I find myself sharing with the staff and students in our building BUT I have not put enough effort into extending beyond the school. There are many who may benefit from our experiences, just as we may benefit from the experiences of others.

Thanks for sharing.

I really believe in being transparent at all levels. I'm out there on twitter and facebook revealing things about my life outside & inside work, and learning from the others out there. When I started my position in my school district there was nobody like me, so having a network of people online that are all doing the same things helps me tremendously. I am consantly looking in my google reader, checking twitter, and reading blogs everyday to learn more.

As far as privacy goes, what I do is think to myself..would I tell whatever it is I'm about to post to my friends in the office? Would I feel uncomfortable if my co-workers saw this? If the answer is no, I go ahead and say it! Whomever is looking at my profiles or dealing with me needs to know all about me, funny flaws and all. I see no reason to be shy about that.

I guess I've never thought of myself as a transparent learner in that, often, I'm learning for my own purposes and therefore, I am only transparent with my staff when it is relevant and timely. I read and search online incessantly for school improvement purpose and snatch an idea here and embrace a concept there (RtI, PBS most recently). I don't want to scare people off by sharing too much of it until I need to plant the seed. I do agree though that we need to be celebrating and sharing our students' learning and our teachers' enthusiasm in embracing the 'improved learning framework' so we can be learning together. I am encouraged to see more professional collaboration today than I ever have seen before in my teaching career.

@Gord
I"m not sure if you were referring to a local network or not. It's certainly not hard to create a network internally but that tends to limit the available interaction. We can all be learning so much from others no matter their location and in many cases it's beneficial to hear outside voices.

@Al
Excellent point. I recognize for many, these ideas are not new or difficult to embrace but yes, there is a technical side to this and a certain amount of knowledge required to participate fully. These might be considered new literacies or at least new skills that we and our students need to understand. Those that have them, tend to have a leg up and are levearging them to their advantage. In many cases our students appear to understand them but for the most part don't. I'd be interested in offering or planning something to assist us in moving forward as leaders.

@Brenda
Certainly our understandings and beliefs about privacy as well as comfort levels have to be considered. However, just as in our professional relationships, often we establish a level of trust before we offer anything outside of our duties. Online, trust is as important but often more elusive as readership is harder to define.

However, the numbers of great conversations that I have with leaders in our school division tells me we have so much to learn from each other and are currently not doing so in a very efficient manner. Isolated learning still remains the dominant culture for our schools and division and province. The world we live in and grew up in is not the world our students will and while we may not be comfortable I believe we are compelled to begin to model in some way the sharing of our daily learning. How would anyone know we are really life long learners?

In today's world you are what you share.

Thanks for the awesome feedback and for sharing. ;)

I agree with transparency to a certain extent. As a leader of learners I do believe that I could personally do a much better job of sharing insight into the type of professional learning in which I'm engaged. I tend to share openly the activities, meetings and events that occupy my time. This is a great reminder to begin to change that practice.

In regards to sharing more personal and daily experiences - in my current role I am extremely selective with whom I share that information. While I enjoy getting to know people on a personal level either one on one or smaller groups I still feel I need to be somewhat guarded.

I began teaching when the best tecnology available was the Gestner. If you do not know what that was, google it.

Fast forward 33 years and now we are using today's technology to lead a life of transparency in order to model life-long learning for our students. I think this is great!

Not only do I believe in the ideas of Richarson, I have no fear of posting any students work. My problem is lack of knowledge. Inservices and workshops are vital in helping move the process forward. We need to make time to learn in order to to move the process forward.

Agreed. Interactive and engaging transparent learning and discussion is what makes things happen. It is what makes us move forward and transform. How about a professional (social) networking platform?

Yes! It is exciting! I wish to reiterate the comment(s) made regarding the training and support of teachers and their students as they head down the path to incorporating more technology into the classroom. It is not just enough to provide the teacher with the hardware and the software to explore on their own or seek out answers about. Instead, teachers and students need continuous and regular support and reinforcement from knowledgeable individuals that will foster a desire to continue using technology and fuel a passion to explore its potential. Entice teachers to use technology by demonstrating it in a non-threatening way, dare them to use it by making its acquisition easy and support them through professional development opportunities and low expectations on product to start with. Students are not the ‘hard sell’, the teachers are because they are afraid of the extra work. A realistic look at a cost-benefit analysis will show that technology in the classroom will not only support resource based learning and differentiated learning, but also the teacher in general. Be not afraid of the extra work, rather, embrace the potential. Please consider this your invitation to my classroom to view, in a non-threatening way, the use of several forms of technology in a diverse classroom of engaged learners (ok, I’ll be realistic…engaged most of the time!). Come and see what can be done. You don’t have to do it all, but I dare you to try just one thing.

People should read this.

Ian,

You should read or listen to Danah Boyd who explains quite articulately why kids are involved with social networks. Ironically one of those reasons is that parents have been so concerned with physically safety and monitoring that kids are less able to "hang out" with friends like we once did. There are other reasons as well, based on research and findings but rest assured, it's not going away so we'd better figure out how to handle it.

Social networking sites of a non-pseudonymous nature (effectively, PERSONALS sites) are for adults and were originally intended only for them. Threats of online sexual predators are real, although rare. With fewer kids on those sites (can't kick them all out, but then again, digital rights management doesn't eliminate piracy 100%), there will be less predators trolling for them.

It's sad that the social networking industry and its proponents (some of which seem to be astroturfers) are being rebellious about this. Why can't they self-regulate and join parents, telling kids why they SHOULDN'T be on those sites?

Is it really that hard for kids to learn how to socialize offline? If a kid has trouble socializing offline, shouldn't the kid be reformed to be more sociable?

And why should parents NOT have the right to keep their kids off of social networking sites, and explain to them why they shouldn't use them? Don't parents have the right to censor TV shows and games? Don't they have the right to guide their kids in their religious choices? Why shouldn't it be the same with Web sites?

Yet another parent does not seem to see her daughter's teachers as what they (we) are - professionals. We are not going to let kids run amok on social networking sites, but to ban them completely? We've tried that. Not only do the smart ones figure out how to get around the blocking, but it does nothing to communicate how we can use social networking in a positive way. But it's another way for parents to put the onus on us, rather than supervising their children themselves at home.

But I agree with Dean - it has more to do with adults (the parent and the reporter both) who fail to understand the technologies available, which then means they don't know how to turn their use into something positive.

Education on how to access and use technology appropriately is really what is required at home and at school. What one parent or school division may block children access to another may not have blocked and therefore education is the key.

Do parents block their children from going outside knowing that there is the possibility that their child could get hit by a car, bit by a stray dog, or meet up with a stranger? No they do not. Parents do believe and understand the importance of teaching their children to look both ways before crossing the street, what to do when they encounter an unfriendly dog and what to do when they meet up with strangers. They understand that it is critical for their children to learn the "do's" and "don't's" of the real world because they are preparing their children to live and work in the real world and technology is a part of the real world and therefore should not be treated differently.

before educating ourselves with information for a student two years older, I think we should have online coarses for classes that we are not offered in some schools.(such as french)

I was part of the STF Forum on accountability and stayed for the keynote of the Assessment Conference. Dr. Hargreaves was the speaker for both events.

The presentations had similarities, however, each presentation had valuable information that was only included in one and not the other.

Driving home, I spent much time considering his piece on trust and betrayal within accountability, his suggestion to adopt a mentality of responsibility as opposed to accountability and the climate of fear in institutions such as schools.

I have read quite a few John Abbott articles (www.21learn.org) and had recently been at a Dr. Lee Jenkins presentation. I had several questions I wanted to ask Dr. Hargreaves. He was kind enough to give me 20 minutes of his time to answer five questions. What a great discussion!

Within his presentation, I felt, the Powerpoint wavered from being useful tool. There were long periods of time where I had a choice of a bad view of the speaker or a slide that had been up for several minutes depicting an old advertisement for rubber galoshes.

Dr. Hargreaves and John Abbott both consider a viable European school and community model where students have higher success rates then our own. My question is: If this is what we want for ourselves, how are we going to stop the current social trends (working more and less family and community-time or complete exclusion there-from) and the worsening social climate in our local communities, to begin to build a much more inclusive model? This model would have to integrate schools, families and communities to be successful. Are Saskatchewan's School Community Councils a first step in this direction?

During Dr. Hargreaves keynote the focus was the future and improvement, however emerging technologies and their impact were not considered. It seemed to me as if we were discussing improving and meeting our emerging needs all within the context of a traditional educational system, ignoring the fact that our schools and the practice of education are changing. I did like his thought about embracing our past to then chart our future but what if our past knows nothing of our future? Am I wrong to have this impression?

This is the best example of why to blog. I'm giving a workshop this afternoon at my school and I think this will be the beginning (before the technical details of how to set a blog up) It's all about the why. Keep up the questioning, the reading, the writing, the reflecting and the networking, Sandi, and good luck.

Thanks for this post. I know educators that attended this presentation and now I can participate in discussion with them and am able to ask better questions to stimulate thought and discussion.

I saw Andy a few years back...wish I would have blogged my notes on it. I remember very little of it other than it was an incredible experience.

I think our next key step is to be able to mash the messages of the "best of breed" curriculum & assessment speakers with our messages. I've spent a good amount of time deconstructing Willard Daggett's "rigor, relevance, relationships" stuff recently.

Thanks for sharing tonight!

I don't think you have to go as far as Dean ;-) but it is important to find some like minded folks to tackle the tough questions. When I get my Asst Supt up and blogging, I will send her your way!!!

Who the heck cares what one crazy old educator thinks?

YOU do!

If for no other reason, you should be blogging for yourself. Personally, that's why I blog: reflection. As educators, we don't take enough time to reflect on what we're doing, what has gone well, and what we'd like to change. If you'd like more, I've listed eight reasons why I think every teacher should blog ( http://tinyurl.com/2z8po4 ).

Onward and upward,

Darren Draper