TEDxEnola: Get Connected

Get Connected TEDxEnola Lucy Gray February 1, 2012Wednesday, February 1, 12 1

Wednesday, February 1, 12 2Happy Digital Learning Day! How appropriate as I’m going to be discussing my work ineducational technology with you today.

Why Change?Wednesday, February 1, 12 3Change is in the air, and this word tends to cause some anxiety in educators.

Why Evolve?Wednesday, February 1, 12 4I prefer to use the word evolve. Those of us working in the ﬁeld of education need to bemindful of continuous improvement. We can’t simply rest on our laurels or accept currentconditions if we truly care about preparing all students for modern society.

Another Nation at Risk Moment ? How do we improve teaching and learning? How do we assess students? What’s Truly Innovative?Wednesday, February 1, 12 5Perhaps never since the publication of “A Nation at Risk” in the 1980’s has there been asmuch dialogue and polarized views in education. We’re wrestling with many questionsincluding:How do we improve teaching and learning?How do we assess 21st century skills?What’s truly innovative?

The Partnership for 21st Century SkillsWednesday, February 1, 12 6We’re talking 21st century skills which means that artful teaching is more important thanever. Content is still king, but we need to infuse other kinds of skills into core content.

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“The Highly Connected Teacher” The National Educational Technology PlanWednesday, February 1, 12 9

The Horizon Report K12 EditionWednesday, February 1, 12 10New and emerging technologies also play a role in today’s changing educational landscape.The Horizon Report K12 edition is a useful document to help plan for effectively usingtechnologies in school settings.

Horizon Report 10th Anniversary Summit Megatrends The world of work is increasingly global and increasingly collaborative.Wednesday, February 1, 12 11I’m on the advisory board for the K12 edition and last week, we gathered in Austin TX for aHorizon Report summit. A forthcoming report will be issued in the next few months based onmegatrends that our group identiﬁed.

Megatrends People expect to work, learn, socialize, and play whenever and wherever they want to.Wednesday, February 1, 12 12

Megatrends The Internet is becoming a global mobile network - and already is at its edges.Wednesday, February 1, 12 13The numbers of cell phone users and those with broadband access continues to skyrocket.We are global and mobile.

Megatrends The technologies we use are increasingly cloud-based and delivered over utility networks, facilitating the rapid growth of online videos and rich media.Wednesday, February 1, 12 14Think YouTube and Facebook.

Megatrends Openness — concepts like open content, open data, and open resources — is moving from a trend to a value for much of the world.Wednesday, February 1, 12 15Authoritative sources are losing their importance; increased need for validation and curation.

Megatrends Legal notions of ownership and privacy lag behind the practices common in society. The very concept of ownership is blurry.Wednesday, February 1, 12 16The cloud is blurring these lines.

Megatrends Real challenges of access, efficiency, and scale are redefining what we mean by quality and success. Access to learning in any form is a challenge in too many parts of the world, and efficiency in learning systems and institutions is increasingly an expectation of governments.Wednesday, February 1, 12 17Solutions that scale are very important. Look to other parts of the world for innovations inthis area.

Megatrends The Internet is constantly challenging us to rethink learning and education, while reﬁning our notion of literacy.Wednesday, February 1, 12 18Think Henry Jenkin’s New Media literacies. Traditional literacies are not enough.

Megatrends There is a rise in informal learning as individual needs are redeﬁning schools, universities, and training. Traditional authority is increasingly being challenged in many arenas.Wednesday, February 1, 12 19Politically, socially and intellectually. Traditional authority is also being challenged inacademia.

Megatrends Business models across the education ecosystem are changing. Look to libraries, colleges, and the publishing industry.Wednesday, February 1, 12 20Everyone is re-thinking their missions.

Personalized Mobile 21st century generational Learning Technologies skills Diversity Learning Design Cloud Textbook environments Thinking Computing Revolution Flipping Curated New Media Global The Learning Literacies Connections ClassroomWednesday, February 1, 12 21That all said... these are some of the buzzwords that I come across in my work as aconsultant. I’m in a unique position to get a sense of trends because of the broad spectrumof my work.For the remainder of this talk, I want to focus on the idea of global connections.

Connect Now!Wednesday, February 1, 12 22My name is Lucy Gray and my passion is connecting people.It’s time to connect your classrooms to the world, I’d like to share some of my experiencesthat have led me to call for action.I believe in technology, professional generosity and global connectedness will helpmodernize education.

Wednesday, February 1, 12 23The Global Education Conference that has taken place during International Education Weekfor the past two years has been the most profoundly challenging, exhilarating, rewarding,and exhausting professional experience of my life to date was this event. I never thoughtSteve Hargadon and I would pull this off.How many of you saw a session?Any of you present?

5 days Around the Clock 15,028 Unique Logins 400+ Free General Sessions 60+ Free Featured Keynotes Archived Presentations from 62 countries The 2010 Global Education ConferenceWednesday, February 1, 12 23The Global Education Conference that has taken place during International Education Weekfor the past two years has been the most profoundly challenging, exhilarating, rewarding,and exhausting professional experience of my life to date was this event. I never thoughtSteve Hargadon and I would pull this off.How many of you saw a session?Any of you present?

2010 - Brian MannixWednesday, February 1, 12 24The back story is a little fuzzy in our memories, but to the best of my knowledge, Steve firstapproached me at Educon 2010 about creating a significant education event leveraging ourrespective online communities, the Global Education Collaborative and Classroom 2.0 as wellas Elluminate (now called Blackboard Collaborate), a video conference service for which Steveis a consultant. He asked me what we could that would be BIG, taking advantage of thecollaborative properties of Elluminate. My response was that we should do an onlineconference, similar to the K12 Online conference, but entirely in Elluminate. Our ideastagnated for awhile, until Steve attended the CoSN conference that March and was inspiredto start moving on this project by CoSN Executive Director, Keith Krueger.Called it the Global Education Conference, our intent was to facilitate a collaborative andworld-wide community project designed to significantly increase opportunities for globally-connecting education activities.Steve and I coordinated our event to coincide with International Education Week 2010. Fromthe start, we wanted this to be as inclusive as possible and we ended up with over 400sessions and 60 keynote presentations taking place around the clock for five days. Presentershailed from over 60 countries. All of this content is archived and freely available to anyonewith an internet connection. We expect stats to be about the same for the 2011 conference aswell.About 6 months beforehand, we started to build this event, enlisting the help of hundreds ofvolunteer educators worldwide and an advisory board was led by Julie Lindsay, aninternational school educator currently based in Beijing. We also partnered with over 100global education organizations who were charged with submitting presentations and forspreading the word.Behind the scenes, our plans were developed using Wikispaces, Google Docs and Forms,Sites, Calendars and a clever tool called You Can Book me which allowed our session

2010 - Polar Bears InternationalWednesday, February 1, 12 25

2010 - Catlin Gabel School • Program InformationWednesday, February 1, 12 26

2011 - Pam Allyn - LitWorldWednesday, February 1, 12 27

2011 - Greg Jacobs - Louder Than a BombWednesday, February 1, 12 28

2011 - The Shoah FoundationWednesday, February 1, 12 29

Steve HargadonWednesday, February 1, 12 30By the time the conference closed the ﬁrst year, Steve and I were a bit punchy to say the leastas we spent the entire week glued to our computers.It’s hard to describe the feeling in a virtual room, but the closing session vibe was remarkablyjubilant. People shared their experiences and suggestions, and it was really rewarding to hearthese stories.Some people may brush off technology as a de-humanizing force in our world, but I canassure you of the opposite. This event bonded people and given the locations of participants,I don’t think this would have been possible without technology.

Wednesday, February 1, 12 31In 2010, my then 8 year old came home from school shortly after the conference ended, and Iannounced happily that my event was over. He pointed to the blue armchair in our livingroom, and said, “Now you can leave that chair!”.

Wednesday, February 1, 12 32This is some of the feedback we received that justiﬁed my feelings.Reactions to the conference have been really positive, and it’s also been interesting to hearhow people took advantage of the conference. I recently heard that one school in Los Angelesdevoted a classroom and projected various sessions continuously through the school day.Teachers could stop by during their prep or lunch periods to take part in the conference.

This conference brings experience. Ive been able Listening to presenters made me proud to be a I have truly enjoyed thisthe world to a developing country They teachers work against huge odds teacher. whereare of a conference- collaboration, to get the beneﬁtsso clearly professionals, and I think what the future of concept! And, Wow -this is an incredible professional at the with few in the US have been pummeled lately. teachers to no samples of work amidst the regular brainstorming, resources. Their determination is So development! same time, why isnt all feel small. It really makes the worldlearning like this?! exemplary. Without is something to teach, about it was wonderful to such conferences saidand workday. And there remember why I betheir storyto would be missed by many. "be" with like-minded teachers. sitting with a cup of tea from your own kitchen while listening to new ideas.Wednesday, February 1, 12 32This is some of the feedback we received that justiﬁed my feelings.Reactions to the conference have been really positive, and it’s also been interesting to hearhow people took advantage of the conference. I recently heard that one school in Los Angelesdevoted a classroom and projected various sessions continuously through the school day.Teachers could stop by during their prep or lunch periods to take part in the conference.

Lessons Learned Along the WayWednesday, February 1, 12 33So, how did I get this place where I had the good fortune to participate in such a rich event?I’ve thought a lot about this and for me, The Global Education Conference was theculmination of lessons learned over the past few years. These lessons are:•Time is of the essence.•Our children (or grandchildren or kids we love) are our litmus tests.•Professional generosity beneﬁts everyone.•Our physical, emotional and cognitive boundaries need to be extended.

What are we waiting for? TextWednesday, February 1, 12 34The Global Education Conference was the pinnacle of a relatively new journey I’ve taken ineducation. Because of various experiences, I’ve arrived at a place where I believe that globalconnectedness plays a very important role in modernizing education.Let me preface this by noting that I am not the savviest world traveler, nor a speaker of manylanguages, nor a real expert in global education. My passion is for connecting people andeducational innovation; global education is a part of that.For me, it starts with Julia and Henry. My school-aged kids don’t have the luxury of waitingfor change. Via my travels as a consultant and through new media, I interact with people allover the world, listening to their stories about what’s happening in their classrooms andsecretly hoping my kids will have the same opportunities in their classrooms. My role as aparent needing information on best practices underlies all that I do, and I can tell you frommy experiences that we have a long way to go in this country in terms of raising globalawareness.

Practice professionalgenerosity.Wednesday, February 1, 12 35One factor that fuels my work is what I consider my moral obligation to be professionalgenerous. Sharing what I know leads to learning from others and these mutually beneﬁciallyrelationships lead to change. I think it’s especially important that we all practice professionalgenerosity as teachers are currently under close scrutiny.Several years ago, I complimented a colleague on her groundbreaking work in educationaltechnology, and suggested that she blog about her experiences so that others could learnfrom her. She replied, “That might be how you do things, Lucy, but it’s not for me. I get 25emails a day from people asking me questions, and they can learn it just like I did. RTFM.” Ivowed at that moment to never develop a similar attitude and this professional generosity hasbeen an underlying theme in all of my work.Through the Global Education Conference, I’ve seen this concept come alive. We had a virtualconference lounge where people could come for help and volunteers gathered there to beassigned sessions to moderate. These moderators often jumped in to ﬁll holes in ourschedule. My favorite story was when my friend and mentor Larry Anderson stopped by tocheck out the conference and was so moved by the sessions that he viewed the moderatortraining video and started helping out around the clock.

Push your boundaries.Wednesday, February 1, 12 36During the course of my work, I have also learned, too, that it’s scary to push beyond one’sown comfort zone, but the rewards are worth it.This picture of barbecued stingray in Singapore reminds me of this... I am not one of thosepeople who relishes new foods, but I know that I’m going to miss out if I don’t take a bite.That’s how I feel about global education... if we don’t connect schools, our kids are going tomiss out on rich and authentic experiences.

See the world and understand.Wednesday, February 1, 12 37In 2006, a trip to Berlin, Dresden and Prague with Apple Distinguished Educator colleaguesalso inﬂuenced me. We were charged with creating a global awareness curriculum usingdigital artifacts from our experiences and I came to the very basic realization that given thestate of technological advances, at least here in the US, there is no excuse for NOTconnecting.How can we can we expect students to understand the world without seeing it in person orthrough virtual experiences?How can we expect students to engage with the world unless we model it?How can we truly understand others if we never interact with them?

The Global Education http://globaleducation.ning.com Collaborative & ConferenceWednesday, February 1, 12 38In 2007, inspired by the success of Steve Hargadon’s Classroom 2.0 social network whichnow has over 50,000 members, I decided to create a similar community focused on globaleducation. The Global Education Collaborative has a members of approximately 10,000peoplefrom over 100 different countries. Anyone with an interest in developing projects, sharingresources, and bringing attention to global initiatives is welcome to participate. Our goal is toserve as a central location for connecting and ﬁnding resources that promote connections foradults and students alike.

Wednesday, February 1, 12 39As I started brainstorming for this presentation in late 2010, I serendipitously received atweetfrom New York educator George Haines. He put me on the spot for a 140 character answerand my response was:Its because we have urgent problems that need to be addressed and in order to prepare ourstudents to work on these problems, we must connect them globally. We must teach themhow networked learning leads to networked problem solving.I think often of Jean-Francois Rischard’s work, High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years toSolve Them and he makes it clear that these pressing issues are not going to be solved inisolation. Solutions lie beyond borders and the global community must rally.

@oline73: Can you distill why globally connected classrooms are vital in 2010? (More than say, 30 years ago)Wednesday, February 1, 12 39As I started brainstorming for this presentation in late 2010, I serendipitously received atweetfrom New York educator George Haines. He put me on the spot for a 140 character answerand my response was:Its because we have urgent problems that need to be addressed and in order to prepare ourstudents to work on these problems, we must connect them globally. We must teach themhow networked learning leads to networked problem solving.I think often of Jean-Francois Rischard’s work, High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years toSolve Them and he makes it clear that these pressing issues are not going to be solved inisolation. Solutions lie beyond borders and the global community must rally.

@oline73: Can you distill why globally connected classrooms are vital in 2010? (More than say, 30 years ago) Its because we have urgent problems that need to be addressed and in order to prepare our students to work on these problems, we must connect them globally. We must teach them how networked learning leads to networked problem solving.Wednesday, February 1, 12 39As I started brainstorming for this presentation in late 2010, I serendipitously received atweetfrom New York educator George Haines. He put me on the spot for a 140 character answerand my response was:Its because we have urgent problems that need to be addressed and in order to prepare ourstudents to work on these problems, we must connect them globally. We must teach themhow networked learning leads to networked problem solving.I think often of Jean-Francois Rischard’s work, High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years toSolve Them and he makes it clear that these pressing issues are not going to be solved inisolation. Solutions lie beyond borders and the global community must rally.

Need Further Evidence?Wednesday, February 1, 12 40If you need further convincing, look at just what has happened in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain andLibya. Consider the role of technology in informing and empowering the voices of many whowould have been drowned out 30 years ago.During the Egyptian protests, my friend Atif who teaches in Cairo sent me this tweet. At ﬁrst,Ididn’t quite get what he was asking because I think everyone in the US generally knew of theevents unfolding. It occurred to me later that the news is heard here, but I wonder how wellpeople listened and truly understood the perspective of people living in Egypt. I think thedesperation I read in Atif’s tweet came from years of experiencing partial truths and inactionagainst injustice... he was really saying, I think, was, “Make people listen and act”.I also think that because of social media, our students will continue to be exposed to globalevents as they unfold, and it’s up to us as educators to prepare them to analyze andparticipate for these situations.

Wednesday, February 1, 12 41I took this picture of an arbor of trees outside the Berlin Jewish Museum in 2006 when Ivisited Europe with my ADE colleagues. To me it represents my global awakening. I realizedthat it’s never been easier to connect with others using the technology tools at our disposal.If I can reach out and connect with others around the world, so can you. It’s your obligationto do so with your students.I’m going to pretend that I won the TED Prize and here’s my wish for you.Get connected and come join me on this journey in the Global Education Collaborative and atthe 2012 Global Education Conference which will take place November this year!

Lucy Gray http://lucygrayconsulting.com Slides available at: http//lucygray.org Twitter: elemenous Email: lucy@lucygrayconsulting.com 2010 Global Ed Conference 2011 Global Ed ConferenceWednesday, February 1, 12 42

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TEDxEnola: Get Connected

by Lucy Gray on Feb 01, 2012

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TEDxEnola: Get Connected — Document Transcript