Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

I’ve been on a bit of a Clay Shirky kick for the past couple of months. I’m about half way through “Here Comes Everybody“, been reading his blog, watched a nice video of a recent lecture and trying to synthesize his ideas.

The older concept that struck me in a new way is the fact that while many understand the significant shift in society that is just beginning, many see it as a fad, including educators. Shirky, interviewed by a TV producer about a possible guest appearance defends the producers claim that all this social media was a fad.

I was arguing that this isn’t the sort of thing society grows out of. It’s the sort of thing that society grows into. But I’m not sure she believed me, in part because she didn’t want to believe me, but also in part because I didn’t have the right story yet. And now I do.

I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD. And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen. That seems like a cute moment. Maybe she’s going back there to see if Dora is really back there or whatever. But that wasn’t what she was doing. She started rooting around in the cables. And her dad said, “What you doing?” And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, “Looking for the mouse.

Here’s something four-year-olds know: A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Here’s something four-year-olds know: Media that’s targeted at you but doesn’t include you may not be worth sitting still for. Those are things that make me believe that this is a one-way change. Because four year olds, the people who are soaking most deeply in the current environment, who won’t have to go through the trauma that I have to go through of trying to unlearn a childhood spent watching Gilligan’s Island, they just assume that media includes consuming, producing and sharing.

The shift is obviously more clearly demonstrated by our young people. Older generations continue to be more irritated by teens texting and gaming than they are interested in understanding that participation in social media is not a fad and it’s not all bad.

My brain is reeling with many concepts that include distribution of participation, one that suggests equality is not something that is required for social media to work. Many of these ideas fly in the face of today’s educational structures. We know that. What I like about Shirky’s approach as with any good writer is that stories are the key to the message. He builds the theory and depth out of the stories. We need to continue telling the new story. I’ve got my eyes and hears poised.
Image: Clay Shirky by Joi
http://flickr.com/photos/joi/1399862175/in/photostream/

I posted about printing my blog as a book but wanted to expand some ideas.

As I show people the printed version, most seemed quite impressed; mostly with the quality of the print, the quantity of my work and the concept of being able to publish to a traditional, familiar format.  It’s fairly novel (but it’s no novel) and could perhaps help those who aren’t engaged in digital learning to see the depth of work that is done via blogging. These people expressed that sentiment well.

I’m also wondering if producing your blog into a book might be good for those who don’t get the amount of learning, communicating, etc. that we get from working in these ways. For example, it would be great for administraotr’s, etc. that I work with to see this volume of print as a way of justifying the time that I spend learning on my blog. Online it is hard to see the volume that is produced, in a book, the learning is more “weighty” and easier to show. Clarence Fisher

Wow Dean, just recently a friend (Diane Cordell) was lamenting that her district would not accept her blog as time spent in professional development. I wonder if they would have denied it had she produced a book like this. WOW! Cathy Nelson

But as I peruse it’s contents, it’s strikingly obvious how it lacks power. Without the comments, hyperlinks, and multimedia, it’s just my thoughts and work. It clearly doesn’t capture my true learning. Blogging isn’t just about me. It’s about my learning, my network and resources. It’s about me being able to express ideas in a variety of ways, engage in conversations, and take me to all sorts of new places and spaces. Even without those aspects, how many people would read this if I published it a  book? How about zero. Instead, I’ve had over 100,000 eyeballs look at my stuff. I realize eyeballs aren’t everything but still, how many people have published their dissertation and had that type of response? This print version cost me about $50 and misses so much. I could blog for free and include all that multimedia as well.

So here’s where it hits me even more clearly. If you are a teacher and have the ability to choose how your students will demonstrate their learning, why would you choose analog text over blogging? How can it compete? Is there even one reason that analog text is better than digital? I can’t think of one advantage other than access and while in some cases that may be important, for most schools and situations, it’s not.  When you watch Michael Wesch’s first video, it’s clear how digital text changes everything. You haven’t seen it yet? That’s easy, I’ll just embed here: (By the way, if you’re reading the text version of this blog, you won’t be able to see this or click on the links or read the comments)

Technorati Tags: clarencefisher, cathyjonelson, michaelwesch

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I had two interesting and challenging experiences the last couple of days. Experiences that cause me to consider my approach to supporting teachers and students.

I met with a small group of high school teachers who wanted to learn more about Web 2.0 and what they might be able to use in their classrooms. I was fully prepared to spend the day showing demos, and working through the technical issues of setting up a blog, wiki or whatever they wanted.What happened instead is we spent the first part of the morning grappling with the big questions of why. Why would we post students online? Why does it feel like asking us to change means that our current practice is all wrong? If this is so important, why aren’t we given time to explore and make change? To be clear, this group of teachers was not simply complaining or naysaying. They just wanted to be convinced and sure that investing time to use these tools would pay dividends. I’ve been telling teachers lately that if they have any hesitation, they shouldn’t bother to blog or use any tool because all it will do is add to the many “binders of guilt” that sit on the shelf labeled, “things I should really do”.I’m not sure that all these questions were answered but I know we moved forward on some. At lunch time, I fired up twitter and posed the question regarding posting online. Thanks to my network I received several key responses that I shared with the group after lunch. 

Again, not that those responses solved the conundrum but it clearly demonstrated that an online presence or network is a powerful thing. So we continued on and continued to deal with some tough questions but after providing some time for teachers to muddle on their own, they left the day feeling like they had some direction or purpose in using the tools. We’re moving forward in a positive way.I thank them for challenging me.

Thursday, I met with all our school administrators and shared our vision and focused on the idea of shifted learning. I showed Did you Know, used some of Ewan’s videos and ideas that focus on a shift in learning and challenged them to consider how learning is changing. In general they are a great bunch of leaders who truly want to make shifts that are good for kids but like many of us, are looking for a recipe, which although we know doesn’t exist, still want one. I challenged them to consider how they might support teachers and after some good discussion, felt like we have set the ground work for the work that lies ahead. The following are the slides I used with my notes embedded underneath…feel free to use this in whatever way you wish.

One school administrator approached me after and asked, “What is it we’re really trying to do?”He talked about an angst he feels about what he sees most kids doing with technology. Useless text messaging with the person right beside them, nothing seems to be interesting to them, jaded attitudes towards violence, and so on; all valid points. He was careful to say he didn’t want to appear to be out of touch but was truly concerned with kids who use technology in meaningless ways. I tried to share my feelings about our duty to .I’m glad he approached and challenged me and the kind of dialogue I had in these two instances does help us move forward. I’ve taught too many workshops where everyone comes happy and excited to be there and leaves happy and excited but never carry on with the ideas and never implement anything. They like new stuff but don’t deeply consider what the true impact of change might be.

I was further encouraged by spending time with two of our superintendents. Both men have been in education for over 30 years and recalled some of the reasons they got into education in the first place. As children of the 1960’s they were excited about the ideas of Summerhill and believed deeply in personalized learning. Somehow the system they entered took things into a more traditional model and my presentation triggered memories of the hope of what a quality, meaningful education can look like.

These conversations are what will matter. Allowing people to tell their stories, share their resistance and consider the change that’s necessary. I’m pretty good at telling my story and perspectives  but at times forget that others need to tell theirs as well. Chris Lehman has written lately about not forgetting the value of our teachers. Another great conversation ensues.  Again, this is not anything profound but once again, reminded me of the importance of those conversations. Conversations about change that lead to implementation.

Technorati Tags: blogs, assessment, prairiesouth, shifts, ewanmcintosh, didyouknow, summerhill

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A year ago I spent four podcasts talking with Kathy, Clarence and Darren about their classrooms and the new story of teaching and learning. The model these three present continues to inspire teachers locally and internationally. So how have things changed in a year? The following 65 minutes answers those questions and has them look ahead to what their classrooms might look like in the future.

Here are a few show notes:

• Kathy’s class blog
• Darren’s blog
• Yak Pak
• Answer Tips
• John Seely Brown
• Clarence’s blog
• Clarence’s class blog
• Darren’s AP blog
• International Teen Project
• 1000 name wiki
• Science 90 blog

 

 Telling the New Story...one year later: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The idea of global citizenship is often a nebulous concept which gets bantered around the blogosphere but often lacks clarity or examples that truly define what it means. One of the best examples was this one from earlier this year.

Today while reading through my aggregator, I came across this story from Christian Long. (Christian is always a wealth of good stuff) So I quickly sent out an email to about 5 primary teachers in our division as an idea for their class. About 5 minutes later, Kathy emails me back:

Great idea, so great that we have already sent our cards.

No wonder Kathy has gained “rock star” status as a leader in developing global citizens. (she knows what I’m referring to). The opportunity for our students to connect and make a difference is unprecedented. Teachers who embrace this notion hardly discuss the issues of safety, danger of living in a global, digital world. It’s not that they don’t teach it, it just isn’t the focus anymore because the potential to make a difference is just too great.

On Monday evening, I’m going to be having a Skye call with my three of my favourite teachers and I think best examples of teacher’s developing global citizens: Kathy Cassidy, Clarence Fisher and Darren Kuropatwa. All three believe this to be a critical component of their classrooms and have many examples to share. I’ll be recording the conversation for a podcast.

In the meantime, why not send Shane a card.

[tags]shaneswish,christianlong,kathycassidy,darrenkuropatwa,clarencefisher[/tags]

I’ve been trying different ways to awaken folks to the new stories. In December I had Will Richardson skype in and talk about the New Face of Learning. I brought around 20 people in and also had another half dozen linked via Polycom. The intent was simply begin conversations.

On Tuesday, we had part 2. This time Darren Kuropatwa stopped by via Skype and talked about the things he’s done and is doing in his classroom. I’m going to assume most reading this know who Darren is but if you don’t, you really need to listen to the podcast.

Given the fact that we broke a record for high temperature (16C or 62F) the turnout of about 15 in total wasn’t bad. Darren was truly impressive. His natural, humble and pedagogical sound approach made for very compelling listening. We began about 5:30 and finished near 8:00 with Darren sharing for about an hour. I was pretty tired and wished I hadn’t scheduled this but after spending the time with Darren and listening to the discussion that followed, I was energized.
Darren based all his talk on his wiki. You can follow along if you like. The recording is just over an hour of Darren’s presentation.

Time: 1:09
Size: 33MB (sorry)
[tags]change, conversations, prairiesouth, darrenkuropatwa[/tags]

 

 Conversations on Change: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Like much of the western part of North America, we got hit with a pretty nasty blizzard. For my Australian readers, a blizzard is defined as “severe winter storm condition characterized by low temperatures, strong winds, and heavy blowing snow.” But what does that really mean? Rob posts some photos from outside his school, like the one to the left.

While my part of the province didn’t get quite the same weather, I was certainly paying close attention. Daryl Pearson’s class in Meadow Lake posted some very interesting videos of what they did as a result of a depleted school population as well as some weather updates.

“We took the morning to divide our 13 student class into four groups to create a project about the effects of the blizzard. We had a podcast group, a newsletter group, a video group and a digital story group.”

This is what school should be like everyday. Kids creating and publishing content based on what’s important to them and the world. After reading Alec’s post about Lessig, it clearly demonstrates:

Anybody with a $1500 computer can take sounds and images and remix them in ways that say things differently, in ways that express ideas more powerfully than any written text could ever, given the character of the cultures we’ve become. These tools of creativity have become tools of speech. They represent a new potential to speak, a new potential to learn, they are a new literacy for the 21st century, doing for images and music and film what we took for granted growing up, were our freedoms with the pencil and the typewriter. The freedom to capture and share and remix ideas in ways that express them differently.

Too bad it sometimes takes a blizzard to get this.

One of my goals for the year is to do a better job promoting new stories of learning. While I hope to focus mostly on students, I work with administrators quite a bit and am encouraged by the move many are making to embrace and consider more effective ways of teaching and learning.

Scott McLeod has been doing a great job of supporting principals and administrators in delving into blogging. While I was skeptic of his goal of getting 100 adminstrators to blog, I want to highlight at least 3 that have begun to create some “intellectual sweat” (I love that term, thanks Will) as they start some great conversations.

• Kelly Christopherson. I became aware of Kelly about a month ago. He lives not far from me but discovered him in a conversation on Weblogg-ed. He’s already amassed some powerful writing and great reflections questioning both his own practice and struggling with the hard questions.

• Trevor Smith. Trevor was my principal about 10 years ago and has always had a heart for doing what’s best for kids. His first few posts will hopefully set the stage for some great things to come.

• Dustin Swanson. Dustin is actually the vice-principal under Trevor. I’ve worked with Dustin for years on various projects and he is truly one of the most insightful, young administrators I’ve met. I always come away from discussions with him challenged to pursue greater things. He’s had a classroom blog and just started a professional one.

I’d recommend you all to head over to these three and leave them some comments. Read their stuff, challenge them and encourage them to dig even deeper. Then add them to your aggregators. These are the types of fresh voices that need to be in the mix.

Update: I had a principal send me this letter that he wanted to use in his January newsletter:

Happy New Year!  I trust everyone had a restful holiday break.  If you are like me you ate lots, slept little, and need to get back to work for a rest.  Oh yes, I forgot the TVs, video games, computers, mp3s, and cell phones.  I think this Christmas was punctuated by the e-generation.

I remember my parents telling me to go and play, get some fresh air, get some exercise, play a game, etc.  Not much has changed.  I found myself telling my kids the exact same thing during the break.  I thought for quite some time about the perceived problem – kids/ people are spending all their time playing video games, watching TV, staring at the internet, talking or texting on their cell phones, listening to i-pods, and …  We are becoming a technology possessed society.  Our social interaction is a computer, our entertainment is some sort of electronic gizmo.  “Entertain me!  I don’t know how to entertain myself!”

Is this really a problem or do we need to embrace the e-generation and change the way we view and do things?  I would be very bold to answer yes or no, but it is something that we all must think about.  Do we keep on seeing things and doing things the way we did them 5, 10, 20 years ago or do we accept our techno world and work with it?

These questions and discussions directly transfer themselves to education and the way we do business with our customers, our students.  We cannot continue to teach and learn the same ways as we did a generation ago.  Thus, how do we join the e-generation and make learning fit the e-generation?  How things will change are anybody’s guess, but one thing is for sure, education, teaching, and learning need to and will change to embrace the e-generation.

(Photo “Ponder” by Lincoln Loggers)