The Connected Educator

2. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Co-Founder & CEO
Powerful Learning Practice, LLC
http://plpnetwork.com
sheryl@plpnetwork.com
Author
The Connected Educator: Learning
and Leading in a Digital Age
Chair
Connected Educator Month
Board Member
ISTE Executive Board
Follow me on Twitter @snbeach

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

4. 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.

5. • 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 colleagues, your students or your own
children to leverage- collective
intelligence?

6. Learner First- Teacher
Second
Talk about (in 2 min or less)
the most recent or compelling
use of technology you have
seen or used in your work with
children or in your own
learning.
Emerson and Thoreau
reunited would ask-
“What has
become clearer to
you since we last
met?”

8. The world is changing...

9. 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

10. “We are tethered to our
always on/ always on us
communication devices and
the people and things we
reach through them.”
~ Sherry Turkle

11. 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

12. Tech is Changing the World
Photo credit: http://smeitexpo2011.blogspot.com/2010/11/era-of-technological-revolution.html

13. Photo credit: http://cradlepoint.com/sites/default/files/uploads/Internet_of_Things.jpg

14. • The Internet of Things is a technological system, a
suite of products and services that will make life a
bit more comfortable.
• It is more than the Internet we know — it goes
beyond empowering people to communicate and
collaborate.
• The Internet of Things can connect any product or
service. And it automatically links what might
emerge as a result of this collaboration — interact
even without human intervention.
Internet of Things & Services

19. Are you Ready for Learning and
Leading in the 21st Century?
It isn’t just “coming”… it has arrived! And
professionals who aren’t redefining themselves, risk
becoming irrelevant in preparing children for the
future that awaits them. (Reflect)

20. “In a time of
drastic change it
is the learners
who inherit the
future. The
learned usually
find themselves
equipped to live
in a world that
no longer
exists.”
--Eric Hoffer,
Reflections on
the Human
Condition

21. 21
Free range learners
Almost from birth
today’s children
have free range
access to knowledge.
The potential exists
for all kiddos to
learn what they want
– when they want.

22. The pace of change is
accelerating

23. 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

24. For college 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.
Where does that put you in your field?

25. We have to change school/learning
culture…
-- change behaviors
-- experience success
-- creates faith
-- creates hope
-- changes beliefs, values, dispositions
From: Azhar
Sent: 2013-10-
04 11:03 AM
To: Daddy
Subject:
Our teacher fell
asleep

26. What is ….

28. Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-
solving
Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of
improvisation and discovery
Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world
processes
Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
Multitasking — the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to
salient details.
Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that
expand mental capacities
.

29. Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with
others toward a common goal
Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different
information sources
Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and
information across multiple modalities
Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information
Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and
respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.
.

30. Shifts focus of literacy
from individual
expression to
community
involvement.
Students become
producers, not
just consumers
of knowledge.

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

32. 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

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. Professional development
needs to change.
We know this.
-----
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.

35. 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 organizations, schools, and families.
They are DIY, self-directed learners.
What are connected learners?

36. What is Do -It- Yourself Learning ?

38. • Letting go of control
• Willing to unlearn & relearn
• Mindset of discovery
• Reversed mentorship
• Co-learning and co-creating
• Messy, ground zero, risk taking

39. http://bit.ly/QSqfjI
Maybe a first change
step could be developing
your own Manifesto
around changed practice
in your learning
environment.
What strong assertions
do you or others who
serve with you, have
(believe) about the
culture?

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

41. Wonder is both a sense of awe and
capacity for contemplation.
Wonderment begins with curiosity
but then goes deeper beyond the
surface to a place of possibility. A
place we look for patterns and
testing of ideas we had closed to our
more reasonable mind.
Wonder is to leave aside our taken-for-granted assumptions, peel away
our biases, and to willing explore aspects and angles we wouldn't have
seen before.

42. What do you wonder?
•About connected learning and
how it will help you grow as an
educator?
•How do you define the terms?
•Let’s build a common language
in our back channel chat.
•Examples

43. It also helps to ask yourself 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 my progress? Or how will I know if I am learning?
5) Am I using various social media tools for different purposes?

44. Networks are very “me”
oriented. You
intentionally with
purpose pick and choose
who is in your network
to learn from and why.
Learning with networks
happens through BOTH
social and cognitive
presence.

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

47. responsive
responsive

48. personalized

49. Connected Learning has the potential to
takes us deeper
“The interconnected, interactive nature of
social learning exponentially amplifies the
rate at which critical content can be shared
and questions can be answered.”
From: Collaborative Learning for the
Digital Age in The Chronicle of Higher
Education
Cathy Davidson, professor at Duke
University

50. Connected sometimes trumps F2F
with deep learning…
Via Marc Andreessen’s blog, the findings of researchers as related by
Frans Johansson in The Medici Effect:

51. Diversity of thought
Allows for Greater Innovation
Frans Johansson explores one simple yet profound insight about
innovation: in the intersection of different fields, disciplines and
cultures, there’s an abundance of extraordinary new ideas to be
explored.

52. “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.”

53. Leveraging Tribe as a means to
Self Actualization
Photo Credit: http://newdriven.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/how-to-leverage-the-power-of-the-tribe/
• Humans have a natural
propensity to tribe.
• Social learning is a part
of our DNA
• We all have basic
needs- including the
need to belong
• Collaborative Inquiry
produces a higher level
of cognition

54. Developing Your Tribe
A group of people connected to one another,
connected to a leader, connected to an idea
Need two things:
1) Shared interest (mission)
2) A way to communicate

55. 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”

56. Personal Learning Networks (building of your tribe)
Are you mobilizing and contextualizing what you are
learning? Can I find you and learn from you?
It’s out of networks that community falls. ~ Nancy
White

57. What
is community, really?
Very “we” oriented. We do not choose who is part of our
community. We make a commitment to grow together and
improve at the art and science of teaching and learning. It is
more collegial than congenial. It is more collaborative than
cooperative.

58. A Place to Build Trust and
Relationships

59. A Domain of Interest

60. A Place to Meet

61. A Place to Construct Knowledge
Collaboratively

62. CelebrationCelebration

63. 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
• Examples

64. 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

65. Use a 3-pronged
Approach
CLE example

66. • 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)

67. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
Professional
Learning
Communities
Personal Learning
Networks
Communities of
Practice
Method Often organized for
professionals
Do-it-yourself Professionals organize
it themselves
Purpose To collaborate in a
learning area or in
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

68. 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.

69. 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.

72. “ Do you know what who you know knows?” H. Rheingold

73. 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.

74. 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.

75. 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.

76. "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.

77. Change is hard

78. Connected learners are more
effective change agents

79. Real Question is this:
Are we willing to change- to risk change- to meet the
needs of the precious folks we serve?
Can you accept that Change (with a “big” C) is
sometimes a messy process and that learning new things
together is going to require some tolerance for ambiguity.

80. We have a choice: A choice to be powerful or pitiful.
A choice to allow ourselves to become victims of all
that is wrong in education- or to become advocates on
behalf of children.
Activists who set their own course. Who resist the
urge to quit prematurely. DIY change agents who
choose to be powerful learners on behalf
of the children they serve.

81. Last Generation