Irrelevance is the Distraction

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Really? Am I writing this post, my third one in a week, (News Alert Humans Like to Socialize and Shackled By Fear) about how computers and the Internet are ruining our children’s lives? More importantly are you reading it? Are we not past this topic yet? News flash! The use of technology, whatever that nebulous term even means, is changing the world and nowhere is this shift more apparent than in our schools. Why? Because most schools are based on antiquated models of what learning used to look like. We can bemoan the fact that students no longer want to sit dopey eyed in rows and hear us ramble on and on about whatever we feel is the most important thing in the world, but really wouldn’t it be better if we started to learn how to bridge our two worlds?

We’ve all heard it before; I am not saying anything new, which begs the question why am I writing this post? Why are you reading? Why can’t we seem to move forward? Why do we need a six-page New York Times article telling us that teenagers are distracted and Facebooking instead of reading novels?

My main gripe and perhaps the impetus of my new crusade is that I refuse to be polarized by the Ed-tech evangelists and the paranoid chalk and talk dinosaurs. I refuse to be forced to make a choice between the book and the computer, between the organic and the digital, between a walk in the woods and a flight through second life, between “real” and virtual life. I refuse to believe that there is only one way to reach young people today. I want to be able to reach them on their level by helping them understand identity creation and digital footprints, but I also want to reach them on their level by taking trips into nature where we write poetry about what we see. There is a middle ground between kids watching Brain Pop videos and creating Power Point videos no one will ever see and calling it integrated technology, and doing worksheets; it is called teaching. It is not the technology that is distracting kids, it is the irrelevance of what we are teaching them and our inability to make it meaningful. You can teach under a tree with a piece of chalk if the kids are buying what you are selling. How do you do that, you may ask? Well that is the million-dollar question isn’t it? I am still learning. That’s the beauty of teaching.

This latest article epitomizes this polarity. Offering examples of exasperated teachers who can’t get their students to read a book versus the cool guy teacher, who is teaching them how to use Pro-Tools, doesn’t help our understanding. We simply cannot make students, teachers, and parents choose between being connected and “tech savvy” and “Old School.” There has to be a middle ground. Where are the stories about teachers who have infused technology to make it ubiquitous like air, (Love that Chris Lehmann quote) so that students can use their talents and newly found knowledge to change the world? Where are the stories about teachers who with passion and love of literature have convinced seventh graders that the pages in a novel can be just as excited or more so that a Facebook feed. I mean really, do we have such little faith in literature that we think a text message is competing with John Steinbeck? If you believe in what you teach and you make it relevant for your students there is nothing they won’t stop doing to follow where you lead.

It is still possible to connect to students without bells and whistles and show them the beauty of well-written prose or the magic of science. I am tired of both sides thinking that students will only learn and stay engaged if the teacher offers a technological carrot. I can no longer, with a straight face say, “It is about the learning and not the tools.” I cannot say that teachers need to create and build meaningful relationships with their students based on trust and honesty if they want them to read on their own.

I could go on and on, but you have heard it all before, and unfortunately most people who will read this post already agree with me, so maybe this connected technology is not as great as it appears. Besides, I have a movie to start editing and I am feeling a bit distracted after reading a six-page article. Maybe, if I can get my work done in time I can actually curl up with a good book. It is really a collection of online columns. Does that count?

News Alert Humans Like to Socialize

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This headline Social networking ‘damaging school work’ say teachers and subsequent from the BBC spawned a few trickling tweets from me, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I needed more room, some space to really get my thoughts down, because let’s be honest, it is a bit absurd, and it is exactly the paranoid anti-technology hoopla that makes our jobs so much more difficult. And just like it is every teacher’s job to stop bullying or stop and speak to kids who use homophobic insults as tools to cause pain, it is also our job to speak up when someone, especially an organization as “well-respected” as the BBC says something foolish.

Before I begin, let me state clearly that I do believe that everything, especially the things we love and defend need be used in moderation. As every good IB learner understands balance is the key to a happy and successful life. I am sure there are cases where kids have slacked on their homework because they were chatting on Fcebook, but that is no excuse for the BBC to start their article on Social Networking with words like obsession.

Many teachers believe pupils’ work is suffering because of an obsession with social networking, a survey suggests.

Two thirds of teachers questioned said children were rushing their homework and doing it badly so they could chat online.

The article goes on to make some pretty threadbare claims about what teachers surveyed “believe.”

Out of 500 UK teachers involved in the online survey by One Poll, three quarters said parents should limit the time their children spent online.

And 58% said spelling was suffering in the digital age.

A similar number said children’s handwriting was not as good as it should be because they were more used to keyboards and touchpads than pen and paper.

Half of those who took part said children’s “obsession” with social networking was affecting their ability to concentrate in class.

And one in four said they believed children with the poorest grades in school were those who did the most online social networking.

Did these teachers ever stop to think that maybe kids were losing their ability to concentrate in class, because their classes were dull, boring and irrelevant? Or that maybe handwriting is suffering, because we don’t really need it anymore? Pointing out hyperbolic paranoia and sloppy reporting, or is this just poll sharing, was not my intention for this post. I wanted to think about and discuss the mixed message we send our students:

Collaboration is good. But don’t talk to your friends when you should be doing work by yourself.
Communication is a key skill. But don’t talk to your friends when you should be listening obediently in class
Community is important. But don’t talk to a network of people you know about anything that doesn’t have to do with school.

Why can’t we just admit that we are not “obsessed” with social networks? We are obsessed with being social. And who needs to be in touch with friends more than teenagers. This connection and socializing is who they are. It is who we were, accept I remember hanging out on the curb and the telephone. I didn’t have the opportunity to chat with friends and be able to socialize once school ended. These kids do, and we should learn how to use that, not fear it and block it.

Kids today are socializing in ways we never dreamed of. This shouldn’t scare us. We should learn from them. We should celebrate their love of being social and guide them in how to be able to switch from silly wasting time behavior, which has a place in teen age life, to a more productive use of these powerful tools. As I said in the beginning, of course there must be balance, but that is not how this article was presented. We were led to believe that kids are becoming idiot zombies addicted to mindlessly checking their Facebook feeds, while this may be true for some ( I am guilty), they are simply trying to find a place in the herd, socialize and build identity.

Yes, they are using new ways of doing it, and in new places- online, but we cannot bar them from going there; we must understand their needs and make sure they are safe and confident. So for the last time, parents, teachers schools, stop blaming social networks for strange obsessive social behavior in teenagers. That is their nature. Stop blaming their disinterest in your outdated teaching style and subject matter in the digital age and get with the times. Stop surveying teachers on what they “believe” social networks are doing to kids and ask the students themselves! If we want our kids to be effective communicators who can collaborate and work with others to build productive communities, why are we afraid to let them try?

What do you think?

Shackled By Fear

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I received this Tweet from colleague and Blog Alliance member Mark Bethune this morning, and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. I have a free prep, it is Friday, and I am going for it. As always, these thoughts have not been formally vetted and are rolling off the top of my head. Please humor me and play along, perhaps if you contribute, someday, I will actually write a post that resembles a flushed out thought. In the meantime, let the stream of consciousness roll, but first the Tweet:

Internet safety and students- I have been meaning to write on this topic for some time now, because honestly I don’t see what all the hype is about. I don’t understand what, exactly it is, that everyone is so afraid of. Maybe I am a bit naïve, no I am naïve there is no doubt about that, but I don’t see the danger. I am often left asking, “What exactly are parents, teachers, and schoolboards afraid will happen if Jane mentions that her last name is Doe and that she lives in Wisconsin? What will happen if she posts a picture of herself at a basketball game, or posts a video of her science project?” Before you start educating me on digital footprints and lasting impressions, I am not saying that we allow students a wild Facebook inspired free-for-all. I am simply saying that instead of telling student not to share anything personal, we speak with them about what to post why, and the effects it will have on them and their communities.

Ah, but there is the fear of the cyber-predator! Apparently there are bands of lascivious perverts trolling the Internet hoping to find innocent children who have made the mistake of sharing too much information about themselves. Then what? Are we worried that these faceless pedophiles will scour the earth, hunting down our children to snatch them away? Your child is more likely to be stalked and abducted by a stranger who stands outside their school and follows you home in your car than by some one finding information about them online.

Am I being too daft? Of course. Yes, I agree that children should be careful with what they share, they should be aware of the dangers of living a life online, not for the sake of being abducted, but of how it affects their identity and who they are. There many important conversations to be had about the impact of children sharing and living online, but they should not revolve around the danger of cyber-predators, because let’s face it most cases of kidnapping, sexual assault and even murder are done by people your children know. As I mentioned in the beginning, perhaps I am naïve. I have had a blog for my daughter since she was born as a way to stay in touch with her family around the world. I could have password protected it, but I chose not to because I think she is a dynamic amazing human being and I enjoy sharing her experiences with others. I think her spirit and developing voice have a place in the world. I feel that her character is contagious and I am proud of her. As she gets older, however, I am thinking more about whether it has been fair of me to choose to share so much of her life online without her consent. These are the issues I would like to discuss about sharing student work online, not safety, but that is a separate post.

I work with middle school kids, so my experience is with them. I am not sure how elementary teachers feel about posting pictures and names of students online but as a parent of a young child I would like my daughter’s teachers to be having these conversations with her in school, so we can decide as a family what we share and why and with whom. Her teacher recently created a blog for their classroom and her grandmother is ecstatic. Am I really worried that someone will find this blog buried in the haystack of other blogs and track her down? Is this really the concern? I just don’t see it. There is also the question of what a stranger could do with her photographs and yes this is disturbing. Alec Couros wrote a great post about this exact issue last year, I suggest you take a look. I am not sure this post is the place to flush out my thoughts on that, will try to get to it soon.

In closing, let me say that the most rewarding experiences I have had online, the most authentic and personal relationships have been because I shared more than I should have. The relationships I have built and maintain are rooted in the fact that I am more than a teacher who blogs. I am a full human being and I try to share that with the web. Different people connect to different aspects of my identity and I find this inspiring. If we want to teach students to truly connect and learn to become networked, how can we expect them to only share slices of themselves? How can we except them to make meaningful connections if all they write about is school, and only share the most mundane parts of their personalities? Why not allow them to create a youtube account, or post pictures on Flickr, to blog, to tweet, and see who they find? Sure they need our guidance, but they do not need our paranoia. If we want them to be global digital citizens then we have to allow them the freedom to be themselves. At a recent conference with Julie Lindsay we came up with some definitions of what a digital global citizen looks like:

Someone who is open and curious.
Someone who knows his or her identity is aware of their digital footprint and actively explores, creates, and promotes it
Someone who is aware and mindful of themselves, their community and the big picture of the world around them.
Someone who can communicate their views, feelings, and ideas respectfully and responsibly online.

My question is how can we expect students to be these things and afraid at the same time? We need to teach and guide our students to be open and share responsibly, but not shackle them with fear. It’s a lot like real life really. But please tell me I’m wrong. Convince me to be afraid…

Who You Callin’ A Life Long Learner?

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Is reading and acquiring knowledge really learning? That is what most adult do, so where is the creation, the higher-level thinking, the application?

That’s question I got out of bed to jot down last night, and it’s the question I hope this post begins to explore. Let me be the first to admit that I have not really thought this one out, and I hope that by the simple act of wrestling with the words I can pin down some direction to take with further. Feel free to read along, comment, and move forward with me.

There is nothing more deadening to education than the jargonization of ideas. And let’s face it learning ,seeing as it is at the core of what we do, has taken the most abuse. At my last school, we joked about looking for learning. Teachers would snigger in meetings where administrators would say with straight faces, “So what do you think learning looks like?” I get it. It is hard to define.

The term that seems to be perennially in vogue is the life long learner. We want to foster life long learning. We have teachers who are life long learners. Really? I guess I want to explore the idea that we aren’t and that we don’t.

It may look good on a brochure to say that a school’s staff is constantly immersed in learning, but the truth is most people are simply living their lives and trying to get by. Even those of us who champion the cause and bare the flag of the life long learner may simply be deluding ourselves. Are you feeling defensive yet? Good let’s get started!

I always start with Wikipedia, so let’s take a look:

Learning is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines.

Okay, two words jump out and blip on my Bloom’s Taxonomy radar: Acquire and Synthesize. Is the amount of time we spend, acquiring new knowledge and skills, and the amount of subsequent knowledge and skills acquired in proportion to how we synthesize it? In short, what are most people doing with the raw data that pours into our readers and twitter feeds on a daily basis? How far up Bloom’s Taxonomy do most teachers take their learning? Is writing a blog post or creating a wiki enough evidence that you have learned anything? Or is it simply documentation of the data you have reattained?

I have been wracking my brain to think about the last thing I learned. The last time, I acquired new knowledge or skills, which I then applied and used to create something new. I can’t think of anything.

What’s the point you may ask? Well I want to learn something new, and I want a few of you to join me. I say I love learning, but have a hard time identifying anything I have learned in the last year. Maybe I am being hard on myself, but I would hope that if I had learned something it would have at least been exciting enough to register in my memory. No, I don’t want to read websites, or blogs and recreate the ideas in my own terms. I want to, “build a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure.” How do I do that? You are all teachers. Teach me something new?

If we are all life long learners then we need to be asking ourselves these questions. What is the last thing you learned? I am not looking for a set of data you memorized, or facts you are storing in your brain, I want to see proof. What did you create? Where is your evaluation? If you truly learned something you should have documented, created and evaluated your learning. Right? Share with me. We are all life long learners right? Show me. Teach me.

Edublog Award Nominations

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Awards? Symbols of excellence, good work and recognition, or worthless tributes to ego boost and idolatry. Not sure if I am using that word correctly or not, but I don’t care. Not sure how you feel about the suckers, but I know I fluctuate between the two views. Sometimes they validate my thoughts on work well done, while at other times I see them as shallow popularity contests. I am still extremely upset that Forrest Gump won best picture over Pulp Fiction. I mean come on! Really?

The world of Edtech is no different. We stroke each other’s egos in this quaint and sometimes claustrophobic echo chamber we have deiced to call a PLN this year. Don’t get me wrong! I love the place, but do we really need awards for what we all already know. I mean isn’t a Retweet and a Hyperlink validation enough for our fragile egos? I don’t know about you, but it’s not enough for me!

I write, I tweet, I do all the things I do because I want my voice heard and shared with as big of an audience as possible, and if handing out little statues made of HTML code will do that for my work or the work of those I admire than so be it. Call me vain, call me egotistical, but I didn’t get into this game to scribble bad poetry in my journals. I am done with that. I want to share and create and connect, and to do so I need you. It is only a shame I cannot nominate myself for every category. (Not so subtle ploy to get you to do it for me) But in the mean time, my nominees for this year’s Edublog awards. The irony of course being I have nominated people who could careless about awards. They are dedicated passionate educators doing their thing. Getting an award may actually upset them. My nominations:

Best individual blog– John T. Spencer I have been gushing about John lately, perhaps a bit too much for his comfort, since he prides himself on his humility, but I can’t help it. His blog is the one blog I look forward to reading the most every time I open my Reader. We are operating on a very similar wavelength, but he continues to challenge my thinking and forces me not to become lackadaisical with my pedagogy and world view. Short, deep, powerfully reflective writing. What blogging should be all about!

Best individual tweeter– melaniemcbride When she is not busy bad mouthing the corporate agenda of Ed reform, or sharing the groundbreaking work of non-ed-tech types, she is opening my mind and keeping me in check. Her suggested Twitter follows have been spot on nearly every time, and her intense critical view of eduction and technology is a breath of fresh air in the chamber. Truly an outside of the box thinker, you need her in your network.

Most influential blog post– Not sure what is meant by most influential. Most hits? Most comments? Most ReTweets?All I know that is that there were two posts this year that really struck a chord with me. Strangely they were both on the topic of teacher burnout and endurance. A Heart So Empty by Paul Bogush and They’re Breaking Teachers by Zac Chase. They said only one nomination per category, but I will let Edublogs sort that out.

Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion– Comments4Kids by Will Chamberlin What needs to be said? Kids new to blogging need support, they need comments, and they need an audience. Will has done, what I feel is the best job connecting classrooms. It is why we are all here and Comments4Kids is doing a fantastic job!

Best use of a PLN: If leading by example and modeling the power of the network is reason enough to hand out an award, than I can think of no better candidate than Alec Couros‘ eci831 class. The course has brought together hundreds of learners and mentors and blurred the lines of who is teaching and who is learning. Alec has used his Network as a sort of social network wateringhole, where people converge, share and learn.

Lifetime achievement- Gary Stager, because let’s face it while he may claim not to want an award like this, he is dying to have it, and no one else has been so intensely kicking ass and taking names for so long as Gary. A thorn in everyone’s side, a true provocateur and rabble-rouser, Gary has been passionately and intellectually arguing for children’s rights for over twenty years. Gadgets and fads may come and go, but Gary Stager will always champion the power of the teacher learner relationship and for that he should be awarded.

So there you have it! Even if these people are not officially nominated or win, I hope they understand what an impact they have had on this writer, blogger, teacher. Thanks guys!