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To Be Better Teachers, We Need To Be Better Learners.

Posted in Administrator, Blog, conference, EdChat, Education, ISTE, Leadership, Literacy, Mentoring, Ning, PLN, Reform, Skills, Social Media, Teacher, Teched, Technology, Thought Provoking, Truth, Twitter, unconference on December 7, 2010| 22 Comments »

This past weekend I attended an unconference in New York City called EdcampNYC. For those unfamiliar with the term, an unconference is a very informal conference of volunteer speakers talking in small groups about areas in which that they may have some expertise. It enables the classroom teacher to be exposed to other educators who may be doing things differently or employing different tools to help kids learn. These unconferences are beginning to spring up all over the country. Participants in each group have the ability to leave any session at any time and join another. The speakers are volunteers and the conference is Free.

I attended this unconference to volunteer what I have learned about developing and maintaining a Personal Learning Network, a PLN. I was a bit hesitant at first thinking to myself that this is a subject which has been beaten to death on Twitter and in Blogs, so why would anyone have an interest. I have come to realize however, that it is my very involvement in Twitter, Linkedin, Delicious, Diigo, Ning, Skype, Webinars, and all of the other components of my PLN that set me apart from a majority of educators, who are not involved with learning through technology. My connection with like-minded educators has insulated me from the fact that most educators are not so involved. I think it is safe to say that when it comes to 21^st century skills, many educators don’t know what they don’t know. If technology skills for media literacy require more than just awareness, many of our educators would probably be considered illiterate.

Education, as an institution, seems, to me, to be quite conservative and not quickly accepting of change. The problem with that is that change today is profoundly affected by technology. Whereas, the institution of education limits change, technology turns it loose or even speeds it up exponentially. As a result, technology is creating tools for Information gathering, communication, collaboration, and creation at a much faster rate than the educators can absorb. The very skills educators strive to teach are not being utilized in ways that they were originally intended. Publishing is no longer a process of trying for acceptance from a publisher; it is instantaneous. Access to information is instantaneous and always at hand. Because of this fast paced media-frenzied society, we now have a greater need for reflection and critical thinking.

In this technologically based, information-driven society, how do educators keep pace with what they need to know? How do educators remain relevant? Do they even understand the need to do so? Is the professional development offered in schools meeting the need? Is it acceptable to teach using 19^th Century methods with 20^th Century tools to prepare kids for their 21^st Century even after we have gobbled up that Century’s first decade?

I earned a Master’s degree in Educational Technology back in the late 80’s. Back then, I was a state-of-the-art educator. I did not however, work in a state-of-the-art-School. I did not have access to state-of-the-art tools. I did not have state-of-the-art colleagues. I did however have a belief in the concept of teaching with technology, and I searched for ways to do it. Back then it was all a matter of money and training, both difficult to come by. Today WEB2.0 tools are readily available and most are free or inexpensive. Training now comes in the form of free tutorials, webinars, or conferences delivered to a computer in an environment of choice. Usually, I choose my Den.

In a society that now goes to the internet to search for products, restaurants, celebrity news, weather, news, companionship, or any of the other hundreds of things we use it for; why not use it for information about our profession? What is holding Educators back? It is not a generational thing. Many educators that I connect with every day are in their 60’s as am I. It is not an intellectual thing many people, as clueless as I, have learned from technology. It is not an access thing. Libraries offer tech access to anyone. It’s not a device thing. More and more smart phones, Ipods or Ipads are available each day. They are connected computers. As a matter of fact mobile devices are the primary source for accessing the internet, surpassing desktop computers.

Educators need to get over their fears and give up on this resistance to technology. We need to support more unconferences and the movement that drives them. We need to teach Educators how to know what they don’t know, and learn it. We need them to buy into the concepts and adapt to the tools, for the tools will continually change and develop. We need to connect teachers through their own Personal Learning Networks using social media for professional Development. Collaboration outside of our classrooms will take us beyond our personal limitations and allow us to learn continually and globally. As an added advantage, we will also be able to take our students with us.

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Who needs Relevance and Literacy?

Posted in Administrator, Blog, conference, EdChat, Education, ISTE, Literacy, Ning, PLN, Reform, Skills, Social Media, Teacher, Teched, Technology, Thought Provoking, Twitter on November 11, 2010| 8 Comments »

Relevance enables professionals to rise above mediocrity. When I go to a professional for advice or service I have certain expectations. If I go to a Doctor I expect that person would be up to date on the latest procedures in their specific area of medicine. If I go to a lawyer, I expect that person is up to date on all of the recent laws that will affect my issue. If I go to an architect, I expect that person is up to date on all of the building codes, new materials and latest methods of construction. If I go to an accountant I expect that person to be up to date on the latest tax implications that will affect my investments.

There are several ways that professionals can keep up with the details of their professions. They may read journals; they may attend workshops; they may network at conferences; they may join and network in professional groups; they may attend lectures; they may give lectures; they may write articles, and some may even choose to write blogs. All of these efforts are taken and are continued long after a degree is earned and a license is secured for that professional’s position. Any profession that relies on ever-changing information must keep up with those changes in order to be effective. I think of this as professional relevance. However, not all professionals employ these methods to maintain relevance. Some professionals see the degree and the license as the means to secure a position and that becomes the final goal. All of the learning and work involved by some professionals was for the sole purpose of attaining that position, and now, with that position secured, the learning and work can ease-up. Taking the easy and comfortable path of non-involvement leads to being mediocre and irrelevant in competitive professions. Of course this is a generality, and there are exceptions.

Literacy has come to mean more than just the ability to read and write. Living on an island I often go to the ocean for metaphors. Watching the ocean every day, one learns how to read it. In order to engage the ocean in some way, one needs to read the conditions to determine how to participate. Body surfing is always a first option, but beyond that choice, there is boogey boarding, skim boarding, surf-boarding, kayaking, or just swimming. Each choice requires different conditions and success depends on the ability to correctly interpret that information. I guess this might be considered ocean literacy. Information about ocean conditions changes on a minute-to-minute basis, so an ocean-literate person must assess and reassess the conditions continually in order to maximize the experience, as well as avoid dangers.

Since Gutenberg evolved information from the scrolls and manuscripts of the dark ages to the media of mass-produced, printed text, the introduction of the digital age has taken us further in information delivery. Accessing, analyzing, understanding, creating and communicating information using the tools of our digital age has become the 21^st century literacy. A major drawback to this new literacy is that the tools, or apps (applications) that deliver the information keep evolving, or changing altogether. This requires that in order to stay literate people need to stay relevant.

Now, you may ask, when is he going to mention teachers or education? That takes me to a tweet that I sent out this week. During a recent #Edchat discussion on Twitter, we discussed if class blogs, student blogs, or even teacher blogs have a place in our education system. For those of you who are unaware, #Edchat is a weekly discussion on Twitter which spotlights different topics concerning education, or educators. The discussion was quite informative as many offered their opinions based on personal experiences with blogging in education. I tweeted out something to the effect that it was unfortunate that we could not share this discussion with more educators. When I consider the thousands of educators that I am in direct contact with through social media, I understand that it is only a tiny fractional percentage of all of the educators in the world today. Why are not more educators involved?

I am not saying that all educators need to involve themselves with #Edchat. It is not for everyone, and as all social media tools, its time will pass as it is replaced by some other digital delivery system. That is the nature of using technology. The bigger picture however, is educators’ involvement with any social media as a means to be relevant using the tools of 21^st Century, literacy tools.

More important than teaching content is the task of using content to teach learning. The content of those scrolls and manuscripts may still be relevant today, but we do not get that content by unrolling the fragile scrolls and allowing students to approach one at a time to read them. For year’s we counted on the Gutenberg method, using printed text in textbooks. Today and tomorrow however, the new literacy will depend on additional tools. Tools of a digital world will be used more and more to deliver content. Take note of all of the businesses and media programming tagging their ads with Social media icons of Facebook, google and Twitter to contact for added information. Take note of all of the print media icons that have gone away, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report. Blogs are replacing printed media.

As professional educators we do not heal illnesses, advise on the laws, provide blueprints, or arrange investments. We teach others how to learn the very skills needed to accomplish those things in their chosen professions. Professional educators model and teach lifelong learning. How do we as educators stay relevant and literate? Are we reading Blogs, engaging in collaboration with other educators through Social Media,and teaching with tools that our students will need to use in order to be relevant in their world? Or,are we as educators saying to Gutenberg, I like the feel and smell of scrolls and manuscripts, it gives me comfort, so I will stick with them.

This Link from the Educator’s PLN provides a Prezi presentation by Joshua Coupal connecting Bloom’s Taxonomy in Digital terms to combine Relevance and media Literacy in Education: http://edupln.com/video/blooms-digital-taxonomy-prezi

Your comments are welcome.

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The Educator’s PLN

Posted in Administrator, conference, EdChat, Education, Leadership, Ning, PLN, Pre-Service teachers, Reform, Social Media, Teacher, Teched, Technology, Thought Provoking, Twitter on October 1, 2010| 5 Comments »

As the creator of the Educator’s PLN Ning site, I can admit on this post, that the EDU PLN was never a planned destination, but more of an afterthought. My original plan was a result of a need that I had for my undergraduate methods students. At the time, I was a novice in the world of social media. I understood the concept of a Personal Learning Network, but still had not found an efficient way to build it up. Linkedin was very rich with professionals, but it was a slow and cumbersome process. I spent a great deal of time cultivating connections with little return of real information for my efforts. I had created successful Education Groups in Linkedin which eventually led me to engaging people on Twitter.

My experience with Twitter was not unlike many others. I did not get it at first. When I finally got the concept, that who you follow is the driving force of Twitter as a tool for developing a PLN, I maximized that idea with Linkedin. I went to my contacts and Educational Groups and gathered the twitter names of any educators who then used Twitter. My follow list grew quickly and it was with all the right people, educators. There were now two components to my PLN Linkedin and Twitter.

My purpose in all of this was to be able to supply my methods students with the most relevant methods being used in education from people who actually practiced those methods. This was a simple plan with complex results. It worked too well, which became a problem. Twitter, with the right people being followed, is rich with sources. I began to get link upon link of great educational information ranging from tidbits to websites. For my own sanity I learned about digital bookmarking. I used an application called Delicious to begin bookmarking all of this information as I gathered it. This app, Delicious, became yet another element of my developing PLN.

My problem, as I assessed it, was clear yet complicated. I had great information in a multitude of forms. These were immediately usable links for any educator to apply to his or her class. There were solutions, applications, videos, discussions, webinars, podcasts, and websites for the taking. The problem was that my methods students were not yet prepared to even know what they were looking at, let alone have a place to apply it. I attempted to pass links along to them through emails sent almost daily. This was best compared to the old standby metaphor of filling a glass of water with a fire hose. It was too much too fast. I needed a depository to place all this great educational stuff until my students were equipped to handle it. I needed a place that they could access it on an individual basis whenever they had a need.

My college had Blackboard available to us, but I wanted to model something that my students could use in any place that they were hired. Most Public schools do not have Blackboard since it needs to be purchased. Ning seemed to be the best solution. At the time it was free, and, because it was an intuitive application, an introduction and tour was all the training needed to use it. I could make it a private site and provide a safety net for my students to train them before their foray into the big bad world of Social Media. I created the site and called it Methods Matters. It was slowly accepted by students skeptical of technology, and wondering what any of this had to do with teaching. In a short period of time they got it. It became a focal point for their PLN’s which I now began to require them to have. Yes, I require Twitter, Ning and Delicious as a minimum for Personal Learning Networks for my students. Most go beyond the minimum requirements.

With that as the Background I can now move on to the story of The Educator’s PLN. As I engaged more and more educators on my PLN, I discovered many similarities in attitudes and experiences of educators compared to my students. The light bulb lit the room. I could do the same for the people in Education. I could link up people who have a need for relevant educational information. Together, we could deposit information until people were ready to access it. Beyond the information it also provided access to educators worldwide for further and fuller connections. This site provides a rich connection using Social Media. The Educator’s PLN is not a PLN in itself, but rather a source for sources for any educator to access in building or improving his or her own Personal Learning Network. As of this post the Educator’s PLN has a global membership of 5,565 educators, 351 educational videos, 70 Groups, 219 discussions, and 257 blog posts.

I am a firm believer in using Social Media to advance professional development for educators. I also believe that social media will be a driving force in advocating and enabling much-needed educational reform. The details of the development of my PLN are described in a five-part post, The PLN Blueprint. I also quite often write about the PLN development on my Blog, MyIslandView.

This post first appeared as a guest blogger’s post for my friend Jason Bedell.

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A Modest Blog Proposal

Posted in Administrator, Blog, conference, EdChat, Education, Leadership, Reform, Social Media, Teacher, Thought Provoking, Truth, Twitter, unconference on September 22, 2010| 53 Comments »

I have really grown tired of the teacher-bashing that is currently being carried out by politicians and media outlets. Teachers are not the cause for educational reform. They are however, the means we need to enact the reform. Teachers often offer positive education reform suggestions with less of an audience than popular media. Since education is their profession, one would think that these suggestions come from experience and training. Those are two elements that are often not evident in many of today’s Education Reform contributors.

I read great suggestions for reform from educational Bloggers on a daily basis. I would like to focus that voice. My suggestion is to have as many educational bloggers who wish to participate, do a Post for positive educational reform on one day. Individual contributions could be a single idea or a range of ideas in an overall plan. There are no limitations on the ideas.

My plan is to have all of these Blog posts come out on the same day. I would have the links to the Blog sites posted on a Wallwisher page with the Post title and the link. We could drive people to the Wallwisher site for a large group link recommendation, as well as the usual twitter link recommendations for individual links.

I have chosen Sunday October 17^th as the day for this effort. It is a Sunday, so the week should be filled with great suggestions being bounced around schools for the entire week. It will give us time to develop ideas and promote the Day. Any individual, who wants to participate, but doesn’t have a blog, may place their post on the Educator’s PLN Blog Page. We could call it Reforms from Educational Bloggers Links of Educational Suggestions, REBELS Day

That is my Plan and I have yet to etch it into the granite slab now on my desk. It would be a great time for your suggestions or refinements.

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Twitter’s Achilles Heel

Posted in EdChat, Education, Reform, Social Media, Teched, Technology, Thought Provoking, Truth on September 18, 2010| 41 Comments »

Although there are many who think I was an actual witness to the event, I was not there when Achilles’ mother, Thetis, tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx. In holding him by the heel she failed to make him totally immortal. The term Achilles Heel has come to mean a place where something or someone is vulnerable to attack of serious consequence.

Moving from the mythological world to the digital world of the 21^st Century, we may be able to link the two in regard to Twitter. Educators familiar with Twitter and who use it as a means of sources and collaboration may have personally experienced a similar act, as I cite this example to support my point.

For those of you less familiar with Twitter, it is a place where educators may make statements or pass on information in the form of short URL links to other educators. This is probably an oversimplified explanation, but it should establish an understanding. If a person Tweets out a thought (limited to 140 Characters) it travels out to anyone who is following that person. If a follower finds value in that tweet, they may pass it on to their followers in the form of a Re-Tweet (RT).

The RT credits the original sender for the idea or link. The person who RT’s the Tweet may need to abbreviate the original if it exceeds 140 characters. It is understood however, that the intent of the original idea is to be kept intact. Many tweeters comment on an RT, but it is usually clear that the comment is separated from the original tweet or idea. Usually, it is an acknowledgement of agreement to the idea. If there is strong disagreement then the tweeter will usually put out a new, original tweet expressing a different point of view. This has always been my understanding of the process and it is how I explain it to others when I am in the position to do so.

In that context I now offer my experience on Twitter yesterday. As I looked over my TweetDeck column of all of the tweets that mention me, I came across a tweet resembling one of mine that was RTed. It credited me with an idea that I supposedly tweeted. The problem that I had with it, and the thing that brought about a 20 second tirade of screen-screaming, was that I never tweeted what this person said I did. This person was rewording my original tweet with his/her viewpoint and crediting me as saying it. When I pointed out to this tweeter that I never said what he/she was crediting me with, I received a few replies. I was told that everyone comments on Tweets in RT’s and that there are no Rules on Twitter. I would imagine some other educators on Twitter may have had similar experiences.

It is true that there are no rules on Twitter. It is true that comments are made on RT’s. It is also true that people do not bastardize other’s tweets for their own purpose, or to serve their agenda. There are however, certain rules of civilized society that should govern conversation or discourse on Twitter. We have to assume that Twitter participants are people of integrity who do not distort the truth. We need to assume that we are respectful of others and their ideas, even if we disagree. We need to believe that people make every effort to be accurate in their attempt to share information. We need to believe that our passions for a topic or idea will not allow us to disrespect others with opposing points of view. Those same opposing points of view are what force our reflections to strengthen or change our views on that same subject.

If we are to expose ourselves as educators to the world on Social Media, we need to remember we are professionals dealing with ideas and learning. We need to model our respect for these things. Even in the passion of discourse, we cannot stoop to name-calling or petty bickering. We need to be truthful and honest. We can be passionate about the subject and still have integrity and show respect for others even in disagreement.

Yes it is true, Twitter has no rules. We, as educators however, have guidelines which we need to live by in order to model for others. I am sure that this person who distorted my tweet believed he/she had every right to do so, because Twitter has no rules. We must rise above that thinking however, if we are to trust others in what we have developed as our Personal Learning Network. Like the students who we teach, we need a safe and comfortable learning environment that we can trust. Let us not allow anyone’s lack of ethics be our Twitter Achilles Heel.

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Short Term Learner

Posted in Administrator, EdChat, Education, Filtering, Leadership, Ning, PLN, Reform, Skills, Social Media, Teacher, Teched, Technology, Thought Provoking, Twitter on September 8, 2010| 7 Comments »

Personal Learning Networks have taken up a great deal of my time of late, about the last two years. I have always had a PLN although it was never called that. The digital slant, of what before this, might have been called a group of study buddies, has caused a re-examination by educators on a global scale. Instead of being limited to a small group of educators comparing notes or lessons in a building, a PLN can now draw upon literally thousands of educators, worldwide, at any given time. Study buddies without the boundaries of time or space, very Star-Trekkie. Educators can even Skype anywhere in the world for the ultimate video connection. It is no flying car, but the video phone was predicted at the ’64 World’s Fair. I remember. I was there. Belgian Waffles were great.

The key to developing my Personal Learning Network had nothing to do with me being a digital Native, because I am not. My motivation to learn comes from somewhere within. I enjoy taking my own route to get to a goal that I set for myself. I think the term Lifelong Learner applies to me. The thing that makes the learning fun and easy for me is the technology. I am not always comfortable with it, but I do not fear it. I only say that because the reasons I am most often given by others for educators not embracing technology is that educators are fearful of it, or they are not comfortable with it.

Learning is not a passive activity. One cannot place a tape recorder (old tech term) under a pillow at night and wake up with the knowledge in the morning. I have personally researched this. Additionally, one can’t join a Personal Learning Network. If it is to be of value, it needs to be built by the individual who owns it. This requires a commitment of time, but not so much energy, except for the exercising of the mind. When one engages a Digital PLN, it will involve receiving a great deal of information in the form of links. Each link is a hot button. It is a click to: a website, a blog post, a video, an article, a webcast, a podcast, or a picture. I imagine without the technology, one would read books, Journals, articles, videotapes, DVR’s and talk to people face to face. That would be a very early 20^th century PLN, but still doable today for a while longer anyway.

It takes a lifelong learner’s commitment to a PLN to reap the benefits and apply it to teaching. This should be no problem for educators because they all teach kids to be Lifelong Learners. If you don’t believe me ask a teacher. Better yet, look at the school’s Mission Statement; it probably addresses the school’s dedication to lifelong learning. The problem is that too often that only applies to the kids and not the staff. Lifelong learning is too much a case of do as I say, and not as I do. Too many educators subscribe to the theory that once the degree is secured, and the teaching license in hand, the goal is reached, and now the coasting begins. Maybe some courses to meet requirements will be taken. Certainly, courses for pay raises would be needed, but those are but small bumps in the road. I know, not everyone is like this. However, we are in a profession that is in a fishbowl and under attack. We cannot afford to have any individuals representing us with this mindset. These folks are not the majority but this minority has an ability to influence others to the dark side. We cannot have this jeopardizing our profession.

Most educators are collaborative and nurturing individuals. That is their strength. We use those qualities with our students. We need to apply them to our colleagues. All information does not stop evolving once we get our teaching job. We need to stay relevant. In a world with a technology rich environment it is fool hearty for educators to think they still have a choice about using technology as a tool in education. We are teaching kids who will be affected by more technology than we have today. They will have jobs that are not yet in existence. Their skills will require the use of technology.

Educators teach skills and encourage children to learn. A good teacher can do that without technology, but why? Technology is but a tool for educators and students to use. The skills remain the same no matter what the tool. Teachers do not need to be technology experts to allow students to use it to retrieve information, collaborate, create, and communicate. That is what will be required of them in their world. While educators debate and control technology as a tool, business and industry are embracing it. Technology continues to advance and many educators are not even familiar with what possibilities are available. If technology requires a new form of literacy, many of our educators are illiterate.

A PLN allows people to explore and collaborate on whatever it is they determine as a need to know. A PLN is not exclusive to educators. They can have: Boat builders connected to boat builders, doctors connected to doctors, educators connected to educators, learners connected to learners. People can choose their direction and go down that road as far as they need to go. A PLN enables a person to control her or his learning. A PLN is a digital tool for learning. We can use it to model the very thing that we strive to teach our students. A PLN is not learned, as much as experienced. A PLN enables us to continue our path to Lifelong Learning.

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Lack of Discipline

Posted in Administrator, Banning, Child Predator, EdChat, Education, Filtering, Leadership, Reform, Social Media, Teacher, Teched, Technology, Thought Provoking on August 21, 2010| 11 Comments »

Based on my experience and observations I have learned one or two things about discipline policies in schools. First, an effective discipline policy is often not mentioned by staff members because it is a non-issue. An ineffective discipline policy can dominate the complaints and become a demoralizing factor with any staff. It also does not serve as a model for students to understand that there are consequences for poor decisions.

The effectiveness of any discipline policy will rely on the person in charge of enforcing it. This is often put down as the function of the principal or, on the secondary level, an assistant principal. The enforcement or interpretation of the policy by that person goes a long way in making the policy effective or not. For that reason many schools have spelled out the possible infractions, as well as the escalating consequences for repeat offenses. This limits interpretation making it fair for all offenders. It also limits the pleading parents pointing out the Johnny did the same thing and received no punishment, and asking,”Why are you persecuting my child and letting Johnny go Scott-free?”

Until recently, most offenses were familiar to administrators. There were enough repetitive offenses to examine, catalog, and even predict things that kids would do, which would require consequences. Armed with such a list the best course of action would be to: list them out, assign consequences, develop a repeat offense clause with escalating consequences, publish the Discipline Policy, read it to all students, and finally send a copy to the parents, getting a signature indicating their understanding of the policy. All of that being done, all is right with the world or at least the world of school.

The Fly in the ointment; Technology has now arrived on the scene. It brings unpredicted behavior. It is wrapped in myths and misconceptions. The reality for administrators is that perception is reality for teachers and parents. If teachers and parents buy the myths than the administrator often bases the discipline policy on those perceptions, or misconceptions. This accounts for the development of other policies: Internet safety, Cyber-bullying, Banning the Internet, and Banning cell phones.

I am in not in any way minimizing the dangers of the internet. There is danger in the lack of understanding and in the misuse and abuse of any technology. But these issues cannot be solely addressed in one discipline policy. They are as much a matter of teaching and learning as they are a matter of disciplinary action.

Cyber bullying is extremely devastating, but it is a modern form of Bullying. It does not have to be a separate policy. Bullying is something every district should be addressing as early as possible. Being a good citizen extends to the digital world. We need to teach kids to deal with those issues that they need to know for their world. When I was a kid the computers we had, took up a room and ordinary people had no access, but we had bullies. The way it was handled then was to teach self-defense and tell the kid to stand up to the bully and try to beat the crap out of him (bullies often thought to be males in those days).

The issue of Bullying was brought to the forefront of Education after the Columbine massacre. I do not know if it was Cyber bullying or the regular version that set that into motion. I do not know if the percentage of cyber bullying exceeds the percentage of everyday intimidation by non-digital bullies. My point is we need to address the concept of bullying in any form and not concentrate or address one form over another.

The new debate is the removal of the barriers of walls, time, and distance. Technology allows bullies to intimidate students in other buildings and after school hours. This is not an easy issue for many administrators to handle. For others it is as simple as any other bullying issue. The student’s safety and security in the learning environment are paramount. If a student is being bullied by someone face to face or digitally because of their contact within the learning environment it must be dealt with by the administrator. That is one of the many things they are suppose do.

Another issue is the banning of all cell phones because students text during class. To me it is another short-sighted policy which can easily be addressed in a discipline policy. First, I taught on the secondary level for 34 years and for every class during each of those years, I established rules for the classroom. If I was teaching that level today, I would address the proper use and etiquette of the Mobile Learning Devise in the classroom. I teach college now and the first question I would ask myself if I have a student texting during my class is “what am I not doing to engage this kid in learning? It would be on me initially. If it continues after my adjustments then a discipline policy should cover a continued infraction. I would never ask an administrator to enact a school-wide policy because I could not enforce rules in my class.

Finally, my soapbox issue, the banning of the internet because students may access inappropriate material is another knee-jerk policy. I have discussed this issue in many previous posts. In this post however, it is purely from a discipline point of view. It is my contention that we must educate our students about the internet from early on. They need to be taught what is appropriate and what is not. We need to teach them good digital citizenry and then we may hold them accountable. Appropriate use of technology should be a part of any discipline policy today. The rub comes in kids understanding of appropriate use. As it is now many kids get their internet experience “from the Streets” because we are not addressing it in the schools at age-appropriate times. We cannot hold them responsible for what we refuse to teach.

Of course there is also the perception that children will be lured from the schools and be molested by an internet lurking child predator. This has happened and there is no denying that. It is also probably one of the biggest fears parents have in regard to their children. When we look at the real numbers of child molestation however, we need to understand it is more likely (about 90% likely) that a child will be molested by a family member or a close family friend. Are we addressing this in schools? I think it is not possible to Ban families.

Without a safe and secure teaching environment we cannot expect the level of learning we need to happen the way we expect. It requires thought and consideration to address the real issues to protect and discipline kids. This is a topic close to the hearts of many educators, and as such I expect a great many comments. I also realize that one’s position in the system will affect the perspective on this issue. I expect administrators’ comments to be different from teachers’ comments. Have at it folks, or should I say, have at me!

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Native Reality

Posted in Banning, Education, Filtering, Leadership, PLN, Social Media, Teacher, Teched, Technology, Thought Provoking on August 16, 2010| 10 Comments »

My 34 years as a secondary English teacher, as a well as working as a professor of students studying to be secondary English teachers has given me a unique perspective on our educational system. I know what people are like in the system, and I know what people are like who are joining the system. As an observer, I do not see our young teachers entering the system as many are expecting them to be. I love my students. They are bright and enthusiastic and they know content, as all recently educated students should. They are not however, the rising wave of technology integrating educators expected by many to take our students and our system through the 21^st century. I often hear that, as the new crop of teachers enters the system, the older “burned-out” teachers will retire. This will allow the newer tech-savvy teachers to integrate technology into the system and all will be right with the world. What a crock that is.

Students entering college are a product of our secondary system. We are producing FaceBook-Savvy students with technology skills that amount to texting and downloading music. Those are not even skills learned in school, but mostly self-taught. Schools frown on texting, ban social media, and discourage listening to recorded music. When students arrive at colleges they are not all the Tech-savvy geeks that most people seem to think they are. They know more about some technologies than their parents, but what measure of mastery is that? Many of their professors are at best Power Point proficient or at least overhead experts. Obviously, this is not true of all college professors, but it may be true of more than most people would expect. Life-long learning is a goal to which many educators aspire for their students, but many do not model it in reality. It is more a case of do as I say, not as I do.

I to believed that youth was the answer to solving the slow movement of technology integration of education. With my involvement in Social Media I considered myself an exception. Considering my age and my awareness of technology beyond Power Point and Email, as well as my immersion in social Media I was way ahead of those other old folks. I was a believer and a supporter of the digital natives as opposed to the digital immigrants. The whole idea of digital natives and digital immigrants implied that the immigrants would die off (not literally) and the natives would take over the system. But alas, computers entered the system in the eighties and we are still talking about integrating Technology into education in 2010. (30 years, if you don’t have a calculator) When will the natives take over from the dying immigrants and save the system? It is not happening.

There are no natives or immigrants. There are only people who learn differently. Social Media has not arrived to change the world of education. I have two daughters who have grown up with Technology and are quite adept in its use. I often overlook the fact that my wife and I are educators who have always used technology and have modeled that for our girls for their lifetime. They are constantly using technology to learn. They are not typical, so that takes my personal family experience out of the mix of what one would expect from today’s students. Technology is not being modeled in schools. The internet is filtered for both students and teachers. Mobile learning devices are banned in many schools. Students are often not allowed use of their personal laptops in schools. Social Media is not taught as a tool for learning and collaboration, but addressed as a safety issue to be feared and avoided. This is not true in every school, but it is true in more schools than it should be.

We cannot wait for the digital natives to arrive and move the immigrants out of power to lead us into the future. There are no natives and immigrants, only learners. Some employ technology and some don’t. As Technology advances, as it inevitably does, the skills needed to learn and grow will need to be adapted. Teachers waiting for the new generation to take up that challenge will be disappointed. Using technology skills to learn, collaborate, communicate, and create are not in our biological makeup. If we are not teaching these skills, they do not happen. Today’s teachers need to be technology literate. They need not be experts, but at least they need to be aware of what will be required of their students insofar as technology skills required to compete in a technological society.
Please feel free to comment.

This is the video link that prompted this post. http://edupln.ning.com/video/nativeimmigrant-versus

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PLN Envy!

Posted in Administrator, Blog, Education, Leadership, Ning, PLN, Pre-Service teachers, Reform, Social Media, Teacher, Teched, Technology, Thought Provoking, Twitter on August 9, 2010| 12 Comments »

There seems to be a whole crop of Building a PLN “how to’s” popping up all over. This will be another to add to the collection. Since I have developed my Personal Learning Network over years however, I hope to provide some insights that newbies or analyzers of PLN’s might not have a clue about.

Before tech was ever involved I developed a PLN based on face to face contact. This was limited to the people who I worked with within my school building or district. I was able to expand the contacts from my local network when I attended Education conferences locally, regionally or occasionally nationally. I was fortunate to get to go to certain Education conferences, an experience not always afforded classroom teachers. I would always share my findings with others when I returned from conferences. Since I saw tech in education as a way to move education along, I was thought of as a “tech guy”. I was not. I was a teacher using tech as a tool to teach. I learned what I needed to know to accomplish that. I was always an English teacher first. Keeping up with tech was easier back in the day. Stuff actually lasted more than a year. There was time to experience and adjust to a tech tool before the next tool came out. Every new tool had to be researched before being accepted after long periods of consideration. The internet did not change that process, but it did offer us a chance to explore other websites put up by teachers and vendors. It informed us of things available for a price.

With the advent of Social Media the development of The Personal Learning Network really started to change in the look and feel of professional development. Web 2.0 tools also enabled a more rapid development. The only educators who noticed however, were those involved with Social Media, and that was not a large percentage of educators. It is a challenge to get educators to use technology, now the challenge is not only to use it, but additionally, to convince them of an educational purpose for Social Media.

I used email and list-serves early on for connecting with educators or topics to help me learn as a teacher. My first foray into Social Media was joining Linkedin. I found many EDU groups, but after joining and engaging people in these groups, I found that they did not completely meet my needs. I created my own groups to do that. I formed Linkedin groups for educators only. I kept out vendors, consultants, and curiosity seekers. I defined the discussions to be academically oriented. It worked. I have five educational Groups on Linkedin. The largest is over 1,700 members.

Linkedin was the first component of my technology-assisted PLN. It was not fast enough for me. The discussions were in depth and very helpful, but they took weeks to develop. Linkedin members visit their accounts less frequently than other venues. It was through Linkedin that I discovered Twitter. At first, I did not get it. I was following ten people and they were not always on the twitter stream, and they were socializing and not putting out educational links. I used my Linkedin connections to gather educators who used Twitter and this increased my people to follow. I concentrated on recruiting educators who engaged on Linkedin. I began expanding from there, concentrating on following educators who offered information. This accounted for the second component of my growing PLN. My Twitter component proved to be the best and fastest methods of gathering and sharing information.Adding to my 400 Linkedin connections Twitter now has 6,000 people following me.

There was now a stream of information coming to me on a daily basis from Linkedin and Twitter. The need to store and categorize all of this for future reference was now the primary goal. Two applications were suggested by my PLN, Delicious and Diigo. They offered many of the same bells and whistles, but I caught a conference where they did a workshop on Delicious, so my choice was made. I began bookmarking every website, video, application, podcast, webinar and article that came my way. I also began a network of people on my Delicious site since it too is a SM application. I accumulated over 400 sites on my own. My big “get” however is that I connected with 91 other educators giving me access to their bookmarks as well. Since we are all educators considering and saving good educational material, I now have access to 121,000 educational sites. This is now another component of my PLN. A search of a topic on Google may offer 5,000 websites on a subject. The same search on Delicious may yield 5 sites vetted and used by teachers. Saving time and gaining proven sites are two reasons to do delicious over Google.

As an educational professor I was able to provide all of this information to my students for their future use as teachers. My problem was that they were not ready for all of this at once. I needed to create a place to hold this stuff until they were ready to accept it. Beyond my current class, I also wanted my future students, of classes yet to be, to be able to access the same information. I investigated the world of Ning. It was not a mystical Asian fantasy world, but a collaborative community. I could store all of my Links and invite all of my students to join me in one location. It was a private site where we could collaborate in real-time as well as time shift. All the information that I was able to store, could be shared. This became another component of my PLN.

It was soon apparent that I needed to also create a site for all of the followers that I accumulated on my Twitter account as well as the connections from my Linkedin Account. I had a very strong feeling about sharing with the people who share with me. The idea of a PLN is a collegial relationship. It also underscores the fact that a PLN is not a passive endeavor,but one that must be actively pursued and maintained. One must work it to get value from it. All of this led to the development of another Ning, The Educator’s PLN. http://edupln.ning.com/ “The Educator’s PLN” is a source site for educators to access many sources, as well as new people, for their PLN”s. It is loaded with links, tutorials and videos, groups and blog posts dealing with education. In addition to the members to follow there are lists of educators to follow on twitter. These lists are fairly new and with one click, one can follow hundreds of valuable user-educators. This saves months of time compared to the old method of one person to follow at a time.This Ning site now has 5,000 collaborating educator-members.

Since many of the links people put out involve Blog posts it is easy to understand how many useful posts are repeated if they are deemed valuable. Educational Bloggers are quickly singled out and considered valuable sources. To get access to these Bloggers directly, I subscribed to their blog posts with Google reader. It delivers the latest posts directly to me. Another component of my PLN. By the way feel free to add my Blog to your Google reader.

This was the story of the development of my Personal Learning Network. It works for me. I developed it with tools I discovered and was comfortable with. It was on an as needed basis. There is no one place to go for a PLN. There is no Twitter PLN. There is no Linkedin PLN. There is no Ning PLN. Your PLN is built and developed and improved with various tech tools to extend your reach beyond the walls of your building.It is not about who has the biggest PLN. It comes with a price. People need to give information in order to get information from others. One can “Lurk and Learn” on the PLN until a comfort level is attained. The learning however, is deeper and quicker when one engages others in sharing and collaborating.

On a PLN people are accepted for their ideas and not their titles. One will often be asked to give an opinion. There are pitfalls. Some believe that they must always offer opinions, even if they don’t know enough about the subject to responsibly offer an opinion. Sometimes the answer must be, “I don’t know”. The other pitfall is to speak in 140 characters all of the time. The 140 limit forces one to be concise and to the point. The dark side is that some people begin to sound like a cross between a fortune cookie and Forrest Gump’s Mama.

Develop your PLN at your pace with whatever Tech you are comfortable with. Start with a social media tool to acquire information. Add a tool to save the information. Balance your time. At first the tendency is to spend a great deal of time. That pays off getting people to see you and recognize you. After things begin to happen, you will adjust the time on your PLN as needed. It is your PLN and your rules. You may add or drop people as you go. Strive to maintain those who offer quality information. Discard those who detract or distract from your goal of sharing and collaborating.

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What’s In A Name?

Posted in Administrator, EdChat, Education, Leadership, Ning, PLN, Reform, Social Media, Teacher, Teched, Technology, Thought Provoking, Twitter on July 26, 2010| 20 Comments »

Since my blog is a personal reflection page, my personal experiences generally guide its content. My experience last evening took me to a conversation about the title of my Ning site The Educator’s PLN. It was a drawn-out discussion on the choice of the word “The” in the title of the name that I created for the site. It is based on that conversation that I feel a need to at least describe my thoughts and understanding on the topic of Personal Learning Networks that led me to choosing the Title of my Ning site. If you haven’t clicked off of this post yet, I am grateful, because I would have. I find it hard to believe that something this simple would get anyone upset, let alone me.

If my house were burning down and I yelled to a crowd of onlookers, “CALL 911” there are several things I would not want to hear coming back. “What’s the Magic word?” and “What do you mean by the word CALL?”are two questions that come to mind. Some people need to argue for the sake of argument and not in an effort to acquire a clearer understanding. This is a quality probably better suited for a lawyer than an educator, but that is an argument that I will not pursue.

The point that I believe that these individuals attempted to register with me, was that the word “THE” suggested that this was the only place one could go to be part of THE PLN. If anyone else has that feeling, then I really screwed up in my choice of Title. My personal understanding of what a PLN is, may best explain my choice of words.

The fact that this label of “PLN” is fairly new to some and also unknown to many educators lends to the confusion. That combined with the number of similar labels referring to the same or very similar concepts further confuses things. We start with Personal Learning Network and then Professional Learning Network. We have the Personal Learning Environment and the Personal Learning Community. There are a number of variations which interchange the words Professional and Personal.

To attempt to clear things up a little, let me explain my understanding of the concept and you may call it anything that suits your purpose. I clearly understood this concept from the time I left elementary school and learning became more complicated than it was in elementary school. I quickly adapted by surrounding myself with people who could explain things differently than they were presented in class. I personally selected the people I needed to help me along with my learning. I actually created a network of people I could go to for various things and they were not always academic. Since this network of people was constructed with my personal selections to help my personal needs for learning, I guess I could call this my personal learning network. It was unique to me and to my learning needs. It changed over the years as did my learning needs. This was not a personal learning network for other people. They needed to get their own. They could use some of my people for their network, but there was no exclusive ownership of sources. Now, with the advent of technology and the development of Social Media, I can extend my reach. I can grab sources globally. And even better there are several free Social media applications I can use for this purpose.

I used Email, Linkedin, FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, Skype, and Delicious to connect with people and acquire sources. This network of people helped me learn by answering questions, passing along articles, websites, experts, podcasts, webcasts, online conferences. The best part is that it was all directed by my personal inquiries to meet my personal learning needs. This is also a flexible and adaptive network. It expands with new sources, information, concepts and tools. It works for me and that makes it personal. It will not work for every learner. The sources that I have chosen may not be the sources others would choose. They need to create their Personal Learning Network. There is NO “The PLN” if there were it would be “The LN”.

Now getting back to my Ning site, I had many questions from many individuals about sources. People wanted to create their Personal Learning Networks. They needed a little help getting started. They needed people to contact, how-to tutorials, groups of people with common interests. I knew how to do this, because that is how I learn. I created a site to help any educator who needed help developing his or her personal Learning Network. It gave them a means to do it. It is not the place to go for an instant PLN. It is a place for direction and sources. I needed to call it something, a name that would conveniently fit in a tweet. Hence, the name “The Educator’s PLN”, a singular educator and a singular personal network for learning. It neatly abbreviated to EDU PLN for tweeting purposes.

I want to be clear, I make no claim to ownership of anything about any PLN other than a Ning site that I created to help others develop their own Personal Learning Networks. I do take credit for my own PLN which consists of 2 Ning sites, 5 Linkedin Educational Groups, a Blog, a twitter account, a FaceBook account, a Skype account, a delicious account, an author stream account a Google reader account, Google mail, and probably a dozen other things as well. I am also the co-creator of #EDCHAT which has had a profound effect on my personal learning as an educator. That is my Personal Learning Network and not yours.

Now, I need to get back to my evening discussion. I imagine that a very good argument could be made to call The Old Man and The Sea, The Old Man and the Fish, but why? I named MY NING site The Educator’s PLN not because it is the place to end up, but one possible place to begin for those who do not know where to begin. If it is not for you, do not join. If you join and do not like it, follow the rule of two feet. Get up and leave. All I ask is that you let me call it what I called it.

If we keep arguing about the little stuff and not the ideas, it will take a long time to get from where we are to where we need to be in education. The idea of PLN’s is taking people from places of isolation to places of expanded thinking. We cannot keep saying no to everything without offering alternatives and expect things to change on their own. Rather than spend time arguing semantics, we need to address real issues. I promise to think more about Titles if I ever decide to create something that I believe will help others, because words are important.

The Educator’s PLN http://edupln.ning.com/

And now your comments, please.