September 18, 2007 – 4:50 pm
I have been very lucky to be travelling with a UK delegation this week that is visiting Australian schools and Departments as part of their investigation of emerging practices and issues with the use of ICTs. Owen Lynch, former CEO of Becta, with some Irish Colleagues (Tom McMullan and Jimmy Stewart - former and current CEOs of C2K in Ireland).
Schools that focus on teaching and learning, cultural change and collaborative leadership seem to make the greatest impact in integrating technology into contemporary learning. One interesting aspect of our visits is to see a shift from ‘canned’ content to open and free tools to support learning. Thanks to Derek Wenmouth who pointed to this excellent list of learning/working tools from the Centre for Learning and Performance technologies. I quite liked the categorisation of what these tools might be used for. This seems to be one of the potential barriers to uptake of new and emerging technologies, that we are not sure what these technologies might be used for.
I saw great practice that has local impact. Wouldn’t it be great for teachers to see themselves as part of a broader community and share their experience with new and emerging technologies. This is potentially the only way we can scale such signficant change within the education industry. Collaboration must be internal and external and in fact should be global.
September 6, 2007 – 7:41 pm
There are some moments at conferences that are simply inspirational. Satoshi Fukushima, spoke at the Regional Advisory Council for the Partners in Learning program for Microsoft in Tokyo, Japan today. Satoshi is blind and deaf, and he is currently a professor at the University of Tokyo (the first to do so and at 38). He spoke of his life challenges of losing his sight at 3 years old, and then his hearing at 12. Satoshi realised how much information came to him via hearing and touch, but has spent many a ‘tranquil’ night once he lost his hearing as well. On the encouragment of his teacher he set goals for further study. His mother invented a finger braille to help him communicate. Satoshi says he uses email to communicate today.
Satoshi spoke about challenging the status quo to create new ideas and make a better society - salutory advice from someone who knows about challenges.
education.au will soon be releasing an Accessibility Panel. This tool will test comprehensively online services for W3C compliance and will provide understandable and practical ways to rectify non-compliance. This should be a very useful tool and I will let you know when it is released in September 2007.
August 31, 2007 – 2:29 pm
Interesting piece of research from Marie Jasinski for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. She cites some ‘chasms’ for embedding change.
1. Chasm between early adopters and mainstream - there are different reasons and expectations for these two groups to adopt new technologies. You need to address these to maintain the momentum.
2. A technology-pedagogy chasm - technology does not improve ineffective teaching - how true, and e-learning technologies are adopted at a faster rate than e-learning pedagogies.
3. An innovation chasm - Innovative practice is outpacing the readiness of organisational systems.
The report also highlights a number of recommendations:
- organisational readiness requires the right innovative practice.
- purposeful use of technology is a core competency in a knowledge society
- a strength based orientation to organisational improvement fosters innovation
This report is worth reading.
August 31, 2007 – 10:45 am
I asked Mark Pesce, who hosted the afternoon sessions at both the Jimmy Wales and danah boyd seminar to reflect on the Jimmy Wales seminar. Mark’s insights into the challenges and opportunities can be summarised into three areas of consideration
Control vs Chaos (Didn’t Maxwell Smart have a take on this!!)
Although Wikipedia may seemingly have a chaotic model for generating unbiased (we know that at times entries may be very biased) comparisons have shown that the end result has similar accuracy to authorative sources. Mark speaks of three organisational models - a networked model where individuals are connected by need and ability, a hierarchial model where the connections are rigid and imposed and a corporate model in which individuals report to one boss. The rise of the networked model challenges notions such as ‘Who rules?’, ‘who decides’ and ‘who arbitrates the truth’?.
Firewalls vs Freedom (I can feel the tension rising!!)
Web 2.0 is based on an open and collaborative design. However, when issues such as duty of care, privacy and security get mixed with open and collaborative design we kinda like need a better balance than we have currently inherited. There is a fear of litigation factor here that drives the risk dial towards ‘averse’ rather than manage ‘the risk’!! We know bans on Youtube and other Web 2.0 tools will be shortlived, but perhaps this where the slower moving education sector has to go first because of the uncertainty that fast moving technology brings. BTW, did you see the report in the Herald Sun on Tuesday this week. A student took 30 minutes to get around the Government ($89m) filters, and then when they threw the second one at him, it took him 40 minutes. (Employ him now!!) His comments were actually very insightful, ‘Filters aren’t addressing the bigger issues’……
Staying Current vs Staying Present (The new digital divide!!)
There is an interesting debate to be had regarding whether teachers should keep up with the technology. My view is they should keep up with the impact that the technology may have to improve learning!! The kids will keep up with the technology. More importantly, teachers need to know how and use the technology to make them more effective. In a fast moving world this means networks and knowledge generation via peer production. Being connected and an active participant in communities of practice will be paramount. Perhaps we should seek ways to reward people who do this well.
Read Mark’s paper and let me know what you think!!
August 8, 2007 – 11:38 am
danah speaks of a concept of networked publics. Online spaces that communities gather to communicate and collaborate. These communities come together because they are passionate about their specific areas of interest. In these communities, the participants know the norms for behaviour.
In the early days, public spaces, such as moderated usenets and listserves, where you could be kicked out, became the safe places for people to work collaboratively. But danah says the shift today is about forming communities about the self. This might seem egocentric, but mirrors what we do in our everyday life.
Friendsters was an early meeting place for well defined groups. A cult developed around the concept of being my ‘friendster’. Some Indy Rock (US) events used myspace initially to promote rock concerts through networked mass communication. The demographic started at around 25 years of age, but as teens in the US, were not allowed to attend these Indy Rock events, the demographic shifted to 21 then to 18 then to 14.
Facebook has a different history, starting as a online site to help students at Ivy League universities in the US, to find people who might be attending the same classes.
Networked publics are different and our young kids are engaging in online publics. Teachers, educators, professors need to understand and help young people to cope with issues in these publics, just as much as helping young people to cope with public life. Its an opportunity we should not miss.
Download and listen to danah’s speech. danah was on the Today show yesterday.
August 6, 2007 – 11:24 am
danah boyd spoke at the education.au seminar today about the rise of social networks. danah spoke of the profiles that students develop and make public on their myspace site. She says this is equivalent to your contact list on the phone, that we often don’t make public. Kids today do, and this is important to their reputation in the onlne world.
danah also spoke of the invisible audience. Online, you often don’t know who is listening, those who will intentionally break the rules and those who know how to behave in this space. Mediated environments have been complicated by not knowing the context.
She also spoke of the age segregation issue where young people have been written out of civic spaces where teenagers could be politically active. She spoke aout how 700,000 users in Facebook were able to influence the owners about privacy features which were imposed on the Facebook community.
The internet mirrors and magnifies issues in the physical space. danah says that the opportunity for educators is to help student to engage in learning which is collaborative and educationally sound. This doesn’t necessarily mean you simply use social networking tools to engage in the space that students use for socialising. They often avoid going to spaces where people in authority might be lurking.
danah says that if kids need to choose between school and friends they’ll choose friends? There is a need to obtain a balance between school and friends. Awareness and open communication is important for parents here!! There is no easy answer.
A podcast of the Melbourne event will be made available later this week. Look at the events section on our website.
Some of you may be aware of the frenzy that was stirred by the media and responses to danah’s entry regarding ‘Viewing America’s class distinctions through Facebook and MySpace’, posted on June 24. danah has now reflected on this experience and her entry explores how blogs are a form of thinking out aloud and not a formal piece of writing with many citations and references. I suppose as many of us reflect on our blogging experience, we engage in blogging to make connections with people who are also thinking about similar issues, want to share, debate and learn from others. For me, this blog is a response to my filters on the complex world as I bring into one place bloggers and thinkers who are grappling with similar issues. I find this a very useful mechanism to clarify and take forward my own thinking and to also share that with you.
BTW, if you haven’t registered to see danah in the flesh in Australia next week, its not too late. Registration online is still available. Don’t miss out!!
Stephen Downs’ post regarding Mike Seyfang’s post regarding Gerry White’s presentation to the CEGSA conference …phew thank god for the RSS aggregators as they filter the rich information world out there. Mike’s post regarding his experience in connecting to a large secure and ‘locked’ enterprise WAN illustrates why perhaps teachers are reticent to explore and experiment with new and emerging technologies given the difficulties that Mike had…and Mike knows what he is doing!!
Gerry, former head of education.au and colleague spoke of the concept of ‘openness’ and this applies to many facets of how technologies are used today. (Not sure if Gerry’s presentation is available) Web 2.0 services are more open and collaborative and yet our educational systems are locked into the ‘fear’ of the litigator. As Mike suggests the response to this fear is more complexity for teachers and students in simply doing things that they have access to at home.
Are there better models for reducing the risk of litigation, improving safe access and ultimately using the technologies as they we designed to be used as collaborative tools for knowledge building and sharing - core learning activities. In the meantime, there is a grassroots interest in the use of Web 2.0 technologies by teachers. I am convinced that good teachers are developing great ways to use technologies to engage, motivate and improve the learning process. In some cases, teachers need to go around the system hurdles. We know students are pretty good at this as well.
In looking at the CEGSA programme and the recent Catholic Education Conference, I see many teachers (current and past) sharing their enthusiasm for the web. Let’s see more of this.
I hope Mike is not too scarred from his experience!!
I was pleasantly surprised at an article in this morning’s paper in Adelaide called ‘Safety Net’ by Anick Jesdanun. It reported that research (Internet Prevention Measures) in the US, was saying that ‘parents can relax; well adjusted children are unlikely to become targets’ in the online world. Children that are displaying risky behaviours offline are more likely to engage in these behaviours online. In online communities , the norms around who has control, privacy and openness have shifted.
danah boyd, a researcher with the University of California, says that ‘new technologies have altered the underlying architecture of social interaction and information distribution. The young are embracing change, albeit with a candour of an elephant in a china shop. Meanwhile most adults are panicking’. danah will be presenting at our next seminar in Brisbane (6 August) and Melbourne (8 August). danah is a geat speaker and Jennifer Wilson from HWW Mobile will also speak and share the panel session with danah. Don’t miss out!!
Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, in his recent visit to Australia, alluded to the fact that web 2.0 technologies are based on open and collaborative communities where robust discussion, community consensus and trust are key elements of the online world. The opportunity for educators to help learners navigate and develop appropriate behaviours is a lesson not to be missed. As well, we need to remind parents and caregivers to take an interest in what kids are doing online!!
So hopefully the promise of web 2.0 technologies can be fully exploited in the education sector. I know that many teachers are exploring really exciting and innovative uses of web 2.0. Tell us about any great things you have been doing!!
Well I’ve had a good break from posting and I need to get back into a rhythm so here goes!!
It was great travelling with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikpedia, who was very unaffected by his fame during our first seminar series in late April. He was extremely obliging in responding to the media frenzy and the Chaser’s War on Everything stunt was great. Heard in Sydney that the media thought Jimmy and the organisers were angry about the stunt. Let me tell you that we were extremely honored that they targeted us and Jimmy knew in advance that it was happening and I told him to roll with it. So again the media were trying to beat up a story that was simply wrong. I even have a photo with Andrew after they left. (I had to otherwise my kids wouldn’t have believed it!!)
Mark Pesce’s comparison of the entry for kangaroo in Wikipedia, Britannica, Citizendium, Conservapedia and Unencyclopedia was priceless (have a look in each one), but was also making the point that we need to be careful about truth in a world where publishing of content is collaborative. Wikipedia though is an example of how this kind of peer production has produced an encyclopedia that in many cases is better than traditional encyclopedias….but the point was made that Wikipedia is an excellent starting point for kids to begin their research…and good practice says you always use more than one source for research.
Three other key points that Jimmy made were:
- Gatekeeper vs accountability model for software design.
- Loss of control in a collaborative environment - risk management rather than risk aversion.
- Neutrality emerges with diversity and trust.
The podcast of Jimmy’s speech in Melbourne can be found on the education.au website. Enjoy!!
Garry
