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February 10: OSSEMOOC presents “Teacher as Researcher” with Dean Shareski
Upcoming OSSEMOOC live conversations:
February 10:
Dean Shareski: “Teacher as Researcher”
In a world of constant flux and change, waiting for the white paper on “best practice” may not be the best way for teachers to stay innovative and provide the best experience for students. What is the role of teacher as researcher? What does or could it look like to be in a state of perpetual experimentation?
February 10, 2015 8 p.m. EST – 9 p.m. EST
Please use this link to enter the synchronous meeting room any time after 7:30 p.m.:
OSSEMOOC presents Dean Shareski.
Please sign up for this event using the form below:
Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 30 – Oh The Places You’ll Go!
Congratulations! You have committed time over the past month to become a connected leader. You have found where the learning is happening. You have found places to connect with other colleagues who value learning in the way that you do.
What lies ahead?
Your thinking about your practice may have shifted significantly over the past month, but relationships remain at the centre of our learning.
Sometimes, as you share your excitement about what you have learned with your colleagues, you will feel like the voice of the “Lone Wolf”.
At other times, when you are with your “tribe”, you will feel like you are “preaching to the choir”. This too, has value.
As a connected leader, you are taking ownership of your own learning. Isn’t this exactly what you want for your students?
You’ve learned that Twitter is a 24/7 stream of learning for educators. Random captures of Tweetdeck demonstrate how many ideas are flowing at once.
Will Richardson shares eight attributes of modern educational leaders here. Understanding where to find the best and most current ideas about education is the first attribute.
Watch what happens when connected leaders understand the importance of networking for students:
Look at the number of comments on this blog! How powerful is this conversation among teachers and student about mindset and learning?!
Here is a sample of the kinds of conversations among teachers and students you will see on this class blog. Take a moment to comment on some of the student thinking.
As you continue to connect, you will experience magical moments, learning and connecting that grow from your open sharing. Alan Levine expertly collects these stories. I think Ms. Balen and Ms. Calder need to contribute to this collection!
“The power, the strength, the future of the internet as we know it now, depends on this two-way flow. Share openly, and then share your story.”
Check out some of these fabulous stories of connecting, then be sure to share your story when the magic happens for you.
Congratulations on a successful 30 days of connecting.
Here at OSSEMOOC, we look forward to continuing to learn from you. Be sure to add your blog to the list through our “Join In” page.
Thanks for your participation and feedback. We hope you will continue to add resources to our posts through the comments, and that you will continue to spread the word!
We leave you with some inspiring words from Connected Leaders in Ontario – The OSSEMOOC K12 Online Conference Presentation for 2014.
Resources
On Twitter:
David Truss (@datruss)
Stacey Wallwin (@wallwins)
Bill Ferriter (@plugusin)
Julie Balen (@jacbalen)
Jaclyn Calder (@jaccalder)
Alan Levine (@cogdog)
#ossemooc
#ontedleaders
#onted, #cpchat, #suptchat
The Importance of Connected Learning Environments – Jackie Gerstein
Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 29 – Digital Leadership
Congratulations! You have now spent 28 days learning how to be a connected leader.
Throughout this series we have emphasized the critical importance of Digital Leadership. Today we want to share some further thinking around this topic. In particular, consider the changing conversations around the concept of Digital Citizenship.
Here are a few opportunities to expand your thinking about the importance of being a networked lead learner.
In 2008, Ira Socol shared his thinking about why so few educators were connected leaders. Take a few minutes to read this excerpt, or click on the image to read the full essay.
Today, we often hear that it isn’t about the tools, it’s about the pedagogy. What does your experience tell you about this? Should we be teaching tool use explicitly in schools? How does this posting challenge your thinking about your leadership?
As leaders in education, we often think about the safety of children in online spaces. How do we best teach digital citizenship in our schools? Current thinking about this topic is shifting, as evidenced by the following conversation with Tanya Avrith.
(Tanya’s script from her ISTE Ignite session can be found here: http://www.edtechschools.com/rebrand-digital-citizenship-get-ignited/)
George Couros frequently speaks about the importance of establishing our own digital presence, before someone does it for us.
Every one of your students will be Googled before they get their first job. How are you helping them to create the digital presence that will help them achieve success? (@jcasap)
Eric Sheninger has written extensively on the importance of Digital Leadership, and how it is the most important factor in creating schools that work for kids.
Dean Shareski shares his thoughts here on how technology can be a catalyst for changing educator mindsets.
What do you think? Take some time to reflect on your learning over the past month. How does the concept of “digital leadership” fit with your current professional practice?
What further resources do you have to help others with their learning on this topic?
Further Resources:
How to Become a Digital Leader: Bill Ferriter (@plugusin) on ASCD
7 Pillars of Digital Leadership: Eric Sheniger on TeachThought
Leadership Resources: Stacey Wallwin (@wallwins)
Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 26 – Your Blog as Your Portfolio
Update August 18, 2015:
The Principal Associations in Ontario hosted a second Symposium for Ontario School Leaders on Technology Enabled Learning and Leading. Dr. Alec Couros was invited to keynote and share learning on blogging as a portfolio. His shared resources are available here.
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This week, the Principal Associations in Ontario (OPC/CPCO/ADFO) are hosting a symposium for Ontario School Leaders on Technology Enabled Teaching and Learning. The learning is being shared using the hashtag #ontedleaders .
George Couros has been leading some of the learning by meeting with principals virtually, and by examining the Ontario Leadership Framework.
As well, George has been sharing his ideas around open/visible learning and leadership, and sharing our professional portfolios online as our blogs.
Now that you have started to create your own space for sharing learning, consider that your blog can also be your personal portfolio.
How can you set it up?
If you remember in our first blog video, the difference between “posts” and “pages” was discussed. “Posts” are your regular contributions to your blog – your writing.
We add new posts by using the “Add New” option on the left side of the dashboard.
Pages are listed on your blog and they contain information that normally you don’t change as frequently as your posts.
We add new pages by hovering over “Pages” and choosing “Add New”.
We name our page “Ontario Leadership Framework”.
Once published, we can see the page on the public side of our blog.
It is helpful to use subheadings for the different strands of the framework. It is simple to set up these pages.
Once again, we can add a new page. This time we call it “Setting Directions”. In the right margin, under parent, we choose our previous page “Ontario Leadership Framework”. This ensures our new page appears under the main heading.
Once published, we see “Setting Directions” under the Ontario Leadership Framework Page.
We can repeat the process for “Building Relationships and Developing People”, and the other strands of the Leadership Framework.
Clicking the “Setting Directions” heading shows us the page. As we work on our blog, posts that fit this strand can be added to this page.
A blog portfolio in progress might look like this:
Posts are added to the portfolio pages as they are written:
This is the basic Professional Portfolio set up. How can you personalize your blog and make this your own?
Please feel free to ask questions and share ideas in the comments.
If you have the opportunity to attend the #ontedLeaders Institute, please remember to share your learning with your colleagues who were not able to be at the event in person.
Resources
Dr. Alec Couros – Presentation Resources – Blogging as a Portfolio
Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 25 – You Have a Blog! Now What?
Over the past few days we have spent time setting up a blogging site. Now it’s time to start writing!
There are many reasons why educators use blogs in their professional learning. Today we will help you with a few prompts to consider how you can begin sharing, and some excellent examples of Ontario leaders who already blog and share.
Some educators begin by sharing the great work happening in their school or district.
TLDSB Superintendent Andrea Gillespie shares her impressions of an event in her board here. Dr. John Malloy, Director of Education for HWDSB, frequently shares the great work being done in his school board.
Other educators share the formal work being done in their schools and systems.
New UGDSB vice-principal Brenda Sherry shares their work around making the School Improvement Plan a living document in their building. Principal Peter J. Leblanc makes the staffing process at his school transparent on his blog. New SGDSB Superintendent Nicole Morden-Cormier uses her blog to share all of the work their leadership learning team is doing, and invites others to comment and share in their learning.
Blogging is also a platform for curation. We have looked at the process of curation earlier in this series. We strongly suggest that you read this post by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (@langwitches).
WRDSB Principal James Bond demonstrates how he curates and shares thinking with his writing here. Deborah McCallum curates resources here.
When we have the privilege of travelling to conferences and other learning events, there is an obligation to share learning with those who were not able to attend. OCSB Principal Paul McGuire shares his ECOO #BIT14 learning here.
Reflecting on our learning helps to make our thinking visible. YRDSB Principal Brian Harrison reflects on his learning here, and ADSB Principal David Jaremy shares his thinking on student engagement here. HWDSB Superintendent Sue Dunlop share her reflections on leadership here.
Perhaps it takes a challenge to get your first blog post published! OSSEMOOC has set up a few challenges in 2014. To start, we asked educators to simply share one thing they learned by asking the question, “What did you learn today?”. The results are found under “30 Days of Learning in Ontario” on this blog.
Then, we asked educators to pick one thing that caught their eye on social media, and share it (curate) with the world by providing a few sentences on the importance of the learning. These can be found under “30 Days – Picture and Post” on this blog. Both examples are great starting points for new bloggers.
This past week, #Peel21st started a Blog Hop with the question, “Learning in the 21st Century – What Does it Mean to You?”.
Why not take up the challenge and participate?
There are many more examples of Ontario education leaders sharing through blogging. Follow any of the blog links in the margins of this OSSEMOOC blog.
Once you create your first post, be sure to share it on Twitter so others can read your work. Share it with OSSEMOOC as well, and we will add you to our exceptional list of Ontario education bloggers.
*Always remember that help is available. Write a comment on this blog if you need assistance.
Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 24 – Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Blog
Yesterday we looked at the options available for educators to begin a personal/professional blog for free. Today, we hope you will take ten minutes to actually begin creating your personal space for sharing and curating.
We will guide you through the process of starting a blog at wordpress.com. The process is quite similar for other hosting sites, and all sites have extensive support available to walk you through the process of setting up your blog.
Begin at www.wordpress.com
Begin entering the information. Your username will appear when you make comments on other WordPress blogs, so consider carefully what you want that to be, and be sure that it is reflective of you (i.e., your real name or your Twitter handle are good options).
Consider carefully the “blog address” as this is what you will use to drive readers to your site. Keep it simple and reflective of who you are.
Take a screenshot, or carefully record the set up information so that you will be able to log back into your site.
You are provided with a number of options. For now, we will stick with the free version. Choose “create blog”.
WordPress.com will now “walk you through” a number of steps to create your blog. Consider the purpose of your blog as you create a title and tagline (all of these can be edited later).
At some point in the process you will be asked to verify your account through the email address you originally provided.
In the email message, you will see an option to follow beginner tutorials.
You may need to log into your site from the email message. Use the information you carefully recorded when you set up the blog.
When you are creating a blog, there are two “sides” or “views” in the process. There is the public side, which is what others see when they visit your blog at the URL you have chosen. For example, it’s what you see right now at https://ossemooc.wordpress.com/.
When people navigate to my new blog, they see this front page, but with their own login information on the top black navigation bar.
The “other” side or view is the dashboard, where you create your posts and design your site.
To access your dashboard from your public view, click on the name of your blog in the top left, and choose dashboard.
WordPress.com has provided an excellent instructional video to help you understand and navigate the dashboard side of your blog.
Take some time to watch the video and play with some of the features on your new site.
Access the video here: https://v0.wordpress.com/player.swf?v=1.03
Below are some further resources to help you navigate and learn the dashboard side of your blog.
WordPress.com Get Started Tutorials
Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 19 – Collaborating with Google Docs
Today’s 10 minutes of connecting is a beginner’s look at collaboration with Google Docs.
There are very few places that don’t use Google Drive today to collaborate on notes, projects, presentations, thinking, etc.
Google Drive allows you to create different types of shared files, like spreadsheets and presentations. Google Docs is a starting place for getting used to using cloud storage and sharing documents with others.
We have embedded two instructional videos that begin at the very beginning – creating your own Google Drive. It’s a bit longer than 10 minutes, but we suggest that you watch them as far as you need to, and then go to your own Google Drive and practice.
For those already using Google Drive, this would be a great time to nurture others in learning to collaborate online using this tool.
If you are a Google expert, what resources would you suggest for those just beginning to use collaborative documents?
If you need more help with Google Docs or Google Drive, please feel free to tell us in the comments, or on Twitter @OSSEMOOC
Resources:
Collaborative Note-Taking with Google Docs by Shake Up Learning
Google Drive Resources by Shake Up Learning
Going Google with Google Drive
Sample Shared Google Docs:
Digital Storytelling Resources (Alec Couros)
Twitter Chat Times (a “Google Sheet”)
Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 18 – Collaborating Online
Over the past few weeks, we have taken ten minutes each day to explore many tools for Collecting Information -> Connecting to Colleagues -> Curating, and now we move on to Collaborating and Co-Learning.
This evening (November 18) at 8 p.m. EST, OSSEMOOC is hosting its regular Tuesday evening live chat. This is an opportunity to connect with your colleagues in a live conversation. While we encourage everyone to have a voice, please do not feel that you would be pressured to speak during these live chats. You are welcome to just come in and listen to the conversation until you fee confident enough to participate.
While there are many ways to collaborate online in real time, OSSEMOOC uses a tool called Blackboard Collaborate. If you are new to this tool, it is helpful to come into the “room” early to ensure you have all the downloads you need to participate fully. The room opens at 7:30 EST to begin testing and troubleshooting.
Click [here] to join the meeting room any time after 7:30.
OSSEMOOC holds Tuesday evening chats at this time almost every week. Watch the blog for details, or sign up here for email updates.
Our live sessions last for one hour, but we encourage people to just pop in for 10 minutes if that is all the time they have available. Conversations with colleagues are rich, and the synchronous nature of the experience allows for ideas to be shared quickly.
As we explore other ways to collaborate and co-learn with your colleagues online this week, you will need to have an account with Google. If you don’t have a Google account already, please follow these instructions to create an account.
Begin by going to the Google site: https://www.google.ca/ and choosing the “sign in” button in the top right.
If you have a gmail account you can sign it using that, or you can choose “Create an Account” at the bottom.
Create your Google Account.
Explore what is available through this account. Over the next few days, we will look at the Google tools available for collaboration and co-learning.
OSSEMOOC 2014-11-18 open mic session
On November 18th, we return to our 8:00 p.m. EST Tuesday evening “open mic” sessions. This week we will be sharing and discussing learnings from the first 17 days of the Getting Connected in 30 days series.
We hope that you will take the time to join our conversation. You are invited to bring a friend or two (or more!) and introduce them to #OSSEMOOC.
Click [here] to join the meeting room anytime after 7:30.
We look forward to connecting and meeting the newcomers too!
Your OSSEMOOC Team.
OSSEMOOC 