I have been thinking lately about professional relationships and what role they play in how we learn as professionals, and as people. It would be difficult to learn much in total isolation. We are social beings, so exchanging ideas and opinions is a natural occurrence for us. I think we tend to seek out people with whom we can share things. We have personal relationships to share personal things, professional relationships to share professional things, and casual relationships to handle everything else. These relationships validate, negate, or modify our ideas. We learn from this.
Our culture’s support of these relationships may best be reflected in our support of the Restaurant and Bar industry. I guess these casual, and personal relationships are as much a part of that industry as food and booze. Places of business, and education are where professional relationships mostly reside. Although many faculty have been known to gather on a Friday afternoon at a watering hole outside the school district limits.
Many of these relationships are very fluid depending on our need to share and learn specific things at various times of our lives. People come and go in our lives continuously. Many of us have people that we refer to as our mentors. A mentor, I believe, is a person who heavily influenced us at specific times in our careers by exchanging, supporting, questioning, and validating our ideas about our profession. All of this is based on trust, which can only be established within a relationship.
Professional relationships prior to the 21st Century were, with the exception of the occasional pen pal, a face-to-face endeavor. As educators, professional relationships were most often within the school building in which an educator worked. Depending on the size and quality of the faculty, as well as the school’s culture, this was a hit or miss proposition for professional learning. If an educator was limited in professional relationships within the work environment, he, or she could attend classes in local colleges seeking out professional relationships with other teachers attempting the same collegial connections. As the rates for taking courses, continued to rise, higher Ed became a very costly drain on a teacher’s salary. Local, statewide, or national education conferences also provided exposure to more professional relationships, but many teachers were not privy to attending these conferences on a regular basis.
I was recently made aware of the principle of 10,000 hours. That is the theory that it takes 10,000 hours to completely master a complex skill. If there ever was a list of complex skills, teaching would be at the top. To make it even more complex it is also a moving target. Teaching today is constantly changing and evolving. In order to stay relevant and up to date, today’s educators need to be in touch with those changes. They need to embrace, experiment, and improve, or reject new pedagogy and methodology in education. They need to absorb and understand new and developing content that pops up every day. Education is not a static profession.
Educators, more than ever, need to be able to take a new idea and “run it up the flagpole”. The responses to that idea however need to come from people who have a clue. The relationships that educators count on need to be with people who are relevant and open to new ideas. This type of educator may not be found in large numbers in all schools across our country. Relationships with people who are rooted in the past will be of little help in a world driven by technology and a need for evolving an education system to meet the needs of kids who will not be living in the 20th century.
If technology is seen as the problem in driving the culture too fast for education to adjust and keep up, it may also be seen as a solution to that very same problem. If relationships are the stuff of better learning, then let technology provide better ways to relate. It is technology that can expand an educator’s relationships beyond the limits of a school, or district, or state, or even a country. Relationships with other educators, without the expense of taking costly courses are made possible. Contacts can be made with leading thought leaders, authors, and renowned experts in the field of education. Webinars are rapidly replacing the lecture halls. Through technology face-to-Face interactions are now possible with multiple people in multiple locations. The potential for meaningful relationships through technology are endless.
All of this is taking place today with connected educators worldwide. It only takes about twenty minutes a day, at any time of day, to maintain. That 10,000 hour goal will be whittled away after a while, but it would go more quickly with more time spent in these relationships which are both uplifting and thought-provoking. Those factors encourage more engagement with each visit to the connected community. Learning becomes self-directed, authentic, and, dare I say, fun.
The big picture of this can be overwhelming to a novice. It is a mindset change that requires understanding the culture of connectedness before a real immersion can take place. Educators need a basic knowledge of digital literacy to get started. This will quickly, and very painlessly grow with continued connectedness. There are several connected communities to help educators get started. The Educator’s PLN is a start. www.edupln.com.
Twitter is probably the best way to experience the need and benefit to connectedness in developing both professional and personal relationships with other educators. Remember that in a group of like-minded people, as smart as any individual is, the group is always smarter. Of course, if you are reading this online, you are probably already connected and all of this makes sense, since you have already drunk the Kool-aid. Please print it out and share with an unconnected colleague. To better educate our kids we need to better educate their educators.
I have been thinking about this topic with greater depth. The key is to create, contribute to, and nurture your professional learning network near and far with a regular routine. That routine will differ from person to person, however, to teach well today requires interactivity with a PLN. Thanks to you, Tom, for providing a PLN resource through #edchat, your blog, and more as that’s been a substantial service to educators like me throughout the world. I appreciate your time, effort, and wisdom.
[…] I have been thinking lately about professional relationships and what role they play in how we learn as professionals, and as people. It would be difficult to learn much in total isolation. <=== […]
[…] I have been thinking lately about professional relationships and what role they play in how we learn as professionals, and as people. It would be difficult to learn much in total isolation. We are … […]
This is a terrific post Tom. Thank you so much for your thoughts. you make the best case for being a connected educator that I have ever read. Will definitely share!
[…] By tomwhitby […]
I’d like to offer a twist. A group or network isn’t always better than an individual, sometimes it’s worse. Remember the phrases “A camel is a horse designed by a committee” and “groupthink”? Perhaps in another article you can discuss what makes one network effective and another one ineffective.
[…] Educators, more than ever, need to be able to take a new idea and “run it up the flagpole”. The responses to that idea however need to come from people who have a clue. The relationships that educators count on need to be with people who are relevant and open to new ideas. […]
[…] I have been thinking lately about professional relationships and what role they play in how we learn as professionals, and as people. It would be difficult to learn much in total isolation. We are … […]
[…] I have been thinking lately about professional relationships and what role they play in how we learn as professionals, and as people. It would be difficult to learn much in total isolation. We are social beings, so exchanging ideas and opinions is a natural occurrence for us. I think we tend to seek out people with whom we can share things. We have personal relationships to share personal things, professional relationships to share professional things, and casual relationships to handle everything else. These relationships validate, negate, or modify our ideas. We learn from this. […]
[…] Relationships: Who needs them? | My Island View […]
Great thoughts. I am becoming increasingly disturbed about what look like very negative patterns to me, correct me if I am wrong.
1) I am a tech trainer and like tech and training, BUT, it is a huge mistake for many Instructors/Professors to mess with it at the level it has now become in the last 5 years in terms of keystroke complexity and number/diversity of software solutions related to learning. It truly is in rapid change as well. I came out of a class for teachers and heard the cries of a teacher overwhelmed with so much tech to learn. I advised her to coach a student to do most of her tech. She should stick with concepts in tech, not keystrokes. Stay with the big picture.
Teachers are water, tech is only the cup. I have too much tech because I like it, but it is often a huge distraction and not efficient and wears me out.
2) American education in many ways looks more like learning as a hobby rather than prep for work. I think that is good, and Teachers/Instructors should largely be left alone. Schools are operated by people who know little to nothing about business or making money. They give blood, sweat, tears, time and personal resources out of love for students and learning. Teachers and Students are masters of learning. They have their 10,000 hours in. Most of the methods and tools they use are NOT found, understood or even desired in the workplace (so sad!). Try and find a plain whiteboard in the workplace. They don’t gather at one to work a math problem together. No one ever writes a paper or presents a chapter in a book for discussion or analysis for work purposes. Yes, some trades and professions have this training/learning/ongoing ed issue figured out.
3) Our major problem is that work should look a little more like school, not school look more like work. Try and find the “Director of Learning and Training” at most organizations. Be prepared for blank stares. Learning, especially when it is not rehearsed or used early and often, has a half-life that varies widely. Much school learning is not effective for future job needs for obvious reasons including: no one is assured that they will use their Dietician college major for indeed they ended up being a pre-school teacher; the skills trained in the past in college may be quite dated by the time a related job is landed; and very importantly, application of learned skills is not valued in an organized fashion at the workplace. There are no Teachers who understand the workplace and teaching well.
Two serious questions: How does the workplace make so much money and survive when learning and training are despised (thought little of)? What would the workplace look like if Teachers at work were valued as much as Coaches are valued for pro sports teams?
Your responses? jim.spradlin@train-at-work.org
I should add: Tom is so right about the possibility of more relationships through the power of tech. I am just trying to emphasize that relationship is so important that tech must be very carefully managed as it so easily drags down the Instructor who must constantly struggle with it and thus uses her energy up and degrades her relationship power. Some of my tech is less frustrating than other tech, yes. Once automatic, it is a great aid.
Now, back to my numerous tech while all alone. 🙂
[…] I have been thinking lately about professional relationships and what role they play in how we learn as professionals, and as people. It would be difficult to learn much in total isolation. We are … […]
[…] I have been thinking lately about professional relationships and what role they play in how we learn as professionals, and as people. It would be difficult to learn much in total isolation. We are … […]
Great points in this post. The great part about technology is it expands the community of people we can connect with and learn from to everyone in the world with access to a computer. Thirty years ago your network of teachers extended as far as a regional conference or your content department. Now, a teacher in New York can reach out to a teacher in California for new ideas. Novice teachers can read the blogs of veterans such as yourself and learn about how to best start out in their new profession. Connections formed on the internet have the benefit of being more professional than social in nature. They support your abilities as a professional and provide new ideas and strategies to improve teaching or master a new skill. Going to a local watering hole with colleagues was more of a social network than professional.
James, well said. Tech is truly a huge benefit to professionalism, personal connectedness, and cross pollination with others throughout the world.
Wow, Tom, since I have already drunk the kool-aid, this makes sense to me! I will be sure to print and share with my unconnected colleagues. Maybe you can get through, I’m trying!
[…] I have been thinking lately about professional relationships and what role they play in how we learn as professionals, and as people. It would be difficult to learn much in total isolation. . The big picture of this can be overwhelming to a novice. It is a mindset change that requires understanding the culture of connectedness before a real immersion can take place. Educators need a basic knowledge of digital literacy to get started. This will quickly, and very painlessly grow with continued connectedness. There are several connected communities to help educators get started..The Educator’s PLN is a start. http://www.edupln.com..Twitter is probably the best way to experience the need and benefit to connectedness in developing both professional and personal relationships with other educators. Remember that in a group of like-minded people, as smart as any individual is, the group is always smarter. Of course, if you are reading this online, you are probably already connected and all of this makes sense, since you have already drunk the Kool-aid. Please print it out and share with an unconnected colleague..===> To better educate our kids we need to better educate their educators. <===. […]
[…] I have been thinking lately about professional relationships and what role they play in how we learn as professionals, and as people. It would be difficult to learn much in total isolation. . The big picture of this can be overwhelming to a novice. It is a mindset change that requires understanding the culture of connectedness before a real immersion can take place. Educators need a basic knowledge of digital literacy to get started. This will quickly, and very painlessly grow with continued connectedness. There are several connected communities to help educators get started..The Educator’s PLN is a start. http://www.edupln.com..Twitter is probably the best way to experience the need and benefit to connectedness in developing both professional and personal relationships with other educators. Remember that in a group of like-minded people, as smart as any individual is, the group is always smarter. Of course, if you are reading this online, you are probably already connected and all of this makes sense, since you have already drunk the Kool-aid. Please print it out and share with an unconnected colleague..===> To better educate our kids we need to better educate their educators. <===. […]