Architecture of Ideas

The Art (and Beauty) of Collaboration

So we've been talking a lot in our 21st Century Learning Cohort about collaboration tools. With intention we structured the year-long PLC learning environment around some of the online tools (wikis, blogs, and Skype) and our members are sourcing new effective tools as well (hat tip to Bernadette for Vyew). And, at my "day job" at The Lovett School we are focused on building student competency in collaboration (both face to face and across time and space). We are making progress here with the faculty professional development and some of the student work fascilitated by things like Google Docs, wikis, Ning sites, blogs, and Diigo. It is quite satisfying in both the PLC and school arena when I see the "cool tools" used with good intention (and sometimes used quite well) to support the communities' pedagogy and curricular goals.

But what is the purpose of collaborating? I know many a student (and parent) that moans at the thought of a "group project" for fear of: a) one person getting stuck doing all the work; b) coordinating too many moving parts; and c) a final product that will be of poorer quality than if one just "did it themself." Sure, learning the skill of working with someone else, learning how to "get along" and "form compromise" are well-intended goals. But if "two aren't better than one" than is the collaboration really worth all the effort?

I'm sure I don't have all the answers, but I do believe our ultimate learning goal should be such that the by products and end products of collaboration are greater than when flying solo. And, when it works, there is somewhat of a "beauty" to it, don't you think? These two certainly are convincing: (Thanks, Ted.)

Visualization

Welcome to Wordle! Grab some text and watch what Wordle will do with it. I gave them my del.icio.us tags, and this is what my social bookmarking looks like in Wordle. Kinda cool. Not sure what the educational application might be (I am thinking about literary texts and Christian Long's recent post)... but nonethless I love it's visual appeal!

My Reflection on EduCon 2.0?

You gotta love Hugh MacLeod. He's smart and funny. OK, admittedly some of his cartoons are pretty "out there". But, as I was flipping through my reader tonight I tripped over this cartoon of his. And it resonated with me. It reminds me of what EduCon was last weekend. Not in the "cocktail conversation" sense; EduCon was meaningful, good stuff. I can't quite let go of the experience-and I'm not sure I have to. Thanks, Hugh.

Learning "2.0"

learn
Originally uploaded by aaron schmidt

As part of a year long professional development program led by Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum Beach we were asked to reflect on this post and the question "What is learning 2.0 to you"? The reflections have been quite interesting to read, and they have been varied with one exception: We all agree that we don't know the answer, but we are encouraged and inspired to learn.

I’m not sure I would want to fragment “learning” into evolutions like "1.0" and "2.0"; there is something about “what learning is” that holds sway in spite of any current climate. (The philosopher in me.) However, I do agree that the process-how we learn, what we need to learn, where we learn, and from whom we learn- has evolutionary characteristics. And indeed we are in one of those moments in history when our technological advances (our new “tools”) are forcing us to re-think, re-engineer, and re-design those processes, or in our irrelevance we will fail to engage and our students will fail to learn. If we aren't relevant, then learning cannot be “meaning-making.”

I would not argue that education should be like a child: an impulsive “early-adopter." It should serve the “wise-man’s role.” However, with all that we know about how learning happens and what learning "is", we keep giving ourselves over to the status quo- such that our wisdom looks like fool’s gold. Growth, which happens in learning, does not happen standing still. In this age of technological change that affords information abundance (and a repository), a long tail of participatory opinion and interest, and infinite community, education seems idle yet again; and the early adopters, our students and children, appropriate these tools for their own use without modeled wisdom. It is wonderful that they can teach us; but, something is missing isn't it?

If we as educators can appropriate these new tools for ourselves to support what we believe to be vital to learning, and remain open to what may seem “foreign” to us, then perhaps we can bring wisdom to the sea of change and impart a respect for and love of lifelong learning. How do we go about this? By learning how to use the tools first for ourselves. That is what this practicum and community are about. In my mind, we are using the tools our students use in a way that is relevant for us-it supports something we're interested in. We are learning to access and process vast amounts of information, search for relevancy, evaluate, synthesize, connect, communicate, collaborate, and critically think. As we get comfortable using these tools, then we look for the application in our classrooms knowing that teaching the "natives" how to use the technology isn't going to be the issue. Rather, we can aim higher in our learning outcomes by nature of what the tools do for us, and we can anticipate greater engagement from them by the nature of what the tools enable the kids to do: engage, find authentic audiences, develop voice...participate.

 

Visualizing the Network

(Note: To better view the images please click on them. A pop-up window will provide an enlarged view.)

In this cartoon, written on the back of a business card, Hugh Mcleod captures the very essence of the dramatic transformation created by the evolving Read/Write Web: Ivory towers, market and knowledge monopolies, and isolationist endeavors are losing value to the explosive power of the transparent, free, and highly connected NETWORK. Businesses are getting it (check out IBM's use of social networking and collaborative tools and Forbes' May 2007 issue on the network); young and old alike are getting it (30% of American adults are Elite Users of technology in a connective way and over 55% of online teens use social networking sites-see Pew Internet and American Life Project); philanthropy is getting it; and as I have written before The MacArthur Foundation considers the network important enough to invest $50 million in a 5 -ear study of Digital Media and Learning. Most recently...

The MacArthur Foundation announced a public competition that will award $2 million in funding to emerging leaders, communicators, and innovators shaping the field of digital media and learning.

Their website alone reflects the value they place on the new networked culture. Why are they making this investment? Perhaps it is because educational institutions are slow to embrace change; and the change underway is a fundamental shift that places a higher value on connections,"one's network", than on "one (isolated) node."

How do you show the uninitiated how the connectivity of this network impacts learning? How do you take the plunge yourself? As my good friend MT remarked about writing after spending a weekend with author Sue Monk Kidd, "You've just got jump in and start doing it"! As an adult, I couldn't agree more. That is why I started learning how to blog, use RSS, socially bookmark with del.icio.us, post photos to Flickr, build Ning social networks, and establish wikis. By engaging in these networked environments, I learn like I've never learned before.

Let's look at two examples which will help visually demonstrate (1) the concept of the network and (2) the value of the network for learning. First, let's explore the del.icio.us network. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking service that collects its users' bookmarks and organizes them by user as well as by the tags or keywords which have been assigned it. You can group your own bookmarks by the tags, and you can also view what other websites have been bookmarked by the same tag name. It is a great way to organize your own resources and connect to find more research on a particular topic.

What gets particularly interesting is the ability to follow certain people and what they bookmark. This is termed "your network." Not only can you view your network, but you can click on a link and see what has been tagged by the people in their network. When you realize how these networks connect, it is pretty amazing to see the depth. For example, Will Richardson is in my network and here is a graphic representation of his network. Note: He is represented by the large node in the middle and the spokes are the people he follows:

Now, let's take a look at one of Will's nodes and view their network. Here I've chosen Will's friend and fellow blogger/principal/educator Chris Lehmann:

You can continue to click on the nodes and see an ever-expanding network of people...and their networks...and everyone's tags. If you are following people that are interested in what you're interested in, or if you just use del.icio.us tagging to explore a topic regardless of who tagged it, you can elevate your research and learning to an exponential level. Imagine the potential for students and classrooms as they work together to build a body of knowledge sources but with more time to critically think and assess as opposed to hunt and peck?

Second, educator and blogger Vicki Davis in rural Camilla, Georgia has expanded the world for her students using wikis, video,podcasts, Ning, Skype,blogs...and more! Her first project, The Flat Classroom Project, was based on Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat. Her students and a classroom in Bangladesh explored the flatteners identified in Friedman's book using the tools and harnessing the network for information, experts, peer reviewers, and distribution of their final product. Their project can be found here (the actual project home-a wiki); and here (Teacher Tube video presentation); and here (Willy Kjellstrom of Trinity School's podcast with Vicki posted on his blog); and here (their project noted on pages 501-503 of the new third edition of Friedman's book).

Davis's interview is really worth the 30 minute listen. She is absolutely effusive about what can happen in a classroom which is "connected." One thing that has stayed with me since listening to her: Simply put, she says that you can study the trends in a classroom, but it is another thing altogether when your students can experience the trends.

When I stop and try to wrap my mind around the network and all its potentialities, I realize that the network is the new platform and no one has a monopoly on it (not yet). Educating our students, and ourselves, on how to navigate this network and become responsible, critical-thinking digital citizens is fundamental to our ability to participate, let alone lead, in the world ahead. I think MT and Davis have it spot-on: We've got to experience it.

Information Availability...and Overabundance

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach just blogged about Dave Walker's cartoon site. He has several blogs going, but this site offers cartoons for sharing. I got a good chuckle looking through them. The two that said the most to me were filed under the categories of "My Failings" and "Technology". I think I can relate: Sometimes the Internet is just too much of a good thing! This first cartoon is titled "Procrastination":

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

And so...when you procratinate long enough and start building up all those online connections and resources... you think maybe it wasn't worth it after all:

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Confucious was right: All good things in moderation.

Urgent Attention. Action Required.

A recent post about effecting change generated some interesting comments and sparked an email commentary from my dad. I keep thinking about each of these comments, and I want to highlight them here, offer my reflections, and hopefully nurture further discussion of the factors which will create a successful viral message.

In the late June post, I outlined Andrew Zolli's guidelines for framing our ideas in a way that will get the audience's attention. He said to "bake every idea" with a message that is:

• Personal (Individual Stories, not Impersonal Facts)
• Tangible (vs. Intangible)
• Present (What does this mean for me today?)
• Desirable (What's in this for me, rather than is this the responsible choice)

As we talk particularly about education and the shift required from teacher-centered classrooms to student-centered, project-based, constructivist learning (supported by web 2.0 tools), Willy Kjellstrom added that the message needs to demonstrate that "it is possible." If you want me to change my behavior (pedagogy, business process, communication methods), then you've got to show me where it fits into my endless list of things to do. How does it become a priority? Does my supervisor lighten my workload so it is possible to make it a priority? Is my performance based on my acting on this "idea"? I suppose that goes hand in hand with Zolli's point about it being "desirable": To make it possible we've got to wrestle with basic human behavior and show "what's in it for me." Perhaps it would be valuable to conduct focus groups in various schools (public, charter, needs-improvement, private) to determine the factors required to make the change. Certainly from observation we see there are teachers, executives, and others who are adopting the tools and philosophy to construct their classrooms and businesses for the shifting paradigm. However, they are in the minority and I wonder if they represent a population that is more willing to take a risk, is more open-minded, and (dare I say) more committed to their own learning (perhaps willing to "grow" is a better way to say it)?

My Dad (Jim Walker) is a former researcher for DuPont with a PhD in Applied Mathematics. He has spent the last 10+ years as president of a retail/wholesale/online business my mother started 25 years ago. He argues that the issue in changing behavior is to show that the problem is more immediate and requires urgent action. Though he is the first to say he finds himself more at home with academics than marketers, his email to me would have made marketing guru Seth Godin proud:

As you know, the problem is how to present the issue (that is not necessarily immediate) so that the individual sees it as immediate. How do you use the technology to show an individual the effect of some issue, such as global warming, on them? In the same way that a medical person can create an image of how a missing person might look today (based on a photograph from 10 years ago), can we show an individual how their life will "appear" 20 years from now as a result of some phenomenon? The "phenomenon" might be sociological in nature or physical.

Cool idea. How might we visually demonstrate what an individual's life will look like if he or she does/doesn't make this shift in education and/or enterprise? And what are the steps that he/she can take NOW to move toward the more desirable outcome? Show what success looks like..and show failure. And then give the roadmap to succeed. Hmmm...

Finally, I want to address the question of the pace of change. I have mentioned that there is frustration in the edublogger community with the slow pace of personal understanding and the adoption of new practices. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach comments:

According to John Seely Brown, it took 20 to 50 years for electrification to take hold and for society to enact new social practices that leveraged the potential of that infrastructure, and so it will be for the reculturation of schools. (my emphasis)

I cannot disagree that real change--systemic change/paradigm shifts--takes time. Some might argue that to effect a change you've got to start small and then grow it like a "rolling stone grows moss". OK, I hear that as well. However (and I will note that this is both a "good" and a "bad" thing), isn't the power of the web and its network of connections just the right framework for social practices that can leverage the idea and rapidly increase the speed of change? We aren't talking about an industrial revolution or an evolving information age; we're talking about something that is more personal, social and behavioral in nature: the age of the network.

My passion is to harness the viral nature of that network for meaningful change in human behavior such as greater understanding, improved communication skills, and the fostering of creativity, collaborative problem-solving, and life-long learning as "the norm."

Lots to keep thinking about...and read. I've just reread parts of The Tipping Point and all of The Art of Possibility. And I'm probably late to the game on this, but The Starfish and The Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations is really compelling.

Thoughts, books, ideas always welcome...

Laura

Defining the Digital Divide

I am sitting here watching John Mayer and his "Waiting on the World to Change" during the Live Earth broadcast...and reading online. Seems quite serendipitous and "fitting" to stumble upon something change-oriented with some traction to it! Somewhere in the past year I lost track of this foundation that was doing some inspiring work in the area of digital learning: The MacArthur Foundation. In 2006, this Chicago-based foundation announced:

...a five-year, $50 million digital media and learning initiative to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. Answers are critical to developing educational and other social institutions that can meet the needs of this and future generations. The initiative is both marshaling what is already known about the field and seeding innovation for continued growth.

A cursory review of their initiative's web site, Building the Field of Digital  Media and Learning, is inspiring because "they get it" and they are using their resources to research, blog, fund a after-school project in Chicago (for example), study and participate in Second Life, and build their own social network focused on knowledge-sharing.

The foundation president, Jonathan Fanton, wrote an op-ed piece in advance of the National Media  Education Conference in St. Louis last month. Titled New Generations, New Media Challenges Fanton says the central issue we call "digital divide" isn't any longer access to technology. Rather, he writes:

The real gap between tomorrow's digital haves and have-nots will be a lag in competence and confidence in the fast-paced variegated digital universe building and breeding outside schoolhouse walls...Henry Jenkins, director of the media studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, calls this a new "participatory culture," one that presents low barriers to artistic expression and social engagement that suggests that a richer environment for learning may lie outside the classroom.  ...Online and after school, youths in this new participatory culture are assimilating new languages and rules, vast troves of research and perspectives on the nature of order and community that vault across traditional boundaries of race or creed or culture.

And, what does this mean for education? He closes the piece with a "call":

The downside may be that in the sunset of the old information culture, we are not understanding this new media literacy soon enough. Those who have no opportunity or desire to be part of these revolutionary digital communities may be deprived of vital virtual skills that would prepare them for full participation in the real world of tomorrow.

In this new media age, the ability to negotiate and evaluate information online, to recognize manipulation and propaganda and to assimilate ethical values is becoming as basic to education as reading and writing. The children who truly will be left behind in the evolving digital culture are those who fail to bridge this participation gap.

Our challenge is to develop these educational forces, opening up our classrooms to the learning in which children now engage largely outside of school. In the end, we may find that the best way to institutionalize and encourage this new media literacy is to understand and harness what our young digital culture seems to be doing pretty well on its own.

Although I believe we have short-term access issues, I agree that the central issue is about participation and "opening up the classroom".

Made to Stick

Two weeks ago a friend and I went to hear Andrew Zolli give the keynote address at NECC. Zolli's presentation, though long and a bit over-the-top with jokes, was spot-on in many respects. I've just listened again to  Creativity, Innovation, and the Forces of Change, and I wonder if perhaps the endnote about messaging is where we need to focus. How do we craft a message which inspires participation and creates a Tipping Point in education?

Zolli notes that we're becoming connected at an exponential rate, the cost of that connectivity is plummeting, and "we are all going to be involved with each other for a very long time." However, computers are going to be doing most of the work, thus begging the question "What will we do?" Our role will be to work from our unique, creative centers and add value. (See Mitchel Resnick of MIT's presentation on "Sowing the Seeds of a More Creative Society.") We will be asked also to master all five ways of approaching a problem: think, look, play, imagine...and NETWORK. Network refers to our ability to work collaboratively in groups--to develop partnerships. It will be a key factor. Our level of participation in that network will be the exponential factor determining a network's value. Many of us have not learned to think in terms of the network, and therein lies our challenge and opportunity--not to mention the challenge in education to master the other approaches!

How do we in education (and enterprise for that matter) get our communities (e.g.,teachers, students, parents, administrators) to participate in the network? How do we realize the value of all this connectedness? Certainly the practices of many dedicated professionals, widely dispersed as they may be, move us along incrementally. But, I sense a lot of frustration out there among the edubloggers (Will Richardson, Chris Lehmann, David Warlick) at this "inching along." We need something to "tip it", and that something is what Zolli left us to ponder: It is about taking the message from the abstract and making it personal.

Zolli contrasted society's passion for hunting down Bin Laden and Hussein to our limited interest in environmental issues such as global warming. The abstract nature and future orientation of the environmental issues cannot compete with the concrete, present reality of a couple of terrorists. Zolli argues that in order to get people focused on the right variable (the societal impact of global warming is far greater than two terrorists) we need to take a Chip and Dan Heath-like approach (see Made to Stick) and  "bake every idea" with a message that shows it is:

Personal (Individual Stories, not Impersonal Facts)
Tangible (vs. Intangible)
Present (What does this mean for me today?)
Desirable (What's in this for me, rather than is this the responsible choice)

In the end, it all comes down to the marketing of the message. At the Edublogger Conference (the day before Zolli spoke) we wrestled with coming up with the elevator pitch for what it is we "see." If we want it to be something that "sticks", then we've got to move out of the abstract ivory tower and onto the personal reality page. I am anxious to explore this, and so I ask: How might this group use the tools in a way to create a powerful message that shows why all of this is personal, tangible, present, and desirable?  "Did You Know" was a nice viral start, but it is still too fact-based and too long. If we are going to have the crucial emotional appeal, we need the story angle...thoughts?

Change: Harnessing the Right Attitude

In the third grade I wrote a one page essay for my teacher, Ms. Pelham. We had just finished reading an article about the destruction of our forests. A photo of a single tree standing in a felled forest followed the article, and Mrs. Pelham asked us to write about that tree. She didn't ask us to regurgitate the facts; she asked us to look at the image, reflect on it, then write. I recall writing about how the tree felt: its loss of its friends (trees); the change in the community since there was no longer a forest for the birds and wildlife; and the tree's ensuing loneliness. And, I wrote about its hope: That new trees would be planted around it and once again the forest would be lush and green and home for so many.

How do we bridge the gap between reality and what we believe or hope to be possible? How do we react to change or create the change we want to see?

Enterprise and education are struggling with these very issues. Web 2.0 brings the ability to connect, collaborate, create...and without question "change." In this new paradigm, the walls of our institutions can no longer confine us, and a rich, participatory world is emerging. It seems that there are pockets of understanding, and certain people and institutions that are bringing great attitudes and aptitudes to this changing landscape. But for so many I wonder when they will ask the question "Who Moved My Cheese?"

I spent Saturday listening to-and to a limited extent participating in-conversations at the first EduBlogger Conference (a kickoff event to the week ahead at NECC). There are so many thoughts swirling around in my mind. Although it will take a while to process all that I heard, I see the passion and commitment this group has to harness the connective, collaborative, creative energies and move the conversation beyond "the choir". Systemic change is what we're all after (in this case in public and private education but equally as important in enterprise). I believe that this change is going to come not only from our practice/our example ("Be the change you want to see" -Ghandi) but also from our work to dispel the "fear factor" in most of the over 30 crowd-fear that has been embedded by the media and reinforced by the natural human tendency to resist change. We started talking about how that might be  accomplished, and I'll probably write more about it in coming posts.

Ms. Pelham exuberantly scrawled "A+++" on my essay; and, 35 years later, my mom still has that paper in her "special drawer". I honestly don't know how well it was written, or if I really deserved such high praise. But, I wonder if maybe that essay reminded them of something: We must be empathetic to the effect of change, but most importantly we must respond to change with an "attitude of possibility" not fear. Harnessing that hope I think we have the foundation necessary to begin the work of bridging the gap between what is real and what is possible.