One of the big revelations for me at educon was that creating things is the only way to sustain change. You cannot influence things to change. You have to create what you would like to see and make the change real for people.
 
Concretely, I mean that every student, every teacher and every administrator should not be allowed to leave their buildings with being able to truthfully say that they created something new that day. The following things do not count as creations:
 
1. Grades
2. Worksheets or any answers to lower level thinking questions
3. Meetings or notes from meetings
4. Email (unless it is cross-posted somewhere else)
 
Another reason why I believe that everyone should create something every day is because no one will be removed from learning if this happens. If you have to go through the process of creating something new, you have to also go through the process of demonstrating learning or of even learning something new. We would no longer have teachers who are out of touch with students or administrators that are out of touch with teachers. If we are all engaged in the act of creation, we are all speaking the same language.
 
We must, therefore, create an economy of creation as well. We must require creation as a requirement for participation in society. If we all now have the ability to publish quickly and create regularly, why are we so timid about requiring it of others. (That being said, anyone feel like poking holes?)
 
 
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Posted via email from olco5’s posterous

1. Believe in what you are saying.
2. Own what you know.
3. Reference the hope that you feel many times.
4. Reach.
5. Be able to back up your reaching and hope with the network that brought us all together.

So, I have been the youngest person in the room ever since I finished college. This is both a blessing and a curse.

It is a blessing in the fact that I can claim that I never taught without blogging. It is a curse in the fact that my life experience is so sufficiently small that it seems almost inconcievable that I couldn’t have intelligent ideas about how to change schools. No matter how much I believe in what I am saying or how well I flesh out my ideas, my inability to look older is still a major flaw.

The best part, however, and the reason for my post is that because of the way I look, speak and write, people tend to push me harder than others. I have had more push back on my thoughts than any other time, and I have lost more sleep this weekend in thinking through the issues that I most care about.

It is beautiful to be challenged on the merit of your work.

My session went well, but it only went well because I was able to put ideas out there and see if they stood on their own. I want more of this. I want to be able to have more opportunities to react to well developed thoughts and questions.

This weekend, to me, was about taking the time to let our work stand for itself. This weekend was about thinking about what is going on in our schools and seeing if it holds water. It is about pushing back from all sides and seeing what is pushed up in the process.

The question I really want to ask is this: How can we ensure that all perspectives are pushing equally? How can we get all of the voices in the room to test what we are talking about? If we only have some people pushing, ideas get pushed down. If we only question the ideas we don’t agree with, the ones that we value will never grow.

So, whatever you read on my blog, tell me I am wrong.

Push me to be better. I want to be better.

I will be keeping my notes here, mostly, but you can also follow my twitter stream below for more notes. Check out the EduCon wiki for more info.

All of the best collaborations I have been a part of have started off with a lot of questions. Not “how do we get it done” questions, but rather questions that yearn for something more, questions that require you to truly envision something that has never existed before and then breathing it into being. Perhaps that is a little bit high minded for the type of collaboration I would like to do today, but I don’t think so.

I think that we can start with questioning the very nature of collaboration, the ways in which we communicate and come together. I believe that we can challenge the format and flow of our information. And in the process, I believe that we can create an instant and always-on type of collaboration that has never existed, until we all decide that it is worth building.

So, what are the questions that we would like to answer today? Well, I have a few to start:

1. What types of collaboration would you like to have at your fingertips by simply clicking once with your mouse (without first having to build a personal learning network for a few months)? (Instant)
2. What types of collaboration do you miss out on because they are not in your workflow (or you simply don’t have time)? (Instant and Always-on)
3. How do you create long lasting collaborations (or at least ones that outlast your involvement with them)? (Always-on)
4. How does the format and timeliness of information change the possibilities of collaboration? (Instant)
5. How do you get information, people, and resources to come to you? (Always-on)

In answering these questions and many others that you have come up with, I think we will come to an understanding of the nature of instant and always-on collaboration. In the hopes that we have something to grab ahold of in this discussion, I have outlined what I believe are the tenants of getting collaboration to be as simple as an on-button:

(All of these tenants assume one thing: All collaboration is made up of single acts that are held within a single space and a single time. Together these acts of collaboration make up the process of connecting with others, discussing ideas, and creating something new.)

1.    All Logins that can be eliminated, should be.
2.    Everything that can be aggregated, should be.
3.    Everything that can be archived and tagged, should be.
4.    No new online space (blog, wiki, portal, etc.) should be created that cannot leverage existing spaces.
5.    Workflow is king. Any space that doesn’t play well with the tools that people already use, is worthless.
6.    Quiet the incessant chatter of the web. Focus only on conversation and voices that matter.
7.    All spaces must include specific information for specific stakeholders.
8.    All spaces must be able to accommodate an infinite number of stakeholders.
9.    Action should be inevitable, and membership should be impossible.
10.    You should be obsolete in your space immediately.

Discuss.

Extra resources:

• Bitty Browser Plugin
• WordPress MU Plugin Commander
• Link for tagging on Scribd
• Link for tagging on Slideshare
• Link for tagging on youtube

Idea one: The purpose of school is not to churn out a finished product. Innovation doesn’t come from a place of completion.
 
Idea two: If we mean 99 percent of the places that we call school, I would say there is no purpose.
 
The purpose should be to be THE place to go and create, learn, and build real things.
 
Idea three: The purpose changes. Does the purpose take into consideration of all cultures and ideas. It can’t just be the transmission of values, other than inquiry.
 
Idea four: The purpose of school is to create community.
 
The best thing you might be able to do in a day is getting the students to talk to one another.
 
Idea five: The purpose of school is to learn how to communicate.
 
You have to be able to present arguments and convince people that you know what you are talking about.
 
Calibrate what students know as important, difficult, and original.
 
Idea six: The purpose of school is to expose kids to people who are actually doing what is possible.
 
Perhaps it is in finding out how things really work. Perhaps it is in not knowing everything. Perhaps it is in knowing exactly what you want to do with your life.
 
Idea seven: The purpose of school is to be the great equalizer. But the system can’t keep up.
 
We need to fix it so that schools are what they should be.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Posted via email from olco5’s posterous

I am on my way to educon 2.1 right now, looking out into the night (don’t worry, I am using my phone in airplane mode). For some reason there are no clouds out there tonight, and all I can see are the bright lights of cities, clustered together and beautiful. What I am thinking about as my mind is still trying to wrap itself around the conversation I will be leading on saturday, is that the lights of a city look like the networks that I dream about.
 
I want networks that are far reaching and bright. I want to be able envision the whole thing all at once or focus on a single connection. I want to hop from network to network. I want to see far off into the horizon and know that there are other networks thinking about the same things I am.
 
I want the network to be on every time I look, glowing more radiantly in the node that need my attention right now. I want knowledge to run around my network like the people push on out toward their well ordered lofts in the city and winding single-family house lined roads in the suburbs. I want my network to bring me in for a landing every once in a while, grounding me in what is really so important: taking the time to get to know an individual and seeing them as more valuable than any amount of community created or knowledge gained.
 
(I know this post is pretty flowery, but I am away from my family for the first time since my son was born. I may be a little wistful on the blog for the next few days.)
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Posted via email from olco5’s posterous

I am on my way to educon 2.1 right now, looking out into the night (don’t worry, I am using my phone in airplane mode). For some reason there are no clouds out there tonight, and all I can see are the bright lights of cities, clustered together and beautiful. What I am thinking about as my mind is still trying to wrap itself around the conversation I will be leading on saturday, is that the lights of a city look like the networks that I dream about.
 
I want networks that are far reaching and bright. I want to be able envision the whole thing all at once or focus on a single connection. I want to hop from network to network. I want to see far off into the horizon and know that there are other networks thinking about the same things I am.
 
I want the network to be on every time I look, glowing more radiantly in the node that need my attention right now. I want knowledge to run around my network like the people push on out toward their well ordered lofts in the city and winding single-family house lined roads in the suburbs. I want my network to bring me in for a landing every once in a while, grounding me in what is really so important: taking the time to get to know an individual and seeing them as more valuable than any amount of community created or knowledge gained.
 
(I know this post is pretty flowery, but I am away from my family for the first time since my son was born. I may be a little wistful on the blog for the next few days.)
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Posted via email from olco5’s posterous

Here is the second installment of the Douglas County School District’s conversations around learning and technology, which is cross-posted here.

So, we focused our time today on discussing how to overcome typical stumbling blocks in teachers using technology to reach learning in the classroom.

You can see the show notes below (or simply click this link to see a better version):

The Clever Sheep: Cell Phones in the Classroom
thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/04/cell-phones-in…

Cell Phones in the Classroom

How is your school leveraging cell phone technology for student learning?In the schools my children attend, mobile phones are not welcome. The regional district school board is jamming the genie back into the lamp, even though the use of handheld technology is ubiquitous in the real world. Rather than restrict the use of this technology, educators (and their students) would be better served, if they were actually to be encouraged to use this technology in their classrooms.

One article on the use of cell phones in the classroom. Do our teachers feel empowered to use cell phones in the classroom. Are there management issues with using cell phones in the classroom?

Using cell phones rather than checking the laptop carts out.

HypeCycle.png (PNG Image, 720×540 pixels)
static7.userland.com/oracle/gems/reynolds/HypeCycl…

A diagram of Technology integration?

Looking to spur wiki adoption? Want to grow from 10 users to 100, or 1000? Applying patterns that help coordinate people’s efforts and guide the growth of content, and recognizing anti-patterns that might hinder growth – can give your wiki the greatest chance of success.

Wikipatterns.com is a toolbox of patterns & anti-patterns, and a guide to the stages of wiki adoption. It’s also a wiki, which means you can help build the information based on your experiences! Beyond this site, there are many other additional resources.

NEW Wikipatterns book!
This book provides practical, proven advice for encouraging adoption of your wiki project and growing it into a useful collaboration tool or vibrant online community. learn more

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

I wrote the draft of this yesterday, so I’m pretty sure it still counts for my writing a blog post every day this year goal.

I realized something quite major for me today. I really hate picking up the phone. In fact, I have become afraid of it. It is threatening to me.

Every time I pick up my cell phone, someone needs me to work on something or to help solve an issue that could easily be worked through by simply googling the topic or with a few e-mail exchanges (or better yet, working through a forum so that the issues that we resolve can be shared out with others).

I guess I have known this for a while, but I am stating it now: Voice is inefficent.

Voice is beautiful and personal, but when all it conveys is information then it is just not worth the breath it takes to produce. We should save our voices for oratory and humor. We should save our voices for storytelling and nuanced debate. But for mere information, let’s use email or txt. Let’s use discussion forums. Let’s blog and edit wikis.

So, I guess I don’t just mean “Stop calling me.” I mean, communicate with me.

I mean choose the right tool for the right job. Becuase right now, I am just using the voice feature on my phone as a voicemail box. That’s all. Is that wrong?