Videos
Virtual Preconference Keynote Produced for Learning 2.008 Shanghai, China
Change is necessary but what good is all the rhetoric if it doesn’t have a heartbeat? What is it that we need to do to implement the change? We all get the why, but we need the how. Watch my TED Talk-style challenge to the educators attending this un-conference.
Networks vs. Communities of Practice
Highlights from my keynote speech at ULearn08, Christchurch, New Zealand
Global Citizenship
Here and now — a revolution in technology has transformed the way we can find each other, interact, and collaborate to create knowledge as connected learners. We are in a unique position to collectively re-imagine learning and curriculum, and to transform education into an experience with lasting relevance to the learner of the 21st Century. Read more about my philosophy.
Embracing Technology: A Moral Obligation
Change starts with you, the teacher. How? Collaborate with likeminded people and make a commitment to improve over time and grow as a true profession with mutual accountability. Let’s leave education better than we found it. Watch these highlights from my ULearn08 keynote in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Blog Posts
Online learning is so last year…
A recent evaluation I received had a comment, “online communities and collaboration… may have been new and innovative a few years ago, but … are kind of old hat now.” Old Hat? Come on. Have we really hit the tipping point with online communities and collaboration– true collaboration? Let’s say for sake of argument that learning in online communities isn’t innovative anymore– so what? Is our role to only play in sandboxes that are innovative or new and novel? Read more…
The Art of Building Virtual Communities
Anyone who has ever thrown a party or held a meeting has had this unvoiced fear: what if after all the work of preparation, nobody shows up? Or worse, people show up, take a quick look around, decide it isn’t worth their time and leave! You’d think developing a virtual learning community (VLC) or online community of practice (CoP) would be easier. However, with the rise of virtual learning community platforms like Ning and Elgg it is becoming evident that many CoPs are dead on arrival and many others die of neglect early on. The burning question for many of us trying to establish educational CoPs is how to design a VLC that is compelling enough that it will compete successfully for the attention of busy educators? Read more…
Letter to My Colleagues
I am often asked as I travel to various places to present why I would spend so much time talking about technology knowing that with outsourcing and such that I am undermining job security in that computers could replace teachers. To that I respond, If you can be replaced by a computer then you probably should be! The truth is that technology will never replace teachers, however teachers who know how to use technology effectively to help their students connect and collaborate together online will replace those who do not. Read more…
The Fabric of Community – The Key to Transforming Education
The rub for me comes in when I try and look at these and other efforts to “transform” education and wonder if we aren’t really just talking about reform- small principled changes that look at change as we always have – through the lens of problem solving. Read more…
9 Principles for Implementation – The Big Shift
Every blog, conversation, Ustream and conference session I engage in I always hear the same questions asked over and over– How do we do this? It seems we know what and we know why- but PLEASE someone help us with the how! Read more…
Twitter Takes – 6 Word Memoir
We are playing a game – Six-Word Memoirs – if you were writing a mini-memoir of your teaching life, what would your six words be? Read more…
Need Motivation?
Why do we need to understand the shift in education? Because they can learn and teach themselves anything they want to know without leaving home. When you move from a classroom structure to a community structure- the students become teachers AND learners and so do we. 21st Century teaching and learning is about shifting classrooms to learning ecologies. Read more…
Matters of the Heart
While I am anything but a Chicken Soup for the Soul kind of blogger– (more emotion than substance in posts) I do think there is a place for emotional intelligence when addressing educational reform and change. Read more…
Books and Book Chapters | View all
Nussbaum-Beach, S. (in press 2011). Social media is changing the way we live and learn. In McLeod, S., & Lehmann, C. (Eds.). (in press). What school administrators need to know about digital technologies and social media. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Nussbaum-Beach, S. & Ritter-Hall, L., (under contract 2011) Connected Learning Communities: Learning and Leading in the Digital Age. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.
Articles | View all
A Futuristic Vision for 21st Century Education | Article for ASCD Express
As new national standards emerge and consortia promise better assessments to measure student progress and teacher effectiveness, educators find themselves once again grappling with the question, What do students need to learn? Read more…
Reinventing Professional Development in Tough Times
This article by Anthony Rebora on the future of professional development features my work with the K12Online conference as well as the Powerful Learning Practice Network. Read more…
Want to hear more of my take on professional learning communities? Watch this video:
We Might Be Giants | Article for Teacher Magazine
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the demands of the 21st Century are creating a need for schools to become learning organizations that focus on developing human capital and creativity in their teachers by preparing them to make dramatic changes in the educational landscape. Read more…
Ask an Expert: Get Online and Get Advice | Article for Edutopia
Here’s a distressing statistic: Nearly half of new teachers quit within the first five years. It doesn’t have to be like that. The best way to keep young and inexperienced teachers excited about their jobs during those trying first years is to pair them with veteran educators who know the ropes. Read more…
No Limits | Article for Tech & Learning
The speedy evolution of technology over the past 30 years has often outpaced our ability to use it to transform teaching and learning in real and meaningful ways. Much of that time we just tried to keep up, with new technologies often simply bolted onto traditional curriculum practices. However, today, with three decades of digital experience under our belt, the time is ripe to begin instituting true change. Read more…
Building Virtual Communities | Article for Tech & Learning
The way I see it, social networking tools have the potential to bring enormous leverage to teachers at relatively little cost. The burning question: How can we accelerate the adoption and full integration of 21st century teaching and learning strategies in schools today? Read more…
Interviews
Passion-Based Learning for the 21st Century interview with John Norton for Education Week Teacher. Read a more in-depth version of the interview here.
Future of Education Interview with Steve Hargadon
- Part 1 – 21st Century Learning: School 2.0
- Part 2 – Educational Social Networking
Radio New Zealand Interview about Digital Learning
