Dean Shareski

Jennifer Brokosky interviewed me about the idea of learning out loud. We used Google On Air, which works amazingly well. I also ripped the mp4 and created a podcast. You can subscribe to the audio via itunes if that works better for you. 

Cross posted at Tech Learning

My two favorite networks, The Golf Channel and NFL Network have been using “Top Ten” format of late to capture almost any topic within their respective sports. Obscure ones like, top ten left handed quarterbacks, Phil Mickelson’s top ten daring choices, etc. So while most of you think that’s pretty lame, I watch in fascination comparing my memories and choices with the producers.

It’s a lofty title but I wanted to look back at my personal journey into educational technology and share a few instances of “aha moments” that I think many can relate to. Not a list, (sorry Lee) in any order of significance but a chronological recollection of memories and events that have been influential in my learning with technology.  

Here we go:

The Digital Camera:
I remember our school got a digital camera in about 1996 or 97. For whatever reason, my principal let me take it home. I don’t recall the brand, I believe it’s no longer around but remember the miracle of being able to plug it into your computer and see your images. I believe it was 640 x 480 resolution. It was the next year the Sony Mavica’s with floppy disks emerged as a great way for teachers to share the camera and print pictures. The beginning of cheap failure.

FTP:
My neighbour, who was not an educator showed me the wonders of File Transfer Protocol when he used it to send files from his house to mine. I’m thinking this was 1998 or ‘99. He installed this software on my computer and magically began to take files he had stored on something called a server and downloaded them to my machine. Size was no longer an issue when it came to sharing.

RSS
During my Masters studies, Rob Wall introduced me to RSS in late 2002. I had heard about it but couldn’t really wrap my head around it. It felt too geeky for me. Once he showed me Bloglines, I went nuts. I was able to “subscribe to people”. I still do.

The Blog:
I started my blog in 2005 with no idea what it could mean. But after years of Netscape Composer, Frontpage and Dreamweaver it was a pleasure to bypass the focus on design and just write and share. 7 years later, my blog remains one of my primary learning spaces. I’m only saddened more people don’t blog and yet I get it’s not for everyone.

Wiki
The creation wasn’t particularly interesting but the collaboration was. I stated on my blog in the summer of 2006 that I was going to be offering a digital storytelling workshop. A weak cry for help led Alan Levine and David Jakes, both of whom I pretty much learned everything about digital storytelling from, to turn my pathetic wiki into something extremely useful. In many ways, it was the start of my laziness. You can blame Alan and David for that.

Skype chat/Back Channel
It was during the 2007 NECC conference in Atlanta that was able to participate virtually via Skype. Jeff Utecht  was attending and fired up Skype during one of the session and allowed a few of us to listen and chat. It was my first back channel experience.

Coffee with David Warlick
I had attended a few conferences but it was my boldness that led me to email David Warlick and ask if I could meet with him in 2006 at FETC.  The realization that I could have conversations with people I admired and was learning from almost daily was pretty significant. THat same conversation I got to meet Will Richardson, Wes Fryer, Tim Wilson and my current work colleague, Steve Dembo.
These people remain my teachers and I also call them friends. Much more than a PLN.

Live Streaming
Ustream was a relatively new technology in 2007. Steve Dembo, Will Richardson and David Jakes live streamed from a bar in Chicago. The live streaming part was interesting but so was the fact that they were talking about baseball and not education specifically. It made me begin to think more deeply about silliness.

There’s certainly many more moments I could share and it’s not like nothing has happened in the past 5 years but sometimes it’s good to consider and mark those events that stirred you in some way. For me, it’s interesting to see a clear pattern of connectivism amongst most of these events. I suppose if I was in a different frame of mind, things like my first laptop might come to mind.  I’d encourage you to create your own list or add your ideas here.

I did ask a few folks on twitter about their great moment in edtech history.

Saturday I was fortunate to be able to present at the Social Learning Summit for Classroom 2.0 and Discovery. it was a fantastic array of content which fortunately is all free and archived here. I've done plenty of virtual presentations before but this time I actually did it in front of 30+ teachers in New Brunswick. 

At any rate, this was a talk about an idea that I often allude to in my presentations but have never devoted an entire talk to it. Along with the help of some great friends, I shared some ideas about "silly". It's not the typical tool or how to session but there are some ideas here that I'm still working through and trying to fully understand. Like most of my work world, this is a sandbox presentation, playing with ideas and seeing if they resonate. You tell me. 

Blackboard Collaborate Presentation

Slide Deck:

Today I'm attending the Literacy unconference at York District. Autonomy of conversation and learning is the main principle of this type of event and one that honors the power and smartness of the room. I had lunch with some of these smart people. Heather shared something that I simply had to share. 

Part 1 discussed the importance of reflection and the power of blogging. During lunch we discussed why the topic of blogging wasn't listed among the sessions.

My question was more about what we meant by the word "blogging" which led to the focus on blogging as a reflective tool. Blogging, for those that have used it for a reflective tool, is invaluable as a professional and personal growth tool. Yet blogging is still largely about the ability to write. Writing isn't necessarily for everyone and yet with new affordances such as easy video and audio creation, we're not seeing many using these other means of sharing and reflection. 

Heather shared with me an idea that is by no means new but one that very few teachers use and if so, only use once or twice. Recording yourself. 

When I finish teaching or presenting, I immediately wonder how I've done. My perception is useful but it's never the same as when I watch myself on video. Like everyone, I hate watching myself and yet I can't tell how many times I've done so and end up learning something valuable about my presentation skills. Heather, a Kindergarten teacher, said she would record herself at least once a day, even for 10 minutes,  and reviewed it. As you can expect, she indeed turned herself into a better teacher. This isn't only about teacher at the front, direct instruction, but also the way the teacher interacts with students. 

Imagine if every teacher recorded themselves each day and watched it. Hmmmm. We want our students to be reflective and would love for them to document and describe their learning in detail. Why aren't we actively modeling this? Not just for the sake of modeling but because it makes us better. Imagine if a movie director or actor never watched their work? 

The idea of recording yourself is not a new idea but I'm not sure anyone is doing this beyond a single effort or two. I know Jim Knight has mentioned this technique and can likely cite some examples but this just seems like a no brainer. 

Have you ever recorded yourself? Tell me about it. 

Cross posted at the Huffington Post

I've been tinkering with assessment for the past several years. My role at the district had me knee deep in shifting the notion of Assessment and Evaluation from primarily assessment OF learning to assessment FOR learning. Simply put, a stronger focus on formative and less on summative. That's the simplistic summary but it included moving much of the control over to the student. It certainly wasn't perfect, not always embraced, and challenging to implement. However, at its core, the idea of empowering students to assess their own work is a goal I've been moving towards in my own teaching practices at the University of Regina. ;

In past classes, I've usually offered my students some opportunity to assess themselves, whether it was against a rubric, or a self designed criteria. It's shocking how many students struggle with this idea. Here they are, students of 13 years of schooling plus a few years of higher education and they aren't sure how to assess themselves. That's scary. ;

I have never given my students a test. I'm struggling to see the value, particularly in my course where the intent is to provide students an overview of the way technology can be used to support learning and the way in which it's influencing learning in 2012. ;

Each term I tweak and change assignments according to the time I have, sometimes offering the course in a 6 week period as opposed to a full semester influences those decisions. ;I've always allowed my students to play with the weighting which allows them to find their strengths and preferences and play to them. I've always given them a choice to pursue their own interests within the broad confines of technology and learning. ;I've never understood why our schools are so focused on our weaknesses. Not to say we ignore them but being the best we can be usually involves finding out what we're good at and pursuing our passions. Here's how I shared my assessment practices for this winter's term. ;

The biggest change this term was to have my student's assessment themselves for the entire course. In the past, it was required for a few assignments but not all. This term I was clear that they were going to tell me their grade and justify it. As long as their documentation was clear and from my perspective truthful, that's the grade they would receive. I suppose in some respects, I'm still assessing, assessing their assessments but my goal was to do two things. First to empower them to think deeply about their learning. While I've always advocated for reflection, I tried to emphasize more documentation. I still need to structure this better but that was my intent. Secondly I wanted the pressure of grading to be removed from learning. ;When assessment becomes burdensome, it has lost much, if not all of its usefulness. ;That goal produced some interesting results. A few students really struggled and others immediately felt a sense of relief. One idea I shared was that they had to at times be comfortable with "good enough." As students, they had other courses and responsibilities, my course was but one of many learning opportunities. There was going to be times where they simply couldn't invest the time needed to gain the most of an experience but they didn't need to feel guilty about that. My students know that I have little use for grades. The 100 point scale in particular is a farce in most cases. If I am forced to rank students either against each other or against some criteria the best I can hope for is placing them in perhaps a 3 or 4 point scale. Even then…. What my students need from need is not a grade but feedback and support to foster greater learning. One of the reasons I'm moving away from rubrics is based somewhat on the ideas of Alfie ;Khon but also because I can't possibly know all the potential for learning if I design projects that allow them to own them. That's why on my assignment page I posted, "things to consider" knowing it might not be an exhaustive list and that they should feel free listing unintended outcomes. ;

Of my 17 students their grades ranged from 68-89. That's very typical of the grades I've given in the past. ;I really don't know what that means either. I don't believe we can measure real learning, we can only document it. ;

So I'm wondering if you're ready to let your students assess themselves. Not as some experiment where you end up grading them apart but where you really give the reigns over to them? If not, is it about trust? Is it about readiness? Fear?

I'm thinking that even 6 year olds should be able to assess themselves. If we give them the tools and expectations. As far as trust goes, it seems that it speaks to the climate of your classroom to some degree. I will say that since I was the one submitting the grade, if I felt it to be way out of line, I had the authority to adjust it, I just never did. ;

So even if you live somewhere that is obsessed with testing, maybe you could begin with an assignment or two. Wouldn't the ultimate goal be that every student would grade and assess themselves? How are we moving toward that goal? Once again, we should stop using phrases like "life long learning" if we're not going to empower our students to think, learn and assess for themselves. ;

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Photo: ;http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkuropatwa/3747621586

Remember when people used to post videos they liked on their blog? Now we just tweet or post them to Facebook which is fine I suppose.

This video is one I'm sure many of seen as it is destined to go viral if it already hasn't. I first saw it on twitter and since have watched it at least 7 times showing it to all members of my family who each watch with smiles and joy as they watch a little boy be a little boy who's enamored with play and science and creating an experience for others to enjoy.  I don't want you to miss it. 

Caine's Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

So many lessons to be learned, so much to appreciate. The lost art of boredom, trial and error, giving to others and let's not forget the filmmaker here who tells a wonderful story and then lavishes a beautiful gift for the boy by bringing him customers and attention which culminates with, 

After the flashmob, at the end of the day as Caine and his dad drove home, Caine turned to his dad and said, “Dad, this was the best day of my whole life.”

​Yes, the best day. Seems to me we should be able to create more "best days" for the people in our lives. 

Cross Posted at Tech & Learning

Traveling to new cities and renting vehicles I simply enter destinations into the GPS and follow the instructions. I really pay no attention to much other than watching and listening for my next turn (I always choose the Australian voice). Gone are the days when you studied a map, figured out your own route and familiarized yourself with your surroundings. That’s a trade off. We trade the convenience and accuracy of the technology and subsequently give up taking time to learn about our surroundings. Sure, I’m still able to learn about the places I visit but typically I don’t. I used to do so out of necessity and now that I don’t have to, I spend my time elsewhere.

I began to think about all the trade offs we make with technology. I’m not the first to have these thoughts but wanted to explore this from my own perspectives. I also don’t want to use the typical negative slant that this type of discussion can evoke. People often think nostalgically about trade offs and long for the good old days. That’s a bit too simple for me and is often bias towards personal experience as opposed to a more global perspective. Like the GPS example, I do recall with some fondness scouring maps and trying almost to memorize something new and then set out often with a navigator in the passenger seat to try and “conquer” a new land. Sentimental, but I’m not about to go back and realize that many people don’t share the same love of maps and navigation. Here are a few more trade offs to consider.

The Kindle. This is another one of these much debated and discussed trade offs where emotions can run surprisingly high. No question the ability to carry with you hundreds of books, the weight, the ability to digitize and make notes searchable is very appealing. Yet purists, talk about the tactile nature of books, its simplicity and the ability to showcase your accomplishments in a physical shelf. This debate continues and yet many are living in both worlds.

Text Messaging. Certainly becoming more mainstream and less of a discussion than a few years ago. In some cases we communicate more than ever with short bursts of information and exchanges that can be processed when needed. “Pick up milk” is now a quick thought that can be created and sent in seconds as opposed to a phone call that could last minutes. We’re also seeing it used to share less important information we might not have shared in the past. Some would claim it’s strengthening relationships.  Taken away are phone calls and conversations that developed relationships and trust not to mention the ongoing conversation about etiquette.

Itunes/Napster. Or more specifically the ability to pick and choose which songs we listen to. No longer are we subjected to a radio station where they play a variety of music, some we like and some we don’t. We no longer can even hate the same music together because we now have choice and customization. “Disco sucks” is not the kind of movement we’ll likely see again, for better or worse. Personalization is present in all forms of media. For the most part, it seems great and yet water cooler conversations about the latest episode of “x” are less frequent because we don’t watch the same things anymore. These conversations are now take place in online communities more so than local. Our tastes are more diverse than ever for better or worse.

The keyboard.The only time I use a pen it seems is to sign something or fill out customs forms on airplanes. I tried writing a nice message on a card the other day and was shocked at how awful it looked. We have primary teachers and parents concerned about the lack of printing and handwriting instruction. Yet the ability and affordances of a keyboard are overwhelmingly better. No one questions the significance of the keyboard but we still have some lamenting the loss of the handwritten word. For the record, I took a typing class in grade 10, over 30 years ago,  got my lowest mark in High School 59%. Possibly the most valuable course I took.

The calculator.This one’s been around long enough and yet we still hear complaints of people losing their ability to calculate. It’s true, long division skills are nearly obsolete. Understanding when to divide is the real skill and yet understanding division remains important and this is actually at the crux of many current debates over the shift in math curriculum. The way in which computers and technology are influencing math have some people suggesting we’re giving up too much.

The microwave. I heard this trade off from elsewhere but it found it to be true. We’ve opted for  convenience once again and perhaps lost the family meal. Certainly other things have contributed but the fact that a 5 year old can now make a meal in minutes, it’s partly to blame for the deterioration of family meal time. It doesn’t have to mean that and for many it may not be a factor but it’s certainly had its impact. It’s also brought many more foods into the market that are void of much nutritional value. Yet, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t own a microwave.

The car. Certainly not viewed as a technology today. As Alan Kay says, “Technology is anything invented after you were born.” According to that definition a car isn’t a technology. It might be difficult to imagine but it wasn’t as well received and accepted as you might think. Worries about safety, destroying the landscape and noise were voiced among many. Today of course we worry about pollution, fuel consumption and even how it contributes to an unfit society. Yet there’s no way we would abandon it. It’s an evolving technology where it is constantly being improved upon and tweaked but the car itself is here to stay.

Notice I placed these in reverse chronological order. I’m guessing that as many of you read these, you became less and less torn with the trade offs. You’ve either come to terms with the them or have never even considered the alternative because some have become simply a part of our world.

This is by far not any kind of exhaustive list of trade offs. I’m sure you could list others and even uncover trade offs, we often don’t consider. (the microwave, for example was one I hadn’t fully considered) The point for me is that we examine these trade offs and consider the implications. If done right, we don’t have to make them wholesale. Technology, as many say, is not neutral. It influences us.

I hope we can focus, not on making it a zero sum game but rather being thoughtful and using things wisely. We live in an age where we’ll be constantly having to examine and understand the trade offs not just with technology but change in general. No matter our instinct and the way new technologies are marketed, we need thoughtful consumers who can understand the broad implications, not just our own biases and consciously use them in ethical and meaningful ways.

Excuse me while I go study a map.

I've always felt this and certainly have experienced it, but as I've had the privilege of seeing a lot more schools and school districts up close, it's become evident to me that size is a real enemy to innovation. Change is difficult for any organization and education is particularly difficult because of its systematic problems and tensions as a public sector institution. But there is an inverse relationship between the layers of bureaucracy and the ability to innovate and change. I won't pretend that's a particularly profound or new realization but when I look at those pockets of change, it seems that it's often a result of fewer hoops to jump. 

I was fortunate to work for many years in a relatively small school district. All teachers had pretty easy access to superintendents and directors and even board members. Trust was easier to build. Certainly it doesn't guarantee a trusting environment but it's much easy to build. Convincing 2 people is easier than convincing 10. That's basic math. For example, back in 2007 I had a teacher email me asking if there might be a way for her students to use their cellphones in the classroom. This was way before we'd heard of BYOD concepts and cellphones were not quite in the hands of the majority of our teens as they are today. Within a few weeks, I had contacted our local ISP provider and within a few weeks, a plan was in place to provide these students with phones and data plans. And by the way, the school's policy was "no cellphones" which was quickly abandoned. When I tell people about the open internet, liberal filters, posting of student images, BYOD, mulitple platforms and many of the other things I was part of at Prairie South, they are often baffled as to how easily these things were able to happen. Then I forget that in most cases, those decisions were made by a small group of trusting teachers and leaders in one or two meetings. 

On Monday I had my class listen to the story of Clarence Fisher and Heather Durnin. Two teachers from rural provinces whose classrooms are one. I can't even tell you all the cool and meaningful things they do all day. From their common learning space to their connections with each other and experts,  I can't imagine there are many better learning environments than this one. They are constantly exploring new opportunities for their students. Recently they launched their own radio station. I'm guessing that most teachers would never be able to even consider this. Even if you have a principal and teacher on board, questions about permission, privacy, the things the students might say or do, etc, would kill the idea before it could take root. Clarence has always been advocating that his students, even though they are from a remote, small town in northern Manitoba can have the same opportunities as anyone. The fact is, in many ways his students are getting more of an opportunity to learn than many of our students from our biggest districts. 

Another disturbing trend with many of our larger districts and schools is an arrogance to admit they might not have all the answers. Big organizations are looked to for leadership and often they seem to be guarded against seeking help or exploring what the "little guy" is doing. Whether they actually believe they know it all or maybe they think that smaller organizations couldn't possibly have anything to offer, it's something I've seen more and more. This is certainly a relativity involved here as well. When Prairie South amalgamated from 7 districts to 1, I noticed some of the larger schools (300+ which is still small in most large urban centers) ignore or at least neglect to look to our smaller schools for expertise and innovation. Now I'm seeing some of North America's larger school districts showing little interest in what anyone of lesser size is doing in the way of innovative and promising educational practices. 

Certainly I'm making some generalizations here. Not all small districts and schools are innovative and awesome and not all larger institutions are thwarting innovation. I know Will Richardson has been on the look out for bold schools. I'm not sure what he's collected thus far but my money is most of those have reduced bureaucracy. If you're reading this and you're from a large school or district and yet you're happy with the freedom teachers have to make change and innovation, feel free to comment and help others see that it's possible. For the most part, I'm stumped as to how the red tape can be removed. To me it comes down to trust, autonomy and leadership. There are some great leaders in larger jurisdictions that are humble enough to recognize they don't have all the answers. That's what often leads to trust and autonomy. However, leaders need other leaders and too often it just doesn't trickle down. 

I used to feel bad for small districts with limited resources. I don't anymore. I truly feel for our large districts and those innovators who fight the uphill battle to make both significant and even incremental change. 

My brain is tired.

That's what you get for spending a day and a half talking about really big issues with really smart people. 

The Background:

Discovery Education, for whom I'm now employed has been involved with digital spaces and for lack of a better word, a textbook, although we call it a techbook. We all agree, the term fails to recognize that we're trying to offer something different but it's the term for now and I suppose it has a recognizable feel that invites a larger group of educators to consider what it might do for learning. They've launched it in several states and wrapped it in loads of quality professional learning designed to help all teachers, no matter their configuration and access to use technology combined with excellent pedagogy to transform learning. That's the goal. We've had some success and feel good about what's been accomplished but recognize we need to get even better and with that invited 18 folks from across North America who are known leaders and thinkers and are willing to be critical for the purposes of making education better.  We spent the evening and a day exploring the future of learning and the role of textbooks in an event called "Beyond the TextBook".

The Format:

We began with a pretty broad couple of questions: What should a digital textbook look like and what is out there that you've seen that is worth talking about? That pretty much kick started a 3 hour conversation where folks openly and honestly shared what they saw as critical elements and ideas about learning in 2012 and beyond.

The Outcome:

For Discovery it served to gain some outside feedback and insight and see more broadly the implications of any kind of product and service development. Copious notes will serve for fodder for the next little while.

My Take Away:

There was largely consensus about several concepts. The idea that learning needs to be social and that the platform should have built in opportunities for students and teachers to connect ideas and be able to easily share. There also needs to be a way to bridge the gap between closed and open formats allowing students to bring in more open content and consider how to encourage remix. Curation was a big buzz word and while it has many implications in this context it focused on how the learner would be able to curate content easily. I suppose to simply all the conversations the three C's stood out most: Collaboration, Curation and Creation. 

I also recognized a distinct difference in perspectives. In the room where a mix of classroom teachers and administrators and consultants and higher ed folks. The focus of the teachers and administrators was more focused on the practical and immediate use in the classroom as well as concerns about access and cost. The higher ed and consultants had much broader concerns about the future of open education, the authoritarian nature of curriculum and textbooks and the pedagogical implications. Again, not that these were conflicting necessarily but it reflected the worlds they live in. 

Underlying all the conversations were two ideas that I didn't think were answered directly but certainly were influencing the discussion. First is the role of assessment and accountability. How is the testing culture influencing publishers and text books? The folks in that room as well as the people I know at Discovery are largely opposed to the emphasis of testing and are interested in simply making learning better and yet do they create and design products that ignore that reality or support it or maybe there's an in between place. 

The second issue that wasn't specifically addressed was what is the role of private, for profit companies in education? Many people everything should be free and that private has no place in public education. I've heard people suggest the Internet is the best text book. I think that's over simplying things and Tom Daccord actually does a nice job of addressing that in his post. The role of private companies will always be debated and has been for a while. Having now made the shift to working for one, I'm trying to sort out that role as well. While I don't directly have to worry about the specifics, I do feel like the intent is to create something of value, be that a service or product and empower and support students and teachers in a variety of great learning opportunities. The waters can get muddied no doubt but constantly asking the right questions about intent and purpose. I like what David Warlick says in a reply to a comment on his post:

I worried, when I left our state department of ed and started “charging money” for what I did, if I had joined the enemy . But then I realized that we’re all making a living. What’s changed is that my contracts last for a day, or three days rather than for a year. Companies create and market services and products to help. It’s a vast partnership. The problem is when any of these companies become so rich that legislation starts to wrap itself around their services, sustaining them and perpetuating how teaching and learning is done. Textbooks are certain an example of this. That said, I’ve been in this field long enough to know that I can be surprised, and that those of us who can inventively adapt to the changing needs of education are welcome. The rest will and should become obsolete and go away.

At any rate it was a fantastic couple of days.  I'd also encourage you to read for yourself what a few others have said:

#BeyondTheTextbook live feed on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23beyondthetextbook

Tom Whitby's recap: http://tomwhitby.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/we-dont-need-no-stinkn-textbooks-beyondthetextbook/

Wesley Fryer's posts about the Forum: http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2012/03/19/morning-discussions-on-digital-content-textbooks-learning-beyondthetextbook/ 

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2012/03/19/synthesizing-beyondthetextbook-dialog-in-groups/

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2012/03/19/visualizing-beyondthetextbook/

Audrey Watters' recap: http://hackeducation.com/2012/03/19/beyond-the-textbook/

David Warlick's recap: http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=3524

Karen Hornberger's recap: http://www.palisadessd.org/6063423912582/blog/browse.asp?a=398&bmdrn=2000&bcob=0&c=55781

Steve's ongoing bookmarks: http://delicious.com/stacks/view/K4ORca

Bud Hunt http://budtheteacher.com/blog/2012/03/18/not-beyondthetextbook-betterthetextbook/

There were a few more than this but could give you a good taste. If you did write about it, go ahead and leave a link in the comments.  

Here's a podcast that was recorded with a few of the participants.

I originally blogged about this  story almost 3 years ago from CBC Spark. It represents so many wonderful ideas about sharing, connectedness and the shifting role of teacher and education. I'm planning to use it in an upcoming presentation but didn't want to simply play the audio. I spend about an hour finding the right footage and photos and created a pretty simple movie. Again, nothing fancy but if you'd like to use this 3 minute video, you're more than welcome to do so. 

The courses I teach at the University of Regina are officially ECMP 355 and 455. I'm not entirely sure but I think that stands for Educational Computing. But I could be wrong. The truth is both Alec Couros and I have been able to create the course into pretty much whatever we like. By in large the courses have focused on transformational usages of technology in learning, focusing heavily on connected learning. I'd really like to change the name of the course to SFIK. Smart Folks I Know. 

Pretty much every class over the past 9-10 times I've taught these courses I bring in someone I know doing interesting work or with a compelling idea. I have only two requirements for my guests. You have to be smart and you have to be able to stay connected and interact with my students for as long as they need. 

This term my lineup has included:

Karl Fisch

Gary Stager

Bud Hunt

Rodd Lucier

Michael Wacker

Liz Kolb 

John Spencer

If I do nothing but connect my students with these people in a meaningful way, I'll be satisfied. (BTW, you can listen to all these people's presentations here. You'll want to skip to the halfway point of each session to hear them speak.)

Yesterday I invited Ben Grey and Scott Meech to discuss the way in which they've implemented both netbooks and Ipads into their respective districts. Both have been very vocal about their decisions and I actually egged them on to make it more of a debate. While the first half was very civil and diplomatic, they did engage in some friendly banter at the end. That was just for my entertainment. At any rate, they offer great insights and since many asked about a recording, I took the time to encode it to video for you to watch. 

Lawrence Lessig has been fighting the copyright fight for a while now and often says that "outdated copyright laws have turned our kids into criminals". If you're not familiar with Lessig and his thoughts on the law and copyright, this 9 minute video will help catch you up to speed.

So since our laws just don't address the reality of 2012 and the digital world of sharing we enjoy, most of us carry on and don't feel the slight bit guilty for a remix video or image modification. But beyond copyright, our laws continue to create unreasonable and unrealistic parameters and ignore the realities of a digital age.

Under FIPPA, it is an offence to store or allow access to personal information outside of Canada unless it is authorized by the individual the information is about. 1

See the problem? Consider the plethora of sites that most of our best teachers are using. Be it blogs, wikis or other sites, the current environment consists of small pieces loosely joined. Even when districts attempt to host clone applications and services, there's no way they can keep up with the variety of new services and tools available for students. Certainly it's not essential for our students to use every new tool that comes to rise, but at the same time limiting their use seems antiquated. In addition, we all know students and teachers who use these tools and spaces that blend both educational and social purposes. It's not as simple as the law would like it to be.

The current laws do nothing to acknowledge today's reality. We live in the cloud and we don't particularly care where the cloud is located. Many would argue we should care. Many see privacy concerns being ignored by people like me. I don't think that's true. This once again is tied closely to helping our students and teachers develop and understand their online identities. I understand the intent of the law is to protect our information and privacy and schools do have an obligation to protect. However the challenge is that these laws completely miss the affordances and opportunities that exist for students as they publish and share online. 

In the meantime, schools, districts and teachers will choose to abide by the letter of the law, ignore it, break it or seek work arounds. I fear for those districts trying to abide by this law and in turn rob our students and teachers of learning opportunities. My own district dealt with the modification of a privacy policy to address the notion of publishing students full names. With regard to the FIPPA concerns, I know of districts and teachers working on addressing the concern by adding a simple sign off to their existing release forms. I sympathize with districts trying to sort this out. They obviously want to work within the law, protect their students and thus those mandates outweigh the effort to make the necessary change. 

I hate that our government has to make great teachers and schools feel like criminals when they simply want to provide students with the best opportunity to learn.

1 http://www.oipc.bc.ca/pdfs/public/CloudComputingGuidelines(February2012).pdf  

Susan Carter Morgan writes,

These days, though, I am finding myself struggling to share. I remember waking up one day last summer, moving through my morning routine of checking twitter, Google reader (and then Google Plus) as I had my morning coffee. Suddenly, a thought flashed into my head. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Closing my laptop, I headed out the door and took a long walk. I wish I could tell you I had some epiphany. And, no, I didn’t immediately stop using social media tools. But these past few months, I have found myself slowing down to a crawl.

I value the friends and connections I’ve made online, but I have tired of the conversations and this need to always be “on.” Instead of joy, I feel stress. I know, that’s my problem, not social media’s. Yet, I wonder….

This is not a new phenomenon. For those of us who have dedicated significant portions of our lives online have likely all felt this way at times. Having just spend a few days completely disconnected, I have to say it was refreshing. Yet coming back I didn't feel like I needed to dive in fully. There was actually a moment when I wondered, not if I wanted to jump back in but how long it would take me to make a significant contribution. That's part of the reason I'm writing this, to get back in the sharing game again.

Given my livelihood now is firmly rooted in my ability to connect in a variety of ways I think about how and why I connect with others. I think about how I consume information, how I share ideas and what might truly make a difference. It doesn't take me long when i go down that road to understand just how big the web really is. My current reading of Dave Weinberger's Too Big to Know, he spends a great deal of time on filtering:

The most successful so far use some form of social filtering, relying upon the explicit or implicit choices our social networks make as a guide to what will be most useful and interesting for us.

​I continue to emphasize the social in all that I do. It's too easy to think only about the content and the ideas. Those are the things that can often be draining and bring fatigue. There's just so much to know. What drives me is the social. Connecting with people first, their ideas second. I know for many that's not how it works. They start with the idea and perhaps move to the social. I can't say it's a linear, right or wrong approach but I do know that the notion that my link, photo, question or occasional humorous anecdote my make someone's day a little better helps me avoid fatigue. I also think about this digital divide that has many folks just beginning to discover a world of networked learning. They need leaders and mentors and friends to participate. I realize that even if I don't, there are many others available to connect and share. The truth is I do love it. 

I do understand Susan's feeling and don't discount it or think bad of her. It's real and I wonder how others cope or have had similar feelings. I only offer my perspective but as always, would love to hear yours. 

We are now in our 8th year of podcasting. I could be totally wrong but I'm going to declare us as the longest running educational group podcast on the planet. If I'm wrong leave a comment and I'll retract.

We had a relatively quick conversation with Rob as Alec and I were in the same room planning for our workshop the following day. 

Here's some of the show notes:

• The NBCHS Grade 9 photo gallery
• The Point-Counterpoint article about Bring Your Own Technology, featuring Jen LaMaster and Gary Stager (from Learning and Leading with Technology)

Also, you'll want to listen and earn a coveted Posse Mug. Hey, I've now done three consecutive posts as podcasts which is a new record. I'm kinda diggin' the audio again and am actually planning to develop a workshop on audio design. Anyway enjoy the show.

I have a heart for podcasting. Steve Dembo and Bud Hunt captured by attention way back when as they casually recorded themselves as they drove home from work. I loved the raw, authentic, casual nature of those recordings. 

​So Steve and I have talked about doing stuff with Discovery and we both share the philosophy of "just do it". So here's how this podcast was born:

​As you'll tell from the podcast, this was not rehearsed and it was pretty much uncensored. I hope it can be something where I learn more about the awesomeness of Discovery and you can too. Can you tell I've been drinking the kool-aid? If you want a prize, leave a comment on the DEN blog. 

I need to be careful. A new job and new learning gives me plenty of excuses not to write. My mind is occupied with all sorts of things that make it challenging to be be reflective sometimes. Writing and blogging has been a critical part of my own growth as an educator and I have no intentions of that changing but I need to force myself to write. This might be one of those occasions. 

Last week I visited two dramatically different conferences. FETC is one of the larger educational conferences you'll ever attend. While numbers have decreased significantly from the first time I attended over 11 years ago, there are still thousands that make their way to the Orange County Convention Center to drink in all things related to technology and learning. My first time there in 2001 I recall attending a pre-conference workshop on streaming video. I believe it was Miami-Dade County sharing how they were able to stream events such as football games and graduations to their community using a truck with TV studio equipment and servers coming out the wazoo. It took me about 15 minutes to realize that someone from Moose Jaw, SK with a handy cam and a lab of 30 computers had no business being in on that session and no hope of ever being able to do anything of that magnitude. I continued to be in awe that week of the emerging hardware and software that offered some new possibilities. I left feeling pretty excited. 

The next few years at this conference were less and less exhilarating and by the 2009 I had pretty much decided there wasn't anything happening there that I would need. My learning space had shifted. What I valued from conferences was about meeting new people whose ideas and sharing I was beginning to understand but wanted some clarification. Call it the flipped conference. Unfortunately FETC wasn't the best place to experience this. Unlike ISTE,  who was not only larger but had begun to acknowledge this need amongst a percentage of its conference attendees, FETC wasn't really embracing this need. 

This year I attended FETC as part of my new role with Discovery. As it turned out, it was a great way for me to spend time with co-workers, ask questions, watch a pre-conference event and connect with many DEN stars. In addition, there were many Canadians in attendance (Florida in January may have something to do with that) and made some important connections that will be helpful as develop community in Canada. But although for me, there was benefit, I couldn't help but noticed that 11 years since my first FETC, there was still a large focus on tools and devices. Very few sessions dealt with the real hard questions of teaching and learning. To be fair, I was largely going by the program and session descriptions but I struggled finding sessions I thought woudl be interesting beyond, "here's a bunch of tools I think are cool". 

The conference ended Thursday night and Friday I left for Philadelphia to attend Educon. Educon and FETC are nothing alike. Educon is small, 500 or fewer. Educon takes place in a school. Educon is in Philadelphia, not Orlando. Educon is designed to be conversational. I led one of these sessions with Alec Couros and shared this diagram from D'arcy Norman as the basic formula for the conference:

This happens because Chris Lehmann attracts smart people. It happens because a high percentage of these people interact with each other regularly online. It's a community  coming together to get at some important issues. It's kind of a flipped conference. It's not a perfect conference but it serves the needs of many who are looking to connect deeply with people and ideas. 

I think FETC meets some of their needs as well. However it's much more of an introductory space for many. A large number of attendees are experiencing shiny new tools and ideas for the first time. I often lose sight of that. At the same time I don't think they're adverse to having the conversations that might take place at an Educon but may not be ready to go there. I think they lack a context for change. 

I'm making a number of assumptions here and I may in fact be wrong. But I did come to realize that just because I find the format and style of Educon more to my liking doesn't mean that an FETC conference doesn't have value. I also realized that my role with Discovery is going to mean that I need to find more ways to reach a more diverse audience. In one month of travels and conversations, I'm seeing first hand the spectrum of technology use and understanding which is greater than I perceived. Working inside a single district, I at least understood the culture. I knew that while not every teacher was using technology to its fullest, I was aware of the circumstances and barriers to a greater degree and was able to provide the more appropriate supports. I've seen some schools and teachers who are dealing with very different challenges than I witnessed. Schools with virtually no technology outside of a single smartboard and a lab of out of date computers. No wireless access. High levels of filtering. Boards with limited vision. While I was aware these problems existed, they weren't really my problems. Now they are. 

So all this to say the digital divide is vast. Somehow I need to prepare myself to address that and It begins with a more sympathetic attitude towards those just beginning to see that things could be different. I think at times I've been harsh and impatient with people. Not openly perhaps but may have dismissed someone's seeming lack of interest as being reluctant. I'm realizing that so many people have not had the opportunities and time I've had. Again, this isn't new but I got a good reminder last week. 

The Educon experience of community and challenging conversations is something I hope to pursue and nurture with my time at Discovery. I've got lots of resources to make that happen but I've also got a big challenge in supporting a country as big as Canada. 

I'll keep sticking with what's gotten me this far; smart people. I know a few. 

While what I'm about to  share is pretty common place, i still find it fascinating largely because so many people and businesses haven't figured this out. 

Friday I left for Florida. Delta lost my luggage. This is the first time I've ever had my luggage lost. According to stats, airlines are 99.5% effective in getting people their luggage to the intended destination on time. I wasn't too worried. After all, I had my golf clubs which was really most important given I had a tee time the next morning. I knew my luggage was in trouble because it never showed up in Minneapolis where I have to claim it after I clear customs. The flight to Orlando had wifi on board so while in the air, I tweeted Delta's twitter account and they tracked down my bag letting me know it wouldn't make it to Orlando until the next day. They also instructed me to go to the baggage claim immediately after I got off the plane. I filed a claim and was told the luggage would be delivered to my Dad's place the next day between 6-10 PM. As the 10 PM hour came close it was evident the luggage wasn't going to arrive. I called the number on the claim form but only received an answering machine. Back to twitter. I tweeted @DeltaAssist again and they had me complete a form on http://whereismysuitcase.com where I was able to track the suitcase much the same way you track a package. Shortly after I received a call stating the luggage would be delivered somewhere around 2AM. 

The luggage indeed arrived and Delta offered me a rebate of my luggage fee as well as some Skymiles for the trouble. They were pleasant and quick to respond. 

Today I checked in to my hotel here in Orlando and immediately was faced with the $14.95 internet charge for a relatively crappy connection. Fine. Then as I go to connect my Ipad, I'm asked to pay another $14.95. I called the front desk and was told that's just how it is. I'll give you two guesses what I did next. 

Seriously Westin, $15 for internet and that's only a MB down and one device. @SPGInsider That's ridiculous.

— Dean Shareski (@shareski) January 22, 2012

I do this for a number of reasons.

1. I'm mad 
2. I think others should know about bad service or products
3. I like to see if companies are paying attention

Within a few minutes…

@shareski Hi Dean, Could we ask what hotel you are staying in?

— SPGInsider (@SPGInsider) January 22, 2012

And a few minutes after that the manager called my room and took care of the the charges.

I've tweeted about an even bigger resolution and many have had similar experiences I know. What I wonder is in the same way that some banks don't offer you the lowest interest rates unless you ask do companies only cater to twitter users because of its public nature? The hotel manager who called me specifically referred to my tweets as the reason he called. Is it simply a great way for companies and business to connect with customers or is it only about damage control? If I don't tweet, do I get the same kind of service? I don't think so. There's an immediacy with tweeting that and an ease at which they can respond to customers. I don't know if they watch how many followers you have and whether that plays a role but I do think it's a huge advantage to be able to connect with the people you have financial transactions with. (I wonder if any of the businesses, will track down this post since I tagged them?)

When I first began blogging and using rss, I wrote a post about how my expectations had changed. I expected to be able to connect and learn with people online and if I couldn't I was less inclined to read their stuff. I realize that's narrow and not very realistic but I'm feeling the same way about businesses and organizations and twitter accounts. I want to know that if I run into an issue, you'll be there to support me. I had that experience this week with Delta and Starwood. I recently had the same with Shaw Cable. 

I also don't want to use these connections only to complain, They all provided good service to me and I'm happy to recommend them because of that. I don't know if there's a lesson here for schools but at least it's one more reason to help our students understand how to leverage these tools. There are some literacies or skills here beyond simply creating an account. They aren't all technical but experience and being comfortable in these spaces is a good thing to have. It's been quite beneficial to me this week for sure. 

What if school districts and school administrators trusted teachers to let them direct their own PD?

What if the ideas of personalized learning and students owning their learning was applied to teachers? 

These are questions I ask as I wonder about the ways in which schools and districts attempt to support teacher growth. In the same way schools have a hard time empowering students to own their learning, districts struggle with letting teachers own theirs. I'm not aware of any district that truly embraces the notion of personalized learning. Districts all seem to feel the need or push to set goals for schools and teachers. They tend to standardized professional development and in many ways replicate the industrial models of school. The underlying desire for accountability is largely the barrier to trust. 

What if their goal was to have teachers truly own their own learning? 

There seems to be a strong disconnect with the emphasis on differentiated instruction in the classroom and differentiated professional learning for teachers. Some teachers will encourage teachers to seek their own learning but only after they do what they're told or mandated. I've had enough experience working at the district level to understand the complexities and challenges of that branch of a learning organization but I've not seen any district brave enough to trust their teachers to do the "right work." Politics certainly play a role here but I have believe there are leaders who, if they truly trusted teachers and believed they could direct their own learning could make it happen. 

As most would agree, few if any teachers wake up in the morning with the intent of doing a crappy job. The more time I spend in schools, the more I believe that teachers are generally pretty awesome folks but are stuck in a bad system.

I think they need four things:

1. The time and opportunity to explore new ideas and possibilities. Of course time is an age old problem but unless we provide reprieve from the busyness of the classroom, we'll be hard pressed to see our teachers get better. 

…teachers must deal with constant daily disruptions, both within the classroom such as managing discipline and interpersonal conflicts, and from outside the classroom such as collecting money for school events,making announcements, dealing with the principal, parents, and central office staff; they must get through the daily grind; the rewards are having a few good days, covering the curriculum, getting a lesson across, having an impact on one or two individual students(success stories); and they constantly feel the critical shortage of time. (The New Meaning of Change, Michael Fullan, p. 31)

2. Autonomy. When schools and districts own the learning, teachers can't. Some teachers get this with their students and are making changes to reflect that belief. I'm not suggesting teachers currently have no autonomy but I don't know any that have full autonomy in their professional learning. As professionals, I think they should. I also think this might be the fastest way to improve morale. It costs nothing but sends a message of trust and appreciation that many of our teachers don't feel. 

3. The support to make it happen. The role of the district needs to be in providing teachers with new ideas as well as supports for current practice. Researchers, coaches and facilitators.

​4. The expectation to share. If you're worried about accountability, require every teacher to share their learning. While we give them autonomy, districts do pay their salary and require them to be good classroom teachers but also need them to share with one another. Whether they post their work online or not, I think they need to share what they learned. My pre-service teacher courses end with every student answering the question, "What did I learn?". Imagine if all teachers did that every year? 

I know Will Richardson is on the hunt for bold schools. While there aren't many, I know there are some.

I'm on the look out for districts who truly trust their teachers to guide their own learning. Do you work for one? I'd love to hear from you. Maybe you disagree, maybe you think districts need to mandate PD in some way. Either way, this is likely a conversation I'm going to be having for a while. 

It's been nearly 1,500 days in a row that I've been taking a photo a day. I don't think I've missed more than an handful of days over that time. I continue to learn and find it now to be truly be a part of me. I don't ponder whether I'll keep doing it, I have no reason not to. It's not a chore anymore. As I've mentioned often, it's a mindfulness that has taught me a lot of things. Each year I tried to add something to challenge myself. 2008, was my first crack at it so I kept it pretty basic. 2009 I tried to create one word titles for each of my photos without doubling up during the year. Last year was the crazy challenge of trying to attach a song to each photo. This year I simply allowed myself to add video as an option. I'm still pondering what I might do in 2012. I feel like I'm repeating myself which isn't all bad. The fact I still find the the way sun hits the 13th hole at the Hillcrest beautiful every time I play it is likely a good thing. Yet I'd still like to expand my notion of beauty and my notion of what constitutes a moment worth capturing. Certainly not all of my 365 shots are truly worth capturing and remembering but many, the majority are I think. If any of you have any ideas of what I might focus on for 2012, please share. 

Creating a composition video is very rewarding for me and my family. While the photos are mine and represent the world as I saw it, it's a great way to see the past year and remember events and moments we shared and experienced together.  Many of the images have a specific story and memory. Others are representative of the beauty I see around me. Certainly the addition of HDR and other image enhancements add even more awe to the world around me.  A quick scan of the various subjects shows the following results:

• Family: 86 photos
• Videos: 44
• Friends: 40
• Dogs: 38 (of particular note, 14 of those featured Rue in some type of weird sleeping position)
• Sky: 32 (likely do do the HDR app but I seemed to be sky watching more than ever)
• Me: 30 (I need to work at getting that number down)
• Golf: 28 (I think that's down from last year. I need to play more courses)

Posting photos online continue to add so much to the experience. People have shared many of these moments with me both in person and virtually. We see the collection of these images to tell rich stories of one another and I'm happy to share some of my family and life with the world. 

Technically this video was pretty easy to create. I used iMovie instead of Final Cut Express. I simply brought in all photos I had tagged with 365/11. I cross referenced them with flickr and discovered a few errors. Unlike in past years, I didn't painstakingly go through each month to insure every day was represented. I'm sure there are a few days missing. Not because I didn't take a photo but because I didn't tag them properly. Big deal. Photos are set to 5 second and fit to frame by default. After adding music I tend to view and trim accordingly. Pictures of little meaning or content tend to get cut down to 3.5 or 4 seconds. Photos that have some story or object of significance seem better suited at times to using the Ken Burns effect. I'm not sure I always get it right but discreet pan and zoom can be effective. That's why I don't want to use it as the default. Choosing which photos need or benefit from that effect is intentional. I hope that comes through. I finish with a couple of songs from my daughter which I did in 2009 as well. I tried to make some smooth transitions between the end of songs and beginnings which required some additional adjustments.  

Anyway, it's meaningful to me. and easy enough to share with you. I'm Maybe you'll recall some of the photos, maybe not. Maybe you make an appearance in some, maybe you don't. Maybe you've got 30 minutes to watch it, maybe you don't.

It's list season. Actually it's list season all year round. Writing a post with a numbered list seems the way many people think. Reminds me of my daughter's obsession with rankings. Come to think about it, I've written on this topic a few times so I may be repeating myself but as I saw a steady stream of tweets today linking to a plethora of posts I tweeted out this:

Working on some new posts. 54,000 reasons to tweet. 9,000,000 reasons to blog and 27 billion ways to use Flickr. Give me a minute.

— Dean Shareski (@shareski) December 30, 2011

A little snarky? Perhaps. But it seems to me this type of blogging is become all too prevalent. Maybe it's just a lack of creativity, or maybe it's just not my style. It just seems that that cumulative nature of these posts send a subtle message that answers can be neatly packaged into lists of 10. (actually, I'm seeing more top 12 and 11 lists just to shake it up a bit) Doug Johnson even recommends it. But since Doug often writes with his tongue in his cheek and never takes himself too seriously, I read it with a grain of salt. Ryan Bretag actually nails it pretty well with this quote:

We love to talk about lists. Just recently, I watched another 21st Century skills list get tossed about on Twitter with “oohhs and ahhs”.

And that is just it. These lists are so attractive. They’re easy. They have the instant “wow factor”. But what do they offer beyond that initial “wow” that has a meaningful impact on your organization, department, or you yourself?

Look, if you've written a post or two with a numbered list, relax, I'm not attacking you. Lots of people like list type posts. I just find them slightly lacking in creativity and at times simplifying complex problems. There's a tendency to try and be definitive, to have the answers. Sometimes we do, but I've seen too many "top 50 bloggers to follow" and "the best 20 videos for educators" lists to turn me off of that genre. These lists are far from definitive and even with disclaimers, that's how they are often viewed. I try not to immediately think in terms of ranking or even listing. In education and learning, few things can be ranked and ordered or even listed. Some people love that stuff.  I'm just not a big fan. 

Ben Grey, who despite his poor taste in music and clothes, has a great eye for composition and design. He introduced me to the one second video contest and challenged anyone to create their own version. The way in which we play with media is fascinating. Taking stills and making them move, mashing up content, playing with new formats are emerging storytelling ideas that enable us to share our world in rich and powerful ways. 

This weekend I was on the lookout for moments of beauty inside our house. Having been taking a photo every single day for the past 4 years, I've developed a keener sense of beauty or mindfulness. Trying to capture moments, seeing something special in the way light hits an object or the way two people interact. It's a habit I'm glad I've been developing and will continue to pursue. 

This is what I came up with. 

It's not awesome but it's a story, our story. I can really see taking this format and tweaking it and making it one's own. Ben used his son as the theme of his video. That's a very compelling story and while it's obviously incredibly meaningful to him, he tells it in such a way that we are drawn in as well. As I watch my own, I'm not sure exactly where to critique it. Would a better camera made a difference? What shots would have been more compelling? Was there even an implied storyline? Was the music an appropriate choice? 

I think about my own assessment skills here. I've created enough of these stories to have some sense of what works and what doesn't, and yet I lack the vocabulary or expertise to truly dissect my work in this case. I'm not sure if it's because I'm using a new format or whether art itself is too challenging to always try and deconstruct. Certainly this is the dilemma of assessment in schools when it comes to creative work. As Royan Lee says, "why grade when you can reflect?"

I'll notice that during conferences, I'll often get a barrage of new twitter followers as a result of someone giving a presentation or workshop and suggesting to some new folks that I might be worth following. While it's kind and flattering that others might recommend me as someone to follow, I've always had some reservation about that. In workshops, twitter is shown as a powerful and great way for educators to connect with smart and like minded people. In many cases, these are educators new to the social networking particularly for the purposes of learning. The fear I have is that I represent the very reason many people think twitter is ridiculous. 

I frequently optimize the very essence of the banal tweet. 

So when a stranger reads that anticipating they might glean some insight or wonderful resource, they're likely a combination of disappointed, confused or annoyed. Sure, if you're following me, you might now by now this is par for the course. I will post the occasional mundane tweet but hopefully with a dash of humor or cleverness. Not always, but I try. If I bring a smile to someone once in a while, that means as much to me as sharing a great link or insightful remark. For me it's purposeful, in the same way kibitzing in a staff room or with your friends is purposeful. Some call it social grooming. 

The whole notion of the word "social" and education is difficult to grasp when your experience with learning has been anything but social and void of fun. So rather than have people scared off immediately or having them figure it out eventually, I wondered if there was some way to give people a heads up, a twitter trailer if you will, on what they'll get should they decide to follow me. 

So I created this:

Using ifttt, new followers get a direct message asking them to take 90 seconds to preview the goods. I worried a little if it would come across as spammy or invasive. I still wonder that but I've received some great feedback from people saying they really appreciated the heads up. I even had one person say that really only were interested in the educational side of things and if they found my content too out of place for them, they'd unfollow. Fair enough. 

While I could have had a link to my blog, that to me, seemed spammy. The blog isn't a great reflection of my whole self. My blog is much more about my reflection and thinking as well as dumping ground of thoughts. Twitter is the blur of personal and professional. I realize everyone uses it differently and that's fine. The fact that I used a video and people hear my voice and see my face adds another layer of connection. I much prefer people's faces in their avatars. If I've heard them speak, I read their tweets with their voices, accents and all. 

So a month into this little experiment and I'm pleased with the feedback. It's likely a trade off, with a few people put off, thinking it's a little narcissistic, and maybe it is. But the pay off of potentially more informed and even more connected folks is worth it to me. 

Cross posted at Tech & Learning

If you want your brain to hurt you might want to listen. If not, go find another way to spend an hour. 

Zac Chase and I talk about learning. I don't know if that sounds boring to you but Zac makes me think and challenges me about my learning project and some of the things rummaging around his brain.

Chris Craft is a smart dude. Actually it's Dr. Craft now. 

2 years ago, he talked to me about a custom url shortener he had installed on his server. Sounded cool but I wasn't ready to invest time into getting it installed. Last year he talked to me about it again, because I asked about it. I thought specifically the ability to track these links and clickthroughs seemed interesting and useful information. Sites like bit.ly do the same but I think anytime you can own your own stuff, whether it's a domain or website, that's good move. D'arcy Norman's taking this idea to its fullest in his latest pursuits of ownership. 

Anyway, I sometimes get in this geeky mood and want to roll up my sleeves and use things like FTP, MySQL and config files. Truth is I barely know what those things are but sometimes force myself to be geeky because it's good for me. 

So I managed to install the thing on my server and short of had it working. What it does is take your existing domain, in my case I chose my shareski.ca domain as opposed to ideasandthoughts.org because it's shorter and also is a little more recognizable. Both domains and sites reside on the same server so it didn't matter which I chose. I created a separate directory for my URLs to live. I thought I had installed it correctly but somehow all my shortened URLs were pointing back to shareski.ca You do that about 3 times and you're officially a spammer. So I left it and got Dr. Craft to take a look at it. (How awesome is that you can give someone full access to your server and he just fixes it?) I think my config file was pooched. (see definition 5) Chris I owe you a breakfast in Philly. 

Whatever he did it now works. What I'm able to do is create bookmarklets to shorten automatically or create custom shortened URLs to share. Great for workshops, twitter and elsewhere. You can tell if your share a link with a specific group, how many may have opened it.  The URLs stay with me and the tracking feature is pretty nice. After a few days using it, here are my overall results:

You can also see where your traffic comes from.

I also am using a WordPress plugin that auto generates a shortened URL and auto posts to twitter. There are probably other features that I'm not aware of yet but I think it's certainly good thing to explore if you have access to a server. 

If you use tweetdeck you can include it as your default shortener. The instructions to do that are here. Lots of other little add ons and tools that you might find useful. 

I promise I won't endure you to any more of my playing. In some ways it's hard to see much project. I think I put in close to 50 hours. I do like the fact that I now can pick up a guitar and make sounds that are not completely random. I know there are many out there who have a loose relationship with a guitar and desire to step up their playing but for many reasons don't. As a golfer, I know I could do better but actually am quite satisfied with my level of play in that I have no intention of doing anything special to improve other than continuing to play the game. I realize that in order to really improve, I'll need to take lessons and spend lots of time practicing but I'm not prepared to do that and that's okay. 

Kind of reminds me of lots of learning we do. Sometimes good enough is good enough. Say that in schools and someone is bound to scream "Blasphemy!" Shouldn't we always ask our students to excel, to do their best, to aim high? I don't think so. Some of you are reading that right now in horror. I don't think it's that bad. Not every learning is about passion. I'm not passionate about guitar. I like it. I'm glad I learned something about it and will continue to play but for right now, it's good enough. We need to give ourselves permission to tell that to kids sometimes. Not every assignment, every subject needs to involve what we call "their best". For teachers, "their best" is simply about giving it more time. I gave as much time as I wanted to this project. With the time I had I explored many ways to learn. I acknowledge in many episodes I may not have chosen the best, most efficient path to learning. But I was okay with that. That's part of learning too. I think when we ask students to do their best we ought to qualify that to reference time. With the time we have we don't want to waste it but in many cases, teachers are upset because students didn't give something more time. Consider that our students' time and attention is being sought from at least 5 different teachers/subjects, not to mention extracurricular and interests and duties outside of school. 

We all make choices of how and where we'll give our attention. Instead of lamenting about not giving something more time, perhaps we need to accept that sometimes good enough is good enough. And perhaps we need to give our students license to do so as well. 

So with that here's the last episode. It's good enough. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robwall/2802347892

Yesterday  I mused on twitter about how people made their first connection online. 

Reminiscing about how I first made connections with certain people forces me to think about how and why we find people a part of our lives. I'm not talking about loose ties here but more about people that you consider an integral part of your learning community. Friends perhaps, but certainly your teachers. When I do this it's amazing how many of these folks first came to me because I heard their voice. Not voice in the literary sense but their actual vocal chords producing their unique sound. 

Podcasting as  subscribeable audio content has only been around since about 2004. It was the early educational podcasts that really helped me connect with certain individuals. 

Steve Dembo aka Teach42. Steve began podcasting out of his car back in 2005 when I first came across his work. I wish I knew how I found him but my guess is I was searching for education and podcast and found his stuff. This is the first one I think I ever listened to. The fact he was in his car and recording audio to post online later was in itself intriguing in 2005. Steve's relaxed style made you feel like you were riding shot gun. Immediately I was interested and engaged. 

Bud Hunt aka budtheteacher. Bud, like Steve did his podcasts in his car. He still does occasionally but not nearly enough. I remember him as a high school English teacher talking his students to the local bookstore to buy books. (Sorry Bud, I searched your blog for the podcast link but couldn't find it. Would you be so kind as to put it in the comments? I won't update this so folks are forced to read the comments. Sneaky, but hopefully effective)

Bud, like Steve made me feel welcome to join them. It wasn't really a dialoge but an opportunity to have a conversation. I know I left comments on their blogs and their responses let me know I was welcome to learn with them. We've been learning together for almost 7 years now. 

One of my favorite podcasts of which I think there were only 2 episodes was EdTEch Coast to Coast. Actually it appears there are up to 17 but I think only two with the likes of Tim Lauer, Will Richardson, Tim Wilson and Steve Burt. 4 guys sitting around talking about something I was passionate about and learning about was gold for me. Since that time they've become some of my greatest teachers and indeed friends. It started with me hearing their voices. 

I also remember the first time I heard of Chris Lehmann. It was in a podcast by David Warlick who really did a great job in the middle part of the previous decade in interviewing and exposing many to  a wide variety of folks. At the time Chris was an assistant principal in a school in New York City, shortly before his move to SLA. 

There were others too that I felt a connection with because I heard their voice. Video was a bit of a challenge at the time because of bandwidth and encoding challenges. This was pre Youtube. Andy Carvin was exploring the viog but audio was much more doable. 

There was something about the raw, unedited way in which these voices came to me. Full of "umms" and a little fumbling, I felt they were real people. Post production was minimal. I was attracted to blogs because I felt like I was reading people like me. Not professional broadcasters or writers but people with real things to say and offered an authenticity I only could find in face to face encounters. Recently Grant Potter and I discussed why ds106radio is so popular. It's for many reasons but one is that we hear people as they are. Pretenses are put aside and magically it's just people talking. Connections are made, friendships are possible.

I've been podcasting myself since 2005. (In this episode you'll hear me talk about podcasting in general and also the voices of Chris, Bud,Steve and David) Originally it was largely about proof of concept. Could I record audio and put it on the web for people to subscribe? Seems silly now but back then it was a little involved. Shortly after that I began podcasting with some Saskatchewan folks as we called ourselves the EdTech Posse. We might be the longest running educational group podcast on the planet. Whatever that means. 

So this is partly reminiscing, partly reflection, partly lamenting but possibly encouraging people to re-discover or discover for the first time the power of your voice. I remember first learning about digital storytelling and one of the ideas that was shared many times was the power of your voice. Speaking remains our most basic and earliest form of communication. It's been around a lot longer than writing and offers something unique that the written word cannot convey. My itunes account is sorely lacking with educators just talking about learning. Maybe you can add to that playlist. I'd love to hear your voice. Keep writing if that's what you do, writing is great but your voice is really special. For me it creates another level of connection. Try it and let me know how it goes. 

From January to April I'll be teaching a course called ECMP 455. It's an advanced course on using technology in education. Whatever that means. 

Actually what it means is I want my students to dig deep into what teaching and learning looks like in 2012 as great teachers and great ideas come together to make learning better and richer and even transformative. I've taught this particular course 4-5 times now and am really looking forward to this term. I've got some interesting and new ideas planned and I'll share on that later. 

The class is made up of pre-service teachers who are usually in their 3rd or 4th year of teaching and have had some classroom experience. This course is totally optional so they take it because they have an interest in technology and usually have some skill set above the average pre-service teacher. That doesn't mean they are programmers, just that this class doesn't focus much on the "how to" stuff, but more the "why to" stuff. 

One idea that I began a few years back was the virtual mentorship. I connected my students with teachers and classrooms around the world and they did varying degrees of work with those classrooms ranging from commenting on blogs to teaching virtually via Skype. Here's one example from a few years back.

I've not done that for a few terms now and want to resurrect that idea. Here's where I'm hoping you or someone you know would be willing to participate. This time however I'd like to offer 2 options for teachers. 

Mentorship: 

• must have an open online classroom presence where students regularly blog or post work
• must be willing to have your students interact online via comments or twitter or discussion areas
• must be willing to have my students do at least one real time virtual teaching session via Skype or other online conferencing tool
• explore the possibility of another project 
• must be willing to provide feedback to my student (3-4 emails or contact via twitter)

Mentorship Lite:

• must have an open online classroom presence where students regularly blog or post work
• must be willing to have your students interact online via comments or twitter or discussion areas
• occasionally contact student via twitter or email…no expectations

What I'm going to do is show my students the list of mentors and have them choose based on their interests and your offerings. Whether you are chosen for a full mentorship or not, everyone of you that requests will at least have my students commenting in some way on your students' work. 

Thanks so much for being willing to support future teachers. The partnerships you create here can be incredibly influential on these students.  If you're not a classroom teacher but think of someone that might be a great fit, please pass this along to them or Retweet this at the bottom of the post.

 I'll be in contact with you in late December or early January. If you have any questions either leave them in the comments or email me dean AT shareski DOT ca

If the form doesn't load for you, you can fill it out here.

10 #evernote tips for teachers. http://t.co/KDbihNvm – Laura Kroll (Mandery) http://twitter.com/Mandery/status/206240268574396418

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Principals must blog & tweet http://t.co/iS0rJo70 via Zite My Admin/Tech pg http://t.co/pYiddUgh #DUedchat #cpchat #Satchat #edchat – Jerry Blumengarten (cybraryman1) http://twitter.com/cybraryman1/status/203090554643431426

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Principals must blog & tweet http://t.co/iS0rJo70 via Zite My Admin/Tech pg http://t.co/pYiddUgh #DUedchat #cpchat #Satchat #edchat – Jerry Blumengarten (cybraryman1) http://twitter.com/cybraryman1/status/203090554643431426 Principals must blog & tweet http://t.co/iS0rJo70 via Zite My Admin/Tech pg http://t.co/pYiddUgh #DUedchat #cpchat #Satchat #edchat

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Giving Students a Voice in Assessment? Seriously? | teachingsimplified http://t.co/8St4GiWR #assessment #afl – tombarrett (tombarrett) http://twitter.com/tombarrett/status/202844468779556865

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This Kevin Na guy is really screwing up my ability to tweet. #twitteryips @shareski @sjciske http://t.co/S8eFW6Hb – John Pederson (ijohnpederson) http://twitter.com/ijohnpederson/status/201784541214543872

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(So why did we stops teaching the philosophy of beauty?) Make education beautiful, says game designer Jesse Schell http://t.co/rYoTsTm6 – Brad Ovenell-Carter (Braddo) http://twitter.com/Braddo/status/201378830345175041

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More teachers need to be doing this RT @mikekaechele: My latest post: Open, Collaborative Test http://t.co/Grwt38y0

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Really good advice there. RT @web20classroom: 10 Tips To Make A Good Prezi: http://t.co/4xbBb0VS – Jacques Cool (zecool) http://twitter.com/zecool/status/197675606891171840

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25 Kickstarter Tips For Students via @Edudemic http://t.co/B7upLbBL #bhschat – Patrick Larkin (bhsprincipal) http://twitter.com/bhsprincipal/status/195983673038872576

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hey @shareski~ I've tried to capture some of our learning from yesterday with this post http://t.co/I9g4ChI3 #ontcl – Brian Harrison (bharrisonvp) http://twitter.com/bharrisonvp/status/194946321898156032

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A few good thoughts on what curriculum is

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Superintendent blogging about people he's met who have made a difference in education

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To do the Twitter/PowerPoint voting thingy that @c4lpt is demonstrating, same link as before. http://t.co/0JQzOBOf #pelc12

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