Question 44 of 365: What parts of us are fragile, perpetual and renewable?

SpeedGeek Learning Version .1

Piloting you!

I had a lot of conversation today about pilot initiatives within a
larger institution. it seems as though in each project that I take
part in, there is reason enough to get a small group of (semi)
dedicated people together who will try something out and report back
on their success. Whether that is moodle, gmail, google sites, dimdim,
or ning; it seems as though there is never enough at stake to require
all users to jump on board initially. While this is good in a lot of
ways: less kicking and screaming, learning from mistakes with small
group is better, and less chance of falling flat on your face with
everyone watching. But, it is bad in many as well: no ensuring that
the pilot will go further, no urgency in rolling out to everyone, and
all pilots are basically representations of the person who creates
them.
 
This last point is what I would like to focus this post on. What I am
finding as I do more pilot initiatives is that I am trying to model
the pilot on my own practice and workflow. I am taking what I feel is
valuable and important and I am saying that others should feel the
same way. At the end of the day, I am piloting a larger and more
unwieldy version of me.
 
While it is flattering that others would want to help beta test me, I
am not totally sure how smart it is. I am not a typical user of almost
anything. I want to break things open and push them to do what I
envision, not what they were intended for. While I may have a good eye
for what others may need, I need people who aren’t using tools in such
ways to help design the pilots too.
 
I guess what I am trying to say is that I cannot pilot myself if I
want the pilot to actually do what it is supposed to: test whether or
not something will work for everyone. But, how do I ask those who are
less willing to try new things to become a part of a pilot. How do I
ensure that all voices are heard so that when things do go live, the
backlash from these users isn’t fierce enough to shut it down?
 
Easy question, right?

Posted via email from olco5′s posterous

A question

This is a really interesting question.

First, if you are looking for engaging videos to show for professional development, I would look here:
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/resources/videos-for-pd/

As for introducing the subject of engaging students with technology, I think that you would really have to find a good itch that you think all of the teachers want to scratch. What is the one thing that they can do with technology and students that they couldn't do before? Why should they care about technology?

Places like http://classroom20.com, or http://supportblogging.com, or even something as specific as http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/ would work well to figure out just how deep the topic goes with your teachers.

As for an article, I like http://blog.futurestreetconsulting.com/?p=94, many of the posts from http://weblogg-ed.com, or any of the presentations at slideshare about educational technology.

If you are really interested in starting this conversation, I would recommend that you start up a discussion group over at Google Groups or set up a wiki for this purpose. Or, simply get an e-mail group going if that is where your teachers are at. Creating an avenue for this kind of conversation is the only way to make it last. Let me know where you want to go from here. Creating change is not an easy business.

Posted via email from olco5′s posterous

Bringing ideas and people together.

The IT department is an interesting beast in any school distrct. It has so many good ideas for how to get things done and it has the technical knowhow for making forward thinking learning projects go off without a hitch. However, it can also be at odds with the community of learning that teachers and administrators are trying t create. Well, it is my hope that we can bring together some of the very different goals that I see from both sides of the devide.

I have been given the task of creating a presentation to bring our rogue online school, eDCSD, into the fold with what IT has been working on, and do it without losing much of the hard work that either IT or eDCSD has done. I don’t want to comment too much on it at this point, because I haven’t given the presentation yet. However, I thought I would share it with you just in case you found it useful for any reason in your own quest to tie things together.

At this drop.io account, you will find both the presentation and a screencast of the presentation with audio explaining my thinking. I will also embed the presentation for more easy viewing.

The Ripe Environment: Interdependent vs. Independent Questioners

The Ripe Environment: Independent Questioners [ 10:30 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (326)

For as long back as I can remember we have squashed the questions that only help out the individual and focusing only upon the questions that benefit the most students. The tangential question is not allowed because it is a distraction to the learning, rather than an enhancement. The student who thinks divergently is allowed to do so only if she doesn’t speak. An environment such as this is not ripe for learning. In fact, I would make the case that it is rotten.

The students that are dependent upon one another to guide their learning may learn in an environment where only one voice is heard at a time. But it takes so much longer to get to true point of significance because each of the learners can only move as fast as the question or the answer. The backchannel allows many students to ask questions, but the learning doesn’t happen until those questions are answered. Backchannels inherently are also not very searchable or friendly to going back through and pulling out the most important elements. Rather, they are representations of the thinking going on in the background of a session or class period.

Rather, the Interdependent students need a place for an organic question and answer that they can all edit and work within. They need a collaborative document or wiki that is a constantly reworked FAQ for the content. Each student is able to learn from one another and save that learning. They are dependent upon one another for their learning, and that is the way that they wanted to be.

However, it is something so much more amazing to allow the independent questioner to come into the mainstream of the classroom or session. The Ripe Environment allows for this type of learner to engage in the experience without feeling like an outsider.

Traditionally, independent questions are a challenge to authority… and they should be. They should challenge what is truly the most important content being presented. But, rather than having students distracting everyone with a question, they will be creating learning for everyone by proposing a solution. The independent questioners most times do not really want an answer from the presenter, teacher, or workshop facilitator. They would much rather answer the questions themselves; they just need the okay to go and research it themselves and the opportunity to present what they find.

So, my proposal is this: Let learners get engaged by a divergent question. Let them find out what they can on the answer. Let them have time at the end (or middle, or beginning) of a session to present their findings. Let them be authentic. Let them create something new.

Maybe this isn’t revolutionary. Maybe this is simply building and letting the learners come. Regardless, we aren’t doing it enough, and for that I am regretful.