleasure of participating in a Skype call along with David Jakes, Patrick Higgins, and John Maklary. The conversation centered on connections, how we connect, the benefits of connecting with others outside of our own workplaces, and how the connections help us learn. The primary concern I hear most often from teachers, when introducing something new to use in instruction, is they have no time to learn about technology, it is still considered an add on by many, something else to teach.

David made a great point yesterday, he said we all have to make time to learn these new tools, take 15 minutes a day to focus on our own learning, over time it adds up. Those of us that understand the positive benefits of these educational technologies have taken the time to learn how to use them, taken time to understand their implication for use in teaching and learning. Yes, we are the ones who like technology, over the top to some, but we try, we make the effort, because we see the future, we know we have to do more to engage students. We are trying to make their learning relevant to their everyday lives, because the world has changed, and schools have to change as well.

Our students are connected all the time, I am sure they could explain the contributions they feel their connections bring to their lives and learning. So why not encourage their development, as you said, teach them responsible use, not ignore reality, its too easy to say no iPods or cell phones in school, students will use them to cheat. Instead when do we start to teach them to be good digital citizens, teach them ethical use of the tools? If we would only begin to imagine the possibilities.

Recently there has been a series of rapid fire introductions to new tools ustream.tv,
operator 11, google presentations all propelled to the forefront through the invisible connections of twitter and other social networking sites many are connected to as part of their learning communities. I have to say at times I feel overwhelmed with all of the discoveries passed on, trying to find the time to look, explore, evaluate, and understand the potential either for classroom use or as a suggestion for use in someone’s own professional development. I have to be cautious of what I pass along, classroom teachers may be likely to try one new thing in a year’s time so I can’t throw too many things at them and hope something sticks. I have to have a clear understanding of how the tools are being used by others in education, have examples to share and talk about. In all of the commotion of new tools I also have to deal with whether these new tools are accessible in my district. Not all are, filtering seems to work differently everywhere. I have to be mindful in this area as well, when something is blocked I have to try to figure out why, and before I ask to have anything unblocked I must try think through my reasons to ask for the filter to be lifted and the ramifications of having the status changed. At times I feel as though I am on a never ending road that twists and turns and sometimes I just wish for a flat stretch to get my own bearings before thinking about sharing one more new tool that has appeared and captured someone’s eye.

Update: How does anyone else do this, how do you decide what has merit to introduce as tools you feel has value, what process do you go through? I am looking for help, suggestions, models to follow, you see in my district I do not have anyone else to bounce these ideas off of and feel at times at a loss for what direction to take. Thanks for your help!

Here it is the second week in September and it has been an incredible summer for me in terms of my own learning, which is what I want to talk about today. I have been thinking about this for the past several weeks and talking about it to anyone who would listen. I do get a lot of skeptical looks and many have a difficult time understanding what I get so excited about because social networking is not something they have experienced, or in many cases fully understand, let alone participate in. I believe most of the people I come in contact with view social networking as something teenagers or college students participate in. The sad news is many don’t realize the benefits it can have for everyone. In the past few months I have come in contact with and feel as though I belong to a wonderful community of people who are as passionate as I am about education, learning, children, personal growth, professional development, the list could go on and on. The truly remarkable part of this is that for the most part I only know these people virtually, a few I have met face to face, but mostly I know all of them through their blog, wiki,  flickr accounts and Twitter. I have been an avid blog reader for about a year, didn’t really enter into conversations on blogs until I attended a conference in February organized by Steve Hardagon, lead by Will Richardson, hosted by Chris Lehmann at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. Those two days are what started me on this path of building and wanting to be part of an online community for my own learning and I will tell you it is the best thing I have done in a long time.

I attended NECC this year in Atlanta as well and was fortunate enough to meet face to face some of the people whose blogs I have been reading. This is where Ryan Bretag introduced me to twitter also. At first I didn’t understand what the attraction to twitter was, but as the summer progressed and I added people to follow and others began to follow me I understood completely. You begin to develop friendships through these text conversations, people link to blog posts they have written recently and ask your opinion on things they are doing at school, new software they are trying, web tools they are using in classrooms with students or for professional development in their districts. There is a wealth of information; all are so willing to share. If you have a question someone usually offers what their experience has been or their opinion on what you are asking or ask you a question in return to stretch your thinking as their blogs posts always do as well.

Through my social network not only have I benefited personally, but now the students and teachers in my district also have opportunities for collaboration which I am not sure would I would have been aware of or had the chance to participate in. In this past two weeks I have been working to arrange collaborations with the Shanghai American School through Jeff Utecht and Lockleys North Primary School in Australia through Graham Wegner. Also I am going to co teach and online course with Darren Draper, Jordan School District in Sandy, Utah the title, Open Staff Development, what a great concept. Hopefully the teachers in our respective districts in Utah, and Pennsylvania, will take a course together and build communities for themselves, what better way to model the use of social networking. I want to say thank you all for including me in this great community, for stretching my thinking, for helping me to grow both personally and professionally and for the opportunity to be part of wonderful conversations centered in education and preparation for the future.