The problem with paper

It really came home to me for the first time that the paper format was holding me back. I just finished reading Born Digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives, by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser.

The problem isn't the book, which I really liked (my GoodReads review). The problem is the post-it notes. This book had so much original research and concepts so eloquently developed that I ended up with over 40 post-it notes that I now need to go back and review.

If this were a digital text I could have been using Diigo to highlight and annotate the whole time. From Diigo I could share with a group, like HS Librarians, and see what others had to say, discussing ideas and their application to school libraries with my professional peers. I could export my notes to NoodleTools for organizing for future reference if I want to write a grant or article. As it stands now, I will end up re-typing passages into NoodleTools. What a waste of time. (It also needs to be pointed out that if I had a reading disability I would be unable to access this text because paper has no text-to-speech option, and it isn't available in audio format.)

Research, investigation and inquiry tend to be solitary endeavors. This no longer needs to be the case and,  by utilizing the symphony of free digital tools, we can offer a much richer experience, enhanced by collaborative networks and accessible to all learners, including those with disabilities.

After reading this book I have a much better understanding of our digital natives. They are very polite and patient with us, but for how much longer? Pretty soon they are going to start getting annoyed.

Keynote Kick-Off with Alan November - Notes

"What do you do with technology when you are not in school?"

Confirm what you are already doing.

I don't like technology. it breaks, especially in front of audiences.

Helps expand relationships with kids and access to information.


West Point 1985 act of Congress required every student to have a laptop. First university to make this requirement. They hire all of their graduates (6 years). Possible that a student will be a field commander later. They have data on results of learning that most schools don't.
Change in mission. Win the war > now the goal is to win the peace. (Should the mission of K-12 change?) New curriculum, new skills. Massive wrenching change for institution and faculty.

Teaching graduate program in info searching. Now have to teach students that there are different points of view. Example: impact of pope's speech in Turkey.Serious real-life problem with bad results.
Google results return Western results w/ no Muslim perspective. This does not support the mission to win the peace. West Point wants students to find alternate perspectives to find the truth, to win peace. Knowing the language of digital search addresses this problem. You don't know what you don't know, and it isn't your fault because you were never taught.

Caught in transition from paper to digital.

Should we teach American kids that there are other points of view?

Class of 2010 - demographers created working label "Boomerangs" > children of Boomers.

Alan's Advice on How to Get Kids Out of Your Parent's House:
critical thinking in the web (syntax, grammar)
"the medium is the message" - Marshall McLuahn

(Students didn't know how Google algorithm worked) students look at top page, don't change search engines.

What can YOU do?
1. Announce that you don't know everything
2. Hire the kid who breaks in
3. "Hire" the kids to teach you the tools you need - they want to be helpful

Peeling back the web to validate information
Google - link:www.marinlutherking.org

altavista - seach engine for finding links into a website link:www.marinlutherking.org
this search engine returns far more links to main site

How should teach this? Should it be embedded in what you teach?

High Tech High, San Diego - highest standardized test scores in CA, but they don't teach to the test. They ask the students to find solutions to teaching the most difficult concepts in your curriculum, Have them come back with examples in diverse media formats.

Assessment - assessing final product rather than process of getting to the final product. Assess how the kid got there.

SOCIAL WEB
Kids have a developmental need to connect socially with other people
YouTube phenomenal growth - show students the work of other students from around the world - this is cross-curricular.

The mission of education: Brain research shows that if a kid goes home and does homework and makes a mistake, the mistake is embedded in the brain. The longer the wait for the feedback the less relevant the learning and the most damaging the mistake.
Need to give different kinds of homework, like looking at vodcasts.
Bob Sprankle, Welles, ME - We have underestimated what young children can do. Children can watch a review of what was learned the week before, that they produced. No mistakes, they love to publish.

What's the difference between regular homework and producing/publishing for class? Homework is for self and doesn't matter. Publishing for authentic audience increases value, learning, enthusiasm in learning. When kids produce tutorials there is HUGE traffic. Students who take notes off a pod/screen cast do better than those who take notes live during class.

Change in culture of teaching/learning where kids take more responsibility for learning in the class. WHO should own the learning? US ed system designed for teachers to own the learning. Teachers work harder than the kids. These new tools can change this power nexus.

• Literacy more than reading paper. Internet is a core literacy.
• Global perspectives, alternate POV. Skype is a social connection, and kids thrive on social authenticity. Share/publish globally. Kids will listen and go back over it because it is their voice. This is FUN!
  

Robin's Ideas/ TO DO:

• prof development Google docs/forms (essential equity issue)
• Google workshop - basic search
• Deep web search tools - tricks and grammatical tools to validate web content
• Jing workshop
• IDEA - "Play in the Sandbox" workshops around themes/tools. Group exploration.
  

The Social Media Revolution

This is a great 4 min. 22 second video. It speaks to the power of social media, and the challenges in teaching our students critical thinking and evaluative skills. I look at this type of message as a provocative way to illustrate the sea change that has occurred in our society. Many educators have missed this shift, and are wondering why people are yammering on about 21st century skills. They really want to be left alone to prepare their lecture notes and make copies of their handouts. They don't want to add anything new to their practice because they don't have the time.

This isn't about "in addition to". This is about "instead of."

I posted the link to Facebook and got some interesting responses. This one in particular really summed up the issues really well.

From Ellen:
I completely agree with the point of the video-social media is a major cultural change, and not a fad-but some of the data is misleading, or just plain wrong. For example, the source listed on the website (www.socialnomics.net) for the claim that Wikipedia is more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica is...Wikipedia. Hmm. Yes, *some* studies have ... Read Moreshown as many or more factual errors in EB as in Wikipedia. But it's crucial to look at the *nature* of the most damaging misinformation in Wikipedia: vandalism, pranks, corporations trashing their competitors' products, politicians defaming their opponents' character, etc. Wikipedia has stepped up their efforts to improve the credibility of their articles in the last couple of years, to their credit. But I want to look at this video (not just the Wikipedia vs. EB piece) critically. What are the larger implications of our getting our information through social media, and how should we be teaching our kids to think critically about that.

Source:
Socialnomics - Social Media Blog

Did you know - 3.0

What does it mean to be a child today? How do we prepare kids for their quickly evolving future? How do we guide them in new ways of questioning, finding, evaluating, collaborating and sharing? These are questions every parent must ask every teacher, every principal, every superintendent, every school board. These are exciting times filled with challenge and creative responses.

I'm off to Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet. Going to body surf with my daughter and the harbor seals. I'm going to watch the little kids digging sandcastles, and think about what I can do to be better prepared for them when they come through our doors. Then I'll eat far too many fried clams. August is a good thing.

BLC 09 Day Two Key Note

Raw notes
Keynote: Stephen Heppell
Beyond the Great Crash: Why Learning Should Never be the Same Again

Post-Google generation - email is obsolete
Social networking, IM preferred
Principal search engine YouTube - see "the stuff"
21st century - new pace graph > linear axis price, power, opportunity / linear axis > years - we are on exponential curve

Old Staircase decision pace: pilot, iterate, reflect, legislate, review
New pace based on mutuality

TrackStick tool for GPS tracking used with Google maps to teach math. Effective with Aspergers Spectrum students.

Towns: Market, St., Commercial St., High St. - shops collapsing. What is next for our town centers? Community dynamics are changing.

Examples:

• UK Brain training on Ninetendo DS - performance gone up. "It's cool to be brainy here."
• Singapore - eduQuest for science experiments
• Australia - students sitting in on undergraduate classes, closing staffrooms because everyone is a learner, don't segregate, mix with your students.
• Denmark - shoeless schools. Ask kids, see what they say.
• New Zealand - school designed for 5 year life span becaise they didn't know what the school of the future would look like.
• East London - students do formal lesson observations, watching teachers teach and giving feedback. Initiative is called "making learning better." Generates engagement, creates "us-ness." Students attend staff meetings.
  
• Leasowes School - 1 month timetable. One class for a month. Better results through immersion.
• Praisepod - students who have done something special get slip to record their own excellence, videotaped, manned by peers, DVDs sent home. Changed school culture radically.
• Hellerup School, Denmark - stairways are lecture spaces. New ideas for lecture space to make it more intimate.
  

Teaching methods as perceived by students:

1. copying from book or board
2. listening to teacher
   

Want to:

1. work in groups
2. learn parctical things
3. work with friends

Students say literate teachers should be able to:

• upload a video to Youtube and comment on one ther
• Wikipaedia entry
• choose safe payment sites
• subscribe to podcast
• use predictive text

New educational approaches - new vocabulary based on portfolio of metrics, community, evidence outcomes, personalisation. Student ingenuity, surprise, collegiate, engaged, inspired. Technology is allowing us to do this. Agile space, open ended time, open ended age, multi-disciplinary, project focus, learning spaces everywhere.

Bank Crisis (UK)

• pursued short term goals
• continued to do what they knew was wrong
• mistook scale for effective
• became distant from customers
• failed to get cheaper despite technology
• collapsed

Kenya banking done through mobile phones, transforming power relationship. Revolutionising banking in country where 80% of people were excluded.
technology + people = death of cartels Only ingenuity and value save you. UK community created "Bank of Essex".
Education industry is a form of cartel. Technology is eroding traditional schools from under our feet.

"Good parenting trumps psycho-pharmacology."
Mumology - curriculum supporting new Mums, repopulating rural communities be giving young mothers the support they need to remain in their community. Technology s transforming at-rsik communities.

National curriculum ludicrous in global society. Technology is allowing us to reach out across countries in new ways and capture best practice and good learning, as well as good people. Students need to be noticed for their learning, and valued worldwide.

20th century = global conflict
21st century = global learning - this is possible. We have the opportunity to change the world in this lifetime through education.

Why you should tweet

This is a terrific article courtesy of ReadWriteWeb:

Evolution of a Revolution: Visualizing Millions of Iran Tweets

During the height of the political protests in Iran it was possible to follow an amazing stream of tweets, and witness history. Twitter was the main conduit for getting news and images out of the country, and for protest coordination within. Iranians outside the borders worked feverishly to unblock government filters to protect Twitter access.

Tracking the "computational history" of the event gives real insight into the evolution of social clusters, and the organic nature of these platforms. Analysis like this provide compelling evidence that digital tools like Twitter are vital for students to use and understand if they are to have a true global understanding. We need to change how we teach to include these new literacies.

Dude - Just Facebook It

"Dude, what's your project on?"

"My cousin has some weird disease. I'm doing that."

"What's he got?"

"My Mom said it once but I don't remember."

"Just Google what you remember and Facebook him."

Less than 30 seconds later, toggling multiple screens, the student had the name of the disease, a list of symptoms, and organizations promoting awareness about the disease.

Web 2.5? Students are already at Web 3.0, and they are not waiting for us to catch up. At best we, as adults, are irrelevant. At worst, we are in their way. The reality is that most of us are still trying to get over feeling stupid about using the phrase Web 2.0.

Teens are living transparently and seamlessly on the Web. Their terrain is different from ours. While we wring our hands and fret, they engage, create, and achieve a fluency and online confidence that we, as adults, can't seem to validate. Why?

What do we bring to the table? Wisdom. This student was awash with information, and struggling to develop the critical skills needed to assess, understand, and apply his new knowledge. Dude - That's what we help with in the library.

Photo credit:
Flickr Creative Commons

[54/365] Designing for the Social Web by Ben Dodson

Blog Love - CCHS Students in Japan or Why Blogs are AWESOME!

David Nurenberg is an inspirational English teacher at CCHS. He has spent his April vacation leading a group of students (along with chaperones Superintendent of Schools Diana Rigby and fellow-English teacher Vicky Moskowitz) on a trip to Concord's Sister-City, Nanae, Japan. 17 students are forging personal connections in Japan, deepening their knowledge and interest in manga, and learning about global peace. His blog is AWESOME!
2009JapanTripBlog
Not only is David coordinating, leading and teaching, but he is also taking the time to write up the experiences of the delegation and posting them to a blog. It is a privilege to follow the adventures of our students as they discover Japan.
This is what preparing students for the 21st century entails. David goes the extra 10,000 miles (approximately:) in guiding students towards cultural understanding.
So, give a little blog love. Add a comment. Post that you read, that you connected.

Photo credit:
Flickr Creative Commons
五稜郭 (Pentagram Fort) by 14-2-1
Manhole cover - Hakodate, squid [squared circle] by Mr Wabu

I still don't really get Twitter

I've tried. I still don't get Twitter. I think it is one of those things where you need critical mass. I follow people who seem to have this critical mass, because they are twittering and tweeting back and forth with a vast group of people. In the morning before school I run on the treadmill and watch CNN. Don Lemon twitters, and asks people watching to tweet comments and he posts some of them. I also follow people who travel and present at conferences around the world. They tweet about getting stuck in airports, not being able to connect to the wireless at their conference, meeting up for coffee - mostly I feel like a creepy stalker. There are people out there who can pack a lot of content into 140 characters.

This video clip from the BBC is from Stephen Fry, who really embraces Twitter.
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Stephen Fry on joys of Twitter

I'll hang in there, but it is starting to feel less and less click-worthy.

10 Days, 8 Teachers: An Educational Journey to Japan

The town of Concord has a Japanese sister, and her name is Nanae. I had the extraordinary opportunity to visit Nanae with a delegation of Concord Public K-5 and CCHS teachers last June, and join the ranks of previous delegations and student trips to Japan. This relationship is known as the Concord - Nanae Network.
Thanks to the generosity of the Ruettgers Family endowement, I was able to share this experience with colleagues and students in a lecture of my trip. The challenge lay in that I wasn't just telling my story, but that of the rich sister-city relationship, and the journey I shared with my colleagues.
As an educator this was a transformational experience. I was totally dependent, unable to read, write, speak or navigate on my own on this new culture. The gift of travelling with colleagues and talk about learning, while I was learning new things every minute of every day, was amazing. Our conversationsons during the bus rides were challenging and deeply instructional.
The bigger issue was the importance of our trip. What does global education look like, and what is global citizenship? How can technology help us bridge the hurdles?
The following 5 minute video starts with Mr. David Nurenberg talking about the value of these exchanges, with his wonderful eloquent vision. Bobby Kargulla, Concord's most recent appointee to Nanae, is formally hired as Coordinator of International Relations (CIR) and accepts his new position. Seeing the Nanae delegation teach 200+ people how to do the Ika (Squid) Dance is an opportunity not to be missed. The video concludes with the unique Concord - Nanae parting ceremony.
Arigato gozaimas!

Social media - a military flow chart

Web Ink Now: The US Air Force: Armed with social media

Even the military is using social media!

"What was most interesting is that with Capt. Faggard leading the way, the Air Force employs 330,000 communicators! Their mission is to use current and developing Web 2.0 applications as a way to actively engage conversations between Airmen and the general public. Yes, that’s right, the goal of the program is that every single Airman is an on-line communicator."



photo credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/3226367547/

Inauguration in the Library

It was a real privilege to share the Inauguration of our 44th President with students and staff in the CCHS Library. The auditorium, cafeteria, and many classrooms held gatherings of people witnessing this historic event. Watching CNN cut away to Times Square, Los Angeles, and other locations here and abroad really heightened the sense that this was a moment of global significance. It was really fun when, during his Inaugural Address, PRESIDENT Obama :) made reference to Concord. There was a moment of silence, and then a group response of "Hey! That's us!"

The government belongs to the people, and part of the mission of public education is that of creating an informed electorate. This peaceful transfer of power has to be one of the most profound moments of our system, and it is the duty of the people to bear witness. The joy of the moment was truly sweet.

By the way, the video was shot with one of our little hand-held digital Flip cameras. They are available to students for check out with class projects.

Ten Trends and Technologies for 2009

Ten Trends and Technologies for 2009

This post comes courtesy of Michael Stephens, author of the blog Tame the Web: Libraries, Technology and People. Michael's post is scholarly and filled with data, links, and academic sources. Borrowing his 10 descriptors, this is my version, viewed through the lens of the CCHS Library.

1. The Ubiquity of the Cloud - Clouds provide a powerful alternate way to present data. It is hard to find opportunities to use data with students to evaluate things that aren't intrinsically empirical. An example is writing. A student can copy and paste a paper into something like Wordle and see the resulting word cloud. If there are repetitive words it shows up immediately. Tag clouds are becoming increasingly important to search functions, especially with social networking sites. Understanding a cloud is an important emerging literacy.
   
2. The Value of the Commons - A rich, collaborative space for people to create is the heart of this idea, covering everything from Creative Commons licensing to a Media Commons model for the library. Learning by doing, literacy beyond text, global connections - these are all elements that resonate with me. A Commons philosophy is welcoming, creative, fosters connections, and puts students at the center.
   
3. The Changing Role of IT - Everyone needs to be an IT Specialist now. Period. We all must accept the responsibility basic trouble shooting. While we don't all need to know html or network configuration, we all need to be competent end-users, confident to try things, click buttons, roll our sleeves up and dig into an application. Comfort with various media files, uploading, downloading, embedable code, wikis, Nings and blogs are all core competentices for life in Web 2.0 and the 21st Century. How else will we be ready for Web 3.0?
   
4. The Care & Nurturing of the Tribe - Teenagers need their tribe. They need to belong to a social group, thus the incredible popularity of Facebook. They also need nurturing and guidance as they learn to navigate the halls of their real world, and pixels of their digital lives. Both are real, both are valuable, and both are relevant.
   
5. Encourage the Heart - How can we make authentic human connections with each other? Be the Change has played an important role in fostering connection and caring at CCHS. Can we capitalize on this and expand those connections to a global awareness? Really, it is about encouraging intellectual curiosity and caring.
   
6. The Triumph of the Portable Device - iPhones are like lightning bolts of connectivity, and in a perfect world I would put one in the hands of every student. Connectivity is the air they breathe, and we should harness is and use it as an integral part of the educational process.
   
7. The Importance of Personalization - At CCHS every student has a network account, and as they log in each day I can see how they personalize their desktop, their preferences, their interface with the world. Each student is different and while they often dress, talk and behave like each other, online they are far freer to be themselves. It is a joy to see how diverse they are in the freedom of their digital environment.
   
8. The Impact of Localization - Our local resources are rich and varied, and sometimes this can get lost in the rush to push global awareness. Yet we have CCTV, our local cable access station, where I can tune into channel 10 and see what media is being produced and shared by our students. I can tune into WIQH 88.3FM and hear the local sports and weather forecast by students, listen to their music, and their political views. Kids are creating local content, and finding ways to share it with their communities. We need to continue to find ways to facilitate this local exchange.
   
9. The Evolution of the Digital Lifestyle - Put an "i" in front of it, and it connects to everything in your life, or at least that what it feels like. Seamless, fluid, we are approaching a time when our digital interface will be a fully networked archive of our experience and work. The tricky bit is the blurring of traditional lines. In social networks who should we be friends with, and who should we not be friends with? Teachers? Professional colleagues? Bosses? The Digital Lifestyle demands that we review our social traditions, mores and policies.
   
10. The Shift Toward Open Thinking - We need to be more open to creativity and finding alternative ways of demonstrating what we know. We need to be more lenient of technical failure, and give credit for trying. Allowing students to access learning in different ways, and providing alternate formats to access content has to be a priority.
    

World on Fire

World on Fire crossed my path once again today, and the timing is perfect (thanks to The Fischbowl). It is a great video that, with image and music, tells the story of global social action. As part of our One School One Book program, tonight we are hosting representatives from OXFAM America who will be discussing relief efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This video will make for an appropriate opening.

Students seem particularly sensitive to inequities in wealth, yet appear oblivious to the amount of money they spend on coffee, music, Ugg boots, and the general trappings of teen life in the affluent western suburbs of Boston. Is it really only about money, though? Or is it about change?

CCHS is saturated with clubs promoting social change, and fund raising for causes they care about. They promote their causes on Facebook, and enlist their friends to support their events. A cynic would point out that the roots of these problems are deeply embeded and all the bake sales in the world aren't going to change a thing. Maybe. But there is value in speaking, and letting your community know that at this moment in time, there are people who care, and in their small way, want to focus on the lives of others less fortunate than they.

Google Earth

MassCue - Google Earth
Notes from two presentations



Awesome Integration of Google Earth
Kevin McGonegal, Tech Specialist, Cambridge Public Schools
kmcgonegal@cpsd.us
www.newtechteaching.com

Google Earth - Makes a World of Difference in Your Classroom
Carol LaRow, Google Certified Teacher, Apple Distinguished Educator

I went to two presentations because I really want to get some vision about what is possible, and some depth in the range of this application. How are teachers and students using this? Google Earth, Google Sky, Lit Trips, layers, this thing is like Aladdin's Cave! I want to show it to Foreign Language, English, Social Studies, Earth Science - this is so far beyond enhancement. This is transformative.

Google Earth is a geographic information system. Google's goal is to make information universally acceptable and useful. Over half of the world's population can see their home!
Google Earth Pro - free to educators, but you have to go through an application process. Can get a lab license to install on every computer. Benefit is there is a dedicated Google server so it is a little faster and can embed extra media.
Can use any embedable code.

One School One Book

We all GET that the world has changed. We all GET that we need to be aware of other nations and cultures. But how do we start the process of really CARING about what is happening beyond the walls of CCHS? What does it really mean to enact CHANGE? What does CHANGE look like? What does ACTION look like? Show up and be part of the discussion. Show up, and care about Ishmael and other children involved in conflict situations around the world. Show up, even if you haven't read the book. Pay attention. Lend your voice. Be the change.
Join Us

Thursday, Nov. 6th
6:30pm - CCHS Library
Shared Interest
Social Action Through Micro-lending

Worldmapper: The world as you've never seen it before

Worldmapper: The world as you've never seen it before



What an incredible tool for looking at the world. These maps re-size countries based on the topic of interest. Just clicking through the religious maps was an eye-opening experience. Take a look at these two maps.
Which one shows the population distribution of Christians, and which shows Muslims? Interesting stuff.
To see, so clearly, the distribution of populations based on religions illustrates the need to tone down divisive rhetoric, and learn how to co-exist with other belief systems. Looking at sheer population maps is a wake up call when we consider everything from economies, food production and globalization. What a great alternate lens through which to view the world.

What I did during my summer vacation

My summer has been a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
Right after school ended a delegation headed to Nanae, Japan. Nanae is the sister-city to Concord, located in Hokkaido, the northern island of the archipelago chain. Accompanied by CCHS staff and "old hands" Al Dentino, David Nurenberg, Tom Curtin, as well as Concord Public School staff Karen Pettyjohn (Thoreau School Librarian) and Susan Erickson (Thoreau School Grade 4), and Dr. Sue Curtin and translator/guide Junko Kargulla, we had an amazing journey. A video will be playing on CCTV documenting our transformative experience.

I am still trying to process BLC 08. "Building Learning Communities" is an annual conference hosted by Alan November. November is based in Massachusetts, which means the conference is always local. How nice for us! What can you say about a conference that cracks your head open and pours in best-practice from around the world? I listened and interacted with educators from Kenya, who are transforming their educational infra-stucture using CELL PHONES because Kenya doesn't have national Internet yet! How about a school in NYC where 20% of the student population is homeless and the other 80% lives in housing projects, and they are hitting their testing goals as well as sending a team to the national science fair. How about THAT for education! Teachers from Canada, Scotland, and Concord, MA, presented and spread the word about the highest standards of education. At the end of this conference I felt like the top of my head was going to explode. It was incredible!

So, what did I do over my summer vacation? I saw the world, and the potential for students. You can't ask for much more than that.