living and learning in a global community innovative schools virtual university

Living and Learning in a Global CommunityInnovative Schools Virtual University

Digital Footprint

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach Co-Founder & CEO Powerful Learning Practice, LLChttp://plpnetwork.comsheryl@plpnetwork.com

President21st Century Collaborative, LLChttp://21stcenturycollaborative.com

Follow me on Twitter@snbeach

Published by Solution Tree

My community work

• THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR

Professional development needs to change. We know this.

A revolution in technology has transformed the way we can find each other, interact, and collaborate to create knowledge as connected

learners.

Do it Yourself PDA revolution in technology has transformed the way we can find each other, interact, and collaborate to create knowledge as connected learners.

What are connected learners? Learners who collaborate online; learners who use social media to connect with others around the globe; learners who engage in conversations in safe online spaces; learners who bring what they learn online back to their classrooms, schools, and districts.

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Learning

One-on-one Classroom community

Be a learner first--educator second • It's all about asking hard questions and then listening deeply

• A connected learner isn’t afraid to admit that they don’t know the answer to a question or problem, and willingly invite others into a dialogue to explore, discuss, debate, or generate more questions. (@barb_english)

• Asking our questions out in the open in connected ways @lisaneale

• I believe that being a connected learner leads to more questions than answers and that is good. I also believe that connected learners have to learn to take risks - exposing your learning and thoughts can be challenging @ccoffa

• Lurkers become learners. Learners become contributors. @sjhayes8

Community is built through the co-construction of knowledge

BE collaborative. Own it. Share with others. nvest in personal knowledge building so what you share with others will be of value.

The power of connections leads to collective efficacy, collective wisdom and long standing collective intelligence

Connected learners talk to strangers. We do not have to know the people with whom we are co-learning, co-constructing, co-creating.

Do you know--what who you know--knows? Leverage collective wisdom.

Innovation comes from wildly diverse experiences and loose connections

• THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR

• THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR

Dedication to the ongoing development of expertise

Shares and contributes

Engages in strength-based approachesand appreciative inquiry

Demonstrates mindfulness

Willingness to leaving one's comfort zone to experiment with new strategies and taking on new responsibilities

Dispositions and ValuesCommitment to understanding asking good questions

Explores ideas and concepts, rethinking, revising, and continuously repacks and unpacks, resisting urges to finish prematurely

Co-learner, Co-leader, Co-creator

Self directed, open minded

Commits to deep reflection

Transparent in thinking

Values and engages in a culture of collegiality

• THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR

Meet the new model for professional development:

Connected Learning CommunitiesIn CLCs educators have several ways to connect and collaborate:• F2F learning communities (PLCs)• Personal learning networks (PLNs)• Communities of practice or inquiry (CoPs)

• THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR

1. Local community: Purposeful, face-to-face connections among members of a committed group—a professional learning community (PLC)

2. Global network: Individually chosen, online connections with a diverse collection of people and resources from around the world—a personal learning network (PLN)

3. Bounded community: A committed, collective, and often global group of individuals who have overlapping interests and recognize a need for connections that go deeper than the personal learning network or the professional learning community can provide—a community of practice or inquiry (CoP)

• THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR

Professional Learning Communities

Personal Learning Networks

Communities of Practice

Method Often organized for teachers

Do-it-yourself Educators organize it themselves

Purpose To collaborate in subject area or grade leverl teams around tasks

For individuals to gather info for personal knowledge construction and to bring back info to the community

Collective knowledge building around shared interests and goals.

Structure Team/groupF2f

Individual, face to face, and online

Collective, face to face, or online

Focus Student achievement

Personal growth Systemic improvement

Community is the New Professional Development

Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999a) describe three ways of knowing and constructing knowledge…

Knowledge for Practice is often reflected in traditional PD efforts when a trainer shares with teachers information produced by educational researchers. This knowledge presumes a commonly accepted degree of correctness about what is being shared. The learner is typically passive in this kind of "sit and get" experience. This kind of knowledge is difficult for teachers to transfer to classrooms without support and follow through. After a workshop, much of what was useful gets lost in the daily grind, pressures and isolation of teaching.

Knowledge in Practice recognizes the importance of teacher experience and practical knowledge in improving classroom practice. As a teacher tests out new strategies and assimilates them into teaching routines they construct knowledge in practice. They learn by doing. This knowledge is strengthened when teachers reflect and share with one another lessons learned during specific teaching sessions and describe the tacit knowledge embedded in their experiences. 

Community is the New Professional Development

Knowledge of Practice believes that systematic inquiry where teachers create knowledge as they focus on raising questions about and systematically studying their own classroom teaching practices collaboratively, allows educators to construct knowledge of practice in ways that move beyond the basics of classroom practice to a more systemic view of learning.

We believe that by attending to the development of knowledge for, in and of practice, we can enhance professional growth that leads to real change.

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S.L. (1999a). Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teaching learning in communities. Review of Research in Education, 24, 249-305.

Passive, active, and reflective knowledge building in local (PLC), global (CoP) and contextual (PLN) learning spaces.

The driving engine of the collaborative culture of a PLC is the team. They work together in an ongoing effort to discover best practices and to expand their professional expertise.

PLCs are our best hope for reculturing schools. We want to focus on shifting from a culture of teacher isolation to a culture of deep and meaningful collaboration.

Professional Learning Communities

FOCUS: Local , F2F, Job-embedded- in Real Time

Big Idea #1-  “The professional learning community model flows from the assumption that the core mission of formal education is not simply to ensure that students are taught but to ensure that they learn. This simple shift– from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning– has profound implications for schools.”

Big Idea #2 -  “Educators who are building a professional learning community recognize that they must work together to achieve their collective purpose of learning for all. Therefore, they create structures to promote a collaborative culture.”  

Big Idea #3 -  “Professional Learning Communities judge their effectiveness on a basis of results. Working together to improve student achievement becomes the routine work of everyone in the school. Every teacher-team participates in an ongoing process of identifying the current level of student achievement, establishing a goal to improve the current level, working together to achieve that goal, and providing periodic evidence of progress.”

By: Stephen Barkley

Professional Learning Teams

“Understanding how networks work is one of the most important literacies of the 21st Century.”

- Howard Rheingold

http://www.ischool.berkeley.eduHow do you define networks?

A Definition of NetworksFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Networks are created through publishing and sharing ideas and connecting with others who share passions around those ideas who learn from each other. Networked learning is a process of developing and maintaining connections with people and information, and communicating in such a way so as to support one another's learning.

Connectivism (theory of learning in networks) is the use of a network with nodes and connections as a central metaphor for learning. In this metaphor, a node is anything that can be connected to another node: information, data, feelings, images. Learning is the process of creating connections and developing a network.

Knowledge Construction

Practitioners’ knowledge = content & context

In connectivism, learning involves

creating connections and developing a

network. It is a theory for the digital age

drawing upon chaos, emergent properties,

and self organized learning.

Net

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Com

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Personal Learning Networks

FOCUS: Individual, Connecting to Learning Objects, Resources and People – Social Network Driven

responsiveresponsive

personalized

Use a 3-pronged Approach

Whatis community, really?

Virtual CommunityA virtual space supported by computer-based information technology, centered upon communication and interaction of participants to generate member-driven content, resulting in relationships being built up. (Lee & Vogel, 2003)

A Definition of Community

Communities are quite simply, collections of individuals who are bound together by natural will and a set of shared ideas and ideals.

“A system in which people can enter into relations that are determined by problems or shared ambitions rather than by rules or structure.”

(Heckscher, 1994, p. 24).

The process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in some subject or problem collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations. (Wikipedia)

A Place to Build Trust and Relationships

A Domain of Interest

A Place to Meet

A Place to Construct Knowledge Collaboratively

CelebrationCelebration

A Community of Practice is a network of individuals with common problems or interests who get together to explore ways of working, identify common solutions, and share good practice and ideas.

• puts you in touch with like-minded colleagues and peers

• allows you to share your experiences and learn from others

• allows you to collaborate and achieve common outcomes

• accelerates your learning

• Improves student achievement

• validates and builds on existing knowledge and good practice

• provides the opportunity to innovate and create new ideas

Members of an Active Community

• occasional

• transactional

• peripheral

• active

• facilitator

• core grou

p

• lurkers

• leaders

• outsiders

• experts

• beginners

Degrees of Transparency and Trust

Join our list Join our forum Join our community

Increasing collaboration and transparency of process

Looking Closely at Learning Community Design

4L Model (Linking, Lurking, Learning, and Leading) inspired by John Seeley Brown

http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/2006/06/roles-in-cops.html

This model is developed around the roles and interactions members of a community have as participants in that community.

Dynamics of 3-prongs of CLC ModelCommunity of Practice

Project Teams (PLCs)

Informal networks (PLNs)

Purpose Learning SharingCreating Knowledge

Accomplish specific task

Communication flows

Boundary Knowledge domain

Assigned projector task

Networking, resource building and establishing relationships

Connections Common application or discovery- innovation

Commitment to goal

Interpersonal acquaintances

Membership Semi - permanent Constant for a fixed period

Links made based on needs of the individual

Time scale As long as it adds value to the its members

Fixed ends when project deliverables have been accomplished

No pre-engineered end

CommunitiesOf Practice

PersonalLearningNetworks

F2F Teams (PLCs)

DIY-PD

Do it Yourself PD as Self Directed Connected LearnersHappens in CLCs

"Rather than belittling or showing disdain for knowledge or expertise, DIY champions the average individual seeking knowledge and expertise for him/herself. Instead of using the services of others who have expertise, a DIY oriented person would seek out the knowledge for him/herself." (Wikipedia, n.d.)

User Generated Co-

created Content

Celebration

Connection

Communication

Collaboration

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Attributes of a healthy online community

Healthy communities are collaborative, co-created and designed with evolution in mind.

Your community’s life-cycle

Plan

Start-up

Grow

Sustain/Renew

Close

Lev

el o

f en

ergy

an

d v

isib

ility

TimeDiscover/imagine

Incubate/ deliver value

Focus/ expand

Ownership/ openness

Let go/ remember

Forming Storming Norming Performing

“Twitter and blogs ... contribute an entirely new dimension of what it means to be a part of a tribe. The real power of tribes has nothing to do with the Internet and everything to do with people.”

Internet tribes

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“A tribe needs a shared interest and a way to communicate.”

The New Third Place?

“All great societies provide informal meeting places, like the Forum in ancient Rome or a contemporary English pub. But since World War II, America has ceased doing so. The neighborhood tavern hasn't followed the middle class out to the suburbs...” -- Ray Oldenburg

Motivations

• Social connectedness

• Psychological well-being

• Gratification• Collective

Efficacy

Kollock’s 4 Motivations for Contributing

1. Reciprocity

2. Reputation

3. Increased sense of efficacy

4. Attachment to and need of a group

The Social Web is built here, from love and esteem

Connected Learning Communities provide the personal learning environment (PLE) to do the nudging

Simple (hard) Steps• Have a compelling idea• Seed• Someone must live on the site

– Community manager or you• Make the rules clear (and short) • Punish swiftly and nicely• Reward contributions• Spread the work out• Adapt to Community Norms• Apologize publicly, swiftly and frequently• Simple good software that grows with group

In Phillip Schlechty's, Leading for Learning: How to Transform Schools into Learning Organizations he makes a case for transformation of schools.

Reform- installing innovations that will work within the context of the existing culture and structure of schools. It usually means changing procedures, processes, and technologies with the intent of improving performance of existing operation systems.

It involves repositioning and reorienting action by putting an organization into a new business or adopting radically different means of doing the work traditionally done.

Transformation includes altering the beliefs, values, meanings- the culture- in which programs are embedded, as well as changing the current system of rules, roles, and relationship- social structure-so that the innovations needed will be supported.

Transformation- is intended to make it possible to do things that have never been done by the organization undergoing the transformation.

Different than

So as you develop your vision for learning in the 21st Century how do you see it- should you be a reformer or a transformer and why?

Make a case for using one or the other as a change strategy.

Change is hard

Connected learners are more effective change agents

An effective change agent is someone who isn’t afraid to change course.

"The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence. It is to act with yesterday's logic." - Peter Drucker

http://pixdaus.com

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