He thought for a moment and said “don’t forget that you don’t just need your personal truth and wise teachers, you need community too…” He then went on to explain that the foundations of Buddhism are the “Three Jewels” – the Buddha (the wise teacher), the Dharma (the teachings) and the Sangha (the community).

I’m not going to go off into a discussion of religion at this point, but this chat got me thinking about how we learn and what the dimensions of social learning need to include. It got me thinking about how I would design a system to support all of those dimensions? Because we all need a balance of all three to learn most effectively!

To start with, I believe that learning is learning is learning is learning…

In other words, what we want for students is ultimately no different than what we need to provide educators in terms of professional development opportunities, or what we need to help parents experience as they support their children’s learning. It’s an idea I’ve espoused for quite a while and it’s showing up for me now as I look at how to leverage what we know about learning in order to create a supportive technology infrastructure for all participants in our education system?

So, I believe that there are three dimensions of “social” in “learning”:

1. We “learn from…”
   • This is our “expert learner” network. I like to think of it in these terms because it really emphasizes that we are learning together – but that “experts” will arise from different places. Traditionally, this would be the teacher in a classroom, a mentor or coach when we’re looking for assistance with business or personal growth. It could be a leader of your religious community or your grandma. In less traditional terms, this is anyone who holds a level of experience and wisdom beyond the crowd and is willing to share that with others. It could be one of the students in a classroom. It is often our children, teaching us about using Facebook or how to win at Wii Mario Kart…
   • We all need time with our teachers or mentors because they offer us the perspective of someone who has “done” what we’re trying to do. They look at our efforts objectively and can give us feedback that we can’t see ourselves because we’re too close. They help us by knowing the questions that we don’t even know enough to know we need to ask! And they have a view that allows them to “push” us to develop in ways we don’t know we need because we don’t have the experience of completion or success yet…
2. We “learn with…”
   • These are our “peer” networks. For a student, it’s their classmates. For a teacher, it’s their fellow educators. For most of us, we have several communities we participate in (local, virtual, centered around our hobbies, interests, charities, work, sports, etc…). Twitter is probably my favorite peer learning network – oh the conversations we have and the depth of learning I experience there!! *contented sigh*
   • When we learn with our peers, we struggle together. Learning that contains some struggle to figure things out, and ends in the creation of meaning, is a powerful thing! We’re all in the same boat, in this case. No one has the “answers” and the process is what we’re after here. How do we work together? How do we ask questions and get curious? How do we scaffold off each other’s ideas or thoughts – creating something greater than we could have done alone?
   • This might be group projects for students. Maybe it’s teachers coming together on inquiry based learning teams. It might be parents talking over coffee about the trials of puberty and having tweens! Often, this works best when we figure out how to be a “team” (incorporating a variety of skills that are used to complement each other), not just a “group” (two or more humans interacting together). And the larger the team/group, the closer we come to being a “network” (enter George Siemens and “Connectivism”)
3. We “learn about ourselves…”
   • This is the “personal” part of learning – though I don’t think this is what we mean when we talk about “personal learning networks” or PLNs. What we learn this way is what drives the formation of our PLN, but they are two different things, in my mind.
   • This is the time we spend self reflecting or thinking about what really matters to us? Who am I? What matters to me? What am I good at? What would I like to be better at? What causes me grief or pain (and therefore, warrants my efforts to change)? And what do I want to develop in myself?
   • Often, my interactions within groups or comments that my mentors make will help highlight things personally. My patterns, my beliefs, etc… So they’re definitely linked.
   • In terms of the Buddhist model, this is my “personal truth”!

Without a teacher, our learning is incomplete. We quit because we simply can’t imagine that achieving our goals is possible. We lack the wisdom to even know what we need to learn…

Without our peers, we struggle to “Do it all” by ourselves. We feel isolated. We lack all the skills to accomplish the things that we want to do. We get tired of struggling alone – of feeling like we’re “the only one”…

Without time to learn about ourselves and examine who we are, we stay in reactive mode. We trust outside voices rather than our own gut feeling. We lack direction. We’re unmotivated. We make poor choices about what to do or how to do it (since we don’t understand our own strengths and motivations).

As we plan our training efforts, our classroom activities, our professional development programs – are we considering all three of these dimensions? Because they all contribute to a rich learning environment.

And if you’re tech planning, make sure you incorporate all three in the methods or tools you provide…

There will be four session in the PALS series – this first one was focused around the alphabet. We used stamps to make name tags, then stamp whatever words the children wanted. We made letters out of playdough. We played a matching game of upper case to lower case letters. And then we used “fishing rods” (with magnets at the end) to pick up “fish” (letters/pictures with paper clips on them). My son loved it all!

Then the children were ushered off to the community kitchen while the adults got a short lesson on preparing children for Kindergarten and the importance of reading. The speaker told us about making a point of talking about the parts of a book, of pointing out the title page, and of showing that we read left to right, starting on the left page. We heard about the importance of letting kids see us reading and having books in the house, so that they know that it’s a valued activity in our lives. And that, no matter what the language at home, just keep reading aloud to our children so that they are exposed to the rhythms, vocabulary and ideas that come from a variety of books. All wonderful stuff!

And then the speaker started talking about the importance of limiting “screen time” for our children – that good old fashioned books are critical for children…

I bit my tongue – didn’t want to be “that” parent on the first day, I guess!

But as I reflected on the morning’s experience, I put together some feedback via email to the Principal of the school (who I know quite well). I thought about learning through play and the role of technology in a primary classroom.

I completely agree with the importance of reading and also believe there needs to be a balance of appropriate screen time. But a recent post from Will Richardson got me thinking about what “balance” really means – particularly that balance isn’t about excluding technology…

It made me thing about the fact that, to this generation, “play” includes technology – and it should, because it is an important part of being a literate citizen. My children are not literate if they do not know how to read, write, communicate AND search for/assess the validity of information. That means that comfort with technology is just as important as comfort with writing instruments or any number of other tools that we equip our kids to use.

My point, to make a long story short, is that I believe it’s important to start shifting our attitudes to include technology as a part of play and learning, right from the beginning. Penny Lindballe tells the story of lingering societal prejudices against technology well in this post – it’s worth a read too!

There’s a reason we don’t wait until middle school to introduce a pencil, isn’t there? Time to treat technology the same way…

We’ve got a fairly major technology change to deal with and we want to minimize the stress of such a change by putting ease of use and high value at the center of all we do. But we’ve also got a core group of leaders that understand the possibilities inherent in disruption…

I feel like we have an opportunity here to create solutions that support a breadth and depth of benefits including community engagement, including parents in learning, empowering students, supporting relationships, creating shared learning, making learning visible, supporting leadership, etc…

And the project team is on board to model all that we believe – open and transparent communication, shared leadership, collaborative problem solving, listening without judgment, seeking positive exemplars, etc…

You can see why I’m excited, right?

So this is where all of the conversations I have on Twitter (and with anyone who will engage with me on a day to day basis!!) hit the reality of having to DO what we’ve talked about. The values I believe in are lofty and probably more than a little idealistic.

I sat in a meeting yesterday, talking about approaches and next steps. There is no clear leadership hierarchy. We have many strong personalities involved. The project sponsor has purposefully brought us all together as “thought leaders” in different ways. This is growing into a great team…

Yet I caught myself falling into old paradigms. I started noticing the voice in my head…

Listening and looking around the room, I thought “Ok, I thought I was the project manager on this – why are there all these conversations that have been going on that I haven’t been included in?” Deep breath… I had to talk myself through it. “This isn’t a big deal – people have to feel free to collaborate without limitation – no one’s trying to exclude you…”

That made me think… I’ve struggled a bit during the team-forming phase of this project – trying to figure out what role I’m supposed to be in and what’s expected of me. I’ve sat back at times, unsure whether I’m “supposed” to be speaking up (to the frustration of the sponsor!!)

And it finally drilled home today – this is the discomfort of doing things differently than I have before. In previous projects, I’ve wanted to know it all, to have a “handle” on everything that’s going on (read “control”…) – not in a malicious way, but because that was the way I’d always been successful before.

It was a great big “ah-ha” moment! This is what shared leadership looks like! No one’s “in charge” here, we’re making decisions together, we have to rely on each other, we have to learn to trust each other, we’re allowing each other not to know it all. In order to allow each person to bring their individual strengths and perspectives to the table, I also have to acknowledge that I can’t do everything – and therefore I shouldn’t control everything either!

Wow! It’s incredibly freeing and incredibly frightening, all at the same time!

I like this journey…

So, here are a few posts that so eloquently express the purpose, reasons for and challenges of gifted education within the public school system. (note – they’re all from Tamara Fisher’s Unwrapping the Gifted blog.  And there’s a bunch more where these came from, so go over there for more reading!)

As you read these postings, think about the kids in your lives that fit these descriptions – don’t we owe them the support they need to become their very best, to continue to grow and learn, a fundamental understanding of their own worth completely separate from their academic performance?  In fact, don’t we owe that to all of our children?

Enjoy!

My Yard is Gifted

It’s a Learning Difference

Hardware on the Shelf

A Gifted Child’s Bill of Rights

GT is NOT…

It’s a powerful piece and definitely worth the read (if you haven’t already).

As I read through the comments, I noticed a few people saying (or implying) that genius will develop despite the system – that it’s natural and will come out, no matter what the world is telling them.

While I agree to some extent – I also think that we’re fooling ourselves if we think we’re not damaging these kids.  What’s the matter with saying a child is intellectually gifted?  How can we possibly believe that our parenting and teaching doesn’t influence how these children develop into adults and use their talents?

When we don’t support and foster their talents, we send them the message that it isn’t good to excel in this way – that they need to tone it down and fit in if they want to be liked and accepted.  They end up feeling like there’s something WRONG with them!

Think back to high school and how devastating it was when someone made fun of you for something.  What did you do as a result?  I know I did my darndest to make sure I never did THAT again – because it felt so terrible to have everyone laughing at me.

Now, granted, not all kids react this way – I’m sure there some that can brush it off and go on being themselves.  But there are lots of kids that aren’t that secure with their own worth, that haven’t been raised to feel their own worth and value.

So, it follows quite easily, that those gifted kids who get ridiculed for knowing the answers, for using advanced vocabulary, for being particularly sensitive or for having an artistic flair – well, they stop openly developing those talents to avoid further pain.  And if they’re holding back in class, how are they really developing to their full potential??

Coincidentally, I meandered over to Tamara Fisher’s blog, Unwrapping the Gifted, and read her wonderful article about exactly this topic.  She articulates it much more eloquently than I have – go have a read!

The fact of the matter is that EVERY CHILD deserves to develop their talents – whether that be academic, athletic, artistic, social-emotional, leadership, comedic, etc…

Our children all have their unique gifts – our job as adults is to help them find and value those gifts.

Honestly, I think it’s the most important thing we can do for this next generation!

Inevitably, teams of people, each bringing their unique perspectives to the table, come up with better, more complete, more creative and more successful solutions.

Here’s a video from YouTube that talks about this phenomenon:

In the educational realm, I think everyone has been off trying to come up with solutions by themselves – educators, administrators, District management, Government Ministries.

Why is it that we don’t talk to each other as much as we could? From the outside, I get the sense that there’s a bit of that “leave it to the professionals” attitude.

Is it too much effort to try to coordinate schedules? Are we worried that it takes too much effort to include people uninvolved in the day-to-day operations of our schools? And then they can’t add value anyways? After all, what do parents know about what it takes to run a school? Or a District? And what do students know about what they really need from education?

And it’s hard to have completely open conversations and doors – because that might expose your weaknesses, or open things up for criticism. We are, often by nature, defensive – we want to put our best foot forward, not parade our challenges and weaknesses out for all to see! Do we really want the world to know that we don’t know how to solve a problem? Doesn’t everyone expect the “experts” to have all the answers? And really, doesn’t everyone have enough to do without opening another can of worms by asking people their opinion??

But are we sure that external partners don’t add value? Why would we think that kids are incapable of contributing to solutions about their own education? Another quote from Starbucks is that “the person who sweeps the floor should pick the broom!”

How much effort is it worth to come up with solutions that work? What if we had increased odds of finding successful ideas that everyone is invested in and working together on?

What if it resulted in kids engaged in their own learning? What if they were excited to come to school – to learn and create and work together?

What if parents felt involved and knowledgeable about what was going on in classrooms? What if they were passionate about supporting their children’s teachers? What if they could support and reinforce at home what their kids are learning in school?

What if teachers felt trusted and safe to make mistakes in their own learning and change efforts? What if they felt supported and valued by the parents instead of judged and attacked? What if they already had relationships with all the parents in their class and could easily call one up to discuss their child’s learning – without it feeling like “cold calling” someone you don’t even know (and who doesn’t want to hear from you!)?

What if Principals had time to build the team and the learning community relationships instead of being overwhelmed by the myriad of administrative tasks that swamp their days? What if they could do the same thing that they used to do with their classrooms (encourage, support each child’s learning, coach, bring out the best in everyone)?

How much more powerful would that make our education system?

And, as a result, how would that change education (having something taught TO you) into learning (participating in the learning process and learning WITH you)?

The way I see it, we can keep complaining about how the Government just doesn’t get the whole picture.

We can complain about how they just don’t understand that you can’t measure successful education using standardized tests.

We can gripe about how the teacher’s not helping MY child and nobody cares.

We can shake our heads at all the parents who never even come to parent-teacher interviews.

We can work all hours just trying to get all the forms filled out, the lockers assigned, the reports completed, the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed.

Or we can choose another way and actually TALK TO EACH OTHER!  BUILD RELATIONSHIPS!  COLLABORATE! AND LISTEN TO EACH OTHER!

It takes more effort, but isn’t it worth it?
For them?

He writes:

“The whole experience makes me wonder how powerful it might be to have a twitter that was devoted exclusively to fostering conversation among kids around the world in a safe, monitored environment.

Imagine the impact.

Millions of kids, forming impressions, bonds and experiences not through information filtered and colored by the grown-ups who provide access, but rather by their own, direct experience. Imagine them simply having the ability to invite friends from all over the world to hang out and chat. To ask questions about life, relationships, values or even simple daily activities.

To me, if there is a killer application for social media, it doesn’t lie in the realm of grown-ups. It’s not about business or marketing or content-sharing. It’s in the opportunity to allow kids from radically different cultures around the world to connect, to form their own opinions and break down barriers that have created artificial separations for decades or even centuries.

How different, I wonder, might the next generation be if we could foster such an experience?”

That’s some pretty powerful stuff to imagine, isn’t it? It’s easy to poke holes in the idea – like how would make sure only kids can sign up (not predators pretending to be nine years old!), or how would we make sure they weren’t bullying each other and the experiences were positive?

But I’m more interested in how we COULD make this work?

Could we learn something from Zoey’s Room? They’ve figured out a process of verifying who you are (which is why only American’s can sign up there – they don’t have access to the same verification methods for Canadians, so we’re just not allowed).

Or what about the amazing work that NotSchool.net has done? They’ve found ways of empowering the teenagers – including them in hiring of staff and much more!

What would you do to create a safe, open environment for kids to share and learn?

Here’s the speech I presented:

I’d like to thank the Board of Education for including DPAC in tonight’s event. Too often, we make the time to complain about all the little stuff but forget to celebrate all of the great stuff that’s going on!

So I appreciate this opportunity to be here on behalf of DPAC and the parents in this District, to say a few words about how much we appreciate the teachers, administrators and staff in our children’s schools.

I’m going to stick my neck out a little here – I’m pretty sure you weren’t in it for the money. And it certainly wasn’t for the fame! Which leaves me to believe that you did it because you care about the kid!

Every interaction with a child brings the opportunity to support, to coach, to teach, to care.

I remember one of my teachers who, while I was writing my final exam, leaned across my desk and whispered “I expect great things from you.” I was horrified – sitting there looking at the answer to my essay question, thinking “oh man, this isn’t great!!”  But his words have often come back to me over the years, reminding me to take risks, to take on challenges, to expect more of myself – because he showed me that he believed in me.

I have no doubt that every person in this room has had that kind of lifetime impact on children’s lives – often without even realizing it. It’s the natural result of caring – of taking a moment to listen, to encourage, to expect more, and to believe in young people who don’t know how to believe in themselves yet.

As a parent, I know that my children may drive me nuts sometimes – actually, they’ve probably driven their teachers nuts sometimes too! But I also know that they are these amazing little miracles that have been entrusted in my care for a short while. Bringing them to school and having them out of my protective arms is difficult sometimes – even though I know it’s a part of the “letting go” that has to happen as they grow to adulthood. It makes it easier to know that they are with staff, administrators and teachers that are both professional and caring!

Parents aren’t perfect, teachers aren’t perfect – we’re all human. But what matters is that we care and we keep learning. Because that is an incredibly powerful gift that we can give to the next generation – a living example of how to be perfectly imperfect human beings!

On behalf of all the parents in this District, I’d like to thank you! Thank you not only for caring, but for choosing a career that put that caring into action every day.

Enjoy your well-deserved retirement!

Starbucks Corporation puts out a Corporate Social Responsibility Annual Report, complete with a summary brochure that they put out in each location, right behind the sugar/milk/lids/napkins…

The first time I noticed this brochure was in 2003 and it was the best mission/guiding principles document I had ever seen!!

• It started with a clear mission statement that explained WHY this company was in existence.
• It included six guiding principles that directly related to HOW they were going to focus their efforts in order to deliver on the mission statement.
• The inside of the brochure then went into detail for each of the six guiding principles – saying WHAT things they were doing and how they would tell they were succeeding.

What was so powerful to me was the fact that the mission was translated right down to what each person in the organization was doing on a day-to-day basis in order to contribute to that mission. Every person in that company, from the CEO all the way through stores all over the world, knows what they’re supposed to be doing, how they’re doing it and why they’re doing it – which translates into a sense of purpose that is incredibly inspiring.

This is what we all talk about doing – in project management seminars, in leadership training, all over the place on websites and in books. But it’s so darned HARD TO DO successfully!! I can’t say I knew how to achieve that clarity of vision for a team or organization, but I certainly recognized the power & possibilities.

So often, a mission or vision statement is too complex or so high level that it leaves everyone in the company thinking “well, that’s great but what does that mean?? What am I supposed to do? How does that relate to the work I do every day??”

I’ve watched Starbucks over the years to see if they walk their talk. Everything I’ve seen and heard has been completely consistent. Their staff are enthusiastic and committed. Their stores are definitely making money (which is, in fact, one of their guiding principles), but they’re also giving back to their communities, working to protect our environment, providing amazing customer service, and supporting diverse and sustainable coffee farmers.

I get a sense sometimes that educators dismiss the “corporate” world – thinking that “things are different” in education. Perhaps there is a sense that educators are serving a higher moral purpose than business – after all, schools are educating our next generation, not just making money like those big corporations.

But we don’t have to judge the global relevance of their purpose or even like the coffee in order to appreciate the lessons that we can learn from Starbucks! And there is so much knowledge out there that we can apply to education’s challenges. In fact, I think that this kind of diversity and open-minded thinking is what will allow education to move forward most effectively.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

The current Starbucks brochure caught my eye again, right with the first paragraph:

“It began as many good things do, with some heartfelt conversations. Sincere, forthright, perhaps a bit idealistic. We took a good hard look at our most cherished values and asked ourselves just how we’d integrate them into this new company we were about to create.”

As Pete Reilly mentioned recently, these passionate, slightly idealistic conversations are happening more and more in education these days. These are exciting times!

I don’t think he has a blog yet… Maybe one day!

In the mean time, I came across an article he wrote about recognizing a learning opportunity with WebKinz stuffed animals. From talking to Dave, I know that he’s used this program with a few classes now with great success. I love it because it takes what kids are already interested in (or should I say obsessed with??) and uses that engagement to teach them valuable lessons about life and safety!

I think learning is always powerful when you’re having so much fun that you don’t even realize you’re learning!

And Dave does that so well!

I’ve been feeling a theme developing and I’m pursuing it with vehemence in my district.

It takes a community to raise our children – not one of us has the solution by ourselves and we’ve been spending too much time individually (or as separate groups) trying to fix it.

Collaboration and a single unifying vision will take us to the next level.

So, what I’m working on is:

1) Bringing every discussion, every planning exercise, all data collection, every tech plan back to a comparison of how it helps us move toward the best intellectual, social and emotional learning environment FOR EVERY LEARNER. Does this proposal enhance or detract from that vision?

2) Building bridges between partner groups (teachers, administrators, students, school boards, support workers, District management, parents, community groups, etc… When we all understand our roles in the system and the value we bring towards achieving our vision, then we can work together to find the REAL solutions that will work for everyone!

There is no ONE solution, no magic bullet.
We cannot do it ALONE.

The COLLECTIVE PASSION of educators, students and parents is more powerful than the bureaucracy that often stands in our way. Once we focus that passion, nothing will be able to stop us!

Pete wrote:

“In a recent blog post Scott Mcleod asks the question,

can anyone else think of an employment sector other than K-12 and
post secondary education where employees have the right to refuse to use technology?

It’s a great question and it provoked some good discussion; however is mandating technology use enough? Will it create the pedagogical changes we want, if put in the hands of educators whose personalities are not conducive to the classroom transformation we’d like to see?”

In response to Scott’s question – yes, I can think of one.  I worked for many years doing IT support and projects for the BC Court system – some of it specifically working with the Judiciary.

I find teachers have very similar attitudes and approaches as judges. Once in the courtroom – a judge is adamant about their “judicial independence”.  In other words, they must have the freedom to do their work without interference, including what technology tools they use, how they make their judgments, how they sentence, etc…

For teachers, it’s similar – from the perspective that teachers, once in their classroom, have very individual styles.  Their classroom culture, how they teach and whether they use technology cannot be mandated – they can be influenced, but not forced.

This naturally leads to the path for effective technology integration, in my opinion.

My experience is that teachers passionately believe in kids and, once convinced that something benefits their students, will move mountains to ensure their classroom & students have what they need.

Legislation doesn’t work.

We are all naturally selfish, from the perspective of needing to know how something will benefit ME and what I care about – before I will invest my precious time and energy into changing.

We must lead, we must inspire, we must coach and mentor, we must help teachers experience the power that technology can add to individualize learning, to honour each child’s learning needs and styles, to prepare them for the world today, to facilitate teamwork, creativity and critical thinking and to engage learners.

A reliable technology infrastructure is only the foundation, only the tool.

Training and traditional pro-d only help me “know” at an intellectual level what I “should” be doing.

My relationship with an inspirational leader and a supportive mentor is necessary for me to believe that change is possible and to begin to go from “knowing” to actually “doing” or “being”.

This isn’t anything that we haven’t talked about before, though.
So what’s standing in the way of making it real in all of our schools?

Is it lack of leaders?

Is it lack of time?  Everyone is overwhelmed by national testing requirements, legislative requirements, parent demands, new systems, less support for special needs, increasing ESL, lack of training, etc…

Is it a desire by decision makers to find “simple” solutions that don’t exist?  (i.e. The Western mentality that I want to go to the doctor and get a prescription that will make it all better)  So we fund one little piece at a time, then wonder why it didn’t work??

What do we need to change in order to start making real changes?  Who do we need to engage?