This podcast is a reflection I recorded on a flight back to the United States from the October / November 2009 21st Century Learning Conference in Hongzhou, China. There are some issues about which I am reticent to blog, given their poliltical sensitivity in China, but want to share and reflect upon because of the importance they have for a variety of reasons. In this podcast I reflect about social media, the similarities faced by Chinese as well as U.S. educational leaders seeking to integrate digital technologies and 21st century skills into formal school settings, and the opportunities presented by social media for educational as well as societal change. I became more aware of “the power of place” and the uneven distribution we have today of digital technologies and open access to digital content as a result of my experiences in China this week. The opportunity to disagree, to speak openly, and to form groups are all so important within a free society. I would like to present a new session at upcoming conferences titled something like, “Don’t Filter Your Network Like a Communist.” We need to recognize the value and importance of open access and discourse in our society and in our schools, and take steps to insure our learners are empowered to create, communicate, and collaborate on a regular basis. Note: A little after the twenty minute point of this podcast, for some reason there is some distortion in the recording. This distortion just persists for about 20 seconds, however, and does clear up for the remainder. My apologies for this, I’m not sure what happened!
Show Notes:
- Welcome to the Future by Brad Paisley (full music video on YouTube)
- Bob Sprankle’s Bit by Bit 100th Podcast
- The NOW Generation by The Black Eyed Peas
- The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization’s Rough Landscape by Harm De Blij
- The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman
- Creativity and Innovation in Chinese Society and Schools (my post 3 Nov 2009)
- The dilemma presented by China’s content filtering of my current handouts website (my post 1 Nov 2009)
- Center for Digital Storytelling
- My notes for Joe Lambert’s 21st Century Learning @ West Lake Conference: The Place of Story
- Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
- Unmasking the Digital Truth Project
- CCC in the 21C: Create, Communicate, Collaborate
- Contact Wesley
- Follow Wesley on Twitter
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On this day..
- How I’m Voting and Prepared to Vote in Oklahoma City November 6, 2018 – 2018
- 3rd Grade Narrated Art About Bats – 2012
- Crescent Public Schools: A Beacon for Oklahoma Education – 2008
- Listening to Jeff Utecht from Kuala Lumpur – 2007
- A big screen! – 2007
- Social Bookmarking with Del.icio.us: It’s about Information, Collaboration, and Access – 2007
- Free web-based audio conferencing – 2007
- No Ustream today – 2007
- ODLA Keynote Monday – Live and Recorded – 2007
- Dan Schmidt keynote: Beyond4Walls – 2006
Comments
4 responses to “Podcast333: Reflections on Social Media, School Change, 21st Century Learning Skills, and China”
Hey, you make some interesting points. Why don’t you do that for the K-12 online conference. I think everyone would agree to let you do that. Besides, you are in charge. Add it as a “Special Additional Keynote” or something. It need to be said. Plus I would like to show it to the local schools around here who have things blocked so tightly that it is nearly pointless to even have the Internet!!
Please Do It!!!
If all else fails maybe you could skype into one of my classes and do that presentation. I record and share with all my classes!!!
Thanks always for sharing your learning so selflessly with all of us. I did enjoy this reflective piece very much. Your book and song recommendations in addition to your insightful commentary made for a very productive commute. I’ve been listening to your podcast for the past 5 years, and I haven’t commented enough to you about how valuable this is for me and other like me. My best learning time is the hour commute in the car each way to and from work. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you and others who share their learning through audio. It helps me stay in the loop when I am unable to be at the computer much these days.
You tireless sharing on your podcasts, your video, and your blog are extraordinary. I wish I could publish 1/100 of what you do! 🙂
Thanks always from one very appreciative listener and learner.
@Cyndi: As a co-convener my roles are really to facilitate the sharing of others’ ideas, not present myself… maybe some day! Not this year tho. Thanks for the words of encouragement.
@Janice: Thanks for your feedback also! I am so glad to hear my podcasts continue to be of value on your commute! I have a bunch of new ones to publish soon from the past month, and I definitely want to get a lot of those out before k12online09 next month! I appreciate your kind words. 🙂
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