What's Impossible in Your Classroom?

So, the Did You Know? factoid of the day from this story:

No one is galaxy-hopping, or even beaming people around, but for the first time, information has been teleported between two separate atoms across a distance of a meter — about a yard.

. . . "Our system has the potential to form the basis for a large-scale 'quantum repeater' that can network quantum memories over vast distances," Monroe said. "Moreover, our methods can be used in conjunction with quantum bit operations to create a key component needed for quantum computation."

. . . What distinguishes this outcome as teleportation, rather than any other form of communication, is that no information pertaining to the original memory actually passes between ion A and ion B. Instead, the information disappears when ion A is measured and reappears when the microwave pulse is applied to ion B.

A major step forward toward quantum computing, which powers some of the "living in exponential times" theme. And real, live teleportation of information from one object to another over a distance of about a meter. What's next, a biracial President of the United States?

So, if all these "impossible" things are happening in our world today, not to mention the impossible things that can happen if we perfect quantum computing and teleportation, what's impossible in your classroom?

Maybe, just maybe, you can find a way to do the impossible. Shouldn't you start trying?

Take Me to Your Leader(s)

I recently had the opportunity to help Will Richardson with a breakout session at the CASE Winter Leadership Conference. CASE is our statewide school administrator organization, with membership including superintendents, central office administrators and building level administrators. While Will’s keynote was the following day, our goal with the breakout was to hopefully initiate some conversations that administrators would take back and continue in their schools and/or districts.

We used Mark Pesce’s Fluid Learning blog post to spur discussion, and created some essential questions and a graphic organizer to go along with it (thanks Ben Wilkoff, Bud Hunt and Mike Porter for help with all that). We also created a wiki page with some additional readings and essential questions, to hopefully spur even more conversations among administrators, teachers, and all stakeholders about the “shifts.”

Hopefully the fifty or so folks in the room felt it was worthwhile, and with a little luck many of them will use what we did – or the additional readings and questions on the wiki – to help continue the conversations in their schools and districts. But I also got to thinking that perhaps I should share out that work here, since it’s unlikely folks would stumble upon that page on the Learning 2.0 wiki by chance.

So, in case anyone can use it, here is both what we used in the session, and the additional eleven sets of readings paired with essential questions. Please consider taking some or all of these to an administrator near you.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read Mark Pesce's blog post.

Essential Questions

• Capture Everything: What's worth capturing in my classrooms? My building? My district? Audio? Video? Text-based assignments? Student work? Writing?
  .
  
• Share Everything: Where can I share it? With whom? What audiences is our organization working to serve? How will they benefit from these shared items? Who needs to see what’s going on?
  .
• Open Everything: What are the closed silos of information in our schools that shouldn't be? What things outside of our schools have we closed (blocked)? What can we do to open both of those up?
  .
• Only Connect: How can I help my students and teachers connect with content, with each other, and with others outside the classroom (students, teachers, experts, mentors, the community, etc.) in a meaningful way?
  .
• What questions do I have for my administrators/curriculum staff? Teaching Staff? IT Staff? Students?

Graphic Organizer for this activity (Word, PDF). Feel free to download and use.

Online, editable pages for each of the questions above: (Capture Everything, Share Everything, Open Everything, Only Connect, What Questions Do I Have). As you have these discussions at CASE, at CoLearning, in your schools, and in your communities, please share out the results on the appropriate wiki page. It might take a few minutes to get the hang of editing a wiki, but you'll figure it out - give it a shot. And, don't worry, there's a history page so if you accidentally delete something, you can get it back.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some additional resources and recommended activities for administrators to continue their learning about - and sharing of - network literacy.

Additional Recommended Readings and Questions

The following is a long list of thought-provoking blog posts, articles and videos that can help administrators start or continue conversations in their school districts, schools, and communities. Each one is accompanied by a set of essential questions that can guide you as you read the article and can help further spur discussion.

1. Essential Questions
   What literacies must educators master before we can help students make the most of these powerful potentials? What’s one thing you are going to do in the next six weeks to help you begin to master these literacies? How does "authentic" assessment change when the student's audience is the world?
   
   Read Will Richardson's Footprints in the Digital Age from the November 2008 issue of Educational Leadership.
   .
   
2. Essential Questions
   We know that good teachers existed before the current wave of technology, but can a teacher today be the best teacher they can be and truly meet the needs of their students without using technology? What implications does this have for professional development and teacher evaluation? What implications does this have for the technological literacy levels of administrators?
   
   Read Karl Fisch's Is it Okay to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher? blog post (including comment thread) and National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T).
   .
3. Essential Questions
   What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century? Are we as educators currently literate? If not, what implications does that have for our students, and what proposals can we put in place to get all educators to a basic level of 21st century literacy in a reasonable amount of time?
   
   Read NCTE's definition of 21c literacy along with The Partnership for 21st Century Skills English Skills Map.
   .
4. Essential Questions
   Do you believe schools foster inquiry and passion in students? If so, are your schools currently structured to do that? Are students regularly asked to research, collaborate, create, present and network in your schools? If not, what can you do to change that?
   
   Read Chris Lehmann's blog post Talking to 49 Superintendents along with his Ignite Philly 5 minute presentation.
   .
5. Essential Question
   Of the 10 things the author thinks we should unlearn, pick the three that most resonate with you. Now, how are you going to foster “unlearning” those things for you, other administrators, and teachers in your school/district?
   
   Read Will Richardson’s Steep Unlearning Curve blog post.
   .
6. Essential Questions
   In a rapidly changing, information abundant world, what should students know and be able to do? What should “school” or “learning” look like in a world where almost all factual information is literally a click away? How do we help students create their own Personal Learning Networks? What steps are you going to make to create your own PLN? Which of the suggestions in Shift Happens – Now What? resonates with you, and how can you go about implementing them?
   
   Read Stephanie Sandifer's blog post Shift Happens – Now What? and watch this version of Did You Know?/Shift Happens (Vision Remix, Fall 2007). Also explore the Shift Happens wiki for more information.
   .
7. Essential Questions
   Do you agree that the culture of most educational institutions today is insulated, that it actively tries to block out the “outside” world? If so, do you believe that educational institutions can survive (and thrive) with that culture? If not, what are some steps you can take to open up the culture in your school/district?
   
   Read Bill Farren's Insulat-Ed blog post and we also highly recommend reading Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky.
   .
8. Essential Questions
   Where do you rank yourself in terms of competency on the NETS for Administrators? What do leaders really need to know about this? What are you (your school, your district) doing to help your leaders grow in this area?
   
   Read the National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A) along with Scott McLeod’s An Absence of Leadership (pdf) article from ISTE's Learning and Leading with Technology magazine.
   .
9. Essential Questions
   What kind of collaborative partnerships - physical or virtual - can you develop with folks outside of your school(s)? (universities, corporations, other schools, etc.) What steps can you take to engage with these collaborative technologies yourself, both to learn and to model for our students?
   
   Read Will Richardson's article World Without Walls - Learning Well with Others from Edutopia.
   .
10. Essential Questions
    Take a look at the seven survival skills that Wagner postulates through the lens of a typical classroom in your school (or, if you’re at the district level, a typical elementary, middle, and high school classroom). How’s that classroom do on those seven skills? Pick three of the skills and brainstorm ways to work with teachers in your building to strengthen their presence in the typical classroom.
    
    Read Tony Wagner's article Rigor Redefined from the October 2008 issue of Educational Leadership, along with this post on the Google Blog.
    .
11. Essential Questions
    Is it important to bring meaning and significance into the classroom? Do you think the way students portrayed themselves in these videos is fairly accurate for today’s student? How can we leverage the “networked” student, and the technological tools we have at our disposal, to empower our students to pursue real, relevant, and rigorous questions?
    
    Read Kansas State Professor Michael Wesch's blog post and watch some of his videos (A Vision of Students Today, The Machine is Using Us, and Information Revolution). Also watch Wendy Drexler's Networked Student.

Start Reading Blogs

The only way to truly begin to understand the literacy of networking is to participate. We would recommend subscribing to 3 to 5 blogs to begin with (ask your tech folks for help if you don't know how to subscribe). We would highly recommend that you subscribe to Will Richardson's Weblogg-ed and to LeaderTalk. Then find one to three more blogs that interest you, either by asking people you know, following links in Weblogg-ed and LeaderTalk, or by doing a Google Blog Search.

Read those blogs for two to three months, commenting when you're ready and have something to say. Then consider starting your own blog, either an individual blog or a group of educators in your school/district, to continue the conversations you're having about teaching and learning in the twenty-first century.

Consider attending Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation on February 21, 2009.

2009 AHS Faculty Dance Video

As I said last year (and the year before), we take a break from this blog's regular content to show you what my faculty does when they're not changing the world.

This year I again had a wide shot video, and a more close up video, and I still don't have the time - or the talent - to make a fantastic video production, so I decided simply to upload both of them. The first version is the "wide" shot, the second version is the "close up."

As I also said last year, do I work in a fun building or what?

Design Discussion with Daniel Pink: Setup, Pictures, Screenshots and Ustreams

In case anyone is interested, I thought I would embed the two Ustream recordings from today, as well as share a few pictures and screenshots. Since someone asked in the Ustream chat, I'll share the setup as well.

• Since Daniel Pink graciously shared two hours with us, we combined four classes down into two. Because that meant we had about 55-60 students each time, we needed a larger area than their usual classroom, so we setup in our library. In the "front" we had a computer running Windows XP and we used Skype to connect with Mr. Pink. That computer was then projected so that all the students could see him, as well as the live blog (although they pretty much read the live blog on their laptop screens). We used a logitech webcam for the video for Skype, and a Blue Snowball microphone (with a USB extension cable to get it into the group of students asking questions) for the audio. We then had logitech speakers to broadcast Mr. Pink's audio out to the room. (We did not have any feedback issues, although we did have him wear headphones on his end to help with that.)
  
  
  
  
• We also ustreamed the event. For the ustream, we used a DV camcorder connected to an iMac (for better video quality than a typical webcam, although I don't know how much difference it really makes) and a second Blue Snowball microphone (again with USB extension cable) for the ustream audio.
  
  
  
  
• We used a laptop to approve the CoverItLive comments, although that could've been done on either of the other computers if we wanted to (we brought in some extra help just in case, so we put them to work!).
  
  
  
• The students who were live blogging were mostly using our Dell laptop computers running Windows XP, connecting wirelessly to our network, although some students brought in their own laptops.

Amazingly enough, we pretty much had zero technical issues.

Here are some additional photos, screenshots and the two ustream embeds. If anyone has any feedback - technological or pedagogical - please leave a comment. And, of course, if you have any questions, leave those as well.













Anne Smith's Period 2 and 5 Ustream (and CoverItLive live blog archive):

Streaming Video by Ustream.TV

Maura Moritz's Period 3 and 4 Ustream (and CoverItLive live blog archive):

Streaming live video by Ustream

AWNM: Chapter 4 Live Blog and Ustream

As I wrote a week ago, some of our ninth graders are currently involved in a project based on Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind. On Thursday, January 15th, our students will be discussing Chapter 4 (Design) of A Whole New Mind with Daniel Pink (see the wiki for the schedule of the discussions over the other chapters). Mr. Pink is graciously giving us two hours of his time, so Anne Smith’s two classes will be discussing with him during second period (8:25 – 9:24 am, MST) and Maura Moritz’s two classes will be discussing during third period (9:29 – 10:30 am, MST). During each period, the two classes of students will gather in the library, and an "inner circle" of students will ask questions of and interact with Daniel Pink via Skype. The students in the "outer circle" will be watching that as well as live blogging on their respective class blogs (Anne Smith's class blog, Maura Moritz's class blog).

In addition, we will try to stream video and audio of the live discussion out via ustream. If everything is working, you can go to our ustream channel and watch and listen live to the students interacting with Mr. Pink. Please keep in mind, however, that the ustream is a bonus, we will be focusing on making sure Skype and the live blogging is working, so if there are any technical issues with the ustream we won’t be spending very much time trying to troubleshoot those. (Please also know that the ustream chat does not always make it through our firewall, so we probably won’t be reading or monitoring that.) Anyone who's interested is invited to watch the live blogs and/or the ustream.

It will be interesting to see how this first discussion goes. Last year the students didn't interact with Daniel Pink until Chapter 7, so they were very much into the book, the discussions, and had experience interacting with remote live bloggers. Since they are just beginning their study of the book and its concepts at this point, we'll see if that affects their level of engagement and the quality of their discussions. In any event, we're looking forward to an engaging and rewarding learning experience for our students.

Fifty-Nine Minutes: A Student Teacher Blog

I blogged previously about Randon Ruggles, a student teacher that’s working with Anne Smith and Kristin Leclaire this semester. Well, Randon has started a blog, Fifty-Nine Minutes (great name, btw) to document his experiences as a student teacher. As he told me, “I thought that it would be a great way to reflect on my student teaching. Besides, if I’m asking the students to do it, why shouldn’t I?”

Here are a few excerpts of what he’s written so far. From his first post, back in early December:

Wow, let's just say that after meeting with my teachers I know that this will be a great experience, but on the same side of the coin I am a little nervous. This is an awesome school and yes, I do have some experience, but I am still just that - a student teacher. Nothing else, and nothing more. I have written lesson plans, taught before, and I love interacting with students. This is going to be amazing, but at the same time I don't know what I am going to do.

Each day I will see my students in fifty-nine minute blocks. I will be teaching four periods and be seeing probably around 120 students I am responsible for daily (the real number is still TBD). I can't wait, this is going to be amazing. I actually get to plan, teach, and lead the class.

When I look at it though, it comes down to is this:

I have fifty-nine minutes
...to teach.
...to connect with my students.
...to engage my students.
...to make a difference.

Fifty-nine minutes starting January 5th, 2009.

No more, no less...fifty-nine minutes.

While I would quibble with the statement that he only has fifty-nine minutes with them (we aren’t restrained as much these days by the bell ringing, learning can continue after the bell, plus of course how much interaction he can have with them outside of class), I think it’s a timely (pun intended) reminder for all of us that we need to make those minutes count for our students.

From First Day at AHS!:

All in all though, the highlight of my day (besides the principal coming and talking to me at the end of the first day) was when Anne told me that a student sitting next to her commented to her during the lesson - "Where did you get this guy, I like him." That just about did it for me, I'm hooked, sign me up to a life of teaching.

It will get harder, Randon, but keep that enthusiasm, our students deserve it.

From Day Two:

The whole point for these students, and really any students that we teach at AHS, is for them to go change the world. Yes, at first it sounds a little cheesy, your 9th graders are going to go change the world, but no they really are going to. That is the challenge ever 59 minutes that I am in that period, in that classroom, I want to change them, challenge them, and encourage them to go out and change the world into a better place. So today we did this activity from The Last Lecture called "The Crayon Activity." I had each of the students take a crayon and then put their heads down and contemplate life as a child, when it was simpler, and when they had childish dreams. I encouraged them that even now, they are 9th graders, that they can still accomplish those dreams. Don't let anyone stop you and continue to push forward. Anne, my cooperating teacher was pretty impressed I guess. I think I even inspired her. The highlight was when she told me one of the lines I told the students - "When we stop dreaming, we stop changing the world." It was another good day of teaching 9th graders. Tomorrow I get to challenge them to actually put their words where their mouths are and really start to change the world with their position paper.

Nothing wrong with cheesy. I think sometimes as educators we shy away from things because others might judge them “cheesy” or “touchy-feely.” Students are people. Teachers are people. And school should have a purpose beyond simply scoring well on the CSAPs. (Of course, I might be a tad bit biased here.)

From Day Three!:

How Anne teaches this class makes me want to return to high school and take my senior level English class again. I can't wait to take over this class in a few weeks. They will probably push me the hardest to be the teacher that I always hope that I can be. The 9th graders can and do push me, but I feel some sort of pressure from these seniors. A good pressure to perform, to teach them, to challenge them, and to not let them down their last semester of their senior year. It will be a challenge that I can't wait to reach head on.

Last semester seniors can be a challenge, and I think senior year is one that many schools – including mine – need to rethink a little. (Randon does have the advantage that I believe he only student teaches for twelve weeks, so he won’t have seniors those last few weeks after spring break/prom.) But I'd like to see my school look at what other schools have done to make senior year more meaningful and relevant for students, there are a lot of good ideas out there.

From Day Four!:

There was one point today where I did not give clear directions on how to break up into groups. The students thought it was a little silly, but in the end I apologized and took the fall for it. It's always a learning experience, right?

For good teachers, I think every day is a learning experience. It never stops as long as you keep teaching (or at least it shouldn’t).

From Day Five!:

After class I really considered my fifty-nine minutes with them. Was it effective? Did they really learn the material? Are they actually prepared to start this essay? I honestly did not think so, and I voiced this concern with Anne . . . Tomorrow I will evaluate and look at how can I break down the steps and really get these students from their really large topics down to something small that they can actually research and write about. I need to take them from a topic the size of the world and bring it down to something the size of Denver - hey, that's a great analogy, I just might use that on Monday! Then from there I need to model, model, and model some more. They need to see what a true example looks like. I need to stop talking through examples and start physically writing them down for the students. Randon, don't be afraid of the blackboard - just because it's not a whiteboard or electronic doesn't mean that it will hurt you!

Think. Plan. Teach. Reflect. Learn. Adjust. Improve. Repeat.

Considering heading on over to Fifty-Nine Minutes and leaving some comments for Randon. Based on his early work, I think this might be a blog you should subscribe to. Of course, Randon, that means you’ll need to continue blogging after you finish your student teaching . . .

The Best (?) of The Fischbowl 2008

Like the previous two years, this is the post where I try to pull together some of the most interesting blog posts from my blog in 2008. These are not necessarily fantastic posts, but should give readers that are new to the blog a place to start to get a feel for what this blog is all about.

I posted 141 times in 2008, roughly equivalent to the 148 in 2007 and still down significantly from the 199 in 2006. This is my 538th post since beginning in September of 2005.

Here we go.

January (18 posts)
Best: Think Pink: A Whole New Learning Experience
Honorable Mention: How Should Colleges Assess and Improve Student Learning?

February (15 posts)
Best: Mrs. Moritz's and Mrs. Smith's Students - What are you Going to Learn Today?
Honorable Mention: NCTE - "Shifting" Toward a New Literacy

March (14 posts)
Best: The Future of the Newspaper
Honorable Mention: Voicethread Examples

April (7 posts)
Best: The Need for Textbooks
Honorable Mention: "I Already Have"

May (5 posts)
Best: The Rise of the Rest
Honorable Mention: Apple to Apple

June (1 post)
None, sorry. I'll post extra for July.

July (8 posts)
Best: It Is What We Make of It
Honorable Mentions: Stuck; Should We Be Teaching This in "Social Studies?"; GE, Social Networking, and Collaboration

August (13 posts)
Best: AHS Chemistry Podcasts
Honorable Mentions: Entrants Must Be 18 or Older?; Texting, tapping, clicking, tweeting, filming: The Rocky Covers the DNC

September (20 posts)
Best: Intellectual Freedom: Where Do You Stand?
Honorable Mentions: Please Help Abby with Her Homework; Advanced Placement is Changing; the Little Brother series of blog posts: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0

October (12 posts)
Best: Political Debates 2.0
Honorable Mention: This I Believe Goes Global

November (12 posts)
Best: Democracy 2.0
Honorable Mention: The Next Election

December (16 posts)
Best: Let's Stop Preparing Kids for College
Honorable Mentions: Let's Get Rid of Acceptable Use Policies; Online Student Teaching?, Kiva posts (Give Until It Feels Good: Join Team Shift Happens on Kiva; Kiva Update and a Not-So-Modest Proposal; Your Name Here)

A Whole New Learning Experience: Take Two

I blogged last year about some of our ninth graders reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, and discussing it not only with each other, but with over 30 educators from around the world and Daniel Pink himself. Well, some of this year’s ninth graders in Anne Smith’s and Maura Moritz’s classes are going to get the opportunity to do it again.

If you’re really interested, you can read all my previous posts regarding our experiences with this project. But, in a nutshell, the students are reading the book and discussing it in class using the fishbowl method with live blogging. In addition to the students discussing face-to-face and live blogging, approximately 30 educators from around the world will be “dropping” in to live blog as well. They’ll be able to hear and see the in-class discussion via webcam (and MeBeam), and will simultaneously live blog along with the outer circle of students in the classroom (using CoverItLive this year). Twice during the project, once while discussing Chapter 4 (Design) and then again at the end of the book with the culminating discussion, the students will have the opportunity to interact with Daniel Pink via Skype.

The students will be doing a variety of activities along with the discussions, but their culminating project will again be a Wikified Research Paper. A Wikified Research Paper has all the components of a traditional research paper, but on a wiki so that it can include hyperlinks, audio, video, etc. It also contains other wiki pages with their research and related items, as well as the ability for others to give them comments and feedback along the way and on the final paper (although since it’s a wiki it’s never “final”).

If you’re really a glutton and want to know more about this, we have a video produced by Dana Levesque, one of the amazing instructional technology specialists in our district. It gives you a feel for what it looked like last year, including some short interviews with students, some longer interviews with Anne and Maura regarding their preparation for and reaction to this project, and an interview with yours truly talking about some of the technology aspects of this project.

Sharing, Risk Taking, and Creativity

[Cross-posted on the PLP blog]

One of the fascinating things about being a “Community Leader” in a PLP cohort is the opportunity to observe the great discussions going on and ideas being generated in schools around the world, and watch as learning communities develop both in individual schools and virtually in the cohort. Recently in the ADVIS PLP cohort, Dennis wrote in a post titled Sharing, Risk Taking, and Creativity:

At our faculty meeting today I was center stage discussing teaching and learning in the 21st century. My first announcement was the fact that we were getting rid of the two computer labs in the building. We would however, be adding two Innovation Studios. Of course some people laughed, others gave me the deer caught in the headlights look, and some embraced the idea and felt inspired.

. . . However, my main point was this: we need to shift the mindset of how we use the resource (the computer lab). It is no longer a place where we just go to sit down as a whole class and do the same activities.

. . . The second announcement I had was the addition of a piece of butcher block paper on the bulletin board in the faculty room. The question on the paper "what is a learning community?" I asked everyone to write their thoughts about what a learning community is and the characteristics of a learning community.

Not long after Robin replied:

I love the studio-based learning model! One of the things I like most about Dennis's approach is the de-emphasis of the technology piece. As independent school teachers our faculties have a good deal of control over their curriculum and what happens in their classrooms and often take risks in terms of new projects or methods. Unfortunately, for many teachers, when they hear the word technology they duck and cover. This re-frames the initiative so that technology is just one piece of a much larger picture.

As far as the question on the butcher block paper...I am not surprised that there was not a rush to add input. It has been my experience that a good chunk of the professional development that our teachers participate in is about "doing", not "thinking". Many teachers are not often involved in pedagogical discussions. Although I understand the value of "make and take" PD we have to encourage more "philosophical and visionary" sessions as well. This can be a hard sell for some (think how hard it has been for some of us to go so slowly with this experience) but I think it is imperative if we are truly going to promote the shifts we are working towards.

Dennis then replied back:

I guess I'm just different because I'm not afraid of being wrong, that is the only way I will ever learn anything. Through the Innovation Studio I'm hoping that people will be willing to take chances and risks and say "okay this project was a flop....however I learned along with the students what not to do and what to try next time."

Do you find the fear of being "wrong" is an issue at your school when it comes to the faculty?

Robin responded:

I just took a minute away to touch base with a colleague (one who does see the big picture) and she confirmed my thoughts. We have a very supportive faculty here so most people feel comfortable venturing an opinion. However, many teachers, here at least, are so consumed with the day to day business of their classroom that they do not often think about or discuss larger pedagogical ideas. This does not make them bad teachers - they are all gifted educators - it is just not a habit they have developed. I think it is up to us to start the conversations.

Dennis’s and Robin’s schools are physically about 5 minutes apart, but without PLP they most likely would never have had this exchange.

Later Russell commented:

Of course the great irony here is that we want our students to be risk-takers and to embrace learning from mistakes...and yet our assessments typically don't reward taking risks, but rather punish risk-taking by holding up a single right answer. It is critical that we as adults learn to take risks and be wrong, so that we can model this for our kids.

Helping students and adults develop what Carol Dweck calls a "growth mindset" is key here. If you're not familiar with Dweck's work, it's terrific:

Link 1
Link 2

Not only does Russell continue and expand on the conversation, but he links to resources that other PLP participants can investigate and take advantage of.

John then contributes to the conversation, and extends it by asking another question:

Great idea - I really like the shift away from rows and rows of computers. A learning/collaboration studio, where teachers and students have access to a variety of tools and resources. What if every class room was set up like this?

Dru then comments:

Awww, if every classroom were designed like this, it would be heaven for our students, messy for the teachers, and so completely different from what we see right now in a traditional independent school. BUT, it is what we are seeing on college campuses and at workplaces across the country and around the world, so we MUST start to make these changes.

There were many other comments as well, but finally Dennis came back in with an update:

I just thought I would give an update. I checked the chart paper and here is what it said:

"What is a learning community?"

* Works together to share and build an enriching environment.
* A safe place to try, fail, and try again. A learning community takes risks together.
* An environment that fosters innovation and creativity.
* A way to discuss "Big Ideas."
* An atmosphere of respect where people are comfortable sharing their ideas.
* A place where we can learn from our own and each others’ mistakes and feel comfortable doing so.
* A place where everyone is interested in learning.
* A place to share.
* Exchanging ideas.
* Collaboration cross-curricular/division

Then I posted another piece of paper which asked "what are the essential qualities of a learning community?"

Responses:
* Time
* Access
* Be willing to share ideas.
* To know each other better as people so we feel more comfortable sharing and learning from our mistakes.
* Being okay with our mistakes.
* No one is perfect. Certainly not in this profession.

Dennis found support in the PLP cohort as he tried to foster some change in his school, and the cohort was able to learn from his experience and possibly incorporate that into their own schools. This is a great example of the support a virtual community like PLP can provide.

What are some ways you've seen a virtual community (PLP or otherwise) provide support for teaching and learning?

I Just Want to Say One Word to You: Collaboration.

With apologies to The Graduate . . .

Mr. Chambers: I just want to say one word to you – just one word.
Me: Yes sir.
Mr. Chambers: Are you listening?
Me: Yes I am.
Mr. Chambers: Collaboration.
Me: How do you mean?
Mr. Chambers: There’s a great future in collaboration. Blog about it. Will you blog about it?
Me: Yes I will.
Mr. Chambers: Shh! Enough said. That’s a deal.

The December/January issue of Fast Company has an interesting article on Cisco and its CEO John Chambers. Here are some lengthy excerpts (emphasis added by me).

He has been taking Cisco through a massive, radical, often bumpy reorganization. The goal is to spread the company’s leadership and decision making far wider than any big company has attempted before, to working groups that currently involve 500 executives. This move, Chambers says, reflects a new philosophy about how business can best work in a networked world. “In 2001, we were like most high-tech companies, with one or two primary products that were really important to us,” he explains. “All decisions came to the top 10 people in the company, and we drove things back down from there.” Today, a network of councils and boards empowered to launch new businesses, plus an evolving set of Web 2.0 gizmos – not to mention a new financial incentive system – encourage executives to work together like never before. Pull back the tent flaps and Cisco citizens are blogging, vlogging, and vitualizing, using social-networking tools that they’ve made themselves and that, in many cases, far exceed the capabilities of the commercially available wikis, YouTubes, and Facebooks created by the kids up the road in Palo Alto.

The bumpy part – and the eye-opener – is that the leaders of business units formerly competing for power and resources now share responsibility for one another’s success. What used to be “me” is now “we.”

Cisco is moving from “me” to “we.” What about your district? Your school? Your classroom?

An avowed Republican (and a cochair of John McCain’s presidential campaign), Chambers politely ignored my observation that Cisco’s new regimen feels a bit like a socialist revolution. But Chambers did kick off the analyst conference with a slide that read, COLLABORATION: “CO-LABOR”; WORKING TOWARD A COMMON GOAL. In language and spirit, Chamber’s transformation is a mashup of radical isms and collectivist catchphrases. Of course, with analysts suggesting that the “collaboration marketplace” could be a $34 billion opportunity, it’s radicalism of a reassuringly capitalist bent.

Cisco is emphasizing working toward a common goal and developing the collaboration marketplace. In your last staff meeting did you discuss a collaboration learning-place, or did you discuss moving borderline students up to the next cut score?

Trust and openness are words you hear a lot in the endlessly optimistic world of Web 2.0, but at Cisco, it seems to be more than a PowerPoint mantra, even to my jaundiced eye. As Mitchell and I settle down to our conversation in an open space not 25 feet from Chamber’s office, I can hear the CEO chatting on the phone with customers. Mitchell, who is charged with encouraging the company’s rank and file to adopt new technology, is undistracted. “We want a culture where it is unacceptable not to share what you know,” he says.

Cisco wants its employees to share. And share some more. It’s unacceptable not to. How much opportunity do you give your staff to share? Your students? Is it an expectation that they share? Or are they punished if they share?

So he promotes all kinds of social networking at Cisco: You can write a blog, upload a video, and tag your myriad strengths in the Facebook-style internal directory. “Everybody is an author now,” he laughs. Blog posts are voted up based on their helpfulness. There are blogs about blogging and classes about holding classes – all gauged to make it easy for less-engaged employees to get with the program.

Cisco provides resources and training opportunities so that less-engaged employees can “get with the program.” What is your school – or district – providing?

So that Facebook-style directory at Cisco serves not just as a way to make lunch plans or find a second baseman for a softball game. It is a real-world, real-time sorting apparatus, designed to help anyone inside the company easily find the answer to a question, a product demo, or precisely the right warm body to speak to a waiting customer or present at a conference – in any language, anywhere around the globe.

Sounds a lot like what GE is doing, as I blogged about previously. So GE and Cisco are embracing social networking, is your school? Are you?

Most of the videos are short product reports, sales ideas, and engineering updates, all created deskside and published directly to the network with the click of a mouse. No filter, no lawyers. It is a petri dish for ideas and exchange.

Cisco is open, no filters, no lawyers, in order to foster the creation and exchange of ideas. Compare that to your school. How open is your school? Your classroom?

“Collaboration this way helps a world community solve big problems,” says vice president Jim Grubb, Chamber’s longtime product-demo sidekick. “If we can accelerate the productivity of scientists who are working on the next solar technology because we’re hooking them together, we’re doing a great thing for the world.”

Cisco believes that seamlessly connecting people to others fosters innovation, problem solving, and productivity. What have you done to foster seamless connectivity for your teachers? Your students?

Executives are now compensated on how well the collective businesses perform, not their own individual product units. (Playing well with others is also an increasingly important part of rank-and-file employees’ performance reviews.) . . . Without buy-in or even permission from Chambers, they brought in 15 people with relevant skills – turning down an invitation to collaborate is not an option – and built a product called StadiumVision . . . A multimillion-dollar business came together in less than 120 days.

Cisco believes in empowering their employees and measuring their performance at least partially based on their collaborative abilities, and refusing to collaborate is not an option. What portion of your assessment program evaluates collaborative abilities?

---

So, if you’re an administrator, what are you doing to foster collaboration among your staff, and especially your teachers? And I’m talking more than just PLC’s, although that’s not a bad start. What are you really doing to fundamentally change the structure of your school(s) from one of isolation (close the door and teach), to one of sharing and collaboration (knock down the walls)? Is it unacceptable to share in your institution?

If you’re a teacher, what are you doing to foster collaboration among your students? And I’m talking more than putting them into groups of four and having the students create a PowerPoint presentation together. What are you really doing to fundamentally change the structure of your classroom from one of isolation (do your own work), to one of collaboration (work with others)? What are you doing to build their skills to succeed in a corporate environment that requires them to collaborate on a global scale?

If you're a student, what are you doing to improve your own collaboration skills - and those of your peers? What are you demanding of your schools, your teachers, your administrators to help prepare you for the collaborative marketplace that is your future?

Mr. Chambers: Are you listening?
You: ?