Moving at the Speed of Creativity

This podcast is an interview with Lars of Lego Education on the vendor floor at NECC 2008 in San Antonio, Texas, discussing the recently announced “WeDo Robotics” product designed for elementary students ages 7-11. According to the official Lego Education press release, WeDo Robotics “redefines classroom robotics, making it possible for primary school students 7-11 years of age to build and program their own solutions. Bridging the physical world, represented by LEGO models, and the virtual world, represented by computers and programming software, LEGO Education WeDo Robotics provides a hands-on, minds-on learning experience that actively involves young students in their own learning process and promotes children’s creative thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving skills – skills that are essential in the workplace of the 21st century.” Unlike the Lego NXT robotics kits, WeDo robot models remain tethered to the laptop computer running the iconic software program which controls the robot. WeDo is being released in North America in January 2009, and its software program runs on Macintosh OS X, Windows, and the XO Laptop’s “skinny Linux” operating system.

 

 Podcast267: A Discussion about Lego WeDo Robotics at NECC 2008 (Coming in January 2009 to North America) [20:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (637)

Show Notes:

1. Official WeDo Robotics press release from Lego Education (30 June 2008)
2. Additional videos and informational publications from Lego about WeDo Robotics
3. Lego Education
4. Lego Club (one of my 10 year old son’s favorite websites)
5. Lego NXT Robotics (Mindstorms)
6. Photo taken during Mitch Resnik’s NECC 2008 Preso: Movie of kids in Brazil using new Lego “WeDo” product on XO laptops
7. Paul Schwan’s 5th Grade Classroom website (Fort Myers, Florida)

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Technorati Tags: lego, robot, robotics, creativity, design, math, science, program, programming, necc, necc08, necc2008

This podcast features a recording of Dr. Mitchel Resnick’s NECC 2008 presentation “Grassroots Creativity: Helping Everyone Become a Creative Thinker.” This session was shared on July 2, 2008 in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Resnick is a professor at MIT and works at the MIT Media Lab with some of the most innovative and creative thinkers in the world focused on learning and education. The official conference description of this session was: In today’s fast-changing society, everyone needs to think creatively. I will discuss new technologies from MIT Media Lab that help students develop as creative thinkers. When people think about creativity, they often think about people like Mozart, Picasso, Curie, and Einstein, people who transformed their fields with radically new ideas and creations. But creativity is not only for the select few. In today’s fast-changing society, everyone needs the ability to come up with creative solutions to unexpected everyday problems. Our research group at the MIT Media Lab has been developing a family of educational technologies, including Scratch (scratch.mit.edu) and Crickets (www.picocricket.com), with the explicit goal of helping students develop as creative thinkers. In this presentation, I will discuss the ideas and strategies underlying these new technologies, and I will present case studies of how students are using these technologies to create, invent, experiment, explore – and become more creative thinkers.

 

 Podcast264: Grassroots Creativity: Helping Everyone Become a Creative Thinker by Dr. Mitchel Resnick [55:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (640)

Show Notes:

1. Scratch Software
2. Lifelong Kindergarten
3. PicoCricket
4. MIT Media Lab
5. Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society by Mitchel Resnick (PDF)
6. All I Really Need to Know (About Creative Thinking) I Learned (By Studying How Children Learn) in Kindergarten by Mitchel Resnick (PDF)
7. Computer as Paintbrush: Technology, Play, and the Creative Society by Mitchel Resnick (PDF)
8. My text notes from this presentation (including some additional links)
9. Dr. Mitchel Resnick’s Keynote at BLC07: Tools for Creative Thinking (shared by Bob Sprankle)

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Technorati Tags: creativity, lego, logo, scratch, school, learning, education, innovation, cricket, picocricket, lego, robot, robotics, mit, media, medialab, necc, necc08, necc2008, n08s293

This podcast features interviews with 14 year old Solana and 8 year old Jack who share their perceptions and ideas relating to reading, writing, literacy, technology use, gaming and publishing on the global stage of the Internet. Solana has had her own computer since she was eight, and with the help of her father found the website KidPub to publish and share her own stories, poems, and other creative writing projects. KidPub requires that parents pay a small fee (about $12) per year for kids to participate and have an account. This prevents people from creating free accounts and commenting on others’ work without accountability and attribution. Solana discusses how motivational she has found KidPub and the opportunity to share her voice with others on the Internet, problems encountered with plagiarism and the ways the KidPub community self-polices itself, and the exciting connection she had made with other students who have taken one of her published novels (with permission) and started to create a movie based on the story on YouTube. Solana also discusses what she has learned about computers and technology at school compared to what she has learned at home, including her experiences using Diigo and trying to collaborate with other kids. She discusses things she would change (if she could) about technology use and Internet access at school so she could extend and further develop her technology skills there. She also discusses her experiences with online safety, accessing websites like YouTube and extending her searches beyond engines like AskJeeves to Google, and her experiences with inappropriate content which she has accidentally stumbled upon when doing Internet searches. She also discusses issues related to social networking and directly contacting other kids online. In addition to Solana’s comments, 8 year old Jack discusses the ways he uses computers at home primarily to play strategic games. (Note: The names Solana and Jack are aliases used at the request of the parents.)

 

 Podcast261: Student Perspectives on Reading, Writing, Literacy, Technology Use, Gaming and Publishing on the Global Stage of the Internet [43:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (769)

Show Notes:

1. KidPub - a website used by young authors to publish and share their stories, poems, and other writing on the global stage of the Internet
2. Scholastic 2008 Kids & Family Reading Report
3. Alone in the Middle Chapter 1 (original story written and published by Solana on KidPub)
4. Alone in the middle (behind the scenes) part 1 (YouTube video - Tells the story of using MS Paint, MovieMaker, and YouTube to publish a film version of Solana’s story from KidPub)
5. Alone in the Middle (Paragraph 1) - 1st Paragraph of “Alone in the Middle” in film / video version on YouTube
6. The Sims2 (official website)
7. Savannah Outen Official Goodbyes Video - Songwriter and Singer who brokeout from YouTube to Radio Disney
8. GIMP - Open Source Photo Editing Software
9. SeaShore - Macintosh port of GIMP which does not require X11
10. ASUS - Eee PC
11. Intel Classmate PC
12. Dawn of War game
13. Command and Conquer 3 game
14. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) game (WikiPedia article)
15. Cheat Codes WikiPedia definition

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Technorati Tags: technology, publishing, writing, reading, kid, kids, student, students, youth, literacy, publication, kidpub, games

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?

Technorati Tags:
n08s524, necc2008, necc08, necc, iste

This podcast is a recording of the keynote address shared by Kevin Honeycutt at the Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning conference in Wichita, Kansas, on 12 June 2008. The TTT conference is hosted by ESSDACK, the Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas located in Hutchinson. Kevin is one of the most innovative and passionate educators I know, and is a compelling storyteller. He is able to masterfully focus educators not only on issues related to learning and educational technology integration, but even more importantly on the vital role teachers play each day forming and strengthening relationships with students. Kevin reminds me about what matters most in the classroom and in education, and that is students. Many thanks to Kevin for sharing permissiosn to podcast this session, as well as the entire ESSDACK staff for hosting a fantastic conference last week in Wichita. Be sure to also check out the Ning social network which Kevin facilitates, titled Art Snacks. (Links are available in the podcast shownotes.)

 

 Podcast258: Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning by Kevin Honeycutt [44:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (969)

Show Notes:

1. Kevin Honeycutt (website, blog and podcast)
2. Art Snacks (Ning Social Network facilitated by Kevin)
3. Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning Conference
4. Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas (ESSDACK)
5. My Flickr photos of the infamous Honeycutt treehouse in Inman, Kansas

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Technorati Tags: school, education, reform, schoolreform, school2, leadership, learning, vision, ESSDACK, ttt08, ttt2008, essdack, kansas, literacy

This afternoon and evening was quite momentous in terms of co-learning with my 10 year old son, Alexander. For many months, we have discussed together the possibility of him starting his own video podcast about creating different types of string figures. For the past two years, since we moved to Oklahoma, he has learned LOTS of different string figures from friends at school and from other places. His teachers have had books about string figures, and he’s been given books about string figures for birthdays by our relatives. He loves making string figures and teaching others how to make them. Given the visual nature of learning about string figure creation, I have thought for a long time this would make an ideal video podcast channel. I remain convinced that if we encourage young learners to further develop their hobbies and interests, and find ways to support them sharing and communicating about those activities with others, we can potentially help them cultivate their own literacy skills and abilities at many levels.

I also remain convinced that learning to write and alter simple programming code (like CSS and PHP in Wordpress templates) is a great activity for several reasons. As John Jones stated in his TTT presentation about Drupal last week, kids may not have many opportunities to learn and practice “attention to detail” in the ways they do when coding and tweaking code. The direct feedback which a person receives when attempting to use computer code to achieve a specific result is very powerful. It can be frustrating when things don’t work, but very gratifying when they do. This process of tangible feedback in the course of CREATING something is a big part of what constructionist educational pedagogy is all about, in my understanding.

It is also wonderful to learn how to author documents on the web and engage in hyperlinked writing. As I wrote in my December 2006 post “Shining lights, finding nuggets, adding tools”:

… hyperlinked writing is the most powerful form of writing that has ever existed…..

How wonderful to help one of my own children unlock the door to powerful, hyperlinked writing!

As a result of these conversations and thought processes, I helped Alexander create his own website “String and Me” this evening. We just activated the site late this afternoon (for $45 total: $15 for a 1 year domain registration and $30 for the “add-on domain” fee with Siteground) and the speed with which our new registration become “resolvable” via DNS surprised me. There is not a lot there yet, but we did spend several hours tonight configuring things. Alexander checked out multiple Wordpress themes but ended up settling on Blue Wonder. (Look familiar?) He learned to use a ftp client and was able to delete unwanted themes from his site (via ftp) as well as upload new themes and activate them. With this being his first day to work with Wordpress, PHP, and some basic scripting, I asked him how long it would be before he knows more about “this stuff” than I do. I bet it won’t be long.

Alexander spent almost all day with David Titus at the Survive and Thrive Single Mom’s conference. David came in to work with many of the older kids whose moms were attending the conference, and Alexander (as an experienced and knowledgeable string figure creator himself) served as David’s assistant. David uses string figures to tell stories as well as do Christian ministry. Alexander remembered LOTS of string figures he had forgotten, and learned a bunch of new ones as well. We both realized NOW is the perfect time to record (with video) the procedures for creating many of these string figures, both so he can remember how to make them in the future and so he can share his expertise with others.

It was an exciting evening– It’s not often you have an opportunity to introduce your own child to something as powerful and potentially life-changing as hyperlinked writing and blogging! Alexander as written previously on Learning Signs, of course, but I sense there is a BIG difference between a website he shares and has relatively less ownership and “stake in” and one (in this case, “String and Me”) in which he has a 100% stake and 100% control. He is fired up! It’s great to experience and share in his enthusiasm for learning, writing, creating, and sharing. I’m a proud dad! And we’re just getting started. Father’s Day tomorrow will be marked (I predict) by multiple video podcasts being recorded by the ten year old male in our house and posted to the web!

SiteGround is my web host

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blog, string, figure, stringfigure, learning, hyperlink, domain, dns, register, siteground

These are my notes from the keynote address by Kevin Honeycutt, titled “Trends, Tools and Tactics for 21st Century Learning” on June 12, 2008, in Wichita, Kansas, at the summer educational technology conference sponsored by ESSDACK (Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas.) MY OWN THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. KEVIN IS LETTING ME AUDIO RECORD THIS SESSION AND I WILL POST LATER AS A PODCAST HERE. KEVIN IS A PHENOMENAL TEACHER, AN ARTIST, AN AMAZINGLY SKILLED STORYTELLER, AND AN INSPIRATIONAL SCHOOL CHANGE LEADER. WOW. WHAT A PRIVILEGE TO BE ABLE TO HEAR HIM SPEAK AND SHARE HIS MESSAGE WITH TEACHERS HERE IN CENTRAL KANSAS! KEVIN’S WEBSITE IS: kevinhoneycutt.org

Mike Cook’s advance comments:

Goal is to leave the conference with at least 1 thing that is going to improve learning for your kids
- if you can also leave with ideas to lighten the load on your teachers, that is great too
- focus on improving learning is our key focus

THEY ARE USING A VERY CLEVER IDEA FOR PRIZES, EACH PARTICIPANT HAS A BAGGIE OF BASEBALL PLAYING CARDS (BASEBALL IS THE CONFERENCE THEME: “THE FUTURE AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE” - YOGI BERRA) AND EACH ONE HAS AN ESSDACK STAFF MEMBER ON IT. AFTER EACH PRESENTATION SESSION YOU GET 2 NEW CARDS. THE GOAL IS TO HAVE THE COMPLETE “TEAM” FROM ESSDACK BY THE END OF THE CONFERENCE. GOOD IDEA, AND GREAT TO HAVE THE VISUAL “PLAYING CARDS” TO GET TO KNOW ESSDCACK STAFF MEMBERS AND THEIR ROLES.

Kevin’s keynote address:

I collect antiques and love old stuff, but I also like new stuff
- I love my iPhone, it challenged my marriage
- the book is an information conveyance like the iPhone, they do the same thing but differently
- picture of a book with an iPhone

Theme by Yogi Berra: “The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be”
- the brain learns in stories

How do you want to spend your heart beats? - Wesley Fryer (ACTUALLY CREDIT FOR THIS GOES TO WILLIAM (BILL) CASEBEER AND WILLIAM H. RHODES)

We learn through stories

We don’t choose our family, it chooses us
- looking for goodwill, school clothes shopping
- story of going into the Goodwill box through the slot
- people judge you on what you look like, and that is not fair
- story

This whole business of school is about relationships: connecting with kids and making them superstars

I grew up in a mobile home
- mobile homes are finger food for tornadoes

our dreams are based on our experiences
- trailer with skirting
-

HOw are you going to win me?
- the relationship is key

Want to find the best teacher in a building?
- often the one who is in trouble
- the one who is not afraid to get snot on them

when the human brain is on survival mode, it has a hard time learning
- the only way to help a child like that learn is to build a relationship and create a safe space

Intelligence is relative
- in Tennessee they said “That Yankee is sma-hert”
- then we moved to Pennsylvania where I was NOT smart (math teacher

in math if you miss 1 key concept which other things build on, you can have a defining moment

When we moved back to Kansas I was average again

I want to thank the Angels who were the teachers
- the ones who made the connections with us
- examples: recess aide, teacher

you never know when you are making a difference

first Honeycutt to graduate from college
- I was a teacher always helping other kids, and my own kids were always waiting
- story of the Honeycutt treehouse
- made one fast, son said “Dad that’s a deer stand”
- men need structure and limits
- went to Inman lumber and wrote a check for $1000

kids we teach today are living in a different world
- they are playing on digital playgrounds we didn’t play on
- we’ve got to get there so they are not alone
- Pomona High school we got computers first in 1984, we got two

the twitch generation
- kids can do more with two thumbs than many of us can do
- cell phone in hand, can take a picture and put it on myspace in 30 seconds
- what are the rules?

we have to talk to kids about these issues when they are very young

story of Atari vs. XBox
- old school
-

what are we willing to learn to connect with these kids?
- with all the digital things going on, how are we going to capture their attention
- video: Team Hoyt: Dick and Rick Hoyt

THIS IS SUCH A POWERFUL VIDEO, PARTICULARLY SET TO THE MUSIC… WOW. I LOVE HOW KEVIN HAS SITUATED THIS IN THE CONTEXT OF TEACHERS NEEDING TO FORGE MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS WITH STUDENTS.

take you to the finish line
- the son graduates
- people believed in him

research now in Second Life, quadriplegics can manipulate an avatar in SL
- can they work in that environment?

We want to grow good brains
-freedom and context
- allow kids’ brains the luxury of free-association and help foster, promote and grow richer neural networks

do many of our students know things but not know how to do things with the things they know
- we need to go for messy learning
- it can’t always be predictable
- we DON’T want forests without branches

Michael Gelb “Discover Your Own Genius”

Another video… student diagnosed with autism who is team manager for his high school basketball team

I collect “conversational lubricants”
- inspire teachers

How can we create chances to shine?
- Google Sketchup
- is the project kids are creating helping prepare them for their future?
- story of students figuring it out

you ever seen a kid “launch?”
- kids can grab this and go with it
- don’t try to learn it

Ginger will not “helicopter” for students (do the assignment for students)

change the world moment
- learning is free
- I work with schools who have nothing
- can you still do something
- UC Berkeley just put a lot of their curriculum on YouTube free
- learning is free, but you have to pay for the diploma

YouTube viral video of Charlie biting
- taking your teachers on a YouTube treasure hunt
- let them giggle and have fun

1- go find something funny

2- go find something personally rewarding that you can learn from

3- go find something that would be beneficial for your teaching

story of learning the guitar
- a yard sale guitar with no strings attached
- I taught myself to play the guitar
- kicked out of a music store for “thoughtlifting” guitar

student creates a video for “Long train running by The Doobie Brothers”

Guitar lessons for my kid?
- my role came when my son got a guitar
- playing stairway to heaven learning from a guy on YouTube
- who is this kid? Eddie Van Halen’s son?

son said: Dad it’s not personal. I can rewind this as many times as I want and he doe

we can help our kids become rock stars
- go to these sessions and learn the what, we can hook you up with

you work on the “why?”

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ttt08, ttt2008, essdack, learning, conference, technology, kansas, students, relationships, honeycutt, kevinhoneycutt

For several months now, my 10 year old son and I have been having LOTS of fun playing the online real-time war game Travian. We recorded podcasts in December 2007 and March 2008 to discuss what we have learned so far playing the game. This week, we have been focusing on “chiefing” other villages. There are two basic ways to expand your personal “empire” in Travian and build/obtain more villages. The first way is to build up your palace or residence (one of the buildings in each of your villages) to level 10, 15, or 20, and earn enough “culture points” to found a new village. You can found a new village either by training “settlers” who can be sent with basic resources to an unoccupied area on the virtual Travian map grid, or you can train a “chief” (in my case he is called a Senator, because I am in the Roman tribe) who can be sent repeatedly to another existing village. It is necessary to destroy the residence in the village you want to take over with your chief first, before sending the chief, and afterwards each time your chief arrives in the village he lowers the “loyalty” of that village by a percentage. When the village’s loyalty is lowered to zero, the entire village becomes yours. This entire process (which is admittedly and delightfully complex) is explained well in this official Travian tutorial, “Preventing Conquerings.” This is the screen I saw yesterday after having destroyed the residence of a nearby village and repeatedly sending my Senator to it with an armed escort:

I chose to “chief” a smaller village than Alexander did, and the player who owned the village I successfully “chiefed” wasn’t active in trying to fight off or resist my attacks. The situation with the village Alexander is trying to take over has been quite different, however. The population of the village is larger, and the player is very active. This situation has provided a great context for us to discuss math skills and learn some new ways to use mathematical tools as well as strategies to solve problems.

I have written previously about the value of playing Travian in terms of learning Internet safety. I have not posted about the mathematics learning value of Travian previously, but this has been one of the main reasons Travian caught my attention in the first place and I considered playing this game with my son. One evening a few months ago, Alexander was working out double digit multiplication problems on paper at the dining room table. He was not doing any homework, so I asked him what he was doing, and he explained that he was calculating how many resources he needed to trade or send to his village to build some type of new building. I was quite impressed that he was voluntarily doing some arithmetic “for fun,” and the more I learned about Travian, the more I learned about the value it can provide as a meaningful context for problem solving, math skills, communication skills, team leadership, and other important things.

I will post later about what Alexander has learned about coordinate plane geometry and two-dimensional graphing, because I am not able to locate a copy of one of the early graphs he created for our alliance using an online graphing program. This evening, I’d like to relate and document some of the learning I’ve seen him experience related to “chiefing” a new village.”

The following image shows a troop report from Alexander’s “rally point” in Travian, from his main village which he is using to “chief” or take over a neighboring village.

In this report, you can see that Alexander had sent two attacks to the target village. The first attack includes two different types of soldiers, battering rams, and trebuchets. (Trebuchets are the catapults or “cats” for Gauls in Travian.) This first attack is sent to destroy the “residence” building of the opponent. Alexander timed his second attack, which included soldiers that could move much faster because they weren’t traveling with battering rams at cats, to “land” (arrive) 1 minute and 34 seconds after the first attack landed. This was somewhat challenging to do, because of the different speeds of the attack forces. He did it, however, and the result was that his opponent did not have time to reconstruct (or start construction) on a new residence building after the first attack destroyed that building via the trebuchets.

Since I have a larger set of villages on our Travian server and want to help out my son, I offered (and he accepted) to send my own troops and catpults (called “Fire Catapults” since I am a Roman) to destroy the residence building in the village Alexander is trying to “chief.” I am much farther away, geographically, from the targeted village than Alexander’s main village is, however. One result of this difference is that my troops take MUCH longer to travel to that village and attack it. Travian is a realtime war and strategy came, which means events take place according to real time in the face-to-face world. Alexander’s cats can depart and land in the target village in a just under two hours, but it takes over ten hours for my troops and cats to land. Because of this challenge, last night we created a basic Excel spreadsheet together to make some calculations, based on the inputs we knew. We used the Travian website to calculate when I should send my troops and cats, so they could hopefully arrive just before Alexander’s. We were basing his options on when he would get up in the morning, since he couldn’t send the attacks in the middle of the night. This is what our spreadsheet looked like:

This morning Alexander launched his attack, but it turned out the defending player had enough time (about 30 minutes) to start reconstruction on his residence after my attacks had landed. The result was that Alexander’s “chief” attack failed. The message he received said the residence had not yet been destroyed:

In considering these events, keep in mind that Alexander is attending 4th grade at our local, public elementary school during the day, so is having to make these decisions and send out these attacks before and after school. (He doesn’t have web access to Travian during the day, since he doesn’t use his personal laptop at school at all or have an iPhone.) Since our attempted coordinated attack had failed this morning when he was at school, we discussed a new battle strategy late this afternoon. We realized that instead of sending ALL his cats in an initial “cleaning wave” attack, and then having to carefully time his second attack with his “chief” to arrive closely after the first one, he could hold back one cat (trebuchet) and send it with the chief’s attack. That way, the two attacking parties would have the same speed and “land” immediately after one another. The result? The first “cleaning attack” successfully destroyed the opponent village’s residence and village wall:

The second attack (including the “chief” who would persuade the inhabitants of the receiving village to have lessened “loyalty” to the current owner/ruler/player of that village) landed exactly 1 minute and 34 seconds later. The defending player didn’t have sufficient time to rebuild his/her residence, so the village’s loyalty was reduced by almost 25 percent:

This entire sequence of conversations, decisions, and actions by Alexander was a great opportunity to see him practice problem solving and mathematical calculations in a relevant, meaningful context. Too often in school, we are teaching skills “just in case” instead of “just in time.” Alexander is using his math skills and learning new ones in Travian, as well as further developing his problem solving skills, to accomplish tangible objectives he really cares about.

It is exciting to be learning and playing together in Travian, and to witness how online games like Travian can help young students develop a rich repertoire of skills– including mathematical abilities!

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travian, game, online, war, strategy, learning, excel, spreadsheet, problemsolving, problem, solving

Many advocates for effective technology integration in the classroom and in our lives discuss the importance of PERSONAL use of technology tools. As teachers (and others) embrace technology uses for tasks they find personally rewarding, engaging, meaningful and relevant, they begin to not only overcome some of their fears about using technologies but also begin to experience “a-ha” moments when they see potential uses for digital technologies which they did not consider previously. This process of personally experiencing the value of digital technologies to deepen and improve important relationships in our lives is VERY important, not only for teachers but also for our school board members, administrators, and anyone else involved in helping children in our communities learn. Too often I hear adults say things like, “I just think all technology is evil.” These folks need to “get out more” in a digital sense. I believe it is our responsibility, as advocates for the appropriate, safe and constructive uses of digital technologies, to help others understand and actually experience these types of positive, personal uses of technology.

In his keynote at 2007 Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference, Dr. Tim Tyson noted that when it comes to technology (and many other things) “people like what they know, they don’t know what they like.” It is important that we help others understand and experience the diverse ways technologies can be used to constructively support learning, communication and collaboration. This authentic process is the only viable way I think we help others move forward in their personal as well as professional uses of technologies. This is vital in a “big picture” sense as we strive to promote digital learning initiatives in our schools and communities like 1:1 learning, which can (potentially) have an amazing, transformative effect on multiple stakeholders in multiple ways. Those of us who are here for the learning revolution can serve as powerful catalysts of change in our local communities when we help others become aware of the possibilities and benefits of digital technologies which are used safely to communicate, collaborate, learn and play.

Roger Shank, author of the outstanding book “Coloring Outside the Lines” and a school reform revolutionary I heard present at the SITE 2007 conference in San Antonio as a keynote speaker, has created a new website called “Grandparent Games.” The website functions by providing screen content grandparents and grandchildren can discuss “live” (synchronously) even when they are living in different parts of the country or world. Internet-connected computers, a high speed Internet connection, microphones and webcams are on the required equipment list. According to the site:

We supply age-appropriate interactions to facilitate internet mediated play with your grandchild. All the interactions are really to help the grandparent talk with the grandchild about what is on the screen. For example, when the grandparent sends a “K” to the child the grandparent says what grandparents say when they are trying to teach – what letter is that? Is that an A? Is that a K? What sound does the K make? See the kite. The kite got stuck in the tree. Kkkite.

Internet-mediated play? This must be the 21st century. Of course it is, but things like “Internet-mediated play” have not found their way into many of our public and private schools. How can we help our own children as well as others experience the powerful, constructive potential of learning interactions like these– which can take place between people who are significant in our our lives and with whome we share important relationships? Grandparent Games offers some powerful possibilities.

Nothing beats grandparents and grandchildren having opportunities for face-to-face interaction, play and learning together. The reality of our third-wave society in many cases, however, is that grandparents and grandchildren often live far apart. Digital technologies and our network economy seem laden with the promise of greater personal connectivity. Cell phones have certainly allowed teens, college students, and parents to (in many cases) remain closer connected than ever before in history. Doesn’t the goal of bringing grandparents and grandchildren closer together via digital interactive possibilities and PLAY strike you as a great idea?

The philosophy of the site is straightforward:

People have been writing software for kids as long as there have been computers. What has changed is that there are now people (like me and other grandparents) who want to be and can be part of the interaction. Just think – a grandparent on the other end of the computer makes the computer as teacher a much more powerful idea. A kid who is staring at a computer for hours is a way different thing than a kid who is talking to his grandfather via computer for hours. Together, the two are doing something that’s better for both.

To make this happen we need a software environment that will facilitate the interaction between grandparent and grandchild so that they both will want to engage on a daily basis. The connection part is getting very easy. Today with instant messaging and a webcam and microphone you can talk to and see another person. This will only get better. So, assuming the grandparent can see and talk to the grandchild on the computer with ease, what can they do together?

Roger has used the site for two years now with his own grandson who is not yet three years old. I’m eager to show this to my parents and in-laws to see if they are interested in using this site with our 4 year old daughter, Rachel. If you have grandchildren or have children who would like to interact with their grandparents more but live apart, let them know about Grandparent Games and facilitate those connections. I’m going to give it a try and will report on what experiences we have here in later posts.

Thanks to Roger for emailing me about Grandparent Games to let me know about it. The cost of the site is $10 per month, which is paid by the grandparent. Grandkids don’t pay to connect, they (with their parents help, of course) use the grandparent’s email address to connect to them. To read more about the site, it’s educational philosophy and the experiences of Roger and others using the site, check out Roger’s blog for the site, “Papa Talks.”

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grandparent, grandchild, interaction, play, mediated, internet, webcam, shank, rogershank

If Randy Pausch’s final lecture is representative of intellectual and emotional passion to be found on campus, Carnegie Mellon University must be an incredible place to learn. I watched Dr. Pausch’s final lecture, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” via YouTube on our living room television this evening with my wife thanks to a tweet by Valerie Byrd Fort earlier this evening. The video runs 76 minutes, but is WELL worth watching, thinking about and discussing.

I think I’ve read about The Alice Project (”an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web”) previously, but I did not know much about the background, focus and goals of the initiative before watching this lecture. I certainly had not heard of Caitlin Kelleher and her related project, “Storytelling Alice.” (@klmontgomery you should look up Dr. Kelleher, she’s a professor at Washington University in St. Louis!) I’m very interested in tangibly advancing student interest and PASSION related to computer programming, scientific inquiry, and love of mathematics, and The Alice Project (similar but more advanced than Scratch) shares those goals.

Dr. Pausch shared some very practical advice along with insightful and often humorous experiences from his life in this lecture. Here are a few of his thoughts which I jotted down during the video, along with a few of my own responses and reflections.

Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.

Wow is that ever true. Reminds me of my own experiences in and following pilot training. I know the Center for Digital Storytelling asks workshop participants to tell stories from major turning points or “crossroads” in their lives, because those moments often provide a rich context for meaningful stories about “lessons learned.” That has certainly been part of my own life experiences.

Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you.

Dr. Pausch attributed this quotation to John Snoddy (sp?) who he worked with at Walt Disney Imagineering. Patience can be SO hard, particularly when you passionately want something to happen or change. Encouraging patience and faith in the positive potential of everyone is good advice.

In the context of the Carnegie Mellon Course “Building Virtual Worlds” and Randy’s amazement at the quality of the students’ first effort projects when the course began, Randy quoted Andy Van Dam as saying:

Obviously you don’t know where the bar should be and you are going to do everyone a disservice by trying to set it.

This quotation invites me to think of our federal government, state legislatures, and NCLB, as each defines the bar of minimum standards in terms of competencies which might have been “good enough” in the 19th century.

Just as I had not heard of the “Building Virtual Worlds” course at CMU, I had also not heard of Carnegie Mellon’s innovative Entertainment Technology Center. Wow. A “Masters of Entertainment Technology” degree? A curriculum which is entirely project-based? According to Randy:

All your time [as a student in this program] is spent working in small teams and building projects.

The focus is on DOING things, CREATING things, working intensively with others. What a concept for an academic institution. Actually supporting a learning culture which closely mirrors the work environments of highly creative, successful non-academic organizations. Revolutionary.

According to Randy, some of the most important keys to life success and realizing your dreams is to:

Focus on people and learn to work well in groups.

Again, what a concept for schools. Too often, even today in 2008, “collaboration” in our K-12 public schools (and often universities) is regarded as “cheating.” Many educators fail to recognize and appropriately respond to the fact that most of life is open note, open phone, and open colleague.

Randy designed the Virtual Worlds course to be “infinitely scalable.” Wow. Now that is an academic course goal you don’t hear everyday.

The Alice Project does not merely offer a novel way to teach computer programming– according to Randy, it is a “head fake” which encourages kids to have fun telling stories– having fun while learning something hard. Again, what a great concept. According to Randy, 10% of U.S. universities are currently using Alice software. The 3.0 release is coming in 2008. Alice 2.0 is designed for high school and college students, and available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platforms. Storytelling Alice is designed for Middle School students. According to the “About Alice” website:

Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a freely available teaching tool designed to be a student’s first exposure to object-oriented programming. It allows students to learn fundamental programming concepts in the context of creating animated movies and simple video games. In Alice, 3-D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world and students create a program to animate the objects.

In addition to the introductory videos available on the CMU website, a preview video of Alice 3.0 is available on YouTube from a December 2007 Google Tech Talk.

Randy encouraged the audience in his final lecture to make a decision and make the right one: Do you choose to be a Tigger or an Eeyore? His encouragement to “never lose your childlike wonder” reminded me of the group connected to the MIT Media Lab, “Lifelong Kindergarten.” Their goal?

Sowing the seeds for a more creative society.

Now that’s a group I’d like to garden with.

A few other quotations worth remembering from the lecture:

MK Haley from Walt Disney Imagineering:

It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.

Advice from Randy for getting others to help you:

• Tell the truth.
• Be earnest.
• Apologize when you screw up.
• Focus on others, not yourself.

Several times Randy shared a version of the following statement on “brick walls:”

Brick walls let us show our dedication, they are there to separate us from others who really don’t want to be there.

The following piece of advice reminded me of my own blog:

Get a feedback loop and listen to it. Listening is the hard part.

Again, a great nugget of wisdom.

No one is completely evil.

Last of all:

Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.

Amen. Godspeed Randy Pausch, as you continue your battle with cancer. You have given a great deal to many, and our world is clearly a richer place because of your passion and willingness to share it.

Technorati Tags:
programming, creativity, carnegiemellon, pausch, education, pbl, projectbasedlearning, youtube, innovation, passion

This podcast is a recorded conversation about the online game Travian recorded thanks to Skype-out VOIP technology, Call Recorder software, iPhone conference calling, and a very tech-literate ten year old Oklahoman named Alexander. Alexander, Devin Henley, and Wesley Fryer recorded this conversation from their respective locations in Edmond, Oklahoma; Wichita, Kansas; and northbound on Interstate 35 between Edmond and Wichita on Saturday, March 22, 2008. This discussion built on the ideas shared in a mid-December 2007 podcast recording about Travian, which is linked in the podcast shownotes. In this recorded conversation, participants discussed the experiences of the US Speed Server 3 ending (as the “Wonder of the World” was built to level 100), the importance of communication and courtesy in Travian diplomacy, and many of the lessons learned relating to alliances. The importance of alliances for protection, the varying ways forums are used, and an incident which amounted to “Travian terrorism” or bullying was also discussed. The conversation touched on issues relating to the founding of new villages, resource fields and the benefits of multipliers as well as a trade office, the importance of sitters, and the benefits as well as pitfalls of using an iPhone to play Travian. A wealth of lessons as well as fun await Travian players, who are engaged in an ongoing, real-time war game with thousands of others located around the world. Welcome to a much-evolved game of “Risk” in the 21st century connected infoverse: Travian! Participants hope by listening to this podcast you’ll learn more about the game Travian. If you have feedback or comments about our discussion or ideas, PLEASE leave a comment!

 

 Podcast240: Travian Tips and Lessons Learned After Four Months Playing Online [66:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2038)

Show Notes:

1. Our first podcast about playing Travian: Podcast209: A 10 year old discusses Travian, an online simulation war game
2. Travian.us
3. Travian FAQ

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Technorati Tags: travian, game, war, online, fun, learning, collaboration, multiplayer, math

These are my notes from Marc Prensky’s NCCE 2008 opening keynote. My thoughts and comments are in ALL CAPS. I heard Marc share this presentation in 2006 at TCEA, and my notes from that preso remain online / available. NCCE is recording a video of Marc’s presentation which they will be posting later as a web video / downloadable podcast. Marc’s website is www.marcprensky.com.

Marc was a concert musician earlier in life!

response to NCCE 2008 program that had recipient’s first name spelled out with coffee beans

slide of Marc’s educational credentials
- the best thing I get to do now is interview kids all over the world now

what I do, is think about education from the point of view of the student
- I make R&D projects
- my latest book: “Don’t Bother Me Mom, I’m Learning”
- no one wanted to publish that book originally
- now it has been translated into 7 foreign languages

I was in Rome recently for the launch of the Italian version of my book

this morning I want to talk about “engage me or enrage me”
- how do we deal with today’s learners differently than we might have in the past

My biggest concern as an educator is:
- answer this question on a piece of paper NOW, and I will collect them
- write down 1 or 2 words

MY RESPONSE: THE LACK OF APPROPRIATE EDUCATIONAL VISION

I think it should be: “keeping up with change”
- kids have passion about the future
- 30 years from now, not that far
- our kids will either cry or laugh at the education we gave them in 2008

how many of you have sent an email in the past 24 hours
- “email is for old people” - a student
- that was a headline in The Chronicle of Higher Education
- elaborate email infrastructure put in by colleges

Did you have a good vacation
- image of parent dragging kid into the car, clutching his desktop computer

we need to understand the speed and magnitude of change that is here and the change that is coming, which is much greater

in 30 yars if technology ocntinues to double in power every year, our technology will be 1 billion times more powerful than todya

SO THIS IS THE SOURCE FOR THAT STATEMENT IN THE RECENT EDUTOPIA ARTICLE WHICH MARC WROTE!

what does that mean

1960s mainframe x 1B = today’s cell phone x 1 B = ???

we can do on today’s cell phone what people did with room-sized computers in the 1960s
- these are 1 billion time increases

today we are already working at the ATOMIC level
- every movie ever made, book ever written, will be placeable on a pinhead

my favorite quote in the world: “charles handy: walking backward into the future helps us keep looking at familiar things…”
- this leads to us getting creamed by the truck

2 things going on simultaneously
- most of us have not experienced much rapid change in the bulk of our lives
- we went to the moon, but we drive the same cars to go to the same jobs, etc…

the discontinuity is digital technology
- from now on, things are changing exponentially
- that is not just SO FAR OFF in the future
- our lives get different every day now
- you have probably changed the way you do banking, phoning, traveling, reading, buying and selling, obtaining info

THIS IS A GREAT POINT, THESE ARE CURRENT CHANGES, NOT JUST FUTURE CHANGES

for young people, ramp up these changes 10 fold

kids are approaching their lives differently

Net Day “Speak-Up Day” summary
- tomorrow.org
- they interview kids every year about technology preferences
- the emerging online life of the digital native

young people are figuring out new ways to do these things: communicating, sharing, buying and selling, exchanging, learning, meeting, gaming, coordinating, evaluating, collecting, creating, evolving, searching, analyzing, reporting, programming, socializing, growing up

5 to 10 years we are not going to have cash or credit cars: we will wave our cell phones in front of devices

the single largest differentiator is the social network
- Jack Mckenzie

Equity?

we can be a big part of the solution to the digital divide

within the next 5 years, the WiMax people of the year have a new thing that educators will be able to build their own towers, manage their own

inkwell program building their own computers for education
- ruggedized computers for education

software coming out now that will be really good, and adapt to each student
- when these things appear, the changeover is instantaneous almost

remember when we used to not use keyword searching for the web
- speed of change is happening in our lives

Kids were born to the idea of rapid change
- the change that empowers the students is often threatening to educators and adults in general (those who came before these changes)

are you threatened by unfiltered student access to the internet?
- unfiltered access to test answers?
- to grade books? (that is hackable!)
- to your personal records (personnel records)

secrecy is one of the things that is going away with this new technology
- the very nature of education is changing

the font of knowledge is the internet, not the teacher (quotation from a principal in Australia)

now the future is really uncertain
- now we are going to have to invent new tools

remember when we couldn’t collect political contributions on the Internet?
- when we couldn’t auction things on the Internet? (now that is one of the biggest businesses in the world)

how many of you see your role in eduation helping students with skills for an unknown future

our kids are not “little us’s” anymore
- video of lots of small kids in a house talking on the cell phone

almost every student already has a powerful computer
- we are far along with 1:1, because a great percentage of your students has a powerful computer in their pocket: a cell phone

cell phones are
- powerful computers
- inexpensive
- more….

what is missing here is often our imagination

question for you: (ethical)
- suppose in the middle of the day, you got a call from your own son or daughter asking you a strange question: what is the capital of Sri Lanka?
- you know the answer, but suspect that your son or daughter is in the middle of a test

that is an interesting question because we are right in the middle
- we should want to help our kids to use their tools

we need to evaluate these rules and change them appropriately

i believe in open phone tests
- and we laugh….
- but we are going to take an open phone test NOW

1. Who is Craig Venter and why is he important?
2. What has he been collecting from around the world and why?
3. If you know the answers to 1 and 2, find out something about him that you didn’t know

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Venter

the teachers who give open phone tests can ask harder questions
- high school senior said after a presentation: most of our tests are already open phone tests, you guys just don’t know it….

let’s get with the program folks!
- we don’t have to ban this stuff
- we can use it appropriately
- you are going to see all sorts of tools

think about how you can integrate cell phones into your teaching

kids ask: how can we adapt?

What do kids like?