The 2012 NAIS Annual Conference, held in the beautiful Pacific Northwest town of Seattle, represents my fifth straight annual conference, my fourth as a presenter and my second as an official conference blogger capturing the conference's highlights.

Yesterday, I was fortunate to attend a pre-conference workshop led by Laura Deisley (Lovett School), Christian Long (Cannon Design), and Jeff Sharpe (Be Playful Design) titled "Design Thinking: Unlocking the Keys to Innovation." As a connected educator who uses, regularly, a personal learning network, the challenge for me at the annual conference is finding sessions that will help shape and define my thinking further as it pertains to teaching and learning in the 21st century. This session did just that as design thinking is something I've heard about, but never engaged in as part of my work.

What I enjoyed most about this particular session is that it was not your standard "sit and get" you might normally encounter. Rather, it was a true workshop --- interactive, engaging, and collaborative. During the first few minutes of the session we were introduced to the facilitators -- I like that term better than presenter -- each explaining what they would bring to the session and how we would proceed.

The first portion of the session we were broken down into teams of two -- my team had three as we tried to break the mold of what we were told -- and were provided a story board. In the story board there were a series of panels in which the first contained a drawing of an iPad and some chalk. We then had 90 seconds (that is not a typo, it does read seconds) to complete our story. What I liked about this exercise is it brought together groups of people to design something quickly without much consideration for whether or not the end result would be a success or failure-- that's a key component of design thinking. All of the stories were different and compelling as to what transpired when you had an iPad and a piece of chalk. While I was happy with our outcome the one I found most interesting is the group which used the iPad to have kids connect globally while using the chalk to connect kids locally, as in the playground.

The next portion of the design thinking challenge placed us in teams of 5 or 6 people. We were charged with crafting a space that we, as a team, would find to be conducive to working together. We are able to stay in the room, go outside in the hallway, or find other spaces in which to work and discuss with the only premise being that "yes, but" would be replaced with "yes, AND" when speaking about other people's ideas. In 20 minutes the teams used post-it notes, legos, markers and more to create a concept that would provide the best possible working space that we would most like to see in our offices and schools.

The final challenge kept us in the same teams but this time we had 30 minutes to determine a problem in our schools, discuss how we'd add failure to the process, and then determine who we would present the issue. My team and I elected to leave the room and stand while we engaged in the brain storming process which helped with the free-flowing of ideas. We challenged ourselves with changing how courses in our schools are proposed -- think "Shark Tank" and venture capitalists with the students giving feedback to the teacher proposing the course and then agreeing to help the teacher develop the course before it is pitched to the academic or administrative team. We called this new endeavor the "LEAF" Program -- Learning, Engaging, AND Failing. Again, you are not able to succeed without failure.

My experience through out the afternoon piqued my interest in design thinking and believe that it can be an incredibly useful tool to bring to areas in our schools such as strategic planning, department meetings, and in our classrooms.

To learn more about design thinking and the resources available you can visit:http://nextchapter.reimagine-ed.org/resources/nais-2012-design-as-key-to-innovation/

In his post yesterday, Seth Godin asked us to consider, “the first thing you do when you sit down at the computer.” And then he offered the following:

Oddly enough, earlier this week I received and began a new book titled, “Intentional Leader” from GiantImpact.com so when Seth Godin noted, “If you’re.....a leader or someone seeking to make a difference, the first thing you do should be to lay tracks to accomplish your goals” I thought that perhaps there were such a thing as stars aligning.

Why, because yesterday I offered the following tweet about “Intentional Leader” and my enjoyment of it to which Vinny Vrotny replied:

Therefore, because Vinny asked, I offer this short post on why I am intrigued by “Intentional Leader” and it’s day-by-day series of reflections.

First, “Intentional Leader” is broken down into twelve logical sections, one for each month of a year:

Vision, Relationships, Excellence, Focus, Passion, Perseverance, Legacy, Change, Attitude, Strategy, Initiative, and Belief.

Within in each month you have:

• An introduction to that month’s topic as well a set pattern that continues throughout the book.
• Each Monday you are asked to consider a sub-topic from the month’s theme.
• Each Tuesday you are asked to think about what is true about you as it pertains to the sub-topic from Monday.
• On Wednesday you are asked to consider the external significance of what you considered back on Monday.
• On Thursday of each week you are asked to reflect upon your answers throughout the week.
• Finally, on Friday, you are asked to be more intentional about rest, friendship, projects and rejuvenation as you head into the weekend.

Note: This post was originally posted on edSocialMedia.com

I love Twitter for the simple fact that it helps bring ideas together. Or, as Steven Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation would say, Twitter is a place where “hunches collide” (Johnson).

So, what is this hunch I’ve had for awhile but wasn’t quite sure how to spell out or share? Well, it’s the idea that social media is somehow new. I am here to tell you that that is simply not the case.

WAIT....WHAT? WHAT DID HE JUST SAY?

That’s right, here today I am saying that social media is, in fact, not new. The only part that is new is that new technologies came along and allowed us to put social and media together to form a new phrase.

You see, as humans, we can’t help but be social. It’s part of our genetic code. It’s inbreed, ingrained, and all too often intolerable for folks NOT to be social. And media, well that’s been around since German Johannes Gutenberg decided to reinvent the screw press into a printing press around 1440 (Wikipedia). Of course, the Town Crier preceded that but news traveled only as far as his choice of medium, his voice, would carry.

So why does any of this matter? Well, about a month ago this tweet, sent by a former student who now lives in the United Kingdom and works for a WOM* company, came across my screen.

best line from @Chris_illman "Social Media is like Fight Club - the first rule of Social Media is that you don't talk about Social Media!"

— Meg Grogan (@Megster33) October 12, 2011

For those that do not get the reference, Fight Club was a 1999 file starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter in which Pitt and Edward form a Fight Club where the rules were simply put:

“Welcome to Fight Club! The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.
The second rule of Fight Club is you DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB.”

And so I say to you:

“Welcome to Social Media! The first rule of Social Media is you do not talk about Social Media.
The second rule of Social Media is you DO NOT talk about SOCIAL MEDIA.”

If you are embarking on a communications plan in the near future I say definitely include social media in those plans, just do not talk about social media as if it’s a foreign concept for it’s truly just another medium in which to share the stories of your school.

So what, exactly, are your thoughts on:

“a social gathering, especially of or as given by an organized group, using a means of communication that reach or influence people widely”

or more commonly known as, shhhh, don’t say it,  “social media”

Having spent a third of my life in and around New York City, and being a huge sports fan, I often found myself listening to one of the greatest sports radio talk shows ever to grace the airwaves in the Mike and the Mad Dog show on WFAN in the afternoons. A brutally honest sports radio duo, Mike and the Mad Dog had an incredibly loyal following of rabid New York City sports fans. And, when those loyal listeners had the opportunity to get through to chat with them on air, they generally started their conversations with “long time listener, first time caller” before kicking into many a diatribe on why this New York sports team or that player managed to let their team down the previous day.

As I sat at Solution Tree’s Author Speak 2011 as a first time author and one of the 99 “Voices of Solution Tree” to present to educators this past week along with my co-authors Bill Ferriter and Eric Sheninger, I admittedly found the experience to be a little surreal especially as a “long time listener; first time author” in the education space. For those that know me well, public acknowledgement of my work is not something I neither enjoy nor expect. However, I did want to share a few of experiences to highlight an important point to come later.

Surreal Experience #1

On Tuesday, during the open session of the event, President and CEO of Solution Tree Jeff Jones asked, at one point in his opening remarks, for all the authors in the audience to stand. He noted that Author Speak was unique because not only would the authors be leading sessions, but that they would be learning “shoulder to shoulder” with the participants.

I happened to be sitting with Eric Sheninger and when we stood, there was what I can only describe as a hushed murmur that came over the room as people recognized the authors around them. In fact, to my immediate left I noticed people pointing at Eric and me and taking out the program to find our bios. Soon after they were nudging each other as if Eric and I were somehow different than they; not so much – remember, “long time listener; first time author.”

Surreal Experience #2

On Tuesday evening, I had the chance to meet a few of the other authors and several of them said to me, “I enjoyed your book and your work.” Huh? Are you talking to me? Seriously, you’re talking to me? – remember, “long time listener; first time author.”

Surreal Experience #3

Today, on the closing day of the event, I was scheduled to have my author interview and photo shoot. When I arrived, a member of the Solution Tree marketing department explained the process, I was mic’d up and then sat down for a one on one interview about my work and book. When done, I was introduced to the staff photographer who shot photos of me in a room and then in the conference books store… Whaaat? – remember, “long time listener, first time author."

Conclusion

Now, I do not share these experiences to be vain or showy – that’s truly not me. Rather, I do so because I’m just a husband, father, and family man that happens to be a “long time listener; first time author” all because I had the good fortune to believe in the power of Twitter and social media to build connections outside my own campus in an effort to expand my thinking about teaching and learning in the 21^st Century.

So my question to you, dear reader, is if you’ve been a “long time listener” why not start Communicating and Connecting with Social Media….who knows, you might just be the next “first time author.”

Seriously, what do you have to lose?