edJEWcon- A Visual Reflection of a New Kind of Conference

I am slowly coming down from an incredible high this past week.  I was part of a team (Andrea Hernandez, Jon Mitzmacher and myself), that envisioned, organized and ran an education LEARNING conference. This was a first  for me, since I have only been a participant an/or  a presenter at such conferences.

We were inspired by the educon conference, run by Chris Lehman, his faculty, students and parents at the Science Leadership Academy . We envisioned, not a technology conference, but a conference about teaching and learning.

A prerequisite for being able to connect, communicate, collaborate and create during the conference, our attendees would have to be equipped with tools that would act in a way that made technology as “invisible, ubiquitous and necessary as oxygen”(Chris Lehman). Each one of our attending school teams, received a toolkit, containing an iPad, an iTouch, a Flip camera and a paper and pencil.

The focus of the conference was NOT going to be the tools though, but how the tools could encourage and support:

• the CREATION of media and documentation of learning
• the PARTICIPATION of attendees during conversations NOT lectures
• the LONG TERM creation of a learning community

John Dewey said that “we do not learn from experience, but we learn from reflecting on experience”. REFLECTING on the learning experience during the conference and the SHARING of that reflection has been an INTEGRAL part of  our vision.

Andrea Hernandez, already shared her first reflection post-edJEWcon describing our first steps of making edJEWcon  a reality. She pointed out that while there was an extraordinary amount of work from all the people involved, it was the attendees, presenters and students who brought the theory behind our vision of learning and teaching to life.

Jon Mitzmacher in his reflection  explains and elaborates on his feelings of being ” equal parts “proud parent”, “exhausted midwife”, “exhilarated student”, and “inspired principal” after the physical edJEWcon conference had concluded.

Mike Fisher, another key player in making edJEWcon all and more than it could have been, takes on the aspect of student involvement during edJEWcon as the topic of his post on ASCD Edge titled “Strategic and Capable“. He addresses the school’s Middle Schoolers directly by pointing out although they did not know it…” this was an assessment, one that happened in the moment but allowed you to prove your skills. You gave a performance, a recital of your capabilities…and you SHINED!”

More and more reflective posts from our school teams and partners are pouring in on their own professional blogs as well as on their edJEWcon school blogs, we created specifically for that purpose. Take a look at Shira Leibowitz’s posts A Day With Angela Maiers, Comfort With Discomfort, and The Purpose of Ed Tech, as well as Akevy Greenblatt’s post, or the Gray’s Academy of Jewish Education’s blog to share just a few.

Now it is my turn

• to be reflective
• to be transparent
• to add my reflection to theirs
• to weave a web of reflections and multiple perspectives
• to connect my learning to others
• to continue a conversation that started face to face
• to allow others, who were not able to be at edJEWcon physically, to learn with and from our experiences and thoughts.

I am a very visual learner, so I used my cell phone to sporadically take images during edJEWcon in an attempt to facilitate my post conference reflection on the experience. I will let the images guide my train of thought and hopefully they will also make the experience for the reader come alive. It can serve also as just another example of transmedia learning and storytelling.

21 school teams and 14 partners were registered to attend edJEWcon 5772.0. We knew that each team was bringing members who were at various comfort levels with the tools they were about to receive and the platforms we were about to ask them to explore, play and use over the span of three days. We needed to bring in speakers like Heidi Hayes Jacobs, Angela Maiers and Mike Fisher, who would be able to:

• share a vision
• tell a story
• inspire participants to WANT to grow and learn
• make connections between the shift in the real world to the realities in the educational world
• address how professional development for educators MUST change in order to allow change in the classroom to happen
• talk about the moral imperative of sharing among educators
• practice what they preached
• show that they are approachable and willing to connect with their audience
• lead a conversation, not just lecture

After receiving their toolkit, we ushered our teams to a location where they could unpack, set up and connect their devices with the help and support of a tech team if necessary. We had prepared a suggested app list to guide them as they were setting up an iTunes account and make choices about their first few apps.

Among the apps listed, was an edJEWcon conference app (created with Yapp.us) , which allowed attendees to receive updates, browse the schedule with room assignments and conversation descriptions, click on links we were pushing out, images, and Twitter feeds (@edjewcon & #edjewcon).

Tool set up went smooth and participants  were getting to know each other or reconnecting over lunch before heading to the first keynote. The conference had begun…

edJEWcon Keynote

View more presentations from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano

Mike Fisher, explained it well in his post Strategic and Capable, how MJGDS Middle School students worked behind the scene at the keynotes. They became the teachers, as Heidi Hayes Jacobs asked them to disperse, find an adult among the audience, sit with them and coach them in using their tool (iPad, laptop, iTouch)  to participate in a backchannel.

Backchanneling was nothing new to these students. Over the years, they have experienced using a backchannel  for academic purposes on a regular basis. (ex. movie watching, learning styles & collaboration, assessment of learning, Skype conferencing)

Image used with permission from Talie Zaifert

The concept of a shift in roles and defining who is a learner and who is a teacher was beautifully illustrated throughout the conference. As attendees AND presenters called upon our students to show, coach and participate as valued members of a conversation. In my mind it became clearer that any conference about education MUST include our students.

One of the main take aways, we wanted attendees to leave edJEWcon with, was an acute awareness of learning as being social, collaborative, connected and participatory.

We are not alone in our learning journey but can, should and must rely on a learning network to filter, contribute and add perspective.

Attendees were reminded throughout the conference to document their learning. Many took notes in  (paper) journals we provided in their toolkits. Several were spotted using word processors on their laptops to take notes. Some used  Google Docs to amplify by collaboratively taking notes and sharing them with colleagues.

Many brought their own iPads or used the iPad that was given to each team as part of the tool kit.

It was thrilling to see a Twitter newbie to discover the connected note taking capabilities of Twitter, by using not only summarizing their own thoughts but using #hashtags and RT (re-tweets).

It was equally thrilling to see attendees using their tools  to go beyond text based note taking and documenting. Thousands of images were taken during edJEWcon, they were shared via Twitter, blogs and Flickr.

Image by Talie Zaifert

There was undoubtedly a buzz in the air…

A buzz…

• how “edJEWcon was nothing without the people. People who came. People who helped. People who shared and learned and tweeted and connected. People are the magic that breathe life into an idea”.- Andrea Hernandez
• and “a Burst of educational excitement”- Gray Academy
• of “magic happening”- Mike Fisher
• where “we together explored topics that matter, not technology, but rather relationship and community”- Shira Leibowitz
• of “an environment where everyone was willing to learn and  grow and move out of his or her comfort zone”.- Akevy Greenblatt
• of  being “uncomfortable, in brain pain, and petrified of what I don’t know.  And I couldn’t be more excited or invigorated about it”.- Julie Lambert
• of learning “this week that blogging and tweeting are the “new” forms of communication that expand our world – that make it global”- Valeri Mitrani
• where “All leadership is collaborative, co-creation. No one can create anything extraordinary without tapping into the brilliance, hard work and passion of others. There is no creation without people”.- Andrea Hernandez
• “Through Twitter, I have connected with incredible people with invaluable resources.  These people have many more followers and much better insight than I and they can now lend their collective voices to mine”. – Jessica Nathan
• to “get everyone excited about these new concepts and ideas we are beginning to embrace”.- Metro West Jewish Day School
• that “It is not necessarily about using technology in the classroom it is about transforming learning with the assistance of technology.”- Jessica Jundef

As Heidi Hayes Jabobs points out, we need to strategically upgrade the areas of school structures, assessment and curriculum content review. edJEWcon was just the BEGINNING. edJEWcon was a about making educators AWARE and planting a SEED with concrete ideas how one one school is pushing for change.

The buzz was high… now the real work begins of ACTING on the awareness and growing that seed. We set ourselves the goal of edJEWcon being a conference, where

• the CREATION of media and documentation of learning
• the PARTICIPATION of attendees during conversations NOT lectures

would be a PRIORITY! Mission accomplished!

Now we move onto the challenge of LONG TERM sustainability of the learning community platform that was started DURING edJEWcon.

I am asking myself questions such as:

• How do we sustain our own level of excitement?
• How do we continue (or start)  to share what we learned with others?
• How do you enact change in your own school?
• What are your next steps?
• How will you CONTINUE to participate?
• How do we COLLABORATIVELY create a platform that becomes a source of reflection, resources and documentation of CHANGE in Jewish Education?
• How do we translate the COMMITMENT of PARTICIPATION (not just attending) during the conference into becoming more than a LURKER in a virtual community platform.  (Wikipedia defines a lurker as: “In Internet culture, a lurker is a person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file sharing, social networking site, listening to people in VOIP calls such as Skype and Ventrilo or other interactive system, but rarely or never participates actively.”)

My challenge to you is to reflect on these questions above…come up with your own questions…take the time to respond openly

• on your edJEWcon’s school blog
• in response to another blog post
• as comments on my Langwitches blog
• on your own professional learning blog
• in 140 characters or less on Twitter (including the #edjewcon hashtag)
• in a video
• as an audio post
• or any other way how you can express and share your thoughts

The important part is to get it out…in a digital form… to be able to connect it to others…to be part of a learning conversation that is CHANGING eduction.

Hyperlinked Writing in the Classroom- From Theory to Practice

This is the follow up post to the theoretical Wondering About Hyperlinked Writing. The post ended with

Now…on from the wondering, theory and resources…to the practice in the classroom.

I am ready to bring hyperlinked writing (and reading) as an important genre into the classroom!

Can one just start “throwing” hyperlinked writing” at our students (or teaches for that matter) at any time, at any age? Is hyperlinked writing part of a process? A process that starts with reading digitally, reading quality and poor samples of digital writing? Students then progress to writing comments, learning how to comment on the writing of others to learning how to write for an audience on their own blog posts. Hyperlinked writing is that next step up in writing for a an audience.

Hyperlinked writing is more than citing your sources, it is a direct manifestation of writing for an audience.

A quick check-in with my Common Core Guru, Mike Fisher, author of “Cure for the Common Core“, told me that I was on the right track.  He said:

You are actually addressing several capacities in what you’re describing:

•  Capacity 3: Students respond to varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline.

• Capacity 5: They value evidence. (Citations are in this realm, along with curation, and it is highly connected to number 6…)
• Capacity 6: They use technology and digital media strategically and capably.

It shows the intent to guide the reader to:

• where the author has been
• his/her train of thought
• providing a framework and context of the content background.
• choices where to learn more

There are other reasons why we link digital content

• Linking is a form of Content Curation
  We are placing specific resources and citations in the form of a
• Filtering and refining relevant content for our readers (3C’s of Information Commerce by Brian Solis)
• “The purpose of linking is to demonstrate to your audience that you are telling the truth.
  By means of the link, you provide your reader with the means to check up on you, to verify your claims, to follow up on the sources you say buttress your case, to find out if they really do reinforce what you are saying.” (Bloodhound Blog)

In the Quality Blogging Rubric, I developed for the use during our Quad-Blogging Action Research, links are addressed under the category “Community”. Under the “Expert”column it states that the blogger

• has several links that add to the readers understanding
• has  links that are relevant and “flow” within the content.

In retrospect, this description only seems to touch briefly on the importance and quality use of hyperlinks in digital writing.  (Note to self: Need to upgrade the rubric)

I started out with composing a paragraph together with the 4th graders on…. yes… a piece of paper. I wanted them to see the limitations of the traditional canvas of writing. Traditional meaning that the majority of current writing in schools end up on paper (handwritten or typed and then printed out).

• Why do people  link in their online writing?
• How do 9 and 10 year olds understand the use of links when they read online?
• How can we translate this to their digital writing?
• Understanding of linear and non-linear reading and writing

We Surf The Globe

On our blogs, we embedded a Clustr Map. A Clustr Map is a world map on your blog, that show you the location of the visitors of our blog. The map helps us visualize there our readers are from. We have been surfing the virtual globe  to countries all around the world, such as Thailand, Switzerland, and Czech Republic, because we know that they have read our posts.

I asked the students to copy the text we had written on the paper to their blog and to now add related links to the text. We discussed how the links should “flow” within the sentence and not just be “stuck” at the end, like “Click here to go to the ClustrMap”. (Note: Next time type the text quickly and post on my blog, to a shared Google doc or email them to each student. So much time was lost in typing the few sentences, which could have been spent on linking instead!)

I am departing from the assumption that at this point, students knew HOW to create a link on their blogging platform. This usually involves typing text, selecting and highlighting that text, clicking on a visual button (usually indicated with a chain linked together) and then entering the desired URL (Web Address) to underline and make the chosen text clickable once the post is published. Alternatively students might know or learn how to handcode a link in HTML

We watched the following video clip “Ethics of Linking” from Jay Rosen from the New York University. He says very simply:

The link, which is the idea, that you are interested in this, but did you know about THAT? Or HERE is what I’m saying, you should see what THEY are saying. You are here, but there is also this over THERE.

Take a look at Jamie B’s and Yoni H’s blog post and how they accomplished the task. By looking at all of the other student entries, I realized, that hyperlinking is not a one-lesson task, but a skill that students have to continue to practice and develop.

• Some students did not add additional links beyond the one we included on the “practice paper post”.
• Students did not go beyond adding links to other (which was the fault of not having a “better” practice paragraph) Note to self- need to develop a paragraph that includes the possibility to link to a variety of sources for hyperlinks

I did notice though, that these 4th graders were exhibiting a nice range of fluency in the logistical skills of creating links. I define this fluency as the ability to easily use the following skills and be able to adapt and change the order as and if needed.

Logistical Skills
that support fluency in hyperlinked reading & writing

• pre-viewing the URL link BEFORE clicking
• selecting a link in a browser
• copying a link in a browser
• creating a link on your digital page (either with HTML code or WYSIWYG editor)
• pasting the URL into the link code
• opening up a new tab in your browser to switch easily back and forth between digital writing page and pages to be linked.

Here are further thoughts and some activities for the classroom teacher to continue supporting and guiding his/her students in hyperlinked writing.

Yarn Blogging

Another brilliant idea from Bud Hunt has been Yarn Blogging. I recently used this technique with a group of teachers in a blogging workshop in New Zealand. The first step was for teachers to write a “blog post” on large stickie notes, then read these posts and “comment” on them by writing on small colorful stickies. The third step was for teachers to take yarn pieces and connect posts with other posts, posts with comments, comments with comments, etc.

Doing this activity with students might give them a tangible way of grasping  related content and how to connect them via a (yarn) link, not only making a connection between a name or word with a person’s website or a word’s definition.

Visual Mind Mapping

Using a mind mapping tool, such as Inspiration (software), Idea Sketch (iPad app) or Popplet (iPad app) to have students create a visual of linkable words in their text. Those could be organized by connection types. Allow students to see how  a visual mind map could translate into a hyperlinked text.

Non -Linear Writing

Are you familiar with “Choose Your Own Adventure Books“? How great would it be to allow students to map out such a story and link the choices on a mind map showing the links, flow and connections between choices. What if they were to choose to write their own”choice story” with different plots and outcomes according to the links embedded in the text? Students could use mind mapping apps again to design a flowchart of their story.

What to link to?

• name –> online hub (website, blog, Twitter, Facebook profile, etc.)
• brand name –> company’s website
• word –> definition
• quote–> original source
• phrase –> content context/background
• phrase–> someone else’s perspective
• conversation –> Twitter Hashtag
• example –>example in action/ demonstration of examples
• theory –> practice
• theme/topic/concept–> previous writing
• collaborative writing pieces –> pieces of another contributor to the topic

Choosing Link Text

Use text for your link:

• one-word keywords as links
  allow readers to skim over your writing to make a decision if they will read further
• text is as descriptive as possible
  Just as the image above says, “Hyperlinked text MUST telegraph the destination”. Let readers know what content to expect when they click on the link
• keep the amount of underlined words to a minimum.
  Don’t create links with link text as long as a sentence or an entire paragraph
• embed the links within the flow of writing avoid adding a “click here”

Please share your ideas of teaching hyperlinked writing in the classroom. How have you approached the genre with your age group of students? What have you learned? What are some of your trial and errors?

Wondering About Hyperlinked Writing

Almost 4 years ago, I wrote a post on Langwitches titled Teaching Hyperlinked Writing and Reading. 4 years later, many (most?) teachers have not heard, let alone are teaching and coaching their students in the use of hyperlinked writing. The word “hyperlinked” is still being underlined in red as I am typing the word, indicating that it must be somehow misspelled or that the word does not exist.

Wes Fryer, in his post The Ethic of the Link, Hyperlinked Writing and Mainstream Media Link Hangups, states that

Hyperlinked writing is one of the most important topics we can address, share, and encourage educators to learn ABOUT and how to DO personally today.”

I agree with Wes and feel that there is very little headway being made to address the issue in Professional Development and in the classroom with our students. Again, I believe that teachers can’t teach, model and coach their students in something they have little or no experience in.

What are we waiting for? Linked reading and writing is not going away…These are skills our students need…

Bud Hunt, in a post titled Ruminations on Implications: Notes from the Thesis, also notices, in the case of classroom and student blogs, that there is merely a “substitution” of the traditional writing going on. His concern is that we are simply replacing traditional writing with digital writing without tapping into the transformational potential it holds.

The kind of writing that’s being asked of students in these spaces?  Well, it’s interesting – I can break it down into three types – daily summaries, written collectively by elementary school classes; reflective essays about various topics; and responses to teacher questions.  Lots of it is writing that doesn’t require a blog.  And it’s writing that involves very, very, very little source material.  Very few quotes.  Very few links.  And the links, when they’re present, are not  embedded in the text.  They lie naked and open in the text.  And that seems problematic to me

In another post, Thinking ’bout Linking, Bud wonders about

teaching “blogging” vs. “writing with blogs

I think Bud makes a very important distinction here. There is a difference between the two which expresses beautifully the next step I want to take in helping students become quality blog writers. It is not about substituting traditional writing, but it is about amplifying it.

I am asking:

How do we help bring hyperlinked writing (and reading) as an important genre into the classroom?

I had a brief interaction with Terry Heick on Twitter (please read in reverse order) and really was thankful for the perspective he shared.

Terry calls it “layered writing”, I have heard it called

• connected writing
• linked writing
• hyperlinked writing
• non-linear writing

and I would like to add:

• amplified writing

Please share your experience with hyperlinked writing.

• Any thoughts on how you feel about it?
• Are the links distracting to you?
• Do links empower you as the writer and reader of the digital text?
• Do no links in a digital text make you cringe?
• Feel restricted?
• How have you incorporated hyperlinked writing int your classroom?
• How are your students learning to express themselves via linked writing?
• Does linking come natural to you/them?

We can create a hyperlinked context around “Teaching Hyperlinked Writing,  if you leave a comment with a link on this post or leave a pingback from a reflection on your own blog or resources you have found valuable.

Now…on from the wondering, theory and resources…to the practice in the classroom. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post where I share what I learned with and from students.

Further Resources:

• Definition Hyperlink from Motive Web Design Glossary
• Posts from Hyperlinks category from Bud Hunt