Steven Anderson Archives - Leading, Learning, Questioning

I recently had the chance to engage with so many influential educators at TCEA in Austin, and I have a lot floating around in my head that’s waiting to find a landing place. That conference is definitely one where part of the challenge is managing all the new ideas and considering what challenges you’ll accept before planning them all out over a period of time.

Since I find myself in the thick of wading through a sea of good ideas, I thought I would blog about it. I’ve picked ten ideas that stood out to me. These ten ideas stand out as concepts I’ll continue to come back to in order to push my thinking, especially with regard to technology in the classroom.

Admittedly, a lot could be done to unpack each of these ideas, but rather than sharing a series of mini posts, I simply wanted to share the big ideas that have stuck with me from my learning last week. So, here’s what’s on my mind lately.

“Our kids will not know the difference between a social media site and a website. It will all be the same.” – Kasey Bell

“You may be sitting next to the smartest person you don’t know.” – Steven Anderson

“We use social media for conversations because that’s how we learn.” – Steven Anderson

“Twitter chats precede faculty meeting conversation by 12-18 months.” – Tom Whitby

“Your comfort zone should never impede the learning of your students.” – Tom Whitby

“Our technology decisions should be based on education and learning, not on business sense.” – George Couros

“Quit telling people to think out of the box. It’s how you innovate inside the box that counts.” – George Couros

“In education, how often does ‘data driven’ mean we become ‘weakness focused?'” – George Couros

“Isolation is now a choice educators make.” – George Couros

“The higher up we go in the traditional hierarchy, the more people we serve; not the other way around.” – George Couros

So, there it is. There’s plenty to ponder, but I’m enjoying thinking through these ideas and considering how we can change to push student learning to a greater extent.

Help push my thinking. What do you agree with here? Disagree with? How are you making change happen based on these ideas?

Let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you!

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Heading into my time at TCEA, I knew that I was looking forward to a session called “Show How Awesome You Are and Tell Your Story with Social Media.” It seemed right up my alley. Though I feel confident in my ability to start that task and manage it well right now, this is area where I’m always looking to improve. As if the topic weren’t enough of a draw, Steven Anderson (@web20classroom) was scheduled to present and Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby) joined him.

With such a high interest topic being presented by two educators who wrote the book on the topic (literally), my nerdy educator heart was so excited to hear from them!

They delivered in a big way, but not for the reasons I expected.

As I’m getting ready to receive the knowledge, Anderson turned off the screen behind him and told us that he wasn’t going to give a presentation.

Instead, we were going to have a conversation.

WHY CONVERSATIONS MATTER
It was so validating to hear someone who is an undisputed expert in his field say that there was such great value in learning together through conversations. Think about what that statement is saying.

It orients leaders so that they are learners alongside everyone else participating.
It reminds us that learning can be messy and still be successful.
It reiterates that we don’t have to have everything perfectly laid out to push our learning forward.
It values the people with whom we connect (and makes us dependent on one another to truly move the conversation forward).

It’s such a simple idea, but it’s also pretty revolutionary.

Our ability to change how we learn is deeply tied to our ability to help other learners change their norms. If we want change for our students, if we want to challenge our teachers to do something different, if we want to do something different–we have to be willing to start making shifts like this.

CHANGE THAT IS WORTH IT
The more I thought about it, the more I remembered that that’s what I’m doing when I use social media to grow as an educator. Though I’m quite comfortable learning in that style on Twitter, I still expect to be talked at for much of my face to face professional learning.

The reality is that we all have something valuable to add in many of the conversations that are one way in education today. We cannot fail to consider a model that would open us up to hear from those around us. As Steven Anderson put it, “You may be sitting next to the smartest person you don’t know.” Ask him or her to share.

It’s worth mentioning that I’m not advocating for an across the board move to this model. I saw some of the best educational presentations from incredible educators who left me with so much to consider and rethink as I head back to reality. But the conversations I experienced show another way that we have to consider, and I’m motivated to empower others through similar experiences.

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