(Cross posted to the PLP Blog.)
To me, at least, one of the most interesting phrases used in the new National Educational Technology Plan was this: “…using technology to help build the capacity of educators by enabling a shift to a model of connected teaching.” Obviously, this implies much more than being “connected” in the we-all-have-access sense. As the plan goes on to say, it means that “teams of connected educators replace solo practitioners” and that “connection replaces isolation.” And if you really want the money quote, here it is:
In connected teaching, teaching is a team activity. Individual educators build online learning communities consisting of their students and their students’ peers; fellow educators in their schools, libraries, and afterschool programs; professional experts in various disciplines around the world; members of community organizations that serve students in the hours they are not in school; and parents who desire greater participation in their children’s education (6).
All of this ties in neatly with the overall theme of the plan, that learning is no longer “one size fits all” for students or teachers. There is an interesting expectation here that the adults in the room will be able to navigate these online communities in ways that will then inform their own curriculum and classroom teaching. And there is also the expectation that in this connected environment, we’re willing to see ourselves differently, not as the only one responsible for what happens with student learning but as the director of many actors in that goal. It’s a role that is much more complex, I think, much more difficult that simply delivering the curriculum, keeping control over the process, and making sure that our students get over the traditional assessments.
Connected teaching as defined here and as we talk about it in PLP is not easy by any stretch. To complicate matters even more, I would suggest that connected teaching requires a level of participation and sharing within these learning communities that may not be articulated very clearly above. And, it also suggests pretty strongly that teachers own their own learning first, that they see themselves as learners in the classroom alongside of their students. Nothing earth-shatteringly new there, but it sounds like we’re finally starting to look at professional learning differently as well:
Episodic and ineffective professional development is replaced by professional learning that is collaborative, coherent, and continuous and that blends more effective in-person courses and workshops with the expanded opportunities, immediacy, and convenience enabled by online environments full of resources and opportunities for collaboration.
The second half of that sentence is all about self-directed, social learning, not about the painful PowerPoint workshops that we offer to our teachers. I’ve recently been working with a district that over the last two years has given over 300 workshops on various tools, but when I asked them to talk about what significant, real change had come about because of those workshops, there was basically silence in the room. I’ve started saying that the only workshop we should offer our teachers is one titled something like “How to Learn Online,” one that gives teachers some context and some strategy for directing their own learning but places the expectation for DIYPD squarely on their shoulders.
That’s what I find really compelling about PLP, that it supports teachers in developing their own learning goals and strategies, yet at the same time gives them a great sense of potential of these online communities as well. Ultimately, this still is about us, about the decisions we make as “solo practitioners.” But we have to have a different frame, a different context for those decisions now, one that helps us understand our roles as truly connected educators as well.
I can get with this. Nine tenths of my professional development work, talking to teachers about converting their own learning into mathematical challenges for their students, is useless if the teachers aren’t learning much anymore.
I won’t ask you to for an outline of that workshop but I am curious which technologies you’d call “indispensable?” What does your Swiss Army knife look like?
I’m with Dan. The Swiss Army Knife would be helpful to describe. Again. (I know you’ve done this before – but how are you learning lately? What’s your process look like?) It’d probably be good for lots of folks, Dan included, to do this.
Even though, I suspect, we’re doing it in bits and pieces all over the web. What would a day of “this is how I’m learning lately” posts look like?
Will: …It also suggests pretty strongly that teachers own their own learning first, that they see themselves as learners in the classroom alongside of their students. Nothing earth-shatteringly new there….
I agree with you completely, but I am growing increasingly frustrated with the not-so-small minority of teachers who don’t get that they cannot ever stop learning, and that their own learning is as important as students’ learning.
Ditto!! This is making the assumption that teachers want to learn. In my PD experience with teachers, there are many who remain curious, inquisitive and interested in learning all they can about teaching and learning — thank god for these folks. Sadly, there is a whole pool of educators out there who have no interest in being professionally developed, never mind developing themselves! They get in, get tenured, and get lazy. I have actually had teachers (TEACHERS!!) say to me, “I don’t really read books.” Sigh…. as a Literacy Specialist and Education Consultant (AKA PD Provider) one of my biggest challenges is motivating teachers to engage in professional learning. We talk constantly about the problem of student engagement with learning. Maybe we first need to solve the problem of teacher engagement in professional learning.
It’s really about knowing people (and ourselves). After watching Will Richardson for the day I was given a model of what it might look like to be in a web2.0 world. My interests are creative writing, NLP, new age spirituality, Ken Wilber and cryptic crosswords. Now I can go online and be a participant in some of these things I find interesting. ( and I will direct that learning toward the classroom).
Before I saw Will speak I was skeptical of online chat and social networking- I didn’t SEE the value. That doesn’t mean I’m not a lifelong learner. I watched the era of chat where people would chat to say absolutely nothing- lots of that still there. Now I know how to begin to direct myself online to things that matter. But if a teacher wants to go home after Will’s workshop and dust off their stamp collection, that’s ok too. They are who they are, and even if they can’t, or have no passion to, go online and discover the value of online stamp collecting blogs(?) they are still human and still have value in a classroom. And they will be retiring soon, so that some new web 2.0 teachers can begin a new career and new era in teaching and learning. The boards, I say, will be the real problem for instituting change.
The idea of Connected Teaching is very interesting and really influences today’s learning. It is clearly related to our course, directly helping us in understanding the importance of Online Team Learning. As educators we always need to exchange expertise and online learning is a strong and effective method of achieving best qualities of learning and education. Our role in Online Teaching is very important and reaches more audience, affecting the whole learning community.