Milestones in my 2013–14 school year

Last day before vacation. Or not really. Officially I’m on vacation, but I had to sort out a few things before five weeks of rest. Now it’s time to recharge the batteries, work on some private projects, brainstorm ideas and sunbathe, swim and do other summery stuff.

One thing I’ve wanted to do in past years is sum up the school year. It’s always full speed ahead and time for reflection isn’t exactly my top priority. This site is the least prioritized of all. But not today. Hence this ego-post, so if you’re not interested in what I’ve been up to (that’s totally fine), just spend your time on something else. For example watch this video. :) Now it’s time to list the past school year, event-wise, in chronological order. At least what I can remember. Naturally the area is too big to fully summarize, so this is more a look back at some of the bigger things that were done.

TÄNKTANKEN | 17 JUNE 2013 - Podcast | Vidcast | Web

During last year’s summer break we launched Tänktanken. So far there have been 22 episodes. A quick idea to document and distribute some of our conversations that usually happen over a cup of coffee in someone’s room at Årstaskolan. Unedited and unstructured, but a bit of the birthplace for future projects and ideas. Also hugely fun to do. 30 guests and almost 9,000 listens. The start of “podcasting”. http://tanktanken.se

SITE.ARSTASKOLAN.SE | 20 AUGUST 2013 - Blog network | Web

At the start of the school year I launched site.arstaskolan.se, a blog network for the school’s blogs. A WordPress multisite where staff can quickly set up blogs from templates. Again a way to meet needs and remove obstacles. A need that had to be filled, since it wasn’t sustainable to administer 50+ separate WordPress blogs. Today we have around 70 blogs at the school running on their own servers. http://site.arstaskolan.se

BOOKIS | 01 SEPTEMBER 2013 - Web | eLibrary

The first version of Bookis was released during my and Martin Claesson’s MLABS, with five pilot schools (okay, Nacka Municipality too) and they got their own e-library similar to Bibblis that I created for Årstaskolan. Now, almost a year later, we’re about to release version 2 (we’re rebuilding the whole thing) and thousands of books have been published on these, almost 20 libraries around the country. Fantastic work where I’ve met lots of wonderful people and students’ stories. http://bookis.se

talasomTED | 18 DECEMBER 2013 - Event | Live video | Web

TalasomTED is a wonderful project that has taken off around Sweden. Students give talks, like TEDtalks, about things that matter to them. Martin Fernström and Lotta Bohlin started the work and as a finale we ran a rebroadcast on the web from the live event held at Folkets Hus in Årsta. Here we could also use Tänktanken for pre- and post-reflection. http://talasomted.se

HOPP14 | 15 MARCH 2014 - Event | Web

Our excellent school counselors Olof Hedtjärn and Martin Brav had an idea for a school event, the most important, biggest and best school event of the year. (Olof is sitting next to me now arguing about what we said.) “On the art of being human.” Various people, their fates and stories were invited to this event and a couple of our talasomTED speakers also gave their talks here. We filmed it and the lectures are on the site. http://hopp14.se

Moobis - 1 year | 26 APRIL 2014 - Blogging service | Web

Suddenly Moobis, also with Martin Claesson during MLABS, turned 1 year old. The idea of a free service where everyone working in education could create free WordPress blogs, with templates for common types of blogs, had now matured. No ugly ads, servers in Sweden and genuinely free. 2,500 blogs and soon 5,000 users later, this service has taught me a lot, like support handling and the idea of self-support. But also the insight into where we stand knowledge-wise and how few people can do a lot. http://moobis.se

Tänktanken Talkshow | 06 MAY 2014 - Event | Vidcast | Web

Since we had tried Tänktanken live once as a vidcast and the vibe was right for creating another school event, Martin Claesson hatched the idea of doing Tänktanken as a talk show. We planned it for the day before SETT, since we knew people from around the country would be in Stockholm. A few tweets and a ton of hard work later we were able to treat about 100 people in the audience to food, drinks and a live show with a bunch of smart guests from different parts of the country, which was also broadcast live on the web. Insanely fun and this will come again. Now we had also upgraded from webcams to real cameras. What was so great about this and a big lesson was that “you can always ask.” We stitched together our guests for the show entirely via Twitter and everyone we asked actually said yes. Fantastic. http://tanktanken.se/talkshow-6-maj/

talasomTED | 15 MAY 2014 - Event | Live video | Web

In the spring term it was time again. A bit bigger, a bit more of everything. We ran a rebroadcast and used our new camera kit. I ran home after the recording and edited 2 hours of footage, with lower thirds and color and audio correction, rendered the film and finished about 1 hour before it was time to broadcast. http://talasomted.se

VärmeRadio | 12 JUNE 2014 - Podcast | Web

Up until the last minute we worked insanely hard. I was doubtful we would pull this off, but the kids delivered and on June 12 we released the first episode of the podcast #VärmeRadio. Every day throughout the summer break a new episode is released, a total of 72, where every fifth-grade student at Årstaskolan has their own episode. The idea builds on TalasomTED. Already after 17 episodes (as I write this) the podcast has over 2,100 listens. http://talasomted.se/varmeradio

Edooc | 17 JUNE 2014 - Mooc | Online community | Web

To finish the year I released an idea I’d had for a while. I built the site a few months ago, but didn’t feel I had time to launch it. Now it was time. Ideas need to get out and be tested, and I also knew there were a lot of people hungry for some professional development. I haven’t written about Edooc on the blog yet, but briefly it stands for EDu Open Online Community. A little bit Mooc, a little bit community and hopefully a lot of collegial learning, where I hope others will create and publish courses. http://edooc.se

More then?

Of course a lot of other things have happened. I’ve given lectures and received visits from, among others, Norway, Singapore, Finland, Holland, Denmark, Germany and Japan. Personally I turn down almost all lecture requests unless they’re part of my school work. I do make a few exceptions if the lectures are about school for people outside the school world, like WSA-dag14 - Web Service Awards. I don’t really believe there’s any profit in lectures, other than a bit of inspiration. That’s also one of the reasons for Edooc. What if everyone who lectures about school could say “now that you’ve heard me, you can take my course for free here”? I of course continue to develop our existing web services at Årstaskolan, like Kunskapshubben, Bibblis, Mattenauterna and others, as the work “important and for real” always runs like a red thread through what we do. I continue to work on lowering the thresholds for using IT. And of course the work to encourage grassroots-developed projects and ideas continues. That’s where it happens!

Last but greatest, I have also had the honor to hang out with and work closely alongside a large bunch of people who want to make something happen. I won’t list you here, but you know who you are. Without you I am nothing.

I think I’ve covered most things and it’s been quite fun to go through what was actually done this year. Half of it I had actually forgotten. Hopefully I’ll have plenty to put on next year’s list too. Ah, of course I must outdo this! ;) Have a great summer everyone!