Week Eight: Taking Time to Reflect. . .

Our grand experiment has reached week eight.  If someone you didn't know asked you about the class and what you have learned, what would you tell them?  What proof would you offer that documents your journey, your learning?  As your mentor, or guide, in this process, I have two main places where I go to see your progress, Twitter and your blogs.  I look for reflections on your natural curiosity and what you are learning. . .There should be multiple posts that discuss something you find curious, interesting, or challenging.  I look at my Tweetdeck and the #usdedu and our educ578 stream to find things you have discovered and shared. Is there ample evidence of your learning?  Are you curating content or using Diigo to bookmark your progress.  If so, how are you sharing? Are you fostering your passion? Have you participated in an educational chat?  If so, what was the chat hashtag, the topic, and is there a reflective blog post on the experience?  Have you been commenting on your peers' work?  Have you been sharing your work and your peers work by re-tweeting and adding hashtags that other people/groups would find interesting? Are you already involved in your 20% project?  What have you learned so far and what is your evidence?

Franny the Wonder Dog!

In the name of learning transparently, I would like you to write a blog post, in class this evening (or from home if you cannot make it to class), that captures an assessment of your learning so far this semester. . .please discuss the evidence for your learning. Discuss your successes and your challenges. . .and comment on your peers blogs. 

Then, I would like you to make a list (checklist or diagram, or. . .) that represents what you believe all students should be doing to document their learning in this course each week. . . (wunderlist.com is a great tool for this) and post it in your blog post or link on the side. This process might help you help yourself understand and/or quantify what you should be doing each week. As we have already discussed in class, I think some people really need to see a checklist or some other medium that represents work that needs to be completed. It will also help me understand what you believe learning should look like. I am also trying to find the balance between too much and not enough support. . .I have the matrix, but perhaps one of you could come up with a way to visualize the process. If you want to see some tangible examples of learning transparently, look at the following blogs: Alexis, Angelica, Far, Lindsay, Maureen, and Nour.  I see authentic and continued learning on their blogs (multiple original posts) and on Twitter. . .

Tonight, I will help you with the Pink project, whether it be brainstorming or technical support.  Also, we need to discuss your class visit to Encinitas.  I have heard from Dr. Miyashiro and he is happy to have us and can take us to two schools!  We need to pick a few dates tonight please.

I hope you will all be wearing black tonight to support Maureen as she mourns the death of her beloved Tigers. . .or at least pour out a little of your Starbucks in her honor. . .

Question: Who is your current favorite musical artist or musician?

Week Seven: Are you a Learner or a Student?

We have already passed the half-way mark of the semester.  As such, if you were an undergrad, we would probably be talking about mid-term exams or papers. . .two things that have caused more night-sweats, loud shrieks, and sleepless nights than the totality of all the horror in the Hollywood All Hallows' Eve cinematic masterpieces. . .But of course, you learned a lot in the process.  And the letter grade you earned accurately represented your learning, right?

This is the second time I have been fortunate enough to teach this course.  EDUC 578: Learning and Technology. I'm not sure any of you knew what you were in for when you signed up. As I reflect on the title of this post, I wonder if it is too late for MA level students to truly become learners in school.  Most of you have so much experience being a student and so little being a learner (at least in your formal educational experiences), that when I ask you to stop being a student and focus on being a learner, the discomfort is palpable. . .What do you mean? Can't we just get back to our regularly scheduled program. . .Wapner is on at 3:00. I'm an excellent driver. . .What's going to be on the test?  How many pages does the paper have to be?  What font?  How many required references and how should I cite them?
Let me ask you some real questions: Is this a systemic problem?  Is it a problem at all? What is the difference between a learner and a student? Is school always simply going to be a means to an end? What do you propose we do?

So how should I presume?

You are at a point where you should be directing your own learning.  You should be reading, writing, sharing, commenting, archiving/curating, and, most of all, learning.  We discussed this in class last week. You have all of the tools that you need. So, why so little novel work from the group?  I would propose to you that it is because you are so used to being a student, used to having someone else responsible for your learning, used to specific assignments with pre-conceived outcomes, that the freedom to just "learn" is overwhelming. There is also the novelty of taking a class with different expectations and so much flexibility. With that said, there is still time for you to begin to document your learning journey, but if you haven't begun, you are definitely quite behind. I'm a patient man, but this is a graduate-level course.

Monday. . .

You were to have finished Pink before class.  In class, we will discuss the six senses and the project that you will be undertaking regarding the book.  If you haven't already, I would like you to look over the PLN Guidelines that are posted on the class blog. I don't like to think of this as a rubric because then it makes the process (learning) inauthentic, as you wait for the extrinsic reward that comes with completing a task or finishing a checklist (free puppies for anyone who learns). . .but this is a class and checklists and expectations are a part of the scaffolds necessary to get you to do the type of learning I hope you do. . .I have not lost the inherent contradiction in that a "personal" learning network should be just that, "personal," and to force someone to do this tends to give me the type of results I see in the first few weeks of the process . . .However, I still believe that with enough support and encouragement, you can all begin to forget the process and just "learn out loud!"

Think of these two quotes to help guide you in your quest to cultivate your PLN:

"When you learn transparently, you become a teacher."
"You are what you share." 

Some nuts & bolts for the cause . . .

• Have you started your 20% Project?  I really need you to document your journey and don't forget that you will be sharing the project results on your blog and with your peers. . .The end of the semester will be here before you know it.
• Have you participated in an educational chat?  If so, did you write a reflection on your blog and share it on Twitter?
• Are you archiving/curating resources and information around your passion?  What tool are you using?  Are you sharing your findings?
• Are you following interesting links on TweetDeck?  If so, are you reflecting about them on your blog?
• Are you commenting on the class blog entries that ask you questions?

I must say that Lindsay did have an amazing find for me this week: Seth Godin's talk at the Brooklyn Free School from his self-described manifest Stop Stealing Dreams. . .if you haven't watched it, you really should take the time.




Do I dare
Disturb the Universe?

Question:  What should every teacher know about you?

Week Six: Who is Responsible for your Learning?

We have spent the better part of the last few weeks getting  you up to speed on some of the tools you can use to create and cultivate you PLN.  You have looked at theories that support this type of learning and discussed how it applies to you. You have thought about your passion and a topic for your 20% project.  Now, it is time for you to use this personalization process and begin your learning journey. . .It will look different for each of you.  What should be the same is that you are each learning. . .Learning about a topic in depth, about how to connect to other like-minded educators, about how to take responsibility for what you get out of this course, about how to really learn. . .

I mentioned last week, and we discussed in class, that you need to begin to cultivate your PLN. This includes doing more reading, writing, connecting, and sharing online. . .You are beginning your professional/educational "residency."  Uh, yeah, about that. . .I didn't see too much sharing on Twitter, or personal bloggging, or sharing of resources. . .I hope this will be the last week of relative inactivity.  I will go over the matrix that I have created on how to cultivate a PLN, but you are going to be the ones responsible for your learning from this point forward.  I can create conditions under which you can learning, but any actual learning is completely up to you.

Tonight, we will discuss the first part of Pink's book and how it relates to education. I gave you the following guidelines on Edmodo:

1. What is the Conceptual Age (explain in detail).
2. Why does Pink believe this "Conceptual Age" requires a whole new mind?
3. Do you agree or disagree with Pink and why? (Don't forget to read and comment on the work of your peers.)

Here is a link to my notes on the first part of Pink's book from last year.  I will continue to give you reading that you can blog about.  I think Edmodo does a great job allowing me to give you a virtual checklist of what you should be doing and for you to check your progress.  I have begun to give you credit for your work in Edmodo. . .please look for my comments and resubmit if you have missing or incomplete work.


Question:  What is your biggest "takeaway" from the first part of Pink's book?  (click the comment and add your response)

Week Five: Finding Nemo. . .or at Least your Voice Online!

Here we are at week five.  When I reflect back on last year's class, it seems so vastly different from the current class.  Part of it is me, part of it is you, and part of it is simply the passage of time and the blending of us.  I find this comforting.  Others might find this troubling.  Either way, the learning is not the same.  I think this is an argument for learning being a shared experience. . .

Tonight, I want to discuss the concept of a CoP (Community of Practice).  I am curious as to how you all feel about this and how it affects your beliefs about your learning.  Can a "visitor" also be an active member of a CoP?  How long is it appropriate to be a "lurker?"  What does learning look like?  Where does learning occur?  Is "book" learning different from the other ways in which we learn?

I also want to examine your passions and begin to find the direction your learning will take this semester.  What topics do you want to curate?  What CoPs do you want to join?  This is when we begin to discuss educational/leadership chats and their roll in your network. . .

It's time for you begin tweeting more. . .and commenting on things you find and read, and sharing, and archiving/curating content. . .and . . .blogging about your experiences . . .

Have you thought about your classroom visit?  What types of schools would you like to see?  We can discuss everyone's connections.

Lastly, I want you to begin to formulate some ideas for your 20% project. . .in fact I want you to blog some ideas and I, and your peers, will give you some feedback.

Week Four: Tribal Discoveries. . .

Tonight, we will discuss both the book Tribes by Seth Godin and your experiences with the audiobook. I wanted to model for you the tool Storify, which allows you to create a story or timeline using social media. Hopefully, you can create one yourself based on the tweets from your peers. . .We will also finish the discussion of the tools that you will be using in this course, specifically, Google Drive,Google+, Pinterest, Scoop.it, as well as take a look at Dropbox, Evernote, and some other awesome free tools.