Randolph has been piloting PLCs for two years, and they are making formidable steps to enhance their teacher teaming and learner strategizing. Westminster and Randolph are imagining different ways to stretch time and embed regular teaming. There is no one-size-fits-all structural approach to PLCs, but there are universal ideas and questions that must guide our work:

3 Big Ideas:

1. Learning is the focus.
2. Collaboration is the culture.
3. Results guide our decisions.

4 Key Questions:

1. What should be learned?
2. How will we know if “they” have learned?
3. What will we do if ”they” already know it?
4. What will we do if ”they” aren’t learning?

What a privilege and bright spot it is to collaborate among schools and learn with and from each other. Could our institutions and organizations actually stretch the PLC ethos to include more such collaboration among our schools? Could we model being PLCs among schools, like we model forming PLCs among our adult learners?

PLC Randolph Slidedeck 2-2012.

[Cross-posted at Experiments in Learning by Doing]

What’s more, I just discovered, thanks to a tweet, that Shelley Krause archives the reflections from #EduCon attendees. Now, in addition to my “excuses” above, I think I want to read more of those reflections as I work to weave my thinking into the tapestry of others’ thoughts.

Shelley Krause, @butwait, archives the reflections from #EduCon 2.4
http://bit.ly/educon24archive

Then, this morning, I watched a 12 minute TED talk – “Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work.” While watching, I resolved myself, at the least, to record three gratitudes that I feel from attending #EduCon.

Gratitude #1 from #EduCon 2.4

I felt that I was with “my tribe” and I could hear the speaking of my native tongue. At times, I do feel a stranger in a strange land. Occasionally, as I speak and work for school change and formal educational transformation, I perceive glances that communicate to me that I might as well be speaking a rare dialect from a single island in the Solomon archipelago. At EduCon, however, I felt a sense of “coming home” to folks who spoke my native tongue. We spent no time really on the “why’s” of school evolution…instead we spent our tribal time working through the “how’s” and the “what’s.” Our purpose was, and is, unified, and we workshopped constantly on details of implementation. I felt a sense that all accepted already a deep understanding that traditional schooling is imbalanced, at least a bit, toward adult convenience…when we should be working diligently to blur the lines between “real life” and school – to ensure that students are creators of understanding, not mere consumers of already-processed information.

Many people there were familiar to me, yet I had met only a couple face to face. Through blogging and tweeting – really practices of thinking out loud and learning in public – I built on top of foundations already constructed online. First-time face-to-face meetings were often accompanied by hugs – we felt we knew each other to a considerable degree, and we could start from that comfort of connectedness.

Be clear – we did not always agree. Healthy disagreement and variety of perspective was pervasive. Yet we started on a platform of already-constructed shared values, shared vocabulary, and shared respect. And the sharing was a fundamental attribute of those present – “learn, share, repeat.”

Gratitude #2 from #EduCon 2.4

I appreciated that the conference lived in a school, rather than in a conference center. On Friday evening, a panelist remarked that environment is not a strong determinant of being able to learn. While I understand his intended message – that learners can learn anywhere – I believe strongly that physical environment and surrounding play a huge role in learning. EduCon took place almost entirely at Science Leadership Academy. I think this setting played a huge role in my first gratitude – I feel at home in schools where students and teachers and parents are meandering and pursuing understanding of our world. Moreover, the SLA students essentially ran the show. When I entered the building for the first time, Jeff, a senior, asked if I would prefer a paper or e-copy of the program. When I said I wanted an e-copy, he asked if I wanted PDF or e-pub on iBook. After downloading the iBook version and perusing, I asked Jeff who made this beautiful piece. “We did. The students. It’s been a project of ours.” Jeff was the chief EduConcierge. Cameras and webcasts were peopled by students, and adults seemed to shy away from doing anything that could be lead by a student. Several of the sessions (conversations) were led and facilitated by students. Bravo! Learners were learners, regardless of age, and the school environment made for an intimacy of learning that, I believe, would have been less rich in a conference center.

Gratitude #3 from #EduCon 2.4

I am thankful that the conversations are purposeful, ongoing, and action oriented. These EduCon folks are DOERS. At times, I feel immersed mostly in talk at other professional-development sessions. EduCon was about bringing DOERS together. Most sessions ended with calls to action…”Write down one or two things you will do differently on Monday, next week, next month. Then, tell a table mate. Then, stay accountable to the connections you are making here at EduCon. Go do something.” Web 2.0 tools were employed purposefully and intentionally to propagate the conversations.

The sessions are termed “conversations,” and it seems expected that the face-to-face time at EduCon will serve to catalyze ONGOING conversations and actions. Meet-ups galore geared towards ways to keep the dialogues, discussions, and DOING alive. Use of existing and developing online connections provide means and motivation to “myelenate” these axons and dendrites of networked action and implementation. The proteins of the innovators’ DNA were double-helixing without pause.

Steve Goldberg encourages us to be resolved to DO after #EduCon

http://educonres2012.wordpress.com/

Liz Davis reflects on #EduCon 2.4 and reminds us to ask, “What if…?”

http://edtechpower.blogspot.com/2012/01/educon-24-reflections-2012.html

More reflection will come from me. Next, I need to read others’ reflections. I was in numerous spaces with people smarter, wiser, and more experienced than I. They helped me level up. They motivated me. I want to keep learning from them and with them. Yes, I will have much more on which to reflect. I have much more to do.

And I am grateful.

On Saturday, January 28, Jill Gough and Bo Adams will be facilitating a conversation at EduCon 2.4: “Synergy – Questions are the way points on the path of wisdom.” We hope you can join the conversation. We plan to 1) share our stories about Synergy 8, 2) elicit others’ stories about how they engage in deep-level PBL at their schools, and 3) ask and respond to a big “What if…” question – What if we built a network of people who were taking on the challenges of community-issues problem solving with adult learners and student learners alike?

We might even start a blog to help connect us all…Synergy2Learn. Let’s build something together…It’s About Learning and Experiments in Learning by Doing!

As we entered the facility, we eyed this very emotionally intelligent sign:

Seemed like a #mustpost to me!

February 22, 2011 | 11:11 AM | By Tina Barseghian, from KQED & NPR Mind/Shift: How we will learn.

All of these innovative models are showing us that incredible results, and experiences are possible when we design the school day with the needs of the student in mind. The historic “one-size-fits-all” model of set periods of time with groups of somewhere between 20-30 kids lined up in rows and one teacher in the front of the room orchestrating the conversation…. well, Sage on Stage, Chalk and Talk, and Spray and Pray might just have met their match.

The school day of the future will be unpredictable, inconsistent, and designed to be wildly relevant for the learner, their engagement, and their development. – By Sandy Speicher

[Thanks to @centerteach for sending me the link to this article.]

What if student learners tracked the production and “story” of a product of their choosing? What if they selected an electronic device, an article of clothing, a favorite object, a drop of water from their home faucet, a unit of electricity from a school light bulb…and what if they worked to discover the back story of this product, object, or unit of energy? What would they discover? What could be learned? Would they learn some history? Some math? Some science? Some anthropology, sociology, and economics? Some English and foreign language? Some critical thinking? Some creativity? Some writing? Some literacy and numeracy? Some ecology? Some justice? Some…

The possibilities are endless.

I am hoping that some of you will listen to the NPR episode and let me know what you think about the Reagan Library simulation as a pbl vs. PBL. (I am really curious what @jonathanemartin would say…seems a great continuation of our BIE Common Craft video dialogue.) In the podcast story, what gets to me is the game-show sound effects of a “right-answer bell” and a “wrong-answer buzz.” When students in the simulation here these Pavlovian noises, I wonder what gets imprinted about having thoughts of their own.

Now, is this simulation a potentially powerful way for students to study the Grenada-invasion history? Yes. Is this simulation probably more fun and exciting to the students than merely reading about the event in a textbook? Yes. But the simulation does not cross the threshold of pbl vs. PBL, in my opinion. And it’s mostly because of that darn bell-buzz sound effect – the facilitators clearly are gearing for right and wrong answers. Are they teaching history or creating opportunity for critical thinking and original ideas? If they are trying to do both, I wonder if they are measuring their success at each objective.

Capital P PBL involves students in relevant, real-problem, community projects that don’t possess preconceived solutions. Capital P PBL does not merely place students in simulations so that they can re-enact what adults have already done. Again, I am not saying that I think the Reagan Library experience is worthless. In fact, I would love to participate in the simulation that is described in the “Kid Politics” episode of This American Life. I think the simulation is a powerful way for students to study the history and bring it to life with real drama, real emotion, and real reaction. But I hope that these students and their teacher used such a simulation as a jumping off point for a debrief that seemed a must after those reporters and Presidential staffers mingled in the same room. I hope that this jumping off point provided a springboard for students to engage in their own critical decision making…about a current issue…amongst an authentic audience.

What do you think?

“World Peace Game Creator John Hunter Named Martin Institute Fellow“
Press release from January 5, 2012, by The Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence…gives details of partnership between Martin Institute and John Hunter, provides information on film about John Hunter’s classroom approach, and offers dates for summer institute on developing curriculum and instruction that innovates like the World Peace Games

“Can you spare 27 minutes for learning and world peace?“
Blog post from June 3, 2011, on It’s About Learning – about John Hunter TED talk

“#PBL examples, courtesy of TEDxWomen“
Blog post from January 11, 2012, on It’s About Learning – about finding examples and inspirations for PBL…links to two other posts about PBL

Of course, it also helps to see examples of school-aged children engaging in learning that is rooted in real-world challenges and that is promoted through communication with authentic audiences. This morning, I was fortunate enough to have a TED talk link in my email inbox. Thanks to faculty and colleagues who are exploring the complexities of PBL and sharing, I can share these three examples of PBL that seem to fly toward that upper right quadrant of the matrix I offered on Jan. 4.

If you were alive and watching TV in the mid to late 1970s, then perhaps you remember this 30 second advertisement from Tootsie Roll…

Simply replace “tootsie roll” in the jingle with “PBL.” Occasionally, my wife and sons will catch me singing this around the house. Truly, just about everything I see becomes a PBL idea to me. This visioning, though, is the result of purposeful and deliberate practice, as I have tried to grow in my capacity to develop “uppercase PBL” opportunities.

On January 4, 2012, I published a blog post about “Contemplating pbl vs. PBL.” In the post, I constructed a two-by-two matrix that helps explain how I think one can move along a spectrum of “lowercase pbl” (essentially project-oriented learning) to “uppercase PBL” in which learners are addressing genuine community challenges and engaging with authentic audiences of co-interested citizens. But how does one even think of such capital PBL ideas?

Based on countless conversations over the past few years, I get the feeling that more than a few educators struggle with the notion of originating and implementing uppercase PBL ideas. Actually, I think the struggle resides more in the implementation than in the origination, but that may need to be its own separate blog post. For now, let’s stick to the topic of originating, or concepting, the uppercase PBL ideas – creating the grand challenges that tend to integrate studies and promote community engagement from our student-learners and ourselves.

A Habit of Seeing and Recording

Concepting and brainstorming ideas for PBL is as simple as developing a habit of seeing and recording. Some may feel that such is easier said than done, but I believe it is really that easy. To form a habit, of course, one must commit to trying and rehearsing. Anyone with vision can develop a habit of seeing and recording, but it does take practice – just like anything else. In today’s world, though, the tools at our disposal make it easier and easier to develop a habit of seeing and archiving potential PBL ideas. Keeping a digital observation journal is a fabulous practice and discipline, if you want to build a resource pool of possible PBL opportunities.

I imagine there are countless ways to keep an observation journal. In essence, though, an observation journal is simply a space in which to record thoughts, questions, and images about the things that one sees while walking around. Because I almost always have my iPhone in my pocket, I rely heavily on this tool to keep my observation journal. As I walk around school and the greater Atlanta area, I often take pictures of things that raise my curiosity. For example, over the Christmas and winter break, I walked my dog quite a bit, and I captured the following images around a few bridges traversing Nancy Creek – the bridges are very close to my school, and Nancy Creek runs through my school campus.

Just from recording these images with my iPhone, I am wondering about fieldwork investigations of the science, math, economics, and history of Nancy Creek. Myriad questions come to mind…

• What is the water quality of Nancy Creek? How does it change over a year’s cycle? What kind of life is supported by Nancy Creek? Is it safe for my boys and dog to play in Nancy Creek?
• What data is collected by that big metal box? How does it collect the data? Where does the data go? Who uses the data and how is it used? How could schools help the organization named on the sticker? Could students participate in this data journalism of Nancy Creek?
• What was the significance of the Nancy Creek area during the Civil War? What is it’s economic and ecological significance now?

Often, to record these images and questions, I upload my pictures and observations to an email-based blog system called Posterous. Then, with categories and tags added, I am developing a significant library of PBL ideas. In Synergy, we use a group Posterous account (see related post) so that all 26 of us are contributing to the pool of potential project ideas. During the first semester, we accumulated over 400 observation-journal posts. Out of those posts, we developed six projects together.

Imagine if a school faculty and/or the entire student body employed such a school-group Posterous (or any such collaborative tool for seeing and archiving) to collectively organize a virtual fleet of observation journal ideas! The PBL opportunities could be endless!

To develop such a habit of seeing and recording is to follow the initial practices espoused in design thinking:

At Design Thinking for Educators, where the above image was screen captured, this five-stage process of designing is more fully explained. For now, though, just think of observation journaling as a means into “discovery and ideation.” As one takes pictures and records questions for one’s observation journal, one is also engaging in a bit of “interpretation.” By posing questions and potential research curiosities, we begin to interpret what we are seeing, as we begin to formulate what projects could emerge from such wondering. To engage in such design thinking is to return to our roots as childhood learners. As Robert Fulghum has said, “LOOK!” may be the most powerful word we articulate (after mama and dada, of course!). And Mary Ann Reilly, in a recent post about “Making Art & (In)Forming Life,” reminds us of the power and potential of observation. We just have to re-open our eyes to that which we might have started to take for granted. We need to teach ourselves to see again…with that childhood enthusiasm for discovery!

A Key for Innovation

Relearning and leveraging our amazing human capacity for seeing is not just a fun way to generate ideas and enjoy the possibilities of challenge in school curricula and instruction. Seeing – as a multi-step, complex system of discovery, interpretation, and ideation – may be the key to educational innovation. In my eyes, innovation is about dreaming, teaming, seaming, and streaming. To dream is to envision. To dream is to “see” with more of our senses and being. To dream is to contemplate what could be.

May we dream big for our schools and our students. May we dream big for the challenges our world faces. Here’s to seeing…together.

LOOK!

[For more about PBL ideation, see the Buck Institute for Education resources, and the Apple Challenge Based Learning resources. I turn to these resources quite a bit!]