Listening to Carol Daunt Skyring

What a thrilling experience this morning to listen to Carol Daunt Skyring’s keynote! It was a presentation that couldn’t be blogged very well – you had to be here! Carol used a lot of amazing video clips, visuals, and even silent reading to get across her points. Her videos are on her blog (or she said she’d post them soon). In fact, if you’re really interested in videoconferencing, you should be following Carol’s blog if you aren’t already!

Just a couple things that I jotted down that caught my attention:

  • in the history of VC: “stuttervision” when the eyeballs moved first and then the mouth.
  • funny promises of VC: “go where you’ve never gone before. without going anyplace.”

And one number really caught my eye. The Las Vegas prison videoconferences 2500 times a month. Does your school use it that much?!!!

Roxanne blogged this session too so read her comments here.

Communities of practice: a social discipline of learning

Welcome to Elevate 2008! Don’t you wish you were here in beautiful Banff!!!

The conference opens this evening with a keynote by Dr. Etienne Wenger, of Situated Learning and Communities of Practice fame.

He began by giving us an overview of how his understanding of communities of process. First, he studied a listserv on myeloproliferative disorders.

He asked, how is this support group a community of practice? In what way are they? What do you see when you look at it as a community of practice and what does this perspective help you see that you wouldn’t see otherwise?

Some questions were also:

  • How can people trust each other enough to share when they communicate only via email?
  • Isn’t the connection with email “too thin”?
  • Is the bandwidth sufficient to help you recognize the practitioner in the other person – so you want to know and to learn from the other person?

We should be careful not to assume the “lurkers” aren’t learning anything from the listserv – the level of participation can be very high – a story of those who left the listserv after their spouse passed away but shared that the listserv was a lifeline for them.

Phrases to remember:

  • from support to practice
  • gaining a voice in research and policy
  • development of learning is a social practice of connecting people with each other and with knowledge.

In another scenario – a bank company brought together people from different countries who were receiving loans to share what they were doing. Imagine collaborative auditing instead of adversarial auditing. Learning from others and how they are doing things…

From a community of practice perspective, you can’t just learn the technique. You have to create an environment to enable the community of practice.

Research sideline: I’m still trying to wrap my head around what a theory is and what it really means. How do theories come to be and how to you recognize a theory if you met one? I am hearing from Dr. Wegner that he looked at the support community and tried to understand what they were doing; from that developed the theory, and it has been used and built upon since….

A CoP is a group of people who

  • share challenges, passion, or interest
  • interact regularly
  • learn from and with each other
  • improve their ability to do what they care about

can we say…. Jazz!?

Basic model: a social discipline of learning – domain, community and practice.

“knowledge as practice”

“nurturers” are not really the leaders – because there aren’t followers – but people need to nurture the community.

participation, support, and sponsorship are also key parts of the social discipline of learning.

Possible shapes or orientations of communities of practice: meetings, projects, access to expertise, relationships, context, community cultivation, individual participation, content publishing, open ended conversation.

Hmm. Read Around the Planet, vc listservs & social networks,

Learning activities – problems and a bunch more – like solving dialing issues! stay tuned for a new resource on that soon…..

Participation forms model – do we value the lurker or those on the periphery? they might take something from this community and bring it to another one….

Technologies – he’s writing a new book on technology stewardship – crosses from synch to asynch and from interacting to publishing – with the group in the middle. Really cool. Impatient for this one to come out!

Here’s a good question for my leadership program too (sorry for the crossover!)…. what is a body of knowledge? regulatory body, research disciplines, professional bodies, communities, professions, workplace, teaching, etc. “core and boundary learning”…. As a practitioner you “come to embody the whole landscape” of knowledge.

Modes of identification with the community – imagination, engagement, alignment…

What is my role in this system? it’s learning citizenship… multimembership. This is where I am; what is my next step? Learning citizenship is opening new spaces for new conversations…. do you think blogging about VC does that? how about twittering about VC?

Learning is not just accumulating information…

The future of learning ….. the 21st century will be the century of identity. Who am I as a learner? Access to information is less and less problematic. So:

  • meaningfulness and participation
  • trajectory and multi-membership
  • scale and experience
  • technology and geography

You can’t assume that you know what you need to teach students. The shelf life of knowledge is so short. Not so much what can your students do or use what skills? the main question is where have your students visited??! YES! How much have they traveled in the landscape of practices? the teachers who made an impact invited me into who they were…. they allowed me to taste what it’s like to be somebody I’m not yet….

“if you teach to the test, it’s not your fault, it’s the fault of the system”

How do we help children understand the meaning of the knowledge? Not just the technicalities.

This theory puts the emphasis on the meaningfulness of the person as a being.

Question for us to consider…. How can I contribute to the learning capability of my world by enhancing the learning capability in my own sphere of participation?

Process note: “it may be better to hold your question until you’ve talked to others”

Now we’re breaking into groups to discuss…. and my power is running out…. so think about this:

After hearing this presentation, or reading my scribbles, what do YOU think is the implication for our practice in videoconferencing?

Leadership Jazz

This post is for those of you who have participated in the Jazz workshop or are thinking of joining us in 2009. The rest of you may find it a bit too far afield from my usual posts. 🙂

So, I’m on vacation, enjoying the Canmore Banff area. After hiking and canoing almost to the point of exhaustion, today we wandered through art galleries. In one of them, I glanced over a brochure and noticed that tonight there was a program called Leadership Jazz in the Banff Centre sponsored by Leadership Development, free! So we went and enjoyed a great interactive evening with Jazz Impact. What follows are my scribbles and notes, direct quotes…. if you’ve participated in Jazz , I’m sure this will resonate with you like it did for me.

Observations on what Jazz musicians do….
Jazz is a HOW not a WHAT…

  • listening to each other
  • letting each have their turn to shine
  • building off each other’s ideas
  • some dissonance in the chords but rhythm
  • smiling, showing passion
  • they don’t try to replicate a song exactly the same as it was the last time
  • jazz is full of diminished chords – 7ths! – cool chords – but not perfect clean triad majors

Random thoughts….

  • To find creativity go to the intersection of disciplines…. “intersectional innovation”
  • collaborative innovations, collaborative negotiations
  • risk, listening, courage to embrace change
  • jazz musicians are comfortable with discomfort – the wildness of Jazz
  • some may think improvisation is loss of control and unpredictability, but it’s really moving from certainty of the present moment to the uncertainty of what comes next
  • one person improvising alone is not relevant or useful to business or an organization
  • structure plus flexibility – structured time plus local time
  • jazz is a way to interpret, discover, and actualize our ideas simultaneously
  • jazz is the only place where you lead and support at the same time – syncopation – critical that both pieces happen at each site
  • none of the individual parts lose their integrity – unique but together
  • they trust each other – Jerome said sometimes you have to bear the burden of someone who doesn’t have it together – it’s like pulling teeth – one person can throw it off by being a drag – but in their jazz ensemble, they can relax – it feels like home – you know everyone will do their part. It takes being prepared and ready to for what is next – when deciding who will be the soloist next….
  • you’re in the place of having blind folds – you feel the intention of the people you’re “jazzing” with

The presentation was organized around five important parts to jazz: autonomy, passion, risk, innovation, listening.

Autonomy

  • interactive autonomy – team focused interaction
  • feeling responsibility for your part – this is huge!!
  • intellectual athletics – hard work to blend with others – critical for our collaboration
  • when you lead in jazz, you’re the soloist – the other people create the context
  • the supportive role is critical; comping skills are critical – we must learn to support others – you have to be able to support and lead both, to host a Jazz workshop
  • interactive innovation is not achieved by power
  • note how they give clues to know when to read and when to pull back and let others lead

Passion

  • passion makes connecting possible – connecting between the ensemble members, and connecting with the audience
  • we have a fear of uncertainty around creativity; must let it go
  • passion requires emotional commitment
  • emotional commitment gets us part hard spots and hurdles and difficult times – you can’t just “receive” the Jazz workshop – you have to be emotionally committed to do your part and jump in where you’re needed it
  • you manage passion by valuing it
  • how do you create an environment where passion is at the individual level?
  • innovation is contagious – new ideas compliment the other person’s ideas
  • “I’m playing with someone who is actually listening” – is what you find out when they play off your ideas (Jerome)
  • level of accountability is crucial to passion – each person’s piece is crucial for success
  • you have joy and pleasure in others’ successes
  • Respect. Space. Play. (Audience comment)
  • Respect is important when you’re taking risks

Risk

  • Jazz is high risk
  • orchestra is top down – skills to interpret a composed score from the past; with jazz its constant risk of own musical invention in real time with others
  • the tune sets up the foundation to provide minimal boundaries
  • a zone of improvisational freedom
  • most management structures try to mitigate uncertainty
  • functioning in real time, you can’t eliminate uncertainty
  • change and risk are constant – if you can’t live with the uncertainty and ambiguity and variety of connection quality and experiences, you don’t belong in Jazz
  • ask questions without fear of reprisal
  • “take the risk“

Innovation

  • Do the structures in you work with provide fluid flexibility?
  • chord changes are the structure, the foundation for the tune – the basic framework of Jazz is the foundation – but lots can happen by being flexible around it…
  • constantly trying to discover new ways to move forward
  • the ideas go back and forth between the soloist and the rhythm section (leading and changing Jazz each year with new ideas)
  • much higher level of cross functional understanding and influence between leader and support section

Listening
We all put on blindfolds, were divided into four sections, and we created music together. Really cool. Listened so carefully to each other and how we fit into to big picture!

  • How do you listen for innovation?
  • creative destruction
  • reinvention of a core value established in the past
  • empathic listening – becoming cognizant of all the assumptions and judgments we create to protect against uncertainty, then suspending those judgment- do we all listen carefully to each other throughout Jazz and in preparation for? do we teach our participants to listen to each other during the small group time?

What connections and thoughts pop into your mind about collaborative experiences like Jazz and others???

What's the Hardest Thing about Making Collaborative Projects Happen?

I’m still getting ready for Elevate 2008, and I’m considering revamping my “Designing Quality Interactive Collaborative Projects” workshop. It’s time for an upgrade, I think!

So, help me out and answer this question if you have a moment:

What is the hardest thing about making a collaboration or videoconference project happen?

Just to help get you thinking, here are a couple answers from some of the coordinators and teachers I serve:

  • Middle school teacher: I haven’t done a collaboration yet because of the preparation involved.
  • Two elementary coordinators: It’s so frustrating when your partner doesn’t follow through.

What do you think? and let me know your perspective too – coordinator at what level? what level teacher? Please comment! Then I’ll post later about how my workshop went…

Running Your Own ASK Programs

I’m on a mission today to get all my materials ready for the Elevate 2008 conference. Nothing like a conference presentation to motivate a person to get a few extra things done! For a while I’ve wanted to post these notes online about how to run your own ASK program. And now it’s done! So if you’ve been thinking about running ASK programs for your schools, check it out!

Fall Professional Development

What kind of videoconference professional development opportunities are you giving to the teachers and schools you support this year?

I just got my forms and options listed online for my schools, so thought I’d share what I’m up to.

RUS Grant
We’re in the third year of our RUS grant implementation, and some schools are still working on meeting these requirements.

  • Each coordinator has to take two “long” classes through the course of the three years of the grant. They are graduate credit length classes. There are several options for them to meet this requirement.
  • At least four teachers (other than the coordinator) need to do some type of professional development about videoconferencing. This can be either the long or short courses, depending on the PD needs of the teachers in the school.
  • Each school building needs to participate (with at least two teachers in attendance) in at least one after school workshop about a topic other than videoconferencing. I’m really pleased with how some of our content area consultants have already planned their VC workshops without any reminding from me! There are a couple more that I’m hoping will offer something this year, but we have nice line-up already.

Showcases
One new plan for this year is the Content Provider Showcases. Last year I didn’t do any content provider showcases and several of my schools were begging for them. They really want to be able to attend them at their school right after school. So I’m trying a new format.

  • Multipoint. I explained it to the content providers and as long as they know I’m bridging and will be moderating to keep the multipoint connection in order, they are ok with it.
  • Program, not overview. I’m also paying the content provider for a full program, so that instead of just a talking head about the programs they offer, we’ll actually experience what it’s like to participate in a program.
  • Prize drawing. Finally, I’m going to pay for three programs; so after we are done with the provider, we’ll do a drawing and give three programs away to the teachers who attended.

I’m really hoping this new format will generate interest and will remind teachers to pick their videoconferences for the year soon.

Online Classes
Finally, just a reminder that I’m still offering two online classes for integrating videoconferencing in the curriculum. These classes are open to schools outside of our area (indeed, most of my participants are not in our area). I’m willing to negotiate bulk discounts if you have several teachers who want to participate. Or if you’re rolling out a new implementation and would like coordinators in all your new schools trained, we can negotiate a price for a session just for your area. Let me know if you want to discuss further.

So, what are you doing for PD for your schools/teachers this year?

Archiving NECC Handouts

I’m cleaning up the announcements section of my blog, so I thought I’d include my NECC 08 handouts link here in a post so you (and I) can find it again if needed.

All NECC 2008 VC Sessions
List of VC related sessions at NECC

NECC 2008 Handouts

Checking Sources

This post is part of a series of my notes on articles provided by Dr. Newman in his Regression workshop at Roundtable 2008 at Andrews University, summer of 2008.

O’Neill, B. (1994, March 6). The history of a hoax. The New York Times, pp. 46-49.

The full text of this article is actually posted online here too.

This little article traces the origin of comparing the top discipline problems in the 1940s and those “today”. It’s a really interesting read, and these are some of the lessons for research that I see:

  • Roots & Fruits. Last summer at Roundtable, Dr. Covrig emphasized the importance of following the “roots and fruits” of research. i.e. where did it come from? what is it based on? (roots) and who else has quoted it? what other research has it inspired? (fruits). It’s pretty clear that it’s important to find out the source(s) of what you’re quoting.
  • “In a study” Credibility. Seems like we all believe something once someone says the words “research study.” I’ve been reading Neil Postman’s book Technopoly this summer. I figure if I’m so heavily involved in technology I should read a dissenting voice once in a while. In the chapter on “invisible technologies” he discusses statistics and polls. “Public opinion is a yes or no answer to an unexamined question” (p. 134). He suggests that we are quick to believe anyone who can quote a study. But do we take the time to examine the questions and answers?
  • Cautious Comparison. One of the flaws of the comparison of these two lists (if quoted as research), is that the question is unknown for the second list “today”. So if we don’t know what the question was, how can we compare to another? How can they be compared if they aren’t at least answers to the same questions?

A great article and interesting read. Shakes you up a bit and helps you realize the important of thinking critically about the information you consume.

Taking a Digital Airline!

Next time you take your students on a videoconference, you could call it a digital airplane ride! PangeAir is a new company installing telepresence systems across North America. They are targeting executives, of course, with these high end systems. But isn’t it an interesting use of the technology? “It’s definitely not videoconferencing”, they say. It’s tele-presence. Check it out!