// Langwitches Blog

• Devine 6th Grade Backchanneling – a set on Flickr
  (tags: backchannel images)

Taking.Play.Seriously with Brian Smith

Session Wiki

Conversation Description:

Diane Ackerman’s quote, “play is the brain’s favorite way of learning” is oft used to describe the learning that takes place in elementary schools. Despite that belief, a simple visit to any school in the country will reveal a picture that flies in the face of Ackerman’s statement. We know why play is being squeezed out of schools, but bringing it back will take creative thinking, ideas and sharing. Together we will discuss and construct ideas for bringing the aspects of play into more learning experiences.

Think about how YOU play(ed).

• What did you play?
• What do you think you learned from play?
• When did you stop playing
• When did  you play?

What is play?

• Play is open ended?
• Possibly without an objective?
• Joy , freedom, being in the moment
• Role playing
• imagination
• explore, discover, unveil
• no expectation at the end?

Playing to learn or learning to play? Why and when has the word “play” at schools become a “bad” word?

Stuart Brown at TED Talk

Re)Imagining Social Media & Technology in Teacher Education with Alec Couros and Dean Shareski.

Conversation Description:

Dean Shareski and Alec Couros have been teaching technology and social media related courses in a teacher education program at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina. Over the last couple of years, we have focused on social and participatory learning strategies as we have “opened” our courses with the assistance of the individuals in our respective personal learning networks. This has meant connecting our students to passionate and knowledgeable educators from around the world, and also, allowing our students to become mentors in distant classrooms. The courses, based on student feedback, have been very successful. We hope to focus this conversation on both the specific and general. First, in what ways can we improve our course experiences to ensure success for our students (and hopefully for the schools in which they are hired)? Second, we would like your input in (re)imagining the role of teacher education programs in the development of students who are technologically savvy and media literate. What should our programs aim to accomplish? What strategies should we adopt? And, perhaps most importantly, how can we work better with K12 schools districts to help foster innovation and ensure success for young learners.

Educon Participants

Teachers and teacher’s education is changing.

Big Question: What does teacher education look like?
Course Framework:
Learning is Social, whether that is being online or in another context. Imperative that students be together in one way or another to learn with each other. Students are required to explain HOW you learned from other and HOW you contributed to the learning from others. It is important to spell out that expectation!

Public Spaces:

Idea of private to public spaces. Student ownership of their learning. The idea of dismanteling a course learning space a after the class is over is unreal, but very normal with platforms such as Blackboard.

Assessment:

How do we help each other learn more. Co-constructing criteria. What should your blog look like. How should it look like for you. Discussion how something could look like. What would the student like to get out of it. Shifting the assessment more to the student, not the teacher.

Distributive Expertise:

Bring in expert/practitioner voices. Changes the role of professors to facilitators.

Access to Best Practices:

Mentoring by opening your classroom to student teachers (via video conferences). Very powerful experience for student AND classroom teacher. Student teachers might start “contract” themselves out to help classroom teachers.

Personal Learning Network:

Possibilities to have our pre-service teachers connect with someone who inspires them and to mentor them in their journey. How should it happen (Building a PLN)? Organically or prescribed?

Private vs. Public:

Web2.0 tools exist that might allow academics to  on and reimagine what they do as scholars. Such tools might positively affect – even transform learning[...]

What would you suggest to improve the experience for students?

Help pre-service teachers to get in the habit of integrating technology in order to LEARN. Imagine school and learning can look different, even though school has worked for these pre-service teachers. How do you prepare students that it worked well for them (since they are in college).

“We have to teach teachers how to learn.”(Will Richardson)

About Sharing...

Image licensed under Creative Commons by Dean Shareski

-Have virtual field experiences.

-Being a reflective practitioner:

- It can’t be so much about teaching for pre-service teachers, but it also has to be about LEARNING.

What parts of this framework make sense for all learners? What parts don’t?

What happens when you prepare your pre-service teachers and then they go out to their first jobs and none of the technology tools are available or desired in the new school or district? The same question arises what happens to students in K12 schools who are in a 21st century savvy teacher who open up all the possibility to connection and collaboration and then they move on the the next grade level, where they are denied to continue to learn in that way.

Leadership 2.0: Who Do We Need Our Leaders To Be? with Chris Lehmann

Conversation Description:

If educators cannot successfully integrate new technologies into what it means to be a school, then the long identification of schooling with education, developed over the past 150 years, will dissolve into a world where the students with the means and the ability will pursue their learning outside of public school.

Model and exemplify the pedagogy of the Educon conference. Let’s all learn from and with each other. That is simply good leadership. If we want our schools to be inquiry driven, what do we need our leaders to be.
We need to create a common language.

1. What does this idea mean?
2. What does this idea mean for education?
3. How could this idea affect our schools and communities?
4. How does this idea inform my personal practice?

Ideas:

• Inquiry
• Technology-Infusion
• Communities of Care

Inquiry

• evolves around students set the course for learning, give the learning more relevance in students mind
• follow the lead of students
• spirit of inquiry is natural to small children
• Teachers need to model inquiry that for students
• Open inquiry vs. guided inquiry
• inquiry as mean of differentiation
• Find your “unknown” and learn about it (very different than “what do I need to do to get that “A”)
• Inquiry gives permission to infuse curriculum with creativity.
• Inquiry is a process is getting to “an” answer, not necessarily to the “right” answer.
• Inquiry is a creative process. how can we align with state standards/Standardized tests

Technology-Infusion:

• part of what you do every day
• can’t be an add-on. The same school it has always been plus technology
• invisible but present everywhere
• learning experiences that demand technology, without the tech, the experience would not be possible
• does not have to be part of EVERY lesson
• not about the bells and whistles, it is about the skills
• technology is a tool and layer to help teach all the other layers of teaching.
• how can the social network in students life can have an academic component?
• analogy of blood infusion- can’t live without blood. Take something out that is not working for you and replacing it with something that is.
• Tech tools should be TRANSFORMATIVE

Communities of Care

• How do you define community
• Model the care as a leader
• The care of students, but also teachers need to be apparent
• Character Education has to go deeper than hanging posters around school
• Mutual transparency. Kids understand that teachers are there to help them achieve. That leads to accomplishing a goal.
• Care is at all levels. The teachers also have to feel cared for.
• Caring is also setting boundaries
• You have to carve out space and time for a community of care
• There is an increasingly social aspect to our students’ life

A leader needs to ask their community:

• What are our strengths
• Listen to a consensus
• Make meaning out of it together
• Take the ideas, synthesize them and then lead

Leadership:

• Build a vision that is powerful enough to attract the right people, broad enough to own it and flexible enough to lead it.
• Articulate values to allow a conversation to happen

Visioning:

• Developing Ideas

Modeling:

• How can leaders publicly live these ideas?

Servant Leadership:

Top Down Support for Buttom up ideas

Leading:

• How do we get everyone on board

Quotes from Chris Lehmann:

Top down support for bottom up ideas

Leadership is to be able to get people on common ground, then move ahead

As a teacher don’t say that you teach “Math” or “Science”, but that you teach students!

Care is a transaction… a give and take…

You can’t bully teachers into caring for their students

Days of top down mandates will never get us to a community of care (trust)

Every good teacher knows how to outlive a mandate

21st Century Classroom or 21st Century Learning- Tracy Weber

Session Wiki

Conversation Description:

Purpose: To encourage educators to plan their classrooms from a learning perspective rather than from a tools perspective. Don’t buy the tool and then figure out how to use it. Instead, figure out what learning should look like, and then focus on obtaining the tools to create that vision. Process: We’ll begin by examining 21^st century classrooms from a tools focused perspective and comparing that to industrial age classrooms. “Has anything really changed?” Participants will share in small groups the challenges and successes they’ve had as they attempted to morph their schools into modern age learning environments. Then we’ll work in small groups to respond to the key question: “What should teaching and learning look like in the twenty-first century?” After groups have formulated a response, we’ll share these as a whole group and formulate a single response. Finally, groups will be asked to consider the tools that are really needed to obtain that vision. Each component of our final response will be given to a different discussion group and they’ll be asked to plan the technology that would fulfill a specific teaching and learning need. Those responses will be shared in a whole group setting.

Teachers goal is often to figure out how to use the tech tools to teach the same things that they taught before.  What technologies do we put in the classroom to help teachers change

Participants were divided into 4 groups, each group brainstormed four different questions and documented conversation on the wiki.

1. How are students different today than they were 20 years ago?
2. How are classrooms and schools today different than they were 20 years ago?
3. How is the world different today than it was 20 years ago? Specifically, what skills and capacities do our students need to be successful contributors in the modern world?
4. How are teachers different than they were 20 years ago?

They then split up to form 4 different groups and report their finding from first group.

Each individual group then comes up with their conclusion of the discussion to the question:

What should 21st century learning and learning environments look like? What tools contribute to that goal?

1. Group 1 Conclusions
2. Group 2 Conclusions
3. Group 3 Conclusions
4. Group 4 Conclusions

Elementary School in the 21st Century- Brian Crosby

How does the Pedagogy Change? How does that School look?

Session Wiki

Conversation Description:

School/pedagogy needs to change, adapt, modernize is the siren call. We will briefly look at and/or discuss examples of lessons, technology use, and projects in elementary school today. Then use the bulk of our time attempting to outline what a “changed” vision for elementary school could and should be. Is there anything that stays the same? Should we approach this from no cost matters, or try to do it for the same or lower cost? Reading instruction … what changes? What doesn’t? Math? Other subjects? What about the building? Probably can’t raze them all and build new … so? What equipment/tools? We could dream big, but I’m thinking we might want to look at a model that is doable? What else? We can build a wiki so the thinking/planning can be archived and continued after the time runs out. as well as accessed and added to by those attending off site.

How things have changes over time? Since 1900 how much things have really changed? Nurses, factory workers, electricians, business… Could they just step into a job from today?

How about a student from 100 years ago. Could a student from 100 years ago step into a school from today? Chalkboard, books…

Schools need to change FUNDAMENTALLY…

How should a school essentially look like today?
Pedagogy?
Standards? / Curriculum?
Assessment? / Accountability?
Does size matter?
Facilities? / Equipment?
Which subjects are taught / are not taught?
Decision-making
Magnet school / school with-in school?
Extra-curricular Programs? Sports, arts, scouts, various clubs / interest groups
Local / Global Connections / outreach?
Parent / Home Connection?

We have to show teachers the changes in the world in order for them to understand why to use the tools (technology). Why would we want to change, if we (school) is doing great with Test scores.  It is more about the change in the world, than doing great in the current (past) way of doing things (assessing, standardized testing, world of the 20th century).

- Recommendation of movie Waiting for Superman (2010)

Who has the power? Parents (what if they are disconnected)? Who will be making the changes? School Boards, Parents, Administrators?

-Assessment piece driving instruction

Resource integration for working with the whole child.

Focus group with parents. – Start a discussion ABOUT EDUCATION!!!

What about the business component? What kind of graduates do they need? Global, critical thinkers…

Supporting teachers. They are the connectors to communicate with the community and parents. How does the support need to look like to be effective?

Where are the classrooms(schools) that are making a difference? We need to follow graduates like Science Leadership Academy to see how they do/lead once they are out in the real world.

Is there room for the basics? When do we start the BIG change? In elementary school we still need to teach writing and reading basics. How can we wrap change around that?

Passion is an important component to change. Passion of teachers spill over to the students. That passion might not be Technology for some teachers… and that is ok…

The need for teachers, superintendents, administrators to CONTINUE to learn. Visionary leadership creates the vision and structure AND create time and budget allocation to make it happen. The responsibility can not only be on teachers.  The principal is responsible for the learning climate of his/her school.

We have to start with the STUDENT in the design process of the 21st Century school should look like. How can we prepare them for tests and fail to prepare them for the world that awaits them.

-Who are the clients of schools? Students, communities, parents?

Transformative learning…not doing the same thing with a different tool. We need to get to the point that teachers/educators/administrators/decision makers understand that there is a revolution going on in the world (outside of many/most walls of physical schools). We need to find out how to let them see that teaching/learning the same way than “before” needs to be transformed, completely rethought.

We have a responsibility to collect, document and disseminate classroom examples. Show the leaders who are fearful or reluctant that other are DOING IT.

-Buy collaboration time as part of professional development funding.

-Recommendation for Quest Atlantis for elementary school. Design your own learning opportunities, use others design, free, 21st Century.

-Prepare the students for the world that THEY (students) live in.

• BBC News – Phone texting 'helps pupils to spell'
  A study of eight- to 12-year-olds found that rather than damaging reading and writing, "text speak" is associated with strong literacy skills.
  (tags: literacy texting spelling learning articles)

• Education Innovation: Micro Cultures of Professional Learning Communities
  In his fine book Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, author Andy Crouch explains his premise that it is not enough to condemn, critique, consume, or copy culture. The only way to change culture is to cultivate and create it.
  (tags: pln culture education)
• Doug Reeves Reprints.indd – Powered by Google Docs
  (tags: 21stcenturyskills articles)
• YouTube You Choose Really Useful « My Other Blog
  YouTube annotations, this feature allows movie uploaders to add text and other features to the movie from within YouTube. These annotations can also have attributes added to them such as hyperlinks. This means that movies can not only be “cartoonised” but they can also be made interactive which is what the yourphotofate folk have done.
  (tags: youtube videos internet_safety)

• VisualsSpeak LLC
  You have 20 minutes to get
  the cranky IT guy and the busy CEO
  on the same page.

  What if you could sidestep miscommunication
  and get to the heart of the matter fast?
  No awkward silences. No arguments. No roadblocks.

  A shift happens. No one can explain how or why, but everyone can feel it. There’s energy, excitement, a sense of connection in the room.

  (tags: communication storytelling visualization)

• Learning Is Messy – Blog » Blog Archive » My Attempt To Explain (sort of) The Power of Building Your Personal Learning Network (PLN)
  An Educators Guide to Why You Want A Personal Learning Network”
  (tags: pln twitter)