International Education News

Surprisingly, I do not have access to free Wifi in Penn Station. I’m waiting for the 6:31 train to Manhasset, where I’ll be picked up and driven to this morning’s workshop on Podcasting. They also want some explanations and demonstrations of Web 2.0. I wonder if I’ll have an opportunity to demo Second Life. Am I addicted or what?

However, the more I think about it, the more I’m seeing possibilities. The more I think about the little bit of scripted I’ve learned to do, the more it is occurring to me, “That’s how they make that work.” Do you remember (those of you in your 50s) the hover disks on John Quest. I’d like to make one of those. I’d like to make one, and then challenge a bunch of kids to make a better one.

I had dinner last night with Gwen Solomon and her lovely husband Stan. Before we left, I showed her a few things on Second Life, and we gussied up her avatar. She looks awesome now, though we couldn’t do anything with her hair. I know that Linden Labs is in San Francisco, but I can’t figure out whether Second Lifers got their hair style sense from New York City, or if it was the other way around.

Enough of such ramblings. Just killing time waiting for the train, which should leave in fifteen minutes. So I’d better pack back up and find the gate.

 Another contribution for Dave Jakes and his ever growing Jakes World collection.

I’m sitting in a coffee shop called the Soy Luck Club, on Greenwich Avenue.  My brother did a quick search as I was taking the train from Newark Airport and found this place with free Wifi.  But as I drop down the Airport listing from my menu bar, I count 29 wifi stations being sniffed out by my MacBook — and only one of them is called Linksys.

For everyone I promised to see the next time I was in NY City, I’m so sorry.  Deadline on a writing project, which I’m getting ready to do right now — as I wonder if they would fix me a Chicken avocado dill sandwich without the cucumber.  Yum!

Tomorrow I’ll be teaching a podcasting workshop for a school on Long Island for a friend with Midlink Magazine.

More later!

There has been an astonishing and healthy conversation going on about the blog entry I wrote the other day about that NYTimes laptops piece.  The entry is entitled, What’s good about the May 4 NY Times Article about Laptops in Schools. Last night, in his signature prickliness, Gary Stager (not his first comment on this blog post) lamented that we have had computers in classrooms for 25 years, and that some teachers still resist them indicates “…a conscious effort to be non-learners.”

I’ve claimed my own frustration at teachers who ask, “But who’s going to teach me how to do that?”  Sadly, we are a generation who was taught how to be taught — not how to teach ourselves.  It’s one of the many reasons why the experiences that our children have in the classroom must become much more self-directed, relevant, and rich.  They/we need to learn to teach ourselves.  Teachers shouldn’t need professional development.  They should be saying, hey, I’m going to teach myself how to do that this weekend.  It’s about life long learning.  Not about a life of being taught.

More to the point of this post, Gary sayed,

We can hire people to keynote professional development days or run two-hour workshops on Web 2.0 and it won’t matter a bit.

To some, I suspect that this is true.  The highly skeptical scholar, like Stager, is likely impervious to motivational demonstrations and counter-intuitive connections made by the likes of Ian Jukes, David Thornburg, Alan November, Jamie McKenzie, Marc Prenski, Will Richardson, …. or even — me!  I’ve not seen him present, but I’m told that Gary, himself, can whip up a rousing “Amen!” from a pulsing crowd of eager educators.

This image is not a slight to Cory Doctorow. The empty chairs just seemed fitting somehow

But does it really matter?  I think it does.  While teachers should be able to teach themselves, inspiration to want to grow and change to adapt, for must of us, comes from outside.  It doesn’t happen very often, but every once in a while, a teacher comes up to me and says, “You know that session that you and Will Richardson did at the NCAECT conference a few weeks ago.  I just wanted you to know that it changed how I teach.  My students are blogging and we have a classroom podcast now…” 

She didn’t say that her students were learning better.  But this teacher, who was now attending a MEGA conference after school in Raleigh, seemed genuinely satisfied with her teaching and with her classroom — and surprised in her satisfaction.

So, although I agree with most everything that Gary says, here, I’m going to take just a bit of exception.

Sorry, Gary.  I know you must be crushed!      

2 Worth!

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Image Citation:

Fiander, David. “Cory Doctorow’s Opening Plenary.” Djfiander’s Photostream. 2 Feb 2007. 9 May 2007 <http://flickr.com/photos/bookgeek/377766999/>.

Technorati Tags: warlick education technology keynotes garystager

One of the world altering aspects of the Internet is that it brings us closer together.  This is not always a good thing, and regardless of my published objections to the attention grabing fear tactics used by some, it is essential to acknowledge that inappropriate uses and even dangerous opportunities exist there.  There are people out there whom we do not want our children to come in contact with.  There are also retired grandmothers, such as Mary Conyers, who bless us with their drive and dedication.

Knightdale (a suburb of Raleigh) - Mary Conyers came out of retirement with one goal in mind: To keep kids safe online. She got the idea after watching her own granddaughters try to navigate the treacherous waters of cyberspace.

So far, the Knightdale grandmother has started a non-profit called “Protect Every Child,” which has distributed hundreds of free DVD’s to help schools and parents educate their kids about being safe online.

The DVD includes the basics - don’t talk to strangers and don’t share personal information. These rules seem simple, but they are violated every day.

You can see the WRAL video here! 

I haven’t seen the DVD and don’t know that Ms. Conyers isn’t using the same fear and death scare tactics that bother me so much.  But what intrigues me in this story is that there is so much goodness and caring out there to learn from — not just the evil to fear.

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Lamb, Amanda. “Knightdale Grandmother Set Sights on Cyberspace Safety.” WRAL News 7 May 2007 8 May 2007 <http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1393521/>.

Technorati Tags: warlick education technology cybersafety wral

I just met a fellow in Second Life from Rotterdam, and he pointed me to his blog, Aggiornamento II.  Joop asked about the C.A.V.E., but I’m afraid that I didn’t sound very knowledgeable.  I’m just not exuding a lot of confidence, yet, from this slippery place.

Reviewing his blog, however, I ran across a short piece linking to an article from Businesswire, that predicts that 80 percent of active Internet users will have a “second life” by 2011.  It says that it will not necessarily be the Second Life, but that it will be a primary part of how we interact online.  The story is about an Emerging Trends conference organized by Gartner Inc. and it advises the corporate world that:

..this is a trend that they should investigate and experiment with, but limit substantial financial investments until the environments stabilize and mature.

That Four Eyed technologist, the Existential Paine, blogged yesterday about an upcoming conference to be held on Second Life — about Second Life best practices.

The Four Eyed Technologist » Blog Archive » Oh, It is going to be SWEET!:

What if you could attend a conference that would give you everything you needed to know to get started exploring the possibilities for teaching, learning, and researching a wonderful instructional tool? What if I then told you it was FREE? Would you be interested?

Wait! There is more.What if I told you that you wouldn’t have to leave the comfort of your home? What if you could attend at your convenience?

Well, that is what the Second Life Best Practice International Conference is offering any and all educators. On May 25, 2007 this conference will have exciting presentations, vendors, and exhibitors all within the world of Second Life for 24 hours straight and at no charge.

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So, let’s get to it.  What’s good about the “Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops” article, written for The New York Times by Winnie Hu, is that this story was not limited only to people who live within the NYTimes paper delivery area.  It was immediately available to readers around the world — including youngsters, sitting at their desks, their laptops open, browsers engaged, accessing and interacting with a global library of content.

While the article’s URL was hopscotching the continents from one ed tech advocate to another, students could, regardless of their geographic location, also read and consider the story — and the rather dramatic conclusions that it implied based on such absurdly little evidence. 

No doubt, some students concur.  Their teachers don’t know what to do with these state-of-the-art computers, sitting between them and their darlings.  They’ve been taught how to operate the machines, but little more, and they don’t bother to hide their frustrations and resentment at being pushed into futuristic classrooms that they are neither prepared for nor believe in. 

“I’ve covered this material perfectly well for twenty years.” They’d say,  “Why change now!”

And computers do go un-repaired for days and even weeks for these students, because the district has not hired additional technical staff for the hundreds of new computers.  And available power and bandwidth have, evidently, not been considered by the school and central office administration as they scurried to jump on to yet another bandwagon, without the appropriate planning.

Just as certainly, there were many youngsters, laptops on desk, scanning the story in astonishment, and seeking to reconcile these claims with their own experience in laptop classrooms.  These students Googled laptop schools, and although there were some articles about the successes of technology infused schools, they were not so plentiful — because sadly, that is not considered the news story that  presumed mistakes at high levels is. 

But they find statistics, and they find pictures, and they record the sounds of their clickety-clicking at their keyboards, and the conversations in their classes, and they mix and remix the information to tell their story with multimedia, and podcast it to the world.  Alas, their parents see them, and rejoice in how tech-savvy their children are.  But The New York Times pays no attention — that’s not news.

Their scores on their government tests do not increase dramatically, but the skills they are developing: to ask essential questions, research, evaluate, collaborate, process, mix and remix, and publish their findings — learning to be active learners in a rapidly changing world — these skills are not tested. 

In a world, where local news is global, and global news is local, where a reporters value is measured in how much angst can be generated by their writing, the 3Rs are no longer enough.  They are merely elemental — compared to the rich and exciting information skills that are absolutely critical to not only our children’s future, but ours as well.  ..and gaining this new information skills can only happen from within this new information landscape.  It’s why every child should be walking into their classroom with a computer under their arm, every classroom should breath with the global information landscape, and every teacher should trained and practiced in the life-long-learning literacies of the emerging future.

Hu, Winnie. “Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops.” The New York Times 4 May 2007 4 May 2007 <http://tinyurl.com/27g53r>.

Technorati Tags: warlick education technology techlearning nytimes laptops 1:1

As you, no doubt, already know, I saw a presentation on Wednesday from Tim Magner, ed tech guy from the U.S. Department of Education.  I’ve already written a good bit about that presentation and the even better showcase from classrooms across North Carolina.  I’ve even commented on some comments that I received, including one expressing disappointment that Tim was not offering some “grand idea” for bringing classrooms and school into the current century.

I wasn’t disappointed, because I think that’d be asking too much, especially with our current administration’s blah blah blah!

But since then, I’ve been asking myself what sort of grand idea might actually come from a U.S. Department of Education that was devoted to bringing schools into the 21st century with the patriotic will and courage to say, “We’re going to do it, and here’s how, and we’re going to commit this nation’s resources to making it happen!”

So here’s what I came up with!

A royal charter to schools for planting their flag into the ground of the 21st century: granting rights, privileges, and responsibilities, and holding the school accountable to its community.  To apply for a charter, schools must devise and write a constitution, defining and describing various aspects of how they will do the business of preparing their community’s children for their future — both from a local and a global perspective. 

There would be a set of aspects of the schools functions to be addressed in the constitution, including, but not limited to, 21c learning standards, 21c curriculum, 21c infrastructure, 21c assessment, 21c teacher practices, 21c learner practices, 21c implementation structures, etc.  The constitution would also require an implementation plan including plant and staff development.

After being signed by the entire staff of the school, a designated representation of the community, and signed off by local and state governments, the school would receive the funding and support necessary to achieve their constitution and earn their charter.

I’ve thrown a lot into this, much of it I’ve not entirely thought through.   It’s just a worm on a hook.

But nothing new is going to be happening five years from now, unless we are talking about it today.

It was brought to my attention, yesterday, that I may have been unfair in my characterization of EdTech Magazine in a recent post about cybersafety.  In Fear & Death! Fear & Death! I took the EdTech magazine to task for it’s cover photo, the shortened title of their cover story, and the often misused Justice Department report.

I continue to feel the way that I did then, though I probably did not adequately express the respect that I continue to have for that publication.  It’s stories are of the highest quality, timely, and relevant to teachers and administrators alike.  That particular article, Thwarting Cyber Predators, was, aside from the fear tactics, was actually quite a good and helpful article, and I recommend its reading, especially among IT folks.

My intent was not to single out that particular publication, which I suppose I did.  They were certainly not the only publication nor the first to appeal to our fear instinct.  But as I wrote to the person who brought this to my attention, I believe that the very best thing that we can do to protect our children is to maintain their trust and willingness to confide.  If they believe that we will overreact, out of fear, to questionable occurrences in cyberspace, then they may be less likely to confide in us, and thar be dragons in those woods.

Yesterday was quite frustrating.  We were presented with some amazing examples of innovation in classrooms that had been empowered by professional development, adequate access to technology, and, most importantly, courageous and innovative teachers.  We also saw evidence of our desperate need to retool education, as illustrated by Tim Magner in slide after slide of statistics about future employment, future technologies, and emerging competition for our position of leadership.

Bringing the possibilities (of which we saw only a hint among the demonstrations) together with the real needs of dramatically changing future, calls for a new vision for teaching, learning, and classrooms — perhaps even a need to redefine it all.  But that vision must reflect something that rests behind a wall that is so wide, tall, and thick, that we can’t see it.  Yet, it is the other side of that wall that we are preparing our children for.

There are two things that we do know that connect directly to our current vision of school.

1. The nature of information has changed (digital, networked, overwhelming, unconstrained)
2. We can not clearly describe the future we are preparing our children for.

From these ideas, two demands rise.

1. That we redefine literacy (one literacy) to reflect an increasingly digital, networked… information environment.
2. That we teach our children to be life long learners.

What I find interesting right now (and this is what’s great about being pushed by frustrating experiences), is that literacy and life long learning, might actually be combined to something that we might call learning literacy.

The ability to expose/find truth, employ information, express ideas compellingly to real audiences, and to understand and practice the ethical use of information, are all skills necessary to learning in a dynamic information environment.  If, in our conversations about teaching and learning, we replace literacy with explicit discussions of learning literacy, then we might have a foothold for starting to scale that wall, and perhaps even visioning classrooms that can tunnel it.