“#ontsm Visualized” by aforgrave, on Flickr

There is a wonderful opportunity for Learners and Learning lingering behind this visual representation of participants who used the #ontsm Twitter tag over the past 60 hours or so. Dig into the conversations and tweets, and join into the conversation yourself.  While this cloud capture image was made last night, there’s a whole related, yet untagged story developing on Twitter today and the emerging collection of blogs posts that have arisen since yesterday’s Pearson social media “summit” event. More will follow.

While I hope to find the focus and the time to extend my thoughts again on this blog in the coming days, at this point I’d like to float out some initial points that (I think) folks need to let resonate a bit:

 What’s Going On?

1. the traditional publishing industry is undergoing a need-to-survive process of redefinition in the age of the Internet, web 2.0+, and mobile devices; education publishers are part of this larger group
2. social media is a rapidly growing force in our society, of which we are only beginning to understand the effects;
3. educational institutions, governing agencies, and schools are at varying stages of an initial response to the recent advances in technology that are already exerting a massive influence on informal learning;
4. connected educators are actively seeking and wanting to help education evolve in response to the same forces;
5. the institutions of learning will be required to undertake the same need-to-survive process of redefinition that newspapers, the music industry, television, and other “published” media have had to address since the high-speed Internet connected world has arisen — post-secondary institutions are already at it — ask them about MOOCs.

I fear that too few educators and educational institutions are as yet actively engaged in real conversations about where formalized learning is headed in the medium-to-long term. (Envisioning where we’re headed takes research and focus, we don’t yet get support for Google 20% time for innovation in our line of work.)  Our parent partners and our society in general are not yet asking this question loudly enough — but one day, they will.  Our learners, from their own perspective, ask this question on a daily basis.

Economics and Learning

There is a not insignificant tension between the decisions made in an effort to influence / respond to economic pressures on one hand, and the laudable goal of educating ourselves and our children on the other hand;  one need only look at recent decisions within the province of Ontario related to the provincial deficit and contracts to see this at a superficial level. However dig below that and ask questions about how closely what schools do relates to the larger economic picture (standardized training for jobs, the factory model of learning, corporations the provide education content) and one can see that there is a close intertwining of the two. Stepping back and educating for the love of learning and creativity and art is hard to do from a standpoint of a business case. It’s much easier to design teaching for concrete results, than it is to create an educational environment that support learning for creativity.   Please note that I use the words teach, teacher, student, schooling distinctly from educator, learner, etc.)

Get Involved

The Pearson get-together yesterday was only one instance of a gathering of educators in one space where the beginnings of conversations about the future of learning, social media, technology, communities, pedagogies, business took place. Conversations at grass-roots edCamps are continual (to date, there have been eight instances in Ontario, edCampHamilton takes place this coming weekend), conversations at events like the annual ECOO conference (#ecoo13 bringITtogether.ca October 23-25 in Niagara Falls) are in preparation, and the conversation is ongoing during the in-between times at events like the annual August Unplugd.ca retreat in Algonquin Park. And of course these discussions occur all the time online, and at other events outside the boundaries of our province.  Anyone should feel that it’s okay to share their thoughts on these issues.

Unfortunately, it is all too easy to marginalize / ignore / dismiss / avoid that which we do not understand, or that which we fear, or not to focus attention on that great big elephant over there in the corner of the room in the hopes that it is just a figment and will go away if we wait long enough. It can be too easy to say, “that’s not my job,” or “that’s above my pay grade,” , or to feel ignored, or to delegate our collective responsibilities to someone appointed to “deal with it,” or, after countless attempts, to give up in frustration and stop trying to make a difference.  That we develop and exercise our voice as part of a collaborative effort remains one of the most important — and social — potentials that social media provides for us. For this reason, it is important — dare I say, critical — that educators understand and act to see that it clearly understood by our learners (and, by extension, society) as we move forward. Why should we let our learners be subject only to the dominant Voices of the traditional institutions and publishing agents? Should we not seek to empower everyone with an educated Voice?

Perhaps it’s time to see and ensure that our role as educators extends beyond the boundaries of our classroom walls — in the same way that we seek to integrate the external world within them.

Where is Learning going?

I invite you to join in this conversation, here, and with the authors of other posts written in conjunction with this event.

Many of the participants are already known to one another through online interactions via social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and have had opportunities become familiar with the works of one another via blogs, online webinars, and other mediated means. But a significant number have also had the oh-so-familiar experience of meeting for the first time face-to-face, and in many cases have been gathering periodically in recent years at events like the OTF Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century conferences, the annual ECOO Conference (#ecoo13 bringITtogether.ca) or Minds on Media events, or get-togethers like the Google Apps for Education Ontario Summit, held this past Saturday and Sunday in Kitchener, Ontario.

“#ontsm OnYourMarkGetSetGo ItsNotARace” by aforgrave, on Flickr                                        (visualization of the #ontsm tag before the start of the event)

If you are interested in following the conversations via Twitter, you may wish to access one of the following:

• A Twitter list of participants
• The TAGSExplorer Visualization
• Tagboard collection of Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus posts

Courtesy of the Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) TAGS5 google script code, the tweets are being captured now and will be available as an archive after the event. There’s always lots of goodness in the raw feed. But I’m also hoping to tap into an online webinar that Martin is offering tomorrow, where he will be sharing some of his experience in unpacking the interactions stored within such collections of data — perhaps I’ll be able to share some insights coming out of this collection — in addition to insights that will no doubt come from the experience itself.

You know, the stuff that goes on in the interaction space between the tweets … 

“@Dalton_McGuinty must feel ashamed right now. #rally4edu” by aforgrave, on Flickr

January 3rd, 2013 was a sad day for Ontario Educators, for Education, and for the democratic rights of Ontarians.

Kudos to Dave Lanovaz (@DaveLanovaz on Twitter) for posting his open letter to the Premier of Ontario on his blog Thursday morning. Check out the conversations in the 65 comments posted there in the last 36 hours.

If you’re not from Ontario or haven’t been following the education drama here over the last few months, you can read details of Thursday’s news in Doug Peterson’s post, The Hardest Job, as shared on his blog Friday morning.

All in all, neither a Merry Christmas nor Happy New Year for those of us dealing with an unwillingness to budge on the part of the Minister of Education, her negotiating team, and the Liberal Government. 

However, on the upside, there was an opportunity for some language learning lessons for the Minister of Education, Laurel Broten (@LaurelBroten on Twitter), as reflected in a number of conversations Thursday morning on Twitter.  (Note that even though the Minister of Education’s Twitter account immediately followed a lot of Ontario edTech leaders when it was first created (who gave her that sage advice?), she has never once replied to any of my DMs or mentions. (Like the time on August 28th when I personally invited her and @Dalton McGuinty to come out of Queen’s Park and meet with us on the lawn during the #rally4edu.) Nothing. Not interested in listening or talking, I guess.

So. On with the language learning opportunities for Minister Broten and the government:

Oxymorons

In reflecting on the words Ontario’s Education minister yesterday morning, it seemed as if the actions of her government were at odds with the language in use.

Broten announced Thursday that the minority Liberal government will impose the contracts [collective agreements] on approximately 130,000 elementary and high school teachers under the controversial Bill 115 before students are set to return to the classroom on Monday. from CTVNews.ca

In seeking to provide a bit of commentary and perhaps some tension-breaking levity (thanks, Alana!), I posted the following update on Twitter.

I was increasingly amazed throughout the day as my phone continued to beep and chirp every time someone retweeted or favourited the tweet. Imagine my surprise Friday evening when a Twitter summary email (“the following users have tweets for you”) listed that @msjweir, @mkgoindi, @tk1ng, and 37 others had RT’d the update. Seeing that, I clicked on the View Details button and grabbed this — four hours since the summary email had added another 20 odd additional retweets. Go figure. Another one popped up as I was writing this!

“Regarding that Level 5 Exemplar…” by aforgrave, on Flickr

I do my best folks. Every once in a while something like this resonates with people. I think we all see and understand the deep unintended irony inherent the Minister’s words and actions.

But that wasn’t all.

Verbs

Broten also announced that the Ontario government will now move to repeal the bill – known as the Putting Students First Act – as it “has achieved what it was put in place to do.” from CTVNews.ca

Continuing in the soul-saving spirit of humour, @acampbell99 shared a definition yesterday morning of a new verb, “broten,”

This morning I received my latest copy of The New Ontario Education Dictionary of Words (it is updated daily), and, just to check, I turned to the appropriate page. And there it was.  (Coincidentally, this is quite an interesting collection of consecutive, yet somehow relevant words!!)

Grammar

One final note. I thought I was having a conversation yesterday with the Liberal Press Office on Twitter.

In receiving the mention from the Media Office account (@LibPressSec) in response, I checked out their Twitter updates and found that there were perhaps 6-10 updates that were being posted, over and over again, directed at various folks who where clearly commenting on the day’s events. Rather than engaging in conversation with the folks posting on Twitter, the account was simply re-using the same statements, ad nauseam. The one that I received had a problem with the participle. (It wasn’t the only one with that error, but I saw it reposted over and over unchanged.) I don’t know if they ever #brotened it or not, as per my suggestion. They were probably not listening either.

However, now that these little language lessons have been carefully documented, I’m most certain that their learning will commence.

With over 130,000 educators in the province on the job, the government will be sure to get the message.

My youngest son and I had an interesting conversation this past Sunday as we were leaving the arena after his speed skating practice.  Rather than sitting in the bleachers fiddling with my iPhone as I am usually wont to do, I had instead just completed 20 exercise laps (walking) around the perimeter of the rink. During the 20 laps,  I listened to music on my iPhone, posted 3 messages to Twitter, and on my final pass, recorded a video of the loop for subsequent sharing. I figured that was an acceptable improvement over my usual practice.

But maybe not. It would appear that my continued use of the iPhone technology for walking is still problematic. Check out this conversation:

So, the Saturday in question is tomorrow.  That gives me about 150 minutes now to make use of technology, and then I’ll be off for 24 hours.

[Subsequent to the recording, we negotiated that my use of technological amenities around the house for basic human needs is permissible, but not electric lights once it get dark. Also, apparently, cameras fall into the "not okay" list, so I'll be foregoing pictures, too.]

However, I’m certainly looking forward to tomorrow. I’m guessing that my son will be less enthralled with his technology tomorrow, too.

We learned this evening that Steve Jobs has passed away. The founder and visionary leader of Apple, Inc. had announced a month or so ago that “the day had come when he could no longer fulfil his obligations at Apple, and that the time had come for him to step down.” Having been on medical leave since January, the news suggested that his health concerns had continued. And now we know that must have been the case.

To combat the sombre tone of the news, I chased down some music reminiscent of Steve’s vision and dreams, and together with a recording of his 2005 Commencement Address to graduates at Stanford, and shared a broadcast on #ds106radio at around 9:00 pm. During the broadcast, some thoughts and memories started to emerge. I’ll share those thoughts in a subsequent post. For now, here are some excerpts from selected lyrics from the playlist.

“When you dream, what do you dream about?” 
–  from When You Dream by The BNL

 ”A man has dreams of walking with giants
To carve his niche in the edifice of time
Before the mortar of his zeal
Has a chance to congeal
The cup is dashed from his lips
The flame is snuffed aborning
He’s brought to rack and ruin in his prime.”
– from A Man Has Dreams from Mary Poppins

“Birds singing in the sycamore trees …
Stars fading, but I’ll linger on …
Sweet dreams till sunbeams find ya …
Dream a little dream of me …”
– (excerpts) from Dream a Little Dream of Me by Louis Armstrong

“I’ll give you panavision pictures, ’cause you give me technicolour dreams …”
– from Technicolour Dreams by The Bee Gees

“Cheer up, Sleepy Jean.”
– from Daydream Believer by The Monkees

“…take a sad song, and make it better …”
– from Hey, Jude by The Beatles

Steve Jobs Commencement Address, Stanford 2005

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” – Steve Jobs, 2005

Think Different*

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

The words from Apple’s Think Different campaign seem to describe Steve Jobs to a T.

We’ll miss you, Steve.

* Gizmodo has a great Steve Jobs Tribute Video based on the “Think Different” audio.

Chapter 1: The Change We Need

However, one of the early and tangible products to emerge from Unplug’d 2011 will be a multiple-format publication, “Why ________ Matters.”   Comprised of a series of short essays written by unplug’d delegates, the book shares the unique perspectives of each participant, and gives a compelling voice to educators from across Canada.

The first chapter is titled, “The Change We Need.”  I had the wonderful pleasure of working together with 5 other Canadian educators on this section of the book. Together with Lorna Costantini (St. Catherines), Darren Kuropatwa (Winnipeg), Shelley Wright (Moose Jaw), Jaclyn Caulder (Penetanguishene), and Chris Harbeck (Winnipeg), we collaborated to produce this first chapter, which releases this week. My contribution, entitled “Why Self-Direction Matters,” appears within (as PDF) (ePub).

To accompany each chapter release, groups selected one personal narrative to illustrate the chapter’s chosen theme. Our group was unanimous in selecting Shelley Wright’s piece, “Why Social Justice Matters.” Her story appears below. I encourage you to listen to Shelley as she tells a story of remarkable student-led engagement.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Isn’t that an amazing example of learners engaged in a real-world task? Wow. Shelley’s students’ project truly exemplifies The Change We Need.

Subsequent chapters of “Why _________ Matters” will be released online according to the following schedule:

Chapter 2: Voices and Choices  week of August 22nd
Chapter 3: Shift Disturbing week of August 29th
Chapter 4: I Wonder  week of September 5th
Chapter 5: Creating Conditions for Change  week of September 12th
Chapter 6: Empowering Self – Empowering Others week of September 19th

Print copies of the publication will be available this fall.

by Andrew Forgrave and Kim Crawford

Central to Unplug’d was the notion of leaving the Internet behind. Various thoughts on connecting, unplugging, and focusing attention have started to emerge.

What did it feel like to unplug?

Close to The Edge by aforgrave, on Flickr (CC)

Kim: I didn’t have far to go from ‘plugged’ to ‘unplugged’. I scaled back my online presence a year ago.  Since then it has been sporadic; I lurked, but rarely participated.  For me, unplugging was only difficult in that I couldn’t text with my teenage children or search for information online (which I do a lot).

Andy: If I have the time, I tend to be online, keeping tabs on conversations that occur at all parts of the day. So while I was fully prepared to unplug, I found myself wrestling with how to choose the right time. In part, I was observing others to see how they would handle the transition to disconnect. With other folks posting to Twitter on the train north to The Edge, there was an interest in participating in the recording/telling of “the departure story.” However, upon arrival at South River, there was a great flurry of activity, and a while thereafter, about halfway through the 22 km bike ride to The Edge, I simply realized I would turn off my phone to conserve its charge. I was unplugged.

How did being unplugged shape your experience and interactions with people?

Collaboration by Kim Crawford on Flickr (CC)

Kim: I was present and focused on the moment, so I fully embraced and engaged in the experience.  At The Edge, I think we were able to practice mindfulness, without the distractions of news, people and information from outside of our Unplug’d circle.  Throughout our formal and informal conversations, we listened to what people’s eyes conveyed. We listened to gestures and body language.  We listened to the emotion in a wavering or cracking voice that we wouldn’t hear, couldn’t hear, in a tweet, and we were there to place a comforting hand on a shoulder.  We couldn’t hide behind online personas, so we exposed ourselves for who we are.  We accepted each other for who we are. And, with the focus on connection, we couldn’t help but ask “what is my connection? What can I offer?”  We formed deeper relationships by removing the barriers of time, space and pretense.

Andy: Without devices buzzing in my pocket, supported by the hyper-natural setting of The Edge, and with real-live friends front and centre, awareness of the Internet melted away. Maybe I shifted into a former at-camp mode (years ago, working at summer camp for weeks at a time, the only news came in the form of a newspaper — which I ignored).  At Unplug’d, without phones or Internet, we worked with primitives: paper & pens, even markers, paints, rocks and stone. And canoes. Without distractions of plugged-in life, conversations went deep. Really deep. These are experiences that just can’t happen online. Internet? We didn’t need no stinkin’ Internet.

How did you react to the ability to plug back in?

WiFi on the Bus, by tomfullerton, on Instagram

Kim: After sending some texts to my children, it was all about the pictures and the conversation.  We were still together on the bus when we could plug back in, so it was a group share out to those who weren’t at The Edge.  I wanted to tell a part of the story, so I used my pictures. I started editing them and planning captions.  I uploaded everything on the train from Toronto to London.

Andy: As with “the departure” from Toronto, I was interested in observing our collective response to “the return,” and the opportunity to plug-in. It came as a shock to me to discover that there would be WiFi on the return bus. I somehow felt as if nature was testing us, to see if we had learned a lesson — or not. I avoided the immediate temptation to check what was being shared on Twitter. In my head I was hearing, “I have four more hours to connect with these people face-to-face.” And I’m glad I did.
The next day back, however, after some time spent sleeping, presented the opportunity to continue conversations with Unplug’d delegates as they travelled home. And that meant being online. And online I was. Looking to carry on the discussions that we hadn’t had time to finish. Looking to make plans for future projects. Caring for new friends who were now getting further and further away. And not wanting Unplug’d to end.

How did being (at) unplug’d inspire you?

Tilting the keel by Tom Fullerton, on Flickr (CC)

Kim: I will make more of an effort to be connected both online and off.  In order to do this, I’ve generated these reminders for myself:

• Listen first
• Stay open to people
• Don’t be afraid to speak your truth, but share it with kindness
• Participate online
• Keep moving forward even if you don’t know what the path or destination look like
• Join forces

Andy: Unplug’d was an inspiration in many ways. With regards to the connected/disconnected tension, Unplug’d was a wonderful reminder of the benefits of stepping away from day-to-day routines to renew connections with things we overlook in our busy lives. So I’m going commit to continue to unplug; to break the habit of continual online connectedness. I do know that there’s an issue of balance in here. Too little connection and the conversation gets lost. But the other conversation is important, too. The Unplug’d experience made that very clear.

We’d like to hear from you.

What does it feel like to unplug?  How does being unplugged shape your experiences and interactions with people?  How have you reacted to the ability to plug back in?  How has being (at) unplug’d inspire you?

Unplugd 2011

by Andrew Forgrave and Kim Crawford

This past weekend, 37 connected educators from across Canada gathered in Toronto for the Unplug’d: Canadian Education Summit 2011. While we shared a few initial hours getting to meet one-another face-to-face within the relative comforts of the Toronto Westin Harbour Castle hotel, after a few hours sleep, we boarded an Ontario Northlands train to South River, Ontario. From there we travelled 22 kilometres into the bush to the Northern Edge Algonquin resort. Off-the-grid (solar power only), and no Internet.

The Journey to Unplugd11

The purpose of the summit was to allow us to gather and explore present-day issues and themes within education. Each of us came from various backgrounds in education, prepared to share and discuss an important-to-us element in education. The resulting work will be shared over the course of the next few weeks. But the relationships that were made, extended, and strengthened have a wonderful potential to take the Unplug’d 2011 experience even further.

Conversations at Unplugd11

Over the the next while, Kim and I will be reflecting on this amazing experience. Won’t you join in the conversation?

First Topic:
Unplugging to Connect (publishes Friday, August 12th)

Kim’s unplugd11 photos on Flickr
Andy’s unplugd11 photos on Flickr

Image: 'Schoolkeeper.' http://www.flickr.com/photos/23565432@N05/2986035445

Outside,
like a knowing parent, patient and amused,
the Experience of Life
glides around the bricked-in school-box.

Inside,
sequestered,
we struggle to learn,
isolated from Truth,
in our compartments,
with our Rules.
Walls of brick and mind dividing us from It.

“This IS the real world.”

They say.

In a long-faded comic book,
the bare-footed Kung Fu, accosted by a booted security guard,
replies,
“Does not the pavement distance your feet from Earth enough already?”