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Slide 1: Engaging Staff and Students- Using Web 2.0 Tools for Global Collaboration
Slide 2: Community, Passion, and Perspective Why Do We Need a Learning Community? Role Play Four volunteers What conclusions did you draw from the role play? Does perspective or position have anything to do with the educational decisions we make?
Slide 4: New Media Literacies- What are they? http://newmedialiteracies.org/ Will the future of education include broad-based, global reflection and inquiry? What role will Professional Learning Communities and Personal Learning Networks play? Will your current level of new media literacy skills allow you to take part in learning through these mediums?
Slide 5: Define Community Define Networks In the shared notes area please write a one -2 sentence description of each. Are they the same? Different? How so? I will ask a couple of you to grab the mic and share.
Slide 6: A Definition of Community Communities are quite simply, collections of individuals who are bound together by natural will and a set of shared ideas and ideals. “A system in which people can enter into relations that are determined by problems or shared ambitions rather than by rules or structure.” (Heckscher, 1994, p. 24). The process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in some subject or problem collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations. (Wikipedia)
Slide 7: A Definition of Networks From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Networks are created through publishing and sharing ideas and connecting with others who share passions around those ideas who learn from each other. Networked learning is a process of developing and maintaining connections with people and information, and communicating in such a way so as to support one another's learning. Connectivism (theory of learning in networks) is the use of a network with nodes and connections as a central metaphor for learning. In this metaphor, a node is anything that can be connected to another node: information, data, feelings, images. Learning is the process of creating connections and developing a network.
Slide 8: The premise is that for our students to be adequately prepared for their futures, they must not only know how to create, navigate and grow their own personal learning networks in safe, effective and ethical ways, but they must also be able to exist in, support and grow situated learning communities where they pursue their passionate, scholarly interests with a group of learners to whom they are committed. In other words, understanding both networks and communities are crucial to learning in this connected world.
Slide 9: Community is the New Professional Development Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999a) describe three ways of knowing and constructing knowledge that align closely with PLP's philosophy and are worth mentioning here. Knowledge for Practice is often reflected in traditional PD efforts when a trainer shares with teachers information produced by educational researchers. This knowledge presumes a commonly accepted degree of correctness about what is being shared. The learner is typically passive in this kind of "sit and get" experience. This kind of knowledge is difficult for teachers to transfer to classrooms without support and follow through. After a workshop, much of what was useful gets lost in the daily grind, pressures and isolation of teaching. Knowledge in Practice recognizes the importance of teacher experience and practical knowledge in improving classroom practice. As a teacher tests out new strategies and assimilates them into teaching routines they construct knowledge in practice. They learn by doing. This knowledge is strengthened when teachers reflect and share with one another lessons learned during specific teaching sessions and describe the tacit knowledge embedded in their experiences.
Slide 10: 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. We 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.
Slide 11: Professional Learning Communities The driving engine of the collaborative culture of a PLC is the team. They work together in an ongoing effort to discover best practices and to expand their professional expertise. PLCs are our best hope for reculturing schools. We want to focus on shifting from a culture of teacher isolation to a culture of deep and meaningful collaboration. FOCUS: Local , F2F, Job-embeddedin Real Time
Slide 12: The Power of Professional Learning Communities The most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is building the capacity of school personnel to function as a professional learning community. The path to change in the classroom lies within and through professional learning communities. Milbrey McLaughlin
Slide 13: Three Elements of Communities of Inquiry Garrison and Vaughn , 2008.
Slide 14: Communities of Practice FOCUS: Situated, Synchronous, Asynchronous- Online and Walled Garden
Slide 15: Personal Learning Networks FOCUS: Individual, Connecting to Learning Objects, Resources and People – Social Network Driven
Slide 16: http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/google_whitepaper.pdf
Slide 17: Community in Action Are you using learning communities in your school/organization? What do they look like? How do you know it’s a LC and not just a grade level team? Why, in your opinion, haven’t traditonal PLCs been more effective in lasting school reform? Or have they?
Slide 18: Looking Closely at Learning Community Design 4L Model (Linking, Lurking, Learning, and Leading) inspired by John Seeley Brown http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/2006/06/roles-in-cops.html This model is developed around the roles and interactions members of a community have as participants in that community.
Slide 20: “Some online communities emerge out of nowhere, are totally unplanned and blossom. But these are the minority. There is a good deal of evidence to suggest that careful planning is essential to the success of an online community”  (Australian Flexible Learning Framework, What are the characteristics of effective online learning communities? pg 7,  2003)
Slide 22: Characteristics of a healthy community
Slide 23: Professional Learning Teams
Slide 24: Please share your ideas re Social Presence Bus- Stop participants adding their ideas to the three stops: Social, Cognitive and Teaching Presence in NING What do you see as the purpose of our online community? Is the culture of our group such that collaboration is valued? How will we promote this collaboration online? Please share your ideas re Cognitive Presence What content would you like to see included in our online community? Please share your ideas related to: Teaching Presence Who should be responsible for facilitating/moderating this environment? What is the responsibility of the other members of this online environment?
Slide 25: Powerful Learning Practice Delivery Model Workshops Two all day workshops that build capacity, community and develop 21st Century skills. Elluminat Live meetings e where teams meet, listen and then reflect in small groups. Where we deepen understanding, network, share resources and grow as a community of practice. VLC Professional Learning Teams Job embedded teams who meet f2f and work towards scale and alignment of 21st C skills with school improvement goals
Slide 26: Scaffolding for Success Roles ensure all learners needs are addressed. These roles are linear in the beginning but quickly evolve to community organizers and community leaders becoming community members and the community itself becomes self-
Slide 27: TEAM PROJECTS •Teams work as PLTs to co-create a project: 1) Develop a creative PD plan to share (scale) what you have learned over the past few years with the rest of your school or district. 2) Develop a 21st Century curriculum project that is constructivist in nature that leverages the potential of the emerging technologies for connecting and collaboration. “The project allowed me to work closely with other people in my district in order to accomplish a common goal. Discussing projects from the other districts
Slide 28: Community & Network • Wikispaces • Del.icio.us • Diigo • Twitter • Elluminate • Ustream • K12Online • RSS • NING (our VLC)
Slide 30: Scaling your project http://www.microsoft.com/education/demos/scale/index.html
Slide 31: Questions or Comments? What questions do you have about how to build a CoP in your school? What concerns do you have?