injenuity

Do you ever wonder if you could be working on something more important than integrating educational technology?  Obviously, there is enormous value in helping instructors discover more learner-centered approaches to classroom and online teaching.  Change has to happen. There are no doubts about that.  We’re not going backward and the world needs people like us to push until change happens.

But, do you ever wonder if the skills you have and the work you do could translate into something that would make more of a difference in the world?  I’ve been thinking about it lately, not because I don’t enjoy what I do, but because I always seek more opportunities to make a difference.  For a change, I started to think beyond the structure of the institution, beyond education and technology, but still in the realm of learning and social connectivity.

We know students are now learning more outside the classroom than they are sitting in rows, listening to lectures.  Children have access to all the information we do as adults.  Most of the content online is written at a level that can easily be read and contextualized by an elementary school student.  Yet, we still divide the educational framework into stepped grade levels, where we reveal bits of information, one semester at a time until we deem them ready to face the real world.  Kids are the real world.  I’m not sure how we get away with invalidating their thoughts, creations and societal contributions until they have a piece of paper stating they are ready to join the educated masses.

I often say we don’t need to teach kids how to use computers.  What I mean, is that we don’t need to stand in front of a room, with 30 kids at individual machines each clicking on the same thing at the same time.  What we need to teach, is how to think critically, evaluate information, understand personal learning, digital identity and social connectivity, all literacies that are critical to lifelong learning success.   What happens if we make the assumption that students all have access to all the curricular materials for an entire K-12 career, from the very beginning?  Would curriculum models even make sense?  Do we have the right to tell them they’re not allowed to learn something until 12th grade?  Where does individuality and identity fit into the current educational models?  Can we even make institutional change?

Assuming institutional change is going to take a long time, what other options do we have to help bridge the gaps between the system and reality?  How can we give students equal opportunities to build their identities in a way that enables a successful transition to adulthood, regardless of socio-economic background?  Can we reverse trends and provide support for at-risk students in a non-institutional setting, where families are motivated to participate?

I believe we can create loosely-structured, customizable, community-oriented support networks that function in virtual space as well as unused institutional space during non-school hours.  I am not talking about tutoring support, raising test scores, or improving graduation statistics.  I’m not talking about aligning with curriculum or standards.  I am suggesting those of us who have learned to successfully craft our digital identities in a way that provides self-efficacy, teach others to do the same.  Rather than teaching teachers fun tools for delivering content, we can provide a small scaffold to help those with the least opportunity for success based on education alone.

I used to advertise computer training services in the local senior paper.  Those lessons were always my favorite, because the students were learning things because they wanted to, not because their employer told them they needed the skill.  I helped one gentleman shop for an airplane for his son, another to find horse racing statistics. I helped a lady list her time share online and a great grandmother print photos of generations of family members so she could work them into her craft projects.  There was no rubric.  There weren’t standards or tests, but learning happened and they asked me to come back when they were ready to explore more.  I would love to see kids and their families given this same opportunity to explore without boundaries of required curricula.

You can’t force teenagers to see the future.  They have to learn their own life lessons.  But you can help them gather the evidence of their past and look for patterns and solutions.  I envision helping them collect their creations in a personal space where they can reflect, meet others with similar interests, collaborate, aggregate resources and build the future they want, regardless of culture, economics and adverse social circumstances.  Think about how your online presence influences your sense of pride, accomplishment and self-confidence.  (If you spend your online time being snarky, this is probably not a helpful analogy )  Don’t students deserve the same opportunity?  Why should it be within the confines of a school assignment?

I have big ideas around this and may share them more as I have more time.  I can see models and opportunities and can share sample scenarios.  I just see that we have a higher level or responsibility that extends beyond the classroom and the tools.  We also have the skills and the platform to accomplish it.  Students should be able to involve their friends and family in the learning process.  They should be able to explore their interests as they craft their identity.  Their past efforts and creations should be recognized and they should have the opportunity to see themselves as the whole of their experiences, not just a product of a semester-full of graded assignments, or a standardized test.  I believe the same people who are influencing change in the classroom, can influence change in society, using the tools we know so well.  I realize this is only the beginning exploration of a concept, but I hope it delivers at least a bit of my message.

I know I may not do things the way everyone else does. I don’t follow the research. I don’t follow the trends. I look for patterns. From a cacophonous blur, I pull at a tiny thread and follow it, until it disappears, or leads to resolution. As I wade through the murk, there’s a constant background noise. It’s the noise of my past experiences and the noise of the people around me. I’m guided by the patterns found in everything I’ve absorbed in my lifetime.

Dave Truss’ post led me to think more about what motivates me to seek better opportunities for learners. I see a pattern in the noise. Those of us seeking change and experimenting with alternative learning models, are learners who discovered in our youth that we had to take control of our own learning. We received good grades for substandard work, or poor marks for quality composition, with disregard for style guidelines or rubrics. We assigned emotional and economic value to learning and made decisions that led us to roles where we have the opportunity to free others from the restrictions limiting opportunities to learn. We are intrinsically motivated, and therefore, disregard the criticism when it doesn’t provide for personal improvement in areas we value.

There’s another thread I’ve been following through the noise, and it’s thicker and more grossly defined. It is starting to concern me, yet I don’t know that I have the ability to influence it.  I see many people blindly following others around, without questioning or seeking personal meaning in the advice of industry experts.  We encourage our students to approach information with a sense of inquiry, yet many of us accept new knowledge based solely on the authority of the publisher.  We need to start questioning everything.  Question me.  Find your own answers.  Find your own meaning, and then share it with everyone!

I host weekly Show and Tell sessions for BTC instructors using Elluminate Live! We’ll be hosting another Show and Tell session at 11:00 AM PST today. I’ll share a few things about eLearning and then turn the session over for our instructors and guests to share. Please come prepared with your files or links if you like. These can be things you are doing in your classes, or just sites you’ve discovered that may be useful to colleagues. I  invite others from outside the campus so we have a nice variety of people to network with and learn from. Feel free to invite students. The sessions work best when attendees participate with audio. When you log into the Elluminate session, select Tools, Audio, and do the audio setup wizard to make sure it’s functioning. The session is actually already open, if you want to test your equipment or just play in Elluminate. To access today’s session, visit: http://elm.elluminate.com:80/HOSTEDBTC/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1214496593731

For recordings of previous sessions, visit: http://injenuity.podbean.com/

I’ve asked for a half day at either our opening week or fall inservice faculty sessions.  I would like to run some formal PD, but I just can’t make myself set it up for a time when people are not expected to be here already.  These two meetings will be required, so I won’t be spinning my wheels doing planning with the chance no one shows up.  By that time, our eLearning designer will have arrived and I will have more support for instructors.

I’ve been watching the network buzz around PD sessions and have yet to see any models that match what I think will work for our instructors.  I can’t see myself pushing a bunch of tools onto them in a short period of time with the expectation they will use some of them.  I want to be respectful of their time and provide them with a strong foundation that will encourage them to feel comfortable exploring on their own afterwards.  I don’t want them to feel tools I show them are the best, or only tools they need.  I would like them to critically evaluate the tools and examine the learning within their programs for opportunities to implement them and change instructional methods.

Rather than focus on individual tools, I would like people to have a solid understanding of the nature of the tools, why they are useful, and how to determine which to use in a given scenario.  To do this, I need logical categories. So far, I think I’m hooked on Publishing, Connecting, Collecting and Sharing.  I also don’t think they should be linear.  For example, if I decide to develop individual PD events around these, people should be able to jump into any session without attending the others.  To deliver the sessions, I would like to continue to share narratives to showcase the tools as part of a larger experience.  Following narratives and modeling, I would still like the hands-on component to be about playing, not pointing and clicking.  There’s something so disturbing to me about a room full of people all clicking, while the instructor wanders around making sure everyone is in the same place.

So, after this little brainstorm, here’s my starting point:

• Small number of logical, non-linear categories
• Narratives captured with tools to deliver the theory behind the categories
• Online support materials (probably just del.icio.us tags on a wiki)
• Play time!

This has been the most active week this blog has ever seen. On the 16th, one month after I was dropped off at the airport in Saskatoon, leaving behind my new friends but carrying fond memories, I felt like I needed to share some of my latest intuitions.  The thoughts didn’t translate well to words, so I posted an image, without an explanation.  Following several weeks of learning and growth during the SCoPE seminar, I revised my original thoughts on VPD.

The next day I gained some courage and posted about change, though didn’t get very specific. I still couldn’t find the words to describe what I feel is about to happen.  I hope to be able to explain more in the weeks to come.  When I posted the tree, I was thinking about how we need to all find our roots and be strong enough to stand on our own within our communities.  We’ve got to hold on to our core values, while maintaining flexibility in the face of storms.  The storms are coming.

Frustrated with my inability to find the words to describe my thoughts, I wrote Down in Front, as a way to quickly convey my thoughts on the churn in my personal network as well as challenges I see in our future.  I composed it in my head as I was driving between dropping off my son and coming home for a sick day.  I’ve been sick with a cold, allergies and asthma for a week, culminating in a nasty case of pinkeye!  I never intended the post to receive response, and thought it would come across as snarky and rude.  Not only am I amazed at the number of responses, but I have learned so much from the conversations that have emerged.

I can’t recall if there was a single incident that tipped me over the edge with my Future of Education post. I think I just read too many examples of people excited about new tools, and saw no evidence of learning, other than learning how to use the tool.  The response to that post just blew my mind.  I teach instructors they can easily build community using classroom blogging, but I’ve never really modeled it on my own blog.  Your thoughtful responses and careful reflections taught me so much about your classroom worlds, and also about how a blog can foster creativity.

The post on disconnecting, should have been divided in two, because I had completely separate points to make.  Again, your responses are what made the post!  I can’t believe how much I have learned, without ever having to leave the space of my own blog. I now understand the value of posting long comments on other blogs. In the past, I felt guilty. I felt I was hijacking a blog if I left a post that was more than a paragraph or so.  Now I see that more learning happens after the original post.  I’ve even changed my mind on a few of my comments, and recognized errors in the way I’ve communicated my thoughts.

Thank you all for teaching me this week. Thank you for taking the time to visit, compose and collaborate.  Thank you for setting an example of how to compost thoughtful blog replies.  Thank you for sharing creative ways to disagree with respect.  I have so much more to learn, and I can’t wait to get started!

If you are new to microblogging or have found yourself stumped by the tools and the process, this post could be your jump start to success. You may have attended workshops or conference sessions where presenters introduced their ‘network’ and demonstrated a hearty, global greeting from dozens of individuals who seemed poised on the edge of their virtual seats, waiting for a request from the presenter. Did you go home and try it yourself, just to discover that not only was there no one listening, you couldn’t think of a thing to say? Microblogging, while it may seem to be a network activity, is a highly individualized experience. It typically involves a Web-based service where members post brief text, audio, photo, or video messages and respond to people with whom they’ve established connections. These guidelines should help you get on the right track.

1. Define Your Own Success - Don’t just jump into it because someone else told you it’s cool. Consider your objectives. Do you want to make friends, professional connections, find a new job, explore hobbies, meet a companion, or promote a product? Maybe you want to distribute your personal learning or extend your office to include worldwide colleagues. Your objectives will probably change along the way, and that is okay. Just don’t try to mirror another’s experience, because it isn’t possible and will lead to disappointment.
2. Consider and Try Several Tools - There are many microblogging tools available for free or at a low cost to members. You probably don’t want to commit long term to a large number of tools, because it will become hard to manage. However, you will do yourself a disservice if you only try one. Take into account your publishing hardware. Will you be publishing primarily from the Web? If so, look for a tool with a clean, efficient and reliable (cough) Web interface. Will you be publishing through SMS on a cellular phone? Many microblogging tools do not yet offer this service, or there is extra expense from phone service providers. Will you be using a handheld mobile Web device? Make sure you try options with compatible applications.
3. Create a Complete User Profile - No one wants to network with a ghost. Fill out your user profile completely, including a link to your blog or Web site. Consider your target reading audience as you develop your profile. Use the same user ID on multiple accounts to create a personal branding strategy. Use real photographs instead of cartoon avatars.
4. Search for Contacts - Use key words to search for contacts with similar interests. You don’t have to just search within the microblogging platform. Use web searches and scour the blogs you read to find the tools used by the people you follow. Once you find someone with similar interests, begin to look at their contacts and add them as your own. If you have a complete, relevant and friendly user profile, most will accept you. Don’t be afraid of connecting with experts in your field, personal heroes and people you admire! If they’re microblogging, they are probably seeking connections!
5. Balance Your Content - I’m the biggest Twitter irritant on the planet. People joke about me tweeting that I just walked through a door. However, I didn’t start out this way. Well, I did, but it didn’t work and I had to try a new strategy! My early posts were about making coffee and changing diapers. I quickly learned that without an existing common tie, these posts did little to stimulate discussion or build relationships. There are two ways to get a great successful start, and both work equally well. The first is to post useful resources, especially new and undiscovered information that will interest your target audience. The second method is to scan other posts for people seeking help, and offer help as often as you can. If you make enough of these types of posts, you will soon get to know people better and will be able to pepper your stream with more casual and silly observations.  Try to give more than you take, and you will be rewarded.
6. Post to the Popular People - Reply to the people with hundreds of followers as often as you can. If you can get them to reply to you, their followers will visit your profile, and if you followed my advice in number 2 above, will add you as a contact.
7. Consider Who May be Watching - Always keep in mind the public nature of microblogging.  Consider you may be followed by your boss, spouse, mom, child, student, neighbor or just some creepy stalkers.  You may find you feel constrained with the medium at first.  It takes time to become comfortable with broadcast communications.  Some microblogging tools feature the option to delete posts.  I like these tools!
8. Don’t Take Advantage of Your Network - Conversations can quickly become casual and flow as they might at a dinner party.  Don’t take advantage of this comfort zone.  It is perfectly alright to communicate with these people on a platfrom where they have voluntarily offered connections and participation.  It is not alright to then seek out their personal contact information to reach them outside their published space.  Respect privacy.  Don’t ask for favors.
9. Take Advantage of Your Network - Once you’ve found someone with whom you feel a strong connection or an interest beyond the single network, follow the breadcrumbs they’ve left to see where else they are publishing.  It’s great to be able to track down blogs, presentations, publications and other media from people with whom you share multiple interests.  If you wish to connect directly, use their preferred communication medium to offer your personal contact information.  Don’t be discouraged if they do not extend the relationship.
10. Give it Time - While you can jump start the numbers, you can’t jump start true connectivity.  This is a social activity and it will take months of socialization before you are rewarded with success.  Don’t give up too soon!

I use Twitter more than any other microblogging platform, because I like the connections I’ve made, and their SMS service works well with my phone plan. I also use Utterz, because I can quickly use my phone to post audio, video or text messages to multiple accounts, including Twitter. Some other tools you may wish to try are Seesmic, Pownce, and Jaiku.  I would love to see comments sharing other tips, tricks and tools!

Jen and Z Playing with Rocks

Originally uploaded by kibaga

I saw @cogdog’s blog about no write/no read and it inspired me to test the Flickr direct blogging. I went through Mr. Injenuity’s photos to find one of me from a few months ago.

I realized, on my drive home, I never see anyone talk about disconnecting from networks.  We all talk about the importance of connecting and building networks, but what about letting go?  Sometimes people announce they are taking a break.  We react with compassion.  Sometimes we try to get them to change their minds.  Really, it’s a highly personal choice we should respect.

I know there are unwritten rules of etiquette for blogging, twitter, Facebook, etc., but maybe we should reconsider the structure of virtual social relationships.  I know some people refuse to follow people who don’t follow them.  I’ve seen others offended when they aren’t made a ‘friend’ on social applications.  When you make someone a friend, or you follow them on Twitter, or subscribe to their blog, it is a constant, visible connection.  This is counter to natural, face-to-face relationships, where you spend periods of time apart.  Maybe we need to think more about whether we need to reciprocate each virtual social connection.

This led me to think about what we’re doing with students when we place them in social networking scenarios where they are linked artificially, either to their own classmates or others selected by instructors.  Is there a better way to simulate natural social interaction where the students identify connections with people who are genuinely of interest to them?  Rather than teach the tool, can we teach them the dynamics of finding friends and colleagues who share similar interests?  What happens when we prescribe connections and they don’t work out?  Do we evaluate our students for not responding to each other’s blogs? Is there a better way to assess social learning?