Nicole Mirra

Nicole Mirra was a high school english in New York City, curious about how civic engagement would impact students. she got her PhD at UCLA and joined the National Writing Project before becoming a college professor.

There have been teachers who have been doing Connected Learning, though it wasn’t called Connected Learning. It’s honestly just good teaching. Make content relevant and engaging with real lives. Peer supported work. In 2010, Nicole started working with teachers mostly and started to develop the idea of Connected Learning. What does it mean to prepare teachers for Connected Learning?

“New and Multi-Modal Literacies.” This concept means that new literacies should be integrated, not isolated, even in training. Public education is afraid of Connected Learning. Give teachers a chance to play with different tools that are NOT for education and ask how they could be used for an educational purpose.

Youth Participant Action Research– young people can be the producers of knowledge, instead of just the gatherer of knowledge. Creating their own studies and collecting heir own primary sources. Driven by students, for students. Civic Engagement.

Educator innovator– moving from connected learning to connected teaching. California projects with the parks service and park rangers come through the parks to learn about Japanese internment. Challenged the idea that connected learning is about technology. It’s about connecting with people. Resources are endless.

Equity– access– making sure everyone has access. Connected Learning looks at it differently. Power is not in the device, but what we do with them. Just because we have the device, doesn’t mean they are beneficial. Divide between technology engagement and technology as a tool. Design with a shared purpose in mind that meets the needs of the students in the room. Equity can come across in many ways. Give students autonomy over how they learn. Technology not as a replacement for instruction, but as an enhancement.

Connected Learning is getting to the point where it’s becoming a part of mainstream educational discourse. Every time that starts to happen, it gets really exciting. But I’m scared that the culture of schooling will taint this concept of Connected Learning. We have to remember that we need to be challenging the system. How do we change it. WE need to push back on a powerful, already set method of learning. What does it mean to keep on pushing?

I had a really awesome time talking with Nicole and these are a modified version of my notes. I was going to compile a more cohesive version, but there were so many important details that I was afraid of neglecting any of them.