Multi-faceted Refractions

Like many, I am intrigued by the promise and potential that integrating Web 2.0 tools provides for learners, both students and teachers. I know that in many instances, that I leading the charge full bore down that path because I believe that it is imperative that we provide experiences for our students to begin to construct their learning environments using these new collaborative tools.

But as we delve further and further down the path, there are three questions that need to be answered before completely committing to these tools.

1. Who owns the data

I will admit that I do not read the terms and agreements of the new tools that I am experimenting with. If I create something, do I retain some kind of ownership of the idea? Are my ideas protected by Creative Commons or am I giving my intellectual property away?

One of the challenges for us in education is to teach all of our learners, faculty and students, how to use the best tool for them to communicate their message, so that it can rise above the rest of the “white noise” of information that surrounds us and is growing daily. But we also want our learners to be able to retain ownership of their ideas, for that alone may be what defines them. No one should be able to co-opt an idea. Enhance it, synthesize it to create a better idea, but the kernel should remain.

2. Who owns the curriculum

One of the questions as teachers begin to modify and create new curricula to meet the needs and demands of the students is who owns it? Is it the school or the individual. In business, the answer used to be crystal clear, it was the business that had ownership of new ideas, especially if an individual left. This may become a bigger issue, especially if the teacher shortage that continues to be forecast in the next seven to ten years occurs and the demands for the excellent teacher who is getting results with the new tools.

3. Who owns the experience?

If the face to face classroom experience is what differentiates the experience, who owns the experience. Prestigious universities such as MIT, Stanford, and Cal-Berekley making the experience, by posting podcasts and videocasts of courses freely available. As schools begin to use the tools and share the classroom experiences, who owns the content, the school, or the creator of the content, the teacher?

4. What will draw students to your physical learning space and environment?

With the whole of knowledge is being made digitally available, what will bring students to your physical space? Or how will your school be defined, by physical location, by time, by content?

I do not profess to have any answers, only questions. I do feel that these questions will help define what we mean by School 2.0 or beyond and am actively trying to synthesize my answers.

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I have been reading the commentary from others about the ideas which have arisen from the conversation that Steve Hargadon’s conversation with Will Richardson about blogging. Of particular interest to me are the comments from an old friend, Andy Carvin on his learningnow.org about avoiding the usual pool of thoughts and Jeff Utecht’s posting which led me back to Bud the Teacher and David Jake’s comments on some of the complaints that it is difficult to reach a critical mass of readership in the thoughts that we choose to share.

While walking the dog this afternoon, in between catching the afternoon’s football games (thank goodness for TiVo, since I am a one television family with two teenage daughters. I can catch a game within 45 minutes), my thoughts were divided into two distinct ideas.

The first is that one of the motivators that have gotten me to recommit to blogging once again, with more gusto this time, was the k12 Online conference. Through the encouragement of the conference organizers and others who participated in this conference, the various post conference events, I was motivated to recommit to blogging. It corresponds with my belief that not only to students have to develop the technology and communication skills to raise themselves above the white noise and make themselves unique and distinctive, that we as educators have to raise ourselves above the white noise that our students experience in the course of the day. One of the ways that this has to occur is that an individual has to participate and work at the skill, whether it be blogging, podcasting, use of wikis, skype casts, or whatever collaborative medium that we determine will be most effective for spreading the message that we want to share. We should encourage all to participate and not be exclusive. As a teacher, I am trying to encourage my students to contribute and collaborate, because through sharing and sometimes disagreeing, our ideas become stronger.

I can personally attest to the fact it is through these baby steps and the encouragement of others who are in the “club”, Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach, Vicki Davis, Fred Bartels, and Arvind Grover to some of the thoughts that I have shared. It has also been extremely exciting to find out the author of a book that I have blogged about, Greg Mortenson, somehow found my post and commented on it, half-way around the world. The validation of “me” is important in fueling the ego and providing validation of the thoughts and ideas that I have been publishing. Without this feedback, we would get discouraged and eventually lose momentum or not be willing to share those thoughts and ideas.

My second thoughts are related to what David Jakes shared in his post:

Those of you that have read blogs for a while will recognize these names. Stephen. Will. Miguel. Wes. David, Clarence, Dean, Darren, Vicky, George, Bud. You know who they are without even me adding last names, don’t you? Would you consider these people a group?

Thinking about one of my first loves, baseball, or thinking about the football games that I was watching, it occurred to me that there will always be a set of superstar bloggers. What we have to remember is that they may not remain superstar bloggers forever. As they age, they may lose their ability to capture the audience. They may tire or burn out. The aspects of their life may change. Every year, there are new players who start their professional experience. In the case of baseball, it is a long journey through the minor leagues, where players have to experience in smaller markets, gaining experience and maturity. When they are ready, they get moved up to a larger audience who is more demanding. Some will wash out, some will be happy with that level of engagement. Eventually, they will make it to the “major leagues.” Even in the majors, there are maybe 40- 50 superstars, but there are also 700+ others who are just as important participating at that level. Some of those will become superstars in time, some will be like journeymen ballplayers, the left-handed relievers or a Julio Franco, who seem to be around forever who make solid contributions, each which are important, sometimes more important for all the the advancement of the sport. In baseball, first there was Honus, the Big 6, Nap, Ty, Tris. They were later replaced by the Babe, Lou, the Rajah, the Big Train. They have been replaced now by the Rocket, Cal, Big Mac, Sammy. Each of those players have now been replaced by Manny, Big Papi, Derek, A Rod. The perpetual hands of time will bring others into the lexicon and history.

I know that I at this point in time, I am a minor-league blogger. I am comfortable with that. Reaching superstar status is not important for me. For me, right now, it is important to share my ideas and have the time to reflect on my teaching and on the leadership that I can bring to the teachers not only in my school, but for those whom I will present for, and others who are starting whom I can mentor. Some may be better than me. I am comfortable with that. But I will keep trying, keep stretching myself to become better and more skilled. But I realize that it will take time, energy, and effort to achieve.

With seven school days left before Winter Break, I am usually wrapping up the new initiatives that we began planning in March and April, implementing in May, June, July, and August, and then training and utilizing in the fall. This year, however, there are five projects that we will require my time and attention over the winter break that I am really excited about and looking forward to develop.

1. Reflection: What Does Vietnam Mean

This is a project beginning in December and running until January 23rd. I will be working with our US History teacher, students, and librarian. I am developing a wiki to help support this project, and develop a resource for our teachers and students who want to do a similar project involving audio and video production.

2. MS Advisory - Community building

We began to plan for this project during the summer. We played with a number of different tools, including Class BlogMeister, before settling on an Elgg installation that we played with at EduBridges.net. With the release of WordPress MU, we may rethink this, but we begin this project on January 9th. One reason to stay with the Elgg implementation is to be able to provide students with a digital storage location, so that they will not have to rely on other methods (USB drives, email, etc.) to bring work into school. Since Elgg fits into our current Moodle implementation, we are also looking to see if we can pilot a digital portfolio project in our Middle School this spring.

3. Mayan Sketchup Project

I need to make sure that I iron out a few wrinkles in creation of a Mayan village and tying it to Google Earth for a project that starts in January.

4. Prepare for Northern Illinois Computer Users (NICE) Mini-Conference

I am doing a presentation on blogging solutions for the classroom featuring BlogMeister.
I am also doing a presentation on the use of wikis in the classroom. I will be drawing on the Flat Classroom Project as well as a few that I am creating.

5. Prepare for a six week f2f/online course for parents

This is the one that I am most excited about and from what I am hearing, there seems to be a buzz building around this. Last spring and in September, like many of you, I did several parent meetings about Internet safety (mySpace, Facebook, etc.). It occurred to me that while working with some of the parents, they did not quite quite understand all of the issues, because they were digital immigrants. So I began to brainstorm about creating a class that I would do in the winter which would begin with a Face to Face meeting(F2F) on January 11, 2007 and then move online. My thoughts precipitated to an idea and then to a plan because of the energy that I experienced while participating of the k12 Online Conference. I have to finalize plans, but my current outline is to begin to use a Moodle implementation, with discussion forums, as the place to start. I will post links to podcasts and vidcasts and prompt with questions that they can answer. After they have that experience, I am going to either move them into a blog solution or our elgg environment to begin to learn about blogs and rss. I plan on introducing and pointing them to some of the presentations done at the k12 Online conference, since they are so well done. Lastly, I am going to move them towards wikis and other social networking/web 2.0 tools(social bookmarking, Skype conference, etc). We are completing the experience on February 22, 2007 with a second F2F meeting, which I am planning on podcasting. In between, I may have a few other F2F opportunities to help those who need some more hand holding. This will not be a huge addition of time, as I will be needing to spend time overseeing the completion of our yearbook. I will be able to kill two birds with one stone, multi-tasking.

Like the k12 Online Conference, the material will be available for parents to cover at their own pace, as many times as they need. The over-arching desire is to allow parents to learn about Internet Safety by participating in the culture. My hope is that they have a better understanding and will be able to make more informed decisions as parents. How fortunate for me that Time decided to highlight these concepts as their current cover story. I will be able to introduce parents to Thomas Friedman, Daniel Pink, Chris Anderson, and Richard Florida since mainstream media has presented this as a solution and those writers provide fodder for the new conversation. I will also be able to turn their attention to other bloggers so that they can get different points of view. Maybe one of them will feel empowered and will be able to help provide us with the views from the perspective of a parent. What a wonderful partnership that would be.

So, instead of winding down, I will be winding up to meet the year head on. I feel excited, exhilarated, and rejuvenated. Thanks to all who have inspired me these past nine months. I couldn’t have done this without you.

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The past three weeks have provided wonderful professional development opportunities for me and at the same time have created a tension which these new opportunites create. During this time, I have been trying to keep with the content and conversations provided by both the K12 Online Conference and the New York City Independent School Technologists conference in Mohonk.

Because both of these conferences have made their presentations available via a variety of different modes, podcasts, vidcasts, and screencasts. Via the variety of blogs and aggregators, such as hitchhikr, I have been able to gather the notes and follow the conversation not only of the attendees, but of those who are like me who are remotely participating in the conversation. There are also the new wikis that many are creating for their handouts which are like a siren inviting me to participate and share my thoughts and ideas. Unlike an actual conference where I am physically limited to what I am able to do, here I can have it all.
From these experiences, I find myself invigorated by the conversations and the intellectual challenges that these experiences allow me. But not being physically there, I am contently pulled back into reality by both personal and professional demands on my time. While having the iPod and car adapter does allow me the opportunity to listen hauling my children around, they are getting tired of hearing about Ed Tech and would rather listen to their own musical choices.

It is especially difficult this week, as it is Interim Week at our school. This is a week where classes are suspended and students select a week long, immersive experience from those which are presented. I am once again offering a film-making interim, where students create films of their own choosing.This year I have 15 students who are creating five different films. This being Thursday, they are trying to get their last scenes shot and trying to get their films edited so that they can be shown to the group Friday afternoon, at least a rough cut. I have been interrupted four times since starting this to help troubleshoot various different problems. I really enjoy this week at our school, although it is more exhausting than a normal week due to the fact that you are always on and having to guide students who are equally immersed in their projects. There is a tremendous amount of learning going on.

Layering my desire to continue my learning when the energy levels are tapped has been tricky. I will continue to try to keep up with the pace, but I am finding myself lagging behind. The fact that these conversations are just beginning and will continue and that I can participate a when “life” is a bit more relaxed is reassuring, but I wonder when that time will come.

So I will have to continue to persevere and forge onward. I look forward to our future conversations.

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At the North Shore Country Day School, each year we have the opportunity to hear many wonderful speakers who expand us and challenge us. Last year, we had the opportunity to have Joe Fab on campus, the producer of Paper Clips. This film was edited by one of our alumni, Julia Dixon Eddy. This year, our speaker was Mike Leonard (http://mikeleonard.pictureshowfilms.com/), whose son, Brendan graduated in 2002. Brendan had a summer series on ABC Family in the summer of 2002. Mike is a news correspondent for the Today Show, and as he shared, he is the only correspondent that they have who is allowed to create his own stories.

His presentation was inspiring. He began by telling us that he was a terrible student. He was uninspired and did not know what he wanted to do. One day, while doodling on his tennis shoes, converting them to faux wing tips, he decided that the only thing that he knew was that he wanted to be creative. When he was a senior in college in 1968, he had the opportunity to save up $1000 which he invested in a movie camera. He began creating films, looking for narratives in the images that he shot. He got married and moved to Arizona, where he worked a variety of different jobs while trying to figure things out. An unemployed friend of his suggested in try to find a job in television. He landed a job at a small PBS station in Phoenix, which payed $40 per week.

It was there that he learned the power in being able to find stories that weren’t big, but important nonetheless. He shared with us his clip, Goodbye to Summer. I have had the privilege of watching a game at the field. He shared with our students that they have to keep the faith and while we are unable to always see the aerial view, that our breaks are just around the corner. They may be one block away or one mile away, but you have to keep the faith and conviction.

What also struck me is the emphasis on finding and telling the stories. In working with the new technologies, listening and planning for the day that I was going to make the leap into the blogsphere, I am always struck by this common theme. Whether it be creating blogs, creating podcasts, Elggs, or participating in other social networking software one of the common themes is sharing our stories. Through the work I have begun at my school and in the K12 Online Conference, I now believe I have the confidence to begin to share my stories.

As I share with my yearbook editors and staff, we are telling the story of the year, documenting via the lens of the theme that we have selected. So I have been telling the story, but within my small community. It is now time to expand the audience.

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