Just-In-Time: PLN Support

(Pic and Post shared by Deb McCallum)

This image is an example of one way to use twitter as a PLN.

My image is just a snapshot of a longer informative and helpful conversation I had on twitter this June. When I had a question about Minecraft, and chromebooks, Ontario educators on twitter came to the rescue!

I think that this is a great example of how timely, supportive, and resourceful a twitter PLN is! This spurred on other great resources and ideas being shared, and left me feeling inspired and energized about new connections for Mincraft inquiries next year!

Ontario educators are AMAZING!!

Playing with Metaphors: The Ripple

On Tuesday evening, OSSEMOOC was so fortunate to have Stephen Hurley join us for a conversation around the ideas of continuity and change in our school systems.

Stephen introduced the idea of a drop of water as a metaphor for change: http://www.stephenhurley.ca/the-metaphor-project/

It’s the ripples I am thinking about today.

At Connect 2014, Dean Shareski invited particpants to consider two questions:

1) What did you learn today? and 2) How did you contribute to the learning of others?

Darren Kuropatwa facilitated the creation of a video of people in the audience sharing  their responses.

The next weekend, at edCampIsland, participants were so intrigued by the video that they wanted to share their learning in the same way.

 

 

(You will notice that the first learning comes from the GAFE Summit in Kitchener (Be More Dog) and @shareski from SeLNO2013 (JOY!))

At the same event (Connect 2014), Darren Kuropatwa challenged us to become digital storytellers like this:

 

This week at OSSEMOOC, he asked us to do the same thing, but from the online, rather than f2f,  environment.  Even though we were scattered across the country, we were rockstars at this!

 

 

Today at our Ontario Provincial Digital Learning Meeting, I shared Darren’s work with the group, but I was also sad to have to say goodbye to one of our eLearning Contacts who is returning to the classroom next year.

I just bet he will take his mad skills in digital storytelling with him.

How will your work today continue to ripple through the lives of others and make a difference for our learners?

This post was shared by  Donna Miller Fry.

UnGoogleable Questions

Part of my weekly routine is to check out the Twitter  #cdnedchat hashtag stream.  I have learned that there is always something interesting to check out.

The words “UnGoogleable Questions”  in this post seemed to  jump right out at me.   While Google is a great tool that provides almost instantaneous access to limitless information,  it is important to pause and recognize that this is just the beginning in the context of a learning journey.

What does the notion of “UnGoogleable Questions” mean to you in terms of asking,  inquiry, probing and going deeper with learning?  How might this impact your professional practice?

Resource: Link to full  blog post.

This picture and post was submitted by Mark W. Carbone.

Find Your People

On May 20^th I had the opportunity via  @Ossemooc  to virtually be a part of the  TedxKitchenerED  audience. The presentations were insightful, and powerful reminders of all the fantastic moments we have in education to impact the lives of our students,  our colleagues and our school communities.  One of the main ideas that resonated with me and that I referred back to many times in the past month was made by Ed Doadt  (@eddoadt)  during his TedTalk:

In finding your people, you surround yourself with like-minded, passionate and brilliant people who see your strengths,  challenge you,  help you achieve your goals and expand your horizons and when necessary,  support you by being an amazing cheering section. In their strength,  and support,  your people understand your trials and tribulations and they also celebrate your successes,  both big and small.  By surrounding yourself with a strong, positive and supportive PLN, there is no limit to what you and “your people” can achieve for both yourself and your students.

Find your people and change the world!

This Picture and Post was shared by  Stacey Wallwin

The Power of Joy

Back in November, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from Dean Shareski (@shareski) along with educators from throughout Northwestern Ontario (at SeLNO, the Symposium for eLearning in Northwestern Ontario).

The key take-away for me was Dean’s concern for the missing aspect of “joy” in our learning environments – our schools.

Last week, I was so pleased to see that my friends at HWDSB had the opportunity to ponder the same message.

 

Shouldn’t the places where we all go to learn be full of joy?

Shouldn’t we be concerned that so many students hate school (and teachers)?

If students graduated with a love of learning, and a love of school, would it still be viable to attack public educators for political gain?

What’s standing in the way of joy in school?

This picture & post shared by  Donna Miller Fry.

 

PBL: What Shifts Do Your Students Have to Make?

I almost fell off my chair when I read  “We Don’ Like Projects”  by Shawn Cornally of Iowa BIG.  Without a doubt he is writing about my students!

For my students,  learning is definitely something the teacher ‘makes’ you do. The move to inquiry this year was rough. Student push back was hard to take and shook my confidence regularly. I will never forget the day when one student in grade 10 called my course “slack”.

But we need to persist. Students (and teachers) need to own their learning. And the rewards – what we don’t know about until we own it – are transformative. Here is how one student concludes a course summative essay about what he has learned about creating digital stories:

“Writing these stories has helped me get better at writing down my full thoughts. Writing these stories has changed the way my mind works. Writing these stories has changed me as a person.”

Learning is the work.

Shared by: Julie Balen, High School English Teacher, Wikwemikong Board of Education (@jacbalen)

—

Julie Balen

English Teacher

B: http://connectingtolearn.edublogs.org/

E: jbalen50@gmail.com

A: http://about.me/julie.balen

T: @jacbalen

G+: Julie A.C. Balen

Pic and Post: What About Privacy?

In the #OSSEMOOC June Pic and Post, we ask you to identify one thing you read today that resonated with you.  Grab a screenshot, annotate it with a sentence or two, and send it to ossemooc at gmail dot com.

Earlier this week, Michael Redfern  (@redfearn) shared a Twitter post about the powers of peace officers as outlined in the omnibus bill.

If passed as is – the new federal omnibus privacy legislation would allow ‘peace officers’ the right to broad indiscriminate powers – not subject to a paper trail.

https://twitter.com/JesseBrown/status/473485516542070784

 

 

Where is the Next Network?

 

Where is the next network? Google Educator Groups

posted in Digital Transformation by Paul McGuire

Google (Photo credit: warrantedarrest)

I am always looking for opportunities to push myself to learn more.  I find that becoming an active member of networks is a great way to do this.  At the very least, it gets me to write and post more material.  The OSSEMOOC is a great example of a network that has motivated me to post.  It’s a little like the ‘publish or perish‘ notion.  If your blog is publicized on other sites, but better keep writing!

Yesterday, I heard about another network that looks like it has potential – Google Educator Groups #GEG.

I took a look at where you can find GEGs and there are none in Canada!  We need to do something about that.

The idea behind the GEGs sounds really interesting.  From their site, GEG leaders benefit in the following ways:

• Meeting like minded people, breaking the walls of isolation
• Becoming well connected to people of similar passion
• Building learning management, event management, communication and organization skills as you hold events.
• Eligible to attend local GEG Leader summits hosted by Google

This is what is wonderful about social media and education, there are so many great networks that you can join that connects you to other educators.  In the past year I have connected to ECOO (the BIT 2014 Conference), OSSEMOOC, DLMOOC (need to get back to that!), #SAVMP mentorship group via @gcouros, a terrific Edmodo book chat on Digital Leadership through #satchat, Learning Connections – Google + group run through #OCSB as well as a whole host of Twitter chats and Google + discussions.

Every day I learn through these great networks.  At this point, I can’t imagine being an educator and not being connected, my networks are my own personal school.  There are so many great initiatives and ideas out there that I would be totally in the dark without my learning partners.

Even worse, without my personal learning network I would be dependant on professional development delivered in the tradition method through our own district.  This way of learning simply does not work anymore.  We can complain about this or we can do something much more useful – make up your own learning network – get connected – today!

So next, time to get some GEGs into Canada – any volunteers?

Shared by Paul McGuire @mcguirp

 

Are You Really Willing to be Disturbed?

On my office wall, I keep a disorganized array of quotes, articles, images and post-it notes with tidbits that inspire, remind or reinforce the work that I do every day.

This morning, while in a challenging telephone conversation, I looked up and saw this article:

It reminded me that we are all on a learning journey, not just our students.  While we are creating the conditions for learning in our schools, we need to remember to allow ourselves to be confused and uncertain as well.

Will you find time today to listen to those who think differently than you do?

Tweets as Prompts

When I saw this tweet this morning, it reminded of a recent conversation with  Rod Lucier  where the point of discussion centred around the ideas that:

a) all positions have leadership components and
b) perhaps the best leadership position is the one you are in.

Using this tweet as a prompt, I think it is time worthy to reflect on the leadership traits described here.

What changes will you make to your practice?

Shared by Mark W. Carbone