Do You Have Time for a "31 Day Game"?

When I returned from Educon in 2010, I had an idea that has now had a chance to percolate for a full year. It's an idea that attempts to focus the thinking of a networked educators, providing us with common reference points for personal and professional learning. With the goal of further enhancing the toolkit for tweeting teachers, I have a proposal for the first ever professional learning game or PLG.

"What if..."
In introducing Twitter to colleagues, would it be useful to have access to a wide range of articles, videos and presentations that had been considered by the network to be worthy of deeper reflection? Might a month-long debate regarding the potential of educational resources allow educators to demonstrate critical thinking, inventiveness and openness? What will happen if teachers around the world are invited to participate in a common asynchronous conversation? Wouldn't it be great for teachers to be able to point to a specific body of knowledge and resources that were known to just about every teacher on Twitter?

Each day during the month of March, I propose that we consider two competing resources before ultimately voting for one of these tools to advance in a head-to-head playoff format. The 31 Day Game would culminate with a head-to-head competition among the top resources... on the 31st day of the month.

The game can be played at any hour of the day, but would only take place during a month that has 31 days. Each game would have room for the collaborative consideration of 32 topics. Future events might include:
1] a critical review of Web 2.0 tools;
2] a contest to select an 'Educator's Choice' book for a PLN book club; or
3] a fun head-to-head tweeting competition.

It all begins March 1st, but not until we narrow down the field to 32 Compelling Messages for Teacher-Learners. Nominate your favourite video, news story, or blog post by competing this short survey.

Over the past few years, we've seen educators make outstanding use of Twitter for personal and professional learning. Maybe you were around when we organized the first synchronous chats for education? Whether or not you've participated in time-specific chats, what do you say to taking it up a notch with the 31 Day Game!

Photo Credit: Leo Reynolds; ex_libris

A Twitter Experiment

How can Twitter, or other back-channel tools, foster the interactive exploration of course content?

Whether you want to engage more participants; to encourage tangential conversations; to give voice to the less vocal; or to archive discussions for future reference, the student responses to this 'experiment' are reason enough for consider adding a back-channel to your next lesson.

Kesmit-ing: The Twitter Experiment - Bringing Twitter to the Classroom at UT Dallas - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

The Launch of Educhat

For the past many weeks, bloggers and other journalists have been leveraging Twitter to host live synchronous chats on a variety of topics related to the field journalism. On Monday evenings in Twitter you'll notice a spike in the use of the hashtag #journchat as a wide-ranging discussion is hosted by a user with the same name.


What might happen if educators take a cue from Journchat?
Over at the Twitter for Teachers evolving e-book, there are many uses of Twitter being shared, and one event that we'd like to launch is the first formal Educhat.

When will the first Educhat take place?
The first formal Educhat is slated for next Monday, March 9th, from 8:30-9:30 Eastern Time. The first chat will last one hour, with future chats lasting from 1-2 hours in length.

What do I need in order to participate?
1] Follow Educhat on Twitter
2] The use of a tool like Tweetdeck, Monitter, or TweetGrid is recommended to follow the discussion.
3] If so inclined, suggest a question/topic.
4] Set aside time to participate.
5] Use the tag #educhat in your responses.

Who hosts the meetings?
I've created a Twitter ID called Educhat that can be shared among moderators of the discussion, any given week. To participate, you simply need to follow this user, and to respond to the prompts.

What will we talk about?
Questions and topics are now being accepted in an online survey over at the Educhat page. While we could discuss many topics in a given evening, it is currently thought that each week would see discussions focused on a single broad topic. Topics might include: Assessment & Evaluation; Boys and Reading; Media in the Classroom; Personal Learning Networks; Google Tools; Communicating with the Community; Web 2.0 Apps; Role Playing; Assessment & Evaluation

Why use Twitter?
Twitter allows anyone and everyone to respond, and offers a simple way to collect the responses of participants. As opposed to a live audio chat, the microblog interface allows you to split your attention among lesson planning; television shows; parenting and the engaging conversation via Educhat.

What if I miss it?
The entire discussion will be accessible by simply searching the tag #educhat via Twitter Search.

Will you join us?
Please feel free to leave a comment on Why? or Why not?

Photo Credit: Wordle

Exams as Circumstantial Evidence

While our high school students prepare for final exams, I'm left to ponder how these snapshots came to yield so much weight.

In a discussion with colleagues earlier today, I suggested that the written test is best considered as 'circumstantial evidence' of student learning. More often than not, and exam indicates little more than which student studied, and to what degree they paid attention to the right material.

Rather than rely on the information provided on a written test, I await the day that teachers rely on anecdotal evidence as the best measure of student learning. Certainly an educator's first-hand observations taken in documentation of rich performance tasks, or culminating projects would be more telling than first draft handwritten exam responses. Teacher-student discussions in the midst of such experiences allow all types of learners to 'show what they know'.

It was back in April when members of the blogosphere publicly debated in response to Will Richardson's query "When Are We Going to Stop Giving Kids Tests That They Can Cheat On?" The shortest blog post I've read this year, generated great discussion on this topic.

As experts in learning, it is teachers themselves who need to rally against the traditional exam. While it will take a special teacher to even open this conversation in a staff room, the discussion following Will's post is a terrific place to begin the dialogue.


For a humourous example of how I survived oral exams in university, you might be interested in re-visiting the "Tale of the Tell-tale Toes" episode of the Teacher 2.0 podcast. New today: Choice Matters.

Photo Credit: ccarlstead; beatsrhymesnlife

Innovation is Possible... in Staff rooms!

Innovation exists in the meeting of minds!

With Twitter misbehaving of note, I was lucky enough to chance upon a few tweets late in the afternoon, that drew me to an engaging conversation that was being hosted by a number of fellow Canadian twitterers, bloggers, and podcasters who were lucky enough to be invited to Microsoft's Innovative Teachers Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

I captured 100 seconds of the discussion, and have shared it below so that you can see what true innovation is: Teachers, meeting on their own time, to engage in rich professional dialogue. Clarence Fisher acted as host of the impromptu gathering to discuss issues related to the question: "Is Innovation possible in Classrooms"

Beyond the richness of the discussion, this experience offered a rare opportunity: the chance to participate in a 'staff room' conversation with Clarence Fisher, Ben Hazzard, Joan Badger, Darren Kuropatwa, Chris Harbeck, Kathy Cassidy, John Evans and those on the back-channel including Alex Couros (until he had to board a plane), Jen Jones, Dean Sharesky (on screen as co-host), David Jakes and others.



Whether or not innovation comes to classrooms any time soon, one thing is for sure: Innovation in staff rooms will have to happen first. Today, I was lucky enough to witness first hand, what an innovative staff room might look and sound like!