Born Digital Book Review

The book Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives sounds interesting. I am a little tired of the Digital Native vs. Digital Immigrant metaphor. It makes a lot of sense, but like any metaphor loses something after a while. Anyway, here is a link to an interesting book review:
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/109068/born_digital%3A_understanding_the_first_generation_of_digital_natives/

Organic Changes

Several years ago I started a web site for an annual event with friends that happens just before Thanksgiving. Every year there were things that happened that people wanted to remember. We found ourselves wondering "did that happen last year at Chicago or the year before in San Francisco?".

So, each year I added a page or two to the website. The first year I went back and created one page for each year in the past and then each year when I go it is my job to document the event on our website.

It has occurred to me that no one really LOOKS at this website. It is sort of an archive. It is handy now and then, but something most of us totally forget about the day after the event. However, there are some things that we do every year that could benefit from a more interactive site, so last year I created a WIKI. Our wiki has the grocery list on it and a few other things that are really helpful to work on collaboratively. But still no one really looks at it. In fact... I doubt if people other than me remembered that it exists.

This year someone suggested that we just start a group in Facebook. It turns out that everyone in the group has a Facebook page and so it would be natural for them to go to Facebook to look things up and to communicate when they wanted to. At Facebook they don't have to remember some odd URL, or a login to a Wiki.

This is a good picture of ORGANIC growth of the use of technology. People do not use technology unless they feel the need and then they use it in a way that makes sense to them. Several years ago a website was the only way we could have an online presence. But now it seems odd to have ONLY one person able to edit and update the site. Now, how does that apply to a classroom teacher?

TIME and the right brain

For many years I have been thinking that the issue of TIME is the elephant in the room when it comes to technology use in education.

In an earlier blog I said: "They could be blogging and be involved in deeper thinking, but we don't have time because of the testing. It is not as bad as in some schools where the testing frenzy starts in September."

But I have been thinking about this for a long time. I have been learning about the Right Brain lately by reading "My Stroke of Insight" by Jill Bolte Taylor and also "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink.

It occurred to me that the LEFT brain is the one concerned with time. If we taught to the right brain (or using our right brains) we wouldn't be so concerned about schedules and time and fitting so much in. Maybe we need to consciously change the side of the brain that we as educators emphasize. Maybe we could actually teach with projects if TIME were not such an issue.

"The Professor" is not so sure. He says that there are other reasons for school than education. School is a way of socializing people for our society. We need people who don't do well in school to be our lower level workers. We need people in society who follow directions and don't ask too many questions.

Epiphany about Personal Learning Networks

A few days (a week?) ago I started writing about what education would be like if we focused on Personal Learning Networks. It all came out of thoughts from the Tech Forum Southwest, ideas of Sheryl Nussbalm-Beach and a discussion with "the professor" over coffee. In my last post I had begun with talking about Online Education, but was just about to move to our current education system when time ran out.

Two things are central to this new vision (both coming from Sheryl): networking and a passion for learning. In my talk with "the professor" I was wondering what school would be like if instead of teaching facts we taught kids how to network and have a passion for learning. Would they? Would they learn the "right" things, whatever they are? I have to admit that what I know about Biology and Chemistry is only because I HAD to take those courses. I wouldn't have chosen to take them. That is probably true of government and many other things. But...would I have learned more about them if I had CHOSEN to take them and they were part of my passion for learning?

"The professor" is skeptical about students choosing to learn the right things. There ARE things that you just have to learn and what if kids don't choose to learn them when growing up? For the first time I think I had a vision of what school COULD be like, but I am not sure it would work. There would still be teachers, and schools. Kids would still come every day to a place to learn. At first there would be a lot of scaffolding-everyone needs support at the beginning. Kids NEED to learn to read and write. 5 year olds need structure in their day. As kids get older though what if the curriculum became more and more about networking and passion? What if they were required to do X number of large projects and could work in groups or alone?

What if teachers were facilitators of those projects and helped kids and stretched their ideas? What if teachers saw themselves as "Master Learners" (David Warlick's term) and they really had the passion for learning and how to find the right information? What if they could help students learn how to search, how to find experts, how to evaluate information? What if students could use online resources and connections to experts as well as text books? Would students find their passion? Would they learn Biology in a deeper and more meaningful way because it connected to something they cared about and they needed to learn it in order to do something or to communicate intellegently or would there be big holes in their learning because they focused on a passion and didn't "cover" everything?

The professor is doubtful. He works every day with many college students who are not curious or interested and squeak by in class. (You need to know that he also works with some brilliant and interesting students). He is doubtful that they would CHOOSE to learn the right things. I am not sure. What do you think?

Personal Learning Network 2

OK, as promised I have started creating an Inspiration chart of my Personal Learning Network. As I was doing it I found myself beginning to add everyone I know... and realized that there is not a hard and fast line between people who influence (d) me and my Personal Learning Network (PLN). I know I have missed LOTS of people. Actually my true PLN probably cannot be mapped. It is just too big and it is often hard to trace what you know with who taught you. If I have missed you on this PLN chart please forgive me. After I got "done" I kept thinking of others that needed to be added...

Two Posts Behind....

It is a nice thought that I would keep up with reading blogs and writing at least a few times a week.... but it is not happening. Even now I have a bunch of little tasks eating at my heels like so many little dogs and so I just can't take the time to think. I am going to do the Inspiration chart I talked about below and eventually I will tell you more about what "the professor" thinks. I just want to mention that I was on the road today listening to one of my favorite podcasts "Two Tech Chicks" and I heard my NAME! shocking! It was fun to meet them in person at the Tech Forum in Austin.

A Vision for Education

This Saturday morning, like most Saturday mornings I went out for coffee with my husband "the professor". This is a wonderful time for catching up with each other, but sometimes we have really interesting discussions and this was one of those times.

Yesterday I had a sort of epiphany...or maybe just a new idea. I was facilitating a discussion about Online Education at the TechForum. It suddenly occurred to me that we are doing with online education the same thing that we have done with every new thing. We are trying to use it the same way we have always done things. We are using an old paradigm with new tools and it just doesn't work. One example is with the EBook. The first Ebooks were JUST LIKE paperbooks only on an electronic reader. You could turn pages, etc... Most people decided that they would rather keep reading paper books because there was very little advantage to reading electronic books.

With Online education we have kept the same paradigm. There are CLASSES. There are many STUDENTS (and some people make the mistake of thinking online classes can handle MORE students than a face to face class). There is a PROFESSOR OR FACILITATOR, there are ASSIGNMENTS and GRADES and CURRICULUM.

Maybe online is something completely different. Maybe we are just missing the fact that online you can create connections with and learn from multiple people. Maybe Online Education should be more like designing a Personal Learning Network....

What if we designed schools that way?.... what if we helped kids to find personal learning networks? Well, got to go now... but more later. I need to tell you what "the professor had to say" ....

Cultivating your Personal Network-David Warlick

David Warlick started teaching in an information starved environment. Things have changed. He shared something that he has learned in the last 24 hours. He is first a learner. As we are striving to redefine what we need to be as teachers it is that we need to be Master Learners.

Online Handouts http://davidwarlick.com/handouts His blog entries are geotagged. You can search geographically for information.

He defined Twitter as a chatroom with out any walls and had us sign into Knitter-ajaxchat http://davidwarlick.com/ajaxchat/index.php. We all signed up. He encouraged us to do backchanneling. A way to learn something new.

Story of discovering his Personal Learning Network-summer 2004-had been blogging for a year. Knew that he had to start listening. Began to read Wil Richardson and Andy Carvin. They were not blogging out of their own heads. They were blogging about and responding to others. Joho the Blog, Lawrence Lesser (Creative Commons), Jenny Levine, Miguel Giulin, David Jakes (comment on his blog), Vicky Davis and others.... He tried to describe it so that he could tell others .....This is like... My personal digital newspaper??? personal digital library???? Decided finally it was his Personal Learning Network. He mentioned George Siemens concept of Connectivism-a learning philosophy.

On his blog Wil Richardson began a rant on his children's school. At the end he came to the thought that he didn't know what his kids needed to be learning. 84 comments. Lots of great content. Miguel condensed the comments and put them together into a Wiki document. It is still up there and we can find it on the online handouts. Doesn't really get Social Networks in Education. Difference between social networking and a social network. Started a wiki with an introduction and asking what ideas people have. It was contributed to by his Social Network. He went into history and took screen shots and then made a movie to show the changes from page to page.


People being connected because of IDEAS. Through content. One example is shown by mapping blogs http://www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/. Here is mine! The blue dots are other people who are linked to my blog. I am not sure it really means a lot, but it is cool.


David did an intro to Twitter and asked people to send in what they have learned from their PLN. Uses Google to find a NODE- He starts with Google and searches for Blogs and looks for someone who is what . Twitter is pretty easy. Look at who people you are interested in are following. Blog roll. Wiki "Bloggers to Learn From". Technorati-blogs with higher links get a higher authority rating. Flikr search. People who upload photos of things that you are interested in.

David introduction us all to RSS

http://theventurousedge.com-blog of the person sitting next to me!

I need to look at this later: He talked about the article on his blog10 tips for managing the information overload.

Talked about second life. Most learning is by going there and meeting people. Some people think that this is a good center of their personal learning network.

Lots of food for thought....

Tech Learning Southwest - Meg Ormston, Jon Orech, David Warlick

Meg Ormston

• http://wordle.com -Visual representation of information. Pulls out themes and lets us talk in a different way. For safety start on the second page. Print Screen and crop is the only way to save one.
• http://tagcloud.com Alphabet file linked.
  

• Creating a KMZ file with Google Earth.
• http://twitter.com After a year Twitter is her best professional development. She has developed a PD community where they share new things and encourage each other
• Story of son who wrote a paper on his cell phone and wrote three times as much as he would have with pencil and paper and it was higher quality. Done with tag cloud. YouTube-tutorials about how to do things. Help students navigate places like YouTube
• Media Converter http://www.mediaconverter.org-converts Youtube videos to a format you can use in MovieMaker or iMovie. Use images tied to vocabulary! really helps vocabulary learning.
• Podcasting-possibilities are endless.
• Classroom 2.0 NING Skype with people from the different states. 4th grade teacher that says they want to change everything. Tech Teacher.com (blog) Jon
  

Oreck-Dave Jakes replacement. started as an English teacher for 24 years. Specific examples of integrating LITERACY instead of Technology.

• Moodle and Wikis
• Video Resume of a special ed student. amazing. Alternative assessment for Autistic Children
• Using Blogs in the classroom as a learning tool The tool used was Blackboard. Highlighting used as a way to show where student's writing needs to improve.
• Lord of the Flies-took up have of the fourth quarter. Used as final grade for the class. Kids worked in groups of three to create a scholarly article about the novel as viewed from a Freudian, Biblical, Maslows and another point of view. The kids had to create questions for the exam and the exam was an essay. The kids wanted to talk with each other and learn from each other

David Warlick Article about a woman who wrote a book only from her cell phone. New technology is what appears after you were born. Computers are NOT new to our students. 21st Century to us was the future for us, but not for our kids. It is just NOW. What has changed? What is different?

• Globalization (invisible, but real)
• It is all "connective"
  

ThinkQuest-http://www.thinkquest.org/en/ 21st Century Skills (NOTE to self: I should think about forming a team at our school to do this!!)

You cannot do this with keeping your classroom walls up. The kids need to connect outside the classroom to do this. The culture of performance-from a private school in Seattle (Seattle Academy).

TIME????-Selectively abandoning certain things in your curriculum. Working with Words example-find things that you ALWAYS do. REthink homework. Turn more over to the kids.

Tech Learning Southwest - Sheryl Nussbalm-Beach

Well.... I am finally here at TechLearning Southwest. It has been a hairy morning getting here. It is only a few miles from my house in Austin, but I can't seem to allow myself to take enough time to look up directions before I leave the house. The 5 minutes that looking at a map (or my iPhone) would have taken turned into about an hour and a half on the road....
My View here at the keynote

I am so happy to have arrived in time to hear Sheryl Nussbalm-Beach at the end of her Keynote. She does a well planned enthusiastic talk packed with great ideas. She is talking about passionate learning and the way learning has changed. Here is the direct link to her wiki which is where she posts all of her talks. I first heard her through the Seedlings Podcast. Bob Sprankle recorded her Keynote there. It is worth listening to, so I will link to it also.
http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/

http://bobsprankle.com/bitbybit_wordpress/?p=547

Personal Learning Networks

I have recently been listening to inspiring Podcasts that have made me think. One of them was by Bob Sprankle who replayed a Keynote by Cheryl Nussbalm-Beach given to the state technology conference in Maine.

The thing she mentioned that has really got me thinking is Personal Learning Networks. This is a term that has been thrown around recently. (especially by people who don't seem to sleep and like to Twitter :-) But for some reason it is really connecting to me this time hearing it. I am not sure why. I guess before I always thought "that makes sense.... everyone should have one", but I really didn't think about who was in mine or what it has meant.

So, I made an Inspiration chart in my head to help me think about it and I am going to make it also on this computer when I get done blogging (if I am not interrupted and totally forget). For this blog I am going to do it in the linear way I am used to. What I just realized that it is an expanded online Personal Learning Network that has gotten me going and kept me learning for 25 years!! (yes, I am that old).

First it was Andy Carvin who I stumbled onto in the mid-90s. He had a website, which is probably still up there called "My Waste of Bandwidth" (or something close to that). He is now writing a blog called "Learning Now" at PBS and Twittering and everything else... He is one of those people who must not sleep. When I read what he had to say it really opened my mind and made so much sense. From that I joined a discussion list called WWWEDU. The list still exists, but is not as active because people have moved on to blogs and twitter. I learned SO much from reading that list and my Personal Learning Network expanded. Although I was teaching in a school where not too many people understood what I was thinking and although I moved several times I always kept that Personal Learning Network. I also joined another list called "techstaffdevelop" run by Barbara Bray (another tireless educator) the CEO of My eCoach. I had the pleasure of meeting both Andy and Barbara at different NECC conferences by noticing their NAMETAGS and being shocked to meet a person face to face that I knew online. So, that is one node that will be on my PLN chart.

Then there are the people I worked with in Missouri and Utah at the eMINTS project (or eMINTS National Center). Each day I realize how much I learned from Monica, Cynthia , and Jennifer and the others that I worked with there. What I learned came with me and I am still in touch and learning with some of them. I also met others during that time who I learned a great deal from, among them David Warlick, Bernie Dodge, Ferdi Serim, and many others.

There are the people I met through my interest in READING instruction. I especially appreciate Donald Leu, who probably does not remember who I am, but who graciously let me read and cite one of his articles that had not been published yet when I was doing my Masters in Ed Tech. Being a part of the Mosaic list and the Reading discussion list from IRA.

Well, the interruption happened.... So I will have to continue tomorrow...

(I want to add that by naming people I am not trying to impress anyone, but just expressing the amazement of connections that can be made and life long learning that can happen because of technology.)