Teaching as a Human – Humane Process

I often mention that one of the roles of the educator is that of an ethnographer.  Loosely defined, . . .

An ethnographer is a person who gathers and records data about human culture and societies. An ethnographer often needs to be able to find patterns in and understand issues faced by a wide sample of people with diverse backgrounds.  The information ethnographers collect can be used not only for providing a better understanding of societies, but also for improving quality of life. (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-an-ethnographer-do.htm)

As teachers know, every class they teach is different, every student in each of these classes is different and unique.  Good teaching entails seeing (really seeing) every student in the classroom, getting to know each of them as the individuals they really are and deserve to be. (Disclaimer:  I know this is difficult, if not impossible, for educator who work with hundreds of students at any given time.)

The teacher as an ethnography gets to know individual students as individuals, being able to assess what the student needs when.  Teaching as a human-humane process translates to knowing when to push, when to pull back, when to ignore, when to encourage, when to praise, when to critique, when to challenge, when to nurture, when to cheer, when to show love.

Monica took a teaching methods with me where the class project was to develop a curriculum unit.  I believe and practice mastery learning.  This means students can make revisions and resubmissions when their work does not meet project expectations and criteria.  She worked on the changes I suggested.  Upon a second review, it was still B work, but I knew how hard she worked.  I basically said to myself, “She worked quite hard, to the best of her ability,” so I granted her an A for this winter intersession course.  It was the beginning of Winter term.  I was walking past the dorms.  Monica came out into the second floor balcony with a paper, her grades, in hand.  She exuberantly yelled to me, “Jackie, I got an A in class.  It is the first A I have gotten in college.”  The look of joy on her face was priceless.

Don’t get me wrong.  It is not about giving students A’s to raise their self-esteem.  Sometimes the human-humane process is to push a student to his or her limits.

Andrew, a 25 year-old, was a Teach for America student in the Master’s of Education program where I was teaching.  He received a Bachelor’s degree from an Ivy league school, and came to New Mexico for the programs.  For the curriculum class I was teaching, students were asked to create artifacts for their classroom – no paper nor tests.  Andrew handed in his first project.  It was sloppy and lacked a professional presentation.  He received the equivalent to a C.  He came up to me after class to talk about his grade.  I provided additional feedback the problems with his work.  He began to cry explaining that he always earned A’s for his work but also emphasized that his education, thus far, consisted of taking tests and writing papers.  To this I responded that I understood, but that I would continue to push him to improve the quality of his projects.  His work got better and at the end of the course he told me that as difficult as it was, he appreciated how I challenged him.

Being fair with students is not about providing all students with equal treatment at all times.  This actually leads to unfair treatment of students as they are individuals and are not like widgets – equal in all respects.  It also acknowledges and honors that individual students differ from day to day, sometimes minute to minute as they continue to learn, grasp concepts, change moods, change relationships, and to grow.  This translates into continually assessing individual learner needs and offering them what you think they need to grow and learn at any given moment.

The result are those light bulb moments, when a learner “gets it” – understands something that s/he has struggled to understand, when his or her self-efficacy rises, when a learner realizes s/he is smarter than previously believed – it is these moments that are the most meaningful for me as an educator.

If We Expect Educators to . . .

Educators are given a lot of suggestions about how to improve their classroom practices, but as we know, change needs to begin with oneself.  I’ve heard a lot of such suggestions at recent education conferences – SXSWedu, ASCD, and DML2013 – but the missing piece is that these changes need to begin with the educators, themselves, with expectations, tools, strategies, time (for collaboration and reflection) to do so.  What follows are my ideas related to how it can begin with the teacher – please add to the list if you have any others.

If we expect educators to help learners formulate good questions, we need to permit and encourage them to ask their own hard questions about their own practices, content area knowledge, and pedagogical beliefs.

If we expect educators to integrate technology into their classrooms, we need to give them the brainstorming time, strategies, tools, and training to play, tinker, and engage with technology.

If we want educators to come up with some really great ways to improve their classrooms, we need to give them innovation days with great food, beverages, and comfy bean bag chairs. (Mrs. Walf)

If we want educators to use cooperative learning strategies with their students, we need to give them the strategies and time to work with their colleagues.

If we expect educators to move beyond textbook lesson plans, we need to encourage and show them how to open-source their best lessons online, allowing peer to peer and bottom up sharing of best practices. (Kevin Miklasz)

If we expect educators to assist students in becoming self directed learners, we need to give them autonomy to create and direct their own learning journeys.

If we expect educators to embrace the growth mindset and encourage learners to be free to openly make mistakes and learn from them, we need to create schools that reflect a growth mindset in their culture, expectations, and requirements. (Joan Young)

If we want educators to develop their own professional learning communities, we need to tear down the walled gardens of the school to enable them to connect with other educators.

If we want educators to encourage creativity and innovation, we need to remove the literal and metaphorical classroom, testing, curriculum, standards-driven walls.

If we want teachers to be lifelong learners, we need to start this process with the expectancy they will be so when they are themselves young students.

If we want educators to create magic in their classrooms, we need to give them the encouragement and permission to develop and use their own unique magic wands and pixie dust.

Using the Internet and Social Media to Enhance Social-Emotional Learning

The news media is filled with horror stories about young people and the Internet, but what is often overlooked and not reported are the benefits that technology, the Internet, and Social media have in building and enhancing social-emotional skills.

Young people are doing what they have always done as part of their journey into adulthood, including socializing with peers, investigating the world, trying on identities and establishing independence, but now they are just doing so using the Internet and social media (Seeing Social Media More as Portal Than as Pitfall).

In 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Communications and Media issued a clinical report, “The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents and Families.” It began by emphasizing the benefits of social media for children and adolescents, including enhanced communication skills and opportunities for social connections.  (Seeing Social Media More as Portal Than as Pitfall)

Young people are using the Internet and research is showing that there can be benefits for social skills development and social emotional learning.

Engaging in various forms of social media is a routine activity that research has shown to benefit children and adolescents by enhancing communication, social connection, and even technical skills. Social media sites such as Facebook offer multiple daily opportunities for connecting with friends, classmates, and people with shared interests. (The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families)

Social media, at times, offers opportunities for the development of social emotional skills in ways that face-to-face may not.

Social media sites allow teens to accomplish online many of the tasks that are important to them offline: staying connected with friends and family, making new friends, sharing pictures, and exchanging ideas. Social media participation also can offer adolescents deeper benefits that extend into their view of self, community, and the world, including^:

1. opportunities for community engagement through raising money for charity and volunteering for local events, including political and philanthropic events;

2. enhancement of individual and collective creativity through development and sharing of artistic and musical endeavors;

3. growth of ideas from the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming sites;

4. expansion of one’s online connections through shared interests to include others from more diverse backgrounds (such communication is an important step for all adolescents and affords the opportunity for respect, tolerance, and increased discourse about personal and global issues); and

5. fostering of one’s individual identity and unique social skills. (The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families)

The Internet and Social Media have the potential to leverage the playing field for those with special needs, not just academically but also social-emotionally.  Kyle , who has been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, attention deficit disorder and Asperger’s Syndrome, discusses how the social media benefited him in Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter help some with special needs and developmental disorders to better communicate:

“Two to three years ago and I wasn’t able to talk to people face to face. Like, this right now, I wouldn’t have been able to explain anything. I would have been all shy and weird looking, sort of.”  As a teenager, Kyle was introduced to the social network website MySpace, and then later, Facebook, and he credits both with helping him to be able to have friends and conversations today.”It’s basically just the fact that you don’t have to have a person staring back at you with what you’re saying. I try to share a lot of inspirational quotes,” he explains. “This one says ‘the best relationships tend to begin unexpectedly.’ I can vouch for that.”

The adults, who care and work with young people, have a unique opportunity to join and support them as they navigate through this journey.  What this translates into is using the Internet and social with intention and helping young people to also do so.  As Anne Collier notes in Literacy for a digital age: Transliteracy or what?,  social literacy is important in this age of Internet communication.

If we all grew up with social-emotional learning, we’d have greater academic success and social skills and a lot less bullying in schools and workplaces. And if we applied those emotion management and empathy skills to online spaces as much as offline ones, we’d probably witness a lot less cyberbullying and other forms of online aggression (not to mention “traditional” bullying). We’d also probably have much less of a problem with dis-inhibition, the lack of visual cues that display our reactions to one another that can make us forget that those are fellow human beings with feelings behind the text messages, comments, avatars, etc. through which we communicate in digital spaces.

A lot of talk, press, and focus in this era of learning is on common core standards and 21st century skills and literacies.  What is often neglected is the importance of building social emotional skills within the classroom.

The challenge of raising knowledgeable, responsible, and caring children is recognized by nearly everyone. Few realize, however, that each element of this challenge can be enhanced by thoughtful, sustained, and systematic attention to children’s social and emotional learning (SEL). Indeed, experience and research show that promoting social and emotional development in children is “the missing piece” in efforts to reach the array of goals associated wit h improving schooling in the United States. (The Need for Social Emotional Learning)

It’s not enough to simply fill students’ brains with facts. A successful education demands that their character be developed as well. That’s where social and emotional learning comes in. SEL is the process of helping students develop the skills to manage their emotions, resolve conflict nonviolently, and make responsible decisions.  Research shows that promoting social and emotional skills leads to reduced violence and aggression among children, higher academic achievement, and an improved ability to function in schools and in the workplace. Students who demonstrate respect for others and practice positive interactions, and whose respectful attitudes and productive communication skills are acknowledged and rewarded, are more likely to continue to demonstrate such behavior. Students who feel secure and respected can better apply themselves to learning. (Why Champion Social and Emotional Learning?)

I have written a series of blog posts that address social-emotional learning, how it can be influenced by technology, and how the Internet and Social media can be used to facilitate effective and positive social-emotional skills:

• Learner Agency, Technology, and Emotional Intelligence – http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/learner-agency-technology-and-emotional-intelligence/
• Video Games and Social Emotional Learning – http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/games-and-social-emotional-learning/
• Providing Opportunities for Learners to Tell Their Stories - http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/provide-opportunities-for-students-to-tell-their-stories/
• An Education Filled with Wonder – http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/an-education-filled-with-wonder/
• Dream-Driven Education – http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/dream-driven-education/
• Connectedness, or lack of, in Education (School) – http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/connectedness-or-lack-of-in-education-school/
• Social Media a Cause: Learning Activity – http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/social-media-a-cause-learning-activity/
• Addressing Sandy Hook (and other tragedies) in the Classroom - http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/addressing-sandy-hooks-and-other-tradegies-in-the-classroom/
• Being With Our Students As If It Was Our Last Day Together – http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/12/15/being-with-our-students-as-if-it-were-our-last-day-together/

Additional posts relevant and related to the topic of technology and social emotional learning have been written by my colleague, Anne Collier:

• Self-definition in social media: I am not my online profile – http://www.netfamilynews.org/self-definition-in-social-media-i-am-not-my-online-profile
• Literacy for a digital age: Transliteracy or what? – http://www.netfamilynews.org/literacy-for-a-digital-age-transliteracy-or-what

I created a website of activities that use technology to enhance social-emotional learning.  Here is a list with brief descriptions of these activities:

• Acts of Kindness: Commit to engaging in acts of kindness and record those acts – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/acts-of-kindness.html
• Books Trailers: Create a book trailer of a children’s book dealing with emotional intelligence – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/book-trailers.html
• Collage of Feelings: Create a collage, via Wordle or Glogster, to depict a wide array of feelings – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/collage-of-feelings.html
• Conflict Analysis via Toontastic (from Joan Young): Learners use the Toontastic Story Arc app to describe a conflict situation at school - http://seltechnology.weebly.com/conflict-analysis-via-toontastic.html
• Conflict Management Strategies Posters: Group of learners create a group presentation of their favorite conflict management strategies using an online motivational poster generator – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/conflict-management-strategies-posters.html
• Dear Abby Letters: Using an online collaborative writing too, participants make suggestions to resolve problems posed by their classmates – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/dear-abby-letters.html
• Dream Driven Education: Identifying and tracking progress toward ones dreams as part of the educational process – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/dream-driven-education.html
• Feelings Posters with Photos: Learners take and post their own photos of a wide range of photos – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/feelings-poster-with-photos.html
• Four Quadrant Poster: Create a four quadrant or slide that visually depicts best learning experience, the one does best, most fun thing ever done, and what you wonder about – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/four-quadrant-poster.html
• I Am Poems:  Group presentation that shows individual learner’s I Am poem and associated image – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/i-am-poems.html
• Identifying Emotions Apps:  List of apps that assists learners in learning about and identifying emotions – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/identifying-emotions-apps.html
• Mobile Sharing: Learners share favorite photos, videos, or music with their group members to better get to know one another - http://seltechnology.weebly.com/mobile-sharing.html
• Personal Support Networks: Learners share personal strengths, needs, contact information with co-learners in order to create personal support networks – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/personal-support-networks.html
• Photojournalism: Community Service or Social Cause Event: Create a video mash-up of photos and/or video taken at a local service event - http://seltechnology.weebly.com/photojournalism-a-community-service-or-social-cause-event.html
• SEL Comic Creation: Create an online comic strip about a social-emotional related personal situation – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/sel-comic-creation.html
• Social Media a Cause: Locate a cause via social networks based on personal interest/desire to join – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/sel-comic-creation.html
• Tech Teach to Grandparents: Young people make a commitment to teach technology to senior citizens – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/teach-tech-to-grandparents.html
• Texting Interviews:  Pairs of learners text each other to learn about one another and report results via an online bulletin board - http://seltechnology.weebly.com/texting-interviews.html
• Twitter for Good: Learners develop a hashtag for their community of learners and Tweet out compliments about and positive feedback for one another – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/twitter-for-good.html
• What’s Your Sentence (from Joan Young): Learners write and publish commentary about a sentence that depicts what they want to be remembered for – http://seltechnology.weebly.com/whats-your-sentence.html

References

Collier, A.  (2012). Literacy for a digital age: Transliteracy or what?  Retrieved from http://www.netfamilynews.org/literacy-for-a-digital-age-transliteracy-or-what.

Edwards, E. (2013).  Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter help some with special needs and developmental disorders to better communicate. Retrieved from http://www.firstcoastnews.com/topstories/article/299239/483/Social-media-helps-some-with-special-needs-to-better-communicate.

Edutopia Staff. (2008). Why Champion Social and Emotional Learning?: Because It Helps Students Build Character. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/social-emotional-learning-introduction.

Elias, M. J., Zins, J. E., Weissberg, R. P., Frey,K. S., Greenberg, M. T.. Haynes, N. M., Kessler, R.,  Schwab-Stone, M. E., & Shriver, T.P. (1997).  The Need for Social Emotional Learning. ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/197157/chapters/The-Need-for-Social-and-Emotional-Learning.aspx.

Gerstein, J. Technology Enhanced Social-Emotional Activities. http://seltechnology.weebly.com/.

Klass, P. (2012) Seeing Social Media More as Portal Than as Pitfall.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/health/views/seeing-social-media-as-adolescent-portal-more-than-pitfall.html.

Shurgin O’Keeffe, G, and Clarke-Pearson, K. (2011).  The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families.  http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/4/800.full?sid=4f54b3cb-d54c-4671-85db-38034f238ec9

Using the Internet and Social Media to Enhance Social-Emotional Learning by Jackie Gerstein is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Teachers’ Perceptions About the Achievement Gap: Understanding the Discursive Construction of Whiteness

About 18 years ago, I taught my first Master’s level course.  A quiet, attentive young woman sat in the back of the room.  She didn’t say much but her eyes attended to everything going on in the room.  I read her first paper and said to myself, “This woman is brilliant.”  Eighteen years later, I had the privilege to serve on her dissertation committee and witness her complete her formal education journey by defending her dissertation and becoming Dr. Virginia Padilla-Vigil.  I am so very proud of her.

Not only does this dissertation have significance for me personally, but the content has significance for me as a teacher educator and educational reformer.  As Dr. Padilla-Vigil noted in her dissertation defense, teachers are the most powerful people on the planet.  They make decisions every day that affect each of their student’s lives.  These decisions last a lifetime.  As such, diversity and cultural awareness initiatives must include examining and unlearning whiteness-at-work and racism through the development of critical reflective practices.

The following excerpts are taken from Dr. Padilla-Vigil’s (Gina’s) dissertation are especially relevant in this discussion.  I recommend reflecting deeply on her comments and findings.

Padilla-Vigil, V. (2013).  Teachers’ Perceptions About the Achievement Gap: Understanding the Discursive Construction of Whiteness. Unpublished dissertation: University of New Mexico.

As I look back on my experiences as a student in northern New Mexico schools, I would describe my schooling in the tradition of the “banking method” of education (Freire, 1993).  I was taught through a rigidly authoritarian framework and I have vivid memories of feeling fearful and intimidated as a learner in classrooms.  Critical thinking, problem solving, analysis and other higher level thinking skills were not a major part of my school curriculum and students did not have much voice in the classroom.  In fact, my school’s curriculum resembled the working class schools Jean Anyon refers to in “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” (Anyon, 1980).

As I heard the stories of (my study’s) participants (new teachers in an alternative licensure system), the way in which they described their schools reminded me of my own schooling experiences.  Their beliefs about the world, teaching and learning, students, themselves, and the education system shape their approach to teaching and the resulting impact they have on student learning.  More importantly, their ideologies, as precursors to beliefs, shape teacher behaviors and practices, which in turn impact student learning.

The participants expressed a general desire to make a difference in the lives of their students and to ensure their students achieve academic success.  They held a broad perspective of diversity and acknowledged it as both a challenge and an asset.  What became evident through my interactions with the participants was that while they hold positive intentions for students, their hegemonic ideologies will override their positive intentions.  Without intervention, the participants’ hegemonic ideologies manifested in their practices will perpetuate whiteness and undermine the success of their diverse students.

I do not believe they are prepared to act in the best interests of historically marginalized students.  Again, although well-meaning, the participants have not developed the critical consciousness and race awareness necessary to act in equitable and liberating ways.  They have not gone through the critical process of unlearning racism and, as such, they will continue to repress any notions of whiteness, further supporting their deficit perspectives of diverse students.  While they have gained a conceptual understanding of diversity and what it means to be an effective teacher of diverse students, their understanding is mired in hegemonic ideologies that serve to fragment their knowledge and distort their structural consciousness of it.  These hegemonic ideologies were not exposed and interrogated in the program and as a result the participants did not experience ideological transformation or a re-coding of their knowledge that would disrupt their repression and denial of whiteness.

Colorblindness will prevent them from getting to the heart of inequity where they will find urgency and purpose in counter-hegemonic teaching.  Not having engaged in the deep critical reflection required to expose hegemonic ideologies, the participants hold limited and distorted understandings about diversity and inequity that make it difficult for them to act in favor of truly equitable education.  These limited and distorted understandings are characteristic of dysconscious racism (King, 1991) and will serve as a hindrance to their success and the success of their diverse students.

Countering inequity in the educational system is no small task. Although there are numerous factors that influence student learning, it is well known that effective teachers can make a big difference in terms of narrowing the achievement gap.  Yet, our public education system continues to allow students growing up in poverty, students of color and low-performing students to be disproportionately taught by inexperienced, under-qualified teachers (Darling-Hammond & Sclan, 1996; Peske & Haycock, 2006) in under-resourced and low-quality schools.

Although I agree that teacher quality is important, I believe there is much more to being an effective teacher in a racialized society where schools serve as sorting mechanisms maintaining the hierarchial structures and preserving whiteness.  As such, it will take much more than providing children of color with access to high quality teachers.  Teachers must be critically conscious, having gone through the process of unlearning racism and positioned to engage in transformative counter-hegemonic pedagogy.  Any reform efforts aimed at improving the education of diverse students and closing the achievement gap must take into account the powerful potential of teachers to make a difference among the many other factors that impact student learning and achievement.

For true transformation to take place, teachers must realize their roles as counter-hegemonic teachers who challenge the unjust structures, policies and practices in schools that undermine the success of students of color.  Further, they need to transcend the conservative and liberal multicultural frameworks that serve as the cornerstone of most teacher education programs.  To become anti-racist teachers, they need to develop a critical multicultural perspective that will serve as a tool in subverting racism (Nylund, 2006).  Empowered with a critical lens, they will see whiteness as the“every day, invisible, subtle, cultural and social practices, ideas and codes that discursively secure the power and privilege of white people”, but that strategically remains unmarked, unnamed, and unmapped in contemporary society” (Shome, 1996, p. 503)

Critical reflection as an inward focused form of ideological critique can trigger a personal transformation where problematic ideologies are replaced with counter-hegemonic ones.  Essentially, ideological transformation can be equated with the unlearning of racism.  It is at this juncture that teachers may consciously choose their moral and ethical paths: whether to deny and repress conceptions of whiteness and continue to perpetuate and preserve it through their practices, or to acknowledge whiteness and work to dismantle it by enacting counter-hegemonic practices. The latter requires a deep commitment on the part of the teacher, and in making this commitment, the teacher subjects herself to a journey ridden in resistance and conflict, for no longer can she view her work through the rose colored glasses of the liberal framework that maintains an illusion of racelessness and the insidiousness of whiteness..

What is required is that teachers achieve ideological transformation through the unlearning of racism that replaces hegemonic ideologies with counter-hegemonic ones.  Unfortunately, given the recent pendulum shift towards standards-based, accountability models of education, it is unlikely that teachers will enter classrooms with even the bare minimum of cultural competency, as competencies related to diversity are sorely lacking in teacher education curriculum and state/national standards.

References

Anyon, J. (1980). Social class and the hidden curriculum of work. Journal of Education, 162(1), 1-11.

Darling-Hammond, L., & Sclan, E. M. (1996). Who teaches and why: Dilemmas of building a profession for twenty-first century schools. In J. Sikula (Ed.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 67-101). New York: Macmillan.

Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum Publishing Company.

King, J. E. (1991). Dysconscious racism: Ideology, identity, and the miseducation of teachers. The Journal of Negro Education, 60(2), 133-146.

Peske, H. G., & Haycock, K. (2006). Teaching inequality: How poor and minority students are shortchanged on teacher quality. Washington, DC: The Education Trust.

Nylund, D. (2006). Critical multiculturalism, whiteness, and social work: Towards a more radical view of cultural competence. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 17(2), 27-42.

Shome, R. (1996). Race and popular cinema: The rhetorical strategies of whiteness in city of joy. Communication Quarterly, 44(4), 502-518.

Social Networked Learning Course Reflections

During Fall, 2012, I developed and taught a graduate course entitled, Social Networked Learning, for the Boise State University’s Educational Technology Program.  Most of the students were in-service K-12 educators. I provided an overview of the learning activities for this course in two previous blog posts.

• Educators as Social Networked Learners
• Developing a MOOC-Inspired Course

Sample student projects from this course can be viewed at http://learni.st/users/jackiegerstein/boards/4710-social-networked-learning.

This was a new course in educational technology.  As is true for many of us using educational technology in the classroom, we are experimenting with how technology can enhance the learning experiences of our students.  Sometimes we have failures, often times we have successes.  Yet, in this age of evidenced-based education, educators, administrators, and other decision-makers are depending on and using the data gleamed from large studies often completed by companies with vested interests, e.g. Gates Foundation, book publishers, and testing companies.

Educators can easily conduct action research about the practices they are using in their own classrooms especially given the ease of creating online surveys and data collection methods.  Yet, it seems that it is rarely done.

So if educators want to influence what occurs in not only their own classrooms, but in the classrooms of their co-teachers, then they need to invest the time and energy to demonstrate best practices.  In a related blog, I discuss Every Educator Has a Story . . . Just Tell It.

In order for students to reflect on the course activities and for me, as the instructor, to get feedback about what elements of the course were valuable for the students, I asked students to engage in two end-of-course activities: a survey of open-closed ended questions developed specific for the course and final blog reflection about the course.

End-of-Course Survey

19 of the 22 students in the course completed the survey.  Some of the results of the survey follow.

First, they were asked to rate the course projects using a type of Likert Scale.

Next, they were asked a series of open ended questions.

Question: We used a lot of social networks – Twitter, Facebook, Moodle, shared documents for your small group projects, Diigo. Which types of social networks did you find most useful in your learning process?  Sample student responses:

• Twitter was a social network that I really “grew up” with during this course. At the beginning of the course I was a “newbie” but now I am very confident with it and use it A LOT (and TweetDeck) to find materials and talk to other people!
• Facebook and Twitter were the most beneficial social networks that I used in this course. The connections made here are those that can be maintained long after the course is completed, and I have already discussed keeping in touch with one of my group members after completing the program for continued professional development.
• I find Diigo to be the best of these platforms. The way you can bookmark, comment, and share all at once saves time and is extremely useful. I also gained an appreciate for Facebook and Twitter as educational resources. I will likely use Twitter in my future learning.

Question: What was the most valuable aspect of the course? What made it valuable? Sample student responses:

• The most valuable aspect of the course was to be able to explore new social networking tools and further investigate those I have used previously but to also be able to apply their use to my current work situation. The ability to immediately use what we have learned in this course has made it a very valuable learning experience.
• Curation was the most valuable part of this course. I have bookmarked for a while now, but I had never envisioned how much more powerful I could make bookmarking by creating a curated library. By teaching my students how to curate, I believe they will develop many essential skills. This includes the ability to organize information, determine the accuracy of a source, developing resource libraries and summarizing. All of these skills are essential literacy skills that could be developed in any subject area.
• The most valuable aspect of this course was definitely the PLN and postivie digital footprint lessons. I have long ignored social media and this course has given me a great appreciation of the benefits of these tools. Moreover, the positive footprint lesson taught me how to keep my information and name safe.
• The most valuable aspect for me was learning how to use social networking for professional development. Before teachers will try using it in the classroom as a tool, they need to first realize that it can be a tool for them also.

Question: How have your grown professionally? Sample student responses:

• I have gained an even greater appreciation for professional learning communities. I have always believed in sharing and working together as professionals. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses and a good team compliments one another and works together to compensate for each person’s weaknesses. However, I had never considered that my professional learning community could extend beyond my school and district. I was excited to take part in online webinars that made me more effective as an educator.
• This course is by far the one that has helped me the most professionally and it’s the one I didn’t really expect to get much out of. I kind of thought I “got” social networking but I had no idea. I have grown my PLE/PLN in ways I had never envisioned before. I’m consistent in my “brand” and intention and I am out there much more than I was before. I have certainly grown myself and my network. This will be a class that I remember, value, and will look back on as being immensely helpful and practical.
• I have grown in acquiring a deeper understanding of the importance of my digital footprint and PLN. Before this course I had become a member of many different social networking sites, both personally and professionally, but my contribution to many of them in a professional context was minimal. I have learned the benefits of really becoming an active contributor to these social networking sites to expand my professional contacts and learning network.
• I am finding out that I am not alone and that with all these amazing resources out there for me, the sky is the limit on what I really can do in my classroom.

Question: How your own teaching practice or thoughts about teaching have been impacted by what you have learned or accomplished in this course? Sample student responses:

• I love having a great conversation with students. What I have found is there are a certain number of students who really struggle with participation in front of a class. I think that social networking can provide an opportunity for those students to come out of their shells and teach us all. I also feel like I have changed how I view the reflective process for my students. I have determined that it is important for me to allow students to evaluate and reflect on their own work and the work of others.
• I see how helping students build a PLN will help them become lifelong learners. If I can help spark an interest in a topic during the course and teach students how to keep finding resources, their learning experience will not end when the semester is over.
• This has deepened my resolve about connectivist activities in the classroom.  I can now talk about how the journey often times can teach as much as the destination.
• I learned that there are so many tools out there that our students are already using that we could start using in the classroom that would get more participation and excitement about the class.

Highlights of Student Final Blog Reflection

The final course assignment was for students to reflect on the course activities using the survey questions to guide them, if needed.  Some commentary from their blog posts . . .

I’ve enjoyed the various social networking tools that we’ve used and the information about digital footprints.  It’s been a great course and I’ve loved every minute of it.  Social media and networking have such powerful sharing and community building platforms already in place.  It’s silly that mainstream education has not fully harnessed their power yet, however I see improvement and the road heading that way. Fabio http://edtech.cominotti.net/llog/2012/12/10/social-network-learning-course-reflection/

I’ve learned about PLN’s and the need to connect with like-minded people.  I recognize the importance of learning from others, no matter where they are.  Reaching out and seeking knowledge in its many forms can enrich my profession and my personal interests  Sharing.  That’s what I have taken away from this class.  In other classes, I have produced many artifacts.  I have made screencasts and animations, video lessons and lesson plans, webquests and presentations.  I enjoyed making most of these and gained something from each of them.  The difference I now see between those types of assignments and the work in Social Network Learning is that one is about “me” and the other is about “us.”  This class was about connection and building ideas in a coordinated, personalized and interactive way.  It forced me to come out from the shadows (a bit anyway) and to share my ideas and works with the world.  That’s a great thing. Jon  My Life as a Reformed Lurker: A Final Reflection

I find it interesting that the class I expected to learn the least in is the one that has enriched me the most. Such has been my journey this semester in EdTech 543 Social Network Learning. We’ve all got the first two words down – it’s that last one: learning. This course has opened my eyes to the powerful learning tool that social media and social networking can be.  My digital life is deeper, richer, and more meaningful – and it’s only just begun! Gretel  http://gretelpatch.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/social-network-learning-a-reflection/

As with most things in life, we truly seem to be limited mostly by our imagination and drive to accomplish that which we set out to.  While it seems terribly cliche to say so, frequently all that is required to take a commonly used, pedestrian tool and convert that into a powerful educational tools is a touch of creative thinking… generally outside the box! Ben http://benmooreedtech.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/edtech-543-course-reflection/

One of the most valuable aspects of this class was the time and effort put into getting our hands dirty in the various social networking resources.  Not only did we learn about them but we also had to be a participant and really dive into them.  I am not really good and comfortable with some of them yet but the experiences I gained in this class will help me as I try to do better.   Being made to get me hands dirty really helped.  I probably would not have done as much in the various tools if it was not required for a grade and for that I am grateful. I started out in this class thinking that I knew a lot about social networking.  That was a big mistake.  I learned so much.  Not only about social networking but about how I can present myself professionally online and in these different networks.  I learned that I can use these tools not just as resources in my classroom but as professional development that will help me stay in the hunt with all the technological choices out there.  I am much more professional and aware of what I put out in the online networking land as it pertains to me and my reputation and the perception that others have of me as a person and as a professional. It has been an eye opening, wonderful learning experience and I am grateful for the opportunity to do it.  I will be able to take this and be a better teacher and social networker because of it. Christina  http://christinawjorgensen.wordpress.com/543-2/

One surprise for me was the power of Twitter.  I had no idea it was being used to share learning.  I thought it was a celebrity craze and a way to demoralize society.  My hesitation in joining the Twitter world was quickly replaced with enthusiasm.  I found several organizations and groups to follow.  Twitter was a way for me to learn!  I admit that I don’t tweet often but I definitely lurk.   Overall, I feel that I have learned to be a better social citizen.  I have experienced how to manage and incorporate social network learning.  I have created new ways to organize and share information.  And most importantly, I appreciate the relationships that I built and the communities that I have become a part of  Andi http://andiarnold.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/ed-tech-543-a-final-reflection/

I really had my eyes opened in this class. I learned that Facebook could be very beneficial as I was able to social network with others who had the same interests and ideas. I could collaborate and keep up-to-date with technology or other things that I could use in the classroom. I learned that Twitter is an amazing site in which you can join groups and also add invaluable ideas and information to and from theworld. Pinterest is more than just a crafty idea place. It can be very educational and has great resources for the classroom.  I found that PLNs were the most eye-opening experience in this course. I didn’t realize how many I already had that I was unaware of. I now need to refine what I have and turn them into valuable resources. Debi

Conclusion

Given that the students were mostly K-12 educators, who are majoring in and integrating educational technology into the classroom, I was a bit surprised that, as a group, they didn’t know about and use social networking as part of their educational practices.  For the most part, their experiences in the course were positive and demonstrated that a course of social networked learning can be valuable for educators.

Educator Best Practice: Continuous Improvement

I had the opportunity to do experiential corporate training as part of being a graduate assistant.  Learning how to conduct training and development for corporate groups was some of the best training I ever received to hone my skills as an educator.  Two of the lessons learned that are pertinent to this post are:

1. The Importance of Continuous Quality Improvement
2. Implementing a Procedure for Formative Evaluation

Continuous Quality Improvement

Continuous quality improvement is often written into the missions and built into the practices of high performing corporations.  Because I became impressed with this practice, I included it in my own mission statement and guiding principles as an educator.

Set standards that encourage continuous improvement and the production of ideas that result in improved solutions.

Some of the tenets of Kaizen [the translation of kai (“change”) zen (“good”) is “improvement”] can help guide the practice of continuous quality improvement within one’s teaching.

• Improvements are based on many small changes rather than the radical changes.
• All educators should continually be seeking ways to improve their own performance
• Ideas for change and improvement come from the educators and students themselves.
• Educators to take ownership for their work and related improvements.

http://radudascalul.com/kaizen-principle/

Formative Evaluation

I advocate for the use of reflective practice activities by educators and by students, and discuss this in Where is reflection in the learning process?

From Reflective teaching: Exploring our own classroom practice

Reflective teaching means looking at what you do in the classroom, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it works – a process of self-observation and self-evaluation. By collecting information about what goes on in our classroom, and by analyzing and evaluating this information, we identify and explore our own practices and underlying beliefs. This may then lead to changes and improvements in our teaching.

This is directly related to formative evaluation.  Formative Evaluation (different than Formative Assessment) is . . .

useful in analyzing learning materials, student learning and achievements, and teacher effectiveness…. Formative evaluation is primarily a building process which accumulates a series of components of new materials, skills, and problems into an ultimate meaningful whole. – Wally Guyot (1978) (http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/isd/types_of_evaluations.html)

I am proposing the use of formative evaluations as part of one’s teaching practice in a less formal manner than what might be used in training and development settings.  The goal, though, is the same . . . to assess efforts prior to their completion for the purpose of improving the efforts (http://www.beyondintractability.org/bi-essay/formative-evaluation).

How?

How can the educator, given limited time and resources, build continuous quality improvement and formative evaluations into his or her practices?  As I previously stated, I advocate for the use of reflective practice into one’s teaching, not only for the teacher, but for the student.

I have been asking students to reflect on their learning since I began teaching.  Since I am an experiential educator, our face-to-face time is/was spent doing cooperative learning activities, Socratic seminars, art-based activities, case study analysis, and others.  As such, it becomes important for students to extract personal meaning.  An ongoing course assignment in my classes is to reflect, through journaling, on significant learning during our class time together.

It began with them just handing in typed out versions of their class reflections. Now I do so using Facebook and Blogging.  For an example, see my Facebook Page for my Interpersonal Relations course.

The purpose of this post is to propose a rationale and a means for educators to engage in continuous improvement.  What I discovered through student journals and blogging is that not only does it promote reflection, it is an amazing source of feedback for me as an educator.  I learn, through the student reflections, what was most significant for them during the class time.  This assists me in focusing on their learning needs in future classes as well as in helping me re-design future similar courses.

I also encourage students to back-channel (usually through Twitter).  I have discovered that this is a powerful form of note talking and for some students, this active way of learning helps to retain information covered during class time.  As is the case for student class reflections, it also provides me with information about the points of my presentation that are most relevant for the participants.  This helps me revise and re-focus future, upcoming classes.

These are just a few ways that instructional activities provide me with rich data of what they learn and experience during class time.  I, then, take the initiative to use this data as a type of formative assessment to engage in and practice my form of Kaizen, continuous quality improvement.

Mobile Learning and The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture

I have jumped onto the Flipped Classroom craze to take the opportunity to propose and discuss an experiential model of education (ala John Dewey and Kurt Hahn), one that has experience at its core and provides learning options for all types of learners.  In this model, the videos, as they are discussed in the flipped classroom. support the learning rather than drive it.

My series on the Flipped Classroom – The Full Picture includes the following posts:

• The Flipped Classroom Model: A Full Picture
• Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture for Higher Education
• Flipped Classroom Full Picture: An Example Lesson
• UDL and The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture

This post continues the series by providing an overview of The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture using mobile devices.  Each phase of the model has suggestions and ideas for mobile-driven learning activities which can be implemented on most devices.  This supports Bring Your Own Devices programs and increases the chances students will use similar learning activities on their own devices outside of the classroom environment.

A major focus of mobile learning these days seems to be centered on the apps, but my focus is on designing and providing mobile learning activities that are cross platform.  Smartphone ownership is up in the United States, but it is still not universal and especially not within lower income communities.  Discussion of the app gap and this type of digital divide has occurred within several recent articles:

• Screen Time Higher Than Ever for Children
• The Digital Divide Still Exists

It also is the basis of my teaching philosophy – to provide access to learning regardless of learning differences, income, digital access, and geographical location.  Most students own mobile devices that have photo and video taking capabilities, and have Internet for content access.  The mobile activities described for the model below take advantage of these functions.

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Engaging Experience

The lesson or unit begins with an authentic, engaging, often multi-sensory and often hands-on experience.  Its purpose is to hook and motivate the student to want to learn more about the topic.

Photo and/or Video Examples of Real Life Situations. One method to do so is to ask students to locate evidence of the learning topic in their immediate environments and record that evidence via a media sharing sites such as Flickr or Youtube.  Both of these sites generate (random) email addresses that can be given out to students so they can upload their photos or videos to the educator account.  Students do not need email accounts. The media is then aggregated onto the educator account.  For example, at the beginning of a unit on personal identity, I asked students to take photos of their core values and upload them to my Flickr account – see Picture Our Values.  This description also includes directions how to set up a Flickr account for a class project.

Texting Observations, Questions, Two-Way Communications. Students can use their texting functions to interview one other, discuss real world observations made, and report on real life experiences based on suggestions provided by the educator.

Example experiential mobile activities I have done with students to engage them in the topic include:

• I Am Poems
• All About Me
• Interviews
• Directions Via Texting
• Building Communications

There are so many ways to get students excited about the content topics especially when asked to use their mobile devices to do so.  My advice to educators is to take the best experiential activities they have done and/or experienced and include a mobile element as I did with the activities above.

Concept Exploration

During this phase, learners explore the theoretical concepts related to the topic being taught.  This is the phase where videos, such as those being discussed in relation to the more popular articles and posts about the flipped classroom, are used in the lesson.  To make the content more accessible, as per Universal Design of Learning, a multimedia learning environment needs to provide multiple, flexible methods of presentation.  It is important to include content material presented in a variety of formats including ebooks, audiobooks, and content-rich websites can serve this purpose.

• Video services such as Youtube which features Youtube Education has several mobile options, Youtube for Mobile.  Students will need to have internet access.
• Audiobooks and Podcasts through services like Librivox
• Read books on mobile/cell phone, e.g. BooksinMyPhone

The key to this phase, to the use of these materials, and why it is called the flipped classroom is that content resources are recommended to the learners, and then they review them during the own time frames, sometimes as homework.

Meaning Making

Learners should, often need, to be given the opportunity to reflect on what they experienced and concepts explored during the previous phases.  For learning to be meaningful, they need to construct their own meanings and understandings of the concepts covered.

Some options for learners to reflect and synthesize their key learnings include:

• Microblogging with Twitter using hashtags.
• Microblogging through SMS and group texting services such as Cel.ly
• Blogging and Media-Based Reflections via Posterous in the Field or Cinch
• Phonecasting via ipadio or Google Voice or Cinch
• Photo-Audio Sharing via Yodia: Yodia in the Classroom
• Vodcasts/Video Reflections uploaded to Youtube (uploading from a mobile)
• Texting summaries: e.g. Messaging Shakespeare

Demonstration and Application

This is the integration phase where students demonstrate what they learned and how they will apply it to other areas of their lives.  This can be viewed as a celebration of learning where students create a project that represents their key learnings, significant experiences, and commitments-contracts for post-lesson implementation.

I discussed ideas for using Web 2.0 for this phase in Technology-Enhanced Celebration of Learning.  Many of these strategies can work on the students’ mobile devices.

The following is TJ’s example from an undergraduate course on interpersonal relations.  He used his skills at the Minecraft game and the webcam on his laptop to demonstrate what he learned.  What is especially relevant about this demonstration is that TJ has a mild form of Asperger’s Syndrome.

Is the Educational Revolution About Videos: Ted-Ed and Khan Academy?

The Ted-Ed website was introduced today and received a lot of press coverage:

• The Atlantic: The Digital Education Revolution, Cont’d: Meet TED-Ed’s New Online Learning Platform
• Fast Company:
• Mashable: TED’s New Site Turns Any YouTube Video Into a Lesson
• Forbes: TED-Ed Hits the Classroom with New Video Website

Prior to going into my critique of this so-called educational revolution, I am giving this disclaimer, I love TED and love the videos being produced by Ted-Ed.

Khan Academy and the new Ted-Ed website are being touted to create an educational revolution.  What I am concerned about is the underlying pedagogy of Ted-Ed and Khan Academy.  I love listening to a good talk and talking about it afterwards, but does it change my thoughts and/or behavior? Typically not.  Grant Wiggins’ recent post, Everything you know about curriculum may be wrong. Really discusses this point:

The point of learning is not just to know things but to be a different person – more mature, more wise, more self-disciplined, more effective, and more productive in the broadest sense.

In the flipped classroom, as it is being discussed, the videos, instead of a live teacher, are at the core of the learning process, become the venue for the didactic presentation.  The explanation of the flipped classroom provided on the Ted-Ed website . . .

The [flipped classroom] refers to a method of instruction where classroom-based teaching time and traditional “homework” time are reversed (flipped). A teacher provides video lessons to be reviewed outside of class, which in turn gives teachers more time in class to focus on higher-order learning skills.

. . . and from the Mashable article:

When a teacher flips the classroom, they assign lectures to watch at home and save class time for working on homework together. When a teacher flips a video, they add supplemental content such as questions and additional resources.

The TED-Ed website has a suite of tools that allow teachers to design their own web-assisted curricula, complete with videos, comprehension-testing questions, and conversational tools.   The Think and Digging Deeper questions are, I assume, prompts or guides for the higher level thinking.  The use of lectures, quizzes, and questions to teach and for students to demonstrate learning is a Eurocentric, consumption-based model of education. There is value in linguistic-oriented and Socratic method (adding reflective questions and discussion) of teaching but it does not honor learning-by-doing.  Tinkering and experimenting; engaging in the arts; going out into the community; tapping into students’ talents, interests and passions are not part learning process.

Harvard Professor Chris Dede believes of the flipped classroom . . .

I think that the flipped classroom is an interesting idea if you want to do learning that is largely based on presentation. You use presentation outside of the classroom. Then you do your understanding of the presentation and further steps from the presentation inside the classroom. I think it is a step forward. It is still, in my mind, the old person.  It’s still starting with presentational learning and then trying to sprinkle some learning-by-doing on top of it.  I am interested more in moving beyond the flipped classroom to learning by doing at the center than a kind of the intermediate step that still centers on largely on tacit assimilation (http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/flipped-classroom-full-picture-an-example-lesson/).

I proposed The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture as a way to get educators’ attention given the press this model is receiving.  I did so in an attempt to encourage educators take the resources and opportunities that technology (including the use of videos) affords to truly create a learning revolution, one that is constructivist, student-centric, hands-on, and passion-based.

Conclusions

So are Sal Khan and Ted-Ed initiatives really going to disrupt education, create a learning revolution?  It sounds a bit like Thomas Edison’s thoughts about how film would change education.

It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years. (http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/02/15/books-obsolete/)

I do see a use for high production, high interest videos but to support a student’s learning not to direct it.  There is where the flipped classroom and the Ted-Ed, Khan, and other videos have value – to reinforce and add to a student’s learning – not be central to it.  TED is about ideas worth sharing.  I am curious if the kids, after being directed through the Ted-Ed lessons, will develop and spread their own ideas with their peers.

Dutch Version of The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture

Kennisnet translated my model of The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture into Dutch.

Kennisnet‘s purpose is:

Kennisnet is the public educational organisation which supports and inspires Dutch primary, secondary and vocational institutions in the effective use of ict. Kennisnet ensures that educational institutions are aware and take advantage of the opportunities offered by ict. Research has shown that, for the use of ict for educational purposes, a balanced and coherent use of four building blocks is essential. These blocks are: vision, expertise, digital learning materials and ict infrastructure. Kennisnet facilitates the schools to achieve this. Barriers are removed and the strengths of the educational sector are bundled together.

Telling Our Stories, Self-Promotion, or Sharing Best Practices?

This is cross-posted on the Powerful Learning Network – http://plpnetwork.com/2012/04/10/telling-our-stories-self-promotion-or-sharing-best-practices/

This is my response and reaction to Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s Unselfish Self Promotion posted on the PLP Network blog. Conceptually, I am in agreement with Sheryl.  I discussed similar ideas in a blog post entitled Every Educator Has a Story . . . Just Tell It.  Where I have have difficulties is in the language of self-promotion.  I begin with an excerpt of my original blog post and then discuss my thoughts regarding the language surrounding self-promotion.

Every Educator Has a Story . . . Just Tell It.

This is one of my favorite cartoons ever.

http://catalog.fborfw.com/indexid.php?q=2670&Submit=Search

The “punch” line is that every person on the planet has a story to tell.  I also know that every teacher story to tell.

Educators are doing amazing things with their learners in spite of (i.e., to show spite toward) the standards-based and accountability-driven movements. I’ve learned about so many exciting learning activities from educators who are publicizing their great projects via Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs.  I’ve read about global collaborations, interesting ways technology is being integrated into the classroom, kids making a difference in their communities, and great project-based learning.

This is my own call to action for educators to tell their stories of those rich and amazing things they are doing in their classrooms.

• Write a blog.
• Tweet about it.
• Make photo essays and upload to a photo sharing site like Flickr.
• Take some video footage and share it on YouTube, TeacherTube, or Vimeo.
• Ask learner to blog about it.
• Share on Facebook.
• Give virtual presentations at conferences such as Global Education and K12 Online.
• Ask local reporters to come to your classroom
• Others? (Please add to list.)

If all educators publicized the accomplishments they had in their classrooms using technology, hands-on activities, global collaborations, project-based learning; then an informal qualitative research project would result.  When educators are asked to provide evidence of efficacy to administrators, parents, other educators, funding sources, they could share these success stories.  This aggregate would become the collective narrative – story of education of our times in the beginnings of the 21st century.

This fits, as I stated, conceptually with Sheryl’s views

I have to know about your good work to celebrate with you. I can’t depend on someone else telling me about it. It will take too long, it is too risky, and I’d rather hear it with your passion and knowledge than a watered down version from someone who might leave out the pieces that are most important to my learning (http://plpnetwork.com/2012/04/03/unselfish-self-promotion).

Unselfish (Shameless) Self-Promotion

Sheryl’s title and theme of Unselfish Self Promotion revolve around the idea of self-promotion.  Self-promotion, in the eyes of many, including me, has negative connotations.  So to begin, I went to the dictionary to get a somewhat unbiased view . . . the act or practice of promoting one’s own interests, profile, etc. It is the practice of promoting one’s own interests.

The dictionary definition matches my own.  I believe that the power of words and language influence our attitudes, mindsets, and behaviors.  It follows, then, that the actions related to self-promotion are focused on a “me” mindset, “Look at me. Recognize, acknowledge, and admire what I am doing.”

As an active participant in social networks populated with educators, I have learned what to expect from the more active contributors.  Some I get excited about reading their thought-provoking blogs.  Others I know will share some new classroom strategies, and yet others will provide me with links to some new technologies.  Some, I have come to expect, will post a link that leads to something they have done or will do, or will lead to a post that talks about them.  Their own achievements are the focus of their call-outs.  When I see a tweet or Facebook post from them, I typically only make a passing glance.  These latter folks I call self-promoters.   Their social networking actions are geared toward their own personal accomplishments.

Do I have an aversion for the term “self-promoters” because I am a female or because I did not grow up with social media?  Will perceptions change due to social media and the idea of Me 2.0?  I am not sure.  But for now, I cannot engage in self-promotion to promote me, and cannot (will not?) have tolerance for those who promote his or her “self” as a regular part of their social networking.

As I’ve stated,  I agree with Sheryl that educators need to promote best practices, successes and failures in their learning environments, and noteworthy news that have the potential to advance the educational field.  Where I disagree is with the terminology used.  I do believe in promotion not self-promotion.  It is a subtle shift in language used, but in my mind, makes a world of difference in the resultant perceptions.

. . . so yes, I do think Sheryl’s rational for promoting the PLP Network is right on target:

Here is the thing: when I talk about PLP, I am not talking about me. I am talking about “we”. I am talking about all the amazing educators who are taking the concepts back to their schools/districts and doing amazing things — things I might never think of — that no one has thought of before.

If PLP is about enabling educators to become empowered and manage change in their schools, shouldn’t we be sharing the ideas, the vision, and the steps folks need to take to be successful (http://plpnetwork.com/2012/04/03/unselfish-self-promotion)?

I will make a pact with Sheryl to do what she recommends, but I cannot agree to call it self-promotion.  I will take the word “self” out of it and agree to promote the best practices, lessons learned, and successes earned by my colleagues and me.

Let’s make a pact to get over ourselves. If you are doing good work, if you have great ideas, if you have skills that could make a difference — Dance. Tell me. Tell us all. I, for one, promise to high-five, re-tweet and share with others so together we can leave education better than we found it.