Discover, Dream, and Design

creative commons licensed (BY-NC-ND) flickr photo by ChimpLearnGood: http://flickr.com/photos/alphachimpstudio/3806097249

Sunday afternoon I saw the title of this post. The connected educator movement is failing and we're all to blame. That caught my attention-- alot. And I did something I rarely do, I jumped into the comments mainly because the judgment for failure is based on metrics from Twitter and I've strong feelings about....

Very honestly -- I don't know Daniel, the author, and I don't think I've ever been an "edtech" person (whatever that is). Even as a "resource teacher" in the instructional technology office of a very large urban district, I was the one with a Masters degree in curriculum; I was the least "tech" person in the office.  How did I get the job?-- I recognized the power and potential of technology for learning and connecting- opening new windows onto a world for so many. And in all the professional development I have designed and facilitated --learning, collaboration and connecting was the focus. So I guess that was the reason I jumped in, and perhaps not very cogently, as the contents of that post touched the core of my passion.

Here's my comment:

I guess I'm surprised that a focus on Twitter is the metric for determining the failure of educators connecting. What about educators connected through online communities of practice, those connected through the ongoing K12Online conference, and those connected through Connected Educator month, not to mention those connected in ongoing projects with colleagues and classrooms around the world? 

From one who sees connecting as all about connecting with people (see the intro quote in chapter one about human networks in The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in the Digital Age), connecting with context made possible through the affordances of technology-- the possibilities for systemic change we'd like to see happens when we can engage in deep, meaningful and messy collegial conversations. In my humble opinion, a prerequisite for that to happen is a relationship built on trust. Although growing and nurturing trust occurs on Twitter, I think more than 140 characters are needed to immerse in the kinds of discussions that deepen relationships that in turn enable those conversations necessary for change. 

I'm likely one of those you've mentioned who you see as positive to a fault. The angst I feel about certain named "reform" efforts hurts my soul yet I know that our words create our reality and we grow towards that on which we focus and so I'll continue to maintain that positive focus. I'm old; I've been blessed to see and experience the power of connectedness made possible only by the affordances of technology. And I've a deep belief in the importance of relationships in teaching and learning (Barth). Without them (face to face and in online spaces) and without context, how can we even think of engaging in conversations with others?

I'm wondering if an "us" vs "we" mentality contributes to the creation of a wall of resistance? What if all our efforts were about "we". What if our "we" efforts focused on what's working, what's the best of learning in everyone's classroom? And then together, we ask how can "we" grow our collective practice to improve learning for all of our students? And as all voices contribute, we leverage what we've learned from others across the globe into the conversation?

I guess I was hoping that perhaps I was articulating an inclusive approach, an avenue to develop a more collective accomplished connected practice. And I guess I'm advocating for this from a lens not often taken in the "edtech" community, that of appreciative inquiry.

Daniel was generous to reply

Twitter is simply a metric, but I see it as helpful. Tom's insights also are helpful, but again are also just a signal. They obviously don't show the whole picture, but they're a helpful insight. The Twitter numbers are kind of shocking because of the promise that Twitter held for the rest of education in the past few years. Last year it made this Top 100 Tools for education. http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools... Clearly, the folks responding to that survey have their own bias. 

Others have reached out to me over the past 24 hours. I have questions like this: "What about all the connections that go on in Schoology and Edmodo: that's "connected education," correct?" 

Sure, there's also places like K12 Online Conference, which is probably a microcosm even compared to the Twitter numbers. We can't judge this by looking through our own glasses, or we get it wrong. Schoology certainly doesn't have a million teachers on it. Looking through Edmodo's communities, they're connecting going on there, but how does that compare to 6.9 million other educators? Microcosms.
We keep looking at things from our own experience, our own schools perspective. What is working for you, is most likely not working for the school down the street. In order to bring the other 6.9 million along, we need to start communicating in a way that empathizes with the non-connected educator. 

If a tech tool can eventually bring a physical connection (or a virtual connection that goes beyond Skype or Hangouts)- that's more powerful. How do we make that happen?

Obviously I did a very poor job of sharing my perspective-- at least that's how it feels to me--

Perhaps I've tunnel vision--- yet there is an incredible amount of research around appreciative inquiry as an effective approach to systemic change.

I just so wish I was better able to articulate it's potential--

Reaching out to others

A pre-service educator excitedly posting in the Connected Educator Book club and others celebrating her posts and offering support

Passioned comments in the backchannel chat of a webinar session around the need to burn bridges and start a revolution

A Honduran educator reaching out to those in webinar not as competent as he, answering "how to" questions

Seasoned and novice educators in a forum lamenting those who they view as unconnected

An Israeli teacher sharing a story of her course which brings adversary cultures (Israeli and Arab) to collaborate and learn more about each other as they learn in online spaces

It's Connected Educator month--
All of August--
With grand opportunities to share, to collaborate, to reach out to others in webinars and forums--
The #CE12 hashtag on Twitter flows like a swift river, rich with resources and suggestions--
There is a 31 day starter kit for those wanting to learn more about being connected--

Those in webinars, in forums, on Twitter share a common passion for immersion in connected learning. It's an exciting time to be a connected educator-- the potential for making new connections and learning abounds.

And yet I'm wondering, have we reached in effective ways to those currently not connected? Have you?

Those not connected don't see the #CE12 twitter stream. Those not connected don't know of the blog posts. Those unconnected likely won't be in the discussion forums, or the book club, or the webinars.

What if every connected educator made a special effort to reach out to a colleague that's unconnected?

If school hasn't yet begun, what if they invited a grade level team member, a fellow faculty member over for coffee to participate in a webinar together. If school has started, what if they invited those unconnected colleagues to read some of the forum responses with them on topics for which they have an interest? What if they shared with their grade level teams something they learned in the book club or a forum, inviting the team to explore that together? What if they sat with their administrator, for a moment, exploring a professional learning forum together?

If each one reaches out to one, imagine the possibilities-- for all of our professional learning and that of our students.

Image: 'take my hand'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25384802@N08/5079637921

Diversity and Connected Coaching

Our latest Connected Coaching webinar ended Wednesday evening at 8:30 PM EST. At 9:00, Traci, Debra and Camilla continued to talk with each other in Blackboard Collaborate as they collaborated on a wiki page building a Connected Coaching toolkit. Three educators from Australia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, with diverse perspectives and a common goal, collaborated across time zones and geographical boundaries.

One of the many beauties of online collaboration and Connected Coaching is the potential for diverse perspectives to deepen learning. In our current course section, passioned and accomplished educators from Oregon, Ontario, Alberta, Virginia, Colorado, Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, China, Finland and Norway bring their unique gifts and talents and do just that.
That diversity is a critical component in effecting change and in improving our coaching practice. As Sheryl and I note in The Connected Educator:

"The importance of diversity is foundational for organizations and individuals wanting to reculture, transform, or totally reinvent themselves in order to remain relevant in students’ lives. To stimulate new ideas, facts, experiences, possibilities, insights, perspectives, and skills—conceptions and conversations need to bump up against each other in fresh and surprising ways. It is almost impossible to have something new emerge from people who hang out together all the time and think about the same things in much the same ways.

One of the strengths in collaborating as connected learners, both within and beyond the schoolhouse walls, lies in the range of thought, ideology, and culture that becomes part of the conversations and learning process. Connected learners expand their schemas and process issues and possible solutions from new perspectives and conceptual frames. Connected learners are able to hear differing voices and opinions and learn to confront challenges to assumptions authentically, in the manner of critical friends." --page 41

I am humbled by this opportunity to learn with and to facilitate an esteemed group of educators whose journey into Connected Coaching validates and illustrates the power of diversity to deepen thinking, open possibilities for innovation, and a more accomplished Connected Coaching practice.

Image: '3D Full Spectrum Unity Holding Hands Concept'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22177648@N06/2137735924

Sharing, trust, relationships and learning--

A Wednesday evening, the first free Wednesday evening in 8 weeks--

And this popped up in my Twitter feed--


That followed this from the week before:



—a true testament to the power of relationships online –relationships built on trust, for:

"...trust is the glue that binds the members of a community to act in sharing and adapting manner. Without trust, members would hoard their knowledge and experience and would not go through the trouble of sharing with or learning from others.” (Nichani & Hung, 2002, p. 51)Nichani, M., & Hung, D. (2002). Can a community of practice exist online? Educational Technology, 42(4), 49-54.

Why those tweets?

For just 8 weeks, at 7 pm EST, a group of passioned educators met in Elluminate to share and dig deeper into concepts of Connected Coaching following a week of conversations in the online course space. During both the week 7 and week 8 webinars, comments in both audio and chat bemoaned the fact the scheduled learning of the group was coming to an end. The final affirmations – personal and heartfelt-- validated more clearly that indeed, a learning community had been developed.

The importance of trust in online learning communities can’t be understated!

In the communities of practice I’ve had the privilege to lead for the last few years, I’ve seen that trust and those relationships develop and grow over a period of 8 months. Teams and communities have come to engage in deep collegial conversations that have led to significant shifts in thinking and practice, many of which are documented here and here. And more recently, in the six month pilot of the Connected Coaches program, an extraordinary learning community developed in which each offered support to others, pushed back, asked difficult questions and consequently adopted new dispositions around coaching.

In those communities and in particular with the Connected Coaching pilot, taking time to build trust was purposeful and with intent. During the pilot, Dean Shareski led us in experimenting, playing --leveraging the affordances of technology to do just that—to develop collegial relationships that would support deep learning. We played with images of meaning to us, shared why, honored each other’s ideas; we used audio files to introduce ideas, more fully bringing understanding to our passions and our thoughts. Video files, faces paired with voices, sometimes fresh from working in the garden, other times while traveling on a train brought us closer together. Sharing family moments, sharing passions, sharing aspirations.

In the recent 8 week course, we did the same—and what I knew could develop for colleagues who worked together face to face, for colleagues who virtually collaborated over a number of months – the building of trust and subsequent collegial relationships—developed truly over the short course of just 2 months!

Coincidentally, Jane, wondered as she reflected on leading a “virtual” team”

“So, is this therefore a 21st C skill and ability to be considered? If we are to begin to increasingly work with others online in collaborative forums, the ability to use online technologies to ‘virtually’ build relationships – the development of ‘online human leadership’ skills – must become an incredibly important one to consider.”

After she noted:

“You don’t really ‘know’ the people, their lifestyles and passions, out of work commitments; nor, do you have the regular everyday opportunity to build the relationships essential to leading those involved.”

Growing virtual relationships, building trust online— I’d suggest, yes it is a new leadership skill and one, that when practiced, enables deeper thinking, deeper learning, and opportunities for systemic change in education.

In chapter 4 of our book, The Connected Educator, we share:

"Connected learners have to work harder to establish trust. In our face to face interactions, we get to know people over time through causal interactions. We see them come in, take off their coats, complain about traffic. We get to know their families through pictures in frames on their desks and through conversations about the baby having a fever and children’s sports events. The steps are all there but shared in covert business as usual ways. We do not have to create intentional acts to share this information. It just happens naturally. In online spaces, we have the same casual interaction if we think through how to make them happen. And these intentional acts have the same trust building effect as those that occur naturally. We upload pictures, type stories about our children, create and share videos of sports events and tweet about traffic jams."

Yes, Jane, nurturing those human relationships in online spaces— building trust is essential to knowledge construction and sharing from which change is birthed –

Intentional acts of casual sharing in online spaces can lead to incredible trust building and the development of meaningful relationships and learning not even imagined—even in 8 short weeks!

A serendipitous connection

That I have had an opportunity to co author with Sheryl is remarkable. A serendipitous connection has led to sincere friendship, continued collaboration and always learning—despite our diverse geographical locations in Ohio and Virginia. Where and how did it begin-- Fueled by my life-long passion for learning about learning and my desire to continue making some contribution to public education after retiring, I have benefited from a number of unlikely, unique connections that map my journey to The Connected Educator. Since life circumstances dictated I work from home in 2004 after 35 years in the classroom, I searched the web for educators with similar interests and an enthusiasm for innovation.

One blog linked to another, then another, until I found myself at Anne Davis’ "Edublog Insights" and her post describing a group of teacher cadets with whom she was blogging. I had just completed three years in a similar program for high school students who wanted to be teachers and was delighted to find a like-minded group. I contacted Anne through the comment feature on her blog, seeking her reaction to my mentoring her students through comments on their own posts. Many comments to students, emails and Skype calls with Anne later, I began reading Darren Kuropatwa’s blog, "A Difference" at her insistence.

Darren often pointed to his class blogs as he transparently shared his evolving pedagogy and one day put out a call for e-mentors for his students. I immediately submitted an email asking if he might consider my acting in that role, elated at the possibility of developing additional virtual relationships with young people. Consider the irony here, Darren is a master mathematics teacher in Manitoba who taught pre-calculus and AP calculus, whereas I completed Algebra 2 and Geometry some 40 years back, with Logic meeting my mathematics requirement in college. Thrilled that Darren invited me to participate and being one to always jump right in, I was immediately commenting and posting with many and varied questions pushing high school mathematics students to reflect upon their learning. Often Darren generously posted excerpts from our conversations on his blog as he, his students and I learned from each other that year and the next.

One day in 2006, a post on Darren’s blog really caught my attention--- he, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, and Wesley Fryer would be co founding a cutting edge, totally online, free annual conference for teachers by teachers, "K12 Online". In response to their call for assistance and for presenters, fascinated and excited by what I saw as enormous possibilities for teacher learning, I immediately volunteered any assistance they felt that I could provide. I was speechless sometime later to be invited to serve as continuity editor for the initial conference. Through collaborative work on the conference wiki, and Skype planning calls, Sheryl and I came to know each other. The following year, I was honored and humbled to receive an email from Darren, asking if I would serve as one of the four co-conveners. In September of 2007, Sheryl and I were on Skype for weeks as she uploaded files to a server and sent me links that I used in the blog posts I created on the conference presentation blog. For two weeks in October of that year, Sheryl and I were up together in the early morning on Skype rolling out presentations on the blog and tweeting the presentations.

As different in some ways as night and day, yet playing to each other's strengths, working well together and sharing common passions for learning, for making the world a better place-- the collaborations have continued to this place as has my learning. An opportunity to compile research on online communities with Sheryl led to my deepened understandings of the power of connected learning and communities. A subsequent connection led to my role as community leader in Powerful Learning Practice's virtual learning communities in which I constantly learn from community members. This story is just one illustration of many of the potential in the digital age for networked, connected educators to collaborate with and learn from each other as they aspire to a more accomplished global practice.

Thank you, Sheryl