Tag Archives: Networking

Learning 2.011 Are You Coming?

The first tech conference I ever attended was Learning 2.008. I was working in Qatar and felt very disconnected from any kind of network. But wait, I am getting ahead of myself- I am using the language of the present to talk about the past. Back in 2008, not only did I not have a network, I barely knew what one was. I had just parted ways with Kim Cofino with whom I had worked in Malaysia. Back then Kim was my only mentor in all things connected. I barely understood Twitter. I did not have a professional blog and I felt like I was working in a bit of a vacuum.

Back in Malaysia, Kim had arranged a project with Clarence Fischer, which had “succeeded” to some degree. I put succeeded in quotes because I am not sure what we had actually done, but The International Teen Life Project was my first taste of connecting with another teacher and classroom and I liked it. We experimented. We learned. We created. I remember doing a Podcast over Skype one day and feeling so…what is the word? Proud? Important? Connected? Not sure what I felt, but I knew that we were doing good work. I felt like I was on the cutting edge. I was hooked. I knew that is where I always wanted to be. I didn’t want to wait for someone to tell me what the latest thing was. I wanted to find it and use it and share it myself.

It was great to work with Clarence because I respected him tremendously. He was one of the many bloggers who Kim had recommended I read in my new RSS feed. So when Kim emailed me, informing me that there was a conference in Shanghai created by teachers for teacher, I didn’t hesitate to sign up. I paid my own way, because I wanted to meet people like Clarence.

Feels strange now, thinking back to how “star struck” I was. There I was having breakfast with Alan Levine, or talking about the echo chamber with Clarence and Brian Crosby. At the time it all felt so important and in a sense maybe it was. I remember sitting in on sessions and meeting people I had only read and respected. But the most important part for me was solidifying relationships with people i had just started to know online like Brian Lockwood and Jenny Luca among others. I still remember our dinner, just the three of us and that strange feeling of seeing someone you have only “known” online. I have had that feeling many times since and it never loses its appeal. I have written at length about the value of these relationships, so I will just say that these meals and breakout sessins with people you only know online are priceless.

The most important thing I took away from Learning 2.008 was that the only thing that separated the teachers I read about and me, was that they were writing and sharing and connected and I was not. I knew after that conference that things needed to change for me professionally. After all, I had ideas. I could write. I could be leading workshops and presenting keynotes.

Before I continue, let me say that I have no intention of becoming a globe-trotting-traveling consultant Ed-tech celebrity. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.) I am too anchored in the classroom to give it up. But I am currently, dealing with my changing role in schools. You can only rant and rave about transforming learning environments long enough before a school calls you on it. So next year, I will be working with teachers at my current school to move our school forward as a technology facilitator. I am nervou and excited, but will write about that soon. We are in the process of defining what my role will be and what it means to creating a workable vision, but I am proud to say that I am playing an intrical part in our transformation.

So why am I telling you all this? What’s the point? The point is that in just three short years a lot has changed for me. But not just for me personally, but also the network, education, and conferences in general. I have taken what I learned back in 2008 and I have applied it to my career. I blog, I tweet, I share, and I build relationships. I have learned that the people I was so impressed by are just regular people like me. Yes, they are amazing educators who are doing everything they can to change education, but they are just like you and me. They are open, supportive and interested in what I (we) have to say.

This brings me to 2011 and Learning 2.011. Through a stroke of luck, hard work, or relentless self-promotion I seem to have fallen on the other side of the conference wall. I am so proud and honored to be leading the ESL cohort at this year’s conference and hopefully presenting a mini- keynote. I am stoked to be so unbelievably connected to hundreds of educators from around the world and now it is my turn to inspire.

I have some advice for anyone considering coming to this conference. If you are new to “it” “this” whatever it is we want to call it- this world of networked educators who blog and tweet and Skype and help each other out– this conference is invaluable. Bring your passion, your ideas, your classroom and let’s find other educators who can help you bring your ideas to life. As most people will tell you, conferences are about connections, and there is no better place than this conference, especially if you are in Asia, to meet like-minded professionals that will help you build your network and connect your classroom to others in the region. But more importantly, you will find countless people who like you just want to see what everyone else is doing, share ideas, and build a support network.

If you have been to a few conferences and are starting to doubt the usefulness of conferences then I urge you to come too. Learning 2.011 is a conference with few rules and expectations. It is what we make it. So let’s get together and create an unconference about what next? Let’s talk about how we can take what we have created thus far to the next level. I don’t know about you, but the idea of chatting with the Couros brothers (Alec and George) , Kim Cofino, Jeff Utech and others about what the next ten years could look like is pretty damn exciting.

Let me close by saying that I hope to see you in Shanghai in September. Talk to your staff, share this post with your admin and get a team togther to come to Shanghai. Bring your voice, your ideas, and your excitement and let’s create another amazing conference this year.

Would love comments about positive expereinces you have had and drop me a line if you are coming below.

Next Level

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You know how there are people on Twitter you kind of know but not really? You see their smiley avatars and occasionally Re-Tweet their links or post, but you have never really “talked” to them. After an especially insightful tweet, you look up their bio again, follow the bread crumbs to their blog and say, “Maybe it is time I add this one to my RSS.” And when you do, suddenly that person begins to open up and bloom in your life. You get a few more bits and pixels of who they are. Suddenly, you start to notice their tweets more often and find yourself commenting on their blogs. Maybe there is the occasionally Skype call, and before you know it he unmet friend is in your midst and you cannot recall a time before you “knew” them, oh and of course you have still never met in “real” life.

Well it may be premature, but I think I may have found an kindred spirit. I do not know her well enough to say for sure, but I like her open and enthusiastic vibe. Last week I added Katie Hellerman‘s blog The Teaching Game to my RSS and have been pleasantly surprised by her eagerness to build community and make connections. For me, it started with her post Getting What I Really Want Out of Twitter. Which was followed by her Connection Challange.

This post is me taking up the challenge Katie! I have chosen you as the person I want to learn more about and perhaps work with. I understand that these things should happen organically if we want them to be authentic, but by mentioning her in my space, I hope I am talking a positive first step to help not only build our relationship, but hopefully also introduce her to my network as well. And of course there are connections we share already, so maybe this intensification will help cement and tighten bongs elsewhere.

After I commented on her blog, Katie sent me an email to which I responded with this post:

Hello again Katie,

I felt weird responding to you via email, because I thought the whole point was to open up and share in order to build community. I have chosen to post my email to you’re here on my blog, in hopes that maybe others new to my blog will find my introduction useful as well.

You ask why I am in Jakarta, so let me start there. I have been teaching at international schools for seven years now I started in Kuala Lumpur, then I was in Qatar and now Jakarta. I like to live overseas, because I feel the world is too big to waste living in one country. I want to expose my children to different experiences and show them the world is a place to absorb and learn from. I also taught for two years in the US Peace Corps in Mozambique where I met my lovely wife.

Born in Iran and raised in the Bay Area, I find nationalism and culture stifling and tedious. I would rather be seen as an internationalist. Simply put I grew tired of the States. I occasionally miss home, but I am spending my summer in Thailand this year, so I quickly get over it.

You ask about my goals beyond what I am doing. I love working with kids. I love watching them grow and explore. I am currently teaching middle school, but I would like to teach higher level English course and dabble in working with teachers. I have never envisioned myself doing anything but teaching, so I see myself as the old-long-white haired dude at a school well into my sixties. Never a fan of ambition, my goal is to raise two world wise daughters, find some kind of peace in my heart, and maybe make a difference in the lives of the children I encounter.

Wait I lied! I also want to publish a few novels, record an album, tour the world and be a rock star of sorts. I want to run for public office in the States and climb a few mountains. I want to travel to every continent and learn to play the clarinet and ukulele.

As for the rest of my story, it is unfolding everyday here on the Internet. You can find my passions, my music, my books, my art, my life tucked away in various nooks and crannies of the web. I feel it is all to convoluted and complex to be simplified in a blog post, that is why I write it and sing it and smear it in as many places as I can. You want to know me better, drop me a line, start a conversation and I will keep up my end, just ask the people who already “know” me.

Balls in your court! What more can you tell me about you? Here is my challenge to you: find something I have done on the web that somehow grabbed your attention and leave a comment. I will work from there to connect it back to you.

As for you dear reader, what do you think of Katie’s challenge? What brought you here? What are you offering? How can we take our relationship to the next level? What do you want to know? What are you willing to share? Go ahead, confess, spill your guts. Let’s see what you got!

Flames With Action

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I started this blog a few years ago as a way to reflect on my own teaching (learning), build a network of like minded teachers worldwide, and to have my own space to facilitate and encourage conversations about education with teachers in the building in which I worked. That was in January of 2009 a few years ago in Doha. I would say I have been fairly successful in two out of three of my goals. You can read my first post for yourself here for a more comprehensive look at my goals.

However, I have struggled with my third goal; I do not feel I have ever had a regular readership from teachers in my own building. I have not yet created a culture of blogging within our staff. I hope this post is a first step in creating spaces where our staff can interact. I hope it will spark a spate of new blogs as well. After a great in school retreat last Thursday, I hope to revisit my third goal here at my new school in Jakarta. I have emailed this post to the participants of our five hour meeting hoping to keep our conversation and inspiration going. Hi guys! Welcome to my blog. This is where I hang out, wrestle with ideas, connect with other teachers, and work on all the things we talked about last Thursday.

This post is my attempt to lure out the teachers and administrators from my school interested in creating new learning spaces and a dynamic tech infused pedagogy. Schools that are inquiry based and use technology to lead and guide student driven pedagogy. I hope that some of you will take the time to let loose some thoughts in the comment section and see if we can’t clearly articulate and enact our school’s vision.

Before I continue let me recap the main ideas from our meeting, so my regular readers have a sense of where I am coming from. Another great by-product of blogging is that I hope, teachers from my school new to blogging, will begin to see the power of being a networked teacher. I hope that you realize the fruitfulness of a blog and the conversations that can grow here, once the seed has been planted and tended ever so lightly. Let begin…

I work at a 1:1 school. We all have shiny new Macbooks and I love it. I love the freedom to do anything that strikes my fancy on a dime with my students. I am excited and inspired by the work we are doing. I am challenged on a daily basis to make sure I am not directing too much of what they do. I am realizing that technology and a 1:1 environment does not automatically lead to a inquiry based school. As a matter of fact, often it could hinder the shift. I am starting to realize that schools need focus and vision. I realize that not everyone on our campus understands what it means to be 1:! We need to be open and honest about what our staff is willing to do and learn. We need to hold our staff accountable for how they understand and implement the vision of the school. We need to train and support. We need conversations about who we want to be and how we can get there.

Through a series of manipulations, suggestions and hard work I am somehow got myself invited to a meeting where we were going to be having these exact conversations. There were about fourteen of us present: administrators, teachers from every branch of the school, and two students. We examined our vision statement, and through a google doc, answered a few questions about what it means to be a 1:1 school. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the conversation. Many of us are on the same page and have a lot to say on the subject. Here the gist of what we said:

So often we forget that our schools are filled with passionate teachers who want to learn and grow, but only need the venue and chance to do so. This meeting was a great example of that. Now I invite you to keep the momentum going. Look back at our Google Doc and synthesis what we discussed there. Add your comments on the document, process your thoughts and join me on this blog post. Leave a comment here sharing your ideas and/or excitement. Let’s find the best tools and spaces where we can join our energies and find out how to move our faculty and school forward. Learning begins with passion and curiosity; it is clear we have no shortage of either here at our school, so now we need to tend the flames with action. I would love comments from other readers as well. How have you created a tight group of passionate teachers to move your schools toward change? What advice do you have for us?

I’m No Expert, But I Can Help

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I recently had a great experience skyping into a grade three class at @gcouros’s school in Canada to answer a few questions about Islam. You can read about the logistics on George’s blog. I wanted to share my thoughts on the event here.

After speaking with the class around eleven PM last night, this morning I woke up to the following email from the classroom teacher, and rather than send my response to her in private, in the spirit of openness and sharing I have decided to post it here. My response comes after her email, which you can read below:

Hi Jabiz,

I just wanted to thank you again personally for Skyping with our class this morning. It was a very powerful experience and they learned a lot about the Muslim culture, country of Indonesia, and an important celebration of Ramadan and Eid-El-Fitr. I realize there is a big time difference between us and I really appreciate you connecting with us late on a Friday night. It was a very authentic and powerful experience for our students, as well as for me as a teacher. We have now used a thumbtack on our world map to indicate where you are and remember the connection we have with you, both through your commenting on our blog post, as well as Skype conversation!

George is sharing his passion with us and is teaching us how technology is a great medium in connecting with others. As I have just returned to school after a leave, I was quite apprehensive about the technology of our Smart Boards, new classroom blogs, etc. This truly has proven what can be done and the connections that can be made around the world. It is amazing and I am so proud and excited to be a part of it. Again, thank you.

Let me start by saying it really is my pleasure and I enjoy doing it. I was home, sadly to say wasn’t doing much else, and really had a great time doing it. It’s funny, once you open yourself up to these opportunities the more you will find will come your way. I have Skyped into classes all over the world from grade three to university courses, and each time it is different, but just as exciting. I am not sure why students get so excited by having someone else come into their classrooms, but we should take advantage of this enthusiasm and open our classrooms up to as many people as we can, people who can bring fresh insights and different perspectives. I am by no means an expert on anything really, but I feel that I have a voice and that my ideas are valuable. I see my world view as unique and feel that sharing it with others can bring value not only to them, but for me as well. This sense of appreciation for one’s own voice is at the heart of blogging and online life. This is what I hope to foster in my students. It is something to discuss with your kids as well. What are they experts in? How could they share their knowledge with others? I hope they can see that someday, I will need them to help and teach me and my kids. They are teachers and we are learners too.

I understand how one can be apprehensive and doubt the value of all this openness and sharing. But as I am sure you have sensed from George, this is just what we do. There is a new class of teacher, and we have knocked down the walls of classrooms down and are looking for any opportunity to teach and learn from as many people as we can. We are interconnected. We share knowledge, information, and resources fluidly and easily. We meet in person, we skype into classrooms. A class across the world has some questions about (insert topic) and we feel we have something to say we make the connections. This technology and these connections need not always be more complicated than that, as you have just seen from our Skype call. I hope this experience has shown you how easy it can be to join us. Just value your voice and build the connections. You are lucky to have such a passionate and connected administrator. Often times it is teachers who are pulling a school forward, but you have an administration who is there to help you. Take advantage. Your kids will thank you for it.

The next step of course is to connect students with students, but this often takes more time and planning, but once you are open to the idea of a classroom that shares their ideas with the world through blogs and Skype, the opportunities become easier and easier to find. Remind the kids that if they ever have any questions about Indonesia, they now have a person they know here that can help them out. We have some great podcasts for them to listen to and we would love comments as well. Good luck and stay in touch.

Peak Out From The Edges

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There is a lot of talk these days on the Interwebs, and I suppose for many days before now, about the new ways in which people are communicating, collaborating, connecting, and creating online. Eager teachers are promoting the use of the web in almost zealot evangelical ways, trying to convince everyone that the world will fall apart if their students are not creating Glogsters instead of posters, or having Skype calls with a class in India or Indiana.

I agree, for the most part, with the passion exhibited by these wide-eyed teachers. It is clear that we are in the midst of a monumental shift in the way human beings not only communicate and share reality, but more importantly in the ways we create and share stories. I am always asking myself, what does this all look like? Always the eager student (much more fun than being a teacher) I am always trying to push the ways I use my network. I want more form my PLN, Personal Learning Network ( I shudder at using those three letters, but can’t think of a better word yet.) than to troll through links to blog posts extolling the virtues of Web 2.0. I want my network to be a living breathing part of everything I do. I want to allow you into my spirit and see what comes out. I want to enter your reality and make a mess. I want to make you think. I want to rearrange your mental furniture. I want you to do the same for me. Nothing will be learned as long as we stay behind walls and peak out from the edges. If you really want to know what this web can do, come on out at play.

I don’t think this level of connection is possible without letting down my guard and being open to any and all opportunities to make as many connections as possible. This philosophy has opened so many strange doors for me in the last three years, that I can’t help but want to explore it further. Sure, I want to help expose my students to what it looks like to connect with people worldwide, but I am in the process of seeing what this looks like for myself.

These networks, this web has to be more than what we say it is. If there is more to the web, than what we have seen so far, how powerful could it be? How far can we push this idea of connectedness? Ultimately, I want to make authentic, lasting, powerful connections with the people I interact with online, but all that is theoretical mumbo jumbo. Let’s see what this looks like:

A few months ago I attended the Learning 2.010 conference in Shanghai where I met several people I had known quite well for a some time. These are people I have worked with and met in “real” life. I mention this only because apparently face-to-face meetings make relationships more authentic. The real reason I went to this conference, however, was to meet the other people, the ones who I had never met. This post is meant to be about a song, so let me try and stay on course. Long story short, I met several people and we found ourselves sitting at a bar talking about life, the Internet, teaching, music, freedom, revolution etc…

Leslie was one of those random, (I mean random in the best use of the word), connections who had joined our newly formed cohort. For the sake of brevity, I will let her tell you the story from her point of view. She does a great job of writing about it here.

I think that brings us up to the song. Here is that story: @onepercentyello, @klbeasley and I used Indaba to record a cover of Pearl Jam’s Nothingman. It was pretty simple really, I had known Keri Lee for almost a year through Twitter and our blogs. We hit it off really well when we finally met. That night in Shanghai @klbeasley gravitated toward @onepercentyello’s Ukulele and voice. I can’t remember exactly how we reconnected after we returned home, but there was surge in Tweets and someone mentioned that we should record a song together. I sent out the Indaba link and within days, @onepercentyello had laid a simple track with voice and Uke. I added my part a few days later and with a few gentle nudges @klbeasley added an amazing track with her voice.

The song could have been a bit more polished, and next time it just might be, but for our initial attempt it turned out pretty well. Once it was done, I couldn’t help but think that it had a soul but no body. I wanted a way to get more people involved and find a way to present it back to the webs. I am trying to drive this web 2.0 as fast I can get it to go. So I wrote this quick post and waited:

Over the next few weeks I sent constant reminders and watched the photos come trickling in. Interesting that no one from my “real” friends on Facebook even acknowledged the project, but the following people from Twitter sent images:

@cogdog
@klbeasley
@marklukach
@onepercentyello
@MaryAnnReilly
@b_sheridan
@fceblog
@Cayusa
@moominsean

This is by no means a @zefrank project, but I feel it is special in it’s own way. Three people living in three different countries who had never met a few months ago made music together. Then another group of unrelated people felt a strong enough need to send images to a song many of them may have never even heard. I can write all night about the implications of a project like this, but I will let you do that in the comments. The important thing is the art we created. Without further adieu, nothing man:

So am I wrong? Is this not a big deal? What does a project like this mean to you and your classroom? What have we learned about ourselves, art, our new reality? I will wait to hear from you before I comment further.

But it is not over yet! What can you now do with this post, this song, this video? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. We are already talking about the next song ( I am leaning toward this one.) and maybe a name for the band. What do you think? Do you want to be involved? Leave it all in the comments where it belongs!