Google Wave is 100% open-source, so rest assured that developers are ravenously developing extensions, plug-ins, modules, and anything else necessary to make it work on all the platforms we use today. I implore you to watch this video; consider setting 80mins aside to digest this information, and then discuss it with us. This might be the most important professional development you do this year outside of NECC.

@scottmerrick tweeted me to let me know about the post, Five Reasons to Be Terrified of Google Wave. This post raises concerns about adopting Google Wave as your primary communications platform; while I agree with some of these concerns, I still think the Wave is going to play a crucial roll in linking all of the channels we collaborate on currently. Lars Rasmussen of Google asked the question, “What would e-mail look like if it was invented today?” Google Wave attempts to answer that, but I don’t think it is attempting to replace e-mail as suggested in that post. I absolutely spend time revising e-mails to make sure my tone and message convey exactly what I need them to, which is next-to-impossible using a platform that is real-time chatter like Google Wave. If you are “terrified” of Google Wave then you have probably already missed the boat. Don’t be scared, think critically; make the Wave work for you by letting the developers know what you need in order to be better at what you do.

This past weekend, I participated in the Webheads in Action Online Convergence 2009 Conference. The multi-day synchronous event took place in Elluminate with presenters and participants tuning in from around the world. I posted about WiAOC09 back on May 11th. Vance Stevens, an educator in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, led this all-volunteer professional learning event.

Even though I’ve been fortunate to participate in blended, online PD events like the K-12 Online Conference, ISTE Webinars, and various webcasts streamed from EdTechTalk in the past few years, online PD still poses unexpected challenges and hurdles for me. In my own presentation for WiAOC09, I had to scramble when my presentation slides turned out to be too large to upload into the Elluminate environment. I was able to proceed by doing an “application share” of my presentation, but the situation exemplified a common experience I’ve encountered repeatedly with online PD: I’m always learning something new, and frequently the things I learn are unexpected.

In his keynote “Open & Networked Teaching: A Transformative Journey” for WiOC09, Alec Couros discussed the importance and availability of “spontaneous professional development.” (See slide #20 of his Slideshare.)

Classroom 2.0, EdTechTalk, Twitter networks and Ustream broadcasts now provide a diverse (and at times overwhelming) array of options for educators to connect, collaborate, and learn together. Amidst these learning opportunities, we still see and experience a great deal of fear. Alec creatively addressed this fear in a movie trailer he posted to YouTube for a recent graduate course he taught at the University of Regina in Canada.

Humor can be used very constructively as we strive to face and overcome our fears. Do you fear online professional development and online learning? How do your professional peers view online learning? How many experiences have we each had, to date, with online learning in both formal and informal settings?

It is critical we find ways to personally experience and share the power of online professional development, whether it is “spontaneous PD” which results from blog or Twitter reading, or a more structured experience like an online conference event. Learning is no longer bounded in many of the ways it has been limited historically. To understand as well as embrace these possibilities, it is critical we each find ongoing opportunities to participate in online PD as students and learners.

Is your school or school district taking steps to encourage educator participation in online professional development?

Image Credit: From 5tein

Registration of WIAOC09 is available via the conference Ning. The byline of the main Webheads informational site (webheads.info) is:

Practicing Peace and Professional Development through Web 2.0 and Computer Mediated Communication

Each week at Sunday, noon GMT, webheads converge for “live online, text chat and more” via Tapped-In. The Webheads is a powerful example of the ways educators can and are using the Internet as a collaborative platform to reduce isolation and extend ongoing, free professional development opportunities to others around the world.

How many teachers at your school have participated in a conference which takes place completely online? If you’re like most schools in the midwest where I live, the answer would be, “Not many.” The Webheads in Action Online Conference provides an outstanding opportunity for educators of all levels to personally experience the value, excitement, and process of participating in an online conference with hundreds of other educators around the world interested in not only learning together but also making connections which are personally beneficial and have direct benefits to students as well.

The official conference schedule lists details of presentation times and topics. All presenters and organizers of the Webheads in Action conference are volunteers. While a dizzying array of websites related to the Webheads are available, the community learning portal at Worldbridges (which includes recorded webcasts of events) as well as the site webheads.info are good places to learn more about the organization and its activities.

Whether or not you consider “online learning” or “distributed learning” to currently be one of your fortes as an educator, it behooves all of us to learn more about the value and potential of both blended and online learning. The best way to do this is through personal experience! The lessons you learn can be brought both into your classroom as well as school district, and very well may transform the ways you view not only professional development but learning interactions and opportunities overall. We live in a global village, and the Webheads (specifically via WIAOC09) are offering a FREE opportunity to “plug-in” and learn together with others. Join the conversations!

     Several years ago, a team from our high school attended High Schools New Face Conference in Western New York.  Will Richardson lit a spark in several of us teaching us a plethora of tools- blogs, wikis, podcasting, RSS feeds, etc…  The notion of ‘connecting with students’ was at the forefront.  Students today are ‘connected’ electronically more often than not, have access to information quicker than many of us could ever have imagined and share an enormous amount of information via social networks.  We knew we wanted to harness the power of the internet and do so in hopes that students will begin to gather, learn and share information in a way different than the traditional ’sit-n-get’ format found in many high school classes. 

     Our district had already begun to use some on-line learning and remedial programs for pre and post teaching which provided teachers (and the students) immediate feedback and monitoring of progress.  Adults were well aware of the frequency of which students were on cell phones, iPods and connecting daily on MySpace and Facebook.  C0uldthey not be taught to use these same concepts for learning?  Would they enjoy learning more and as a result, wouldthey improve their achievement?  Lets take one step further.  Would teachers not become reignited about teaching and learning?  Could teachers begin to collaborate on an etirelydifferent level?  Would students become more engaged?  Obviously, a team of us believed the answer to all these questions and more to be ‘Yes’!  And so, we began our journey.

     We started with a few extremely motivated teachers.  Blogging was the start.  Posting assignments, homework (being absent was not longer an excuse to not having  work done!) and even lecture notes.  A student would volunteer to be ’scribe’ for the day and post the day’s lecture/class notes.  Students will use a blog to have discussions and collaborate on projects.  Students (and teachers) would embed videos, presentations, and resources in their blogs.  This is about the time that some students began to experiment with podcasting. 

      The next step was for students and teachers to begin to collaborate: sharing information, building off of each other’s contributions and creating a place to store resources.  The Wiki became the platform.  Use of the wiki expanded blogging to include a site for many courses in the high school.  Syllabi, homework, project assignments and handouts can all be found on a virtual platform for students.  Students would also post completed assignments and create team projects with the help of classmates. 

     Teachers learn relatively fast, but students were learning faster.  Knowing that if teachers were going to use these tools, they would quickly need support.  With the support of our Board of Education, I appointed a teacher on special assignment to actually train and work with teachers directly in the classroom, assisting them with lesson development.  An Action Planning Committee in our high school consisted of a group of teachers vounteering to meet early morning, before school to share their craft and changes in their teaching.  The spark had been lit, the flame began to grow.

     Throughout this process, I believed as a leader that I needed to be a role model.  I began to use web 2.0 tools in my everyday work.  I blogged about the changes in our high school,  and blogged for our community highlighting various achievements in our school districts.  I even attempted a blog for students to have yet one more vehicle to communicate with their Superintendent.  I would embed resources, presentations and podcasts.  The intent of my message was these tools are effective, can be time savers and a way to quickly and easily spread and share your work and ideas.

     Resources, the ’storage’ of resources, along with accessibility ( ’anywhere’ and ‘anytime’ ) was needed and introduced.  Tools such as googledocs, social bookmarking (del.icio.us) and various virtual platforms were taught and used by both students and teachers.  This became a quick lesson:  not everyone had to ‘reinvent the wheel’.  Friends could help each other.  Find a resource that not only you need, but know of a friend that may be interested, store it and share it!  As more teachers expressed interest in integrating technology within the classroom, accessibility to computers needed to be addressed.  Instead of replacing stand alone computers, we began to purchase laptops on mobile carts.  Teacher carts were also set up with a laptop, projector and audio amplification.  Entire classes of students can be on-line at the same time and made dependence upon scheduling classes in computer labs a frustration of the past. 

     At the same time, our district had embarked upon a long-term relationship with Silver and Strong Associates providing professional development in “Thoughtful Education” pedagogy.  As teachers developed units and lessons with more depth and differentiating for the different learning styles of students in a class, it became logical for us to have a platform for teachers to share their ideas, lessons and units.  We introduced the social network Ning to our teachers.  There, they could combine all the learning of the past and integrate the various tools in one place: blogging, interactive collaboration, storing  of resources, posting of presentations, etc…  It is our hope that as time goes on, our entire faculty will engage in collaboration on a virtual platform in addition to face-to-face learning teams.  At the same time, we know that good leaders need to be involved in side-by-side learning with teachers and to model the traits and behaviors expected of teachers.  Our administrative team has also begaun to use Ning for administrative collaboration as well as to interact with our teachers as they post to the social network. 

     As a school superintendent, the development of a true learning community across a K-12 district with 6 buildings has been exciting to observe.  While at first, the integration of technology seemed to be “extra” work, teachers and students now see that it becomes ‘part’ of the work.   We are far from full implementation.  Empirical evidence related to improved student achievement is difficult to isolate.  What we do have is anecdotal information from both students and teachers that they are more engaged and interested.  The assumption is made that if students are interested and engaged, they are more likely to achieve at high levels.

      Before ending I would like to share a few examples of what I have seen both as a parent in the district and as the superintendent-

Podcast projects: 

One elementary class had students write their parents a Valentine’s Day Poem.  Instead of just sending the poem home in written form, each student read their poem in podcast.  The link for the podcast was sent to each parent in an e-mail.  What a wonderful surprise parents had to ‘hear’ their Valentine’s Day poem in their own child’s voice!

For a European History project, a student created a radio show to have taken place during World War II demonstrating their understanding of the events of the decade.  The radio show episodes were recorded in a podcast and submitted as a final project for grading.

Social Bookmarking:

Students and teachers are sharing articles, videos, and news articles along with a variety of other resources using their del.icio.us account.  Along with many teachers, I have a network of people I follow that I can view and find resources for projects we have in common.

Read/Write Web:

A plethora of information is available by reading blogs.  I read blogs by students as young as third grade posting information about what they have learned studying the Titanic.  I have followed a student blogging about his favorite sport (hockey) and another student blogging about family vacations.  I have probably learned more from reading blogs over the past three years, than any other source.

I can monitor many high school courses detailing what the content is, what assignments are due and view projects posted related to the course by students. 

Social Networking:

As stated above, teachers are posting a variety of lessons and units in every subject across all grade levels.  Our administrators are beginning to use Ning to post resources for each other, ask questions and get feedback from their colleagues as well as posting activities and questions for our book studies.  This continues to be a work in progress.

     The most important thing we have realized is that one thing we can be sure of is how fast technology changes.  We planned early on that we needed to teach skills vs. the products available.  While Blogger, PBwiki, Ning and Skype may all be popular, everyday there are new vendors improving sophistication and ease of use.  Both our students and teachers are trained in skills (posting/commenting to the Read/Write web, collaboration, social bookmarking and networking).  The platforms available will surely change.  It is our belief that in order for students to be successful in the 21st Century, they will need to be proficient in many of these skills.