Any Time, Any Place

Relationships, Connected Learning, & ISTE 2019

The International Society for Technology in Education is a community that “believes in the power of technology to transform teaching and learning.” In reflecting on activities and conversations I was able to participate in at the recent ISTE 2019 conference (#ISTE19), I was amazed though at how little technology was emphasized in these discussions. Perhaps it was a skewed experience based on the events I attended, but I felt this was one of the first technology-centric conferences where the narrative was truly not about technology – and this (perceived) shift was quite uplifting.

Sure, there was the usual commentary that “technology is just the tool and not the end,” etc. etc. However, at a conference of technology-minded educators, I was pleasantly surprised how technology was de-emphasized in place of narratives of Relationships and Connected Learning:

Relationships:

1. During a visit to First Hand Philly, educators discussed the non-profit’s efforts to provide STEM-related learning activities to middle school students. While the STEM focus was obvious, First Hand Philly emphasized the importance of its proximity to other high-tech companies in Philadelphia. It was these relationships, where students could connect “first-hand” with career professionals, that provided the greatest influence on the experiences for these middle schoolers.

2. The Science Leadership Academy, Building 21 in the School District of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Learning Collaborative discussed the importance of relationships in their respective missions and focus.

20190622_085804 — *Building 21 Principal Ayris Colvin*

Principal Ayris Colvin of Building 21 described how strong relationships with students are critical to the Building 21 learning model.

CEO Chris Lehmann noted how SLA models the teacher-student relationship throughout all of its activities, including the language used by SLA educators. SLA promotes how teachers care “for” students (a student-centered narrative) rather than teachers caring “about” students (which centers more on the teacher). Most impactfully, SLA student Horace Ryans described that he had to learn how to be creative and how to collaborate when he came to SLA. These skills were built through intentional group work activities. He described how he sat grouped at tables with other students, a classroom design requiring him to make consistent eye contact with his peers. Ultimately, Ryans said this layout and the corresponding learning activities (such as fishbowl discussions and book discussion pods) promoted creating relationships, exchanging ideas, and learning how to collaborate.

20190622_084617 — *SLA Student Horace Ryans & CEO Chris Lehmann*

Connected Learning:

1. A visit to Drexel University’s ExCITe Center took participants so far beyond the concept of a STEAM or technology “makerspace.” The Center demonstrated how connected learning enables the development of new knowledge, lines of thinking, products, and businesses.

20190621_154316 — *Main makerspace area in Drexel University’s ExCITe Center*

Center participants are developing new gaming through its Entrepreneurial Game Studio and innovations in sound, music, and digital media through its Music and Entertainment Technology Laboratory. These innovations are not focusing specifically on the “tech,” but on creativity and leveraging different areas of expertise and disciplines.

20190621_151312 — *ExCITe Center’s Magentic Resonator Piano – combining electrical engineering & music*

2. On multiple occasions, school leaders at #ISTE19 moved past simple technology integration in the language they used:

Chris Lehmann noted educators are “not engaging with technology, you are just working.”
While STEAM touches on this, educators discussed how true connected learning is far greater than just including art or music into “traditional” science/math/engineering activities.
In fact, some participants at the pre-#ISTE19 Tech & Learning Leadership Summit were even suggesting we need to ditch the terms “STEM” and “STEAM” because those collective disciplines are treated as something separate from just “learning.”
In many conversations I had with #ISTE19 vendors, companies regularly led with the problem they were trying to solve, not the technology they were demonstrating.

Are we turning the corner on the conversation about the connection between technology and learning? Not sure, but it was at least encouraging to listen to the emphasis on relationships and connected learning in the conversations at an international technology conference – rather than the technology itself.

(Re)Defining Collaboration

As we try to facilitate learning activities in our schools to help prepare students for a rapidly-evolving future, much of the focus is on the key Four C skills of Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration. Collaboration is a skill my team focuses on for all stakeholders in schools (staff, students, etc.) – by providing support for technology platforms and corresponding skills development to better enable collaboration.

In line with our team’s work, I was fortunate recently to attend an event with a targeted focus on Collaboration: Collaboration Week New York (#CWNY19) sponsored by the Interactive Multimedia & Collaborative Communications Alliance (@THEIMCCA). The event concentrated on evolving solutions and trends within Unified Conferencing and Collaboration, through presentations and visits to leading companies in New York City with broad adoptions of collaboration platforms.

#CWNY19 @ Blackrock — Collaboration Week New York events at BlackRock (above) & Oblong Industries (below)

This Collaboration Week event was a striking eye-opener for me for a number of different reasons.

The current use of collaboration technology tools in private sector companies is significantly changing how work is accomplished. Unfortunately, our schools do not appear to be evolving similarly. Schools have just scratched the surface in using technology to further collaboration in learning activities, as well as to leverage collaboration technologies to evolve the business side of how we operate schools.

Are our schools truly preparing students properly for workplaces, where it matters less and less where you live and when you work? This question came up over and over again as I learned more about the current trends in the transformation of work. The latest collaboration technologies enable an anytime/anywhere workplace – but have our schools truly evolved in parallel into an “anytime/anyplace” learning environment, even with our significant investments in educational technologies and our increased focus on shifting pedagogy to student-directed learning?

When we talk about “collaboration” in K-12 schools, the term is often poorly defined or possibly not even defined at all. Learning activities described as “collaborative” are too often just students assigned together in a group. In these groups, students often work individually on an independent strand of a project, then come together at the end to piece together each individual contribution into a final product of limited cohesion. In other examples, students in groups simply exchange information and (possibly, in better cases) teach one another, instead of practicing the skills and dispositions truly needed in modern collaborative practices. Are we truly “collaborating” in schools?

Is student collaboration sharing information, teaching one another, or practicing skills & dispositions?

Beyond that – even when students are provided more opportunities to practice collaborative skills within group activities, the conversations are often limited to just others in the classroom. Per a survey within our region last year, roughly two (2) out of every (3) students indicated they are never asked to collaborate online with students in other schools or from different communities and cultures. In the workplace presentations I attended at Collaboration Week, technology platforms are leveraged to enable collaboration across global markets, where employees from different countries and cultures are working together daily toward company goals.

Perhaps one (sort of) encouraging sign from #CWNY19 was to learn that, in spite of some of their successes, private companies still do regularly struggle with fully enabling collaboration among its employees. Beyond the obvious technology barriers (lack of funding, system integrations, choice of tools, etc.), companies still struggle with adoption. Some employees are uncomfortable with collaborative environments and the technologies that enable/transform the experience. This admission made me feel a little better (sadly) because many of our K-12 schools still struggle with very similar challenges – embracing good instructional practices in collaboration and adopting technology tools to transform the collaboration experience in learning activities.

I hope to dive deeper into collaboration in subsequent blog postings, exploring what may need to change to better enable it in schools and how technology innovations are going to change collaboration – whether we are ready for it or not. More to come from the experiences from Collaboration Week New York & new technology announcements from this week’s Enterprise Connect conference, and how these tremendous shifts in collaboration technologies/practices could trickle into our schools.

The Power of Story

I have not given myself an opportunity to blog for some time now, but a recent event particularly inspired me to commit myself again to reflecting about recent activities and learning experiences. Our E-Learning team facilitated a leadership retreat (#MSLR18) earlier this month for district leaders in Lake Placid, New York. Leaders were challenged to relax, reflect, and expand their individual horizons through the retreat’s learning activities. School leaders are not regularly afforded these opportunities – so an event in the summer in Lake Placid was a great place for this type of engagement.

Lake Placid, New York

Leaders create their district story

Fireside Chat with Paul Reynolds (@FablePaul)

The atmosphere in Lake Placid of tranquility and peacefulness was a perfect setting for recovery, reflection, and personal & organizational introspection.

Our theme for this year is “Building Bridges with Your Stories,” which we carried through the day. As my team is well aware, I have always been a proponent of “story.” We are consistently challenging ourselves internally with crafting our vision, initiatives, and projects within the context of story. What is our narrative? How do our activities fit together within the overall story of our broader direction? The story connects to your heart rather than your head – making stories more meaningful, impactful, and memorable than a series of facts, figures, slides, and data points. In an age of information overload, I have found stories to be particularly helpful in assisting my understanding of vision and direction.

What struck me more than anything at this retreat though was how story can impact in so many different ways and on so many different levels. My colleague Hilary Dee had a sense of this when the theme was originally developed – but I don’t think even we could predict how the leadership retreat would expand on the power of story. The presentations and conversations were far beyond how to create and deliver an effective story. They were about finding your organizational story, your students’ individual stories, your personal story – and then how to internalize these stories to positively influence your actions. Keynote speaker Paul Reynolds posed the questions below to educators at the retreat – questions that can be framed on so many different levels.

FablePaul questions — Important questions for educators to consistently reflect upon across many different levels.

Paul Reynolds kicks off a day of reflection & learning.

Pete Reilly took it even further when he challenged leaders to look into their heart and find their own story deep inside themselves – as a building block to improving their abilities as school leaders.

Pete Reilly

Important question for school leaders

The day ended with powerful self-reflection from three talented and introspective educators from our region – Jan Tunison of Scotia-Glenville CSD, Jerry Griffin of Malone CSD, and Dr. Brian Bailey of Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk CSD.

Jan Tunison

Jerry Griffin

Dr. Brian Bailey

It was during their presentations of their individual stories that it fully hit me how personal story can be. The day has led me to reflect about my own story. I’ve been looking at the progression of my own career and reflecting on how my thinking and direction has evolved – with previous personal experiences serving as building blocks for new directions and experiences. (How did my thinking evolve to where it is now? Perhaps another topic for a future blog?)

Paul Reynolds summed up the day best when he said “the power of story can be transformative.” What I hadn’t internalized until the day’s activities was the transformative story is on many different levels and it can (and should) be more than organizational. It is personal – to each of us, to our teams and colleagues, to our classrooms, and to each of our students. Each of us has a story and, as both Hilary Dee and Jan Tunison reinforced in their comments at the end of the day, it is what makes us human.

Reflecting on Presenting

I had the good fortune of presenting last weekend at the @nyschoolboards Annual Convention & Education Expo (#nyssba17) on behalf of @NYSCATE. My topic was titled Leading Change: 21^st Century Professional Development. Part of my presentation identified reflection as an important activity within contemporary professional learning – and my presentation experience motivated me to practice what I preached by reflecting on the experience (this was the first time I had presented on this particular topic).

In an effort to model good practice in professional learning, I incorporated some more contemporary elements into the presentation, including back-channeling (@TodaysMeet), data visualization & audience engagement through word clouds (@Mentimeter), and explicit collaboration (via small group dialogue). Below is the @Mentimeter word cloud developed by session participants, in response to my question to list three (3) characteristics participants think are important in 21^st Century Professional Development.

PD Word Cloud — Characteristics of 21st Century Professional Development per #nyssba17 session participants

I was excited with the output of participants – their feedback clearly pegged important elements of 21^st century PD.

However, when facilitating professional learning, I find educators still need to work quite hard at incorporating these characteristics into our delivery. I know I had to work hard last weekend – there is still a natural tendency to want to control the message by serving as the primary source of content on the session topic. We consistently see this in our classrooms as well – where many instructors are still unable or unwilling to give up control of aspects of learning to students. Rather than enabling participants (students) to learn from one another or to figure out the answers on their own, presenters (instructors) still often feel the need to provide the answers themselves.

NYSSBA PD Present — Leading Change: 21st Century Professional Development at #nyssba17

Last weekend, I felt increased energy/engagement in the room and an improvement in the learning environment when participants broke into pairs to share their own experiences about how they learn best and what has worked (and not worked) in their own professional learning experiences. Ultimately, in retrospect, I wish I had incorporated more of these group conversations into the workshop – that activity would have much more closely embodied the characteristics of good PD that participants identified early in the session and likely would have led to more understanding of the workshop topic/theme.

In addition to further refining the flow and activities of the workshop, I’m wondering if @nyschoolboards could help further encourage good professional learning in all of its convention workshops with a couple of tweaks to its format:

Convention presenters are given a power point template to use for all presentations. What is (generally) implied by this requirement is that presenters are to use a slide deck in a stand-and-deliver format. Perhaps by encouraging some alternatives to a power point template, workshops offered at the convention will utilize more contemporary PD characteristics and facilitate a more robust professional learning experience.
All of the presentation rooms I visited were set up as illustrated in the photo below – presenters in the front and participants sitting in rows of chairs in the middle/back. While I understand this could introduce space issues, perhaps organizers could ask for and enable alternative room designs that encourage more group dialogue and collaboration.

NYSSBA Makerspace Present — Does this room layout encourage stand-and deliver presentations?

Ultimately, this presentation reinforced my need to continue to be mindful to not fall back into center-of-stage professional learning tendencies and consistently focus on incorporating more collaborative (and less stand-and-deliver) activities. @kelly_freiheit put it best (and then modeled it best) in a recent PD workshop I attended when she said “If we don’t change our practice, we can’t expect our students to change.”

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: