Not So Distant Future

  In a workshop at our campus last year, Will Richardson rightfully(and insightfully) pointed out that one of the most fascinating aspects of  Wikipedia lies in the discussion tab.

It’s not just that wikis allow us to create websites where we can add links easily, but that they have a “comments” or discussion area, where the joint creators of the wiki can hold debates.

In today’s Wall Street Journal article, “Forget the Articles,  Best Wikipedia Read Is Its Discussions” Lee Gomes explores some of the passionate, esoteric, behind the scenes Wikipedia debates.  

Not only was it entertaining reading, but it started me thinking about student projects using wikis.    What are the possibilities of having students produce “encyclopedic” articles for a project as a team, and letting them use the discussion area to hash out the details?  What happens when you let them pick their own passionate areas of interest to write the articles on (like Halo, for example)?   Would the debate that is sparked illuminate their thinking about it?

Cnn News today and Wired Magazine featured a new ingenious software application which allows you to see what IP address edited particular articles on Wikipedia.  It’s the brainchild of a college student of course .  

The idea was to illuminate if corporations, agencies, entities, politicians, etc. were editing their own sites on Wikipedia, and to show what edits had been done, since Wikipedia allows that information to be viewed.  It takes transparency to a new level, (maybe one that is a little scary).  But then maybe it’s the added layer of transparency needed by Wikipedia to keep contributors ‘honest’ so to speak. 

What changes for students when they understand that information isn’t something set in stone?  When they realize that even information that is pre-packaged in a printed book or database was hashed out during the editing process?  That writing is a matter of choices?
That some writers have bias or hidden agendas?   That writers feel passionate about their subjects?

And can we translate these examples into a more concrete understanding of the choices made for a news broadcast or newspaper article, for example, or for a textbook, to help create more info savvy students?   Can we translate it into students’ understanding why writers have passion, and inspire them to write about their own passions?

Having a window into the editing process is such a powerful teaching and learning opportunity.  It feels like a fundamental shift in how we teach, learn, and communicate.  

I’m looking forward this year to attempting projects where we exploit more of the power of wikis to build a knowledge consensus, to create community, to empower students to be contributors, and to enable them to better understand the choices writers make.

I’d like to gather examples for my own workshop site of wikis from other campuses, so if you have one you’d like to share, please respond, and I’ll add it to my list of examples!

One ”techie” tool that has got me jazzed this summer is Skype.

    If you haven’t used Skype, it allows you to “phone” or “conference call” others from your computer to anyone anywhere;  it also has a chat room feature which you can use along with the conference call or separately.

Some great features include the ability to log or bookmark the chat or call, so that it can be read or heard later, for your own reference or to share with others.

In the last couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to participate in some very exciting conversations via Skype.  This morning I got to be part of a teacher workshop in New Jersey.  The presenter, Patrick Higgins,  ”skyped” in three of us, and he interviewed us about blogging over Skype as the teachers listened in and asked questions.

The more I’ve used this tool, the more I’ve been thinking about its use in the classroom and in the library.  (And since it is Global Library 2.0 week, it seemed like the perfect time to write about it!)

We often talk about networking with others outside of our campus and connecting students to those outside of the campus.  There is so much that students can gain from interacting with students in other places with other experiences, or in interacting with experts in different fields.

But also, as our campus is thinking more about interdisciplinary connections between subject areas within our current “8 period day” framework, I think tools like Skype and blogs are great ones to enable our students in different classrooms to connect to one another within our campus, as well as without.

I am imagining the possibilities of our junior American Literature class skyping into our junior American history class, for example, to work on a particular investigation.  Add to that an outside person skyping into both classes to talk to them simultaneously about something related to what they are studying.

I’m imagining the use of this tool as a librarian, skyping in a guest speaker, or guest “researcher” for a class working on a particular research problem, or skyping in authors for a chat with a class.  Or hosting a regular once monthly “skypecast” of a guest speaker on a technology topic.   Or hosting a book discussion ”skypecast” during the evening as a special library event for students to join in.  It’s video conferencing made very simple, and like blogs, though it is a techology “tool” it offers all sorts of connective possibilities for us and our students.

And again, like blogging, it is about helping students have reflective conversations that extend their learning, and that extend their range of possibilities.

(I’m going to write more later about the Skypecast I participated in today, once the audio of it is available soon on Chalkdust, Patrick’s blog.   Even though I was there as a guest, I learned a great deal about blogging, (probably learned more than I shared!) because the other two Skypees,  Konrad Glogowski  and Clay Burrell, have used blogs much more in a classroom setting and shared a deep understanding of how to effectively help students with them.)

Barbara Barreda wrote recently about Joyce Valenza’s presentation at the Building Learning Communities conference.  Joyce talked about how as a librarian she wanted to be where her users are.   I see Skype as one  web 2.0 tools that would allow for that possibility.  

So many of the web 2.0 tools allow us to remove barriers–the hours of a school day, the walls of a classroom, the walls of a building, the city limits, a country’s borders.    What can we provide for our students when we open up the possibilities of a barrier free learning environment?

Technorati Tags: globallib2.0week

My kids roll their eyes in mock dismay at the mere mention of Stephen Covey, but one of his principles which I cite the most is to “Seek first to understand,” rather than to be understood.

This principle is floating through my head this morning as I read through a stream of blog posts about including student voices more in education–whether at the NECC conference or other conferences, or in the educational blogosphere, or in schools in general.  Scott Schwister, Karl Fisch, Clay Burrell, Scott McLeod, and Sylvia Martinez have all picked up threads in the conversation if you want to follow them.

Scott Schwister writes,

“Central to all of this is the idea that educators have much to learn from students, and that we start by listening to what students have to say. Accept this premise, and then comes the straightforward task of creating spaces for speaking, listening, and dialogue; and after that the infinitely more complex task of figuring out what to do with what we’ve learned. “

He offers an excellent list of ways to support student bloggers in the conversation, while recognizing that there are many other ways to get students involved.

This is a worthwhile conversation and the writers I respect, above, have a lot of insightful comments.  So my addition is, rather than starting with blogs or with a national conference, how can we change some practices on the campus level to engage more student voices?

1.  Including students on campus committees and giving them authentic input is important.   Having had experience with that this year on our Vision committee which has student members, it’s been helpful to have their perspectives.  (In fact, a student is chairing our technology subcommittee on the Vision committee–first time we’ve ever had meetings that ended on time!).   

2.  Our district has a policy of clearing/deleting all student email accounts and network folders at the end of each year, starting fresh for the next year.  All these discussions about student voices and 24/7 learning has led me to believe that we need to rethink that policy.  How can we continue to stay connected with our students and be partners in learning if we shut the doors on that in May?  (I got this idea from one of the blogs I read, can’t remember where, so someone claim credit for this!)  I’ve wanted to share things with some of the students on our committee this summer, but I had gotten so used to emailing them, that I forgot that their accounts would be eliminated and we forgot to make some other arrangement for communicating prior to the end of school.)   Having places where the conversation with students could happen year round is a significant shift.

3.  Set up a Ning group for students and teachers to interact on broader conversations about education on our campus.

4.  Some of our English teachers have their students write  ”Occassional Papers”  which are short essays that are read aloud and discussed.  While the topics for these are self-driven, could we somehow build on this model for some conversations about education that are written, posted on a wiki for discussion, or even blogged? 

5.  Panel discussions–We’re starting a series of Power Lunches next year, where we invite speakers in to talk with both students and teachers once a week.  Could we deepen these conversations by having “follow-up” discussions on a blog or face-to-face, after the speaker leaves, so that there is more conversation between the teachers/students?

6.  Panel discussions part two–Could we set up some student panel discussions where students of different “walks” could discuss issues relating to education?  (I’m thinking more in the broad philosophical sense here, rather than should lunch be 30 minutes or 45.)

7.  Workshops and inservice days–Could we invite students to attend teacher technology workshops or inservice days?  Or at least select groups of students like those on our student council, Vision committee,  or in our “Ready, Set, Teach” class?   What about allowing interested students to sign up to attend technology workshops the same way we allow teachers to?    AISD had a model where they trained teachers/students together on digital filmmaking.  What would that look like and how could something like this work?

8.  Book/webpage selection–I’m going to look for the best tools to set up a sharing site for students on our library webpage, where they could share good websites with me or suggest books to purchase, and try to draw on their expertise more.  (I try to do this in conversation and by watching sites they use, as sometimes they don’t want to take the time to “post” on our website, but this would give them more options.)  We do have a blog for students where this could happen already.

9.   Continue to solicit input on the new library design from students(and on the building in general).  We did a survey about the library prior to the bond, asking for student input, but I’d like to continue that as we move closer to construction.  Students rarely get asked for input on design of their building, yet we build them for students.

10.  Collaborate with teachers/administrators on this issue in department chair and Vision committee meetings.   Talk about as a campus how we can enable more of a partnership in learning with our students.

Clay Burrell writes about the infantalization of our students and his comments remind me of comments Tim Tyson made at the closing session at NECC.  He talked about how sheltered and revered today’s students are, and wondered when we start asking them to make meaningful contributions–at what age do we ask them to do that?  College? Adulthood?   He asked why we wouldn’t start asking them as students?

When we seek first to understand our students and the meaningful contributions they can make, that conversation can transform our campuses into  much deeper learning communities.

Additions? ideas?  What can we do?

  Happy Earth Day!   Wangari Maathai, who instituted one of my favorite “green” projects, the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, has a new book, Unbowed, about her experiences as a tree planting project turned into a democratic movement in her country.

 I first learned about her efforts from the film, Nobelity Project, which is the inspiration of Austin author Turk Pipkin and his wife, producer Christy Pipkin, who traveled the world (with their school age daughters) interviewing Nobel Prize winners about their recommendations and hopes for the future.  The film is fascinating.

As Desmond Tutu points out in the film,

“The sea is actually made up of drops of water. What you do, where you are, is of significance.”

   The film is available to schools–teachers can either purchase one if they have funds (which also pays for another school without funds to receive one free), or request a free dvd if they do not have funds.

Pipkin is working on a followup to the film, entitled “One Peace at a Time,” inspired by what he learned from the Nobel winners.

What both of these projects remind me of is the question I highlighted in Doug Johnson’s post yesterday.  What one small thing can each of us do to make a difference?

Happy Earth Day!

Doug Johnson at the Blue Skunk blog has re-posted a heartfelt commentary that he wrote after a devastating school shooting in Minnesota two years ago.  In “The Need for Community” he comments:

“In our efforts to improve our schools and reduce school expenditures, extra-curricular activities are often first on the chopping block. Politicians and taxpayers see music, arts and athletics as superfluous. The “basics” are reading, writing, math and other purely classroom pursuits. Guidance counselors, teacher-librarians, coaches and club sponsors are nice extras only tangentially related to the real purpose of school. . . .”

Although those types of cuts don’t happen at every school, his points are still excellent ones.   All the pieces in a school that socially support our students are vitally important.

At lunch Friday, a group of us were talking informally about how we could help prevent students from slipping through the cracks. We talked about students that we need to help find a place for and what programs we  have or could implement to help with that.   I know that somber conversations like this are happening at schools and colleges across the country.

Johnson goes on to personalize this to library/technology programs:

“How many of us as teacher-librarians or technology coordinators make a conscious effort to create “communities” for our own students, especially for those kids who do not seem to have much success with the traditional organizations. . . .You never know what one thing may make a difference.”

He points out that libraries and technology programs often provide a niche for those students who may not find one somewhere else.  And while I do think libraries are pretty good at providing a sense of place for students, there is always room to do much more.

So along with Doug, I join in asking–what one small thing can each of us do?  It might be the one thing that makes a difference.

My first one small thing?–I’ve decided to open up an extra little office we have on Fridays for students in the computer club to come in and play video games.

What’s yours?

What am I doing writing about the SXSW Interactive, Film, and Music Festival on a blog about libraries and education?  (Well, first off, because we won FREE wristbands to attend the SXSW music festival–thanks KGSR!)   But also, as I’ve been using the SXSW website and reading articles about it, it’s fascinating to see how technology is woven into the fabric of how communication happens at the conference.

And I bring this up here because our students and recently graduated students from around the world attend this event, and I want to know more about the tools they are using in their “outside” life.  

This year, for example,  SXSW sold the wristbands via a text message system that sent a message to phones the day tickets were to be sold with a time and location of the wristband sales.

   The SXSW website provides a new cell phone service– SXSW mobi  as a “new adventure in mobile content delivery”which allows you to subscribe with a smartphone and get text updates of schedules, venues, who’s attending and more.  The site includes a free mp3 song from each band who played that can be downloaded to a cell phone or computer (here’s one for the band we saw–Harris Tweed from South Africa).

  Another interesting and cool tool that I had seen before (on principal Tim Lauer’s blog) ,  but hadn’t quite figured out is Twitter, which allows you to post very brief updates to what you are doing at any given minute, like “reading a book 7:05,  drinking coffee 7:10.”  I hadn’t quite figured out the implications or use of it other than flooding the web with even more information.

But after seeing how SXSW is using it, I can see why it would be useful (and especially to our more wired students).    Twitter works online, or through im, or through text messaging on your cell phone.  You can “subscribe” to a friend’s update (which can be sent to your phone) so for something like SXSW, it becomes a handy tool for meeting up with people or finding where your friends are.)

Elsewhere on the SXSW site  you can hear podcasts, see video of panel discussions, see movie trailers for the film festival,  or subscribe to email alerts for particular aspects of the conference.   (And yes, it seems like an almost overwhelming amount of information–maybe that is something to have a conversation with our students about.)

The point is–this conference, which is a big part of our city’s culture, is fully “wired” and also global.  (Last night we saw bands from L.A., Liverpool and Johannesburg.) 

I don’t have to be able to use all these tools myself, but it’s good to have an understanding of what kinds of tools our students are using “outside” the school walls.    And being aware of all these options may help us find innovative uses for these tools and help us bring the “outside” world into our classrooms.

Will Richardson has been struggling  quite a bit lately about how to bring about changes in education that better reflect the sort of connected world that our students are growing up in.

Then yesterday, he got an email from Senator Lamarr Alexander’s office asking him (as a blogger) to join a conference call today about the America COMPETES Act, which has been cosponsored by several senators on both sides of the aisle.   So before the call, Will is seeking input from educators about the Act, which provides funding for national math and science initiatives, support for teacher training at various federal agencies, additional state monies,  and increased support for AP and IB programs,  etc.

Swing by Will’s blog and leave your comments.  (He has links to explanations of the Act there as well if you want to read more before commenting).

We have returned from our site visits tonight and there is a lot to absorb!

   I was reading a new book, Wikinomics, on the plane, which is about how the new collaborative and connective nature of the web is changing our culture.

To me, that is what the site visits were all about.  We’ve made connections with all kinds of different schools and teachers in another part of the country, and they are connections we can draw on to bring new ideas into our school, and the other schools got ideas from us as well.  We have become resources for one another, and we’ve all broadened our experiences, and I think having a broader perspective helps us envision new possibilities. 

We saw a lot of fascinating ideas and courses, like biotechnology and engineering, digital film(which I’ve mentioned), and combinations of subjects across the curriculum, as well as interesting programs for supporting students.

I’m looking forward to sharing more and seeing what we all can create with all of these ideas! 

Will Richardson talked about friction points caused by new technologies and the rapid pace of change.   When I heard Lawrence Lessig talk at U.T. about copyright, he was talking about how innovators created this new system of copyright because the law wasn’t changing fast enough to meet the web 2.0 environment.

As I sat there listening to Lawrence Lessig in the auditorium at U.T., I noticed how many students in the audience had their laptops open, listening, taking notes, but also browsing, chatting,  and checking email, and it really hit home.  Colleges are already dealing with this in their classrooms and we will be soon.

The largest friction point for me is how is my job and teaching going to change and will it be valued, and if so how?  I earnestly believe that it will be valued, that students need guides and support and that what we all do is critical to that.  But it can be unnerving to contemplate.   And yet seeing all those students with laptops in the lecture hall, made me believe ever more strongly, schools have to be getting ready for this, because it creates a pretty different paradigm for our classrooms and libraries.   (And the changes aren’t all about technology, but about our students’ culture and world–the changes are about people.)

     And I wonder as we face these “friction” points of change, how we can soften our practices and ourselves and say “yes, and….” instead of “yes, but…”  (Avish Parashar writes that, “‘Yes and’ is a conversation; ‘yes but’ is an argument.”)  

How we can soften our practices and support one another because we will all need that support, from the techie types to the nontechie types, because change can be difficult and frustrating.  There are roadblocks of all kinds–technological, student behaviors, financial, infrastructure and people who will say “no”.

The process of change is tremendously difficult in every field, as all of us know.  Hundreds if not thousands of books have been published about dealing with change, and I would say it is one of the most difficult challenges.

But everyone is good at something and we all contribute value,  and so we can use our contributions to continue to build a powerful learning community.   But we have to remember to say “yes” to ourselves first, and then “yes” to others we work with and “yes” to being open to exploration–not to change our core beliefs necessarily, but to support each other as we go through our own learning adventures, and to support our students in theirs. 

Two books I can recommend on this topic–Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, and Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes by William Bridges. 

As Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Your thoughts?

photo credit: “Be the Change” http://www.flickr.com/photos/damodhar/227559318/

Janice Friesen (who I met online but lives here in Austin) has some interesting observations on her blog Texas Malahini about how our students think differently than previous generations.  

She observes that:

“My mother’s generation thinks that it is OK not to know something and that there is a lot that is unknowable. They do not value asking questions. They are VERY protective of their private information. My son’s generation thinks that EVERYTHING is knowable and that there are no secrets really. In any conversation when there is a question they go right to Google. They wear their lives on their sleeves and assume that it is not a big deal (just look at My Space).”

She goes on to talk about how they use phones differently and how they view facts differently than in the past.  

“My mother’s generation thinks that public information MUST be accurate and correct. . . My son’s generation is moving too fast to care about how accurate public information is. It is OK to say what you think and to change your mind. ”

I was especially struck by that statement.  Will Richardson showed how in Wikipedia that there can be as many as 500 edits to articles in merely two minutes.  Two minutes.  I tell students Wikipedia is like a river–it is there but it is ever changing, so that any time they dip their foot in that river, it might be(and probably will be) different.  How do we or our students cope with information when it is that fluid?  How will this play out in the long run? 

  Unlike in books, what’s online is a record, permanent, but also temporary unless we store it.  Where will our records of all these conversations be in the future?  Will they, unlike books, be erased or lost in the flood of information?   Or does it make it a larger “small world” where all the information links back together and the significant works and ideas rise back to the top, like six degrees of separation?

What skills do we need to be teaching our students to operate in an information environment like this?     One that keeps floating to the top of my mind is the ability to critically evaluate something.   Another is some way to filter and focus because distractions are everywhere. 

Other ideas on skills we need to teach our students, or comments on how you see student thinking changing?

photo credit:  “flicked book” http://www.flickr.com/photos/idleberry/109839101/