Dangerously Irrelevant

Here is Part 3 of my notes from our day with Will Richardson. You also can see the live chat and/or follow the Twitter conversation and/or participate in EtherPad.

• We started with a visioning exercise (and accompanying discussion)
• Are we suffering from information overload or information overchoice?
• The nichification / ghettoization / balkanization of society
• Communities of interest don’t look like communities of geography
• The #1 characteristic of a healthy network is diversity of ideas. (Stephen Downes)
• Adolescents are growing up in a much more transparent environment than previous generations; whatever they do is likely going to be public (whether they like it or not)
• We are spending a lot more time interfacing through screens
• We are failing to teach adolescents how to use these technological affordances in socially responsible and productive ways
  • This is because the vast majority of educators aren’t information literate themselves
• If you can’t figure out who’s behind http://www.martinlutherking.org/, you’re illiterate these days
• It’s not hard to make the case that the world is now 24/7/365 anyone anytime anywhere. But we need access to it.

Read more…

Here is Part 2 of my notes from our day with Will Richardson. You also can see the live chat and/or follow the Twitter conversation and/or participate in EtherPad.

• How are you personally taking advantage of these online / technological affordances?
  • If you’re not, can you participate in the conversation? ‘Cause you don’t have the context.
• The business sector is behind this; they want specific policy initiatives (can ISEA / SAI / Iowa business leaders / etc. all get behind these?)
  1. Get every kid/home connected (broadband)
  2. A device for every teacher
  3. A device for every (secondary?) student
  4. Do you have a curriculum that supports the things that Will is talking about? (does the Iowa Core go far enough?)
  5. Community forums that educate the average Iowan / statewide visibility initiative
  6. More online coursework options (e.g., statewide virtual high school)
  7. Education of teachers / community members about workforce / 21st century skills / globallization needs/issues
  8. Greater flexibility for schools to use existing funding streams
  9. Repeal / revise Dillon’s Rule?
  10. Different / better assessments
  11. Allow schools to use/create free textbooks and use textbook money for student computers
• We are the last generation that had a choice about technology (Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach)

Read more…

Here is Part 1 of my notes from our day with Will Richardson. You also can see the live chat and/or follow the Twitter conversation and/or participate in EtherPad.

• I’m going to make you uncomfortable; you should be uncomfortable
• If you’re not uncomfortable right now in education, you’re not paying attention
• Conversations are spreading far beyond physical space, in ways that previously were not possible
• My learning today looks nothing like the learning that’s occurring my kids’ classrooms
• There are no adults right now teaching kids how to LEARN, not just be social, in these networks
• Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuFsDN8dsJU
• He assumes there’s an audience and that they’ll respond
• He’s comfortable asking for help
• He views YouTube as a learning tool (Elliott Smith)
• This is inquiry- / problem-based learning
• After 101 views, he had 10 comments (10% hit rate); all 10 had specific feedback/suggestions for him
• This 12-year-old kid can throw out a question to 1.7 billion people
• Shirky: We are experiencing a tectonic shift in how we form groups and self-organize
• Wesch: This is not simply a technological revolution, this is a cultural revolution.
• Outside of school ALL of our learning is inquiry- / passion-based
• That’s the way that world looks for anyone with an Internet connection
• Finland has legislated nationwide broadband access by 2012
• Schools have a lot of tech, but nothing’s really different
• Still memorizing a lot of stuff
• Curriculum hasn’t changed
• Instruction hasn’t changed
• This group-forming ability is everywhere
• Obama’s use of social media for Presidential election
• Flickr tag: iranelection
• Raw information is being released rather than it being edited / filtered first
• We now can live stream video from our phones; imagine a world in 5 years where everyone’s phone is iPhonish
• Justin Bieber became famous by uploading his talent show videos to the Web
• Check out surfthechannel.com
• Today, instead of writing a letter to the editor / Better Business Bureau / CEO, you make a video
• Business is different today because people can form groups,
• Allstate (and others) has hired people to monitor the Twittersphere; don’t call; tweet!
• Best Buy has 1,200 people monitoring TwelpForce; don’t call, tweet!
• Alvin Toffler: if you’re a cop with a speed gun, the car going by at 120 mph is business, the car going at 5 mph is education
• This MacArthur Foundation report is a must-read
• Kids are using social networks to connect with their friends / peers
• They’re also connecting with adults around the world in interest-based networks
• Educators need to teach kids how to do this responsibly and powerfully b/c this will be the majority of their online interactions in the future
• Adults are uncomfortable with the idea of being hyperconnected and hypertransparent
• They’re wary of being open and findable
• How are we going to think differently in 3-5 years when every kid comes to school with ubiquitous access (via cell phones) and has the world’s sum of knowledge in their pockets? (see Will’s post on this, along with the 130+ comments)
• Research shows that the online predation issue is not nearly as big as we think; the threat is overblown; we’ve been Datelined to death; and that most kids are pretty good at navigating the Web safely
• It’s a basic risk-reward equation
• Adults are not having these conversations with kids, they’re simply blocking and/or ignoring the issue
• Just like we have driver’s ed, we need Internet ed (Dave Keane)
• There’s nothing personalized or passion-based about what we’re asking kids to do in school
• How can we square this with entrepeneurship, innovation, creativity, 21st century skills, etc.?

True statement by a teacher (said with all sincerity) in one of my workshops this semester:

We’re so far behind our students. How do we catch up and move past them so that we can then teach them things they don’t know?

If a picture tells a thousand words, then the two images below from a recent report by the Global Information Industry Center at the University of California, San Diego are of interest. The first image shows the average American’s hourly information consumption per day. Note that the small yellow wedge represents printed text, which of course is the overwhelmingly dominant information medium in P-12 schools.

The second image shows the decreasing prevalence of printed text in our lives since 1960:

These data represent average Americans. I’m sure they would look different if we just looked at our younger generations.

It’s simple, really:

How long are American schools going to get away with these kinds of expansive disconnects between how we consume information in schools and in our daily lives?

Here is the current leaderboard for the ISTE conference keynote crowdsourcing project. No major changes in the last four days. Voting is slowing. Chris Lehmann still holds his lead over Jeff Piontek.

I’ll try to post an update every day or two between now and December 15. Have you voted yet?

Some of you have noticed that CASTLE has a new blog: 1to1 Schools. We’re excited about this new venture, which is meant to highlight news, stories, videos, and other resources related to elementary and secondary 1:1 laptop programs.

1to1 Schools is a group blog. For example, check out Nick Sauers’ series on using John Kotter’s 8–stage change process as a model framework for schools that are considering 1:1. Or his post on banning boredom, not laptops. Nick and I also have been on the road with our Flip camcorders, making videos of educators who are involved in laptop programs (see, e.g., our chats with Wynn Draper-Bryant and Marge Beatty).

Pamela Livingston, author of 1-to-1 Learning: Laptop Programs That Work, recently had two posts about an international survey of students in 1:1 programs:

• Part 1
• Part 2

She also wrote recently about how laptops are NOT for listening.

Blair Peterson, another occasional contributor, has noted that we should be prepared for the expected opposition to laptop programs.

The blog is a work in progress - and like many new blogs we’re still working on finding our voice - so if you have suggestions. If you’d like to be a contributor (or know someone else who’d be a good writer for us) please let us know that too.

Happy reading!

Judy O’Connell asked if the video below is the future of magazines. Yes, absolutely. Maybe not by 2010 or 2012 but sooner than we think. And for newspapers and books too. And, to a lesser extent, maybe we’ll even start seeing more interactivity and/or multimedia embedded within scholarly research, government or policy center reports, and other manuscripts.

If ‘news’ is becoming more of a commodity every day, perhaps it’s this sort of added value from which publishers will make their money. I know I’d pay for something like this from my favorite periodicals.

Thanks to Ewan McIntosh for the tweet that led me to this. Happy viewing!

I have been invited to speak to the Board of Directors of the National Education Association (NEA), our nation's largest teacher union, about disruptive innovation. I'm scheduled for the morning of Saturday, December 12. I only have 20 minutes, plus another 10 minutes for questions and discussion. If you were in my shoes, what would you tell them (stick to the topic, please!)?

I’ve been nominated for a few Edublog Awards this year, including Best Individual Blog, Lifetime Achievement, and Best Leadership Blog (a nonexistent category!). I’m flattered that some folks think I’m worthy of nomination and am appreciative of their support of my writing.

I should be WAY down the list when it comes to any kind of lifetime achievement award. The category is only in its second year of existence; David Warlick won last year. I can think of a number of different folks that have come before me and are much more deserving. Below is a partial list that is 1) in no particular order, and 2) by no means exclusive of others that I’m forgetting at this moment. All of these folks have influenced my thinking and writing and many were very kind to me when I was getting started.

• Will Richardson
• Wes Fryer
• Stephen Downes
• Karl Fisch
• Miguel Guhlin
• Doug Johnson
• Vicki Davis
• Christopher Sessums
• Dean Shareski
• Jeff Utecht
• Steve Dembo
• George Siemens
• Ewan McIntosh
• Bud Hunt
• David Jakes
• Tom Hoffman
• Darren Kuropatwa
• Judy O’Connell
• Alan Levine
• Pete Reilly
• and so on…

I only have been blogging for about 3 years now. Maybe in another decade or two - if I’m still at this and the folks above all have been selected - I’ll feel like it might be my turn. Until then, I hope you’ll consider throwing your support behind one of these others (if they get selected for the final ballot).

Nominations close December 8 if you’re interested in recognizing the blogging contributions of others. Voting ends December 16 and the awards are announced December 18. Keep writing and learning, everyone!