Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 57 seconds
I am happy to finally announce the connectedlearning.tv July webinar series, which I am curating along with my good friend and co-founder of edcontexts.org Shyam Sharma.
The theme of the 4 webinars is Learning and Leading in a Connected World, and the month is like a collaborative effort or partnership between connectedlearning.tv and #clmooc (already connected) and Edcontexts (via Shyam and me), and we will have some co-hosts for some of the webinars.
So we discuss equity in ed tech (#techquity) co-hosted by Joe Dillon of NWP/#CLMOOC and Shyam; we have a discussion of transliteracies co-hosted by Anna Smith of NWP/#clmooc and Shyam; and we have one on emerging trends in open scholarship co-hosted by me and Shyam and then a final one on educators across contexts, led by Shyam and me.
When I was invited to curate the series I felt honored but worried because even though I participate regularly in synchronous events now, I still have all sorts of issues with it (note: article i just linked to availabile in audio as well as text!). For example the first two webinars will be in Ramadan where:
A. My kid’s sleep is more messed up than usual
B. It’s nearly impossible to ask a favor of anyone re babysitting
So i cannot promise to be there for them which is why I am grateful I am not expected to be.
I am also grateful to Shyam for accepting to co-host the series with me and Anna and Joe for facilitating one each. I am sure those first two will be awesome 😉
Now let’s hope Cairo infrastructure cooperates (it has been lately) and my girl’s sleep works out (it hasn’t lately) for the last two coz i am soooo looking forward to these
Now for the big challenge: can I, as someone who is not a huge fan of video, facilitate a session (the last 2 I guess) that I can watch later? I occasionally watch video sessions that I can focus on and watch to the end…
So here is my question to you: what makes a good hangout conversation that you would want to watch live or participate in or tweet about? Or even jump into mid way?
This question is relevant to both these hangouts and the virtuallyconnecting ones too.
Looking forward to hearing your feedback
Okay, so as far as general characteristics, I prefer Hangouts where there is an equal distribution of participation. I think it helps to have a single facilitator who elicits comments from all the participants. I think it also really helps to have some kind of prep materials – even something as simple as a list of questions that will be considered, so I don’t feel like I’m entering the conversation “cold.”
As far as topics, here are the burning questions on my mind right now. 🙂
* What would happen if I mapped my view of the power relationships at my school? What would happen if I asked my students about their perceptions of these power relations? Will these perceptions change if I give students more autonomy in my classroom?
* What do we mean when we ask “who has power in our school/university/learning space?” E.g., are we talking about power over resources? Power over expected outcomes? Power over evaluation and “gatekeeping”? All of the above? How might my inquiry into democratizing learning spaces change depending on which aspect of power I am considering?
* To what degree do people cede power to others at our school? If teachers/administrators/staff cede power to students and families, will this affect outcomes positively?
* How can we learn about teaching from other fields? For example, I’m reading a book about women in the Resistance in France. I recently read and was deeply moved by the obituary of Nicholas Winton, who saved over 600 children from the Nazis in Czechoslovakia in 1938 & 1939. How can these stories act as models of what is possible for human beings to accomplish? How can learning (and writing) about the people we admire – religious leaders, activists, “ordinary” people who perform acts of kindness – inform and sustain our efforts to build learning spaces & communities that are more humane & compassionate?
Michael I looooove the questions of power you are asking. I must be really behind on reading ur blog – are those your areas of inquiry these days?
But so let me share a quick experience about making power issues explicit to students. I have done it with student-teachers and despite initial resistance it worked really well to make them more conscious of these things and start doing it themselves. I haven’t imagined what it might mean to do it for k-12 but today i read a blog post by @bluecerealeduc talking about discussions of race and other injustice in the classroom. I really feel learners need to be able to connect how macro power issues like race manifest themselves in their microworld whether classroom or social. If there is a hangout discussion about this someday i would definitely like to watch it!
I actually haven’t blogged these particular questions yet…they’ve come up as I’ve worked through the remediation challenge this week in #clmooc. I’m going to write a blog post this evening or tomorrow morning (which would be tomorrow morning or tomorrow evening for you lol) about what I learned from remediating my inquiry question on student-directed learning as a map of power relations. 🙂
I’d like to hear more about your work with student-teachers on making power issues explicit. 🙂