21st Century Educator

This is a lengthy comment I wrote on Dave Warlicks blog post. I thought I would add it here and see if I can get some comment.

I wanted to weigh in here because I think it will raise an interesting point of argument when it comes to blog edict. Ewan Macintosh in the podcast from Wes Frayer’s site mentioned that one of the problems he saw in student blogging was this lack of moral judgement when commenting on a peer’s weblog. The students saw it as a chance to be rude or inconsiderate of each other. There is an interesting debate to have here about how exactly we go about setting rules and guidelines for blog comments. What I write on my own site is entirely up to me and therefore what I allow to be posted on my site is also my decision. However, you would hope that professionals would never abuse what should be an environment of trust. The digital native and digital immigrants still need to be guided with some wisdom and values. Oh how I can see an even more increasing need for quality values education as we head toward the future of such technologies….
Moral questions come to mind like…….

1) Is it wrong to use someone’s unprotected wireless?
2) Is downloading a TV show that isn’t available for purchase in your area wrong?
3) Don’t I have a right to constructively criticize someone’s point of view in a podcast or weblog and have it read by all that read the blog?
4) What if I copy and past information off someone’s weblog? Especially if they haven’t copyrighted it?
5) Can I take David Warlick’s opinion, thought or concept and present it as my own presentation at a conference in which I receive financial gain, without giving him credit?
6) Who owns the intellectual property of wikipedia?

Furthermore, we need students to understand the concept of bias and what the particular bias of a piece of writing is. If I have complete control over the content on my weblog, all who read it and perhaps my reference to it need to emphasise the fact that all comments by me and all comments by my readers have gone through a personal bias filter - The Brett Moller bias filter!!

How important it is to communicate this idea to students, especially if we continue to encourage them to participate in these types of conversational technologies.

All these questions I can answer on my own value system, but what if you disagree, what the law disagrees? And like so many areas of technology change what if there is no law that covers these questions?

This got lengthy enough for me to post on my weblog (http://blog.brettmoller.com) - Oh is it wrong for me to promote my weblog on Dave’s site? Especially, considering he has his site setup to auto allow my comments!!!!

Ok so the comments and blogs about Dave Warlick’s “New Story” concept may be getting a bit old but I had some more to say….. I wrote this early this morning and thought I may as well add it up.

Wow what amazing conversation it has been stirring in the blogasphere about the whole New Story concepts. I wonder if everyone who is commenting actually gets what the point of telling the new story actually is. However, with that said I think there is some interesting offshoot of conversation that has come from this web 2.0 collaboration. I guess my thinking has headed down the track of where we are focussing what we as educators do. As an educator I simply want to best prepare students for the reality of their world. This whole concept is so well described in Thomas Freedman’s book, “The world is flat.” He uncovers our eyes to the reality of the world that students are heading into. He shares amazing insight into skills that will and are suddenly becoming more valuable than simple knowledge.

I had the pleasure of spending some time in the US recently. While I was there I sat and listened to George Bush’s state of the union address. While I don’t have any sort of view on the politics of the US, I couldn’t help but begin to get frustrated at his ideology of education. He stated that he wanted to have the US producing the men and women that could continue research into important areas. Yet he has a country full of standardised testing that recognises those who are good at remembering stuff. However, those who are good at remembering stuff do not necessarily create good researchers. The researchers and inventors of tomorrow are our creative minds that are adaptive to change and have the skills to not only stay ahead of change but to also be the ones that determine the direction of change. Those who come up with new ways to stop dependence on oil will be the creative, adaptive, explorative and innovative minds of our world. They will be the ones who can see the needs of society and come up with new ways of fixing old problems.

At the end of the day I see the technologies of web 2.0 as tools that help students develop their minds in ways that are so very important for survival in our world today and toward the future. I don’t think it is a matter of making sure that we all understand technology. It is a matter of developing the minds of the future to be adaptive enough to handle whatever future it is they face. The change in our world in the last 20 years has been so fast and so unexpected by many, we really have no idea of what the future will hold. However, we can use the tools of today to help develop the minds of tomorrow. That is why this blog goes by the idea of – integrating the learner into the curriculum. I desire to take the learner – the student – the mind – and integrate it into what and how we teach.

As I begin to travel and work with a number of different students I can see through the content that I present the need to also present ways and means of developing new skills that help the leaner become adaptive to new situations. One of the interesting reflections I made after conducting a classroom blog and podcast was the type of student that embraced this new way of communication. It was not the student that simply enjoyed using computers and or technology. In fact it went much deeper than technology it actually became a way of really identifying the students who could firstly adapt to new ways of doing old things and secondly the student who could not only adapt the way they communicated to a completely new medium but also recognise the added potential of that new communication tool.
I can see the need to cut the educational jargon out of the way we shape educational thought. However, when it comes to telling a new story I believe Dave has hit the nail on the head. There is a new story to be told, it may not be so new to some of us but it is certainly new to many educators who haven’t had their eyes opened to the reality of the world that our students are heading toward. It goes beyond just teaching how to use technology, it actually uses technology as a way of encouraging students to develop the adaptive skills required to survive in our society.

So what do you think? Feel free to disagree!! Look forward to your comments and feedback….

Many of you who read David Warlick’s Blog would have been immersed in his writings about the new story. I am always interested to see what Dave is thinking on this topic as it really clarifies a few of my own thoughts on where education programs should be heading. In my position I have a vision that the learning programs that I write and present will become so cutting edge that educators that see how we do things will have interest sparked and begin to see how they can become better facilitators of learning.

An example of this that I have taken from David’s presentations and podcasts in the past is encouraging students to always ask questions about the answers they find. What an awesome concept that really begins to encourage learners to not just accept information as valid and true, but to test and deepen their understanding. Unfortunately, I don’t see this as a skill that is tested in standardised testing, something that is beginning to become too popular in my country.

Often educators can get caught up in the educational jargon that floats out in the philosophical realms of deep and meaningful educational thought. As we begin to present new and innovative ways to educate and develop students I believe we need to make sure that we avoid the jargon. The golden rule I use to use when explaining concepts to students was called the KISS rule (Keep it simple stupid!!). I believe that in order for this “new story” or innovative ways of education to be told and sold we need to evangelise to the parents of students. I would be interested to hear what kind of feedback a serial classroom podcaster like Bob Sprankle and his 3rd/4th grade students receive from parents, and what the parents feel about their students spending time on this during school. Furthermore, I wonder if our good friend Dave Warlick has had much time evangelising his new story to parents? It is great that he and many educators spend time sharing these new thoughts with educators, but what about the parents – the ones that ultimately determine government policy and direction.

I have also added to this blog my thoughts on Dave’s latest post

I really enjoyed this critique of the conversation and your thoughts on the story of the use of technology in our education world. The very thought that a “new story” needs to be told and spread through the powers that be worries me a bit, especially when we have a society that is controlled by media stories about the chaos that our schools are in when it comes to the “basics”…. or the 3 r’s. I think we have a dozen stories a year in our media blaming schools for the poor performance of the basic 3r’s skills. I can’t see how there will be much needed change in our school systems when our society seems to be up in arms about the lack of literacy skills amongst our students. I would be interested to hear what our parents of students are thinking about this “new story.” How well would this message be received by a parent world that is constantly told that test scores on standardised tests is all that matters?

I would spend a minimum of 30mins a year with each of my students parents, and an overwhelming number where more concerned with where their kid placed in the state wide tests rather than how they developed as a learner. I also remember the criteria we placed some years ago on students interested in competing in Lego robotics competitions. We decided to only allow the students who placed in the top % of mathematics and science exams!! What does this say to the creative learner?

Yes blogging, podcasting etc is exciting new tools or ways to enhance the learning, however, I feel that we have a need to help parents of our students have a mind shift on what matters. Parents are voters and governments seem to make the final decisions on these areas.

Episode 16 - Video Podcast - Some more thoughts on podcasting using Garage band. This time I use movie screen captures. Right click to download the podcast

I watch this some time ago and started thinking about how it could possibly effect the way we teach kids today. As an educator who presents to a wide variety of students, how long will it be until the digital information they can access everyday takes my job away? Or how do I change to make sure it doesn’t…..

More importantly, what are the implications for our students if ideas like this were to come to pass… Watch the movie at the link below and add some comment.

http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/

Episode 15 - A long time coming… Video Podcast - A chat about my new position and an overview of using Garage Band for podcasting. Comments to edtech@brettmoller.com
Right click to download the podcast

I have started writing a paper for submission to a conference committee on the use of technologies such as Podcasting in learning programs. I am currently trying to pitch the benefits of podcasting to my boss and give him an insight into how these concepts can work in education. I am interested to get some feedback on how educators out there in the blogasphere are using podcasting. Even if you have a neat idea that you can see working in any educational context….. I would love to hear from you.

My general concept at the moment is bringing together notions of podcasting and the desire to encourage our students to become reflective learners. I picture students producing a podcast that reflects on their learning experience and gives them opportunity to express their new found knowledge. I want to encourage a global initiative of learners coming together to create an exciting information environment that demonstrates the powers of collaborative learning with peers. As I have the privilege of working with learning programs which are very quickly becoming global, I can see opportunities for multicultural collaborations that wouldn’t have been possible before.

So what is it that excites you about podcasting as a tool that opens doors for an exciting new information and learning environment?

Let the sharing begin……