#IMMOOC 4: Open Up and Say . . . Culture!

I’ve fallen way behind in #IMMOOC, but I still intend to finish. Although this MOOC ended over a month ago, I plan to finish the last two parts of it and to share my reflections as I conclude this wonderful learning experience.

As I read Part III of The Innovator’s Mindset, I was once again struck by how many things resonated with me. I feel like every time I read a new portion of this book I’m flooded with thoughts about the possibilities of school and ideas for how we can improve the learning experiences of children and adults. Many of these ideas are not new, yet hearing them in this context, paired with new thoughts, creates an inspiring action plan for innovating our learning experiences. Part III of The Innovator’s Mindset focuses on leading in a way that unleashes people’s talents. As leaders we need to recognize the strengths of those we serve and determine how we can create experiences that allow people to utilize their talents. By doing so we can lay a foundation for innovation that will permeate the culture of a building and have lasting effects on the lives of all involved. I like that, although written primarily for those leading adults in an educational setting, these ideas could also be applied to our work with students. Many of these same thoughts can help us establish an innovator’s mindset in the children we work with in schools and can help shape the culture of our classrooms.

Duckworth, Sylvia. 5 Ways to Lay the Foundation for Innovation. Digital image. Flickr. N.p., 12 Nov. 2015. Web. 9 Dec. 2016.

The sketchnote above by Sylvia Duckworth introduces the themes covered in Part III of The Innovator’s Mindset. Each of these topics left me with many aha’s of agreement and helped me see new ways of unleashing talent to promote innovation within our educational systems. Every chapter spoke to me in its own way, but I was especially struck by the possibilities of embracing an open culture. Much has been said about the isolating nature of teaching. We spend the majority of our time in a room with few, if any, other adults. This can feel very isolating, but, as George says in The Innovator’s Mindset, isolation is now a choice. In the past we could try to interact with the teacher next door or someone down the hall and occasionally we might even interact with a like-minded colleague in another building or meet someone at a conference that shared our views on educating children. Today we all have the capability (and even the responsibility) of connecting with other educators.

This is something I was not always good at when I was in the classroom (after 15 years as a high school history teacher, I left the classroom a little over two years ago to become an Instructional Technology Consultant). I initially resisted joining Twitter because I viewed it as one more thing I would have to check and I didn’t think I had time for that. I was also hesitant to blog or share things I was doing in my classroom because I didn’t feel my work was worthy of being compared to all the “experts” posting great ideas online. I often searched websites and blogs for lesson ideas, resources, and technology tips, but I was not actively connected.

In January of 2012 I joined Twitter to see what it was all about. I looked around for a while, but I did not tweet anything or follow anyone. After this brief flirtation, I abandoned Twitter for the next year and a half. Then in January 2013, I took what I perceived as a big leap, I began blogging (my first post was To Blog or Not to Blog . . .). I was not always the most comfortable sharing, but I decided it was important that I share some of the things I was doing in my classroom. I don’t know that many people ever saw anything I was writing, but I began to realize that writing about things I was doing in my classroom helped me to reflect and refine my practices. Then in August of 2013 I took one of the bigger steps I have taken to improve myself as an educator, I came back to Twitter and this time I stuck with it. I realized it was very inspiring to see things other teachers were doing in their classrooms and to interact with like-minded educators. I still did not always share a lot, but I certainly gained a lot. Over time I have increased what I share and I have become more connected.

Twitter has been one of the best sources of professional development I have encountered. In the beginning I did a lot of lurking before slowly interacting more with my growing PLN. Throughout my time on Twitter I have been very happy to find many like-minded educators who share my views on educating children. This has inspired me to become better at my job and encouraged me to take risks and try new things. I think this is one way we can nudge other educators to take risks, try new things, and become more innovative. The open culture established by Twitter and other social media tools allows us access to people and ideas from around the world. We have a responsibility to demonstrate to students how we can use these connections for the advantage of everyone involved. Our students live in a world with ever increasing online interactions and we must teach and model how to use this for the advantage of all.

Dee, Linda. Here Floof, Sharing Is Caring! Digital image. Imgur. N.p., 7 June 2016. Web. 9 Dec. 2016.

I love the idea of school hashtags and teachers sharing one thing to this hashtag every day. This encourages sharing and competitive collaboration that will benefit everyone. It also provides an opening for more educators to become active on Twitter and to expand their PLNs while creating meaningful learning experiences for themselves and their students. The community created through this type of collaboration establishes a culture of learning that will reduce teachers' perceived vulnerability in sharing the great things happening in their classrooms.

As George Couros states in The Innovator’s Mindset, we must disrupt our routines and think differently to be innovative. Twitter and sharing through an open culture are a great step toward new, ever-changing routines that help us innovate in a way that pushes our learning toward the ultimate goal of better meeting the educational needs of our students. I took the leap toward sharing through a blog and connecting with educators on Twitter and I am definitely better for it. I strongly feel that being connected can help educators improve their craft more than almost any other thing they can do.

I’m a MOOCing with #IMMOOC

Campbell, Heather (seriousgiggles). "Have you read The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros? . . . " Instagram, 4 June 2016, https://www.instagram.com/p/BGQlqhqsTO5/.

“Change is an opportunity to do something amazing.” This simple sentence can have profound effects if taken to heart. Humans often fear change. We like the comfortable and the predictable, but if we are willing to embrace change and view it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle, then we can promote positive change that will benefit ourselves, our students, our schools, and our entire society.

As our world continues to change and evolve, we as educators must adapt. Our students are raised in a connected world with access to previously inconceivable amounts of information. In this reality, the acquisition of knowledge is no longer as important as the ability to process this information, to apply it to new and different situations, and to discern not only what is reliable, but also what is applicable. For many educators this requires a paradigm shift. Many of us attended schools where increasing factual knowledge was one of the primary goals. However, if we approach our students’ education with this goal, we have failed them.

 The Innovator's Mindset Book Cover. Digital image. The Principal of Change. 

George Couros, 25 Oct. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2016. 

This is one of the tenants of George Couros’ recent book The Innovator’s Mindset. I have followed George on Twitter (@gcouros) for a while now, which was one reason I wanted to hear him speak at ISTE in the summer of 2015 (my reflection of this conference includes many references to George). I agree with many things George says and The Innovator’s Mindset has been on my list of books to read for a while now. For all of these reasons, I was excited when I recently learned that George and Katie Martin (@KatieMTLC) are facilitating a MOOC based around The Innovator’s Mindset. I recently took part in my first MOOC and I’m excited to be a part of The Innovator’s Mindset MOOC (#IMMOOC) to learn from George, Katie, and all of the other participants.

I’ve been in the process of moving recently, so I’m a little late getting started with #IMMOOC, but I’m excited to get started and to learn about promoting a mindset that not only allows for, but embraces change.

Moove to a MOOC for Moore Learning

This month I jumped into a new medium to further my professional learning. I've been hearing about MOOCs for several years, but had never taken part in one. Until now.

For those that may be unfamiliar with MOOCs, this refers to a Massive Open Online Course.
Basically, this means it is a free online learning opportunity that is open to anyone who would like to be a part of it. Some colleges and universities have jumped on the MOOC bandwagon while others are produced by individuals, groups, or organizations. Although there is some debate about the effectiveness of MOOCs (driven largely by low completion rates), they seem to offer a good opportunity for free online learning.

Recently I enrolled in the #EdTech30 Course to further my professional learning related to educational technology. I was not sure what to expect, but so far this course has been a good experience. I have learned a few new tech tools and I've taken the time to stop and explore a few other tools I knew of, but had not really played around with.

Today I was going through the portion of this course that deals with blogging. The instructor (Seth Dimbert) provided an explanation of blogs and a few tools for creating blogs. One of the things I like about learning through a structured course is that it forces us to stop and think about things. In this case, I know what blogging is, I know some reasons to blog, I know some of the tools that can be used for blogging, but its been a while since I stopped and really thought about it.

As I begin to reflect on blogging, my first thought is that I need to post more often. I often come up with ideas for posts or even begin writing, but don't get it published. This is partly due to a busy schedule, partly due to procrastination, and partly due to the fact that thinking through topics and beginning to write about them accomplishes one of the purposes of blogging, even if the post is never finished. I believe that one of the primary benefits of a blog is that it allows us to reflect on a topic and to think about it in different ways. Ideally we will put these thoughts out there for others and our posts will result in a discussion, but the process of thinking about a post helps us to reflect, even if that post never makes to the world. This was one of the primary reasons I began this blog back in 2013 (To Blog or Not to Blog. . .). I wanted an opportunity to reflect upon my lessons and experiences in the classroom and to share my thoughts, ideas, and resources with other teachers.

Although I have not done much blogging with students, I think it affords them many of the same benefits. As educators we strive to become reflective practitioners, we should aim to instill this same practice in our students. Blogging offers students the opportunity to contemplate their learning and experiences while giving them voice. As teachers we need to consider the best medium for this practice. In some cases a full-featured, public blog makes sense, other times it might be better to use a simpler, closed environment that is not accessible to the entire world. It is also important to consider the structure of the blogging experience. Will topics be chosen by the teacher, by students, or some of each? Will posts be more informative or more reflective? Will students or the public be able to comment on blogs? Will you monitor posts and/or comments?

I'm going to cut myself off before this post becomes merely a list of questions, but you get the point that there are a lot of considerations before having students blog. I am certainly no expert on this topic, however, there are many people out there that are much more experienced with blogging than I am and I would encourage you to seek out their hints, tips, and advice for student and professional blogging. One good starting point is Pernille Ripp's 14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging.

Despite the potential pitfalls and numerous details that need to be thought through, I think blogging has a lot of value for students and teachers and I would encourage everyone to give it a try.

Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh, Here I am at . . . EdCampOmaha - Learning at an "Unconfernce"

After my experience at EdCamp Iowa, I decided to attend EdCamp Omaha.  Prior to attending an EdCamp, I was a little skeptical.  I was afraid that the "unconference" idea would result in unorganized sessions with a few people dominating the discussion by bragging about everything they do with little helpful advice for others or that it would become a gripe session with a small number of outspoken individuals complaining about all the problems they have to overcome.  I can be a bit of an introvert at times, especially if I don't have a predetermined role, so this idea was a little intimidating to me.  However, my qualms have proven unfounded as my experiences with EdCamps have been very positive.  The people I have met are passionate educators who love what they do and although many of them are already innovators, they continue to seek the input of other people without any preconceived notions of who is worth listening to.  Despite my hesitation, I have found myself speaking up and becoming a part of the conversation and it has been very rewarding.  I have met a lot of educators with whom I will continue to connect and who will further my ability to be an effective teacher.

I began EdCamp Omaha by attending a session on Twitter for educators.  A good chunk of this session focused on the benefits Twitter can offer educators and how to maximize these benefits. Although I have some experience using Twitter for professional learning, it was nice to hear some different ideas about using social media to form an effective PLN.  This session allowed me to expand my PLN while learning of some new hashtags to follow and new ed chats that I plan to check out.  I also learned of several new tools for managing Twitter feeds.  I have not played with these yet, but based on descriptions in this session, they seem to have promise.  IFTTT allows users to automatically have favorited tweets saved to Evernote, creating a system for bookmarking from Twitter.  Topsy is a tool for searching Twitter.  Echofon, Twitterrific, and Tweetbot are tools for managing tweets.

The second session I attended was about connected learning environments.  This session consisted of small group discussions on several different topics then we shared takeaways with the large group. There were some very informative, thought-provoking discussions about what connected learning looks like, instructional strategies that promote connected learning, necessary elements (devices, support, etc.) that allow for connected learning, and how to overcome potential obstacles.  One of the best things about this session was having the chance to discuss what others are doing and how different educators view connected learning.  I enjoyed the structure, which allowed for smaller, intimate discussions, while still providing an opportunity to hear from those in other groups.  My group also discussed the importance of teaching digital citizenship so students learn how to interact with others online.  I feel pretty strongly about the possibilities offered by connected learning and the benefits it can offer students and I enjoyed discussing how to move everyone (district/building leadership, teachers, students, and parents) toward this mindset.

After lunch I attended a session on game-based learning.  Much of the discussion in this session focused on ways to gamify a class, even without the use of technology.  Attendees shared ways of using badges (both digital and paper) as a reward system, methods to frame competency-based activities as levels, and student-created board games.  There was also a brief discussion of the use of Minecraft as an instructional tool.  There were some good discussions in this session and I did take a few ideas away that I can apply to my classroom, but I felt that much of the discussion was focused toward younger students than I see in high school.

The final session I attended dealt with creating global connections for students.  Once again, many of the examples and ideas from this session might be more relatable for younger students, however, there were definitely some things I can apply and/or adapt to meet my instructional needs.  I have heard of mystery Skyping, but had never talked to anyone who has done it with their class, so that was definitely interesting.  I also enjoyed hearing the various ways educators have promoted collaboration and sharing by connecting their students to other classes or experts around the globe. Participants shared ideas about using Skype in the Classroom, EduHangout, blogs, read alouds, and passion/genius hour projects.  The idea of creating a more globally connected classroom is something that I have been wanting to incorporate into my teaching, so it was good to hear some ideas of how other educators have implemented plans to do so.

Overall, I felt like my day at EdCamp Omaha was a very rewarding day.  I learned a lot, met a number of innovative, enthusiastic teachers, and I left feeling very energized about implementing new ideas within my classroom.  I have had great experiences attending EdCamps and I plan to attend more in the future.  And, as an added bonus, I won two boxes of golf balls, a golf towel, and an EdCamp Omaha t-shirt in the drawing at the end (this might have been a little more exciting if I was a golfer!).

Roasting S’more Educational Ideas at Edcamp Iowa

Over the last few years I have heard a lot about the Edcamp movement.  Nearly everything I have ever read about Edcamps is positive, with many teachers raving about how invigorating it is to attend a camp.  This weekend I finally attended my first Edcamp, along with two of the most innovative teachers I know (my wife and my brother) and I was impressed. 

  

Edcamps are a free conference (or unconference) meant to provide a participatory environment that meets the needs of teachers looking to share ideas while networking with like-minded educators.  One of the major differences between an Edcamp and a traditional conference is that there are no sessions set ahead of time.  As participants arrive, they propose session ideas they would like to facilitate.  The sessions themselves also differ from a traditional conference.  Rather than one presenter sharing their expertise, the session leader acts as a facilitator, leading a discussion that draws upon the collective expertise of all in attendance.  Attendees are encouraged to find sessions that meet their needs as educators and, thus, are encouraged to leave a session if they do not feel they are benefitting from the discussion. 

  

Edcamp Iowa, with 5 locations across the state, was the biggest Edcamp event in the country.  I attended the Central Iowa event at Southeast Polk Junior High School.  Immediately upon entering the building I began making connections with other educators, a trend that would continue throughout the day.

  

The first session I attended was “Establishing Collaboration and Inquiry within School and District.”  This session resulted in a good discussion about PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) within schools and districts as a means of collaboration.  Teachers, administrators, and representatives from the Iowa and Nebraska Departments of Education all chimed in with their own experiences and thoughts about the benefits as well as problems with implementing PLCs.  I enjoyed the discussions of how schools can best facilitate teacher learning and the importance of allowing teachers some freedom in their professional growth.  I was also very impressed to hear about Waukee Schools’ implementation of PLCs on a district-wide basis that allows for collaboration between schools on a regular basis.

  

My second session was “Sharing Technology Between Classes.”  This was a much more sparsely attended session with only 6 participants, but it resulted in a good discussion of technological resources different teachers have utilized, problems teachers have faced with technology, the roles that students/teachers/administrators can or should play in integrating technology in a school/district, and what the integration of technology should look like in a classroom.  I enjoyed this discussion and I learned of a few new resources that I need to check out.  I was also very impressed with a high school principal that attended this session.  It was very exciting to see a principal seeking out the opinions of the teachers and technology coach in the room as to what building leadership can do to help with technology integration.

  

The third session I attended is the one I felt like I knew the least what to expect from.  This session was called “Rocks or Sucks,” which apparently is a staple of Edcamps.  The facilitator calls out a hot topic in education (such as homework, network filters, Common Core, etc.) and participants move to a side of the room to indicate whether they feel this “Rocks” or “Sucks.”  Those that are unsure (the mugwumps—because their mug faces one way, while their wump points in the opposite direction) are able to stay in the middle.  Each group has one minute to discuss their feelings with the other people who share their beliefs.  Then there is a five minute discussion/debate where each of the three groups (rocks, sucks, and mugwumps) explains the rationale for their beliefs.  This was kind of a fun session which resulted in some lively discussions of current issues in education.

  

The final session I attended was “Teaching Problem Solving & Critical Thinking Skills -- How to Make Kids Think!”  I had a lot of interest in all of the sessions, but this one seemed especially intriguing to me as I have tried hard to make my classroom a student-centered, inquiry-driven learning environment.  It was interesting to hear the strategies different teachers have tried to promote problem solving and critical thinking within the classroom.  The discussion also turned toward ways that teachers can promote more parental involvement in implementing problem solving strategies away from school.  This topic is of great interest to me and the discussion at Edcamp Iowa led me to want to seek out more strategies promoting problem solving and critical thinking within my class.

  

In addition to the sessions I attended, I also followed #edcampiowa on Twitter throughout the day.  This allowed me to gain some insight into other sessions occurring at all 5 sites across the state of Iowa.  It was interesting to hear about the different sessions around the state, while following discussions that began in sessions and spilled over to Twitter after the sessions ended.  There were also people who posted resources for those of us who were not in attendance at different sessions.

  

My first Edcamp experience was definitely a positive one, and one that I will seek out again in the future.  It was very motivating to be surrounded by so many passionate educators who sought out this opportunity to learn from others to improve their ability to educate young people.  I enjoyed the format of Edcamp and its participatory nature.  My wife (who is a middle school social studies teacher) equated it to a Twitter chat.  I think this is a very good analogy; both are very participatory in nature and place a good deal of emphasis on the needs of the participants over the agenda of the presenter.  Edcamp Iowa also allowed me to make a lot of new connections and to expand my PLN.

  
After my experience with Edcamp Iowa, I am going to try to attend Edcamp Omaha in two weeks on March 22.