Over the past few months I’ve been diving into my new job. A small portion of this transition has centered on rethinking the role of learning spaces at my school and beyond. One of my goals has been to start conversations about the power of spaces in improving our teaching and learning.

I updated my working space and have used my “office” as a model: an opportunity to wonder/share/create/reimagine. It has already started some great conversations with students, faculty, and staff.

While I’ve been enjoying the space, I wanted to share the transition and hopefully it will start your own conversation about the learning spaces at your school. The space itself is meant to be communal. I’m not one for saying, “this is MINE”. Students and faculty are welcome to use my space for brainstorming. I am a believer in the value of collaboration and being open to new voices/approaches and that only comes when you open your mind or in this case, “your door”.

The Result

How It Happened

To create the space, we used Ideapaint Pro. I highly suggest either getting a professional to apply the paint or following IdeaPaint’s instructions to the T. For example, if you spread the paint too thin the ink will stain the wall and not wipe off completely. The desk and bookshelf were made out of recycled wood by Amanda Kovattana.

Community Use

As I mentioned, I have offered this space to the faculty and students. They are able to reserve my office and use it as they see fit. This week my office is hosting a video “Photo Booth” for our Multi-Cultural Festival. Students are recording their thoughts based upon a prompt written on the wall.

I hope this has given you some food for thought and I look forward to seeing your take on how we can reimagine our learning spaces.

Photo Credits: Earthworm & davidbill

I found these two videos today. They are interviews of Richard Feynman, the acclaimed physicist, and both really resonated with me.

As educators, we are expected to assist our students as they grow and define themselves. These two videos highlight a few principles that, in my mind, are some of the most important lessons we could ever teach our students.

be “madly” curious

explore the little things

beauty surrounds us in all things

it’s ok not to know the answer

Hopefully these videos will inspire you as much as they did for me.

Beauty

Click here to view the embedded video.

Curiosity

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo and Video Credit: damewse

“We are all designers.”

Some may balk at this statement. Some may say that they don’t even actually know what that means.

I don’t make that statement lightly.  I taught history, am  a “techie”,  and  can’t draw very well (i’m trying though). In the past, I did not consider myself as the creative type.

With that in mind, design is not about making logos, building websites, or creating an inexpensive incubator for countries in the third world. Design is a mindset. It is an approach that addresses how we collaborate, how and what  we create.

Design is about creating interactions. Design is about understanding our users. Design is about developing something that will make a difference. As educators, we do this ALL the time. We create lessons and experiences that support our students’ learning. Design is at the core of what we do.

This past weekend at Next Chapter in Atlanta, GA, we heard this over and over again: “ design is a verb not a noun.” I know some people may say, “What does that even mean?” but it is at the core of how we can improve how we teach and learn. Design is about how we interact and create.

To understand and embrace this concept of design takes time. I’ll be the first to admit, seeing ourselves as designers does not come easily. You are not the expert. For some, this may be antithetical to how they were trained, how they have operated, how they have built their career. The outcomes, while undefined, may not be what they suggested or had in mind. It may not come easily. We were taught to have structure and a clearly defined outcome or argument.

Despite that, I ask you to try to let go. Try to embrace the uncertainty of the process. Many of our colleagues cry out for empowering our students, to create curriculum that is authentic. We talk about teacher as “facilitator” or as “guide on the side”. If we are truly to embrace the concept of authentic and student-centered learning, we must be open to letting go: to embrace a process that is messy and does not have a pre-defined outcome.

I am not suggesting that you upend your life to embrace the design process. Rather, find small ways that you can incorporate  the process into your life. Start by  addressing  a small challenge that your colleagues, students, or family is facing. For example:

1. Use the process with students and teachers to define how to recreate a space in the  library to best suit the needs of the community.
2. Build it into a unit for a class you teach.
3. Brainstorm exercise with a few of your colleagues during a faculty or department meeting.
4. With your family, reconsider how you use your backyard.

Give yourself the time and space to explore the process in a way that suits your personality and needs. Do not try to copy an approach. Think about who you are and what you need.

If you  need guidance, find someone who would be willing to explore this challenge with you. Do you need to research before you begin? See below for some resources. Find an approach that speaks to you and adapt it to suit your particular need.

The idea of design and design thinking is not to uproot  our core values but to heighten  our ability to create experiences that will extend how we teach and learn. It will empower our students and colleagues. It will create experiences and outcomes that we could never have imagined.

Release. Play. Make. Celebrate.

Resources

• IDEO – “Design Thinking for Educators“
• Stanford – “k12 Lab Wiki“
• Prototype – Design Thinking Resources

Photo credit: Hugh MacLeod

Backstory

So, I am in the process of starting a new job, which is SUPER exciting. While we are an extremely tech savvy school, because our building is built to withstand five earthquakes simultaneously, only kind of joking, we do not get the best cell reception with AT&T. This is a problem as I have an iPhone. I love my phone, it allows me to not only use my phone but also check up on my Google Reader, check in, tweet, capture my thoughts/images in Evernote, and many of those things I will need for my job.

But

Because of the lack of reception in our building, I can’t use my wonderful device as a phone. This is a problem because I don’t want to sit in my office. I want to be roaming the school, interacting with students & teachers. In order to do that, I need to make sure I can access my work and mobile phone numbers all on one device: my iPhone.

The Answer

I am going with Google Voice* but want to keep my mobile number. This is important because I don’t want to inconvenience my friends and colleagues and have to switch my mobile number AGAIN. Google Voice will allow me to get reception on my mobile and work numbers on my iPhone via our WiFi network and the Talkatone app. This approach also allows me to use all of my mobile apps that, as I mentioned, are an important part of documenting my job.

The Problem

I wanted to have my mobile number completely connected to Google Voice. Unfortunately, AT&T doesn’t allow you to port your mobile number to Google Voice without incurring an early termination fee. When I suggested that I would not be canceling AT&T, just simply adding a new number to my line and would forward that to Google Voice, I was given a flat response of NO. Funnily enough, other services allow it.

The Solution

After being shot down by a few AT&T customer service reps on the phone, I met Irene Drake, a customer rep at the AT&T store on Union St. in San Francisco. Irene was EXTREMELY helpful and wanted to ensure that I found a way to make this work but ultimately, our initial solution was not as successful as we had hoped.

After sleeping on it, I came up with the following approach this morning:

At Work

1. Forward mobile number to Google Voice by dialing **61*xxx-xxx-xxxx# on your mobile phone (the x’s represent your GV #)
2. Forward work number to Google Voice by dialing **61*xxx-xxx-xxxx# on your work number (the x’s represent your GV #)
3. Download the Talkatone app to your iPhone
4. In Google Voice>Click Settings>Click Phones>Scroll to Forwarding Options>Click “ring my other phones before going to voicemail”
5. Turn on “Airplane Mode”
6. Turn on Wifi
7. Receive calls from work and personal numbers via Talkatone
8. Make calls via your Google Voice number using Talkatone

After Work

1. Turn off “Airplane Mode”
2. Turn off Wifi
3. Make and receive personal calls via AT&T
4. Work phone still goes to Google Voice (this way I can screen calls after work hours)

The Catch

There always is one, isn’t there?

When dialing out from work, I will have to use my Google Voice number**. I won’t be making a lot of personal calls at work, so I will associate my Google Voice number with work and keep my personal mobile number exactly that.

Conclusion

Yes, it requires some extra steps but since I am in a building with nearly no mobile reception, this will allow me to be away from my desk and working with faculty and students while also having access to my work and mobile numbers on my iPhone.

Also, when it comes to team based communication, since each member of our tech department has an iPhone, I think i’m going to have us use Kik for group messaging since we are located all over our campus. (More to come on that later in the year)

Again, I want to thank Irene Drake, as she was SUPER helpful in spending the time with me to ensure we could find a solution without having to pay the early termination fee. While we didn’t find a the right answer off the bat, she reminded me that there are a lot of good people at AT&T who do want the best for their customers.

Photo Credit: hname

*If you want to know about the advantages of using Google Voice, check out this post.
**Unless my job will let me port my number over.

I saw a tweet that included the poster shown below. As I scanned the poster I was in agreement with the overarching thesis:

YES

mobile technologies are here.

YES

they are transforming how our students learn/interact/think.

YES

we must be aware of this and think about how we can best incorporate mobile technologies in to our teaching.

BUT

before we do, let us take a step back and think long and hard about the approach. Is the technology allowing the curriculum to be something much more transformative? Is archiving our notes or being able to record your voice going to transform how our students learn in a world that is changing before our eyes or is it simply creating a shinier tool for an outdated model of learning?

As you examine how technology can be incorporated into your school, make sure you think through these questions:

1. How is [fill in the blank] creating a more engaging and dynamic learning experience?
2. Will this empower students to be self-directed learners?
3. Is it allowing students to create their own knowledge?
4. How is this extending the classroom?
5. Is it helping students realize that learning is not about getting to the next step?

YES

there will be some technologies that simply improve how we operate and effectively transfer information.

BUT

if we are able to answer these questions knowing that we are using the available technologies to transform our learning environments, then we will be headed in the right direction.

Via: Voxy Blog

Photo Credit: Yagan Kiely

I ran across two sites today.

One was about the phenomenon of co-working spaces:

“Office Party? Let’s Tweet It“

In an era where more and more people are taking the entrepreneurial spirit and working in coffee shops or in their homes, the idea of a co-working space is something that is quite intriguing from an educational standpoint.

What if schools created spaces and opportunities that centered on the same principles mentioned in the article?

“the group lunches, the whiteboard brainstorming sessions, the Friday beer parties — that puts Studiomates at the forefront of an innovative new model for doing business.”

What if our students were given the opportunity to learn in spaces like these? Ok, sans the beer, but still. What defines the success of co-working spaces, like Studiomates or the General Assembly, is the intersection, of play+creativity+productivity+community+inspiration.

We must be more thoughtful about how students worked together and create spaces and opportunities that lead to interactions and ideas like Creative Mornings, which in my opinion offer exactly what students need: a 20 minute break from the day and access to ideas that will broaden their horizons.

When we create spaces and opportunities that allow creativity and play to flow freely, you’d not only be surprised at the quality of what is produced but how much of it.

The other site I found was:

72 Hour Challenge by The Better Block

The team at The Better Block created a website that is

“a demonstration tool that acts as a living charrette so that communities can actively engage in the buildout process and provide feedback in real time”

In other words, they are working to improve city blocks around the country.

Their 72 Hour Challenge asks groups to create a new vision for a street block in 3 days and nights. This same challenge could be applied in schools.

Why can’t we give our students a challenge, a deadline, and asked to “make” something? We could ask them questions like:

How could our students revise a playground?
How could you reconstruct a communal space to be more collaborative and fun?

These are challenges that our students would thrive on, it would create a culture of play, and help re-think the idea of school space from our users’ point of view. If we can embrace challenges like these, we will breathe a breath of fresh air into our schools and you’d be surprised how much our students are learning.

What does this mean?

If we look at these ideas, they offer people to opportunity to connect, share, learn, play, and make a difference. These are all things that schools are meant to represent as well. While I am not advocating that schools need to be co-working spaces or have all learning happen through 72 hour challenges, I do believe the core ideas behind these initiatives can help improve our schools.

Photo credit: duncan

The video below is of Marshall Ganz, an community expert and a key player in developing the 2008 Obama campaign. In his talk, at the Berkman Center in 2008, he spoke about how to create collective action. While he may have been referring to the political world, the same principles apply now when we look at creating action in the world of education.

In particular, Ganz focuses on how to use organizing, collective action, and mobilization to initiate change. He mentions that change comes when individual preferences are turned into common focuses, which can lead to the capacity to act upon them. When we look at making changes in our schools, we must find a common thread among the teachers and administrators. This does not mean we must have mandates, rather it means we must find a common idea or belief and give individuals in this group the ability to take action as a group.

How do we make this happen?

Leadership

It is the “practices that enable others to achieve purpose in the face of uncertainty”. In other words, leadership is comprised of practices that enable groups to work effectively. This could mean creating teams, or Personal Learning Communities, that bridge departments to enable this to happen. These groups could be run by seasoned facilitators to ensure success. This role of facilitator would rotate after others were trained on how to run the groups.

Community

In addition to strong leadership, a community rises from a stable entity capable of exercising collective agency. If this is the case, teachers will feel empowered and not isolated; they will be willing to make a change.

Power

The power of a community rests in its ability to use resources (time, energy, materials) purposeful to take change. We must evaluate how we, as schools, use these recourses to create change.

Key Factors

Along with the previous three factors, Ganz mentions that the following are necessary conditions for effective collective action.

Shared values

Values are broader than interests and sources of motivation. Values are communicated emotionally. To achieve this we need narrative and empathy not just metrics and data.

Shared interests

To build this collective capacity, we must create relational interests (1 on 1 meetings are key for this to develop). Is there a basis for working together? Are we able to commit to one another?

Shared structure

We must have common purpose and shared norms. There must be trained leaders and structures for our initiatives to succeed. Structure leads to ability to create change.

Shared strategy

“Turn what you have into what you need to get what you want.” Adapt based upon real time information and needs. It is the purposeful and most creative part of organizing. Any strategy will shift but as long as the group buys into the common goal, it will happen.

Shared action

Resources are time, material items, and energy. The mobilization and deployment of resources are essential to make change. Resources can only be effective when “the outcomes are clear, … specific and…can be learned from”.

Finally

While technology can be at the center of making this all happen, Ganz reminds us about carpenters and tools. Investment in skilled carpenters allows the tools to be used in effectively. We must spend our time in developing the human capital in schools. We must understand the community and determine the human needs before we blindly invest our time or money in technology.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo credit: mike.bendetti

A really great talk from TEDxSanJose that speaks to the power of design. When we think about our students, we should see it as a similar opportunity to rethink where, how, when, and what we learn.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rives is a man of many talents, he is a spoken word poet, emcee, pop-up book writer, and conversationalist. As one of the hosts of TEDxSMU this past October, he was given the chance to show off some of his skills and gave a powerful storytelling performance using an iPad.

His four minute “talk”, seen below, is an example of the potential of the iPad, or any tablet for that matter. Far too often we see computers as a means to check email, write papers, or watch videos. In an age of, as Clay Shirky puts it, “cognitive surplus“, we have the opportunity to use that technology and our time towards “doing something” and being “creative”, two things that we must ensure our students embrace. The tools at our disposal, including the iPad, are extremely powerful, so let’s make sure that our students are using the technology to do more than write five paragraph essays or create PowerPoints. Let’s make sure they truly create.

In the end, as Rives points out, no matter the medium, it is about telling a “story”. We need to let our students embrace the mediums that work for them (iPads/cellphones/whatever) and allow them to create stories that they care about. By giving them a voice, we will not only empower our students but allow them to develop their creative spirit all while maximizing that “cognitive surplus”.

Click here to view the embedded video.