LEVERAGING TRIBE AS A MEANS TO SELF ACTUALIZATION

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach plpnetwork.com @snbeach

TRANSPERSONAL DEVELOPMENT IN A CONNECTED AGE

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach Co-Founder & CEO Powerful Learning Practice, LLChttp://plpnetwork.comsheryl@plpnetwork.com

President21st Century Collaborative, LLChttp://21stcenturycollaborative.com

AuthorThe Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age

Follow me on Twitter@snbeach

Professional development needs to

change. We know this.

…….Join the PLP Tribe

Year long, job embedded, professional learning for

connected educators.

http://plpnetwork.com

All of OctoberFree professional learning

Free for you– free for your staff

http://connectededucators.org/

edConnectr• Robust matchmaking tool for

learning & innovation• Uses tags to make it easy to

create rich, action-oriented profiles

• Uses maps to make it easy and fun to find others

• Helps educators find collaborators, get help, or just connect

http://edconnectr.connectededucators.org/

• THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR

Housekeeping

Paperless handoutshttp://plpwiki.com

Mantra for today’s keynote…

We are stronger together than apart.

None of us is as smart, creative, good or interesting as all of us.

Leveraging Tribe as a means to Self

Actualization 

Photo Credit: http://newdriven.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/how-to-leverage-the-power-of-the-tribe/

• Humans have a natural propensity to tribe.

• Social learning is a part of our DNA

• We all have basic needs- including the need to belong

• Collaborative Inquiry produces a higher level of cognition

Albert Bandura- Social Learning

• Learning can occur by observing others’ behaviors and the resulting outcomes

• Learning can occur cognitively without a corresponding change in behavior

• Modeled behavior is reinforced by producing desirable outcomes (for both the observed party and the learner)

• Three variables in the social learning context—the learner, the behavior, and the environment—can influence each other

Late 1970s

Connected Learning has the potential to takes us deeper

“The interconnected, interactive nature of social learning exponentially amplifies the rate at which critical content can be shared and questions can be answered.”

From:  Collaborative Learning for the Digital Age in The Chronicle of Higher Education 

Cathy Davidson, professor at Duke University

Connected sometimes trumps F2F with deep

learning…

Via Marc Andreessen’s blog, the findings of researchers as related by Frans Johansson in The Medici Effect:

Diversity of thoughtAllows for Greater

Innovation

Frans Johansson explores one simple yet profound insight about innovation: in the intersection of different fields, disciplines and cultures, there’s an abundance of extraordinary new ideas to be explored.

Leveraging Tribe as a Means to Self Actualization 

Photo Credit: http://www.consciousaging.com/

Motivations

• Social connectedness

• Psychological well-being

• Gratification• Collective

Efficacy

• Collaboration and teamwork allow us control our environment• Reciprocal and trusting relationships create effective

collaboration• Social comparison establishes organizational structure, leadership

and order• Social validation and social identity maintain emotional

engagement and enhance attachment to our mates and our group• Competence contributes to the survival of our group and our

sense of security and safety ~  P. Rutledge

The amplification ability of social tools provides the possibility for a more diverse, purposeful tribe from which to connect, leverage and learn.

Photo Credit: http://flic.kr/p/8vn7B5

20

We Are All NowFree range learners

Free-range learners choose how and what they learn. Self-service is less expensive and more timely than the alternative. Informal learning has no need for the busywork, chrome, and bureaucracy that accompany typical classroom instruction.

Share

Cooperate

Collaborate

Collective Action

According to Clay Shirky, there are four steps on a ladder to mastering the connected world: sharing, cooperating, collaborating, and collective action.

From his book- “Here Comes Everybody”

Personal Learning Networks (beginning of your tribe)

It’s out of networks that community falls. ~ Nancy White

Are you “clickable”- Can I find you and learn from you?

Do it Yourself PDA revolution in technology has transformed the way we can find each other, interact, and collaborate to create knowledge as connected learners.

What are connected learners? Learners who collaborate online; learners who use social media to connect with others around the globe; learners who engage in conversations in safe online spaces; learners who bring what they learn online back to their classrooms, schools, and districts.

• THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR

• THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR

• THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR

1. Local community: Purposeful, face-to-face connections among members of a committed group—a professional learning community (PLC)

2. Global network: Individually chosen, online connections with a diverse collection of people and resources from around the world—a personal learning network (PLN)

3. Bounded community: A committed, collective, and often global group of individuals who have overlapping interests and recognize a need for connections that go deeper than the personal learning network or the professional learning community can provide—a community of practice or inquiry (CoP)

Community is the New Professional Development

Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999a) describe three ways of knowing and constructing knowledge…

Knowledge for Practice is often reflected in traditional PD efforts when a trainer shares with teachers information produced by educational researchers. This knowledge presumes a commonly accepted degree of correctness about what is being shared. The learner is typically passive in this kind of "sit and get" experience. This kind of knowledge is difficult for teachers to transfer to classrooms without support and follow through. After a workshop, much of what was useful gets lost in the daily grind, pressures and isolation of teaching.

Knowledge in Practice recognizes the importance of teacher experience and practical knowledge in improving classroom practice. As a teacher tests out new strategies and assimilates them into teaching routines they construct knowledge in practice. They learn by doing. This knowledge is strengthened when teachers reflect and share with one another lessons learned during specific teaching sessions and describe the tacit knowledge embedded in their experiences. 

Community is the New Professional Development

Knowledge of Practice believes that systematic inquiry where teachers create knowledge as they focus on raising questions about and systematically studying their own classroom teaching practices collaboratively, allows educators to construct knowledge of practice in ways that move beyond the basics of classroom practice to a more systemic view of learning.

I believe that by attending to the development of knowledge for, in and of practice, we can enhance professional growth that leads to real change.

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S.L. (1999a). Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teaching learning in communities. Review of Research in Education, 24, 249-305.

Passive, active, and reflective knowledge building in local (PLC), global (CoP) and contextual (PLN) learning spaces.

Dedication to the ongoing development of expertise

Shares and contributes

Engages in strength-based approachesand appreciative inquiry

Demonstrates mindfulness

Willingness to leaving one's comfort zone to experiment with new strategies and taking on new responsibilities

Dispositions and ValuesCommitment to understanding asking good questions

Explores ideas and concepts, rethinking, revising, and continuously repacks and unpacks, resisting urges to finish prematurely

Co-learner, Co-leader, Co-creator

Self directed, open minded

Commits to deep reflection

Transparent in thinking

Values and engages in a culture of collegiality

• Connected Communities (Tribes) are forming everywhere

• You have the tools you need at your fingertips

• Your faculty, your students, your school community– need/want leadership

• We are all leaders…

• You were called to lead..Not manage

• Share…Connect…Leverage…Co-create

• Inside, Outside, Upside Down

Leverage the Tribe

• Letting go of control• Willing to unlearn & relearn• Mindset of discovery• Reversed mentorship• Co-learning and co-creating• Messy, ground zero, risk taking

Image: http://flic.kr/p/ch6kp3

Be a learner first—leader second • It's all about asking hard questions and then listening deeply

• A connected learner isn’t afraid to admit that they don’t know the answer to a question or problem, and willingly invite others into a dialogue to explore, discuss, debate, or generate more questions. (@barb_english)

• Asking our questions out in the open in connected ways @lisaneale

• I believe that being a connected learner leads to more questions than answers and that is good. I also believe that connected learners have to learn to take risks - exposing your learning and thoughts can be challenging @ccoffa

• Lurkers become learners. Learners become contributors. @sjhayes8

Wonder is both a sense of awe and capacity for contemplation.

It also helps to ask questions and think about where you want to go and how leverage will help you arrive. 1) Why am I planning to do this? 2) How will I initiate this change? 3) Who can I connect with that can help me? 4) How will I measure progress? 5) How will I know if I am growing and maturing as a learner?

“ Do you know what who you know knows?” H. Rheingold

In connectivism, learning involves creating connections and developing a network. It is a theory for the digital age drawing upon chaos, emergent properties, and self organized learning.

Photo credit: Cogdogblog

George Siemens

Image: http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/images/2/24/Connectivism_chart.gif

Personal Learning Networks

FOCUS: Individual, Connecting to Learning Objects, Resources and People – Social Network Driven

“Twitter and blogs ... contribute an entirely new dimension of what it means to be a part of a tribe. The real power of tribes has nothing to do with the Internet and everything to do with people.”

Internet tribes

cc S

teve

Whe

eler

, Uni

vers

ity o

f Ply

mou

th, 2

010

“A tribe needs a shared interest and a way to communicate.”

Connected Learning Communities provide the personal learning environment (PLE) to do the nudging

Net

wor

ks

Com

mun

ity

Whatis community, really?

A Place to Build Trust and Relationships

A Domain of Interest

A Place to Meet

A Place to Construct Knowledge Collaboratively

A Community of Practice is a network of individuals with common problems or interests who get together to explore ways of working, identify common solutions, and share good practice and ideas.

• puts you in touch with like-minded colleagues and peers

• allows you to share your experiences and learn from others

• allows you to collaborate and achieve common outcomes

• accelerates your learning

• Improves student achievement

• validates and builds on existing knowledge and good practice

• provides the opportunity to innovate and create new ideas

Critical friends: Form a professional learning team who come together voluntarily at least once a month. Have members commit to improving their practice through collaborative learning. Use protocols to examine each other’s teaching or leadership activities and share both warm and cool feedback in respectful ways.

Curriculum review or mapping groups: Meet regularly in teams to review what team members are teaching, to reflect together on the impact of assumptions that underlie the curriculum, and to make collaborative decisions. Teams often study lesson plans together.

Action research groups: Do active, collaborative research focused on improvement around a possibility or problem in a classroom, school, district, or state.

Book study groups: Collaboratively read and discuss a book in an online space.

Case studies: Analyze in detail specific situations and their relationship to current thinking and pedagogy. Write, discuss, and reflect on cases using a 21st century lens to produce collaborative reflection and improve practice.

Instructional rounds: Adopt a process through which educators develop a shared practice of observing each other, analyzing learning and teaching from a research perspective, and sharing expertise.

Connected coaching: Assign a connected coach to individuals on teams who will discuss and share teaching practices in order to promote collegiality and help educators think about how the new literacies inform current teaching practices.

"Imagine an organization with an employee who can accurately see the truth, understand the situation, and understand the potential outcomes of various decisions. And now imagine that this person is able to make something happen." ~ Seth Godin.

Change is hard

Connected learners are more effective change agents