Group items tagged

"The relationship between innovation and learning is about finding a relationship between what is familiar and what is strange. Creativity and imagination are both maps that allow us to do that. Imagination is a quality we all have, and it is an unlimited resource. The goal of education, training, and innovation spaces is to create and structure an environment where imagination can flourish. Those environments need to possess three qualities: A Space to Ask "What If" In order for imagination to flourish, there must be an opportunity to see things as other than they currently are or appear to be. This begins with a simple question: What if? It is a process of introducing something strange and perhaps even demonstrably untrue into our current situation or perspective. The imagination has to reconcile what is imagined within the boundaries of what is actual and therefore must understand how the world would have to change in order to make what is imagined a reality. Tools and Technique to Re-Imagine Context The work of imagination only has a payoff if it can be put into practice. That means that the context needs to be shaped and articulated in a meaningful way. In the 21st century we are surrounded by tools that allow us to reshape and re-imagine context all the time. From social network sites, to video and music distribution, to web design and production, we are surrounded by opportunities not just to create new content, but literally to transform the context in which that content has meaning. A Network of Imagination Imagination can only flourish when there is a networked collection of people to share that imaginative vision, embellish it, and develop it. What we have elsewhere called "networks of imagination" are shared tools of communication and in some cases co-presence that allow groups of people to construct those imagined realities in practical and concrete ways. Today's networked technology is more than just a conduit to communicate info

The Learning Network Blog on NYTimes.com. For two years, students, teachers, parents and others have posted and commented on this blog. Daily lessons for subjects across curriculum based on Times content are offered. Suggestions are given for using the The Learning Network posts in the classroom. The Learning Network is accessible without a digital subscription, as are the articles linked from Learning Network posts.

Title: Companies are Erecting In-House Social Networks, June 26, 2011, This article intrigued me from the get-go because: 1) it speaks to the desire for people to be connected socially in their work; 2) it provides forums (opportunities) for the distantly-connected worker(s)/network member(s) to 'trickle-up' by sharing innovative practice/ideas; 3) it resembles Facebook for its ease of participation and entry level; 4) it creates a social network, which is the beginning of conversation, which is the beginning of collaboration, no? :-) We know that high school students LOVE the SLI because it gives them the opportunity to meet and greet and sometimes talk about meaningful social justice issues. But the hook is social, then learning. We have been talking about trying Facebook this year to ease the way in for up to 200 kids, but many school districts do not allow students to access Facebook from school computers. Maybe we need to explore Yammer or Chatter or look to see if there is a comparable open source app?

When is the right time to move to a new social media tool? Seems like there has to be a critical mass before making the switch? For those already active on Twitter, for example, it seems rather daunting to try to recreate that network on Google Plus. I'll speak for myself here: I follow a lot of educators on Twitter; I have a lot of educator followers. I've tried to find folks on Google Plus and add them to my "ed-techies" circle, but that's easier said than done. I've also been added to Circles by educators I don't yet follow on Twitter, and then I feel like I should add them there too. For the time being, it feels as though I need to cover my bases and work with both networks, but I'm not sure if that's sustainable.

Interesting list of social networks for educators

Website from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. "...the social organization of the research enterprise is badly broken and a very different alternative is needed. " Part of a series on "networked improvement community" that "creates the purposeful collective action needed to solve complex educational problems."

very good blog on June 5, 2011 by K. Walsh on 7 reasons why instructional uses of social networking software can create opportunities for learning, connecting, and engagement

"Communities of practice are bridges between the work being done and the diversity of social networks." Hypothesis: If you agree with this statement, facilitation is the means to building the bridge between work and learning that most organizations cannot do without outside support.

by Derek Bruff, November 6, 2011. The best justification of the Innovation Lab premise that I have seen. "Sharing student work on a course blog is an example of what Randall Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, of Georgetown University, call "social pedagogies." They define these as "design approaches for teaching and learning that engage students with what we might call an 'authentic audience' (other than the teacher), where the representation of knowledge for an audience is absolutely central to the construction of knowledge in a course."" Often our students engage in what Ken Bain, vice provost and a historian at Montclair State University, calls strategic or surface learning, instead of the deep learning experiences we want them to have. Deep learning is hard work, and students need to be well motivated in order to pursue it. Extrinsic factors like grades aren't sufficient-they motivate competitive students toward strategic learning and risk-averse students to surface learning. Social pedagogies provide a way to tap into a set of intrinsic motivations that we often overlook: people's desire to be part of a community and to share what they know with that community. My students might not see the beauty and power of mathematics, but they can look forward to participating in a community effort to learn about math. Online, social pedagogies can play an important role in creating such a community. These are strong motivators, and we can make use of them in the courses we teach.

Research studies and other resources. Pathways To College Network is an "alliance of national organizations that advances college opportunity for underserved students by raising public awareness, supporting innovative research and promoting evidence-based policies and practices across the K-12 and higher education sectors."

W.R. Drexler video (5 minutes) on 21st century students--3 days a week in class, two days online. Teacher is a facilitator of students building their personal learning network to learn and assess information, gather ideas, organize them, make meaning of them, and share with others.

The NNER is a membership network for teacher preparation and to improve teaching and learning. The work is based on that of John Goodlad and the Institute for Educational Inquiry.

"Our organization offers its members a network of individuals, institutions, and corporations united by the common goal of quantitative literacy for all citizens." The website includes both teaching resources and "quantitative literacy" projects.

The truth about how to create sustainable conditions for powerful teaching and learning is bred in the bones of schools rather than the brains of researchers or policy-makers. Motivated by this belief, new and restructuring schools that aim to incorporate the CES Common Principles forge connections with other Coalition schools. They rely on each other for support, mutual learning, and perspective.

A rubber ducky personal learning network--could this be a model for a personal reflection--knowledge building exercise for IL teachers, students?

Online publication with content on enterprise networking & infrastructure in education.

Secure Social Learning Network for Teachers and Students

Instructional Rounds, based on the work of Dr. Richard Elmore, is a process designed to examine what is happening with teaching/learning in classrooms and schools by working with groups of educators (networks) within a school, school district, or area.

Organization aimed at "building, strengthening, and empowering communities committed to college access and success..."

National College Access Network listserv

Member benefits include NCAN Daily E-Briefing and Discussion Listserv, Advisor Discussion Listserv, access to webinars, and more.

This excerpt from an interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, PLP founder, captures critical points for PD online. "Will and I agreed that we would only work with teams of school-based educators because the research made it clear that it was collaborative teams within in a school, working together, that really brought about sustainable improvement. That would give us what we needed to anchor the virtual experience in a local context. We also wanted participants to experience a global community of practice-to be able to have conversations with people very different than themselves, with fresh perspectives. Our thinking was that if we put teams of educators who had different ideologies, different geography, different purposes and challenges, all together in the same space, then they could each bring what they did well to the table and people could learn from that. Ultimately that would mean public, private, Catholic, and other kinds of schools; educators teaching well-to-do, middle-class, and poor kids; educators in different states and nations, at different grade levels, and in different content areas and roles. What ultimately grew out of our brainstorming was a three-pronged model of professional development that emphasizes (1) local learning communities at the school/district level; (2) an online community of practice that's both global and deep; and (3) a third prong that is more personal-the idea of a personal learning network that each educator develops as a mega-resource for ideas and information about their particular interests and areas of practice. (These three prongs are described in depth in a new book, The Connected Educator, where PLP community leader Lani Ritter Hall and I tell the story of the evolution of our model and the very solid research base behind it.)