Dear Teachers,

“Please remember – This assignment is unique to you, your circumstances, and your organization so you need to keep in mind who your audience is, why and how they will use this information, and what impact you are looking to make.”

Thus began the instructions on every single assignment I’ve completed in the past year and a half for the master’s degree I’m about to finish. I have been thinking about how powerful those words have been. Just yesterday, I was talking with my co-workers about how some teachers are still so reluctant to allow their students choice and voice in the way they complete assignments, and I was reminded of how empowering it has been to be able to think about an assignment and formulate my response in the way that made the most sense. Sometimes that was a formal paper or a report; more often, it was a blog post, an infographic, or a video – or some combination of tools. Why, my colleagues and I wondered yesterday, are some teachers still reluctant to give students a choice in how they demonstrate their learning? If the learning is really the significant thing, then we should be challenging all students to be Creative Communicators, with ISTE (2016) Student Standard  6a as our guide: Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.

Back in February 2016, I started this journey in the Digital Learning and Leading master’s program at Lamar University, which uses the COVA model for its class design. COVA is an acronym that stands for Choice, Ownership, and Voice in Authentic assignments. This was not a “turn in a 15 page paper and I’ll grade it and hand it back to you” kind of degree plan! Almost every class was designed so that we could take the required learning and apply it to our own personalized innovation plan, and I see now how “personalized learning” could really happen in a classroom because of what I’ve experienced. I also see how I was able to meet every single ISTE Student Standard in multiple ways.

My first class in the DLL program was about principles of technology integration and developing a professional learning network. I felt very confident in that class, since teaching others about appropriate technology integration is a major component of my job. I wrote a manifesto about teaching. Although my professional learning network has grown considerably over the past year and a half, I started with a reasonably good list that I compiled here. I have become even more of a Global Collaborator and continue to use digital tools to connect with learners from a variety of backgrounds (ISTE Student Standard 7a).

As a good Digital Citizen (ISTE Student Standard 2), I began early in the program to cultivate and manage my digital identity and reputation. An early assignment was a Sway about my strengths in digital learning and leading. I also began the creation of my ePortfolio, which has had several iterations over the course of fifteen months, from nancywtech.blogspot.com to multiple versions of nancywtech.com. Later on in the program, I was enrolled in the class titled “Digital Citizenship,” and I solidified my understanding of Student Standard 2, as I reviewed the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world.

[Click to see my Sutori]

Within the first few courses in the DLL program, I began to formulate my plans for my plot to take over the world innovation project, which I referred to at the time as “Improving Digital Literacy through Student Created Content,” or IDLTSCC – now with the significantly easier-to-say name of CLICK.  I posted my 50,000 foot plan of my original goals for CLICK on what was my blog at that time, and I completed my first literature review of the topic. As I look back over the year and a half, I’m somewhat pleased to see that I have been able to iterate on my original plan even though the main goal of CLICK is the same as it’s always been. And re-reading my original plan, I can see that some of the same ideas and concerns that I had early on continue to challenge me. Through my innovation plan, I have practiced and wrestled with all the indicators of ISTE Student Standard 4: Innovative Designer as I attempted to solve the problem of a lack of digital literacy skills by creating a new, useful or imaginative solution.

Over the next few courses, I learned to define and commit to a “WHY,” to accomplish disruptive innovation, to become an influencer, and to facilitate organizational change. I learned more about applying design thinking to education and further developed my learning philosophy. I created lots of acronyms: a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (the BHAG) and a Wildly Important Goal (the WIG) for IDLTSCC, and I pulled everything together in this infographic. As I learned about all of these unfamiliar terms and concepts, and as I synthesized a host of information about my innovation plan into additional literature reviews, I became an Empowered Learner as I took an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in my learning goals (ISTE Student Standard 1) and a Knowledge Constructor as I used digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for [myself] and others (ISTE Student Standard 3). 

Professional Learning in technology integration is a big part of my job, so I appreciated having learned more about the backward design process as I created my first online course. A longtime member of Learning Forward, I felt that I already knew a lot about the principles of adult learning and what makes for effective professional learning, but I increased my understanding about creating meaningful professional learning experiences. ISTE Student Standard 5 – Computational Thinker? Check! In order to create an online class, I definitely had to break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models.

At every turn in the program, I was encouraged to articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes – in other words, to meet ISTE Student Standard 1a. I am an Empowered Learner! I so appreciate having had the opportunity to experience the Student Standards from the learner’s perspective, and I feel that I am a better educator now for having done so.

Go and do likewise. 🙂

Fondly,

Nancy

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International Society for Technology in Education. (2016). Standards for students. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

Dear Teachers,

My plot to take over the world innovation project, CLICK, is a website of student-created technology tips, and honestly, I couldn’t be more proud of the progress it’s made over the past year. I started with just a glimmer of wanting to do “something” about what I saw as tremendous gaps in digital literacy skills, particularly in many of our teachers. I would literally wake up in the middle of the night worrying about kids who don’t have a lot of technology or technology role models in their homes, who might spend a year or more with teachers who don’t teach digital skills. I would hear from teachers lamenting the fact that many of their high school students did not know how to format a document or log in to Google Classroom – or even understand the significance of blue underlined text! At the same time, I knew that there were kids who did fit the stereotype of the “digital native” who seem to be able to just look at a screen and know what to do. How could I put those two types of students in touch with each other? Student-created technology tips definitely seemed like it might provide an answer.

I am one of those weird nerds who actually enjoyed the literature reviews we’ve had to do, because I was researching something I was so genuinely passionate about. I discovered only a couple of other efforts to use student-created artifacts to teach other students (Mathtrain and Next Vista), but none that specifically had technology as the focus. The research also bears out that teachers often overestimate students’ technology abilities, that students in lower socioeconomic groups do not have the same opportunities for using technology for creation purposes, and that the digital divide is growing in many places. I had a poster session at ISTE that was very popular and CLICK was received enthusiastically. CLICK was even mentioned during one of the pre-keynote Ignite speeches. And my article about CLICK was recently published on the ISTE blog!

In March I learned that CLICK had been accepted as a Google Innovator project, and I was fortunate enough to go to the Google offices in London to learn about applying the design thinking process to move my project along. (One of these days I might even get that credit card paid off…) I also have the support of the Innovator community over the next year – h/t to my mentor Mike Filipetti – for when I have questions or need encouragement.

I’ve always wanted CLICK to become a more student-focused and student-driven project, and the principal at our PBL high school put me in touch with a couple of seniors who were in search of a capstone project. These young men have been amazing advocates for CLICK already. They created graphics and launched a re-branding effort, and are working to hand-code a new searchable website. They came and did a presentation at our district’s annual technology integration professional learning event, and the teachers ate it up. (See reactions on Twitter here, here, here, and here.) These students are also in big demand now for presentations to elementary students – I think younger students seeing “the big kids” promoting CLICK will make a big impact on them.

Biggest lesson learned: teachers and librarians are enthusiastic about the project and its goals, but it is unbelievably difficult for them to find time in their day to carve out time to help their students create content. I am so appreciative of all my librarian friends who have stayed after school to work with students, to the teachers who included content creation as part of an assignment, and to those friends who sincerely wanted to help but just couldn’t swing it – you know who you are; please know how grateful I am to you for helping to get my idea off the ground. I am optimistic for the future and am hopeful that with my new student colleagues, CLICK will explode with popularity this year.

Click to the image below to see the infographic I made detailing CLICK’s first year:

Do you have any ideas for improving CLICK? You know I’d love to hear them!

Fondly,

Nancy

Dear Teachers,

In just a few short weeks I’ll have three additional letters after my name to signify my shiny new  Master of Education degree in Digital Learning and Leading. I have to say it’s been a pretty cool ride. The program all about giving learners COVA – that’s Choice, Ownership and Voice in Authentic assignments. I’ve really loved all that I’ve learned the past year and a half, even though it hasn’t always been easy and it hasn’t always been comfortable. I knew from the first class that I was going to like the program, because from the beginning we had choice and voice in the assignments. It was great to be able to put into practice the things that the Instructional Technology Specialists in my department try to encourage teachers to do with their students.

One of my first assignments was to explain my strengths in digital learning and leading, and I had the freedom to select the way I would present that information (I taught myself how to use Sway with this assignment). The program really models how to make the choice-and-voice assignments work; each class gave me the opportunity to learn a new tool and to use it appropriately. I was able to demonstrate my learning via Biteable, Adobe Spark, Piktochart (I love Piktochart soooo much) and so many more. The tool, of course, was always kind of beside the point; the point was the feeling of ownership a learner gets when selecting her own way of demonstrating her knowledge.

I’m fortunate to be in a leadership position in my district, and I also loved how I could apply my grad school learning directly to my particular situation. Whether it was the class on developing online courses, the one about designing better professional learning, or the one on action research – all of them had a direct effect on something I was working on “in real life.” In a large organization like mine, change happens very slowly, but I feel like my goals for change are at least somewhat aligned with the district’s. That makes even small changes seem much more possible. My district has used the Understanding by Design framework in curriculum design for years, and that prior knowledge predisposed me for success in the DLL program. I had already been conditioned to think about what we want students to learn, and to work backward from there.

Early on during the degree program, we were encouraged to select an innovation project, and the most satisfying accomplishment during the course of the degree, without doubt, has been the progress on that project. I knew that I wanted to do something to address the major gaps in digital literacy that I sometimes see in our district. My project, originally called “Improving Digital Literacy Through Student-Created Content” got off to a good start when I first blogged about my idea just over a year ago. I had many people tell me right from the start that they were interested in and supportive of my idea, and I am so appreciative of that early encouragement. I was passionately committed to my idea and I loved all the coursework that helped me bring it to fruition. The project now has the significantly less tongue-twisty title of CLICK – for Collaborate-Learn-Instruct-Create-Know – and to date has garnered 60 student-created tech tips. CLICK is truly a labor of love for me, and I am so excited to see how it continues to develop over the next year. More importantly, I am excited to see how it impacts student learning – because if it doesn’t do that, what’s the point, right?

While I’ve always tried to allow for participant choice in the professional learning sessions I deliver, I will say that it’s still sometimes a struggle to remember to incorporate principles of COVA. There are some classes, for example, where we just need to convey a certain set of facts to our audience; our Chromebook rollout is an example of that kind of class. My favorite training, though, is to help teachers design authentic technology integration experiences within the context of what they’ll be teaching anyway. The COVA model helps me make those coaching experiences even more meaningful.

Source: https://www.slideshare.net/nethowto/csle-2-day-workshop

I sincerely hope that the time and effort I’ve put into this program have led me to creating more significant learning environments – the kind that help learners of all kinds not just collect the dots, but to meaningfully connect the dots. Keeping students and their learning at the center of my efforts, while acting as a facilitator, coach, and mentor, typically produces good results. When I work with teachers, I always try to start by determining the understanding of my audience and then working from there, and I try to leave lots of time for questions and discussion. My team will be conducting more webinars this year. I’m optimistic that we can continue to create significant learning environments even in a virtual experience.

Unsolicited email from an attendee at this year’s ETSI – Ed Tech Success Initiative

Tweets about #pisdetsi

What are your thoughts, dear teachers, on the kinds of learning that you have experienced with my team this year? Have we provided you with choice? Ownership? Voice? Have you felt the learning was authentic? I’d love to read your comments about how we have or haven’t met your expectations, and what we might do to improve in the future.

Fondly,

Nancy

Dear Teachers,

At our district’s recent Ed Tech Success Initiative, we asked teachers the question, “Why did you even go into teaching in the first place?” and the first answer was, as it so often is, “To make a difference.”

Curran Dee, Chief Kid Officer of DigCitKids, often quotes President Obama’s question, “How are you using technology every day to make a real difference for your community, other kids, and the world?” A classmate recently posted on our discussion board that he’ll be encouraging his students to use the makerspace at his school to really make a difference for the community this year. Another student friend of mine, Olivia van Ledtje, makes a difference by routinely spreading words of hope and encouragement.

Like Curran, my classmate, and Olivia, those of us in the positive digital citizenship movement also want to make a difference. We want the social media world to be different – far less fraught with ugly, demeaning words and more filled with positive words of love and hope. We seek to empower students and others to embrace their potential for doing good in the world.

And what a noble – yet at times seemingly impossible – task that is. I wake up every morning these days discouraged by the news and the divisive and rancorous tone that exists on social media and in the world. It’s probably not surprising that so many people live in a “filter bubble” where they just keep reading the things they already believe in; it’s difficult to hear those loud voices on the other side. I long for a more civilized and peaceful world where everyone’s voice is respectful – and heard. And where hateful voices and opinions are not just silenced, but those hateful hearts are truly changed through dialog and love.

No one knows what will become of our country and the current civil unrest. There is no politician or pastor who can fix this mess for us. WE are the ones who need to get out there and MAKE A DIFFERENCE. We need to be louder and more explicit than ever in teaching our students to accept others and to listen carefully to opposing points of view. We need to be louder than ever in teaching our students to resist evil in all its forms and to speak up when they see oppression. We need to be as loud as we can possibly be in modeling what it looks like to love and care for others. And we need to be explicit in telling kids that if they think it is okay to view themselves or the group or culture that they come from as better or more worthy or more valuable than any other group, that is not only wrong but immoral.

This is a time when I wish I had better words. I wish I were more eloquent and more powerful in my ability to say what I mean. But I hope you are hearing me anyway, dear teachers, because you are on the front lines out there, and you are the people who can help turn our wonderful, imperfect, divided, beautiful country around. Do it, I beg you; do all the good you can. Make a real difference this year.

Faithfully yours in cockeyed optimism,

Nancy

P.S. Please see this post from the International Literacy Association on ideas to address the recent events in Charlottesville.

Dear Teachers,

This morning as I was meandering through Twitter, I stumbled upon Tara Martin’s post about #booksnaps. I had heard about #booksnaps (and its companion, #gratitudesnaps) but I hadn’t ever taken the time to investigate what that really is. So I watched a couple of Tara’s videos, and because of the way my brain works, I naturally thought: I wonder if we could do something like that with digital citizenship.

I know next to nothing about Snapchat. I’ve had an account for a couple of years, and yes, those filters are fun (I was happy to catch a pic of myself as Wonder Woman!), but I am still figuring out the ins and outs of Snapchat. In one of Tara’s videos, she talked about how she wanted to reach her son and his friends, and how much value there is in annotating books using the Snapchat app. My librarian self thought that was pretty brilliant.

And then I read about #gratitudesnaps. I’m a big fan of gratitude, and I am all for putting as much positive out into the universe as we possibly can. And that’s when I started wondering if we could make #DigCitSnaps become a thing. I’ve written previously about getting sneaky about how we introduce digital citizenship to kids. Might #digcitsnaps be another way to teach concepts that we wish they knew about digital citizenship? Could students use Snapchat to teach each other?

I have a lot to learn about Snapchat, but I can see why kids like it. I followed Tara’s directions and had fun adding text and my Bitmojis to a few images.I’m sure most of you more advanced Snapchat users are snickering about what a dorky mess I am, but hey – we’ve all got to start somewhere, right?

What do you think? Are #DigCitSnaps something that could catch on? Do you have students who might be interested in starting this trend in your school? How else might the #digcit movement capitalize on Tara Martin’s great idea?

I’d love to know if you think this could work!

Fondly,

Nancy

Dear Teachers,

I just got back from my third experience at ISTE, the biggest nerd festival in the history of ever. (Okay, maybe Comic-Con has us beat. But not by much.) I was fortunate enough to attend the conference for the first time 5 or so years ago when it was in San Antonio; that time I think I just walked around with my mouth hanging open, trying to get a handle on… anything. The one word I heard over and over from first-timers this past week was OVERWHELMING, and that’s definitely the way I remember feeling on my first time out.

Last year was ISTE #2 for me; that one was in Denver, a little lagniappe since my son lives there. My team was selected to present at last year’s conference, and that was an amazing and humbling experience in and of itself. But it was last year when I started to see what people meant when they talk about the relationships and reunions that happen at ISTE. My colleague (and now friend) Julie Paddock and I met for the first time at the Digital Citizenship PLN meeting last year, and it was there that we were drafted into service for the #digcit cause. Since that initial meeting last year, she and I have presented a couple of webinars, written some curriculum together, and are making grand plans for developing our PLN. I’ve always been amazed at how on-the-same-page we are. She lives many states away, but the Internet has enabled us to forge a strong bond of friendship.

So the conference was in San Antonio again this year, and this year was for sure the first time that I truly understood what people meant when they talked about the “old home week” feel of the place. After all, there are always over 20,000 nerds at ISTE. How intimate could it be, right? (And – side question – how in the world do they provide wifi for what is probably well over 100,000 devices?!)

Well, it’s like this. I have several worlds of which I’m a part, due to the magic of the Internet and social media. At ISTE, all those worlds get to collide. I met in person for the first time several people I’ve been in grad school with for over a year. I ran into people I have started seeing only on the conference circuit (places like Region 10, TCEA, and others, in addition to ISTE). I had a fabulous reunion with some of the brilliant educators I met through the Google Innovator program back in April. And most of all, I got to hang out with my true tribe, those wonderful folks who share my somewhat obsessive interest in digital citizenship.

So in addition to meeting back up with Julie, I met in person a bunch of people it seems like I know due to the relationships we’ve forged online. I also added a bunch of new people to my PLN, people who already seem like friends because of our shared interest in digital citizenship. Julie and I presented a session titled “Cultivating a #Digcit State of Mind” – which I guess you have to be a special kind of nerd to have any interest in – but we met more people like us! It was awesome! Since Julie and I are going to co-chair ISTE’s Digital Citizenship PLN this year, we got tons of new victims volunteers who will help us in our plan to take over the world develop the PLN and connect people to resources and to each other.

In Tuesday’s powerful keynote, Jennie Magiera encouraged us to compare the “single story/limited potential” narratives that we all experience to the “untold stories/limitless potential” stories that we are as yet unaware of. Just as all your students have lives much more complex than could ever be fully understood by a single standardized test score, we all have untold stories that we hold close in our hearts. While we may be grudgingly tolerated for or even actively discouraged from sharing these stories in our real jobs, ISTE and conferences like it allow us to be our full nerd selves with people who totally get us. We can share more of what might remain an untold story in many other situations.

Into gamifying PD? You will find your nerd tribe at ISTE. Obsessed with the ISTE Student Standards? Yep, there’s a group for you there. Are robots your jam? How about flexible seating, or virtual reality, or global connections? You guessed it, there are people at ISTE who will understand you and want to know more about your untold story.

I think technology is super cool, and I think it’s a really fun time to be in the field of Education because of the many ways that students can now access and create content. But the main reason I love technology is because of the way it allows people to connect to each other. Even ten years ago, it’s likely that I never would have crossed paths with Julie, Rachelle, Vanessa, Jaime, Susan, Mary Ellen, Jennifer, Keegan, Marialice, or Sue, but now our lives and stories are connected.

Photo taken at Jennie Magiera‘s keynote

I am so excited for the future of the Digital Citizenship PLN, and for all the cool people I’ll get to know this year because of our shared and as-yet-untold stories. THAT’s the best thing about the nerd convention, and THAT’s why I’m already looking forward to next year’s ISTE conference.

Fondly,

Nancy

P.S. Gotta give a shout out to my awesome coworker Clara for her amazing pre-keynote Ignite speech. How’d I get so lucky to work with her, Fern, and Leah? Check out Clara’s talk here. #growthecilantro #bestteamever

Back in April when we were in London (you know, because of that Google Innovator thing…), my husband and I enjoyed eating at a little place called Pret a Manger. I have no idea if the locals enjoy that place, but each of the multiple locations we encountered was always busy, the food was fresh and tasty, and its prices seemed reasonable – although it was in pounds, so who knows. Thrift seems to elude us when we go on vacation.

Anyway, our last stop at Pret a Manger was at Heathrow airport, and the slogan on my napkin caught my attention: “Nothing to declare.” I thought the play on the natural content of the food and the typical customs questions was really clever. I saved the napkin because I liked it so much, and I came upon it again a couple of weeks ago as I was continuing to make my way through the detritus of the trip.

The napkin popped up as I was gathering all the swag from the trip (you know, the one where I became a Google Innovator...) and creating my first-ever attempt at a shadow box. The wife of one of my fellow innovators had made him one, and when he posted it on our group chat, I knew that I wanted to give it a try, too. It needs a couple of extra pins in a couple of places, but overall I’m very happy with it, as it displays in one place so many happy memories:

But I’ve been thinking about that napkin in relation to my whole trip, already six weeks in my past. People ask me about Google London, and I tell them, “It was wonderful! It was the best professional experience I’ve ever had!” and while that’s true, I want to make sure that I put into practice the things I learned there – or else, I’d have nothing to declare – yes? So what is it that, a month and a half after the fact, I took away from my Google Innovator experience? What’s the “so what”?

1. The design thinking process is something that can and should be applied in all our training plans. At the Academy, we were taught to think in terms of [User] needs [unmet need] because [insight]. In my district, we use the Understanding by Design framework for all our curriculum planning. Those of who plan professional learning also need to keep our learners in mind when we plan our classes. Every class we’re teaching this summer needs the deliberate forethought and planning that we so often do by intuition; thinking about users’ unmet needs and how we can address them (and why) will help us to sharpen our preparation for the classes. 
2. Have a bias toward action. I need to continue to be proactive in my efforts to affect change in our world. That might mean reaching out to  individual teachers and schools, designing new classes or initiatives, or just thinking through how to solve a problem before turning to someone else for help. I like to think I do those things most of the time anyway, but I want to become more conscious of the idea of a bias toward action.

   Along those same lines, I can’t just sit back and expect my plot to take over the world my CLICK project (the reason I made it to the Google Academy in the first place) to manage itself. I need to keep pressing forward to see it grow and become the resource that I hope it will. And some of the action I’ve taken since I returned is already paying off! Stay tuned for another blog post – soon, I hope – on the latest developments there. (Squee!)

3. Start suggestions for new ways of doing things or new initiatives with “How might we…” Opening a conversation this way implies both optimism (the implication that we can, in fact, accomplish whatever the goal might be) and collaboration (we, as in us, working together). How might we tweak our Chromebook classes? How might we make ETSI even more successful this year? How might we reach out to more schools in the upcoming school year? How might we demonstrate technology integration more effectively? … the possibilities are endless. And these kinds of questions open the door to more creativity and new ideas, rather than just going with the fallback “way we’ve always done it.”
4. The power of NOW-HOW-WOW – thinking of ideas that can be accomplished right away, those that can be accomplished with a little help or some additional resources, and those really “moonshot” ideas – the ones that make us say WOW and might seem impossible at first. But those “WOW” ideas are what will really end up changing the world. Fifteen months or so ago, CLICK was a WOW for me – just an idea and a dream that I couldn’t let go of.  I don’t know that it’s going to change the world, but I’ve loved every minute of working on it and seeing it move from a “WOW” to a “NOW.”

My Innovator cohort, #LON17, continues to interact, bounce ideas off one another, and share successes, and I daresay we will all continue to communicate with one another into the foreseeable future. I’m looking forward to reuniting with some of those fabulous, brilliant people at ISTE in San Antonio later this month, and the group is talking about other opportunities for future reunions. As I continue to reflect on this once-in-a-lifetime experience, I know that I, unlike my souvenir napkin, have something to declare: the Innovator Academy was a professional learning experience like no other, and one that will continue to influence my actions for a long time.

Fondly,

Nancy