21st Century Educator

This week has been the week for news stories around the issues of internet filtering. First up, I read this article about the filter that McDonalds is placing on all its wifi access . Not such a big deal. Then I read another article that same day about how the NSW education department here in Australia is going to censor access on all student laptops. This article started to make me laugh…. With quotes like

“Our internet filtering is unbreakable. We have a huge proxy array that does all the filtering. We’ve just brought that in-house and the reason we have done that is we want much tighter control over it,” said Wilson (chief information officer for the NSW education department).

To add to this lunacy it has been estimated that the system will cost an additional 245 million dollars, which is on top of the 195 million for the original laptop plan. Therefore, more money is going to be spent on filtering than will be on “real” learning resource. Not a terribly smart plan in these current economic times!!

Then to cap it all off there was this little corker from the Australian Newspaper - Australia to have a national internet filter seen only in countries like China and Iran. Why on earth would we spend tax payers money on such a system? Besides that, who decides what is appropriate and not appropriate to view? The article suggested that “Compulsory internet censorship for all Australians could ban controversial websites on euthanasia or anorexia.” Of all the things to censor, these two seemed the most “controversial”?

How do we teach young people to discern and become analytical thinkers when bureaucrats think it best to play big brother with the greatest and largest information source available? This I believe is a marvelous example of destructive technology. Learning tools that are used to play big brother instead of educator and learner.

Well you would have to have been sleeping under a log for the past week to not have heard about Apple’s new iPhone 3g. I myself was waiting in anticipation for the release of the much rumoured upgrade. Being in Australia we have not seen it come to our shores yet (minus the few 1000 unlocked ones), so it was exciting to hear that Australia will be receiving the new device on July 11th.

After watching the WWDC Keynote address I was particularly interested in the educational applications for this device. I have embedded a youtube clip of the two educational applications that have been developed. Both these applications are for higher education, but both demonstrate exactly what is possible with learning on a mobile device.

WWDC Medical Apps for iPhone Demo

While I am sure the device will open itself up to some wonderful learning applications, I think there is more to it as a learning device. The addition of GPS and high speed access anywhere anytime is truly a reliseation of what has been somewhat of a innovative educators dream for many years. I remember back when I was finishing my degree in 2001, talking about this idea of anywhere anytime learning and always being connected. We didn’t really understand that idea as wireless technologies were just not to the standard we see today. While many of these technologies have been available in similar devices for a while now - none have seemed to have been as functional and as easy to use as the iPhone.

So what will be the greatest challenge if this device is embraced as a learning device? Well probably that very thing. This device is a very open device and it allows levels of users access never really seen before. How will our schools manage this? Will we lock it down or just ban it all together? Or will we have a serious discussion on how we can create a learning culture that embraces the amazing possibilities of such a device. Gone are the days of schools being able to manage what students see at school. It is now too easy for a student with one of these devices to view and access any content they want. Therefore, it is obviously going to be something that we as educators and schools will have to embrace and decide how we will guide our students. Once again this is a school culture issue and probably another example of the desperate necessity for schools to embrace the change and begin developing ways in which they will handle such technological change.

I can see this device being used for incredible educational purposes. Having access to learning resources in your pocket, being able to connect with experts in a number of different ways all from one device. Mobile blogging has finally been demonstrated as something that will be easy to do with this device. Imagine having a group of students on a field trip all reporting back to another class at school using a device like this. I guess it is time to wait and see how these technologies are utilised and if they will be embraced.

Late addition - Second life running on the iPhone

Holidays have hit and there has been some time to switch off and receive the school holiday flu that I am sure most teachers get at the beginning of each holiday. Taking time out by the beach and at the local Starbucks has been a great way to reflect on another busy school term.

I have been following Al Upton’s dramas over at his blog with the closure of what was a great example of a teacher using technology to engage his learners. To read comments from his students once they were told of the closure was heartbreaking. Al has been amazing; the way in which he has accepted the decision of his superiors while still fighting for what he knows is great education. I have also spent time watching more and more colleagues receive shut down notices of some of the work they have been doing. We all experience obstacles to creating what we honestly feel are effective learning environments for our students. So as I stop and rest this term break, I have been looking for the energy to keep going. Why am I feeling so exhausted when what I see is not really exciting evidence of education making a difference?

School’s are too quickly becoming a business that operates to provide a service. They dictate a method of learning to students and in doing so seem to be destroying the very skills research is telling us are being craved in the digital age. Students are forced to conform to a system of standarised testing so that us teachers and administrators can declare that we have done our job. But whose school is it? Is the institution that we call school the business of administrators and teachers, or is it a community that truly values the needs for all involved?

Today my students all receive their progress reports. We have passed judgment on them and given them and their parents an idea of where they are at in each of their subjects. I have passed judgment and in a few weeks I will have to justify those judgments to the number of parents that will want to come and talk to me at interview night. I have no problem doing this, but I wonder what would happen if the tables were turned. Students write the progress report. In fact what would happen if we gave them the same restrictive criteria that we use on them? How would they go at justifying their judgments of school?

School should be about the students. We prepare and guide them, but we also need to seriously consider if we are truly creating an environment that is speaking into their potential. It amazes me that we continue to destroy the self-esteem of young people with learning strategies such as ability streaming and standardised testing. The most alarming trend I have noticed in recent times is the way in which schools have allowed government systems to dictate to them an education system that encourages schools to focus on exam results instead of true learning. Students have become numbers in a system that is only worried about state benchmarks and standards. Read a student blog, watch a student produced podcast and watch the progression of learning that happens in activities like this and you will begin to see what school may look like if we respected what students valued and are crying out for.

When we value students for who they are and take the pressure off them with grading systems in subjects that are boring and not engaging, we will begin to develop in them a love for learning. It is vital that they understand the value of learning early on and experience achievement much more often than they experience failure. While I believe there are many lessons to learn from failure, too many of these lessons are experienced at school and in the classroom. If we continue to expose students to failure during early school we will begin to sow thoughts of doubt and disappointment. This is not an “anti exams” sentiment, in fact I wrote about a recent article that looked at some amazing results from schools in Scandanavia. These students were toping the globe in science and maths and much of the credit was given to the way in which these schools valued students from the beginning of their schooling. If you haven’t read it, you can view it and my comments here.

School’s should belong to the students. Professional educators are there to guide but also to listen and spend the time to really begin to understand the student’s world. We have attempted to over simplify the education process and in doing so have created a system that is burning out teachers and destroying the hopes and dreams of students. Anything great requires risk…. When will a school leader be willing to take the risk and see what his/her students want out of school?

Just some holiday thoughts…. Am I taking it too far? I am happy to be corrected - or should I say enter into constructive conversation.

For those of you interested in how all this web 2.0 “stuff” can be used in the classroom and to help student learning, have a look at our ECsite Media website. We have kept the design nice and simple but it is a great way to deliver content and engage the students in different learning activities. We hope to launch ECsite TV soon - where we will podcast our own TV show all about student life. You can find us over at http://www.ecsitemedia.com

Interesting concept was birthed today as I had discussions with one of my senior colleagues. He was asking me how our new film and media subject was going and if the students were enjoying the subject. Well of course I carried on about how wonderful it was and how students were engaged in the class. I continued bragging about how the students were working together and helping each other solve different problems to produce work of a high standard. We then headed down the track on how we as teachers can start helping each other and use each others skills to better one another’s teaching practice. My colleague doesn’t have the technical skills I do, but he has 20+ years of teaching experience that when combined could create something powerful and effective. So we have a plan….

He has a class next term about to study a unit on Theoretical ethics. At the end of the unit there is a in class essay exam that they all must write on 1 of 5 studied issues in class. Our plan is to break the students into 5 groups for the term and give them the mandate to create media content that will teach their particular topic. After 6 weeks they will present their media content to the class and we will have 4 weeks to study and discuss the issues for the exam. All content will be created by the students, I will teach the basic technical skills required to create a podcast, their regular teacher will guide them to the appropriate content and resources and the students will create the course work.

What is more unique than the technology integration is the fact that we are taking a group of year 12 students and asking them to be collaborative workers for the good of each other as apposed to the system that is encourages them to compete against one another. I am sure it is similar in many school systems around the world - But effectively our students are ranked against each other in order to receive a score for university entrance. All of the students will need to rely on each other to create quality study resources. I am really excited about what we may achieve here. It is an experiment and it may be crazy to experiment with students in their final year - but I am confident this will work and make others in our school stand up and pay attention.

On another note I have invited my year 10 media students to use the equipment to create study podcasts for any subject to share with their peers. Two boys have started creating study podcasts for mathematics. Will wait and see what else comes of that one.

Most ed blogs seem to be forums of brilliant practice and places where folk show off things that have worked and reflect on positive experiences. I myself do this quite often. However, today is different…. this post is all about my big STUFF UP today!! I often talk about my media class with great pride and excitement. Quite often boarding on boasting about how awesome the program is and how brilliant my students are. However, today I stuffed up…. I did everything today in class that I get on my soap box and scream against.

Let me set the scene - I started today by letting the students know that we were going to look at trends in advertising. I showed them a few clips from the documentary “Merchants of Cool.” After showing the clip I spent 30mins lecturing them on what the clip was about. I tried to engage them in conversation but just lost it and became the old school lecturer. I stopped at the end of the lesson and realised what I had just done was exactly what I can’t stand seeing other teachers do. I disengaged the students with a topic that should have been interesting. I couldn’t believe how I botched up what should have been an exciting learning experience. They all (minus 1 or 2 really polite kids) made it clear through body language etc that the lesson was awful.

My bragging about a connected culture in schools that should be changing the way we teach was all coming back to haunt me. I was such a hypocrite. I know we probably all have these moments. So what does one do to get themselves back on track…. I re-watched this video created by a group of Marco Torres’ proteges…. Digital students in an analog world….

So sit back watch, enjoy, and be re-fired like I was this afternoon….

Just wondering if anyone would be interested in being a part of an Aussie Educators Podcast. Something like what Bob Sprankle in the US does with his Seedlings show - but with more of an Aussie slant on things. They do a great job of sharing tips and picks of the week and I think it would be great if we had something for the Aussie’s (and I guess we can include the Kiwi’s). I have the setup to record the podcast (all join in via skype) and then I will mix and edit the show…..

Basically, I am thinking…
1) Once a fortnight to start with (maybe once a week)
2) A panel of 4 - 5 Aussie educators who have something to share
3) A set list of discussion points set before each show.
4) Picks of the week - Be it software or weblink etc
5) Target Audience - Educators keen to be at the cutting edge of learning technologies.

If you are keen and think you could ad something to a show like this leave a comment on the blog here. Then I will contact everyone and see if we can come up with a name for our show and a recording schedule that fits with everyone.

After recently reading Wes Fryer’s post, “Advocating for differentiated content filtering” I thought I would start writing some ideas about an effective 21st century school IT culture. I have entitled these rough thoughts “Creating an Effective Connected Culture” as I believe the ideas of filtering content can be a catalyst to help create an effective culture in our schools (the connected community). I have limited these thoughts to just three headings and will probably aim to write more as folk comment and provoke the thought patterns.

1) Trust is the basis of this connected community
2) What is appropriate content is clearly outlined to all within the community
3) Being connected is to be viewed as a tool for learning.

Trust is the basis of the connected community
Trust is an amazing concept that we are so poor at developing in schools. We use trust as a tool of blackmail or bribery. “If you work well inside the classroom, I will let you go outside to work tomorrow.” That is not trust, yet it is the concept of trust that we embed in our students minds. In this instance the student is thinking – “Great I will shut up this lesson and pretend to work so I can hangout with my mates outside next lesson.” I recently started a new subject here at school with a bunch of new digital equipment for film editing etc. I started the year by turning this idea of trust upside down. My students were given 100% trust with everything. I explained to them that they were to use the equipment, and explore the new avenues they could with this gear as often as possible. In fact I even requested to have an open wireless access point for the students in my class. We have not had any equipment damaged, no offensive sites have been accessed (we are monitoring everything) and students are coming to the classroom at lunchtime begging to come in and explore further. One student abused the privileges last week and before I could approach him to discuss what he had done wrong, he found me ready to apologise, asking that I didn’t punish the rest of the class for his mistake. First time the student in trouble has found me before I found him/her. ☺

These students know that we can track what they are doing online (happy to share the technical if you want to email me) and they know that the tool is for learning (something I will discuss further in point 3). They have unfettered access to the online world. The key here was an open discussion about the online world and what was appropriate and inappropriate. We talked about access as a multi-facet tool. It is a tool of learning, a tool of social interaction as well as a tool for a range of harmful acts. We were open about the ability to access inappropriate content, talked about our responsibilities as citizens of this community and even dreamed a little about what it would be like if no one accessed offensive content. From this discussion we introduced the idea of trust in our class (our small community) a sense of relying on one another to do the right thing. My students found that there is power in having wide-open access. They know I monitor what they are looking at and there will always be accountability. Ideally for this concept to work I believe these principles would also need to be shared and encouraged by and with the parent community.

What is appropriate content is clearly outlined to all within the community.
This is a very hard task in a post-modern society that lives by the philosophies surrounding ideas such as – do whatever is good for you. It amazes me that we teach such ideologies in our schools then try and determine what is appropriate and inappropriate through the use of content filters. For me this is a challenge that becomes easier as I teach in a Christian school. For us we have clear guidelines on what is and isn’t appropriate. Students who come to our school understand that and therefore have no choice but to agree to the guidelines set in what is appropriate and what is not.

But how does this work in a general sense, because it isn’t always that simple even in my school. We all come from different backgrounds so therefore we create different levels of appropriateness. Is it ok for a younger student to have access to videos of medical procedures? Is it ok for the senior biology student to have that level of access? From the day students have access at school I believe we create in them a sense of ownership in the resources that access content. We must encourage them to think about what true learning is for their stage of development (socially, academically etc) and or areas of study. Discuss with your students what is appropriate content for the learning in your particular subject or class. My film students know that youtube is an invaluable resource for our class and that the abuse of access to that site only ends in the privilege being restricted. I don’t tell my students that they can’t use youtube to search for highlights from last week’s basketball games. I simply encourage them to use the resource for that in their own time. I have a small group of boys who come in at lunchtime to do that very activity. However, in class they use the same resource to further their learning. My students have learnt what is appropriate content and what is not. Here is a suggested activity for you… Get students to suggest youtube content that is appropriate for class, appropriate for leisure time and never appropriate. Give them some ownership in the discussion.

Ideally I would begin this by educating the entire community as to what it feels is appropriate content and what is not. We need to get rid of the control nazis that lock down our systems. Yes there are obvious sites that should be blocked but blocking a site that has some great content for learning simply because it also has a percentage of content that is obviously inappropriate is like saying we should never enter a 7-11 store because they sell some items that are inappropriate. Or I should never buy a car because it has the ability to go over the speed limit. Yet this is what we do with a site like google images or youtube.

Being connected is to be viewed as a tool for learning.
David Loader in his recent book “Jousting for the new Generation” identifies a disturbing trend in the use of computers in education. He says that the device that has the potential to be an amazing learning platform has become something very different.

“The computer is such a wonderful tool for personal learning. Then I had dinner with an old friend and he left me wondering. He agreed that the computer can be a wonderful tool, but is that what it is being used for? He told me that the primary use many in schools make of the computer is for delivery of content, assessment of students and increasingly for surveillance. Suddenly what had been heralded as a paradigm-shifting, personal learning tool has become a vehicle for platform teachers and Big Brothers.” (David Loader – Jousting for the New Generation)

Through our desire as teachers to control we have locked down the tools. We have not allowed the power drill to go beyond the 1st speed. There is still another 4 speeds on the dial but we are not comfortable to see what that can do. Our students already know what it can do and the more we lock it down the more frustrated they will become (and I think the more tempted they become to abuse it). Just have a read of a student blog over at iThink “Unnec*ssary Censorshi*” (Love the title – nice and cheeky!!)

Once again this links back to my point earlier about involving the community to make these decisions once they have been educated on the issues. Our “business client” mentality is destroying cutting edge education and learning because our “client” is ill informed and not educated on the issues. When will schools have the backbone to stand up to the community and let them know that we are professionals and demonstrate why these areas need to change? Involve the community and educate them on these issues so we don’t have to face the idea that we are some how responsible if a child accidentally or deliberately accesses inappropriate material. As long as the school is doing their best to block explicit sites that are obviously inappropriate, I believe they are doing their job and are actually taking off the padlock and letting learning occur. Today I had a student doing an assignment where he had to put together a travel itinerary and cost it up etc etc…. Our main server then blocked him because the site he was trying to access fell into the inappropriate category of “Entertainment” (it was a tour guide website). If someone stumbles across something that is inappropriate why don’t we turn that into a learning experience instead of worrying what the parent may think and blanket blocking everything?

There is obviously much more that can be said here and I plan to pan these ideas out further. I write this at the end of a busy day here at school. I welcome thoughts and feedback and look forward to an interesting conversation.

In the craziness of a new school year there hasn’t been much time to post anything new.  I took some time tonight to catch up on some blog reading and spending some time looking over some blogs I hadn’t read before.  Found something great from someone I met in Sydney just over a year ago.  Westley Field and his team and MLC in Sydney have created a great learning environment in Second Life.  Check out his post and the youtube video demonstrating what they are aiming to achieve.  GREAT WORK WES!!  Can’t wait to see what is next.

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Tags: BrettMoller

A couple of weeks ago at the ITSC conference I had the chance to meet some wonderful educators. During the conference discussions about an interesting concept for a conference began. Martin Levins announced thoughts for a conference in 2008 to look at how we can recognise creative thinking. More information on this conference proposal can be found here…. Can’t wait to hear more….