Back Up Out Of The Twitter Rabbit Hole And Other Musings...

Hard to believe that it has been almost six months since my last blog post - I truly did fall down the Twitter rabbit hole - was (and is) to type out that quick and witty (well I think they are witty) 140 charcter stream of consciousness than it was to sit down and think of something almost sensible to say...

Another advantage of Twitter is that with TweetDeck, I could kill two birds with one stone - tweet and post to Facebook (in fact other than Birthday greetings, I have not used the Facebook interface since I installed TweetDeck almost a year ago...).

While I find Twitter a good way to stay in touch and to get info - depending on who you follow it's almost a "headline" RSS feed - there is still very much room in my life for a blog and for other folk's blogs too (although I must confess I have not looked at Netvibes in months either - something I must get back too.

We're nearing the end of another full and busy academic year here at the College - convocation is next week and we are already in next year mode - seeing prospective students, looking at enrollment numbers (ours are great!), and all in all getting sorted out for another academic year - there is no longer any "down" time...

The two big pieces of tech news for me over the last few months are all Apple related - the release of the iPad and today's announcement of the new iPhone 4 - there is definiteky an iPhone 4 in my relatively immediate future, as for the iPad we have oredered some to try as teaching and learning platforms and to become more informed about their capabilities as we know students will strat showing up with them this fall.

I see the iPad as primarily a consumption machine, not a creation machine - Ira David Socol on his SpeEd Change blog has an interesting post on the iPad - check it out. I think the jury is still out on if the iPad can be successfully used as a learning tool in PSE - I suspect that in some programs it can and in some it cannot. I plan on using one this summer and fall as my " go to meetings" machine - note taking, file retrieval etc. I'll post on how it goes.

My cross Canada virtual trek continues - I think I'm somewhere in Saskatchewan I'll be updating those posts shortly - I did the Bluenose Marathon 5 KM walk/run this year for the third time - my goal was sub 50 minutes and I finished in a chip tine of 50:07.9 (shouldn't have tweetd at the 1 Km mark :-)). You can see my hard-earned medal above...

Well it is so good to be back up from deep in the Twitterverse - I've really missed that 141st character and all the ones that follow. Time to think and muse on what will be here next. Hmmm...

Adventure of a Lifetime...

My friend and colleague Dave Jellicoe, has just launched the adventure of a lifetime - for the next year (at least), he will be teaching in Japan at the Hohoku School in Sendai . You can follow his adventure at his blog, The Uncarved Block.

Have a blast Dave and stay in touch! Hmmm...

Shambhala ALIA Institute 2009 - Some Additional Thoughts and Images

It's been almost a week since ALIA 2009 came to a close and I'm still pondering and reflecting - one of the highlights of the week for me was the focus on self, the reflections of just what my skills were when it came to hosting and facilitating. I learned a lot, met some incredible people and have taken away some amazing stuff that I will be sorting through for some time to come.

I have come to some conclusions though:

• for me ALIA 2009 was a great experience - it was both relaxing and restorative after a very long academic year, yet stimulating and challenging. I was definitely forced out of my comfort zone several times during the week and I think that stretching was good for me.
• I am a very good educator and facilitator and have added to my tool kit and practice through what I have seen and participated in at ALIA 2009
• There is still a ton of stuff out there to learn and distill
• There is a place for the arts - music, dance, art, and more in education - we need to expres what is in us and for many that is through the arts - amazing people at ALIA
• My reflecting and analyzing of my experience at ALIA 2009 is far from over...

I've also posted some photos from the week on my Flickr site in a Photo set called "ALIA Institute 2009".

I suspect that I will posting additional thoughts on my ALIA 2009 experience. Stay tuned. Hmmm...

Shambhala ALIA Institute 2009 - A Few First After Thoughts...

It's been a couple of days since the end of ALIA 2009, and my head is still full of "stuff" ("stuff" is the universal technical term :-)). Thought I'd spend some time getting some of that stuff down here along with some of the links and resources shared by others during the week.

One of the benefits of going to ALIA this year is that it brought me back to being people-focussed. It's not that I am not people-focussed, I mean as an educator if you are not people-focussed, you have issues. It's just that after a long academic year, working with processes and policies, and procedures, the people-focus can at times become a little fuzzy. Mine is now sharp and crystal-clear - good timing as we move into the summer and planning for next year - hiring, enrollments, academic advising - all people-centric activities. At its core ALIA is about people, as any form of leadership should be - it's about the people around you and how they all best fit together.

ALIA and the Shambhala movement are definitely people-centric and in many ways self-centric too - it was good to rediscover some of that self through the meditation practice, through calligraphy, and through the modules and rich conversations - for me ALIA was like a spa for my mind...

Lots of resources and links available for anyone looking to learn more about ALIA or thinking of attending next year (I highly recommend it). The ALIA Web site does a great job of describing the institute. The best resources though are the ALIA Community (a Ning site I think), and in particular to ALIA 2009, the Summer Institute blog. If you want to know more about ALIA, the ALIA Community is a great place to start. Sign up and engage in the conversations...

One of the most interesting people I met at ALIA 2009 was Thomas Arthur - juggler, filmmaker and coach, he was the videographer and photographer for the week. Here is the video harvest he compiled that was shown at the closing ceremony:

Shambhala Summer Institute 2009 from ALIA on Vimeo.

Amazing stuff - the original video is at the ALIA Blog (lot's of great pictures of the week from Thomas too), and at Vimeo. Also, check out Thomas's company Woven Essence. He is a unique individual who would bring something special to your space.

Still more "stuff" to reflect on, so I suspect that this will not be my last post on ALIA 2009. A great week and now it's back to the campus and seeing where all this "stuff" fits. Hmmm...

Shambhala ALIA Institute 2009 - Day Five

Can it be Friday already? The past five days have literally flown by - hard to believe that ALIA 2009 is over. Well, the institute might be over by the thinking, reflecting and general going Hmmm... is just beginning, so I guess this would be the end of the beginning...

A great end to a great week. The principle today in our last module session was Clarity - bringing things together - we did a circle of younger-elder-middle - very powerful stuff - each takes that role and says a word or phrase of what comes to them. Interestingly enough younger and elder are very close as both are about self, while middle is different as the middle is about others - cool stuff and a very neat exercise. Think that may be why youngers and elders get along so well - they are asking the same questions (look at the relationship between a grandchild and their grandparents...).

Ended the session with Barbara getting us to make a last mark using a big brush - all done in silence and very powerful (one of my big "takeaways" from this week is the power of silence - something I will incorporate into my practice). I drew an open circle representing the importance of community and being open to invite more in.

Then in probably one of the most spiritual and intimate moments of the week Barbara was asked to make the final brush stroke, but before she did, each of us in turn took a moment to touch her - a way of adding some of us to the stroke - a wonderful moment. The picture above is her stroke, or perhaps it is our stroke? Lots of hugs as we ended and lots of picture which I'll get up on Flickr this weekend...

After lunch was a wrap-up of the wealth discussions started at the world cafe and what can tangibly be done - it took a turn away from leadership and more into the Shambhala spirit I thought, which was not a bad thing , but for me, not what I came to the Institute for. The closing event was really nice, with a video of the week and the presentation of a Shambhala pin and its significance to all first year attendees got a - done with great sincerity and reverence. I admire those who follow the Shambhala principles and spirit and I think that there is (and I have) a lot to learn from them.

The institute ended from my perspective, the only way it could with Barbara Bash making one final mark - here it is and you can get from it what you will - it is rich and full of meaning and I am sure that everyone who attended ALIA this year saw something unique in the brush stroke.


So what does it all mean? The full answer will take a while, but here is some what I've got so far:

• Silence is powerful, and rich, and full of thoughts and deeds - in many ways better than voice or sounds
• I am very good at what I do - I had a lot to offer and I did - I think it was appreciated by many as evidenced by the hugs and comments as we parted
• I like calligraphy - I am not good at it yet, but that does not matter, and I love the spiritualism, the quiet, the mystery of the stroke, and the relationship with the brush. The only thing that I have found in my life that comes close is hitting that perfect golf ball through a morning mist...
  
• Questions are the key (which is great because my colleagues, friends, and learners will tell you that some days all I do is ask questions - no answers, just questions) - just need to be better at crafting and asking
• In many ways, answers are not as important as we make them out to be - sometimes the best answer is another question
  
• It's not about the tools, it's about the hosting - letting go and checking your ego at the door
  
• Give up control to the field or community
  
• The module hosts this week were beyond amazing - I spent a lot of time watching them and how they interacted with us and each other - they had a plan, but were also flexible and open to allow us , the field or community to go where we needed to be. So if your group or community wants to do some exploring or learning you need to get Chris, or Tim, or Barbara to help you with that journey. And many thanks to Caitlin Frost too for her insights and for sharing Chris and her children with us this week - the brought some cool things to the mix. Thanks to you all, I learned so much from each of you and from all of us - thanks all!!
  

I know there is a lot more and as I review my notes and thoughts over the next few days and weeks that there will be more to say here - I loved the exercises we did and I will be bringing them "home" with me to add to what it is I do (and when I have that figured out, I will know where they all fit too :-)).

I will be back at ALIA next year - the modules and sessions were amazing and it was a transformational experience - I would recommend the experience to anyone looking to do some stretching and expanding of their comfort zone. I got a lot of validation from the week too - I know I'm very good at what I do, but rarely think of it that way in comparison to others - it was nice to see that a lot of what I do is OK. I'm not ready to be a Shambhala warrior anytime soon, but they do offer a lot of things to think about and that is never a bad thing. Hmmm...

Shambhala ALIA Institute 2009 - Day Four

Another full and amazing day at ALIA. I missed meditation this morning because there was a bunch of us in a great conversation about everything and nothing - what to see in NS, education, fishing, we were all over the place - very cool people :-).

The module session principle today was ? (or the principle formerly known as ? with apologies to Prince :-)). The practice of asking questions. I was in my glory :-) - I LOVE questions :-). One of the first things we talked about was what makes a powerful question? Here's the list:

• Simple & Clear
• Thought Provoking
• Generates Energy
• Focuses Inquiry
• Challenges Assumptions
• Creates New Possibility
• Evokes More Questions
• Fearlessness (came from the group)

Also came to the conclusion that when hosting or facilitating don't work alone, work with all - helps with the hard questions and avoids ego. We then did a neat exercise around elder, adult, and younger - what kinds of questions do each of the groups ask - very cool - at the end could have switched the title of the Younger questions sheet to Elder and they would have been relevant (if you think about that explains the close relationships many of us have jad with grandparents and why your kids may get along so well with their grandparents - they ask the same questions :-)) - very cool.

I took pictures of the sheets and will get them up on Flickr this weekend. Questions should change and shift and cause more questions. I got a lot of value from talking about questions - and again silence came up as a good tool for use with questions - key I have found with questions is that in many cases it's not the answer that is important, it's the next question, and the one after that that gets everyone engaged in the journey...

We then did an open spaces exercise - would love to try one at the College - I see some real practical uses for the technique to get learners and others involved in solving problems and making issues their own. I love the principles of Open Spaces:

• Whoever comes are the right people
• Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
• When it starts is the right time
• When it's over, it's over

The Law of Two Feet - when you don't like it use your two feet and leave :-). Lots of great open space resources at Chris Corrigan's Web site - (in fact check out his whole site along with those of Tim Merry and Barbara Bash - all are simply awesome and very useful).

The afternoon session was our second calligraphy session with Barbara - we got big brushes and ink today! :-). Drew four different characters and all done in silence - a very spiritual, relaxing, connected, wonderful, anxious, amazing experience - felt like you were in a relationship with the brush (sometimes you drew what you wanted and sometimes the brush drew what it wanted :-))- so relaxing - I may have to investigate further. Hmmm...

BTW I have been saying "Heaven, Heart, Human" all week and it's actually "Heaven, Earth, Human" - that's OK because my Heart is my Earth - my grounding, and my centre - it's a very neat and spiritual way to look at things...

Last session was a world cafe on what we can do about the world and wealth and community etc. - actual solutions to problems. Run simultaneously in three places - at ALIA, in Second Life, and on Skype (I'm a big fan of both - been in Second Life (SL) for over 3 years - I'm hondomac Dalgleish in SL , and I've had a Skype account even longer - no more long distance charges...). I thought they might have better integrated them all with voice, but they just read the transcripts from SL and Skype - a good start though, and proof that you can use virtual worlds and other technologies to connect with people. Next step would be live interaction between the three technologies to have one slightly larger world, complete with two-way voice and video - the technology exists to do that now...

Here's a look at the world cafe, Second Life style...


Many thanks to LoriVonne Lustre (in SL) for the postcard. If you are ever in Second Life, track down LoriVonne - she will greatly enhance your SL experience...

The week is drawing to a close, but I think much of my learning is just beginning - there has been a lot of great information and discussion this week - now the distilling, reflecting and actual using of those principles, tools, and techniques that work for my situations begins. Welcome to the end of the beginning. Hmmm...

Shambhala ALIA Institute 2009 - Day Three

Another interesting day at ALIA - I even managed to keep my eyes open for most of the meditation session this morning :-).

Today in the module we looked at emergence, what is starting to emerge from our discussions on hosting etc. There was a lot of silence today - my God I never realized how powerful silence was - I plan on using it a lot more - again in the circle we were asked to say what had emerged for us - I said a deeper awareness and the knowledge that silence was as powerful or more powerful than voice or noise. The power and energy of the shared thoughts in the circle and in the room were quite palpable

We did a very cool exercise working with limiting beliefs. We were asked to pick a group (I picked learners), and to write down beliefs about them that were negative or limiting - so I wrote down things like frustration, lack of effort, not coming to class etc. The one I chose for the exercise was "Learners work hard at avoiding work". We then paired up (I got lucky and was paired up with Chris Corrigan - amazing guy...) and went through a facilitated discussion that was almost completely silent except for some guiding questions and gentle facilitating - I think it would be amazing to try with faculty or even learners. Some of the guiding questions asked were:

1. Is it true?
2. Can you absolutely know it is true?
3. How do you react - what happens when you believe that thought?
4. Who would you be without that thought?

Then we turned the thought/belief around - very powerful stuff.


Balanced rocks - what do they mean to You? Balance, synergy, community - connectedness? Hmmm...

We were then sent on a 10 minute silent aimless walk after which we came back and made an ink stroke on a piece of paper - mine was a diagonal line across the page - meant journey and two sides and a lot more to me :-)



Had an interesting session this afternoon on complementary currencies - some of teh examples include LETS Local Exchange Trading Systems (here is a link to a list of LETS worldwide) , the Onion River Exchange, Global Community Initiatives, and LASER were some of the resources mentioned - brief economics lesson on the difference between currency and money and then a look at different types of complementary currencies - there are a lot of them around - seen by some as the salvation of the world economies (complementary currencies are not new - depression-era "scrip" was one of the examples shown). Annapolis Royal has set up a complementary currency. The concept of the various kinds of complimentary currencies and the power and stability they can bring a community are some things to think about. How would the introduction of complementary currencies in Canada (besides the business ones we know like Air Miles, Aeroplan, and Canadian Tire Money...) effect our economy? Or do we already have large scale use of complimentary ecomonies hhere - we just call is volunteerism? I like the idea of a time bank as a way to increase community activism and engagement.

Another great day at ALIA - I think I'm starting to get the big picture of "Heaven, Heart, and Human" and how I might apply it to parts of my life. Another full day tomorrow...

(Currency and Community Image from Gwendolyn Hallsmith)

Shambhala ALIA Institute 2009 - Day Two

Another wonderful day at ALIA. Started this morning with 45 minutes of mindful meditation - went better than yesterday - almost kept my eyes open the whole time :-). I found the experience restful and at the same time difficult - lots of adjusting to find my centre and trying to clear my mind - it's obviously a life-long practice that requires a lot of commitment and practice.

The module session today was good - some very cool exercises to build community and we went through both an appreciative inquiry and world cafe exercise. One of the exercises involves putting people in a circle then selecting someone who folds their arms over their chest, closes their eyes and is launched into the circle by someone - they keep walking until someone on the edge of the circle stops them and sends them off in a different direction. You then slowly add more blind walkers to the mix and watch the fun happen - people on the edge holding walkers so they don't collide and sending off in a clear direction - I think it would be a great ice breaker for classrooms, and at our own faculty and staff development program.

The afternoon session on calligraphy was amazing - who knew drawing lines could be so spiritual and involve the body as much or more than the mind... We weren't trusted with ink today - a very good thing :-) (we get ink on Thursday :-)), so we drew lines with water on paper - a very cool, focussed, and yet relaxing exercise. Also did some body movement to get the feel of how the body moves through calligraphy - Tai Chi based. Barbara Bash was the facilitator and she is amazing - she has such a calma nd commanding presence. She passed on a poem about calligraphy from one of her mentors:

Bone Heavy
Spirit Light
Heart Even
Intention Far
True Interest
Self Expressed
Upright Energy
Dives and Swirls

(Professor Chong Man'Ching - translated from Chinese)

It captures the art and life of calligraphy perfectly for me.

So much is floating around in my head after the first two days of ALIA - I'll keep twittering and blogging my thoughts, but some of the things I've captured so far are:

• Heaven, Earth, Human
• Do everything with intention
• Wealth is all around us and in many ways has nothing to do with money
  
• Silence is as important as noise
• Let communities form themselves from within - guide, don't direct (already knew that one!)

I've taken a few photos of what we've been creating together and I will eventually get them posted to my Flickr photostream.

Another day full of ideas, and notions, and intentions and a lot of things that made me go Hmmm...

CNIE 2009 Ottawa - Day Three

The first session I attended on Day Three of CNIE 2009 was "BOLD - Blended Online Learning Design - An International Research Initiative". The study Web site is BOLD-Research.org. The study was conducted at two universities ("X" and "Y"). Several things came out of study:

• A mix of synchronous and asynchronous online delivery was best - a psychological and sociological connection develops with faculty and learners
  
• Flexibility was a key element liked by faculty, learners and others surveyed
• Equity of access was important (comparing F2F and online)

Instructional Designer feedback included:

• Potential to create more active learning environments
• Important for ESL learners - can re-read and review multiple times
• Easier to monitor learner participation

Learner Feedback included:

• Flexibility
• Quality
• Group Reflection

Faculty Feedback included:

• Ease
• Flexibility
• Everything at their fingertips

There was lower attrition in synchronous courses as compared to asynchronous course - learners wanted a synchronous component to foster group and community.

An ongoing study, BOLD validate a lot of my thoughts on what works in any delivery method - we really do need to be delivery agnostic - focus on strong outcomes and course development that creates the best course possible that can be delivered in multiple ways. Hmmm...

The second session of the morning was "Computer Learning 2.0 - A (Re)Design" This seesion was presented by three librarians from Red Deer College. The team, resonsible for computer learning at Red Deer College moved to a project-based multiple modes of delivery system of computer training at RDC. They shifted to projects with rubrics - learners needed to apply learning and higher level thinking to complete projects as opposed to completing "Menu" style assignments. They came up with some really innovative projects that not only allowed learners to grasp and obtain the technical skills that they needed, but also developed critical thinking and problem-solving skills too.

They have developed a series of online "Lib Guides", including one for this presentation - very cool stuff.

The closing keynote, "Fuelling Innovation Through Millennial Entrepreneurship" was by Andrew Fisher, Executive VP at Wesley Clover, an investment vehicle for Terry Matthews, founder of Newbridge Networks and Mitel among other companies.

Much of his presentation had to do with how innovation and entrepreneurship went together and that as innovative educators there was much we could do with regards to commercialization etc. of our innovative ideas and products.

An OK presentation, but I felt that he didn't really "grab" the audience, probably not always an easy thing to do on closing a conference. He did have a valid point - as educators we do nee dto at least think about entrepreneurship and commercialization and organizations like Wesley Clover who could support further innovation. Hmmm...

CNIE 2009 Ottawa - Day Two Sessions

The first session the day that I attended was " Canada's e-PhDs". It was a review of current e-PhD programmes online - their challenges, retention and professional socialization. It is anticipated that the growth of e-PhD programmes will be exponential which is a great thing for someone like me who is currently exploring online doctoral programme options (if anyone know of an online EdD programme that costs less than $40 K, please let me know).

Interestingly enough, a quick comparison was done with residential PhD programes. Residential programmes have the following charateistics:

• No formal prep for teaching, service, or positions outside academe
• 50% completion rate
• 7-8 years to complet
• 4-5 years to withdraw
• Distance ed completion rate 60%

Some food for thought. All in all an interesting survey of online programmes from a retention perspective, but not the information session that I had expected.

The next session I sat in on was presented by my NSCC colleagues Carolyn and Kelly - An Online Chemo Prep Programme for Cancer Care Nova Scotia - this was an amazing programme delivered online to a total of 75 pharmacy technicians around NS on chemo preparation, to ensure standard approaches and practices in the mixing of these toxic medicines.

The program was delivered using Elluminate and a discussion board with a hands on "playbox" - inexpensively made up of the tools and equipment used in chemo prep. Learners used the playbox to practice and the theory was delivered and discussed through Elluminate and the discussion board. All participants got together face to face once to take an OSPE - and Objective Standardized Practical Exam.

This was an amazing programme that sets an example for delivering any intensive hands on course online through the combination of a "playbox" and an OSPE - very very cool and I will be definitely looking at this model for delivering such courses as IT hardware and networking. Great job Carolyn and Kelly!!...

The next session was "Developing a Community of Inquiry in a Mobile Learning Context" and was delivered by a team from Athabasca University. Much of the world (China was mentioned with over 500,000,000 mobile devices) is going directly from little technology right to mobile devices and this team has developed a model for mobile learning. One of the questions they are investigating is how is learning the same and different on a mobile device? To date there has not been a lot of research done on mobile technology and mobile learning, but as Clarke (1994) said - "learning doesn't change because the medium changes". Hmmm... I wonder if that is really true?

The remainder of the session discussed their evolving model of mobile learning which includes a device aspect, a learner aspect, and a social aspect with an information context (it's represented by a complex Venn diagram). Interesting stuff and something to think about. They did provide a great rubric and it's located here - http://galileo.org/research/publications/rubric.pdf - check it out...

The last session of the day was "Project-Based, Competency-Based Blended Program Innovation" by Dr. Michael Sutton of Westminster College in Salt Lake City.

This is an amazing accellerated professional degree completion program for business people looking for a BBA - no courses, but a series of competency assessed projects that run in project streams, each stream a major competency. a totalof over 40 major comptencies were identified in conjunction with business leaders and they were grouped in sets.

Learners need a miniumum of six years of business experience tp get in and the programme takes approx 18 months to complete if done in contiguous semesters.

This is the way adult education should be delivered - not hung up on courses and grades but focussed on applied project learning an competencies - a very cool presentation and a great way to deliver adult education...

Day Two was a little more mixed in the quality of the presentations, but the information was great and very thought provoking - a lot of learning that will take some time to reflect upon. Hmmm...

CNIE 2009 Ottawa - Day Two Keynote

Day Two of CNIE 2009 brought another full day of sessions and twittering. The day began with a keynote from Dr. Thierry Karsenti. A copy of his keynote will be available on his Web site. He talked about "ICT and Education - Information and Communications Technologies in Medical Education - The Major Challenges". Interesting method of presentation - most of the keynote was in French with English slides (and simultaneous translation) - a truly Canadian approach.

Dr. Karesnti identified four main challenges:

1. Preparing physicians for the changing behaviours of Internet savvy patients
2. Patients can readily interact with healthcare professionals without leaving home
3. To motivate physicians in training to use ICT to find information, learn, and develop
4. To change medical education practices

Patients are changing - now much more participative in their own healthcare and medical knowledge is no longer the perogative of health care experts. ICT needs to be seen as a way to get patients more engaged in their health care not as a nuisance - this creates serious challenges to the way initial and continuing medical education is done.

Telemedicine is becoming increasingly common, as are digital patient files and the increased use of handheld and other mobile devices. There is a need to raise the awareness of the benefits of ICT to physicians in training - ICT training should be manadatory in initial and continuing medical training (in any professional training for that matter).

Virtual communities and blogs are on the increase in medicine - Ask Dr.Wiki for example - that are directly targeting medical students and practitioners.

To better prepare physicians to deal with patients who may be better informed of their condition than the physician, ICT training needs to be compulsory inmedical education.

An interesting keynote that while not only pointing out the need for ICT training and skills in modern medicine, made the point that these skills and knowledge are pretty much required universally in all walks of life. A great start to the day...

CNIE 2009 Ottawa - Learning Is A Team Sport

This post is about the presentation that my colleague, Carolyn (randommind), and I gave at CNIE 2009 Monday afternoon (right after lunch in fact). The subject was "Learning Is A Team Sport, Or a Conversation About Learning In The New Millennium". Our presentation can be found on SlideShare if you want to take a look.

First just let me say that both of us had a blast presenting. This was the first time presenting at a national conference for both of us and quite frankly, I cannot wait to do it again. Much of the credit for that has to go to the incredibly engaged audience we had - the room was full and they played along with us.

The genesis of our presentation came out of a roundtable discussion that I had about a year ago at NSCC's Festival of Learning - many of our faculty come from a learning environment that was based on the individual - test, the term paper was king, a teacher told you what and how to learn, and that this is no longer where we or our learners are. As faculty we need to understand that learning is now in fact a collaborative process - between faculty and learners and between learners and learners and that we need to figure out what that means.

The presentation was interactive and participative, probably a good thing for right after lunch. I began with a simulation of the old classroom - "Sit down! Be quiet! Put your books away, pay attention to me, you are going to learn!". That seemed to get everyone's attention and allowed both of us to introduce ourselves and begin our conversation about learning as a team sport.

From there we moved on to a sorting exercise where my co-presenter asked a series of questions to separate the audience and to also get the audience to begin to know and understand each other. It's an amazing way to get learners to know each other and to get to know your learners. Carolyn did an amazing job of the sort - she owned the room and she was getting compliments well into today. For many of our audience it was the single biggest take away.

We then posed two questions:

1. Does this impact the way we teach?
2. What does all this mean to you?

The audience then did a Think-Pair-Share for 10 minutes (we only had one hour for the presentation). Once the time was up we asked for people to share their answers to our questions and the answers were quite amazing.

We heard the following:

• How do I do this with little or no support from my organization?
• How do I assess learning that's collaborative? (Maybe that's next year's presentation.)
• Lots of comments on how they could use the sort activity in their courses both face to face and online. The sort was the highlight of the presentation
  

There were several more absolutely amazing comments, but we were both so absorbed in the conversations that neither of us took any notes. Next time we get pwople to tweet :-). The line of the conference may have come out of our conversations around the questions when one of the audience referred to the old style teacher-centric model as "full frontal teaching" - it was an apt description and was quickly twittered across the conference and beyond.

The presentation was over before we knew it - what an amazing hour and thanks to everyone who attended for being so collaborative and giving - you all clearly demonstrated that learning is indeed a team sport. I learned so much that I will "collaboratively re-purpose" and use in my own practice. The greatest thanks though must go to my co-presenter - together we did an amazing job that we could not have done alone. Thanks so much Carolyn...

CNIE 2009 Ottawa - The Crackerbarrel

My apologies for not blogging sooner, but between a wonky Internet connection (very little wireless in the hotel. Note to self - travel with a network cable...) and a very busy and interesting CNIE 2009, it's been an effort to post.

CNIE 2009 has been a great conference so far and I'll describe it in detail in future posts. The conference got off to a great start with a crackerbarrel - a combination opening ceremony and round table discussions. Some of the tables I sat at included:

• Web 2.0 - The Dark Side - an interesting conversation around what is difficult or bad about Web 2.0 - for me very little, but for many of the K-12 ecucators attending, the issue of cyber-bullying has become a big one. I wonder, is this something that we as PSE eductors have to be concerned about? Hmmm...
• Is Your Avatar Student Better Than the Real One? Learning Opportunities in Virtual Environments - a lively discussion on teh efficacy of Second Life as an educational and learning tool (I think it's an amazing educational opportunity).
• Graduate Study Online - Teaching and Learning Persepctives - we talked about graduate level education online - does the same rigour and scholarly work occur in an online programme - the consensus was that they did (which I agree with having an online graduate degree myself).

A great way to start off the conference and get to start that networking process that I always find so energizing...

CNIE 2009 Ottawa

I'm off to Ottawa later this morning to attend CNIE 2009. CNIE, the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education, is a national organization of professionals committed to excellence in the provision of innovation in education in Canada.

I am also co-presenting at the conference with a colleague - this will be my first presentation at a national conference and I'm really looking forward to it. We are presenting on "Learning is a Team Sport - Or a Conversation On Learning In The New Millennium". It should be a lot of fun.

I'll be blogging my conference experiences, and for the first time I'll also be twittering (hondomac if you want to follow along) during the conference as well, using the hash tag #cnie2009. That will be a new experience for me, and hopefully one that will help me better understand the use of Twitter as a learning tool.

Well, off to pack. See you in Ottawa!!...

(Image - CNIE Logo)

Strengths Advocate Training - Gallup University Omaha - Day Three...

Today wrapped up Strengths Advocate training here in Omaha. Today centred on strength coaching and ways to get others (and us) to better understand strengths, to begin to see some tendencies with strengths (although everyone is different, so tendencies should never carry too much weight), and start to think about next steps.

The biggest next step for me is that the training we have had this week is just the beginning - we need to keep the strengths-based conversations going and to have people share their accomplishments and what they have done.One way to do that is through Winner cards, a tangible artifact of a strengths conversation, particularly useful for talking strengths and performance.

took a look at the resources available for strengths and some of teh worshops and sessions that as an advovate I can now deliver to my colleagues - really looking forward to that opportunity.

We reviewed some other ways of looking at strengths keeping in mind that the outcomes need to always be kept in mind. One way to look at strengths is that they relate to:

• Strive
• Think
• Relate

Most of my signature themes are in the Think domain, with some in the other two - another way of looking at thngs. Strengths can also be looked at as how they rekate to time:

• Past
• Present
• Future

Some strengths rely on the past - information, experiences etc., some rely on the here and now, and some are future looking.

Finally strengths can be looked at as either being Initiators or Relators - all of these different ways of looking at strengths may help people take them on board and that is the key - developing a strengths language and culture in your institution that makes sense.

A lot of information over the last three days to take in and distill. My Input and Intellection themes will be working overtime the next few days as I assimilate what I have learned and my Responsibility theme will ensure that I will be posting about it here. I'm also going to go back and talk to the other strengths advocates at my College and start the conversation about developing an advocate network so we can be getting out our institution's message on strengts (my Achiever, Developer, and Contextthemes in action...). Hmmm...

Strengths Advocate Training - Gallup University Omaha - Day Two...

Day Two began with a discussion of the four domains of strengths leadership. These domains are:

1. Executing
2. Influencing
3. Relationship Building
4. Strategic Thinking

My signature themes lie mostly in the Executing and Strategic Thinking domains, which fits with who I and many others think I am. I picked up a copy of Gallups's latest strengths book "Strengths Based Leadership", which describes the domains in detail and contains a code to take a leadership-focussed Strengths inventory (which I will do shortly).

We talked more about strengths coaching and how to ensure that any discussion around strengths needs to be in context - strengths need to be discussed in context or they are not relevent to the individual or team. Several of the exrecises and activities developed by Gallup were reviewed as a way of presenting strengths in context so that meaningful strengths conversations can be held.

We then took turns presenting our strengths implementation plans (yesterday's homework) - in our case we talked about how to best introduce strengths and employee success to our colleagues on the campus.

We then wrapped up the day with an amazing discussion with Shane Lopez, Gallup's senior scientist in residence about some of the latest research being conducted at Gallup around strengths - an incredible comnverstaion. They have developed principles of strength-based education that provide a framework and introduction to strengths.

The day focussed on coaching and the use of strengths - how to help others understand their themes and what they mean - tips, hints, and exercises to assist in the implementation of strengths. All in all a very interesting day. My head is full of ideas about how to engage in strengths conversations with my colleagues (there's that Intellection strength coming through again). Hmmm...

Strengths Advocate Training - Gallup University Omaha - Day One...

The first day of Strengths Advocate training at Gallup University happened today in a sunny and warm (64F) Omaha. we spent most of the day reviewing in depth the 34 strength themes that make up the strengths process.

One of the interesting things that came out of the day was that while two people might have the same strength, it is different based on the other strengths they have and the items in the inventory that identifies that strength. Two people can have the same themes and be completely different - and that is not only OK, but perfectly natural.

It was interesting to see all 34 themes – it is revealing :-).

My top 10 strengths themes are:

1. Learner
2. Intellection
3. Input
4. Achiever
5. responsibility
6. Arranger
7. Activator
8. Relator
9. Developer
10. Context

And my bottom 5 are:

1. Empathy
2. Maximizer
3. Competition
4. WOO
5. Individualization

All in all a pretty accurate description of who I am (for those of you who know me, what do yiu think?). The best part of the day was this afternoon when we had one on one strengths coaching sessions – lasted over an hour, going over all 34 of the themes – the facilitator was excellent, describing me accurately just from my strengths! It was quite impressive and an amazing discussion. She felt that some people find me intimidating because of my intellectual capacity and approach, my need to be learning and acquiring information, and all the thinking I do (I hope that isn’t true - the intimidating part, not the thinking part). We both agreed that I spend a lot of time in my own head thinking – and that saying “NO!“ is a difficult thing for me to do (but I am trying to learn, so just say NO!!). It may explain my overly long blog posts, among other things. Hmmm...

Strengths Advocate Training - Gallup University Omaha - Travel Day...

Greetings from Omaha!! Today was your basic 12 hour travel day from Halifax to Omaha (ever notice how no matter how far you have to travel by air, it always seems to be at least a 12 hour travel day? Hmmm...).

Left Halifax this morning in fog and drizzle - arrived at OHare in Chicago in sunshine and 50 F - about the same here in Omaha (well it's night now, but you get the idea). My Lounge access card was denied in Chicago (thank you United and Air Canada), the same card I have used to access the lounge for years (I'll be sorting that out before the return trip). So it was a poor Boingo paid for wireless access in the terminal that wouldn't let me access anything Google or Facebook (hard to type when rocking back and forth in the fetal position muttering "it won't connect!, it won't connect!). Also my first trip to the USA with my new iPhone and I'm singularly umimpressed with the AT&T service - 3G wouldn't let me connect to either GMail or my college e-mail, something I never have an issue with at home - the iPhone experiment continues...

Arrived early in Omaha and am now firmly ensconced in the Embassy Suites Downtown/Old Market. Strengths Advocate training begins Tuesday - tomorrow is decompress and acclimatize day maybe a trip to the zoo to see Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom (I can hear Marlin Perkins telling us what danger Jim is in - Jim just never learned... :-)). The Old Market District here in Omaha is very eclectic too (for those of you home think Historic properties but much bigger and less Maritime and with lots of funky stores and entertainment). Hmmm...

(Picture from Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau)

Strengths Advocate Training - Gallup University Omaha

I'm off later today to spend next week at Gallup University in Omaha Nebraska to take part in Strengths Advocate training. We are using Strengths as part of our Employee Success Plannig process - later this year we will be rolling it out to our faculty and staff.

The Strengths Advocate training will give me a more in depth understanding of the Strengths process and will allow me to facilitate strengths training on my campus. I'm really looking forward to a busy and enjoyable week - it's great to be a learner again!

I'll be blogging the week and Twittering too (hondomac if you want to follow along). So it's off to the airport I go...

(Picture - StrengthsQuest Home)

Learning Is A Team Sport...

I've been thinking a lot lately about how learning is changing (has changed?), influenced by paradigm shifts away from books and content towards the Internet, connections, and learning communities.

I chaired a round table discussion on "Learning Is a Team Sport" at our college's Festival of Learning. This post covers the highlights of that discussion and some of the thoughts we all came up with.

Here are my opening premises for the discussion:

• There is so much information out there and so many information sources, that it is becoming (or maybe already is) impossible to learn on your own, that as educators we need to be aware of this fundamental change and be prepared to teach and learn differently.
• This means more collaboration and cooperation between learners and between educators, an awareness of learning styles and a need to develop authentic curriculum and assessment
• Technology of all types will be increasingly important

With these points in mind we began our discussion. One of the first points raised is how different our learning environments were to the learning environments of our learners. When I went to school, individual learning was paramount - the term paper and tests were king. The main sources of my learning information were:

• Books
• Encyclopedia
• Newspapers
• Radio

Today's learners have a different set of information sources:

• Internet - Podcasts, RSS, Web sites, vidcasts...
  
• YouTube
• iTunes
• 24/7 500 Channel TV
• Books
• Newspapers
• Radio
• And more not yet even thought of...
  

The sheer volume of information is overwhelming - how do you make sense of it all? What is true and what is false? How do you apply context to all this "stuff"? (In this instance, "stuff" is a technical term...)

So what does all this information mean? It means that new approaches to learning are required:

• New approaches to information gathering
• Information evaluation, validation and interpretation - new literacy skills
• Collaboration and cooperation in information gathering and analysis
• “Skimming” or “Diving” the information sea - breadth or depth of knowledge

The rest of our discussions centred around the so whats - here are some of the highlights:

• Need to understand learners and how the not only learn but how they find information and what they do with it -“while N-Gens interact with the world through multimedia, online social networking, and routine multitasking, their professors tend to approach learning linearly, one task at a time, and as an individual activity that is centered largely around printed text…” - Innovate - Will Richardson

• When does collaboration become cheating?
  “Students see collaboration where their teachers see cheating. They're not even talking the same language. They don't have the same understanding of the world.” - NSCC Colleague

There was an awful lot of discussion around the second point as it is a current "hot button" topic. We encourage collaboration and cooperation and then we accuse learners of cheating. I personally think we need to re-invent exactly what we mean by cheating (plagiarism, copying, non-citing of sources, cutting and pasting from the Web...) so that we are on the same page as our learners (see the first bullet).

So what do we have to do as educators to engage in this new playing field?

• Be Tech savvy
• Understand our learners
• Use project and problem-based approaches to learning (connecting learners to their world)
• Stay in touch with industry
• Allow learners to learn how THEY learn, not how WE learn
• Emphasize collaboration and cooperation - know the new paradigm

These were the main points presented for discussion - there was a level of concern expressed about how to best do this - it's a work in progress for many educators who not only learned in the individual learning days, but have delivered that style of learning for many years. Most see the need to engage in team learning, the problem is we need to know the rules in order to play the game.

It was an interesting, informative, and somewhat passionate discussion that gave all of us lots to think about. The key from my perspective is that learning is now a team sport and we have to get on the field and into the game. If we don't we will be doing our learners a great disservice. Hmmm...

(If you want to see my presentation it's up on SlideShare)