Congratulations! You have committed time over the past month to become a connected leader. You have found where the learning is happening. You have found places to connect with other colleagues who value learning in the way that you do.
What lies ahead?
Your thinking about your practice may have shifted significantly over the past month, but relationships remain at the centre of our learning.
Sometimes, as you share your excitement about what you have learned with your colleagues, you will feel like the voice of the “Lone Wolf”.
An important blog post on the loneliness of the innovator by David Truss. Click on the image for the full article.
At other times, when you are with your “tribe”, you will feel like you are “preaching to the choir”. This too, has value.
Sharing the importance of nurturing the early risk-takers who are modelling the learning we want for our students, but Stacey Wallwin. Click on the excerpt for a link to the full blog post.
As a connected leader, you are taking ownership of your own learning. Isn’t this exactly what you want for your students?
Shared by Bill Ferriter @plugusin under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial License.
You’ve learned that Twitter is a 24/7 stream of learning for educators. Random captures of Tweetdeck demonstrate how many ideas are flowing at once.
Will Richardson shares eight attributes of modern educational leaders here. Understanding where to find the best and most current ideas about education is the first attribute.
Watch what happens when connected leaders understand the importance of networking for students:
Look at the number of comments on this blog! How powerful is this conversation among teachers and student about mindset and learning?!
Here is a sample of the kinds of conversations among teachers and students you will see on this class blog. Take a moment to comment on some of the student thinking.
As you continue to connect, you will experience magical moments, learning and connecting that grow from your open sharing. Alan Levine expertly collects these stories. I think Ms. Balen and Ms. Calder need to contribute to this collection!
“The power, the strength, the future of the internet as we know it now, depends on this two-way flow. Share openly, and then share your story.”
Check out some of these fabulous stories of connecting, then be sure to share your story when the magic happens for you.
Congratulations on a successful 30 days of connecting.
Here at OSSEMOOC, we look forward to continuing to learn from you. Be sure to add your blog to the list through our “Join In” page.
Thanks for your participation and feedback. We hope you will continue to add resources to our posts through the comments, and that you will continue to spread the word!
We leave you with some inspiring words from Connected Leaders in Ontario – The OSSEMOOC K12 Online Conference Presentation for 2014.
Congratulations! You have now spent 28 days learning how to be a connected leader.
Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial – Share-Alike License by Guilia Forsythe
Throughout this series we have emphasized the critical importance of Digital Leadership. Today we want to share some further thinking around this topic. In particular, consider the changing conversations around the concept of Digital Citizenship.
Here are a few opportunities to expand your thinking about the importance of being a networked lead learner.
In 2008, Ira Socol shared his thinking about why so few educators were connected leaders. Take a few minutes to read this excerpt, or click on the image to read the full essay.
From “Toolbelt Theory for Everyone” by Ira David Socol, 2008 (click on the image for the link to the blog)
Today, we often hear that it isn’t about the tools, it’s about the pedagogy. What does your experience tell you about this? Should we be teaching tool use explicitly in schools? How does this posting challenge your thinking about your leadership?
As leaders in education, we often think about the safety of children in online spaces. How do we best teach digital citizenship in our schools? Current thinking about this topic is shifting, as evidenced by the following conversation with Tanya Avrith.
Every one of your students will be Googled before they get their first job. How are you helping them to create the digital presence that will help them achieve success? (@jcasap)
Dean Shareski shares his thoughts here on how technology can be a catalyst for changing educator mindsets.
What do you think? Take some time to reflect on your learning over the past month. How does the concept of “digital leadership” fit with your current professional practice?
What further resources do you have to help others with their learning on this topic?
This week a CBC Ontario Today broadcast featured an open lines show with Danah Boyd, author of It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens.
(For further discussion on this program, see the blog post here.)
This week, our Tuesday night live voice discussion will take a look at the parent perspective. We recommend that you take time to listen to the CBC podcast of When Keeping an Eye on Kids Becomes Spying prior to Tuesday night.
The session (June 3rd, 2014 at 8 p.m. EDT) will be hosted [here] to share your insights,ideas and ask questions. The meeting room will be open at 7:30. If you are joining us for the first time, allow a few minutes for the necessary plugins to download.
Have your say!!! On Monday May 26th (8:00 – 9:00 p.m. EDT), we will be providing an opportunity for you to learn more about the OSAPAC project on digital citizenship resources and provide feedback to the project team.
The online meeting room will be open at 7:30 p.m. EDT. If you are joining us for the first time, please allow a few extra minutes to allow for the necessary downloads (plugins).
During the last few weeks, we have focused on the topic of digital citizenship. The discussions and sharing of insights and personal experiences have been very rich.
Our professional learning sessions for the next two weeks will be special events.
On Tuesday May 20th, TEDxKitchenerED is presenting an event (7:30 – 9:30 p.m. EDT) centred around “the idea of Fostering Connectivity in the educational space can take on a variety of meanings. While its name leads many to the digital space, it simply means the state or capability of being connected. TEDxKitchenerED will look to highlight the many ways connectivity can be fostered in education.” Check out the speaker list [here].
We hope you will join us for this “OSSEM” event. Watch for a special OSSEMOOC connection!
Mark your calendar: On Monday May 26th (8:00 – 9:00 p.m. EDT), we will be providing an opportunity for you to learn more about the OSAPAC project on digital citizenship resources and provide feedback to the project team. Additional details will be provided in a future blog post.
Our Tuesday discussion this week (May 13, 2014 at 8 p.m. EDT) will continue our look at the evolving and complex area of Digital Citizenship. Join our live voice conversation [here] to share your insights,ideas and ask questions. The meeting room will be open at 7:30.
Over the month, we are reading the book It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens (by Danah Boyd) available for download (free) here: http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf
Continue exploring the #digitalcitizenship and #digcit hashtags on Twitter as well as resources on the Scoop.it page here. The Digital Citizen, a weekly paper.li publication, may have resources of interest as well.
As you blog, use the #OSSEMOOC tag so others are able to find and respond to your thinking.
Together, we are reading the book It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens (by Danah Boyd) available for download (free) here: http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf
As well, we are suggesting that #digitalcitizenship and #digcit would be great hashtags to follow on Twitter this month to help push your thinking in this area.
We are collating some online #digitalcitizenship resources in the Scoop.it page here. Check back often to see what has been added, or subscribe to the feed for this page (use the green Follow button when you get there).
It looks something like this:
The OSAPAC Digital Citizenship group will be joining us, as well as some other special guests.
Check out The Digital Citizen, a paper.li by Mark Carbone for new resources and thinking on this topic. You can subscribe to the paper by providing your email address.
Remember that this is a Connectivist MOOC, and we all share our learning with others. Special thanks to Andy Forgrave and Deb McCallum for sharing 30 Days of Learning in Ontario in unique, collated formats.
As you blog, use the #OSSEMOOC tag so others are able to find and respond to your thinking.
Our April 22nd Tuesday night discussion will delve into the topic of Digital Citizenship. In consideration of today’s technology enabled learning environments, and the connected lives our students lead this is an area of increasing importance.
Join the meeting room by clicking [here] any time after 7:30. The session will run 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. If you are joining the OSSEMOOC conversation for the first time, please allow a few extra minutes for the necessary set up downloads to occur.
We look forward to connecting with you to discuss this important topic.
OSSEMOOC 