Tag Archives: George Couros

Innovators Mindset Panel Discussion Reflections

February 12, 2016 markwcarbone Leave a comment

OSSEMOOC has been running an online book study this month based on the Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros. Last week’s activity featured an online panel discussion which focused on exploring some of elements of the first chapters more deeply.

The panel discussion recording:

In reviewing the twitter conversation that occurred while the panel discussion was live, I wanted to share a few perspectives that I wanted to reflect on. Perhaps these tweets will push your thinking, identify a challenge you are willing to try or make a new connection that will ignite new opportunities for you too.

My Reflection Prompts:

IM-1 IM-2 IM-3 IM-4 IM-5 IM-6 IM-7 IM-8 IM-9

Additional Resources

Check the OSSEMOOC Website for more details about the Innovator’s Mindset book club.

#InnovatorsMindset Storify (Chat #1)

The #InnovatorsMindset Twitter Stream

~Mark
markicon2

CATC, Just pondering, Leadership Perspective, ProfessionalLearning, reflection

CATC Camp – digging in deeper

August 22, 2015 markwcarbone Leave a comment

Once again our annual summer computer camp, CATC By the Water, was a great learning experience. You can check out some of the learning and innovating thinking at: CATC Camp learning and sharing or CATC innovators.

One of my favourite conversations this year happened when I took the time to sit down with George Couros and Donna Fry to revisit a conversation from a year ago, where we debated why educators look to one well known lead or theory to follow rather than leveraging the room – the educators who are learning, changing, innovating and sharing publicly. After all, the smartest person in the room, is the room!

                 Personal photo

Digging deeper into the conversation this year we talked about another angle that I believe is important in this discussion. Perhaps the most important element is not if fact “the one” vs “the room”, but each of us recognizing which one of these causes the personal disruption needed to learn, change, grow and share. After all, we each have a responsibility for owning our professional learning journey. Perhaps a good term for this would be “differentiated disruption“.

                 Personal photo

Where do you stand: the one, or the room? What does it take to shake up or clarify your practice?

~Mark

Connected Learning, OSSEMOOC, PLN, Social Media, Technology Enabled Learning

Remix – Connect – Challenge

March 1, 2015 markwcarbone Leave a comment

As educators, we ofter hear that the plan, act, assess, reflect (PAAR) cycle promoted as excellent professional practice. Extend this to an online context: the importance of sharing, telling your story, learning from each other (the smartest person in the room is the room), building relationships, leveraging online connections and opportunities and finally using technology tools to facilitate this process (don’t just focus on the technology itself),

I was struck by my reading experience this morning. Call it what you will: growing awareness, synchronicity, convergence, coincidence or perhaps some other term of your choice, but there certainly was an emerging theme.

First, I see an interesting Facebook post by Patrick Larkin, a valued member of my Personal Learning Network (PLN) highlighting a position on school and system leader technology use by George Couros. George concluded is blog post with this powerful question: If the purposeful use of technology can enhance or accelerate those ideas above, shouldn’t more leaders look at how these tools can be used in their own practice? Got you thinking? Read George’s thoughts [here].

As I finish reading George’s article, an alert pops up that a new OSSEMOOC post called How Do We Get There From Here? has gone live. Perfect timing Donna. Intrigued by the title, I decide to take a quick look. Talk about timely.

You will have to read the post (How Do We Get There From Here?) to see the list 🙂

Now, back to catching up on Facebook happenings … where did I leave off? Timely: Kathi Smith has re-shared a Leonard Nimoy quote that really resonates with all of the reading I just finished. Perfect!

In some of my earlier thinking about this topic, I wrote “Allow the global community of educators the privilege of searching, finding, reading, re-reading, sharing, curating, linking and commenting on your blog posts.” Read my full blog post: Just Make It Public.

Consider your role in learning from other educators. Take the challenge and make Spock proud!

Additional Resources

… from OSSEMOOC and Dean Shareski.

~Mark

ECOO

BIT14 Interview with George Couros

October 16, 2014 markwcarbone Leave a comment

I appreciated the opportunity to team up with Michelle Cordy and Doug Sadler to have a pre Bring It Together 2014 conference interview with keynote George Couros yesterday.

Watch the interview:

Additional ECOO video podcasts are online [here].

~Mark

21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, TEL

That! is a blog post

September 8, 2013 markwcarbone 2 Comments

This blog post has been in draft mode since I attended the CASA13 conference in July. Every time I sit down to work on it, I think of another angle, write a bit more, and things stay in draft mode. Today, I read Choose to Write by Angela Maiers via Facebook. I would call that synchronicity given the topic. So, finally, here we go.

I had the pleasure of seeing presentations at the CASA13 conference by George Couros and Dean Shareski as well as having personal conversations with them – always interesting and enjoyable. Dean raised a great point in his closing keynote. “Is the best PD process as simple as choosing something to learn and blogging about your experience?” WOW – great question, great insight.

Relating to his Huffington Post article “Want to create better teachers?” Dean states that ” The reflective writing has been valuable but definitely the nearly 4,000 comments have been even more of a learning experience. This is the single best professional development experience I’ve had. Dan Meyer, a Mathematics teacher in California writes: … blogging was the cheapest, most risk-free investment I could have made of my personal time into my job.” I suggest you read the full article here.

Next, I decided that I would gather material related to this topic by watching what my online professional learning network (PLN) was writing about it. I have selected a variety of blog posts related to the value of online writing that I became aware of over the 2013 summer. Please take a moment to check out the insightful comments they shared about blogging and the learning that resulted from the process.

1. What’s the big deal about blogs by @ColleenKR.

2. The Reach of Education Blogging by @SheilaSpeaking

3. What are you Thinking by @fryed (Donna Miller Fry)

4. The Benefits of Blogging by @PeterMDeWitt

5. Challenge: Five things I’ve Learned by @fryed (Donna Miller Fry)

6. Why My Six Year Olds Blog and Yours Should Too by @KathyCassidy

7. How Blogging Can Help Reluctant Writers/ by @DRPconsultants (Patricia Fioriello)

Now, coming full circle, the conversations around the value of blogging come to life again with the beginning of another school year. But, what does it take? There is a journey for each of us to travel:

finding your ‘online voice’
being comfortable with who you are online (you must be yourself)
settling on your own writing style
recognizing that you have experiences and insights to share
you never know who you might help

As we settle in for the 13/14 school I challenge you to be observant, look for that opportunity to reflect and share, dig in, find your online voice and BLOG!