In his weekly email newsletter, George Siemens wrote/quoted:

This is one of the more insightful statements I’ve come across recently – What Google Could Learning From Goffman: “When we merge social groups together, we are challenged to manage our disclosures across these groups, which have different norms of propriety.”

The social software I use regularly – Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin – allows me to form different social groups. I have different interactions with different people in each….

Google, however, smashed together different social groups with Buzz, forcing information to flow between groups that were previously distinct. Buzz’s failure was not one of only disrespecting privacy, but rather one of dishonouring social clustering.

This really hit a chord with me and I can’t help but relate this to a Seinfeld episode where George Costanza sees his ‘Worlds Collide’ when people from different social groups connect:

It gets very funny when George declares that ‘Independent George’ will cease to exist by an encroaching ‘Relationship George’.

Although Google Buzz isn’t causing my worlds to collide in such a dramatic fashion, I am keenly aware that it opens up my social communities and combines them in a way that I am not sure I’m prepared to do. Fred Stutzman calls this ‘context collapse’:

When you create a profile in a social network site, or share a stream of Tweets, you’re essentially creating a representation of an identity.  As we’ve seen time and time again in Facebook, we run into problems when identities collide during “context collapse” – when people from a different segment of your life view an identity you’ve constructed for your friends.

For instance, I tried linking Twitter to Facebook and all I did was infiltrate my non-twitter friends Facebook timelines with context-less tweets that really meant nothing to them… it lasted about 24 hours. Similarly, Buzz came out and I started chatting with a few people in it, then my daughter (a Gmail user who was quicker than I to figure out Buzz) said to me, “Dad you sure talk a lot about buzz with people.” And this got me thinking about how I’m normally very purposeful with my online identities. I think about where I say what, to whom and why… I contextualize my conversations to the tool.

It’s not that I’m hiding anything… My tweets are open to the public, so is my LinkedIn profile. Meanwhile, except for my recent updates to Facebook while on holiday, I keep that more candid, limiting my profile to students that I’m connected to, and being selective about what information I share in my profile. That said, there is nothing in my Facebook profile that I am ashamed of or that I wouldn’t want others to see, but I talk differently there to my family and friends than I do on other networks. I tend to share my blog everywhere and so that too has a different voice than with other tools in other contexts.

In his post, Stutzman paraphrases Erving Goffman:

In essence, Goffman argues that identity and interaction are performative, a concept that maps very well onto social network sites.  By “creating” identities, we’re not living dual lives, but rather engaging in a well-established performance of identity that lets us share the proper “front” in context.  We act differently on LinkedIn and Facebook because these sites have contextual norms, not because we’re duplicitous.

Later in the article Stutzman continues:

…it was simply too much to ask us to configure ourselves to the technology.

By fabricating new social groupings, Google ran head-on into Facebook’s biggest problem – that of context collapse.  When we merge social groups together, we are challenged to manage our disclosures across these groups, which have different norms of propriety.

Google Buzz has mashed all these ‘worlds’ together. I don’t really want my daughter or my LinkedIn network to see me telling Seth Bowers (in reaction to him asking when I’m going to finally get on Buzz) to ‘Buzz off!’ On Twitter, with an @reply, there is context and even appropriateness in the comment (as poor as the humour may be). To my family and Facebook friends, that could easily be seen as rude, and more to the point, irrelevant when it is ‘pushed’ at them in a different setting with different norms than where the message was intended to reside.

As Seth said in his only two Buzz comments so far:

I don’t know if I need my inbox to be social…

and

Man Google sucks at social…

I may be wrong, and perhaps Google Buzz will catch on, but I think it has a bumpy road ahead, because the social web requires socialization, which in turn requires contexts for appropriate social norms and behaviors.

I’m not freaking out like George Costanza on Seinfeld, but I really don’t want a tool that merges my digital identities and forces my worlds to collide.

Cross-posted on Fireside Learning Ning: Conversations about Education.

If you haven’t joined Classroom2.0 yet, do so. It is a great network of teachers, of many different technological competencies, all sharing and contributing questions and ideas. I went there this morning to find a link to a Mathcast that was happening, but I ended up reading a discussion thread started by John McCullough, which took most of my attention away from the Mathcast.

In John’s discussion, Pre-service Education… Social Networking, not., he states:

I’m a college professor that teaches future teachers how to integrate technology. For a couple years, I’ve been teaching my students the awesome world of Blogs, Wikis, and other 2.0-related technologies, not just how to use them, but how to integrate them effectively as a teacher. However, even though they are digital natives of social networking, my students don’t seem to recognize the educational implications. They don’t see it, and the effective integration typically has never been modeled for them, (and I’m pretty sure I’m not helping very much). In addition, trying to take “I’m a student” thinking individuals and convert them into “I’m a teacher” thinking individuals in regards to social networking in education has been a battle that I seem to lose more often than I win.

And John asks:

What do you think about pre-service teachers’ skills and knowledge regarding social networking, as well as pre-service education on the same topic? I would love to read your comments, suggestions, and experiences.

This was my response, that I thought I’d also add here on Pairadimes:

Hi John,
I’d like to share a few ideas here although I’ve never taught pre-service teachers.
1. First I’ll share. I have presented to pre-service teachers before and I have some links I’d like to share.
This includes my ‘The Rant, I Can’t, the Elephant and the Ant‘ presentation I did to pre-service teachers and my newest addition to these links, Cindy Quach’s look at effectively using collaboration tools.
2. On the topic of collaboration, I think most of these ‘digital natives’ we talk about are very good at connecting to socialize and communicate with their peers, but not to collaborate and learn.
3. Digital collaboration is not intuitive and collaboration roles are context and purpose driven, not general in nature. Thus, learning intentions, purpose and expectations for collaboration need to be explicit or the contributor’s role in sharing and contributing isn’t clear. If these things aren’t clear, then how do I as a contributor add meaningful value?
4. ‘Ownership’ is key. I had a Ning network for Grade 10 Planning and it was teacher-driven until I opened up the forum for them to generate some topics, suddenly the site came alive. The topics varied from important issues, to favourite hockey teams, to a lively debate on whether ‘boys are better than girls’… but what happened after that was that the students started sharing more on each other’s blogs and class discussions.
With student teachers, I would think that generating the content of the site would be as important, or perhaps more important than with any other group since, as mentioned here many times, you want them to see themselves as teachers.
Hope this helps!

Reflecting now, I think my last point is incorrect:

We want ALL learners to see themselves as teachers and contributors to the learning… content creators.

A google document is a collaborative tool, but I’ve been a contributor to many such documents where others have not, and I have also been a non-contributor on a few. Putting a class on a google document does not necessarily make the process collaborative: It can create a group of contributors, participants, editors, and lurkers, but should we call that collaboration in any meaningful way, just because there is the potential for collaboration? What is the intent, purpose and expectations for the learners and contributors?How are they accountable for their contributions?

Things have changed and we need to change too. As I said in my comment on Cindy Quach’s post:

You said it well, “Most writing that is published electronically is, by nature, works in progress.”…A work in progress that can be collaborated on, linked to, added to, and elaborated on. What I really like about the differences in your three examples is that the roles of the contributors vary, and inadvertently you are teaching your students to understand that they can meaningfully contribute with and to others in different ways. A necessary skill in a new world of literacy and technology.

On a related topic, how important is the process in collaboration? I think the quality of the collaboration can be just as important as the quality of the finished product of that collaboration… but often the expectations for how to meaningfully participate/contribute/collaborate aren’t clearly defined, and seldom assessed. If we want to see, and teach, meaningful collaboration then we have to know what it is that we want to see, and clearly define that for our students.

If you know of any assignments or projects that clearly define the collaboration process, and/or assess that process, then please share them with me.

Is your computer being used to teach, to distract, or to promote learning?

If you are reading this while you have a class in session, get off your buttocks.

If you are e-mailing while you have a class in session, move your rump.

If you are planning your next lesson and you have a class in session, take a load off your tush.

If you are searching the web and you have a class in session, separate the chair from your rear end.

If you aren’t conferencing with a student or group of students at your computer then why are you looking at your computer at all?

I’m not preaching, I’m sharing a lesson learned.

At the end of my semester teaching Planning 10, where I used a Ning Network in the class, I surveyed the students for both their reflections and their feedback. A lot of the feedback was really positive! That said, it didn’t teach me as much as the constructive (some would say negative) feedback. Two critical points really struck a chord with me.

Something Mr. Truss can do to make the class or his performance in the class better:

I spent a lot of time in class reading things students had done in class and calling them up to discuss their contributions. I gave feedback, suggested ways to improve what they’d done, and I asked a lot of questions about where they planned to go next… but that’s not all I did. I did get distracted too. And why didn’t I spend that feedback time at my students computers rather than mine?

If one student was brave enough to admit that my circulating around the room was not meaningful, how many more thought it? Did I spend more time ‘policing’ or monitoring than interacting, engaging and helping? Why? How can I best use that time? What should I have been doing to help students learn?

The fact is that the computer is a tool that only holds the value you place on it: It can be a fantastic tool to help you teach; It can be a diversion or a major distraction; It can be a collaboration tool that engages learners in ways that you simply couldn’t do without it.

It’s great having a computer on your desk! But if it isn’t being used meaningfully while your class is in session, then get off your butt.

This is the end of my last post on our class Ning network for Planning 10 this term. The first link isn’t really appropriate but my students get my sense of humour by now, and we just finished talking about sex-ed, so I put it in anyway. For reasons I cannot express in this venue at this time, I will really miss these two classes!

- – - – -

And finally, I will leave you with this:

1. Make smart, realistic goals for yourself… it takes effort to follow through with your goals, so make them SMART and easier to find success with!

2. Figure out who you are and what is important to you. Don’t let media perceptions change you. Be safe, and if you are going to be a role model for others, be a positive one.

3. Remember that the world is getting smaller, and that we are now global citizens… in a new global market… connected in new ways… take care of your neighbours!

Peace.

- – - – -

Originally posted: January 24th, 2008 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: I found out that I was promoted to Vice Principal by cell phone, driving home on the 23rd and that’s what led to me saying here, a day later, “For reasons I cannot express in this venue at this time, I will really miss these two classes!” I took my new position February 1st. It was easy to let go of the responsibility of these classes since the semester was over, but I had many sleepless nights working and preparing to let go of my Grad Transitions Coordinator position. Now that I have been a VP for almost half a year, I do not regret the opportunity, but still find being out of the classroom tough. Some great teachers have made this transition easier for me.

The LCD

In Math, the Lowest Common Denominator (LCD) is a good thing…
it allows you to simplify an equation and usually makes the work easier. (If you were looking for a Math post go here or here.)

For the sake of this post the LCD is not good.
Here, the LCD is when you reduce things to in order to oversimplify a problem, to avoid it or make it go away, (rather than to make an effort to resolve it). It is about taking an easy way out instead of choosing a smart way forward.

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They Both Get Dirty

Doug Belshaw does NOT want you to vote for his blog in the upcoming Edublog Awards. I’m not a regular reader of Doug, but the size of his audience suggests that he is a noteworthy edublogger. I ended up finding his Please don’t vote for this blog! post since I read Kelly Christopherson who wrote about it twice, and so I did venture over there. The worst of the comment spat that ensues comes from Dan Meyer who I first read when he wrote a brilliant post on How Math Must Asses and then later on Why I don’t Assign Homework, but he isn’t in my quite limited RSS feed either.
To put my 2 dimes worth into this I will quote my grandfather, “Never wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it!”
What I don’t like about the comments in this post is that they get personal and neither of these two bloggers have any intent to resolve things, they just want to get the next jab in. I am a fan of healthy discourse, but this is unhealthy, vindictive, and I would even add cheap. LCD.

My suggestion to Josie Fraser and the Edublog Awards team: After a blog gets nominated, ask the bog author(s) if they accept the nomination… problem solved.

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Easier Isn’t Better

When I took this job as Graduation Transition Coordinator, I adopted a few other responsibilities too. One such obligation was organizing the Take Our Kids to Work Day (TOKTWD) event for our Grade 9’s. Apparently our school could not coordinate the Grade 10’s Junior Achievement event on the National TOKTWD so we held this Grade 9 event one day early. This saved us from turning our entire schedule up-side-down for 2 days rather than just one… but this was an LCD solution. I didn’t make this decision, but I dealt with the upset parents whose work places had created special activities for their children on the National day (one day later). Our response, let your child miss the next day of school, so teachers had to settle for a number of absent students the day after our event.

Next year: Either the two dates fall on the same day, (I’m already in the process of booking it), or we move them completely apart and keep the TOKTWD on the designated National day. If it needs to turn our timetable upside down on two different days – so be it!

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Build it and they will come…

I first blogged about the idea for FieldFindr here. I created a mock-up wiki for that post which has now been viewed over 2,500 times. Later I wrote about it in the Ning in Education network:
“…I think that perhaps a social networking site such as Ning could be a great launching point for teachers to connect with ‘resources’ in their, or the global, community. What do others think?”
… and got positive responses from Nancy Bosch and Steve Hargadon. So I launched a Ning version of FieldFindr. I then asked for help in my other Ning (Educational) Networks, and I also ‘nudged’ my Ex.plode.us friends… only to get a very small response. It’s kind of funny that I took this personally at first. I thought to myself that I had network issues… but I think the main problem is that I went to the easiest audience I could find… I went to the LCD… the wrong audience! If I really wanted to make Fieldfindr work, I would need to promote it with potential volunteers, not educators. I did what was easy, not what was necessary. Build the volunteer network and teachers will come… but we need to start with the volunteers!

I don’t feel that I personally need to start such a network, but I do believe in the idea. If by this summer I can’t find a network, or group, or website that does what I think FieldFindr can, then I will start seeking out networks of potential volunteers to sign up… For now I won’t do that because I can’t offer the commitment needed to make it work.

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Busier Isn’t Better

I shared this quote with staff in a staff meeting last Monday afternoon.
“The task of organizing and operating a huge and complex educational machinery has left us scant leisure for calm reflection.”
The quote is by Irving Babbitt, and it seemed very appropriate for me to mention before discussing the plans for the heavily reflection-based program I was presenting to students the next day. The interesting thing about this quote is that Irving Babbitt died in 1933, and I think few could disagree that education has gotten much more complex since then!
In our school there is an International Baccalaureate (IB) program. In order to run the programs in sync with the rest of the school, our Grade 12 IB students are now doing 5 straight classes in a row for this semester. They start their day at 8:30 and end at 3:15, eating in classes and not getting more than a 5 min. break unless a class ends early. They also have to work on their Final IB paper as well. It is not uncommon to hear a Grade 12 IB student say they have between 3 and 5 hours of homework when they are leaving the school for the day- this would be ok if they weren’t saying and doing the exact same thing the next day, and the next day too…
As a new staff member coming in and observing this I have to wonder about subjecting students to this. I don’t doubt that there are some wonderful learning opportunities that happen in their classes, but how much is too much? The idea that these kids are bright, and that they can handle this pressure is nothing more than an acceptance of a LCD.

We are taking some of the brightest students in our district and working them so much that they can’t think, reflect, or for that matter even care about learning. It is their final year in the public education system and they are wasting it away being busy-bodies. I’ve learned so much from reflection, from taking my time to think things through, and from asking myself what I want to learn… we need to give this students a bit more time to reflect and explore their own interests in their final year… they prove themselves capable of the busy work enough in Grades 10 & 11.

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Is Ping Pong a Sport?

To meet one of the requirements of the Graduation Transitions program, students are required to do 80 hours of physical activity after Grade 10. Last year as part of the Portfolio program the hours had to be considered either Moderate or Intense for the activity to count, but working definitions of those two terms were difficult. This year that language has been removed, but many school have kept it. LCD.

I was recently asked in an e-mail, “Is ping pong a sport?”
This was to figure out if time playing Ping Pong could be ‘counted‘ towards the 80 required hours. This is what I had to say:
- – -

I’ve spent way too much time thinking about this.

Our judgments and values don’t matter.
Get students active, have them think about that activity, and if it is enough to keep them healthy or not… that’s the best we can do. Trying to tell students that an activity of their choice does not count accomplishes nothing. LCD.
(Oh, and Ping Pong is definitely a fun and exciting sport.)

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I am a Hypocrite!

Tuesday Nov. 6th, 2007 was going to be tough for me to get to, and through. I knew that when I accepted this job.
When someone asked me in August, “So, is this going to be a good move for you?”
I replied, “Ask me on Nov. 7th”. Well the 6th has come and gone now. I never want to repeat the hours that went into this event- sleeping 19 hours in 5 nights the week before. Getting 2 hours sleep before doing two big presentations, and doing more paperwork that I care to do in any given year… The end result is that feedback has been very positive from teachers, secretaries, admin., support staff and students. Part of me wants to talk about this, and part of me wants to be happy with how positive the day was and just move forward… The fact is that the hard work came from getting all the background paperwork for the program fully developed to present to students, (such as the section of the 80hr Physical Activity Reflection seen above).

Three really positive things about that event that I would like to mention:
1. Students understood the value of the day and did not skip the assemblies in droves, which could easily have happened after their disgruntle attitude for the Portfolio program it replaced. Their feedback to me was very positive and I’ve had a number of the absent students come in on their own accord, or by suggestion of their peers, to find out what they missed.
2. My PowerPoint was pretty slick, I broke it up with a few good videos, and kept people’s attention with great images and subtle transitions. For someone who has used it very little (beyond my presentation week this year) I have become pretty good at creating engaging PowerPoint presentations.
3. I brought in a Bike Trails Champion, Steve Baia, to do a demonstration for us and promote Healthy Living. Not only was this a fantastic addition to the presentation, but he and his dad, Mike, were also wonderful role models of a great father-son relationship. Furthermore Mike watched my presentation and made sure to reference things that I said while he commentated Steve’s performance… very classy!
- – -
Up until now this section is all about really good stuff. So where is the LCD and why the hypocrite title of this section?
Well, here I am developing a program for which one third of the outcomes are related to Healthy Living, and what do I do? I deprive myself of sleep, I completely stop exercising, and I put myself through tremendous stress… Some role model I am:-(
Whenever I get busy my healthy lifestyle takes a back seat. I turn 40 in a couple weeks and I am, without a doubt, in the absolute worst shape of my life. For me physical activity is the LCD, the one thing that I can always drop from my schedule to make more time for other things… and that is wrong.

So here is my plan- and it started yesterday! Three treadmill runs a week and one other activity during the week- Every Week! I’m also going to sign up for the Vancouver Half Marathon in the spring. I had students create one Healthy Living SMART Goals this week, and to practice what I preach, I’m going to create 2 SMART goals to help me live healthier, (one around weekly exercise and one specifically to build my endurance and speed for the half marathon).
By the way, for you SMART Goal fans: The ‘A’ should stand for Action-oriented not Achievable or Attainable. If you think about it, the ‘R’ stands for Realistic and if it is Realistic it is already Achievable but without Action your goal gets nowhere.

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The Greatest Common Factor

None of my LCD’s above are things that can’t be ‘fixed’. The common factor in each of the sections above is that the easiest way of coping with a problem is most definitely not the best way of dealing with these issues or concerns. Sometimes it is difficult to do what is best. Sometimes big ideas need to be challenged. Sometimes we need to question what we do, and why we do it… and we need to be willing to make a difficult change because it is the right thing to do!

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Images:
ARGUMENT by Shaun.numb/ Shaun Morrison on Flickr
Work in Progress… by Spike 55151 on Flickr
Influence Ning profile image for FieldFindr
Perfect Blue by Netean/ Iain Alexander on Flickr
Steve Baia by Mike Baia

Originally posted: November 12th, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: They Both Get Dirty: I was tempted not to republish this as I don’t like to sling old ‘mud’… but I think I want to keep the integrity of my original posts as I have done so far. Easier Isn’t Better: Although I’m no longer there, I’ve just recently confirmed next year’s dates for these events will coincide at my previous school. Build it and they will come: We need an educational leader with the right resources and contacts to do this! Busier isn’t Better: Read Alfie Kohn on Homework! Is Ping Pong a Sport: Sometimes we confuse the activity with the goal we intend by the activity. Do not confuse the pointing finger with the moon. I am a Hypocrite: I wrote this in November and I’m finally getting back into shape… it was a bathroom scale that gave me the push I needed. I’ve often been a person motivated by the stick rather than the carrot, (moving away from pain rather than towards a reward). The comments below add to the conversation. Comments on the original post: Well, after a bit of time off, it seems you’re back with a flourish. Great title. Great insights. As always, you get to the point and, as always, you are right on the mark. I’ll not dwell on your first part except to say you’re right. As for Busier isn’t better – I agree. It’s amazing how schools look to give students more work believing that, by doing so, they are making them learn more. Yet, when we examine what really helps one learn, it isn’t doing more work but thinking and reflecting on what we are doing in relation to what we know. “An unexamined life isn’t worth living” – stands to reason that this would hold true for our students as well. As for being a hypocrite – I’m not sure that is true. There are times during our lives when life’s decisions don’t allow us to always do as we say. Responsibilities that are new sometimes require us to do things we wouldn’t normally do. I say this as I turn 42. I’m not in the worst shape I’ve been in but it’s close. However, as I reflect on my decisions, I realize that in order to reconstruct that part of my life, I will need to make certain decisions about other areas. One of them is career. I’ve finally entered a point in my job where I’m more comfortable with my work and my respoinsibilities and they don’t take the time they use to take. This means that I can do some of the other things that I have put off for some time like exercising, eating right and spending time with my family on weekends. However, if I do decide to make the move and enter senior administration, I will again be required to spend a great deal of time learning which will probably affect these areas again. Now, I’ve learned a few things in the last few years so I won’t completely give up these things but they will be affected. As you say -  the easiest way of coping with a problem is most definitely not the best way of dealing with these issues or concerns. Sometimes it is difficult to do what is best. Good luck with your goals. Keep us posted. Your “reminders” are always welcome. Now, I guess I have an apology to make. Kelly Christopherson on Tuesday, 13 November 2007, 08:29 CET  I should add that if an IB student doesn’t take a Language 12 course in grade 11, they’re taking SIX courses in one semester in grade 12… start around 7:15 am and end at 3:15 pm.  But the second semester of IB 12 has fewer classes, I think some every second day, and ends a month earlier than regular grade 12 classes.  That said, some of my friends in IB 12 right now actually skip entire days of school just to do their homework from dawn till dusk, but then again the people in question are just plain crazy (running 2 clubs this year in addition to IB 12 courseload).  It’s not actually that unheard of for IB students to skip class to do homework for another class; in fact, it’s pretty common. Kris on Wednesday, 21 November 2007, 08:49 CET  Hi David – if only life were that simple. James and I are both already working stupid hours on the awards around our paying jobs – both of us would love the luxury of signing off on all of the nominations. People are more than welcome to contact us and ask us to withdraw their blog: we will be quick to take entries down. Best, J. Josie Fraser on Monday, 26 November 2007, 11:00 CET

Below is a Halloween Scavenger Hunt I did on a (private) Ning Network that I created for a class Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) project I am doing in my two Planning 10 classes.

The scavenger hunt does the following:

1. Introduces students to flickr and , and;
2. It teaches them to insert and site a photo appropriately.
3. Points them to my YPI delicious links that I am starting to collect.
4. Has them re-watch an amazing video I linked to in the video section, (Here is the youtube link for you – I highly recommend that you watch it!)
5. Revisits a meaningful link from yesterday’s lesson.
6. Has students find and quote another student on the site.
7. Has them start looking for charities that they may eventually present on.
8. Looks at a local grassroots shelter.
9. Teaches them more about YPI
10. Some spooky Halloween-ish/PhotoShop kind of fun.
11. Makes them do something silly at the end.

Some fun in the classroom, with a little learning going on in the background.

Here is the post:

____________________________________________________________

Happy Halloween – Time to go on a scavenger hunt… For treats of course!

Make sure you number all your items!

Create a blog post with the title “Scavenger Hunt” and answer/do the following…

1. Go to this site:
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-nc-sa-2.0/
What does “by-nc-sa” mean?

2. Find a “by-nc-sa” photo that you consider spooky/scary and put it on your blog. Link to the actual photo AND give the photographer credit like I did below (I linked to his profile).

Halloween Moon Over Kamadan by FlipSide3 / Adam Eakins
(You aren’t allowed to use one of his photos for this challenge)

3. Create a link to one of the “Truss’ YPI del.icio.us links” found on the Main Page.

4. In the World on Fire video, how much did Sarah McLachlan spend on a Mobile Medical Unit in India?

5. For yesterday’s assignment you looked at Stories in pdf files. Name one story title from each of the two pdf files that were linked to. (One story title from each file, that’s two story titles.)

6. Find one blog post here on our site about the Spirit of Giving (that is not your own). Quote something nice/interesting from that post and give the person credit. For example, if my post was about the Spirit of Giving instead of Empathy, you could have done something like this:

“In the service of others we learn meaningful lessons ourselves. Mark spoke of developing empathy in kids. In so doing, he wondered if standardized testing ‘taught’ our kids anything meaningful? When do they learn about empathy and love?” David Truss

Put the person’s words in quotes and italicize them.

7. Find and link to 5 charity home pages. In one sentence tell me what the charity does. Make sure that the link is the title of the charity. At least one charity must be local (in the lower mainland).
Your links should look like this:
The Terry Fox Foundation: Raises money for cancer research.

8. Go HERE. What is the title of this page?
Find the link to the ‘Tri Cities Mat Program — Port Coquitlam, BC’. (It is not on the first page) Clink on the link and find out if this caters to Men or Women. Tell me this in a sentence so that I know what you are talking about.

9. Go to the Toskan Casale Foundation web site. Copy and paste these questions into your blog with the answers.
How many schools were involved in 2006/2007?
So, how much money was donated?
Find and name one BC school that was involved last year, (besides ours).
What are the Granting Guidelines?

10. Here is a creepy (or is it cute?) photo.

It gives credit right on the image to Worth1000.com and so you don’t need to link to it, as I did anyway. Go to this link and add a photo of your choice. Tell me the actual title and make one up yourself.
This is called ‘Spider Squirrel” and my title is ‘Chipmunkula’ (I think that this was photoshop-ed with a chipmunk, not a squirrel).

11. If you have finished all 10 tasks and posted your blog, then all you have to do now is sing the alphabet backwards and you get a treat.

Congratulations!

Originally posted: October 31st, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: The best part of doing this was going around and trouble-shooting for students. They were all able to embed and credit a Creative Commons Flicker image properly. Unfortunately a few of them learned the ’save-as-you-go’ mantra the hard way, losing information (and time) when their work was lost. Overall, students got to play with Ning, a new tool, and they learned some background information as well as citation expectations along the way. Ning, blogs, wikis, flickr, del.icio.us… many students need to learn how to use the tools as well as get the project done. They are not all ‘digital natives’ that know this stuff, some of our students lack the digital exposure to use these tools effectively without being taught. - – - – - Visit Sarah McLachlan’s World on Fire page and see the detailed donations page. Amazing! Think of what the entire music or movie industry could do!

One is on Digital Citizenship which looks at a post by Vicky A. Davis. The concepts I am formulating are in need of some more deep thought, and I don’t know when I will get to it?

The second post is on a 1-1 project in our district. I invited myself to a presentation for parents of students receiving computers for the project. Although the post is almost done, (and sitting in a Google document), I’m feeling bitter about my lack of availability of computers to teach my Planning 10 classes and so I don’t think I can complete the post until my frame of mind is one that can frame the post in the positive light I feel it deserves. (I feel childish admitting that, but that’s where I’m at right now.)

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A third post has been looming in my head, but my feedreader fed it to me in the form of someone else’s post: It’s time for some perspective here by Kelly Christopherson.

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Here is a little more perspective: I am attempting to fully engage, but still can’t keep up… I’ve been to Second Life, but can’t find anything useful there… I don’t Twitter (yet?)… and to me Ustream seems like nothing more than a car accident that everyone is slowing down to look at…

All these tools are technological with only the potential to be pedagogical… but they aren’t designed with pedagogy in mind. And so with regards to education, I wonder if those in the lead are actually worth following? Will Richardson has a great blog, but I’m not going to give him and his buddy 45 minutes of my time to get information that a 4 paragraph summary of their talk could give me!

…And as for the big hype around backchannels… why do people think this is something worth having transcribed? If a backchannel is used correctly -in my humble, ‘perspective from the outside looking in’, opinion- then it would influence the presenters, and so the meaningful components would be integrated into the presentation. As for any ‘interesting sidebar conversations’ that happen- they are mostly relevant in context with the presentation and if they are worth expanding on and investigating… great, investigate them and blog them for me, just don’t ask me to read 200+ comments to find a gem in the rough. Backchannels have tremendous value in the ‘here-and-now’, during a presentation, but what’s with all the analysis after the fact? My point is that not only do I not have time for all these new tools, these new tools are time consumers that don’t add to my learning experience in a meaningful way.

Looking at Kelly’s post, he states:

“Primarily, little has changed with education despite all the tools. I firmly believe that until we examine the curricula, change some of those objectives and rework others, making it relevant to the students, no amount of cool tool is going to create change.”

I couldn’t have said it better!

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[Pink Floyd tune in my head... clocks ticking/bells chiming] The coordination of the Graduation Transitions Program at our school is consuming so much of my time. I have to be realistic about what else I can do!

• How much of the K12Online07 conference will I participate in?
• Is FieldFindr worth spending time on?
• Am I Ning-ing for my Planning 10 class project or blogging?
• When will I finish my other posts?

I could go on but I think my point is made, and I want to turn my questions outward…

• Am I the only one who feels like a 30 hour day would still be too short?
• Are there others out there who wonder what kind of commitment it will take for a teacher to be technologically savvy enough to meaningfully engage students with all these new tools?
• Are we focusing too much on the tools and not enough on pedagogy?
• Will educational structures change fast enough to provide our students with a relevant education?
• … and for that matter… What would an ideal education look like today?

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*Update: What technology should do for us…

Learning Authentically in the Language Arts Classroom by Jamie McKenzie

Here are the bulleted criteria under 1. Rationale …

“authentic teaching” that involves students in “authentic intellectual work” outside school.

…pass the test of authenticity because they meet the following criteria:

• They are rooted in issues, challenges or decisions that people face in the world.
• They are genuine.
• The act of wrestling with these challenges is purposive – saturated with meaning and significance.
• A student can see a payoff in the future for work well done and skills acquired.

In short, authentic intellectual work passes the test of “so what?” It is meaningful, worthy and generative – in the sense of provoking ongoing growth and development.

I think that if the use of technology is authentic in this way, then the technology is being used appropriately in education. (Rather than just to play with the newest toys, as I seem to be noticing with Ustream- more on this misguided ‘use of technology in education’ in my next post). Also noteworthy, the author’s Anti-Prensky article.

Originally posted: October 15th, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: In his post, Kelly linked to Stephanie Sander’s post over at Change Agency, which fits well with the quote above that asks (in the last sentence) “so what?” Stephanie’s post asks “What?, So What? and Now What?” and is well worth the read! - – - – - An interesting aside… the 1-1 presentation I invited myself to in October, ended up being at the school I was promoted to in February. I introduced Mr. Mak to wiki’s and this amazing teacher has made the class wiki into a class portal for almost every subject for his class and in some cases his team. Hard to believe that he just got the laptops in February! More thoughts after the comments… - – - – - Comments on the original post: We must always be willing to innovate. I have found that the backchannel is very useful in my classroom and at conferences. It is not a transcript but a place where people may become involved in the conference — see Diane’s post today about the experience.Yes, there are a lot of things to try out and learn. I think that ustream gives us a couple of capabilities — #1 a live view into a live presentation — sit in if you wish — or check the 4 paragraph blog post later (but does the blog post really contain everything — probably not and #2 instead of an incredible speaker skype videoing into my classroom — why not connect to 10-15 classrooms or more — why should I horde those opportunities.Yes, we’re playing with some of these new tools, but that is what happens on the bleeding edge. I am using backchannelling in my classroom as well as twitter for flat classroom.And no, there isn’t enough time in the day. Just don’t let it overwhelm you and make you cynical about it all. There is a time and place for innovation and it rests squarely where there is room for improvement in the classroom… students need to be a part — not just receivers. That is what the backchannel offers. I’d love to answer your questions and share thoughts about these emerging fields. But don’t forget a great teacher will be a great teacher anyway — we all have to do the best we can with where we are — and if you join twitter — let me know. Would love to make your acquaintance. Vicki Davis on Tuesday, 16 October 2007, 00:48 CEST I too share your need for more time. I am a dabbler with these tools and thus my full understanding is stunted by the lack of depth. If backchanneling is similar or actually like the chat that went on as people downloaded and watched Warlick’s pre-conference keynote, then I am in agreement with you Dave. The nonsensical chatter that went on instead of real discussion of the issues being presented drove me bonkers. In fact, it became apparent that few people had actually watched the presentation and were using the conversation like a kiss and hug chat room. Very annoying. Another example was the fireside chat with Warlick…I felt like a kid with ADHD trying to listen to David, watch the whiteboard while being distracted by the chat box. I know that the digital natives are able to multitask, but that was ridiculous. Multi-tasking is another way of saying – hit them with as many mediums as possible and hope one holds their attention long enough to give them information. I say….say something worth saying and you will hold their attention. Just my “2cents”… Dave MacLean on Wednesday, 17 October 2007, 06:15 CEST What appears to be opposing views of the last two comments is something that interests me.I see the value in a backchannel! There are many times, as a student, that I wished I had a way to ask questions or clarify my perspective, without interrupting the patter of the teacher. A backchannel could also be used as Vicki is using it, to share what she is teaching with others along with a video stream so that they too have a part in the presentation rather than just receiving it one-way.I also see the caution of throwing more ‘information’ out without it having any pedagogical merit. That was my rant. However, in hindsight, I was to quick to pounce. Educators are now experimenting with tools like Ustream… it is a new boundary teachers are playing with. As I said above, “Backchannels have tremendous value in the ‘here-and-now’”, what I don’t understand is the transcribing of the backchannel. The overanalysis of an unstructured stream of information… it seems like too much. Also, as Dave says above, “say something worth saying and you will hold their attention.” But these are NOT two sides of the same coin. They are two different coins all together. One is about tools, and exploring their potential. The other is about information, and its’ ability to overload a learner. Together these two perspectives offer opportunity and suggest caution. Both are needed.There’s my pair-a-dimes worth! David Truss on Thursday, 18 October 2007, 08:40 CEST - – - – - In my comment above I mentioned ‘pedagogical merit’ and to be honest, I have been on a bit of a focus in that direction recently. What I really mean by that is finding the right tools and structures for the right job in order to meaningfully enhance learning and engage learners. That said, I think that it is important to read George Siemens post: Pedagogy First? Whatever. …Pedagogy is not the starting point of planning to teach with technology. Context is. …Pedagogy should not even be a consideration during the planning stages of technology use. Harsh statement? Perhaps, but it’s a reality. Few Utopian situations exist where our decisions on how to teach can be based exclusively on pedagogy. Resources, expertise, technology, needs (of learners, educators, society), and funds impact what we choose to do. In a world: context. The mix of multiple, mutually influencing factors determine what we types of technology we select. …Let’s abandon the somewhat silly notion of pedagogy first and recognize that the choice of technology is driven by many contextual factors and therefore context is what we are evaluating and considering when we first start talking about possible technology to use. Then, after we have selected technology, we can start talking about pedagogy. Pedagogy is just not a practical starting point for deciding the technology we should use. So the context is more important than the pedagogy. It is more important to design the learning space, to create a learning environment that is friendly, useful and meaningful to the learners, than it is to focus on the content or intended outcomes. In a recent presentation I did to teachers in our district with 1-1 Laptops, I talked a lot about Scaffolding. Creating structures in your technology/web-based projects that supported student learning and engagement. (I’m reworking this to be in one of my presentations at BLC08.) So, now this is what I think: ‘Context‘ is where you start. ‘Scaffolding‘ is the structure(s) we build in order to increase the effectiveness of the technology use. ‘Pedagogy’ is the artful things we do to enhance learning regardless of technology use. I’m not sure if scaffolding as described is fundamentally different than ‘good pedagogy’, but the term scaffolding suggests that we build something onto the context, rather than just add something ‘pedagogically sound’ to it… whatever that means!

“A portal to Connect Classrooms to the World: Global Citizens can Share Talents and Skills with Students. Teachers can find Global Citizens (Volunteers) willing to help in a field of interest that they are working on in their class.”

FieldFindr: Where teachers can meet global citizens with skills to share.

It started with a post and a wiki, and now it has evolved into a Ning Network.

I humbly request your help so that WE can make this happen. After you sign up, this forum post is a great place to start.

Thank you for contributing to this new site!

Originally posted: October 3rd, 2007 First, here is the April 15th/08 reflection from my original Fieldfindr post: - – - – - So, in reflecting on my blog posts I move from an unsuccessful book club to an unsuccessful portal… they would be disappointing if they weren’t so enlightening! To this day, failures are looked upon as negative as opposed to opportunities for learning. It seems conditioned into us at such a young age… this is a comment on our society as much as it is a comment on schools. This is still a great idea… but it was DOOMED TO FAIL! Why? 1. Because it is geared to educators, not to those who would be willing to contribute. My audience and the target audience are not the same. Also the structures to build a sortable ‘bank’ of volunteers are not available for those interested in signing up, (see #3). 2. Formal measures around safety need to be hammered out. Note Kelly’s Comment on the original post: Dave, I like this idea. I think that it has great potential. Now, the administrator comes out in me but how do we ensure that: a. The person is an expert in what they say they are b. They are safe c. There is not “inappropriate” contact between people and the students. I think this is wonderful and we have this type of thing going on in our school with some of our local people. The big difference is that we are in a small community, people who are vounteering must do a criminal records check and any outside school projects are to be okayed by the parents. Precautions. I think that this would be an incredible way to get people from different sectors involved in the education system. This would also allow teachers to have references for their projects or assignments – would give validity to what we do in schools. That would increase the “price of stock” for educators in all areas. 3. Both Wikispaces and Ning are the wrong venues, I simply don’t have the required tech savvy-ness or financial resources (or for that matter time) to create what is needed. - – - That said, I can see a University really taking this on as a project. They can start with one department, say Music or Science, and promote the interests of their instructors/Masters Students/PhD students with teachers that may be interested in their skills as either mentors or experts or judges or… There is significant need and opportunity for such a portal and I challenge anyone with the knowledge and resources to make it happen! - – - – - Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: Vicki Davis added this to the comment to the post mentioned above: Why don’t you take this on, or resurrect the discussions as part of the Advocates for Digital Citizenship, Safety, and Success efforts that people are joining in. I still think it is a great idea — there needs to be a way to safely screen the adults, somehow. Maybe there is still hope for something like this to happen. Who has the skill, know-how and resources to make it happen?

Amy Capelle has started a very interesting discussion in Ning’s Classroom2.0

She asks, “Are they really digital natives?”

The discussion there is great! Here is my response:

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“I come from the Batman era,
adding items to my utility belt while students today are the Borg from Star Trek,
assimilating technology into their lives.”

That’s a quote I use to differentiate digital immigrants from digital natives.

BUT I have realized that it is much more about comfort level & exposure than it is about age. While I am helping some frustrated students open a sign-up verification e-mail, other students have logged into the new site, added a photo, and changed the appearance of their personal page.

There are three digital divides here preventing me from effectively using technology in the classroom. (Two from my post, and the 3rd added from this Classroom2.0 discussion.) These divides are the gaps between:

1. What I know and what I need to know.

2. What the school has in the way of technology and what it needs to have.

3. What skills/abilities students enter my class with.

#1 I can change.
#2 will never change fast enough.
#3 is the shift in this conversation.

I have both immigrants and natives in my class, so the distinction is moot.

In another post I said,

“And then there is my class Science Alive! wiki… “I think that I am guilty of seeing the value of using technology in guiding learning, but not effectively guiding learning in my technology use.”

I have done a pretty good job of getting my students going… but now as momentum builds I have come to the realization that I don’t have a marking rubric to guide me, or my students, as we move towards a final product.

My class is assembling a lego model without the instructions, or even the image of the final product on the front of the box. This isn’t a problem for the creative/motivated students; they will assembly a better model in ways that I could never have ‘instructed’ them… but some students need structure, they have been fed it for years and expect it (even from yours truly – this isn’t finger pointing, it is observation).

I let technology supersede pedagogy.“

Digital immigrants or digital natives is nothing more than a discussion of digital competence… it is a spectrum, not a dichotomy!

Where does this leave us?
We want all of our students to be digitally competent.
We want all of our students to be articulate thinkers.
We need to make this happen in pedagogically sound ways.
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Let us go to the very beginning of the whole debate and none other Mark Prensky himself. In his article, Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom, Prensky says:

“…technology adoption… It’s typically a four-step process:

1. Dabbling.
2. Doing old things in old ways.
3. Doing old things in new ways.
4. Doing new things in new ways.”

I think we get excited when we see ‘new things in new ways’, but often we end up (re)creating old things in new ways. The real conversation needs to be around the constraints of curriculum and standardized testing.

“This is why the foundation of education systems today should not be the rails, but it should be the side trips. It should not be the central standard curriculum, but it should be those directions that students, that learners, both teachers and students, can navigate to on their own.” (David Warlick)

New things in new ways… creating articulate thinkers… and building digital competence as a by-product.

Originally posted: September 19th, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: I remember laboring over the semantics of my title for this post. I used the word ’spectrum’ then changed it to ‘continuum’ and then back to ’spectrum’. The reason I stuck with ’spectrum’ is because the competence and exposure to technology that students face today are not uniform as a continuum may suggest. Students can have very narrow bands, or very wide arrays, of knowledge or expertise when it comes to their use of technology. So if I were to make the post title into a statement it would be: Rather than a Digital Native/Digital Immigrant dichotomy, students have a wide spectrum of digital competence positively correlating to their digital exposure. - – - I’ll save the conversations around assessment, pedagogy and standardized testing for another day. Comments on the original post: David,You always do such a great job of bringing things together, focusing on what is truly important and not the chaff. Schools and school jurisdictions are slow moving in so many ways. They are not adept at recognizing change or at responding to that change. This, at times, has been a very useful such as when bandwagon ideas and such were not able to make big headway. However, we have come to a time when change is necessary and vital to our ability to prepare students to transition to that place we call world. Unfortunately we cannot continue to wait until everyone has reached stage 3 or 4 as outlined by Prensky because, as you point out, our students aren’t even there. With the shifting sands of technology, I don’t believe we will ever get there. Educators will need to become comfortable with being uncomfortable, with change being a constant and not having all the answers. When we realize that we, too, can be borglike if we but allow ourselves the opportunity to revel in the change and not fear it, helping our students will become synonymous with helping ourselves. Keep writing, David. You have a gift for sifting and finding that nugget. Btw, I’d like to try the book club idea again. Interested? Kelly Christopherson on Thursday, 20 September 2007, 07:22 CEST Thanks for your kind words Kelly!“Educators will need to become comfortable with being uncomfortable, with change being a constant and not having all the answers.” What a great point. We expect our students to change, grow, and be lifelong learners… should we not do the same!Yes, I would like to try the book club again, and yes we can make it work this time… but I need a couple more weeks before I can think of opening a book for pleasure. Do you have any in mind? David Truss on Thursday, 20 September 2007, 08:32 CEST The Borg! Resistance is futile – therefore we all will be assimilated into the Web2.0…I am neither immigrant nor native – I am an illegal alien and loving it! mrsdurff on Friday, 21 September 2007, 03:24 CEST David,You certainly have a great take and grasp on the issues education faces, especially in regards to technology in and out of the classroom. I’ve enjoyed so much, your “thoughts”.Isn’t that what it is all about? Whether it be a violin, a pen or a mouse – this interaction with ourself, the fertilizing of ourself to bring more splendour and light into the world?We are doing that here, you are doing it so well with your blog. It is your violin. I enjoyed the stories so much and you’ve inspired me and I think I’ll start a story of the day on my own site – stories for teachers.I’m gonna keep lurkin’ David Guest on Tuesday, 02 October 2007, 01:55 CEST

I’ve been having this conversation in a few different places, and now I need to put my thoughts together. Here is a summary of some discussions and e-mail messages, a Wesley Fryer’s post “Advice for designing the school of the future” and my comment there, and my forum post in the School 2.0 social network on Ning.

It all started here:
My daughter’s school is going through seismic upgrading. 2 years of noise and upheaval… 1/2 the school sealed off, with the kids in portables, then a year later the other half goes to the portables and the kids in the potables move to the newly revamped wing. They are practically taking the roof off, half a building at a time.
After a PAC meeting I asked the principal what technological improvements were going to be made to the school…
NONE!
Not going wireless (apparently too expensive!?!?)
Not even extra electrical outlets in the rooms!
Certainly not a consideration to redesign a library built to store walls of encyclopedias. (I’ll discuss this point later)

The problem is the financial handcuffs placed on the principal to meaningfully do anything to improve the school at this time. Why? Because money set aside for seismic upgrades is from very different coffers than those of renovations/improvements. What does this mean? It means that we won’t spend $10,000 now to wire the school with extra plugs and create a wireless network… but we will necessarily have to do so, for $25,000 in two years, (when the walls and roof have been seismically upgraded).’ [These costs are an approximate assumption of mine, and not based on any specific research done on my part.]

This well said response was given to me by Brian, our district’s Manager of Information Services. He responded to my e-mail and also wrote a response to my comment on Wesley Fryer’s post:

“I agree wholeheartedly with Wesley’s school 2.0 description and David’s concerns. The culture in bricks and mortor schools and districts takes a long time to shift… The challenge not specifically highlighted in David’s comments though is the how government and / or local district funding rules work. For a seismic project, we are very limited in what else we can “add on” to the overall scope of work. And, there are no other pots off money to draw from to “do the right thing” with the renovation. It’s unfortunate but our reality…That said, our vision for schools would encompass the school 2.0 idea. With time, the vision can be realized.”

Brian has been working on a district learning portal, and so he knows the value of having connected classrooms. But the ‘right thing’ can not be done at this time.

I had an interesting conversation with a former student’s parent a few days ago. She works in construction for a number of different school boards, and has done so for over 15 years. Although she isn’t working specifically on my daughter’s school, she told me how easy it would be to first, make the school wireless (a job that literally would take minutes during the construction), and then also to run the wire to add electrical outlets to the classrooms, while the seismic upgrading is taking place. She agreed with me that financially, this task would be significantly cheaper during construction. And in her words, the reason this won’t happen is because in the case of every district she has worked for:

“They Do. They Think. They Re-Do!”

At first, I took her words in jest, but as the conversation continued, and she went back to that phrase (without exaggeration) over a dozen times. I then realized that she truly was talking from experience. I could see her frustration, she shared my exasperation, but could offer no solutions. Just as has been mentioned above, she reiterated that there is simply no additional money to do these kind of improvements. She stressed that this was especially the case with seismic upgrades because these upgrades have, in the past, been grossly over budget due to ‘add-ons’ that clever principals and district superintendents have added to the upgrades in the past. This has resulted in very strict limits placed on what can be done while this construction is happening.

‘We can’t afford it now, so we will pay significantly more to do the same thing later!’ I find this so asinine.

Another aspect to this has been the design of the school library. My daughter’s school has a computer lab next door to the library, but there is no door between the two rooms. I wonder how hard it would be to place a sliding door, or remove the wall altogether?
In his post “Advice for designing the school of the future” Wesley Fryer suggests:

“I think the school of the future should be centered around the library, and include not only great places to read but also inviting places to collaborate and work together, sort of like a Starbucks atmosphere. I think the library should have a design and performance studio, which would permit students to craft high quality media products for the global stage: the web. I think an educational learning portal should serve as a primary learning centerpiece. One of the big things we need to do as school 2.0 educators is redefine our identities as teachers: It’s ridiculous for us to attempt to be experts on all the content subjects we teach. We really need to embrace the model of facilitating project-based learning, so the physical structures of school should support that pedagogical framework.”

Here is part of my comment/response to his post:

I agree with you, “One of the big things we need to do as school 2.0 educators is redefine our identities as teachers” however, as you say, “the physical structures of school should support that pedagogical framework.”

As someone who is struggling with the availability of technological resources, I can say that the framework really should come first!

A question to you Wesley, what can we do as teachers, as members of society who have seen the outside of Plato’s education cave.. who know that there is more to life than shadows on our school hall walls… what can we do to tear down those walls and build schools that are designed for school2.0 rather than school1890?

I think that the reality is that many brand new schools being built today are not fully embracing the possibilities of the future. Partly because we don’t really know what that future looks like, and partly because of financial constraints.

I posed the following question in the Ning School 2.0 forum:

In my daughter’s school, I will fight for wireless, and I will suggest more power outlets in the classes, (so that eventually if they get, perhaps, a row of computers on a wall, or even a mobile computer lab, at least students can power their computers… but what else would you ask for?

And after a few days I’ve only had one response, (which I will get to in a moment). What I find interesting is that nlowell has an interesting forum post asking, “What is the purpose of the classroom?” Go no further than the very first response to see Heather Burlesson’s poignant statement:

“I don’t think we can continue the industrial model. Today’s students do NOT want to be robots, and they have the tools at hand to reject all our attempts to force them into such a mold.

How can we actively engage them while satisfying the system? I’m not sure what the answer is, but I’m fairly certain any change will have to start within the classroom itself. Transforming the “brick and mortar” into a place the kids *want* to go to – My*pace for the flesh and blood part of the day – that’s the challenge we are facing at the moment.”

In essence, we may not like the current ‘industrial model’, but we really don’t know where education is going. This makes concrete suggestions difficult… there really is no blue print (no road map as they say) to the classroom of (as little as) 25 years from now.

In the one response to my question above, Librarian Nancy White points me to a David Warlick post.

Here is her entire comment:

I really loved David Warlick’s response to this kind of question on his blog – his proposal? The one non-budget-blowing thing he would do first is put all school furniture on wheels! Think about this –one of the key elements of project based learning and indeed, practicing 21st century skills is student collaboration. Let’s move those desks around – set up collaborative work space, and a place for presentations.

I agree that the school library is the learning and information center of the school – especially in the age of technology. If creating collaborative work spaces in classrooms seems difficult to navigate, then start with the library! This is where you’ll find staff who truely understand the concept of School 2.0 – and how to collaborate with teachers to create incredible learning experiences for students using 21st century tools and resources.

I think that Warlick’s idea of the classes no longer needing to be ‘anchored’ is indeed a good starting point. It invites the opportunity for change, and it prepares us to be prepared to try things in new ways, while also encouraging opportunities for collaboration.

So now that battle must rage on. I will be meeting with my daughter’s school principal next week, and it is my goal to create a ‘wish list’. It may be a moot point, but to me we cannot complain about the situation and then ’sit idly by’ and allow nothing to happen.

I welcome other suggestions, other wishes, that you would want to see during a ‘renovation’ such as this…

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Images: Lockers 1 by soundman 1024, Decaying Technology by tracer.ca, Urban Nightscape by Todd Cliff, and Head Inside: Brain Wash by NeverB4Breakfast (Yanko Tsvetkov).

Originally posted: May 3rd, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: I had the meeting with my daughter’s school principal and I was very impressed with what she was advocating for. I also liked that the Library design was being thoughtfully considered. On a current related note, check out Alan November’s podcast interview with 16 year-old Zaki Tahari who created a virtual mock-up of the newly planned library at his school, with his own unique design elements added! On the topic of changing schools, I think I have reached some resolve around the idea that schools will never be caught up, or up to date, with the technological needs they require. That said, and accepted, I think that we have great potential to do some really creative and innovative things with the money we do have to spend. The challenge we have now is deciding what we can do now that creates opportunities rather than obstacles later on.