Introit

Work v. Job

I'm attending a wonderful seminar right now in Santa Fe, New Mexico, run by the good folks at Santa Fe Leadership Center.

Dr. Gary Gruber had a wonderful remark that I wanted to share. Though not quite verbatim, it goes like this: "Don't let your job get in the way of your work." Your job is what your job description says you must accomplish on a daily basis, but "work" is your larger journey. As such, it doesn't correspond to neat little packages of time that we prefer to ascribe to our days.

I like to use the Latin word for work, opus, because it feels less bound to time and more open-ended, more journey-like. For example, someone's magnum opus is a remarkable thing because you know they haven't simply created it on a Saturday afternoon whilst nibbling a biscuit.

The concept is similar to something my mentor during graduate school told me, as I was about to finish my doctorate. He said, "Once you finish the Ph.D., you can finally start your real work."

What is your opus?

Live Blog (7): Open Source Software Overview

Open Educational Resources: providing open source software/educational solutions. (one example of many)

David Wiley: "Expertise is non-rivalrous."

Open source software:

• access to source code
• freedom to redistribute
• freedom to modify
• non-discriminatory licensing
• integrity of authorship
• redistribution in accordance with the Open Source License Agreement

Creative Commons License -- potentially simple, or, potentially complex. Be sure of what you're dealing with!

Why use Open Source Software?

• cost savings (no licensing fee)
• stability
• independence/no forced upgrades
• access and broad rights to source code
• access to skilled community of developers
• ability to define and expedite new development as the facilitator of creation
• global collaboration and social prudence

Why use it in schools?

• provides functionality you would not otherwise have (high acceptance)
• provides similar functionality that you already have, but saves you money, has better features, or gives you freedom from lock-in (medium acceptance)
• allows you to customize solutions (medium to low acceptance)
• allows you to reuse older computer hardware
• allows you to share programs with students
• you believe in it (or the value set, ie. you're concerned about corporate influence in education)
• provides real skills/tools for students (internet, networking, web)
• programming (Python)
• creativity (Audacity)
• collaborative software building (participate in an existing project; local application of tech)

Why NOT use Open Source Software in schools?

• it's confusing, due to great variety and potential legal issues
• it's "free," like a puppy...beware of what responsibilities might come with it!
• migration costs (i.e. from MS Office to Open Office)
• uncertainty about open development model (splinter groups, programs)
• uncertainty aout licensing
• uncertainty about support (blame?)

Possible Lessons in Adoption

• involve techs and staff in decision-making
• look for non-displacing opportunities
• recognize the importance of leadership buy-in
• don't oversell cost savings/benefits
• start with something that can succeeed and open the door
• be patient!

Thought:

"If, as schools, we don't allow students to bring in their own devices, we'll have to move to Linux/Open Source Software in order to be able to afford the computing costs that will be required to keep everyone "wired"."

Of interest/OSS:

ubuntu -- a community-developed, linux-based operating system. Has special version for education community (edubuntu.org). Special version for old computers (xubuntu.org)

moodle

libre office

scribus - desktop publishing

gimp - image manipulation program

Celestia - free space simulation (science: space)

Tux Paint - for youngsters in particular

Blender - 3D computer graphics, etc. Animation, rendering, post-production, etc.

The OpenDisc - CD that contains open source softwares, can copy and give to kids

Teaching - Thoughts

1. We must start teaching collaborative and creation-based tools, including Open Source Software

2. If we provide ubiquitous computing to our school communities, we will need Linux. However, we'll probably end up allowing students to bring own devices.

3. We must start providing real-world, authentic-audience environments for students

Live Blog (6): ADVIS Technology Workshop

A social networking site can become a form of personal portfolio. "Friending" can become a PLN (personal learning network). If we connect with others who have like-minded interests (educationally), we therefore promote a greater network which we can access: collegial relationships. Leveraging the power gained from colleague-friending.

Social networks need good forums in order to be educationally productive: ning allows for this piece, for example. Power of video is also important: ability to upload visuals that could work in a portfolio fashion. In other words, whereas use of video/visuals in social networking kind of scared us (think: inappropriate visuals), the same concept can be used positively in an educational networking space.

Groups hold much promise: think professional development, learning teams, and self-created communities. See PBL - Better with Practice by Jane Krauss.

Social networking + LMS (learning management systems) + live collaboration

Steve thinks the aforementioned will merge and become the "larger framework".

Benefits to educational/social networking:

1. allows authentic, peer-driven learning and professional development
2. provides emotional support and reduces isolation
3. allows visibility of practice within a community
4. facilitates networked and community learning
5. fosters creativity and perspective
6. provides for engagement, participation, and action
7. re-energizes personal learning (t-shirt idea: "personal cognitive revolution")
8. increases global connectivity (see globaleducationconference.com)
9. draws us into humanity's "great conversations"

Another benefit: education reform can be seen now as an internal, rather than external, reform

Lessons that Steve has learned with these networks:

• it's all about the users (valued activities: listening, testing, experimenting, looking for input, etc)
• facilitate and support the process, not the outcome (build a park, not a cafeteria). Don't mandate! Listen! Engagement trumps content!
• be authentic (act like a friend, and people respond)
• start with educators and administrators first (don't implement it in the classroom if you haven't used it with faculty)
• support and promote the early adopters (more important than you are!)
• allow for failure (including your own, as you look for real needs)
• build your culture and recognize the importance of interpersonal ("soft") skills

Live Blog (5): ADVIS Technology Workshop

There's a need to link pedagogy (and its history) to recent technologies. Our current school modeling scenario is based on a more corporate view point, meaning that it comes down to measurement, tracking, etc. Analogy: android with wires on head:

Here's a question: what do our physical structures (schools) look like, in terms of allowing for these technologies?

And another: do we still have computer labs? What would be their purpose?

Steve: I think we're going to move toward "passing the buck" to students, meaning that we will allow their devices in our schools, rather than the school providing everything." The school, in that sense, would act as 'hub,' but would allow for individuality of device(s). The counter comes from parents, who wish to be in control of their student's device (filters, etc).

Steve's claim: social networking will become (is becoming) the framework for education.

Here's a site to visit in order to learn about the role of social networking in education: Educational Networking

We will benefit from the continuation of social networking, i.e. looking at it over time and seeing what works, doesn't work, etc., as it represents the aggregation of a set of participative Web 2.0 tools.

We need to reframe our sense of what a social network is.

Live Blog (3): ADVIS Technology Workshop

MIT Open Courseware -- why make it free? Something really dramatic is happening!

The argument: the best learning is still face-to-face: the "memorization piece" is important, but the "conversation piece" is valuable.

Flexbook -- open textbook initiative -- you can mix/match content to your heart's delight.

What Skype does for education, from hiring to the classroom, is amazing. It connects people on a global scale.

Internet is now facilitating how we get things done...there is an explosion of collaboration. Connectedness is leading to innovation.

The Long Tail -- why the future of business is selling less of more. The "long tail" is a plotted curve that shows publication of books that don't "make it" on major stores and such. About one year ago, Amazon began to sell more product in the "long tail," ie. more product that wasn't in book store versus what was in book stores.

What's interesting is that the technologies are now allowing us to "return to participation, pre-broadcast, pre-factory model." In other words, communication is super-important -- kids are getting feedback, sharing writing and ideas with others...and not in the Henry Ford-like model of education.

Redistribution of our cognitive surplus, says Clay Shirky. The internet has unleashed this cognitive surplus. It is unleashed energy.

Where do schools live? In structure or in freedom? Where does cognitive surplus thrive?

Live Blog (2): ADVIS Workshop

"The answer to content overload is to...create more content."

Hargadon has problem with Kahn Academy and TED. It's nice to have that info available, but the point of technology is to create content. "Finding the best lesson" doesn't make sense, if the web is about conversation and content creation. That info can be used for backup, but it doesn't replace teaching content to students 1:1.

Learning as memorization vs. Learning as creation > which do you want to espouse?

Learning as creation is hard work.

Live Blog (1): ADVIS Workshop on Technology in Education

I'm going to send out some information today "live" from a workshop I'm attending, sponsored by ADVIS (Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools). The speaker is Steve Hargadon, and the focus of the session is on how technology is now poised to change education fundamentally.

Interesting link:

Future of Education -- here you can join the conversation on technology in education, including listening to podcasts of great speakers.

Steve: "There's a crisis in meaning" in today's educational environment. We need new narratives to help us illustrate why we need to do what we need to do.

"We're about to go through the biggest change in education in a long time...perhaps ever."

The learning and creativity that is taking place on the internet is largely taking place outside our institutions. How do we make schools the place for this kind of learning, creativity, innovation?

Book: Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology

Realistic View of this change: image of tsunami hitting shore...look out!

Three large cultural shifts that are taking place, that will impact how we think about education:

1. How we find, create and consume information

2. How we connect with others

3. How we get things done

Technology: PD Approach?

How does your school address technology, from the angle of professional development?

Based on all the anecdotes one hears, it would seem that most schools offer the "Free Access Approach". In this approach, schools offer unfettered access to a dizzying array of tech tools for knowledge work, whether classroom work, academic reporting, or whatnot. "There you go," say the schools. "Enjoy. There's so much out there to learn and apply here. Good luck!" There is rarely substantive conversation about where to find the information, how it works, and how we might apply it in meaningful ways.

The obvious issue with this approach is that we, as schools, are counting on all faculty to define and integrate their own information environments. Let's be honest: how often does that actually occur? Which "knowledge workers" have the time, focus, or energy to do such in a thing, when faced with a fairly inflexible daily schedule and a life outside the school?

The Free Access Approach has no mission, and therefore, it is difficult to expect faculty to buy into it, let alone ensconce themselves in it and thrive. It will work, of course, for some individuals who are intense and driven, but they're in the minority. Otherwise, the greatest outcome of this approach is a further decrease in technology use (relative to the inclined growth curve of technology itself), just the opposite of what was desired in the first place.

If the Free Access Approach isn't working, what approaches might work? Does anyone have a good example of what has worked at a particular school? How did you address technology as a piece of the professional development puzzle, thereby leading to a better balance of learning/acquisition and productivity/utilization?

Cauldron of Creativity

Where is your school's "cauldron of creativity"? Which folks at your school are spurring innovation? How much freedom do they have to research and develop innovations?

"We want to, but it's [insert month here]. It's crunch time."

Guess what? It's always crunch time in our schools.

Where is your school creating additional value for itself? Are you fostering interactions among multiple players in the school world--not just at your school? We have seen that networks create value (think Facebook, for example), so why would we choose to ignore it as a strategy?

"Yes, but, when do you find time to do these things?"

Sleep less. Get up earlier than normal. Schedule 20 minutes each day for R&D: your time, for no pay. If you want pay, where are your priorities? Do you really want to create? How much is it worth to you? Can you take delayed gratification?

Endings - Happy and Sad

Happy Endings: another NAIS Annual Conference, a chance to meet new people -- including a number of folks in the Aspiring Heads fellowship, an opportunity to reconnect with familiar faces and ongoing acquaintances, a learning opportunity in many sessions, a chance to see a unique community on the harbor across the bridge from Washington, D.C. Also happy: looking forward to the next NAIS Annual Conference I can attend, even if it's not next year's in Seattle. Though the quality of the overall conference can vary from year to year, I find the connections, reconnections, and session attendance very stimulative and often generative. It rejuvenates me, serving as a remind of why I love independent education.

Sad Endings: speaking with two people from two very different schools, both of which are closing at the end of this school year. At one, the entire administration has been let go already, as the school doesn't have the funds to pay them for the remainder of the year. What is more, the bondholders (the school had debt, which is no surprise to readers of my posts on debt issues) want the property sooner rather than later, so the school has had to accelerate its academic calendar in order to graduate the students before the bondholders take over the property. At the other, the decision to close was announced in recent weeks, and they are in closing mode, which will take the next six months or so. It is difficult to imagine the emotional drain on a leader who, with the board, must shut down operations, place students in other schools, and assist faculty and staff with job searches, etc. The silver lining, perhaps, is that the pain resulting from closure has an end-point in sight; at other schools that are struggling to stay afloat -- usually due in part or exclusively due to debt issues, the pain will continue in the form of more rounds of downsizing, reduction or elimination of benefits, salary reductions, and the like. Death by a thousand cuts; a kind of torture that prolongs the feelings of wounded-ness rather than provide for well-being and sobriety.