humor ensues

Humor. It engages us. Entertains us. It can elevate or degrade an interaction in an utterance.

Brevity. Synthesis.

To truly be effective humor must have a target, a context, a point and an audience. And even when the story is drawn out, the punchline- succinct.

Is there something inherently human that when provided an audience- be it at the dinner table, in the faculty lounge, or in a larger, more public venue- we seek to express our thoughts, and at times, even in spite of ourselves, humor ensues?

where they belong

I took a few days away… wrapping up my 2 sections of a face to face class. As I return, steeped in face to face planning and pedagogy, I return to thoughts of how I can best take the quality of interaction, collaboration and learning on ground and bring it into the online classroom. There is a richness when students come together and create something as a group. The work they do to explain their thinking, generate new ideas and synthesize those ideas into something to bring forward and stimulate further conversation in class is powerful.

And the ways that they do it, the tools that they use, the fact that they are expected to do this is assumed. As they are focused on the communication and the experience, the methods and support structures melt into the background… where they belong.

Where. They. Belong.

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Include, kind of?

Playing a little bit with BrightKite these days, mostly watching and wondering… is this like Twitter… brilliant but hard to get your head around… or is it really just another fad, another fun ap online to use for a bit and move on? I can see incredible potential, but as a friend pointed out… it is the network beneath anything that makes it powerful. So, the question begs: is this the thing to spend time and energy building the network? Right question. Then, in thinking about social networking, what is the fire, the fuel that creates an effective, inclusive, dynamic network? Human tendency seems to include those like us and exclude all others. This tendency can be worked against, but requires effort and intention. So then, to turn to the notion of niche social networking. There seems to be a lot of niche in the attempt to expand and include. Which makes me wonder: include kind of? Do we really not want it? Or are we so in the habit of creating niche that we do, even when we really want to don’t.

learning is social

I benefit so greatly from my network. Be it with my face to face colleagues, grabbing coffee on the run, or my online colleagues conversing via chat and email, or twitter as we each go about our personal and professional lives communing, connecting with one another as a way of expanding thought, traversing the landscape of best practices. Learning is social. And as I traverse this challenge to participate in the conversation daily, I realize again just how challenging this openness, this participation truly is. With those I know, but also in public… it makes me realize just how challenging it is to be open to the learning process… social by nature and interconnected.

developing thinking

Thinking about faculty needs. Online teaching can be challenging as you navigate the similarities and differences of teaching on ground and online. As faculty we need collaboration, communication and connection about e-learning best practices and new tools. As the landscape of online learning expands exponentially with daily additions of user-generated content, it is increasingly difficult for faculty to remain current in the advancements in their field of specialty, in addition to online tools that support instructional best practices. And learning is social. We need regular opportunities to come together to share information and resources as we all navigate teaching online. I seek interaction within a community of faculty, in a  format that will allow lurking, learning and participation in ways and at times that fit for our individual professional and personal schedules and goals.  This support will allow me to develop my own thinking about teaching and learning online.

change for more than the sake of change

When looking at change it is so important to look at assumption. What we do as part of our job, part of our lives is accepted.  Things new are challenges and often, resisted.  When looking at bringing tech to schools (be it preschools, elementary, secondary or higher ed) we need to think about what actually adds value.  Not something more I need to do, but a tool that makes my life easier.  Change for the sake of change is not appealing.  Change that makes what I do easier or better- that is what is worthwhile.

let it grow

It’s my birthday! And being my birthday I am doing what I have done for the last several years now: filling my day with the thinking and ways I want to spend my time in the coming year. What I am thinking about most at the moment is the notion of a faculty learning community. So much of learning is social. My learning is DEFINITELY social. I need the constant influx of others’ perspectives and ideas to keep me clear on and advance my own thinking and my own ideas.

What I really want is a simple, organic process that can be put in place to illuminate the conversation.  There is no need at this point to start the conversation… it is already there, in all of our heads, in hallways, on cellphones, in twitter, on blogs, in chat. What we need now is a happening… or series of happenings, to bring together people who are thinking about the best ways to teach and the technological tools that allow us to share and expand our thoughts. This already exists in many venues across the nation and around the world. Acting locally, we can bring this awareness and action into our own community, expanding our resources and ultimately strengthen the community of learning we already share. So, to do this I know we need a routine way to connect, to participate in the conversation. In so doing, we will illuminate the conversation as it is… and ultimately nurture it to grow.

Pay Attention

Was reading Darren Draper’s blog about “the impact of social media.” Most of this post is the same as what I commented there, but this thinking has stuck with me all day and I am feeling the need to again post it here. He speaks of the need for educators to ‘pay attention.’ I so agree. But I think ‘educators’ is much more than teachers. More than innovative technologists. Administrators, at the building and district level need to be paying attention. Shift happens, and is happening. I wonder… when will we figure out how to embrace it in the public schools and step out of the way?

Right from Darren’s blog: “I prefer to call it the ‘umpteenth reason why educators need to Pay Attention report.” Well stated! I can’t help but wonder, though, if the slow speed of shift at the teacher level is that online communication/ collaboration is not job embedded. It is much easier to pay attention when that attention will help you better do what you do. Most districts require email… and people pay attention to that, but that is not connectivity, it is memo-ing. Many encourage web pages and blogs, but as ‘ways to show you are human’ and additions to your job responsibilities, not ways to better get your job done. I think the real shift will show in our schools when teachers use these tools as part of our daily learning… blogs, twitter, videoposting as ways of connecting with and learning from each other. Something will have to give, though. When will we realize that persisting with face to face staff meetings, stand and deliver professional development, and administrative-only evaluation cycles, only keeps us locked in this top-down structure and interferes with connectivity and ultimately true professional learning. Shift is happening. And will happen. But I think before we can expect it to truly happen in our classrooms on a real and productive level, it needs to happen in our faculty meetings and adult learning with one another on a professional level. Until then shift may be happening but we are swimming against the current.

blind men and the elephant

Whirling in my head as I went to sleep last night were thoughts about learning. Human learning is social. We are driven as beings to communicate with one another and in communicating and by acting on the world around us: learn. This idea that learning is in our physiology, in our biology is intriguing. National Geographic did a story on this not so long ago. And as I prepare to teach today: assessment, standards, linking assessment and instruction and language difference/ language disability.  I woke thinking: maybe that is it. It is not that Twitter is NOT microblogging. Maybe it is not JUST microblogging.

So, this started me down a path. I started to break down for myself the idea of blog. I used to think of blogging as one way communication: here community, this is what I think and the way I see it. And because of this, it was not for me. I have nothing to say that is not part of a conversation. Ideas I express in an effort to give and take and learn from others what they believe, what they think, and what their unique set of life experiences allows them to see. I heard about the Commenting Challenge this week…and am seeing folks talking about the importance of commenting on blogs. Again, this idea of a two way street, participating in the conversation, and not just your own conversation, but that of others as well.

In prep for class I was also thinking about Bloom’s Taxonomy. In the 1950’s Bloom (among others) recognized a hierarchical nature to knowledge and learning, and that you need a certain amount and quality of knowledge and comprehension to be able to analyze, apply, synthesize and evaluate. In preparing for my day I am recognizing that the first half of the semester has been building and strengthening our knowledge and comprehension about the key concepts of assessment and instruction. In this half we are now evaluating what we know, synthesizing it into dialogue points in which the students themselves facilitate dialogues with small groups to further synthesize all of our thinking on these topics. Thus bringing their own thinking and learning, and the thinking and learning of others, to higher levels.

Maybe THAT is the same with Twitter. It is hard to understand because we often look at the parts, and in so doing try to describe the whole. Maybe it is like the Blind Men and the Elephant. We are all looking at different parts: the share your daily life with friends and family, the side, broad and wide and seemingly never-ending. Share ideas- like the trunk- ropy and strong, but grasping and investigating the new, the possibilities. Share links- like the leg- thick and strong moving upward like a tree trunk, solid, grounded, connected. Share what you are thinking and what you hope- the tail- a rope to hang onto in times of unsurety. A lifeline in times of change.

And when we look at the world through the experiences of the blind men, perhaps we find that what we thought, what we believed… our present partial knowledge… is exactly that. A path into the unknown and experiences that bring us to knowing. Maybe even understanding.

in the garage

Lifted right from a chat I was having this evening… “we are collectively in the garage right now… exploring social connectivity across lines that have never before been able to be crossed in these ways and [perhaps we] are onto something new.” We started talking about Twitter. And that descriptor ‘microblogging’. It really does not fit with me. But what does? And I started to wonder if we can catch glimpses, but cannot yet see. Like we could not envision rocket flight when we had not yet invented cars…
why would we be able to see interconnectivity when we are so niche driven and fear segmented?

So I wonder… is Twitter part of the solution? Brevity. Synthesis. Connection. Could be the answer.