ContraCostaTimes.com - Internet safer than it seems

• Quote: “Fearful parents may conjure up images of trench-coated predators trolling the Web, but the virtual world their teens actually inhabit is more like the soda shop of yesteryear or the mall — a place to hang with friends.”
  
  

  Note: Nice to see more and more of these types of stories out there…this is still how a lot of hearts and minds will be won.

  
  

   - post by willrich

So they did a “sweep” with metal detectors at a middle school on the Upper West Side of New York City on Thursday and the result wasn’t pretty. Out of 900 plus students, 404 cell phones were “confiscated” from the kids, some of whom were put to tears over the incident. About 70 iPods and a couple dozen other assorted devices were nabbed as well, all causing some parents to threaten lawsuits and the building principal to avoid questions at the end of the day.

Nice.

So let’s review. What does this teach those kids? First, it teaches them that they don’t deserve to be empowered with technology the same way adults are. Second, that the tools that adults use all the time in their everyday lives to communicate are not relevant to their own communication needs. Third, that they can’t be trusted (or taught, for that matter) to use phones appropriately in school.

Parents are screaming that this is a safety issue, but it’s really a control issue. I’ll say it again…is there anyone, anyone who thinks that cell phones aren’t going to be an important part of the way these kids communicate and learn when they graduate from high school in 2011 or 2012? And if we don’t model the appropriate use of these technologies, for accessing information, for communicating, in safe, ethical, and effective ways, (I know…broken record) can we really be surprised when our worst fears come true?

Still, the high drama of the cellphone sweep appeared to provide a few teachable moments. In one humanities class, the children wrote strongly worded letters to Mr. Bloomberg, said David Garfinkel, 12. Other students taped homemade signs reading “No Phones, No School” to their backs in protest, said Athena Buckley, a sixth grader.

Yeah…but…the real teachable moment is for us to understand the depth to which we’re turning our kids away if we continue to act this way.

Technorati Tags: shifts, schools, education

So I’ve been meaning to get a chance to play with the Zoho Notebook beta but, as you recall, I’ve been working on balance. Somewhat. This morning I carved out 24 minutes to play, and here is the result.

Now I gotta tell you, while there are still some little glitchy things going on, (like this embed function doesn’t seem to be doing the trick) I think this has some major po. Here’s a direct link to the “book” where you can see there are page tabs down the side to add more information and create some wild kind of portfolio.

I’d love to hear/see what other folks are doing with this…

Technorati Tags: zoho_notebook, learning, tools

Ah…summer. I’ve run into a couple of teachers in the last few days and all of them are in countdown mode. So weird not to be thinking about the calendar…

Anyway, here are three practical example pointers that might spur some thinking in the near or long term. Add some others if you have them.

1. Damian Bariexa is an English teacher at my old school, and yesterday he sent me this e-mail:

This semester, I implemented a wiki-based project in my Honors British Lit class for the first time; for the most part, my kids really enjoyed working on it. I’ve been trying to “promote” it as best I can by posting the link on other educational wiki sites, since the only way we show up in Google is via spelling errors (try Googling ‘poetry unappricated’ without quotes - we’re number 1!)… I’ve been monitoring traffic with Statcounter, and in the week or so it’s been up, we’ve already gotten hits from around the country and around the world. Even my seen-it-all, jaded seniors are intrigued by the idea that teachers in Argentina, Norway, and Australia are looking at their work as models for their own classes. It somehow even got included on what I think is an inservice wiki here.It’s at http://britishromanticism.wikispaces.com, and in addition to research and links, there’s also some blog-style discussion, as well as some stuff I wrote up for other teachers looking to incorporate wikis in their classes (I’m still tweaking it, but that’s the nature of wikis, I suppose - in a constant state of tweak).

It’s neither perfect nor final, but I definitely plan on utilizing some, of the basic structure and working this into my teaching next year, likely expanding it to other courses I’ll be teaching.

Call me late to the party, but this past year I’ve begun to see a lot of potential in wikis, and I feel like I’m only now beginning to realize that potential. I’ve also become quite a fan of TiddlyWiki, and have set up one such site for more administrative tasks (homework, downloads, links, etc.).

2. Then, this morning, I got this e-mail from Calvin Williamson pointing me to a blog where he’s making screencasts for his students at FIT/SUNY:

I am making Camtasia mathcasts using a tabletPC, posting them to blip.tv (a you-tube like video sharing site) and then giving them to my students in the form of a blog. Basically I have been using this technique to capture problem sessions I do with my students during office hours and posting them to the web…I really think this technique has great possibility for helping online math students see problem examples worked out.

3. Finally, Ben Wilkoff left a comment here last night and pointed to a really interesting wiki that lays out a plan for moving his school in a more progressive direction. Make sure you check out the proposal and the list of free software that he wants to use in place of the proprietary stuff.

This request comes from Jim Daly of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, though the award is being co-sponsored by Yahoo! Teachers:

The 2007 Mashup “Totally Wired Teacher Award” will honor a trailblazing teacher who has successfully pioneered the innovative and educational use of   social media (blogs, wikis, social networking, photo/video sharing) in the classroom.  The award-winner likely had to overcome challenges from parents and administrators in order to use the technology, but because they understand how students use social media outside of school, they persevered with their initiative and worked collaboratively with students, ultimately sharing their insight and knowledge with the larger teaching community.

If you have anyone in mind, send their names, titles, etc. and a paragraph or two as to why they are deserving to jdaly@edutopia.org. The sooner the better. Thanks!

Technorati Tags: teaching

This request comes from Jim Daly of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, though the award is being co-sponsored by Yahoo! Teachers:

The 2007 Mashup “Totally Wired Teacher Award” will honor a trailblazing teacher who has successfully pioneered the innovative and educational use of   social media (blogs, wikis, social networking, photo/video sharing) in the classroom.  The award-winner likely had to overcome challenges from parents and administrators in order to use the technology, but because they understand how students use social media outside of school, they persevered with their initiative and worked collaboratively with students, ultimately sharing their insight and knowledge with the larger teaching community.

If you have anyone in mind, send their names, titles, etc. and a paragraph or two as to why they are deserving to jdaly@edutopia.org. The sooner the better. Thanks!

Technorati Tags: teaching

What’s been really interesting to me of late is how as a culture and as a society we are reacting to the changes that these technologies are bringing to our lives. I think it was spurred pretty much by the comments that Pete Reilly left here last week and the great conversation that ensued. And it’s also been coming from my own efforts to get some balance back into my life. As Jeff said, we really need to think about how to teach balance as well as technology.

Anyway, I spent last weekend reading How: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life) by Dov Seidman. As the title implies, this is not a book about education, but there are many great ideas for educators to think about anyway. Here is the premise:

The world today, powered by vast networks of information, connects and reveals us in ways we have only begun to comprehend. Groundbreaking technological advances have put us in intimate contact with others about whom we often know little and understand even less. As a result, many of the tried and true ways of working together and getting ahead no longer apply…I’ve come to believe that the innovations of the 21st Century will come not just in new products, services, or business models and strategies, but in new ways to create value and differentiation, innovations in HOW. The best, most certain, and most enduring path to success and significance in these dramatically new conditions lies not through raw talent and skill but through behavior over time (x).

Seidman makes a compelling case that the “hypertransparent and hyperconnected world,” where we now find ourselves requires us to rethink much of what we do, and specifically, how we do it. In a world where “information is infinite” it does no good to horde it. We must instead make it more accessible. In a world where we can collaborate with global partners, sharing is what drives business success and, I would add, learning. “Connect and collaborate” is the new model, and power shifts to those best able to connect.

The strain that much of our culture seems to be under from these shifts is because of how dramatic and how fast they are coming at us.

For centuries, local proximity determined the majority of our social functions, containing us in relatively homogenous environments. We dealt on a day-to-day basis with people with whom we generally shared a common culture and therefore understood easily the behaviors and signals that occurred in the spaces between us. Global connectivity sets that whole idea on its ear. We now find ourselves in a world where we are thrust together in all aspects of our lives without borders and without the homogenizing pressures of locality…Before all information became zeros and ones, our lives moved at a slower pace. We had more time to get to know each other and the luxury to value personal contact in nearly all of our dealings. Now, multinational companies commonly form teams of employers chosen from various divisions, various countries, and various cultures (28).

Distance no longer separates us, and that in itself is a huge shift for most educators to get their brains around. And not only that, but the

…ties that bind us are looser than ever, and there is a new us whose members change almost daily…Electronic communication is both a boon and a bane. It makes these new, powerful networks of collaboration possible, but it does so in a strange and fractured language (31).

One other key point out of many that I could mention here is the effect of all this transparency; basically, your past is your present. And that presents an important challenge: “As reputation becomes more perishable, its value increases. As it becomes more accessible, it becomes a greater asset–and liability (38).”

And so this informs our work of re-envision of what schooling means. As much as we may not like it, we can’t go back.

We will never become less connected. We will never become less transparent…With all these changes to the way we live, connect and conduct our professional and personal lives, the questions become: How do we now thrive? How can we turn these challenges into strengths (39)?

And, I would add for our purposes, how do we prepare our kids to thrive? And as an educational system, how can we be proactive instead of reactive?

So, it’s no longer what you do so much as how you do it.

Success now requires new skills and habits, a new lens for seeing and a new consciousness for relating. In our see-through world, there’s an overabundance of information and it flows too easily for anyone to control it and outfox everyone. You can no longer game the system and expect no one to find out. You need to stop dancing around people and start leading a dance that everyone can follow. Long-term, sustained success is directly proportional to your ability–as a company and as an individual–to make Waves throughout evanescing networks of association, to reach out to others and enlist them in endeavors larger than yourself, and to do so while everyone watches you (55).

So, are we teaching that?

Like I said, most of this is aimed at business, but it’s still an interesting take on what the ramifications of all of this are, for our kids and for ourselves.

Technorati Tags: seidman, how, learning, shifts

What’s been really interesting to me of late is how as a culture and as a society we are reacting to the changes that these technologies are bringing to our lives. I think it was spurred pretty much by the comments that Pete Reilly left here last week and the great conversation that ensued. And it’s also been coming from my own efforts to get some balance back into my life. As Jeff said, we really need to think about how to teach balance as well as technology.

Anyway, I spent last weekend reading How: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life) by Dov Seidman. As the title implies, this is not a book about education, but there are many great ideas for educators to think about anyway. Here is the premise:

The world today, powered by vast networks of information, connects and reveals us in ways we have only begun to comprehend. Groundbreaking technological advances have put us in intimate contact with others about whom we often know little and understand even less. As a result, many of the tried and true ways of working together and getting ahead no longer apply…I’ve come to believe that the innovations of the 21st Century will come not just in new products, services, or business models and strategies, but in new ways to create value and differentiation, innovations in HOW. The best, most certain, and most enduring path to success and significance in these dramatically new conditions lies not through raw talent and skill but through behavior over time (x).

Seidman makes a compelling case that the “hypertransparent and hyperconnected world,” where we now find ourselves requires us to rethink much of what we do, and specifically, how we do it. In a world where “information is infinite” it does no good to horde it. We must instead make it more accessible. In a world where we can collaborate with global partners, sharing is what drives business success and, I would add, learning. “Connect and collaborate” is the new model, and power shifts to those best able to connect.

The strain that much of our culture seems to be under from these shifts is because of how dramatic and how fast they are coming at us.

For centuries, local proximity determined the majority of our social functions, containing us in relatively homogenous environments. We dealt on a day-to-day basis with people with whom we generally shared a common culture and therefore understood easily the behaviors and signals that occurred in the spaces between us. Global connectivity sets that whole idea on its ear. We now find ourselves in a world where we are thrust together in all aspects of our lives without borders and without the homogenizing pressures of locality…Before all information became zeros and ones, our lives moved at a slower pace. We had more time to get to know each other and the luxury to value personal contact in nearly all of our dealings. Now, multinational companies commonly form teams of employers chosen from various divisions, various countries, and various cultures (28).

Distance no longer separates us, and that in itself is a huge shift for most educators to get their brains around. And not only that, but the

…ties that bind us are looser than ever, and there is a new us whose members change almost daily…Electronic communication is both a boon and a bane. It makes these new, powerful networks of collaboration possible, but it does so in a strange and fractured language (31).

One other key point out of many that I could mention here is the effect of all this transparency; basically, your past is your present. And that presents an important challenge: “As reputation becomes more perishable, its value increases. As it becomes more accessible, it becomes a greater asset–and liability (38).”

And so this informs our work of re-envision of what schooling means. As much as we may not like it, we can’t go back.

We will never become less connected. We will never become less transparent…With all these changes to the way we live, connect and conduct our professional and personal lives, the questions become: How do we now thrive? How can we turn these challenges into strengths (39)?

And, I would add for our purposes, how do we prepare our kids to thrive? And as an educational system, how can we be proactive instead of reactive?

So, it’s no longer what you do so much as how you do it.

Success now requires new skills and habits, a new lens for seeing and a new consciousness for relating. In our see-through world, there’s an overabundance of information and it flows too easily for anyone to control it and outfox everyone. You can no longer game the system and expect no one to find out. You need to stop dancing around people and start leading a dance that everyone can follow. Long-term, sustained success is directly proportional to your ability–as a company and as an individual–to make Waves throughout evanescing networks of association, to reach out to others and enlist them in endeavors larger than yourself, and to do so while everyone watches you (55).

So, are we teaching that?

Like I said, most of this is aimed at business, but it’s still an interesting take on what the ramifications of all of this are, for our kids and for ourselves.

Technorati Tags: seidman, how, learning, shifts

Remember this about the first time in a year that you’ve really unplugged for a few days…reading a book, running every morning, playing with the kids, extending the patio, shoveling horse poop, weeding the garden, watching a really bad Memorial Day Parade, not even thinking about the blog…all of it felt really, really good. Like life was back in balance. Like that’s the next real learning to be done…keeping your balance.

Technorati Tags: learning, balance

Remember this about the first time in a year that you’ve really unplugged for a few days…reading a book, running every morning, playing with the kids, extending the patio, shoveling horse poop, weeding the garden, watching a really bad Memorial Day Parade, not even thinking about the blog…all of it felt really, really good. Like life was back in balance. Like that’s the next real learning to be done…keeping your balance.

Technorati Tags: learning, balance