As connected educators month is nearing it’s last week, the theme for me this year has been exposure.  Yesterday evening I sat for about 15 minutes and listened to Jimmy Casas, Tom Murray, Lisa Dabbs, and Kyle Pace chat about the impact that connecting has had on their practice.  About 3 weeks earlier, I had the opportunity to join Sarah Thomas @sarahdateeechur and Tammy Neil @mathneil in a Google Hangout on the same topic.  Tomorrow I’ve taken the opportunity to present to educators at a curriculum expo at West Virginia University at Parkersburg about developing a professional learning network.  I can’t seem to escape the impact that connecting has had on myself as an educator and on my students.  I won’t escape it!

I’ve helped run #WVedchat, the statewide edchat for West Virginia educators, for the last year now.  In one recent chat this month there were seven educators from my district, including six from my school, present during one chat.  It was extremely encouraging seeing that the message of exposure had seeped its way into the lives of other local educators.  I have admitted many times that I have an unusual passion for education and improving school for students.  I certainly don’t have any dreams that all educators share the same passion.  I do, however, believe strongly in the impact that connecting and receiving exposure can have on the status-quo.  Jimmy Casas asked the audience last night to name an educator in their network that was better than they were.  That statement struck me.  If educators can’t name someone in their network of whom they receive consistent give and take of communication, feedback, resources, data, strategies, and support, then what force is pushing against status-quo?  That’s a message needed by all in education.

I could never provide a list of all the educators that have pushed me to grow and continue to help expose flaws in my own practice, but here are just a few:

• Eric Sheninger
• Jimmy Casas
• Tony Sinanis
• Kyle Pearce
• Rik Rowe
• Garnet Hillman
• Craig Vroom
• Dave Burgess
• Todd Whitaker
• Tom Murray

I just finished reading Kevin Carroll’s Rules of the Red Rubber Ball and it made such a tremendous impact on me that I had to write about it.  See, I believe I only recently discovered my red rubber ball.  In short, a person’s red rubber ball is their passion.  It’s the thing you do when no one is around, or when you have free time.  It’s the interest that liberates you to do amazing things you had only dreamed of before.

Kevin’s book took me from laughter to tears and back again.  I am still thinking about his book over 24 hours since I completed it.  I had never thought of my red rubber ball in such a way until reading the book.  I didn’t necessarily discover my red rubber ball at an early age.  In fact, as a young boy, my passions were very much like Kevin’s as I played nearly every sport available to me.  I remember putting on a snowsuit and gloves to go outside and shoot baskets on the hoop in my driveway.  It was as if nothing could keep me from playing with my red rubber ball; key word being playing.  Once you discover your red rubber ball, it becomes difficult for one to distinguish the difference between work and play.

My red rubber ball is my passion.  It is the item that consumes my free time.  When I go to work every morning, I’m pursuing my red rubber ball.  I don’t say that lightly as I am extremely thankful that my life’s circumstances, and not the least, my Savior, have put me in a position where I get to pursue my red rubber ball every day I walk into my school.  Since connecting to other educators who share my passion, my red rubber ball has appeared.  I have an intense desire to become the best educator I can possibly become.  I have certainly been met with obstacles and set backs.  Others have attempted to let their negativity bring me down.  Pursuing my red rubber ball has not been easy.  My wall and my fortress that protects me and my ball is my professional learning network.  At the risk of climbing out on a thin limb here, I would imagine that most of my PLN share the same passion that I do.  It’s not that we’re a fanatic or one to be shunned by the rest of our colleagues.  It’s not that we look down on others who’s red rubber ball bounces in a different direction.  We just find ourselves pursuing this unique passion with any time we can set apart from our busy lives.  I encourage you to find your red rubber ball and pursue it relentlessly and see where it takes you.  For me, it has opened up doors I never dreamed of before.  I hope it continues to open more.  I do invest a lot of time, energy, passion, and fight into my red rubber ball.  However, I’d bet that you invest those same things into something.  And if not, then consider discovering your red rubber ball.  Be creative about how you pursue it.  Technology has opened up many creative ways for me to pursue my passion while still being a husband and a dad.  Last but not least, surround yourselves at every opportunity with others who will support and possibly share in your pursuit.

My wife @Mrs_JulOldfield and I just made it back from EdcampILE at Hilliard Bradley High School in Ohio.  The Edcamp was hosted by Craig Vroom @Vroom6 and Jacki Prati @Jacki_Prati.  In an effort to keep this short, I want to say I first connected with Craig at EdcampCbus on March 1, 2014 at Lincoln Gahanna High School.  Since then Craig has made a tremendous impact on me as an educator and a leader.  He’s given of his time to take my phone calls and accept my requests to Hangout during a course I was teaching.  I’ve had the opportunity to connect with Jacki and many others from Hilliard City Schools during Twitter chats their district holds.  I’ve seen the evidence first hand that Jacki and Craig are effective leaders that model innovation and cultivate growth within their buildings.

My experience at EdcampILE was not unlike experiences many other Edcampers have shared.  First, there is absolutely no hierarchy at Edcamp.  What I mean is you won’t see administrators or district level officers looking over shoulders during sessions or walking around in what appears to be “observation mode.”  Everyone attends Edcamp to learn and to contribute.  Edcamp breaks down any barriers to progression that hierarchy often presents.  Second, Edcamp is supportive.  Rarely, if ever, do educators get the opportunity to surround themselves with other like minded educators attending for the same reason: to learn and to share.  Edcamps are free and often there is no reward for attending.

I can’t say enough about how encouraging it was for me to get some face to face time with a group of educators that have inspired and supported me along my journey of growth and development.  Since I first met many of the group represented by today’s Edcamp:

• I’ve hosted an Edcamp at my school, which has lead to the development of a 2nd Edcamp in WV coming in September
• Continued to help cultivate a community of West Virginia educators through our state-wide Twitter chat #WVedchat
• Facilitated two week-long courses in Digital Leadership aimed at inspiring educators to take control of their own growth & development, and spark a desire to improve parent engagement at their schools through 21st Century means of communication

The opportunity to absorb some face to face time with so many educators who have made their mark on my life was priceless.  My takeaway from today’s Edcamp was a renewed commitment to impact other educators in ways that Columbus area educators like John Riley @MrRileyJo, Melissa Eddington @Melsa777, Kimberly Halley @halleykimberly, Scott Jones @escott818, Jacki Prati, Craig Vroom and many others have impacted me.

This is another reflection written by a teacher that took my digital leadership graduate course last week.  Rebecca is a 10th grade English teacher at Tyler Consolidated High School in West Virginia.  She put into words exactly what I hoped my participants would receive from the pillar of digital leadership titled “professional growth and development.”  Rebecca also offers some other insightful comments related to digital leadership.

Digital Learning: People, Not Devices

by Becca Childers, 10th Grade English Educator

When I first signed up for a digital learning class, I assumed that the course would be limited to the use of technology in the classroom, much like any other technology training that I have been encouraged to attend. For example, a class expounding upon the benefits of actually knowing how to use the SMART board that’s been in your room for a few years now or how to turn on and operate your provided iPad was what I expected, and I might add, dreaded. However, instead of walking out of this course with a renewed sense of how to use these tools, I have left with something more valuable: a sense of community with my fellow teachers and opportunities to make connections, not just with other teachers but also with the students, the parents, and the community as a whole.

Let me be clear, I am not a willing tweep. I am an advocate of teaching positive social media skills in the classroom, but my personal life is stalked by a love/hate relationship with my only social media outlet, Facebook. Twitter, in my mind, has always been just another relationship that I do not want; nonetheless, I have been converted, not because of Twitter’s most attractive attributes, confusing hashtags and the inability to block grungy skater-boy followers, but because of the amazing community of educators that have formed their own learning community that is available almost every day of the week. I am now connected with educators all over the country, and my support is no longer dependent upon whether or not the educators in my school are willing or have time to collaborate. I have a sounding board. I have tweeps.

Technology has evolved, in my mind, from simply a tool for teaching to a tool for personal growth and learning, but even more earthshattering is the possibility for building relationships between the school and the community or, more specifically, positive relationships. Every school has a reputation, but often, that reputation is built not upon what the school system and teachers have intentionally communicated with the community. It is not built upon what is actually happening in the classrooms but assumptions. That needs to change. We need to “build our brand”. One way to do that would be to open up the lines of communication through social media, such as Twitter or Facebook, but first, we must banish the idea that social media is not worth the trouble. The possibility for negative use should not cause us to throw it out entirely. Indeed, this is all the more reason to show the community and students a positive avenue of utilizing social media. Let’s not shy away from it. Let’s change it.

Isn’t that what education is meant to do? To change the world, to change perspectives for the better is the reason why education exists. To pass on knowledge, yes, but also to open minds and to instruct as to how things like social media are meant to be used. Social media is a way to connect, to build positive relationships, and to open avenues of communication for building a better community. Technology in education is not just about creating 21st Century projects or learning to use tools to survive the ever-changing professional world; technology is about the people behind it.

I just want to outline some thoughts I’ve had recently about the impact schools have on students when they neglect the power of social media as a communication tool, a digital citizenship tool, and a lifelong learning tool.  First, there’s no denying the power of social media to communicate with stakeholders.  Schools across the country have skyrocketed communication by leveraging social media to communicate details from sporting events, academic successes, to homework assignments.  Their investments in tools like Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram have resulted in a powerful brand.  Building a brand comes from sharing your story.  It’s well quoted in circles of connected educators that if schools aren’t investing in sharing their story, the community is likely developing a story that schools don’t want.  See Eric Sheninger’s blog post about this topic. 

According to Job-Hunt.org social media can have an impact on potential recruiters and new employers.  Check out this article by USAToday to get a glimpse of just how complicated this issue can be.  By neglecting to invest and model appropriate use of social media, schools are sending the wrong message to students.  No longer is social media a private matter.  Gone are the days when what we say or do on social media has no affect on our lives.  But when schools neglect the opportunities to model and carve out a positive digital footprint, they send the message to students that social media is strictly for private matters.  Students are in a dangerous place when they feel a disconnect between what goes on in the social media sphere and what goes on in their public life.  Social media has embedded itself into our society in such a way that schools can no longer neglect it.  George Couros stated that if schools neglect to model and instruct students about proper use of social media, they are the same as teaching driving lessons without a vehicle.

Digital learners need and deserve digital leaders.  Schools can no longer stand by idly while the rest of society adapts and transforms to the impact of social media and technology.  In many rural areas, like the one in which I teach, many students have no global perspective because they’ve never been outside of their hometown.  Yet in classrooms like Pernille Ripp’s , her students have connected with over 200,000 students on 6 continents since 2010 by effectively leveraging social media tools.  Even educators are leveraging the power of social media to connect with other educators and transform their learning by developing personal learning networks.

Consider these points of advice I gathered from my connections with other administrators effectively implementing social media at their schools:

• Connect with administration from a school effectively implementing social media tools.  Let them guide and support your decisions during implementation.  Don’t skip this.
• Identify educators who are appropriately modeling social media use.  Run a mock interview and browse an educators social media pages to identify an effective positive digital footprint.  Many educators still hold the mindset that my social media account is for my private life.  That mindset must shift to one where social media accounts create a picture of the values and beliefs that person shares in both their professional life and their personal life.
• Agree on the purpose of your social media pages.  What will your accounts do?  What will they not do?
• How are you going to involve community voice in how social media will be used?
• How are you going to begin engaging parents and students?  How will you notify stakeholders of the social media accounts?
• My wife, @mrs_julOldfield, suggests printing business cards with all of your social media accounts and placing them at local businesses and/or handing them out during sporting events just to spread the message to the community.

I’ve been immersed in a personalized learning experience for over a year now.  I’ve written a good bit about the opportunities for learning that Twitter presents for educators.  Joe Mazza once said Twitter is a 24/7/365 real time professional development tool with access to like-minded professionals.  I’ve carved out such an awesome PLN (professional learning network) in just over a year.  Todd Nesloney is one of those amazing educators I’ve learned from recently.  Todd is principal at Navasota Intermediate, but that’s just one of Todd’s great accomplishments as a young educator.  Todd took the initiative to create a summer learning series himself.  He engaged educators through social media to join him in this summer learning series quest.  Once signed up, you will begin receiving Todd’s weekly emails as part of his summer learning series challenges.  Each week presents a new challenge.   For example, Todd challenged educators by presenting them with videos like this one from Dave Burgess.  Todd created a hashtag on Twitter #summerls so that educators could network and backchannel thoughts and reflections from his learning series.  He also hosts a chat using that hashtag.  Last count that Todd sent out indicated over 1500 educators had signed up for his summer learning series.  What an awesome accomplishment and what an incredible tool!

I just finished teaching a digital leadership course at AFT-WV summer camp for teachers.  I decided to incorporate a version of Todd’s learning series for my participants.  Most of my participants are new to the world of Twitter and certainly new to opportunities available to take control and personalize your learning as an educator.  I took signups through this form and will continue to engage those participants in support as they begin this journey to proactive growth and development through Twitter and other opportunities.

I am still amazed at what technology and connectedness allows us to do as educators.  The model schools conference is now in session down in Orlando Florida.  I’ve never had the opportunity to attend that conference, but I’ve heard and read several good reports from that conference.  Thanks to Twitter and the #22ndMSC hashtag, I’ve been able to follow the events at the conference almost as if I was there myself.  On Sunday evening June 22, I was able to follow Dr. Daggett’s keynote through Twitter.  I caught a glimpse of just how in tune Dr. Daggett’s presentation was with the changes needed by schools today.  What an amazing opportunity provided by technology.  The backchannel discussion during the keynote was full of thoughtful comments that pushed my thinking about school improvement.  I’ve been aware for some time now that the environment students experience inside of school is far different from the one they experience outside of school.  Societal changes brought about by technology have created a tremendous disconnect between the way our students learn outside of school and the way they are forced to learn inside of school.  Effective leadership and effective school improvement acknowledges this gap.  Dr. Daggett’s keynote was full of great information and resources about what, why, and how schools can shift to better engage students in learning for their future.  My favorite quote of the night was “how can we educate today’s students for tomorrow’s future with yesterday’s schools?”