This was a comment I made on the #satchatwc a while back. It’s had a few retweets and some comments. This past Saturday morning, I joined in the first #edcampHOME  hosted as an edcamp event but online. As I’ve processed this event and what took place, there are a few take aways for me and then a reflection.

1. Eliminate “PD”

PD needs to be eliminated from our discussion about teachers’ learning. Although it is professional development, it has become associated to something that is “done” to teachers instead of a self-motivated improvement where you get some type of certificate at the end instead of the internal motivation to be better at what you do. Because we learn all the time, we need to tap into the natural learning process of adults instead of the imposed learning from experts.

2. Professional Learning Year-round

Learning, which most teachers know, isn’t limited to “days” or “events”. Instead, it is something that is continuous – sometimes situational – and is personal.  It needs to part of a Professional Learning Plan which the teacher creates, reflects upon and continues in a continuous cycle of learning, reflecting and refining.

3. Learning is not a solitary act

Learning is social – Lev Vygotsky and John Dewey introduced this to us a long time ago.  For too long, teachers have been isolated in their practice and, for the most part, in their learning. Social media platforms such as twitter and Pinterest have begun to change this. The decision by teachers to share their work through blogging, podcasts and gathering platforms like Google Hangouts, has begun to change the nature of how teachers’ view their practice and profession. This ability to share is at the heart of what teachers do – share their love of learning.

4. Learning requires time

This is where I will probably enter a slippery slope but …. twitter is not a PD event! It’s the beginning of a conversation but it’s the continued learning that takes place afterwards – the sharing, conversations, reflecting, writing, planning, implementing, using, coaching, …. that is the development part. Learning and practice with no game-day experience is just speculation. It’s the sharing and conversations that take place between all those involved that is development – the books that are shared, the discussions about the books that scaffold to new ideas which lead to new ways of looking at things which lead to progress which leads to the change of practice in a classroom for a teacher – and that is why the learning that teachers do is not a PD event – ever!

5. It isn’t PLN platform specific

Yes being part of a twitter PLN is a great thing but it isn’t the only platform – the landscape is ever changing ever more rapidly and to limit the interactions of “great” to one is, well, just inaccurate. It also is a bit telling of how we want to talk about being open to change but, really, are kind of set in our ways. Like the death of Google Reader shouldn’t have really been an event because of the number of alternatives and the ease of shifting – but it was change. It’s leaving the safety of the known for something less proven or even the unknown that puts people off. Change isn’t a big deal – unless we make it a big deal. The death of GR would have passed with little notice had it not been for those set in their ways. There are teachers with whom I have worked that don’t tweet at all, they pin. And pin and pin and pin. In fact, they have developed a PLN that focuses on the sharing they do via Pinterest. And it’s just a viable and credible for learning as those who use microblogging platforms like twitter or plurk but I have heard the whole idea of sharing via Pinterest to be seen as “second-rate” sharing. Really? Now we rank the sharing we do? It’s time we validate what people do, commend them and listen to their stories and share in their excitement instead of the nose-snubbing response.

Too often, those who have reached “rock star” status tend to set the trends which, unfortunately, those who follow tend to continue. The #edcampHOME event was a divergent trail, even from the traditional edcamps and should push our thinking and learning about our need for conferences, or at least, our reliance on them as gathering events. It allows the “experts” of teaching – those in schools and classrooms who are learning and sharing – to come together regardless of distance or time of year or finances – to begin those conversations that  will continue each person’s learning.  It brought together a great many teachers and other people in education to share and learn when they would have not been able to have such face-to-face encounters.

(An aside to this – there seemed to be many of those participating who had already been to f2f conferences or who were then going to f2f conferences which makes me wonder about the learning cycle – where is the time for reflection and refinement? Are teachers become “tool technique” gatherers, moving from workshop to workshop in order to gather tools/apps to use in the classroom as an end? As an administrator, I want to know how this or that tool is better for “what we do for students” and not that it is “cool and will streamline my ability to handle the dissemination of information to students in a timely and proficient manner.”

However, this isn’t the first time educators have gathered via the internet far from one another to share and learn. Many of us have done this in numerous other events- for a number of years – seeking to improve what we have been doing – sort of Outliers.  This time there was a Tipping Point – a large enough group who saw it as a viable and acceptable way to share their learning and were wiling to step out of their comfort zones to give it a try. However, this is a natural progression as the idea of professional learning evolves from that of development to that of continuous learning and improvement through the social platforms that are available and the idea that learning isn’t an event to be graded or scored or give us a reward.

Finally, learning is “cool” even for a teacher!