A revolution in technology has transformed the way we can find each other, interact and collaborate. This wave of tech helps us to create knowledge as connected learners and to develop the social fabric, capacity, and connectedness found in communities of practice and learning networks. Join Sheryl in this interactive presentation as she explores the question- What should professional learning look like in the 21st Century?

2. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Co-Founder & CEO
Powerful Learning Practice, LLC
http://plpnetwork.com
sheryl@plpnetwork.com
President
21st Century Collaborative, LLC
http://21stcenturycollaborative.com
Author
The Connected Educator: Learning
and Leading in a Digital Age
Follow me on Twitter
@snbeach

4. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
Housekeeping
Get close to someone
Paperless handouts
http://plpwiki.com
Back Channel Chat
https://todaysmeet.com/lp

5. Mantra for today’s keynote…
We are stronger together than apart.
None of us is as smart, creative, good or
interesting as all of us.

6. Learner First—
Educator Second
1. Introduce yourselves and what
you do.
2. What have you been thinking
about lately in terms of change
in your school/district? What
is becoming clearer?
3. If you could change one thing
…
Emerson and
Thoreau reunited
would ask-
“What has
become clearer
to you since we
last met?”

8. The world is changing...

9. 6 Trends for the digital age
Analogue Digital
Tethered Mobile
Closed Open
Isolated Connected
Generic Personal
Consuming Creating
Source: David Wiley: Openness and the disaggregated
future of higher education

10. “We are tethered to our
always on/ always on us
communication devices and
the people and things we
reach through them.”
~ Sherry Turkle

11. Shifting From Shifting To
Learning at school Learning anytime/anywhere
Teaching as a private event Teaching as a public
collaborative practice
Learning as passive
participant
Learning in a participatory
culture
Learning as individuals
Linear knowledge
Learning in a networked
community
Distributed knowledge

12. Are you Ready for Learning and
Leading in the 21st Century?
It isn’t just “coming”… it has arrived! And schools
who aren’t redefining themselves, risk becoming
irrelevant in preparing students for the future.

13. dangeuslyirrelevant.org
Our kids have tasted the honey.
http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2009/02/a-taste-of-honey.html

14. 14
Free range learners
Free-range learners choose
how and what they learn. Self-
service is less expensive and
more timely than the
alternative. Informal learning
has no need for the busywork,
chrome, and bureaucracy that
accompany typical classroom
instruction.

15. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
The Disconnect
“Every time I go to school, I have to
power down.” --a high school student

16. The pace of change is
accelerating

17. It is estimated that
1.5 exabytes of unique new information
will be generated
worldwide this year.
That’s estimated to be
more than in the
previous 5,000 years.
Knowledge Creation

18. For students starting a four-year
education degree, this means that . . .
half of what they learn in their first year
of study will be outdated by their third
year of study.

19. Shift in Learning = New Possibilities
Shift from emphasis on
teaching…
To an emphasis
on co-learning

20. In Phillip Schlechty's book
Leading for Learning: How to Transform Schools into
Learning Organizations
He makes a case for transformation of schools.

21. Reform- installing innovations that will
work within the context of the existing culture
and structure of schools. It usually means
changing procedures, processes, and
technologies with the intent of improving
performance of existing operation systems.

22. It involves repositioning and
reorienting action by putting an
organization into a new business
or adopting radically different
means of doing the work
traditionally done.
Transformation includes altering the beliefs, values,
meanings- the culture- in which programs are embedded, as
well as changing the current system of rules, roles, and
relationship- social structure-so that the innovations needed
will be supported.
Transformation- is intended to make it possible to do
things that have never been done by the organization
undergoing the transformation.
Different than

23. So as we develop our change agent vision
for learning -- How do you see it- should you
be a reformer or
a transformer and why?
Make your case for using
one or the other as a
change strategy in your
school.

24. Professional development
needs to change.
We know this.
-----
Do it Yourself PD
A revolution in technology
has transformed the way we
can find each
other, interact, and
collaborate to create
knowledge as connected
learners.

25. Learners who collaborate online; learners who use
social media to connect with others around the globe;
learners who engage in conversations in safe online
spaces; learners who bring what they learn online
back to their classrooms, schools, and districts. They
are DIY, self-directed learners.
What are connected learners?

26. What is Do -It- Yourself Learning ?

28. • Letting go of control
• Willing to unlearn & relearn
• Mindset of discovery
• Reversed mentorship
• Co-learning and co-creating
• Messy, ground zero, risk taking
Image: http://flic.kr/p/ch6kp3

29. http://bit.ly/QSqfjI
Maybe a first change
step could be developing
your own Manifesto
around changed practice
in your school.
What strong assertions
do you and others who
serve there feel (believe)
about the culture?

30. Photo Credit: http://www.consciousaging.com/

31. Wonder is both a sense of awe and
capacity for contemplation.
Wonderment begins with curiosity
but then goes deeper beyond the
surface to a place of possibility. A
place we look for patterns and
testing of ideas we had closed to our
more reasonable mind.
Wonder is to leave aside our taken-for-granted assumptions, peel away
our biases, and to willing explore aspects and angles we wouldn't have
seen before.

32. What do you wonder?
•About connected learning?
•How do you define the terms?
•Let’s build a common language
in our back channel chat.

33. It also helps to ask yourself questions like:
1) Why am I planning to do this?
2) How will I initiate this change?
3) Who can I connect with online in my network that can help me?
4) How will I measure my progress? Or how will I know if I am learning?
5) Am I using various social media tools for different purposes?

34. Networks are very “me”
oriented. You
intentionally with
purpose pick and choose
who is in your network
to learn from and why.
Learning with networks
happens through BOTH
social and cognitive
presence.

35. “Understanding how
networks work is one of
the most important
literacies of the 21st
Century.”
- Howard Rheingold
http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu

36. Connected Learning has the potential to
takes us deeper
“The interconnected, interactive nature of
social learning exponentially amplifies the
rate at which critical content can be shared
and questions can be answered.”
From: Collaborative Learning for the
Digital Age in The Chronicle of Higher
Education
Cathy Davidson, professor at Duke
University

37. Connected sometimes trumps F2F
with deep learning…
Via Marc Andreessen’s blog, the findings of researchers as related by
Frans Johansson in The Medici Effect:

38. Diversity of thought
Allows for Greater Innovation
Frans Johansson explores one simple yet profound insight about
innovation: in the intersection of different fields, disciplines and
cultures, there’s an abundance of extraordinary new ideas to be
explored.

39. • Collaboration and teamwork allow us control our environment
• Reciprocal and trusting relationships create effective
collaboration
•Social validation and social identity maintain emotional
engagement and enhance attachment to our mates and our group
• Competence contributes to the survival of our group and our
sense of security and safety . ~ P. Rutledge
The amplification
ability of social tools
provides the possibility
for a more diverse,
purposeful tribe from
which to connect,
leverage and learn.
Photo Credit: http://flic.kr/p/8vn7B5

41. Developing Your Tribe
A group of people connected to one another,
connected to a leader, connected to an idea
Need two things:
1) Shared interest (mission)
2) A way to communicate

42. Personal Learning Networks (building of your tribe)
Are you mobilizing and contextualizing what you are
learning? Can I find you and learn from you?
It’s out of networks that community falls. ~ Nancy
White

43. What
is community, really?
Very “we” oriented. We do not choose who is part of our
community. We make a commitment to grow together and
improve at the art and science of teaching and learning. It is
more collegial than congenial. It is more collaborative than
cooperative.

44. A Place to Build Trust and
Relationships

45. A Domain of Interest

46. A Place to Meet

47. A Place to Construct Knowledge
Collaboratively

48. CelebrationCelebration

49. A Community of Practice is a network of individuals with common
problems or interests who get together to explore ways of
working, identify common solutions, and share good practice and
ideas.
• puts you in touch with like-minded colleagues and peers
• allows you to share your experiences and learn from others
• allows you to collaborate and achieve common outcomes
• accelerates your learning
• Improves student achievement
• validates and builds on existing knowledge and good practice
• provides the opportunity to innovate and create new ideas

50. Dedication to the
ongoing development
of expertise
Shares and contributes
Engages in strength-based approaches
and appreciative inquiry
Demonstrates mindfulness
Willingness to leaving one's comfort
zone to experiment with new strategies
and taking on new responsibilities
Dispositions and Values
Commitment to understanding
asking good questions
Explores ideas and
concepts, rethinking, revising, and
continuously repacks and
unpacks, resisting
urges to finish prematurely
Co-learner, Co-leader, Co-creator
Self directed, open minded
Commits to deep reflection
Transparent in thinking
Values and engages in a culture of
collegiality

51. Use a 3-pronged
Approach

52. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
Meet the new model for professional
development:
Connected Learning Communities
In CLCs educators have several ways to
connect and collaborate:
• F2F learning communities (PLCs)
• Personal learning networks (PLNs)
• Communities of practice or inquiry
(CoPs)

53. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
1. Local community: Purposeful, face-to-face
connections among members of a committed group—
a professional learning community (PLC)
2. Global network: Individually chosen, online
connections with a diverse collection of people and
resources from around the world—a personal learning
network (PLN)
3. Bounded community: A committed, collective, and
often global group of individuals who have
overlapping interests and recognize a need for
connections that go deeper than the personal learning
network or the professional learning community can
provide—a community of practice or inquiry (CoP)

54. • THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR
Professional
Learning
Communities
Personal Learning
Networks
Communities of
Practice
Method Often organized for
teachers
Do-it-yourself Educators organize
it themselves
Purpose To collaborate in
subject area or
grade leverl teams
around tasks
For individuals to
gather info for
personal knowledge
construction and to
bring back info to
the community
Collective
knowledge building
around shared
interests and goals.
Structure Team/group
F2f
Individual, face to
face, and online
Collective, face to
face, or online
Focus Student
achievement
Personal growth Systemic
improvement

55. Community is the New Professional Development
Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999a) describe three ways of knowing and constructing
knowledge…
Knowledge for Practice is often reflected in traditional PD efforts when a trainer shares
with teachers information produced by educational researchers. This knowledge presumes
a commonly accepted degree of correctness about what is being shared. The learner is
typically passive in this kind of "sit and get" experience. This kind of knowledge is
difficult for teachers to transfer to classrooms without support and follow through. After a
workshop, much of what was useful gets lost in the daily grind, pressures and isolation of
teaching.
Knowledge in Practice recognizes the importance of teacher experience and practical
knowledge in improving classroom practice. As a teacher tests out new strategies and
assimilates them into teaching routines they construct knowledge in practice. They learn
by doing. This knowledge is strengthened when teachers reflect and share with one
another lessons learned during specific teaching sessions and describe the tacit
knowledge embedded in their experiences.

56. Community is the New Professional Development
Knowledge of Practice believes that systematic inquiry where teachers create
knowledge as they focus on raising questions about and systematically studying
their own classroom teaching practices collaboratively, allows educators to
construct knowledge of practice in ways that move beyond the basics of
classroom practice to a more systemic view of learning.
I believe that by attending to the development of knowledge for, in and of
practice, we can enhance professional growth that leads to real change.
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S.L. (1999a). Relationships of knowledge and
practice: Teaching learning in communities. Review of Research in
Education, 24, 249-305.
Passive, active, and reflective knowledge
building in local (PLC), global (CoP) and
contextual (PLN) learning spaces.

59. “ Do you know what who you know knows?” H. Rheingold

60. Critical friends: Form a professional learning team who come together
voluntarily at least once a month. Have members commit to improving
their practice through collaborative learning. Use protocols to examine
each other’s teaching or leadership activities and share both warm and
cool feedback in respectful ways.
Curriculum review or mapping groups: Meet regularly in teams to
review what team members are teaching, to reflect together on the
impact of assumptions that underlie the curriculum, and to make
collaborative decisions. Teams often study lesson plans together.

61. Action research groups: Do active, collaborative research focused
on improvement around a possibility or problem in a
classroom, school, district, or state.
Book study groups: Collaboratively read and discuss a book in an
online space.
Case studies: Analyze in detail specific situations and their
relationship to current thinking and pedagogy. Write, discuss, and
reflect on cases using a 21st century lens to produce collaborative
reflection and improve practice.

62. Instructional rounds: Adopt a process through which
educators develop a shared practice of observing each other,
analyzing learning and teaching from a research perspective,
and sharing expertise.
Connected coaching: Assign a connected coach to
individuals on teams who will discuss and share teaching
practices in order to promote collegiality and help educators
think about how the new literacies inform current teaching
practices.

63. "Imagine an organization with an employee who can accurately see the truth,
understand the situation, and understand the potential outcomes of various
decisions. And now imagine that this person is able to make something happen." ~
Seth Godin.

64. Change is hard

65. Connected learners are more
effective change agents

66. Real Question is this:
Are we willing to change- to risk change- to meet the
needs of the precious folks we serve?
Can you accept that Change (with a “big” C) is
sometimes a messy process and that learning new things
together is going to require some tolerance for ambiguity.

67. We have a choice: A choice to be powerful or pitiful.
A choice to allow ourselves to become victims of all
that is wrong in education or activists. Activists who
set their own course. Who resist the urge to quit
prematurely. DIY change agents who choose to be
powerful learners on behalf of the children they
serve.

68. Last Generation