Identity is key... Students, teachers, admin, everyone else are engaged in constant self-discovery and figuring out how they relate to themselves and others. It is similar to what happens in an ecosystem, each organism competing and cooperating to maximize resources and establish a niche -- expressions of identity. Learning has always been "personalized," even if we haven't seen it that way in the past, becasue it flows from individuals in response to personal ecosystems. As a school system we have a unique ability to control many of the social, physicial, and emotional factors that affect this ecosystem. We need to pay attention to the energy that students, teachers, and others are willing to put into identity-building work, and pay attention to the scale at which changes to an ecosystem bring about desired results. Examples used include student project-based learning in heritage research, and small group approaches to professional learning.

1. A TRICKY NARRATIVE
Placing personalized learning midst ecologies of identity,
technology, curriculum, and organizational design.
#elcfall2012 Presentation • Glen Thielmann
SD57 Prince George • Pacific Slope Educational Consortium

2. CONTEXTS

3. CONTEXTS

4. CONTEXTS

5. CONTEXTS & BIAS

6. DEAD RECKONING
16 yrs of useful
internet
10 years of blogs
youtube 7,
facebook 6,
twitter 5
iPad Apr. 3, 2010

7. DEAD RECKONING
16 yrs of useful
internet
10 years of blogs
youtube 7,
facebook 6,
twitter 5
iPad Apr. 3, 2010

8. DEAD RECKONING
digital storytelling
& interactive
research
competency-based
assessment to guide
student inquiry
identity as
curriculum
content as food,
content as medium
for critical thinking

9. DEAD RECKONING
digital storytelling
& interactive
research
competency-based
assessment to guide
student inquiry
identity as
curriculum
content as food,
content as medium
for critical thinking

10. DEAD RECKONING
digital storytelling &
interactive research
competency-based
assessment to guide
teacher inquiry
identity as pedagogy
student learning as
food, medium for
critical reflection

11. ECHO PROJECT
heritage inquiry in secondary schools
curricular hearth for personalized learning
gripping identity key to unlocking BCEd Plan Goals

12. ECHO PROJECT

13. ECHO PROJECT

14. ECHO PROJECT

15. ECHO PROJECT

16. ECHO PROJECT

17. ECHO PROJECT

18. ECHO PROJECT

19. ECHO PROJECT

20. ECHO PROJECT

21. ECHO PROJECT

22. ECHO PROJECT

23. ECHO PROJECT

24. ECHO PROJECT

25. ECHO PROJECT

26. ECHO PROJECT

27. ECHO PROJECT
personalized teacher
inquiry in schools - what
does this look like?
where are our curricular
and pedagogical hearths?
what needs to be “gripped” among educators to unlock
BCEd Plan Goals, what needs to be dropped?

28. THE PACIFIC SLOPE
coerced
collaboration and
other great ideas
figuring out go-
arounds when the
answer is no
sleeper cell approach
to professional
development and
educational change

29. THE PACIFIC SLOPE
Mumbleypeg - what PD looks like when we encourage free association
what to do with mediocre students, teachers, and administrators?
what message do we send with assessment?
pros and cons of professional development on twitter
best high tech moment, best low tech moment
the myth of the effort/learning split, and other myths
holistic performance based assessment, why and how
communicating performance to students and parents
deconstructing colonization & FN approach to learning
stuff around the edges... Vimy Ridge 2017
what do we take away and do something about together?
<http://thielmann.blogspot.ca/2012/10/mumbleypeg.html>

30. ASSESSMENT TOOL
Questions from a PSC tool for 21st Century
Educational Leadership
what form does your professional growth
plan take?
how is it available for your staff to follow and
what kind of feedback do you solicit?
how closely does your growth plan resonate
with the way you spend your week? your PD
time? your personal time?

31. ASSESSMENT TOOL
Questions from a PSC tool for Professional
Learning in Staff Meetings
if an observer spent some time at one of your staff
meetings, how would they fill in these blanks:
Fill in the blanks - comments made by an observer
at your meeting: “the atmosphere was one of
______________ and ______________ ; the admin
team has obviously cultivated a relationship with
staff built on ______________ and ______________ ,
and the meeting showed expressions of the staff’s
______________ and ______________. It is clear
that the school is providing ______________ and
______________ for their students.”

32. WRINKLE IN TIME
Will Richardson on educators doing professional development online...
“There are hundreds of thousands of teachers who are doing their own PD
right now... they are engaged and motivated to do so because it ends up in
their classrooms in some really interesting and powerful ways, and
because they are supported and nurtured in communities and networks of
people who they could never find in their face-to-face worlds...
There are only two or three people... in my face-to-face world that I can
have a conversation about education reform and change for more than five
minutes before their eyes roll up in the back of their heads and they say
that’s it... but I can go online 24/7/365 and engage deeply and
meaningfully with other people around the world who are asking that
question.”
-YouTube interview <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggvaxWdF188>

33. WRINKLE IN TIME
Lead by
example...
is there any
other way?

34. WRINKLE IN TIME
Social Media flattens organizations:
desired result or “one more thing?”
Significant discussion driving changes in
BCEd takes place on SM, but who’s in?
Use of SM models what a healthy
conversation about education, teaching,
and learning can look like

35. WRINKLE IN TIME
Social Media and internet
devices are like what happens
in our forest soils
How does BCEd and leadership
change when desired
behaviours are modeled at all
levels, regardless of the tech?
Failing that, what do you
suggest?

36. NEW ECOLOGIES
Old School Trust
New models for Trust
Support for the Reckless

37. CLEARING THE BUNKER
What’s an educational
practice that you
know is probably
great but has been
driven underground?
What barriers would
have to be moved for
the members of the
sleeper cell to come
above ground?
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/articles/shelter-location/

38. CLEARING THE BUNKER
What’s an educational practice that you know is probably great but has been
driven underground?
What barriers would have to be moved for the members of the sleeper cell to
come above ground?
in groups of 2 or 3, first one identifies a promising practice in his/her space
others can ask clarifying questions (about the practice) or probing questions
(about the barriers)
first person suggests a way to welcome, support, or celebrate the practice
repeat with others in group -- 10 minutes total for activity
bring a curiousity about identity work to the ecosystems in which you dwell,
consider your unique role and ability to create favourable conditions

39. CLEARING THE BUNKER
Feel free to follow-up...
@pacificslope
@gthielmann
gthielmann@gmail.com
...or view the
presentation slideshare
and speaking notes...
thielmann.blogspot.ca