Will Richardson

Speaker, consultant, writer, learner, parent

Less About Tools, More About Thinking

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…Despite the widespread agreement on the importance of digital media literacy, training in the supporting skills and techniques is still very rare in teacher education. As classroom professionals begin to realize that they are limiting their students by not helping them to develop and use digital media literacy skills across the curriculum, the lack of formal training is being offset through professional development or informal learning, but we are far from seeing digital media literacy as a norm. This challenge is exacerbated by the fact that digital literacy is less about tools and more about thinking, and thus skills and standards based on tools and platforms have proven to be somewhat ephemeral. [Emphasis mine.]

Which, I would humbly suggest, is why Sheryl and I started Powerful Learning Practice six years ago. It’s more about thinking digitally than it is about acting digitally.

PLP: We're Expanding

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I want to put on my Powerful Learning Practice hat here for a second and talk about the ways in which Sheryl and I are expanding our offerings as we enter our fourth year of PLP. I can’t believe we’re finishing up our third year of this work already, and I can’t say enough about the amazing team of educators who have joined us in this work; we both feel very fortunate to work with all of them.

In our conversations with our colleagues and our participants, we’ve identified some new areas of learning that we’re going to pursue. Aside from our “traditional” cohort model where we are putting together school teams of educators to participate in our 7-8 month long, blended learning experience that about 2,000 teachers have participated in (details here), this year we’re also offering four other totally online cohorts for educators, school leaders administrators, National Board Certified Teacher candidates, and parents.

Each of these cohorts will be together from early October to late April and will feature a virtual community space for ongoing interactions, regular webinars featuring thought leaders and practitioners, and support from Sheryl and I and various members of the PLP team.

  • For the “Global Administrator Leader” cohort, we’re looking for educational leaders who want to connect with other leaders around the big conversations that social learning networks are starting to share ideas and experiences and go more deeply into defining what changes schools need to consider.
  • The “Global Educator” cohort will be a community of classroom practitioners who are willing to share their ideas around curriculum and pedagogy but also focus on what it means to be a teacher at this moment and what our changing roles in our students’ lives looks like.
  • The “Global NBCT” cohort will be led by Nancy Flanagan, former Michigan Teacher of the Year and nationally board certified teacher as well as PLPeeps, and, as you might expect, it will be heavily aligned to NBCT requirements.
  • And finally, our “Global Parent” cohort is being created expressly for parents who are interested in learning more about socially networked learning spaces for themselves and for their children. The webinars will focus on a variety of topics including “Facebook for Parents,” “Managing Your Online Reputation,” and “New Learning Opportunities,” and the PLP led community will focus on the challenges and opportunities of social learning tools for parents and their kids.

We have a page on our website for more info on how to sign up or if you want a rundown of the places where our traditional Year 1 cohorts are forming. Don’t forget to check out our Virtual Institutes, Year 2 and 3 options, boot camps, graduate credit options, and more. Please let me know if you have any questions, and we look forward to your participation.