Education Innovation

Literacy Challenges of The Social Technographic Ladder

The ladder. Charlene Li and Josh Bernofff have written a great book titled Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies. In their book they describe The Social Technographics ladder.

“Each step on the ladder represents a group of consumers more involved in the groundswell than the previous steps. To join the group on a step, a consumer need only participate in one of the listed activities at least monthly.”

I believe that each rung of the Social Technographic ladder presents a unique literacy challenge for our students.

As an educator you know the standards, the curriculum, and the methods to bring about literacy. If technology is not part of that you are missing a major component of what our students will need in the coming years. Our students need to be able to climb the "ladder" and it is your job to make sure they get those opportunities.

Top Rung: Creators
These are the people who, at least once a month, publish a blog, put an article online, maintain a website, or upload music or videos. In the United States, about 18% of us on are the top rung or creators.

The percentage is only going to go up. So, what are you doing to prepare your students to be creators? How are you preparing your students to occupy the “top rung” of the Social Technographics ladder?

If you think about it, this is a question of literacy. For example, here are the writing standards for 6th grade in California: 

Narrative
^{write narratives, that(1) establish and develop plot and setting, and choose a point of view that is appropriate to stories
(2) include sensory details and concrete language to develop plot and character
(3) use a range of narrative strategies (e.g., dialogue, suspense)
Expository
Write expository compositions (e.g., description, explanation, comparison and contrast, and/or problem/solution) that
(1) state the thesis or purpose
(2) explain the situation
(3) follow an organizational pattern appropriate to the type of composition (e.g., if problem/solution, then paired)
(4) offer persuasive evidence for the validity of the description, proposed solutions, etc.
Research Reports
Write research reports that
(1) pose relevant questions narrow enough to be thoroughly covered
(2) support the main idea(s) with facts, details, examples, and explanations from multiple authoritative sources (e.g., speakers, periodicals, on-line information searches)
(3) use a bibliography
Persuasive
2.5. write persuasive compositions (or letters for grade 5) that
(1) state a clear position in support of a proposition or proposal
(2) support the position with organized and relevant evidence; and (3) anticipate and address reader concerns and counter-arguments}

The standards seem to say that we want students to be creators. The question I have is; are we preparing our students to occupy the top rung in the groundswell. Remember, the groundswell is: “A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.”

In other words, the groundswell is what is taking place in this new ecosystem called the web where any person, in any place, can be a producer of media. Or, as Clay Shirky says, every person is a one-man media outlet.

So why only 18% participation?  Obviously this is an optional activity. Nobody has to be a creator. In our classrooms we require that our students be creators. We want all of our students on the top rung. We ask that our students create stories, research reports, projects, and narratives. We are teaching the next generation to succeed in this new online ecosystem. The standards seem to suggest we have the right intentions, but do those standards prepare our students for life in the groundswell? I think it depends on the teacher. The greater the teacher's understanding of the power of the groundswell in the online ecosystem, the better the assignments will utilize technology as part of learning and mastering the standards.

The next rung down: Critics
Critics react to what has been created. This is similar to the responding to literature standard.
_{Response to Literature
Write responses to literature that
(1) develop an interpretation which exhibits careful reading, understanding and insight
(2) organize the interpretation around several clear ideas, premises, or images
(3) develop and justify the interpretation through sustained use of examples and textual evidence}

Again, the question becomes, are we properly preparing our students for being a critic in the groundswell?

When I was a student, I was never allowed to comment on what other students wrote. Even in college, my job was to create. The only opportunities I had to be a critic was in writing a book report. Most of us are simply not used to commenting on blogs. We were not trained to do it as students and we had so few opportunities in our academic lives to practice it. But, our students are growing up in the online ecosystem that allows them to comment and critique nearly everything. They can comment on a song, a picture, a video, place a comment on a blog, put a book review on Amazon, or review a product on CNET.

Their world is the world of the critic. Are we as educators equipping them to succeed in this world?  Are we preparing them for life on the second rung? What opportunities do your students have to critique what others have created?

The next rung down: Collectors
Collector collect RSS feeds, save website to Del.icio.us, vote for sites on Digg, and accumulate all forms of created digital media from the online world.

So, what standards address that? How are we preparing our students to be effective collectors of information? What opportunities do our students get to practice the art of selective information collection? How do our students learn to filter information for their select needs? How are we preparing our students to be literate collectors?

The next rung down: Joiners
Members of Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orcut, etc. are all joiners. These are the people who maintain profiles on social networking sites. My guess is that most of our students are far ahead of most of their teachers in this aspect. But, how can we teach our students the skills necessary to properly maintain these sites for optimal effect and leverage their power to further themselves via networking?

Our students are natural collaborators and net-workers, but how are we making them literate in the power of networks?

The next rung down: Spectators
Spectators consume what the rest produce. This is the largest part of the groundswell. This is about making choices. What they choose to consume can enhance our students’ education.  So, our students need to make choices that will enhance them as people, as students, as informed citizens, etc. Of course kids will always choose the strange and offbeat, but we can equip them to understand what sorts of media are important for them to consume. What opportunities are your students getting to be selective literate spectators?

The bottom rung: Inactives
These are the people who are not impacted by the groundswell at all. For our students, it might those students who have no access to technology and the web. I still meet students and parents who have no web access. If the school isn’t providing it, and they have no access at home, when are these students given chances to move from inactive to spectator, to joiner, to collector, to critic, or to creator?  We need to think about how we can provide opportunities and resources for them to climb the Social Technographic ladder. It is a literacy issue for life in the 21st century.

Catalytic Questions

In what way is your leadership preparing your school and your students for the literacy of technology?

Is your personal leadership and catalyst or hurdle in the implementation of technologies that will provide opportunities for technology literacy?

In what ways do our current literacy standards meet or fall short of the issues and challenges faced by our students at each rung of the Social Technographic ladder?

In what way can we better prepare our students to be literate creators of information?

How might this look in a classroom?

In what ways can we provide opportunities for our students to be literate critics of created information?

In what ways can we prepare our students to be literate collectors of information?

What might this look like in the classroom?

How might we prepare our students to leverage the power of networks?

In what ways could we prepare our students to make literate choices about the networks they join and the information they place on those networks?

In what was are we preparing our students to be literate spectators of information?

How might we better equip our students to make excellent choices in the information they consume each day?

In what ways can we provide resources or tools to move the non-participating Inactive up the Social Technographic ladder? 

Education's Triple Bottom Line

How does an organization measure success?  One measure, or should I say three, is the Triple Bottom Line. According to Wikipedia,

“The phrase was coined by John Elkington, co-founder of the business consultancy SustainAbility in 1994. It was later expanded and articulated in his 1998 book Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business.

The concept of TBL demands that a company's responsibility be to 'stakeholders' rather than shareholders. In this case, 'stakeholders' refers to anyone who is influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the actions of the firm. According to the stakeholder theory, the business entity should be used as a vehicle for coordinating stakeholder interests, instead of maximizing shareholder (owner) profit.”

Leadership guru Ken Blanchard defines the triple bottom line are the three most important factors of performance. Blanchard says, “It recognizes that great companies are the provider of choice, the employer of choice, and the investment of choice.”

So I began to wonder if the TBL could apply to education. A school district’s TBL might be something like…
School District XYZ is the school district of choice and its schools are the school of choice for the parents of this community.
Now, we know that public schools are the only choice for most parents, but if they had the choice, would your schools be the school of choice for parents? This isn’t a question designed to open up the debate about school choice, but rather a question to get us thinking about our school and the parent’s perceptions of our schools. After all, they are the clients we are trying to serve.

School District XYZ is the school district of choice for both experienced and new teachers.
Most teachers, especially in Southern California are just happy to have a job, but if the job market reversed and put districts and schools in the role of recruiting teachers, would those teachers choose you? What can you offer that makes a difference? 

School District XYZ is the school district of performance and results.
Results, usually defined by metrics such as state test scores, are measure of performance that tells “stake holders”- local parents and citizens- that students are learning and improving. Investments in the district are being used effectively to meet student needs.

The TBL, as defined here, is just an opening into the discussion of the various factors and variables that would impact each of the three. However, it is a valuable place to begin and forces those of us in education to look at education from a different perspective and ask some tough questions of ourselves, which, is always a good thing.

Education's New Map

I rarely read books on Education. Why you ask?  Several reasons. First, I feel my value to the education community is the different mindset or approach I bring to the field. If everybody is thinking the same thing or thinking in the same way, then innovation is less likely.

Second, as has been famously said, “Yesterday’s solutions won’t solve tomorrow’s problems.”  Education is a reactive field. In other words, the world changes and education reacts to the change. The problem is, the change is usually decades after the cause. If you are only reading books on education, then you are usually reading about reacting to changes whose root cause occurred a decade prior.

I am currently reading (I am usually reading about 3 to 4 books at any given time) The Pentagon’s New Map by Thomas P. M. Barnett.  This book seeks to explain his innovative approach to globalization that “combines security, economic, political, and cultural factors to do no less than predict and explain the nature of war and peace in the twenty-first century.” It is a fascinating book that forces one to challenge their thinking about the world and the role of the United States in it.

In chapter one, “New Rule Sets”, Barnett says,

“ Whether we realize it or not, America serves as the ideological wellspring for globalization. These united states still stand as its first concrete expression. We are the only country in the world purposely built around the ideals that animate globalization’s advance: freedom of choice, freedom of movement, freedom of expression. We are connectivity personified. Globalization is this country’s gift to history—the most perfectly flawed projection of the American Dream onto the global landscape. To deny our parentage of globalization is to deny our country’s profound role as world leader over the second half of the twentieth century. More important, to abandon globalization’s future to those violent forces hell-bent on keeping this world divided between the connected and disconnected is to admit that we no longer hold these truths to be self-evident: that all are equal, and that all desire life, liberty, and the chance to pursue happiness. In short, we the people needs to become we the planet.”

The question that arose in my mind was how do we in education prepare our students to take on this enormous responsibility. I say responsibility in the strongest of terms. If you read The Pentagon’s New Map you will gain a new appreciation for this country’s role and responsibility in creating and maintaining the positive globalization conditions and environment.

I have some thoughts. First, Tom Peters pointed out in his book Re-Imagine, that, “Distance is dead.” Technology has allowed us to connect with almost anyone anywhere in the world. Our students have embraced this concept with ease. But, education has not been so quick to pick up the technology baton and run with it. Technology is a major component in the global economy and the connectedness of the globalized world. We must prepare our students to use these tools. Computers should no longer be optional. They should be just as fundamental as paper, pencils, and textbooks. It should be a skill set that students (and teachers) be able to demonstrate. But that is obvious to most of us in the edu-blogosphere. Everyday there is more evidence of technology changing the very nature of how education is delivered. (See When The Education Bubble Goes...Pop!)

Second, if the United States embodies the values of globalization (freedom of choice, freedom of movement, freedom of expression), then it makes sense to inculcate those values in our students to ensure that they take them with them from school in the globalized world.  This means a focus on civics, history, and learning the values that make this county so great.  Also, students should understand what the global economy is and how it works. This calls for excellent economics and business classes. 

Education today, attempts to control where students learn, what they learn, when they learn, and whom they learn from. Our educational system is the very definition of a centralized organization. The federal Department of Education tells the states what to do. State departments of education tell the counties what to do, counties tell the districts what to do, districts tell the principals, the principals tell the teachers, and the teachers tell the students. It is very structured, very systematic, very controlled, very rigid, and very closed. It in not exemplary of the values of globalization, yet purports to prepare students for their roles in the globalized world.

If you view the student as a leaders of their own learning, then they have the ability to decided for themselves the what, when, where, who, and how of their education. They must follow and meet certain expectations and norms, but they are not controlled by a centralized organization. A student is free to blend normal brick-and-mortar school, with home-school, with e-learning or virtual learning, occupational or trade schools, with other opportunities such as travel, trips to museums, internships, volunteering, etc. This blend is what I call the Open Model of Education. Maya Frost calls it "Bold School." (See The Global Student - Old School vs. Bold School)

But it also means allowing student to have opportunities to demonstrate freedom of choice, freedom of movement, and freedom of expression. I question whether our current system is providing these sorts of opportunities for students.

Good American citizens will make good global citizens. We need to inculcate those American values in our students and not be ashamed of them. Our students must have an understanding the global economy and America’s unique history, values, role, and responsibility around the globe.

Third, because we now live in the globalized world, our students will need to be adept with interacting with people from many different cultures. This means developing a skill set for understanding, appreciating, and valuing the cultures of others, while at the same time valuing their own unique set of American values. Our students must be able to navigate the multitude of cultures and develop positive relationships with people from across the globe.

This skill set has been referred to as Cultural Intelligence (CQ). Author of the book Leading With Cultural Intelligence, David LIvermore describes it the ability to demonstrate...
Drive—show the interest and confidence to adapt cross-culturally

Knowledge—understand how differences such as religion, family, education, legal, and economic influences affect the way people think and behave

Strategy—monitor, analyze, and adjust plans in unfamiliar cultural setting

Action—choose the right verbal and nonverbal behaviors, depending on context

Fortunately, America is so diverse. We must use this diversity as a strength and help our students learn from each other.

Fourth, our students will need to become adept at the art of collaboration. Globalization requires that people work with others. Students need to start practicing now by collaborating with fellow students. This is a great opportunity to introduce project base learning into our classrooms and schools. We must create opportunities for students to work together. Technology makes it possible for students to collaborate with students around the globe. I have seen some amazing projects with students in this country working with students from Africa and Australia. This reinforces my point about the need for appreciating other cultures. Collaboration as a skill set should be developed at every opportunity in our schools.

Finally, innovation and creativity skills must be taught and developed in our schools. With thousands of degrees being awarded in the coming decades, especially in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries, what is going to set our students apart?  Creativity and innovation will. We need these skills taught in our classrooms. 

In summary, a connected globalized world will require certain skill sets and knowledge. It is our responsibility to prepare our students to meet these challenges. I question whether, in this current system of high stakes testing and standardized curriculum, we are doing enough to prepare our students for life outside of the classroom walls.

Analyzing Your Educational Brand

As readers of this blog know, I believe that technology, education, marketing, and brands are on an eventual collision course that will create Educational Brands for teachers, schools, and districts. Teachers, schools, and districts will have marketing brands created by students, parents, test scores, and any number of available data streams in the coming years. Much as business has had to come to terms with their brand and reputation, so too, I believe, will teachers, schools, and districts have to come to terms with the need for brand management. Educator brand management.

Here is a questionnaire to help you analyze your educational brand.
(Adapted from Mitch Joel’s book Six Pixels of Separation)

1. What do people “feel” when they think of you as an educator?

2. What does your educational brand do for people—are they excited about you as a teacher? Do they want to tell everybody?

3. How would you feel if someone gave you your own business card? Does it impress you?

4. What does a your school website (or lack there of) say about your educational brand?

5. How do people find out about you as an educator?

6. How much marketing are you doing to make students, parents, and other school districts know about you?

7. How much money will you spend to attend educational trade shows, conferences, and networking events?

8. How often are you speaking or presenting at these educational events?

9. How often are you involved with organizing those educational events?

10. What are the many cost-effective ways you can better market your educational brand?

11. How comfortable are you with the new digital channels?

12. What kind of relationships are you forming at your school, in your district, in your community, and in the educational community? Are you a trusted educational adviser, an appreciated educational ally, or just another teacher?

12. How many websites, blogs, books, magazines, etc., that cover education are you currently reading (and have you thought about writing for them)?

13. What untold stories unfold every day in your classroom or at your school and how are your fellow teachers, school administration, district administration, students, parents, and the community informed of theses successes?

14. What is your unique promise as an educator?

Stop Standing Still, Quit Playing It Safe: The Dip by Seth Godin

“The time to look for a new job is when you don’t need one.  The time to switch jobs is before it feels comfortable.”  Seth Godin

Comfortable. My guess is that many teachers would love to teach the same grade or subject, at the same school, in the same district, with the same teachers, for the entire length of their careers. It is safe, predictable, and comfortable. It is also dangerous to you becoming a better teacher.

Seth Godin, in his beautiful little book The Dip, explains why quitting, yes quitting, can sometimes be a valuable tool.

“Doug needs to leave for a very simple reason. He’s been branded. Everyone at the company has an expectation of who Doug is and what he can do.” Doug could be teacher at your school. He has taught the same subject or grade for several years. He is good at it. He is on the same committees year after year. He is good at that too. But is Doug growing as an educator? Are you?

“If he leaves and joins another company, he gets to reinvent himself.”  Could a new school or grade level help you reinvent yourself?  Could a new challenge be just the thing to push you out of your comfortable safe zone, and into a new period of challenge and growth? 

According to Seth Godin, “If you are trying to succeed in a job or a relationship or a task, you’re either moving forward, falling behind, or standing still. There are only three choices.” Obviously we don’t want to be falling behind. Standing still is a very easy and very common choice. Standing still is safe. Standing still is predictable. Standing still is comfortable.

But is that going to improve you as an educator?  Is that going to improve education?  Obviously, the answer is no. So that leaves us with the choice but to move forward. According to Seth, “Measurable progress doesn’t have to be a raise or a promotion.”  We don’t control those sorts of things in education anyways, but Seth also says, “The challenge, then is to surface new milestones in areas where you have previously expected to find none.” 

So what new milestones could you set for yourself today?  What new skill could you develop? I started “TWittering” and getting interested in using the web as a collaboration tool. What new skill could you develop? I moved out the classroom and into a management position. I try to speak Spanish to my parents. I tying some very uncomfortable things. I still have a goal of earning my PhD or EdD. What goals or milestones could you set for yourself? What are you doing that is "uncomfortable?"

Stop doing what you have always done. Stop standing still.

To complete your Essential Education take a few minutes to watch friend Steve Cunnigham's great video summary of the book The Dip by Seth Godin

Essential Education: Social Media Revolution

10 Keys for Driving "Elegant Solutions" in Education

Matthew May, author of Elegant Solutions: Breakthrough Thinking The Toyota Way offers 10 practices that can drive the innovation necessary to discover elegant solutions. These 10 practices should be embedded into the work of schools, districts, leadership teams, professional learning communities, or professional networked learning collaboratives.

Let The Learning Lead
“Learning and innovation go hand in hand, but learning comes first.” Or as Michael Fullan would say, “Learning is the work.”

No educator would argue with this. Learning is what we do. I have even gone so far as to say that teachers should be called “Master Learners.”

Matthew explains that, “Learning triggers creativity down the line…”

Learning is at the heart of what great teachers, Professional Learning Communities, Professional Networked Learning Collaboratives, school, and school districts do.

We should be constantly asking ourselves and assessing ourselves against the degree to which experimentation and inquiry is built into our core educational processes.

Learn To See
Matthew advises that we, “Live the customer’s life.” In other words, we need to view problems through the lens of the student, or the teacher, or the parents, or the administrator. “Watch the problem in the context and environment within which it occurs. View it from every conceivable angle.”

In other words, be an Anthropologist. View problems with open minds and through others’ perspectives.

“The phrase in Japanese is genchi genbutsu: go look and see to fully grasp the situation; then and only then, define the problem and design the appropriate solution.”

The key to finding the elegant solution is to make sure you are solving the right problem.

“Successful problem solving requires finding the right solution to the right problem. We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem than because we get the wrong solution to the right problem.” Russell Ackoff (1974)

Ask yourself, how well do you understand the problem your student, teachers, or parents face?

Design For Today
“Focus on clear and present needs. Make sure you’re concentrating on a real need…don’t attempt to manufacture a need.”

There are many issues and problems facing teachers and schools. Focusing on a clear need will ensure the solution is solving a problem with minimal effort, time, and expense.

Many educational plans go wrong because no one bothered to ask what would happen if the idea or solution became a reality. Taking a moment to really assess if this if an idea will result in the solution you are looking for is important.

Think In Picture
There is a reason that one of Marzano’s 9 effective strategies is “nonlinguistic representations.”

Matthew explains, “Pictures and images connect people to thoughts and goals and help turn valuable ideas into action. So get graphic. Whenever you can, wherever you can, start building a visual element into your thinking—Storyboard it, diagram it, mindmap it, whiteboard it, butcher-paper the walls and go crazy.”

School leadership teams, Professional Learning Communities, and Professional Networked Learning Collaboratives should be creating nonlinguistic representations of their problems to help them “see” possible solutions. Are you including a means of creating and capturing images and graphics into your meeting planning?

Capture The Intangible

“It’s the intangible that differentiate and transform…Capture the intangibles that people truly prize, and you’ll find the most compelling elements of value.”

Find those intangibles that define, your school, your PLC, or your PNLC. Think about your values and your culture.

How does what you do in your classroom or at your school connect with you and others on an emotional level? What get you are those you teach and work with in the heart, mind, and soul. That is your intangible.

Leverage The Limits
“Restraining resources rule—resources constraints can spur ingenuity.”

This is about becoming imaginative with what you have. Teachers are some of the most resourceful people I know. Dealing with limited resources and constraining regulations can create a source of creativity.

“All artist work within the confines of their chosen media, and it’s the limits that spur their creativity.”

Education must deal with the restraints of time, location, standards, legislation, and limited physical and financial resources. With no barriers, things would be simple; it requires no creative solutions. But, the very nature of an educational system is “limiting” and so we are spurred to be creative and seek “elegant solutions.”

Though we have many barriers and issues facing us daily in education, we are still required to meet our goals of improving student learning. To do more for students with less should drive our creative powers.

Master The Tension
“Breakthrough thinking demands something to break through.”

Think of the opposing ideas of doing more for students with fewer resources or more constraining regulations. That is tension.

Matthew warns that we must be careful because, “…we have a natural tendency to ‘satisfice’—give in too early and glom on to the solution that is inevitably less elegant, less than optimal.”

This happens in educational meetings often. Teacher and or administrators sitting around a table, many not wanting to be there, agree quickly to the first idea that seems to make sense. Often though, these are not the best ideas. Too little thinking, conversation, creativity, or analysis has gone into examining the problem and or the solution to have developed a truly elegant solution. We satisfice so we can move on.

What we need more of in education is “integrative thinking.” We need more opposable minds that can manage the creative tension needed to develop solutions for problems like increasing student learning while having more standards to teach and less resources. Or having to create time for learning a new curriculum while simultaneously implementing the new curriculum.

Managing this sort of tension can create innovative ideas for elegant solutions.

Run The Numbers
There is a reason data driven instruction is so in vogue. Data provides facts and insight to back up our instincts.

“Digging into relevant data helps fight the dangers of bias, convention and instinct. There’s nothing better to help make the break with comfortable patterns than solid evidence. Great innovations are based on much more than a feeling.”

Patterns and trends in student achievement data, attendance data, graduation rates, etc., can provide places for inquiry processes to be applied and new ideas explored.

Make Kaizen Mandatory
“Pursuing perfection requires great discipline—create a standard, follow it, and find a better way.”

According to Matthew, research has shown that the, “…average number of ideas submitted per employee annually is 100 time greater in Japanese companies than in U.S. companies.”

We are used to rewarding ideas that succeed. But Matthew thinks we might have the wrong approach if we want to encourage more ideas.

“We have it backwards! The bottom line is that the Western business practice of rewarding only accepted ideas has all but killed the creative drive in corporate America.”

Education does not really “reward” accepted ideas, but creative administrators could think of way to encourage and acknowledge idea, whether they are implemented or not. This would encourage teachers and parents to submit more ideas. The more ideas to select from the greater the chance are of hitting on a winner, an elegant solution.

Matthew says, “We need a better way—kaizen. Kaizen (ky-zen), the Japanese word for the American—made concept of continuous improvement, is all about idea submission, not acceptance.”

“Kaizen has three steps: First, create a standard. Second, follow it. Third, find a better way. Repeat endlessly. Trying to improve and innovate without a standard as a reference is like a journey with no starting point.”

The key to making Kaizen mandatory is finding ways to develop, encourage, and sustain a flow of ideas from teachers, Professional Learning Communities, and Professional Networked Learning Collaboratives.

Keep It Lean
“Complexity kills—scale it back, make it simple, and let it flow.”

Education, like any other bureaucracy has a tendency to make simple things complex. It kills the innovation and motivation within a great idea when we add layers of bureaucratic messiness.

Ask yourself, what ideas are being weighted down with unnecessary complexity. Ask you teachers, your students, and your parents, they will have plenty of ideas. Make it simple.

Following these 10 key practices will ensure that you are targeting the underlying principles of innovation. And through them, your classroom, school, or district may discover its own elegant solution. Remember the mantra, not best, just better.

The "Ambidextrous" Professional Learning Community

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald was describing the integrated approach of concurrent focus that created what I call Ambidextrous Professional Learning Communities.

Ambidextrous Professional Learning Communities have an “integrated” or "ambidextrous" approach to their focus and their function.

Focus:
In a previous post (The Integrated Approach of the Professional Networked Learning Collaborative) I explain that Integrated Approach has a concurrent focus, both internal and external. They focus on developing strong norms, processes for communicating, problem solving, building consensus, etc. This is important, but Professional Learning Communities must recognize that equally important, is a clear understanding of how their work fits into the needs of those outside of the team.

They clearly understand that their work must fit within the greater goals of the school and the district. They are externally focused and internally focused. They do not wait to create and establish internal norms or practices for every aspect of their work, but rather, get on with the work meeting the needs of students, the grade level, department, school, district, and the team together, while simultaneously developing internal processes. They also keep an eye out for trends in technology, new research, and new strategies, and new compliance issues developing outside of the group.

The internal focus develops key group processes, norms, goals, time-lines, etc. The internal focus is what great Professional Learning Communities do to build solid teams. But this is not enough. The must also have the concurrent external focus. They need to understand others' expectations (school or district) constantly update their information about available talent and knowledge in their network of useful outsiders, and be aware of the external situation in which they work. The external focus has at its heart the principles of The Expectations, Network, and Situation. (T.E.N.S.)

Being able to have the concurrent focus of the internal and external approach is to be ambidextrous.

Function
There is a commercial about Tiger Woods that say, “relentless consistency, 50 percent; willingness to change, 50%.” The commercial from the global management consulting firm Accenture sums up perfectly the concurrent focus of function; relentless consistency while at the same time continuously innovating.

Professional Learning Communities must have a strong unwavering and unyielding commitment to use best practices, research based methods, proven strategies, and all practices that are known to make a difference for student learning. Professional Learning Communities must practice “kaizen”, the continual improvement in their work. A strong Professional Learning Community is always seeking to gain a greater depth of understanding of their work and continual practice of those best practices. Their internal focus is to find those critical aspects of their work and apply the best-known methods without exception.

The other concurrent focus of the Professional Learning Community function is to continually innovate. If “kaizen” is getting better at what they do, the term “tenakaizen” is to make something completely different, to innovate. The Professional Learning Community should be continuously learning to do new things in new ways. The only way to even greater results is to find new innovative ideas.

The integrated, or ambidextrous Professional Learning Community demonstrates the ability to have what Roger Martin, dean of Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, call “an opposable mind.”

The “opposable mind” allows a member of a Professional Learning Community to have the, "…predisposition and capacity to hold two diametrically opposing ideas in their heads. And then, without panicking or simply settling for one alternative or the other, they’re able to produce a synthesis that is superior to either opposing idea.”

Have an internal and external focus simultaneously. Have a focus on getting better at what you do, while looking for new ways to do it.

Professional Learning Communities that have “integrative thinking,” will be able to manage con-current focus and prove themselves to be... ambidextrous.

Education's Sacred Cows

Is there anything wrong with Sacred Cows? Well it depends. Maybe yes and maybe no. We need to question if our Sacred Cows are useful, relevant, and correct for the needs of the educational system. If they have outlived their usefulness then those “cows” need to be questioned. According to the authors of Death To All Sacred Cows: How successful business people put the old rules out to pasture, if education only looks to the past, it is putting itself at risk because schools or districts that, “...only look to the past to guide their futures can be doomed to failure. In a rapidly changing world, anything dated tends to be dangerous.”

“If the world was a stagnant, predictable place, then steadfast rules would be okay. They would guide us and keep everyone honest. But the world in which we live changes constantly.”

Change is the new normal.

“If we don’t question why we do things the way we do, we’ll never be able to do them better. If we resist new approaches, we’ll be stuck with more of the same all the time.”

When was the last time you questioned why you were doing what you were doing? 

^{by TerData}

So here is the Education Innovation list of Sacred Cows.

All students can learn at high levels of achievement
All kids should go to college
Teaching takes place at a school
Teaching takes place in the classroom
Students should sit at a desk
Students learn from teachers
Students need to learn what teachers are teaching
Always put the needs of the student ahead of everything else
The government knows what students should know
The government knows best what teachers need to know
We need a Department of Education
The best way to measure learning is to give a test
The best way to show what you know is to take a test
Books are necessary
Paper is necessary
Homework is necessary
Students should not have cell phones
Always do what is best for students
Research based instructional practices
Data based decision making
Principals should be “instructional leaders”
Only the best teachers should become administrators
Administrators are out of touch
Private schools, charter schools, and home-schools are in competition.
Schools don’t have enough money
School waste too much money
Teachers are underpaid
Teachers are overpaid
Unions are good for teachers
Unions are good for students
Smaller class sizes are better
Class size does not matter
Other countries are doing it better than we are
We need to teach more math and science
Art, music, drama, dance, etc, are nice to have, but not necessary
Howard Gardner is always right
Robert Marzano is always right
The DuFours are always right
There is nothing you can do about bad teachers
Standardized test scores matter, and they matter a lot
Teachers are better when they work as team or a Professional Learning Community
The more experience a teacher has the better they are at teaching
Teachers should not be compared to other teachers
Schools should not be compared to other schools
Mistakes are bad.
Parents are always right
Parents don’t understand
Put the most resources toward the lowest students
Technology is not important for learning
Technology must be in the classroom

Some of these "cows" should stay "sacred" and some of these "cows" need to be put out to pasture.

What Sacred Cows would you add?

Pirates and Edupunks Stick It to Big Education

Imagine Joey Ramone as your principal, a punk rock principal for a rock-n-roll school. Scary? It shouldn’t be. That is what you might get when you combine Matt Mason, pirates, punk rock, do-it-yourself, Edupunks, Big Education, and the Open Model of Education.

I previously blogged about author Matt Mason (Teach Students to be Pirates and Plagiarists?). According to Matt Mason, author of The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism, “The punk rock perspective is a subversive mind-set we can all use, especially now that we have equally subversive technologies.”

From the punk rock philosophy comes three separate ideas that will spell trouble for the future of education, but complement the Open Model of Education. Beware of pirates.

Philosophy 1: Do It Yourself (D.I.Y.)
“Today we live in a world where doing-it-yourself doesn’t seem that radical at all. We accept that anyone is capable of becoming a change agent.”

And that includes students. Students no longer need to wait for you to teach them what you think they need to know. Students can go create their own Personal Learning Networks of teachers, mentors, friends, and anyone anywhere who has something they want to learn. It's about choice, freedom, and change. Students crave it and with technology, they can get it. Our outdated notions of teaching students locked in a classroom will have to give way to the Open Model of Education that is focused on the student and their learning because, “Limitations suck.”

“It seems that ownership of the means of production—the backbone of capitalism—is falling into the hands of the masses. But soon the notion of ‘owning’ the means of production may itself be redundant.”

In other words, nobody owns teaching anymore. Nobody controls what students want or need to know. It’s now about the learning and that means nobody owns our students minds or bodies.  They get to learn from anyone, anywhere, at anytime, and for their own reasons, not yours.

“DIY is about becoming more independent. The more independent we become as a society, the more industries become decentralized. Indeed we may reach a point where there is no ‘industry’ left at all, in its place many vibrant local markets producing value, but not controlled exclusively by big players.”

We have Big Oil, Big Insurance, Big Drug Companies, Big Tobacco, etc. But, I say we also have Big Education. Big Education is a system. It is not about the teaching or learning so much as it is about the supporting an organization that does many things other than teaching (maintains things, buys things, monitors things, pays for things, transports things, paints things, cleans things, trims things, builds things, repairs things, etc).

These things have nothing to do with learning, but have a lot to do with maintaining the system. The key here is that Big Education operates on the premise that learning takes place in certain place and from certain people. Big Education exists to support those places and those people, but in the end does a lot to support the organization itself.  Big Education is going to have to adapt to D.I.Y. learning.

Big Education is the “man.” And DIY is about sticking to the “man.”

Philosophy 2: Resist Authority
“Punk resisted authority and saw anarchy as a path to a brighter future. Punk capitalists are resisting authority, too--by leveraging new D.I.Y. technologies and the power of individuals connecting and working together as equals. This twin engine of the new economy is creating new ways all of us can live and work, leaving old system for dust. Technology + Democracy = Punk Capitalism”

Students are going to pirate their own education. You figured out the best way to teach subjects, now they are going to use your “best practices” for themselves. Teachers and professors have developed research based teaching methods for ensuring the best learning. Now, students and educational entrepreneurs are going to pirate those ideas and do it themselves. The Open Model of Education leverages technology and best practices to give learning and teaching anyone. They are not stuck in your system, following your rules they are following pirate rules, which means there are no rules.

Philosophy 3: Combine Altruism with Self-Interest
“Punk had high ideals—it looked aggressive and scary, but through its angry critique of society and subversion of it, it sought to change the world for the better.”

The Open Model of Education can look at little scary to someone who committed to Big Education. It takes their power away by changing the focus from teaching to learning. It allows students and other to pirate the best educational practices and methods and use them to meet their needs and interests.

But this is going to make education better. A focus on every student learning in manner and style that is uniquely best for that student. What could be altruistic than giving a person the best education possible? What could be more beneficial than giving every person a chance to succeed to their highest potential? As a country, is not in our best interests to ensure that our students receive the best learning possible? It is in our self-interest that we change. It is in our own self-interest that the students pirate “Big Education”.

“Pirates create positive social and economic changes, and understanding piracy today is more important than ever…”

Another term for this DIY learning is called Edupunk. Wikipedia describes it this way…

“Edupunk is an approach to teaching and learning practices that result from a do it yourself (DIY) attitude. [1][2] The New York Times defines it as “an approach to teaching that avoids mainstream tools like PowerPoint and Blackboard, and instead aims to bring the rebellious attitude and D.I.Y. ethos of ’70s bands like The Clash to the classroom.”[3] Many instructional applications can be described as DIY education or Edupunk.”

“Edupunk has risen from an objection to the efforts of government and corporate interests in reframing and bundling emerging technologies into cookie-cutter products with pre-defined application—somewhat similar to traditional punk ideologies. [6]

“The reaction to corporate influence on education is only one part of edupunk, though. Stephen Downes has identified three aspects to this approach:

    * Reaction against commercialization of learning
    * Do-it-yourself attitude
    * Thinking and learning for yourself [7]

Sticking it to the man. Sticking it to Big Education.

Edupunk rock pirates of the Open Model of Education, that's Education Innovation.