Home Posts tagged "community" (Page 3)
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The Ripe Environment: Collaboration as Instinct

Published on June 26, 2008, by in Uncategorized.

I sat at the over-long table, as I always do on Mondays and thought about the next time I would meet my students for Extended Learning Time (our version of a multi-discipline course without any set curriculum or standards to give guidance or restrict us).

“Well, it is earth day in a couple of days.”

Immediately, my colleague and I started a Google Document called Earth Day 2008. We started dropping in links to pages we found.

“Oh, I did hear something about an event on the National Geographic Channel. Did you hear about it. Something about the human footprint.”

We were pushing hard now, 25 minutes before kids arrive. Link after link being proposed as a starting point.

“What is the question we are really trying to get our kids to answer here.”
“Is Earth Day important and why?”

And we we started writing out a discussion, a plan of attach. We eventually came to the conclusion that there were others who were interested in asking this same question, experts even. And yet, within 30 minutes we created an authentic question and activity around it. Our instinct was to create and collaborate, rather than offer worksheets as an attempt at lesson planning. This is our Ripe Environment, and the class that the students came into that day was Ripe too.

They couldn’t wait to see who had the bigger footprint. They couldn’t wait to collaborate on their own weekly or monthly collection of soda cans or milk jugs. This process of not waiting to be told, of instinctively knowing that it is the right thing to do, that makes it truly authentic.

So, how do you foster this instinct for collaboration. Well, by saying yes to it as often as possible. It is my personal belief that there is never too little time to create, too little time to collaborate.

If you have only a minute:

  1. Put a request for a resource out on twitter.
  2. Do a delicious search instead of a google search (it is a community of people waiting to help).
  3. Link to someone who is talking about it.

If you have a half-hour:

  1. Start a google doc and invite a few others to join in.
  2. Search technorati for new blogs, videos, and people who are interested in the same thing.

If you have a longer:

  1. Start a wiki and get people to contribute.
  2. Start a blog and get people to contribute.
  3. Start a movement and get people to join.
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Helping myself out… by asking for help.

Published on June 24, 2008, by in Uncategorized.

So I haven’t blogged for a little while because of all of the work I have been doing for our district’s online school, eDCSD. I intend to blog that out more fully in a separate post, but now I am at the TIE 2008 conference and I have some time to think about how everything (seriously everything) is fitting together.

Teachers are sitting around me trying to figure out Photo Story. They are listening to a man who knows something about building learning communities through new media and web 2.0 resources. This is right up my alley. Or, at least it used to be. I used to love listening to hear people talk about what to use in the classroom in order to create a more collaborative environment. I talk about it when I present. I demo visual tools (although mostly of them are web-based) for creating environments. Why doesn’t this mean something to me?

I feel different than I did last year when I talked to Bud Hunt, Will Richardson, and Karl Fisch. I don’t feel like I am a part of this conversation right now. I feel a part of a different conversation, but I don’t know exactly where it is happening.

I want to be a part of the conversation that is about massive creation. I want to be a part of creating something that lasts, not a singular experience. I want to feel connected to all of the people I talk to, forever. I don’t want to meet anyone new who doesn’t want to share and create with me. Why can’t it be easy enough to simply add people and create with them. Why is it not possible to look across the edubloggosphere and say, “you and me, let’s go.”

I want to be a part of that conversation. I want a creation station for all of us. Where is it, though? Where is the learning playground? I want to play.

So, I guess I will throw it out to you. Where is your playground right now? Where are you going to simply create learning with others (please don’t tell me that the most learning is happening simply through twitter… I don’t think I am alone in my for need something more robust to actually create conversations that last and that I can keep coming back to). Anyway, any suggestions for where my learning community is?

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Community requires tending.

Published on April 11, 2008, by in Uncategorized.

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a story mostly about tyranny and the corruption of utopian ideals, but in the very beginning there is a passage that means something very different to me. It deals with the leadership of Mr. Jones before the rebellion, before the animals decide to take the farm into their own hands.

“The fields were full of weeds, the buildings wanted roofing, the hedges were neglected, and the animals were underfed.”

This quotation represents all of the things that happen when Mr. Jones gets too distracted to work, to maintain his environment, and to make life better for all those involved. To me, this is about not tending the community. It is about letting things lie fallow which must be uprooted and overturned to see what is underneath them.

Our communities are just like this I think, both in our classroom and outside of them. The communities within our classroom, especially the collaborative ones that we are all striving for, require an immense amount of tending. The Discovery Utopia wiki that my students are working on (and the reason that we are reading Animal Farm in the first place) is not an exception. If I do not constantly draw attention to the great things that are going on there, the community seems to just pass right on by them. If I do not look for the troubling points, the issues that nearly every student seems to be struggling with, students stop using the community. They find other ways to occupy their time. And that is one of the most interesting parts about our communities. They are communities of choice.

All communities of choice are ones that can be thriving in one minute and vacant in the next. So, how do we tend for consistency? Well, we feed the animals (is it weird that I am referring to my students as animals). We put up new buildings for them to play in. We design the space so that it is inviting and provokes the best kind of authentic creativity: their own.

I think that the lesson is pretty clear. If we do not tend to our communities, they will fail. The inhabitants will rebel and either stop using them, or turn them into something that rejects their purpose. And, if Animal Farm is any indication, the inhabitants of a untended community will become just like us and not tend to their communities. I mean that in both a virtual and real-world sense.

I hope this comes across as something other than a Language Arts teacher’s metaphorical analysis.

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What we need from “the district.”

Published on January 31, 2008, by in 365 Questions, Uncategorized.

The Principal of the Online School in my School District asked me a really interesting question regarding the growth of our vision within the district and the region. She asked, “What are the 2 or 3 big pieces that we need from the system/district?”

I was taken aback by this question. Is it possible that my district really wants that kind of input? Can I really influence the future just by asking for it?

This question begs us to examine what we want to ask of our institutions. Many times we just assume that our institutions are not interested in what we have to say or what we would like to create, but perhaps they just need to know what it is that we need. So, this is what I have been thinking about:

What are the 2 or 3 big pieces that I need from “the system” in order to create the Authentic Learning Environments I have been writing about, podcasting about, trying to create, and aching to find?

    • We need teachers who do not have to pile technology-rich learning experiences on top of their every day classrooms. We need teachers who are hired to simply do the work of creating a ripe environment for students online (or are at least shared with a brick and mortar in some kind of ratio that makes sense).
    • We need to be able to rewrite the rule book a little on what tools are okay to use in classes. It should not be a don’t ask, don’t tell policy. It should be a conversation about which technologies really do produce the most authentic learning for the most students.
    • Ideally, I want access to a learning spa, where teachers can come in and learn all that they can about teaching online without the fear of being rushed or having to regurgitate the information for students. I want a place that will create culture among students, a place to do projects with kids that will get them comfortable with the tools they will need in order to take courses online. I want a place where teachers are encouraged to create a community, to have a shared vision, to stay informed, and to create something new. It would be nice if that place existed as a brick-and-mortar entity and not just as a consistent webinar meeting.

What would you ask for if you knew your district was listening?

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The Social Networks of Tragedies

Published on December 18, 2007, by in Uncategorized.

July 05, 2007 07:52PM

 

This podcast is pretty heavy:
I was in Osawatomie, KS for the 4th of July. It flooded earlier in the week, and my sister-in-law lost her car and her apartment due to this natural disaster. This event really got me thinking about how we can use the technology that our schools provide (especially in 1:1 programs) in order to create social networks for a community. I hope that we can start putting together ideas like Steve Hargadon’s Public Web Stations (link below) in non-crisis times. If you have any ideas about how to do this, please shoot me an e-mail at benwilkoff@gmail.com
I am also interested in knowing if you would rather I don’t include links and pictures with my podcast, but rather simply upload the mp3 file. If you have an opinion either way, please post a comment on this podcast.
Show Notes:

The Social Networks of Tragedies Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (297)
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Visions of Change

Published on December 18, 2007, by in Uncategorized.

April 24, 2007 06:10AM

 

Well, I guess it was bound to happen sometime, but I really didn’t expect it to happen this soon. We have received funding for our School 2.0 within a school idea, The Academy of Discovery. So, what do we do now? How do we continue to articulate the vision in the face of overwhelming support. Adversity I can handle, but what do we do now that everyone is behind us, just waiting to see how we can pull this off. It leaves me very excited to have the freedom of collaboration and experimentation within my community, but it also leaves me scared for blank page that we have been given to write on. I just hope all of our posturing and framing doesn’t signify nothing.
Show Notes:

Visions of Change Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (183)
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I vs. We

Published on August 1, 2007, by in Uncategorized.

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I don’t know when it happened, but I have started using the word “we” in my podcast and blog when I would normally use the word “I.” I believe that it is due to my increased awareness and involvement of the community that I have surrounded myself with. I also think that many more of “us” should start using “we” when “we” write and speak. It makes me feel like I am a part of something, that “we” are going in a particular direction. I want “us” to be aware of how amazing “our” community can become, so long as we don’t fall into some of the pitfalls that I describe in the podcast. Let me know what you think of this idea at benwilkoff@gmail.com.
The image for this podcast is by http://flickr.com/photos/factoids/. I think it is amazing.

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The Social Networks of Tragedies

Published on July 6, 2007, by in Uncategorized.

itunes pic
This podcast is pretty heavy:

I was in Osawatomie, KS for the 4th of July. It flooded earlier in the week, and my sister-in-law lost her car and her apartment due to this natural disaster. This event really got me thinking about how we can use the technology that our schools provide (especially in 1:1 programs) in order to create social networks for a community. I hope that we can start putting together ideas like Steve Hargadon’s Public Web Stations (link below) in non-crisis times. If you have any ideas about how to do this, please shoot me an e-mail at benwilkoff@gmail.com

I am also interested in knowing if you would rather I don’t include links and pictures with my podcast, but rather simply upload the mp3 file. If you have an opinion either way, please post a comment on this podcast.

Show Notes:

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Digital Ex-Patriots and The Formula for Transparency

Published on May 15, 2007, by in Uncategorized.

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Well, I may be going out on a limb with this one, but I have described in the podcast a level of discomfort with technology that goes beyond the simple immigrant/native debate. The fear and panic that is associated with technology in the classroom comes from Digital Ex-Patriots. These people (parents, teachers, administrators, etc.) are so sure of their anti-technology stance that they are actively pursuing a life (of education) away from technology integration. These are the people that we must win over if we are going to continue our collaborative efforts and truly create change. Please let me know what you think about this concept in the comments or in an e-mail (benjamin.wilkoff@dcsdk12.org)




Show Notes:

formats

Visions of Change

Published on April 24, 2007, by in Uncategorized.

itunes pic
Well, I guess it was bound to happen sometime, but I really didn’t expect it to happen this soon. We have received funding for our School 2.0 within a school idea, The Academy of Discovery. So, what do we do now? How do we continue to articulate the vision in the face of overwhelming support. Adversity I can handle, but what do we do now that everyone is behind us, just waiting to see how we can pull this off. It leaves me very excited to have the freedom of collaboration and experimentation within my community, but it also leaves me scared for blank page that we have been given to write on. I just hope all of our posturing and framing doesn’t signify nothing.

Show Notes:

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