Moving at the Speed of Creativity

We’ve received some snow in St Louis, but the Midwest Educational Technology Conference (METC) goes on! Yesterday pre-conference workshops were held, and today and tomorrow are the “regular days” of the conference. Here are links to the resources I’ll be sharing in my sessions today.

Storychasing Literacy (a.k.a. “StoryChasing: Empowering Students as Digital Witnesses”)

Prior to the keynote this morning, I’m most likely going to share quotations from the Flickr group, “Great quotes about Learning and Change.” Both today and tomorrow, keynote and featured speaker sessions will be streamed live, via links available on the METC 2010 Moodle.

My afternoon session is “Geo-StoryChasing: Mobile Digital Storytelling!” If time permits during this morning’s keynote, I may demonstrate the Powerful Ingredients Administrative Walkthrough Rubric which is accessible as a Google Form on a smartphone like an iPhone or Blackberry.

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I’ve set up three different websites with Wordpress in the past year for local nonprofits, and I need to help the leaders of each organization begin using their sites to post updated information. I’m utilizing screencast tutorials from Wordpress.tv in this post to create training materials for these individuals as they start using Wordpress. I’m sharing this information and these videos here since this also might be of interest if you’re getting started with Wordpress!

To use and apply these tutorials, you’ll need the login credentials to your Wordpress website. Generally that is the public address of your site, followed by the directory name “/wp-admin” (without quotation marks.) This should direct you to the login page for your site. Then use the username and password for your account. Depending on the “rights” assigned to your account, you’ll have different authoring and configuration abilities within the Wordpress administrative area. If you don’t have a Wordpress account but would like to try one out for free, setup an account on Wordpress.com. If you’re an educator, I recommend you setup a free Wordpress account with EduBlogs because of their great support and the very active educational bloggging community (with students as well as teachers) already there.

Let’s get started with a few basic Wordpress user tutorials. Click the direct link for each one if you’d like to view a larger version.

1. Start off with an overview / introduction to the Wordpress dashboard.

2. Second, learn how to write and publish a post on Wordpress.

3. You won’t always finish a post at one sitting, so next learn how to write draft posts which you can return to at a later date with Wordpress.

4. Organization of Wordpress sites is accomplished mainly through the use of different categories for posts as well as “tags.” Learn how to add categories and tags to your Wordpress posts.

5. Last of all, learn how to add photos, video, and other media to your Wordpress posts.

Many of the screencast tutorials on Wordpress.tv apply to Wordpress developers, rather than users, so don’t be overwhelmed by the options. As a new user, I recommend starting with the tutorials available in the Writing with Wordpress category after you view and practice with the five tutorials I’ve highlighted in this post.

In addition to these tutorials also utilize the free “how to” articles on the Wordpress Codex.

Good luck with your Wordpress writing and publishing! Blog on!

Cross-posted to the Powerful Ingredients Workshop Mini-Lessons wiki.

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I am impressed with the ability of the iPhone / iPod Touch application Instapaper Free to create offline, mobile-friendly versions of any webpage. The following five minute screencast demonstrates how you can do this on an iPhone or iPod Touch. You’ll want to download the Instapaper Free application first and create a free Instapaper account.

I love how Instapaper formats webpages which are NOT “mobile-friendly” into very usable / readable versions, which are available offline (when you do not have connectivity to WiFi or cellular network data service) after you “refresh” your Instapaper application to sync up online. Instapaper also works with Google Documents, although they are in a “read-only” format when you make a copy of them with Instapaper. This is a GREAT, free application which certainly has MANY potential applications for 1:1 learning settings when all students have access to an iPod Touch, or when students are using iPod Touches on a mobile cart at school.

For more great suggestions for iPhone and iPod Touch applications, see Kern Kelley’s 2009 K-12 Online Conference Presentation, “The iPod Touch in the Classroom.”

I also have shared my iPhone application list via Appolicious.

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Larry Lessig is a thought leader and author I deeply respect. Thanks to Michelle Thorne’s post yesterday on the Creative Commons blog, I learned about Dr. Lessig’s presentation from November at EduCause which is available on blip.tv, “It is About Time: Getting Our Values Around Copyright.” If you are remotely interested in copyright and intellectual property issues as they apply within educational contexts, consider this presentation “required viewing” for yourself sometime soon.

Since videos on blip are automatically playable and available on iPhones and iPod Touches, I was able to watch this outstanding hour long presentation in several “pieces” on my iPhone as I tended to different tasks in different places throughout the day yesterday. Mobile learning can be a wonderful thing! Here are some of my notes from the presentation, which I scrawled on some pieces of scratch paper as I watched the video.

“The platform through which we gain access to our culture has changed radically.” Dr. Lessig is not simply concerned about music and movies, the focus of his passion in this presentation and in his work in other arenas is our CULTURE. We enjoy and share our culture in many different ways, and I found this statement in the presentation so profound I am using it as the title of this post. This “radical change to cultural access” should not only have dramatic effects on the ways we view law in our country (including copyright law) but it should also profoundly affect the way we view education and learning. There is no question every one of our students today, in our schools and in our homes, should be provided with mobile, wireless technologies to access as well as contribute to our shared culture. Things have changed radically with respect to how we increasingly access to our culture digitally today. The tools with which we empower learners should change radically as well.

Dr. Lessig referenced the “Allen Institute for Brain Science” and some impressive brain mapping projects they have done in his remarks. This would be worth checking out in more detail.

Creative Commons “seeks to change behavioral norms.” As an educational change agent, that describes many of my goals as well. Dr. Lessig explained how changing OUR behavioral norms, with respect to copyright and the licensing of works, is most likely a far more constructive and potentially successful strategy than trying to change the law as it currently stands. One of the big objectives of CC is to “enable people to respect copyright rights without invoking the costly intervention of lawyers.” That IS a noble goal.

There were (as of November 2009) over 100 million Creative Commons licensed images on Flickr alone. Wow. Dr. Lessig exhorted the EduCause audience to become radical advocates for Creative Commons and the values it represents. I’m on that Mardi Gras float 100%.

An interesting array of organizations are now licensing their media with Creative Commons. This includes the U.S. White House, Al Jazeera, and WikiPedia. What about teachers in your school district?

The Public Library of Science is doing great work, and is committed to great ideals. Too bad we can’t say the same thing about US medical insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. (That aside is my own, not Dr. Lessig’s btw.)

Over 1000 academic journals now use CC licenses. The open access movement continues to gain supporters. In 2007 CC launched the ccLearn project to try and shepherd the diverse and growing OER (open educational resources) movement. If I’d heard of ccLearn previously, for some reason it didn’t stick. I’m delighted to hear about this and want to learn more. ccLearn is on Twitter.

One aim of CC is to “simplify personal sharing.” One example Dr. Lessig cited was the “Personal Genome Project.” I don’t think I’ll be trying to sign up, but this is certainly a fascinating project and example of the power open licensing can have thanks to CC.

The Google Print Project became the Google Book Search Project and is now simply known as “Google Books.” We have 18 million books in all as a human race currently, and about 9% of those are in copyright and in print. 16% are in the public domain. That leaves 75% “presumptively in copyright but not in print,” with (usually) no one available to ask about permission to reprint or repost in digital formats. Dr. Lessig’s review of the history of Google Books and the outcome of the publisher’s lawsuit against Google was very enlightening to me. I’d read about some of this, but hadn’t heard anyone connect the dots as he did in this presentation. I wish book publishers had not sued Google and had allowed this project to progress unhindered. We would all be better off with complete access to that “75%” of books which don’t have an entity which can give reprint/republication permission.

I had not heard of the US civil rights documentary, “Eyes on the Prize.” It is tragic our current copyright laws make it impossible for this video series to be re-released in another format. It is not available to consumers, but is available in some schools and libraries. I am going to see if I can find a copy and see it.

Our copyright system currently does a very poor job, in many cases, telling us who owns what.

Our “ecology of access” today remains the library, for many purposes. That can and should change to digital formats. But will it? Will we make our books have a fate similar to documentary films? We need a digital bookstore, and NOT simply a commercial one of books currently in print. As Dr Lessig said, we need to avoid “protecting the past against the future.”

Great closing quotation from Peter Drucker:

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

That reminds me of computer-based spelling tests. Let’s get learners of all ages more motivated to read and to write, and just ditch the whole spelling test model. Sadly, many educators will persist in traditional patterns of behavior which are easy and comfortable, irrespective of whether they are right or desirable.

Dr Lessig opposes the growing “copyright abolitionism movement,” because he views a baseline of copyright as essential for our society. He opposes our current paradigm, however, which criminalizes the remixing of culture. As he says, we can’t make kids passive, but we can make them pirates. Unfortunately many of our laws do just that today. The time has come, as he points out, to change that reality.

Will 2010 be “The Year of the Tablet?” New York Times blogger Nick Bilton thinks so. Two days ago he wrote:

Like almost all the people covering technology, I have no doubt that Apple will release a tabletlike device in 2010; there are too many signs that point in this direction. Let’s put all the rumors aside for a moment and look at the facts. There’s the endless chain of patents, as Brad Stone reported in The New York Times in late September on the rehiring of Michael Tchao, who worked on the Apple Newton. I’ve had many discussions with publishers and content creators that sustain my suspicions.

But the icing on the cake comes from a current senior employee inside Apple. When one of my colleagues here asked if the rumors of the Apple tablet were true, and when we could expect such a device, the response from his source was, “I can’t really say anything, but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.”

On the same day, David Gelles wrote in the Financial Times’ TechBlog:

Apple has something big up its sleeve for next month. The company has rented a stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for several days in late January, according to people familiar with the plans. Apple is expected to use the venue to make a major product announcement on Tuesday, January 26th.

Many people rightly observe we’ve had tablet technologies for years, so what could be so special about an APPLE tablet? Chris Foresman is on the right track writing today:

If Apple’s top talent put six years or more into development, and it meets Steve Jobs’s legendary high expectations, we’re sure Apple’s tablet will be yet another game-changer in a long line of game-changing devices.

The fact that Apple has already designed wildly successful tablet technologies in the iPhone and the iPod Touch figures big in this equation. I only hope the battery life on this new tablet is WAY better than what I’m getting now with my iPhone GS.

While few doubt Apple’s ability to engineer and deliver YET MORE revolutionary technologies, I think one of the most pivotal pieces to this puzzle is CONTENT.

What significance do you place on the fact that the latest iterations of iTunes prominently feature iTunesU right in the program’s “Library” menu, and a major push at every Apple presentation I’ve watched in the past year has been showcasing the content in iTunesU?

I think Apple is poised to reinvent textbooks on college and university campuses, wooing digitally-leery textbook publishers with the same DRM technology that convinced music publishers (and now many movie publishers) to embrace the iTunes Store. I also think this disintermediation of the textbook publishing process (via the iTunes Store) will be a huge boon to wanna-be authors like yours truly. I could be wrong, of course, but this is how I read the tea leaves.

December 23rd was a very interesting day to read headlines related to eBooks and eTexts. Adam Penenberg’s article for FastCompany, “Forget E-Books: The Future of the Book Is Far More Interesting,” makes a compelling historical case for the death of analog print and its transformation into communication mediums we have not yet begun to imagine. He paints an exciting picture of the not-so-distant future of reading. To make his point, Adam writes about one of my favorite Oklahoma inventors and inveterate explorers, Wiley Post.

Imagine a biography of Wiley Post, the one-eyed pilot from the 1930s who was the first to fly around the world. It would not only offer the entire text of a book but newsreel footage from his era, coverage of his most famous flights, radio interviews, schematics of his plane, interactive maps of his journeys, interviews with aviation historians and pilots of today, a virtual tour of his cockpit and description of every gauge and dial, short profiles of other flyers of his time, photos, hyperlinked endnotes and index, links to other resources on the subject. Social media could be woven into the fabric of the experience–discussion threads and wikis where readers share information, photos, video, and add their own content to Post’s story, which would tie them more closely to the book. There’s also the potential for additional revenue streams: You could buy MP3s of popular songs from the 1930s, clothes that were the hot thing back then, model airplanes, other printed books, DVDs, journals, and memorabilia.

Adam’s analysis is right on target: He’s “… not predicting the end of immersive reading,” but rather an engaging, multimedia expansion of what it means to consume as well as produce and share ideas on a global scale. How could any language arts teacher passionate about learning, ideas and expression take issue with THAT vision?!

Have you seen the design prototype of the OLPC Version 3, touted to sell in 2012 for $75 US?

Whether or not you share the ire of Wayan Vota for Nicholas Negroponte’s apparent focus on hardware innovation at the expense of children’s learning, or wonder (as I do too) if the ability of the XO 1.5 to run Windows 7 represents “… an end to the Open Source roots of OLPC,” it is hard to miss the trendlines here. Tablet technologies are already here and are wildly popular with many consumers. Tech companies are working and will continue to work to not just digitize past processes of work, but REINVENT the ways we work and play.

For a more positive take on the XO 3 design announcement, see Kit Eaton’s article from – you guessed it, December 23rd – “How the OLPC Version 3 Predicts the Future of PCs.”

Whether Apple makes a historic announcement on January 26th or not, it’s safe to say we should all get ready for an exciting year to read (and share) media.

H/T to Philip Elmer-DeWitt for several of the links included in this post.

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I’m helping members of my son’s Boy Scout troop design and develop a new website using Wordpress, and we had a meeting tonight to discuss both content and design elements of the site. One of the boys shared a forum he has recently created using the free website ForumMotion. It warms my heart to see examples of how he’s been writing stories for fun on the site, and sharing them with others.

My own son has been enjoying stories shared on FanFiction lately. These websites and reading opportunities certainly raise new issues which I did not face at this scale when I was growing up, but on balance I think the access to ideas which is available today is VERY positive and desirable. What a contrast most school websites are today to these interactive spaces where young people can create and publish.

Who would have imagined even ten years ago that it would become so easy to publish ideas interactively for a global audience?

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My 12 year old son recently discovered the website FanFiction.net, and today we had a discussion about eBooks which got me thinking about the possibility of creating eBooks from online FanFiction books. It turns out this is possible and free to do, using the programs Fanfiction Downloader and Stanza. Stanza is distributed as a cross-platform application. FanFiction Downloader is distributed as a Windows-executable file, but can also run on Macintosh as well as Linux computers thanks to Wine. I used WineBottler to successfully run Fanfiction Downloader and create a .mobi formatted eBook which I was able to transfer to my iPhone for reading using the eBook reader Stanza. Note that remarkably, I did NOT have to use a Windows-emulator program like Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion to do this, or own a licensed copy of Windows. Wine software rocks!

After launching Fanfiction Downloader, you will need to paste the URL of the FanFiction book you want to download. Click continue. In step 2, click CONTINUE to check the downloadability of all the available chapters. In step 3, click the radio button to “Save as a Mobipocket eBook” and click DOWNLOAD. If you use Wine to run Fanfiction Downloader, the program should save your converted eBook in the following directory:

Your home directory / Wine Files / drive_c

Transfer the converted .mobi book to your iPhone using these steps, which involve opening the eBook on the desktop version of Stanza, enabling “sharing” from the “Tools” menu, and then browsing for shared books on the iPhone / iPod Touch version of Stanza and clicking the download link. Note the iPhone/iPod Touch needs to be on the same wifi network as the laptop or desktop computer running Stanza for this ebook sharing functionality to work.

The biggest disadvantage of this method is for “books in progress,” all steps must be repeated when new chapter(s) of a book become available. Perhaps someone will write a native iPhone / iPod Touch application which will do this in a cleaner, more straightforward way. It’s super that this CAN be done at all, however, using FREE software tools than run on ANY platform. Thanks to Wine, as a Mac user I don’t have to wring my hands and say, “Gee I wish someone would port that program over to Macintosh!” That’s quite a beautiful thing.

Note the free Stanza desktop application can convert just about any text file into an eBook which can be read on mobile devices like iPhones and iPod Touches. Gary Stager boldly challenges educators and students engaged in 1:1 laptop learning programs to write novels with their technology devices. Now you know how to take those novels and share them with each other via free eBook Reader applications.

Now go and write them, and empower others to write them! Our children and students need to be PUBLISHING on websites like fanfiction, not simply reading and consuming the stories there!

H/T to a MobileRead forum post thread from last month for the reference to FanFiction Downloader.

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Yesterday, following Maria Henderson’s mention of Rachel Fershleiser’s book “Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure” and challenge to apply this model to twenty-first century learning, I tweeted the following:

New meme #21c6w tweet a 6 word story that communicates the essence of 21st century learning

So far, I think people have submitted some pretty creative ideas. (Definitely better than my own.) Some of my favorites so far are:

“allow me 2 collaborate 2 educate” (Anita Harris)

“my kids and I learned together” (lisibo)

“You create, I comment, all learn!” (acrozier22)

“I share, you share, we learn” (Elaine Plybon)

“Now the world is my cohort” (Joshua Williams)

The most thought provoking response, however, came from Jake Little:

“Shouting into darkness, waiting for response”

How many times DOES social media feel this way? Apparently often, for many people, and I think those reasons are worth exploring.

This afternoon I shared a presentation over video as part of the Tandberg Connections Program titled, “Introduction to Twitter.” One of the participants has previously set up a Twitter account, had posted a few things, and had lost interest. She had not followed anyone. She attended today’s presentation over video to learn why other people liked Twitter and why.

From what I understood Clay Shirky to say in his book, “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations,” a large percentage of social media use today involves people communicating with others in common face-to-face social networks. The emergence of “fans” and “stars” in social media follows the power law Shirky talks about often in his book. On pages 124-125 he wrote:

This pattern is general to social media: on mailing lists with more than a couple dozen participants, the most active writer is generally much more active than the person in the number-two slot, and far more active than average. The longest conversation goes on much longer than the second-longest one, and much longer than average, and so on. Bloggers, Wikipedia contributors, photographers, people conversing on mailing lists, and social participation in many other large-scale systems all exhibit a similar pattern… Fewer than two percent of Wikipedia users ever contribute, yet that is enough to create profound value for millions of users…. most large social experiments are engines for harnessing inequality rather than limiting it.

As we struggle to understand “the new literacies” of our age, in both six word “stories” as well as longer tomes, it’s important to acknowledge and understand the dynamics of the power law. While access to the Internet and blogging platforms theoretically can give everyone a loud voice, the dynamics of individual human and social psychology mean that not everyone wants to have a loud voice online or will. If you feel like you are tweeting or blogging “into the darkness,” instead of quitting, seek out a room with some light.

The next three weeks, the FREE K-12 Online Conference provides an outstanding opportunity to reflect, share, and connect. On the Ning site for the conference, participants are able to share Twitter IDs along with blog or other website addresses. The conference is as much about connecting and sharing as it is about consuming and listening.

Jake’s 6 word story reminds me how important it is that we find ways to help students in our classrooms become thoughtful and responsive audiences for each other in the social media landscape. Kathy Cassidy’s presentation from K12Online08, “We Like Our Blogging Buddies: The Write Stuff with Blogging Mentors” remains one of my favorite examples of this ethic. How wonderful it would be if we see more classrooms following the lead of Kathy and connecting with blogging mentors as well as partners to improve expressive literacy skills.

How is this for a six word story on the “#21c6w” meme?

Thoughtfully listening and responding to others.

Certainly that does NOT describe much of the commenting we see happening on YouTube every day. It should, however, characterize a lot of the communication we see taking place inside and outside our classrooms.

In 6 words, what does 21st century learning mean to you? Please join our brainstorm.

And our conference.

Let’s “bridge the divide” by letting our lights shine together.

k12online09flyer-GMT

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These are my notes from Bruce Dixon’s session titled “21 Steps to 21st Century Learning” at the AALF / Oklahoma SDE 1:1 Learning Conference, November 30, 2009. This event is organized by the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation, and sponsored by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

5 years ago we’d barely had YouTube

YouTube has taken over dominance in bandwidth

staged photograph by Apple: Journalism school a the University of Missouri

not having a conversation with your community about this, everyone’s expections, is hurting you

how many of your parents are expecting:
- laptops to be used all day?
- will be worried if the laptops are used at school more than 2 hours

What you think they think they may not know

KEY: Building communication strategies around your initiatives is #1
- if you don’t build a messaging strategy that insures every
- what, how and why are you going to do this

question: What should ubiquitous technology access make possible for schools, teachers and learners

Brainstorms
- individualized learning
- equity
- access
- creativity
- engaging
- exciting
- hard fun (that is what Papert calls it)

We have to stop thinking that people are reading minds
- we have to be able to understand it and articulate it
- this is not easy
- there are some imperatives that are driving this

When every child in your class have their own laptops, the first thing that will happen is that WHEN we teach much change

WHERE we teach must also change

WHAT we teach must change as well

Heart of it all: HOW we teach must change

It is all about these simple ideas: When, where, what and how
- this does NOT mean we are going to throw the baby out with the bathwater
- it does not mean we are going to stop learning from all our years of experience working with young people
- if we are going to transform learning experiences, then these things must happen

what is classroom transformation: reconceptualizing learning for students

If you get software like Fathom where you do hands-on concept development, and THEN go to formulas is SO strong to develop deep understandings of complex mathematical ideas

SOME OF THAT FATHOM FUNCTIONALITY IS AVAILABLE NOW AS WIDGETS IN GOOGLE SPREADSHEETS I THINK

When you start to talk with your faculty about how you can talk about more in-depth

in the past we used to send teachers off to “skills courses” hoping teachers would use the computer more in their classrooms
- many of the teachers didn’t have computers in their classrooms
- how can make it meaningful

so we’ve been focused on the wrong things, like “skilling”

kids are going to be historians, not just learn about the facts of history
- that is what we want the technology to do

21 Steps to 1 to 1 Success
- without this you come unstuck
- we are going to go through the major points
- we are in the 21st century
- some of these are common sense (distribute laptops)
- others require months and months of work

Imperatives driving New Visions for Education
- the economic imperative (increasing accountability, shifting economoic foundations)
- the paradox of universal education (unengaged and disenfranchised vs Rich, Relevant and Rigorous – the existing model is simply no longer adequate)
- the globalization of education (unlimited access to vast resources: connecting to experts and ideas – a shirt in the context of expertise and control)
- 21st century challenged (rethinking the essentials of what is 21st cneutry learning, collaboration with teams – global perspectives)
- Digital Lifestyle: multi-modal, multi-literate… multi-tasking – continually connected through new mediums for learning

We used to have viable excuses for NOT doing global collaborative projects
- money is no longer the issue
- time zones are still the main obstacle
- tools and access ARE there now: why aren’t we doing these kinds of projects more?

How the demand for skills has changed
- Levy and Murnane: Identified by the OECD “Learning and Technology, World Forum 2009″
- huge drop off on “routine cognitive” jobs
- the skills that are easiest to teach and test are also the ones that are easiest to digitize and outsource

Mckenzie report in the last 3 months
- The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in Schools
- if the US had in recent years closed its gap…

A world of change in baseline qualifications (also from OECD)
- year 12 completion
- 40 years ago US was #1, now we are #13
- we have a real problem with year 12 completion
- around the world we have economic imperatives that force us to think differently

Views of globalization
phase 1: 1492 to 1800:
phase 2: 18000 to 2000
phase 3: 2000 to now

What if anyone could access a course at MIT or Stanford or….

example: Prof Lewin swinging on a pendulum at MIT
- 3000 people per day download his videos, that is over 1 million per year

The Open University
iTunesU

Book “High Noon” by JF Rischard (20 global problems, 20 years to solve them)

What out the spaces

Bransford’s 2000 book “How People Learn”
- very small amount of time kids are actually engaged in learning in the formal learning environment

1 to 1 Mythbusters
- There IS a difference in how GenY are wired, they can grasp tech more equickly and are able to effectively multi-task
- we need to have these conversations
- parents are making their minds up about things like this

with multi-tasking, the key word is “effective”

Problem we have at the moment is most kids at school don’t connect to much
- quoting Clayton Christensen: Average child in school, 59% of students spend less than 55 minutes in front of a computer each week at school
- that is not worth doing anything
- that’s a waste of time, those dollars would have been better invested in swimming pools and football fields

Everyone here, including me, has gone down that road of “trying to do fishes and loaves” with computer labs and mobile carts
- it doesn’t work

the evolving learning environment
- we don’t have kids just expressing themselves through written work and through voice
- now we have visuals, animations, videos: new medias available

Now we have students who can have a global audience
- This has changed in the past 5 years, 7 at tops

Rischard says we won’t solve these by thinking the same way we did in the past
- his solution: global issues network
- his book is very optimistic, btw

Demand for business (web 2.0) solutions
- Gartner 2009 Corporate Web 2.0 Penetration

these blogs, wikis, etc are now mainstream
- but this is still just the tip of the iceberg

Quotation from George Siemens: “It’s not about tools. It’s about change”

It’s the change underlying these tools that I’m trying to emphasize. Forget blogs…think open dialogue. Forget wikis…think collaboration. Forget podcasts…think democracy of voice. Forget RSS/aggregation…think personal networks. Forget any of the tools…and think instead of the fundamental restructuring of how knowledge is created, disseminated, shared, and validated.

I like how Prensky talks about dabbling
- it’s about doing new things in new way

there has never been a more challenging and exciting time to be a teacher today

the web is now
- challenging traditional approaches to how we learn
- challenging our assumptions about classrooms and teaching
- challenging our assumptions about knowledge, ….

Henry Jenkins addressing “participatory culture” (quoting Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach)
- paper: “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century”

See Alice Barr’s post “Using Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture for Staff Development”

It’s about pooled knowledge

Cheating
- we’ve got to rethink what we think about teaching and learning
- collaboration
- what about doing collaborative PhDs?

TIGed: TakingITGlobal – For Educators

Tread Lightly is a climate change education initiative offered by TakingITGlobal through the generous support of the Staples Foundation for Learning.

Amazing thing about work in Maine, with Angus King and others is their willingness to share openly their successes and mistakes
- Angus says his biggest mistake was when asked by a reporter on the spot after money was approved if laptops will go home, he said “No”
- what about sustainability: another $35 million coming in 4 years
- another $6.5 million coming in 2 years here in Oklahoma
- I hope all of you are thinking about sustainability now, because that is the key

Maine broke down huge barriers there
- Gov King’s vision was so important
- He realized your main employment options pre-MLTI in Maine were timber, tourism and shipbuilding
- you need to rebuild the economy for a knowledge economy

Now lets talk about Uruguay
- I haven’t met the President
- Miguel Brechner is the director of the project
- similar economic situation in Uruguay with OLPC initiative
- the President is an eye surgeon

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING SLIDESHARE WAS NOT PART OF BRUCE’S PRESO, BUT IT IS RELEVANT SO I’M EMBEDDING IT HERE

Next example: Kiva
- micro-philanthropy
- operationalizing idea of teaching people to fish, not giving them fish
- making micro-loans of $25 to $50
- girl involved in Kiva had never turned on a computer
- thought to connect banks for micro-loans to social networking
- Kiva is someone reconceptualizing what technology makes possible

So what does social networking and chat make possible in schools?
- I’ve seen extraordinary examples of kids using social networks so effectively to communicate
- and yet our main response in most schools is to ban it
- we have to re-conceptualize what these tools make possible

the world today is about being able to do what you were NOT taught to do

As Stephen Heppell says, our biggest challenge is not being audacious enough

Be bold and ambitious

the technology emperor has had no schools
- we had technology-driven ideals
- ill-defined expectations
- trivializing teacher competence
- access IS a major issue: 5:1, 4:1 are just slightly better versions of the same thing!
- 59% < 59 minutes

What is it that this makes possible?

evolution of use: Learning environment
- basic ICT
- PC labs
- classroom eLearning
- 1:1 learning

I WANT TO KNOW WHERE THIS GRAPHIC IS FROM

ratio of students to computers is basically meaningless
- 1:1 is not 4 times better than 4:1
- 1:1 is a whole order of magnitude better, it is not a straightline graph
- all of you don't share your computer
- it's not a straightline relationship
- when it is your thinking tool, what you plan with, it is a reconceptualization of what is possible

Todd Oppenheimer in 2003 agrees with Papert 1992, 1996
- agree that the full effects of technology cannot be realized while it is still a shared resource

talk about vision: Papert and Alan Kay
"more and more I was thinking of the computer not just as hardware and software but as a medium through which you could communicate important things..."
- Kay: an instrument whose music is ideas..."

The imagination machine

SHARING THESE IDEAS ARE THE REASON I AM SO THRILLED BRUCE AND AALF IS HERE SHARING THIS CONFERENCE AND THIS VISION. THIS IS SPOT ON.

Children, Laptops, and Powerful Ideas: An International Conference
- Portland, Maine 2002

Maine's initiative was the tipping point as the first statewide initiative

3.5 years ago OLPC was the paradigm shifting innovation which Clayton Christensen

I have never seen cost as a barrier to entry
- example of Australian school which has been implementing 1:1 since 1992

Now we really see the affordable computer as a reality
- what does this allow us to do?

Intel is supporting 43 initiatives worldwide
- best estimates say around 2 million young people around the world are in 1:1
- by end of 2010, we will have over 5 million worldwide

Australia has just taken a big step forward
- had been to sleep for 10 years
- then we had a change in government, and we are moving forward

Prime Minister Jose Socrates in Portugal leading the vision
- redefining the economic base in Portugal
- building an entire economy around the laptops

SO HERE IS A QUESTION: WHICH LAPTOP HARDWARE PURCHASE WOULD HAVE THE MOST DIRECTLY BENEFICIAL IMPACT ON THE OKLAHOMA ECONOMY? ANY?

Identifying the Key Drivers for 1 to 1
1- lays down an econmic foundation for future growth
2- equity: narros the digital divide
3- budget / stimulus imperative
4- improves academic benchmarks
5- improves assessment alternatives
6- provides opportunity for textbook replacement
7- marketing: competitive advantage
8- unlocks the possibility of personalized learning
9- expands pedagogical opportunities
10- offers 21st century learning opportunities
11- more...

My own teaching history: I was about personalizing learning for 35 10 to 16 year olds

I am disturbed by what California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is saying we should do with digital textbooks
- apparently someone forgot to tell him everyone will need their own computer/laptop

Join AALF
- free to join
- we give access to best research available on 1:1

key finding for 1:1
- allows us to write more often and better

other research findings....

What are emerging trends we are seeing
- constructive accountability (not a shallow, high-stakes testing approach - it is constructive, it goes both ways in terms of investment and sharing)
- personalizing learning to address learner diversity
- enabling an expanded view of learning environments
- increasing pedagogical capacity
- leveraging digital content in a re-imagined curriculum

In England their vision is:
- successful learners
- confident individuals
- responsible citizens

another one: (conceptualization of the 21st century literacy skills we want for our kids)
- numerate
- literate
- articulate
- curious
- and passionate

Vision articulated by Dr Ng Eng hen, Minister of Education in Singapore
- first, strengthen competencies for self-directed learning (that is about as radical an idea you can imagine)
- second, tailor learning experiences according to the way that each student learns best
- third, encourage students to go deeper and advance their learning
- fourth, learn anywhere

THESE DEFINITELY ARE GREAT GOALS. I WOULD ADD TO THIS,

Singapore is about to implement a 1:1 nationwide program

Papert in 1998: "My goal in life is to find ways in which children can use technology as a constructive medium to do things that they could not do before; to do things at a level of complexity that was not previously accessible to children."

We need to ask:
- fundamental change or incremental improvement?
- the question is not much which is right, but rather why has there been so little discussion about the question?

Where do you see your school, on this continuum from "incremental improvement" to "fundamental change"

Now referencing NYT headline from Liverpool, May 4, 2007: “Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops”
- lots of excerpts from this article reveals what was going on in that school
- they didn’t get 21 steps right, they got 22 steps wrong
- we had 30 or 40 people with AALF respond to this
- guess who leads the public debate in education today? It is journalists and politicians. It is about time we took the lead in setting the terms of that debate

AMEN TO THIS. BRUCE GOT SOME APPLAUSE TO THIS.

Ron mentioned Dr Thierry Karsenti at the University of Montreal, is helping them videotape student learning in classes to observe creativity, curiosity, etc.

Salesmen’s motto: under-promise and over-deliver
- supporting these things is not a problem, but it does take planning

consider:
- technical support
- connectivity
- wireless access
- network storage
- power supply
- security
- physical security
- learning environment
- staff readiness
- parental support
- community support
- leadership support

Lithium battery usually gets around 650 charges, so you need to buy new batteries in the 2nd year to cover you for years 3 and 4 (they do lose some with shelf life)

Implementation models
- a variety of paths to take:
– a class
– a grade level
– a school

pilot vs an expanded program

optional vs mandatory?

You can use checklists or you can use more formal project management tools
- deployment plan: checklists, milestones, timelines

think about prerequisite, preferred and optional

my priority is the things that go to kids

Adam Smith with comparatively weaker machines with less power
- their focus was doing amazing things
- doing robotics
- if you are going to make a decision, please make it in favor of the kids

set a high bar as you do this

you are going to have some issues with wireless
- wifi still catching up with itself
- so underpromise and overdeliver
- say to parents and students: say you still

1 to 1 Funding Equity (core principles we recommend at AALF)
1- funding should ensure all students can participate
2- funding should be structured to ensure it can be sustained indefinitely
3- laptop funding must be supported by a commitment to professional development
4- everyone who benefits should make some contribution

my bias: the notion of kids bringing any laptop they have at home to school doesn’t work now
- there are support limits to what schools can support
- that model also breeds inequity

Where can you get funds:
- govt
- P&F
- foundation
- school/district
- family

What you say to the parents is this: Your kids will be at school for 20% of their waking time, and at home 80% of the time
- so the school is going to provide a laptop… how about if we share this cost, for you to have 24/7 access
- that is the model
- when you explain it like that, no one puts their hand up and says “I don’t understand”
- this is not “parents paying for public schooling”

note I said everyone makes “some contribution” (didn’t say the SAME contribution)
- just like how we handle kids going to camps, field trips, etc.
- let’s say you’re asking for 50 cents per day
- some parents will say they just can’t afford that

Costs: start with assumptions
- student laptop: $1050
- more…

Another option: Expensive netbook for $600, shared cost model $24.61 per month

Italy asked for a capachino per day

In Victoria, Australia, this is the funding model they are following:

Service and support must be tri-level
- most of your breaks are warranty
- why will there be failure? Look at normal driver vehicle failure rate versus taxi driver vehicle failure rate

#1: you are going to have a 3 or 4 year warranty

Life of machines: now we are up to 4 years
- that is what Apples in Maine

Do not buy anything but Tier1 machines
- it is how they are manufactured

Once in 4 years you will get that funding
- for the next 4 years, if you haven’t thought about how you are going to service these things and keep them in kids’ hands, you are going to deal with that
- for $10 or $50, you get the best machine you possibly can
- what matters is you buy Tier 1, because you are looking at taxi failure rates

Conservative failure rates, as bad as you’ll get

Last thing you need to worry about are kids damaging these computers
- if that happens YOU have a problem, you must have them totally locked down, not letting students do anything engaging with them, etc

70% of problems are warranty covered

You need to calculate how many loaners you need
- 5% is the high end
- you need these because kids bring in machines because they need repairs

1 – Set up student teams

you might want to certify them with GenY

70% of the laptop problems presented do not require a soldiering iron and screwdriver
- that is why kids on teams working as you firstline response systems can work on

So you build a helpdesk software and a system in place, everything is reported, so you as the administrator

sometimes kids with the technical expertise are not the most emphathetic
- you want good listeners, problem solvers, empathetic

2- work with your dealer partner
- you are not going to best buy to buy 100 of these
- your dealer partner for service is probably going to lose money with your first agreement
- example: I expect 90% of these machines will be turned around in 48 hours
- rural schools may not be able to agree that
- “key performance indicators of my service level agreement”

rule of thumb: 5% for loaners, but that is high
- kids should never be without machines

What may the failures be and how many can we expect
- adapter failures: can make 30 to 40% of total
- hard dries: noisy / bad sectors / failure
- optical drives: read errors (don’t put an optical drive in there)
- LCD general falure: cracked /lines / pixel failure
- PCB: won’t boot
- keyboard: missing keys / failure

next year you’ll find all hard drives will go SSD

I love Toshiba’s but they have never been able to make good AC adapters

Why would you want kids repairing computers

So which device is best from a service perspective?
- Classmate / OLPC
- Netbook
- Notebook
- Tablet: tier 1 tablets are most reliable, failure rate of screens is 10% of others becuase of

if you can afford tablets, buy them
- applications are now there

Don’t need a tablet to use ONEnote, btw
- Tablet is at the high end

I think OLPCs are brilliant but they were really designed for developing countries

Intel has just released their tablet they call a “convertible,” I’m told that cuts the tablet cost in half

Netbooks generation 3 now is a pretty cool machine
- they ARE real machines
- in another 12 months
- 4th generation will have SSDs
- reason they don’t break is because they don’t have these big floppy screens which break easily
- 10 inch screen is robust size for kids
- yes you still have high end applications that won’t work on them
- ATOM processor was limited

Black Friday laptops are not made for schools
- those machines are made for a price like Best Buy

So “regular” notebook computer: $800 – $1000
- these are the machines to look for

Go for tier 1 only

Insurance
- get it, don’t self-insure
- don’t use your house cover for it
- existing insurance companies have real trouble with school laptop programs
- vendors have their own insurance policies, pretty detailed
- policies are usually (at high end) 5-7% of cost of machine
- deductible is usually in front, may change for damage versus entire loss
- important you think of that

with insurance, you want it 100% backed up with testimonals
- like cars, make sure relationship between your insurer and your repairer is watertight
- management of parts is critical for your success

PD and Change management…
- no time for this now

Innovation in a 21st Century Learning environment should…
- offer extensive opportunities to significantly address learner diversity
- promote pedagogical innovation
- improve teaching effectiveness and promote personalization
- help us challenge assessment models
- reimagine curriculum

2 things I want to convey in remaining minutes of this session
1- how do you get everyone on board
2- key attributes of a good technology coach

folks on front end / early adapters are “the adventurers”

at the right end we have the “unwise” (very small in number, but often loud in voice)
- focus in the middle: on the TRANSFORMERS
- those are the great teachers who simply need to have someone spend time with them showing them what is possible
- that comes from our technology integration coaches / facilitators

2- key attributes of a good technology coach
- being a good listener and empathetic is most imporant

Be sure to adopt good policy guidelines for your school
- we have 44 areas that you need to address
- you are going to setup a policy committee with parents, teachers, and students
- you might even develop a “1 to 1 handbook”

Technorati Tags:
1to1, aalf, education, laptop, learning, oklahoma, onetoone, school, ok1to1

These are my notes from Bruce Dixon’s comments between our first and second sessions at the AALF / Oklahoma SDE 1:1 Learning Conference, November 30, 2009, as well as Carolyn Thompson’s session, “Models of Contemporary Learning.” This event is organized by the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation, and sponsored by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

Bruce Dixon’s comments after Ron Canuel’s presentation

today we’re seeing more schools MANDATING file navigation and management skills
- how to use folder management
- we need to take the time to help teachers as well as students learn how to do this

Now making a plug for ONEnote
- many people absolutely LOVE ONEnote
- some say this works the way I think

Keyboarding skills
- some people
- Australian champion of thumbing got 26 words per minute last month
- why handicap our young people?
- my girls can do about 80 wpm
- give kids time each week, esp over first month to six months
- show kids the way they can most effectively use that keyboard

I THINK THAT IS A GREAT WAY TO ADDRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF KEYBOARDING. WELL SAID, BRUCE!

None of your parents went to school where they had laptops
- many of your parents don’t even understand that a good keyboarder can generate information two to three times as fast as they can handwrite

Now hearing from Carolyn Thompson, her presentation “Models of Contemporary Learning”
- Carolyn is a secondary teacher at the Louise S. McGehee School in New Orleans, Louisiana

Carolyn’s links for today on Sharetabs

her first question: “How many of you are teachers?”
- I am coming to you from the trenches of the classroom

THIS REMINDS ME OF MARCO’S RESPONSE TO THIS QUESTION AT ACTEM. WHY SHOULD WE ONLY SAY WE ARE TEACHERS IF WE ARE CURRENTLY IN THE CLASSROOM? OF COURSE MANY OF US ARE STILL TEACHERS EVEN THOUGH WE ARE NOT IN A CLASSROOM WITH KIDS EVERY DAY.

Today I’m going to focus on issues of collaboration and relationships
- my relationship to my students, their relationships to me, to each other, and to others outside the classroom with others around the world which have really been transformed

I really view this as a journey
- my school’s mission statement focuses on individualized learning, and lifelong desire to learn

Let’s talk about conceptions of citizenship
- I teach honors US government
- I really want my students to be empowered to make change

I ask my kids to setup a blog at the start of the year about an issue they are passionate about, something they care about, something that will get them off their chair
- example from Grace: My big issue is
- example from Grace: My Bill Ideas

Having my kids setup blogs at the start of the year is critical, this gives me a vital window into their learning and their minds throughout the year
- our journey of learning together personifies the idea that I am not in control and in charge of all the information and the learning this year
- starting to change the dynamic between my students and I
- changing my kids perception from seeing me and their textbook as something they have to “conquer” during the year

The ability of these tools to help students connect with each other has been incredible
- number of web 2.0 tool is incredible
- I had to push a lot of those away
- I have to think as a teacher, what is it I want to do…

have to help students overcome their sense of isolation
- through use of wikis, through use of class weblog, changes the ways students see each other and the class
- students start to create a network of learners
- kids become contributors to class projects, which are things they look back on with pride
- students look to each other for information and inspiration
- in my comparative AP government class, kids have to learn several countries inside and out
- weekly current event assignments, assignments come in
- kids share their reports and findings on a common class weblog

Example of wiki being used by students
- becomes commonplace for students to publish
- becomes as simple as clicking a button
- what this means: rather than a poster that goes up on the wall, stays in the classroom, now they can be shared with the greater world

We have a partner classroom in Bangalore, India, for our global issues class
- this is brand new, we’re just launching this
- kids are contributing to this wiki resource
- integrating a food diaries here, talk about how we eat compared to how kids in India eat before we talk about the global food crisis
- photos on Flickr showing foods
- have been very successful using skype between our schools, are going to integrate that into our global food crisis study

What I have found using this ability
- it is so easy to use
- when I first started using Wikis, you had to know a lot of programming

these are incredibly easy tools to use
- as you start thinking about what you can do with them, the sky is the limit

OF COURSE THAT ASSUMES THAT THESE WEBSITES ARE ACCESSIBLE FROM YOUR SCHOOL, AND YOUR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IS SUPPORTIVE OF THE IDEA OF KIDS CREATING, COMMUNICATING, AND COLLABORATING…

Project example using wiki: The McG Model Congress
- used discussion tabs to mirror committee work
- did this over 3 sections that I teach, this brought the entire grade together
- ended with huge day of debate, students from all 3 sections came together (F2F) to debate and work on bills
- the wiki was the tool behind the scenes which allowed all of this to work

In order to do these things, our kids need to learn how to do these things
- we shouldn’t assume they already know how to do all of this
- they CAN do this, but they don’t come to us knowing these things

Examples of concepts they need:
- RSS feeds: how do I find out about the world I am living in? It takes too long to visit all these sites
- using iGoogle
- we talk about lots of different sources of information
- differences between mainstream media sources, blogs, identifying liberal vs conservative blogs and other news sources
- if kids are going to learn about their world, they have to know about different sources of information that are out there
- looking at iGoogle makes a great way to start the day, looking at what is making headlines today, news of the day
- have liberal and conservative sources/voices

social bookmarking has also been HUGE
- kids need help organizing their information they are finding

I build the use of these tools into students’ daily and nightly assignments
- often they have to find something relevant and related in the news which connects to the assignment
- students constantly are using web evaluations
- I teach them over and over how to organize information, we focus on tagging a lot

Many times I’m asked about if this takes away from students’ learning about government, my ability to cover content
- my answer is that this IS the way students are and will learn about their government, and about other issues

The past 10 years I’ve been doing this have been so dynamic
- I have learned so much from my students
- this is what I do all day, I have great relationships with my students, they are excited to go vote, to participate and be active in government
- in a day when we see so many bemoan apathy and a lack of civic engagement, my students’ excitement is inspiring to see and experience

Carolyn Thompson on Delicious (social bookmarking)

Bruce’s closing thoughts on Carolyn’s presentation:
- technology increases our pedagogical capacity
- I can’t think of a better example than what we’ve just seen from Carolyn

More from Carolyn:
- we are the only girl’s school in the city with a laptop program
- when Katrina hit, no cell phones worked
- all cell towers were down
- when I evacuated, I was pregnant, wasn’t thinking I would be gone for 6 weeks
- couldn’t communicate
- we are right in the garden district on the river, our school didn’t flood
- our classroom had websites setup outside our school, our school servers were down
- Aug 26th, I setup via our class weblog different sites on blogger for different grade levels
- students found there way there from Starbucks and other wifi sites
- makes me cry when I read them now– people so thankful now to be able to share, to find others, to get news
- because our students had been using this type of technology in the classroom to build community, it was so natural for them to come to the school websites to find each other
- we were the first school in the city to re-open
- Oct 24th we re-opened with 50% of our kids, which was amazing

This taught our administration that this laptop was not just about posting assignments or bragging about sports wins/test scores, it is about places to come together and build community together
- this was an unbelievable experience
- this is not just about teaching, it is about connecting with the people you love

Our students participated in a city-wide crime march
- kids put together this project, wanted to go to Washington
- the entire 11th grade pulled together, created lobby booklet using a wiki
- saw 7 or 8 Senators, met with House of Representatives too
- were the talk of the town in Washington
- not sure if did a lot in the end to put resources on the ground

Carolyn Thompson’s profile page on Independent School Educator’s Network

I view blogs as a place to work out ideas
- they need to recognize it is public as well
- so language cannot be too informal

I think this is Carolyn Thompson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcgijoes

Technorati Tags:
1to1, aalf, education, laptop, learning, oklahoma, onetoone, school, ok1to1

These are my notes from Marco Torres‘ keynote at ACTEM 2009 in Augusta, Maine, on 16 October 2009. MY COMMENTS AND THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. The last time I was able to hear Marco speak and hang out a bit with him was in February 2009. See my post, “Marco Torres Keynote: ITSC 2009 Portland” for those session notes. Also see my podcast “Podcast137: Inspired by Marco Torres – A MACE 2007 Roundtable Discussion” from March 2007. Marco is one of the most passionate teachers and educational leaders I’ve ever met. He is also an amazing creative artist, and inspirational speaker. He is one of my most influential Yodas. It has always a privilege to be able to learn with him.

[NOTES FOLLOW]

Algebra seems to be the most hated subject in secondary education

My background is in engineering, so I have a passion for math
- there is a difference between using math and teaching math

The quadratic formula dominates the curriculum in 9th grade
- but we don’t use it again till

MARCO HAD

You must “stay in the question”
- you are trying to find the solution to something when you need to stay in the question longer
- we seem to be messing that up with Algebra

I have been looking at 4th grade classrooms and what they are doing with math / algebra
- music is a great way to introduce Algebra
- we need to teach music more across the curriculum
- I can now Google “what is a C key”
- if it is a how to question, try to look it up via Google first

I had my 500 GB iTunes hard drive crash last month
- I found online you should put your drive in another enclosure
- found 11 movies how to do this

Use metronome on GarageBand to help students learn to clap on the whole notes, the half notes, and the quarter notes

When it comes to multimedia, lots of people ask about what you do about copyright
- I present this as an opportunity to create your own songs

We have a thing on Tuesday’s called “Lunch Bytes”
- I used to find local restaurants to provide lunch for teachers, and students provided short 20

we found if you stay on the black keys you can’t mess up a song
- I wanted to know the science between this
- music is math, math is music
- the most

keys generate a frequency
- till 1936, there wasn’t agreement about what the key of A or B should sound like
- people just tuned to the lead instrument
- in Europe they agreed it was 440

You can use your SMARTboard for pressing piano keys in GarageBand, if you

Asked Physics teacher for an oscilloscope, but they didn’t have one
- students found an Oscilloscope at Frys, but it cost $3000
- students found several available on iPhone

So you can lock the settings and save/share

started comparing frequencies of black keys, found they were all multiples of each other

Music: you are aware of x axis (timing) and y (pitch) simultaneously
- lots of opportunities here where kids can look at x and y information together
- look at a synthesizer as an example

basic composition in photography: make sure there is contrast in the foreground and background
- that is similar to good composition in language arts as well

So now I am just going to play random black keys…. (can’t mess it up)
- now showing “piano roll” in GarageBand

after playing, can choose “Enhance Timing” to fix note timings as desired

I did have a teacher at my school who didn’t want me teaching music, he thought I would mess it all up for the kids
- he was more interested in instrumentation
- I was interested in making music

now when I listen to a song, I use my iPhone
- your ear can tell the differences in keys a lot faster than your mind can

Orchestral strings are so popular in movies because they have such a wide range
- you don’t have to be an expert in scoring music

Danny Elfman, who scores lots of music, does not know how to read or write musical notation
- Paul Mcartney too

Most recognizable score in a movie only has two notes in it (Jaws)
- how did he get away with it in Steven Spielberg

Those two keys are the saddest and scariest in music
- can I scientifically show why?
- the combination of those two keys are most dissonant, you can see this in the ocilloscope

Now showing the “perfect fourth” in music
- compare octive

amazing how you can tell a story with 2 keys
- I can mathematically show you why this works

For this project it was very important for me to work with a science, math, and music teacher

Now lets add some strings
- building it into Garageband

Next: building in the bass track

THIS IS STARTING TO SOUND LIKE A MOVIE SOUNDTRACK

Now adding sound affects, Forest Evening

If your students are studying about China, you can take this same song, and change the tracks to Chinese instruments

Now I’ll add some creative aspects
- add music, BeatBox08 loop in Garageband

Now tell the story of China’s great wall…

Now showing an example of original music kids produced for a project about President Obama’s
- could only use the key of A, however (not black keys in this case)
- had to use frequencies that did not step on each other

When I started recording with kids, I realized they thought they had to be louder than others
- actually they just need to choose a different frequency
- kids did this in 2 days

I’ve had about 60 projects like this mailed to me from kids, produce

Thanks to that conversation about algebra, I dug deep and discovered all this

App by Aviary similar to Garageband for Windows users

Marco’s educator, photographer, movie maker, politician, community activist, parent

what does an “educated kid” mean?
- I almost started a
- one answer leads toward schooling, another leads to learning
- sometimes schooling gets in the way of learning

Educated? Successful? Prepare?

the kids who come into our classes are all someone’s child
- being a parent has really changed me

I have 64 first cousins
- I was convinced I was related to anyone with an “s” or “z” at the end of their name
- I teach in a predominantly Latino community

Kids recognize me when I walk through my high school
- I want that to happen at UCLA

In this class I don’t have 50 students, in this classroom I have 51 learners
- that change in perspective, as the lead learner, has really changed the way I teach

Now sharing a video about creativity: “If you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived”
- life – risk
- from bluefish.tv

You all here in Maine are my heroes, for what you have done for kids that is right

We haev more kids in LA unified that you have PEOPLE in Maine

Now sharing Michael Wesch video: “A Vision of Students Today”

We can use that video to “stay in the question”

Eric Hoffer quotation:
In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

In the past, lesson plans were created more for their teacher than the kids
- assessment of the teacher has been: how well did you follow that script or plan

why is the planning not part of the learning?

Someone asked me to share this flyer
- example of someone who was a professional making marketing flyers
- student came in and critiqued it
- show popular at the time: Pimp My Ride
- I asked that student to “pimp his flyer”

Kids need the “why,” they know the what’s and the how’s

lbarionex

Education is the only field where you focus on the TOOL
- would we see this on the Food Network: we’re going to focus on the whisk, the oven, etc
- in reality, everyone is focusing on content

I want to see more blogging in math classes, not just in technology classes
- that is why many content area teachers don’t excited about this, they see it as more “stuff”

I started doing movie projects on the “B side” of teachers
- the things teachers do on their own time, things we are passionate about
- short, 2 minute videos
- this gave principals more insight into the skill sets of their staff members
- by getting staff members together to creatively write about (what are you passionate about, what is your “b side”) is a very powerful experience
- I wanted to move away from the boring, straightforward approach
- I put parameters on them: talk about what you’re passionate about without saying it outright
- think and write creatively

Video: “Into the Light” by Perello

It is the attitude I am most interested in – I can build the skill sets

This really helped to build community in the school
- it gives you much more insight into each other
- technology CAN bring people together

Closing: my two boys, have big hopes and dreams
- I never want those dreams to go away

pushcreativity.com
flickschool.com
alasmedia.wikispaces.com

If you trust me with your kids, there are many things I will promise
- kids will have access to everything they need to be successful

“quick victories builds will”

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One of my favorite themes to share with educators and administrators in my presentations about learning and technology involves hyperlinked writing. In my workshop about sharing student work online at the 21st Century Learning @ Hong Kong conference two weeks ago, I asked audience members to repeat the following phrase after me:

Hyperlinked writing is the most powerful form of writing.

Audience members are welcome to disagree with me, but I contend the ability to connect our words to the ideas and thoughts of others as well as online multimedia (via hyperlinked writing) represents communicative power unimagined even a few years ago. For the vast majority of parents and classroom teachers today, who grew up in the 20th century classroom, the concept and power of hyperlinked writing is foreign and unfamiliar.

Shelly Blake-Plock shared the 4 minute YouTube video today, “Jay Rosen of NYU on the Ethic of the Link.” In the video, Rosen explains why mainstream media outlets (which started “repurposing their analog/paper-based content online in the mid-1990s) generally failed to understand and embrace “the ethic of the link.” Rather than generously linking readers and viewers “out” to the knowledge residing online on other websites, many mainstream media sites tended (and still tend) to link visitors to their own site exclusively. (With the exception of advertising links, of course.)

One of the reasons our students and teachers need to be regularly blogging and creating hyperlinked content on wikis is to gain competency and understanding of the power of hyperlinked writing. I addressed this in my May 2009 post, “Why should middle school students blog?” and July 2009 post, “What’s your media platform for knowledge sharing?” That latter post title would probably be a better presentation or workshop title than something like, “Wikis 101″ or “Introduction to Educational Blogging.” Many adults are intimidated by terms like “blogs” and “wikis,” yet the idea of “knowledge sharing” is not foreign. Sharing knowledge digitally through hyperlinks and embedded media IS foreign to many, however. Hyperlinked writing is one of the most important topics we can address, share, and encourage educators to learn ABOUT and how to DO personally today.

There is a natural parallel to the behavior we have seen when it comes to mainstream media ‘repurposing content’ online and many school organizations and teachers who see the online world as merely a place to “do school” the same way we’ve done it for decades in face-to-face classes. This tendency is unfortunate and a mistake. While we certainly can (as Marco Torres points out in some of his presentations) to simply ask students to read pages 1 – 10, and answer questions 1 – 10 at the end of the chapter using online websites and electronic whiteboards, such a use of technology fundamentally “misses” the transformative power of digital and social media. Blended learning is about knowledge CREATION and knowledge SHARING, not simply content consumption. We must encourage learners of all ages to become media PROSUMERS rather than simply consumers, to develop media literacy skills as well as a host of other dispositions and skills vital for success in the 21st century knowledge landscape.

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The popular online destination for kids, Webkinz, drives continued revenue by granting Webkinz pet purchasers a limited access license to the online Webkinz world. My son received the following in-world message in Webkinz recently:

Account Renewal Reminder: 30 days:

This note is just a reminder that your account is set to expire in 30 days on Oct 11th, 2009. You can renew your account and continue playing in Webkinz World by purchasing a new Webkinz or Lil’ Kinz toy and adopting it at the adoption center.

As an extra bonus, if you renew early, we will give you an extra 3 months on your account – a full 15 months of fun!

Have fun,

You furry friends in Webinz World

The closing, instead of reading “Have fun,” could also have read “Get out your parent’s wallet!”

Club Penguin, which my kids also enjoy playing, requires paid memberships for players to buy and keep items in their igloos, but kids (and adult players) can keep playing for free even when/if their membership expires.

Webkinz is a good topic to bring up when discussing media literacy with younger students. Students (and parents) should know that the main priority and focus of a site like Webkinz is making money — in this case, encouraging young people to buy and keep buying Webkinz animals. The same goes for Club Penguin, even though the site’s free play policies are different. The Walt Disney Company wouldn’t have purchased Club Penguin otherwise. These facts might not be surprising to adults, but they are definitely not obvious to many children. Media literacy education is essential.

Temple University’s Media Education Lab resources on Advertising Literacy and teaching media literacy are excellent to use in this regard. They have added a resource page for “Using Voice Thread for Media Literacy Education”, but as of this writing the VoiceThread example links are not working. (I’m sure they’ll be fixed soon!) “Very Sticky” is one of the sample VoiceThreads listed on the page.

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I was delighted to read Kathleen Kennedy Manzo’s article for the latest issue of Education Week today, “Filtering Fixes,” which features on-the-mark quotations about how we should be approaching Internet filtering in our schools from Shawn Nutting (of Trussville, Alabama schools) and others. The lead image includes April Chamberlain and Shawn, who are both past presenters in the free K-12 Online Conference.

Before I share some quotations from Kathleen’s article and comment on them, I’ll share a few related links connected to Shawn and April.

For K12Online06, Shawn presented “Internet Access with Minimal Filtering,” and for K12Online07 he presented “Creating a Paradigm Shift in Technology.” All K12Online presentations remain online and available, and these sessions are just as applicable today as they were in 2006 and 2007. April presented the session “Trailfire” for K12Online07. I co-presented with Shawn in 2006 at the SITE conference in San Antonio, along with Sheryl-Nussbaum Beach, in the session (still available as an audio podcast) “Lessons Learned from K-12 Online 2006.” Shawn and April played pivotal roles in utilizing K12Online Conference content in their local, face-to-face professional development sessions in Trussville schools following our inaugural year. That story, which is well worth reading, is detailed on the wiki page, Trussville Schools Use of K-12 Online 2006 for Blended Professional Development.

Here are some on-target quotations relating to Internet content filtering in schools from Kathleen’s article.

From Shawn Nutting:

“We are known in our district for technology, so I don’t see how you can teach kids 21st-century values if you’re not teaching them digital citizenship and appropriate ways of sharing and using everything that’s available on the Web,” said Shawn Nutting, the technology director for the Trussville district. “How can you, in 2009, not use the Internet for everything? It blows me away that all these schools block things out” that are valuable.

One of the reasons many schools are not “using the Internet for everything” today is because of multiple digital divides. Not only do we have digital divides of access and connectivity in many of our communities, but we also have enormous knowledge divides among educators in our schools. These are BIG reasons why free, online professional development opportunities like the K-12 Online Conference are so important, and why the 2009 theme for the conference (“Bridging the Divide”) is so relevant today. It’s also why educating our school LEADERS about these issues is critical. If the leaders don’t “get it,” the change won’t happen systemically. Good leadership matters.

From yours truly:

“The majority of our schools are overblocking and overcensoring the Web,” said Wesley Fryer, the executive director of Storychasers Inc., a nonprofit organization that hosts a digital storytelling site that provides historical resources to Oklahoma schools and communities. Mr. Fryer, a digital-learning consultant and former elementary school teacher in Oklahoma City, writes frequently about educational technology issues on his blog, Moving at the Speed of Creativity.

“Some of that is understandable because of the risk-averse, conservative nature of schools,” he said. “My position is not ‘don’t block,’ but let’s filter reasonably and let’s also talk with students about choices and digital literacy and ethics, and let’s prepare kids for the unfiltered Web.”

These dynamics of overblocking the web in our schools is a primary motivator behind the wiki project, “Unmasking the Digital Truth.”

From Trussville Schools Superintendent Suzanne Freeman:

“We know kids use these tools, so we really feel obligated to help kids use them right and prepare them for what they face in the world every day,” said Superintendent Suzanne Freeman, who has two teenagers attending high school in the district. “Kids have access to a lot [on the Internet], whether we want to believe it or not. I would worry about it if we didn’t prepare kids to use these tools properly.”

How refreshing and inspiring it is to hear a school superintendent share this vision. Bravo Suzanne, and bravo Trussville School Board!

From Trussville Schools library media specialist Rachel Brockman:

“We basically start to train students as early as kindergarten about things to look for out there and strategies to help them stay safe” on the Internet, Ms. Brockman said. “Rather than saying this is a scary tool and something bad could happen, instead we believe it’s an incredible tool that connects you with the entire world out there. … [L]et’s show you the best way to use it.”

Advocating an outlook of proactive saavy rather than panicked fear? Yes! Let’s hear it for library media specialists as digital learning leaders!

From 12th grade Trussville Schools English teacher Eric Jenkins:

“I’m a big advocate for experiential learning, but it’s kind of hard to teach Internet etiquette or rules of how to act and interact online without exposing them to the stuff that’s out there,” Mr. Jenkins said. “It’s hard to teach those things in a vacuum.”

It’s also hard to learn how to swim without getting wet. Eric is on target: We have to use social media tools and technologies with our students, to learn how to safely navigate and intelligently utilize these resources.

And the closing quotation from yours truly:

“If we don’t want to take risks, let’s not let kids go outside for recess and let’s not let anyone go on the Internet,” Mr. Fryer said. “But if we recognize what’s developmentally appropriate, we know we need to get them outside exercising and playing in digital sandboxes and giving them opportunities to become ethical digital citizens.”

Kudos to Kathleen Kennedy Manzo and Education Week for researching and publishing an article on Internet content filtering which presents a much more balanced, thoughtful, and proactive approach toward digital citizenship than we typically see amplified in mainstream media.

Edmond school leaders, are you listening? Oprah, are you listening? There WILL be a test on these ideas, and the stakes are high: It’s the educational present and future of our children, our communities, our nation, and our world.

Hat tip to Lee Kolbert for bringing this article to my attention today, as well as Kathleen Manzo for her tweet on it.

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A friend of mine asked me about free ebook resources earlier today via a text message, so I’m writing this post to share ebook resources of which I’m aware both with him and others who may be interested. If you know about other ebook resources I haven’t mentioned here (and are NOT a commercial vendor representing said website/resource) please chime with a comment.

To date, I’ve primarily downloaded ebooks via the Kindle for iPhone application, Stanza, and Manybooks.net via the iPhone app eReader. I posted about these experiences earlier on the summer in the post, “Thanks Project Gutenberg for underwriting our 6th grade summer reading list.” An interesting footnote to that post is that the ONE ebook we purchased in June was a title by George Orwell. My son read the book before it was remotely deleted/removed by Amazon from all Kindles and Kindle reading devices in mid-July. David Pogue reported (also in the New York Times) that Amazon formally announced it would not automatically remove purchased books from people’s Kindles, iPhones, iPod Touches, or other devices in the future if a similar situation comes up. In this July 2009 case, an unauthorized entity/organization was selling a book online to which they did NOT have commercial redistribution/sales rights. This was a VERY interesting DRM case study, and it was even more interesting since our family was directly affected.

I collect ebook-related resources on my delicious and diigo social bookmarking sites under the tag “ebook.” Of those, the post “20 Best Websites To Download Free ebooks” is worth checking out, even though it’s chock-full of advertisements.

I was pleased to learn earlier this summer that many of the books available free via Project Gutenburg are available via the Amazon Kindle store. I haven’t figured out how to limit an online search to show ONLY free ebooks on Amazon, but you can sort search results from lowest price to highest, and this makes the FREE books display first. (If any are available which meet your search criteria.) There are apparently over 350,000 ebook titles available on Amazon alone. WOW.

This past week I learned that Barnes and Noble published (in mid-July) a free iPhone ebook reading application. The Barnes and Noble ebook website has download links for the Blackberry eReader application as well as a Mac/PC ebook software program. I received a B&N gift card for my birthday recently, so I plan to purchase a few ebooks there and give them a try in upcoming weeks.

Tonight I came across the Online Books Page from the University of Pennsylvania, which lists (as of this writing) over 35,000 free ebooks. I was fascinated in searching for books by George Orwell to see that because of copyright law differences between the United States and Australia, all his available titles (including “Animal Farm” published in 1946) are NOT legally downloadable in the United States, but CAN be legally downloaded in Australia. The link is provided on the site to the ebook, so it is up to users to be “on their honor” to comply with local/national laws and decide if they can legally download files. Amazing. Again, a great DRM as well as copyright / intellectual property case study.

Tonight I also learned about iScroll, which is a smartphone application providing commercial books offered as “text synchronized audiobooks.” In many cases I’ve seen, the company is selling freely available ebooks (like “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu) but legitimately adding value because an audio-version of the free book has been recorded. This is an interesting idea, and I’ve yet to try one of these. It reminds me of a tip I heard Hall Davidson share years ago, relating to reading and literacy. Hall recommends that everyone turn on closed captioning on your television. No matter what the program or movie, if closed captioning is available it can increase the reading skills of viewers to have text displayed on the screen while they watch. Second (or third, or fourth) language learners often use this as a technique to learn other languages. It works for primary language learning too!

The smartphone website TextOnPhone takes a different approach to ebook reading. Rather than downloading an ebook to a separate application running on an iPhone, Blackberry, or other smartphone, the website caches pages locally and permits you to read the book on your phone’s web browser screen. You can create readlists and it will keep track of your place in a given ebook. Very interesting approach. Free, and worth checking out. This 11 minute YouTube video provides a walkthrough and more information.

I’ve been badgering my son and wife for the past several weeks to let me record an audio interview with both of them about ebook reading, since they’ve had extensive experiences this past summer with ebooks. My wife just finished her fifth complete ebook on Thursday, and I think Alexander has read at least four complete ebooks this summer. I’ve still just dabbled in ebook reading and can’t claim to have read an entire ebook– YET. Hopefully I’ll be able to record that interview soon (perhaps I need to think of creative incentives) and when/if I do I’ll share it here.

I (along with many others) am expecting and hoping for a big announcement from Apple in September relating to a new iTouch device that may be revolutionary for the netbook / ebook market. If Apple does publish a device even more revolutionary for ebook reading than the iPod Touch and iPhone, it will definitely be HUGE news in the educational curriculum / publishing world. I read this summer the educational publishing industry in the United States alone is something like a $7 billion annual market. It’s very exciting to see disruptive technologies pushing innovative change in this landscape, and hopefully we’ll see even more “agitation” to the traditional, paper-based publishing of textbooks in the months ahead. California’s moves to embrace ebooks due to its budgetary crisis this summer will hopefully be a constructive influence in the broad-based digitization of curriculum materials in K-12 as well as higher education circles. We’ve got a long way to go in this regard, but we may “get there” sooner than many think possible as less expensive ebook reading options continue to become available.

Have you had positive or negative experiences with ebooks to date? What resources have you or are you using for ebooks that I haven’t linked in this post, but should definitely know about to share with others interested in ebooks?

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