Google+ Communities Live Brainstorm - January 9th

Join me Wednesday, January 9th, for a live Futureof Education.com community conversation and brainstorm to talk about the use of Google+ Communities, and specifically for learning and education. To experiment with Google+ communities, I started a group called "Education Revolution," which is now one of the larger education communities and which has proven to be surprisingly engaging for me personally.

However, as is often the case with Google social initiatives, it feels like some really critical components to the experience are missing. This 90-minute session will be an opportunity to discuss: how G+ communities are being used by teachers, students, administrators, and others; tips and ideas from those of you having success; community management techniques and the increasing value of community organizing skills in education; what we would tell Google to improve if they were listening; how grass-roots and peer-learning communities impact long-term education conversations; and anything else you want to discuss (feel free to leave notes in the comments here).

I'm also particularly interested in the difference between G+ Communities and curation-style services like Mightybell, Learnist, Pinterest, and the like, especially since I do consulting work for Mightybell and personally prefer the organization and ease of finding content and discussions in a Mightybell "space"--which are very difficult right now in G+ Communities.

I know it seems weird not to use a Google Hangout for this conversation, but Blackboard Collaborate allows for more participation and flexibility for a larger audience, but I do hope we will explore in the brainstorm ways in which Hangouts are or can be a part of a learning community.

Date: Wednesday, January 9th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 90 minutes
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-01-09.1721.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350.

Hacking at the Roots of the Learning Revolution - Live Broadcast Tomorrow

I'll be a guest again on the Connected Learning weekly webinar series tomorrow, with esteemed host Howard Rheingold, and getting provocative. Read the following at your own risk.

Date:  Thursday, Dec 20

Time:  10-11am US Pacific Time (international times)

Event page and participation instructions: http://bit.ly/UM1s4Z

Hacking at the Roots:

I see two larger education reform movements.  This is an over-generalization, of course, but maybe not by much.  

The first ed reform movement is the high-stakes, NCLB, foundation/corporation/lobby-driven movement that is couched in the language of business: achievement, accountability, job skills, efficiency, etc. The second ed reform movement is the passionate, largely-educator-driven and pedagogically-progressive movement.  

While both groups would likely disagree with me, I propose that they are actually different versions of the same story. While there are individuals in both movements that are well-meaning (arguably more by my own definitions in the latter), both movements take as core premises that change comes from the top, that there is a "better solution" to education, and--while not overtly stated--that education is something we impose on others.

As well, my take is that because both are institutionally-directed, and the "institutionalization" of values (see Illich) is itself a part of the problem, their ultimate outcome will not be individual independence, but rather continued dependence on our educational and economic "systems"--systems which are driven by the needs of those running them rather than by any desire for individual independence.  

I believe we are in this mess (which is certainly not new), where both of the larger reform movements are actually more similar than we want to admit, because we are focused on outcome rather than process. Laws, for example, are outcomes, while the democratic activities that produce them are processes. The progressive ed reform movement often commits this outcome-over-process error when committees or research or prominent voices are taken as "what we should be doing," when really we need to encouraging participation in the processes of determining for ourselves and our communities that which we care about and how we can work together to accomplish our goals. A list of "21st century skills" might be really fun to create as part of some meeting of prestigious educators, but please don't think that pushing that outcome or list down to schools, teachers and students is what would really benefit them. Instead, we should be pushing down or encouraging the process of creating such a conversation to local levels, where all involved might participate in the discussions that attend the process.

Implementing one group's particular outcomes is fundamentally disrespectful to the agency of others.  Process demands and allows that we respect the inherent rights of individuals to be self-directing agents of their own lives. However, we must recognize that there are few if any lobbies or businesses that will see financial or institutional benefit from self-direction and independence as the outcome of education, so they are not likely going to promote or support this. Intriguingly, we must also recognize that parents, administrators, teachers, and students have often been so inculcated into the co-dependence model of schooling that they not only willingly build prisons for themselves and for others, but often demand agreement with this perspective in an emotional way that suggests schooling as a cultural ritual requiring (and therefore publicly manifesting) our conformity. Perhaps we also fear the mental and moral requirements of independent thought, finding it easier to follow the norm; and (going out on a another limb) perhaps our participation in a known power structure, while demanding we follow others in authority, gives us at least some power of our own as we exert control over others (students/children) below us.

So that leaves me trying to figure out how you generate the kind of public mobilizations that have characterized important civil and social rights movements--ergo, my HackYourEducation.com tour (now being re-branded for the new year as the "Learning Revolution Tour"). What are the models for scaling independent thinking without simplifying it beyond value in order to gain traction? How do you talk about and encourage agency while also respecting it? How do you help the 30% who drop out, and the even greater number of students and families who don't thrive in school and therefore see themselves as failing, to realize that they are in a perverse game of intellectual inadequacy that someone else has set up and rigged against them? How do you help those who benefit from the current system to see the moral failure of perpetuated financial inequity through a college-track system that they believe it is rewarding their own excellence, but is often just confirming the power of better expectations and individual student care?

This is certainly not anti-intellectual; it is, rather, the only moral course of questioning that I can see an intellectual taking.

Currently, my answer is to hold, and hopefully therefore to model, conversations on learning that provide a positive path for helping students, families, teachers, and administrators to recognize that they know a lot more about when and how good learning takes place than they and the establishment have given themselves credit for. And that identifying the positive conditions of learning from their own experiences trumps the proclaimed expertise of others who would impose mindsets and expectations on them--expectations that most never feel they have fully achieved. There is a pervasive and sad fear of straying in any authentic way from the path that others proclaim leads to educational (but not learning) success. 

I suggest we need to hold these conversations one-to-one, starting with the choir then moving to those the system has failed and to those willing to see the unfairness of their own advantage. Then, perhaps, we have the opportunity for real change, the kind of change that comes from inside each of us, and not from the outside or movements that would merely replace one form of schooling with another. We must ourselves be the learning revolution.

For more conversation, join the Education Revolution Google+ Community at https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/104214480154015052148.

Photo: Roots of big old tree by Paolo Neo

Tuesday Interview - Adam Frey on Ed Tech Success

Join me Tuesday, December 18th, for a live conversation with good friend Adam Frey, co-founder of Wikispaces, and co-author (with his Wikispaces co-founder James Byers) of the recent primer "How to Succeed in Ed-Tech."

In "How to Succeed in Ed-Tech," Adam and James look at the current boom in ed tech ventures, and try to distinguish hype from reality while acknowledging their own serendipitous route to the lessons they have learned. It's a must-read. I've long pointed to Adam and Wikispaces as great examples of how an ed tech / Web 2.0 business builds both authentic value for education as well as a profit. Early on as I helped create the "fringe" events around the ISTE conference now known collectively as ISTEunplugged, Adam approached me to ask what would be appropriate behavior for him at the these peer-organized events--events like like EduBloggerCon and the Bloggers' Cafe--which are intended to be "non-vendor" space for conversation.

Adam felt that he would better be able to listen to educators not from behind a booth on the exhibit hall, but in one-on-one conversations, and he wasn't sure of the etiquette. We determined that the kind of thoughtful participation he wanted would actually be the kind of vendor participation that we should encourage, and his quiet and thoughtful engagement is often in real contrast to vendors who attempt to invade our spaces with self-aggrandizing activities.

For a broader perspective, we'll also be joined by my brother, Andrew Hargadon, who is Professor of Technology Management at the Graduate School of Management at University of California, Davis, a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation and Faculty Director of the Child Family Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Date: Tuesday, December 18th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-12-18.1647.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/adamfreyedtechsuccess.mp3. As well other interview recordings are all available at http://www.futureofeducation.com.
Mightybell:  A Mightybell space with interview resources and conversation is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/17451.

Thursday Interview - Cal Newport on Why Skills Trump Passion

Join me Thursday, December 13th, for a live conversation with returning guest Cal Newport, to talk about his new book, So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for the Work Your Love. While not a book about education, it is a attempt to debunk the "long-held belief that 'follow your passions' is good advice," which is increasingly a narrative we hear in education conversations.

I'm interested in comparing this thesis with the experiences of my own children, who have benefited from following their passions, and to see if his advice to "put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable" is actually the opposite of passion-following, or if the two might not actually drive each other. (Another obvious connection is with marriage, as some argue that arranged marriages are happier than those begat by passion--let's see what he has to say about that!)

My interview with Cal about one of his previous books, How to Be a High School Superstar, has informed my thinking in so many ways--and leads me to recommending the book on a regular basis. Let's see if he can convince me once again!

Date: Thursday, December 13th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-12-13.1452.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/calnewportsogood.mp3. Other interview recordings are all available at http://www.futureofeducation.com.
Mightybell:  A Mightybell space with interview resources and conversation is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/17277.

Cal Newport is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University. He previously earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2009, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 2004.

Newport is the author of three books of unconventional advice for students, which have sold a combined total of more than 100,000 copies: How to Be a High School Superstar (Random House, 2010), How to Become a Straight-A Student (Random House, 2006), and How to Win at College (Random House, 2005).

In his role as an author, Newport has appeared on ABC, NBC, and CBS and on over 50 radio networks. His writing and ideas have been featured in major publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and FastCompany.com. His Study Hacks blog, which chronicles his attempts to decode "patterns of success," attracts over 100,000 unique visitors a month.

Thursday - Ray McNulty on the Courage to Change Education

Join me today, Thursday, December 6th, for a live discussion with Ray McNulty, Chief Learning Officer at Penn Foster College and a Senior Fellow to the International Center for Leadership in Education, having previously served as President. Prior to joining the International Center, he was a senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he worked with leading educators on improving our nation's high schools. Ray is a past president of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and author of It’s Not Us Against Them — Creating the Schools We Need, published in 2009.

Ray believes we need to change our mindset when thinking about transforming our schools, and we need to be willing to "thrive on the unknown, appreciate ambiguity, and relish being different," to be willing to implement "yet-to-be-proven ideas," and to "focus on being different first and then on being better"--all of which take courage and an ability to learn as you move forward. Given that some of these traits lie at the heart of criticisms I'm inclined to make about the non-connectivist MOOC movement and many of the VC-funded ed tech ventures, I can't wait to discuss this with Ray!

On the other hand, Ray (through Penn Foster), made a contribution to my HackYourEducation.com tour, and has written in his book:  "I believe you absolutely cannot even hope to succeed in transforming education if you do not embrace the idea that, at its core, education is about people and how they relate to one another" (p. 20). So I'm expecting a nuanced, thoughtful, and rewarding discussion with someone who cares deeply about education and has thought a lot about it.

Date: Thursday, December 6th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-12-06.1621.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/mcnulty.mp3.

Raymond J. McNulty.  An educator since 1973, Ray has been a teacher, vice principal, principal, and superintendent. From 2001-03, he served as Vermont's education commissioner. During his tenure, Ray focused on aligning the Department of Education's work on three key issues: early education, educator quality, and secondary school reform.

Ray is a presenter at the state, national, and international levels on the need for school systems to accept the challenges that lie ahead. He is committed to raising performance standards for both teachers and students and to building solid connections between schools and their communities. Ray believes strongly that education systems cannot wait for the children and challenges to arrive at school; rather, schools need to reach out and help forge solutions.

Penn Foster College was founded in 1890 with a distance-learning method to help working adults "with ambition" to learn advanced skills, initially coal miners who wanted to be come superintendents and foremen. Having served 13 million students since then, the college currently enrolls 150,000 students a year with undergraduate degrees in business, technology, health, education, and social services.

Tuesday Show - Teachers Becoming Their Own Khan Academy

Join me on Tuesday, December 4th, for a live discussion with Stacey Roshan, a high school math teacher at Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland. We're going to talk about the "flipped classroom," and drill down on one of my concerns about this model: the regular use in public discussion of phrases like "finding the best lecture on..." or "be taught from the best teachers." While I appreciate the incredible opportunities to learn from the amazing diversity of video recordings from teachers (and students!) all over the world, the idea of "the best" seems to diminish the significant importance of the relationships a teacher builds with his or her students, and also the understanding that comes to both the teacher and the student through the act of teaching.

Stacey will be joined by Shane Lovellette, a product manager at Techsmith. Together they will talk about the use of video and screen-capture to empower teachers and support students. This is not a paid or promotional event for Techsmith.

Date: Tuesday, December 4th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-12-04.1213.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/staceyroshan.mp3.

Having noticed the high levels of anxiety in her AP Calculus classroom, Stacey Roshan realized that the traditional teaching model does not provide the right tools for students to stay caught up and engaged with course materials. In 2010, after attending the Building Learning Communities conference, Stacey saw a demonstration of Camtasia Studio and immediately knew that she was looking at her answer – a way to reduce anxiety in her AP Calculus classroom by eliminating the traditional lecture on the board. She went home from the conference inspired and with a mission: to create a video for each of the lessons that she would have stood at the board teaching. That year, she didn't do a single traditional lecture. The results of the new classroom model were astounding: Stacey was able to dramatically decrease anxiety among her students, while increasing grades and AP test scores. In short, the flipped classroom has allowed Stacey to create a supportive, calm, inspiring classroom – a learning space where students can truly thrive. Stacey received her bachelor’s degree from NYU, where she studied economics, and her master’s degree from UVA, where she also studied economics. Prior to becoming a teacher, Stacey was an economic consultant.

Shane Lovellette is the product manager for Camtasia Studio and Camtasia for Mac. Shane joined TechSmith in 2003 with over eight years of management and production experience in video and television. Shane holds a bachelor's degree in television, radio, and film production from Syracuse University and an MBA from Michigan State University. As the product manager for TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio and Camtasia for Mac, which allow teachers to record their lesson and deliver them to students outside of standard classroom walls, Shane works to tailor TechSmith offerings to best serve educators and students.  As a strong advocate of the flipped classroom model, Shane assists educators in implementing the use of technology in simple and practical ways both in and out of the classroom.  Shane believes that technology has the ability to empower teachers to be more effective at facilitating the learning process and support students through differentiated instruction.

Wednesday - Talk Live with Gina Bianchini About New Mightybell Features and Education

Join me on Wednesday, December 5th, for a special live chat with Gina Bianchini, co-founder of Ning and the creator of the new Mightybell online program. We'll show you the newest features of Mightybell, allow those of you who are existing users to do a little show and tell of your own spaces, and give you a chance to ask Gina any questions that you might have.

I'll be hosting the event, as I've done before, as part of a consulting relationship to help bring the community's voice and ideas to Mightybell. Gina has a huge personal commitment to bringing the benefits of her social projects for free to teachers and learners.

Gina describes Mightybell as a service to help individuals and groups gather around a passion. For teachers, librarians, and learners, it also holds some special opportunities for "content curation and conversation." You have the ability in one place to chat, to post content, and to comment in individual threads on the content (which can be photos, videos, links, files, questions, and events)--and to allow others to do so as well. I now create a Mightybell space for each of my FutureofEducation.com interviews to collect a "living" set of the resources for the attendees.

With Mightybell you can:

• create a living syllabus 
• gather class or topic resources
• supplement a presentation
• run a live back-channel for a meeting or professional development
• allow students to post and comment on their own or each other's work
• host a scheduled live and automatically-archived "Mighty Chat" on a topic with your larger community
• or collaborate in a myriad number of other ways

As one teacher said, Mightybell can bring "learning to life." And the new visual and structural overhaul of the site gives you some great new features:  post/reply by email, adding a space image and/or cover photos, color-matching or customized themes and fonts, a new WYSIWYG editor, and "followers" as well as contributors.

To practice or sign up and create your own spaces, start at the new Mightybell for Hosts space at https://mightybell.com/spaces/1ec75482801b8481. Then join us Wednesday using the link below to the event's Blackboard Collaborate room.

Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008350&password=M.C4415D8049A57DF74A3B77771411A0. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is here:  https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-12-05.1703.M.86035557D2F8C8CA05E067C29AD0A7.vcr&sid=2008350

Gina Bianchini

Interview Tonight - Jim Groom on "A Domain of One's Own," ds106, and More

Join me today, Thursday, November 29th, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Jim Groom. Jim is the director of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies and adjunct professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He has been working for over fifteen years in education with a consistent focus on the development of teaching and learning in higher education. In addition to his extensive experience teaching at the college level, for the past eight years he has worked primarily in the field of instructional technology.

We're going to focus tonight (but not exclusively) on the "A Domain of One’s Own" pilot project from the University of Mary Washington, a collaborative effort between the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies and the Office of Information Technology Services. This is a topic I've been presenting on myself at conferences (often with Alice Keeler) which we've alternatively called "Your Personal Web Presence" or "Your Digital Profile," and which is the main focus of the Saturday free workshops I'm doing on my http://www.HackYourEducation.com tour. My experiences with helping people (mostly educators) develop a "domain of their own" has been fascinating--there's a tangible emotional excitement that is very fun to be a part of as sometimes years of wanting (but being afraid) to get started turn into reality.

"A Domain of One’s Own" will give 400 students and faculty their own domain name and web space to install a portfolio of work or map to existing systems. They believe this pilot project will give students the flexibility to build out their “e-portfolio” using a variety of software and approaches in a space that gives them the power to easily migrate and transport that data when they graduate. Look for continuing updates on this project at umwdomains.com as the pilot unfolds.

Jim's recent projects also include the Digital Storytelling course ds106 that has innovated around the idea of turning a course into an open, networked community; working with faculty at UMW to implement UMW Blogs, a multi-user blogging environment (powered by WordPress, an open source publishing platform) designed to provide a web-authoring solution to faculty and students that is flexible and open; and working with Claudia Emerson, professor of English at the University of Mary Washington, on a “technology lab” in which four groups of students built their own online literary journals. You can see more of my projects here. (From his bio at the domain of his own.)

Date: Thursday, November 29th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Mightybell:  The Mightybell space with resources is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/16125
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-11-29.1613.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/jimgroom.mp3.

Recorded Interview with Kiran Bir Sethi on Real-World Learning

Kiran Bir Sethi is the Founder/Director of the RiversideSchool in Ahmedabad, India, and her TEDIndia talk (embedded below) has been viewed over 600,000 times. She is also also the founder of ‘aProCh’ - an initiative attempting to make cities more child friendly, for which she was awarded the Ashoka Fellow in 2008. In 2009, she was also presented with the ‘Call to Conscience’ award from the King Centre at Stanford, for the citizenship/liberation curriculum that RiversideSchool implements.

Her initiative – Design for Change School Contest 2010 – won the prestigious “INDEX – Design to Improve Life” Award, in Copenhagen, Denmark in September, 2011, and her DESIGN FOR CHANGE initiative is "the largest global movement designed to give young people an opportunity to express their own ideas for a better world and put them into action." Design for Change has also recently won the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Youth Innovation  Award 2012.

I talked with Kiran via Skype on her phone since her regular Internet connection was down, so the 50-minute (and fascinating) recording linked above is audio only.

INTERVIEW RECORDING LINK:  http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/kiranbirsethi.mp3

Here is her TEDIndia talk:

Tuesday Interview - Self-Education, Life-Long Learning, and the Importance of Intellectual Maturity

Join me Tuesday, November 27th, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with author and self-acknowledged autodidact Charles D. Hayes. I contacted Charles after finding his books Self University (published in 1989) and Proving You're Qualified: Strategies for Competent People Without College Degrees (1995). I told him that I'm particularly interested in the topics of self-education, life-long learning, and accreditation and how they are changing because of the Web, and he agreed to an interview, but insisted (smile) that we also discuss his newest book, September University: Summoning Passion for an Unfinished Life.

September University goes one step further than his previous books by discussing the imperative for those in our society who are in the second half of their lives to (as one reviewer put it) "step away from superficial things and commit to becoming wise guides for the generations that come after them." Because our education dialog seems trapped between the weird worlds of 1) expectations of compliance, conformance, and dependency, and 2) perceptions of the value of education being primarily measured numerically and financially, I'm hopeful to hear from Charles about how the significant demographic of baby-boomers-turning-seniors has the potential to reshape a more mature discussion of education.

Date: Tuesday, November 27th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-11-27.1725.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/charleshayes.mp3.

Author and publisher Charles D. Hayes is a self-taught philosopher and an impassioned advocate for lifelong learning. At age 17, he dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Marines. After four years of duty, he became a police officer in Dallas, Texas, and later he moved to Alaska, where he has worked for more than 35 years in the oil industry. In 1987, Hayes founded Autodidactic Press, “committed to lifelong learning as the lifeblood of democracy and the key to living life to its fullest.”

Hayes’ first book, Self-University, won PMA’s Benjamin Franklin Award for nonfiction in 1990 and was called the best book on self-education of the decade by educator Ronald Gross. Early in the year 2000, his book Beyond the American Dream: Lifelong Learning and the Search for Meaning in a Postmodern World was selected by the American Library Association’s Choice magazine as one of the most outstanding academic books of the previous year. His other books include Existential Aspirations: Reflections of a Self-Taught Philosopher; September University: Summoning Passion for an Unfinished Life; The Rapture of Maturity: A Legacy of Lifelong Learning; Training Yourself; and Proving You’re Qualified. His recent novel, Portals in a Northern Sky, has readers across the country declaring they are going to read or reread classic literature.

Promoting the idea that education should be thought of not as something you get but as something you take, Hayes’ work has appeared in USA Today, Library Journal, Training magazine, Training and Development magazine, in the UTNE Reader, on Alaska Public Radio's Talk of Alaska, and on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation...

In 1989, Hayes inaugurated Self-University Week, held annually during the first seven days of September to celebrate the joy of lifelong learning. Since then, his web site Autodidactic.com has continued to provide resources for self-directed learners—from advice about credentials to philosophy about the value lifelong learning brings to everyday living. In September 2004, Hayes initiated SeptemberUniversity.org, a web site created specifically for aging baby boomers. (From http://www.autodidactic.com/authorbio.htm) 

Nominations Due Monday (Nov 26) for the Annual Edublog Awards!

It is that time of year again! The 2012 Edublog Awards are a go, and I'm pleased for Classroom 2.0 and my Web 2.0 Labs to be co-sponsors again of this very fun annual event. I'll also be co-hosting the awards event live in December. I've been preoccupied with the Global Education Conference, so I'm tardy in helping to promote the event--so notice the due date for nominations coming up this Monday!

The Edublog Awards is a community-based initiative started in 2004 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes.  The purpose of the Edublog awards is promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media.

How Does It Work?  There are 3 parts to the awards:

• Nominations – NOW through November 26th
• Voting – TBA
• The Live Awards Ceremony – TBA

How To Nominate. To nominate your favorites, you:

• Write a post with your nominations for the different categories on your own blog (or a website – anywhere public)
• Send the link to your nomination post via the form at the bottom of the Nominations Page

Here are the 2012 Categories. Nominations are open until Monday, November 26th, so (quickly) nominate your favorite blogs, twitterers, community sites, videos, podcasts and more…

• Best individual blog
• Best group blog
• Best new blog
• Best class blog
• Best student blog
• Best ed tech / resource sharing blog
• Best teacher blog
• Best library / librarian blog
• Best administrator blog
• Most influential blog post
• Best individual tweeter
• Best twitter hashtag
• Best free web tool
• Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast
• Best educational wiki
• Best open PD / unconference / webinar series
• Best educational use of a social network
• Best mobile app
• Lifetime achievement

How To Nominate. 

• Write a post with your nominations on your blog, link to them and link to this site
• Use the form at the bottom of the Nominations Page to send a link to your nominations

If you have any questions, you can put a comment on the announcement page or let them know using the contact form.

Today - Educator 2.0 Preview for Australia Audience, Live and Online

The Educator 2.0 Australian Tour is coming to Australia in February 2013!

Today, live in Blackboard Collaborate, and as part of the Australia e-Series, I'll be providing an overview of the Workshops and Masterclasses scheduled in February 2.013 in four of Australia's capital cities: Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. For details on the tour please visit the Digital Capability site.
We are currently endeavouring to get confirmation of sufficient numbers for the workshops in February prior to November 15. This free webinar will introduce you to the Educator 2.0 concept, explore the activities you’ll experience in the workshops, and hopefully entice you to register your attendance before that date. This Webinar is part of the national promotion of the Educator 2.0 Tour.

The Educator 2.0 program is designed to support the effective personal and professional growth of every educator, and is being led by me.  The tour is is part of the “Digital Capability – Doing it Smarter” program.

I'll join those interested in the Australia e-Series Blackboard Collaborate room at 3:00 pm AEST (GMT+11) today, Wednesday November 7 (International times here). Log in through Blackboard Collaborate using the Australia e-Series Blackboard Collaborate (click here). Support and configuration help if needed is here.

Thursday Interview - Preparing Youth to Engage with the World

Join me Thursday, November 8th, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview (and pre-event for the 2012 Global Education Conference) with Veronica Boix-Mansilla and Tony Jackson about their free PDF book, Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World.

"In matters of national security, environmental sustainability, and economic development, what we do as a nation and in our everyday lives is inextricably intertwined with what governments, businesses, and individuals do beyond our borders.

"This new reality helps us more clearly define the role that education must play in preparing all students for success in an interconnected world. The United States have invested unprecedented resources in education, betting that our outmoded, factory-age system can be fundamentally transformed to prepare students for the rigors of a global economy.  They have challenged states and school districts to set clearer, higher standards and assess student progress in more creative ways, prepare more productive teachers, and provide effective intervention in failing schools.

"These are necessary strategies for change, but insufficient to create the citizens, workers and leaders our nation needs in the 21st century.  Missing in this formula for a world-class education is an urgent call for schools to produce students that actually know something about the world--its cultures, languages and how its economic, environmental and social systems work." 

(From the Asia Society website, emphasis added.) 

Date: Thursday, November 8th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-11-08.1616.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/globalcompetence.mp3.
Mightybell Space: Resources, videos, links, and conversation about the interview can be found HERE.

Veronica Boix-Mansilla chairs the Future of Learning institute at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she also acts as a principal investigator for the school’s Project Zero. Her research examines the conditions that enable experts and young learners to produce quality interdisciplinary work and develop global competence by addressing problems of contemporary global significance (e.g., globalization, climate change, migration). She recently co-authored Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World with the Asia Society’s Anthony Jackson. In 2012 she also published Disciplinary Foundations: Teaching Big Ideas for Deep Understanding in Languages, Mathematics and Science.

Anthony Jackson is Vice President for Education at Asia Society. He also leads Asia Society’s Partnership for Global Learning, a national membership network of practitioners and policymakers dedicated to integrating knowledge about Asia and the world as a mainstay of American education. Over the past six years, he has led the development of Asia Society’s International Studies Schools Network, an effort within the PGL to create a network of small, effective, internationally-themed secondary schools across the country. In 2011, Jackson co-authored the book Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World, a publication co-developed by the Asia Society and the Council of Chief State School Officers’ EdSteps Program. This book defines the concept of global competence as a consensus standard for the field, and provides a cohesive framework for globally focused K-12 education.

Thursday - Yale Wishnick on a Strength-Based Revolution in Education

Join me Thursday, November 1st, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Yale Wishnick, author of From a Culture of Dependency to a Culture of Success: Focusing on What's Right About America and the American People. Most recently as the director of (and guiding force behind) the forward-thinking California Teachers Association Institute for Teaching (IFT), Dr. Wishnick has been on the cutting edge of strength-based strategies and practices to increase personal success and organizational excellence. The IFT was built on the believe that school change should be teacher-led, and he is convinced that every individual (teacher and student alike) can be successful by focusing on their strengths and positive experiences and less on deficits and weaknesses.

It doesn’t make much sense to create a school culture of success from a climate of disappointment and intractable problems. The IFT believes school change should focus on what’s working; the great teaching taking place in our classrooms. Further, if we want to know why children are successful, talk to successful students and their parents.  The IFT believes that the best strategy for school improvement is to investigate what’s working, not what’s broken. By focusing on what works in our schools and encouraging teacher independence and increasing capacity, we are more likely to have success. (From the IFT website.)

Date: Thursday, November 1st, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-11-01.1720.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/yalewishnick.mp3.
Mightybell Space: Resources, videos, links, and conversation about the interview can be found HERE.

From the website:  "From a Culture of Dependency to a Culture of Success reveals how more and more Americans are missing out on the greatness of their country; its passion for excellence, its commitment to the dignity and self-worth of each individual, and its belief that every person has the right to achieve their own vision for success.  Chaos, confusion, disappointment, and hopelessness have pushed and pulled Americans into a state of dependency.

"From the individual, to the family, to our local communities, Americans are constantly looking for others to solve the problems and challenges they face. This has lead to victimology, class warfare, and ultimately bad public policy where a culture of dependency is becoming the new normal.

"As people think themselves into believing that they can’t make it on their own they are rejecting their own potential and capacity to act. Worse, they are missing out on the person they were destined to become.

"Go beyond the headlines and discover what is really driving a culture of dependency. Discover how deficit thinking is being used by politicians, bureaucrats, and the private sector elite to turn America into a dependency society.  From a Culture of Dependency to a Culture of Success brings a sense of clarity to the problems facing America by offering not just solutions but fundamental reasons why America is becoming a dependency state." 

Thursday - Jamie McMillin on Lessons from Legendary Learners

Join me Thursday, October 25th, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Jamie McMillan, author of Legendary Learning: The Famous Homeschoolers' Guide to Self-Directed Excellence. This interview is part of my continued interest in how lessons from the homeschool world may increasingly inform discussions of traditional education. Jamie looks at what she calls "Legendary Learners[:] big thinkers, creators, leaders and achievers who earned success on their own terms."

"Read about famous homeschoolers such as: Andrew Carnegie, Agatha Christie, Louis Armstrong, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Robert Frost, John Muir, and Walt Whitman. Find out what these legends had in common, how they were raised and how they found success. Their fascinating stories will inspire you to think about homeschooling [and schooling?] in a whole new way - beyond curriculum, test scores and 'keeping up with the school kids.' You will discover how to: unleash your child's unique creative genius and power; cultivate passion and determination; allow your child to direct his or her own education; create an authentic atmosphere of learning; and live the habits of success." (From the publisher's description.)

"The great men and women of history had a certain kind of education. Find out how to duplicate it in Jamie McMillin's excellent book! A great read for parents, teachers, and self-educators." - Oliver and Rachel DeMille, authors of the "Thomas Jefferson Education" books 

"Jamie McMillin offers a well-researched and compelling look at what little-known factors bring forth the best in each child. This is a book every parent and educator should read." - Laura Grace Weldon, author of "Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything"

Date: Thursday, October 25th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-10-25.0946.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/jamiemcmillin.mp3.
Mightybell Space: Resources, videos, links, and conversation about the interview can be found HERE.

About Jamie McMillin (from her website)

I have been homeschooling my three kids since 1996, trying nearly every method you can think of in that time. Fortunately, my kids are good sports.

Before that, I was in the U.S. Coast Guard, graduating from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1989, then spending the next five years working in the Coast Guard aids to navigation program in Texas and Alaska.

In all that time, I was (and have been) a voracious reader and addicted to research. I first heard of homeschooling back in 1993 from a “Harrowsmith Country Life” magazine featuring Rebecca Rupp. Enchanted, I read everything I could get my hands on about teaching my son at home, though he was only a baby at the time. Was it legal? Did it work? How do I do this? Fortunately, my husband was game and by the time our second son came along, we had decided that homeschooling was the way to go. Rebecca Rupp was my first mentor, although she never knew it. Her books were always within reach, and our early days were modeled after hers. We read lots of books, played games, constructed Viking ships, made salt-dough models of the Mediterranean, grew pole bean teepees and had lots of fun.

As the homeschooling movement grew and I connected with more families, I researched other styles of teaching: classical (The Well Trained Mind), unschooling, Charlotte Mason, unit studies, leadership (A Thomas Jefferson Education) and others. It was so hard to decide! They all sounded right. How to choose? It really came down to experimentation and finding what worked with each of my kids – and they were all very different. But I was still a tad worried, so that’s when I started reading biographies of people who had unconventional educations. I thought that if I could pick out any common threads among the childhoods of these successful people, it would give me some indication of which homeschooling method worked best.

Well, I got more than I bargained for. I learned so much I had to put it in a book! It turns out that there was indeed a common thread in the education of the people I studied, but that was just a small part of it. I also found similarities in how they were raised and the experiences they shared. It was fascinating!

Unfortunately, my homeschooling days are almost over. My oldest is in college and my second son is attending community college part-time. My youngest has decided to go to a local charter school for the arts this fall. But now is when I really have the experience and hindsight to know what worked, so that is why I decided to create this blog. I have a lot of stories about my kids and other people with unconventional educations to help put your homeschooling worries in perspective. Don’t worry – homeschooling is much more fun than you might think!

If you would like to contact me, please email JamieMcMillin (at) legendarylearningnow (dot) com    (please excuse the coded email address – I’m trying to stop the robots from finding me)

Wednesday Live - Denise Pope from Stanford Challenges the Current School Success Model

Join me Wednesday, October 24th, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Stanford's Denise Pope, co-founder of the Challenge Success program, a research-based organization that develops "refreshingly practical curriculum, conferences and other programs for parents, schools, and kids looking for a healthier and more effective path to success." From the site:

"At Challenge Success, we believe that our society has become too focused on grades, test scores and performance, leaving little time and energy for our kids to become resilient, successful, meaningful contributors for the 21st century...

"We believe that children come with a wide variety of interests, skills, capacities and talents. Children need love, support, limits and a safe environment to develop their full potential. This process of growing up is slow, deliberate and often unpredictable, and therefore requires that children have the time and energy needed to mature into resilient, caring and engaged adults. Challenge Success recognizes that our current fast-paced, high-pressure culture works against everything we know about healthy child development. 

"At Challenge Success we believe that the over emphasis on grades, test scores and rote answers has stressed out some students and marginalized many more. We all want our children to do well in school, and certainly there is content that must be mastered, but our singular focus has resulted in a lack of attention to other components of a successful life - the ability to be independent, adaptable, ethical, and motivated critical thinkers."

A Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education, for the past thirteen years Denise has specialized in student engagement, curriculum studies, qualitative research methods, and service learning. She founded and served as director of Stressed-Out Students (SOS), the predecessor to Challenge Success. She lectures nationally on parenting techniques and pedagogical strategies to increase student health, engagement with learning, and integrity. Her book Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students (and which she discussed last year on FutureofEducation.com) was awarded Notable Book in Education by the American School Board Journal. Dr. Pope is a 3 time recipient of the Stanford University School of Education Outstanding Teacher and Mentor Award. She has been featured on CNN, World News Tonight, the Today Show, NPR, and several other television and radio programs. Before Stanford, Dr. Pope taught high school English in Fremont, California and college composition at Santa Clara University.

Date: Wednesday, October 24th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-10-24.1533.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/denisepopecs.mp3.
Mightybell Space: Resources, videos, links, and conversation about the interview can be found HERE.

From the website:

Responding to an increase in academic and emotional problems among kids in the United States, psychologists, educators, physicians, and public health and policy experts in child and adolescent well-being convened at Stanford University in July 2007 to envision a coordinated approach to helping schools, parents and families develop alternative success models to align with research on healthy child development.

In response to this meeting, Madeline Levine, Ph.D., Jim Lobdell, M.A., and Denise Pope, Ph.D. founded Challenge Success, an expansion of the highly successful SOS (Stressed-Out Students) Project at Stanford University. Utilizing the resources of a prominent advisory board of interdisciplinary experts, the co-founders created a research-based organization that develops refreshingly practical curriculum, conferences and other programs for parents, schools, and kids looking for a healthier and more effective path to success in the 21st century. Challenge Success has become a trusted “voice of reason” for parents and educators and has received significant media attention and tremendous public and private support.

"At Challenge Success, we work every day to provide schools and families with the information and strategies they need to create a more balanced and academically fulfilling life for their kids.  We work with teams of educators, parents and students at schools to identify problems and implement best practices for school policies, curriculum, assessment, and a healthy school climate.  We provide support to parents by giving them the tools to help their children regain their balance, strengthen their sense of self, increase their motivation and critical thinking skills, and learn how to deal effectively with the inevitable challenges of life. And we conduct, collect and synthesize research, so that the public can make informed decisions about educating children."

Tuesday Live - Suzie Boss on Bringing Innovation to School and Empowering Students

Join me Tuesday, October 23rd, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Suzie Boss on her new book, Bringing Innovation to School: Empowering Students to Thrive in a Changing World. Suzie is a journalist who writes about the power of teaching and learning to improve lives and transform communities. Co-author of Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age, she's inspired by educators who push the boundaries of the traditional classroom. She is on the National Faculty of the Buck Institute for Education, and has also helped nonprofit organizations design programs that teach both youth and adults how to improve their communities with innovative, sustainable solutions.

"Suzie Boss has wed the work of schools to the work of prominent innovators, proving that these worlds are not far apart at all. . . . Bringing Innovation to School is filled with practical, easy-to-follow ways to change teacher and school practice. We are lucky. Suzie has given us both a call for change and a blueprint for doing so." --From the foreword by Chris Lehmann

"If you read only one book on innovation in education, read Bringing Innovation to School. Suzie Boss goes directly to the heart of why we need innovation in our schools, and she describes practical, realistic solutions to get there. This book will be extremely useful to all people who seek to improve education including teacher leaders, administrators, parents, and policy makers." --Cindy Johanson, Executive Director, The George Lucas Educational Foundation, publisher of Edutopia"Bringing Innovation to School makes a powerful case that innovation can be--make that must be--taught and provides engaging examples of how real educators are doing this today. Every parent, teacher, and administrator should read this book and ask themselves whether their schools are graduating innovators." --John R. Mergendoller, Executive Director, Buck Institute for Education

Date: Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-10-23.1704.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/suzieboss.
Mightybell Space: Resources, videos, links, and conversation about the interview can be found HERE.

From the publisher:  "Are you preparing a new generation of innovators? Activate your students' creativity and problem-solving potential with breakthrough learning projects. Across all grades and content areas, student-driven, collaborative projects will teach students how to generate innovative ideas and then put them into action. You’ll take learning to new heights and help students master core content.

Benefits:

• Shows educators why innovation is an essential skill for 21st century learners' success 
• Demonstrates the diverse ways innovation can be implemented in the classroom 
• Provides innovative examples from outside education to stir creativity 
• Explains how innovation can coexist with standards-based instruction 
• Provides tips on how to incorporate unstructured time into the school day"