#educon

Why is it that when I'm having a bad hair day I get asked to be in a video. Why oh why lol. 

For a few years now I’ve been teaching ED677, an online course at Arcadia University called Seeking Equity in Connected Learning and Teaching. My intention in the course is to support educators in exploring connected practices in their own learning and teaching, and in doing so, think together about the core issues of equity in our work and build toward it with/for our learners.

While we continue to seek equity, after 4 years I really do have to stand back and wonder, are we actually getting anywhere? It’s a hard question because really, it’s a much bigger job than any single course could impact. And it’s a hard question, because as the instructor, I’m not even sure what I am expecting to see. And this is also why we keep seeking it, year after year. And try to figure this out together.

I see a lot of interesting work in their final projects (will post a link in a bit to a curated set of these) but I wanted to first write about something we did along the way this year which was new. And I think significant.

During the 3rd week of ED677 we focus specifically on imagining what we mean by equity as a means of starting that conversation which then threads throughout the semester. This year we had a range of readings/watchings to frame what we were thinking about, and then because we always include the opportunity to make something each week, this time around I recommended #The4thBox project by the Center For Story-based Strategy and Interaction Institute for Social Change.

The week’s make was meant to support us in imagining how we might get into this fight for equity. We used an alternative image/remix of a popular equality/equity graphic and meme and then followed the questions and prompts created by the Center, ie:

Use the 4th box to discuss the importance of not just telling a different version of the same story, but of actually changing the story (by challenging assumptions).

Questions include:

What other story could be revealed in this setting?

What other “psychic break” could you make up?

What other underlying assumption here could you challenge?

Who built that wall in the first place and/or who took it away?

Before I did this online with ED677, however, I also facilitated a “conversation” that incorporated this activity at Educon 2018 alongside some previous participants of ED677. Here are the slides we used -- at the workshop we prompted the discussion in much the same way; however we followed up that activity with small group work and discussion.

A few pictures from the face to face work at EduCon 2018.

Doing this activity both in person as well as online, I found it to be remarkably effective in supporting the kind of conversation I was hoping would emerge -- and helped me get clear on what I was even looking for. First, I found it supported us in engaging physically as well as intellectually with the idea of equity -- in the face to face setting, it was the first thing we did together as a group of mostly strangers, and it supported spontaneous conversations at the table as well as a sort of shared nervousness and anticipation about what the 4th box should be. Online, it was less initially collaborative as each individual made their own 4th box on their own (I had set up a specific discussion for them to share about this work as they did it, but no one used it) -- however, the discussions about what we made and why continued throughout the semester, showing up in their shared blogs, collaborative work, and in their final projects. I attribute this staying power to the physical and creative nature of the activity -- I could see how it resonated in a way that our general readings, discussions, and blog posts don’t (well, except when we use Hypothes.is to annotate … which is an interesting parallel but maybe also be a slightly different blog post.)

Second, I found that this activity supported a range of 4th boxes to be created and that was exciting to me. There wasn’t just one approach to equity, not just one reason that things are inequitable, and no one external reason to blame. The first group we did it with was dominated by educators who, for the most part, I believe are used to talking about equity more frequently -- the second group, in ED677, seemed to me to be more dominated by educators who are maybe less frequently engaged in such conversations. And yet, in both situations, the complexities of supporting equity were evident, as were its approaches and solutions. I also saw, and continue to see in ED677, educators putting themselves firmly into the equation.

Below are a few examples of what we came up with, individually, in ED677. And in this collaborative presentation we made, you’ll see the theme’s continuation through to the end of the semester which shows its resonance.

Read more: Equity with a Twist

Read more: #The4thBox ... Collaboration

Read more: Participation

Read more: My Fourth Box

Read more: Equality vs. Equity

Read more: How Can We Hit it Out Of the Park?

Read more: The 4th Box

Most teachers don’t just teach at one school. They teach at multiple schools at once. There’s the school we work in, the school that happens outside of our classrooms, the school that gets presented to any number of stakeholders for pomp, circumstance, and evaluations, and the school that shows up in the data sets somewhere in a dozen offices and “great schools” websites. These schools often come…

When Two Or More Of Us Are Gathered (An EduCon Reflection)

This is one of those times where I’m glad I invited all my friends to a party that’s not technically mine.

For those of you who’ve read my book This Is Not A Test, you know my feelings about EduCon in 2011. Back then, students snickered to themselves when they saw me in the library, and, as one of a handful of people of color at the time, I snickered at myself as well. Doing the work means…

I attended a great session at #educon lead by @Mrchase on Professional Learning. His session focused on the work he is doing at the USDOE on the Future Ready Schools: Professional Learning Toolkit  

It really got my wheels turning about exactly why we (as educational institutions) have so many plans and collect so much data (beyond the obvious answer of compliance) about Professional Learning. 

All of our plans and data that we collect around professional learning I think reflect our core values (not as people, but as organizations).  I would boil it down to three core values which I think you can view on a continuum from Efficiency to Effectiveness to Excellence.

Organizations collect data and make plans based on what their core value is in regard to Professional Learning;

Efficiency - Many Plans, very microscopic command/control structure, collect and aggregate certain specific data

Effectiveness - Less Plans, command/control, collect and aggregate data with the opportunity to disaggregate data

Excellence - Few Plans, local control, teacher autonomy, examine student work with students a part of the professional development process rather than just looking at student work.

Some folks think innovation in education revolves around flashy gadgets and the latest technology.

I like those things. (I also like sandwiches, as you can unfortunately see around minute 5:36...)

But I think the bigger innovations in education revolve around tying what we know about how people learn, to new understandings about identity, power and privilege, in order to create learning environments in which each learner can do their most powerful thinking.