Education Innovation

Literacy Challenges of The Social Technographic Ladder

2009-11-10T00:00:00-08:00

The ladder. Charlene Li and Josh Bernofff have written a great book titled Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies. In their book they describe The Social Technographics ladder.

“Each step on the ladder represents a group of consumers more involved in the groundswell than the previous steps. To join the group on a step, a consumer need only participate in one of the listed activities at least monthly.”

I believe that each rung of the Social Technographic ladder presents a unique literacy challenge for our students.

As an educator you know the standards, the curriculum, and the methods to bring about literacy. If technology is not part of that you are missing a major component of what our students will need in the coming years. Our students need to be able to climb the "ladder" and it is your job to make sure they get those opportunities.

Top Rung: Creators
These are the people who, at least once a month, publish a blog, put an article online, maintain a website, or upload music or videos. In the United States, about 18% of us on are the top rung or creators.

The percentage is only going to go up. So, what are you doing to prepare your students to be creators? How are you preparing your students to occupy the “top rung” of the Social Technographics ladder?

If you think about it, this is a question of literacy. For example, here are the writing standards for 6th grade in California:

Narrative
^{write narratives, that(1) establish and develop plot and setting, and choose a point of view that is appropriate to stories
(2) include sensory details and concrete language to develop plot and character
(3) use a range of narrative strategies (e.g., dialogue, suspense)
Expository
Write expository compositions (e.g., description, explanation, comparison and contrast, and/or problem/solution) that
(1) state the thesis or purpose
(2) explain the situation
(3) follow an organizational pattern appropriate to the type of composition (e.g., if problem/solution, then paired)
(4) offer persuasive evidence for the validity of the description, proposed solutions, etc.
Research Reports
Write research reports that
(1) pose relevant questions narrow enough to be thoroughly covered
(2)
support the main idea(s) with facts, details, examples, and
explanations from multiple authoritative sources (e.g., speakers,
periodicals, on-line information searches)
(3) use a bibliography
Persuasive
2.5. write persuasive compositions (or letters for grade 5) that
(1) state a clear position in support of a proposition or proposal
(2)
support the position with organized and relevant evidence; and (3)
anticipate and address reader concerns and counter-arguments}

The standards seem to say that we want students to be creators. The question I have is; are we preparing our students to occupy the top rung in the groundswell. Remember, the groundswell is: “A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.”

In other words, the groundswell is what is taking place in this new ecosystem called the web where any person, in any place, can be a producer of media. Or, as Clay Shirky says, every person is a one-man media outlet.

So why only 18% participation? Obviously this is an optional activity. Nobody has to be a creator. In our classrooms we require that our students be creators. We want all of our students on the top rung. We ask that our students create stories, research reports, projects, and narratives. We are teaching the next generation to succeed in this new online ecosystem. The standards seem to suggest we have the right intentions, but do those standards prepare our students for life in the groundswell? I think it depends on the teacher. The greater the teacher's understanding of the power of the groundswell in the online ecosystem, the better the assignments will utilize technology as part of learning and mastering the standards.

The next rung down: Critics
Critics react to what has been created. This is similar to the responding to literature standard.
_{Response to Literature
Write responses to literature that
(1) develop an interpretation which exhibits careful reading, understanding and insight
(2) organize the interpretation around several clear ideas, premises, or images
(3) develop and justify the interpretation through sustained use of examples and textual evidence}

Again, the question becomes, are we properly preparing our students for being a critic in the groundswell?

When I was a student, I was never allowed to comment on what other students wrote. Even in college, my job was to create. The only opportunities I had to be a critic was in writing a book report. Most of us are simply not used to commenting on blogs. We were not trained to do it as students and we had so few opportunities in our academic lives to practice it. But, our students are growing up in the online ecosystem that allows them to comment and critique nearly everything. They can comment on a song, a picture, a video, place a comment on a blog, put a book review on Amazon, or review a product on CNET.

Their world is the world of the critic. Are we as educators equipping them to succeed in this world? Are we preparing them for life on the second rung? What opportunities do your students have to critique what others have created?

The next rung down: Collectors
Collector collect RSS feeds, save website to Del.icio.us, vote for sites on Digg, and accumulate all forms of created digital media from the online world.

So, what standards address that? How are we preparing our students to be effective collectors of information? What opportunities do our students get to practice the art of selective information collection? How do our students learn to filter information for their select needs? How are we preparing our students to be literate collectors?

The next rung down: Joiners
Members of Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orcut, etc. are all joiners. These are the people who maintain profiles on social networking sites. My guess is that most of our students are far ahead of most of their teachers in this aspect. But, how can we teach our students the skills necessary to properly maintain these sites for optimal effect and leverage their power to further themselves via networking?

Our students are natural collaborators and net-workers, but how are we making them literate in the power of networks?

The next rung down: Spectators
Spectators consume what the rest produce. This is the largest part of the groundswell. This is about making choices. What they choose to consume can enhance our students’ education. So, our students need to make choices that will enhance them as people, as students, as informed citizens, etc. Of course kids will always choose the strange and offbeat, but we can equip them to understand what sorts of media are important for them to consume. What opportunities are your students getting to be selective literate spectators?

The bottom rung: Inactives
These are the people who are not impacted by the groundswell at all. For our students, it might those students who have no access to technology and the web. I still meet students and parents who have no web access. If the school isn’t providing it, and they have no access at home, when are these students given chances to move from inactive to spectator, to joiner, to collector, to critic, or to creator? We need to think about how we can provide opportunities and resources for them to climb the Social Technographic ladder. It is a literacy issue for life in the 21st century.

Catalytic Questions

In what way is your leadership preparing your school and your students for the literacy of technology?

Is your personal leadership and catalyst or hurdle in the implementation of technologies that will provide opportunities for technology literacy?

In what ways do our current literacy standards meet or fall short of the issues and challenges faced by our students at each rung of the Social Technographic ladder?

In what way can we better prepare our students to be literate creators of information?

How might this look in a classroom?

In what ways can we provide opportunities for our students to be literate critics of created information?

In what ways can we prepare our students to be literate collectors of information?

What might this look like in the classroom?

How might we prepare our students to leverage the power of networks?

In what ways could we prepare our students to make literate choices about the networks they join and the information they place on those networks?

In what was are we preparing our students to be literate spectators of information?

How might we better equip our students to make excellent choices in the information they consume each day?

In what ways can we provide resources or tools to move the non-participating Inactive up the Social Technographic ladder?

Dumber Together? Brainstorming in a Professional Learning Community

2009-11-09T00:00:00-08:00

You have seen it before. The PLC agenda says, “Brainstorm ideas for…” You look around and see the chart paper, pens, and Post-It notes lying on the table, and you think to yourself, “Why do we waste the time.”
You know the rules of brainstorming in PLCs…
1. No criticism
2. Wild ideas are welcome
3. Quantity is the goal, the more the better.
4. Look for combinations of previous ideas and improvements on previous ideas.
You also know that it helps if your PLCs…
1. Stay focused
2. Stick to one conversation at a time
3. Get visual and physical
4. Use chart paper, white boards, Post-It notes, etc.
You know all these things. But does it work the way you hope it would. Are your PLC brainstorming sessions effective? Are they creative? Do they produce quality ideas to drive instruction and increase student achievement?
According to Keith Sawyer, author of Group Genius, “In many organizations, the group ends up being dumber than the individual members.”
Why you ask?
Because, according to Sawyer, “…decades of research have consistently shown that brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas than the same number of people who work alone and later pool their ideas.”
In other words, instead of brainstorming, you should brain assemble. Put the ideas generated by individual teachers alone into an “idea pool” an assemblage of ideas.
It not that these rules of common brainstorming don’t work, it just that they work best when done by one’s self. “These studies just show that the rules work better when people use them alone than when they use them in groups.”
A lot of bad ideas are of no use to a PLC. What is needed is a lot of good ideas, or at least as many good ideas as the team is capable of generating.
But what makes an idea “good?”
According to Sawyer, we often judge ideas based on the wrong criteria. “Most people use the wrong criteria to evaluate their ideas; they think about what will work, about what worked before, or about what is familiar to them.”

What if you judged ideas based on how creative, how original, how unique, or how valuable they are? If you knew this is how ideas generated by PLC team members would be measured, chances are the teams would generate more creative ideas. You should give directions to your PLC teams that explain this.
Sawyer refers to this as “critical instructions.”
Telling your PLC that we want well thought out ideas that meet the instructional needs of students, ideas that are practical, unique, valuable, and high quality; no silly or impossible ideas.
Establishing an evaluation criterion for ideas sounds counter-intuitive, but Sawyer cites studies that show brainstorming sessions are more productive when participants are told their ideas will be evaluated for creativity and that, in fact, participants are more creative than with no criteria at all.
So instead of just telling your PLC teams to fill up a piece of chart paper with ideas, give them “critical directions” and judge them according to your pre-established criteria. You will turn brainstorming into an effective PLC tool, instead of a time wasting activity that fills ups chart paper but does nothing to improve quality of ideas developed using "critical instructions" and "idea criterion." Use the "new rules" of brainstorming.

The Power Of Impossible

2009-11-06T21:57:55-08:00

The Power Of Impossible By Mark Raison Yellow Ideas Eaci Ecci Creativity Congress 29 10 09

View more presentations from mark.raison.

Do The Math- The Networked Collaborative Formula

2009-11-03T00:00:00-08:00

The Professional Networked Learning Collaborative has a large network surface area. Network surface area is a measurement of the extent and number of connections from the team members who are physically present with each other, and community partners, useful outsiders, specialists, consultants, professors, etc. who join the network as virtual team members for a time to help the work of the team.

Each member can potentially leverage not only their network, but also the network of others who are in their network. This principle is known as Metcalfe’s Law. The number of potential connections between nodes grows more quickly than the number of nodes. The total value of the network where each node can reach every other node in the network grows with the square of the number of nodes. In other words, when PNLC members connect their networks, it creates more value than the sum of networks independently.
Network Surface Area = (# Team Members x Member Networks²)
The greater the number of network members the greater the network surface area of the Professional Networked Learning Collaborative.

The Professional Networked Learning Collaborative is not as agile as a single individual or even a small grade level or department Professional Learning Community. But it has a greater knowledge mass and greater knowledge mass is advantageous because in the words of Peter Drucker, “Mass enables the organization to put to work a great many more kinds of knowledge and skill that could possibly be combined in any one person or small group.”

More knowledge and skill brought to bear to increase student achievement is the power of knowledge mass.

The ability to leverage the surface area of the networked collaborative and the mass of its knowledge on to a specific topic or problem is the level of cognitive concentration. The number of minds applied to any given topic, question, or problem. The level of cognitive concentration is what allows the Professional Networked Learning Collaborative to be so effective in solving student learning issues, creativity, and problem solving. More minds working on a single problem generates higher levels of potential solutions.

Collaborative Focus =          _____Problem or Question to be solved or answered______
                                        Cognitive Concentration = (Network Surface Area x Mass of Knowledge)

The power of the Professional Networked Learning Collaborative is the power of collaborative focus. A power that can be described through a formula dividing a problem or question with cognitive concentration, the product of network surface area and mass of knowledge. This is the formula for the next evolution of collaboration and teams in education in the form of a Professional Networked Learning Collaborative.

Education's Triple Bottom Line

2009-11-02T00:00:00-08:00

How does an organization measure success? One measure, or should I say three, is the Triple Bottom Line. According to Wikipedia,
“The phrase was coined by John Elkington, co-founder of the business consultancy SustainAbility in 1994. It was later expanded and articulated in his 1998 book Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business.
The concept of TBL demands that a company's responsibility be to 'stakeholders' rather than shareholders. In this case, 'stakeholders' refers to anyone who is influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the actions of the firm. According to the stakeholder theory, the business entity should be used as a vehicle for coordinating stakeholder interests, instead of maximizing shareholder (owner) profit.”
Leadership guru Ken Blanchard defines the triple bottom line are the three most important factors of performance. Blanchard says, “It recognizes that great companies are the provider of choice, the employer of choice, and the investment of choice.”

So I began to wonder if the TBL could apply to education. A school district’s TBL might be something like…
School District XYZ is the school district of choice and its schools are the school of choice for the parents of this community.
Now, we know that public schools are the only choice for most parents, but if they had the choice, would your schools be the school of choice for parents? This isn’t a question designed to open up the debate about school choice, but rather a question to get us thinking about our school and the parent’s perceptions of our schools. After all, they are the clients we are trying to serve.

School District XYZ is the school district of choice for both experienced and new teachers.
Most teachers, especially in Southern California are just happy to have a job, but if the job market reversed and put districts and schools in the role of recruiting teachers, would those teachers choose you? What can you offer that makes a difference?

School District XYZ is the school district of performance and results.
Results, usually defined by metrics such as state test scores, are measure of performance that tells “stake holders”- local parents and citizens- that students are learning and improving. Investments in the district are being used effectively to meet student needs.

The TBL, as defined here, is just an opening into the discussion of the various factors and variables that would impact each of the three. However, it is a valuable place to begin and forces those of us in education to look at education from a different perspective and ask some tough questions of ourselves, which, is always a good thing.

Essential Education: "Trust Agents" by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

2009-10-29T00:00:00-07:00
Robert Jacobs

Putting Students First and Putting Teachers First: The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community

2009-10-27T00:00:00-07:00

Part 7 in a series of posts on Ambidextrous Professional Learning Communities
In a previous post “The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community” I shared it is the ability to embrace a duality in their thinking that builds an Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community. To hold two opposing ideas in their minds and reach a creative solution creates an ambidextrous PLC, making them more flexible, innovative, and effective. It is ability and, more importantly, it is an attitude.
Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community's thinking can have...
Systematic and Magical
Internal and External Focus
Bias Towards Thinking and Bias Toward Action
Put Teachers First and Put Students First
Focus on Teaching and Focus on Learning
Focus on All Students and Focus on Individual Students
Kaizen and Tenakaizen
High Levels of Teamwork and High Levels of Personal Accountability
We Have the Answers and They Have the Answers
Data Driven and Skeptical of Data
Predictable and Change is Normal
Today I will focus on Putting Students First and Putting Teachers First
Effective Professional Learning Communities put the needs of their students first. These PLCs seek to strategically align their resources, their instructional practices, their time, and their energy on meeting the needs of their students. Student first Professional Learning Communities implement systems like Response to Intervention to meet the needs of all students. They seek focused professional development to train themselves in meeting the needs of students.

Further student focused Professional Learning Communities find ways to extend the learning day to meet the needs of struggling students. They reorganize schedules and staff to better meet the needs of the students. Student first PLCs find policies, practices, perceptions, and habits that create poor results and eliminate them.

In short, students first Professional Learning Communities do whatever is needed, change whatever is needed, use whoever is needed, and create whatever is needed to meet the needs of their students.

But Ambidextrous Professional Learning Communities also put teachers first.

Michael Fullan, author of The Six Secrets of Change: What the Best Leaders Do to Help Their Organizations Survive and Thrive, says that we should consider if putting children first should be the case in school and that valuing employees is what should come first. Loving employees (teachers) is the first of Fullan’s six secrets.

“…children-first stances are misleading and incomplete.”

“A new report from McKinsey and Company focusing on the top-performing school systems in the world provides the central reason why we must value employees (in this case teachers) as much as customers (children and parents): ‘the quality of the education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.’”

Fullan recounts the experience of Memphis City School District superintendent Gerry House. “The superintendents theory of education was to commit the district’s schools to select among seven so-called whole school reform models that had been sponsored by a national agency.” In other words, the Superintendent House intended to put kids first.

“By 1998, 75 of 161 schools were involved, with more being added. House was awarded the 1999 National Superintendent of the Year Award. Yet within a year she resigned. What went wrong? The answer is very much Secret One foretold in a 1998 report by an external research team: ‘teachers and principals express fatigue and feel unappreciated’
Putting teachers first is more than just thinking about teachers first, but getting results by creating conditions that show they are valued and important.
“Secret one, then, is not just about caring for employees. It is also about what works to get results. It is about sound strategies linked to impressive outcomes. One of the ways you love your employees it by creating the conditions for them to succeed.”
“It is helping all employees find meaning, increased skill development, and personal satisfaction in making contributions that simultaneously fulfill their own goals and the goals of the organization (the needs of the customers expressed in achievement terms). If the fulfillment is not simultaneously for employees and customers, Secret One is not in place.”

Ambidextrous Professional Learning Communities seek to help team members fulfill personal goals alongside student goals. These PLCs know that there are tremendous burdens placed on teachers to meet the demands of education. The demands of NCLB, Race To The Top, state goals, county goals, district goals, school goals, and grade level goals leave little room for the individual teacher to seek their own professional goals and fulfillment. These PLCs come together to help ease the burden on each other through mutual aide and provide valuable moral support. These PLCs look out for each other’s personal, physical, spiritual, and professional wellbeing. These PLCs put each other first.

In other word, Ambidextrous Professional Learning Communities should put kids first and put teachers first. It’s a “yes, and…” situation. Yes we put students first and we put teachers first too.

Ambidexterity.

Six Steps To Becoming A Professional Learning Community Coach

2009-10-26T00:00:00-07:00

I have advised those concerned with the performance of Professional Learning Communities to gain fresh insight into how PLCs behave and information about how to drive improvement or fix problems is to play the role of the anthropologist.
The Anthropologist is one of the three learning personas from the Tom Kelley's The Ten Faces Of Innovation. See the full post here (The Anthropologist- Observing Your Professional Learning Communities)
According to Kelley, the Anthropologist practices 6 principles
1. Anthropologists practice the Zen principle of “beginner’s mind”
2. Anthropologists embrace human behavior with all its surprises
3. Anthropologists draw inferences by listening to their intuition
4. Anthropologists seek out epiphanies through a sense of “Vuja De”
5. Anthropologists keep “bug lists” or “idea wallets”
6. Anthropologists are willing to search for clues in the trash bin

Playing the persona of the Anthropologist is a powerful way to “see” and gather knowledge about the behaviors, effective or ineffective, that are occurring in your school’s Professional Learning Communities. But once you have knowledge to act on, it is time to become a coach.

Steve Roesler, Principal & Founder of The Steve Roesler Group, on his All Things Workplace blog offers great advice on what one can do to become a coach. I have excerpted the entire post because it is excellent advice for coaching Professional Learning Communities.
Do These And You'll Be Coaching

Six Steps to Coaching
1. Stop fixing everyone's stuff.

OK, the next time someone brings you a problem, stop. Do nothing. Then. . .

2. Ask them for more information using open-ended questions.

You already know how to ask questions. (And you may already know the answer to the question. But no one will learn much if they don't learn to think through issues on their own). The trick for "coaching managers" is to click a mental switch that triggers a question instead of an answer. An easy way to develop the questioning habit is to think of yourself as a journalist and start your responses with:

    * Who. . .?

    * What. . .?

    * When. . .?

    * Where. . .?

    * How. . .?

3. Use the bonus question that will automatically buy some time and gather more information: "Tell me more about that?"

4. Listen. (That means "Shut up, don't speak.")

You'll be surprised at how much you'll learn by listening. Once the other person stops talking, give them space to say more. Count silently to 10 if you have to. You'll discover that this block of information will reveal more than the first and often gives them the self-revealing "Aha!" needed. In which case, you'll be a hero.

5. Ask More.

OK, so they didn't get to the heart of the matter in #4. When your person's responses and energy start to fade, that's your cue to ask another open-ended question. Ask it about something they've just told you. Ask anything that will help continue the exploration of the issue. You can't really ask a "wrong" question.

Note. The reason you can't ask a wrong question is this: Your role is to alternate between helping them explore (questions) and being silent (just listen). The act of listening after a question is a gift that few people get. Listening shows respect. When it comes from "the boss" it's an indication of trust in one's ability to problem-solve.

6. Support giving "it" a try. You'll find that the Q&A process will have generated ideas and actions in your person's mind. This is where you help them stretch by suggesting, "Do you want to give that a try and let me know how it's going?"

The “Anthropologist” and the “Coach” are two effective personas and mindsets that can help you make your Professional Learning Communities more effective. David Kelley and Steve Roesler both provide great insight into how we can all make our Professional Learning Communities powerful sources of learning and increasing student achievement.
"Probably my best quality as a coach is that I ask a lot of challenging questions and let the person come up with the answer." Phil Dixon

Innovation Is Not Invention

2009-10-25T11:25:16-07:00

Don't confuse innovation with invention- Innovation is not invention

Every test you've ever taken measured how well you understood the past not how well you create the future.

We Have The Answers and They Have The Answers: The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community

2009-10-21T00:00:00-07:00

Part 6 in a series of posts on Ambidextrous Professional Learning Communities
In a previous post “The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community” I shared it is the ability to embrace a duality in their thinking that builds an Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community. To hold two opposing ideas in their minds and reach a creative solution creates an ambidextrous PLC, making them more flexible, innovative, and effective. It is ability and, more importantly, it is an attitude.
Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community's thinking can have...
Systematic and Magical
Internal and External Focus
Bias Towards Thinking and Bias Toward Action
Put Teachers First and Put Students First
Focus on Teaching and Focus on Learning
Focus on All Students and Focus on Individual Students
Kaizen and Tenakaizen
High Levels of Teamwork and High Levels of Personal Accountability
We Have the Answers and They Have the Answers
Data Driven and Skeptical of Data
Predictable and Change is Normal
Today I will focus on We Have The Answers and They Have The Answers
The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community thinks that the answers they seek are within themselves. The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community is aware of the individual abilities of each of its members and seeks to leverage these abilities to maximum effect to improve and increase student learning. They use the data available to them and the data they generate themselves to them to make instructional decisions.
They use proven strategies, methods, and models to respond appropriately and effectively to meet the needs of students. The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community has the knowledge and the ability to respond. As a team they are constantly learning so they can better respond to the needs of their students. Members believe in the need to always be aware of learning from their work and from each other. Seeking out education opportunities to increase the group’s knowledge and cognitive diversity is something all Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community members are constantly aware of.

The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community knows they have the knowledge and information they need to make decisions instructional decisions and respond to student needs.

But the Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community also knows that the answers they need lie outside of the team as well.

The Ambidextrous Professional Networked Learning Community believes that the answers to questions, necessary data, important information, or key knowledge may lie outside of the team members sitting at the table. The team understands that boundaries of grade level, school site, subject matter, job function, etc. that have previously isolated PLCs should not be allowed to prevent the necessary knowledge reaching PLC members. Team members, therefore understand, that anyone anywhere can be a valuable and or necessary resource to them.

Technology allows teams to connect to islands of expertise located in any geographic location. Technology allows teams to archive their learning and share with others. The sum result is that technology allows the Professional Networked Learning Collaborative to “Know What Others Know” (K.W.O.K.). Knowing what others know and sharing what you have learned is what I refer to as Wisdom Stewardship. Technology makes it easy for educators and schools to be good stewards of available wisdom and to know what others know.

Microsoft research sociologist Marc A. Smith put it this way. “Whenever a communication medium lowers the cost of solving collective action dilemmas, it becomes possible for more people to pool resources. And ‘more people pooling resources in new ways’ is the history of civilization in seven words.”

This model, known as a Professional Networked Learning Collaborative, allows educators to solve education problems, increase student achievement, share strategies, and analyze data, etc., with members who are physically present “at the table” and with educators who are virtually present from anywhere on the globe. The PNLC allows teams to leverage not only their knowledge, but also the knowledge of other educators, specialists, consultants, etc., from anywhere else, virtually.

The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community knows they have the knowledge and information they need to make decisions instructional decisions and respond to student needs, but they also know that the answers they need lie outside of the team as well and expands the boundaries of the team to include useful outsiders in person or virtually.

It’s Systematic and It’s Magic: The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community

2009-10-20T00:00:00-07:00

Part 5 in a series of posts on Ambidextrous Professional Learning Communities
In a previous post “The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community” I shared it is the ability to embrace a duality in their thinking that builds an Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community. To hold two opposing ideas in their minds and reach a creative solution creates an ambidextrous PLC, making them more flexible, innovative, and effective. It is ability and, more importantly, it is an attitude.
Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community's thinking can have...
Internal and External Focus
Bias Towards Thinking and Bias Toward Action
Put Teachers First and Put Students First
Focus on Teaching and Focus on Learning
Focus on All Students and Focus on Individual Students
Kaizen and Tenakaizen
High Levels of Teamwork and High Levels of Personal Accountability
We Have the Answers and They Have the Answers
Data Driven and Skeptical of Data
Predictable and Change is Normal
Today I will focus on Systematic and Magical
The ambidextrous Professional Learning Community believes that results come from using a systematic approach to looking at essential learning, collecting and analyzing actionable data, using data to drive instruction, using Response to Intervention to meet the learning needs of all students, and using the best known research based instructional strategies. Ambidextrous Professional Learning Communities know that collaboration is central to their work. In other words, Ambidextrous Professional Learning Communities believe that results are simply a matter of using a systematic process.
But the Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community also believes that great results are something more
The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community believes their work together is magical. They are a group of magicians, making the impossible real, bringing the just-out-of-reach right into the palms of their hands and into their students heads. The magic lies in the collection of hearts and minds of the team. The Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community knows they are more than just an assembled group of teachers, more than just functional job knowledge. They display “emergent properties”, those new attributes of the whole PLC that arise from interaction and interconnection of its members.
Just as the ingredients of a great chocolate chip cookie are more than just the average tastes of milk, flour, eggs, sugar, and chocolate chips, but rather the emergent property of mixing, blending, and baking all of these into something much greater than the parts; so too is the Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community. They know that there is magic to be found in their collaboration. It’s a magic that is much greater than the sum of each individual member using a systematic approach, but of all the members working, thinking, creating, and collaborating together. The results would not be possible without the magic of the “emergent properties.”

The thinking of the Ambidextrous Professional Learning Community is that their work is both systematic and magical at the same time.

Educating for Entrepreneurship

2009-10-19T21:02:53-07:00

Tanya's Story - A Thought Provoking Look at Youth Entrepreneurship In America

View more presentations from Julie Kantor.

Mobile Personal Learning Environments

2009-10-19T20:09:58-07:00

Appropriating technologies for contextual knowledge: Mobile Personal Learning Environments

View more presentations from GrahamAttwell.

Report Card 2.0-- 32 Traits of Creative People

2009-10-15T00:00:00-07:00

Robert Alan Black Ph.D. lists 32 Traits of Creative People.
I wonder if these might not make an interesting framework for a report card. Call it the report of the future, or Report Card 2.0.

sensitive

not motivated by money

sense of destiny

adaptable

tolerant of ambiguity

observant

perceive world differently

see possibilities

question asker

can synthesize correctly often intuitively

able to fantasize

flexible

fluent

imaginative

intuitive

original

ingenious

energetic

sense of humor

self-actualizing

self-disciplined

self-knowledgeable

specific interests

divergent thinker

curious

open-ended

independent

severely critical

non-conforming

confident

risk taker

persistent

Imagine the curriculum that would have to be created to generate evidence of the student's proficiency of these 32 traits. Imagine the learning opportunities that students would need to be afforded to measure their proficiency in these traits.
It could completely change education in some very important and fundamental ways.

Social Networks Make You Smarter

2009-10-14T07:02:00-07:00

Social Networks Make You Smarter

View more presentations from Joe Kleinschmidt.

Education's New Map

2009-10-13T00:00:00-07:00

I rarely read books on Education. Why you ask? Several reasons. First, I feel my value to the education community is the different mindset or approach I bring to the field. If everybody is thinking the same thing or thinking in the same way, then innovation is less likely.

Second, as has been famously said, “Yesterday’s solutions won’t solve tomorrow’s problems.” Education is a reactive field. In other words, the world changes and education reacts to the change. The problem is, the change is usually decades after the cause. If you are only reading books on education, then you are usually reading about reacting to changes whose root cause occurred a decade prior.

I am currently reading (I am usually reading about 3 to 4 books at any given time) The Pentagon’s New Map by Thomas P. M. Barnett. This book seeks to explain his innovative approach to globalization that “combines security, economic, political, and cultural factors to do no less than predict and explain the nature of war and peace in the twenty-first century.” It is a fascinating book that forces one to challenge their thinking about the world and the role of the United States in it.

In chapter one, “New Rule Sets”, Barnett says,
“ Whether we realize it or not, America serves as the ideological wellspring for globalization. These united states still stand as its first concrete expression. We are the only country in the world purposely built around the ideals that animate globalization’s advance: freedom of choice, freedom of movement, freedom of expression. We are connectivity personified. Globalization is this country’s gift to history—the most perfectly flawed projection of the American Dream onto the global landscape. To deny our parentage of globalization is to deny our country’s profound role as world leader over the second half of the twentieth century. More important, to abandon globalization’s future to those violent forces hell-bent on keeping this world divided between the connected and disconnected is to admit that we no longer hold these truths to be self-evident: that all are equal, and that all desire life, liberty, and the chance to pursue happiness. In short, we the people needs to become we the planet.”
The question that arose in my mind was how do we in education prepare our students to take on this enormous responsibility. I say responsibility in the strongest of terms. If you read The Pentagon’s New Map you will gain a new appreciation for this country’s role and responsibility in creating and maintaining the positive globalization conditions and environment.

I have some thoughts. First, Tom Peters pointed out in his book Re-Imagine, that, “Distance is dead.” Technology has allowed us to connect with almost anyone anywhere in the world. Our students have embraced this concept with ease. But, education has not been so quick to pick up the technology baton and run with it. Technology is a major component in the global economy and the connectedness of the globalized world. We must prepare our students to use these tools. Computers should no longer be optional. They should be just as fundamental as paper, pencils, and textbooks. It should be a skill set that students (and teachers) be able to demonstrate. But that is obvious to most of us in the edu-blogosphere. Everyday there is more evidence of technology changing the very nature of how education is delivered. (See When The Education Bubble Goes...Pop!)

Second, if the United States embodies the values of globalization (freedom of choice, freedom of movement, freedom of expression), then it makes sense to inculcate those values in our students to ensure that they take them with them from school in the globalized world. This means a focus on civics, history, and learning the values that make this county so great. Also, students should understand what the global economy is and how it works. This calls for excellent economics and business classes.
Education today, attempts to control where students learn, what they learn, when they learn, and whom they learn from. Our educational system is the very definition of a centralized organization. The federal Department of Education tells the states what to do. State departments of education tell the counties what to do, counties tell the districts what to do, districts tell the principals, the principals tell the teachers, and the teachers tell the students. It is very structured, very systematic, very controlled, very rigid, and very closed. It in not exemplary of the values of globalization, yet purports to prepare students for their roles in the globalized world.
If you view the student as a leaders of their own learning, then they have the ability to decided for themselves the what, when, where, who, and how of their education. They must follow and meet certain expectations and norms, but they are not controlled by a centralized organization. A student is free to blend normal brick-and-mortar school, with home-school, with e-learning or virtual learning, occupational or trade schools, with other opportunities such as travel, trips to museums, internships, volunteering, etc. This blend is what I call the Open Model of Education. Maya Frost calls it "Bold School." (See The Global Student - Old School vs. Bold School)
But it also means allowing student to have opportunities to demonstrate freedom of choice, freedom of movement, and freedom of expression. I question whether our current system is providing these sorts of opportunities for students.

Good American citizens will make good global citizens. We need to inculcate those American values in our students and not be ashamed of them. Our students must have an understanding the global economy and America’s unique history, values, role, and responsibility around the globe.

Third, because we now live in the globalized world, our students will need to be adept with interacting with people from many different cultures. This means developing a skill set for understanding, appreciating, and valuing the cultures of others, while at the same time valuing their own unique set of American values. Our students must be able to navigate the multitude of cultures and develop positive relationships with people from across the globe.

This skill set has been referred to as Cultural Intelligence (CQ). Author of the book Leading With Cultural Intelligence, David LIvermore describes it the ability to demonstrate...
Drive—show the interest and confidence to adapt cross-culturally
Knowledge—understand how differences such as religion, family, education, legal, and economic influences affect the way people think and behave

Strategy—monitor, analyze, and adjust plans in unfamiliar cultural setting

Action—choose the right verbal and nonverbal behaviors, depending on context
Fortunately, America is so diverse. We must use this diversity as a strength and help our students learn from each other.

Fourth, our students will need to become adept at the art of collaboration. Globalization requires that people work with others. Students need to start practicing now by collaborating with fellow students. This is a great opportunity to introduce project base learning into our classrooms and schools. We must create opportunities for students to work together. Technology makes it possible for students to collaborate with students around the globe. I have seen some amazing projects with students in this country working with students from Africa and Australia. This reinforces my point about the need for appreciating other cultures. Collaboration as a skill set should be developed at every opportunity in our schools.

Finally, innovation and creativity skills must be taught and developed in our schools. With thousands of degrees being awarded in the coming decades, especially in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries, what is going to set our students apart? Creativity and innovation will. We need these skills taught in our classrooms.

In summary, a connected globalized world will require certain skill sets and knowledge. It is our responsibility to prepare our students to meet these challenges. I question whether, in this current system of high stakes testing and standardized curriculum, we are doing enough to prepare our students for life outside of the classroom walls.

Do We Limit Our Children's Creativity?

2009-10-12T18:55:34-07:00

Do we limit our children's creativity? Take a look at this short clip about one child's creativity and the reactions from parents, teachers, and doctors. I think you will find it thought provoking.

Watch This:

Rob Jacobs

How Important Is It For Educators To Have "Vital Friends" At School?

2009-10-12T00:00:00-07:00

Tom Rath, author of the great book Vital Friends, conducted a massive study on the power and impact of friendships, especially friends in the workplace.
Tom asks a series of interesting questions…
"Educating oneself is the foundation of our learning systems, and it’s obviously a worthwhile pursuit. But is there any chance it’s time to add the next element? Have you ever taken a course in friendship? Could a second-grade student, a high school student, a college freshman, your boss, or even you benefit from time dedicated to this pursuit. If we have already spent significant time on self-development, is it possible that most of the magic- our room for rapid personal and professional growth- lies in developing our friendships?”

Rath defines Vital Friends as
“Someone who measurably improves your life.” and “ A person at work or in your personal life whom you can’t afford to live without.”

Imagine a staff development training session dedicated to helping you make better friends with the people you work with. Imagine a staff development session that focuses on helping you a few of your colleagues develop deep meaningful friendships. Is it important? You bet!
I think back to the tragic suicide of an teacher colleague with whom I worked for several years, who felt that life had no meaning because of a lack of true deep friend relationships. They didn't want to go on living without friends. Could it have been prevented with just one vital friend at work?

Some of the findings in Vital Friends include…

During our teenage years, we spend nearly one-third of our time with friends. For the rest of our lives, the average time spent with friends is less that 10%

If your best friend has a healthy diet, you are five times as likely to have a very healthy diet yourself.

83% of people bring different strengths to the relationship that their best friend does.

Only 18% of people work for organizations that provide opportunities to develop friendships on th job.

Without a best friend at work, the chances of being engaged in your job are 1 in 12.

People with at least three close friends at work were 96% more likely to be extremely satisfied with their life.

Only 20% of employees dedicate time to developing friendships on the job.

Fewer than 1 in 5 consider their boss to be a close friend.

Employees who have a close friendship with their manager are more that 2.5 times as likely to be satisfied with their job.

17% of employees report that their manager has made “an investment in our relationship” in the past three months.

When managers discuss friendships with employees on a regular basis, it nearly triples the chances of employees having a “best friend at work.”

The evidence is from the research conducted by Tom Rath is clear. We are better when we work with people we can call friend.
Principals, how would this knowledge impact your grade level placement of teachers?
Would this change the kinds of things you talk about with your teachers in goal setting or evaluation meetings?
What kinds of things could you do to help teachers develop relationships with each other and what could you do to improve your relationships with them as individuals?
Teachers, when you consider the number of hours, days, and weeks spent at school, are you thinking about how much you need a friend or friends at school?
What would the impact of vital friends be to Professional Learning Communities?
Listen to an interview with Tom Rath.

Imagine Leadership

2009-10-08T00:00:00-07:00
Robert Jacobs

Three Critical Beliefs of a Professional in a Learning Community

2009-10-07T20:08:17-07:00

A "Guest Post" from Joel Zehring

Planting and nurturing a healthy professional learning community requires that every teacher (and employee) in a building arrive at three conclusions:

I am a professional. My mission is to ensure learning at high levels for every student, measurable by objective evidence.

I learn and I help others learn. My students learn more when I collaborate and learn with other teachers, sharing strategies and comparing evidence.

My school is a community, greater than the sum of its parts. It is built out of collaborative teams and disciplined professionals that share and learn from their failures and successes.

It’s not enough to adopt two out of the three conclusions. It’s all or nothing.

Because these conclusions aren’t just benign, buzzword statements, adoption can be pretty arduous. Teachers need time and patience to hash through the implications of these terms with other teachers.

Teachers need time to air their concerns, fears, and insecurities before they really assimilate these beliefs.

Teachers need time to struggle and even fight through the process of letting go of longer-standing beliefs that conflict with these conclusions, without feeling like they’re forfeiting their souls and their individuality.

For leaders, the whole process is less like building a tract house, and more like planting and growing a forest. It takes strategy and experience, nurturing and pruning, and time.