Qualitative research, wicked problems, and the teacher-learner

This past week, as I began reading Piantanida and Garman's (2009, Kindle edition) The Qualitative Dissertation: A Guide for Students and Faculty, it occurred to me that qualitative research is akin to a "wicked problem."   

The "wicked problem" truism originated from a 1973 essay by Rittell and Webber, titled "Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning." The authors describe the impact of pluralism and postmodernism on skilled professionals (teachers, academics, policymakers, city planners, and so on). Societal challenges once deemed simple, e.g. the formulation of school curricula, had evolved such that "professionalized cognitive and occupational styles that were refined in the first half of the century" were no longer adequate for addressing them (p. 156). 

I first encountered the concept of "wicked problems" in the instructional technology literature, in which researchers refer to the wicked problem of teaching with digital tools. Teaching, an already complex activity, is made more unpredictable by pressure to integrate continually evolving and "protean" technologies (Koehler & Mishra, 2008). Moreover, the recent influx of digital and mobile technologies into society arrived on the heels of another sweeping societal trend: the school reform movement and its demands for domain mastery and content area expertise. 

The convergence of these trends imposes a significant dilemma for teachers. One begs for structure, accountability, and standardization of practice; the other requires "flexible and integrated bases of knowledge" (Koehler & Mishra, 2008, p. 3). One defines expertise as a matter of curriculum implementation; the other views expertise as a matter of design, teacher as both designer and student of the curriculum. Wicked problems, indeed.

Recognizing qualitative research as wicked problem

Wicked problems are ill-defined and require an entirely new orientation to work/job performance, goal formulation, and one's own self-understanding as a competent expert. "This is partly because the classical paradigm of science and engineering -- the paradigm that has underlain modern professionalism -- is not applicable to the problems of open societal systems" (Rittell & Webber, p. 160). I initially interpreted this as a profound mandate in favor of qualitative research.

And yet, according to Piantanida and Garman, the study and conduct of qualitative research itself suggests another wicked problem! 

Piantanida and Garman characterize qualitative research as an ill-defined and complex domain, encompassing a variety of ideas, definitions, methods, and strategies. "Tremendous amounts of time, energy, and money can be consumed in a fruitless quest for a straightforward explanation of a complex field of study," they warn (Ch. 2, "Variations in deliberative inclination," para 1). 

Photo by adamr, courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

How many of us have the bowed bookshelves and bulging Amazon balances to back up that claim?

Further, doing qualitative research is especially difficult for the aspiring teacher-researcher, whose workaday world is framed by innumerable top-down mandates and externally imposed performance standards. When teachers return to graduate school, they may be taken aback by the expectation of self-learning and introspection associated with writing a dissertation, much less a qualitative one. They may experience frustration when they discover there is no "recipe, formula, or template" to address their "action-oriented concerns" (Piantanida & Garman, Preface, para 5). 

Becoming a teacher-learner
Lovitts (2005) describes the "critical transition" that graduate students make between completing coursework requirements and embarking on independent research projects. At some point, the graduate student must move beyond the role of knowledge greeter/consumer to knowledge seeker/producer. In this process, the attainment of discrete knowledge and skills is less important than the student's ability to leverage a variety of "personal and social resources" (p. 140). According to Lovitts, these "variables" are poorly understood due to "the educational system's over-valuation of analytical intelligence and other norms in graduate education that promote intellectual conformity" (p. 151).

This should come as no surprise to anyone acquainted with the U.S. educational system. Schools in general (and the researchers who study them) put a premium on cognition at the expense of creativity, sociability, and other "idiosyncratic" processes. Why would it be any different for students at the highest levels of academe? This over-emphasis on accountability to predefined standards of excellence creates, at best, throngs of "good course-takers" and, at worst, murderous rampages, such as the one Lovitts describes at the beginning of her article.

Enter the teacher-as-student. According to Piantanida and Garman, the critical transition is unsettling for K-12 teachers, long socialized as consumers and disseminators of knowledge. The teacher's transition ironically may be hindered rather than helped by his or her years of practical classroom experience. This is the problem of "encapsulation," in which classroom teachers, who have come into their own as professionals within contexts that prize efficiency, conformity, and certainty, must re-orientate to the "false starts," "blind alleys," and "failures" of scholarly inquiry (Ch. 2, "On the discursive nature of deliberation," para 3). 

It's inherently dilemmatic that to become a better teacher (that is, to advance oneself professionally by seeking additional degrees and certifications) one must stop thinking like a teacher!

Piantanida and Garman define the encapsulated mindset as "the self lost in the tension between the professional role and the student role that manifests in a form of estrangement and keeps one from a deliberative frame of mind" (Ch. 2, "Encapsulation versus deliberation," para 3). I recognize this tendency in myself, recalling my struggle over the last several semesters to find value in certain methodologies I viewed as too esoteric (conversation analysis) or two time-intensive (ethnography) to have any practical significance for my desired research context and participants (secondary literacy teachers and their students). 

Developing creativity, or a "deliberative mode of learning"

In their preface, Piantanida and Garman hint at the problem of encapsulation and recast it as an opportunity, suggesting that the novice teacher-scholar leverage the tensions and use "practical issues to surface issues of worldview and issues of worldview to inform the decisions associated with crafting and conducting a qualitative dissertation." 

The dissertation, then, is not a procedural hoop, not just a means to an end. Insofar as it nurtures "a scholarly stance in practitioners," the dissertation is an end in itself. 

Thus, the qualitative dissertation is an excellent orientation to a life of scholarly inquiry and "deliberation." The novice researcher becomes versed in the literature and discourses of his or her discipline, enabling a creative cross-pollination of ideas to occur with respect "to intellectual roots and traditions" (Piantanida & Garman, Ch. 1, "Entering into the study of qualitative research," para 9). Piantanida and Garman's "deliberative mode of learning" is the route to developing creativity, a topic that figures prominently in the Lovitts article.

Lovitts upholds creativity as "inherent in and integral to graduate education" (p. 140). Creativity "exists in degrees" and is not "an all or none phenomenon" (p. 141). As a society we value cognitive performance because it is easy to measure against predefined norms and expectations, but it is our capacity for "creative performance" (p. 151) that will ultimately determine the quality of our scholarship and our ability to tackle society's greatest challenges -- "wicked problems," such as education reform. 

Lovitts presents a hopeful view of creativity as sociocultural phenomenon.  Unlike conventional notions of talent and intellect, creativity is not something we are born with but is the result of sustained interaction between an individual and his or her disciplinary field. As such, "it may be possible to enhance the individual's creative performance through appropriate interactions with the domain and the field" (p. 142). Likewise, Piantanida and Garman implore the teacher-learner to engage with the broader discourse community of their discipline: "Preliminary ideas grounded in personal experience undergo revision and refinement as one reviews formal bodies of literature" (Ch. 2, "On the discursive nature of deliberation," para 3).

Further, because the creative experience is so variable, it cannot be evaluated or measured but "should be judged relative to the student's capabilities and not a universal standard" (Lovitts, p. 142). Based on these assertions, Lovitts concludes with a number of implications for changing the "social structure and organizational culture of graduate education" (p. 151).

Lovitts focuses mostly on the influence of "micro-" and "macroenvironments" on the graduate student experience. Piantanida and Garman, on the other hand, acknowledge the shortcomings of higher education contexts but focus their advice squarely on students themselves, who must develop a deliberative stance in light of (in spite of?) the fact that "formal graduate programs and courses in the United States are not organized so that students can be independent learners" (Ch. 2, "Encapsulation versus deliberation," para 5).

"Sloshing" around wicked problems

As much as I like the illustration of "steps to graduation," there really are no neat and tidy checklists or rubrics by which to gauge one's progress. The process is messy, much like Piantanida and Garman's metaphor of sloshing through puddles. Qualitative inquiry, after all, is no “tame” problem, for which “ an exhaustive formulation can be stated containing all the information the problem-solver needs for understanding” (Rittell & Webber, p. 161).

Qualitative research is wicked. It demands “conceptual grappling” (Piantanida & Garman, Ch. 4, last para).

This grappling can take place within "think pieces," a mode of writing somewhere between a personal journal entry and formal, polished academic writing. Blog entries (such as this) or reflective memos can serve this purpose. (I myself have come to rely on the format and coding of memos that Richardson describes in the 1994 version of her essay "Writing a Method of Inquiry.") 

It seems to me that the production of think pieces (or, simply put, writing) is part and parcel to pacing and shaping the dissertation, which Piantanida and Garman take up in chapters 3 and 4, respectively. These issues have certainly weighed heavily on my mind in recent semesters, when it seemed I would never "find" a topic. 

On the subject of pacing, Piantanida and Garman say it "depends less on what one is doing than on what one is coming to understand. Forward movement occurs as the conceptual structure and content of the inquiry become increasingly clear and coherent” ("Staying the course of the dissertation," para 3). 

Similarly “shaping” a dissertation topic is not an outward search but a matter of fashioning “nebulous, inner images” into “credible and worthy studies” (Ch. 4, “Deliberations on topic,” para 2), also suggestive of the writing process. The willingness of the teacher-researcher to engage in the messines and to resist traditionally linear problem-solution formulations, is the hallmark of Piantanida and Garman’s deliberative stance.

References

Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2008). Introducing TPCK. In AACTE Committee on Innovation and Technology (Ed.), Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) for Educators (pp. 3–29). New York: Routledge.

 Lovitts, B. E. (2005). Being a good course-taker is not enough: A theoretical perspective on the transition to independent research. Studies in Higher Education, 30(2), 137–154.

 Piantanida, M., & Garman, N. B. (2009). The qualitative dissertation: A guide for students and faculty (Second Edition, Kindle edition.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

 Richardson, L. (1994). Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 516–529). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

 Rittel, H. W. J., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4(2), 155–169.

Qualitative research, wicked problems, and the teacher-learner

Competing copyright curricula

A recent eSchoolNews article about dueling copyright curricula couldn't have surfaced at a more opportune time, seeing as how I literally just days before had utilized some materials from one of the curriculums in question.

On the one hand, the Copyright Alliance Education Foundation (CAEF) recently published Think First, Copy Later, seen by some as slanted toward the interests of copyright owners.

On the other hand, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), unveiled Teaching Copyright. The EFF is characterized as an advocacy group that serves the interests of users and consumers of digital media.

Admittedly, I was not aware of the CAEF curriculum when I recently selected and distributed some of the EFF's support documents to a group of pre-service teachers at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. But I am inspired by the prospect of having access to and using "dueling curricula," if and when I teach about copyright again in the future.

What an opportunity for teachers to exercise professional discernment! What an opportunity for students to see copyright law presented from two different perspectives -- owner versus user, industry versus consumer! What an opportunity to engage higher-order thinking and some good, old media literacy skills, such as evaluating audience, authorship, message, and meaning!

Teachers need these resources now more than ever. It was not too long ago that teacher training on the vagaries of fair use doctrine were conducted in the faculty workroom, usually between classes, as we waited in line at the photocopier. We traded in stories, myths, and half-truths and competed for bragging rights to the title of "Greatest Copyright Infringer." We made half-joking references to a sinister, Gestapo-like "Copyright Police" waiting in the wings. (I know. I was one of those teachers.)

The surge of web-based information and communication technologies makes it easier than ever to facilitate content creation and sharing in our classrooms, but we must first be equipped to engage students in conversation about content creation that is safe, ethical, and legal.

The alternative is to do nothing for fear of violating the law. This phenomenon was documented by Hobbs, Jaszi, and Aufderheide in their 2007 report for the Center for Social Media, The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy. In 2008 the Center published the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, which states that fear and confusion about copyright:

detracts from the quality of teaching. Lack of clarity reduces learning and limits the ability to use digital tools. Some educators close their classroom doors and hide what they fear is infringement; others hyper-comply with imagined rules that are far stricter than the law requires, limiting the effectiveness of their teaching and their students’ learning.

Check out the accompanying video:

technorati tags: copyright fair use participatory culture media literacy student engagement

Competing copyright curricula

Featured student blog: meet Ann

Cross-posted at Fireside Learning and Classroom 2.0.

Many teachers shy away from contemporary music. Why? It could be because their own teachers did the same.

That quote comes from Ann, an aspiring music educator at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She and 14 other pre-service teachers are enrolled in a section of IT486, Intro to Instructional Computing, that I am teaching this summer. The course examines how to use technology to support teaching and learning and is designed to prepare novice teachers to integrate a variety of computer-based technologies.

One aspect of the course design that I really enjoy and value is the blog for reflective journaling. This is a required component. During the first week of the course, each student signed up for a blog at Google's Blogger. They were given a certain amount of license in the look and feel of the blog, but the overarching rationale for the pre-service teacher blog is the same: to develop and practice the reflective process. (More on that later.)

But why blend an introspective mode of writing such as journal writing with a public medium such as blogs?

As Christopher Sessums maintains:

Collaborative weblogs promote the idea of learners as creators of knowledge, not merely consumers of information. A collaborative environment like the one I'm suggesting can allow peers to be seen as valuable sources of knowledge and ideas; a connection that participants can rely on beyond any formal classroom structure, i.e., collaboration leading to a community of interest.

So to that end, I have been making readerly comments on each pre-service teacher's blog, and I am encouraging the class to follow, read, and comment on each others' blogs.

And now, to go a step further, I seek to shine a spotlight (or, in the case of our music major, "sound a trumpet") on some provocative posts in hopes of inducting our novice edubloggers into some of the wonderfully generous and nurturing networks of teacher/learners that have supported me in the past -- communities such as Fireside Learning and Classroom 2.0.

Ann's commentary on the state of music education strikes a chord because she describes a phenomenon that transcends content area and grade level: teachers tend to teach in the manner in which they were taught. Why is this so? How do we press forward into new realms of teaching and learning and resist falling back on tired and familiar practices that have outlived their effectiveness for today's learners?

What do you think? I invite you to visit Ann's blog and share your thoughts and feedback with her.

technorati tags: collaboration communication teacher/learner teachers edublogs blogs reflection mentoring uTenn

Featured student blog: meet Ann

Know the feeling

I love this sentiment! It perfectly encapsulates the classroom teacher's state of mind when faced with the full potential of the read/write web.

The quip belongs to Peter Lane, a California middle school reading and technology teacher.  I stole it from his profile in Classroom 2.0, an online professional network that, if you are a teacher even remotely curious about technology, you must visit!  In fact, Peter's expression could serve as the tagline for the whole Classroom 2.0 site, which exists, in part, for those "beginners" who seek a "supportive community and a comfortable place to start being part of the digital dialog."

For his part, Peter is engaging his students in the "digital dialog" using a mix of young adult literature, blogs, and wikis. Take a look at Mr. Lane's Effective Reading Blog.

technorati tags: instructional technology teachers networking teacherLearner Classroom2.0 web2.0

Know the feeling

What is your favorite online "affinity space"?

Cross-posted at the Classroom 2.0 forum.

An affinity space is any place (virtual or physical) that ties people together based on a mutually shared interest or endeavor.

For me, it would have to be the "mommy" blogs that I read daily. I've got about four where I lurk and occasionally comment. I am really inspired by the way these women merge their varying interests in politics, civics, and, of course, technology, with the everyday challenge of parenting. I am even thinking of starting my own mommy blog as the birth of my second child is quickly approaching in mid- to late-June. It's time to start adding my voice to the conversation, and the lazy days of summer seem like a good time to undertake this project!

What is your favorite online affinity space?

My question is inspired by a book I recently finished reading, New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Classroom Learning by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. It was assigned reading for a spring semester seminar on multiliteracies, and it has given me a lot to think about.

The authors' basic purpose is to shed light on the concept of "new literacies," and to invite educators into conversation about "how the new might best be brought into a fruitful relationship with the already established."

The last chapter is a recommendation or challenge of sorts to readers. Lankshear and Knobel think the first step toward merging conventional schooling and the world of new literacies (remix, blogs, podcasts, social networks, mobile technologies, and so on) is for educators to actively pursue firsthand experience with the social practices of digital "affinity spaces," a term borrowed from James Paul Gee.

I am posing this question to the Classroom 2.0 community as well. Classroom 2.0, an international social network of educators interested in collaborative technologies, certainly is an example of an affinity space. But I was wondering about other virtual "hang outs" enjoyed by CR 2.0 members, places perhaps that are not defined by professional interests and obligations but more by hobbies, passions, or guilty pleasures.

And, if you are an occasional or even accidental reader of this blog, the question probably applies to you, too!

So, reader, where do you participate on the Web when you are not consumed with work, school, business, or other obligations? And do your interactions and exchanges within digital affinity spaces intersect with and inform your views and vision for education?

For more reflections on the challenges and opportunities presented by multiliteracies, read my other posts on New Literacies, mindsets, and mashups.  More to come!

technorati tags: blogs multiliteracies "new literacies" teacher/learner parenting "participatory culture" web2.0 technology

What is your favorite online "affinity space"?

My first lil' mashup

The assignment seemed a little old-school: simply make a PowerPoint presentation and embed a sound clip. Come on, do I really have time for this?!

But it was a way for our professor to engage us in a rudimentary form of "remix" and "mashup," common practices among youth that were mostly unfamiliar to us teachers enrolled in this semester's reading education seminar on multiliteracies at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. For that reason, I could appreciate the professor's pedagogy: giving a purposely unstructured assignment with minimal parameters and setting us free to playfully explore the potential and pitfalls of computer-mediated content creation.

Still, as you will see, my resulting slideshow (or "screencast"), is decidedly teacher-centered and bears that unmistakable corporate imprint that only PowerPoint software can convey -- so clean, so slick, and oh so sterile. (The 2-minute, 30-second presentation is designed to be a conversation starter for teens and teachers about the obstacles and opportunities involved in "growing up digital." It also ties into a thematic, annotated reading list I compiled on the subject of digital literacy.)

Nonetheless, I am proud of my lil' mashup for three reasons:

1. Although I did rely on the ubiquitous and wholly familiar PowerPoint application, I prepared my sound clips using Audacity, a free, open source, cross-platform audio editor. Through trial and error, I learned to import and edit music files, cut and paste sound clips, and export a wav file, essentially creating the "soundtrack" for my slideshow.
2. To push my content out to the wider Internet audience, I used a free Web 2.0 application called SlideShare. SlideShare enables users to upload PowerPoint slides and create a product that is truly replicable, shareable, embeddable.
3. Before I could turn my uploaded slideshow into a "screencast" with synchronized music, I had to convert my wav file into an mp3. For this operation, I tried a free demo version of Switch Sound File Conversion Software.

Whew! All this without benefit of teacher, textbook, user manual, or live help desk. Just experimentation with a bit of obsession thrown in.

My biggest take-away? The amount of time and dedication it took for me to undertake this style of self-moderated, trial-and-error learning. These are the new literacy practices that many young people regularly engage in outside the confines of the traditional classroom. Amazing!

Overall, I am pleased with the results. What do you think?

Growing Up Online

View another webinar from Jennifer Lubke

technorati tags: new literacies mashup remix teachers teacher learner UTenn multiliteracies music participatory culture

My first lil' mashup

How do blogs support online learning?

If you are still trying to wrap your brain around blogs and how they integrate with online learning and personalized learning networks (as am I), then read Will Richardson's nice reflection on the issue. How can a highly personal and expressive medium such as a blog support meaningful, socially connected learning? Richardson writes:

Additionally, while I am absolutely “writing to be read” here, meaning that I am conscious and on some level hopeful that others will read and engage in these ideas, I’m not reflecting on these ideas with the direct purpose of advancing the the conversation among a group of others that are connected in our study of this topic. If no one responds or engages, that’s ok. More than anything, blogging, in essence writing is a way for me to cement my thoughts into my brain, a purely selfish act.

I absolutely see my blog as an essential node in my online learning network.

The challenge for me has less to do with making my blog relevant to others and cultivating an audience. While having an engaged and consistent readership would be lovely and motivating, my challenge as a teacher/learner is striking a balance between contributing to networks of learners, such as Classroom 2.0, and cultivating the habit of thoughtful, reflective posting.

What do you think?

technorati tags: blogs teacher/learner edublogs networking

How do blogs support online learning?

Constructive advice

As is wont to happen on the Web, I found this terrific quote by scientist John Seeley Brown by way of this article about communities of practice at The Learning Circuits Blog, which I found by way of this post by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach about virtual communities. In an interview with Line Zine editor Marcia Conner, Brown spoke eloquently about learning, knowledge, and the relevance of constructivism:

We tend to forget that learning and sense-making go hand in hand: we tend to forget that for the learner, the student, there’s always this sense-making going on even if we, as teachers, think everything is clear. Now, suddenly, teachers have been thrown into the same kind of chaos as their students. This has created a symmetry that really focuses on how we need to jointly learn together.

What a gift it is to celebrate balance and harmony amidst "chaos"!

What do you think?

technorati tags: constructivism collaboration teachers teacherLearner philosophy

Constructive advice

Education informatics and the teacher/learner

It's been more than a week since Clarence Fisher delivered his K-12 Online Conference keynote about web-based tools and their potential impact on relationships, pedagogy, curriculum, and information access in the classroom.

Arguing that "technology is not about skills, it's about connections," Fisher concludes his presentation by calling for reform of technology assessments that are too narrowly focused on the acquisition and demonstration of skills. Fisher says that what is needed instead is a tool for generating "education informatics." This application would allow teachers to track students' actions and activities on the Internet and to monitor and assess their progress as they build out virtual networks.

I’ve been thinking on this for several days. Now, as I am currently immersed in the Professional Learning Networks strand of the K-12 Online Conference, the concept of education informatics is growing more relevant and urgent.

By all accounts, the old model of "sit and get" professional development delivered by high-priced outside experts is on the way out. Like student learning, teacher professional development has the potential to become more personalized and self-directed within the new Web landscape.

And, as with students, education informatics for teachers could provide invaluable feedback and transparency about the breadth and depth of their online learning.

In my community the local school system recently reduced the number of systemwide professional development days and tripled the number of hours (from 6 to 18) that teachers must document unscheduled inservice learning. There is a tremendous opportunity here for teachers to set aside time for unstructured experimentation with the many cutting-edge, web-based tools and receive credit for their effort!

But how many of our administrators are equipped or even willing to acknowledge learning pursued via wikis, webcasts, chats, forum discussions, and so on? I think documentation and accountability would be huge issues to overcome, unless they had access to a state-of-the-art technology assessment such as Fisher describes.

If teachers are to be the models of lifelong learning, we must be willing to allow others to examine that learning under the microscope of education informatics.

And that's what I think.

technorati tags: teachers teacherLearner informatics education informatics k12online07 k12online07c101 professional development

Education informatics and the teacher/learner

Pardon my ethnocentrism!

I think it's time to have my ethnocentrism surgically removed. It is getting in the way of my ability to communicate effectively!

Actually, I've recently had two pleasantly humbling experiences that serve to remind what it means to be a digital citizen in this postmodern world. My new virtual stomping grounds are truly global. (Click on the link for an explanation of the English idiom. You see, I'm learning!)

First, I experienced some confusion playing with the Tapped In calendar. (Tapped In is an international online community for learning and networking between educators and their students.) I had the calendar open in two windows in my browser, and for some inexplicable reason the same event appeared to be on two different days, depending on which window I viewed. So, I shot off an email to the event facilitator asking her to clarify the date. The facilitator explained that the date depended on where I lived. It is on Thursday for those who live in my time zone; it is on Friday for her, as she lives in Australia.

Lesson: always check to see if the time converter at the top of the Tapped In calendar is set to your time zone!

Along those same lines, my new favorite web gizmo is the time converter at WorldTimeServer.com, which is integrated into the K-12 Online Conference schedule. I love how each time I open the time converter to check on a conference event, a different international location appears in the drop-down menu -- Lesotho; Bahia, Brazil; Novgorod, Russia; and so on. It's fun to scroll through the menu looking for East Tennessee among all the world locales.

My next encounter occurred only yesterday when a new contact at the Ning in Education network asked me to clarify a reference I made to a friend in Georgia. You see, he is based in Istanbul and has friends in Georgia, Eastern Europe. To which "Georgia" was I referring?

Oh. My.

It's good to be jolted out of my U.S-centered stupor! Now, on to learning all those pesky international spellings!

And that's what I think.

technorati tags: globalism ethnocentrism networking communication teacherLearner edublogs postmodernism information literacy

Pardon my ethnocentrism!

Are you a good community member?

As part of my ongoing investigation into web-based tools to support teacher professional development, I recently moved into my free "office space" at Tapped In. Here it is:



Tapped In is a virtual learning environment that is one part social network and one part collaborative conferencing tool with capabilities for real-time, text-based conversation (chat) as well as asynchronous discussion boards maintained by a sweeping array of public and private special interest groups. There are groups for alternative/correctional educators, math educators, and "cybrarians," to name a few.

You can browse the calendar to get a sense of which groups are most active and vital.

SRI International launched Tapped In 10 years ago so school systems and other professional development providers could train teachers online at minimal cost. There are a number of "tenant" institutions, such as Pepperdine and the University of Memphis, that lease space on the Tapped In "campus" for purposes of supporting teacher education. (The site relies heavily on the campus metaphor to help users make sense of its elaborate interface.)

Individual membership is free to anyone over the age of 18 who is interested in education. Today there are more than 20,000 international members.

After completing a simple registration process, new members may join as many Tapped In groups as they want, and they may create two groups of their own. Other membership privileges include an editable professional profile viewable by all members as well as "office space."

Jeff Cooper and David Weksler's slide presentation about Tapped In, which they presented at the 2006 National Educational Computing Conference, answered many of my questions about Tapped In, including what is the purpose of the office. They recommend the office feature for individuals who do not already have a “virtual presence” on the Internet: “Hold office hours, meet with parents, peers, etc. 'Decorate' your office to reflect and express your professional self.”

Yet, with pages at Classroom 2.0 and School Matters as well as this blog to keep up, I was a little leery about setting up yet another virtual space to look after and keep tidy.

I edited my membership profile, uploaded a photo, participated in a virtual orientation of the interface, and joined in on a lively group discussion. All were positive and meaningful experiences, done without need for an office. So why bother creating one?

Tapped In veteran and community support representative BJ Berquist shed some light on that subject in a recent online encounter. She described editing the professional profile and setting up the office as minimal first steps for "taking ownership" of one's Tapped In identity.

That phrase, "taking ownership," really got me thinking.

I've spent some time in recent weeks trying to get a handle on the moderator's role in these virtual learning communities. Some good discussion resulted at a Ning in Education forum, with moderator extraordinaire Steve Hargadon contributing some thoughts. And at the TechLearning Blog in a post titled Virtual Communities as a Canvas of Educational Reform, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach offered some helpful guidelines for what she calls the “community organizer.”

But in my quest to define the moderator's role, I had completely overlooked the minimal standards for individual membership. What are they?

And I don't mean codes of conduct, netiquette, or guidelines for appropriate use. I am talking about minimal expectations for participation and attitude to ensure each user a meaningful learning experience within the network (in addition to a safe, ethical and responsible one).

Is it possible to articulate these expectations, perhaps building upon Berquist's suggestion?

What do you think?

technorati tags: Tapped In professional development teachers networking

Are you a good community member?

Are you a knowledge "seeker" or "meeter"?

I was browsing through discussions at Classroom 2.0, and saw this in a post by Cindi Danner-Kuhn:

You are encouraged to be a Knowledge Seeker rather than a Knowledge Meeter, i.e., You need to add education to your course rather than add a course to your education.

Cindi teaches pre-service teachers at Fort Hays State University, but this statement, which is from her syllabus, would apply to students of all ages. I love it!

Classroom 2.0 is quickly becoming my go-to place for ideas and help on all things ed tech. It is a network of teacher/learners with varying levels of expertise, from novice to guru.

Come by with a question and search the discussion forums. You don't have to be a member. If you decide you want to post a question or participate in a discussion, it only takes a few seconds to register your user name and password. You will not be disappointed!

And that's what I think.

technorati tags: instructional technology teachers teacher/learners networking professional development classroom2.0

Are you a knowledge "seeker" or "meeter"?

Confessions of a blog disciple

Warning: this post is opinionated, self-revelatory, and full of more questions than answers -- all the qualities that people who hate blogs cite as reasons for hating blogs.

Confession: I was once a blog-hating person.

When I first started keeping a blog, it was to fulfill a course requirement last spring. I even asked aloud in class, "Does the world really need another blog?" I honestly can't remember the professor's response to that utterance, because by March it didn't matter. I was hooked.

Last night after an agonizing few days of emailing back and forth with a local community leader in which I tried to express the shortcomings of our school system's web publishing policies, which seem to discourage student- and teacher-generated blogs, I sat at the dinner table feeling a bit demoralized. "I am so far removed from my original intent when I started graduate school. I don't know what I'm doing anymore," I told my husband.

How did I become this strident techno evangelist, selling salvation to sinners who think file sharing is the same as an email attachment and who still worship PowerPoint as the new posterboard?

Confession: I still use my cell phone strictly for making and receiving phone calls, every time I try to send a text message to my brother I screw it up, and until very recently I thought LOL meant "lots of love."

Originally, all I wanted to do was learn how to build web pages. At my former high school, which hasn't had a student newspaper since the 80s, I longed for a space where kids could publish for journalistic and literary purposes -- a web-based newspaper, or possibly a literary e-zine.

If you could only read the statement of purpose I submitted with my grad school application 18 months ago! Here's a snippet:

At the very least, I am hopeful that my coursework will equip me with the technical skills needed to develop a digital-age scholastic journalism program at Fulton High School, where I have taught since 1999. It is a personal and professional goal of mine to assist Fulton students in launching a journalistically sound online newspaper.

Not one mention of podcasts, wikis, or blogs. Why? I didn't know that stuff existed!

Now "blogs" is tied with "Web 2.0" as the third most populated category on ThinkTime. I'm obsessed with these tools and how to leverage them for my own personal and professional growth, and I want to share that excitement with others without alienating them or freaking them out.

But sometimes it seems I'm thinking more about the blog than through it. (As I compose this post at 10:30 on a Saturday night, I should be drinking a glass of red wine and watching Blades of Glory with the hubbie.) And, since making the decision to relocate, rename, and reformulate this blog a few weeks ago, I've been thinking even more about blogs:

• Should I maintain anonymity, cultivate an online personality, or just be myself?


• In addition to being a university student, I am also a parent, a part-time employee at a nonprofit with deep ties to our local school system, and a former employee of said school system: should there be a disclaimer on ThinkTime in which I claim my opinion as my own and no one else's? (I finally decided to follow Christian Long's advice.)


• Would my learning improve if I spent less time on my personal blog and more time in high-traffic forums and online communities like those found in Classroom 2.0?


• Will the passions near and dear to my heart -- writing, publishing, language arts and media education -- ever gain foothold on the pages in this site?


• Am I contributing to the the ripe environment or just whistling in the wind?

Confession: I am an unapologetic teacher/learner on the upside of the learning curve, and I am having a blast!

And the more I read, the more convinced I am that falling under the spell of these powerful tools is a normal step in discipleship. In this post at LeaderTalk, a school administrator recognizes the learning curve and "wow" factor that must precede any new venture on the read/write web. And I take great comfort in Bud the Teacher's post, in which he acknowledges the need for play and experimentation before the teacher/learner can connect technology effectively to his or her classroom practice.

So, once again the question is: should we teach about the tools or through them?

The answer: Yes!

What do you think?

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

technorati tags: web2.0 teacher/learner blogs edublogs

Confessions of a blog disciple

Action plan for independent study, Fall 2007

After a recent consultation with my supervising professor, I have altered the subject and scope of my independent study on teacher mentoring and induction with 21st century tools. By "21st century tools" I mean free (possibly opensource), web-based products that facilitate teaching and learning through information sharing and production -- what many in ed tech circles call "Web 2.0," although I am going to try to avoid such jargon.

Here is my new focus: Rather than trying to match a tool or platform to the needs of an as-of-yet-unidentified pilot group of novice teachers, I will conduct an "environmental scan" or feasibility study of the best information and communication technologies available to support the creation of learning networks. What tools will enhance the reflective practice and growth of pre-service and new teachers? Which of these tools might assist building-level mentoring teams who plan and facilitate year-long induction of novice teachers?

These are the technologies I will evaluate (with specific examples in parentheses):

• RSS and readers/aggregators (Bloglines, Google Reader)


• tags/socialbookmarking (del.icio.us)


• social networks (such as those built on the Ning platform)


• content management systems and blogs (such as WordPress or Edublogs)


• file sharing and collaboration (Google Docs, Box.net)


• wikis (PB Wiki)

As I review each kind of technology, I will try to answer these questions:

• First, what is it? How does it work? What does it do?


• How could this technology support quality professional development? How does it align with quality indicators for professional development as outlined by the National Staff Development Council?


• What enabling conditions must exist before teacher-to-teacher mentoring can take flight with this technology? (This is the most important part of the inquiry, getting close to what Ben Wilkoff calls The Ripe Environment. What kinds of change must occur in our attitudes to create institutional cultures that encourage innovation and collaboration? Wilkoff maintains talking about the tools is not the answer.)


• What are the possible barriers or obstacles to consider when trying to integrate this technology for purposes of mentoring?


• And for specific tools I will ask: How does this stand up to basic software evaluation criteria, such as user features, user interface, and help desk support? I will use Kathy Schrock's Software Evaluation Form as a start, but ultimately I hope to compile a specific list of criteria for assessing tools that support learning communities.

And, if available, I will share outcomes and evidence of impact in professional learning communities that have already integrated these technologies.

An overriding theme, the "super glue," if you will, that will hold all this together rests on my ability to relate in first-person narrative the impact these technologies have had on my own personal and professional growth as a teacher/learner.

The final inquiry will be packaged in wiki form, with the first installment due next week.

How's that for accountability and transparency?

technorati tags: mentoring professional development research teacher/learner teachers web2.0 networking

Action plan for independent study, Fall 2007