Today’s Agenda

http://plpnetwork.wikispaces.com

Let’s Meet our Community

Community Leader-

Robin EllisSusan Davis

Team Leaders

How will education be different tomorrow because of our meeting today?

How will you contextualize and mobilize what you learn?

How will you leverage, how will you enable your faculty or students to leverage- collective intelligence?

Native American Proverb“He who learns from one who is learning, drinks from a flowing river.”

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Sarah Brown Wessling, 2010 National Teacher of the YearDescribes her classroom as a place where the teacher is the “lead learner” and “the classroom walls are boundless.”

Lead Learner

Making the Case for Change The world is changing.

Kids are using social technologies.

No one is teaching them.

Traditional professional development doesn't work.

Powerful Learning Practice takes a different, unique approach to professional learning.

“The research tells us that teachers need to learn the way other professionals do—continually, collaboratively, and on the job. The good news is that we can learn from what some states and most high-performing nations are doing.”

~Linda Darling Hammond

WorkshopsTwo all day

workshops that build

capacity, community

and develop 21st

Century skills.

WebinarsLive meetings where

teams meet, listen

and then reflect in

small groups.

Virtual Learning Community

Where we deepen

understanding, network,

share resources and

grow as a community

of practice.

Professional Learning TeamsJob embedded teams who meet face-to-face

and work towards scale and alignment of 21st

Century skills with school improvement goals

PLP Delivery Model

Seek out 20 schools/districts willing to invest some time in exploring the challenge of 21st Century Learning.

Ask the schools to identify small teams of 5-6 educators who are ready for this exploration.

With the support of our PLP Community Founders, Directors of Community Development, Cohort Community Leaders, Cognitive Coaches, PLP Fellows, Experienced Voices, and team leaders we begin that exploration together.

Curriculum is Emergent and Interactive

Session #1: Introduction to 21st Century Literacies and Powerful Learning PracticesWhat is 21st Century learning? Why is it important? This session introduces the context, research and trends shaping the current shifts.

Session #2: Network-based InquiryThis session takes a closer look at the pedagogy involved in using web-based strategies to support project-based and inquiry-driven approaches to learning.

Session #3: Network LiteracyThis session moves team members from talking about 21st century learning to examining some specific tools and how they are used to promote the building of Personal Learning Networks for sharing, cooperation, and collective action.

“Joining PLP has pushed me to re-examine what I am doing in my class and how to improve it. As a teacher I constantly ask myself: how can I better engage my students and enrich their experience? How can I make their learning more meaningful? PLP is helping me find answers to those questions.

Meeting (in person and virtually) teachers from other schools and learning about their successes, questions and struggles in implementing 21st Century Skills in their classrooms has been invaluable.

Ever since the first meeting, my mind has been spinning. I feel there is so much to learn about what these skills are and how to effectively teach them to my students. I have a steep learning curve, but I am excited to take this on.”

~Nick Romero,Haverford School

Curriculum is Emergent and Interactive

Session #4: Project WorkshopSchool teams have an opportunity to get feedback on their emerging team projects as well as showcase, reflect, and celebrate the success and outcomes of their learning.

Session #5: Long Range Planning and Implementation WorkshopWorking with school teams to develop a collective vision and implementation plan to build momentum for change in their schools and districts.

“Seeing how others use web 2.0 tools was the best part! It gathered all of the teachers using tech together to work on one common goal. Otherwise, we would have just kept working independently on our own path. It really pushed our district to start a plan to implement and educate others in our district.”

~Theresa Gray,Curriculum Coach

Organic Collaboration School Teams meet face-to-face

Experienced Voices from around the globe

PLP Live Events

Opportunities for school team use of Elluminate.

International team participation in our community hub

Virtual Classroom Visits

Book and Lesson Plan Studies

Kids Connect

“I enjoyed meeting with other schools from around the world, hearing and sharing what they are doing in their districts and regions. It opened my eyes to what we are not doing in my buildings and what needs to be done in the future.”

~Garry Stone,WNY Superintendent

ULTIMATE GOAL

Get the RIGHT people on the bus and

the WRONG people off.

~Jim Collins, “Good to Great”

Collaborative Tools

Wikispaces

Del.icio.us and Diigo

Twitter

Elluminate

NING

Facebook

Slideshare

Flickr

YouTube

Evernote

“Collaboration with others in my district and learning new tools was the best part of PLP. Connecting with other teachers in my district for new ideas and connecting with other schools for new ideas made PLP the best PD ever!”

~ Science teacher in WNY

Planned Outcomes

Knowledge: An understanding of the transformative potential of Web 2.0 tools in a global perspective and context, and how those potentials can be realized in schools.

Pedagogy: An understanding of the shifting learning literacies that the 21st Century demands and how those literacies inform teacher practice.

“It's to the point where I don't realize I'm using it in my lessons with students. It's not an add-on, it's just a part of what we do." 

-Jennifer Clark Evans, -International Cohort

Planned Outcomes

Connections: The development of sustained professional learning networks for team members to begin experimenting and sharing with other team members and online colleagues from around the world.

Sustainability: The creation of long term plans to move the vision forward in participating districts at the end of the program.

Capacity: An increase in the abilities and resources of individuals, teams and the community to manage change.

“The best part of PLP was learning and growing with my team. I am using tools I didn't even know existed before this year. I modeled in a regular meeting and taught other staff through the process enough for them to say they will go back and use it in their classrooms. I want to learn more and use it to help teachers in the district support one another to excellence.”

~WNY District level curriculum coach

“PLP helped us develop a 3 year plan to incorporate our web2.0 tools and staff development for the entire school. Also the connections that were made in an inspiring and non-threatening way.”

~District Superintendent

Team Action Research Projects

Your team will work as a Professional Learning Team to co-create a project:

Develop a creative PD plan to share what you have learned over the past year with the rest of your school or district.

Develop a 21st Century curriculum project that is constructivist in nature and leverages the potential of emerging technologies.

Action Research

Questions? Concerns?

Comments Encouraged!

We will cover one question with your introduction embedded during the Round Robin portion. Each of you will have one shot – uninterrupted – at this question.

When each of you has had about 2-3 minute to say what you want about the first question, we'll allow some back and forth before moving on to our next agenda item.

Ground Rules for Round Robin

Questions??

Assume that you are convinced that change is needed and that many of the things Will suggested will result in a better way to engage students with the content/context and provide a deeper learning experience than traditional methods- What barriers or constraints are keeping this from happening in the schools where you lead?

Discussion Prompt

Living and Learning in a Global CommunityInnovative Schools Virtual University

Define Community

Define Networks

A Definition of Community

Communities are quite simply, collections of individuals who are bound together by natural will and a set of shared ideas and ideals.

“A system in which people can enter into relations that are determined by problems or shared ambitions rather than by rules or structure.”

(Heckscher, 1994, p. 24).

The process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in some subject or problem collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations. (Wikipedia)

A Definition of NetworksFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Networks are created through publishing and sharing ideas and connecting with others who share passions around those ideas who learn from each other. Networked learning is a process of developing and maintaining connections with people and information, and communicating in such a way so as to support one another's learning.

Connectivism (theory of learning in networks) is the use of a network with nodes and connections as a central metaphor for learning. In this metaphor, a node is anything that can be connected to another node: information, data, feelings, images. Learning is the process of creating connections and developing a network.

“Understanding how networks work is one of the most important literacies of the 21st Century.”

- Howard Rheingold

http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu

If ... information is recognized as useful to the community ... it can be counted as knowledge. The community, then, has the power to create knowledge within a given context and leave that knowledge as a new node connected to the rest of the network’.

– Dave Cormier (2008)

Open Networks

Practitioners’ knowledge = content & context

The driving engine of the collaborative culture of a PLC is the team. They work together in an ongoing effort to discover best practices and to expand their professional expertise.

PLCs are our best hope for reculturing schools. We want to focus on shifting from a culture of teacher isolation to a culture of deep and meaningful collaboration.

Professional Learning Communities

FOCUS: Local , F2F, Job-embedded- in Real Time

Communities of Practice

FOCUS: Situated, Synchronous, Asynchronous- Online and Walled Garden

Personal Learning Networks

FOCUS: Individual, Connecting to Learning Objects, Resources and People – Social Network Driven

CommunitiesOf Practice

PersonalLearningNetworks

F2F Teams

DIY-PD

Do it Yourself PD as Self Directed Connected Learners

"Rather than belittling or showing disdain for knowledge or expertise, DIY champions the average individual seeking knowledge and expertise for him/herself. Instead of using the services of others who have expertise, a DIY oriented person would seek out the knowledge for him/herself." (Wikipedia, n.d.)

Community is the New Professional Development

Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999a) describe three ways of knowing and constructing knowledge that align closely with PLP's philosophy and are worth mentioning here.

Knowledge for Practice is often reflected in traditional PD efforts when a trainer shares with teachers information produced by educational researchers. This knowledge presumes a commonly accepted degree of correctness about what is being shared. The learner is typically passive in this kind of "sit and get" experience. This kind of knowledge is difficult for teachers to transfer to classrooms without support and follow through. After a workshop, much of what was useful gets lost in the daily grind, pressures and isolation of teaching.

Knowledge in Practice recognizes the importance of teacher experience and practical knowledge in improving classroom practice. As a teacher tests out new strategies and assimilates them into teaching routines they construct knowledge in practice. They learn by doing. This knowledge is strengthened when teachers reflect and share with one another lessons learned during specific teaching sessions and describe the tacit knowledge embedded in their experiences. 

Community is the New Professional Development

Knowledge of Practice believes that systematic inquiry where teachers create knowledge as they focus on raising questions about and systematically studying their own classroom teaching practices collaboratively, allows educators to construct knowledge of practice in ways that move beyond the basics of classroom practice to a more systemic view of learning.

I believe that by attending to the development of knowledge for, in and of practice, we can enhance professional growth that leads to real change.

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S.L. (1999a). Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teaching learning in communities. Review of Research in Education, 24, 249-305.

Passive, active, and reflective knowledge building in local (PLC), global (CoP) and contextual (PLN) learning spaces.

http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/google_whitepaper.pdf

Dynamics of Different Network Types Community of

PracticeProject Teams Informal networks

Purpose Learning SharingCreating Knowledge

Accomplish specific task

Communication flows

Boundary Knowledge domain

Assigned projector task

Networking, resource building and establishing relationships

Connections Common application or discovery- innovation

Commitment to goal

Interpersonal acquaintances

Membership Semi - permanent Constant for a fixed period

Links made based on needs of the individual

Time scale As long as it adds value to the its members

Fixed ends when project deliverables have been accomplished

No pre-engineered end

Celebration Celebration

Connection

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Communication

Collaboration

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User Generated Content

Celebration

Connection

Communication

Collaboration

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PLP takes a 3-pronged approach to PD

- Professional Learning Communities- Global Communities of Practice or Inquiry- Personal Learning Networks

PLCs = local, f2f, collectiveCoPs = online, deep, collectivePLNs= online, nodes, individual