There is a method to the madness...

After last weeks post, many of you are still asking... Why? Well, I think I need to back up some of the things I have posted with a few facts...

MySpace is becoming part of the culture. When I went to Parkside Intermediate School last week to talk to the incoming 9th graders, I asked the room of 250+ how many of them had a 'web presence?' Not a single hand went in the air... When I asked them how many of them either had or knew someone that had a 'MySpace' account, EVERY SINGLE HAND WENT IN THE AIR! So, in reality, what is MySpace? It's a blog. A place where students can post their pictures, writings, art work, etc. Many parents and teachers don't like MySpace because of the uncontrolled speech that it supports, which I wholeheartedly agree with, but isn't part of our job as teachers to teach students how to express themselves in a socially acceptable manner. Isn't this part of what the 'Academic Integrity Policy' is working towards? So, how can we leverage what students are already doing to make our jobs as teachers easier?

MySpace has become such an ingrained part of 'Generation M' (for Multitasking) that most use it as their alter ego, social calendar and diary all rolled into one. Police are using MySpace to get leads in cases that occur in their cities. There has even been an unintentional sting of a pedophile in Southern California, when a group of 15 year old boys reported a man after they were posing as a 14 year old girl that had broken up with one of their friends. The owners of MySpace like to point these types of stories out, as they publically state how 'safe' MySpace is.

MySpace isn't the only type of technology that students and others are using. Technology usage, is up among all people. Are people becoming addicted to technology? There are many theories, but surveys of technology users shows a 21% increase of users logging on for 'fun.' There are other studies which state that the Internet, which has been seen as a male dominated medium, is attracting more female users and the 'Internet Gender Gap' is shrinking.

With the fun, there is also the unexpected. With everything online being archived by some website or server, what you say in a moment of joy, anger, love, hate, etc. is being saved by someone. This has the potential to come back to hurt you or even get you expelled from school. In the same article, college admissions boards are searching MySpace and Facebook for postings from applicants. But the reverse is also true, college admissions boards are using the Internet more and more to recruit qualified applicants to their schools.

A big thanks to Michele Fichera, Linda Henry, Christy Knott and Martee Lopez for helping Dominic and me in getting a much better handle on the Global Communications course curriculum and how the English, Health and Contemporary World Studies courses can collaborate in a productive way. I scheduled 3 hours for our meeting, thinking that we'd last an hour and a half, tops. We took the entire three hours and I think there was some big eye opening by everyone! Martee and Michelle, how are those shopping RSS feeds coming?

Thanks to you all!

Posing interesting rhetorical questions

There haven't been more annoying blog posts since the CUE Conference in Palm Springs for a myriad of reasons. One is we have been working on the beginning stages of implementing the Global Communications Grant. We received the official paper work from the State Department of Education and the District accepted the grant at the last Board meeting. To this end; on Wednesday, 3/29, we will be meeting with teachers from the various academic disciplines to find ways the Global Communications course can collaborate and provide support to those courses.

Well, sometimes working in the EdTech field you get to the point where you see things happening professionally that others don't and realize things are going in a certain direction and you want to move your organization in that way but find it difficult to do so. This is the situation I find myself in after the past 6 months. Based on conferences I have attended; books, blogs and other material I have read and conversations I have had with many people involved with EdTech and education in general, leads me to believe that the course we are currently pursuing is the right one.

I know that many of you are asking why are we getting all of these blog postings? The biggest reason is that I hope at one point you will see one thing that you can use and take it and use it in your class. Or you might decide to start your own blog for your students, this is a little different than posting homework in School Loop, because it brings in outside sources to your curriculum. I want to liken it to when I taught Social Studies and found that article was in the newspaper and wanted to make sure I shared it with my students that day. Blogging allows you to do that everyday, or once a week... So, the question becomes: 'To Blog or not to Blog???" That will get the ball rolling, but whether you start now integrating technology tools in your classroom not or not, there will be a time when you will be forced to do so. Many of you have suggested that we hold off on doing some of these things, because students don't have access to these tools. Recent studies have shown that close to 2/3rds of U.S. housholds have access to a broadband connection, therefore we must move the 2/3rds ahead and do what ever we can to assist the other 1/3. To do my part I have received a donation of over 50 computers we can GIVE to students. Just so you know you are not alone, Bill Bowe has taken to call me, 'Lord Voldemort' of 'Harry Potter' fame due to blog postings you have received.

So, in the best Rod Serling voice that can be mustered.... "You are about to enter another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone! "

I submit to you three points in space and time: The Blogosphere, RSS and Podcasting.

The Blogosphere is the general term given to the community or social network of blogs. Blogs can have many different purposes and meet the needs of their authors and readers/receipients. The biggest idea behind blogs in education is three fold. First, you are asking students to gather information in someway, whether that be from RSS feeds (Discussed later), individual blogs or from some other online or hard copy publication. Secondly, you are asking students to internalize the information in some way, whether you call it to synthesize, remix or mash. When you and your students start this process, it will be a little strange at first, but after the first time or so, it will be come much easier. So, how do I get started? USA Today printed a short article on starting to blog, using three tools, one of which is 'Blogger'. Blogger is what I use to produce this blog.

The second part of the equation is gathering information, whether it's something that has been around for awhile or something that is recent and topical. Information that has some history to it is easy to find, but you also need to be concerned with bias and propaganda. If it is something that is current or topical, you need to have a way to collect the information in an organized way. The most effective way to do this is through Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. Almost every newspaper, blog, journal or other written word on the Internet is cataloged in some way. Today, most of this content is available through RSS, but you need to have some way to collect the feeds you are interested in. To do this you need a news reader or aggregator. To create this blog I use an online news aggregator called Bloglines. Through Bloglines, I subscribe to about 15 different feeds, when new postings are placed on those feeds, a short synopsis of the article is sent to my Bloglines account. Through Bloglines, I can scroll through the captured articles quickly and decide if I want to open the entire article. I can also save articles to read later. Many of the articles you find linked to articles I write on this blog, I get through my RSS feed on Bloglines. To see if a website you read regularly has an RSS feed attached to it, look for the little orange symbol, like the one above. There are other ways to find and read current information on the Internet, but I'll save those for another time.

Podcasting is the combination of several different technologies, allowing anyone to create their own multimedia content. Podcasts can be strictly audio, or can include slides, .pdf documents, video or art. Podcasting uses RSS to deliver podcasts to subscribers, but instead of a news aggregator (like Bloglines) to collect the content, most people subscribing to podcasts will use iTunes, regarless of computer platform. (PC or Mac) There are no limits to the types of things you can send out to students or to other teachers using podcasts. In the near future, we will be looking at using Podcasts to send staff development tutorials to you, so all of you can see the power of Podcasts. Many colleges and universities are using MP3 players and Podcasts to make lectures available to students after the class.

Each of these tools has the ability to create a richer and deeper learning experience for both teachers and students. Teachers can create content that they can use over and over again. They can give access to students at home or have a podcast to explain an assignment for a student that has been ill. Students can use these skills to create their own content and make it available to anyone in any place. If we want our students to become self-directed citizens of the world, we must allow them to connect to people regardless or time or physical location.

CUE2006

Thursday: 3/9/06:

Kyle and Dom set out to attend the annual Computer Using Educators (CUE) confernce in Palm Springs. We arrived in Palm Springs late due to the flight in San Francisco being delayed for a mechanical problem. It's 7AM... We're on the runway... the plane is starting to pick up speed... and the pilot shuts it down. He takes us back to the gate.... we stay on the plane until 8AM and then they decide to let us off. We finally take off for Palm Springs at 10AM.

We get to Palm Springs, and everything goes OK, we get a cool little blue Hyundai with a sun roof. We get over to the Convention Center and this place is HUGE!

Getting involved in the sessions.... Went and saw Alan November during the afternoon. Alan was awesome as always and we told him that he was the one that got us $225,000. He thought we were kidding, but once he figured out we were telling him the truth, he jokingly asked for a cut.

Friday: March 10, 2006

In the General Session: Awards given... Some pretty inspirational folks using technology to enhance teaching and student learning. Keynote given by Robert X. Cringely from PBS, InfoWorld, etc. Great talk and gave us some more ideas to get the Global Communications Pathway moving forward. (Sorry for the blurry pic from the camera phone!)

Kyle tried to get into Hall Davidson's session, but it was packed and decided to go over to the Open Source Pavillion to see Chris Walsh's session on Blogging and Podcasting. Most of the blog tools Chris showed are things we are already doing with this blog and others, but the podcasting tools I knew about, but had never had the chance to put into action, we have some plans to use podcasting as a staff development delivery tools. Cool Content Management System (CMS) tools as well. We have been playing with some of these things, I guess we need to settle on a structure, get it all set and move forward.

Dom spent the mid-morning session getting some great ideas on Electronic Portfolios. We are looking at using this extensively with the students in the Global Communications program and this will probably be the first staff development podcast we will get out to the staff.

Both Dom and Kyle spent the two afternoon sessions in the Apple Training Center. In the first session we got the low down on their server products ...YAWN, but necessary to implement the programs we have planned. The second Apple training session was on Podcasting and how to create podcasts using 'GarageBand.' The Apple trainer, who probably drinks a triple shot cappuccino, a 'Red Bull' and a 'Full Throttle' prior to doing his session, was very informative and went through the entire process of creating a podcast.


Friday Afternoon - The CUE Ball
Now, I know what you are thinking, a 'ball' at a conference filled with EdTech Geeks... Those thoughts were running through our minds as well. But we decided to show up for the same reason people slow down to see a wreck on the highway. When we got there, four guys in the band and the lead vocalist is Mike Lawrence, the Executive Director of CUE. These guys ROCKED! Going from Cheap Trick, George Thorogood and the Destroyers and finally to James Brown, the band had some great range. We also got to rub elbows with Jim Daly, the publisher of 'Edutopia,' the magazine that is put out by the George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF).



Saturday: March 11, 2006
By the time we get through the first session on Saturday morning, there is only so much more you can try to fit into your brain to bring back to school. Both Dom and Kyle went in and out of a few sessions during the middle of the day. The student technology showcase in the main lobby had some interesting projects including a 10 minute film made by students at a continutation school in Southern California. The film is a horror film where students that do not complete their homework have their brains turn into mush. Dom was especially impressed with some of the special effects that the students included in the film. We made a run through the vendors and saw a few cool things and decided that was enough! Plus, there was snow on the hill outside of the convention center.... check it out!


Overall Impressions:
The conference content was great, the presenters were great, we are coming back with plenty of things to use at Capuchino. Biggest negative... the wireless access in the convention center was HORRIBLE! Most of the time you couldn't get a wireless connection, something that you would expect at an EdTech Conference these days.

MySpace

Most of you have had to deal with 'MySpace' in one way or another this school year. While in many instances what students are using MySpace for is not appropriate for an educational setting. Simply trying to 'block' My Space isn't the solution either, because the students are always going to find some way to circumvent the controls placed on their access by filters and proxies. How many sites do you see popping up offering anonymous web surfing?

My Space allows students to express themselves in an innovative and creative ways, which is extremely important for students in their high school years, yet some of the language and content is not appropriate for an educational setting. Blogging, in it's many forms (written, video and pictures) is something that is going to continue to grow into the future. Students are doing all kinds of things with 'MySpace' accounts, including creating dummy accounts for teachers, like the one's we have shown in faculty meetings. These accounts artifically bloat the numbers of subscribers claimed by 'MySpace.' Law Enforcement is also starting to take notice of the blogging craze, by reading the blogs of students in the local area to obtain clues about unsolved crimes and current investigations.

So, what do educators do? First of all, we need to educate the teachers and the parents as to what 'My Space' is. Most teachers and parents have no idea what is going on and what is being posted on individual student pages. Wired Magazine has published two articles on MySpace, on the 'backlash' against MySpace from parents and teachers and the second, a 'cheat sheet' about the things that happen on MySpace. If these people knew what went on, they would be much more vigilant as to watching what their students/children are doing. Some newspapers have even stated that parents need to 'chill out' over MySpace. Most teachers and parents don't think anything of the pages they see on their student's/children's screens. So, educating parents and teachers is the first task that must be completed by lead technology teachers and administrators. Although this may be changing, a school in Costa Mesa, CA has recently suspended 20 students over items posted on MySpace about a class mate.

Secondly, we need to educate students about the information they provide about themselves online and how they are representing themselves in 'Internet Arena.' Safety and appropriate behavior online needs to become part of every student's education, there is legislation in the State Assembly to do so right now. Kids need to know that there is also a difference between how an when they communicate with their peer group and when they communicate in an educational/professional setting. We will be taking an active role in teaching students ethical technology behavior in the fall with a 'Global Communications' course. We hope all 9th graders in the school will enroll in this course.

Individual expression for all high school students is a good thing, allowing them to be heard in a greater arena than just their few close friends, but it is the job of teachers and parents to teach teenagers how to do this in a manner that will reflect upon them in a positive light. I don't want censor the message, but we need to help students deliver it in an appropriate manner.

What is Web 2.0?

Is there a new version of the Internet? Not really, but the term 'Web 2.0' has been defined by many people involved with technology and the services available on the Internet, and there are no two definitions that are the same. So, you are asking yourself, "How am I supposed to figure this out and how can I use all of this information to help me in my classroom." Well, lets look at some of the similarities of the definitions of Web 2.o to try and figure out what it is and why are so many people talking about it. Most of the definitions include terms like: 'Architecture of Participation,' 'Social Networking,' 'open source' and 'platform independent.' None of these terms really gets people excited about all of the cool things happening in Web 2.0, to most it is just a bunch of techno-babble that couldn'e effect me in the least. But the one term that is key to almost all Web 2.o definitions and is what makes Web 2.0 cool, is 'AJAX.' No, not the cleanser, but it is an acronym that stands for: Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. AJAX allows the 'porting' or delivering of traditional computer applications; like calendars, word processing tools, spreadsheets, address books, etc. through a web browser or other Internet connected device, like a cell phone or PDA. The content on the page refreshes (updates) itself automatically without refreshing the entire page. AJAX also allows individuals to create and subscribe to content on the Internet through blogs and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and podcast feeds. What this all does is allows your web page to perform many different functions in 'real time' automatically. The ability to work 100% online means that it doesn't matter what type of computer you have and what hardware and software are installed on the machine, you can use these tools. The best part of Web 2.0 is that most of the tools and applications are FREE to use.

Web 2.0 Applications can be broken down several areas. Best of Web 2.0 for 2005 is a list of services in several areas of Web 2.0 development. Another list of all of 2006 Best of Web 2.0 covers many of the same sites. Business 2.0 also published a new list of the top 25 new 'net technologies.' While this list is not exhaustive, it gives a list of a few applications in each area. Each of these articles lists several general areas of Web 2.0 web sites, yet it is probably better to create three general categories of Web 2.0 applications and list the different applications in each catrgory. The first group of applications are: Personal Productivity Tools. These sites provide services to individuals allowing them to do most of the things they do on a single computer online. You can store this data online and access it from any Internet accessible computer. The biggest benefit is if you use multiple computers or other Internet connected devices in your life, you can share information between all of the devices. There are online Start pages, like: Netvibes, Protopage, Goowy, Google Desktop and ItsaStart. Most of these start pages will allow you to customize the user interface and move the smaller content windows around the larger web browser window. Also in this section there are online word processors, (Writely, Writeboard ) Calendars (30 Boxes) and To do Lists (voo2do, Ta-da Lists, ).

The second group of Web 2.0 tools you'll find on the Internet are what are known as 'Social Media' or 'Peer Production News.' These sites allow indiviuduals (like you and me and our students.) to create and manipulate news stories from other content on the Internet. You will hear terms like 'remixing' and 'mashup' to describe what these tools do. Social Bookmarking (news) sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, and SlashDot are becoming very popular. Other sites deal with different types of media, like Video, (YouTube) Music and Photos. (Flickr, TagWorld) Blog filters like Bloglines, Technorati and Memorandum allow users to select 'feeds' to subscribe to and get information they are interested in. The one example of Social Media / Peer Production that most people know about is Wikipedia, the online user developed encyclopedia.

The third group of sites allow users to select and store Media of all types. A few of the sites listed above in the Social Media section also fit in this section ( YouTube and Flickr). But this is the fastest growing part of web 2.0. There are sites that will allow you to store different types of media for free and share them with anyone you want. As mentioned above, YouTube allows you to store video. Flickr and BubbleShare store still images with some outstanding add on features like magnifiers and photo albums. There is a new site that will allow you to store and serve Podcasts to anyone you choose, called Pod-serve. A new site is offering free online storage Box.net is giving away 1GB of storage on line for any purpose, if you want 5GB with no file size restriction the cost is $5 a month. Google has offered many different tools to increase personal productivity, including GMail with over 2GB of storage space. There have been third party utilities designed to use the GMail storage space as an Internet drive. It seems that sometime in the next few months that Google will also offer free online storage space to anyone that asks for it.

So, now you are asking yourself... "What does this have to do with me in my classroom?" What all of these things will allow any student or teacher to have access to, create, innovate and share any media over the Internet. This will create a much richer learning and teaching experience for teachers and students. Imaging having the ability to find and create an animated video to illustrate a particular point and having that video available to all of your students. We are already doing some of this with School Loop, but the addition of all other types of media will make this experience much richer. We have all had the time when we saw something in a newspaper that precisely illustrates a concept you have been working on in class and you want to share it with your students. You simply make note of the URL and post it to your 'Blog.' Using these tools educational activities will be come deeper, richer and more focused then they have ever been in the past.

The "Social Internet"

Over the past few years, the Internet has changed. The Internet is becoming much more of a two way communication tool than it had been in the past. When Tim Berners-Lee developed hyper-text markup language and morphed it into the world wide web 1989, it was a one-way communication tool. Berners-Lee had envisioned the Internet being a two-way tool, allowing scholars to exchange and share information about the projects they were working on. The Internet remained basically a one-way tool for the next decade. During the Dot-Com boom, there were more people authoring their own web pages, but the communication was still basically one way. The only way to interact with the author of a web page was to send an e-mail to a link the author had on the bottom of the page.

Over the past five years this has started to change. Blogging tools, like the one I am writing this on started to show up in the early 2000's. Individuals could write their own content, post it on the Internet and with the inclusion of message boards, people could read and respond to the author. The comments of many people reading the page were there for everyone to read and respond to. The popularity of blogging and other two way communications tools has created a second Dot-com boom. Right now the 'blogosphere' is doubling every six months.

So, what is out there that the students we teach every day are using and what can we do to hook into what they are doing. One of the biggest tools students are using now is 'Texting' on their cell phones. It allows people to send text messages using their cell phones. Students use 'texting' in all sorts of ways, from cheating on exams to managing their love life. Students even have their own short hand that they use when texting on their phones.

As the level of two way communication has increased, there have been 'virtual communities' springing up, organized geographically or by interest. 'Craig's List' is one of the most popular virtual communities that was established outside of a traditional ISP, like America Online. Other social Internet communities are forming in places that you wouldn't expect them to and allowing their members get more deeply involved with others in their own physical community. One of these communities is called 'Freecycle,' that allows people to offer items that they are willing to give away to anyone that will simply come and pick the item up. I have personally used this community on both sides as a giver and a receipient. But, the virtual community we have all been exposed to is: 'MySpace.' There is good and bad in anything; 'MySpace' has problems because of the clientele and the behavioral norms that the community accepts. 'MySpace' has flourished because it allows teenagers and young adults to connect with eachother in new ways, but because it is the first virtual community most have become members of they don't understand some of the 'netiquette' that is part of the 'online experience.' This has created more than one instance of 'cyberbullying' or 'cyberstalking.' Students also don't understand how some of the things they post or say online can allow people to gain entry into their personal lives. Anytime you are online, you leave a trail of where you have been and what you have done! So, as we begin to use the tools available to us as teachers, we must be a bit more vigilant in setting appropriate standards for online behavior by our students.

Global Communications

As most of you know, Capuchino has been awarded Specialized Secondary Program Grant to create a Global Communications Pathway. The basic premise of the program is to integrate technology tools into students personal and educational repertoire and better prepare them for the world they will face when they graduate from Capuchino High School. Students would start in the 9th grade year taking a 'Global Communications' course. This course would be broken down into four areas (Basic Skills, Evaluation Skills, Communication Skills and Collaboration Skills) and will be used to assist students to become better consumers of the media and content they have access to on a daily basis. Students are already consuming the media at an ever increasing rate as a recent New York Times article points out. Why do students need Global Communications skills? The current New York Times best seller, 'The World is Flat,' outlines 10 'flatteners' that allow anyone from any place in the world to act like they are part of the biggest multinational corporation. This book has become so popular, that many Silicon Valley companies (Google and HP) are giving it away at their corporate events.

The students we teach have grown up with technology tools and adapt to new technologies easier than many teachers, who have recently learned to use many of these tools. (Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants) A recent USA Today article states that students are embracing the technology available to them, but don't apply the skills they have to school or work in a meaningful way. Just look at how many students have iPods or are trying to sneak onto 'MySpace,' but aren't able to cite their sources or format their papers correctly. During our faculty meeting we showed some students 'MySpace' sites and even some that students had created for teachers, but do the adults involved in a student's life really know what is posted on 'MySpace?' Instead of banning students from using certain web sites, as teachers we should be modeling the appropriate use of the technology tools available. One of the skills we should be teaching students is how to find and evaluate information on the Internet. Students using new technology tools to connect with friends and family are more likely to maintain and sustain meaningful relationships than those students who do not use these tools.

Apple is now expanding iTunes into the college market as a way for professors to post the material covered in class online in the form of 'podcasts.' K-12 classrooms are also getting into the podcasting scene, with students using iPods to listen to discussions or create their own 'radio' shows to post on the Internet for their classmates and parents.

Why are we doing this? Because for students to be successful after they leave high school they must have skills that allow them to function in the society of tomorrow effectively. Unfortunately, many students in college don't have some of the basic skills they will need as adults.

In the next few weeks you will start to hear more and more about the Global Communications program and we hope that you will give us input as how to improve what skills we are teaching and how we can best support all of our students. To illustrate what the possibilities are I am posting a link to a video. It was posted here before, but I think it really crystallizes the challenges that are ahead for teachers and students.

Thanks in advance for your support.