For months now, I’ve been trying to figure out how to develop an online community to enhance our programs within the Department of Educational Leadership at VCU.  Currently, each course has its own Blackboard space.  We also send lots of e-mails to students, though sadly we don’t even have good e-mail groups in our e-mail client (that’s pathetic, I know).  So, communication across courses, across programs, and across the years is impossible.  It’s a sad state of affairs, and I’ve spent way too much time trying to figure out the best way to establish an online community for all of our students, faculty and even alumni.

I suppose my biggest problem is that I’m looking for the perfect one-stop solution.  I’m very familiar with Ning and I’ve been playing around with various wiki systems that work nicely as places for collaboration and communication.  Those are fine ways to create a single online community.  One problem for me, though, is that our department consists of many different groups, cohorts, etc. Here’s a graphical representation of our department:

I want each group, cohort, etc. to be able to communicate privately with each other, but to also be a part of the larger community.  So, I could, for example, setup a department-wide Ning and then setup each cohort as a group.  However, the groups within Ning don’t have the full functionality of Ning (e.g. they can’t setup their own document repository or a separate page for anything, really).  And, the groups are not private.

A second problem is that I want to be able keep track of activity with an RSS feed.  But, as you may know, private spaces (Ning, Wetpaint, etc.) don’t allow for RSS feeds.  This limitation also stops me from setting up a Ning or Wetpaint for each group, cohort, etc. and then setting up a department-level aggregate page via NetVibes or Pageflakes (a la Steve Hargadon’s approach here).

So, where am I?  Right now, I’m leaning towards a department-level Ning as the hub of our online community.  From there, I could setup groups for each cohort, group, etc. with a link to a private wiki for each cohort, group, etc. (leaning heavily towards WetPaint for that).  In the absence of RSS feeds, I’ll have to subscribe to each site via e-mail and then setup routing rules so that my inbox doesn’t get flooded.  It’s also going to be a naming nightmare.  But, that’s my best current solution.

If any of you smart people have better ideas, I’d be more than happy to hear them.  Thanks in advance!

Tags: community, leadership, network, Ning, VCU, Wetpaint

Scott McLeod deemed today Leadership Day, and so it is!  And so I go…

If you haven’t watched the video of Chris Lehmann’s presentation at NECC, there’s no question that it’s a must see.  I’m sure I’ll have lots of occasions to use it as a pedagogical tool with my ed. leadership students, especially as a model of instructional leadership.  The reviews of Chris’ preso have been through-the-roof high, and deservedly so.  Will Richardson used Twitter to suggest that we need to clone Chris, and Bud Hunt (aka Bud the Teacher) replied that he had secretly taken a few of Chris’ hairs for exactly that purpose.

For those who don’t know, Chris is the principal of the Science Leadership Academy; a magnet high school in Philadelphia that he founded/started a few years ago.  Because he is extraordinarily transparent (want to visit SLA; just ask!) and collaborative, and for at least one other reason I shouldn’t disclose, I’ve learned quite a bit about Chris and SLA.  And, as best I can tell, we really do need to clone Chris; we can’t have enough principals like him.

THAT ALL SAID, here’s the question…what would happen if we suddenly made Chris the principal of Frederick Douglass High School (NOTE: the school doesn’t even have it’s own website) in Baltimore (the subject of a recent HBO documentary which has been written about by me and others)?

You see, Chris admittedly had the luxury of starting a brand new school according to his (and presumably others’) incredible vision.  He got to self-select a whole faculty.  The school’s magnet status means that the students that attend, at some level, want to be there.  in fact, according to the school’s website,  “[a]dmission to SLA is based on a combination of a student interview at the school with a presentation of completed work, strong TerraNova scores, As and Bs with the possible exception of one C, teacher or counselor recommendation and good attendance and punctuality.” I know many, many principals who would drop everything to be able to select an entire faculty and work with already accomplished students.

But, there’s another thing that separates Chris from the vast majority of his principal peers.  Chris is an unrelenting progressivist and he has a true global, future-oriented vision.  Just read his recent blog post about progressive pedagogy for 21st century schools.

I know that not all schools like Douglass High are destined to fail.  I’ve seen and read parts of this book.  And, I know about the Achievement Alliance’s efforts to document success stories.  But, even there, if you read about the high school they spotlight, the school is unique in its geography and the “success” is having gone from 26% proficiency in one subject (ELA) to 42% proficiency over the course of 6 years.  That’s steady, but slow, improvement; but 42% is not exactly superior.

I’ve also followed closely the research and documentation of the 90/90/90 schools (90% low income, 90% minority, 90% proficiency).  Just about everything I’ve read about those schools (including this by Douglas Reeves) points to a blinding focus on standards, assessment, data-driven decision-making, etc.  For better or worse, there’s NOTHING progressive about those schools.

So, I wonder what would happen if we put Chris Lehmann in the hardest-to-staff schools; schools consistently failing to make adequate yearly progress.  I guess the question I’m asking is: Who wins?  The extraordinary progressive leader or the system?  Can a brilliant, extraordinary leader WITH A PROGRESSIVIST BENT truly reform a severely struggling school within the existing system of public education?

Personally, I think Chris, or someone like Chris, would do wonders in a school like Douglass High.  But, unfortunately, I think that remains an open (empirical?) question.  And, I’d love for us to be able to do that empirical work.  I would love to document the experiences of bright, extraordinary, progressive leaders who have proven successful in more comfortable situations attempting to completely turn around a failing school.  Please note, my interest is not how “good” someone like Chris is.  I want to know what effect “the system” has on someone as “good” and particularly as progressive as Chris.  If you know of any such experiences, let me know.

Tags: education, equity, leadership, leadershipday2008, progressivism, schooltechleadership

John Hendron points us to an article about work that his former Superintendent, Dr. Frank Morgan, is doing in Kershaw County, SC. Speaking about the use of podcasting, Dr. Morgan is quoted as saying, “I’ve just found it powerful…We live in a different world now, so we have to use multiple means to communicate with people.”

I have two things to say in reply. First, we need more superintendents like Dr. Morgan. Second, if you read to the end of the article, Hendron mentions that in his county (which happens to be one exit West of where I live) teachers are contractually obligated to blog. I think I’m starting to like living in a union-free Commonwealth.

Tags: blogs, education, leadership, podcasting, technology

So, Richmond City Schools will be searching for a new Superintendent.  I haven’t lived here long enough to judge the outgoing Supt., Dr. Deborah Jewell-Sherman, one way or the other [full disclosure: she's an adjunct faculty member of the Dept. in which I work].  One thing I do know though, having taught in classrooms in a couple of Richmond schools and having spoken to a number of educators who work in the district, the facilities are WAY outdated.  Forget about anything digital, I haven’t even seen a whiteboard (yep, I get to teach in classrooms with green chalkboards and actual chalk…remember that stuff?).  Even more striking, these schools sit in the shadow of Henrico County Public Schools, home of one of the earliest and largest laptop programs in the country.  So, Richmond teachers are working with chalkboards and Henrico teachers are working with students, each and every one of whom has a school-issued laptop.  Digital divide, anyone?

So, there will be lots of politics surrounding the selection of the next Superintendent, as there are in any urban district.  And, there will be lots of opinions.  My opinion?  I would love for them to hire someone who is forward-thinking, progressive and who understands the importance of 21st Century skills.  The counterargument will be that there are SO many problems plaguing the schools in Richmond that technology can’t be a priority.  I say hogwash.  One of my students is a special education teacher in Richmond.  He told me that he sees a nearly complete lack of hope or sense of opportunity in the students in his school.  If that’s the case, what better way to remedy that than to give the students access to unlimited opportunity; or to make the students feel relevant, current and hopeful.  A more traditional candidate for Superintendent might suggest that building new facilities needs to be a priority; a technologically-progressive candidate will suggest that building digital bridges to the world is the way.

Tags: leadership, Richmond, schools, superintendent, technology, urban

There’s an interesting story (free registration required) in the New York Times about professors who blog and engage in other forms of Web 2.0-ness.  I think the MtvU exec. makes the best point when he says that it’s about transparency.  I’ve also espoused transparency as an orientation to my own work, and I think blogging is a natural extention of that for me. 

What I think the NYT article misses though is any discussion about teaching or learning.  Specifically, the edublogosphere has become my personal learning space and those who feed me (in RSS terms) and who I follow on Twitter are my personal learning network.  I blog because I believe (maybe mistakenly?) that I have something to offer this learning space and because I believe I am somewhat obligated to give and not just take.  Also, by making my thoughts and ideas “public,” I’m inviting others to join my PLN. 

If I can get past the tenure hurdle, I’d love to embark on an empirical journey around this notion of collaborative/digital learning.  I’d like to know how PLN’s jive with theories of learning, community, etc.  I’d like to know how we can foster PLNs in doctoral education.  I’d like to know how we can use PLNs to advance school leadership.  So, I guess that’s why I blog, tweet, comment, etc.  I’m learning about learning.

Tags: blogs, leadership, learning, PLN, transparency