I have always been a big picture kind of learner. If I had a picture of where I was supposed to go, I had a reason to learn the various parts I needed to know in order to get there. Once I got there, I would try to figure out if that was the place I wanted to be, or if I could make it a better place. Once I understood what I needed to do as an educator, I worked to put all of the components in place. When I finally got there, it was not all I believed that I was promised, so I worked to make it better.
My education career started in the early 70”s, so the sources I had to work with back then were limited. My collegial support group was about eleven other English teachers. Stretching my teaching experience was limited to what I was allowed to do within the building, in which I taught. I later found that those limitations varied from building to building depending on the leadership and culture of each school. My development as a teacher was limited to the small amount of professional development offered by the district, and whatever courses I could afford to pay for on my own. I discovered, totally by chance, the power of education conferences. My department was told to send one teacher to a statewide reading conference. No one wanted to go and I was the most junior teacher in the department. The choice was simple.
The conference was not unlike conferences today, minus the tech stuff. The overhead projector was the primary presentation tool. What grabbed me the most was the exchange of ideas among the participants, as the presenters led them through sessions. It was mostly “sit and get”, but there were spontaneous gatherings in hallways and dining tables. I was being exposed to ideas not discussed in our department meetings, because our department’s isolation from these ideas prevented us from their consideration. Of course the intent in sending me to the conference was to use me as an emissary to connect my colleagues to the ideas presented at the conference. Of course I was quite able to convey the words, but not the experience.
A key factor in changing what we do is the ability to reflect on what it is that we are doing. To improve that reflection, it is most helpful to know about alternate considerations. What are some choices? What perspective do others have on the same subject? What has worked and what has failed? Are there totally new ideas or methodologies that are being used in education that can replace the old ones? All of these questions come to mind if one has a mindset for continuously learning and improving within the profession. The 70’s were not kind to people of that mindset because the answers to too many of these questions were too hard to find. Collaboration was limited, difficult, time-consuming, and expensive.
Forty plus years later the world looks very different. Technology, which has always been a driving force in America, has advanced to a point where collaboration is easy, affordable, global, and almost ubiquitous in our culture. The very things that slowed change in the 70’s have been eliminated. Collaboration, always a great source of learning has moved up the ladder of learning to get beyond the limitations of just face-to-face experience.
In a recent Twitter exchange with two educators I greatly respect, Dean Shareski, @Shareski, and Bud Hunt, @Budtheteacher they expressed a concern that it would be better to teach students reflection than it would be to promote connectedness. I think when it comes to students I would agree. When it comes to adult learners however, I think that exposure to other ideas through collaboration stimulates reflection. I consider that a key element to this whole connected educator mindset we talk so much about.
After my own reflection on the subject, I see connectedness for educators as an accelerant for reflection. It promotes self-reflection, as well as reflection on education as a system for learning. It also stimulates reflection on the pedagogy and methodology within that education system. The whole idea of connectedness relies on the hope that educators are reflective. If they are not reflective, or lack the vision of the big picture of being connected, then we could have Connected Educator Month, every month for the next twenty years and never affect any change in the system.
Reflection is key to a collaborative mindset. The more we discuss this with our unconnected colleagues the faster we can connect more educators. If we reflected on our need for change and felt that change was not needed in what we do as educators, there would be no need to collaborate and we would continue with the status quo. Although there might be a few educators thinking along those lines, I believe most see a need for, at the very least, some change in what we do and how we do it. The more reflective we are about this, the more we will seek to expand that reflection with guidance, experience, support, validation, sources, and colleagues through the collaboration provided by our connectedness. I see them as separate entities that support each other. The more we collaborate, the more we reflect. The more we reflect, the more we need to collaborate. Being connected, for me, has expanded both my collaboration and my reflection. My goal is to get others to do that as well. Using technology to connect more educators with a reflective and collaborative mindset is the best hope for an education system in need of change.
Tom, what appreciate most about this post is the correlation between reflection and collaboration. I am a firm believer that this loop as an essential part of improvement, both individually and for groups of people. Best of all, the more we invest in facilitating what is accomllished in this loop, through modeling and through creating opportunities for it to happen, the more students will benefit. While I do not disagree, as a fellow connected educator that there is immeasurable value in digital connectedness (can’t wait to read your book, by the way), creating opportunities for others to experience this can and should come in varied forms – face to face, in individual and in group settings, and through digital simulations such as Today’s Meet or Twitter, for example, as well as through the use of other tools. The more we model, support, and encourage others in the use of tools that will add efficiencies and “make their lives easier/better”, the more apt the otherwise reluctant tech-person may see the value in such tools. The bottom line? A reflective educator is someone who wants to do/be better for others. And it’s our role to create and nurture the climate that supports that culture of learning. Thanks for sharing this pos, Tom!
Dennis Schug @djrschug
Your blogs are always so insightful. I look forward to them. I firmly believe that I reflect on my practice constantly. If I am reflective educator, does the fact that I’m not blogging, keeping a journal, or videotaping myself, make me less reflective?
Tom,
As always you put into clear words ideas that resonate highly with me. Personally I have found the greater collaboration that technology fosters today, along with the movement of the unconference model, has made me a much more reflective educator. Having taught in a variety of settings, I have seen how mindsets stagnate for there is no one or nothing to push forward or to put thinking outside the box. For new people who enter those spaces with goals to build change, most often they are just molded to the existing mindset. This can’t happen in the space of global collaboration today…no one is in charge of the mindset except ourselves, which forces continuous reflection and consideration of the ideas being discussed.
Thank you for being such an amazing voice for education.
This post is a trip down memory lane. I, too, am a product of teaching initially in the seventies. I have always had a fascination with the newest, latest, and greatest technology items. I remember the vis a vis colored markers that constantly left stains on my hands after lesson presentations. I think part of the hesitancy to some is jettisoning the mindset that stereotypically exists about teachers collaborating and asking for help. In the early part of my career, asking for help was potentially seen as a sign of insecurity at best; incompetency at worst. Now, I make most decisions after careful consideration of a variety of opinions and expertise, I reflect at the end of each day and vow to change those ideas, strategies, etc. that did not reach expectations. By doing so, I hope my teaching becomes more relevant and authentic. I enjoy collaborating: I enjoy connecting. Thanks for the chance to once again validate the importance of both!
Tom, your post came at perfect timing for me. I like how you connected reflection and connection, and your suggestion to discuss reflection with unconnected colleagues is what I needed to hear. I wrote a recent blog post about a colleague who chooses not to connect via social media. While I don’t think he’s any less reflective as an educator, I think that he would surprise himself on how much he would grow because of his collaboration outside our four school walls. I will begin the conversations with him (and others) about reflection instead of connection.
Thanks for your post!
Jennifer
I agree, Tom, that connection/collaboration and reflection go hand in hand, and educators benefit from both. The connection allows us to widen perspectives, and if this is online it allows us to do so outside our own limited edu-contexts.
I think our best learning as educators comes when we are connected and reflective, challenged and supported, working with independence and interdependence, as individual parts and part of a whole (Garmston and Wellman’s notion of ‘holonomy’ really resonates).
This week I wrote (with a link to one of your recent posts) about how for me being connected is really about being a learner: http://theeduflaneuse.wordpress.com/2014/10/11/the-connected-learner/ .
And there’s a bit on holonomy here: http://theeduflaneuse.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/school-change-ideas/
One of my favourite quotes on this topic discusses from Clive Thompson discussing how being connected makes us think deeper (obviously pushing reflections”:
“Anyone can win an argument inside their head. But when you face an audience you have to be truly convincing.” (Paraphrased)
What I have been thinking about recently is that maybe our concerns of what others might think when we share openly, might actually shape our thinking? I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but it is a “thing” for sure.
I appreciate your open learning.
[…] I have always been a big picture kind of learner. If I had a picture of where I was supposed to go, I had a reason to learn the various parts I needed to know in order to get there. Once I got ther… […]
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Hello Tom, intentional or otherwise, I appreciate how you are modeling the very concepts you are explaining. Blogging supports connection through transparent reflection so effectively! What if…?