Tag Archives: change

Growth Mindset, Next, ProfessionalLearning, reflection

ISBLbD reflection

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The Saturday panel at Learn by Design,  brought together panelists Colleen Broderic,  Simon Jack,  Gary Stager and Ewan McIntosh who tackled two key questions which face all education jurisdictions:

  1.  What are 3 things schools should stop doing now?

2.  What are three things schools should start doing now to disrupt schooling?

With a talented panel such as this, you would anticipate insightful answers and comments.   Conference participants were not disappointed.   Some of the perspectives that resonated with me are summarized below.

Part 1:  What are 3 things schools should stop doing now?

  • stop developing long term plans as it kills agility and iteration
  • stop expecting disruption if you are not going to cultivate the conditions to do so
  • always think about what to do next
  • stop teaching old style curriculum
  • school teaches about 1/billionth of the world knowledge, stop arguing about which 1/billionth
  • stop assuming we know how other people think
  • stop thinking you need to understand everything you are working on all the time, the price of not trying is greater
  • stop having too many meetings

Part 2: What are three things schools should start doing now to disrupt schooling?

  • ,think about partnerships differently – engage students and parents as research partners – solve/change something collectively
  • list everything you are doing, then  publicly remove things from the list
  • begin every decision with a child
  • don’t redesign schools by looking at schools,  start looking elsewhere
  • storytelling,  it is human, value who we are
  • embrace the joy of learning, happiness, laughter
  • plan a next

In my view,  the comments, counters and exchange were insightful, thoughtful and respectful.  Any one of these insights is a prompt to generate in depth probing and discussion.

Upon reflection, I would add self directed learning for staff and students into the mix.

My wondering is:   What would you add to the this list?  Anything missing?  What is on your educational mind these days? 

Please comment here or add to the  #ISBLBD twitter stream.

~Mark

EDUgridlock, Leadership Perspective

A Case for Change

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As a frequent blog reader and online content curator, I am fascinated by the idea of synchronicity in reading.   One interesting example of this happened last week when I read a new blog post by Donna Miller Fry,  came across a connected reference by  Seth Godin  posted in my twitter stream (thanks PLN) and had a quote “jump out” at me in a  Flipboard  article.  I thought you might find these articles of interest and perhaps the connections will poke your thinking a bit.

In a recent post titled Emotional Uncertainty in Exponential Times, Donna Miller Fry writes:  “How do we describe and define the intense feelings we experience when we see people we care about, colleagues in our profession, working their fingers to the bone at tasks that just don’t matter anymore?  Exponential change is our reality, yet many of our institutions continue to work hard to be exceptional at what mattered yesterday.”  Read Donna’s full post at  Emotional Uncertainty in Exponential Times. 

In his post  Teaching Certainty,  Seth Godin writes:  
“Here’s how we’ve organized traditional schooling:  You’re certain to have these classes tomorrow.  The class will certainly … what to do when the certain thing doesn’t happen?”

In my 3rd connection, Andrew Tonner identifies a great Steve Jobs quote in his  Fox Business article  7 Steve Jobs Quotes on Business, Technology and Life.  I felt like this quote jumped out at me:

stevejobsquote

Speed

In reflecting on these 3 interconnected articles,  I wonder , in the context of education, our rapidly changing world and the importance of education being relevant,  if we have enough people  who  truly get it, that really understand innovation, how to change and the need for it and are empowered to take action to change?  I invite your comments and thinking, here by comment or via  @markwcarbone on twitter.

Thanks to Flickr user  GregHeo  for making the creative commons photo available.

~Mark
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engagement, Interview, Leadership Perspective, ProfessionalLearning, The Virtual Coffee Shop, WRDSB

Digging into Change

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This is such an exciting time to be working in education.  We are learning so much more – not just more about learning, but more about the change process and how some of the critical elements of culture, relationships, space, choice, technology, empowerment, and of course learning itself play key interactive roles in making real change.

On a recent visit to  Queensmount Sr. P.S.  I enjoyed the opportunity to have a deeper discussion about this with Principal Kristin Phillips as well as see things in action. We captured our conversation in this video.

I have personally noted a few things that really stuck with me from our  conversation will write another blog post to focus on that topic along with what I learned from the the tour.

I am wondering what part of the conversation jumped out at you?  Care to share? I invite you to leave a comment or share via Twitter:  @KristinPhillip3,  @markwcarbone.

Resources

Read Kristin’s blog: EduBits

Krisin’s thoughts on our conversation: Letting go of teacher control is not chaos

Keep sharing your learning.

~Mark
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Connected Leader, Connected Learner, Interview, Leadership Perspective, OSSEMOOC, ProfessionalLearning, SAMR, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL

Digging Deeper into Edu and Edtech

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When opportunity knocks,  answer!

I was recently approached by Kristin Frizzell (@71frizzell) who is taking a course with  Brenda Sherry  (@brendasherry)  to do an interview as a component of the course. This sounded like a great opportunity so we worked out a suitable time this week.

I was impressed with the set of questions the class collaboratively developed around the intersection of learning, instructional practice and edtech.  Our Google Hangout on Air meeting was our first “official”  face to face (F2F)  — hmmm, make that virtual F2F  —  meeting and conversation.  Awesome!

I hope our discussion around the question set stimulates your thinking and supports your learning.

I look forward to a continued connection with ongoing learning and sharing with Kristin.

~Mark

Connected Leader, Connected Learner, engagement, Leadership Perspective, ProfessionalLearning, SAMR, student voice, Technology Enabled Learning

Breadcrumbs and Ripples

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The 2015 WRDSB learning carousel day focused on  Innovative Change  was a great day of learning and connecting for me. I was impressed with the quality and quantity of the sharing sessions and loved the energy in the room.  As a reflection,  I wanted to share a few things that resonated with me by bringing together ideas from two conversations.

Each year, we have been purposeful about initiating targeted new projects to model change, inform our collective practice and leverage opportunities to share and role model.  Some of our projects from the last few years are captured in this whiteboard ‘clip’.

TELT-01

Along this journey, we have learned some important items or “breadcrumbs” as I like to call them,  that should be applied to new projects and scaling up strategies as we move our innovative change agenda forward.

Some of our breadcrumbs include:

  • learning IS messy. We need to accept this and continue to play in this space.
  • co-learning between teachers, and teachers & students is a really important element.  It is OK to fail.
  • shifting writing from paper to digital spaces makes a difference
  • student voice and choice are motivators in the learning process
  • using technology as an enabler creates new possibilities  to be explored in the context of the C’s and the  SAMR model.  Think about boundless and joyful learning.

breadcrumbs

In my view, as we look at a path forward, each of us has to own our piece of the collective through our own actions.  I like the question,  what is your next?  Creating a culture where:

  • conversations of change and identifying entry points are ongoing and natural
  • we celebrate small steps forward with joy and encouragement
  • the process of nudge, encourage, give/have  permission and expect is openly explored
  • we continue to be intentional and
  • we share our experiences in open and  easy to access ways

are all important elements in sustaining the synergy and  energy of forward movement.

ripple effect

Join the move to  innovative change and add to the ripple effect.  Learn, connect, reflect and share.

~Mark

Related Resources

The storify of the days twitter stream.

The ongoing twitter discussion at  #wrdsbchange.

The  Innovative Change  blog.

Digital Citizenship, GAFE, OSAPAC, OSSEMOOC, Presentation Resource, SAMR, Social Media, Technology Enabled Learning, TEL

English Association Presentation Resources

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This post combines the slide decks and resources from the 2 English Association sessions on the April 17th professional learning session into one presentation.

~Mark

reblogged

K12 Summer Reflection Challenge

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I typically listen to  Craig Norris on CBC KW 89.1  on my morning drive  into the office and yesterday was no different.  I happened to catch an interview Craig did with Roger Farwell, the new CEO of Creative Enterprise Inc.

radio2

What caught my attention in the interview was the idea of one’s “change stance”.   In a time of rapid change you can sit back and see what happens OR actively ‘play in the space’ to position yourself for the best possible outcome.

Lets apply this notion to education.  This is a time of rapid change in many areas of the K12 environment.

  • instructional practice: facilitated, inquiry based, PBL, collaborative etc.
  •  assessment practices
  • technology enabled learning
  • SAMR
  • TPACK
  • owning your own professional learning
  • sharing
  • reflecting
  • collaborating
  • making your thinking visible
  • mobility
  • technology trends
  • bring your own devices (BYOD)
  • etc.

Summer reflection challenge:  What will your approach be to educational change?  Will you sit back and see what happens OR actively ‘play in the space’ to position yourself for the best possible outcome?

Read the CBC  Creative Enterprise Initiative (CEI)  post.

~Mark

Note: cross posted to OSSEMOOC.

21st century learning, Leadership Perspective

ECOO13: Building Capacity Panel Discussion

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Ed Doadt  and I are looking forward to hosting our  ECOO 2013 Conference  panel discussion on the topic of Building Capacity. We have lined up a wonderful panel of Ontario educational leaders to dig into this important topic.

Meet the panelists:

Lori DiMarco, Superintendent, TCDSB
Donna Fry, Education Officer, MoE
Brenda Sherry, UGDSB
James Bond, Principal, WRDSB
Gwen McCutcheon, Principal, WRDSB

When: Oct. 24th, 2013 at 12:00
Where: Fallsview room
What: building capacity, leveraging technology, fostering risk taking, change

Option: BYOQ (bring your own question)

Please join us!

~Mark & Ed

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SAMR and Seniors

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My daughter Stephanie, is in the final stage of  completing her therapeutic recreation program at Brock University.  While she was home this weekend with her boyfriend Brandon,  she was sharing about her experiences volunteering in agencies as part of her program requirements.  As I was listening to her talk, I couldn’t help but think about what role technology might play in changing the possibilities for these people who need support and care.

I explained the concept of the SAMR model in the K-12 education framework. The real “win” is achieving the redefinition stage to improve learning and engagement, but certainly one can not estimate the learning and value of moving through the first three stages.

SAMRgraphic

The three of us spent a fair bit of time wondering what would impact on seniors care be if we applied the SAMR model to leverage technology?  Is seems on the surface there is little to no technology available in these care facilities.  Tablets and touch screen interfaces greatly simplify the use of technology and could be a real game changer.

Some of the possibilities we discussed included:

  • increase connections with family using tools such as skype or Facetime
  • pondering the value of increased visual connections
  • increased mental stimulation: simple/appropriate games (self play and/or interactive, e.g. word games/puzzles such as scrabble)
  • improved access to online content – one way (read only)
  • stimulation from interactive content
  • idea exchange (text chat spaces for examples)
  • planning for face to face (F2F) activities (crafts, debates etc.)

Some how the possibilities seemed invigorating and obtainable. It may be about shift, just like in the K-12 education space.  It was a great discussion about making a difference through change.

Just wondering …

~Mark

21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, PLP, Technology in Education

Resources for PLP Live

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Resources for PLP Live

TPACK: Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

From Idea to Reality

Administrator Perspective

From the Field: Educators in Action

I'm a PLPeep!

~Mark