The Teacher 2.0 Brainstorm: Building a Personal and Career Support Network

Join me on Thursday, January 27th, as I hold an open community discussion on building a social network that might provide educators with grass-roots personal, professional, and career support.

The Background:

This summer, on a lazy August evening, I interviewed David Wood, the author of Get Paid for Who You Are.  I'd previously interviewed Dan Schawbel on his book Me 2.0 (both interviews are recorded and available here), and the idea was to continue the conversation on student entrepreneurship and personal portfolios in the world of specialization that the Internet provides.  To my great surprise, over 180 people showed up live to hear David (normally on a summer evening, we'd be lucky to hit 50 or 60, even with a really strong guest).

While I was conducting the interview, something became obvious to me in the text chat conversation.  It seemed that a number of the educators who were in attendance were there in order to think about or explore their own career options.  So about half-way through the interview, I stopped and polled the audience.  How many were there to learn about how to help their students in this new entrepreneurial world?  About half raised their virtual hands.  How many were there to think about their own careers?  The other half!  This took me by surprise, but in retrospect made all the sense in the world.  Educators are highly likely to be in the field because of their passion to help others and their desire to make a difference in the world.  With tightening school budgets and large numbers of educators being laid off or just less secure in their employment, it seemed to me very smart for them to be thinking about how they might expand or enhance their careers in the same "personal branding" ways that David was talking about.  I wondered if I'd been able to make the poll anonymous, would even more have indicated they were there for themselves?

The Idea:

Knowing that the main social networking projects I've been involved with for educators (like Classroom 2.0 and Elluminate's LearnCentral) have centered on the sharing of professional, in-classroom practice, I've wondered about re-positioning one of my networks that has been lying fallow--thanks to the Ning shift to a paid model--like School 2.0 or EduBloggerWorld, and turning it into a Teacher 2.0 network where educators could gather to discuss personal and career interests.  I'm envisioning discussions and Webinars on topics like:  building your blog or personal/professional website, creating and participating in specialized communities, hosting your own specialized Webinar series, starting an education-related business, speaking at conferences, etc.

If the idea interests you, I hope you will join me this Thursday to start the brainstorm.  What kinds of things could a Teacher 2.0 network provide that you would want?  Are you interested in hearing other educators talk about how they have created and built their own careers, personal learning networks, and reputations in authentic ways? Are there educators who have found work or passion-based opportunities outside of the traditional classroom?  I'm sure I'm missing some great ideas, so please come and share!  If there are already networks that you use on the web for this, come tell us about them, what you like, and how we might support them or supplement what they already do.

Date: Thursday, January 27th, 2011
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 1am GMT (next day--international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Event and Recording Page:  http://www.learncentral.org/event/133547

Live Interview Wednesday, January 26th - Michael Horn Revisits Disrupting Class

Join me Wednesday, January 26th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar with Michael Horn, co-author of Disrupting Class:  How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, now updated and expanded.  Michael has been a frequent guest on the show, documenting the education white papers and studies coming from Innosight Institute, where he is the Executive Director for Education.

Date: Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
Time: 4pm Pacific / 7pm Eastern / 12am GMT (next day--international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Event and Recording Page:  http://www.learncentral.org/event/132741

Michael B. Horn is the co-founder and Executive Director, Education of Innosight Institute, a not-for-profit think tank devoted to applying the theories of disruptive innovation to problems in the social sector. He is the coauthor of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (McGraw-Hill: June 2008) with Harvard Business School Professor and bestselling author Clayton M. Christensen and Curtis W. Johnson, president of the Citistates Group. BusinessWeek named the book one of the 10 Best Innovation and Design Books of 2008, Strategy + Business awarded it the best human capital book of 2008, Newsweek named it as the 14th book on its list of “Fifty Books for Our Times,” and the National Chamber Foundation named it first among its 10 “Books that Drive the Debate 2009.”

Disrupting Class uses the theories of disruptive innovation to identify the root causes of schools’ struggles and suggests a path forward to customize an education for every child in the way she learns. Horn has been a featured keynote speaker at many conferences including the Virtual School Symposium and Microsoft’s School of the Future World Summit. Tech+Learning magazine also named him to its list of the 100 most important people in the creation and advancement of the use of technology in education.

Prior to this, Horn worked at America Online during its aol.com re-launch, and before that he served as David Gergen’s research assistant, where he tracked and wrote about politics and public policy. Horn has written articles for numerous publications, including Education Week, Forbes, the Boston Globe, and U.S. News and World Report. In addition, he has contributed research for Charles Ellis’ book, Joe Wilson and the Creation of Xerox (Wiley, 2006) and Barbara Kellerman’s Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters (Harvard Business School Press, 2004).

Horn earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and an AB from Yale University, where he graduated with distinction in History.

Live Interview on January 25 - Inside the Mind of Gary Stager

Join me Tuesday, January 25th, as we go inside the mind of Dr. Gary Stager for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar.  Gary is an educator who doesn't hesitate to speak out and generate controversy, and his ideas will stick with you.  If you haven't heard him before, hopefully we'll do a good job of giving you a one-hour overview of his thoughts on teaching and learning, technology in education, and school reform.

Date: Tueaday, January 25th, 2011
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 1am GMT (next day--international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Event and Recording Page:  http://www.learncentral.org/event/132740

Since 1982, Gary Stager, an internationally recognized educator, speaker and consultant, has helped learners of all ages on six continents embrace the power of computers as intellectual laboratories and vehicles for self-expression. He led professional development in the world's first laptop schools (1990), has designed online graduate school programs since the mid-90s, is a collaborator in the MIT Media Lab's Future of Learning Group and a member of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's Learning Team. Mr. Stager's doctoral research involved the creation a high-tech alternative learning environment for incarcerated at-risk teens. Recent work includes teaching and mentoring some of Australia's "most troubled" public schools. Gary was a Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University, Senior Editor of District Administration Magazine, and Founding Editor of The Pulse: Education’s Place for Debate. He is an associate of the Thornburg Center and is the Executive Director of The Constructivist Consortium. In 1999, Converge Magazine named Gary a "shaper of our future and inventor of our destiny." The National School Boards Association recognized Dr. Stager with the distinction of "20 Leaders to Watch" in 2007. The June 2010 issue of Tech & Learning Magazine named Gary Stager as "one of today's leaders who are changing the landscape of edtech through innovation and leadership."

Week of January 24, 2011 - Live, Interactive, and Free Webinars in Elluminate

Below are this week's public, free, and interactive Webinars through LearnCentral.org, the social learning network for education that I work on for Elluminate.

The time of the events below will show up automatically in your own time zone when you are registered in LearnCentral and when you have chosen your time zone in your profile, or you can check the new event time converter on the event page. Event recordings are posted and available after the events if you aren't able to attend them live. If you are looking for an easy calendar import / RSS feed for these events, you'll now find a link on your calendar page or the calendar page of specific groups!

We hope you will consider hosting your own public webinars using the free LearnCentral public room--instructions are available by joining the "Host Your Own Webinar" group on the main announcement tab (http://www.learncentral.org/group/3432/host-your-own-webinars).

Thanks for your attention, and see you online!

INSIDE THE MIND OF GARY STAGER (Future of Education Series)
Tue 25 Jan 08:00PM New York / Wed 26 Jan 01:00AM GMT / Wed 26 Jan 12:00PM Sydney
Steve Hargadon. Steve Hargadon interviews Gary Stager and goes "Inside the Mind" of the often controversial education thinker.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/132740

GETTING CAMPUS-WIDE ADOPTION—AND HAPPY FACULTY—WITH BLACKBOARD COLLABORATE (Host Your Own Webinar Series)
Wed 26 Jan 12:00PM New York / Wed 26 Jan 05:00PM GMT / Thu 27 Jan 04:00AM Sydney
Gailene Nelson. More than half of all faculty at the University of Findlay utilize Blackboard Collaborate for everything from live online classes and office hours, to meetings and virtual conferences. In fact, the faculty believe Blackboard Collaborate is so vital to their teaching that a recent survey found that 93% of all faculty ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ to recommend Blackboard Collaborate to other faculty members. Join Mike Shaffer, Academic Technology Specialist at the University of Findlay, to gain insight into how he has spread true campus-wide adoption and to gain a few tips and tricks about how you too can garner similar wide-spread adoption at your own school.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/128729/

JANUARY MOODLE FORUM: THE LANDSCAPE OF K-12 ONLINE LEARNING (Host Your Own Webinar Series)
Wed 26 Jan 03:30PM New York / Wed 26 Jan 08:30PM GMT / Thu 27 Jan 07:30AM Sydney
Laura Mikowychok. Join Laura and special guest Allison Powell, Vice President of iNACOL, for "The Landscape of K-12 Online Learning". What does the future of learning look like? How do we define a world-class education for today’s students? Online learning offers a solution for expanding opportunities, global collaboration, and 21st century skills. Learn about the latest research and what works for K-12 online learning.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/128495

MICHAEL HORN REVISITS DISRUPTING CLASS -- THE 2ND EDITION (Future of Education Series)
Wed 26 Jan 07:00PM New York / Thu 27 Jan 12:00AM GMT / Thu 27 Jan 11:00AM Sydney
Steve Hargadon. Steve interviews regular guest Michael Horn, co-author of Disrupting Class, to discuss the new edition of the book.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/132741

P2PU COURSE - CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT (Math 2.0 Series)
Wed 26 Jan 07:30PM New York / Thu 27 Jan 12:30AM GMT / Thu 27 Jan 11:30AM Sydney
Maria Droujkova. What does the future of learning look like? How do we define a world-class education for today’s students? A national and global perspective on the future trends in education, expectations for students, and what strategies schools need to have in place will be shared. Globalization requires students to be academically prepared for a vastly different workplace to achieve success in a knowledge-based economy. eLearning is providing a revolution across the globe for the best teachers to reach the most remote students as well as engage our most challenging populations—low income, at risk of dropping out, special needs, and ELL students. Online learning offers a solution for expanding opportunities, global collaboration, and 21st century skills. So all schools can deliver on the promise that every student should have access to the best education available, regardless of their neighborhood or geography. Learn about the latest research and what works for K-12 online learning.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/131360

MATH FUTURE SERIES: HOWTOSMILE.ORG - SCIENCE AND MATH INFORMAL LEARNING EDUCATORS (Math 2.0 Series)
Wed 26 Jan 09:30PM New York / Thu 27 Jan 02:30AM GMT / Thu 27 Jan 01:30PM Sydney
Maria Droujkova. Sherry Hsi will lead us in exploring http://howtosmile.org and answer questions about the project.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/131104

SUSTAINABILITY STUDIO OPENING (Host Your Own Webinar Series)
Thu 27 Jan 12:00PM New York / Thu 27 Jan 05:00PM GMT / Fri 28 Jan 04:00AM Sydney
C Geith. Join the opening session for "P2PU Sustainability"s.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/130108

SCHOOLS AS LAGGING INDICATORS OF CULTURAL CHANGE: RESPONDING TO THE DIG. MEDIA LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE (Host Your Own Webinar Series)
Thu 27 Jan 05:00PM New York / Thu 27 Jan 10:00PM GMT / Fri 28 Jan 09:00AM Sydney
Jason Borgen. Over the past several decades the way human culture is produced, disseminated and used has been transformed in profound ways by digital media. In the past few years, social networking, blogs, the publication of video, civic, political, and artistic products produced persons who a short time ago would have had no publication outlet have played a particularly significant role in the content of the culture. Apart from notable exceptions, many school districts throughout the U.S. still operate within a context of a culture which is out of sync with the contemporary situation. Schools generally are making digital media fit into a “business as usual” rather than a transformation of the learning environment. This Webinar will consider the nature of the dissonance between the world as it is and the schools as they are. It will focus on leadership challenges for school personnel and will describe resources provided by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) to assist school leaders in responding to the challenge. The task is not just to define the gap but to close it.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/118300

TEACHER 2.0: BUILDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT (Classroom 2.0 Series)
Thu 27 Jan 08:00PM New York / Fri 28 Jan 01:00AM GMT / Fri 28 Jan 12:00PM Sydney
Steve Hargadon. Steve holds an open community discussion on how Web 2.0 tools can provide educators with personal and professional support, as well as with career opportunities. How do you create and build your own personal reputation in an authentic way? How do you find work or passion-based opportunities outside of the traditional classroom? What is the value of a personal learning network? Given that the current educational environment is characterized by extremes--financial constraints exist alongside incredible new opportunities, and educators as the focus of intense criticism while at the same time acknowledged as being critical to school success--what kind of support would you want from a Teacher 2.0 network?
http://www.learncentral.org/event/133547

A WOMAN'S WALK IN GRACE - CHAPTER 10 (Host Your Own Webinar Series)
Thu 27 Jan 08:30PM New York / Fri 28 Jan 01:30AM GMT / Fri 28 Jan 12:30PM Sydney
Catherine Martin. The presentation will be followed, as always, by an open Q&A time with Laura for all of your Moodle questions.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/100314

INFUSING DIGITAL STORIES THROUGHOUT THE PRIMARY CURRICULUM (Host Your Own Webinar Series)
Sat 29 Jan 09:00AM New York / Sat 29 Jan 02:00PM GMT / Sun 30 Jan 01:00AM Sydney
S. Lister. Stories as an instructional strategy in math? Social studies? Phys-ed? And/or Science?!! Participants will experience the skills necessary to create digital stories and then learn how the process of digital storytelling can be applied in a variety subjects within the Primary grades. The workshop will conclude with tips and tricks for using Digital Storytelling in more demanding classrooms such as those with only 1 computer, limited technology, large class sizes, etc. This workshop will be presented in a ‘blended’ format where there will be f2f participants (pre-service teachers) in North Bay, Ontario, Canada mixing with online guests from around the world.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/125058

NOW SERVING...A CLASSROOM IN A CLOUD (Host Your Own Webinar Series)
Sat 29 Jan 02:00PM New York / Sat 29 Jan 07:00PM GMT / Sun 30 Jan 06:00AM Sydney
S. Lister. In this workshop we will examine web 2.0 educational applications. We will start with an appetizer of freely available open educational resources (OER’s) and then move onto the main course of Google applications – tasty morsels for every connected classroom. Dessert will be a selection of ‘cloud’ collaboration tools that can support global connections in the classroom. All diners will receive a parting gift of resources to build your own cloud personal learning network (PLN).
http://www.learncentral.org/event/125060

UPDATED: Live Interview on Monday Jan. 31 - Karen Cator on the National Education Technology Plan

Join me Monday, January 24th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar with Karen Cator, the Director of the Office of Education Technology, on education, technology, and the 2010 National Education Technology Plan.

Date: Monday, January 31st, 2011
Time: 3pm Pacific / 6pm Eastern / 11pm GMT (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Event and Recording Page:  http://www.learncentral.org/node/131618

Karen Cator is the Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. She has devoted her career to creating the best possible learning environments for this generation of students. Prior to joining the department, Cator directed Apple's leadership and advocacy efforts in education. In this role, she focused on the intersection of education policy and research, emerging technologies, and the reality faced by teachers, students and administrators.

Cator joined Apple in 1997 from the public education sector, most recently leading technology planning and implementation in Juneau, Alaska. She also served as Special Assistant for Telecommunications for the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. Cator holds a Masters in school administration from the University of Oregon and Bachelors in early childhood education from Springfield College. She is the past chair of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and has served on the several boards including the Software & Information Industry Association—Education.

The National Education Technology Plan, Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology, calls for applying the advanced technologies used in our daily personal and professional lives to our entire education system to improve student learning, accelerate and scale up the adoption of effective practices, and use data and information for continuous improvement.

It presents five goals with recommendations for states, districts, the federal government, and other stakeholders. Each goal addresses one of the five essential components of learning powered by technology: Learning, Assessment, Teaching, Infrastructure, and Productivity.

Live Interview on Thursday, Jan. 20 - Barnet Berry on Teaching 2030

Join me Thursday, January 20th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar with Barnett Berry on new book, Teaching 2030: What We Must Do for Our Students and Our Public Schools--Now and in the Future.  "In the raging controversy over the purpose of public education and how to fix the nation's underperforming schools, the voices of America's best teachers are seldom heard. Now for the first time, in a provocative book about the future of teaching and learning, 12 of America's most accomplished classroom educators join a leading advocate for a 21st-century teaching profession to bring expert pedagogical know-how and fresh and provocative policy ideas to the national school reform debate."

Date: Thursday, January 20th, 2011
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 1am GMT (next day--international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Event and Recording Page:  http://www.learncentral.org/event/127863

Barnett Berry is the founder and President of the Center for Teaching Quality, Inc., based in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Created in 1999, CTQ, seeks to dramatically increase student achievement across America by advancing teaching as a 21st-century, results oriented profession.

A former high school teacher, has worked as a social scientist at the RAND Corporation, served as a senior executive with the South Carolina State Department of Education, and directed an education policy center while he was a professor at the University of South Carolina. Barnett has authored numerous academic reports and publications and many articles for the popular education press (see selected works below). He frequently serves in an advisory capacity to organizations committed to teaching quality, equity and social justice in America's schools.

Meredith, Barnett’s wife of 34 years, is a special education teacher in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. They are the proud parents of Joseph, a community organizer for the Working Families Party (New York City), and Evan, who is now pursuing a passionate interest in sustainable agriculture in Olympia, Washington.

"The authors of Teaching 2030 together they identify four emergent realities that will shape the learning experience of children born in the New Millennium -- and propose six levers of change that can ignite a bright future for our nation's students by ensuring they all have access to excellent teaching. To create the public schools all students deserve, today and tomorrow, the authors call on policymakers and the public to work with teachers in creating a dynamic and flexible learning environment for students and teachers, and powerful new ways to define and measure school success; transforming public education through digital technologies while reinventing brick and mortar school buildings into 24/7 hubs of community support for students and families; re-imagining teaching as a well-compensated career with many pathways, assuring that every child has qualified and effective teachers and that teaching expertise is constantly spread, in and out cyberspace; establishing a new leadership force of 600,000 teacherpreneurs -- classroom experts who continue to teach students regularly while also serving as teacher educators, policy researchers, community organizers, and trustees of their profession.

"Teaching 2030 provides a refreshing, grounded, and lively examination of what we need to know and do in order to ensure that every public school student in America has access to qualified, caring, and effective teachers."

Live Interview Wed., Jan. 19 - Yong Zhao on Education, China, and Tiger Moms

Join me Wednesday, January 19th, for a live and interactive webinar with Yong Zhao on the Chinese education system, international test scores, and "Tiger Moms." Professor Zhao has been a previous guest on the show to discuss his book Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization and we revisit those themes in light of current educational discussions.

Date: Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 1am GMT (next day--international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Event and Recording Page:  http://www.learncentral.org/event/131508

Yong Zhao is currently Presidential Chair and Associate Dean for Global Education,College of Education at the University of Oregon, where he also serves as the director of the Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE). He is a fellow of theInternational Academy for Education.

Until December, 2010, Yong Zhao was University Distinguished Professor at the College of Education, Michigan State University, where he also served as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Technology, executive director of the Confucius Institute, as well as the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence.

His research interests include educational policy, computer gaming and education, diffusion of innovations, teacher adoption of technology, computer-assisted language learning, and globalization and education.

Zhao has extensive international experiences. He has consulted with government and educational agencies and spoken on educational issues in many countries on six continents. His current work focuses on designing 21st Century Schools in the context of globalization and the digital revolution.

Zhao has published over 20 books and 100 articles. His most recent books are Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization and the Handbook of Asian Education. He has also developed computer software, including the award-winning New Chengo/ZON (http://enterzon.com), the world’s first massively multi-player online role-playing game for studying Chinese.

Zhao was born in China’s Sichuan Province. He received his B.A. in English Language Education from Sichuan Institute of Foreign Languages in Chongqing, China in 1986. After teaching English in China for six years, he came to Linfield College as a visiting scholar in 1992. He then began his graduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993. He received his A.M. in Education in 1994 and Ph.D. in 1996. He joined the faculty at MSU in 1996 after working as the Language Center Coordinator at Willamette University and a language specialist at Hamilton College.