Tips for Learning, Teaching or Working Online

"It all seems like common sense, until you have to do it."

Shifting to working and learning, teaching and working online can be a difficult adjustment. Here are some tips I've learned in all three realms over the years.

Setting Up Work Environments is Key

Not everyone has an ideal environment to work online. Setting one up for yourself takes some thought, care, and is a great discussion topic with peers.


Couch, Bed and Floor Work? Lend some thought to:

• the angles you are looking at a screen

• what's happening with your shoulders

• how your back is supported

• angles that your hands and wrists are on the keyboard, trackpad or mouse

Slouching on a couch or a chair seems ideal at times, but

Listening to that Inner Voice

Did some rain delay artwork at the 2018 VT Legion Baseball Championships ; )

Sitting with some coffee, listening to the dog snore at my hip, watching the trees blow and reflecting is a good way to start the day.

Spring is in the air.

For the first time since I was five... I won't be playing or coaching baseball this year. Thinking this through, even in the sabbatical I took in the Spring of 2013, I coached in the Summer season and then the All-Star tournament.

It's feeling a little weird at times not to be prepping at all for the upcoming season...

Taking Time

It's time to take some time. After a very interesting temporary gig with a startup company and wrapping up another Summer of coaching youth baseball, my last one - the 30th - I'm off to explore a couple innovative consulting and learning opportunities.

Makerspaces, research jaunts on some of the premier designer minds in the world, reading explorations, brainstorming ideas, and some think time on two projects I've been working on is on the radar. We'll see what else comes up along the way. 

I plan to surface in early December. If you want to get in touch, please send me an email and I'll get back to you within a few days.

Keep moving forward...

Adam

Interdisciplinary Makerspaces in Education

Is your school or collegiate makerspace 'interdisciplinary' or just another isolated class? Does it invite in community expertise and artistry? Does it host events?

Opening the doors to new ways of thinking and collaboration can reap huge rewards.

#makerspace #innovation #edtech #vted

Building Personalized Learning Plans and Blended Learning Opportunties

Visual of Student Exploration Projects in One Semester.

I've been reading a lot of great Twitter chats lately about building Personalized Learning Plans and Blended Learning opportunities.

I started on those paths back in 1995 by building a Student Help Desk program at South Burlington High School and then dove in full steam as a teacher in 2005 at Burr and Burton Academy in the development of the rLab project until 2013. Students chose their own projects in the lab and it led to incredible results, growth, and challenges to traditional academic constructs. In many ways, it was ahead of its time. My explorations on the two threads continue to this day.

Here's a look under the hood of the rLab at Burr and Burton Academy where this work really took off, lists of topics students explored and more about the paths that developed.

I've learned a lot about creating and building these opportunities, the challenges they bring to traditional 'school' practice, assessment strategies therein, incredible project archiving options, promoting student voice and leadership, demonstrations of learning through meaningful portfolios, making and maintaining community and mentorship connections, and mentoring teachers in these practices. I continue to take consulting jobs on these topics (and others) to help K-12 schools and higher education institutions innovate, build systems, and train teachers in personalized learning. Let me know if I can help.

Keep moving forward... ; )

Unity VR, AR... and 'Innovation'

'Innovation' can be an overused word. How do you define 'innovation?' How does your school or business define it?

I've always promoted the development of and thrived in 'innovation labs' as places to get things started. You know, places where you try new things, new approaches, new ways to design, think and explore challenges and ideas. My house at various times is an innovation lab, and I've built a few in education. 

The trick is moving innovation out into the routine. Even if it improves practice or opportunities, sometimes it can meet resistance.

I've been experimenting with VR and AR lately... and in an exploration setting, there's a lot of great things to dive into in this field. I've chosen Unity3D on this front (free for the hobbyist, education, personal use). 

What schools and businesses have 'true' innovation labs? Are they isolated or based in rich collaborative practices?

How can VR and AR be used to reimagine... the places we live, problems we need to solve, new ways to visualize something, or how we work?

Opening new doors takes time-tested and new approaches. There are new ways to visualize things, experiment, and collaborate. How do you or your workplace dive into 'ideation?'

Build new opportunities. Keep moving forward. Keep learning. Never know what might evolve.

Rethinking Community Service Day in Schools

I've been thinking about 'community building' quite a bit lately, more so than usual.

I ran into a friend who's in her 10th year of teaching yesterday, and when I asked her how things were going, she talked about, as many k-12 educators often do... 'triage.' Events and initiatives were piled on, and budgets fell to cuts again, key support positions riffed, PD time was scarce and dominated by initiatives, and then she dove into a description of her schools recent 'community service day.'

She said that faculty was asked to plan activities in the community, kids signed up, and the entire school marched out on one day to do community service work. Projects ranged from yard work, a lot green up efforts, to scientific testing, to nature walks, and bike tours. I asked her how 'bike tours' helped build a sense of community... and she laughed. Kids, she described, often loathed the activities as busy work and 'free labor' and she was worried they lacked connection in real and meaningful ways. Then, after one day, community service was over.

What if 'building community' was a grade level theme... all year?

The concept of grade level themes was introduced to me from the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia about eight years ago. For each grade classes at SLA are driven by theme focused lenses:

9th: Identity
10th: Systems
11th: Change
12th: Creation

So, if you're a 9th grader, every class, math, science, humanities, art, etc., is exploring 'Identity' as a theme to focus academics into something meaningful to kids lives. The result, especially in a project-based and inquiry-driven school, is that the students make meaningful connections to their place in the world.

What if a school used 'building community' as a project lens to focus every academic course and outreach project together at one grade level? What if teachers got a whole year of PD time to plan? What connections would people make? What academic disciplines could work together instead of functioning in their silo? What could students gain by knowing who is working in their community, in what jobs, and more about the area history and needs?

Schools can be robust community centers. It just requires thinking differently. Changing some thought paradigms about silos in education, about the school as a citadel, about one and done type activities - to check off on a list, can help connect kids, families, and communities on much deeper levels.

#vted #education #communitybuilding