Cupid Shuffle, Robots, Teamwork

To the right, to the right, to the right, to the right, 
to the left, to the left, to the left, to the left, 
now kick, now kick, now kick, now kick, 
now walk it by yourself . . ..”  

The music started jammin’; the dancers in their pastel tutus started groovin’; kids started clappin'.  No, this was not last month’s middle school dance, rather it was seventh-grade science class on Friday at 9:50 AM, rooms five and six.  The dancers involved, while directed by the seventh graders, were actually Lego Mindstorm robots.  The routines, expertly choreographed and programmed, were the culmination of a week’s worth or teamwork.  While programming is a valued skill that involves logical sequencing, problem solving, and some discreet knowledge about the language involved, the real value of last week’s “dance off” was in the work and lessons learned about collaboration and communication.  

About a week ago, I was touring the mother of a fifth-grade boy who was interested in how the middle school had changed in the short time that had passed since her daughter, a current ninth grader, first entered Stephens Hall.  We spent some time in my office talking about educational theory and then moved down the hall to see what was happening.  I love to give tours because it is a chance for me to show off what we do and who we are, something that is sometimes difficult to describe with words or numbers.  We entered Mr. McManus’s room at the end of the hall and found Meghan and Anna Kate standing in front of their seventh-grade classmates.  While the following is paraphrased, it is pretty close to what we heard:

Okay, everyone be quiet.  We've got to get rid of the chaos, so we decided to give everybody jobs.  If you don’t like your job, it doesn’t matter ‘cause you can switch.  We think Sydney should be leader.

As this was going on, Mr. McManus was sitting off to the side pretending to be disinterested.  The mom and I looked at each other, and I got a big smile on my face.  

Now I wasn’t in the classroom the previous day, but from what the girls told me, it was pretty ugly: people talking, no one listening, raised voices, frustration, nothing getting done -- sounds a little like Congress.  Mr. McManus, being a wise, experienced sage, let the situation play out. He trusted the process and didn’t jump in to fix things. This empowered the girls to take matters into their own hands and work it out.  Some girls became programmers, some costume designers, some DJ’s, some choreographers, and one a leader.  Some girls changed jobs as it became apparent that more work was needed in different areas.  They worked together.  They solved their own problems.

I spent a few minutes talking to Anna Kate and Meghan who had stood in front of their peers to attempt to make order out of chaos, and asked them what I thought was going to be a tough question:  “Why didn’t appoint yourselves leaders?”  They didn’t miss a beat and said that they chose Sydney because she is really good at being a leader.  They said that she listens well and can organize things.  Nice!  

The three other seventh-grade core groups also struggled through the process of how to get a large group to work together to reach a goal. Some were not particularly pleased with the outcome; however, if each groups' performance didn't come off perfectly, they all persevered and brought something worthwhile to the dance floor. So, as Cupid says, ". . . do your dance, do your dance."

Using Minecraft and Plotz to Visualize Limits

At the start of class for the last two weeks, my algebra team teacher and I have been using a discussion on “area under a curve” to extend our students’ thinking.  Of course, our eighth-grade algebra I students do not have the calculus tools they need to solve this type of problem, and we are not trying to teach them the necessary algorithms.  We’re asking them to envision different ways that the problem might be solved.  One of our primary goals in this algebra class is to create divergent thinkers who realize that the process of solving a problem is often more important than the solution.  By offering them problems that are “unsolvable” given the math that they know, they are forced to think of the problems as abstractions, to ponder the same ideas that intrigued the likes of Archimedes, Descartes, Leibniz, and Newton.

Our students’ first attempts to best measure the area under a curve mirrored the earliest methods of the Greeks -- the exhaustion method.  The students quickly decided that they could fill the area using different size polygons and circles, and they would ultimately get pretty close to a solution.  While this was a good first step, and started them down the conceptual road to limits, we ultimately decided that it would be problematic to obtain the measurements of different sized shapes.  Some students wondered if using a single shape of the same area would simplify the process.  Then one of our students, Rion, said that every gamer knows that shapes on the computer screen are just made up of the same size pixel, and that the problem could be best addressed by filling the area under a curve with pixels that could be counted.  Extending this line of thought, Rion thought that he could use the Minecraft creating website, Plotz, to illustrate the idea that reducing the size of the squares, thus increasing the number of squares under the curve, would result in a more accurate answer.  Rion shared these images with the class:

After this, we discussed the idea of being able to reduce the error of the area measurement to a point where for all practical purposes it was accurate.  While the students certainly did not reinvent the concept of a limit, they did discover, in a general sense, the way a limit could be used to help solve this type of problem.  Our hope is that they will be able to apply this concept and type of thinking to other problems that we challenge them with in the future.

My team teacher and I believe that it is vital to continue to push the students’ ability to think of math in abstract terms.  This forces the students to see math as something different from memorizing steps in order to follow the predictable, worn-out path of textbook examples and problems.  It forces them to engage with math -- to wrestle with it in a way that builds engagement and deep conceptual understanding.

Modeling: Another MOOC Course

I’ve been doing a little modeling on the side the last few weeks.  No photo shoots for Esquire or GQ, but modeling -- as in creating ways to represent the world by using math or graphics to gain understanding and find solutions to problems.  I enrolled in my second MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) through Coursera a couple of weeks ago and have gone through the first three weeks of Dr. Scott E. Page’s “Model Thinking” class at the University of Michigan.  It already has me thinking that modeling, along with probability and statistics, should be required at all schools.

If you have been listening to the news lately, you are probably aware of the growing demonstrations in Sao Paulo, where Brazilians are protesting against high taxes and low living standards.  Dr. Page’s lecture that I watched yesterday demonstated a simple model that explains how difficult it is to predict these huge public demonstrations that have occurred around the world the last three years.  It all has to do with thresholds and peer effects.  I’ll let him explain it in this six-minute video:

This simple model has some pretty big implications for seventh-graders.  We know that as children grow to be teens that most look to peers for cues on what they should wear, how they should act, what music to listen to, the type of social media to use, etc.  What is a particular thirteen-year-old's threshold for "trying on a new hat" and what if that new hat is not something harmless, but something that can have lasting ramifications.  I plan to show this video to my advisory next year in hopes that  understanding thresholds and the peer effect may give my boys enough knowledge to display courage and confidence in situations that could be harmful or dangerous.  

Learn to Program - Starting with Scratch and Minecraft

Last week, my sixth-grade son and his classmates were asked by their science teacher to design a program in Scratch (a beginning programming language developed by MIT) that depicted the water cycle. When he was in the fourth grade, I introduced my son to Scratch, and he has played around with it occasionally over the past two years. He and his classmates had fun with the project, and even those who were totally unfamiliar with it learned some basics of programming.

Yesterday, my son downloaded a new "protocol" into Minecraft. Like many boys his age, Minecraft has become the first thing that he turns to on the weekends.  Along with playing on Minecraft with other folks, my son is in the process of creating his own city that is really pretty complex.  While he was engaged in his city planning, I asked him if he had been able to transfer any skills from his extensive Minecraft experience to Scratch.   Here is his off-the-top-of-his-head response, without looking up from his laptop:

• 3-D modeling
• coordinate grids 
• I can go in and change the code a little to make it do what I want. 

I don’t think anyone would consider my son a computer geek.  He plays sports after school; he practices piano; he has sleep-overs with friends, he reads the Sunday comics; he occasionally washes his mom's car; he eats constantly; and he programs a little.  In the future, my son may decide to study and learn more sophisticated programming, or he may not. The important thing is that he knows that he can, and coding is not some mysterious operation that only geniuses can accomplish. He can do it; anyone can do it; everyone should.

 

Exploring Artificial Intelligence

These two videos are resources from the fourth week of the MOOC Course, ELearning and Digital Cultures. They portray artificial intelligence in humanistic terms. Other than being entertaining, thinking about the videos has stretched and pushed my vision of what  interactions between humans and machines may look like.

In terms of education, it makes me believe that we need to extend the dialogue that we have with students beyond just the best ways to use technology and explore the moral implications of how we interact with technology.  Starting those discussions today with students is a wise thing, and I believe that students will be very engaged in the conversation.

I really hope that you will take the time to watch these.  They each take around eight minutes, but they are entertaining and provocative.

Gain Control

In the second week of the ECCMOOC course, ELearning and Digital Cultures, we have been asked to explore the future of digital technology.  The first two videos on the resources page are ads by large corporations, Corning and Microsoft, that show how they believe their products will integrate into our future lives.




These videos emphasize the need for a different type of education, one that embraces technology and prepares students to use and interact with technology with ease.  We want our students to understand technology well enough so that they can use it to better their lives and the lives of others.

I frequently tell parents and students, technology is a tool, but it is a seductive tool.  We have to recognize when technology is changing the way that we live our lives and interact with others, and make conscious decisions how we use it.  One of the biggest faults for most of us is that we have become users of technology without making conscious decisions on the impact of that use.  While some say that the ability to conduct a search online will be the most useful skill for our current students, I would argue that being able to decide when and how to use technology will be an even more important skill.

As I was driving into work this morning, I heard an interview with an MIT professor who is concerned with the effect that technology is having on relationships. She thinks that sending texts and email makes it easy for us to disconnect from important relationships without having to face the consequences of the disconnection.  Concepts like this are what our students need to be discussing and understanding, so that they can actually understand the consequences of their use of technology -- the pluses and minuses -- before they make the choice to use it.

For those seeking some good advice on how to make technology work for us without gaining control over us, I recommend the last few chapters Clay Johnson's book, The Information Diet.  Johnson gives some practical ideas on how we can become "conscious consumers" of media and users of technology.

Dystopian or Utopian: Two Films

Part of the content of this MOOC course is to look at some films and try to decide if and how they represent a utopian or dystopian view.  There are four videos listed as resources.  The first one, Inbox, is about a two young adults trying to find a meaningful relationship.


To me, the use of the bags show that the mystery involved in human relationships can't be replaced by technology.  At about 1:48 into the film, the woman logs into her gmail account and seems to be bored with communicating by technology, almost immediately closing the laptop.  She then begins her bag relationship with the young man which defies the conventions of normal life.  Perhaps the director is telling us the there is something about human relationships that can't be defined, something weird, crazy, and magical.

The other video that I'm putting up was not one of the resources within the course, but it was shared in a tweet by one of the other students in the course.  The message is a lot simpler to decipher, but it is also clever and powerful.

Organization of a MOOC

After agreeing not to cheat in the MOOC course, E-Learning and Digital Cultures, I opened the link to the course content and found a well organized site.

First, there is a welcome to the course that outlines the resources and requirements.  The resources -- film, readings, ways to discuss -- are easy to access.  Also listed are the requirements for the course:

• Contribute to a discussion board for each weekly topic
• Blog responses to the topic, tagging the with #EDCMOOC
• Set up or join a room in Synchture to discuss the films in real time
• Create an image or other visual representation of your response to the topic and post it in social media
• Tweet my thoughts

As writing about the organization of a webpage is about as engaging as watching someone floss their teeth, I have included an image:

Listed on the left-hand side of the page is the course content for the first block of the course which lasts for two weeks.  We are supposed to examine utopias and dystopias, first from past perspectives and the following week from future perspectives.  

Can Coursera Control Cheating?

After signing up for this course several months ago, which took a total of thirty seconds, I pretty much forgot about it.  A few days ago, I had an email in my inbox that the course had begun and I received a link to connect me to the course content.  Before allowing me into the content though, I had to agree to abide the following honor code:

1. I will register for only one account.
2. My answers to homework, quizzes and exams will be my own work (except for assignments that explicitly permit collaboration).
3. I will not make solutions to homework, quizzes or exams available to anyone else. This includes both solutions written by me, as well as any official solutions provided by the course staff.
4. I will not engage in any other activities that will dishonestly improve my results or dishonestly improve/hurt the results of others.

I appreciate Coursera’s attempt to promote honorable standards, but why would it matter if I cheated?  Coursera either believes that the honor code will set a standard of ethics or that it will add validity to the course as a credential. For MOOC's to be valid credentials, organizations like Coursera will have to move past having students agree to follow the honor code to a system that ensures that the student who completes a course is the one who do the work.
.

MOOC's: Massive Online Open CHANGE

While I took an online graduate course several years ago and liked several aspects of it, I have become increasingly interested in the trend toward Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC’s).  I recently enrolled in a MOOC that is presented by the University of Edinburgh through Coursera. The course is an introduction to online learning called “E-learning and Digital Cultures.”  What better way to learn about online learning than to participate in a course about online learning.

It is boggling to think of the implications of the growth of MOOC’s.  What will happen to traditional education?  What are the economic and corresponding political ramifications of opening cheap or free education to anyone in the world with access to the Internet?  As I struggle to consider the possibilities, my mind starts to feel like this:

Over the next several weeks, I will be posting about the content of the course “E-learning and Digital Cultures.”  I’ll give you the opportunity to peek into this world without having to feel fully committed to the coursework.  Maybe after reading a few posts you will feel inspired to venture into the world of MOOC’s and explore the future of education. Change is a comin'; get ready.

Listen to Me

I spend ten or fifteen minutes nearly every day looking through my Twitter feed for interesting ideas.  As I wade through Diane Ravitch’s daily diatribe or scan Eric Sheninger’s hourly updates (honestly, when does the man work?), I sometimes come across an idea that is immediately accessible, implementable, and worthwhile.  This was the case with a video that explains how to use podcasts for feedback in writing that I was referred to by a tweet.
After I sent the link out to my colleagues, I started thinking about how I could use it to give meaningful feedback. I thought about all the times in my day when I'd like to offer positive feedback, but to give it on the spot would be impractical or impossible. I regularly observe situations like students listening intently to a partner’s idea on why they should use bigger wheels on an NXT robot, inviting a classmate to join a lunch table, or putting an arm around a buddy after the last shot did not go down.  Even if I could offer positive verbal feedback at these times, the feedback itself might detract from the action.  But, what if I could give a fifteen to thirty second affirmation of these acts at a later time?  Something like:


It takes almost no time for me to take out my phone, make a quick recording, and then email it. Of course, this type of audio feedback won't replace the hand-written notes, emails, or verbal affirmations that I give daily, but it does offer me another tool that I plan to implement.

Digital Portfolios

British School 18th century, A Man with a Portfolio, Taking Snuff.

Portfolios have long been associated with visual art.  The primary reason is that this type of art is made to be seen and no written description will serve the observer better than a glimpse at the real thing.  All educators face the problem of the visual art teacher in that much of what we should be teaching is not easily described or measured.  We teach students to think, create, solve problems, value others’ perspectives, persevere, be compassionate, lead, innovate, and question; yet, we don’t have a particularly good way to assess these attributes.  A portfolio provides a way for students to demonstrate their ability and competence in these areas.

According to Merriam Webster, the word portfolio dates back to the early 18th century and is derived from the Italian “portare” (to carry) and “foglio” (leaf,sheet).  The root of the word tells us that the portfolio must have served two primary purposes:  to archive and to share.  Teachers have long used portfolios for the purpose of archiving student work.  Alphabetized folders in hanging files are common place in classrooms around the world.  However, in the past decade digital portfolios are becoming more commonplace as they have many advantages over paper/folder portfolios.  Digital portfolios are dead simple to share with others and also offer a way for students to add personal reflections and for others to offer comments and support.

A portfolio gives students the ability to archive their work for future use or reflection.  It can be a powerful documentation of growth.  The archive can also be used as a credential for future schools and jobs.  It is a more authentic description of a student’s work than a report card or a standardized test, and the best universities and employers are beginning to recognize it as such.

Sharing is all about audience.  As an archive of academic work and reflection on that work, a student’s portfolio’s initial audience will be the school community:  classmates, faculty, and parents.  However, a wider audience for a portfolio can create greater authenticity, as the student demonstrates the relevance of his work to the world, not just at school.  Students must also consider future audiences in the creation of a portfolio, in particular, future schools and employers.  

Want to develop your own system of digital portfolios?  Find a platform and test it, give students some control to personalize their portfolio, provide students regular time in school to archive and reflect, require students to share it, and don’t grade it.

Communities of Interest

Yesterday I emailed Grant Lichtman. I became acquainted with Grant’s blog, The Learning Pond, http://learningpond.wordpress.com/grant-lichtman/ from someone’s tweet several months ago.  I don’t remember who tweeted about Grant; it could have been one of many folks who I follow on Twitter who are interested in improving learning.  Five years ago I never would have emailed Grant to engage with him on trends in education, as I never would have known he existed.  

Although I was equally interested in improving learning five years ago,  I was limited to talking to colleagues at my school who shared similar interests, reading in journals and books, and attending a conference once a year.  I did those things, but my progress was slow, and I didn’t have the momentum and support to feel like I was making much of a difference.  Today, through Twitter and blogs, I belong to a community of people who share the same interest in improving learning.  Access to this community has been free and simple.  I feel empowered to work on a daily basis because I know there are many within my community who are working to do the same thing.  We share ideas and practices, we inspire, we support, we tell jokes -- in short, we do all the things that people do when they belong to a community -- except that most of us don’t even know what the others look like or where they live.  We have formed a community of interest.

We are shifting from participating in communities of place to communities of interest.  Hundreds of years ago, most of our communities were based on location.  Travel was limited and exchange of ideas was slow.  As new technologies that facilitated communication were introduced, it became easier for people to form communities of interest.  Paper, pen, printing press, telephone, and television all made it easier for people who share similar interests to connect with each other. (Collins and Halverson, 11-13)  Today’s everyday technological tools have dramatically accelerated the shift toward communities of interest.  Blogs like this one, hashtags in Twitter, and online gaming have created a world where communities don’t have anything to do with place, unless the place referred to is our planet.

Schools must give students the opportunity to participate in communities of interest so they can learn the skills necessary to be successful in these environments.  Students should have their own blogs and Twitter accounts, and schools should help students to use these in productive and appropriate ways.  Students need ways and opportunities to connect with broad and narrow communities of interest by providing networking opportunities with other schools around the globe.  NAIS’s Challenge 20/20 is an example of a way that schools can help create and model a community of interest for students.

Schools can and should also model communities of interest within the school walls.  At the Middle School at CDS, we offer students an opportunity to spend time with students and faculty members who share similar interests in a course called exploratory.  Exploratory choices look similar to after-school clubs, but we know that it is so important for middle school students to connect and build relationships that we have moved the club time into our school day.  Exploratory groups change three times a year and the offerings are always diverse:  songwriting, cooking on a griddle, watching and discussing Hitchcock movies, yoga, creating mandalas, designing apps, etc.  As a result of students choosing exploratories by interest, we end up with mixed-grade, mixed-gender, mixed-social groups within our exploratories.  

It is a powerful thing to connect with others by sharing passions and interests.  I wonder what Grant Licthman has to say about this topic.  I bet I’ll find out soon.

Collins, Allan, and Richard Halverson. Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America . New York, London: Teachers College Press, 2009.

On "Reconceptualizing technology integration . . ."

Dede, C. (2011). Reconceptualizing technology integration to meet the challenges of educational
transformation. Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 5, 1 (May), pp. 4-16

http://www.joci.ecu.edu/index.php/JoCI/article/view/121/Dede

Summary
The education industry lags behind other industries in the use of technology to bring down the cost of education.  This abstract supports a shift from integration of technology into the classroom to redefining the classroom through technology use. The author does not want technology to automate teaching, but rather to help the teacher to become more efficient in all aspects of teaching.  It is important to note that in this model, the teacher remains at the center of the educational process and is not simply seen as an adjunct to monitor individualized instruction and assessment completed through technology.

As a designer of technology for education, the author argues that designers should focus their efforts on innovations that can be used in a Digital Teaching Platform and that can be used successfully in any teaching environment.  He calls for programs that offer “contextual variation” that can be adapted and used successfully with a variety of learners in different learning situations.

Response
We should think beyond the classroom integration model of technology.  Fifty years from now, are we still going to be educating our population using a school calendar based on an agrarian system and a delivery system based on industrial models?  This would be a tragedy.  Of course, national reform movements have never been successful, so the integration model of technology use will continue creeping along. Paradoxically, it seems the best way to kill a movement in education is to call for universal reform.

One of the best suggestions in the paper is that the designers of educational technology develop technology with “contextual variation,” that is, technology that is not tailored to suit one particular school but that can be varied by the user to fit any school.  Flexibility of use should be a goal in any new developments of technology.  It is interesting that the most flexible piece of technology used in our school is Google Docs, which wasn’t created specifically for educational use.

Another objective that should drive technology development is one that strengthens the relationship between teacher and student.  Developers should analyze the characteristics of the teacher/student relationship that promote learning and then use the enhancement of these characteristics as a goal in any development.

Also, instead of technology development focusing on delivery and assessment, greater effort  should be put into developing technology that moves beyond the memorization of facts or algorithms.  Technology that promotes innovation and creativity is a desired outcome for new development.  For example, using augmented reality (AR) programs where the students’ actions change the programs’ responses will make educational technology more engaging and give greater opportunity for higher-level thinking.  Instead of creating programs with a linear and predictable outcome, programs that accept and integrate different lines of thinking are needed.

The National Education Technology Plan - Read It

When I saw an excerpt from “The National Education Technology Plan” as part of my coursework for the Future of Learning Institute (FOL), I looked down the list for another reading that would be more useful and engaging.  However, I decided I would skim it and then I could at least say that I had read it.  My skepticism was almost immediately overcome, and I read with interest, making numerous connections to our technology program in the Middle School at CDS.

Since I was able to link the document, I will not offer a summary, but I will say that the most engaging parts of the document are the examples that have been collected from schools all over the country that are using technology in innovative ways to motivate students, offer them means of learning, and provide them with individualized learning opportunities.  It is inspiring to know that there are so many great educators creating new ways for students to learn by using technology.  I advise reviewing the section on learning starting on page 9, which is where the link will take you.  Check out the sidebars for examples.

http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010/learning-engage-and-empower

I was pleased to find the following statement which supports our work this summer of finding ways and time for students to create electronic portfolios, reflect on the work, and share that work with others.

Student-managed electronic learning portfolios can be part of a persistent learning record and help students develop the self-awareness required to set their own learning goals; express their own views of their strengths, weaknesses, and achievements; and take responsibility for them. Educators can use them to gauge students’ development, and they also can be shared with peers, parents, and others who are part of students’ extended network. (Transforming American Education:  Learning Powered by Technology, p. 12)

Finding Help

Part of the plan is to look at what established school are doing to educate leaders in education. While there may be other schools with better programs, I looked specifically at Stanford’s Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies (POLS) program and Harvard’s School Development Strand in the School Leadership program.  I chose to study these programs because they both seemed to take a progressive stance in methodology and curriculum. Stanford’s and Harvard’s programs offer chances to work with issues in a real educational settings.  This fits perfectly with my situation as I deal with real issues in education on a daily basis through my job.  So, I plan on referring back to them over the next several years to help guide my curriculum.

Both POLS and the School Development Strand offer latitude and choice within the programs, which supports my desire to follow my own interests.  Off the bat, I noticed a course at Stanford, the History of School Reform, that deals with the history of why the reform movements in education have not worked.  While I already have some background in reform movements of the last century, I have not looked at them from this particular angle.  So, I emailed Dr. David Labaree who teaches this course and asked him to send me the reading list and any course materials.  I was pleasantly surprised when I received a prompt reply with the course syllabus attached.  

This is exactly how envision this process working.  I find a topic that interests me, I look for an expert in the field and get advice and direction, then I pursue the work of learning.  The “work of learning” will hopefully include others who can help me to pursue alternate lines of thought.

A Credentialing Blog

“. . . there is a fundamental disconnect happening right now between the providers of education and the consumers of education.”  -- Salman Khan

In the recent All Things Digital Conference, Stanford President John Hennessy and Salman Khan discussed on line learning and credentials. In the video, Khan talks about decoupling learning from credentialing so that people can gain a credential regardless of “seat time” at a university by proving competency through some legitimate format.  The legitimate credentialing format that I am proposing is a credentialing blog.

This blog will serve as the credential that I have learned everything that I need to know to be an educational leader in greater depth and with greater salience than a Masters Degree from XYZ University. Through my blog, future employers will understand what I have learned and how I think.  The blog will be a reflection of me as a learner and person.  It will hold my opinions about the topics that are critical to my profession, and it will outline what I have learned.  

I believe that this type of blog, a credentialing blog, will be standard practice in the next ten years.  It will be different from a standard professional blog where the blogger comments about new trends and ideas in a particular field as the intention of a credentialing blog will be to document work towards learning with the end result being a recognizable credential.  It will be a portfolio of learning.

A former principal of mine, Alan Credle, once told me that the most important thing that a principal does is hire the right people. My hope is that the credentialing blog will help those who are hiring find the right people. I also hope that the credentialing blog will open opportunities for those who want control over their education and learning.

Gaining Control

When I started thinking about why I want to create my own program in Educational Leadership, my first thoughts centered on why I didn’t want to follow a traditional program.  What that boiled down to was an issue of control. Gaining control makes this method genuine for me.  I will be intimately connected to everything that I study and learn.

I want control over what I learn.  I want to follow the pathways that interest me.  Along the way, I know those pathways will split, converge, and disappear, but for me to be fully engaged, I must have a large degree of control over my direction.  I am not planning on a lonely journey.  My desire is to have others who share the same interest in the same topics guide me, raise my level of awareness, challenge me, and push me.

I want control over how I learn.  I approach learning in many different ways.  I read books and articles, I watch PBS and TedTalks, I listen to podcasts and NPR, I read blogs and tweets, I talk to experts and practitioners,  I discuss with colleagues and students, I travel, I seek, I question.  For this experience to be genuine, I have to access every opportunity and resource.

I want control over my time.  At this stage in my life, I just can’t add another institution or person to the list of folks and obligations that tell me when to jump. I need to choose the time when I can work and not have deadlines imposed by others.

I believe that others feel this way and would like to find a new path to learning and credentialing.  I hope that I can serve as an inspiration and model for those looking for a different way.

Parallel Thinking

Two months ago conditions changed in my personal life that made me realize that I needed to shore up my credentials in order to be ready for the future.  I applied to and was accepted into an online Masters in School Administration program at Western Carolina University.  This masters program is designed primarily for public school educators who wish to work as administrators within the North Carolina State school systems -- a different path than I'm traveling.  As the start of the summer session came closer and closer, I kept feeling more and more apprehensive, not the type of nervous excitement that I got when I was driving to Sewanee from San Antonio in 1976, but more of a nervous anxiety driven by dread.  Something clearly was not right.  So, I had an informal meeting with two trusted friends, and they both told me to punt.  I punted, long and deep.  I think that I may have punted out of the stadium altogether.

My friend and colleague, Sam, made a podcast that focused on my situation and what he saw as the solution.  It will take you about twenty minutes to listen to, but it will be worthwhile.

How Should You Go to School?

At about the same time that Sam was making this podcast, I was typing this email to him:

Hi Sam,

I started extending the idea that I talked about in Missy's office to be an "experiment in higher education."

I am going to design my own masters program (maybe I will not use this term), using a template of courses derived from the best schools in the country.  I will create a blog to document my course work and reflections.  My coursework will be self-study, intensive workshops, on-line classes, collaboration with others who find their way to me from my blog, and ongoing dialogue with selected mentors.  I will ask my mentor/advisers to accredit and validate my coursework.  In the process, I hope to explore from the inside the new type of education that we know is going to influence the future world of education. 

I think we were both a little shocked when we read/listened to each others' ideas.  Parallel thinking with Sam Harrelson is pretty scary for me, and I'm sure it must have been scary for him to be thinking like me (but in an altogether different way).

This summer I will start my experiment in higher education, and I hope that you will be a part of it by reading my blog, offering suggestions, asking questions, and being a fellow traveler in pursuit of learning.