Leading a Connected School

2. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Co-Founder & CEO
Powerful Learning Practice, LLC
http://plpnetwork.com
sheryl@plpnetwork.com
President
21st Century Collaborative, LLC
http://21stcenturycollaborative.com
Author
The Connected Educator: Learning
and Leading in a Digital Age
Follow me on Twitter
@snbeach

4. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
Housekeeping
Get close to someone
Paperless handouts
http://plpwiki.com
Back Channel Chat
http://todaysmeet.com/NOEL13

5. All of October
Free professional learning
Free for you– free for your staff
http://connectededucators.org/

6. edConnectr
• Robust matchmaking tool for
learning & innovation
• Uses tags to make it easy to
create rich, action-oriented
profiles
• Uses maps to make it easy
and fun to find others
• Helps educators find
collaborators, get help, or just
connect

7. District and State Support
• District toolkit, Part 1
– Support for participation in CEM
– Examples of district at different
levels, with videos and links
– Links to tools and resources at each
level
• District toolkit, Part 2
– Support for integrating informal and
formal professional learning year
round
– Readiness assessment, planning,
implementation, and evaluation
tools

8. Starter Kits, Book Clubs, More
• Starter kit updated, offering an activity each day
• Book club expanded to four books, each with author
involvement
• Community directory continues to expand
• Connected educator profiles expand throughout month
• Help desk, open houses

9. Digital Badges
• Four types:
– Event
– Starter Kit
– Peer-to-peer
– Connected educator
• Published to Mozilla Backpack
– Can create a collection as your
―digital transcript‖ of your CEM
participation
– Can include badges from such as
those from our open badge catalog

10. Learner First—
Educator Second
Introduce yourselves to each
other and brag a little. Talk
about (in 2 min or less) the
most recent or compelling
connected learning project you
have recently
led, discovered, or been
involved in.
Emerson and Thoreau
reunited would ask-
―What has
become clearer to
you since we last
met?‖

11. Mantra for today’s keynote…
We are stronger together than apart.
None of us is as smart, creative, good or
interesting as all of us.

12. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
Things do not change; we change.
—Henry David Thoreau
What are you doing to contextualize and
mobilize what you are learning?
How will you leverage, how will you enable
your teachers or your students to leverage-
collective intelligence?

14. Are you Ready for Learning and
Leading in the 21st Century?
It isn’t just ―coming‖… it has arrived! And schools
who aren’t redefining themselves, risk becoming
irrelevant in preparing students for the future.

15. The world is changing...

16. By the year 2011 80% of all Fortune 500
companies will be using immersive worlds –
Gartner Vice President Jackie Fenn
Libraries 2.0
Management 2.0
Education 2.0
Warfare 2.0
Government 2.0
Vatican 2.0
Credit: Hugh MacLeod, gapingvoid
Everything 2.0

17. 6 Trends for the digital age
Analogue Digital
Tethered Mobile
Closed Open
Isolated Connected
Generic Personal
Consuming Creating
Source: David Wiley: Openness and the disaggregated
future of higher education

18. ―We are tethered to
our always on/
always on us
communication
devices and the
people and things we
reach through them.‖
~ Sherry Turkle

19. Shifting From Shifting To
Learning at school Learning anytime/anywhere
Teaching as a private event Teaching as a public
collaborative practice
Learning as passive
participant
Learning in a participatory
culture
Learning as individuals
Linear knowledge
Learning in a networked
community
Distributed knowledge

20. Shift in Learning – The Possibilities
Rethinking teaching and learning…
1. Multiliterate
2. Changing Demographic
3. Active Content Creators
4. Global Collaboration and
Communication
We are in the midst of seeing education transform
from a book-based, linear system with a focus on
individual achievement to an web-based, divergent
system with a focus on community building.

21. dangeuslyirrelevant.org
Our kids have tasted the honey.
http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2009/02/a-taste-of-honey.html

22. 22
Free range learners
Free-range learners choose
how and what they learn. Self-
service is less expensive and
more timely than the
alternative. Informal learning
has no need for the
busywork, chrome, and
bureaucracy that accompany
typical classroom instruction.

23. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
The Disconnect
―Every time I go to school, I have to
power down.‖ --a high school student

24. The pace of change is
accelerating

25. It is estimated that
1.5 exabytes of unique new information
will be generated
worldwide this year.
That’s estimated to be
more than in the
previous 5,000 years.
Knowledge Creation

26. For students starting a four-year
education degree, this means that . . .
half of what they learn in their first year
of study will be outdated by their third
year of study.

27. Time Travel
Lewis Perelman, author of School's Out (1992). Perelman argues that
schools are out of sync with technological change:
...the technological gap between the school environment and the "real
world" is growing so wide, so fast that the classroom experience is on
the way to becoming not merely unproductive but increasingly
irrelevant to normal human existence (p.215).
Seymour Papert (1993)
In the wake of the startling growth of science and technology in our
recent past, some areas of human activity have undergone
megachange. Telecommunications, entertainment and
transportation, as well as medicine, are among them. School is a
notable example of an area that has not(p.2).

28. Shift in Learning = New Possibilities
Shift from emphasis on
teaching…
To an emphasis
on co-learning

29. Shifts focus of literacy
from individual
expression to
community
involvement.

30. Shifts focus of literacy
from individual
expression to
community
involvement.

31. Connected Learning
The computer connects the student to the rest of the world
Learning occurs through connections with other learners
Learning is based on conversation and interaction
Stephen Downes

32. Share
Cooperate
Collaborate
Collective Action
According to Clay Shirky, there are four steps on a ladder to
mastering the connected world:
sharing, cooperating, collaborating, and collective action.
From his book- “Here Comes Everybody”

33. Connected Learner Scale
Share (Publish & Participate) –
Connect (Comment and
Cooperate) –
Remixing (building on the
ideas of others) –
Collaborate (Co-construction of
knowledge and meaning) –
Collective Action (Social Justice, Activism, Service
Learning) –

34. 34
Education for Citizenship
―A capable and productive citizen doesn’t simply turn up
for jury service. Rather, she is capable of serving
impartially on trials that may require learning unfamiliar
facts and concepts and new ways to communicate and
reach decisions with her fellow jurors…. Jurors may be
called on to decide complex matters that require the verbal,
reasoning, math, science, and socialization skills that
should be imparted in public schools. Jurors today must
determine questions of fact concerning DNA evidence,
statistical analyses, and convoluted financial fraud, to
name only three topics.‖
Justice Leland DeGrasse, 2001

35. ―Schools are a node on the
network of learning.‖

36. Personal Learning Networks
Community-- in and out of the classroom
Are you ―clickable‖- Are your students?

37. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
Professional
development needs
to change.
We know this.
A revolution in technology
has transformed the way we
can find each
other, interact, and
collaborate to create
knowledge as connected

38. Do it Yourself PD
A revolution in technology has transformed the way
we can find each other, interact, and collaborate to
create knowledge as connected learners.
What are connected learners?
Learners who collaborate online; learners who use
social media to connect with others around the globe;
learners who engage in conversations in safe online
spaces; learners who bring what they learn online back
to their classrooms, schools, and districts.

39. What is Do -It- Yourself Learning ?

40. What do you wonder…
About leading a connected school?
What is connected learning?
How do you define the terms?
Let’s build a common language.

41. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR

42. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR

43. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
Meet the new model for professional
development:
Connected Learning Communities
In CLCs educators have several ways to
connect and collaborate:
• F2F learning communities (PLCs)
• Personal learning networks (PLNs)
• Communities of practice or inquiry
(CoPs)

44. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
1. Local community: Purposeful, face-to-face
connections among members of a committed group—
a professional learning community (PLC)
2. Global network: Individually chosen, online
connections with a diverse collection of people and
resources from around the world—a personal learning
network (PLN)
3. Bounded community: A committed, collective, and
often global group of individuals who have
overlapping interests and recognize a need for
connections that go deeper than the personal learning
network or the professional learning community can
provide—a community of practice or inquiry (CoP)

45. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
Professional
Learning
Communities
Personal Learning
Networks
Communities of
Practice
Method Often organized for
teachers
Do-it-yourself Educators organize
it themselves
Purpose To collaborate in
subject area or
grade leverl teams
around tasks
For individuals to
gather info for
personal knowledge
construction and to
bring back info to
the community
Collective
knowledge building
around shared
interests and goals.
Structure Team/group
F2f
Individual, face to
face, and online
Collective, face to
face, or online
Focus Student
achievement
Personal growth Systemic
improvement

46. Community is the New Professional Development
Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999a) describe three ways of knowing and constructing
knowledge…
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.

47. 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.

48. Dedication to the
ongoing development
of expertise
Shares and contributes
Engages in strength-based approaches
and appreciative inquiry
Demonstrates mindfulness
Willingness to leaving one's comfort
zone to experiment with new strategies
and taking on new responsibilities
Dispositions and Values
Commitment to understanding
asking good questions
Explores ideas and
concepts, rethinking, revising, and
continuously repacks and
unpacks, resisting
urges to finish prematurely
Co-learner, Co-leader, Co-creator
Self directed, open minded
Commits to deep reflection
Transparent in thinking
Values and engages in a culture of
collegiality

49. • Connected Communities (Tribes) are
forming everywhere
• You have the tools you need at your
fingertips
• Your faculty, your students, your
school community– need/want
leadership
• You were called to lead..Not manage
• Motivate…Connect…Leverage
• Inside, Outside, Upside Down
State of Affairs

50. Status Quo-- Things are working well most of the time.
THEN
Something happens that creates a sense of urgency to change.
A desire to learn something new. You are presented with
evidence that makes you feel something. It touches you in some
way.
Maybe…
- a disturbing look at a problem
- a hopeful glimpse of the future
- a sobering self reflection

51. One of three things happen:
1. Complacency - You are moved but fail act - telling yourself or
others, "Everything is fine."
2. False urgency - You are busy, working-working-working and
never reflect or move yourself to action. You talk and it scratches the
itch.
3. True urgency or passion- You are clearly focused on making real
progress every single day. Urgent behavior is driven by a belief that
the world contains great opportunities and great hazards. It inspires a
gut-level determination to move, and win, now.
You see it. You feel it and you are moved to change or act or learn

53. • Letting go of control
• Willing to unlearn & relearn
• Mindset of discovery
• Reversed mentorship
• Co-learning and co-creating
• Messy, ground zero, risk taking
Image: http://flic.kr/p/ch6kp3

54. Be a learner first—leader second
• It's all about asking hard questions and then listening deeply
• A connected learner isn’t afraid to admit that they don’t know the answer
to a question or problem, and willingly invite others into a dialogue to
explore, discuss, debate, or generate more questions. (@barb_english)
• Asking our questions out in the open in connected ways @lisaneale
• I believe that being a connected learner leads to more questions than
answers and that is good. I also believe that connected learners have to
learn to take risks - exposing your learning and thoughts can be challenging
@ccoffa
• Lurkers become learners. Learners become contributors. @sjhayes8

55. Wonder is both a
sense of awe and
capacity for
contemplation.

56. It also helps to ask questions like:
1) Why am I planning to do this?
2) How will I initiate this change?
3) Who can I connect with online in my network that can help me?
4) How will I measure our progress?
Or how will I know if we are learning?

58. “Understanding how
networks work is one of
the most important
literacies of the 21st
Century.”
- Howard Rheingold
http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu
How do you define
networks?

59. In
connectivism, learnin
g involves creating
connections and
developing a network.
It is a theory for the
digital age drawing
upon chaos, emergent
properties, and self
organized learning.
Photo credit: Cogdogblog
George Siemens

60. Image: http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/images/2/24/Connectivism_chart.gif

61. Personal Learning
Networks
FOCUS: Individual, Connecting to Learning Objects, Resources
and People – Social Network Driven

62. “Twitter and blogs ...
contribute an entirely
new dimension of
what it means to be a
part of a tribe. The
real power of tribes
has nothing to do with
the Internet and
everything to do with
people.”
Internet tribes
ccSteveWheeler,UniversityofPlymouth,2010
“A tribe needs a
shared interest and a
way to communicate.”

64. Connected Learning Communities provide the personal
learning environment (PLE) to do the nudging

65. Motivations
• Social
connectedness
• Psychological
well-being
• Gratification
• Collective
Efficacy

67. Use a 3-pronged
Approach

69. What
is community, really?

70. A Place to Build Trust and
Relationships

71. A Domain of Interest

72. A Place to Meet

73. A Place to Construct Knowledge
Collaboratively

74. CelebrationCelebration

75. A Community of Practice is a network of individuals with common
problems or interests who get together to explore ways of
working, identify common solutions, and share good practice and
ideas.
• puts you in touch with like-minded colleagues and peers
• allows you to share your experiences and learn from others
• allows you to collaborate and achieve common outcomes
• accelerates your learning
• Improves student achievement
• validates and builds on existing knowledge and good practice
• provides the opportunity to innovate and create new ideas

76. The New Third Place?
―All great societies provide informal meeting places,
like the Forum in ancient Rome or a contemporary
English pub. But since World War II, America has
ceased doing so. The neighborhood tavern hasn't
followed the middle class out to the suburbs...‖ -- Ray
Oldenburg

78. ― Do you know what who you know knows?‖ H. Rheingold

79. Critical friends: Form a professional learning team who come together
voluntarily at least once a month. Have members commit to improving
their practice through collaborative learning. Use protocols to examine
each other’s teaching or leadership activities and share both warm and
cool feedback in respectful ways.
Curriculum review or mapping groups: Meet regularly in teams to
review what team members are teaching, to reflect together on the
impact of assumptions that underlie the curriculum, and to make
collaborative decisions. Teams often study lesson plans together.

80. Action research groups: Do active, collaborative research focused
on improvement around a possibility or problem in a classroom,
school, district, or state.
Book study groups: Collaboratively read and discuss a book in an
online space.
Case studies: Analyze in detail specific situations and their
relationship to current thinking and pedagogy. Write, discuss, and
reflect on cases using a 21st century lens to produce collaborative
reflection and improve practice.

81. Instructional rounds: Adopt a process through which educators
develop a shared practice of observing each other, analyzing learning
and teaching from a research perspective, and sharing expertise.
Connected coaching: Assign a connected coach to individuals on
teams who will discuss and share teaching practices in order to promote
collegiality and help educators think about how the new literacies
inform current teaching practices.

82. "Imagine an organization with an employee who can accurately see
the truth, understand the situation, and understand the potential
outcomes of various decisions. And now imagine that this person is
able to make something happen." ~ Seth Godin.

83. Change is hard

84. Connected learners are more
effective change agents