Learning rewards: Watching others sharing what they learn

Today, Melissa Ring and Melissa Peretich invited me to attend an in-service training that they were facilitating at Rocky Mountain High School. It is so rewarding seeing these two taking what we had learned about Web 2.0 tools and teaching others. As a learner, it is so great to see other learners taking co-created ideas and passing them on and expanding on them.

Between the two to them they discussed Slideshare, Google documents, Ning, and Creative Commons. Google documents and Slideshare seemed to be of great interest to those attending. There were many concerns about inappropriate content on Slideshare. Someone suggested the use of a Webquest to direct students to particular Slideshare content, however, we quickly realized that students may still be exposed by related content that is inappropriate. After the in-service training, I had an idea that maybe teachers could embed Slideshare content into a "safe" blog, subsequently minimizing exposure to inappropriate content.

I want to say thank you to Melissa Ring and Melissa Peretich for continuing the discussion and learning that we started in EDUC331... I am very proud to be your colleague. Keep up the great work.

Observing a Fischbowl

Last week I had the privilege to attend and observe two large groups of students at Arapahoe High School Live Blogging within a FischBowl with author Daniel Pink. The FischBowl is a teaching methods that is a wonderful example of how excellent teachers (Karl Fisch, Anne Smith, and Maura Moritz) are attempting to connect with students in the 21st Century. These teachers are tapping into young peoples' desires to use technology, to parallel process multiple sources of information, express themselves, and be at the center of their learning.

The FischBowl consist of an inner circle (a smaller round table) and an outer circle of interconnected straight tables that surrounds the inner circle. Students enter the room and occupy both the inter circle seats and the outer circle seats. Those in the inner circle have a conversation about a topic while those in the outer circle use a "live blogging" process to create a text-based discussion on the topic. The blog posts are projected live through a projector onto a screen for all to read and contemplate.

In addition, for this FischBowl activity, Daniel Pink (author of the book "A whole new mind" - the focus of the discussion) was connected to the class via the "live blogging" process and a two way video feed website known as MeBeam.

Observing I found the following to be of interest:

1. The students were truly at the center of the discussion. Almost all of the conversation was initiated and continued by the students.
   
2. The teacher was a facilitator, keeping things moving if they slowed down or got off track.
3. The teachers had worked very hard to feed the students multiple sources of information. For example, the students in the outer circle were listening to the inner circle discussion, they were also following the blog posts of the other students, and the posts of Daniel Pink and they were quietly talking to each other.
   
4. Daniel Pink was a minor part of the conversation. The notion of "expert" seemed to be less than overwhelming. They didn't turn to him, but turned to their understanding and reasoning first (I think this is good).
   

It was obvious that the students were engaged, they loved it. There is evidence that students desire this type of multichannel processing and that they learn when they are in these types of environments. The observations that I made led me to believe that students can do more than handle this type of multichannel processing, they find it challenging and it is that challenge that pushes them further.

What are we flies?

This is truly funny. Everyone keeps talking about the 21st Century brain. How kids are digital natives and are processing information differently. I like this take on that idea from John Daily and his critique of the Situation Room's multiple screens... enjoy.

Is this how you feel?

Following Karl Fisch's post, I read the interview by Dan Pink of Thomas Friedman. The part of the interview that resonated with me was their conversation about how schools have become the "receptacle of all our unmet social needs and social problems." It should come as no surprise that we see these issues at the University level. We are all feeling the pressure to meet these unmet needs. How many good educators or "soon to be" educators are we losing because of these pressures. This video expresses the pressures of educational reform in a creative way.

We need to practice...

I am serving on a working group that is looking at technology within the Poudre School District. We have been charged with creating a plan for technology within the district. A bit of the conversation has centered on lack of support and training for staff and faculty. This ultimately led to a dismal conversation about budgets and lack of funding for things like training sessions for teachers. This conversation fascinated me for the following reasons…

First, learning has changed. Learning to me is less-and-less about instruction on “how to” do something, and more-and-more about an ongoing conversation with colleagues. Learning is less-and-less about structured training and more-and-more about just-in-time information that is accessed through community and connection. Learning (about technology or other subjects) is less-and-less about budgets and more-and-more about individual effort and interest.

Second, many of us are stuck. We are stuck in our old ways of thinking. It is hard for us to truly understand and appreciate how learning has changed. You see it is difficult to understand what David Warlick was actually saying when he said, “In the 21^st Century we learn from each other” because at face value it seems trivial. You might react by saying, I learn from others now, or… that is what I have my students doing when they work in groups. But, at this level of understanding you are missing the significance of the change. I would argue that “learning from each other”, requires a connection to the bigger world (the Internet). We need a broader audience than our local school or workplace. We need to connect to people who share our ideas and are engaged in learning about those ideas.

Third, we don’t practice. When we were first learning “how to learn” it took practice. Learning from books and other library materials took understanding. Understanding about how to use library catalogs, book indexes, references, and periodicals. Learning has changed. We need to practice with these 21st Century tools. If we don’t, as I mentioned above, we will not understand what David Warlick and others understand about 21^st Century learning. We need to provide teachers with access to the Internet and then let them practice. We need to get them to engage in 21^st Century learning so that they can understand and pass on the valuable lesson that, “In the 21^st Century we learn from each other.”