Unlike a classroom where a teacher controls the lecture, the organic communities that emerge through collectives produce meaningful learning because the inquiry that arises comes from the collective itself.
https://kindle.amazon.com/work/new-culture-learning-cultivating-ebook/B004S72WOS/B004RZH0BG
 

Integral to this idea is giving yourself opportunities to experience and facilitate serendipitous learning. Currently there really isn't a better way to make this happen than twitter.

Here's the story.

Yesterday I'm attending a full day workshop (workshop is a loose term, it was really a 5 hour lecture) with Dr. Larry Bendtro, researcher and founder of the Circle of Courage Institute which focuses on reclaiming at risk students. Dr. Bendtro is a good speaker and while a 5 hour lecture isn't an ideal way to learn, there were lots of nuggets of learning I took away.

Sitting in the auditorium made up of educators and community people, I did see several ipads out but the majority of course were sticking with pen and paper to capture their learning. Lots of people were talking notes but of course, few, if any were sharing those notes. That's a bit of waste. So when I pull out my phone, I'm sure most people who see that think I'm checking email, texting, playing a game, or generally just off task. I used to be concerned about that but not anymore. I've learned that for me, engaging in a backchannel or simply using hashtags is the best way for me to stay focused and engaged. It may not be for everyone but it's for me. The person I sat with also uses twitter and we simply agreed to use the #circleofcourage as our hashtag.

Sidebar:

Last week one of my students was tweeting about being bored in class. I tweeted back that she should tweet what she was hearing and try and see if she could get others in her class to use a common hashtag to take collected notes. It worked for her.

Back to the story.

Part of the purpose of using twitter to take these notes is both for me, for the others participating but also because you never know. Early on in the lecture, Dr. Bendtro talked about the importance of a good theory but that if you can't explain your theory to a 4 year old, maybe you really don't understand your theory. As I was about to tweet that out, I see my buddy Dave Cormier in my twitter stream. I had the pleasure of having breakfast with Dave and his family last month and enjoy bantering and teasing with him so I decided I had enough social capital to present him a little challenge:

I really didn't know what I expected him to do with that. The nature of twitter is such that it could have easily fallen into the pile of useless tweets, which I'll admit I likely hold the world record. But Dave took my dare and did something, something quite awesome as a matter of fact. (I forgive you if you leave here now and spend time on Dave's blog. Go ahead, it's okay) He obviously had no obligation to do anything with my question. He could have ignored it or told me to mind my own business. Instead he created a useful artifact that is beneficial for me, others and for him as well.

I don't know if that's an amazing story because it's one that likely happens to many people every day because they place themselves in a space that fosters intentional serendipity. It's actually quite wonderful, joyful and meaningful. You can't quantify it, place it in a lesson plan but you also can't ignore it. I'm sure the vast majority of you reading this are twitter users and have your own story to tell. Maybe not. The point here is that intentional serendipity should be held in much higher regard. If you say you're too busy for serendipity, you might want to loosen up your schedule.  I've often felt that every classroom should have a space, be it a wiki or a bulletin board that highlights unintended learning. It's often the best kind.

Having done my share of workshops, I recognize it's challenging to spend a half day or full day with strangers and provide a meaningful learning experience. Most workshops I've attended usually consist of someone giving some type of initial presentation followed by a series of table talks from handouts; read this and respond, think, pair share, and so on. Often embedded in these events are things I call "cutesy activities". Something like, find someone you don't know and interview them about blah, blah, blah. I might not be articulating this well but all I know is that half the people in the room hate it. I'm usually the one that hates it. I'm not invested in the conversation and it always seems contrived. 

Not that I've figured it all out but I've been extremely cognizant of not doing those things at my workshops. If I think I'm close to broaching the "cutesy" zone, I'll make participants fully aware of my concerns and invite them to pass if it seems like that to them. 

I have a pretty simple formula I try to use in my workshops. 

1. Give participants early success. Particularly if it involves technology, which obviously mine are, insure people can leave with a new skill or idea. Even if it's small. 

2. Allow for deep conversation and storytelling. I'm not interested in spending 2 or more hours if all we do is talk tools. There has to be an opportunity for people to tell their own stories and push themselves with new ideas and insights from me and from each other

3. Wrap it all in fun. Set a tone early that laughing and joyful learner is going to be embedded in everything. 

So with that premise, here's a wonderful learning activity that uses all those pieces. I call it the Karaoke Presentation. 

One question I've used that is useful for any educator is to delve deep into the question, "What is Learning?". Based on my recent project with my students, I ask participants to take a recent concept or skill they are learning and to examine various facets of the experience. I'll offer them these questions as prompts:

How do you learn? Use specific examples

• What’s the most difficult thing you learned?
• Are you modeling or sharing your learning in any way?
• Do your students see you learn?
• How is learning a skill different than abstract learning or personal growth
• Was it a lot of reading, was it largely practicing?
• Where am I finding resources?
• What specific things do I find easy, what is more difficult?
• What do I think I might be able to accomplish before my next reflection?
• What or who provides me with the best instruction?
• Does it remind you of a past learning experience?
• Where and when is the best time for me to learn? Describe and consider environment.
• What do I admire about those who have mastered this skill? Who are these people?
• Is there a particular learning style I use more than another?

Depending on the room configuration and participants, this conversation can happen in various ways. The key is that everyone is asked to think deeply about what it means to learn. As educators it's kind of essential we have a better handle on this question. I know that Will Richardson has been asking and collecting responses of folks in his workshops. My efforts here is to have everyone take the conversation to a place they don't often go.  

At some point, usually before hand we discuss the power of using visuals to tell stories. After the conversation about learning, I'll have participants find an image using compfight that illustrates a attitude or feeling around their personal learning.  We explore the dynamics of searching for images as opposed to a google search. For many, finding images that are not literal is a new experience. Add to that a little introduction to Creative Commons and this itself is a great learning opportunity. 

I've had many participants of late with ipads so I've used software like Fotolr or PhotoPad to bring in images and add text. If they're using their laptop we use Picnik or any software they prefer as long as they can add text. This is also a great opportunity to discuss design.

After they create their images i have the email their work to me. Inside these apps or with Picnik, it's a straightforward process. The simplicity and the ability to create something meaningful and useful accomplishes my first goal of easy success. I open their images on my ipad and simply choose "Save Images". They are automatically placed in my photostream. I have my slideshow settings to last for 20 seconds. As the emails are coming in I tell participants that they we will be building a joint presentation and the each person will be responsible for a 20 second presentation on "What is Learning?"  I've done this with up to 50 people. As long as you have reasonable wireless, this works extremely well. 

Once you have all or most of the submissions, you simply start the slideshow. It's interesting how some people prepare by writing out a word for word script, some write out a few key points, others just do it off the cuff. Either way, it's a great experience. Laughing at the silence, rushing through your 20 seconds or listening in awe of someone's lucid thoughts, it's a powerful way to synthesize the group's thinking as well as give them a tangible experience using visuals and their technology to tell stories. And up until this point, I've watched carefully to insure this doesn't turn into cutesy. If I cross that line, I'll scrap it. 

This is a clip from some administrators I worked with in Edmonton. 

If the video doesn't play in your browser, try this. 

Unless you've spend the last several years on another planet, you've been hearing about how the awful lectures are for learning. Often associated with these phrases, "sit and git", "stand and deliver", "teacher directed"  or "sage on the stage" for many, the word lecture has become synonymous with the worst pedagogical practices possible. 

I don't think it's that bad. 

First let's define what we mean, or in this case, I mean when I think of the word lecture.

1. An exposition of a given subject delivered before an audience or a class, as for the purpose of instruction

​That is a commonly held definition and one isn't all that bad.  Remove the "delivered before:" part and think about simply an exposition of a subject. In that sense, reading a book or article, watching a video or listening to a conversation could be very lecture like.  Aren't progressive educators supposed to hate lectures? If so, why do we all love TED talks?

​Okay, I get it. We're really trying to shift the balance of instruction away from teacher at the front talking to students to something that better leverages the time and space we share together. I'm all for that. But even in a constructivist environment, where inquiry reigns, there has to be some "lecturing" or content acquisition in order to make meaning. That can happen in many ways via exploration, discussion, etc. But the lecture isn't limited to a teacher talking or watching a video but in certainly is useful if there are some experts at some point exposing people to new and different ideas. That could be fellow learners who have crafted an argument or articulated a message using all types of communication and sharing methods. But even if you mean one person talking, that's still useful. Not as the only means of learning, not necessarily as the primary means of learning but as an effective, essential means of learning. 

I'm bias. I'm awed by someone who can speak for more than 5 minutes and keep my attention. It's not easy. I've given my share of talks and keynotes and I realize that I'm not sure I've ever accomplished it. However, I learn a lot by listening to others. I'm also in favour of using new technologies to allow interaction and pushback. The concept of a backchannel can be very powerful and it adds an important layer on a traditional lecture. But even without it, a lecture can be good. When we read the brain is doing very similar things it does when you're watching or listening to someone speak. 

Some folks argue that ideas like the flipped classroom are bad because it still promotes the element of a lecture. So what? If you agree at all with my premise, lectures are important. What I like about the flipped classroom is that it better utilizes time and space and makes use of the fact that people are in a room together and should have equal opportunity to share, interact and even lecture themselves. 

(Longer) Lectures fail when:

• they're too long …I don't know the optimum length but you know when you've said all you need to say. TED talks work because of the constraints.
• it's just about facts …give me a handout to read instead. You stating facts has no added value. 
• there's no story or stories …this is key. We listen to stories because they have emotion. 
• there's no passion or urgency …like stories I need to know you care about what you're saying. Show me that. 
• there's no consideration of audience needs and interests …difficult but someone who conveys they have some understanding of the audience has my attention. Whether you're talking to 5 year olds or 65 year olds, they should have a sense you care about them. 

So please consider this the next time you denounce lectures. I think they're useful. And if you're going to spend more than 5 minutes giving one, do it well. Practice it and make people's experience listening to you a good one. 

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/2236177028

Saturday, June 25

Educational Reform
Led by Jon Becker and joined by 10-12 others.

This session considered what we mean by “reform” and considered various challenges and barriers.

Key takeaway: Size of organization plays a huge role in allowing innovation. Finding the optimum size for schools and organizations to flourish and grow is essential.

Teachers as Advocates
Led by Jon Becker and joined by 10-12 others

Jon asked the question, “Are teachers responsible for being advocates?” Advocacy can take on many roles from public relations to policy change.

Key takeaway: The voices of teachers need to be heard beyond the classroom walls and school buildings. The questions I leave with are “what should we be advocating, how do we seek and develop common messages and to whom should our voices be directed.

What are we doing for our Leaders
Led by Scott McLeod and about 30 others

Scott’s basic premise here is that instead of blaming leaders for not “getting it”, create conditions in which they can. Stop blaming and start enabling. A few ideas were shared about how to make that happen.

Key takeaway: I wasn’t terribly thrilled with this conversation. May have been my own fault but I didn’t find a new idea here or anything to consider. Again, likely my fault.

Sunday, June 26

The Netbook Rollout
Led by Ben Grey and joined by 4-5 others

This was a bit of an ongoing session that began at brunch and continued on various times thoughout the conference. Spending time with Ben will do that.

Key takeaway: The image they’ve used courtesy of Jim Klein is robust and seems very easy to maintain.

ISTE Keynote
Dr. John Medina

An overview of his book Brain Rules which I have read.

Key takeaway: I wish he would have explored more on the area of design and what schools should look like to better accommodate how we think and learn.

What Happens when you Write Every Day
Led by Zac Chase, Bud Hunt and Me

An great conversation about Zac’s efforts to blog every day and comparing that to me posting a photo a day.

Key takeaway: What we might feel is lesser quality and even a throw away effort, often resonates strongly with others.

Enough Blogging, Let’s Do Something Already
Led by David Jakes and joined by 5-6 others

David asked an honest question whether all the blogging that educators do is really helping make a difference for students. He’s concerned about a lot of talk and not that much action, wondering if our time was better directed towards students as opposed to blogging. It was a sincere question about whether everything that needs to be said has been said and perhaps we need to shift focus from talk to action. It was a great conversation with many bright folks contributing.

Key Takeaway: Reminds me to be careful to keep students first and foremost in our conversations and pay attention to what actually makes a difference for kids. Most agreed it’s not a zero sum game, however, there were some good reminders and perspectives shared.

Monday June 27

Living Facebook
Led by John Spencer

I introduced myself to John and identified him as one of those “smart people” I pay extra close attention to. John shared how he felt a bit out of the edtech group but I only know he writes well and has much to offer. He began sharing about the Living Facebook project he and his wife explored earlier this year. I had heard about it but was intrigued even more as he explained what he learned.

Key takeaway: He really is one of those “smart people”.

Creating Touchstones of Potential with Peer Coaching
Led by Shelee King George, Peer-Ed with Colet Bartow and Mary Knight

This was a poster session and Bud and I had a nice conversations with these folks about their coaching model and implementation.

Key Takeaway: You don’t necessarily have to build in time in the school day to incorporate the coaching model. A few important ideas I can use in my own coaching model with Lani and PLP.

E-Book Quick Tips and Tricks for Interactive Whiteboards
Led by Christine Voigt and Paul Wood

​Paul shared with me the way Bishop Dunne was incorporating ebooks at their school. Certainly they are leading the way.

Key Takeaway: Publishing companies still aren’t sure how to market and sell ebooks.

Vendors, Testing and Politics
Led by Scott Floyd joined by 4-5 others

Being Canadian and somewhat sheltered from much of the nastiness and controversy surrounding politics, testing and big companies, I look to Scott as my go to guy for all things  edupolitics.

Key Takeaway: The reason the vendor floor looks like it does is  because there is big bucks to be made often by leaders who are uniformed and are looking for quick easy solutions. Reminds me a bit of the earlier session on reform.

#EngChat
Led by Bud Hunt and dozens of others

Bud’s very interesting experiment of considering how to pause.

Key Takeaways: Slow down. And Ben Grey does lovely work.

Tuesday June 28

New Media, New Literacies: Educational Transformation through Digital Creativity
Jason Ohler

I’ve always wanted to hear Jason present. He shared 10 ideas for using Digital Storytelling.

Key Takeaways: Surprisingly not as much new here as I would have liked. Wes blogged the session here.  That’s not to say it wasn’t a good session, just nothing new for me.

Wednesday, June 29

Simple Tools for Sharing
Led by Wes Fryer and Me

I was honored that Wes asked me to help him lead this BYOL session. We did a lot of stuff in an hour.

Key Takeaway:  The balance between scaffolding and play is a very difficult one to find in a one hour hands on session.

The Fix Is In: Social Mobilization and School Reform
Led by Carl Anderson and Scott Schwister

A model classroom session exploring and deconstructing the power and idea of citizen journalists. I was one of the “students” in this session and thought they did a nice job.

Key takeaway: Deconstruction and reflection is critical for showing students the value and purpose of social media.

ISTE Closing Keynote
Chris Lehmann

Chris hit a home run with students and a powerful message focusing on agency. While I’ve heard this message in general from Chris several times, the inclusion of students as well as a few new twists made it a great way to end the conference.

Key takeaways: Certainly reminding our students they are beautiful is a message we can’t hear enough.

Customized your TinyURL
Led by Chris Craft

Chris talked to me last year about some geeky custom URL installations. I’m still interested in the idea but would like something that works with a mobile device.

Key takeaway: It’s nice to have geeky friends.

iPhone App Sharing
Led by Tim Wilson and 2-3 others

Tim shared a few key apps and other interesting  tools he’s exploring

Key takeaway: See the previous takeaway

ISTE Keynote Fail
Led by me with 4-5 others joining

This session took place on the roofdeck of Chris Lehmann’s house where I questioned Chris and others if  ISTE had a responsibility to have their keynotes address technology more directly. A rousing conversation ensued and a few ideas sparked this post.

Key takeaways: I love it that I can challenge my friends and push back on their ideas and they do the same for me.

Punchline:

So in case you’ve not figured this out, most of the sessions I mentioned were not found in the program guide. That’s because they didn’t exist there but were rather conversations that I was privy to or indeed initiated. Simply by surrounding myself with smart people, listening a little more than I normally do, I found great value in ISTE 2011. These are often the conversations that, while they exist online in many places, lack the intensity and focus and the ability to clarify that a great face to face conversation has. I attend this conference because of the sheer numbers of people that I can learn from in various contexts and settings. A mix of intentional and serendipitous learning. Everyone has their own approach. This is mine and it’s working pretty well for me.

I thought I would share a little about the content as well as the format and process of this workshop in case it has value and ideas that others might find useful as well as a chance to provide any suggestions for improvement. 

For the morning I decided to chunk my keynote into 3 sections and offer a chance to play and learn in between. My plan was somewhat derailed as my brand new MacBook Pro decided to have a kernel panic twice during my talk and caused me to restart. Some fancy footwork hopefully kept the momentum going and participants were kind and willing to go with the flow. I thought my presentation was synced to my ipad via Dropbox but it wasn't. The internet wasn't fast enough to get it there and I didn't actually have it on my ipad. Lesson learned for next time)

Here's my talk.

The 150 participants were sitting at tables of about 8 each. Activity one had participants choose one of three quotes that I selected out of the Great Quotes about Learning and Change. They were to have a discussion on one and record their findings in the google doc. We did some large group sharing after that was complete.

What I had hoped was there would be time and a way for groups to look more closely at what other conversations were taking place. Time was my enemy here. I was hoping for some controversial ideas to be exposed and while not everything would be addressed, perhaps if they spent some time perusing other conversations, it would not only provide more fodder but also demonstrate the power of collective learning.

The second activity is one I've used before. I've asked participants and those in my twitter network to post a photo to my flickr account. Usually this involves something very easy such as the weather outside. This time I wanted to up the ante a bit and asked folks to consider composing an image directly related to their learning. The response was quite overwhelming. This photo in particular from Amanda Dykes represented something quite powerful. I highlighted it as an example of why networked learning matters. Having someone who is directly affected by this disaster elevates the understanding and empathy that is often lost in mainstream media. Here are the entire 196 photo submissions:

This really helps to show people the power of networks as well as collaboration and social learning. The theme of social learning is one I emphasis a great deal in many of my workshops and particularly for high school teachers as the nature of most high school structures do not lend themselves to social learning because of time constraints and emphasis on content and subject matter. The playful nature of this activity also highlights an important shift for many. Reading  A New Culture of Learning is making that point very clear to me. 

Because of my machine crashing twice I was unable to get to the final activity which was to rethink curriculum by brainstorming ways in which their own curriculum might be changed using Wallwisher. 

The afternoon kicked off with a panel discussion that included 3 students and 2 teachers. They explored how they use technology, what they think of the current structure of school and hopes and dreams for a new approach to learning. It's always great to hear from students. 

We wrapped up the day with Show and Tell. I asked the organizers to identify 10 or so teachers that would be willing to share 1 minute of something they're doing in their classrooms as well I asked for others in my network to do the same. Here are 5 clips from those who submitted video. Andy Marcinek even Skyped in. 

Doing a full day and trying to keep people active, trying to model what I'm sharing about social learning, networked learning and access to unlimited resources when you have limited resources, space and time is challenging. I really would have liked to have participants interact more with the content that was created during the day. There are a few other things I would change but overall was pleased with the ideas and concept I attempted. Save the stupid computer crash and it was a pretty good day of learning. At least for me. 

Next month I'm doing a session for our local teachers

SESSION OVERVIEW: “How to Find a Needle in the Haystack…make your job easier by finding quality content and resources online”

This session will explore various techniques, tools and concepts that will begin to address the “information overload” that comes from the access we now have via the Internet. We’ll play, explore and talk our way into new learning.

Like I often do, I'm good at coming up with session titles and descriptions without thinking it completely through. Surprise, surprise.  I have a few ideas but yours are probably just as good. 

So pretend you're doing this session. Pretend you have 90 minutes. What would you do? Or what ideas/tools would you be sure to explore?

 photo credit: MSVG

I was involved in leading 2 conversations and both were learning experiences for me. Darren Kuropatwa and I led a session called "What's Wrong with This Picture?" I learned a lot during our planning stages and since Darren and I have never presented together before, it took some time to get our cadence and feel. We both felt there were some good things we did and also some things we would change if we were to present this again. Educon sessions generally focus around rich conversations using a variety of formats and strategies but the idea is for as many as possible to participate. Darren and I wanted to see if we could get our participants to play and explore with ideas around imagery. We were a little concerned it may not work due to time constraints, equipment and simply because it's not normally the format at the conference. We were both blown away with the quality, imagination and thinking that went into their work. Take a look. Upon return the conversation about critical thinking, media literacy, quantity vs quality emerged. The strong takeaway for me was that a little play can lead to important conversations. While I know that part of the Educon mantra is about moving away from shiny tools and discuss the big questions about school and learning, I think we do both. I'm going to be sure to incorporate that more into my work.

I've had the privilege of working with Alec Couros on many occasions.  In our session about an "Obligation to Share" we really wanted to drill deeper into the terminology, have folks share some of their stories and then discuss cultural shifts and barriers. I've had this on my mind for quite a while so I thought it would be a great opportunity to see if others were having similar conversations in their local situations. The stories that were shared were quite amazing in themselves. The lasting idea that came out of this was in various conversations with Shelley Paul. These conversations were a mix of face to face, blog posts and tweets. As Shelley and I talked it became clear to me that as leaders we need to be storytellers and help others begin sharing and see that sharing is just what we do. I'll blog more about this idea later but it was Shelley who helped flesh out this idea much more clearly than I had before. 

Educon is a great way to spend a few days. Thanks to Chris and crew for once again doing an outstanding job. There's lots of time and opportunity to gather and connect. I'm blessed that so many people are willing to spend time with me and connect personally and professionally. For me it's equal parts learning and party. Which is nice. 

Photo of Darren and Shelley by Kevin Jarrett

Photo of knowledge isn't in our heads by Darren Kuropatwa

Creating a TED talk is different from other presentations I've done. 18 minutes provides significant restrains from the usual 45-90 minute time slots I'm used to having for presentations. Trying to be concise and lucid is not as easy as it might sound. I'm used to playing with ideas, sensing the audience and having a few different options to tap into during any given presentation. With 18 minutes you need to make your points quickly and clearly. There was a great deal of stuff left on the cutting room floor. I likely started with about 40 minutes of content and managed to get it down to 15 minutes. I still question if some of the ideas were coherent or if they flowed together.

In most of my talks I take advantage of the presenter notes and usually fill it with bullet points and the occasional sentence or two that I don't want to misread. With this talk I almost memorized the script word for word. The challenge is making it sound like I didn't. I couldn't afford to stray or fumble since I had no time to recover or regroup. For the most part I think I accomplished this but would have liked to finish my talk more strongly.

I normally speak to educators exclusively but have had the opportunity to speak to more diverse audiences which is really helpful to remove jargon and some presumed background knowledge from my presentations. I didn't want to make this only about schools so at least half of the talk looks at connective technologies and historical context outside of education. The idea was to help people see the past and the current status of community and tie that to schools. This one is still hard for me to gauge as it's hard to put yourself in someone else's shoes.

I certainly I didn't nail the delivery but I will say it was a great learning experience for me. I have great respect for anyone who's had to do one. 

I was honored to be part of TEDx Saskatoon. I spent the last week engrossed in trying not to suck and I think I at least accomplished that goal. I was also happy to give my talk in the first set which allowed me to totally focus on the ideas and talks of the other speakers as well as engage in some pretty interesting conversations with strangers. I heart strangers.

The organizers put on a first class day. All the details were covered and they represented TED and Saskatoon extremely well. The volunteer hours to put on an event like this is pretty significant and you can't help but be impressed with the dedication.

While all the talks offered something, let me share a few highlights.

Ainsley Robertson is a young women who co-founded The Princess Shop.

The Princess Shop creates an enhanced graduation experience for female students in need, and provides them with mentorship, support, and the tools to pursue success after graduation. Princess Graduates have the opportunity to be lent a graduation dress, accessories, shoes, etc. donated by members of our community. 

Ainsley told her story as a fairy tale and her own humility, energy and determination shone through and creating an inspiring talk. This was a story that celebrated community and proved that a good idea, compassion and support can change people's lives.

Probably my favorite talk was from Jeff Nachtigall. Jeff is currently artist in residence at the Sherbourne Community Centre. Jeff's ideas about creativity align pretty closed with Sir Ken Robinson's and he extended the ideas in his work with people with disabilities. Jeff's stories were stories of hope, heartbreak and offered some powerful lessons for everyone including educators. His open studio, facilitation approach allowed people to discover latent gifts, stories and as a result not only offered therapy for themselves but encouragement to others. The National Film Board of Canada has been shooting a documentary on this work. I'll be excited to watch that.

I should also mention Alec Couros' talk. Alec's talk of change certainly was important for that crowd to hear and he did a nice job of taking his usual 60 minute talks down to 18. Alec remains an educational leader in both Saskatchewan and Canada and I'm proud to be associated with him and his work. 

All the talks offered me something new, something to consider beyond my fairly centric interactions. It's funny because in many schools and districts, ours included, there is a very strong resistance to paying for PD that is not directly related to a teachers' work. At one point I thought that was a fair policy. I think I have to disagree with that. In fact, I'm wondering if teachers should be encouraged to attend conferences that have seemingly nothing to do with education or at least their area of teaching. What if every teacher was required to attend something totally unrelated to the current job. Simply ask them to make a connection back to teaching. Maybe it's just me but I can't help that nearly everything I see, read or hear about usually has me wondering about the implications for teaching and learning. 

Thanks TEDx Saskatoon for a fantastic PD experience.

I tend to rely as much as possible on others to help me with this stuff. Call it lazy or smart, whatever, that's also how I roll. 

I began by posting this question to the twitter. 

Lots of great responses came in.

Thanks for the great responses everyone.

As you can see there are some patterns. These are really helpful to me as I try and connect the dots in my own thinking as well as try and develop a coherent presentation of ideas to share with others. 

In fairness, twitter does restrict ideas from being fully developed and yet it requires the reader to do a bit of thinking and meaning making on their own. But I do want to provide this space to continue the conversation and perhaps clarify my intent and thinking.

Many of the ideas of what to keep, in my mind are actually fairly new practices. Things like project based learning, teacher collaboration are not yet entrenched in schools but indeed many are moving this way. Part of my talk hopes to illicit deep rooted practices and beliefs about teaching and learning that we need to continue and indeed are classroom practices as opposed to system type practices and policies. My goal is to expose teachers to some new ideas, which I have plenty of, but also to remind them of great things they've always done and should continue to do.

If you have a moment, please let me know about educational practices and experiences that you had that were positive and that you feel we ought not to lose sight of as well as ones you feel are still happening that need to be ditched.  Feel free to expand on ideas already posted above or offer some new ones. 

And now you know.

While I'm sorting through a few ideas for the keynote, I'm planning on making a case as to why we have an obligation to share and teach to students beyond our own institutions and how that makes your own school a much better place. This is where I need your help.

In the spirit of Alan Levine (see Alan, this is what happens when you have great ideas, other people steal them), I'd love for you to post your story. To be more specific, I'm looking for examples of sharing that directly impacted students and curriculum. Maybe it's simply using a resource created by someone else, perhaps it's an idea you shared that someone else built upon. It could be anything that you used with students in your school or classroom. Ideally, I'd like to have stories from a variety of grade and subject levels.

Given the time parameters of the presentation, I may not be able to use all the stories but by simply posting them here, you've already illustrated my point: Teachers who share with the most people are among the best teachers. So leave your stories, links and tell us how sharing has made a difference for your students.

Oh, and please Retweet.

My microphone ran out of batteries near the end so if you’re brave enough to stay till the end, you’ll hear my audio patchwork job.

If you’d simply like to look at the slides sans commentary, or want to download them, here you go.

As schools begin to recognize the potential of social media or networking as potential learning spaces it might be important to distinguish and identify things a bit more succinctly. I know David Jakes has stated he does not like the term social networking as it suggests social, but doesn’t speak specifically to learning. I agree. The term gets tossed around and means something quite different depending on individual interpretation.

I’ve build a mockup of a diagram I’d like to use to illustrate the merging and blending of social networking and individual interaction with content. This can be either online or offline but primarily I’m thinking about online spaces. Here’s my first draft.

It needs some work both from a design standpoint as well as the message and content.  The social networking aspect is pretty clear. We all have spaces where we are focused primarily on the social. Students in particular use facebook as a primary space to socialize. It’s not seen, nor should it necessarily be seen as a learning or academic space. That’s fine. On the other hand those that see the web or school library or classroom as containers of knowledge and information often aren’t interesting in the social component and interaction that supports learning. The area in blue represents learning and content that is consumed in isolation, reading a book, watching a video, writing a journal or article by yourself. I don’t think the term “academic content” really gets at what I’m trying to say. I’m trying to show that there is a sweet spot in between that can exist and should be fostered in schools. Any suggestions for improving this diagram would be welcomed.

This image also supports the concept but I wanted something a bit more explicit but this is the concept.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by dkuropatwa

I think the ideas here are going to challenge some of your thinking and give you lots to consider.

Enjoy.

Since its inception in 2006, it's been interesting to see the presentations evolve. The decision last year to go to a more "TED-like" format was a good one in my opinion as it  addresses the amount of content in the conference but also gets presenters to get to the point. Twenty minutes is long enough in any context but on the web it's particularly daunting to keep folks interested.

There have been a number of delivery models and to be sure, and a clear winning style has not been established. However, there are a few concepts that seem to work, at least for me.

While it's hard to separate content from design, here are a few presentations that use some techniques that I think make them very viewable. I've taken one from each year, with the exception of 2006.

2009 Around the World with Skype by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano. Silvia does a number of things which makes for a compelling presentation. She's clear on the onset about what she will be talking about. It's frustrating to watch 5 minutes of a 20 minute presentation trying to guess what it's about and what will be shared. Silvia let's you know early on exactly what she'll be discussing. She uses her own images. You can spend a lot of time searching flickr for the perfect image. Her use of her personal avatar figure likely took a long time to shoot all the images but in the end helps her create a great introduction. She uses video to show examples.  Live examples not only illustrates her concept more richly but anytime you can include students in action adds an emotional connection to the ideas.

2008 Film School for Video Podcasters by Matthew Needleman. Matthew obviously possess some storytelling skills and given his topic, you'd expect that. Matthew uses a story, a 1940's detective theme to weave in his ideas. A clever twist but one that's not used superfluously but as a meaningful way to share his ideas. He does a great job of chunking ideas. There are clear breaks and transitions. Easy to review.

2007 Online Professional Development by Jeff Utecht. While this was before the 20 minute time limit, Jeff still has a well designed presentation. It may not be possible in every presentation but Jeff models what he means by have some very informal, natural conversations that truly illustrate his point. Like Silvia, he shows you exactly what it looks like.

2006 Wiki While You Work by Mark Wagner. This was again before the current time limits but Mark really explored the ideas of what an online presentation could be. He made it personal. Simply by recording his presentation from his home office, talking with his friends and wife, it invited you in, to want to learn more. I applaud Mark for being being a pioneer in the online presentation.

2006 Derailing Education: Taking Side Trips for Learning by David Warlick. Having the first Keynote for year one, must have been both pressure packed as well as the feeling of a new frontier. Like Mark, but even more so, David invited us in to his home and town to explore. David carefully used his physical space to make clear connections to his ideas. While it was largely theoretical, the use of that space and helped to forge his ideas into something that I still reflect on today.

I'd invite you to watch these if only to examine them from a presentation perspective. These may not have been your favorites or even the best but I think they do offer some techniques and delivery models that work. Creating a presentation that's worth watching is hard work and nothing any of us were trained in given the fact that the genre has only existed for a few years. 

Now it's your turn. Do you have a favorite K12 Online or other presentation that you think has a unique delivery model?

Cross posted at TechLearning.

I have a serious problem. As I build presentations I get a clear vision of an idea or concept I want to discuss and I immediately want to visualize it. For better or worse, I gain and make meaning with visuals. To that end I’ve continued to create slides that I reuse and share with others. Fortunately others have shared my passion and created a nice set that others are free to use.

Today’s vision was around filtering. Not that kind of filtering but the kind I’ve discussed here. On more than one occasion, I’ve quoted Clay Shirky’s quote about filter failure. It has been begging to be visualized, at least for me. So I head over to flickr and realize that my vision lacked easily searchable terms. I had envisioned a larger quantity of some item with one item standing out. I tried several search terms and phrases but didn’t find what I wanted.

I turned to twitter.

After this initial request:

Over the next 30 minutes I recieved 20 various image suggestions and 4 other ideas of how to create one. Here they are:

@robletcher offered these two:

http://bit.ly/80zrS?r=td

http://bit.ly/cWAUc

@triareanews suggested these three:

http://images.inmagine.com/img/imagesource/ie236/ie236003.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3533/3931819587_48fdec1fd9.jpg

http://artforprofits.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/stand-out.jpg

Here’s four from @tuchodi

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15202064@N03/2435295029/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollyclark/450509297/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unlearn_art/3143041781/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnkay/3924381425/

@bookminder responded to my "needle in the haystack" concept

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/140/335350003_9ca033ba68_m.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanorwood/1046416640/

I nearly went with this one from @dlsio4 who apparently thought of something he had and took the picture on the spot

http://img96.yfrog.com/i/dyu.jpg/

@njtechteacher offered to take a photo of a pile of legos but did suggest this one

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/1804080776/

In the end, Sean Nash gave me six to choose from:

It was that last one that I chose. I could have picked any of the ones offered me and I’m sure you might have chosen differently. The point is that sometimes search doesn’t get it done. Google only goes so far. I needed people to help me sort out my ideas and provide inspiration to reach a satisfying conclusion. I feel badly for folks who don’t have this resource.

Oh by the way, here’s the final product.

It’s my turn.

Later this month I’ll be doing my own little presentation on Twitter for local teachers. I’m calling it "The Stupidest Thing You’ve Ever Heard of That You MIght Find Useful". I’ll likely do a twitter shoutout but I’d really like you to take a bigger role. So stealing a page right out of Alan Levine’s book. (I steal many things from Alan so he’s probably just rolling his eyes if he reads this) I’m going to ask you to submit a little video that sheds a little light on the whole Twitter rage.

So if you’d be so brave, send me a little video (no more than about 60 seconds) explaining either:

• a twitter story
• why you find it useful
• how you use it
• a great twitter tip
• or anything else I’ve forgotten

Send them to me via email in whatever format you wish shareski at gmail dot com. I’ll share your story both during my presentation and some place online.

If you’re really too shy to record yourself, leave a comment.

Now go watch Alan’s finished product of Amazing Stories.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by shareski

I come away from an event like this feeling blessed to know such awesome people and leave with great memories.

Our talk revolved around our efforts to change traditional teacher education to leverage the power of networks and technology in teaching and learning. We hope to spark some new conversations and support the great work already begun by Scott and friends.

Here’s the video to our Keynote and our other session can be found here. Slides from the keynote are here: Cooliris slides

Thanks again to Scott and  Paul Wood in particular for an outstanding weekend.

So spend part of Tuesday revamping and cleaning up a few previous presentations to fit into the 20 minute time slot I was given. I was called that afternoon to confirm my appearance with the school counselor and a local police officer. About 30 parents showed up which is pretty typical. While I recall being told about the scheme set up to test kids willingness to add friends in Facebook, I didn’t fully understand the concept until the counselor revealed the plan.  She created a fake profile and tried to get as many students to add her as a friend. The point was to show the parents and students how willing the students were to add strangers. She dropped this bomb on the parents and emphasized the dangerous behaviour shown by the students and how vulnerable they were to predators et. al.  Parents were shocked and their faces were filled with dismay, anger and concern. This went on for about an hour. The police officer who introduced himself to me by stating he didn’t know a lot about computers or the internet proceeded to present for almost an hour on how dangerous the internet was, how it was not policed and was a playground for predators.

And then it was my turn.

I immediately announced that I would be providing a very different perspective and that while I acknowledged some of the dangers and concerns I actually disagreed with many of the points made by the first two speakers. I’ll not post the presentation here, it wasn’t that inspiring but it contained similar content to this one done last summer.  I recognized the lateness of the evening but also wanted to provide hope and balance to a very one sided and what I believed to be somewhat misguided discussion. We had a brief Q and A afterward and many parents expressed their gratitude about hearing another side.

It was a weird evening to say the least. While I recognize the concerns of students acting badly online, these students, I presume are using facebook the way most are: posting a few photos, giving status updates and connecting with friends. I’ll restate this piece of research from the PEW Internet and American Life Project

Our research, actually looking at what puts kids at risk for receiving the most serious kinds of sexual solicitation online, suggests that it’s not giving out personal information that puts kid at risk. It’s not having a blog or a personal website that does that either. What puts kids in danger is being willing to talk about sex online with strangers or having a pattern of multiple risky activities on the web like going to sex sites and chat rooms, meeting lots of people there, kind of behaving in what we call like an internet daredevil.

This completely contradicted what both the police officer and counselor were saying. I stressed that I wanted my kids stuff to be online and that sometimes that included personal things. My 10 year old writes about personal things. That’s what she knows. I don’t worry about her. My own kids see me modeling appropriate behaviour and we talk about what we do online. As Will writes, I want my kids to be found. I also stressed that my concerns continue to revolve around cyberbullying, understanding the changing nature of privacy as well as the lack of critical thinking and understanding of digital content and authentication of information. I also added this quote from danah boyd:

Why are we so obsessed with the registered sex offender side of the puzzle when the troubled kids are right in front of us? Why are we so obsessed with the Internet side of the puzzle when so many more kids are abused in their own homes? I feel like this whole conversation has turned into a distraction. Money and time is being spent focusing on the things that people fear rather than the very real and known risks that kids face. This breaks my heart.

I feel like I’ve posted about this too many times. 2 years ago, we had few educators using any form of social networks and thus the discussions were few. Today their is more information and we have more educators using Facebook and have just enough knowledge to be dangerous. I’m perplexed about how to shift the conversation away from the fear. Fear is usually attached to the unknown. Most of these parents and teachers simply don’t know and it’s always easier to attach a quick label to the unknown. If it’s presented as a threat to children, well, you know the rest of that story.

Today this happened at the school.

[display_podcast]

That’s just not my style. I still haven’t fully comprehended what message was being sent other than don’t add strangers to your Facebook account.  It seemed like a lot of effort to spend on a quick emphasis to something that requires much more context and teaching and modeling. Maybe more discussion will follow. I hope so. But I’m not hopeful.

I sometimes post my slides here and even have gone to the trouble to add the audio, after the fact. I usually invite discussion but more so on the ideas rather than the packaging.

I’ll be the first to admit, the more I learn the more inadequate I feel to speak about visual literacy. I’m not trained in graphic design, but have read about it and practiced it to the point where I hope I have something to offer folks. I definitely push this the importance of visual literacy in our own school division.

Dan asked for people to explicitly solicit critique. I welcome it. When it comes to presentations, I subscribe to much of the ideas of Garr Reynolds, Cliff Atkinson and others. I spend hours and hours on each one. I recognize how it can engage audiences and provide some memorable images that can carry with participants beyond the presentation itself.  That said, I don’t think even the most compelling imagery can make up for incoherent ideas and poor delivery. I’m constantly working at all three.

So here’s a ten minute video where I describe why I make the choices I make. It was one take each so excuse the pauses and droning but maybe it will provide some insight. Leave any comments or suggestions. Don’t feel you have to be an expert to comment. Perhaps I haven’t explained something clearly or didn’t address something you felt was important. We can learn from and with each other.

Here’s the link to my presentation on Disruptions. I presented this Monday at the IT Summit in Saskatoon and again Friday at the Palm Beach Technology Conference. Totally stolen but also assisted by Alan Levine, I was able to create this using the CoolIris viewer. There is a quick publishing tool you can download if you’re only using images. Adding the video becomes tricky. Videos must be .flv. After building it I found out the drop.io might allow you to do the same thing without all the geekiness. That made me sad after the hours I spent tinkering. I’ll get over it.

In addition to this presentation I did 2 others for the Palm Beach Conference. These are revamped presentations I’ve done before with several updates.

Your Kindergarten Teacher Was Right. Why sharing matters more than ever.

Managing Your Identity

It was an honor to be invited and join a headline list of speakers. Lee Kolbert and team did a great job of running an outstanding one day event.

Keynote/Featured Speakers photo by Lee Kolbert

Screen Splitr, originally uploaded by shareski.

I downloaded ScreenSplitr for the iphone to display my iphone on a screen using Apple AV cables.

Previously, these cables only enabled you to play video from your iphone. Another reason to jailbreak your iphone.

I may use this feature from time to time in presentations.

I’ve consciously and subconsciously tried to recreate the idea a few times but decided today to begin a set of my own. Beginning with one I created earlier this month, I was inspired to capture a quote from the recent article in the NY Times on literacy. The quote isn’t necessarily true, it is a reflection of one perspective.

While I’ll likely continue to create images based on interesting quotes, I decided to scan my blog for recent quotes I thought were worthy of an image. Beginning with George Siemens quote about short attention spans and superficial learning. I went through an interesting process in finding what I felt was an appropriate image.

Using a Creative Commons search, I thought about searching for an image of multi-tasking. I found a few but felt the message here was not so much about that as it was about the depth of connections.  The easy choice is to try and go literal. However, I’m finding that as I explore and become more adept at using imagery, a little abstractness and dissonance is a good thing. I then tried to find something about connections. Still not happy. Shallow would seem to be the next choice but it wasn’t until I visualized a person walking along a beach that I entered “wading” to find the image I wanted.  After adding the quote and  flickr credit, this was the end result:

It’s not the only way to go but it’s one way.

The more I think about design, imagery and communication, the more I think that developing key images to attach to a few of my favourite and most meaningful quotes is a worthwhile habit to form and to share. It should go without saying but since I still get many emails, feel free to use any of these in your own presentations.

If you’d like to subscribe to my Interesting Quotes set you can do so by clicking the RSS feed at the bottom of the flickr page.