Not So Distant Future

   What happens when what is going on in your classroom can be shared around the world?

Today, by sharing his students at Arapahoe High School in Colorado, Karl Fisch gave us just that opportunity–to peer into a classroom and see networked, scaffolded, engaged students at their best.  

For weeks, students in several English classes at Arapahoe have been reading Daniel Pink’s book, Whole New Mind, and have been discussing it via live-blogging sessions, using an inner/outer circle discussion method.   (The inner circle discusses, the outer circle blogs their reflections on the discussion).  In the culminating event today, the students got to videoconference via Skype with the author, Daniel Pink, directly.

I was able to participate in one of the live blog discussions a few weeks ago, and it was fascinating to see as some of the students created meaning for themselves as we talked on the blog about the book.   They helped one another find understanding, work out details they didn’t understand, and it deepened my own understanding of the chapter as well.

Today those of us watching the videoconference via Ustream  with the students could see the fruition of this method in the classroom.  The students interviewing Daniel Pink were ninth graders, yet were having a detailed and in depth discussion with him about the book.   You could see that after having discussed it so much in the live blogging and in their classrooms, that they felt ownership of it.  And it was also clear that they have been in an inquiry-based, student-centered classroom because they felt really empowered to ask questions and even to challenge some of the things that Daniel Pink said.

Meanwhile, as viewers, we were able to participate with students in the room who were liveblogging the event, via CoverItLive, and have discussions with them about their reactions to the conversation in the room.   Again, students were asking questions, making comments, probing, and clearly were entirely engaged in what was going on.  The chat was flying by almost faster than we could read.

At own my campus, a group of us were gathered around one “unfiltered” computer in the library(since Ustream is blocked on our campus) and watching the video conference mesmerized.  (I wish I had thought to take a picture of that!) And every teacher who walked into the library came over and watched for awhile, then asked, When can I do that?   A student aide sat and watched with us and responded to the discussion here and there as well, and watched the entire time.

Karl Fisch, Anne Smith, Maura Moritz and the other teachers involved didn’t just create a unique and powerful learning experience for their students.  They allowed educators all over the world to ask their colleagues, “When can we do that?”   They set an example for administrators, IT departments, teachers, librarians, and students all over the world.

Since the event ended, I’ve seen countless comments on twitter or via emails on our own campus from teachers eager to try something similar, eager to engage their students this way, and countless comments about people who shared what Arapahoe did with their own principals, administrators and teachers.

When we share what we are doing beyond the walls of our classrooms, we are inspiring countless others to rethink their practices or to take a leap of faith.   When Karl Fisch posted their plans today, he wasn’t entirely sure all the technology pieces would cooperate, and his focus was first on his own campus.  But his generosity in sharing has created opportunities for teachers many times over.

That’s what happens when your classroom is heard ’round the world.  

People listen, learn and grow.

Thanks, Karl and all the teachers at Arapahoe for including us.

(and thanks to Daniel Pink, as well!)

image credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74196805@N00/754581749

Seems to be a meme-theme lately :)  

As you probably know, a meme is a game of tag, where someone tags you for a theme, and you pass the tag along to other blogs.

Liz Davis and Diane Cordell have both tapped me for a “Blogs that Make Me Think” award.  And not to sound like a cliche, but I’m honored because I admire both of their work.

I must say that if I could give a “shout-out” to education bloggers in general, I would.  So many of you inspire me, make me think, challenge my thinking, and lead me to new resources.   But since I have to pick a few, I’m going to pick outside of the box a little, and mention blogs that always get me thinking in new directions.

The Education Business Blog  — Lee Wilson is a publishing consultant who is very tapped into how web 2.0 tools are changing publishing. (caveat–He’s also a parent in our district, which I only discovered AFTER we found each other’s blogs.)

Beyond School –I’m sure Clay has already been tapped but his energy and dedication to “unschooling” school is amazing.

Presentation Zen – Garr Reynold’s blog has amazing insights into the zen of good design;  always challenges my thinking and inspires me.

Seth Godin’s blog — Always makes me think about how to market our library better and how to always keep our customers/students at the forefront of my thinking.

A blogger I rediscovered last weekend during the Colorado Learning 2.0 was Dan Maas, the CIO of Littleton Public Schools.  Though I wish the blog was in a more typical blog-like format, he has some great insights to offer.  And I admire the leadership step he’s taken in his district to become a blogger.

And even though this is more than five, I wanted to tag two bloggers that make me think, but also are very encouraging.  I think it’s really important too–to encourage new bloggers who are reflecting on their practices and to welcome them into the network.

Dangerously Irrelevant – Scott’s blog inspires us to think about the systems in education; how we can lead more effectively, and what works. 

Blue Skunk Blog –  Doug Johnson is a true leader in the library field, and helps us examine best practices, ask good questions, and think outside the box.

So, I’m passing this along:

The rules are:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote
In addition there is a note: “Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all - blogs that really get you thinking! ”

“It’s too easy to criticize hope.   And in the end, cynicism is a lousy strategy.”   Seth Godin.

Best blog post I’ve read in awhile.   While it was most likely referring to recent politics, Godin’s words could be applied equally to technology decisions in schools.

Many of us who work with students on web 2.0 tools have a sense of hope and optimism about our students and about the future.  We trust in our own ability to use these tools effectively and wisely and in the power of using them with students.    We don’t trust blindly but we do believe that we are professionals and we believe that students have much to contribute.   We believe that students can make good choices when given a scaffold to do so (and on their own accord as well.)

It’s easy enough to shut those tools down, to disable them for all students or teachers because of what “might happen,” and to build our policies on cynicism.

But what would it look like if we built our policies on hope?  

Perhaps there should be an adage–what we celebrate, gets done.

The issue of celebration has been cropping up lately, both in discussions on campus and in my extended network.

When we are doing something well in our district classrooms or libraries, is that being celebrated within the district (as well as without?) 

We celebrate the visible things, like winning teams or competitions, academic test scores, etc.   But are we celebrating equally our daily academic successes?  Are we celebrating lessons that work, transformative uses of technology tools to deepen understanding, a classroom that has struggled and is now finding its way intellectually?

And if we are, are we celebrating it somewhere accessible to our students, parents, other teachers and the general public?   Are we celebrating the joy of teaching and learning?

In his presentation today at Learning 2.0–A Colorado Conversation, Dan Maas, CIO at Littleton Public Schools Schools, pointed out that in education, we typically reward success and punish struggle, when in fact, we should be rewarding struggle.  He believes that the struggle is what leads to the success, and consequently should be considered as consequential.

His point led me to wonder what it would look like for a school campus or a district to really feature learning–not the final end products of a project, or the awards, but the learning.   And what would it do for a school’s culture when  learning was celebrated?

I’m imagining a school newsletter or website or video interview with a teacher or student each month talking about learning and teaching–describing a particular success or struggle in the classroom.   I’m envisioning professionals sharing their thought process as they work through a difficult unit, and the things they consider as they do so.   I’m pondering what it would be like to hear a student analyze how they approach their own learning, or why some classroom activity was particularly powerful for their learning.   

Part of why people don’t understand what education is “like” or what teachers do, is because we don’t engage our public in the deeper conversations about what we do, particularly sometimes in our own districts.  Blogging helps with this a great deal, but only when a blog is really a significant piece in the district’s website.  

I also think this idea of celebrating both academic successes and struggles extends far beyond the “public face” of it.  It has to be an embedded belief in a school or district.   There has to be a level of trust so that people can share their struggles and so they know that the real classroom successes are valued beyond any one assessment score.

One of the best examples of this I can think of is when the Science Leadership Academy was struggling last year with their 1:1 laptop implementation.

Chris Lehmann wrote a blog post about the problem (students using chat too much) and how they were having honest, schoolwide(including with students) discussions about the problem, and how they were working it out.   Embedded in his blog posts were the beliefs I write about–a trust in both the students and teachers, a belief in the students as partners in the solution, and a trust that he could share their struggles openly and not be concerned that the district would impede their process at their campus.   The campus is built around these open types of conversations, it was clear.   We all learned by reading about their struggle and their process, but what we learned most of all is how this school is centered around learning as a core of its very being.

So, the other consequence of celebrating these struggles and successes is that our communities come to know that we are seriously engaged in what we do.   Imagine the increased trust that engenders with parents and community members when they know we are really about learning at a deep level.   And imagine what a better understanding the general public gains of what we do in all of our schools when we celebrate and share our stories about learning. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about a session at  TCEA’s Library Sig group meeting, where Barbara Jansen and her former principal Marla McGee did an excellent presentation about ‘five things librarians would want their principals to know about their programs’.  (See Dr. Mary Ann Bell’s excellent summary of the session).  

Barbara emphasized the importance of identifying what your ‘five most important things’ about your program are, and then not only telling your principal, but “showing them.’

Ok, this gets to one of those complex trackbacks, but worth it. A recent thread on Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk blog about librarians and technologists working together to implement 21st century information literacy skills (which tracks back to a series of posts by guest bloggers Justin Medved and Dennis Harter on Dangerously Irrelevant) led me to think about Barbara’s “five things” in relation to other aspects of our roles as librarians.

I’m thinking that part of improving our partnerships with teachers or with our technology departments is identifying those “five things” that we want each of those constituents to understand about our programs.  Having a focused message is part of making it “stick.”  

We need to, as Barbara and Marla did in their presentation, join forces to understand one another better.

But, we also need input in order to do that–not just telling our own stories but hearing the stories of others. 

So maybe we should be asking teachers five things they want librarians to understand about their work, or asking technologists five things they want librarians to understand about theirs, or asking students five things they want us to understand about their use of the library.

Finding ways to open dialogues with our customers through surveys, questionaires, and face to face discussions is a way to enhance and grow our partnerships.

Because we are instructional partners, all of us.  Our goal is helping students learn.   When we all understand our piece of the partnership and how we can best contribute, the whole school is stronger because of that.   What can we do to support one another more effectively?    Because ultimately, good partnerships end up helping students learn more meaningfully.   

  So, teachers, students, technology coordinators, principals–what are those five things that are most important to you?

What do we need to know about your jobs, and how can we partner with you better?

And in return, how can you partner with us better as well?

(Much thanks to Barbara Jansen for the idea.)

Image credit: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00/101655312

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12368550@N06/2068779988

In his post last week, “Changing Ourselves, Changing Our Culture,” Will Richardson finds irony in the fact that “teachers are connecting more and more outside their spaces but, it appears at least, not so much inside their own districts and communities.”

I’ve found that to be true for myself until recently. I’ve had only a small core of people that I felt I could connect back in with when I returned to my own campus, or attended a local conference.

But recently I’ve found a very strange thing happening. My far-flung world-wide connections are bringing me home.

I’m not very connected in my state, or haven’t felt that way. Prior to blogging, I felt somewhat isolated, though I’ve done many workshops over the years, and connected with many people at conferences. But these connections weren’t really ones I brought back with me long-term. I’ve sometimes felt isolated within my own school district, too -sometimes its hard to find time to continue the conversations or find those interested in the same things I am.    But now because there are some networked places to talk with those I meet face to face, long after a workshop or discussion ends, it has allowed me to continue some of those “connections” much more easily.

So the phenomenon I find happening is that being part of this network is making my local experiences much richer.

For one thing, the knowledge that I’ll get to share what I’m doing at a conference with whoever is in my Twitter network or whoever reads my blog adds depth to my thinking about it. (And keeps me on my toes!)

But as I’ve come home to two local conferences this winter, I’ve also found them so much richer because:

a. I’m meeting people at the conferences that I actually only knew online, even though they were nearby….I’ve found like minds in my area to talk with. And getting to spend time really talking about ideas at the conference and then getting to carry that conversation on AFTERWARDS is hugely powerful.

2. I’m also bringing back ideas from the “larger” network into my own local communities that haven’t been so tapped into the network– either on my own campus or within my peer group of librarians. All of which adds depth and enthusiasm for me as well. And now we have places to easily extend our conversations beyond a meeting or conference also–on Ning or blogs or Twitter, or email and F2F, so that those local connections also can continue far beyond the “drive-by” workshop time.

And I suspect that this sense of  discovery and of extending the conversation is what is so empowering about networks for our students — they use their own networks to bring friendship, inspiration, and energy back to their own daily lives.

I agree with Will that we need more formal ways of bringing these local connections alive in a long term, supportive environment. There is too much left to chance and teachers are our most valuable resource in terms of changing the classroom.

But today I am just delighted by the sheer serendipity of connections, and that building a network far afield has started bringing me back home–home, but with more than I had before.

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjaergaard_92/1778562401/

What is the value of being networked?

Yesterday during my Hill Country Librarian Presentation on “How to be a Networked Librarian,” I threw that question out to my twitter network.

The responses from my network were so varied and tremendous, that I wanted to share them as a resource when we talk about the power of being part of a learning network. Thanks tweets!

John Maklary’s comment that he is no longer an island is such a significant one. We are no longer islands, nor do we need to be. We can not only draw from the wisdom of so many other educators, we can share with others the strides we are making, lessons we are learning, and our own strengths and passions.

One of the things we talked about in the workshop was the importance of contributing to the network instead of just “borrowing.” I do think librarians are attuned to that–because we are used to the idea of sharing everything we find out and to connecting people with ideas.

Our difficulty tends to be that in our own buildings, we don’t have people who do that for us as often. We’re the “connectors” more often than the recipients, just due to the nature of our roles. So a network can be a significant way to get new ideas, to get re-inspired, to learn about new books or new resources, and to just find support for what we do.

As Andrea Hernandez(edtechworkshop) points out, a network can inform, improve, and enhance everything we do.

We do not have to be stranded on our islands anymore. As Cathy Nelson(cathyjo) points out, our “Verizon-like” networks can travel with us wherever we go.

Ways to get in the boat and get off that island? Here are a couple of blog posts with ideas:

– How to start building a network

– A Path to Becoming a Literate educator

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23209605@N00/2126012577

and to the students of NIU–

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.  The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference.  The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference.  And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”   Elie Wiesel

When something like this happens, it is a reminder that we have to care for every person and student in our communities.   And that we cannot let ourselves become calloused, but must raise a light for our students to see by.    We cannot accept this as the way it is in our worlds or in our students’ worlds.  We have to believe in more for all of us.
And we have to extend a hand, say hello in the hallway, see every student, and to build a community of care.  We have to teach our students the power of attention to each other.  
We cannot be indifferent.

We have to have a vision of what once was and  what could be.

And we have to shine a light for our students for that spring day which will come.

“But the future will roll all away.
Take cheer lonely heart the deep gloom
Will break forth and effulgence of May
Smile over thy beauty and bloom.
                — Colfax Burgoyne Harman. Clouds.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49719028@N00/99638143

Just some quick tool-sharing since I haven’t done that in awhile–

I’d been looking for a place to upload videos (other than YouTube) or Teachertube(too slow) and a few of my twitter friends suggested Vimeo.com.   I tried it today and found it a handy tool for uploading video.

It’s easy to use, and you can also mark a video “private” so if it was something just for your campus or a limited group of staff you were working with, you could use it internally.   It does this by allowing you to assign a password, and when you send someone the link, they simply enter the password to access the video.

Another new tool I tried out after Randy Rodgers‘ session at TCEA was Scrapblog.com.  It’s an easy site for making an online scrapbook, which can then be published, or again, kept as private.   It has built in themes, transitions, stamps, etc. and can be embedded on another site as well.  And although easy to use, it has quite a few “bells and whistles” for customizing the look of the scrapbook.   Like Voicethread, you can invite others to share if you have made it private.   It’s very easy to manipulate the photos, add icons, etc.   And Scrapblog allows comments if you make your scrapbook public.

Our instructional technology coordinator, Joel Adkins, shared a few other tools with me that he learned about at TCEA, like Zoomit, which is a handy tool for the pc, which allows you to use hotkeys to zoom in on your screen, and Photoscape, which is a downloadable photo editor that appears to be very user friendly.   It’s less complex than Picasa, and has a nice desktop interface that is “Mac-like.”

  He liked to tear around on his tricycle.   He died in Vietnam when he was 25.   His name is Brian O’Callaghan and he is one of the many soldiers whose name appears on the Vietnam Wall.

 His sister shared this photo with one of our students as part of a project our junior English AP students are doing, preparing brief video memorials for soldiers whose names appear on the Vietnam Wall.

We used to do this project on posterboard.  Last year, we decided to move it to the web, so that it would truly be more of a shared project that families and other veterans could view or respond to.

We have received so many moving letters from Veterans and family members with whom our students have been in contact, more moving and personal than I could have imagined.   Letters like this one from Rick Lewis–

“One of my Vietnam buddies . . . has contacted me and asked me to provide some information for this project. His exact words to me were, ‘Rick, you are getting your wish. Sarge will be remembered long after we are gone.’”

He wrote us about his lifelong wish that his best friend would be memorialized somehow:

“Your school is about to do something that none of us thought would ever happen. Our beloved leader will be known to many in a time that others have been forgotten. You truly are paying a tribute to one of the finest men that ever lived.”

Imagine your students receiving a letter like that. 

When I think of recent debates about the value of technology in schools, I think of what, really unwittingly, has happened with this project.   Our decision to take a leap of faith, and figure out the logistics of creating and putting these video memorials online has burgeoned into something important for veterans and family members far beyond our school walls.

Our students are seeing the power of real-life research, the power of interviewing and delving into local records for information.  And seeing the power of their voice in the lives of others.

We’re relying on the power of email, databases, internet sites, books, scanners, digital video recorders, blogs, wikis, and software like powerpoint, photostory, iMovie, Voicethread, Slide.com and lcd projectors in the classroom for sharing the presentations.   The reach of this once small project couldn’t have been achieved in any other way, and it’s taken all of us–teachers, tech staff, and library staff working together to bring it together.

 Yesterday, a swift boat pilot made a surprise visit to a classroom to present one of our students (whose project was about a fellow swift boat pilot who had died) with a memorial pin and tshirt for her efforts.   His wife emailed me afterwards that some of the details our student included in her presentation(which wasn’t about a soldier our guest knew) had actually involved him personally   The connections that are woven into our lives are so unexpected sometimes.

As I write this I am thinking of what Marco Torres’ asked us in his presentation at the TCEA conference last week–

What channels are we providing for our students?

There are so many gifts waiting in our own communities, so many stories to be told that our students can learn from, stories like Brian’s and Rick’s.  We had no idea this project would become what it is and I feel humble to even be part of it.  

And it’s not about the tools involved, but the tools in service of the learning.  I’m sure someone wiser than I coined that phrase.

But we also can’t dismiss the tools out of hand, because there are times they are the best and only way to make connections beyond the four walls of our classrooms, libraries, or schools.   And what power there is in those connections for our students, and also for our communities, as Marco Torres’ work demonstrates so well.

If you’d like to see last year’s projects, or comment on our blog, or see this year’s once they are posted, please share with us.

And let’s keep moving our students to, as Marco Torres calls it, the stories behind the facts, because that is where the real learning lies.

(and thanks to  Sandra Coker, Becky Stucky, Michelle Crocker, Valerie Taylor and Joel Adkins for your inspiration and work.)