If We're Not Lost, Where Can We Be Found?

Over the holiday break, it occurred to me that newspapers and websites would soon be posting their year in reviews and their predictions for the year ahead.  We need those kinds of bookends in the field of adult education, especially with so many changes afoot.  We need to process, discuss, reflect and gear up to tackle new challenges. Alas, I feel like we're always in reactive mode, struggling to catch up and adjust to our circumstances.  That's why we need to rely on more modern communication tools than the phone tree. 

When trying to come up with my list of INs and OUTs going into 2016, I asked for input on Twitter using the #adultedu hashtag. No response to multiple attempts.  I tried my Linked-In network of 500+ connections and I think I posted it on an adult education interest group as well.  Obviously, holiday break isn't the best time to get a hold of educators. Or maybe I was using the wrong medium. I tried Facebook, but I only have a few professional connections there and the one who responded preferred to table all work-talk until class was back in session. During the same time, I've been deluged with notices about people broadcasting from Periscope.  And others telling me that Snapchat is the next big thing.  Neither indicators were from adult educators, but it piqued my interest and made me a little jealous.  Instagram is the platform that I've taken to the most in 2015, but haven't found any adult ed angles for professional development.  Going into 2016, I've vowed to learn Snapchat and Periscope... or at least try my hand at them.

So this is where I pose the question to you: Where in the digital world can you find adult educators? What is our preferred platform? Where are the professional development discussions happening?  How can you take the pulse of adult educators and high school equivalency teachers?  Please chime in with a comment. Any insights are appreciated, not just by me, but also by the isolated educators who wonder onto this site and perhaps have some of the same questions and a desire for more input, camaraderie and interconnectedness.

 

What's IN and What's OUT in Adult Education in 2016

There is no double that the field of adult education is going through BIG changes.  Out with the old and in with the new is the only way things change. But, what are those changes specifically? What are the buzz-words and terms that need to be on the tips of our tongues in 2016?  What practices do we need to put on the shelf indefinitely? We've banished digitized worksheet to the dustbin in past years.  We've learned that practice testing is not teaching, at least not for obtaining any long-term skill development.  Technology has made those tests both more and less accessible from various sources, but how we use the results is clearly innovating. So, please chime in with your new and old ideas and practices. I'll get the ball rolling with a few of my own.


OUT with 2015
-------

• Common Core
• Traditional, single-medium, instruciton
• Fighting against implementing technology
• An isolated field of adult ed
• Heads on desks
• Tired unresponsive social media
• WIA
• Mind-numbing Power-point style learning 
• Cut scores 
• Stopping out and retention problems
• Race to the bottom with ever-lowering expectations

IN with 2016
----

• College and Career Readiness
• Blended Learning
• Fighting our biggest challenges with technology as our weapon of choice 
• Adult ed as part of workforce development
• Heads in the clouds
• Exciting participatory social media
• WIOA
• In-depth activities for building critical thinking skills 
• Skill mastery 
• Bridging time/place gaps with distance ed solutions
• Raising results by raising expectations and setting ambitious goals

Let's hear from you!  Post a comment with your additions to this list.

All I Want for Xmas is FREE Resources

Usually, at the end of the year, I post about the edtech books that I'm most looking forward to reading, and I encourage you to go find them and read them yourselves. This year is going to be a bit different.  Sure, you can still go to Amazon and look at the most popular books in the Computers and Technology or the Digital and Online Learning subjects within the Schools and Teaching topic at Amazon.  However, much of the inspiration that the field of adult education needs is finally coming from the field's own practitioners and instructional designers.

This year at the COABE conference, we gave out hundreds of hard copies of our College and Career Readiness Roadmap to make it very plain how teachers can adjust to the instructional shifts taking place and incorporate more technology fluency into their instruction.  You can get your own copy by emailing info@essentialed.com.  If you already have a copy, please share your feedback here.

More specific to online distance learning is our new teacher's guide: Blended Learning in the Adult Education classroom (download it here).  The guide was presented at COABE by its co-author and edtech guru, David Rosen, and again via webinar last month with WorldEd (see the webinar recording here).

Let the Maestro Be Your EdTech Guide on the Side

Facilitating blended learning is easy when you have good models and mentors to turn to for inspiration. When I got started with Virginia's distance learning program ten years ago, one of the innovative educators that I looked to was David Rosen. His online repositories of resources and his work with the Learner Web made him an authority in the edtech field. He was WAY AHEAD of most state's leadership, much less the average practitioner.  But now the field is catching up. Blended learning is not just a lofty goal. It's a standard practice. I should know, because I'm meeting with increasing enthusiasm while talking with teachers about Essential Education's innovative adaptive learning programs.

These stars aligning made it a natural choice to collaborate with David Rosen on a FREE downloadable Blended Teacher's Guide. The publication of this resource has prompted WorldEd to host a FREE webinar with David Rosen on November 13th at 2pm Eastern. YOU CAN REGISTER HERE. Please invite your fellow teachers, convene a program-wide meeting around the webinar and spread the word on social media.

Get Connected at COABE in Denver

It is with excitement and some embarrassment that I resurface with this post having been MIA from my own blog since before Christmas in 2014. Maybe it would be plausible to say that I was busy reading all the edtech books I asked for last year. like a bear hiding out in my cave for the winter.  Or I could say that 2014 presented so many changes and challenges (and growth!), that I'm still catching my breath and slowly turning the page toward 2015. But the reality is that my slightly overwhelming workload coincided with a few health issues (think red spots covering 90% of my body) and family-life juggling acts that the sum total simply bumped this blog and my social media routine to the back burner.

In terms of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I've just been dealing with basic needs while my ambitious aspirations and my higher self haven't been a high priority.  It's certainly okay to tread water or maintain the status quo from time to time, but I think you can imagine that I am not satisfied with this state of affairs. That's why I foresee a comeback and hopefully it is precipitated by the awesome source of inspiration that is the annual COABE conference.  Yes, I will be in Denver, looking forward to seeing you, and giving you lots of great new resources.  Please say hi. 

Here's a message that we sent out to Essential Education's contacts to build the buzz about what we're about to release to the field (use this link to sign up for the Essential Education newsletter email list):

More EdTech Books for Xmas, Please.

As is my tradition of combining my Christmas wishlist with my passion for innovation and strategic changes in the field of adult education, here's what I'm reading or would like to be reading (hint, hint - don't get them for me, get them for yourself and your coworkers!). 

Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools
If you recall my frequent promotion of Clayton Christensen's Disrupting Class, this is the follow-up that puts meat on the bones and makes the blended learning prescription practical for educators.  My coworkers say the book gives them more ideas than they know what to do with, which is a pretty good way to start 2015.  Available here on Amazon.

Teaching Machines
A No.2 pencil is technology.  So is your whiteboard, that old reliable overhead projector, the challkboard, etc. That's where this book starts in chronicling the phenomenon of introducing new tools in education. What changes result? What's worked and what hasn't. Maybe when we're struggling to integrate the features of a new LMS or a student-centered learning portal we can look to the past for some pointers, because teachers have always been riding waves of innovation from the dawn of the classroom to the removal of the classroom walls. From what I see online, it looks like this author is at UVA, just an hour from me. I may have to reach out and say hey.  Available on Amazon here.

Learning As Fun
You had me at Angry Birds, though I feel silly thinking back on how much time I spent blitzing through the levels of that game, smashing everything in my path. Maybe I was learning important physics concepts?  It doesn't look like this one is actually about Angry Birds, thankfully.  From the publisher:

Drawing from the fields of motivational psychology, neuroscience and the philosophy of the mind, Learning as Fun shows that engagement, motivation and flow are the key factors in creating durable learning experiences, specifically in acquiring new skills and knowledge.

Sounds just like my boss talking about the latest update to GED Academy... The Kindle version is available through Amazon here.  

Monsters of Education Technology
Not to undersell this book (I already ordered mine on Amazon), but Audrey Watters is prolific on the web. Go read her now.  Since the book compiles her 2014 lectures, I'm guessing it's far-ranging and hard to synopsize. So, I included the table of contents, which is full of intrigue. And who doesn't like a good boogieman story? Or better yet, boogiemen debunked? Or both?  

 

Authentic Learning in the Digital Age: Engaging Students Through Inquiry 
Everywhere I go as an sales rep focused on adult education, I hear state-level admins and professional development trainers talking about securing deeper learning than the old drill and practice test prep through group work, exploring high-interest topics, and project based learning.  And my response is to agree vigorously and try to talk about the ways technology, especially Essential Education's tech tools, can play an important role in deepening instruction. This book, I'm hoping, will be a great resource for teachers creating lesson plans in previously uncharted waters.  Available on Amazon.   

How to Teach Adults
As I work to help teachers align their instruction to whichever high school equivalency exam their state is using, I'm seeing a lot of people looking for quick fixes and shortcuts and sometimes openly calling for a more remedial assessment, which really makes me uneasy.  Why are we educators in the first place?  The debate over focusing on short-term gains versus long-term skills makes wonder how much of the adult education equation is up for debate.  Maybe we need to start from the foundation and rebuild so we have a system that addresses a core adragogical mission in addition to passing scores on tests. The title says 'How' but all throughout he addresses the 'Why,' and I'll bet it strikes a chord with you.  Look for a future post about Dan Spalding's perspective on adult ed, because it's a good one. Get yours from the author directly.  






What Connected Educators Do Differently
It seems like techie teachers are just cut from a different cloth, but when you look at their lesson plans and their daily routines, it's not so hard to adopt some of their practices. This book will probably help with that, but you'll have to wait, because it comes out in February 2015 according to Amazon.


If you're squeamish about the idea of reading an edtech book (they're usually pretty exciting, actually), this one here may be a good primer. Or you can go back to my edtech book list from 2012 or the one from 2013.

Are We Making Our Learners Smarter or Dumber?

I'd like to blog about more of my inspirations as an educator, especially as I come across new stuff all the time via social media. Today, I listened to a talk by Annie Murphy Paul about intelligence being much more malleable and subjective than our learners' very finite and hard fought test scores may indicate.  The more I think about it, this is really timely for the field of adult ed, as the fundamental  mission is up for debate: credentials or skills? Short-term gain or better long-term outcomes?  Annie Murphy Paul may hold a missing piece of the puzzle for advocates of lifelong learning.

The work that she is doing has me thinking about the way we teach adults in the classroom and/or at a distance. The conditions that we create for our learners has a much deeper impact than I had really considered before. She talks about micro-environments that make our learners smarter or less smart. And I immediately think about how the technology tools we use make minds really uptight and anxious or comfortable and free-flowing.  What kind of micro-environments are being created by the various kinds of computer-based instruction software?




A few barely sketched out blog entries that I've been working on immediately come to mind and hopefully will get posted sooner than later thanks to the inspiring thoughts by Annie Murphy Paul.  Issues of empowerment, creativity, enjoyment and confidence come to mind. What are your reactions to this talk about how we get smarter? Is there anything that you'll start doing differently right now?