Collaboration 2.0

I am preparing for the OLA Superconference. As I try to gather my thoughts about Professional Learning Networks I find I have a lot of ambiguity in my own thinking so I can only imagine how educators might find this concept overwhelming.

Teachers just want to do the right thing, they are learners, planners, schedulers, sometimes confessors to students and colleagues alike. Time disappears quickly in a day scheduled away by lessons, bells and curriculum, so outside of the box thinking is a challenge, but much needed.

Enter the concept of The Learning Commons. Makes sense for all TL’s in this day and age to embrace this idea and move this forward. It sounds so easy, so sensible and so doable. So what are the challenges? The “ya buts”? I can think of so many myself and I’m sure TL’s all over Canada can do the same. However, in order for learning and education to keep up with the 21stC speed of learning there really is no other option.

Having a powerful professional learning network is really nothing new to effective teachers, teacher librarians and learners. We embrace this through our work in PLC’s in our schools. The web allows us to move this learning beyond the institutional walls and turns us into global learners. This is learning in this day and age. It is learning that our youth assume is the norm. How do we engage our school districts, our various teaching federations and our site based administrators in this conversation? It’s a big task but one we really need to take on.

Music and Learning

Yesterday while I was driving around doing errands I was listening to Day 6 on CBC radio.  This episode the host was interviewing the music therapist who worked with congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford to help her to regain her speech. It was a fascinating discussion about how the therapist Maegan Morrow, used simple familiar tunes to begin re-engaging Gifford’s right brain in locating vocabulary. To learn more please visit the site linked to this post.

Licensed under Creative Commons by Institut Douglas (some rights reserved)

What struck me, however, was the similarity to techniques used in primary classrooms daily to engage students in oral literacy. I remember when I first began teaching in a grade one classroom how I would “sing” attendance with my students. I did this to capture their attention, keep them focused and to assess their musical ear and sense of rhythm.  Not knowing anything about brain science, little did I know I was helping them to embed language in different areas of their brain. I’m glad to know that what I felt was the right think for early learners, actually was

A visit to the Big Nickel

I have spent the past two days at training sessions for schools in North Eastern Ontario. This meant I drove to Sudbury to meet this great group of educators. I came away from this session with real insight into how school leaders are working to align the work they do in classrooms with guidelines from the Ministry of Education and using the tools provided. The focus on effective professional learning for teachers is first and foremost and the precision they are working with to ensure that student achievement is always the goal is supported by the research resources they are provided with.

I cam away from this session with some ideas about how we need to connect these exemplary educators across jurisdictions using the tools we have at our fingertips.  I am looking forward to working with some of these groups to connect, learn and dissolve the classroom walls.

Corn is ready and ASI2011 begins….

I have spent most of the last two weeks finalizing details for the ABEL Summer Institute which begins tomorrow at York University. It is a special event this year as the ABEL program celebrates it’s 10th Anniversary. Our program offerings are wonderful with innovative and exceptional educators from across Canada and the United States presenting to our delegates over the next 2 1/2 days.

I read one of our spotlight speakers, Dean Shareski’s blog post this morning where he was reflecting on his summer of nothing. I have been doing pretty much the same over the last couple of weeks.

This summer I elected to unplug myself, stepping away from Flickr, Twitter, blogs, rss, skype, the lot. It was surprisingly painless for me and a much needed time to reflect and engage in other activities like sleeping, eating, hanging out and family time. I did throw in some extended hours of reading, we did have an awesome family vacation and I did pay for my indulgences (am on diet now).

Dean quoted from another tweep in his blog and I have to agree with him about it being “pure gold”. No matter how connected we are, the most important thing we do as humans, educators and learners is build relationships in order to learn better and be better people in a connected world.

I think that is what ASI is all about, hands on learning yes, but as always the best learning comes over coffee, lunch and those chats between sessions, where learners connect the dots and build the relationships.

I look forward to doing that over the next three days as we learn together.

Reflections on the ISTE Conference

Three days at the massive ISTE conference in Philadelphia has me really thinking about educational technology, professional learning, and our needs in a Canadian context. I found that the bulk of the offerings were focused on tools,rather than teaching. Frankly I was disappointed by this. Having never attended this conference I had hoped that there would be stronger offerings by leaders in education that focused on implementation of change in teaching and learning to reflect a 21st Century context. This was not the case.

ISTE promotes it’s international status, but I found myself continually being referred to the American context. Being the polite Canadian that I am, I kept these thoughts to myself until I connected with several Australians who had the same thoughts. I’m thinking that Canada and Australia have much to share and learn from each other and will be looking for opportunities to connect and continue to learn from these new colleagues.

Things I enjoyed most at ISTE: connecting and sharing with like minded professionals in the unstructured caves, over dinner and lunch. Loved learning about the research conducted by Dr. Sofia Pardo and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Rob Mancabelli was a new voice working with @willrich45 great discussion about moving yah but to change. Enjoyed the masterful facilitation skills of Scott McLeod in the Tech Savvy Principals session and all the TSP’s on the panel and I thought that Roger Pryor from Australia did a wonderful job of integrating multiple modes of teaching into his discussion about change and planning forward for our learners.

Overall, ISTE had many sessions that certainly made me think. Philadelphia was a wonderful host city, and I have much to ponder over the summer as I take a break and plan for next year’s learning adventure.