I also want as many Aseems in my classes as possible. How do we make that part happen as well?

Kevin Honeycutt challenges me to be a better learner, teacher, and thinker. I am always interested in where his spiraling mind is going to go next. In this podcast, we discuss the future of professional development as well as the future of schools. The Last chapter of the podcast is dedicated to Kevin’s engaging idea of modeling schools after theater stages. Although the ideas are not fully ripe yet, they have a lot of potential. Please drop me or Kevin a line if you are interested in developing any of our discussion and debate into something more concrete. Also, listen to his podcast. It will challenge you too.

Show Notes:

• 00:00:00: Interview With Kevin Honeycutt

  Education Transformation Blog

• 00:00:45: Crafting The Envirnoment and Experience

  Kevin Honeycutt’s Page

• 00:07:32: Ideas for Changing Professional Development and Networks

  Podcast about Osawatomie

• 00:08:47: Kern Kelley’s Ideas
  The Tech Curve
• 00:09:47: Backchanneling

  The Ripe Environment

• 00:12:20: Learning by Doing

  Life Practice Model

• 00:15:59: The New Takeaways
• 00:18:47: The Essdack Model
  Essdack’s Website
• 00:21:31: The Theatre Model Of School

  Schools as Empty Stages Podcast

I do not feel obligatory patriotism on the 4th of July. I do not feel ashamed of an American heritage that has been equally beneficial and oppressive to different demographics. I do not feel the need to set off a lot of fireworks in someone’s back yard that at any moment could set a house ablaze. Instead, I feel introspective. It is strange that July 4th does for me what January 1st does for so many others.

On this day, I try to think about where I am going with my life and how that measures up to the average American (whatever that may be in my head on a particular year). I also think about where this country is going and why the stereotypes of American greed, arrogance, and privilege need a serious overhaul.

Now, I know many of you are not from the USA, so pardon this little bit of western-centric rambling.

I am where I wanted to be as of this July 4th. That is what I am proud of. I am proud that I live in a place that lets me be happy. I can have a beautiful and intelligent wife, a (almost) always smiling daughter, and the ability to roam across state lines without fear of interrogation or harassment. Not everyone else is so lucky.

I am proud of the flat world that I am a part of that tells me my country of origin only matters because setting up skype calls to Australia is harder than to Mexico.

I am proud of the beliefs about education that the blogosphere has helped to shape. I am proud of the change we are making in the American educational landscape.

I am proud to be an American because of the potential that I have to do good, not because of any of the good that has been done in the past. I just hope that I can live up to this potential.

If not, I will just be one more lazy, ignorant, meat-headed, attention-starved American without the patience to see through anything to fruition. I am not him this 4th of July.

Maybe next year.

Steve Hargadon nominated me for this award about a month ago and I really didn’t think much of it. It seemed like the Edublog Awards, something way out of my reach. But, about a week and a half ago Anastasia Goodstein e-mailed me saying that I was one of two finalists, and that the interview for the final decision would take place later in the week. I was flabbergasted . I have never presented at a major conference. I have never met the likes of David Warlick or Stephen Downes. Surely, I could not be The Totally Wired Teacher of 2007.

After many nervous moments before the interview, I had the chance to talk to Karon Weber (this isn’t her site, but it does say that she used to work at pixar and that she created the gobbler feature for yahoo teachers), Jim Daly, Derek Baird, Anastasia Goodstein, and Nicol Addison (I couldn’t find a relevant site for her). I really enjoyed the interview, a half hour of talking about how my classroom has changed and how I have dealt with the unchanging traditions of schools.

Then, last Saturday I received this e-mail:

Hi Ben. I’m thrilled to let you know that you have been selected to be receive the first Totally Wired Teacher Award at the Ypulse Mashup in San Francisco! We were all incredibly impressed with the trailblazing work you’ve done with your students.

I have always wanted to do something that I love, and teaching and learning is as good as it gets for me. That is why this award comes as such a wonderful surprise. I have found fulfillment in creating authentic learning environments for others. But, if this award is a symbol of that fulfillment, it is only the most concrete symbol.

If I have learned anything from the past few weeks, it is that we need to recognize those around us that are doing great work, and not just with words. We need to value them with the actions of collaboration and respect. So, instead of using this blog post to gloat about doing such great things in my classroom, I would like to take a moment to recognize those who have inspired me, who have led to this achievement:

1.  Bud Hunt - He is one blogger who I have followed for a long time, but only recently met. His words of struggle and success keep me going. His ability to also have a young family and do what he loves is evidence that it is possible.
2. Karl Fisch - When I stumbled upon his professional development blog a little over a year ago, I read everything. I think his blog is the only one that I can honestly say that I have read every word of. I would just sit there nodding my head at his ideas, and each one of them has challenged me to be a better teacher.
3. Vicki Davis (the other finalist for Totally Wired Teacher, incidentally) - Her observations on how blogging and wiki creation can change the classroom are wonderful. Her work with constantly expanding the boundaries of school mean that it is easier for me to try it.
4. Paul Allison - His forward thinking and questioning never get old. His voice of struggle is sometimes the only one that resonates with my experience. He is doing great things, even if he isn’t always convinced of it.
5. Clarence Fischer - I always want to hear what he has to say on an issue. He has a way of distilling his ideas into easily thought-through chunks. I also like building off of all of the observations he has of the edublogosphere and his classroom. I also appreciate that he is never too tired to reflect upon his practice.

To all of you, Thanks. I hope that this informal award means something to you.

Rather than teaching other teachers how to use the tools, we need to set up the environment so that they will want to learn these tools on their own. We need to make it so it is hideously unattractive to use anything but these tools. Not out of pressure of loosing a job, but rather I want teachers to learn new things because they feel the pressure of being left behind. I want them to learn new things because they want to learn new things.

Can we create environments where the only option is connection?

Can we provide opportunities for all educators to see collaboration and continual learning as a central tenet of their work?

I am asking you. Let me know what you think of this “Caught Not Taught” idea, either by comment or at benwilkoff@gmail.com.

Show Notes:

• 00:00:00: Intro to Mike Seyfang InterviewThe Podcast Blog
• 00:01:40: G’day World as First PodcastG’day World Podcast
• 00:03:31: The Learndog FactorLearndog Web
• 00:06:08: The Deindustrialization of Education
  The Cluetrain Manifesto
• 00:09:03: The Bottoms Up MovementDepartment of Education in South Australia
• 00:10:40: Non-Profits for EducationEducation AU
• 00:12:58: Aggregating Live Bloggin at ConferencesDavid Warlick’s Hitchhikr
• 00:15:11: Teachers as Consultants
• 00:17:24: School 2.0 is Caught not TaughtPicture Credit
• 00:19:34: Reference to the first PodcastEducation Transformation #1
• 00:22:17: Framing using terms that people already knowFacebook RSS
• 00:26:02: Google Reader as blog management softwarehttp://digg.com/software/New_Google_Reader_trends

This phenomenon, although real and slightly annoying, is not what I want to concentrate on. I don’t want to plumb the depths of why it is that people around the world will comment on your blog and give you feedback on your work, but it is maddening to just get a coworker to check out a great resource. I’m not interested in figuring out why the parents of your students are less inspired than the parents of other teachers’ students. In fact, I really don’t care that the recognition for doing online presentations and creating learning objects that are widely held as groundbreaking is seen in local circles as an affront to the organization from which you hail.

All hyperbole aside, what I would like to focus on is creating collaborative opportunities in your “own town.” How can we go about making sure that the great types of conversation and feedback described above are going on in the hallways in between classes?

Well, I think I have come up with three things that will help:

1. Wear your passion on your sleeve.
2. Reach out on a consistent basis.
3. Find a way to incorporate what others are doing already into your vision.

I have been e-mailing quite a bit about my podcast on this topic. There are a few teachers out there that are wrestling with the use of technology in their teaching. One such teacher, Jason Hando, said that he worked with a “flat world” project initially without applying all of the technology. After he had worn his passion on his sleeve for a while, he applied some web 2.0 technology in the form of a blog and received positive feedback from his school administration, including his principal.

This is not the only kind of passion that I think we can wear on our sleeve. We can be constantly talking about the great resources that we have found in our feed readers. We can be showing off the authentic products that our students are creating daily. Eventually other teachers will start to ask us how we are doing this. We can let our students and their parents become the advocates for the kind of learning experiences that are abundant in our classrooms. They will start wearing our passion on their sleeves too.

We should also be sending feelers out every once in a while for anyone who is ready to incorporate School 2.0, even to the smallest degree. Hold a class on blogging in the classroom even if you know only 5 people will show up. Send an e-mail tell others what you are doing that you know will only be read and trashed by the majority of your staff. Pull other people into a project that you are working on if they are on the outside looking in at your technology realization. Be the one teacher that “gets it,” but isn’t angry that others don’t.

The last thing that I have found for working collaboration with the people around you into your hectic global collaboration schedule is to honor what the teachers in your school are already doing. I am a big fan of looking at a project that is already in place and just making it 2.0. A great example of this was when my team decided that we were going to go on a field trip to Denver. Most of the other teams in the school were having the kids to a scavenger hunt of key places in the downtown area and answering questions on a sheet of paper, which was to be turned in and never to be heard from again. My way of making this trip into a “2.0″ experience was to use Mapwing so that my students could make interactive tours of downtown which could be looked at by anyone from around the world to find out more about our fine city.

Each teacher on our team was able to contribute their expertise to the project, but we were showing the kids how to collaborate and create in an authentic way. My hope is that more of these types of cross-curriculum projects start to happen organically because we have opened up the door by using what was already in existence.

What do you think? Are there other ways to create collaboration in our own towns and become, if not prophets, at least teachers with advice and experience worth sharing?

As it just so happens, even in the flattest of worlds, coincidences are still the stuff of magic. The confluence of events that I am referring to now is that I met up with a student from the Pleasantview Academy (in central Kansas) by simply going to my summer job working with kids on technology and literacy in Denver Public Housing. He just happened to be on a trip with his church to volunteer at the non-profit that I work for. It also happened that I was updating all of the computers that the kids were using, and Eric offered to help. He clearly was adept at working with computers, and I asked him where he had attained his skills. He said, “Well, I put together web pages. I’m doing the one for my school right now.”

I couldn’t pass this opportunity up, so I asked him which school he attended, and while he was playing with the kids in the park, I googled it. It is the exact same school that Kevin Honeycutt’s son goes to, a school of no more that 100 students. Clearly, this was providence. So, when he returned, I asked if he would mind being interviewed for this podcast. He not only accepted, but provided one of the most cogent examples of why authentic learning works. I think that much of his experience is aided by Kevin, but he has put in more effort toward his learning than nearly any other (almost) seventh grader I know.

He told me after the interview that in the past year he had written a proposal to get his new Macbook from his school, he had “played” with movie creation (and the proof is amazing), and was steadily learning more and more from the other kids and adults in his learning network. I did show him a few things that he wasn’t aware of like del.icio.us, jumpcut, and sPresent. Yet, with all of the skills he has amassed, I know he would have found them on his own anyway.

All I have to say is: “Look out world, here comes Eric Mullins and the Pleasantview Academy. Ignore him at your peril.”

Show Notes:

• 00:00:35: Pleasantview AcademyTheir Website
• 00:01:19: The Pleasantview Recording StudioCandid Kids Live
• 00:03:19: Essdack’s InfluenceEssdack Webpage
• 00:04:28: Learning Through Myspace
  Myspace
• 00:05:12: The F117 ProjectThe Project Webpage
• 00:09:51: The Drag and Drift ProjectDrag and Drift Webpage
• 00:10:38: Tools of a 7th GraderAIM
• 00:11:40: What is the future of education?

Now, I find myself with less and less time to read what others are because I am so consumed with trying to make my own vision of School 2.0 work. In some ways I think that this is an improvement. I am now participating in the conversation rather than just observing it. But, in many other ways, this is not an improvement. Will Richardson is always talking about how reading blogs prepares you for writing them, but finding the time to consume information that is not directly related to the projects that you are working on is harder than I would have ever imagined. The pile of blog posts just keeps adding up. And according to this, I will never catch up unless I do something drastic.

Well, I think I may have found a solution, both for myself and for all of the people who seem to be having the same trouble (I know that there are at least a few of you out there). I have been playing around with my new Palm T|X, which was purchased with funds from my school district’s Digital Educator Program. At first, I was rather disappointed with the limited web functionality of the built in browser. That is until I realized just how effective of a feed reader a palm pilot can be. Google Reader Mobile allows me to read one post at a time and then progress to the next. I don’t have to worry about seeing the 2000 blog posts that are unread. I can focus on just one. I can also pull it out whenever I have a free moment. I don’t have to pull out my laptop and fire up bloglines and search for something good to read. It becomes a book of blogs for me. It becomes the way for me to catch up again and listen in on the conversations going on in the edublogosphere.

The real reason, though, that I am so excited about finding this new feed reader is that I can imagine having a set of these in the classroom (5-10) and setting them up next to the bookshelf. Anytime a student wants to read something written by a fellow classmate, they take a palm pilot off of the shelf and read a few blog posts. This would not be the ideal venue for responding to blogs, but it would further the community of writing. These devices are also pretty inexpensive, so getting a few into the classroom would not require a huge investment.

What do you think? Are there other uses of a web-enabled palm device that I am missing for the classroom (other than for reference)? Is this another way of creating School 2.0 in small increments.

When I try to explain to people, even the most highly educated and interested people, what I am doing in my classroom, I get two distinct reactions.

1. This is way too technical for me. It is fine if you want to try it out (and fall flat on your face when parent/administration/other teachers find out what you are up to), but I am just fine to live in oblivion. Wikis (did I say that right?) are too complicated for my kids. There is no way that they would be able to handle that kind of organization on their own. Your kids are different. You have more access to the technology. You were born into this stuff. I am too far into my career to start learning something new.

2. We tried something like this back in the 70’s/80’s/90’s/a few years ago. It didn’t really work then, but feel free to give it a try now. I was pretty excited about it before, but I think my interest petered out around when I realized that I was doing more of the work than the kids were. I think there are a few teachers in the school down the road who are doing this kind of stuff, so I’m not really sure that it is new or different. I will just sit back and watch you put effort into collaborative tools, but I will not put my own support behind it.

Now, #1 I have made my peace with. If a teacher has decided that they are not ready to try something new yet, I will reframe it as many different ways as I can think of in order to get them on board. At least they accept that working with students around the world, getting instant feedback on authentic writing, and infinite choice in assignments are things that are truly different than the traditional goings on of education.

#2, on the other hand, does not even acknowledge that working with web 2.0 tools is something that is a transformational step. They are so used to educational jargon and methods being repackaged and renamed that they have come to believe that School 2.0 is just a big facade that houses the likes of Project Based Learning or Cooperative Learning Groups. I can’t blame them for thinking this in the light of all that public education has taught them, but for them not to be able to see the drastic difference between writing an essay to one teacher and writing an essay to an entire school (and beyond) to be critiqued and linked to and built upon is something that I just will never understand.

Case in Point: After presenting The Academy of Discovery to a high-level technology coordinator in DCSD, he said that there were pockets of people who were trying this out elsewhere in the district. I was shocked. It was news to me that we just might have the most progressive district in the US and I just don’t know about it. Or, perhaps the problem is that he is having trouble distinguishing between an authentic collaborative student-directed wiki (receiving 50,000 hits in 6 weeks) and doing iSearches with google in order to make posters to put up in the room. Perhaps this is an exaggeration, but I really think that this is an important roadblock to advancing our vision of education. Many educators, administrators, and parents believe that all technology integration is created equal. This is just simply not the case.

So, I guess what I am saying is this: We need something that will distinguish us from mundane “technology in the classroom.” We need to be seen as going beyond what has been done before, not something that is untested or fad-like, but rather something that is essential. How do we make sure that people get that we are not doing something old in a new way? We are doing something new, something that you would never be able to do without the tools of online collaboration and rss.

This is a challenge that I am willing to take up because if we can’t even explain what is going on in our classroom to other educators so that they realize the potential of a school 2.0 environment, we will never be able to explain it to the rest of the world.

The one thing that I was the most surprised with in this interview is Paige’s revelation that many veteran teachers are actually easier to bring on board with School 2.0 because they have all of the classroom skills established. I was not at all expecting this to come from such a visionary because the conventional wisdom is that new teachers are the ones who will finally be able to reach the digital native students. I guess it only makes sense, however, that just as many veterans find their way to transformation because of their overwhelming need to find new ways of engaging their students, rather than spending so much time with classroom management issues like many new teachers need to do.

Below you will find the show notes for this podcast:

• 00:00:00: Introduction to EdTrans #1The EdTransBlog
• 00:00:39: Integration vs. Realization
• 00:02:05: The Partnership for 21st Century SkillsThe Partnership Websites
• 00:03:32: Redefining SchoolSpeak Up Data
• 00:05:35: Teacher Preparation 2.0
• 00:07:30: Visionary Leaders and Sea ChangesThe Cresthill LA Department Wiki
• 00:09:15: The Needs of Students Have Changed

If you have any other ideas about how to create Transformation within Teacher Education or comments about what Paige Kuni has said, please comment on this podcast or send me an e-mail at benwilkoff@gmail.com

I am a teacher and a learner.

I am someone who seeks out knowledge in every avenue available to me.

I am the first one to try something new.

I am passionate about my students and their potential to do great things.

You see, I work tirelessly from all angles on the problem of inauthentic education. I talk about wikis and blogs and podcasts, but not because they are the latest thing. I talk about them because I have seen them work in the classroom. I talk about technology realization because nothing changes the nature of a students learning more than asking them to collaborate around the world with other students or write, think, or express their own passion for learning on a global platform.

My name is Ben Wilkoff, and I am working toward the creation of Education 2.0. My hope is that this podcast will help to show this vision to a wider audience, therefore transforming the way everyone thinks about education. But, what exactly do I mean by Transformation?

Transformation, like so many other words, means different things to different people. To one person, it may mean revolution. To another, it means transition. To still another, transformation has little to no meaning because it has been bandied about by so many people that it has lost all of its initial potency. I would hate to fall in any of these categories, really. In fact, I want to set out right now that Transformation means something very specific, powerful, and universal. Now that I have set the bar ridiculously high for myself, I would like to meet it.

Education Transformation is not defined by what it is not (traditional, the status quo, etc.). Instead, Education Transformation is a movement based on positive attributes.

We will create authentic engagement for all learners at all times.

It is that simple, or that complex. For anyone who has taught, they know that engagement and authenticity are two of the hardest things to create in a classroom. In fact, many teachers simply give up on one or the other in favor of safe methods of content dissemination. This is exactly what Transformation aims to combat. Throughout this podcast, I will be talking trying to find the ways in which engagement and authenticity become endemic in the classroom. I will be seeking out the practitioners of true learning, grappling with what is truly important for our 21st century children.

One last element of Transformation that I think is important is the fact that all transformation starts from something. There has to be an element to be transformed. With this in mind, it is my aim to take all of the great elements of education that currently exist and use them to transform the whole. This means that I will be looking for anyone and everyone that is willing to help. Even without any experience in educational theory, parents know so much of what works for their kids. They can be a resource for the Transformation, as can the business community, veteran teachers, and of course the students themselves. All of these stakeholders must be a part of the Transformation if we want it to succeed. And, as I hope to establish with the first few podcasts, I think that Education Transformation is a moral imperative.

June 3rd, 2007

Who am I, and why am I doing this podcast?

I am a teacher and a learner.

I am someone who seeks out knowledge in every avenue available to me.

I am the first one to try something new.

I am passionate about my students and their potential to do great things.

You see, I work tirelessly from all angles on the problem of inauthentic education. I talk about wikis and blogs and podcasts, but not because they are the latest thing. I talk about them because I have seen them work in the classroom. I talk about technology realization because nothing changes the nature of a students learning more than asking them to collaborate around the world with other students or write, think, or express their own passion for learning on a global platform.

My name is Ben Wilkoff, and I am working toward the creation of Education 2.0. My hope is that this podcast will help to show this vision to a wider audience, therefore transforming the way everyone thinks about education. But, what exactly do I mean by Transformation?

Transformation, like so many other words, means different things to different people. To one person, it may mean revolution. To another, it means transition. To still another, transformation has little to no meaning because it has been bandied about by so many people that it has lost all of its initial potency. I would hate to fall in any of these categories, really. In fact, I want to set out right now that Transformation means something very specific, powerful, and universal. Now that I have set the bar ridiculously high for myself, I would like to meet it.

Education Transformation is not defined by what it is not (traditional, the status quo, etc.). Instead, Education Transformation is a movement based on positive attributes.

We will create authentic engagement for all learners at all times.

It is that simple, or that complex. For anyone who has taught, they know that engagement and authenticity are two of the hardest things to create in a classroom. In fact, many teachers simply give up on one or the other in favor of safe methods of content dissemination. This is exactly what Transformation aims to combat. Throughout this podcast, I will be talking trying to find the ways in which engagement and authenticity become endemic in the classroom. I will be seeking out the practitioners of true learning, grappling with what is truly important for our 21st century children.

One last element of Transformation that I think is important is the fact that all transformation starts from something. There has to be an element to be transformed. With this in mind, it is my aim to take all of the great elements of education that currently exist and use them to transform the whole. This means that I will be looking for anyone and everyone that is willing to help. Even without any experience in educational theory, parents know so much of what works for their kids. They can be a resource for the Transformation, as can the business community, veteran teachers, and of course the students themselves. All of these stakeholders must be a part of the Transformation if we want it to succeed. And, as I hope to establish with the first few podcasts, I think that Education Transformation is a moral imperative.