[tl;dr

We are making credos this week.  A credo is a personal statement of values. The purpose of this week’s connected learning cycle has two parts: 1. make and share a credo and 2.  reflect on how it fits the connected learning values of equity, participation, and social connection.]

Purpose

This document is intended to outline the make cycle four and attempts to help the participants put connected learning values into the context of a connected learning credo or belief statement.  

An Approach (but not THE approach) to a Connected Learning Credo

This is how I would approach the credo make.  Which is to say that you can do it anyway you like, but maybe this will be a useful scaffold.  

1. Make sure I understand what a credo is.

2. Start by listing my own values much like they do at “This I Believe.”

3. Look at some of the connected learning values of the clmooc that I have seen expressed in the there and that I have expressed myself.  I am exposing my litcrit bias here.  I always return to the ‘text’.  In this case I return to the community and what it has already demonstrated.  You might have a different context for your value system, but it very important to consider the connected learning values, too.  You might find  that they dovetail nicely with your own personal values or you might find some conflict.  It is important to be true to yourself in your credo, of course.

4.Work back to how these observations relate to the connected learning values (equity, social connectedness, participation)

5. Be concurrently wondering how I am going to share that with others.

Definition of  a Credo

A credo has typically been a religious or spiritual declaration like the Shahada in Islam or the Apostolic Creed among Christians.  Many of us know other creeds but have never really thought of them that way. Take the unofficial postal service creed:  Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.[

The credo we want you to try to articulate is one that involves generally what you believe about learning and specifically what you believe about connected learning.  The larger purpose of the Clmooc is to get a community to coalesce around these learning principles and to understand connected learning values.  The first three weekly make cycles have been created to get at those principles.  This cycle is engaging with three particular connected learning values:  equity, social connectedness, and full participation.

Active Definition of a Connected Learning Credo

That is what we hope to accomplish as we gather in a week’s worth of credos.  On Monday night at the Google Hangout on Air (8 pm eastern time) we will have four or five participants who will show you their connected learning credos.  We will work on these all week in the G+ community, talking about problems and issues there and in our own blogs and anywhere we gather online or Face-to-face.  On Thursday we will have a twitter chat where we consider further what these three values signify.  Finally, we will invite the community to demonstrate some their credo-makes, talk about how they came to be, and where their credos might take them.

There will also be an opportunity to include your make in this Google Form so that we can aggregate the credos in one place.  If groups wish to go further, they can take this “raw data” and try to create a connected learning manifesto.  

Discussion of Connected Learning Values

Equity:  More than fairness.  Equity is an expression of self and community.  Equity invites full participation.  Equity means connection.  This is pretty abstract so below is a more concrete set of criteria for what might define equity:

1.  Low barriers to entry: if sharing means having to own expensive hardware and software, it might not be equitable.  If software is free and easy to access, then it might be equitable.  For example, iPadio podcasting software works on both smart phones and feature phones.  If I posted my credo there, then I would be moving toward equitable distribution as well as equitable production.  

2. There are many potential roles for learners.  If all that is permitted when you view my credo is to listen/consume it might not be entirely equitable.  Of course, if the access to the tools of production are readily available and instruction is given on how to use it, then again we are being more equitable. Ideally, whatever tool is used, the opportunity to remix and remake is a powerful way to demonstrate equity.  Mozilla’s webmaker is a classic example of equity in action.

3.  Full participation:  our Connected Learning MOOC is an equitable platform in many ways.  The trade-off is that you need a Gmail account to play.  That is not equitable especially if you are under 13 or work somewhere that blocks Google platforms.

4.  A Chance to Become “Expert”:  this is about openness in community.  It is about how learners can come into a community not knowing and vulnerable yet discover they are in a safe place where they can ask for help and can ultimately give help.  This value is one that reflects the basic human need for mastery.  

5. Samples: Youth Voices, the Harry Potter Alliance, and the #clmooc exemplify these equity criteria.  This is not an exhaustive list of equitable requirements.  As they say in the Pirates of the Caribbean, “The Pirate’s Credo only be guidelines, your mileage may vary.”

6.  Other examples:

Full Participation: Moving from individual to collaborative and back again.

Social Connectedness/Embeddedness:

More Connected Learning Resources:

• Connected learning and equity:   http://youtu.be/dyydwP0Q9Eo  and a vialogue for anyone who wants to discuss this video: https://vialogues.com/vialogues/play/10357

• Digital.is blog post/resource on equity by Christina Cantrell:  http://digitalis.nwp.org/site-blog/focus-equity-connected-learning/4666

• Justin Reich critique of ‘equity’:  http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edtechresearcher/2013/02/connected_learning_and_the_unclear_path_to_equity.html

• Sheri Edwards:  http://digitalis.nwp.org/site-blog/let-them-write/4028 

What a values-based credo might look like.  

Well...yours will, I trust, be an exemplary one that fits your own needs. It might be moving towards the values below or you might have a more passionate, complex and moving vision.  Maybe it is more chaotic or unwilling to sort itself out into words and needs an image or a song or a painting to represent it. Maybe it is as simple as “do no harm”.  In other words, a connected learning credo might look like anything at all, but it absolutely must look like your Truth when it is done.

Values I have observed in the #clmooc

Invite/Interact/Ideate:  what facilitators do on a constant basis

• examples: Kevin’s five questions on 7/5/2013 here and my response here.  These are credos in waiting, proto-credos.
• Jog the Web
• Haiku Deck

Tools for Creating a Credo (a very limited list)

Chris: Mozilla Webmaker

Chad: Mozilla Thimble

Terry:  Haiku Deck, iPadio, Jog the Web, SlideShare, 9Slides

Sheri:

Sample Credos from #CLMOOC

Gail Poulin: http://asreflection.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/my-confession-is-also-my-credo/

Kim Douillard: http://thinkingthroughmylens.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/on-noticing/

 Other ways into the credo make:

1.Do a general, learning credo, perhaps using “This I Believe” as a template for getting it down.  Then later in the week you can reflect on how the learning values of equity, full participation, and social connection fit into your credo.  It may be a beautiful dovetail joint or might be a mess like I have at times.  It matters not.  We just want you to begin to consider the larger value assumptions built into connected learning and relate it to yourself.  

2. Gather together with others who you have already established some bonds so far to put together an aggregation of credos.  This is also known as a manifesto.  You could produce a “Connected Learning Manifesto” for us all to reflect upon.

3. Podcast or audio recording.  Here are some examples from “This I Believe” website

Sample credos/manifesti as brainpickings or makestarters

Educators at “This I Believe” site voice their credos. 

A collaborative collective learning manifesto:  Connected Learning Manifesto – add your thoughts

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BULL DURHAM CREDO

I believe in the _________________________,

the____________________________________,

the____________________________________,

the____________________________________,

the____________________________________,

_______________,_______________,_________________,

But (something you don’t believe in, e.g. “but the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated”) _____________.

I believe in____________________________,

I believe in____________________________,

I believe in____________________________,

______________, ________________, _________________,

And I believe in________________________________. (longest)

Bull Durham's "I Believe In..." speech - YouTube

An interesting take on credos in a discussion board about the game Haven and Hearth (http://www.havenandhearth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=59593)

“The first part of this text discusses Credos, the second one an alternative learning system. These do not necessary go with each other though i adapted the Credos in this way. My intention is that you can create a character with whom you can identify yourself and emphasize your conviction/beliefs ie "Credo" to others and still be able to achive most of the skills in the same time like before. The credo is your set of beliefs so acting against your beliefs make it harder to do something but still leaves you with the option to do all things you want. In addition you may choose to be a lone wolf which is not specialized but gains experiance faster in all skills. Numbers below are only examples and may therefor not be balanced in anyway.”

Difference between equity and equality

Clear post by a teacher about a lesson she teaches to demonstrate the difference: http://laradavid.blogspot.com/2008/07/difference-between-equity-and-equality.html