I want to start up a dialogue with people involved in education, both teachers and students about a possible project that I think would be complimentary to the Generation We program Jabiz has been talking about so well.

The Generation We declaration and book (read it, it’s free to download!) have some excellent points. The platform it outlines is worth striving for: accessible health care, the protection and rehabilitation of our environment, an end to war, and a better, fairer educational system. The problem is that Gen-We puts an awful lot of importance on indirect action, voting with our wallets for “green” companies and voting with ballots for more progressive politicians. Important stuff, to be sure, but I’m not content with that, and I don’t think that real change is likely to come about if that is all we do. What we need is to start small, grow locally, and show the old guard what can be done, instead of turning to them for the answers.

While reading Generation We I kept coming back to an idea that has shaped a lot of my thoughts on progressive causes. It comes from the final line of the Industrial Workers of the World’s constitutional preamble. They are words that have stuck with me since I first read them early on in high school. “We are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.” A “new society” because the current one is unsatisfactory, unfair, and dehumanizing, and because we can do better. “The shell of the old” because the world as it stands is a hollow one that has been carved out in an attempt to satisfy the insatiable greed of those who control it. From “within” because the best way to prepare to inherent the earth is to be a part of it. What better group to live by this than the students who will be handed, as Eric Greenberg says, “an unfair and unsustainable state of affairs.”

So, here are some ideas that I think will get us moving forward towards bringing about the kind of world that Gen-We.org points out is needed. Because underneath the flashy rhetoric and the misguided trust in the same systems that got use where we are today, Eric Greenberg is calling us to act and in order to act effectively, we need to organize. I would like to start a discussion about what students within the education system can do to start effecting real change.

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the National Honor Society, which aims to “create enthusiasm for scholarship, to stimulate a desire to render service, to promote leadership, and to develop character in the students of secondary schools.”  My younger brother participates in a local chapter of the NHS and I’ve got to say that I’m disappointed in how the organization has failed to lived up to their stated purpose. The enthusiasm for scholarship has been replaced by a pat on the back and a better resumé for college applications. Rather than promote leadership, the shepherds of the NHS seem more intent on handing the students busy work so that they don’t stray too far out of line. Character? My brother’s chapter meet once a month for less than half an hour after school, where they make idle small talk. As for fostering a desire to render service, well, my brother’s project this term, the one community service assignment that the NHS advisor gave them, was to light a Christmas tree downtown. That’s hardly meaningful, important work. The National Honor Society will soon turn 90. I think it’s about time we got rid of it and built something better in its place. So what I’m proposing is both a rejection of the Ivy League chasing mindset that the NHS has embraced, and at the same time a reaffirmation and reinterpretation of the best things it originally hoped to achieve. Rather than focus on just high schools, I would like to see it available to college students as well. Instead of being managed by a cadre of principals in a National Council, I think it ought to encourage democratic decision making by all students involved. Here’s a update of the four major goals that I think would better enable progressive action and true education:

1. To nurture enthusiasm for learning. Learning is simultaneously living in the moment and for the future. It does not begin at kindergarten and it does not end after university. It does not take lunch breaks or summer vacations. We acknowledge that there is a fire inside everyone and even after years of systematic stamping out by the status quo, an ember still smolders away, ready to burst forth and burn, burn, burn if given the fuel it needs to grow and the air it has to breath. We intend to feed that flame by pushing for students’ rights to pursue dangerous ideas and decide for themselves what they want to learn, as well as by helping teachers understand that knowing the right questions to ask is often more important than knowing the right way to answer.

2. To develop our passions into talents, in order to improve and enrich the material and intellectual lives of people everywhere. This can mean organizing a local Food Not Bombs chapter, starting a community garden, performing street art, writing letters to the local press or the Wall Street Journal, spending time with the elderly at nursing homes, protesting outside a city council meeting or a party’s national convention, or raising money for a children’s hospital. We recognize that we all owe something back to the world that begat us. Do what moves you, but do it in a way that matters.

3.  To build our communities both locally and globally. We know that the people who can best decide what they want for their communities  are the community members themselves. We are all members of many social circles: our families, our friends, our schools, our towns and cities, our states and provinces, our countries,and our world. By sharing alternatives to the current models that dominate society and working hard to implement sustainable, egalitarian options and opening a dialogue with the community at large we will build camaraderie. We are international and hope to integrate, beyond all borders, in secondary schools and colleges the world over. We start by allowing each individual cell to decide upon the best actions to bring about the four goals. Decisions will be made democratically, with each member receiving one vote. Groups may choose to elect temporary spokespeople when needed for press interactions, or possible larger conferences. We’re all in this together. Let’s act like it.

4. To demand that those who have been granted power, be it by circumstance or public vote, be it in the form of economic or political clout, behave with character. As it stands, power is not distributed to all people fairly. While working towards a new and empowering future, we also acknowledge that we must not neglect the present. By opening an honest dialogue with community leaders we can work with those most capable of effecting change in the short term.

So, what do you think? How would you envision student organizations that help promote and develop Generation We’s ideas?

If you were here last year, welcome back, if you are new- welcome. I think I may have found a new direction. I recently watched the video below, read the book, and wrote this review on my teaching blog.

While the entire concept may be a bit too conveniently packaged and a bit flawed, it can be a good text for several reasons:

• It is available online in PDF format
• It lays out a clear course of action
• It identifies issues, which we can work on after reading
• It sparks great discussions

I want to read this book with whoever is willing and see where it takes us. Whether you are a former Intrepid Classroom participant, a new student directed here by your teacher, or a teacher who stumbled here form Twitter, here is my plan:

Intrepid Classroom has always been about bringing young people and teachers together using web tools to facilitate discussion, interaction, collaboration, and connectivity. Beyond the confines of school, curriculums, and expected roles and interactions, I hope that Intrepid Classroom can be a place where we can simply be people dedicated to change not stigmatized by the labels of teacher/student.

One of the biggest criticisms of this site has always been the lack of structure or cohesion. Here is what I hope to do to solve that problem: I want to build a semester long curriculum around Generation We. I hope that we can gather a group of ten to fifteen teachers and students to have weekly readings, discussions, and eventually a final project that raises awareness of global issues and promote activism.

We can use any tool that will help us stay connected and collaborate. These will be modified and announced as necessary, but as always, we will use this blog and the Ning as starting points. I would like to have group meetings using Elluminate or similar tools. I want you to have a say in where we take this book and the idea it presents. I don’t have anything more concrete at this time, because I do not want to create an entire plan and have no one sign up.

Here is what you need to do if you are interested, and are able to commit the time regardless of “real” school commitments:

• Leave a comment on this blog post stating your interest. I will email you with details as soon as we have a group together.
• Join the Ning if you haven’t already done so.
• Watch the video.
• Share any ideas you have about the direction of this course.

I hope to start January 1st, so please commit by then. This course is open to anyone who is interested in learning more about collaborative activism, regardless of your age or affiliation with any school. Let’s get together, learn, converse, connect, and create real change.

I agree with Eric Greenberg when he says:

The problems of today will not go away if we just sweep them under the rug and ignore them. They will only get worse. We cannot rely on those bound by special interests or protecting their turf to enact great changes and create a new order of justice and fairness. We need the unjaded youth, with their energy, optimism, and sense of purpose, to lead the world out of the mess it is in and toward the full potential of mankind.

Mr. Kimi has added a Voicethread about character development that could use some attention. Finally, Aron sent me the following line in an email:

I don’t have much time right now but I know that I (and some others) have not really been participating in the Ning and IntrepidClassroom, but I think this is partly because we have not got a central goal.

To that I say this: The goal has always been to focus on the following topics: conflict resolution, global sustainability, peace activism, music and art as agent for social change, technology as a tool for social justice. The hope is to create a fluid, organic curriculum that engages all participants.

What that looks like depends on you the participants. My hope has always been that you, the members of Intrepid Classroom, would direct your own learning without the need for concrete assignments. I have suggested several projects, but most have been ignored.

The goal is for us to learn how to create a community of learners who work together for the simple reason of leanring from each other and teaching others. If you have an idea, share it with the Ning and get someting started. With the new chat feature we should be ablke to communicate more easily.

I came across your Intrepid Classroom blog just by chance last spring and now I found out who the mysterious Intrepid Teacher actually is through the CCK08 course. Fascinating how these connections work, isn’t it?

I am very interested in the way you have set up the Intrepid Classroom, but I would like to ask you for some advice. Just some background first. I am planning a new school project (high school kids, 14-17-year-olds) in a network of European and Asian schools. I have coordinated a few projects before, but keep modifying the process and trying out new tools to make it work more smoothly. Last year I tried to use a combination of Ning and Wikispaces, but it wasn’t a great success, partly due to a very limited time frame and many of the participants across the continents simply being unavailable to collaborate at the same times. Ideally, I would like to develop a platform/online environment/forum/classroom that could exist and keep developing and reshaping from year to year.

Have I understood correctly that your Intrepid Classroom is a truly open global classroom, ie. any student anywhere at all can join?

Yes this is true. I have taught some of the participants face-to-face in the past, but there are several other members who I have never met in real life.

Do many of your own students participate?

I am currently working at the K-5 level, so no, none of my students participate. I began this project as a way to connect with as many students from around the world as I could. I felt that being free from curricular restraints would help me do things I couldn’t do while in a regular classroom. I am using this medium as a way to build a community of young people around the world who are interested in change. Using as many different online tools as possible, I hope that we can help create and foster a supportive and engaged group of people working toward similar goals.

Do you encourage some of your students to participate, or is it solely down to each individual student to take an interest?

I am looking for bright, passionate, dedicated students. This is not a place for everyone. I do not see something like this working as a “class” assignment. Out of a group of 30 students there are usually only about one or two who have the fire and self-direction to participate in something that is not graded and will offer them no immediate rewards. I am looking for kids who are passionate about the planet and their role in it. I hope they see something like Intrepid Classroom as fun as well as relevant.

Do participating students get some credit for it in their school work, or is it purely self-directed study for their own personal learning?

As of now, they receive no credit, but I would love to work with schools about possibly being able to give students credit for work the do at Intrepid Classroom. Perhaps IB CAS hours or independent study credits could be an option for some schools.

You use many different forums and tools. Do you think this may be distracting to participating students?

I hope not. I want them to see that this project is about building community, not about the tools. I want them to use whichever tools feel the most natural for the task at hand.

Do you feel that having a structured network with given groups in different schools defeats the underlying principles of connectivism?

In a way- yes. Just as you said, “Just that in regular school life, schedules, curriculum etc. etc. don’t easily allow fully open learning environments.”

How about participation in the Interepid Classroom – is it regular enough for students to stay motivated? From my experience young people soon lose interest if participation in an online environment is too sporadic.

This has been a major problem. While the Ning shows that over thirty students have signed up we only really see steady participation by about ten students at most, and their level of commitment ebbs and flows with their real school load. We have several projects that have been started, but not one to date has been completed. This is a major concern. Because intrepid Classroom is a side project for all of us, I feel it is not a high priority for any of the participants. But you are absolutely right the sporadic nature of the environment, leaves much to be desired.

I hope you don’t mind me asking such straight-forward questions. I’d love to hear your ideas if you have the time some time. I am hoping to find colleagues to share these ideas with, as I believe very much that this type of learning, at least some of the time, is the future of education. I also like your passion for promoting peace in the world. In my Asia-Europe connections we did a Peace project (somewhat naive, but sweet) for some years until we lost touch with the Japanese teacher involved, and the momentum sadly faded. Here is the URL for a compilation wiki of this project, if you are interested to have a peek (I don’t know how to make a link in this field!).
http://sinikkaenglish.wikispaces.com/

Hoping to connect with you somewhere!
Sinikka

So there you have it folks. Anything I missed. Would you like to add anything to her list of questions and concerns?

Lindsea and Hannah already know Clay quite well. Do you ladies have anything to add? I could add a lot more, but Clay is a much better writer than I am, so go adn read for yourself. Introduce yourself, add him to your network; he will prove to be an invaluable resource.

I met Nirvana Rose on Twitter. After a few exchanges we realized that we have a lot in common. I began to read her blog and added her to my Facebook page. From there we realized that we read many of the same books, a recommendation from Nirvana is like gold to me now! Although she is in Australia and I am in Doha, I find Nirvana to be a kindred spirits of sorts. She is a member of the Intrepid Classroom Ning and has been known to lurk and comment here on our blog.

About half an hour ago she sent out a Tweet introducing a highly motivated and talented student she is teaching who is tech savvy and interested in changing the world. Sound familiar? I quickly commented on Phee’s blog and invited her to come join us here at Intrepid Classroom.

I hope she will come by and meet us soon. I urge you to  subscribe to her blog and give her some support; I am sure she will return the love.

Welcome Phee! We hope to get to know you better soon. If you are a regular reader please give her some advice on where to start. I suggest reading this page.

I have recently discovered a blogger named Injenuity, and I find her posts to be easy to read, insightful, yet very  dense and full of valuable insight into the world of online communities. She recently wrote a post about her dissipating love of Nings. Seeing that Ning has become one of our most used tools, I was curious to hear what you think about what she has to say. Please feel free to comment on her blog, link back here, or to your own blog to let us know what you think. Use whichever tool you think best; the important thing is that you share what you say in other communities with this one here.

A few days ago, I was chatting with Lindsea on Skype about a variety of topics: music, education, and the need for adults to communicate more often and more in depth with students. We briefly brainstormed a few ideas we each had for the EduPunk challenge, when we arrived at the following slogan for her Street Art campaign: “Education everywhere. Take back your education.” We discussed the idea of Guerrilla Learning, and the idea that we realized was repeatedly emerging was this need for students and teachers/adults to meld their networks.

In the last few months, I have been lucky enough to be involved in a small but growing community of teachers and students who seem to be connected on a variety of projects. Intrepid Classroom, in part, grew from this already fecund community. Students like Hannah, Soojin, and Lindsea are working closely with teachers like Clay, Dianne, Mr.Mayo, Paul Allison, and myself to blur the lines of the traditional educational model. We are working to help each other understand that “Education is everywhere” and we want to “Take back our education.”

Below are snippets from the transcript of our chat:

Lindsea: What’s greater that I know I am able to learn on my own

Me: We, teachers are always trying to paint ourselves out of the picture, but if we are worthless than what the hell are we doing teaching? I have lived a pretty cool life. I’ve lived in Africa, worked in the Bronx, I have an MA blah blah blah, and I have a lot to teach teenagers, stuff that I wish some of the old fogies would have taken the time to teach me.

Lindsea: I don’t want teachers to stop teaching

Me: So student centered doesn’t mean without a teacher

Lindsea: I want the wisdom and the stories. I just want to be included. I just want to have power, I want to be listened to, I don’t believe in student only learning. What’s BS is the fact that students are “listened to” but aren’t heard. The classroom needs to stop being a stage for teachers. We need to break the fourth wall interact with the audience

Me: Yeah but institutions like education take a long time to change, so here we are light years ahead of what Mr. Joe Average is doing. The question is how do we instill a love of learning to the masses. School is not designed to help kids find what they love, it is designed to fill their head with “knowledge” get them ready for college, a good job and so on. School should teach kids how to learn.

Lindsea: What I’m trying to promote is this: FIND PASSION, LEARN THROUGH PASSION, SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING W/ TEACHERS’ GUIDANCE

Me: Yeah but those teenage years are tricky, because when you give young people total freedom, they don’t know what to do, most of them.
You have been so trained to please and be rewarded with grades, that you don’t know how to follow your own passion, most of you.

Me: Take Intrepid Classroom. There have been some great discussions, and maybe that is where learning is taking place, but it feels like everyone is waiting for me to call the next shot.

Lindsea: The teachers help them make goals and essential questions and then have checkpoints, etc

So what do you think about this discussion?

Part II

How do we safely combine these networks? How is it that I was able to openly and freely chat with Lindsea via Skype? Is this okay? Are you ready for it? There are many questions, but it is vital that we look at them, because if education is everywhere than you need to learn how to access it and be safe.

Teachers often send students mixed messages: The internet is a scary dark shadowy place filled with equally dark and shadowy figures looking to track you down and do you harm. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Next breath, use the internet to meet and communicate with as many people as you can to help you become a more self-directed learner.

What is a motivated risk-taking learner to do? There are thousands of online articles about cyber safety and online bullying, so I will not give you advice. Rather, I want to hear from the experts, you! What do you do? How do you know what is a safe and appropriate relationship online? I raise these questions because we have recently had a few new teachers join the Ning. At first I was thrilled, because the influx of new adult voices into Intrepid Classroom, is just what Lindsea and I were talking about. These teachers should be great resources and potential members of your fledgling networks. But then, the paranoia began to rattle around my brain: As our community grows how will we know who to trust and interact with? How do we know that some stranger does not enter our midst and do us harm?

I want Intrepid Classroom to be as open as possible, but that does not mean that we shouldn’t be aware of the potential of danger. I have collected all of the questions raised in this post and listed them below. Please take the time to comment on what you read. When you are done, please find the new teachers: Mr.Kimmi, Mrs. Durff, and don’t forget about Shelly Krausse and Nirvana Rose Watkins. Make some contact with these people. See how these adults may be able to help you learn. As for the new teachers to Intrepid Classroom, please take the time to meet some of our students as well. Let this new model of network begin. We are adults and students with one goal: “Education everywhere. Take back your education.”

Here are the questions to think about:

1. How do we instill a love of learning to the masses?
2. What are your thoughts about the discussion with Lindsea?
3. How do we safely combine adult and student networks?
4. How is it that I was able to openly and freely chat with Lindsea via Skype? Is this okay? Are you ready for it?
5. What is a motivated risk-taking learner to do?
6. What do you do about Internet safety?
7. How do you know what is a safe and appropriate relationship online?
8. As our community grows, how will we know who to trust and interact with?
9. How do we know that some stranger does not enter our midst and do us harm?

I am in the process of exploring WizIQ. It seems to be a great platform for allowing us to have some real time live classroom sessions. I know timezones will prove challenging, but this way we can meet and have class hopefully once a month if not more often to discuss ideas, projects, and other points of information.

Watch this video and think of ways we can use this great new tool. I will sign up soon and send all members whatever you need to participate. In the meantime, there a few new discussion on the Ning that could use some input and the story has been on hold for a few days. Let’s not lose momentum.

Here is some information on WizIQ:

The first comment was referring to the Ning:

I don’t get this site =(
Well, kinda…I don’t know what i should do and what I really can do in here..,a little help will be nice =D plzzz

Here is another comment:

I can see that Intrepid Classroom is growing and more members are joining. I have one question and I thought that I should ask it now since I saw you were online. What should I do to get part of Intrepid Classroom? I know that technically I’m in it but how do I really get accepted in Intrepid Classroom´s society? I just don’t know where to start. I hope you can help me Mr. R. Cya later in Intrepid Classroom and good night!

A quick review of what a Ning is used for would be a great place to start, but in short the Ning is a place to meet people. I would suggest that if you are not sure what to do simply reach out and talk to  someone. If you click on any member’s picture it will take you to their page. Read what they have said already. Most members have a separate blog, while some people are using the blog feature on the Ning itself. Listen to their music, read their words, and introduce yourself. You can send people messages or leave them comments on their page.

We are trying to learn how to build a network of people you can learn from and teach at the same time, so first you must get to know each other. It would also be a great idea to work on your own page as well. Share some music or videos and write why you have chosen that music. Share some of your thoughts on life, school, and the world around you. Invite people to connect.

Once you have done made a few connections you can join one of the many discussions already happening. Simply click on the title of the discussion under the forum section and see what people are saying. The What Makes A Book Worth Reading already has 63 responses. If you don’t find something that interests you, then start your own discussion about anything you like.

It was also brought up that perhaps there are too many pages:

I almost already feel like we have too many different pages. Sometimes I think that a post was on Ning but it was on Edublog and then I spent 30 min searching the wrong site.

But trust me, I feel each page serves a purpose. We will be using many other tools soon, so let’s make sure we all feel comfortable with the ones we are using now.  After you have mastered the Ning, you can begin working on some of the projects we are working on at the wiki The first is the design of a logo. Do you have any ideas? Can you draw some sketches? Then go to the wiki page and leave your thoughts here. (If you have not already done so, ask for a request to join. There is a link that will send me the request.) Once you have joined then simply click on the Edit This Page link at the top of the page and insert any text, video, or images you need. Hit save and  you have edited our wiki. This logo can be hand drawn or use photographs and text. We will all have to work on it together.

You can also get involved with the latest writing project tentatively called We Are One. Simply follow this link and add your part to the story. If neither one of these wiki projects is for you, then think of another project you would like to work on and present it here. See if you can get one or two people to work on it with you. Some ideas can be: creating a video about a topic you are interested, or maybe record a pod cast, or simply write a poem or blog post with another person. Perhaps we could all take pictures or video of where we live and share them with the group.

I will present more formal “assignments” soon. In the meantime, I want to see what you guys come up with yourselves.

That should keep you busy. Please feel free to contact me again if you have any questions. I know I can get wordy, so here is a list if things to do if you don’t know where to start.

1. Meet at least three new People in the Ning.
2. Work on your Ning page
3. Join a discussion.
4. Work on Logo
5. Work on We Are One
6. Create new Project

Final note for the people involved in the book discussion, my question to you is now what? You have done an amazing job creating a dynamic and rich conversation about books, but how can we synthesize the information? Can you perhaps take what has been said and write a concise, coherent blog post about adolescence reading habits? See what you can you do. Students are always complaining that they don’t like being told what to do…well here is your chance to whatever you want. But do something!

Great job everyone. Keep up the good work!