I'd like to see more information sharing and online conversation between adult educators, nationally and regionally. It's a little odd to make that proclamation on a discussion board belonging to the most active sub-group of the LINCS community, our field's central and vital information hub. But, I'm talking about less structured settings for adult educators to discuss, possibly in real-time, and equal parts social and informative. Somewhere we can really count on convening our 'personal learning networks' when we really need to call on one another. I'm thinking Twitter and blogs and maybe even Linked-In.
What platforms are working best for your informal professional development needs? I'm guessing it's not the #adulted hashtag on Twitter, with its heartrate of about 8-9 beats per day. Other education fields have weekly Twitter chats fueled by specific hashtags (a few of us did try to start one last year, but didn't get many voters in our scheduling survey). Is there an active Linked-In group that's actually focused on adult basic ed and isn't dominated by spam? I've got high hopes for the new COABE group on Linked-In. Which adult ed blogs attract comments and consistently feature a deeper conversation resulting from reader input? Not mine, nor David Rosen's. OTAN's Mariane Thacher retired, probably because no one would comment on her blog (purely speculation, mind you ;o).
Personal connection is important. Adult educators may operate in relative seclusion, but the internet can change that if we make a habit of reaching out. I feel like the Lorax perched atop a stump that says "unless." Are you planting the social media equivalent of truffula trees? The exotic make-believe animals would come back if you did. Okay, maybe not that, but an active social media presence might attract the educators we'll need to hire as replacements for those who don't adapt to the changing job requirements forced by computer-based testing and digital literacy instruction. That might be a little cold, but the people involved in the strategy discussions are usually the ones who get called on to spearhead the initiatives, and that's the case at all organizational levels.
Most adult educators may feel like they're too busy to invest time in social media, but when you keep your head down for too long, change happens all around you. Look up and you see the evolving playing field and you don't get left behind. So, what do you recommend? What can adult educators do differently to enhance connection and communication for our ongoing professional development? I have some ideas, but you're welcome to go first.
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Comments
Jason wrote:
I'd like to see more information sharing and online conversation between adult educators, nationally and regionally.
Jason, this is a great topic. Thanks.
I wonder how many states and programs already have online conversations using threaded discussion groups, twitter, blogs, and group software such as Google Groups, Wiggio, or Yahoo Groups. I also wonder how satisfied colleagues are with this kind of communication. Recently I interviewed some teachers and tutors in an adult literacy program who said they would like to have an online forum where they could build better community with tutors from their site and with other sites in their program. They also said they wanted online professional development. I am especially interested in what other programs around the country do in the way of online teacher and/or tutor communication systems. What do you use? Is it synchronous or real-time or both? How do you like it? What do you discuss? What do you see as the added value?
Jason also wrote:
Most adult educators may feel like they're too busy to invest time in social media, but when you keep your head down for too long, change happens all around you. Look up and you see the evolving playing field and you don't get left behind. So, what do you recommend? What can adult educators do differently to enhance connection and communication for our ongoing professional development? I have some ideas, but you're welcome to go first.
Here are some things I regularly do online to stay in touch, learn from, and offer ideas to colleagues:
· Actively participate in several LINCS CoPs and the AAACE NLA discussion list (for adult literacy advocacy) http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
· Moderate an international Wiggio mobile learning (Mlearning) group (Email me if you’d like to join.)
· Use a combination of email, telephone and face-to-face together for work tasks and projects
· Join and and also offer professional development and training webinars
Here is an idea I have been thinking about:
Linking program, community, state and national adult literacy education forums/discussion lists/CoPs. These exist at every level but, as far as I know, the levels are not well linked. Also, in some states, there isn’t a consistent network of these. If there were, what would this look like?
Perhaps individuals at each level could take responsibility to monitor online asynchronous discussion forums (or CoPs) at the other levels. For example, a large adult literacy education program might have an online discussion forum for its own volunteers and/or teachers. Some person or people in that group could take responsibility for monitoring the state level discussion lists; others could take responsibility for monitoring the national level CoPs and discussion forums. “Monitoring” a discussion forum could mean reading posts in that forum with an eye to cross-posting to their own discussion forum. For example, my city has a technology discussion list, an online forum for adult literacy technology coordinators who also meet from time to time in person. Some of the members subscribe to this CoP; however, I don’t recall seeing any cross-postings from that online discussion forum or this one. It wouldn’t be hard to do, would just require a little organizing. For example, a technology question posted to the local online technology forum could also be cross-posted here.
It would be great to see cross-posts to this CoP introduced with an introduction like: "A teacher in Oklahoma City has asked in our state technology forum, "What are some good ways that adult education teachers in our program can learn about how adult education teachers in other states are using tablets?"
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
Hi Jason,
As you know, this is something I would like to see more of too. I think David's suggestions about cross-posting are astute - I've been wondering if #adulted on twitter hasn't really taken off because in fact, adult educators are getting their PLNs elsewhere. Maybe that's on other platforms, or maybe with other hashtags; there are lots of great subject- or role-specific chats happening on twitter (I love #educoach because I'm an instructional coach, and the most active blogs I follow are also specific to my role). Perhaps "adult ed" is too broad a category?
Also, I'm wondering about the role of Google+, as I see it taking off in education in a big way and it seems it might offer the best of twitter and facebook functions combined. Perhaps we should give up the #adulted ghost and choose one platform to focus our efforts on? Whatever that would be, I agree with David that we would need to pull in cross-posting and look at the national, state, and organization level. This sounds like a full-time job for somebody, ha!
Carole Fuller
PD Specialist & Instructional Coach
Carlos Rosario Public Charter School for Adults, Washington, DC
Follow me on twitter: @butlerwales
Carole,
I put the words "personal learning network" in that post specifically to draw you in. So glad you took the bait - I mean, jumped into the conversation. Thanks for contributing another hashtag to the mix. I think #adulted is broad, but when you try to narrow it down to a specific area (on Twitter, anyhow) like #blendedlearning or #edtech, then the content expands to include mostly non-adulted topics. What do you think of the possibility of a weekly or bi-weekly chat? The focus could rotate through a range of agendas. As for different platforms, like Google+, I think people will jump on whatever is moving on the platform they're most comfortable with. I'm for a diversity of approaches, personally.
Everybody: How do you convene your PLNs (personal learning networks) in adult ed? Are they national or local?
Jason
Jason and others interested in social media in the classroom. Our national conference, TLC at the BEACH 2013, has several presenters who are encouraging social media in the classroom and giving some of the best examples of how to use it. I encourage you to come because we have 3 dynamate key-note speakers, 4 pre-conference sessions, and 36 plenary sessions all done by practitioners who are living this everyday. Plus the conference is at Myrtle Beach March 13 1- 16. Go to www.edtheturtle.com to get all the information and register.
This conference sounds great, but I won't be able to attend. Will the information presented be published or available in any form?
One idea that has occured to me the past few years during the COABE conference is the need for an archive of the real-time commentary and highlights that erupt onto Twitter and other social media platforms. The conference is such a rich and intense professional development experience - even just sifting though the blogs and tweets - and then the activity subsides and new connections and epiphanes fade as we return to our routines. All of the innovative approaches to adult ed that make the conference such a significant convergence should be easily referenced for easy revisiting and possible implementation (when we're good and ready ;o).
1) How can we keep the adult ed focused social media energy-level up after COABE? (and other conferences, for that matter)
2) How can we collect and share the links, ideas, questions, and articles promoted during COABE? If it doesn't involve complicated programming, I'll be willing to help with this.
I've written a blog entry about my excitement for this year's conference, and there's an surprising twist in the story as well as some really good reasons for attending the conference. Have a peek and let me know what you think.
Jason Guard
Essential Education
jason@essentialed.com
Hi Jason - firstly, congratulations! I read your blog post :)
As for your questions, they got me thinking:
Is there someone at COABE - I mean the organizers - who we could work with? Establishing an active hashtag, and a wiki to collect resources, would be easier if we had support from the conference organizers in promoting it. I see they are using #COABE2013 on twitter.
Are the presenters at COABE encouraged to share their presentations in any central place, such as slideshare? I've been to some other conferences where there is an official online space for sharing from the conference. Does COABE have that already? I don't remember it from last year, when I was presenting.
I think a central space for sharing would be a great way to promote further conversation/collaboration after the conference.
Carole
Hi Carole, All,
Well you're asking the right person. I'm the SME for this EBPD forum and also president-elect of COABE 2011-2013. We are promoting the hashtag #coabe13 -- a format in keeping with previous years -- using the name of the conference + only the last two numbers of the year the conference is hosted. Each year, I use The Archivist (http://www.tweetarchivist.com/) to capture every COABE conference tweet from beginning to end, in as much as that's possible, using the conference hashtag. I keep it public though I see that they've archived my archive from last year, so I've put in a request to reactivate it. When it's live again I'll share it with the group here.
Jason already mentioned the new COABE LinkedIn group (www.linkedin.com/groups/COABE) and in just two short weeks it already has 425+ members. COABE is happy to provide this forum for COABE members and others to include as a part of their professional learning networks.
Wikis are always welcome, as well as other ideas that promote professional learning. So as you have them please, by all means, post them here.
Also, this Evidence-based Professional Development Group (formerly the Professional Development List) has always encouraged conference sharing here in this online forum -- what you are presenting / planning to attend and a report out from what you learned. I'll start a new thread to encourage that sharing. We sometimes archive it in the Professional Development Area of the ALE Wiki, which I manage, and which archives all topics of interest to this EBPD Group.
See: http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Adult_Literacy_Professional_Development, scroll down and visit "COABE Reflections 2011" as one example of archived posts of COABE participants reflections from the Professional Development List, the predecessor to this new EBPD group.
And yes, presenters are encouraged to share their materials in one location found here: http://www.coabe.org/html/professionaldevelopment.html (click on "COABE's Online Resource Repository").
Again, I welcome other ideas to promote conference sharing / learning before, during, and after conference. For this conference and others! Let me know what your ideas are.
Thanks,
Jackie
Jackie Taylor
EBPD Subject Matter Expert
COABE President Elect 2011-2013
Hi Everyone,
Well the folks at The Archivist are fast - here is the revived #coabe12 archive:
http://www.tweetarchivist.com/NCLAdvocacy/21
I've uploaded the entire archive to scribd in PDF format should this become unavailable again:
I've also started a #coabe13 archive, viewable here:
http://www.tweetarchivist.com/NCLAdvocacy/23
How do you see this information useful for professional development?
Jackie Taylor
Jason and others,
Jason wrote: One idea that has occured to me the past few years during the COABE conference is the need for an archive of the real-time commentary and highlights that erupt onto Twitter and other social media platforms.
A few years ago I attended an international Wikimedia (software for Wikipedia and other wikis) conference at Harvard. At one point I was in a large lecture hall with three top-notch international experts each in turn speaking (brilliantly) at a rapid pace. I looked across the audience and ssw that nearly everyone had a laptop and was taking notes (I thought). They were taking notes, but not individuall ones; collective notes. Someone had set up a wiki page for this session and participants were listening and note-taking on the wiki at the same time. Some people were adding in the citations for references cited. A couple of people were setting up topic categories from a session handout,and adding in sub categories that emerged during the presentation. At the end, someone summarized the key points. The notes were nearly 20 pages of well-organized, incredibly detailed, very valuable information on a wiki for anyone to read or add to later, including the presenter(s).
Could that happen at COABE? Sure, if there were a wiki that people could use for this (the ALE Wiki might be a possibility.) It would also need a few people who had laptops with Internet access (this could be a problem if COABE doesn't have free wireless in its conference sessions. Anyone know?) And someone would have to take the lead , set up the topic categories on the wiki page before or quickly during the session.
Maybe it could be less complicated, having someone taking major responsibility for taking notes, and others invited to join in as they wish.
If there is no Internet access in the session, perhaps one person could agree to take -- and later post -- notes to a wiki page.
Do you like this idea?
Who would be willing to take responsibility for wikinotes (no, not wikileaks) at a session at COABE? Which session?
Shall we use the ALE Wiki, perhaps a sub-section of its PD area?
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
I have heard that internet access will only be available for the presenters in the sessions.
Hi David, I'm intrigued by this idea! I would love to give it a try. It's a real shame if the organizers don't offer free wifi for all participants. Nevertheless, I'm happy to take part. I think the ALE wiki would be a good place to start - could you post a link here directly to the PD section so folks can find it easily?
Thanks,
Carole Fuller
Carlos Rosario School
Washington, DC
Follow me on twitter: @butlerwales
Carole and others,
I have set up a COABE 20913 note taking page in the Professional Development area of the Adult Literacy Education (ALE) Wiki. You will find it at http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/COABE2013
I hope you will add your COABE 2013 notes to this wiki page. I will. You can do this during a session (if you have Internet access), or later. You don't have to know wiki formatting. Just copy and paste your notes in. Of course, if you would like to do the formatting, please do!
Please forward this to others who will be attending COABE 2013 and invite them to add their notes.
David J. Rosen
ALE Organizer and "Wikiteer"
COABE 2013 Attendee and presenter
djropsen123@gmail.com
Hi all,
The LINCS Technology and Learning group is going to try using Google docs for group note taking at COABE 2013. Here’ the link to our Google doc: http://bit.ly/COABENotes
And be sure to check out Twitter— even if you don’t have a Twitter account you can watch the COABE13 tweets on a website called TweetChat http://tweetchat.com/
“Using hastags, TweetChat helps put your blinders on to the Twitter-sphere while you monitor and chat about one topic. Choosing a hashtag directs you to a TweetChat room.”
Just typed COABE13 in the search bar at the top of the TweetChat screen and see what happens
Best,
Nell
Hi Jason – I’m Lauren. My team and I are the administrators and daily posters to the LINCS Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Thanks so much for your comment. We definitely support social media use among adult educators and would love to see more people using it. If it is ok with you – we will post your question on LinkedIn and try to generate some discussion on it there. We view the LINCS Twitter feed and LinkedIn group as forums to inform followers of the latest news and happenings.
We’re going to be very active on Twitter during the upcoming COABE conference – we’re going to be live-tweeting LINCS content from the show! Additionally, in the next few week or so, look for the release in the Community of a comprehensive social media handbook that will provide some basic how-to’s and more in-depth tips and tricks for a wide variety of social media platforms. Maybe it will give you some additional resources to connect with adult educator colleagues!
By all means, repost it Lauren. I didn't even know there was a LINCS Linked-In group. The COABE group has taken off, and I'm enjoying it, but the other adult ed themed groups seem to receive little moderation and get over-run with spam. Let me know what I can do to help you build participation.
I would like to respond to one of Jason’s questions: What can adult educators do differently to enhance connection and communication? Actually, I am not sure they can do much on their own, per se.
I think we already have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to connection and communication. There is an awful a lot of informal “professional development” happening as people pass information around, however scattered.
The quantity of choices for connecting and communicating are so many and varied that many of us feel that we are spread thin and thus the quality and depth of interaction can suffer. So right now I am torn between thinking, “Hey there is so much going on, isn’t this great! Maybe we should just accept that each of us will not only have a PLN but use various media to get to their professional development goals.” On the other hand as some of you might have heard me say before, in the ideal world it would be great if adult educators had one place and technology tool to use that they can access. That is not going to happen, so I remain like David, trying to balance a list of ways I connect and communicate. It helps to do that but it is just more difficult for the enhanced quality, I think Jason is getting at.
So maybe we can have a period of time (2 weeks or so) when the field commits to reading and responding to one community or use one social media tool exclusively, such as just LinkedIn or Twitter during COABE.
Steve QuannSenior Advisor forTechnology in EducationWorld Education
44 Farnsworth Street
Boston, MA
617.385.3827
I have to admit that I'm spoiled when it comes to social media. For 5-6 years, I wrote a food blog and cultivated a sizeable readership. It was just a hobby, but it supplied me with enough relationships and interaction to fuel a fulltime project. I could always count on my blog's community of readers to validate my efforts, react to my provocations and correct my omissions. There were some epic back and forths in the comments, but it was the Twitter account (which I adopted mostly just to promote new blog entries) that became my window to the world. Not only could I follow the people who interested me, but loads of people who followed my 140 character food musing would happily respond to my questions and provide instantaneous assistance. A substitution for an missing ingredient in a recipe? I'd get several suggestions. Where to find 00 pizza flour? Go to this store or pop by and borrow some (strangers, mind you!)
By contrast, most of the adult educators that I meet daily get very little information about state developments or national trends. And they don't know where to turn (nothing against LINCS, but it's daunting for many part-timers). I would suggset they get on Twitter but it's not very satisfying for me personally. Even the national field of adult educators on twitter are far outpaced by a few dozen local food-obsessed folks in Richmond, Virginia.
Sure, we have a lot of sites and publications to turn to for perspective on adult ed, but it's too fragmented for most adult educators to access what they need when they need it. Kind of like telling your GED student to go to a couple free sites to study and they'll be fine come test day. (computer-literacy may be a factor in both cases) There needs to be glue to hold it together or a guide. Basically, a personal learning network that acts like your own personal PD specialist who keeps you informed and up to speed. A tall order, maybe, but it's time that our field started reaping the benefits of the progress that's been made with information technology.
I want to follow the COABE group on Linked In. When I clicked the link in Jackie's message I got this reply:
Sorry it seems there was a problem with the link you followed.
When I looked at the Linked In pages directly, I could not find a COABE group among the groups they listed - and I went to the alphabetical listing page.
Can someone check this out?
Dorothea Steinke
Hi Dorothea,
That may be a technical issue on my end, try this URL:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/COABE-4860354?gid=4860354&trk=group-image
Also, if one searches in the "Group" index by COABE, it is the only one that pulls up. (Go to Linked In > Groups > Group Directory > and enter COABE in the search box.)
Hope that helps,
Jackie
Jackie Taylor
EBPD Subject Matter Expert
Jason said: "Most adult educators may feel like they're too busy to invest time in social media, but when you keep your head down for too long, change happens all around you. Look up and you see the evolving playing field and you don't get left behind. So, what do you recommend? What can adult educators do differently to enhance connection and communication for our ongoing professional development?"
Hi all,
I have been away from the discussion for a year or so and surely agree with Jason, that change has happened all around me. While I've missed engaging with all of you on various lists, I have tried to keep up with all of you using the tool that I like best: Twitter. I firmly believe that Social Media enables ME to learn new skills, read about new strategies and find new resources that I can, in turn, share with my Twitter following, or through my Florida TechNet contact list.
I have used the #adulted hashtag, #edleader (for my graduate class students), #literacy, #GED and #aepathways.. I primarily use Flipboard to read my Twitter feeds and find the time every evening, while the rest of the family is relaxing, to commence my learning. I've hosted a Twitter webinar (thanks Nell, for your expertise), and have actually developed a few myself. But I find that the majority of my colleagues in my state don't use Twitter. They rely on online learning modules/webinars/face to face trainings. I'm not sure if they just don't see the purpose/meaning or they're just too apprehensive to open a Twitter account. I encourage them to at least READ my Twitter feed and follow some of the links. My PLN has improved one hundred fold just by using Social Media. I can't imagine my life without it!
Some of our Adult Ed and Literacy programs DO have Facebook pages.. as I think that's how they best relate to their students.
So I continue to push the value of Twitter in enhancing Professional Development. For now though... it's just valuable to me. :-)
I'll be at COABE this year and look forward to seeing all of you!
Deb Hargrove
Twitter: @FlaTechGirl