Connected Leadership for the 2015-2016 School Year

As you think about your role as a leader during the 2015-2016 school year, you know that being connected is an important part of your work.  A simple first step to connecting with other leaders around the province and around the world is learning to leverage social media for professional learning.

Educators learn and share together on Twitter.

Update: CBC’s interview on why principals and teacher must be on social media

OSSEMOOC is an open support system for leaders to learn to connect and self-direct their professional learning.  A perfect starting point is to get connected on Twitter.

If you are uneasy about getting on social media, here are some steps you can take to access professional learning anonymously.  This is a great starting point for beginners.

On May 5, 2015, we shared how you can use Twitter as a public library.  Read the full post and access all the resources here or start with just the short screencast below.

Once you are ready to be a participant on Twitter, this resource will help you get started.

This short screencast shows you what you will learn.

Check the OSSEMOOC site daily for more support in becoming a connected leader in 2015-2106.

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May 21, 2015: Curating Content with Scoop.It

Yesterday we looked at the important digital literacy skill of curation.  Today, we learn to use a popular curation platform (Sccop.It) both as a place to gather curated material in areas you are interested in and as a place for you to share back content that you want to curate.

As a resource, we are using Day 13 from our 30 Days of Getting Connected: Curating with Scoop.It.

 

As a challenge today, set up your own Scoop.It account and share a link you have found valuable this month.  Then, share back on Twitter using the #OSSEMOOC hashtag.

Leadership in a Networked World

How is Education Leadership in our Networked World different from leadership in the past?

Over the next few weeks, we are considering the skills needed for leaders in a rapidly changing world.

We consider this recent article: Are you a Digital or Analog Leader?

From Bill Fisher in Forbes: Are you an Analog or a Digital Leader?

 

As you look at the article, consider the chart that compares analog and digital leaders.  While this article is for business leaders, we see many words that are bubbling up in education conversations today: “fail”, “ideas”, “multi-disciplinary”, “ecosystem”, “innovation”…

 

We also consider the ISTE Standards for Administrators.

… from ISTE Standards for Administrators: http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-A_PDF.pdf

 

What leadership skills and competencies do you think are required in today’s networked world?

 

February 10: OSSEMOOC presents “Teacher as Researcher” with Dean Shareski

Upcoming OSSEMOOC live conversations:

 

February 10:

Dean Shareski:  “Teacher as Researcher”

In a world of constant flux and change, waiting for the white paper on “best practice” may not be the best way for teachers to stay innovative and provide the best experience for students. What is the role of teacher as researcher? What does or could it look like to be in a state of perpetual experimentation?

February 10, 2015 8 p.m. EST – 9 p.m. EST

Please use this link to enter the synchronous meeting room any time after 7:30 p.m.:
OSSEMOOC presents Dean Shareski.

Please sign up for this event using the form below:

January 27, 2015: Thinking About Professional Learning

The OSSEMOOC Tuesday Night Open Mic session (January 27, 8 p.m. EST) will focus on some of the key conversations from Educon on the topic of Professional Learning.

Click  [here]  to join the meeting room anytime after 7:30.

If you check the #hackpd hashtag and the #Educon hashtag, you will see some of the rich conversations that happened this past weekend at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia.  We want to bring your thoughts on this topic into the conversation.

Here is our key question (originally posed by David Jakes and Kristin Swanson at Educon 2.7):

 “How does a shift occur from a mindset where learning is provided to a culture where learning is sought?”

 

To dig into this, we will focus mainly on the role of the educator.

 

Here are a few of the questions we are posing for this week:

 

1. What do well-designed learning experiences for adults look like?

 

2. Do you believe that all educator professional learning should be directed by what knowledge and skills the data indicate that students need to succeed (i.e., that all professional learning is based on student learning needs)?

 

3.  Should school and system leadership support teachers in the design of their own learning experiences?  If so, how can they do this?

4. Should schools create a culture of teacher-learner agency? (From Wikipedia, “In the social sciences, agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices”.)

5. Do you think that “Professional Development” creates a culture of learned helplessness?

 

6. A conversation around this provocation:

 

 

We hope you will join in the synchronous conversation, and continue to add your thinking to the #hackpd , #ossemooc , and #ontedleaders conversations online. Resources:
1. Solving the Professional Learning Crisis
2. What Counts as Professional Learning?
3. Effective Professional Learning

 

Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 8 – Peeking Inside a Twitter Chat

Update: Here is the learning on “Twitter Chats” from our recent course – Twitter for Absolute Beginners.  This is an updated piece that might be a great addition

 

Here is our learning from November 2015:

Today we begin our second week of connected learning.  Most of our “10 minutes” so far have been about lurking and learning, which is great.  Finding out where to go online to learn what is happening is a huge first step in getting connected.  You need to feel some confidence with the online environment to really be able to leverage it for your own professional learning.

But if everyone just “lurked”, and pulled out what they needed, there would be nothing to “pull out”!  We ask our students to share, and we need to model that as well.  In our 30 days of getting connected, we are working towards full engagement as a connected learner – contributing and challenging, learning and sharing.

When we are learning face-to-face, others can see and hear what is going on.  They can choose to observe, or to join in the conversation.

 svenwerk via Compfight cc

Online learning is different in that we need a few tools and access to digitally wander in and learn more about it.  People can tell us that we should “get on Twitter” because it’s an amazing place for professional learning, but it is difficult to form a concept in our minds of what that is all about if we have not directly experienced it.

This morning, we take you inside a “twitter chat”.

Twitter chats use hashtags to aggregate the tweets on a specific topic.  Normally, they occur at a specific time, and educators often answer questions posed by the moderator (questions appear as Q1, Q2, responders put A1, A2 etc. as part of their answer).

There are twitter chats for every possible interest in education.  There are chats for every grade, every subject area, principals, new teachers, special education, every time of day, you name it!  One fairly comprehensive list of twitter chats can be found here, though there are still many more to add.

Every Saturday morning, a diverse group of educators meet online on Twitter at 7:30 a.m. EST for #satchat. They share and challenge each others’ thinking in rich conversation.  This morning, we share some of today’s #satchat with you, so that you can see what actually happens in a twitter chat.

When you are ready, try joining a chat that interests you. Twitter chats can seem a bit overwhelming to newly connected educators at first, especially if you join a very large chat (for example, #satchat had 573 participants and 49 tweets per minute this morning).  It is very important to realize that you are not going to keep up with every posting by every educator.  Tweets are collected and posted in another format so that you can always go back and read all of the contributions at a later time.

Focus on a few contributors or even a single conversation until you are more comfortable with the tool.

If you already use twitter chats as part of your PLN, what chats have worked well for you, and what do you learn by participating?

First, a few Ontario education leaders share their journey to connected learning:

1. Silvana Hoxha, Vice-Principal and connected educator in the Waterloo Region District School Board generously shares her journey with us in how she began to use Twitter for professional learning.

2. Wayne Toms, ITS and Planning Manager at Limestone District School Board discusses his experience in using Twitter as a Professional Learning Tool.

Here are a few excerpts from #satchat, Saturday November 8, 2014, 7:30 a.m. EST.

Search #satchat on Twitter for the full conversation.  Leave comments here if you need support in accessing this form of professional learning and we will guide you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resources:

Twitter Chats and TweetDeck

Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 3 – What Can You Learn Online?

If you came to this page to share, please scroll down to the form at the bottom of the page.

 

(If you are just starting 30 Days of Getthing Connected today, please see the links to Day 1 and Day 2 on the right side of this page.)

 

Aris.Sanchez via Compfight cc

Finding that 10 minutes to connect might be challenging today, but learning to be a connected leader will help your students in so many ways.

You can do it!

As we continue to look at how we collect information online, we will spend some time today looking at resources for educators.  By the end of the month, you will be curating and sharing these resources with others, but for today, we will just survey some of the valuable resources available to you to help you with your professional learning.

Yesterday we focused on reading some of the blogs written by Ontario educators and other educators.

Take 10 minutes today, and look at some of the valuable information available to you online.

Here are a few sites you might find useful:

Canadian Education Association

TeachThought

ASCD

MindShift

Free Technology for Teachers

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day

If you already take time to read and learn from websites like these, what other sites would you suggest?  Please fill out the form below, and we will share the responses here for readers.

 

Consider how much easier it will be when you are connected with other educators and you share the best information from sites all over the world!

Responses (it may take awhile for new responses to populate this page).

Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 1 – Dedicating Time

If you are reading this, you already know that the world is changing, and you know that as a leader in education you need to be connected.  But where do you start?

This month, OSSEMOOC is taking you from beginner to connected in 10 minutes a day.

In education, we work long hours, and boundaries between home life and work can blur.  We know we need to learn, but finding the time is challenging.

If you can commit to finding 10 minutes to connect each day in November, we will help you establish some habits of connecting, creating and sharing that will start you on the road to becoming a connected leader.

 

So let’s begin!

If you feel a bit unsure when it comes to technology, here is a great place to start working on your mindset for learning.

 

The next video is old (2008) but still relevant as we consider why taking the time to learn to be a connected leader is critical to the success of our students.

 

Now in our remaining three minutes, let’s consider the video that supports Ontario’s renewed vision in education (follow the link in green).  What are the needs of our students in today’s world?

Ontario’s Renewed Vision

Video transcript:

“I’m an Ontario student, and my world is constantly changing.
I live in a world where technology is everywhere.
I can connect with a friend in another part of the globe, just as easily as I can with a friend down the street.
When I graduate high school, I will enter a world that is more competitive and connected than ever before.
My education will prepare me for that world.
My school will be a place where my friends and I can be successful, regardless of where we come from.
A place where we are inspired to learn by engaging teachers using new technology.
Our diversity will not be a barrier, but rather a reason for our success.
We will develop the strength of character to overcome obstacles and be resilient, whatever comes our way.
We will feel safe and welcome, and know that our well-being is supported inside and outside of school.
We will be the innovators, community builders, creators, skilled workers, entrepreneurs and leaders of tomorrow.
As an Ontario student, I will achieve excellence.”

In your last minute for today, consider the reasons why it is so important for education leaders to own their own learning, and to connect with other educators online.  Perhaps some of the resources posted below will be helpful to you.

Learning through online videos is just one of the many ways you can direct your own professional development.

Check back here tomorrow as we start looking at how Ontario education leaders are making their thinking and learning visible.

Stay connected!

 

Further Resources:

Connected Educators, Leaders and Schools

Check out http://langwitches.org/blog/ for more insight into the whys and hows of being a connected leader.

Connected Educators

Connected Principals

 

Why do our students need connected leaders?

Why do we need connected leaders?

Connected Learners Need Connected Leaders

Learning from Ontario Educators

Here in Ontario, we love Fridays!

It’s not just because warm sweaters and jeans are finally acceptable work attire, but also because Doug Peterson is working his best magic in connecting Ontario educators and enabling the sharing we all need to do to keep up with change.

Doug’s #FollowFriday “Active Ontario Educators” posts on Twitter are the perfect starting place for new and old tweeters alike as we build our online PLNs in social media.

But what is really special, is Doug’s curated summary of the Ontario edublogs that impacted his thinking through the week.  What a great opportunity to sample the rich thinking this province has to offer.

So as we embrace this last Friday of October, and think ahead to our November work in nurturing leaders into becoming “connected”, we want to thank Doug for his tireless efforts to connect our thinking in Ontario, and suggest that following Doug’s work is a great starting point for any Ontario educator looking to become a connected leader.

Happy Hallowe’en!

Welcome to Ontario’s Newest Blogger

We welcome Andrea Gillespie, Superintendent with Trillium Lakelands District School Board to our growing list of School and System Leader edubloggers (left side of this page).

Andrea is a force behind #TLDSBLearns and she is modelling the practice of making her thinking and learning visible so that we can all learn from her.

Check out her blog here (I’m sure she would welcome your comments!): http://andreagillespie.wordpress.com/ and follow her on Twitter @1223Andrea.

Let’s continue to encourage all education leaders to blog and share their thinking.  If nobody shares, nobody learns!