Moving at the Speed of Creativity

This podcast is a recorded conversation with Doug Taylor, superintendent of Gage Public Schools in Oklahoma, at the EncycloMedia conference on Thursday, September 18, 2008. Doug discusses how students and teachers in Gage schools are utilizing netbooks like the Asus eeePC, open source software programs, Linux, and Google Documents. Gage educators are realizing the benefits of spending money which would otherwise go towards software and operating system licensing fees toward curriculum resources and other educational needs supporting literacy. Doug participated in our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project in February 2008, and is supporting hands-on, relevant and personal curriculum projects including oral history projects in Ellis County. Doug had a bit of a “conversion experience” when it comes to the power and leveling potential of digital technologies when he investigated all the things a 21st century librarian and media specialist needs to know and help students be able to do. As the leader of a small, rural school district in Oklahoma, Doug’s enthusiasum for engaged, relevant learning is contagious and gives me great hope for the cause of school reform in our state. We need more school leaders with the vision, passion for student learning and leadership characteristics of Doug Taylor in our public schools.

 

 Podcast282: A Conversation with Superintendent Doug Taylor about Student Engagement, Digital Storytelling, and Collaborative Digital Technologies [10:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (883)

Show Notes:

1. A superintendent enthused about digital storytelling (22 Feb 2008 TechLearning post)
2. Gage Public Schools, Oklahoma

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A friend recently let me know about the July 2008 report “Third-Year (2006-2007) Traits of Higher Technology Immersion Schools and Teachers” published by the Texas Center for Educational Research for the Texas Education Agency.

While the report points out that three of the four “high immersion” sites in TxTIP are using Apple Macintosh laptops instead of Dell Laptops, it evidently does not mention that only 7 of the 21 studied sites went with Macs initially. With just one-third of studied TxTIP campuses using Macs, three-fourths of the identified “high immersion” campuses are using Macs. Is that merely a coincidence? I think not.

Selection of a computing platform is one of MANY issues to consider when embarking on a 1:1 project, but it is a highly significant decision which impacts multiple aspects of a laptop initiative. If I was in a formal position of authority in our state or any other and was considering a laptop initiative for large numbers of students and teachers, there is no question Apple laptops would be at the top of my list for hardware. The iLife suite and the overall approach of Apple Professional Development is much more constructivist and project-based than what I’ve I’ve seen and heard about from campuses in TxTIP and other 1:1 projects which selected a Windows-based operating system. To be fiscally responsible I would certainly consider Windows-based alternatives as well as open-source laptop options as well, but based on my past experiences along with educational research findings like these I’d be highly-biased to favor the Apple platform. As I heard one of the leaders at the University of Texas’ College of Education share in April 2005, a successful laptop initiative is based on SO much more than just the question, “How inexpensively can you deliver that hardware to my loading dock?”

This is not to say that 1:1 initiatives can’t be successful and very learner-centered / project-based on a Windows-platform or on a Linux platform, but I will contend it is more difficult and much harder to find these types of success stories at schools using the Windows platform. All Macs come with software which naturally lends itself to creating, collaborating and communicating with others. On the Windows platform that is not the case. Software from Tech4Learning, ToolFactory, and other companies certainly CAN be included in the software package included with Windows-based laptops in 1:1 projects, but all too often project directors fallaciously assume “Microsoft Office is really the only software program our students and teachers are going to need.” That assumption is both false and ridiculous if attaining “high immersion” levels as measured by TCER in this report is a desired project outcome.

I’ve had this perception for several years. It’s interesting to see my perception is now supported by the year 3 report of TCER for TxTIP. This report and others published by TCER for TxTIP are available on the TCER website for download.

Earlier this year I heard that only three of the initial 22 middle school TxTIP campuses were expected to be sustainable (continue their laptop initiatives) past the four year grant period, and of those all three were using Mac laptops and two were in West Texas. (Floydada ISD and Post ISD) Can anyone involved in TxTIP confirm or deny this rumor?

As far as I know Floydada ISD is the only district out of the 22 original middle school/junior high campuses in TxTIP to use local funds to extend the laptop initiative to the high school level. Floydada High School was named an “Apple Distinguished School” last year because of the exemplary successes the district has had with technology immersion both via TxTIP as well as locally supported and funded efforts. It was no coincidence that in March 2008 Floydada superintendent Jerry Vaughn was named one of the national “2008 Tech-Savvy Superintendents” by eSchoolNews.

The need for and positive impact of good, strong, visionary leadership in our schools is evident everywhere, and it is certainly clear to see in a success story like Floydada ISD. I look forward to reading this entire TxTIP year 3 report in the weeks ahead, and will post more about this report as I make time to consume, digest and analyze it.

It’s been almost four years since this news broadcast segment ran in Lubbock, Texas, in October 2004. It is extremely gratifying to see those seeds of technology immersion flourishing in West Texas!

Check out the “Opening Doors!” video from Floydada High School to learn more.

Technorati Tags:
txtip, tcer, texas, laptop, onetoone, 1to1, learning, school, education, evaluation, tea

In this podcast I share 45 minutes worth of brainstorming on the subject, “Given all the resources, administrative and parental support needed, how would you imagineer the ideal K-6 classroom learning environment?” Imagineering is a term I associate with Walt Disney and Disneyland, where creative and capable individuals come together to both imagine and engineer new worlds together. Carol Anne McGuire asked me last week to share some ideas with her along these lines, and prior to our conversation later this week I did some brainstorming and created this podcast tonight to clarify some of my thoughts. In the podcast shownotes you’ll find a link to the eighteen different ideas or suggestions I offer in this recording, as well as Stephanie Sandifer’s excellent  wiki for “Designing the 21st Century Global Learning Environment.” As always I welcome your comments and feedback on the ideas of this podcast.

 

 Podcast276: Imagineering the Ideal K-6 Classroom Learning Environment (Part 1) [46:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (803)

Show Notes:

1. The 18 bullet points I used as an outline for this podcast
2. Creating, Collaborating, Communicating: These “3 C’s” are the key and can be a basic focus of learning tasks, included in project rubrics
3. Walt Disney Imagineering (from WikiPedia)
4. Ed.VoiceThread (accountable environment for students and teachers to create VoiceThreads for school with individual accounts)
5. Consider setting up a “Team Curiosity Blog” to which both students and teachers can post using a locally-hosted copy of Wordpress. What are you curious about today? What are you wondering based on things you’ve read, seen, or heard?
6. Create school-wide wiki as a free gold wiki for education using PBwiki (Back to School Challenge)
7. Register your school and students for a free Think.com social networking account(s) - Now part of ThinkQuest
8. Stephanie Sandifer’s excellent  wiki for “Designing the 21st Century Global Learning Environment”
9. My notes from Stephanie’s facilitated session at EduBloggerCon2008 in July 2008 in San Antonio
10. Ideal 21st century learning is not…
11. Phil Schlechty’s excellent book “Working on the Work: An Action Plan for Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents”
12. Habits of Mind (EssentialSchools.org)
13. Camera recommendations from the StoryChasers Wiki
14. Alfie Kohn’s book “The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing”
15. Revisiting VoiceThread - TTT112 - 07.09.08 (Teachers Teaching Teachers podcast with VoiceThread co-founder Steve Muth discussing best practices with VoiceThread)
16. Kevin HoneyCutt
17. StoryChasers (main learning community website)
18. Powerful Ingredients for Digitally Interactive Learning
19. XTimeLine
20. Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow Research (ACOT)

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I shared this entry as a new post on the TechLearning blog, but am cross-posting here because of problems we’ve had with the commenting features over there. Feel free to comment on that post (if you can) or here.

I had a conversation this evening with a professor from Oklahoma Christian University (OC) that broke my heart.

As you may know, OC along with Abilene Christian University down in Texas are among the first colleges in the United States to implement initiatives which involve ALL students in entering classes purchasing and using either Apple iPhones or iPod Touches. When I learned this professor taught at OC, I enthusiastically said, “Wow, you’re going to have all your students bring iPhones to class this year!” His response was:

Boy I sure hope not. I have a tough enough time having them keep their laptops closed all the time during class.

I almost passed out on the spot, but I was torn by a simultaneous urge to weep.

This attitude, perhaps more than any other, may explain why we have so few laptop initiatives at both K-12 as well as higher education levels here in the great state of Oklahoma.

Let’s deconstruct this professor’s statement a bit. What exactly was he saying with these two sentences? Here are some possibilities.

1. I don’t know how to use digital technologies to engage my students in meaningful learning tasks, so I prefer to just lecture to them as I was lectured to for years in the 20th century.
2. I believe the student’s only viable role in the classroom is that of passive receiver.
3. I reject all conceptions and theories of active learning being good.
4. I choose to be the only person in my classroom doing any real thinking and providing any real evidence of both hard work and cognitive exertion, therefore I choose to exclusively lecture.
5. As the only person in my classroom with the initials “PhD” after my name, clearly I have the most knowledge and therefore should be the only person speaking once class begins.
6. Students have nothing to offer me as a learner and nothing to offer each other during my classes that could be of value, relative to the infinite value of my ideas and perspectives about our topic of study.
7. I am not interested in the literacies or the skills of the 21st century, my job role is to strictly impart the content from the textbook which I learned in the 20th century to my students.
8. Digital technologies can only be used to distract and entertain, they can never be used to inform, challenge constructively and engage.
9. My favorite metaphor for students in my class is that of a THRALL, or slave.
10. When I speak, I not only expect but DEMAND that all students sit with rapt attention, hanging on with bated breath for my next ideological vocalization.

Need I go on further?

I asked this professor if he had heard of the website PollEverywhere, which permits students to immediately respond to multiple choice or open answer questions using their laptop or cell phone during class. He responded that he had not, but the IT department at UC was working on writing a program that would permit students to respond immediately like that during class. He had asked repeatedly for a set of classroom electronic response systems, but the university had not purchased a set for him. He also stated he was not at all interested in any type of open answer questions during class, he wanted only multiple choice questions and answers to determine if students understood the material he was presenting.

I assured him that PollEverywhere offers this functionality NOW and could be used both with the laptops students have and the iPhones many of them will also likely have in class. I wrote down the website for him, and I hope he’ll check it out.

When it comes to embracing the constructive uses of digital technologies to improve learning, I do not believe that anyone is a “lost cause.” At any time, a teacher or professor can “see the light” and come to understand that digital technologies CAN be used in constructive ways to extend and expand opportunities for learning. I’m afraid, however, based on this brief conversation with this OC professor, that he has a long way to go on the blended learning journey.

How many professors and teachers at the VERY limited number of schools implementing 1:1 laptop learning initiatives today are like this one I talked with tonight? How many educators will insist, despite the fact that EVERY student in their classroom has a laptop computer ready at hand, to continue lecturing with overhead projector slides or a pedagogically equivalent PowerPoint slideshow, and completely miss the opportunities available to ENGAGE rather than merely ENTHRALL students?

My heart goes out to OC students in this professor’s classes this fall. Hopefully his attitude is not representative more generally of faculty attitudes at OC towards student laptops and mobile computing devices.

Technorati Tags:
laptop, oklahoma, oc, oklahomachristianuniversity, christian, university, learning, iphone, ipod, professor, onetoone, 1to1

I learned today from Josh Pearce that Smart Technologies has changed their whiteboard software installation requirements. For the past few years I’ve been using electronic whiteboard technologies and collecting sources of free as well as commercial digital curriculum sources for teachers appropriate for digital whiteboards, Smart Technologies has been permitting downloads of their Smartboard technology software, and NOT requiring a registration code or product serial number to install and activate the software. This has been a HUGE benefit to many schools, particularly those which “image” large numbers of computer hard drives for teachers. Not requiring a licensing code had many other benefits as well. If a teacher had a computer at home and one in his/her classroom, it was possible to easily download and install versions of the software in both places so Smartboard lessons could be developed at home and used at school. In professional development contexts, I ran into the situation more than once where the computer I needed to use for a workshop didn’t have Smartboard software installed and configured on it. After downloading the software on the spot, I was able to quickly get it installed and configured. Apparently those days are over.

According to the “How to Download and Install Notebook Software 10 for Mac Computers from the smarttech Website” online document:

To successfully install the complete version of Notebook software 10, you must complete the following steps:
1. Obtain a product key.
2. Uninstall older versions of SMART Board™ software and Notebook software.
3. Download and install Notebook software 10.
4. Activate Notebook software 10.

Why did SMART Technologies make this decision to start requiring a product key to install its software? The fact that their software did NOT require a product key was one of the reasons I’ve heard several technology directors cite in explaining why they had standardized on Smartboards instead of Promethean boards. Note it is still possible to DOWNLOAD Smart’s whiteboard software without a serial number or product key, but you cannot install the latest version (10) without one.

I had heard a rumor that Promethean has STOPPED requiring serial numbers for new whiteboard software installations, but the current Activstudio Version 3 download page requires “a valid serial number for your existing version of Activstudio or Activprimary software at the bottom of this page.” Without the serial number, you can’t even download the Promethean software:

It is not clear whether this serial number is only required to download the software, but NOT to install the software. If the serial number is NOT required for installation, that would be good news for school districts imaging large numbers of computers, and would be a change from Promethean’s past procedures. In February when I presented at NCCE in Seattle I used a Promethean board for my workshop, and had to get both the software and an installation key to put it on the Macbook I was using at the time.

What do you think about this change in software installation requirements for Smartboard software? As a frequent presenter in school districts and at technology conferences, I’ve found it a hassle at times to have to download and install the software drivers for a different electronic whiteboard after I arrive at the conference. I do like and enjoy using electronic whiteboards at times, but I wish all the “stuff” the installation programs put on a computer system could be easily and completely disabled when it is not needed so it doesn’t consume system resources and slow things down.

I’ve noticed some teachers can become quite adamant about the superiority they perceive for either the Smart and Promethean electronic whiteboard. These conversations can be quite similar to the “Mac or PC” arguments which flare up from time time time. As I’ve observed previously and continue to maintain, when comparing platforms the most credible people to ask for their opinions are THOSE WHO INTIMATELY KNOW BOTH PLATFORMS. Quite often when it comes to electronic whiteboards, those arguing the loudest only know one platform well. (Sadly this is also often the case with computer operating systems.) The only school district I know about in Oklahoma which supports both Smart or Promethean boards is Tulsa Public Schools. Generally, most school districts I’ve seen choose to standardize on one or the other. I actually think the technology leaders of TPS have been smart (no pun intended) to permit schools to make the platform decision on whiteboards locally. By letting different schools try different boards, they’ve been able to obtain firsthand, in-district knowledge about different options. It is still rare, however, to find a teacher with extensive experience using more than one whiteboard platform, however.

Whatever electronic whiteboard platform you think is better (eInstruction is also a big player too, of course) it’s impossible to ignore the HUGE sums of money schools continue to spend on these devices. Unfortunately, IMHO, electronic whiteboards are not a technology which inherently encourages pedagogic shifts in instructional practices. Like most of the lessons on Thinkfinity (sadly) electronic whiteboards continue to be used in very teacher-directed, didactic learning settings. It certainly IS vital that 21st century educators have access to a functional LCD projector as well as Internet-connected computer, but rather than pour millions of dollars into yet MORE technology which supports teacher-centered instruction, I’d like to see all our schools proactively plan and implement sustainable one-to-one laptop learning initiatives. (The Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation (AALF) is one of the best organizations to join and partner with on this front, btw.) Only when we put the technologies in the HANDS OF THE STUDENTS and intentionally seek to facilitate student creation, communication, and collaboration with those tools ON A REGULAR BASIS will we be appropriately utilizing taxpayer dollars for educational technologies in our schools. That’s a strong statement I know, but I am quite tired of seeing so many teachers continue to persist in 19th century styles of teaching using 21st century tools. As Marco Torres says, if teachers are still just asking kids to read pages 1 - 20 and answer questions 1 - 10 from the textbook, but now doing it with a flashy electronic whiteboard instead of a chalkboard or overhead projector, technology dollars have just been WASTED.

Smartboards are fun to use and often represent “low hanging fruit” for school board members as well as administrators who want to find visible ways to show the public “we support technology use in our schools” but at the same time minimize the potentially disruptive impact of those technologies on the traditional teaching and learning paradigm. As much smaller and more power efficient computer processors like the Atom from Intel come onto the scene, I anticipate (and hope) we’ll continue to see laptop computer prices go down as processing power goes up. Certainly Moore’s Law suggests these trends should continue, but we didn’t see laptop prices fall precipitously until the OLPC/XO laptop came onto the scene. Moore’s Law apparently doesn’t apply to videoconferencing codecs for some reason either, and that is unfortunate. As consumers as well as educators, we should be paying far less for far more processing power when it comes to all our computer equipment these days.

Check your local electronics store advertisements in the upcoming weeks to see the amazingly low prices you can now pay for gigabytes of data storage. I saw an ad yesterday for a 2 GB flash drive for $15. A 350 GB external hard drive was less than $100. It was only about a year ago that we had to pay at least $1 per gigabyte of external hard drive storage. Technology advances continue to accelerate, but as David Thornburg observed at NECC 2008, our pedagogies have not caught up. That is OUR FAULT, and we need to continue to work on remedying that divide separating learning potential from the realities in our classrooms.

Technorati Tags:
smart, technologies, promethean, software, whiteboard, license, serial, number

This podcast includes interviews with Scott Swanson, the Strategic Technology Coordinator at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, Illinois, recorded in March and July of 2008, as well as April Hope, a 2008 graduate of IMSA and Scott’s current intern. They discuss the activities of IMSA students in forming the first OLPC (XO Laptop) High School Student Chapter, their experiences working in and supporting a one to one laptop learning initiative with tablet PCs, and their responses to conversations at EduBloggerCon 2008 prior to the NECC conference in San Antonio in July. The first conversation with Scott in this podcast was recorded at the COSN conference in Washington D.C. in March 2008. Many thanks to both Scott and April for sharing their thoughts, experiences, and perspectives!

 

 Podcast268: Conversations with Scott Swanson and April Hope about the first OLPC High School Student Chapter, 1 to 1 Laptop Immersion with Tablet PCs, and EduBloggerCon 2008 Student Reflections [50:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (746)

Show Notes:

1. Illinois Math and Science Academy Chapter of OLPC
2. Website of Scott Swanson
3. Photo of Jim Gerry and Scott Swanson at COSN 2008
4. The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, IL
5. One Laptop Per Child

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Technorati Tags: necc, necc08, necc2008, math, science, imsa, illinois, olpc, xolaptop, tablet, tabletpc, edubloggercon2008, ebc08

This podcast features a recording of David Thornburg’s NECC 2008 presentation “Open Minds, Open Education, and a View of Open Culture.” The official conference program description and purpose / objectives for this session were: This talk explores how open education and culture are supported by 1:1 computing facilitated with open source tools, worldwide. True universal access, worldwide, requires innovation in hardware and software. Linux and open source software play a critical role here. In addition, a shift toward a more education-friendly copyright scheme (such as creative commons) is essential in opening up the educational process for all. As liberty, equality, fraternity becomes rip. mix and burn, the remixing of educational content by teachers and students alike is quite powerful. Most importantly, the cultural elements of education around the world can finally be addressed in ways that build true understanding and appreciation for the disparate peoples of the world.

 

 Podcast266: Open Minds, Open Education, and a View of Open Culture by David Thornburg (NECC 2008) [61:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (887)

Show Notes:

1. Thornburg Center
2. My textual notes for this session
3. WikiPedia entry for Nicolás Guillén (Cuban poet laureate)
4. Open Source Information for Indiana Schools
5. Open Source Applications by OSI (Open Source in Indiana)
6. Indiana Department of Education
7. K-12 Open Minds (25-27 Sept 2008 Open Source in Education conference in Indiana)
8. Indiana’s Open-Source Experiment: A status report on the largest Linux rollout in K-12 history by Matt Villano (SchoolCIO article)
9. Tech4Learning by David Wagner (referenced as software which serves the child, not commercial computing platforms)
10. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)
11. Intel Classmate PC
12. One2OneMate: Affordable, Powerful, One2One Computing Solutions
13. NComputing
14. Koolu
15. Puppy Linux: a small, fast operating system running from CDs, USB sticks and hard disks
16. Freedom Toaster WikiPedia article: a public kiosk that will burn copies of free software onto user-provided CDs and DVDs
17. Apple Learning Interchange audio podcast / recording of this session

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Technorati Tags: opensource, linux, olpc, laptop, education, technology, onetoone, learning, thornburg

This summer Oprah Winfrey re-aired her shocking program from February 2006, “The Young Boy Lured into Becoming an Internet Porn Star.” My wife recently recorded this show on our home DVR and showed it to me this weekend. Neither of us had seen this show previously or heard about this specific case. For detailed and up-to date information on the primary person the show focused on, Justin Berry, refer to the WikiPedia article for him. External links at the bottom of the article provide additional background, most notably Kurt Eichenwald’s December 19, 2005 article for the NY Times which broke the story, “Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World.” Active discussions on Oprah’s message boards reveal this program continues to strike many nerves and raise many issues. These issues are not limited to the question of whether kids should be allowed to have webcams at all, or specifically webcams in their bedrooms. As kids gain access to more digital devices capable of accessing the Internet, like handheld PSP game systems, some parents are realizing the devices can be and are (in many cases) being used to access pornographic web content. These topics are important and worth discussing at length. For the sake of brevity as well as attempted organization, I’ll summarize my main thoughts under several headings.

1. ONGOING DIGITAL DIALOG IS THE KEY

There are many issues here, but technology is neither the complete culprit nor can it offer a complete “solution” or answer. We have always, and continue to have as human beings, important needs for ongoing dialog between adults and young people. Dr. Stephen Glenn defined dialog as “a meaningful exchange of perceptions in a non-threatening environment.” All too often in our fast-paced, multi-tasking and overcommitted lives, we fail to provide adequate opportunities for adults and young people to engage in dialog. In addition to dialog, we also ALL need to have ongoing, supportive relationships of accountability with others. Without dialog and real accountability, everyone can fall into trouble of some kind. BEING ALONE is the worst condition under which anyone can face serious challenges in life. When we try to stand alone, sadly we often fall alone. We all need dialog and accountability, and those two things do not come “naturally” in our day-to-day routines. We must intentionally shape our schedules and our lives to provide for these things, otherwise they will not / do not become regular parts of our daily routines.

2. DRAWING ATTENTION TO A PROBLEM IS EASY, OFFERING REAL SOLUTIONS IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT

I frequently address Internet safety and online social networking issues in presentations for teachers, students, and parents. Just as it is relatively easy to “scare parents off the Internet,” it is also easy to identify problems without offering practical ideas for constructively addressing the issues which have been raised. The main “solution” or action step which Oprah offers to resounding applause in this February 2006 episode for parents was to prohibit all webcams in children’s bedrooms. That suggestion is not novel, of course, virtually every website focused on Internet safety issues for families includes the suggestion that computers at home be located in family spaces (like the living room) rather than in bedrooms. NetSmartz, SafeKids, and the FBI’s Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety are three example sites which include this recommendation. Yet what about wireless, handheld gaming devices like the PSP which can be used to get online? What about laptops when your child attends a progressive school implementing a 1:1 laptop learning initiative? What about your child’s cell phone, which may already permit web access and almost certainly includes text messaging and media messaging? Telecommunications convergence means many things, but one of the most tangible implications in this context is that parents and other adults have far less control today than they/we did in the past to limit the access young people have to ideas and media.

The issues raised in this Oprah episode about Justin Berry ARE very important and worth discussing. I was disappointed to see that in that program from 2006, at least, Oprah and others speaking on the program did not seem to suggest much with respect to addressing this issue other than suggesting parents everywhere ban webcams from children’s bedrooms.

3. WEBCAMS HAVE VIABLE AND BENEFICIAL USES BESIDES PORNOGRAPHY

Episodes like this one from Oprah tend to be sensationalist in nature. These are REAL issues, of course, but we should be wary to not overgeneralize based on the statements and opinions of the show guests. Both Justin Berry and Kurt Eichenwald make the argument that webcams have no viable place in anyone’s home or on anyone’s computer. Their opinion seems to have been (during this 2006 show) that the only reason someone would need a webcam is to engage in Internet pornography. This position is both extreme and false. It is not baseless: Certainly Justin provides a disturbingly vivid example of how some Internet users DO choose to use webcams to engage in pornography. It is misleading and harmful, however, to generalize and state that ALL webcams are used for nothing other than porn.

Do terrorists around the world use cell phones to plan and coordinate violent attacks? Are students around the world using cell phones to cyberbully? Sadly, the answer to both questions is yes. Should we therefore assume that all cell phones are evil and should be banned from the planet? That would be ridiculous. Yet the audience in Oprah’s show in February 2006 seemed to accept this same argument about webcams.

I may be in the minority with this view, but I contend every K-12 and university classroom in the United States should be equipped with a webcam and microphone in addition to an Internet-connected computer. The reason for this is simple: We live in a global society with an interdependent global economy. As Andrew Churches wrote last week in his outstanding post “21st Century Assessment:”

Collaboration is not a 21st century skill it is a 21st century essential.

As teachers we should be using audio and videoconferencing technologies REGULARLY when we participate in and lead professional development workshops. Our students should be utilizing audio and videoconferencing technologies EVERY WEEK as regular elements of their classwork. Encouraging this type of regular digital collaboration is not a repetition of history, it is a tangible way to recognize the dramatically different economic landscape in which we live and make appropriate behavioral modifications in response to that new understanding. Without a webcam and a microphone, how will learners in our classrooms make these regular, critical connections? On their own cell phones when they get outside the school building? We shouldn’t limit student and teacher opportunities for collaboration to their own free time and their own personal telecommunications devices.

Videoconferencing has been limited in the past by access to costly hardware equipment, but those days are clearly over. In addition to $20 webcams, videoconferencing has already moved onto cellular phones in parts of Europe and the far east. In the United States, cell phone services like Video Share from AT&T are but a small preview of the videoconferencing technologies which are literally on our doorstep. Should we accept the view presented by this Oprah show from 2006 that “nothing good can be done with a webcam?” Certainly not. We should heed the advice of many when it comes to the issue of Internet safety, and take multiple steps to address the issues which are raised here. Just as an informed organization today approaches network security with a “defense in depth” approach, families, school groups, and communities should also approach Internet safety in a similar way.

4. CULTIVATING DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP SKILLS SHOULD BE OUR FOCUS

Some “Internet safety experts” like Parry Aftab suggest banning your child from having any access to social networking websites like MySpace, or sitting by/with your child every moment s/he is using a social networking website. This is completely unrealistic, in my view. Parry writes:

Professionals recommend either denying your children access to MySpace, or sitting there with them as they use it. This mom agrees. Of course kids go to other friend’s houses and use MySpace, but that requires increased supervision by the friend’s parents. MySpace damage must be discussed and taken seriously.

I spoke with an Edmond parent earlier this summer whose 8th grade daughter spends 2.5 hours EACH NIGHT on Facebook. The daughter does not talk with friends on the phone, she does not use IM or email, she uses Facebook. How many kids are “out there” like this? A lot. As parents, are we going to try and ban our children from EVER being on a social networking website of ANY kind, regardless of their age? I certainly agree that depending on the age of a child, social networking sites like MySpace are NOT appropriate. Like other issues which come up in parenting, decisions have to be made based on a variety of factors including the age and maturity of the child. Like it or not, however, we DO live in a media-centric society in which the Internet is playing an ever more important role. Google HAS and continues to create an electronic porfolio about every single one of us. The question should NOT be whether or not, as a parent, you are going to allow your child at some point to establish an online presence, instead it should be WHEN are you going to start encouraging your child to proactively and responsibly manage their online identity which will likely be one of the most important factors future employers take into consideration both before and after formal job interviews?

We must cultivate digital ethics as digital citizens. No, that is likely NOT one of your assigned state standards, but it is imperative to address with your own students as well as your own children in the months ahead none-the-less.

There are many more issues which this episode from Oprah raised and continues to raise, but I think I will close here. It was very worthwhile to watch this segment with my wife and discuss it at length. I wish, like the PBS Frontline special “Growing Up Online,” Oprah would choose to make the full-length video of that episode viewable for free online. While I still maintain we need to focus on constructive ways to address these issues and not merely point out the problems, there IS great value in catalyzing conversations about these issues– and Oprah certainly does that well in this case as well as others. The key is the ongoing CONVERSATION and dialog about these issues. Our need for “digital dialog” is the reason I started the Digital Dialog Ning many months ago. In the months ahead, I hope conversations will continue there and elsewhere about these issues and the ways we can address them as parents, educators, and community members. From these conversations can come actions, which can and will change the world in tangible ways for those we are able to influence in our own lives and contexts.

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Several months ago, during an iChat text exchange with Marco Torres he suggested I record a short video outlining the 21st century literacy skills I believe our students need to have as they enter the workforce. This afternoon (at long last) I recorded a 14 minute video and posted it to Google Video on this subject. The keys, in my view, are helping learners of all ages regularly create, communicate, and collaborate with digital technologies as they further develop their higher order thinking skills.

In addition to my own blog, I referenced The Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the FREE K-12 Online Conference as outstanding resources for community and school advocates.

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After much thought and discussions about ways I may be able to engage in meaningful dialog with my local school board members here in Edmond, Oklahoma about digital literacy and 21st century skills, I recorded a 17.5 minute video today which I posted to Google Video and am burning to DVD to mail tomorrow to all our board members. It is my hope that I’ll be able to meet individually and collectively with our board members to discuss these issues and locally advance the cause of 1:1 computing as well as digital literacy. Our students need to be regularly creating, communicating and collaborating using digital technologies in our classrooms, and this is my attempt to communicate this case to my local school board.

In the context of discussing digital citizenship I referenced two reports, the National School Board Association’s 2007 “Creating and Connecting - Research and Guidelines on Online Social - and Educational - Networking” report as well as Scholastic’s “2008 Kids & Family Reading Report- Reading in the 21st Century: Turning the Page with Technology.”

I also recorded a second video about 21st century skills our students need which I am compressing and uploading now, and will include on the DVD I send to my board members.

Feel free to utilize this video or any of these ideas for your own advocacy efforts for 21st century skills and the digital learning revolution.

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These are my notes from Idit Caperton’s closing keynote at NECC 2008, “The Transformational Power of Social Media Technology in Learning: Inspiring Stories from the Classroom and Beyond!” MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. THIS WAS A FANTASTIC KEYNOTE AND ONE OF THE BEST I’VE EVER SEEN AT NECC. INSPIRATIONAL, CHALLENGING, RESEARCH-BASED, KID AND LEARNING FOCUSED. SUPERB. GREAT KEYNOTE SELECTION, ISTE NECC BOARD!

Wikipedia article for Idit Harel Caperton

Watching an intro for the final keynote speaker by a character in Second Life at ISTE’s Education Island

her mentor and collaborator was Seymour Papert

founded MaMa Media in the 1980s

this is my keynote 2.0

The official keynote description in the conference program was:

Social Networks, Wikis and Blogs are changing the informational, social, political, and educational landscapes. Wikipedia has become the information resource of choice. There are more than 160 million users on MySpace. YouTube is hosting 80 million videos and managing 3 million user accounts. Hundreds of millions of people are gathering daily on the Web to explore, express and exchange media projects and ideas through online social networks. A large portion of them are children and youth.

Dr. Idit Harel Caperton predicted these phenomena after a decade at the MIT Media Lab, and left to start MaMaMedia.com in 1995. As the originator of the term “Clickerati” (the generation born after the mid-90s who cannot imagine life without the Internet), she invented the first Internet media company with special services for Clickerati kids, envisioning their near-addiction to digital learning through creation of rather than consumption of media. To this end, she gave them hundreds of dynamic activities for creating, collaborating, and socializing online. She taught many online networks (AOL-KidsOnly, ATT-WorldNet, Earthlink, Disney-Go, WebTV) and advertisers (General Mills, Nintendo, Disney) how to engage the young and harness business potential within digitally-connected communities of kids.

One of the first graduates of the MIT Media Lab and a student and colleague of learning-technology guru, Professor Seymour Papert, Harel-Caperton has been studying the ways in which learners are empowered with programmable technology since the early 80s.

To close NECC 2008, she will present her recent invention in 1:1 computing—the Globaloria Networks (www.globaloria.org)—complete with cases of how today’s social media technology is creating opportunities for student collaboration and global exchange never before possible. Included will be a synthesis of specific examples hand-picked from content presented at NECC 2008.

Her fast-paced, multi-dimensional tapestry of stories is sure to stimulate and inspire your thinking about contemporary learning ideas in education, and where we are heading. See how the work you and your peers are doing is transforming education!

“In search of the Forgotten C”

outline:
- go through 3 decades of catalyzing change
- go through 3 days (who are the catalysts of change now)
- 3 wishes for the future

Newest project: www.worldwideworkshop.org

(THE WEBSITE ROOT WEBPAGE IS MISSPELLED RIGHT NOW

learning beyond powerpoint
- we must go beyond, into what is complex
- I didn’t see much of that at NECC this year

I CERTAINLY DID! THE PYTHON, SCRATCH, AND GEORSS SESSIONS I SAW TODAY WERE GREAT AND VERY COMPLEX AS WELL AS ENGAGING

Founding fathers of 1:1 computing
- Seymour Papert: Logo (NECC 1989, 1992)
- Alan Kay: Squeak (NECC 2003)
- Nicholas Negroponte: OLPC (NECC 2006)

I have been a fan and a champion of their ideas
- I have been focused on inventing the future with them
- I am convinced of the need for constructivist teaching and learning

it is time for an outbreak

what do we need to do to help grow a mindset that catalyzes change: in children, in parents and in policy makers?

THIS IS A GREAT QUESTION. I AM SO GLAD TO HEAR HER ADDRESSING THIS!
- what does the archeologist of the future do now
- digging for “weak signals” today, in order to study the greatness of the future
- we can become the signals of the future ourselves, overcoming resistance in various forms
- we can become the weak signal and become strong togehter

I asked Elliot Soloway where great ideas come from
- his answer “from the soul”

Like Papert, Kay and Negroponte, I have been focused

my company: MaMaMedia

The 1980s: BL/BC era (before laptops and before cell phones)
- you can be futuristic even with constraints
- if you really want to, you can

I graduated in 1988 from the MIT Media Lab

Let’s watch 5 minutes from the 1989 NECC, this is part of a 20 minute documentary
- student eventually felt “free to play” and make connections / transfer of her math knowledge to other domains
- used a designers notebook
- focus is on Children Designers

Innovative learning environments can support children designers
- 20 years later these ideas from this video are still relevant

What Seymour Papert and I brought to the table

Enter 1990s whe “social” was not yet “networked”
- we were happy with the interet, but it was mostly about integrating old media
- publishers, only digital
- closed curriculum, not different from textbooks
- centralized communities controlled by few

MAMAMEDIA.COM
- designed for the clickerati
- a first attempt at 21st century learning (1995)
- the three X’s: eXpression, eXpoloration and eXchange
- it is not just about the 3 R’s anymore

telling kids it is not just about media consumption, it is about expression
- it is a home service with places to write stories, create art
- introduction to programming and animation
- were popular first
- giving kids a place to store their media
- giving place to play and learn

intergenerational approach to engaging parents and kids on the same network
- big move from academic world to business

MaMaMedia is still up and running and being enjoyed
- it is now open sourced and available on the XO Laptop
- also put it up on globaloria

in the old world content was king
- in the new world, contact is king

I THINK THIS IS A GREAT QUOTATION

it’s about participation now

2008 is a summer of transitions
- transitioning from 1.0 to 2.0: the new internet

contributions and participation RULE
- meaningful engagement in learning is the key

not just about social networking and keeping up with friends
- posting links and keeping up with friends
- engagement is about participation in pretty complex global projects

now lets watch some NECC presenters in taking learning global
- featuring different projects including the award winning “Rock Our World

Howard Levin The Urban School in San Francisco, CA
- entire interview
- entire thing is transcribed and available
- only oral history projects
www.tellingstories.org

WOW! I AM SO GLAD TO HEAR ABOUT THIS PROJECT AND FIND THIS LINK. YES! SUPER! THIS IS WHAT WE ARE DOING WITH CELEBRATE OKLAHOMA VOICES ON A SMALLER SCALE. IT WILL BE GREAT TO CONNECT WITH TELLINGSTORIES.ORG AND LEARN FROM THEM!

THAT WAS A GREAT SERIES OF VIDEOS, MANY OF THESE WERE FROM THE NECC POSTER SESSIONS. SUPER STUFF. GREAT IDEAS! SO WONDERFUL FOR IDIT TO SHARE AND AMPLIFY THESE PROJECTS AND VOICES IN HER KEYNOTE! YEAH IDIT!

The new 3 C’s
- Content
- Contact
- Contribution

convene, connect, create, collaborate, cultural diversity

the forgotten C: about constructionism
- a little forgotten in many of the presentations I saw
- maybe it is time to transform constructionism a bit and make it more relevant and appealing to current generation

- constructionism
- modern constructionism
- contemporary constructionism

some of the best engagement and learning takes place

is the new reading and writing dynamic
- we

Piaget: to understand is to invent
as Papert says: you really learn best by creating

function as a creator, not just a user
- this is the new literacy
- especially important for social networks

The new read/write equation
- calls for new ways of learning to learn
- it’s about participation in enw forms of writing
- in web 2.0 environments, with social media technology

the winners in the new economy will be those who master the web 2.0 technologies to create and innovate new creative ideas and services
- I can see a new digital divide between those who know how to operate and work in the new digital constructionism and those who do not

those who are not part of this new movement will be left behind, separated from those who do
- those who do not know the read/write and understand how to program them cannot participate in the new knowledge economy
- those are often the most poor among us
- they attend low-performing schools or failing schools

I am asking us to let go of the “digital natives” term
- some concepts and ideas are hard to grasp
- some abilities take a lot of work and a lot of time to develop

as an avid constructivist I have always focused a lot on the writing side
- we need to develop new models together
- that is an example of an innovation signal that I found

the opportunity exists on two fronts
- access
- knowledge

hopefully 1:1 initiatives will address this, esp access

knowledge development and master of the new abilities will continue to persist
- we need to invent new spaces for learning to learn

for this very reason I picked designing by gamemaking

we need a new theoretical framework that comes with this territory
- we have named this “the 6 contemporary learning abilities” with new technologies
- constructionist learning in web 2.0

Abilities Set 1- invention, progression, completion of an original project: program an educational game, wiki or simulation

Abilities Set 2: project-based learning in web 2.0 environments, and processing complex project management (programmable wiki systems)

Abilities Set 3: producing, programing, publishing and distributing interactive purposeful digital media

Abilities Set 4: information-based learning, search and exploration

Abilities Set 5: social learning, participation and exchange

Abilities Set 6: thoughtful surfing websites and web applications

web 3.0 semantic web is coming in 3 years

do we need another set of standards? NO
- we need abilities to identify

can we invent and promote learning activities that cultivate the development of each of these new abilities in learners?

most school-based programs for 21st century skills just focus on abilities 4 and 6
- it is with this developmental framework in mind that we

Example of student projects created with MicroWorlds EX

Other sessions at NECC this session were Mitch Resnick’s presentation about Scratch

Now let’s look at Globaloria
- network participants learn to design and program original interactive media, simulations and web-games with social and educatioanl purposes

Video of West Virginia first lady: talking about 21st century skills, talking about a “do curriculum”
- HOW SUPER TO SEE THE GOVERNOR’S WIFE ADVOCATING FOR 21ST CENTURY SKILLS WITH AN ACTUAL “DO CURRICULUM” FOCUS!!! WE NEED THIS IN OKLAHOMA! (and every other state / nation)

Student quotation from the video:
“the best way to get us to learn is to put it into a video game, but it into a narrative, and we’ll learn it even if we don’t want to.”

Another network that we just launched: My Global Life
- WikiPedia article for My Global Life

My Global Life (MyGLife.org) is a worldwide network of educational, programmable websites and related wikis designed to empower youth in developing countries and emerging markets to learn, create and collaborate online. The goal of this non-profit project is to help the world’s youth experience and master technology tools and methods for democracy and globalization. Site users are mentored to learn Internet technology skills (including wiki development, graphic design and Flash programming skills), build global awareness, and at the same time, experience positive communication with other communities.

FOR SOME REASON THE WEBSITE MyGLife.org IS NOT RESOLVING FOR ME NOW / NOT ACCESSIBLE.

I have started to develop ideas aabout web 2.0 “best practices” for the purpose of knowledge development
- interaction and impact

1- what is the time duration
2- what is the scope and scale
3- is it purposeful participation
4- is there an exhibtion hall? open source spirit?
5- is there global reach

what will NECC be in 10 years?

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These are my notes from David Thornburg’s NECC 2008 presentation “Open Minds: Open Education and Open Culture” on June 30, 2008. David has granted me permission to non-commercially record and share this presentation subsequently. MY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

dthornburg [at] aol [dot] com

David has handouts not related to this session, related to a new project he’s started
- this session will include technology but it is a broader topic
- concerns the state of the WORLD right now
- I am an American expatriot, I am a resident of Brazil, I work both in the US and Brazil and commute back and forth

Have you noticed when you were outside the US you were able to think in a bigger way about some issues?
- we are in a point of new ages of discovery
- one of the questions I ask now, do PCs have the potential to be as transformative in our culture as the book
- what will it take to make this vision real?
- will this benefit the entire world?
- what about 1:1 computing

Indiana and Mr. Michael Huffman are pioneering the uses of open technologies for children
- open source software: see the Open Source pavilion that Steve Hargedon is running

challenge we face in education:
- pedagogical practices have not been standing still
- Gardner’s multiple intelligences, many other things
- the challenge isn’t that we aren’t taking advantage of new discoveries in pedagogies and taking advantage of them
- the challenge is that technology is changing faster than classroom practices

now our technologies let us do things that our pedagogical practices have not caught up with
- lots of sessions now are addressing issues:
– given current technology, how should classroom practices change?
– given current classroom practice, how should technology change

We marvel at current technologies, kids today just view it as normal
- kids are going to marvel some day that they didn’t have 3D holographic projectors when they were in school

problem with racing technology bandwagons is that sometimes we lose other things

Now, more than ever, we need access for every learner in the world
- before these tools, you couldn’t do these things AT ALL

Bringing tools to all children
- 1:1 projects must be scalable
- sustainable
- low cost hardware and open source OS and critical applications are the ONLY way the goal can be achieved
- this does not mean there is no room for some proprietary titles, but costs must be scalable and sustainable
- single platform software is anti-child

I DEFINITELY AGREE WITH THIS POINT ABOUT SINGLE PLATFORM SOFTWARE BEING ANTI-CHILD, AND HOW WE MUST PURSUE 1:1 IMPLEMENTATION PROJECTS AGGRESSIVELY

It is quite different kids you have in class may have very different computers at home
- children need to be able to use THE SAME SOFTWARE on any platform they have
- if you look at the number of vendors who are actually rising to that challenge, t

Tech4Learning is one of the companies leading the industry in this regard: Windows. Macintosh, and Linux versions

vendors who just publish on 1 platform are serving the platform and not the child
- I happen to believe in the children
- so I promote and support software that runs on everything

On the hardware side of things
- lots of talk about OLPC
- OLPC is definitely still around, has lots of management changes, not clear where it is going, they are continuing to go in the future

the OLPC has had a major impact on the industry
- before the XO was announced, you couldn’t buy a laptop for less than $1200
- now you can go to Tiger Direct and buy a powerful laptop for $350, without rebates and no limits on how many you can buy
- so hats off to MIT and this project

The Intel Classmate
- this machine is here at NECC]
- not as cute as some other machines
- can get your choice of OS: either Windows or Linux

Another machine in the One2OneMate: a Linux computer
- it looks like an AlphaSmart
- is a full blown laptop

Another example: koolu
- 10 watt power consumption

large hydroelectric dam is on the border of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay
- that dam generates all the electricity for all of Paraguay and half of brazil
- if the number of computers in the world doubled, we’d have to build 20 more dams of this capacity!

Another Example: N Computing Box
- idea is most personal computers have far more power than any individual student is using at one time
- the processor actually runs on just 1 box and is shared

lots of talk about the iPhone, but it was/is a closed platform

Our friends in Brazil who love the iPhone bought them in the US and have them working in Brazil
- but why have to do that

There is a completely open source phone: NEO1973
- you want to add new features to your cell phone, go right ahead! It’s open source.

An argument was started a few years ago that students don’t need a computer, they just need personal storage devices
- I’m more willing to accept this idea now
- if you have enough computers in your community, this is viable
- that is a BIG “if”

The price of flash drives is coming

booth 5260: you can get a 1 gig pen drive for free after you play a game
- if I had said that a few years ago, this room

new version of linux called Puppy Linux
- can put that entire OS on a flash drive

Why open source?
- do the math
- (number of computers) x $100/ year to just run the Windows OS
- 2/3rds of Indiana students do not know they are using Linux! (and they didn’t care. they just cared about their applications and data.)
- applications are robust
- service calls are minimized
- new applications are being created every day
- applications can be shared legally

In Africa: Freedom Toaster
- take a CD, choose the software you want, and you can take the software home
- you know how the principal makes money selling pencils? Try this at your school!

some African countries are letting people also upload files, like music (I am sharing this as some factual information, not as a recommendation)

Linux and Education
- finally easy to install and maintain
- reliable
- low total cost of ownership
- graphical user inferface
- applicable and usable by all grade levels

Now lets go back down to Brazil
- photo of “the digital port”

instead of going northeast and risking capture, some Dutch Brazilians went NW and were looking for an island with rivers on both sides
- came ashore
- the same Dutch from Brazil founded New York

consider Brazilian kids in our neighborhoods, who 20 years ago would not have been in school
- curriculum in Brazil is inquiry driven and project-based

President Lula was asked by Microsoft to please use Windows
- He asked Microsoft to charge them just $3 just like China is
- Microsoft refused and said they would change $100 per copy

we have to export 60 bags of soybeans then for every license of Windows

we think of Linux as an emerging market here in the US
- 36 million children in Brazil will be using Linux by December 2008
- 52 million by the end of 2009

some people in our country are viewing children as wallets, not as human beings

Computers for All: Brazilian governmental program
- stores in Brazil sell both food and technology
- special logo on machine means the government will give you a 24 month interest free loan
- sold 800,000 of these machines without any marketing at all (grass roots word of mouth)

some countries get serious about education and technology, and that is really cool

MLK quotation: 3-31-1968: “Through our scientific and technological genious, we have made of this world a neighborhood and yet we haev not had the ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood.”

We can talk of web 2.0 and these technologies
- the bottom line is that we CAN make of our world a brotherhood

Minister of Culture for Brazil: Gilberto Gil (also a singer and songwriter)
- founder of the movement Tropicalismo
- idea is that you understand someone else’ culture not so you can appreciate it from afar, but rather use it yourself in your own life and culture [APPROPRIATE AND REMIX IT]

Brazilian filmmakers are generally located on the coast
Quotations from Gil:
- a global movement has risen up in affirmation of digital culture…
- the creative impluses of teh Brazilian people need access to the digital world…

Gil is setting up schools on filmmaking in the interior, teaching final cut pro, seeing what types of creativity and innovation come out of this

Look at some of the AFrican cultures
- corn rows have a very rich cultural history
- there is a mathematical pattern there which is a fractal
- you can create a logo procedure which replicates that
- so now a kid who knows about corn rows (goes back at least to the 1700s) can now understand the mathetmatics of that
- and maybe that becomes a pathway to get students interested in mathematics who might

how can we build bridges to understanding and learning
a lot of schools now are like the United Nations
Many things like this can be used as pathways to learning, which are not in any textbooks

Breaking borders with software: CMap
- kind of like an ugly version of Inspiration, but it is a collaborative tool
- the map can stay open to other people and it doesn’t matter which continent you’re on

noticed when kids get stuck making a contact map?
- in CMap click on the suggestions map
- the program looks at what you have done so far, compares it to other Cmaps made by others on the web, and then gives you words it “thinks” (DAVID IS BEING APPROPRIATELY ANTHROPOMORPHIC HERE) might help you
- the idea may have come from Zimbabwe, it doesn’t matter
- you have to be online to use this feature

CMap runs equally well on whatever platform you have
- this is about the children, not the vendors

If your school server wants to be visible to the rest of the world, you can set this up with your firewall
- then your folders become available to the entire world, if you want
- you can also keep them restricted
- each child can then decide if their files can be viewed, commented on, or fully edited (sets permissions)
- this is about empowerment

Copyright has a very important role in our socity
- the default assumption in this country is that even if you don’t put a copyright sign on your work, you own it
- this is problematic when you want to share rights
- the clearinghouse for this is Creative Commons
- we have some papers on this on our website
- when you see the CC mark, that means you can freely use this without any legal restrictions
[HE IS TALKING ABOUT CC-ATTRIBUTION HERE, FOLKS SHOULD REALIZE NOT ALL CC LICENSES PERMIT COMMERCIAL WORKS AND DERIVATIVE WORKS]

I think these are very powerful and good ideas

what happens when we go from liberty, equality and fraternity to rip, remix and burn?

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society: H20 Playlist

MIT has made the bulk of its courseware available online
- once you say it is NOT about the content, you have to be really clear WHAT it IS about?
- what is it that justififes your salary then? it’s not just this body of knowledge that you are trying to protect

Gilberto Gill quotation: “Together we might become the most powerful laboratory of culture mixture in the world. (If we are) isolated from one another we may no longer be able to achieve that, since there is an increasing international tendency toward a multi-cultural style that hinders mixture, trying to reinforce borders as a strategy for the preservation of differences.”

Tropicalia is about cultural mixing: building networks, not walls
- It is xenophilic, not xenophobic

I like salads: you can keep the different tastes!
- there are surprises in salads that you don’t find in a soup bowl
- elements of different cultures (in the metaphor) are preserved
- this is powerful
- how are we doing in that regard

There is a movement afoot to build a wall with Mexico
- this debate will continue for some time
- if McCain is elected he may not build it, he was born in Panama
- there is a constitutional issue with that, but who has cared about the US Constitution the past few years anyway?

There was a problem with illegal aliens being used to build walls on the border
- story of listing some of the famous, very successful immigrants who at one time were here in the U.S illegally and whether

What is your fear?
- is someone going to sneak onto your property at night and mow your lawn?
- do you fear them sneaking into your house during the day, making your bed and cleaning your toilet

Story of a PhD from Monterrey who worked on the GNOME desktop
- is on a waiting list for 16 years to get a visa
- that is an exclusion policy, not an immigration policy
- 150K envelopes for H1B visas last year

Picture of Norma, David’s wife, took a process of 7 years and $15,000 in legal fees for her normalization documents

the longest part of the process in getting a Brazilian visa was fingerprinting

Questions
- who built the infrastructure of this country? Railroads?
- East: Irish
- West: Chinese

the infrastructure of this country was built by foreigners
- today it is being
- we have negative immigration now: we have more Irish leaving the US now than are coming
- we have a big challenge in terms of cultural issues, in the world we are living in

as we become more isolated, that diminishes the entire planet
- I want our children to see what others have, and others to see what we have

picture of the statue of liberty
- quoting poem from statue

I am so proud to be a citizen of a country people still fight to get INTO not to get OUT

book recommendation: “The Flight of the Creative Class” by Richard Florida
- we are seeing more people becoming bi-nationals
- not just about Brazil
- through modern telecommunications, the market is not just our neighborhood, it is the entire blue ball

familiar with the Phoenix probe
- the found salt and ice: they are THIS close to a good margarita!
we are really making huge progress

Toh Friedman: “The way to keep good jobs in this country is not by building big walls, but by attracting people with big ideas.”

“Your people, your people….” When will you realize that your people are our people too! (Graffiti david

We are all each others’ people on this planet.

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