Blustery Bandwagon

What's new?

2011-10-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

The last blog post I wrote was placed online in April 2010. It is now October 2011. I can't believe that people are still visiting my blog. According to my Lijit data keeper, I had five visitors in the past day or so. According to my ClustrMap, from July 2010 to September 2011, I had 1,492 visits to my Blustery Bandwagon blog site. That is without any new posts placed on this site. I'm astonished that people are still dropping by. (Thank-you to all my visitors, by the way.)

The question I ask myself is WHY AREN'T YOU SHARING YOUR ON-GOING LEARNING ON YOUR BLOG?!?! (You can see that I'm a little upset with myself.) I think I've been so busy learning that I haven't had time to share what I've been learning with the world.

I started this blog for a class assignment. I did the occasional blog post for my own delight and enjoyment (see my newspaper rant) but mostly my posts were required for class.

Even when I named my blog, I intended to continue it after my days as a student were over. However after grad school, I went back into education in a new role. I became a teacher-librarian, working half-time in two schools. I needed to keep two libraries up and running, collaborate with teachers, interact with students around the delights of reading, and act as an instructional leader in both schools. There was no time to write about my steep learning curve.

In my second year as a teacher-librarian, I still have so much to learn. The role of teacher-librarian is changing in my school division (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada). No longer do we just take care of the books (although this is still a priority). Our school division is asking us to become instructional leaders in the area of technology and inquiry learning. This is a stretch. Sometimes it feels like the blind leading the blind. It is scary and confusing.

It is also exhilarating and energizing.

I am reminded of a blog post by Seth Godin in which he talks about how much he learns when he is struggling to ride his bicycle uphill. When things are going smoothly and all is easy-breezy, how much am I learning? I need to embrace the chaos.

So wish me luck as I go wibble-wobbling up the hill (which is so steep that I am tempted to jump off and just push the bike). I promise that I will try to share my thoughts on my learning journey with you. Feel free to tell me about your bike rides, too.

Images:
1. Surfrdan, Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/surfr/3050116854/
2. Sven Cipido, Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/cipidos/6011912495/

Seamless and Ubiquitous Technology

2010-04-11T18:11:00.000-07:00

In July of 2009, I began my love affair with social media tools. At first it was more like a love/hate relationship. I struggled to figure out each of the Web 2.0 tools. I still have not reached a total comfort level with all of the tools. However, with many of the tools, I would feel comfortable with teaching their use to others.

I believe that technology integration in the classroom must begin with the teacher. Shircliff (2009) said, "Teachers need to make the technology seamless in their lives before they can make it ubiquitous for the students." Teachers need to be comfortable with technology integration in their own lives before they can begin to integrate it into their classrooms.

There are teachers out there who are scared of technology. How would this work for them? I would suggest assessing the technology that they are using. Help them to see that they are on the digital continuum. They can challenge themselves with their own learning targets for moving further along the continuum.

Years ago I read a book by Howard Hendricks. He mentions that if you want someone else to bleed, you have to hemorrhage. (1972) Teachers need to find those technology tools and concepts that they have a passion for and then spread the word. Recently one of my classmates obtained a new job helping to integrate technology in her province. When she was asked how she got this job, she said, "I guess I was an advocate for myself. I kept sending 2.0 videos to people at the department. I found a few who were interested and I sent them more. I dreamed aloud around a few people who listened. And then :-D I got a phone call and was offered the job as they saw my vision-rants as a part of their needs!" (MacIsaac, 2010) Her passion for Web 2.0 concepts and tools carried the day.

I would like to propose a recursive model of technology integration for the teacher. (Recursive simply means that it turns back upon itself and repeats endlessly.)

Step 1. Identify my learning need
What is my need? (e.g. Right now I wish I knew how to create a 2-D model of my thinking, one that I could embed in this blog post.)

Step 2. Choose an underlying concept. (Advanced level)
Which of the 21st Century learning concepts underlies this need? (See this wiki, created by students in this class to delve into these eleven concepts by Henry Jenkins. The wiki is not yet in its final form. There is a VoiceThread associated with the wiki which will soon be available for your viewing and listening pleasure as well.)

Eleven concepts for 21st Century Learners (Core Media Literacy Skills) (Henry Jenkins)

Play: The capacity to experiment with one's surroundings as a form of problem solving.

Performance: The ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery.

Simulation: The ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes.

Appropriation: The ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content.

Multi-tasking:The ability to scan one's environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.

Distributed Cognition: The ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities.

Collective intelligence: The ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal.

Judgment: The ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources

Transmedia Navigation: The ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities

Networking: The ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information

Negotiation: The ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.

Possibly for my desire to create a model of the recursive process, I would use the skill of Appropriation. If I could find a similar model with a Creative Commons license on it, then I could build upon that model in order to create my own model. (In the end, I feel that I used Play and Distributed Cognition in this learning process.)

Step 3: Find the technology that will meet your need.

You could visit this Web 2.0 mind map created by Jesper Isaksson. It has many Web 2.0 tools on it. (E-Learning and Web 2.0 Tools for Schools) I go to the mind map. I think I will try Screencasting to display my model. I may be able to draw my model using Microsoft Word. I click on the "+" beside the word Screencapturing. I decided to use Screenr http://screenr.com/ When I go to their site, they promise it will be easy. Unfortunately I have not created my diagram so I go into Word and create a diagram using their drawing tools to create a cycle drawing. It is only after I have completed my drawing that I notice that Microsoft Word actually has something available called SmartArt (click insert on the Menu bar and it will show up in the Picture tool area). I could have easily used it to create my diagram.

I have a diagram so now I will use Screenr to capture it.

Stop a minute. Screenr isn't the tool I want after all. It is more about capturing video of yourself to put on Twitter or YouTube. Have I been using the wrong idea. I head back to the Web Tool mind map and select a different tool.

Step Four: Use the technology to meet your need.

I have now selected ScreenToaster. I discover that I can use it to upload my screen view but I can also share my thinking by recording while showing my diagram. I decide to select that option. In the end, I can upload my screen capture to YouTube if I like. (However, I don't like how the words "Terms of Use" block out some words on my diagram. It should read Step five: Teach someone else to use that technology.) I will definitely upload a video to YouTube soon. I have never done this but have wanted to.

So here is my ScreenToaster video:

Capture your screen in seconds

Step Five: Teach someone else to use that technology. I will teach the other students in my class.
(I have suddenly realized that maybe I need to revise my cycle. What about reflection on what I have learned? As I have reread my thinking about the process, I can see that I set out to do one thing. I did accomplish that objective but I gathered many other results of my learning along the way. So maybe this needs to be a six step process.)
a. Select a screen that you wish to share. It could even be moving from screen to screen. You could go through a set of Flickr pictures talking about your holiday. Possibly we could even use this tool to share with our professor, Joanne, our process of creating our final group project for this class.

b. Sign up for Screen Toaster. Go to this website: http://www.screentoaster.com/ and sign up for an account. (Yes, I hear the groans. It's another application you need to sign up for.) They will send you an email but you don't need to wait for the email, you can start recording right away. (They are people after my own heart-instant gratification.)

When you record your first screen capture, you have the option of simply using your screen, adding your voice recording, or even adding a webcam image. I only tried the screen capture and my voice. I could not figure out how to maneuver the rectangle to capture only a part of my screen so that is why I used my entire screen. I know that my students (THAT'S YOU) will soon surpass me in understanding how this works, so please tell me the secret.

Once you have finished recording, you can upload directly to YouTube or simply upload to ScreenToaster where you can add a title, tags, and a description to your video. The video is easy to share since they give you the link or the embed text.

Go forth and multiply those ScreenToaster videos, my children. However, after you master it, remember to go and teach someone else how to do it, too. Spread those technology ripples ever onward and outward.

Repeat Step One and so on: It is a recursive process which keeps coming back to itself and repeating again and again. Identify a new need. Ask the person you taught to identify a new need and have that person engage in the process as well. As the cycle spirals around and around, the people involved in technology integration keeps getting larger. The spiral would not be one neat tight line circling outwards. Instead it would be a wildly chaotic number of spirals developing crazily in all directions.

Digital Continuum-- Each person is at some point on the digital continuum. If you unrolled each person's spiral or cycle of technology integration, it would also be carrying them further forward on the digital continuum. Today I already feel that I have moved forward on the continuum because I have now figured out how to easily create and upload a YouTube video onto the internet.

Digital Ripples--When you throw a stone into a pond of water, ripples will emanate from that stone. Each time you learn to use a new bit of technology and then teach someone else, you are spreading the digital ripples of capacity and agency out into the real and virtual world.

I have shared with you my suggested cycle for technology integration. Here is another more complex diagram for assessing and meeting technology integration needs.

http://www.ictinedtoolkit.org/icttool/usere/conceptblueprint.php

Use this ICT in Education toolkit (you need to sign up in order to use it) to assess the technology needs in your school and to develop a systematic plan for meeting those needs.

If you need more inspiration for integrating technology in your life and in your classroom, please watch this video. I have noted some key quotes below the video.

Learning to Change--Changing to Learn (video)

Key quotes from this video:

"We've got a classroom system when we could have a community system."

"Start with the teachers. If I want my students to make global connections, I start with my teachers first. Provide the teachers with opportunities to connect with teachers around the world."

"We have to develop a narrative that sustains 21st Century Learning."

"The jobs our students will be having don't call for a right answer, vending machine approach."

Wonderful links if you need a place to start http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles/Byerly2010.v26n8p32.html

I need my Teacher to Learn (Version 5)

Teachers are key in the job of integrating technology in our schools. Don't be afraid. Start with a need that you have today. Figure out how to meet that need using technology. Teach someone else. (Then ask your students to teach you in turn--whether it's how to text or how to download an i-Tune.) Then talk about your learning and develop that narrative to support Web 2.0 and social media use in our schools.

References:

Hendricks, Howard. (1972). Don't fake it...Say it with love. London: Victor Books.

Jenkins, Henry. (n.d.) Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Retrieved from mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/Confronting_the_Challenges.pdf

MacIsaac, Dawn Elaine. (2010). Class communication on Blackboard site. EDES 545 class. Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta.

Shircliff, P. (2009, July 24). Comment on Richardson, W. If every student has a computer. In Weblogg-ed. Message posted to http://weblogg-ed.com/2009/if-every-student-had-a-computer/

Just-in-time, Just-for-me Professional Development

2010-04-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

I recently watched a video posted to YouTube by Dan Brown (no not the author).

An Open Letter to Educators video

Dan talked about learning and about why he recently dropped out of university. He said, "My schooling was interfering with my education."(pogobat, 2010) I have experienced this strange phenomenon for myself. At the present time, I am a full-time student in the Masters of Education program through the University of Saskatchewan. (I graduate on June 2, 2010--Yahoo!) In the September to December term of 2009, I found that the requirements of my university classes were interfering with the learning that was intriguing and engaging me. I had to pull away from the concepts that were important to me in order to focus on what my professors said was important to them. Often my professors have commented that it is great to see how I have made connections to my own life and current experiences in my assignments BUT where was the evidence (quotes, references) of the learning from the readings I was asked to do for class. If the concepts really resonate with me, if they are going to be sticky (new term for the take-aways from a learning experience), don't those ideas need to connect with me on a personal level?

I'm going to jump off my soapbox for a while to discuss what professional development (PD or pro-D) has looked like in the past for myself as a teacher. Generally it has been a top-down model in which either at the school board level or at the school level, someone has determined what the priorities for teacher learning should be. Then an outsider is brought in to teach us about that subject.

Unfortunately this type of PD did not always resonate with me. At times I was reluctant to leave my classroom for the day and go to learn about what someone else said was important. "The schooling was interfering with the education" (pogobat, 2010).

Recently my school division has encouraged us to set individual learning targets in the areas of most interest to us. This is a step in the right direction but most of our PD time is still devoted to our school board's priorities. It still feels like a "banking model" of education which is Paulo Freire's concept. Paulo talked about the teacher who knows everything and the learner who knows nothing. The teacher must fill up the learner just as coins would fill up the empty piggy bank. Of course, Paulo disliked this idea. He wanted educators to honour the worlds and understandings of their students. (Freire, 1970) (Anti-banking chapter) Paulo said that stopping people from establishing their own lines of inquiry was an act of violence. (Freire)

It is a balancing act. I have a boss who tells me what the priorities of my job are for the year. Possibly next year it will be a focus on problem-solving (which could be applied within each subject while encouraging students to determine their own questions). Teachers are asking for PD related to board priorities. Is there a way to make the PD rise up from the teachers in the classroom rather than being imposed from the board room?

I would propose the model of just-in-time, just-for-me professional development. There may still be large group PD sessions to build foundational understandings. However we need to move away from the "sage on the stage" in order to engage learners in the subject matter. As David Weinberger said at the Building Learning conference: "The smartest person in the room isn't the person at the front of the room. It's the room." (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2609/3867578091_40c0f0ded6_s.jpg) How can we tap into the wisdom of the crowd?

I believe that part of accessing the wisdom of the crowd is participating in online learning through your Personal Learning Network (PLN). (Collection of many PLE/PLN diagrams http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/PLE+Diagrams)

I like this PLN diagram from D"Arcy Norman (link)

As Mickaleh said in response to pagobot's video (2010), "One of the greatest transformations that's happening because of the internet isn't access to knowledge; it's access to people." So how does one develop this PLN? I will share my story with you of how I developed my PLN.

In the summer of 2009, I took an online University of Alberta class in the use of Web 2.0 tools . My professor shared about a live-streamed Elluminate session that was taking place with George Siemens and Dave Cormier. I decided to attend the session as a virtual attendee. Everything happened so fast in the session. The conversation zoomed from topic to topic and the chat room was full of articulate guests who typed their thoughts while asking and answering questions. I timidly entered the conversation. One of my questions was answered by another virtual attendee while one of my questions was not answered until months later. (See my blog post and read the comments where Dave Cormier answers my question several months later.) That night I learned about the Open Education Conference that taking place in Vancouver the following week. I attended this conference as a virtual attendee (my blog post about this experience). Since that time I have found many live-streaming conferences to attend. At each conference, I have met some new virtual friends (like Alastair Creelman [@alacre] in Sweden and Joyce Seitzinger [@catspyjamasnz] in New Zealand). I joined an open education class taught by Alec Couros (@courosa) at the University of Regina. This class had 20 for-credit graduate level students and 200 not-for-credit students. Through each online learning setting, I added more people to my Personal Learning Network. I added many more people via Twitter which has become an easy tool to augment my learning and to share my learning.

In the future, I will continue to access my PLN in order to discover new options for learning. I will pursue my passions and interests by following the virtual rabbit trails (or "link flow") through blog posts, YouTube videos, and TEDTalks. I will check out live-streamed conferences such as TEDxOntarioEd (taking place on Friday, April 9) and use this wonderful list to find other learning opportunities.

So this takes care of my own technology professional development. What about other teachers who also want to learn about the use of technology in education? In my own school system, I believe that we have enough computers however "technology infusion without professional development wrapped around it just doesn't work, and can backfire" (Ketterer, 2008). If you had a digital projector and a classroom pod of computers but didn't know how to integrate technology into your teaching, how would you feel after watching this video?

You Can't Be My Teacher video (made by teacher in Saskatoon)

After watching this video, I would feel guilty if I did not know how to integrate technology in my classroom. So how can those of us with this expertise help those who want to learn to use technology in the classroom? We need to be willing to take on leadership roles in this area. McLeod (2007) talks about the need for technology experts to learn more about being leaders. So how should or could we share with others? We need to discover the "felt needs" of those teachers and support the use of technology tools that will help them meet that need. It may be teaching the use of social bookmarking so that the addresses of their favourite websites travel with them from computer to computer. It may be teaching the use of an RSS feed like Google Reader so that the content comes to them rather than them needing to search for the content. It may be teaching the use of Google Docs so that they can access their document without the use of USB keys or emailing documents from one computer terminal to another.

Manitoba Education created a worksheet for technology experts who are visiting classrooms to help with technology integration. (Needs Assessment for ICT for Teachers http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/tech/lict/resources/needs_assess.html) This article (Hargadon, 2010) has more suggestions for technology PD. We could direct people to our blog posts on various educational technology applications to give people some foundational information about the Web 2.0 tools. Jesper Isaksson has created a mind map with many Web 2.0 tools on it. (E-Learning and Web 2.0 Tools for Schools) I have shared this mind map with teachers who wanted to learn to use some of the tools.

My new ideal for professional development is just-in-time, just-for-me learning when I need it. I am willing to be a leader in scaffolding this kind of technology PD for my teacher colleagues. Only with this type of "where the rubber meets my road" type of learning will digital immigrants become comfortable in working with the digital natives in all of our classrooms.

References:

Freire, Paulo. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury Press.

Hargadon, S. (2010, March/April). Educational Networking. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools. 17, 2, 10-15. ProQuest Journals.

Ketterer, Kimberley. (2008, June/July). A professional development menu. Learning & Leading with Technology, p. 11. ProQuest Journals.

McLeod, Scott. (2007, November). An absence of leadership. Learning & Leading with Technology, p. 17. ProQuest Journals.

mickeleh. (2010, March 2). Re: Re: Re: Dan Brown's open letter to educators. You Tube video. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFeiiPdTibE
pogobat (Brown, Dan). (2010, February 22). An open letter to educators. You Tube video. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P2PGGeTOA4

Transparent and Professional Online

2010-03-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

A few minutes ago I received one of those phone calls that delights and excites every teacher's heart. The mom of one of my former students called me up to tell me her daughter had been accepted into the College of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. Her daughter has also received a scholarship. As soon as this grade 12 student heard the news, she said, "Mrs. Elliott would be so happy." So her mom called me to share the good news.

What is so amazing about this is that I taught this student in grade 2 and again in grade 5 (a long time ago). I haven't seen her or her mom for four years (I did attend her grade 8 graduation). How did they track me down? It's not really too surprising. I always give out my home phone number with every group that I teach. I welcome phone calls at home and love to build a partnership with the parents of my students. That student's mom knew that I would welcome a phone call sharing this special news about her daughter's success.

I realize that this kind of openness about my contact information could backfire on me. However, I have chosen to be transparent and professional in my real-life dealings with parents and students. As I look at the topic of privacy online, I will grapple with some of the issues of being transparent and professional online as well.

What is privacy?

"Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves thereby revealing themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals" (Working, 2009). The Australian Privacy Foundation (Australian, n.d.) describes four dimensions of privacy:

1. Privacy of the Person (physical)

2. Privacy of Personal Behaviour

"This is the interest that individuals have in being able to behave however they wish, without undue interference by other people and organisations. This relates to all aspects of behaviour, but especially to sensitive matters, such as sexual preferences and habits, political activities and religious practices, both in private and in public places. " (Australian, n.d.)

For the purposes of this blog post, I will highlight unjustified publication of personal data, web-usage surveillance and denial of anonymity as being three of the personal behaviour privacy parameters.

3. Privacy of Personal Communications

"This is the interest that individuals have in being able to communicate among themselves, using various media, without routine monitoring of their communications by other persons or organisations. This includes what is sometimes referred to as 'interception privacy'." (Australian, n.d.) This area would include the aspects of ISP-usage surveillance, email surveillance, e-chat surveillance, and denial of anonymity.

4.Privacy of Personal Data

"This is the interest that individuals have in data about themselves. People expect that data about them should not be automatically available to other individuals and organisations; and that, even where data is possessed by another party, the individual must be able to exercise a substantial degree of control over that data and its use." (Australian, n.d.) All of the aspects under this category connect with this blog post. I would encourage you to go to this link and scroll down to read through the list. Items like data handling, identification (biometrics, Google Streetview), and profiling occur under this topic.

Let's revisit each of these aspects of privacy and how it may relate to teachers and students.

1. Privacy of the Person (physical):

Location Based Services(LBS) are the latest occurrences in the online world. A chip in your cell phone is linked to the GPS which will allow people to know where your physical body is. (Anonymous, 2010) Can you imagine in the future that you will walk

into a clothing store carrying your cell phone? Within minutes the sales clerk has assembled clothing on a rack--everything in your size with the styles and colours that you prefer.

The store's LBS reader read your preferences one milli-second after you walked in the door. Now you may think you could fool the store by giving your friend your cellphone (as if you would ever do this). However, your LBS has also linked to the biometrics available on you.

2. Privacy of Personal Behaviour

People have moved beyond merely consuming information on the internet. They routinely create content on the internet. This may be through posting information, photos, and videos to Facebook or YouTube. Teachers, parents, and future employers can gain a large picture of your personal behaviour through what you post online. For a site such as Facebook, they have defaulted to public and you must take action to make your information private. Future employers will feel that if you have posted it online, it is acceptable for them to view or read it. (Shirky, 2007) One anonymous viewer of this video said, "I think that we are robbing young people the chance to live and make mistakes"(pienutty, 2009).

On a video (link) posted by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, these questions are suggested about posting information online (Privacy, 2007):

What judgments or conclusions might others form with my information?
Are there some details about my life I would like to keep personal?
Who might view or purchase this information about me?
Will this information reflect well on me a year from now? Or fi ve years?
Would I want my best friend to know this?
Would I want my boss to know this?
Would I want my mom to know this
(I add: Would I want my children or grandchildren to know this?)

Nussbaum wrote a fascinating article on the topic of the younger generation and the end of privacy (2007). As she says, she grew up locking her diary with a real lock, so it has been interesting for her to interview people, like Xiyin, who are less concerned about keeping their lives private. She noticed three things:

Change 1: They think of themselves as having an audience.

"All sorts of opportunities—romantic, professional, creative—seem to Xiyin to be directly linked to her willingness to reveal herself a little." Our professor in this class said the same thing--that she has obtained jobs and established friendships through her willingness to be open online.

"In essence, every young person in America has become, in the literal sense, a public figure. And so they have adopted the skills that celebrities learn in order not to go crazy: enjoying the attention instead of fighting it—and doing their own publicity before somebody does it for them."

Change 2: They have archived their adolescence.

Change 3: Their skin is thicker than yours.

"What happens when a person who has archived her teens grows up? Will she regret her earlier decisions, or will she love the sturdy bridge she’s built to her younger self—not to mention the access to the past lives of friends, enemies, romantic partners? On a more pragmatic level, what does this do when you apply for a job or meet the person you’re going to marry? Will employers simply accept that everyone has a few videos of themselves trying to read the Bible while stoned? Will your kids watch those stoner Bible videos when they’re 16? Is there a point in the aging process when a person will want to pull back that curtain—or will the MySpace crowd maintain these flexible, cheerfully thick-skinned personae all the way into the nursing home?"

3. Privacy of Personal Communications

This would encompass the use of Facebook to communicate with friends. Here's a video about how to configure your privacy settings in Facebook.

Video on How to Configure Privacy Settings in Facebook

Another aspect of privacy in personal communication is the prevalence of cloud computing. "Rather than running software on a desktop computer or server, Internet users are now able to use the 'cloud'--a networked collection of servers, storage systems, and devices--to combine software, data, and computing power scattered in multiple locations across the network" (Cavoukian, p. 5). Read about some of the privacy issues related to cloud computing here (http://www.privacy.org.au/Papers/CloudComp-0911.html)

4. Privacy of Personal Data

Every time you do a Google search, data is collected. They collect what your search query is and the IP address for your computer. They leave a cookie on your computer which is a small file that helps them with future searches (e.g. English used). They keep a file about your search. Watch this video (link) to learn more about their privacy principles. The Google privacy principles are listed below. (For a Google engineer's perspective on privacy watch this video.)

Use information to provide our users with valuable products and services.
Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.
Make the collection of personal information transpare nt.
Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy.
Be a responsible steward of the information we hold.

Some people see this collection and use of our data as our payment for online services. You may receive targeted advertising based on your searches. It will be assumed that your friends may like the same things as you so your friends may receive directed advertising as well.

"The problem with buying things with your privacy is you really don't know how much you're paying. With money, five bucks is five bucks. But what is the value of your list of friends? If it's not worth much, your membership on Facebook may be the deal of a lifetime. If it's incredibly valuable, you're getting massively ripped off. Only the techies know how much your info is worth, and they're not telling. But the fact that they'd rather get your data than your dollars tells you all you need to know." (Lyons, 2010)

Through this type of data-mining, "computer scientists and policy experts say that such seemingly innocuous bits of self-revelation can increasingly be collected and reassembled by computers to help create a picture of a person’s identity, sometimes down to the Social Security number." (Lohr, 2010)

Given the status of privacy in our world, what are the implications for educators and for our students.

Implications for Educators

At the beginning of this blog post, I shared the story of a phone contact with a parent which was welcomed because I share my home phone number with parents. However, in my online class, with students from all across Canada, some are not comfortable with sharing a home phone number with parents while others have even accepted their students as friends on Facebook. I think each educator, after weighing up the options for communication with parents and students, must choose those options that they are most comfortable with. For some, giving out an email address may be the best way to maintain their boundaries between their public and private selves. Last week many in the education technology community had a Twitter discussion about how best to communicate with parents. You can follow the tweets here.

If you are interested in using Facebook as a tool for classroom communication, read this blog post with tips about how to use Facebook as a teacher. (link) You could also visit this wiki-page with additional resources about using Facebook or other social networking sites in education.

If you are interested in checking out your privacy settings on various applications, visit Google Dashboard. In one location, it shows you all of the Google services that you have interacted with and makes it easy to change the privacy controls. You could read this blog post about Google Dashboard and watch a video as well. (link)

The last piece of advice for educators is to begin to use Open ID for log-ins and password protection for all new applications that you join. Read an explanation of OpenID here.

Resources to use with Students

I found so many great resources to use with students that I will just list them here. Educators and parents need to inform students about the pitfalls of being unaware of privacy needs online.

Youth Privacy Guide for Parents and Teachers (Canadian) http://www.youthprivacy.ca/en/guide.html

Internet Safety Tips for Families and Kids (geared to privacy) http://whatsyourstory.trendmicro.com/internet-safety/pg/int ern et-safety

Kids' Pledge for Internet Safety http://www.safekids.com/kids-pledge/

Youth Privacy Website (Canadian) http://youthprivacy.ca/en/index.html

Get Cybersmart (video for younger students--maybe 6-10) with great list as well http://www.commonsensemedia.org/get-cybersmart-phineas-and-ferb

The Interview (video submitted for contest) 34 seconds of pure goodness http://whatsyourstory.trendmicro.com/internet-safety/Video.do?ident=the-interview
Private and personal information lessons for grade 6-8 http://cybersmartcurriculum.org/safetysecurity/lessons/6-8/private_and_personal_information/

Your online image: lessons for grades 9 - 12 http://cybersmartcurri culum.org/safetysecurity/lessons/9-12/your_online_image/

My Privacy and Me Video Contest winners (Canadian) http://www.youthprivacy.ca/en/contest.html

News Release re: Children's Online Privacy in Canada http://www.priv.gc.ca/media/nr-c/2008/res_080604_e.cfm

At the bottom of the blog post, I would like to share two of the winning videos in this year's My Privacy and Me video contest. These videos were uploaded earlier this month.

Before the videos, I would like to give the last word to a very wise 15 year old who made this comment on a blog post about privacy, "there's a simple rule I like to follow, that being if you're worried about the whole world seeing it, just don't show it. Simple as that." (Jourdy288, 2010)

Take care out there and (as Red Green would say), keep your stick on the ice. Keep track of what's happening to your digital image and your privacy.

Think Before You Click Video (One of the winners in the YouthPrivacy.ca contest this year)

The Spanish Lottery Video (A winner in the junior category in the YouthPrivacy.ca contest this year)

References:

Anonymous. (2010, March 6). Follow me; Location-based services on mobile phones. The Economist, 394, 8672, p. 85. ProQuest Journals. Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/pqdweb?index=0&did=1978196061&SrchMode=1&sid=5&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1268779244&clientId=12301

Australian Privacy Foundation. (n.d.) Dimensions of privacy. Retrieved from http://www.privacy.org.au/Issues/index.html

Cavoukian, Ann. (2009). Privacy in the Clouds: A white paper on privacy and digital identity: Implications for the internet. Toronto, Canada: Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. Retrieved from http://www.ipc.on.ca/images/Resources/privacyintheclouds.pdf

Jourdy288. (2010, March 15) Comment on Caroline Knor blogpost. You're not as private as you think. Message posted on http://www.commonsensemedia.org/you%E2%80%99re-not-private-you-think

Lohr, Steve. (2010, March 16). How privacy vanishes online. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/technology/17privacy.html

Lyons, Daniel. (2010, March 1). Google's Orwell Moment: On the Web, privacy has its price. Newsweek, 155, 9. ProQuest Journals. Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/pqdweb?index=2&did=1968076651&SrchMode=1&sid=5&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1268779244&clientId=12301

Nussbaum, Emily. (2007, February 12). Say everything: Kids, the internet, and the end of privacy: The greatest generation gap since rock and roll. New York Magazine. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/news/features/27341/

pienutty. (May 2009) Comment on Shirky, Clay. (2007, November 6). Facebook killed the private life. (YouTube video) Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azIW1xjSTCo&feature=related

Privacy Commissioner. (2007, November 7). What does a friend of a friend of a friend know about you? (Video, 2:41). Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7gWEgHeXcA

Shirky, Clay. (2007, November 6). Facebook killed the private life. (YouTube video) Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azIW1xjSTCo&feature=related

Working Group. (2009). There ought to be a law: Protecting children's online privacy in the 21st century. (Discussion Paper) Canadian Privacy Commissioners and Child and Youth Advocates. Retrieved from http://www.gnb.ca/ombudsman/PDF/Children%27sOnlinePrivacy-e.pdf

Dwarfs on the Shoulders of the Giants

2010-03-07T05:51:00.000-08:00

Image by i am indisposed via Flickr

When I was training to be a teacher, one of my professors often told us that it was acceptable to beg, borrow, and steal lesson plans and teaching ideas. He did not mention anything about respecting the intellectual property created by other people. Nowadays there seems to be a dichotomy in which many things are freely available while others are locked away behind a copyright wall.

I recently watched a video in which Lawrence Lessig talks about the hybrid economy of copyright and Creative Commons. Lessig is the developer of Creative Commons which was launched in December of 2002. For many products uploaded and licensed under Creative Commons, as long as you attribute the work to its creator, you are welcome to use the work free of charge.

At times, during my years as a teacher, there have been reminders of the importance of abiding by copyright restrictions. The copyright police have even descended upon some schools and scrutinized each use of the photocopier.

When I think about copyright, intellectual property, being a good digital citizen, combined with my cheapskate ways (FREE is my favourite price), I wish I had a copyright flow chart (similar to the bacon flowchart above. Hint: Click on the creator's name to go to Flickr for a larger version of this flow chart.) The flow chart would begin with the type of media or content. As I answer various questions about the product I wish to use, I will follow through on the flow chart until I reach a definitive answer on whether I am abiding by copyright regulations. One of my classmates (Hancox, 2010) suggested the following questions:

What is the purpose of the original copyrighted material?

What is the purpose of my own use (teaching, scholarship, criticism, comment etc)?

Are you crediting the original author of the work?

How is my purpose for using the copyrighted work different from the author's original purpose?

What is the nature and amount taken? Was it appropriate considering the nature of the copyrighted work and the use?

Did the unlicensed use "transform" the material taken from the original copyrighted work by adding value? Is the use of copyrighted material contributing to a unique new creative work, or does it mostly repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?

What is the effect of my actions? Does the effect of my use impact the potential market of the original? Will it compete with the original work? How would I feel about this use of the copyright work if I was the author instead?

Is the project being used only within the school?

Until I discover a copyright flowchart that walks me through these questions, I will simply have to grapple with the issues and try my best to understand them. (There is an Exceptions for Instructors eTool using U.S. Copyright Law. This is similar to a flowchart as you work your way through the questions.)

Copyright

Butler says that copyright "is a privilege of law, given to owners of tangible works...the owner...[can] reproduce or copy, distribute, publicly perform or display and create derivatives of it" (Butler, 2005, p. 41). Much of the professional literature around copyright has been written outside of Canada. In order to understand Canadian copyright laws, visit the Canadian Copyright Act website. Access is the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (website). At their site, they have a section to answer frequently asked questions for elementary and secondary schools in Canada. This agency will assist you with getting the rights to copy certain materials. If you are outside of Canada, Copyright Watch collects copyright regulations from other countries (website).

Teaching about Copyright

Show this video which is American and oriented towards commercial interests. However, it presents basic information about copyright and issues related to it.

Temple University has created a webpage that collates a number of resources for teaching about copyright issues.

Educators could use the Library Copyright Slider with middle years or high school students. Students could use this interactive tool to work with books on the library shelves.

Fair Use and Fair Dealing

In the United States, there are fair use agreements that allow educators to use copyrighted materials. In Canada, the educational use of copyrighted materials are managed under a concept of fair dealing. To read about both of these concepts, please visit this website. There is an online Fair Use Evaluator. Temple University has developed a pdf which can be printed out and used to determine the fair use of content or media. It would be helpful to have a similar pdf file developed that meets the slightly different Fair Dealing criteria in Canada.

Creative Commons

The motto on the Creative Commons website is: Share, Remix, Reuse - Legally. This site was launched in December of 2002 by Lawrence Lessig. Lessig realized that copyright restrictions (all rights reserved) were more protectionist than many content creators wanted them to be. There was no simple way to signal an artist's willingness to share their content. Lessig created a framework called Creative Commons that content creators may use to signal their ownership wishes. "Creative Commons helps you publish your work online while letting others know exactly what they can and can't do with your work. When you choose a license, we provide you with tools and tutorials that let you add license information to our own site, or to one of several free hosting services that have incorporated Creative Commons." (License your work site)

I believe that as people remix content that is available through Creative Commons, they are being encouraged to use and reuse information. They are making their own connections with content and with their own lives. The reality is that all content is derivative. Years ago, my university professor said that every story stands on the shoulders of another story. This idea comes from a quote attributed to Bernard of Chartres who said "We are like dwarfs standing [or sitting] upon the shoulders of giants, and so able to see more and see farther than the ancients." (On the shoulders of) If Bernard (who wrote this around 1100) could acknowledge that all thought is derivative, who are we to kick away the giants and start from ground level.

Teaching About Creative Commons

View this Slideshare presentation (What every educator needs to know) to learn about Creative Commons (website)
Encourage students to use the resources on Joyce Valenza's wiki page of copyright friendly tools (website)
Have students take digital photos. Upload them to Flickr and license through Creative Commons.
One issue with using Creative Commons is that it is time consuming to uncover the best resources. Have students work on projects of meta-tagging information and photographs in order to help people access the resources available through Creative Commons. At the Wikimedia Commons there is a request for people to help with the images donated by the Tropenmuseum.

View this video: Wanna Work Together (Explanation of Creative Commons)

Digital Citizenship

I recently visited some student displays of author studies. I learned a lot about some children's authors. What disturbed me (in light of our copyright discussions this week) was the lack of attribution or referencing for the information shared. There were over fifteen displays with no references listed on any of them. Some information was obviously printed directly from the internet (with the URL location cut off the bottom). Some information was rewritten in the students' own words. However, no books or websites were cited. This displays poor digital citizenship skills. We need to teach students to give credit where credit is due.

Last week I visited a school library in which the grade four students were working on Powerpoint presentations as the culmination of an inquiry learning unit. I was intrigued to hear the teacher-librarian reminding the students to create citations using ISBN numbers. They were using a program called OttoBib which allows you to easily cite your sources. This teacher was helping the students to demonstrate good digital citizenship skills.

In closing this blog post, I really appreciate the generosity of strangers who give so much away on the internet. However, I don't want those strangers to go broke producing wonderful content for thrifty people like myself. I was very intrigued to come across the story of Nina Paley and her creation of a movie called Sita Sings the Blues. This movie is freely downloadable online. Nina is still making money with this movie. Watch the video below to see how she is doing this. (I love her copyright song at the end of the video.)

The Revolution will be Animated (Video of Nina Paley discussing her film, Sita Sings the Blues)

The Revolution Will Be Animated from Marine Lormant Sebag on Vimeo.

We also have our Canadian remix artists who are standing on the shoulders of other giants. RiP! A Remix Manifesto has received a Genie Nomination (website).

As Canadian educators, let's encourage our students to stand on those giant's shoulders. However, make sure the giant doesn't mind (ask for permission) and make sure the students name the giants who they are standing on.

References:

Butler, Rebecca. (September/October 2005). Intellectual property defined. Knowledge Quest, 34, 1, 41-42. ProQuest Journals.

Hancox, Lori Jackie. (2010). Discussion post for EDES 545.

On the shoulders of giants. Retrieved from http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0162b.shtml

Bridge over the Digital Divide

2010-02-27T19:43:00.000-08:00

Image by Sheila Steele via Flickr

I live in the "City of Bridges" on the Canadian prairies. The city of Saskatoon currently has four traffic bridges and two railway bridges allowing trains and vehicles to cross over the South Saskatchewan River. In the early days of this city, there were no bridges. Since the settlement was established on both sides of the river, people used a ferry boat in the summer and crossed the ice in the winter. However, in the spring and fall, there was no way to cross the river. There was great rejoicing when first a train bridge and later a traffic bridge were built across the river.

As I think about the geographical divide in my city of Saskatoon, I apply the thoughts of divisions and bridges to the digital divide in the educational technology world. In an era in which students and teachers are encouraged to use the resources of the internet, both within and outside of school, many divides can prevent this ideal digital world. In a blog post, mmardis (2008) suggests that there are four dimensions of digital divides--access, skill, motivation, and policy.

Access: A group in the United States called Internet for Everyone (website) posits that lack of internet access is related to social class, geographical location, and race. In Canada, a Stats Canada study found that in 2003, within the lowest income quartile, only 22.6% had internet access at home. For the highest income quartile, 75.8% had internet access at home. (Hick, Graham, & Jones, 2008) It costs money to purchase high-speed internet access at home.

The Speech from the Throne in 1997 promised to make Canada the most connected country in the world. (Dowding, 2008) Many cities and university campuses have free wireless internet. However, in rural settings, high-speed internet is often unavailable.In some geographical locations, the only option is dial-up access. My sister lives in rural Saskatchewan and refuses to open any digital photographs (sent as email attachments) because it takes so long using dial-up access. Internet for Everyone would call this the "digital dirt road". They documented people's stories of living far from ideal internet access in rural America. (website)

In the end, this lack of access to high speed internet results in a limited experience of the value of connectivity. "What a person can accomplish with an outdated [computer] in a public library with mandatory filtering software and no opportunity for storage or transmission pales in comparison to what [a] person can accomplish with a home computer with unfettered Internet access, high band-width, and continuous connectivity. (Jenkins, n.d., p. 15)

Another issue with access is the hardware and software needed to use technology. I recently visited a school library which had nine computer terminals. However, when I sat down to search for a book for a student, I was shocked to discover that the mouse had NO SCROLL WHEEL. I have become so accustomed to a scroll wheel that I did not know what to do for a moment. At this particular school, the computers in the library and in their computer lab are receiving only minimal upgrades because their technology budget is going to purchase pods of laptops that can travel from classroom to classroom.

Some schools have outdated computer equipment and many students have no computers at home. Last year in my classroom, only half of the students had computers at home. These six and seven year old students did not even know how to manipulate a computer mouse. If students with no computers at home do not learn how to use computers at school, the gap between the rich and the poor will grow even wider.

In Canada, the government recognized that it needed to provide computers for the community. In 1994, the Community Access Program (CAP) was created under the auspices of Industry Canada. It aimed to "provide Canadians with affordable public access to the Internet and the skills they need to use it effectively. Public locations like schools, libraries and community centres [acted] as 'on-ramps' to the Information Highway, and [provided] computer support and training" (Dowding, 2008, p. 100). The CAP program continues to provide some funding for CAP sites across Canada. (website)

Some organizations (Geekcorps, EduVision, Inveneo) are working to provide lower cost technology options such as laptops, notebooks, handhelds, tablet PCs and low-cost wireless internet options. (Wikipedia)

Skill: Another type of divide is in the skill level that people bring to technology. Some may be very talented with texting using a cell phone but clueless about how to create an Animoto video. Some may be an expert in Web 1.0 innovations but unfamiliar with some of the new Web 2.0 tools. I recently attended a computer in-service regarding setting up a wiki. One of the Information Technology managers who co-lead the workshop talked about his unfamiliarity with Twitter. He was unwilling to develop a skill in this new direction.

Motivation: The above example also extends to motivation. People need to see a reason for learning about new technology. That IT manager did not see any value in Twitter and was unmotivated to push himself to learn about it. There is also a divide between those who love technology and those who are tech-averse. I think that it is helpful to tell these people that they are on the "digital continuum" as they learn and develop technology skills.

There are people who are motivated to be early innovators and adopt each new technology innovation that comes along. These people will be the ones learning about ChatRoulette (see blog post) and figuring out what to tell the rest of us. Then there are other people who are afraid of using a computer mouse because they might break the computer.

Policy: I recently visited a local school where the administrative assistant showed me the school portal online. She said that parents could give the school an email address and be permitted to access private information on the school website. They may check the school attendance and learn about assignments and read classroom newsletters. This is a new policy for the school division. What about those parents who do not have a computer, internet access at home, or an email account? They will be left on the other side of the digital divide for home to school communication.

When the city of Saskatoon was divided by a river, the citizens built six bridges to help vehicles and trains to cross that river. As educators, we can do a lot to help people overcome their digital divides as well. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Advocate for wireless internet access in schools and public settings so that laptops, phones with internet access and handheld devices can get online.

2. Support programs for recycling computer equipment that can be refurbished and given to low-income families.

3. Apply for CAP grants to support technology purchases and classes in your school.

4. Consider training adult volunteers (possibly even senior citizens) to assist young students in computer use. This will develop technology skills for both age groups.

5. Encourage school systems to invest in more hardware (desktop computers, laptops) and less software. Educate them about cloud computing and programs such as Google Docs and Slideshare so that costly site licenses are not necessary for software such as Microsoft Office.

6. If your school is one of the more well-to-do in your area, develop a program for sharing computers with schools in more socio-economically needy areas. In schools with wealthy parents, more funds are raised for computer purchases. Just as some schools have "book drives" for less-advantaged schools, your school could have a "computer drive" for less-advantaged schools.

Here are two videos that give a few more ideas for how to overcome the Digital Divide. Good luck with your bridge building.

Video from India about Bridging the Digital Divide

Project regarding bridging the digital divide in a rural area (video)

References:

Dowding, M. (2008). The digital divide: Canada's access as a neo-liberal commodity. Rivista Mexicana de Estudios Canadienses, 97-110. http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:rVpz7n2ucWgJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=2000

Hick, S., Graham, J., & Jones, M. (2008). Navigating the digital divide. Currents: New Scholarship in the Human Services, 7, 2. http://currents.synergiesprairies.ca/currents/index.php/currents/article/view/19

Jenkins, H. (n.d.). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF

mmardis. (October 30, 2008). Web 2.0 in schools: Our digital divides are showing! AASL Blog. http://www.aasl.ala.org/aaslblog/?p=321

Wikipedia. Digital Divide entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide

Filter Frustrations: Why Block Google Docs?

2010-02-22T07:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I rose with the dawn to descend to my basement office for homework duty. My basement is always chilly (1964 home with little insulation to keep out the cold). That morning my sweater, scarf, and blanket were not enough to keep away the shivers. I kept working, reading, and typing while sipping hot coffee to warm up. When my husband got up, he noticed that it was cold in our house. He checked the temperature on our set-back thermostat (which automatically lowers the temperature at night and raises it in the morning). 16.5 degrees Celsius (62 degrees Fahrenheit)! Normal household temperatures should be around 72 degrees Fahrenheit. No wonder I was turning into an ice cube!

Our furnace was not turning on. As I imagined huge repair bills and the need to call a furnace specialist out on a weekend (big $$$$), my husband went to look at the furnace. He pulled out the filter. It was totally clogged with debris filtered from the air circulating through our home. (That's a picture of it on the right.) Once the filter was removed and replaced with a new one, the furnace turned on. We had never realized that a clogged filter could cause our entire heating system to shut down.

Once my brain began to warm up, I had an A-Ha moment. I had been working on the topic of Filtering in the online world. Could there be any parallels with my own physical world filtering crisis? With the recognition that every metaphor breaks down at some point, here are some of the parallels that I noticed.

Filters are necessary to keep out harmful stuff (dust, lint, and bunny hair for our furnace; pornography, depictions of violence, and lewd language on the internet).

Most public schools (if not all) block sites which depict violence, graphic sexual imagery, or improper language. In the class discussion this week, it has been recognized that, due to Intellectual Freedom measures, many public libraries have a much lower firewall. I was disturbed to learn (via a video shared by Mark), that in a Chicago Public Library, the freedom experienced by adult library patrons to view pornographic images is impeding the freedom of other library patrons. The third floor of that library has become a "no-fly zone" for many women and families. Ideally, the freedom of access enjoyed by one person should not adversely affect another individual.

Since public schools routinely block this kind of harmful viewing, the question becomes: What do public school students do when using home computers? Many parents have software on home computers which blocks harmful sites. However, technology savvy young people often know how to skirt these controls. For this reason, students need to be educated about how to use the best filtering system of all--the filter between their ears. Vicki Davis (2010) worked with middle years' students to find safe sites for younger children to use. She taught her students how to create their own filters to detect harmful influences. Teachers and parents need to teach children how to develop their own filters. If you read the transcript of the presentation by Vicki's students, you will see how they learned to filter out harm and to evaluate websites.

As I thought about this aspect of educating students to erect their own filters, I could see that teacher-librarians may be the ideal candidates for teaching these lessons. Teacher-librarians could work with students of any age and with parents to explain some of the issues. Teacher-librarians could teach even the very young what to do when something inappropriate appears on the screen ("Hit the button to turn off the monitor and then call an adult").

Filters need to be adjusted or tuned up from time to time.

In a world where technology is always changing, the filters used by public schools must also be altered. As I read what people were saying about this issue online, I noticed someone complaining about their school system blocking Google Docs (a free online application that is similar to Microsoft Word). That teacher had to use a fancy work-around in order to get access to a Google document created at home. As someone who uses Google Docs for most of my word-processing work, I would be upset if I could not have access to that document at school.

The adjustment of the filter requires mechanisms for removing blocks to sites and for adding a block to a site. Buffy Hamilton shared her procedure for requesting access to a blocked site:

"Just this week, I had to spend some time making a case for a tool I wanted unblocked so that students could access a powerful social bookmarking and sharing tool. I thought it was important enough for my students that I took the time to compose a professional letter of request complete with links of articles that outlined the educational uses of this tool and an explanation of how it was endorsed by AASL on their Top 25 Websites for Teaching and for Learning, which included a great explanation of how the tool was tied to one of the 21st Century Standards for Teaching Learning. I took time to explain how I planned to use it and why it was important to our research project. I even offered to go to the district office and do a demonstration of the tool. Because of the efforts I made, I fully expect the tool will be unblocked next week." (Comment on blog post, Nelson, 2009)

Who is in charge of adjusting the filter and fine-tuning its parameters? Some have complained that it is the technology people in school board offices who are erecting the filters. It would be ideal to have technology-savvy teachers and administrators working on a committee with the technology wizards to implement filtering decisions. In some systems, filtering decisions are made at the school itself. If a teacher wants a site unblocked, the administrator at that school has the authority to lift the filter for that site.

In some school divisions, the requirements for unblocking a site are so onerous, that teachers give up even asking. One teacher (Nick) at a huge high school (1700 students, only one fax machine) was required to fax in a request to unblock a site. After sending two faxes along with numerous emails regarding the status of the requests, both requests were denied. No wonder that teacher gave up for that year. (Comments, Warlick, 2009)

If I banned air or furnaces in my house, the furnace filter would remain perfectly pristine. No dust mites would cling to its surface. The filter would be clean but I would have no air or heat.

If tight controls are kept on internet use at school, this impedes students from using technology to its fullest advantage. When many sites are blocked, it is like "teaching traffic safety to kindergartners by banning roads" (Abram, 2007, p. 21). Just as air and heat need to circulate in my home (which will lead to a dirty filter), technology needs to flow quite freely in schools. We need to "stop letting paranoia, combined with laziness, block teachers...and students from the internet resources they deserve to access at school" (Bell, 2008, p. 37). There needs to be a balance of freedom and checks on the freedom, a balance of privileges and acting responsibly with those privileges.

Draconian filtering can cause the entire system to stop working.

After our furnace stopped working because the filter was stuffed-up with junk, my husband mentioned that he had recently put in a filter that caught more of the small bits. This filter was plugged up more quickly than any filter in the past. Thus, our furnace ground to a halt.

In the zeal to keep students safe, the firewall at a school may be far too high. It may block most of the "new, innovative tools that allow students and teachers alike to leverage technology in powerful new ways" (Hall, 2008, p. 26). With the many Web 2.0 tools, there are more opportunities than ever before for on-line collaborations between teachers, students, and classrooms. I remember learning about one teacher who invited people from around the world to Skype with her grade one class. She asked her Skype guests to share what they remembered learning in grade one. This interaction took place on the second day of the new school year. Imagine the impression this would leave on those young students! However, if that teacher's school system blocked Skype, this online interaction would never have occurred.

Filters come in many shapes and sizes. You need to use the one that works best for your system.

Since furnaces come in all shapes and sizes, furnace filters come in an array of shapes and designs. So too, the appropriate filter must be selected for a school. Recently Janet French (2010, p. A3), an education journalist for the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, reported that my school division has chosen to lift Internet filters for teachers and high school students. (Read the entire article underneath the Reference list for this blog post.) The powers that be in my school division have recognized that filters come in many shapes and sizes. They are making choices to apply those filters in different ways depending on the age of the student.

One of the articles I read for this assignment, talked about the Virtual Wild Wild West (Hall, 2008). When I think about the wild and crazy side of the internet, one application that comes to mind is YouTube. However, even YouTube has decided that it is time for some filtering. A YouTube visitor can select the level of filter that they want (Ingram, 2010). Here is their video about how to filter YouTube if you want to do that.

You Tube Safety Mode Demo

Now, here's where my metaphor or the parallels between filtering the air for my furnace and filtering the internet for students breaks down. My furnace is never going to develop the wisdom or mechanisms for filtering the air for itself. My students will need to develop the wisdom or mechanisms for filtering the internet for themselves.

We need to move from "policing the way students use the internet to educating them about using it more safely" (Villano, 2008, p. 54). Once students leave the more protected digital environment which may be in place at school, they need to know how to deal with the possible dangers of an unfiltered setting at home or elsewhere. Teachers and parents need to work together to educate students. According to Villano, in Finland there are no filters at schools for internet content. They believe in educating students so that the filters exist in their minds.

Before I leave this topic of filters, I have one more thought about filters. This blog post so far has examined the filters in place for content incoming from the internet. One last aspect of filtering is to have a filter in place for personal content that is going out to the internet. In the summer, I interviewed a 15 year old boy about his use of technology. He said that many of his friends used YouTube as their main way of communicating with each other. However, he said that many of the conversations on YouTube were rude and contained profanity and vulgarity. This week, as I have followed the Olympics online, I have been very interested in the concurrent Facebook chat for each live event. (For an example, check out this CTV site for hockey coverage.) I have been horrified by the nasty comments in the chat. If someone dislikes another person's comment, he or she begins to critique the other person's spelling, attitude, and nationality. There were even people who made negative comments about the profile picture of the other person (e.g. You look ugly in your profile picture). Admittedly, there were some people who were saying nice things and trying to calm the vitriol. These were strangers who were interacting on the chat. Where were their filters? Why were they being so rude and nasty to each other? I believe that teachers need to educate students to filter what is going out online as well as what is coming in.

The filter problems that stopped my home furnace from working were easily fixed with the insertion of an brand-new filter. The issue of filtering digital content in education will not be so easily resolved. Let's help our students develop the best filters of all--the ones between their ears.

References:

Abram, Stephen. (January/February 2007). Justifying the Social Tools: Improving the Conversation. In Multimedia & Internet@Schools, 14, 1, 21-22. ProQuest Journals.

Bell, Mary Ann. (September/October 2008). I'm Mad and I'm Not Gonna Take It Anymore! In Multimedia & Internet@Schools. ProQuest Journals.

Davis, Vicki. (January 28, 2010). Super social safety: Digiteens share the best (and worst) in social sites for kids. In Cool Cat Teacher Blog. http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2010/01/super-social-safety-digiteens-share.html

French, Janet. (February 10, 2010). Division lifts Internet filters. In Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, page A3. (Copied in full at the bottom of this blog post)

Hall, Don. (May 2008). Web 2.0: The Virtual Wild Wild West. In Learning & Leading with Technology. ProQuest Journals.

Ingram, Matthew. (February 10, 2010). YouTube Gets Violence and Profanity Filter. Blog post at GIGAOM. http://ow.ly/162fY

Nelson, Cathy. (October 17, 2009). Filters? A Problem of Complacency. Blog post at Techno-Tuesday. Online at http://blog.cathyjonelson.com/?p=954

Warlick, David. (July 11, 2009). Filters Work. Blog post in 2 Cents Worth. Online at http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=1794.

Villano, Matt. (May 2008). What are we protecting them from? In T.H.E. Journal, 35, 5, 48-54. ProQuest Journals.

Copy of Article from Saskatoon Star-Phoenix

French, Janet. (February 10, 2010). Division lifts Internet filters. In Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, page A3.

Public school students can now access websites that were once blocked. The virtual wall keeping Saskatoon public high school students away from Internet distractions while at school has come down. As of Feb. 1, Saskatoon Public Schools lifted a significant portion of the extensive Internet filters it has had in place since the 1990s. It gives students at the division’s 11 collegiates access to previously blocked sites, including video-sharing site YouTube, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, file-sharing sites such as Napster and the ability to chat online using instant messenger programs.

Similarly, last September, the division also loosened Internet restrictions for teachers and other school staff.

“If we’re going to invest in technology — and we have — then let’s make sure both our teachers and our students are learning the strategies and the available resources that are going to maximize learning in the 21st century,” said public division superintendent of education Barry MacDougall.

The decision came after a division sub-committee that looks at technology in learning studied the practices of other school divisions and recommended opening up more of the Internet, says Patricia Jamison, co-ordinator of curriculum and instruction at the public division. The students have access to the Internet both on school computers and by logging on to each school’s wireless network with personal laptops or cellphones.

Filters still exist that aim to block sites such as pornography, Internet gambling and other content not appropriate for schools.

Jamison says loosening up restrictions has allowed classes to take part in activities such as chatting with Canadian soldiers stationed in Afghanistan or an Australian bug expert over Skype, and giving students and teachers the ability to watch videos online to back up what they’re learning in lectures. One teacher is going to be blogging from the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, and another school set up a blog that allows students to post their work, then get feedback from other students.

Although students technically could use school computers and Wi-Fi networks to fool around, they’re not supposed to, Jamison says. Students are supervised while using computers at school and the division has posted an “acceptable use policy” students are supposed to follow. The rules say kids and teachers aren’t supposed to use the Internet for “personal” activities, such as sending personal messages or watching video; playing games or looking up information that’s “not for learning” or using the web to say mean or hurtful things.

The consequences include having Internet and computer privileges revoked or paying to replace broken or damaged equipment.

Trusting students to police much of their own web activity is part of the learning experience, MacDougall says.

When asked if the expanded web access could be another distraction in classes, MacDougall said students determined to avoid paying attention will find a way, with or without the Internet.

“I don’t think the issue has changed,” he said. “It might be the medium that’s changed, but there have always been alternatives to listening.”

Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools, meanwhile, is sticking to a different philosophy.

In 2002, Catholic division administrators decided to install software to limit web traffic on school computers, blocking sites that had to do with pornography, hacking and other perceived threats.

Students and teachers also have different levels of web access in the division. Teachers, for example, have access to Facebook and YouTube, whereas students don’t, says superintendent of education Brendan Bitz.

However, if a teacher finds something on the Internet he or she wants to show in class as part of a lesson, and it’s blocked on school computers, Bitz says the division’s technical team can quickly unlock a web address for an appointed date and time.

“We’d rather stand protected and release these sites as they are required, rather than leave it out and worry about the difficulties that are created by inappropriate access,” Bitz says.

Limits on bandwidth and computer terminals also prompt the Catholic division to restrict students’ time online, Bitz says.

Other differences between the divisions are that, unlike public high school students, Catholic students don’t have access to wireless Internet in schools on their own laptops or cellphones (except one special program at St. Edward elementary); if legal, public division students can upload or download music, videos and other files using peer-to-peer sharing software (such as Napster), where Catholic students cannot; every Catholic high school student who uses a school computer must first have permission from a staff member; and each Catholic school sets its own “acceptable use” policy for computers, whereas Saskatoon public has a division-wide policy.

Digital Pioneer Buys Grey Cup Tickets

2010-02-08T07:29:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

During the Canadian Football League's regular season, I bleed green. My team, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, wears green and white. We have season tickets and drive three hours to attend all of the home games for our team. This year, for the first time in decades, the Riders finished on top of the Western division. As we traveled to the Western division final game, visions of the Grey Cup (Canada's version of the Super Bowl game) danced in our heads. If we beat the Calgary Stampeders, we would be off to the Grey Cup the next week. Since the big game was taking place in Calgary, Alberta, we could actually drive there from our home in Saskatoon. The tricky part would be getting Grey Cup tickets. Since Calgary fans were hoping to see their team in the big game, tickets were sold out long before November of 2009.

As we drove to the game, I suggested to my husband that we should consider driving to Calgary for the Grey Cup. I used our cell phone to call my brother-in-law to ask him to start looking for tickets for us. We cheered our hearts out at the game in Regina. We beat the Stampeders and were off to the Grey Cup. Wow! Now we needed tickets. As we drove back to Saskatoon, we checked with my brother-in-law about tickets online. He gave us some prices for tickets. We realized that thousands of Rider fans across Canada would also be trying to find tickets.

After our three hour drive, we went online to check out prices and availability of tickets. Our daughter, who is living in Calgary, called us on Skype. She suggested we use Kijiji Calgary to find tickets. She was copying links into Skype so we could check out the various ticket offers. I emailed two people. One man responded right away and said I was the first to reply to his ad. He asked me to call him. I phoned to discuss his location in Calgary. Our daughter was still on Skype. We discovered that she was living a few blocks away from the man's location. We made arrangements for her to pay for and pick up our GREY CUP TICKETS!!!!! We were on our way to the Grey Cup game. (For those of you who don't follow the CFL, the Riders lost to the Montreal Alouettes because of a last second penalty for "too many men on the field" which allowed Montreal to kick a field goal. I still have a broken heart twibbon on my Twitter avatar. I have not yet read my local newspaper from the day after the game.)

Why have I shared this story with you? This week, for a class assignment, I have been asked to consider the concept of the "digital native" and the implications for teachers and schools. This story demonstrates the power of technology as used by a range of age groups for various purposes. We used cell phones, Skype calls, and landlines to communicate with other people. We used Kijiji and email to access and share information. Who were the digital natives and immigrants in this story? Are these terms adequate to categorize people and their range of interactions using technology?

I recently attended a presentation by Sir Ken Robinson. He suggested that technology is anything that has come into existence since you were born. For my parents, the old black telephone with a rotary dial would have been technology. For myself, a touchtone phone would represent technology. For my children, a cell phone would be an example of technology. However, as we think about digital technologies, who are the digital natives and who are the immigrants? Are these terms useful or do they obscure some of the realities for digital technology users today?

Digital Natives: In 2001, Prensky wrote an article about digital natives and digital immigrants. John Barlow may have been the first one to use the term "immigrants" to describe those who are newcomers to technology. In his "Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" (1996), he said:

"You are terrified of your own children, since they are natives in a world where you will always be immigrants. Because you fear them, you entrust your bureaucracies with the parental responsibilities you are too cowardly to confront yourselves. In our world, all the sentiments and expressions of humanity, from the debasing to the angelic, are parts of a seamless whole,the global conversation of bits. We cannot separate the air that chokes from the air upon which wings beat."

Prensky suggested that digital natives have grown up in a world of computers and digital technology. It must be recognized that the digital literacy of these natives may vary (Jorgenson, 2010). Jenkins (2007) suggests that using the term "digital native" as a metaphor for this group will reveal some realities while masking other realities. While some may be adept at social networking (via Facebook or Twitter), others may comment upon and create YouTube videos. Still others may shun digital productivity tools while reveling in the entertainment provided online.

Many educators are part of the "digital immigrant" group (Prensky, 2001). These are individuals who grew up without computers and have now learned (in some cases) to speak digitally. There are those teachers who are not yet comfortable with using technology as a teaching tool. They are on one side of the digital divide while their students are on the other side. They don't seem to speak the same language.

As I considered these two camps (natives and immigrants), I wondered where I fit in. I am part of the baby boomer generation who grew up in a world without computers. However, I believe that two skills provided my foundation for comfort with computers. Starting at the age of 6, I learned to play the piano. Then in high school, I took two years of typing classes. (The eye-hand coordination from playing the piano carried over into the ease of typing.) In 1985, when we bought our first computer (a Commodore 64), I was adept at the keyboarding aspect of computer use. With each new computer, I have built upon the early foundation of digital literacy. I realized that I am neither a native nor an immigrant. What am I?

Other educators have had the same dilemma. Kathy Schrock (2008) calls herself a "digital pioneer", one who "did not grow up with technology. It grew up with me, and I was there every step of the way." Like Schrock, I developed my skill set with technology after years of risk-taking and experimentation. In 1987, when I worked in a college bookstore, I advocated for the creation of a computer database for all of our books. I took all of the handwritten records of our stock and entered it into a database. I created the first website for my school in 1999 and then taught others to continue its upkeep. I continue to add to my technology repertoire. I don't know everything but I do know a lot. I am a digital pioneer.

Many people have pushed back against Prensky's concepts of the native and the immigrant. Some dislike the generalizations which paint a black and white picture. As Jenkins (2007) states:

"Talking about youth as digital natives implies that there is a world which these young people all share and a body of knowledge they have all mastered, rather than seeing the online world as unfamiliar and uncertain for all of us."

Shirley, the leader of our class discussion this week, provided us with a matching game in which we were asked to match these quotes with the ones who said them:

Quotes:

1. No, I don't really want an iPhone. It seems too complicated. I just want a simple phone and will buy a Koodoo.

2. I get offended when people don't return my emails. I consider them to be like phone calls. I want a reply!

3. Sure, I would like to buy an iPad. I want to get caught up!

4. I have an iPhone, 3 computers, 2 iPods, 3 digital cameras, and have an iPad on order. Can't wait!

5. I hate Twitter! I even went off Facebook for a time.

Speaker

a. 23 year old university student

b. 80 year old grandma

c. Baby Boomer Mom

d. Baby Boomer Dad

e. 20 year old university student

Challenge yourself to match the speaker with their quote. (I will give you Shirley's answers at the bottom of this post underneath the References.)

As my classmates and I attempted this matching game (quotes were from real people in Shirley's world), most of us were woefully inept at predicting who said what. This reveals the problem of generalizing. People are individuals--no one fits the mold. Harris (2010) suggests that the native and immigrant distinction is "malarkey" and that we should instead think about a continuum from "needing to be digitally nurtured" to "naturally digital". Each person's position along the continuum should be respected. Those who are naturally digital have an innate curiosity along with the ability to learn and adapt. If they are shown new technology they will figure it out on their own.

Here is an example from my life. I was watching a Flat World workshop taking place in Hong Kong last summer. Students and teachers were working together in learning and presenting information. I overheard a student mention that they could use WallWisher to share their research with others in the group. I looked this up on the internet and used WallWisher as a presentation tool for a class assignment in the fall. It wasn't actually the best tool to use because it ended up as a rather messy, chaotic bulletin board full of digital post-it notes. However, I had fun learning how WallWisher worked and have a new tool in my tool chest.

Those who need to be nurtured digitally are those who need more support and structure in learning to use technology. They need someone to guide, coach, and demonstrate the use of the tools. Last year I attended a workshop about PowerPoint. The instructor provided no handout and simply took us step-by-step through the creation of a PowerPoint slide. This was not an issue for me but many teachers in the class went away confused and uncertain of how to use this tool.

Another issue for those who are digital natives is that many of their most useful tools must be left at the school door. This leads to a disconnect between the world of the classroom and the world outside of school.

There are many implications for those who are teaching digital natives. I think that many digital natives are adept at using Web 1.0 tools (the static use of the Web) but not all are skilled with Web 2.0 tools (social media tools). Michael Wesch (2010) pointed out that most of the social media tools are less than five years old so that we are all digital immigrants with those tools. (Kathy Schrock would probably say that we are digital pioneers with those tools.)

Last summer I read an article (Piedra, 2009) outlining a vision of Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0. We need to prepare our students for moving beyond simple use of technology to more complex and interactive uses. This article suggests that the next frontier lies in metatagging data so that "resources on the web can be described and linked in a way that it is possible to determine their meaning and allow reuse through many applications." An example of this use of Web 3.0 occurred after the recent earthquake in Haiti. People were tweeting out their distress calls or the cries for help from others. Once a protocol for using specific Twitter #hashtags was instituted, computers could quickly collect these distress calls and direct help to specific locations. Even the United States government began to look to Twitter, Facebook, and blog sites to assist them in knowing where aid was required.

Teachers need to teach for connections, otherwise students are left with random bits of information bytes. Recently we looked at standards for technology learning. In Alberta, technology is integrated within the curriculum. Therefore students are not learning to make a video. They are learning about the history of First Nations people in Alberta and then using various technology tools to uncover and present their information. Michael Wesch (2010) suggests that the subject to be learned should be at the center of the community. Then teachers and students can work together to investigate the subject. Each can use their strengths and learn from others in the areas of weakness. Bell (2010) says that the best way to learn about new technology is to "keep a kid around". Jenkins (2007) says that we need to recognize our own gaps and ask our students to teach us. We also need to recognize our students' gaps and teach them. I like the idea of the ripple effect in technology. As I learn something, I will teach you. Then you in turn can teach someone else.

Last year, I taught my grade one and two students how to use computers for learning and productivity. In the spring, my class taught the other grade one class how to use computers. The grade 7 class assisted my class with downloading digital photographs for use in a class powerpoint. In the future, I would like to set up a project with senior citizens who would come into the school. I would teach them some computer skills. Then they would assist the kindergarten, grade one and two classes with logging on and using computers. I would also love to see a partnership between middle years classes and senior citizens with using computers to do research together. Possibly, middle years students could help seniors research trips to warm destinations in the winter. They could compile information about the culture and customs of the countries where the seniors may visit. When the seniors return from their trips, they could report back to the class. They could also Skype from their destination country. Through engaging in this type of authentic learning, we would create a digital melting pot (Collier, 2009; Stoerger, 2009) which combines those who speak a variety of technology languages. Everyone would have the opportunity to acquire, refine, and update their technology skills.

One study (Bell, 2010) found that digital natives are weak in the areas of:

1) Searching - Students often "bounce" from resource to resource without thoroughly reading any of their online resources. Some people might call this "link flow" but only if you are picking up on the most important information. Students need help with online searches. They spend as much time navigating as they do in collecting information. Unfortunately, students are generally dissatisfied with the help of librarians with online searches. (Law, 2009) Many librarians want to teach the proper way to do searches (akin to "Eat Spinach Syndrome" or "eat your spinach, it's good for you). Students want just a little help and guidance, given as rapidly as possible.

2) Evaluating - Digital natives are "voracious content consumers" (Manafy, 2010) in a venue in which "quality arguments are irrelevant because...the market will decide" (Law, 2009). These users subscribe to the "wisdom of crowds" in which information is "more democratic and less authoritative" (Law). We need to help our students develop critical thinking skills so that they can evaluate information. (Braun, 2009).

3) Staying safe - As Barlow's (1996) declaration points out, it is tempting to put so many restrictions in place for the use of technology, that the baby can be tossed out along with the bath water. Many teachers have expressed their frustration with the firewall that their school systems have erected to protect their students. Often, this wall is keeping out many useful resources. I have read about many ways to get around a block on YouTube since teachers want to use some of the posted videos for teaching and learning in class.

Last year I listened to a presentation by Vicki Davis' (2010) students with the results of their examinations of social sites for younger children online. These grade 9 students were encouraged to disobey the rules to see what type of monitoring was in place on the various sites. Davis believes that the best type of filter is the one between the student's ears. She teaches students the skills to use when evaluating sites and for staying safe on the internet. I believe that this could be an effective model for other students. Older students could be asked to find safe sites for younger students to use.

One last issue for digital immigrants who are teaching digital natives is the issue of lack of training. Today I read a blog post (Still, 2010) which incredulously quotes a comment from a teacher who says that "teachers at the local high school are very tech savvy. They can do things like attach files to emails." These "tech savvy" teachers are somewhere on the digital continuum but neither Still nor myself would term them "tech savvy" in this day and age.

As I look at my school division, I see many computers, digital cameras and projectors, and even some Smart Boards (although I can see the latter may lead to "sage on the stage" interactions). However, there is a lack of professional development opportunities for those wishing to use technology and to teach its use to their students. This is a widespread problem as "far too many schools...will spend..on equipment and software and then fail to provide time and resources for training" (Bell, 2010).

Where are you along the digital continuum? Are you willing to share what you have learned and to ask for help from your students?

As I think about that continuum, I think of Kathy Cassidy's students and their reflections on media literacy, both tech and non-tech. (Kathy is a grade one teacher in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.)

At the other end of the continuum in age is Ivy Bean (Twitter, 2009). Ivy is a British senior citizen who lives in a care home in England. She tweets using the Twitter name of IvyBean104. She is 104 years old. I have been following her on Twitter for six months. I came across an article in the Maclean's magazine from June of 2009 which mentioned Ivy. Ivy has been on Twitter longer than I have (I only started tweeting in July of 2009). She is a true Digital Pioneer.

In conclusion, let's not get caught up in glorifying or dissing the technology skills of others. Let's keep moving along the digital continuum while finding meaningful ways to interact with others. Engage in the global conversation along with Ivy Bean and Kathy's grade one class.

References:

Barlow, John Perry. (February 8, 1996). A declaration of the independence of cyberspace. Online at http://w2.eff.org/Censorship/Internet_censorship_bills/barlow_0296.declaration

Bell, Mary Ann. (January/February 2010). What kids know (and don't know) about technology. In MultiMedia and Internet @ Schools, 17, 1, 39-42.

Braun, Linda. (November 22, 2009). Take the risk: Give teens the chance to think for themselves. In Technology.

Collier, Anne. (December 3, 2009). Not just digital natives and immigrants. In NetFamily News.org.

Davis, Vicki. (January 28, 2010). Super social safety: Digiteens share the best (and worst) in social sites for kids. In Cool Cat Teacher Blog. http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2010/01/super-social-safety-digiteens-share.html

Frank, Thomas. (February 1, 2010). Social media play part in recovery efforts. USA Today (Mexican Caribbean Edition).

Goldman, Hilary. (March/April 2008). Preparing teachers for digital age learners. In Learning and Leading with Technology.

Greenhow, Christine. (September/October 2008). Who are today's learners. In Learning and Leading with Technology.

Harris, Christopher. (February 2010). Dumping on "Digital Natives". In School Library Journal, 56, 2, 14.

Jenkins, Henry. (December 5, 2007). Reconsidering digital immigrants. In The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins.

Jones, Sidney & Fox, Susannah. (January 28, 2009). Generations online in 2009. Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Jorgenson, Shirley. (February 5, 2010). Discussion post for EDES 545. University of Alberta (Blackboard).

Law, Derek. (December 2009). Waiting for the (Digital) Barbarians. In Information Outlook, 13, 8, 15-18.

Manafy, Michelle. (January/February 2010). The old news and the good news: Engaging the digital native in the value of news. In EContent, 33, 1, 30-34.

Piedra, N., Chicaiza, J., Lopez, J., Tovar, E., & Martinez, O. (2009). Open educational practices and resources based on social software, UTPL experience. American Conference On Telematics and Information Systems: Proceedings of the 2009 Euro American Conference on Telematics and Information Systems: New Opportunities to increase Digital Citizenship, Prague, Czech Republic, Article 34, DOI: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1551722.1551756

Prensky, Mark. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. In On the Horizon, 9, 5.

Schrock, Kathy. (October 12, 2008). Digital natives, digital immigrants, and digital pioneers. In Kathy Schrock's KaffeeKlatsch.

Still, Beth. (January 24, 2010). What does it mean to be tech savvy in 2010? In Nebraska Change Agent. Online at http://bethstill.edublogs.org/2010/01/24/what-does-it-mean-to-be-tech-savvy-in-2010/

Stoerger, Sharon. (July 6, 2009). The digital melting pot: Bridging the digital native-immigrant divide. In First Monday.

Twitter's oldest Brit user blogs casseroles. (no author) (June 1, 2009). Maclean's.

Wesch, Michael. (2010). The (Digital) Writing on the Walls (and why the walls don't matter anymore). Presentation at the University of Regina. (Video). Online at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3929554

(Answers for Match Quote with Speaker from Shirley Jorgenson
1. No, I don't really want an iPhone. It seems too complicated. I just want a simple phone and will buy a Koodoo.

e) My 20 yr old tech savvy daughter's plan was up. She was offered her Dad's Blackberry. No thanks. What about an iPhone?..no I just want a simple phone. I don't want to have to think abut it.(She has a iPod and lap top)

2. I get offended when people don't return my emails. I consider them to be like phone calls. I want a reply!

c) Baby boomer Mom. Applying the old phone etiquette of...if the phone rings you say hello.

3. Sure, I would like to buy an iPad. I want to get caught up!

b) 80 year old Grandma..an avid reader has been following the hype and has declared that this will be the place where she will jump in. She is jealous of her fellow seniors who keep up with their adult kids via email. She has lost status in the Lodge because of her digital poverty and wants to rectify this.

4. I have an iPhone, 3 computers, 2 iPods, 3 digital cameras, and have an iPad on order. Can't wait!

d) That was Boomer Dad!

5. I hate Twitter! I even went off Facebook for a time.

a) The 23 year old university student.

Are you ready for the future?

2010-01-25T06:43:00.000-08:00

During my grade school years, I remember writing a think piece on living in the future. Two future predictions remain in my memory. I said that you could call people on the telephone and view them on a screen while you talked to them. I said that this may be embarassing if you had just run out of the shower to answer the phone. This prediction has come true if you use an online application like Skype to make phone calls. The video aspect of those phone calls is optional. Therefore, no one will see you wrapped in a towel. Another prediction was for robots that did your housework for you. Unfortunately, this prediction has not yet come to pass. There are robotic vacuum cleaners that will zoom back and forth across your floor sucking in the dust mites. However, most household chores are still accomplished by humans using the tools of the trade (brooms, dishclothes, and laundry hampers).

Cover of Little Brother

That writing from years ago was my attempt at science fiction. Published writers of science fiction are actually instrumental in creating vision and reality in the future. This summer I read Cory Doctorow's book Little Brother and Vernor Vinge's book Rainbows End. In Brand's (2006) review of Vinge's book, he mentions Vinge's impact on the world of technology. Perhaps books like this or Cory Doctorow's Little Brother should be required reading for educators who are wanting to prepare students for the future. For example, in Vinge's book, he mentions a computer that is accessed from a folded sheet of special paper. Just this past summer, table-top computers have been developed. If one can use a table-top as a computer, surely the piece of paper computer cannot be far behind. Yesterday I watched a video of students using a unique laptop. (ISTE) The screen could be twisted around so that other students could view the screen. The screen could be detached from the keyboard and carried around. The screen was also a touch-screen so that it could be used for inputting information. (Watch the video here to see this innovative technology tool.)

Before I move into the vision that other leaders have for important 21st century skills, I want to make some of my own predictions. In the world of the future, people will be able to work and live anywhere as long as they have an internet connection. This means that people will look at quality of life and even environmental concerns when choosing where to live. I believe that many young people will be less materialistic in the future--it will be more about job satisfaction and engagement than it will be about the salary. I can see that concerns about the environment and their ecological footprint will drive many life-style choices. People will return to the land in order to grow, harvest, and cook with their own produce. This will be a requirement for life as reduced fuel stocks may reduce the distances that food can travel to come to us. There will be more desire to buy locally while thinking globally. There will be a recognition that we are all in this together. My actions or inactions will impact those on the other side of the globe from me. Recently, after the earthquake in Haiti, someone tweeted: "Today, we are all Haitians." This sentiment is behind the vast outpouring of money, volunteer time, and concern for the Haitian people who are in the midst of a terrible disaster. In my previous blog post, I mentioned another tweet: We are all Twitter volunteers for Haiti. The actions I took last week in building Twitter lists and retweeting important information may have helped to save lives (especially for those buried under the rubble) or bring help to the helpless.

Something else that I learned through the Haiti disaster which I believe has relevance for the future is that those with passion will lead and make things happen. As I watched the CNN coverage of the Haiti earthquake, I came to despise Larry King's approach to interviews with those on the ground in Haiti. It seemed to me that he was willing to give away his suspenders (as a fund-raising gesture) but not his heart. His coverage of the disaster was done in the spirit of--just another day at the office, it's just a job. However, Sanjay Gupta, a CNN reporter who was on the ground in Haiti, discovered in the midst of a live report that the doctors at the field hospital behind him were all leaving because of security issues. Since Sanjay is a doctor, he said that he was staying to care for the patients overnight until the other doctors returned. He said he couldn't do his show that night because those patients took precedence. Anderson Cooper, another CNN reporter on the ground in Haiti, was reporting on some looting in one area of the city. He was there on the ground where people were throwing chunks of cement and security guards were shooting at people. A young boy was hit on the head with a chunk of cement. Anderson moved from his detached observer's viewpoint to pick up the boy and carry him to safety. In the future, this kind of reporter will lead us all in the vision of the global community and how we should respond to those connections.

Just a few more of my own personal thoughts about the future before I turn to the vision of others.

Flexibility -When I work with students, I want them to learn to be flexible so that they can adjust to the realities of the 21st century world. I recently overheard a young woman (probably around 30 years of age) talk about the young people and their crazy texting. All of us will need to do some crazy texting in the future (although not while you're driving, please).

People skills - Even in an online world, one still needs to have people skills. As well, since an online world cannot give you a flesh-and-blood hug or a physical pat on the back, students will need to continue to work on their social skills in order to work with others in a face-to-face setting.

Downtime - We need to give our students the opportunity to enjoy some time off the grid. Time to "go dark", off-line. I think we need to model this to students. We don't always need to be plugged in. There is value in removing oneself from the online tether to experience the world in other ways.

Meta-tagging - We need to teach students to use data-analysis tools. These will combine the Web 2.0 world with the Web 3.0 world. In the Web 3.0 world, people do what they do best while computers do what they do best. As an example, over the last few weeks, I have created some Twitter lists. My favourite list is the list of people who are in Haiti and using Twitter. I had to be a detective to create this list of people (over 200 of them now). I combed through tweets which mentioned Haiti. I read tweets and followed up on those who mentioned other Twitter users. I analyzed information and then synthesized what I had learned into a huge Twitter list. One of my other lists had 500 people on it. That is how I discovered that Twitter lists can only go up to 500 people. Once I had created these lists, then the computer did its thing--it found and listed all of the tweets from those users in real-time. That was how I learned about after-shocks and people's reaction to them.

In the future, our students will need to learn how to use mind mapping, spreadsheets, and pattern finding in data. Then they can direct computers to use that information to assist in data analysis.

Thus far, I have presented some of my thoughts on the 21st century learner. Now I will turn to other organizations and individuals to understand their thoughts on helping the 21st century learner.

In 2002, educators and business leaders came together to establish The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. This partnership included the U.S. Department of Education, the AOL Time Warner Foundation, Apple Computer, Inc., Cable in the Classroom, Cisco Systems, Inc., Dell Computer Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, and the National Education Association. Their concern was that the education system at that time was not preparing students with the skills they would need to thrive in the 21st century. They identified the skills set that 21st century learners would need and began to create guidelines and learning materials to assist educators in helping students to achieve these skills.

According to the Partnership's Mission statement, this skills set includes:

Information and communication skills (information and media literacy skills; communication skills)
Thinking and problem-solving (critical thinking and systems thinking; problem identification, formulation and solution; creativity and intellectual curiosity)
Interpersonal and self-direction skills (interpersonal and collaborative skills; self-direction; accountability and adaptability; social responsibility)
Global awareness
Financial, economic and business literacy, and developing entrepreneurial skills to enhance workplace productivity and career options
Civic literacy

In June of 2009, a National Summit on 21st Century Skills was held. This video will summarize some of the Partnership's work to date.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has created an online survey to assist you in measuring your own school division's development of 21st century skills. Use the MILE Guide Self-Assessment Survey which provides 14 questions to assist you in evaluating your school division. The survey gives your district a measurement of six key areas under the development of 21st Century Skills. These areas are: Policy making, Educational Leadership, Education Support systems, Student knowledge and skills, Partnering, and Continuous Improvement. Using your answers to the questions, it evaluates each of these areas in terms of early, transitional, or 21st century work. Beside each area, suggestions are given for improvement based on the level of achievement in that area. There is a MILE guide available for download as a PDF file.This guide can be very useful for educators who wish to integrate this skills set into their instructional practices.

Other educators and idea people have proposed their own lists of 21st century skills. Blower (2009) reported on Howard Rheingold's list of 21st century literacies:

Attention- knowing how to focus and how to divide your attention without losing the ability to concentrate. It’s more than multitasking; it’s learning how to exercise attention.
Participation- particularly the more constructive modes of participation that are useful to others
Collaboration- being ready to organize together, and enable a collective response to emerge
Critical consumption-aka “crap detection” the ability to spot bad info from good.
Network awareness- the combination of reputation, social capital, “presentation of self” and other sensitivity to individual positioning within the network collective.

Henry Jenkins suggests some core media literacy skills (Jenkins):

Play: The capacity to experiment with one's surroundings as a form of problem solving.

Performance: The ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery.

Simulation: The ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes.

Appropriation: The ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content.

Multi-tasking:The ability to scan one's environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.

Distributed Cognition: The ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities.

Collective intelligence: The ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal.

Judgment: The ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources

Transmedia Navigation: The ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities

Networking: The ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information

Negotiation: The ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.

Daniel Pink examined four sets of standards for learning today (including the AASL, NETS, and the Partnership for 21st Century Learning standards) and suggest a six sense or aptitude approach to preparedness for life in the 21st century. (Mardis, 2008). His list includes:

Design - Combine usefulness with significance
Story - Understanding and connection with human experience
Symphony - See the big picture and make connections
Empathy - View things from another's point of view
Play - Work is fun
Meaning - Use what you know to understand yourself and your world

What will the future look like for our students? How can we prepare them to thrive in that future? As Pink suggests, we need to encourage students to "think beyond fact-based routine, 'left-brained thinking' and propel them to embrace personal, dynamic, creative activities that allow them to change and grow all through [their] lives" (Mardis, 2008).

If you are interested in sorting and organizing all of these ideas about 21st century learning skills, I suggest that you write each skill on a small piece of paper. Take all suggestions. Then spread all of the pieces of paper out on a table. Sort them into similar ideas. Then choose the ideas that resonate with you most deeply. Those are the ideas you should start with because that is where your passion lies. Do your part to prepare your students for the world of the future.

References:

Blowers, Helene. (2009). 21st Century Literacies. In Library Bytes. Online at http://www.librarybytes.com/2009/09/21st-century-literacies.html

Brand, Stewart. (July/Aug. 2006). Vinge’s Singular Vision. In Technology Review, 109, 3, 86. (Online University of Alberta, ProQuest Journals)

ISTE. Implementing the Refreshed NETS-S. Canadian Kaleidoscope: Brookfield High School. (Video) Online at https://admin.acrobat.com/_a729309453/brookfield/

Jenkins, Henry. Building the Field of Digital Media and Learning. Online at mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/Confronting_the_Challenges.pdf

Mardis, Marcia. (2008). A whole new library: six "senses" you can use to make sense of new standards. Teacher Librarian, 35, 4, 34-38 (Online University of Alberta, ProQuest Journals)

Mile Guide Self-Assessment Survey. Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Online at http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/mileguide/

Mission Statement. Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Online at http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=188&Itemid=110

National Summit on 21st Century Skills: Intro Video (4:43). Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs_-77afyhk

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. 2009 MILE Guide: Milestones for Improving Learning & Education: An Updated Toolkit of Strategies and Tactics

Pink, Daniel. (2007). Abundance, Asia and Automation. Video (1:12). Online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syo6ecgclR0

RT @InternetHaiti We are all Twitter volunteers for #Haiti

2010-01-18T07:54:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday afternoon (January 12), a massive earthquake hit the country of Haiti. I began to closely follow the story on the internet beginning on Wednesday, January 13. I mainly used a free online program called Twitter to follow the story. At first #Haiti, Port au Prince, and YELE (Wyclef’s organization for helping Haiti) were trending topics on Twitter. I just searched through the tweets including those words. I decided to compile a Twitter list of anyone who was sharing information about Haiti. This list can be accessed at http://twitter.com/#/list/RIElliott/haiti. (I have 281 Twitter people on this list at the moment. )The interesting thing is that these tweets can be read by people who are not on Twitter themselves. The tweets show up on a web page. However if someone wants to interact (reply or retweet anything), they need to have a Twitter account.

As I selected my Haiti Twitter list and read through the tweets, I noticed that some people were already on the ground in Haiti. These people tweeted about the earthquake a few minutes after it happened. They talked about the devastation they saw. They mentioned missing family members. They rejoiced when the family members were found. All of this occurred within the public forum of Twitter. (For those who don’t know much about Twitter—you can protect your tweets so that only your friends can see them [similar to the way your privacy can be set on Facebook]. However, most people allow complete access for anyone in the world.) As I thought about those people tweeting from Haiti (rather than about Haiti), I decided to create a second Twitter list of those who I believed were tweeting from Haiti. This list can be accessed at http://twitter.com/#/list/RIElliott/in-haiti. At the moment I have 112 people on this list. I try to keep this list current and move people off it if they mention that they have left Haiti. There are some people who are tweeting such great information (such as a doctor stationed in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where they are flying some patients) that I put them on the “in Haiti” list. I invite all of you to click on this list (again, you do not need a Twitter account to read the tweets) and read for a minute.

This morning I am furious because I read of 10,000 tons of water and relief flights coming in juxtaposed with word of people in desperate need with no relief in sight. One person who was already in Haiti serving the people before the quake asked this morning on Twitter how he could get more supplies for distribution. He has already given out all he has.

Early on, I read a blog post about the need for water in Haiti. This got me thinking about the logistics of getting aid to Haiti. So I created a third Twitter list which I called “Haiti logistics”. When people tweeted about maps or locations, I put them on this list. This list can be accessed at http://twitter.com/RIElliott/haiti-logistics. There are 53 people or organizations on this list.

I set up these three Twitter lists which helped to bring knowledge my way (for those teachers out there, this would be the first rung in Bloom’s Taxonomy of thinking skills). Since few people were following my Twitter lists (there are now 9 following my In Haiti list), I wasn’t really using what I was learning. Sometimes I would retweet a message that I thought was important. However, if all the people reading your tweets are in North America, this does not help Haiti. Then I read a tweet about Tweaking the Tweet. Project Epic designers suggested the use of #hashtags to help computers compile information from Haiti. (http://epic.cs.colorado.edu/helping_haiti_tweak_the_twe.html) This brings the power of Web 2.0 (people using the internet to collaborate and communicate with each other) together with the power of Web 3.0 (people doing what they do best and computers doing what they do best working in harmony). Therefore people use their intellect to meta-tag a tweet like this:

RT @rqskye: 50+peopl w/kidsNeedFood,H2O,Supplies. HautDuCanapeV, EntrncSeminary,ImpassAubry,MaisonAubry. SoleHouseStandng.AllSurvivrsTher

Using the Project Epic suggested meta-tags, I could tweet this as

#Haiti #Need Food,H2O,Supplies. #Loc HautDuCanapeV, EntrncSeminary, ImpassAubry, MaisonAubry. SoleHouseStandng.#Num 50 people via @rqskye

Now a computer can find this tweet and pass the information on to whoever is monitoring this information. Over the past few days, I have seen an orphanage receiving water and supplies because people tweaked the tweet. I have seen people rescued from buildings because people tweaked the tweet in this way.

People are also using Facebook to share information. There are Facebook groups set up for those waiting on word of people missing at the Montana Hotel (apparently the favourite destination for tourists in Haiti) which collapsed in the earthquake. One man is also setting up Skype conferences to give people with information the opportunity to share it. I attended one of the conferences briefly (it started as an Elluminate session and then changed to Skype). Reporters are creating podcasts and videos. Many individuals are writing blog posts about their experiences in Haiti.

During this crisis in Haiti, CNN has been on the ground with many reporters. However, CNN has also recognized that they cannot collect all of the information themselves. They have opened a site where people can stop by, sign in, and share their stories, photographs, and information. (CNN I Report http://www.ireport.com/ir-topic-stories.jspa?topicId=381090&hpt=T1) However, when I stopped by and left a message asking them to follow my “In Haiti” Twitter list, they responded by saying they are following all of the people tweeting about Haiti. They are getting a lot of chaff mixed in with their wheat if this is the case. They are listening to everyone talking and losing the voices of those who are there on the ground in Haiti.

Now I need to switch gears. This week, along with trying to be a Twitter volunteer for Haiti, I have also been a student in an Information Technologies for Learning class from the University of Alberta. My experience of using the Web to communicate and help others, along with seeing how others have used technology to help Haiti, have made me think about the responsibility of teachers and teacher-librarians to prepare students for the world of today and tomorrow.

Last week I attended a lecture by Michael Wesch (2010) about students of today. Mike is an anthropology professor in Kansas. He suggested that there are no digital natives as we all learn to use the new Web 2.0 technologies to communicate and create. Things like YouTube, DIGG or Delicious, RSS feeds, and Facebook are very recent applications. We are all learning them together. Mike suggested that we need to move from being receptive knowers who simply accept the voice of authority to subjective knowers who will question and possibly reject everything. From there the progression is onward to Procedural knowers who move between thinking inside the box and outside the box (separate vs. connected). In the end, Mike suggests that learners need to be constructive knowers who are integrating the separate (outsider knowledge and thinking) with the connected (insider knowledge and thinking). He wants learners to feel responsible for examining, questioning and developing the systems they will use for constructing knowledge. (I need to watch the archived video of Mike’s presentation several more times to really grasp all that he had to say. View it here http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3929554)

This week I read an article by Asselin and Doiron (2008) that also points out the new approach to knowledge. They say that “Knowledge in the Industrial Age was viewed as fixed, authoritative, discipline-bound, obtained and owned by individuals, and regarded as ‘the truth’. In contrast, knowledge in a knowledge-based society is constantly changing, contested, interdisciplinary, and collaboratively constructed and re-constructed by ‘amateurs’ for massive audiences.” (p. 10) I can see that this new view of knowledge creation has been demonstrated by the information coming out of Haiti.

I also read Joyce Valenza’s Manifesto for School Librarians (2007) which is so relevant for today. Joyce speaks about a new digital divide between those who can find information easily in a variety of formats and those who cannot. She suggests that teacher-librarians need to become “info-technology scouts” who help to make sense of new ideas and information. Joyce speaks about “Just-in time, Just for me” learning. Teachers and students need to learn how to uncover the information that they need when they need it. I was impressed the other day that when someone asked (via Twitter) how long the air strip at Jacamel was (since they were enroute with relief supplies in a small plane), many people quickly responded. Some referred to Google Earth; others referred to information gathered from a website on the Haitian town of Jacmel; some went to statistical information from another source. All of these people were demonstrating “Just in time, Just for me” learning.

As I reflect on this past week, I think about the great use of social media to help Haiti. I think about Mike Wesch’s thoughts about students and learning today. I bring in the other articles I have read and my classmates’ posts and comments during our class discussions. I ask myself: How can I, as a teacher-librarian, prepare my students for a world such as this? Here are just a few of my answers to that question:

1) I am concerned about student access to technology. There are still homes with no computer and/or internet access. I believe that teachers need to teach students to use technology tools in classrooms and computer labs. I welcome all the free tools on the internet but these tools are useless if a student has no computer or doesn’t know how to log on.

2) Students need to learn to use technology to create and represent information and knowledge. We need to give students a safe way to share their learnings with the world. I think of Kathy Cassidy’s blog site for her grade one students. (Online at http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337,%20http://primarypreoccupation.wordpress.com/)

Her students create blog posts in various ways. They create podcasts (using Vocarro) which their parents and others can listen to. People from around the world visit this blog site and comment on her students’ blog posts. Kathy also interacts with other classrooms around the world. She did a Skype session with another class in which both classes read a poem or book together. When a class in United States discovered a special bone (dinosaur?), they Skyped with Kathy’s class to share what they were learning. Valenza encourages us to realize that “learning can be playful” (2007). We need to encourage students to use and enjoy the benefits of technology.

If you are reading this today and you are a teacher or teacher-librarian, I have an immediate project for you. I need assistance with what I am trying to do to help Haiti. Do you have students who could help me?:

1) Tweak the tweets. If they are not on Twitter themselves, they could rewrite the tweets at http://twitter.com/#/list/RIElliott/in-hait and email them to me at elliottr49@hotmail.com. Then I will tweet them forward. They need to use the conventions from Project Epic (http://epic.cs.colorado.edu/helping_haiti_tweak_the_twe.html) I am sure that in the future, this practice in meta-tagging information and putting it in a computer readable format will be very useful for those students. Of course, if the students (or you as their teacher) have a Twitter account, they can simply tweet out the revised information themselves. There would be no need to go through me.

2) Help me to curate my Twitter lists. I am particularly concerned about my “Tweeting from Haiti” list which needs to have more accounts added. This assignment could only happen for those who have a Twitter account themselves. I need people to follow the #hashtag #Haiti and discover people who are tweeting from Haiti but not yet on my “In Haiti” list. There are also people who are no longer in Haiti who could be removed from that Twitter list. Please send me messages as a reply on my Twitter account (@RIElliott) to help me update my information.

We need to harness the power of technology for the good of our world. We need to teach our students to use technology for good. Let’s be a model of “excitement, engagement, and enthusiasm” (Valenza, 2007) as we distribute the tools.

References:

Asselin, Marlene & Doiron, Ray. (July 2008). Towards a Transformative Pedagogy for School Libraries 2. In School Libraries Worldwide, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1 – 18.

Valenza, Joyce. (June 27, 2007). Build a manifesto with me: You know you are a 21st century teacher-librarian if . . . On Never-ending search blog (School Library Journal). Online at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/250011225.html

Wesch, Michael. (January 12, 2010). The (Digital) Writing on the Walls (and why the walls don’t matter anymore). Archived video of presentation, University of Regina, Saskatchewan. Online at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3929554

Haiti Earthquake Twitter Lists

2010-01-15T05:53:00.000-08:00

Haiti experienced a 7.0 earthquake on Tuesday, January 12. On January 13, I began following people on Twitter who were writing about the earthquake. I have now created three lists of Twitter people. Feel free to follow any of these lists. (You will need a Twitter account first. Go to Twitter.com to sign up for an account.)

Here are the three lists (more information about them below):

People tweeting information about Haiti: http://twitter.com/#/list/RIElliott/haiti

People tweeting from Haiti: http://twitter.com/#/list/RIElliott/in-haiti

People tweeting about the logistics of relief and rescue efforts: http://twitter.com/#/list/RIElliott/haiti-logistics

I will continue to update these lists. Feel free to reply to me on Twitter (@RIElliott) to give me any information that will assist me in keeping these lists current or leave me a comment on this blog.

(This photo is of a man named Patrick who was dug out of the rubble of his house after 18 hours. John McHoul posted this photo on his blog site called Heartline Haiti. The address is http://heartlineministries.org/Blog20.aspx John is on the ground helping others. Follow his blog posts for updates on what he is doing.)

My first Twitter list is just for those who are tweeting with information about Haiti and the earthquake. Many of these are not in Haiti. Some are relief organizations tweeting from outside Haiti. Others are those who are searching for relatives in Haiti. (I am following 131 Twitter accounts on this list.)

This Haiti list can be found at http://twitter.com/#/list/RIElliott/haiti

As I followed the people on the above list, I discovered that some of them were either currently in Haiti or on their way to Haiti. Therefore I created a new list which I call "In Haiti". As I get new information, I will revise this list. For me, this is the most important list because these are tweets from people on the ground in Haiti. I think it would be most helpful for these people to use names of buildings and streets to assist others in their rescue and relief efforts. Many of these people are seeking to go out on the streets to help people. We need to keep the internet going (by providing diesel fuel to the internet providers to run their generators). As well, these on-the-ground Twitter people can tweet about buildings where people are trapped and still calling out. There are 47 Twitter people that I am following on this list. Please leave me a comment or send me a message on Twitter if you know of others on the ground in Haiti who I should add to this list.

This In Haiti list can be found at http://twitter.com/#/list/RIElliott/in-haiti

My third Twitter list was created to include those working on the logistics and organization of the relief effort. For example, one person/organization was tweeting about the condition of the roads in various locations. I also include accounts which tweet about the maps which are being created. There are presently 22 Twitter accounts on this list. I will add more as I see tweets which address the logistics of the rescue and relief operation.

This Logistics Haiti list can be found at http://twitter.com/#/list/RIElliott/haiti-logistics

What I am hearing so far is that rescue and relief is not reaching the most desperate. Hopefully on this third day after the earthquake, people will get the water and food they need.

Urgent needs:
1. Water, food and shelter needs met

2. Diesel fuel for the generators of internet providers so they can keep operational

3. GPS locations or addresses for buildings where people are still trapped and calling out.

4. Leadership: Someone or organization to take charge and coordinate relief efforts.

Special call out to the Tech community:

With all the tools at our disposal, how can we help with the communication and coordination needs during this crisis?

Jamming with the Generations

2009-12-24T10:28:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

I come from a musical family. My mom, Isabel, played the piano, accordion, trombone, and violin. She sang solos at church. When she was younger, she was in a Gilbert & Sullivan production of the Pirates of Penzance. My dad, Don, met my mom at a Bible camp. He heard someone playing the accordion and followed the sound to discover my mom there.

Image via Wikipedia

My mom came from a musical family. I remember listening to her sister, Elsie, singing with a Sweet Adelines group. One of my mom's prized possessions was an ornately carved upright piano. This piano was inherited by her dad from his father (B. P. Richardson). Since my great grandfather died in 1910, the piano is more than 100 years old.

As I was growing up, I took piano lessons and practiced on this beautiful piano. My five younger brothers and sisters also learned to play with this piano. Each of my siblings also learned to play another musical instrument (euphonium, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and flute). We would gather around the piano and play and sing. My mom was so delighted with her musical children.

Once I stopped taking piano lessons (when I was 15, in Grade 8 of Royal Conservatory Music), I continued to play the piano. I turned from playing classical music to popular music and church music. I practiced more once I ceased piano lessons than before. I was now playing whatever I wanted to play. Over the years since then, I have discovered such solace and comfort in playing the piano.

When we had our three children, I wanted them to learn to play the piano for their own enjoyment. All three took piano lessons. They also learned to play other instruments (trombone, flute, saxophone, and tuba). This year, when my daughter went to Ambrose University in Calgary, she took her flute with her. She joined an orchestra and began jam sessions with a small group of students. Prior to this, she had only played the notes on the page. Now she has learned to improvise.

When my daughter came home for Christmas, she kept asking us to jam with her. Finally we sat down to do this. My husband got out his guitar (which he hasn't played for over 20 years). My daughter played the flute. My son (the tuba player who doesn't own a tuba) and I team-played the piano. I sang. We ended up singing and playing our way through the entire Reader's Digest Christmas songbook. It was so much fun.

In the last few years of her life, my mom (who died in 1998) had difficulty with singing and playing the piano. She said that she was looking forward to playing the piano in heaven.

The other evening I thought of how delighted my mom, her father, and grandfather would have been to see the fruits of their musical gifts being expressed in joyous song in my living room. Maybe they were playing along in the heavenly realms (jamming with the generations).

Joy to the World. Merry Christmas to you. May you enjoy the gift of being with your family and loved ones at Christmas.

This Broken Road of Grief

2009-12-15T10:57:00.000-08:00

I've walked this road before I know but this time it's so final. I've lived in this world without my Mom (Isabel Sanders) for many years (since 1998) but this will be my first Christmas without my Dad (Don Sanders) as part of my earthly family circle.

This afternoon I read Bonnie Stewart's blog post about a Christmas card that had gone astray. Each year for the four years they have lived in their home, a card has arrived for the previous family.

Bonnie's thoughts triggered this post.

Every year my parents sent out their annual Christmas letter. In turn they received cards and letters from friends around the world. The cards and letters were piled up in a special Christmas basket. Once I left home, I was welcome to read through the Christmas cards and letters when I returned.

I would usually sit in the living room with my parents or with only my Dad in recent years. As I went through all the cards and letters, we would chat about the sender. I connected with those people through my parents. Now, my parents are both gone. What will happen to those connections?

Like Bonnie, I stopped sending Christmas cards a few years back. I became a full-time working mother and something had to give. Christmas cards fell by the wayside. Now that we are almost empty nesters, maybe it is time for me to begin this annual connection tradition again.

My Dad was quite modern for an 86 year old. He still wrote letters but he also used email to keep in touch with his friends. After Dad died, one of my tasks was to send an email notice to all of those on his email address list. We gave Dad's computer to a friend of his. That was one very difficult thing after Dad died on May 8th. We had to clear out his apartment by the end of the month. I felt that I was dismantling my Dad's life and then there was nothing physical left. It was different with my Mom because my Dad continued to live in the home they had shared.

Last year Dad came to Saskatoon for Christmas. He spent most of Christmas lying on the couch because of pain in his leg. (cancer) I'm so thankful for the trips we took together and for all the visits we made to his home in Regina. I know that I was a good daughter to him and have no regrets about our time together here on earth.

However, at the moment, I just feel sad. My first Christmas without my Dad.

Part 1, The Sharing Phase of Inquiry Learning: Introduction

2009-11-04T22:11:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

The Sharing Phase of Inquiry Learning is very important. I liken it to a sponge which is saturated with water. However, if no one ever squeezes the water out of the sponge, it will eventually turn smelly and old as it simply sits in the sponge. Students, who have worked through all the other phases of guided inquiry, will generally look forward to sharing their learning. In the next few blog posts I will discuss the aspects of that sharing. I felt that neither of our class texts provided much information on this topic. So I decided to ask the journalistic questions of Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How in order to drill down into the concept of sharing one's learning. I feel that there is some overlap with the Creating phase of the Inquiry Process. In both phases, students must be aware of their audience. I am leaving the research essay on the creating side of things. However, the essay may be the foundation for the sharing which takes place next. In fact, in many science or heritage fairs, students are asked to have their research essay available. Most people do not read it though since they look at the display or model or artifacts shared by the student.

Over the past few weeks, as I have been preparing to write about the sharing phase, I have also been preparing to share my learning as the presenter of a Twitter workshop. Since July 2009, I have been on Twitter--in effect, doing my own inquiry learning about how it works. Yesterday, I presented the workshop to four adults. I went through all of the stages of this sharing process. I will tell you a little about my experience of sharing as I wend my way through these blog posts.

The next blog post will address the Who and the What of the sharing phase. (Click here.)

Part 2, The Sharing Phase of Inquiry Learning: Who and What?

2009-11-04T22:10:00.000-08:00

Image by (nz)dave via Flickr

Who is involved in the sharing phase of inquiry learning?

Both the student(s) sharing the learning and the audience (viewers, listeners) are part of the "who". Students may have worked alone on a project so that the sharing phase is a solitary venture. However, sometimes the individual inquiry projects may be brought together for the sharing phase so that students can begin to synthesize learning. (e.g. Students working on a biography project create a timeline of important events in a life. Teacher then brings small groups of students together to design a presentation which intermingles the people's lives. I did this project with Grade 5 students. The groups shared a movie and two skits which brought their individual biography subjects together.)

The project may have been collaborative from the start. Students may work in pairs or small groups. (One aspect which teachers of the inquiry process may need to spend more time on is building those social skills and collaborative skills if asking students to work together. In the biography project above, some students almost came to blows because they clung to their own ideas and refused to listen to the rest of the group. I had to spend more time on group skills to support their inquiry learning work.)

Recently there has been a push to do inquiry learning within e-collaborations. Kim Cofino of the International School in Bangkok, Thailand has written this blog post (http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2009/10/04/how-to-connect-your-students-globally/) to give teachers support with setting up groups which will collaborate digitally.

The other "who" of sharing is the audience. In the past, students shared the product of their research (generally a research essay) with only the teacher. (Kuhlthau, 2007) With inquiry learning, the goal is to create a community of learners who engage with the learning products together. Students may share their learning with one other student, in a small group of students, to the whole class, or to the whole school. Students may even be invited to go outside of their school to share in a different venue. With online communities, students may be sharing their learning (especially in the form of a blog post, VoiceThread, or video) with a group of strangers that they never meet. Recently, Kim Cofino (teacher mentioned above) had a parents' morning. Parents brought their laptops and Kim taught them how to use an RSS feed (Google Reader) to aggregate all the class and school blogs. Suddenly those blog posts have a wider audience and students will be encouraged to do a better job on them. (Check out Kathy Cassidy's Grade 1 blog site.http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337,%20http://primarypreoccupation.wordpress.com/ She is a teacher in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. People stop by from all around the world to read her students' blog posts. She recently used Skype to do Readers' Theatre with a class from the United States.)

The most common audience for student sharing is a group of people in the same room with the speaker. The student needs to be aware of background knowledge that the audience may possess. I recently attended a Web 2.0 workshop in which the presenter repeatedly checked in with the audience (who were strangers to her) to ask about basic concepts. Then if we already knew about the concept, she moved past it. In my Twitter workshop, I first thought that my audience would be pre-service education students. I thought about what their motivations may be for learning about Twitter. I planned a short get-acquainted activity before the workshop began. However, when no education students signed up, I was not sure who my audience would be. I had four people attend (three were teachers and one an ESL student). I had to revise the focus of my presentation because of my audience. I wasn't well prepared for the ESL student who at one point tweeted: I'm lost. Know your audience! (For some questions to ask to prepare for the audience go to http://virtualinquiry.com/scientist/scientist3audience.htm)

What is involved in the sharing phase of inquiry learning?

According to the book Guided Inquiry (Kuhlthau, 2007), the sharing phase of inquiry learning includes both a product of learning and the action of sharing that learning. The product may have been created in its final form during the creation phase. However, many projects involve the creation of a research essay which can not easily be shared with an audience. Therefore students will need to create something which can be shared with an audience. (e.g. Grade 6 students did research essays on the birds and animals we might see at camp. Then they created posters for the bird or animal they researched. At camp, these posters were on display. Throughout camp, each student gave a short speech about their bird or animal.)

The product may be decided at the beginning of the inquiry process (e.g. Grade 4 Science - amusement park rides) or may arise more naturally throughout the inquiry process. With students who are new to inquiry learning, teachers may tell them what they will share ("we are making powerpoints or posters to share our learning") while with students more experienced in inquiry learning, they may choose their own unique final product.

When students are choosing how to share, Multiple Intelligences thinking could be part of the process. Teachers who are suggesting various products could think of the various Multiple Intelligences when designing the projects. There are some helpful worksheets within the Appendices of Focus on Inquiry (See A, B, D, & E) which could help students understand their preferences in selecting products of learning. Here is a list of possible products of research (not all will be appropriate for sharing with an audience). http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/fiftyways.html Here is a list of digital tools for creating projects http://www.enquiringminds.org.uk/try_it/digital_tools/?cost=0&stage=4&tag_id=0&orderby=ASC&ajax=false&x=37&y=13

Speeches: One of the most common ways of sharing learning is through a speech. The speech may stand-alone or may include visuals, a poster, or a powerpoint slide show. Students who have never given a speech may be very nervous. In my classrooms, I have always had students take turns leading opening exercises. This seems to help them in developing those skills in public speaking. Students should practice making eye contact, speaking clearly, using gestures, and organizing content well.

List of public speaking resources:

5th Grader speech (Excellent--eye contact, enthusiasm, humour, 3 points, gestures) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-eStp4NqBU

Many resources for public speaking http://www.cybraryman.com/publicspeaking.html

Tips from Craig Kielburger (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV-PzZwEd7s

Adorable video of 3 year old Chinese boy public speaking (watch for what he does right: gestures, eye contact, enthusiasm, brevity. Wrong- too dependant on notes. But what can I say, reading and speaking at three.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBd1xIt32kU

Animated training for giving a speech http://www.curriculumbits.com/prodimages/details/english/eng0006.html

Powerpoint: If students choose to use a powerpoint as their means of sharing their learning, there are various considerations. If the powerpoint will be presented along with a speech, the latest guidelines for powerpoints are that they should contain little text and more pictures. (See Joyce Valenza's blog post http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/130020413.html) Powerpoints can be uploaded to Slideshare for other people to view. I think that if the powerpoint is a stand-alone vehicle for sharing, it does need more text on each page. Most students will use it in combination with a speech and then less text will be best.

Videos: Resources for those making videos http://www.thedirectorintheclassroom.com/resources.php

Posters: Ideas for creating poster displays (intended for older students) http://www.ce.umn.edu/~smith/supplements/poster/guide.htmMaking a display board for science fair http://www.super-science-fair-projects.com/elementary-science-fair-projects.html

Debates: Students may use a debate as a way of sharing their learning. (After my grade 6 students had researched and presented on alternative forms of energy, I had them face-off and debate on why their form was better than the other person's form. This type of debate can lead to higher levels of thinking.) Resources for debate: http://www.cybraryman.com/debate.html

I know this section has been long. My goal has been to include some of the resources I have discovered that can be used by teachers and students in creating some of the products that they will share.

For my Twitter workshop, I used a data projector and a handout for each student. I actually had one of my students who was new to Twitter demonstrate step-by-step how to open and use a Twitter account. Her actions were displayed on the screen and I talked about the process as we went along. My presentation was very hands-on and interactive since every student sent two tweets and followed other people and replied to a message. At the end, I talked about the value of Twitter.

The next section is about the When and Where of the sharing phase of inquiry learning. (Click here.)

Part 3, The Sharing Phase of Inquiry Learning: When & Where?

2009-11-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

When does the sharing phase of inquiry learning take place?

This is related to time. At what point during the inquiry learning process do students share about their learning. Obviously, most of the sharing will come at the end of the process as the student shares with an audience about their new knowledge. However, it would be valuable for students to share at various points throughout the process as well. (One teacher has set up a Google Docs survey form so that students can easily report about their learning as they go through the process.) We are not only trying to expand the funds of knowledge about the focus of the research. We are also seeking to expand the understanding of the process of research. Therefore it would be helpful to share in a metacognitive way with small groups of students.

Another aspect of sharing, that is related to time, is the idea that the products that students share will become increasingly more complex as the school years go by. In Focus on Inquiry (2004, p. 32-35), suggestions are given for the expectations for those new to inquiry all the way to those who are very experienced with inquiry. For the newcomers to inquiry, the teacher has more control and gives a lot of direction. However, as students learn the process, they have more and more choice with topics and ways to present them. The Galileo Learning Network provides this rubric with increasing complexity as students develop their inquiry skills. (http://galileo.org/research/publications/rubric.pdf)

For my Twitter workshop, I could not have given it until I knew a lot about how Twitter worked. I guess learning about Twitter was like an independent inquiry project for me. At one site about how to do inquiry learning, this question was asked: "When is it time to report? Since learners are dealing with self-directed questions that have highly personal value, they should report when they are satisfied with the answer." By that measure, I reached the point of being satisfied with the answer. (Maybe my question was: Does Twitter have value for me as a teacher?) Then it was time for me to share my learning with others.

Where does the sharing phase of inquiry learning take place?

If the sharing is taking place in a physical setting ( a classroom, an auditorium), logistics must be part of the consideration in planning the sharing. Teachers will usually be the ones to take care of this. I have set up many heritage fairs and science fairs in my classroom. I would need to set up for the traffic flow through the room. I also needed to prep the students to stand up to give their brief speech about their project since our room usually became very noisy during these fairs.

If the sharing is taking place online, then technology becomes part of the scenario. For example, when I watched some of the Skype session that the Grade 1 Moose Jaw teacher, Kathy Cassidy, shared with the teacher in the States, there was a lack of audio clarity. This is a technical issue.

When I shared my learning about Twitter with the students in my Twitter workshop, we were in a computer lab. This was an ideal setting since I wanted all of them to create Twitter accounts right away. Sometimes the venue for sharing will change from one presentation to the next. Students and teachers will need to be flexible about making each location work for them.

The next blog post deals with the Why and How of the sharing phase of the inquiry learning process. (Click here.)

Part 4, The Sharing Phase in Inquiry Learning - Why and How?

2009-11-04T21:21:00.001-08:00

Why is it important for students involved in an inquiry learning project to share their new understandings?

By this point in their inquiry learning process, students have become very knowledgeable about their topic. They may have created a research essay or a powerpoint presentation. However, as they grapple with the issues of how to share their new knowledge with an audience, it will consolidate the learning that they have done. Depending how they choose to share, they may receive feedback which will help them to improve their learning process or product. (For example, if they posted a powerpoint presentation on Slideshare, they could ask for people to make comments on the presentation. If they created a video and posted it to YouTube, people could make comments.) As students work on sharing about their topic, it moves them to begin the process of transfer of inquiry skills into other areas. In a science inquiry process using open inquiry, Knodt (2009) discovered that as students met regularly for inquiry projects, they began to transfer the language and habits of thinking into other subjects. They were able to reflect using metacognition.

Another reason for sharing the learning is in order to build the class into a community of learners. Kuhlthau (2007) suggests that as students collaborate and then listen to each other's presentations, rich funds of knowledge are created for that community.

As I shared my Twitter workshop, it helped me to understand my own practice of using Twitter. Things I had only understand intuitively, I was able to put into words. As well, my Twitter workshop helped to build my community of learners as I encouraged the class to begin to discover the value of Twitter.

How does the sharing phase of inquiry learning take place?

This aspect of the sharing is interconnected with many of the other question words. However, I am choosing to look at how the teacher supports the learning to share process. The teacher will be discovering along with the students (especially when it comes to using new technologies like Prezi or Voicethread). The teacher will need to scaffold learning and provide just the right amount of support. Part of this learning may be the provision of rubrics to help students see all the requirements for various ways of sharing learning. For those new to inquiry, the teacher may simply give them the rubrics. However, as students become more adept at inquiry, teacher and students together can create the rubrics. (Create Rubrics for Project Activities http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=NewRubric&section_id=2#02)

The teacher may also provide models for students to refer to in making their sharing creations. I mentioned earlier the posters that my students created to take to camp. I made a poster ahead of time to determine how much information and how many pictures could be included on a small poster. I showed the students the poster as a model. Part of the sharing (and later reflecting on the sharing) process is to reflect on the presentations that other students have made. I did this several times after Science Fairs or Heritage Fairs. After I had marked all the displays, I invited the class to come on a Gallery Walk with me. I took them to the top 3 or 4 displays. Then I asked them what they noticed. They shared their observations. Then I mentioned anything that they had not touched upon. When students returned to their own displays, I could hear them reflect on what they had done well and what they could do better.

Sometimes during the sharing phase of inquiry learning, teachers will need to encourage students to revisit some of the other phases. Inquiry learning is a recursive process. More information may need to be retrieved or a new product created especially if a new audience will be coming in. (During Science and Heritage Fairs, my students noticed that they needed to adjust their mini-speeches depending on the age group visiting their displays.)

For my Twitter workshop, I did look at information that other people had shared about teaching Twitter. I noticed that sometimes instructors of Twitter workshops would say, "Please welcome Ms. White to Twitter." When I would click on Ms. White, she would have no tweets. Even those students who had a tweet, had followed no one. So I learned from others and structured my Twitter workshop in order to address these concerns.

Visit blog post entry #5 for the discussion questions and reference list for this look at the Sharing phase of inquiry learning. (Click here.)

Part 5, The Sharing Phase of Inquiry Learning: Discussion Questions and Reference List

2009-11-04T20:53:00.001-08:00

Image by kern.justin via Flickr

Conclusion

Through this presentation, I have learned much more about the sharing phase of inquiry learning. I wanted to create a resource for myself and others to use when their students reach the Sharing phase. Only as the sponge is squeezed out (remember my image from the first blog post) can others benefit from the refreshment that comes from the sponge. Students who learn how to share their learning will be welcome anywhere. As well, as the sharing takes place, a community of learners is formed.

Throughout my search for information on sharing learning, I came across some amazing projects. I was really impressed with both of the following projects. Both involved authentic learning and both projects made a difference as they were shared within and beyond the immediate community of learners. I am using references to both of these projects to frame the questions for this Sharing Phase of Inquiry Learning.

According to Focus on Inquiry, authentic learning “involves going beyond active learning to challenge and solve complex problems and construct new meaning that is grounded in real-world experience. Students are challenged to create new knowledge, to answer a question, to develop a solution or to support a position or point of view based on real-world problems” (2004, p. 109)

The young people on this video were involved in real-life learning as they studied their run-down neighbourhood in Chicago. The YouMedia project at the Chicago Public Library gave these teens a place to hang out, mess around, and geek out. They joined inquiry projects and borrowed equipment from the library to capture and share their new knowledge.

Question 1: As you watch the video, what are the various ways in which their new learnings are shared? How do they show an awareness of their audience?

World Habitat Day Presentation from YOUmedia on Vimeo.

Question 2: A teacher at King Middle School in Portland, Maine which created the Fading Footprint video below (viewing optional) said that "Every kid has their own finish line" when it comes to inquiry learning. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? How would this concept impact on the sharing phase of guided inquiry?

Fading Footprint Video from King Middle School, Portland, Maine

(For more about this project, visit http://www.edutopia.org/king-middle-school-expeditionary-learning)

References:

Alberta Learning (2004). Focus on inquiry: A teacher’s guide to implementing inquiry-based learning. Edmonton, AB: Alberta Learning. Available at http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/k_12/curriculum/bySubject/focusoninquiry.pdf

Knodt, Jean. (Oct. 2009). Cultivating Curious Minds: Teaching for Innovation through Open-Inquiry Learning. In Teacher Librarian, Vol. 37, Iss. 1, pp. 15-21.

Kuhlthau, Carol, Maniotes, Leslie, & Caspari, Ann. (2007). Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century. London: Libraries Unlimited.

Two Children's Books by Canadian authors (with booktalk podcasts)

2009-10-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

For a class assignment I was asked to create podcasts with booktalks for two children's books. The books I chose were Melanie Bluelake's Dream by Betty Dorian (author from Saskatchewan, Canada) and A Coyote Solstice Tale by Thomas King (Canadian author).

Melanie Bluelake's Dream

Dorion, Betty. (1995). Melanie Bluelake's Dream. Regina, Saskatchewan: Coteau Books.

Novel, Ages 9 - 12

Awards, Honours, Prizes:
Saskatchewan, Canada Book Awards, 1995 Nominee Children's Literature Canada
Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award, 1998 ; Nominee; Manitoba, Canada
Silver Birch Award, 1997 ; Nominee; Fiction; Ontario, Canada

Melanie is a ten year old Aboriginal girl who moves from a reserve in northern Saskatchewan into the city of Prince Albert. She is unhappy that her mom forced her to leave her Kokum (grandmother) behind on the reserve. Melanie's mom is determined to finish her grade 12 and make a better life for herself and her daughter. The story is told from Melanie's point of view as she learns to adjust from the freedom of life on the reserve where she knew everyone to life in the city. The book presents a matter-of-fact picture of those living in poverty. In the midst of the hardship of life, there are glimpses of joy--when Melanie dresses up for Halloween, when Melanie makes new friends, and when Melanie makes peace with her mom.

The author of this book, Betty Dorion, has taught on reserves and in the city of Prince Albert. I appreciate the realism and understanding of the socio-economic setting that she brought to this story.

Other books by Betty Dorion:

Bay Girl (1998, Coteau Books)
Strike (2000, Coteau Books)
Whose Side Are You On? (2001, Coteau Books)

A Coyote Solstice Tale

King, Thomas. (2009). A Coyote Solstice Tale. (Illustrated by Gary Clement). Toronto: Groundwood Books.

Picture Book, ages 4 - 9

This is a Christmas tale with a twist. Coyote lives in a little house in the woods. He is preparing to welcome his animal friends for supper when a little girl dressed as a reindeer shows up. The animal friends retrace her footprints in the snow to discover that she escaped from the Christmas mayhem at the mall. Coyote jumps shopping cart first into the fun and loads up with presents for all--only to discover that the cashier wants him to pay for the gifts. Coyote discovers that goodwill and peace are free and he doesn't need or want those presents.

The story is told in rhyme and the illustrations are almost like cartoons. This book is one that children will enjoy reading and rereading to catch the details in the story and the pictures. This is an unusual Christmas book as it pokes gentle fun at materialism and extols the joys of simple things--friends, goodwill, and peace.

Thomas King is an author and a professor at Guelph University in Ontario. In the past he created a hilarious show for CBC Radio entitled "The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour".

Other Books for Children by Thomas King:

Coyote Sings to the Moon (2001, WestWind Press)
Coyote's New Suit (2004, Key Porter Books)
A Coyote Columbus Story (2007, Groundwood Books

Global Issues for Teachers

2009-10-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

This morning on Twitter, I read tweets from two teachers. In one tweet, a teacher near Boston, complained about lack of access to the computer and language labs for her class. She wondered what would happen when all teachers began to teach digitally.

Another teacher said that in her area of Nebraska there were no substitute teachers available so that, although she was sick and needed a sub, she was going to drown her illness in Motrin and head into the classroom.

A few weeks ago I spend five days assisting in school reviews for some schools in a nearby city. In both schools, teachers commented on the lack of substitute teachers within their school division. They have been given certain dates when there will be "no subs available". (These are days when many teachers are out of the classroom for Professional Development training.) Teachers were concerned about the last minute nature of illness. Sometimes you just need to stay home.

In one of the schools that I visited, they had recently lost their computer lab when the room was needed as a classroom. Now they have a class set of laptops that travel from room to room. It takes longer to set them up. Particularly for the younger grades, password access is an issue.

Here are two teacher issues that are global. A lack of substitute teachers can impact both a teacher's health and the health within a school. Lack of access to technology will affect how students learn or don't learn to use technology in education.

Are there any other global teacher issues that you see as you learn from your international contacts?

Ruth's Random Resource Round-up October 18, 2009

2009-10-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

Enjoy these resources that I have collected over the past month.

Cut out the pieces of YouTube videos that you want to use. Tube Chop http://www.tubechop.com/

Bloom's Taxonomy : A visual that includes technology http://visualbloo ms.wikispaces.com/

Class Discussion Guidelines (Excellent graphic, visual handout that you could discuss with students) http://www.scribd.com/doc/43124 57/Class-Discussion-Guidelines

Parent wiki created by Cindy Seibel http://parent20.wikispaces.com/

Good blog post about how to use class blogs with students http://ideasandthoughts.org/2008/07/17/student-and-teacher-blogging-that-succeeds/

Great Quotes about Learning and Change http://www.flickr.com/groups/858082@N25/

Embed the Twitter stream directly into your presentations http://www.sapweb20.com/blog/powerpoint-twitter-tools/

Graphic organizers http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/

Listen to Yann Martel (Canadian author of The Life of Pi) talk about writing the poem for the One Drop foundation and read the poem http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/Blogs/Girls-Getaway/Yann-Martel-s-poem-for-Water

Surfing the Wild Ride in Elluminate Sessions #eci831

2009-09-26T05:41:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday evening I participated in Dr. Alec Couros' virtual classroom. Dr. Couros is a professor at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada. He has 20 for-credit students and around 200 not-for-credit students in this graduate level class titled: Social Media & Open Education. (#eci831) (To learn more, read my blog post at http://rielliott.blogspot.com/2009/08/open-education-how-does-that-work.html .) I am delighted to be one of the 200 from around the world who are benefiting from this class. Alec is bringing in some ex

Image by millzero.com via Flickr

cellent speakers (via live video, of course). Students are writing blog posts about the class. (Learn more at Class information, http://eci831.wikispaces.com/NonRegistered) It's not too late to join.

I have participated in two Elluminate sessions in this class. (Elluminate: http://www.elluminate.com/) Prior to these two sessions, I have been part of three earlier Elluminate sessions. When you truly participate and engage in those Elluminate sessions, they can be a really wild ride. It's like trying to surf (when you don't know how). The waves just keep on coming. Sometimes you jump on your board and try to ride the wave (this is when you're typing your chat so fast that you feel as though your fingers could fall off). Sometimes you lay on your stomach and just hang on to the board (this is when you simply lurk and listen, trying to take it all in. You may mutter a little or do some heavy sighing but only in the privacy of your own home). Other times you fall off and get eaten by a shark (this is when you get so sidetracked by your private thoughts or by a side conversation with someone that you stop listening to the main conversation).

Image by therealglen via Flickr

Let me share with you some of my experiences from the 5 Elluminate sessions that I have been part of. In the first session (with Edmonton social media guru Mack Male [Twitter handle @mastermaq]), I participated with my classmates and professor in an online class from the University of Alberta. There were around 16 participants that evening. I knew most of them from our discussions in the online class. Mack shared with screen casts and slides to illustrate his talk about social media. The backchannel chat was going fast and furious. However, since there were only 16 of us, it was manageable. Mack picked up on most of the questions that we asked. I do remember that at one point I asked a question. It got lost in the shuffle. Much later on, one of my online classmates asked (in the chat) whether my question had been answered. At that point the question was answered. That evening, each participant went away feeling exhilarated. There was no moderator of our discussion but we watched out for each other. There were only 16 of us in the session.

The next session that I was part of was a session with George Siemens and Dave Cormier. It was held just before the Open Education Conference in Vancouver. I know the hashtag was #smti but have forgotten what that stands for. I was totally overwhelmed during that session. I rarely participated in the backchannel chat. I did not know anyone else who was participating. The ideas were new to me. I was struggling to understand the concepts and I had nobody to talk to. Since it was a conversation between George Siemens and Dave Cormier, they had some "private jokes". Maybe everyone else listening was privy to the jokes but I wasn't. At one point, Dave or George referred to Web 2.0 in a derogatory manner (Something about Reilly and picking up on a name one of them had created.) Since I had just completed a Web 2.0 tool class, my ears perked up. Here were two social media big-wigs decrying the use of the term Web 2.0. Why? So I asked, "What's the joke?" because they were chuckling over this concept. Dave Cormier replied (in the chat), "what joke?". I tried to explain but never did get a reply. I went away from that Elluminate session feeling excited with the ideas but disappointed because I never did receive an answer for my question. I still haven't received an answer so if any of you know the answer, please let me know.

The third Elluminate session for me was in another online class from the University of Alberta. The professor was introducing some of the tools for the class. It was similar to a face-to-face lecture class. There were fewer than 10 people in the session. It was informative but not exhilarating.

The 4th Elluminate session that I participated in took place on September 15th--the first session of #eci831 that was open to non-registered students. Alec Couros introduced many of the tools that we would use during the class (Google Reader, Tweetdeck). Alec did present lots of ways of using the tools that were new to me. However, since I knew about much of what he was talking about, I could follow along. I even stood up and surfed the waves on my boogie board. I made comments, asked and answered questions. I heard many people's confusion as they plaintively bleated, "What's ____________________?" I tried to hear those cries and answer them if I knew the answer.

(Just a little aside here: I am taking another online class in Inquiry Learning. In this type of learning, students need a little background in a subject before they can begin to choose their own avenues of questioning and learning. During the provision of background, there can be a lot of discomfort because it is all new to the students. I could see this type of discouragement and frustration exhibited by some of the other students in #eci831. According to inquiry learning theory, these feelings are totally normal when faced with radically new concepts.)

Now on to my 5th experience with an Elluminate session: That would have been last Tuesday evening (Sept. 22). Fortunately I had read Dr. Richard Schwier's paper ahead of time. I had some ideas about where his presentation was going that evening. This helped me to cope with the three things that competed for my attention: Dr. Schwier's mini video, the slides of the presentation, and the backchannel chatroom. Once again that evening, there were approximately 80 people in attendance at the class. I assume that the 20 registered students were present. This means that they were competing for time and attention with the 60 non-registered students.

(Another aside here: This past week Shel Israel, author of Twitterville, was participating in a visit with a class somewhere. He publicized this visit on Twitter and invited people to attend via Twitter. I was following the chat (using the hashtag Shel provided). Shel's intention was that he would tweet with the students in the class while the other visitors would simply lurk and listen. Instead, the visitors began to overwhelm the discussion because they kept piping up with new questions or comments. Shel had to tell them, "This discussion is only for people in the class.")

That evening I really empathized with those people who are taking this class for credit. I think that their questions were getting lost in the hurly-burly of the crowd of others talking over each other. I think that some of them were feeling overwhelmed by the three streams of inpu

Image by soylentgreen23 via Flickr

t hurtling their way (video, screencast, backchannel chat). They want to participate in the conversation.

(Another thought I had at the time has to do with the "banking model" of school. This is really completely unrelated to the logistics of an Elluminate session. I heard one student say that she wanted to hear the professor's voice. She may have joined this class because of Dr. Alec Couros. She wanted to learn from him. Now there's all these other people taking up Dr. Couros' air space. What is going on?!? Last year I had a similar thought in my first graduate level class. The professor of the class (the person with the PhD) kept asking the students to share about their lives as teachers and their thoughts and opinions on the ideas in the class. I kept waiting for the prof to speak up and tell us what we should be thinking about those ideas. This was the model from my under-graduate education. I felt ripped off because I was paying for the class, to hear this PhD person talk, and instead I was listening to my peers. Eventually I came to see that my professor was a constructivist who was encouraging us to meld our experience with our new learnings to build our own knowledge and concepts. She knew that each of us came in with our own funds of knowledge. We were not empty banks waiting for her to fill us. In the same way in this #eci831 class, we each come with our own understandings and diverse backgrounds. We each need to take new concepts and meld them with what we already know. It's not Alec Couros' voice we need to hear more of but that inner voice within us that says "Wow, I love that concept. It really fits with me. " or "What in the world? I don't get it. I always thought that ..." In this way, I grapple with the ideas and confiscate a few for my own.)

So how can #eci831 become more manageable for those of us participating in it?

1) Discussion moderator: I think it might be good to have someone to moderate the discussion, to pick up on those important questions or address people's confusion.

2) Some form of I.D. for registered students: I don't want to be like those outsiders who horned in on Shel Israel's discussions with a class. I know that I am an invited guest but I believe that the registered students need to have a voice. They are the minority group in this situation. Could they have a different colour of font or could they put an asterisk before their class name? I don't want their questions and opinions to be lost in the press of the crowd.

I thank Alec Couros and his registered students for allowing the rest of us the privilege of being part of this class. I am enjoying it immensely. Whether I'm standing up surfing the wave, just hanging on to the board and trying to survive, or even being eaten by a shark, I feel really alive (dendrites growing and zinging in my brain) every Tuesday night.

P.S. I came across this blog post about a teacher's use of Elluminate in an elementary school setting. She used it to teach students about the instruments of the symphony. http://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blogs/using-elluminate-in-the

Building a Network with Twitter (#eci831)

2009-09-22T06:35:00.001-07:00

I have been part of Twitter since early in July of this year. I have gradually built a network, one person at a time. On August 6, I wrote a blog post titled "31 Tweets, 6 Followers, Following 24" (http://rielliott.blogspot.com/2009/08/31-tweets-6-followers-following-24.html). If I were to write about the state of my Twitterverse today, the title would be "369 Tweets, 115 Followers, Following 194". In the past six weeks, I have been working on building a Professional Learning Network (PLN) as well as a local community network (for the cit

Image via Wikipedia

y of #Saskatoon, #yxe). Many of the people I follow on Twitter have an either/or network. Is it possible for me to effectively build a network that includes both types of followers?

I remember in August when I followed Alec Couros (courosa on Twitter), I sent him a message asking him for Saskatchewan people to follow. He gave me two names. This is an influential Open Education guru living in Regina, Saskatchewan and teaching at the University of Regina. As of today, Alec has more than 5000 people (the size of a small Saskatchewan city) following him on Twitter. Alec has been so generous with the Twitter community that he has a Professional Learning Network that spans the globe. (I know I'm simplifying the picture somewhat. Alec is also offering an Open Education class, #eci831, which has given many , including myself, the opportunity to hear his voice.) Alec has a Twitter community from around the world. His PLN is enormous.

Here's my point: If I engage with other educators and share resources and ideas on Twitter, what will my local Saskatoon followers think? If I tweet about #CupcakeCornerSk that just opened in Saskatoon, will the members of my Professional Learning Network decide to "unfollow" me because these

Image by CanadaGood via Flickr

tweets are not of interest to them?

My question for other people in Alec Couros' class (and for any of the others who read my blog): How have you been able to build both a local and a professional Twitter community? Is it best to select one or the other as the priority? Is it possible to have my cake and eat it too?

Ruth's Random Resource Round-up Sept. 17, 2009

2009-09-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

Once a week I gather together resources (mainly for teachers although some will interest others as well) and post them in my blog. Make sure to check out the bacon flowchart. Enjoy the links I have saved in the last week.

Spreadsheet of every TED (Technology, Entertainment & Design Conference) Talk (most around 15 minutes long) http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pjGlYH-8AK8ffDa6o2bYlXg&gid=0

Image by Lilly via Flickr

Live-streaming video from the Trafalgar Square fourth plinth (London) 24/7 entertainment one person and one hour at a time http://www.oneandother.co.uk/

Video about how to use Tweet Deck to organize the tweet input http://ed ucat ionaltechnology.ca/couros/1683

Bloom's Taxonomy updated to include digital learning http://techlearning.com/article/8670

Back to School Web Tools for Students (looks best for college students or older high school) http://mashable.com/2009/09/03/web-apps-students/

A wetpaint wiki about Twitter for Teachers (a work in progress) http://twitterforteachers.wetpaint.com/

Set up your own chat room at Tiny Chat http://tinychat.com/

Teacher teaches other teachers about blogging http://magistram.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/blogging-101-some-tips-for-new-teachers/

Flowchart to help you with computer expertise http://images.plurk.com /145310_da0fd959b0a1759151ce216c0be4fa49.jpg

Bacon Flowchart to help you decide whether you want bacon http://www.flickr.com/ph

Image via Wikipedia

otos/fncll/2129889439/

Search for a free E-book on any topic http://www.freebook-s.com/

Blog post which explains Wall Wisher (cool way for students to post interesting tidbits of research information) http://olliebray.typepad.com/olliebraycom/2009/09/wall-wisher-as-a-home-learning-activity.html

GarageBand (only available for Macs, I think) http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/

What is Garage Band?

Garage Band is a powerful and user-friendly software program that allows you to create soundtracks, accompaniments, podcasts, and much more. Using Garage Band you can:

Create musical projects (even if you don’t play an instrument),
Involve and inspire your students creativity,
Create podcasts,
Add effects,
How to export and share your projects

Newspaper Rant

2009-09-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

What's black and white and read all over? If some people have their way, it won't be the newspaper. Why? Tell me, why? Just because I love my Twitter and the blog posts that come to my Google Reader, does this mean I should ditch (or diss) my newspaper?

So many people I meet online see everything in black and white (yes that's another newspaper joke). They love their breaking news (and yes, I found it rather shocking that after hearing about Ted Kennedy's passing on Twitter, I didn't read about it in the paper for 1 1/2 days) a

Image by tcp909 via Flickr

nd their tidbits of juicy information (Kanye West anyone?). But why does it have to be either social media or the newspaper? Can't we have both?

Here's a few reasons I will continue to read my local newspaper--the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix--each day.

1) I believe in buying locally. I want to keep my city vibrant and growing. I believe that supporting my local newspaper is part of my plan to consume locally. I like the local coverage in my newspaper. It also covers national and international stories that I can find elsewhere. I think that local newspapers need to go even more in-depth with those local stories in order to attract readers.

2) I am a tactile person. I like the feel of the newspaper. I also like the idea that my newspaper boy (or girl) has trekked around the neighbourhood early in the morning (making some ca$h) to deliver my paper. My husband sits and reads the paper along with his breakfast cereal. I read it later and do the Suduko (in pen, I'm proud to say. If I mess up, I

Image via Wikipedia

give up for that day). A little later my son (17 years old) reads the paper from front to back. I even like the feel of the papers as I recycle them using Saskatoon's Curbside Recycling service.

3) Currently I have three main sources for news in my life:

1. I use Twitter for the latest stories. However, how much detail can be given in 140 characters? I do click on links sometimes to read more. Twitter is like the headlines or the captions for the news.

2. I read the local newspaper six days each week. This gives me more detail on the news I have seen in short form on Twitter. I follow local stories this way.

Image via Wikipedia

3. I read the Maclean's magazine (similar to Times or Newsweek for those in the United States). This weekly magazine provides more in-depth commentary and information on some of the national and international stories in the world. For example, it just had a cover story on the Kennedy family.

Bottom line for me is that I love my newspaper. Please, don't let it die. Tell your local newspaper folk how they can better meet your needs and serve you. Help them to find their niche in this evolving world of instant, viral news stories.

Ruth's Random Resource Round-up Sept 10/09

2009-09-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

More resources for teachers. Also see my blog post from Sept 1 with additional resources at http://rielliott.blogspot.com/2009/08/ruths-random-resource-round-up-sept-109.html

E-Learning for Kids. Find activities in Math, Science, etc. http://ow.ly/nu1v

Slideshare presentation with many ideas for using technology with younger children http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ddf8kn4m_225dqg9bxfd

YouTube blocked at school. Save up to 100 videos for free at this site. http://embedr.com/

How to Find the name of that song. http://mashable.com/2009/08/30/find-that-song-name/

Image via Wikipedia

Larry Ferlazzo's blog post with many URL's for collections of Web 2.0 tools http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/03/17/the-best-collections-of-web-20-tools-for-education/

Blogging guidelines for students--developed by and for elementary students http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2009/09/06/student-blogging-guidelines/

Easy way to manage a class website - everything on one site http://www.sfclassroom.com/

Microsoft Education Labs http://ow.ly/ogMH

Don't understand how Twitter works or why to use it. Read this blog post. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=407984&c=2

Many reasons for using Twitter http://www.diigo.com/list/kwhstechtips/twitter

Advice for teachers new to Twitter http://edtechpower.blogspot.com/2009/02/advice-for-teachers-new-to-twitter.html

Back to School Musings

2009-09-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

Over the long weekend, we took our daughter to Calgary to begin her new adventure of attending Ambrose University College there. She will be living in the dorm and eating her meals in the cafeteria. During the first day (Friday) she was there, our moving in process was constantly interrupted by other students coming to introduce themselves. It is a very friendly place.

We continued to assist with setting up our daughter's room on the next day (Saturday). That morning I thought back to some parents' stories of the first day of kindergarten. As soon as their five year old sees all the toys, activity areas, and other students, they say, "Bye, Mom" and they are gone without a backward glance. It is the mom who is left in tears a

Image by woodleywonderworks via Flickr

s her five year old rushes off into the big wide world without her.

This is the way I felt on that second day of helping my daughter set up her room. She was just itching for us to leave so she could jump, feet first, into all that life on campus had to offer. I know this is exactly as it should be. However, being the mom that I am, I also feel sad and nostalgic because my little girl is all grown-up.

Be a Virtual Attendee at ALT-C 2009 (#altc2009)

2009-09-04T05:26:00.000-07:00

I received an email from Seb Schmoller inviting me to participate in the Association for Learning Technologies 2009
conference next week. All sessions will be available in Live Streaming video and sessions will be recorded for later
viewing. If you missed the Open Education Conference in Vancouver, now is your opportunity to be a virtual attendee
at a conference. Sept. 8 - 10 in Manchester, U.K. (hashtag #altc2009)

Seb invited me to pass along this email, so here it is.

September 4, 2009 5:28:52 AM

Seb Schmoller 8-10 September - Martin Bean, Michael Wesch, Terry Anderson, and ALT-C 2009 invited speakers - sessions
available over the Web‏

Colleagues,

Feel free to forward this note as you see fit.

We will be making all keynote and most if not all invited speaker sessions from next week's ALT Conference available
over the Web in real time, and as archived files, from http://elluminate.alt.ac.uk/.

Those participating remotely in the keynote sessions will be able to submit questions online.

The keynote speaker schedule is:

* Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, Tuesday 8 September,
09.25 to 10.25 UK time;

* Martin Bean, Vice-Chancellor Designate of the Open University,Wednesday 9 September, 11.55 to 12.55;

* Terry Anderson, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Distance Education at Athabasca University, Canada
- Canada's Open University, Thursday 10 September, 11.55 to 12.55.

For the timings and details of the invited speaker sessions consult go to the schedule at
http://altc2009.alt.ac.uk/talk/by_track/493.

If you intend to joining us, do not leave setting up your system until the last minute, and consult Elluminate
Help - http://elluminate.alt.ac.uk/help/public_help.help - if you need it.

For a URL version of this email go to http://tinyurl.com/mk7ceg

Regards,

Seb Schmoller

Chief Executive
Association for Learning Technology (ALT)
--
email: seb.schmoller@alt.ac.uk
--
Gipsy Lane, Headington, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK
Registered Charity Number 1063519
http://www.alt.ac.uk/
ALT Conference, 8-10 September 2009, http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/

Twitter Poetry on the Plinth #oneandother

2009-09-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

This summer in Trafalgar Square in London, England, people (one at a time) have been occupying the empty fourth plinth in the Square. The project, created by artist, Antony Gormley, is called One and Other (Twitter hashtag #oneandother). You can watch live-streaming video of the 24/7 activities at http://www.oneandother.co.uk/. This morning I watched a woman throw candies (she called them sweets) from her perch high above the crowd. Following her one hour, the next plinther gave salsa lessons (I was surprised he had no music).
Holly writes about her graveyard shift as a volunteer at the plinth (http://www.oneandother.co.uk/blog/2009/08/the-graveyard-shift.html)
An American professor spent an hour on the plinth. She invited people to help her create a digital poem (using Twitter). She explains the process in this video.

Juggling for Nelson video.

Image by the_junes via Flickr

What an terrific project. It makes me wonder what we could do in my city of Saskatoon with creative vision and repurposing of our landscape. How many years has that empty plinth been sitting in Trafalgar Square? (not sure--maybe 200 years) This summer and fall it will be populated with 2400 individuals, 24/7 for 100 days. Amazing!

Why I like Twitter

2009-08-31T07:15:00.000-07:00

Two months ago I joined Twitter. My first post was inane--Something like: I'm trying to learn

Image by CanadaGood via Flickr

how to use Twitter. I've learned a lot since then. What have I learned and why do I like Twitter?

1. Pass it forward:

I like Twitter because it gives me a super easy way to share resources and ideas. I subscribe to many blogs with Google Reader and come across great ideas and writing all the time. I also follow suggested links in other people's tweets and this leads me to great resources. For example, recently I came across Kathy Cassidy (@kathycassidy on Twitter), a grade one teacher from Moose Jaw. Since she gave her website address as part of her Twitter profile (I like it when people do this), I went to her website. (http://classblogmeister.com /blog.php?blogger_id=1337,%20http://primarypreoccupation.wordpress.com/) This amazing Grade One teacher is having her students blog. Last week on Twitter, she asked for people available to talk to her class on Skype about what they learned in Grade One. She has posted one of those talks on her website. Last year her students recorded their reading using Vocarro. Then other people could comment (parents, aunts, grandpas, etc.) about the reading.

So you get the picture. I come across great resources all the time via Twitter and Google Reader. What is the simplest way to share those resources? It is via Twitter. If someone is on Twitter, I can simply put @ in front of their user name and post the link with a short description of the resource. I admit it is easiest if that person is following me because I could even send the resource via a direct message. I am hoping that most people on Twitter are like me and that they check their Twitter mentions using Search with @ and their user name. Thus if (like Margaret Atwood) you are receiving lots of messages from those people you don't follow, you can still receive those messages.)

Yesterday at church, I spoke with a friend who teaches kindergarten. I told her that I've been coming across lots of kindergarten resources. I asked her to please sign up for Twitter so I have an easy way to pass those resources forward to her. I'm hoping she will do it. (Hi, K. J.)

2. Building a network

I like the people I have found and that I follow on Twitter. They introduce a different world of ideas and link to other people.

Recently during my morning walk, it started raining. I noticed that the raindrops, falling in a puddle, sent little circles outwards from the point of impact. Sometimes the little circles m

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

et and overlapped. Sometimes they did not. I think it is like this with building networks in the digital world. There are so many networks happening as each person discovers those people with similar interests to themselves. Since each of us is unique, each of our networks will be unique.

This morning I came across someone new to blogging who is also on Twitter. His name is Ken Wilson (blog site: http://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.com/ and Twitter: @kenwilsonlondon). He is big in English as a Second Language or Foreign Language circles. I had never heard of him before. When I started reading his blog posts, I was intrigued because I used to teach English as a Second Language when I lived in Hong Kong. So I decided to add Ken to my network of people I listen to on Google Reader and on Twitter.

I'm sure that if someone was interested in crocheting, Nascar racing, and geocaching, they could build a network with nodes which would represent each of these disparate interests.

I am trying to build a network of Twitter people (T-buds) from Saskatoon. With Saskatoon people, I am less demanding regarding who I will follow. Many Saskatoon people tweet about their plans for the evening and not about ideas. They don't often pass along resources. However, I believe there is power in establishing a local network (as Mack Male has done in Edmonton) and so I continue to work on finding and following people who live in Saskatoon.

I am also working on building a network of those who are into social media and using it with students (blogs, Twitter, Animoto, VoiceThread, podcasts, wikis, etc.). I also like to follow people with great ideas who inspire me (danah boyd, Seth Godin, Zen Habits).

One suggestion for you if you want to build your networks on Twitter: Find someone that you really admire and then click on the list of who they are following to find others who are influencing the person you are following. Read the tweets of those people and then you could follow them.

3. Searching on Twitter

I like Twitter for the search capacity it offers. I started to realize the power of search and the use of hashtags (when people establish a common way of referring to an idea or place in Twitter e.g. #yxe for Edmonton) during the Open Education Conference in Vancouver earlier in August (#opened09). Since all sessions in this conference were available in live-streaming video, people from around the world were virtual attendees of this conference. As I searched Twitter using the hashtag #opened09, I could see what others around the world (and even those present in the room with the speaker) were saying about the presentation. It was an amazing experience. I realized later that I was a "vicarious attendee" of the conference because I experienced so much of it through the tweets of those who were attending in a face to face manner.

Image via Wikipedia

I regularly search for tweets with "Saskatoon" in them in order to find people living here. Some of the searches that I use often, I have saved so that I can easily do them repeatedly.

Conclusion

The above are just three of the reasons why I like Twitter. I like to share resources, build a network, and search for ideas and conferences.

One thing I need to figure out though is how to use Tweetdeck or some kind of tweet aggregator. So far, I have been following Twitter by simply reading back through all the tweets that were posted since I last logged on to the computer. This has been fine while I have ha

Image by bwana via Flickr

d a little more time this summer. However, my busy fall schedule is kicking in. I don't want to miss important conversations and resources that are shared on Twitter.

I want to teach other people in my world how to use Twitter. I will be talking with those in the school board office, at my local school, at the university, and at the public library about teaching some classes on Twitter. However, I need to master the use of a tweet aggregator before I can teach others.

If any of my readers have other suggestions for ways to use Twitter or why they like Twitter, please comment below.

Making memories

2009-08-30T07:44:00.001-07:00

When our three children were young, we had little money (husband full-time student, I was stay-at-home mom). My husband decided to take the kids to every play park in the city of Saskatoon. They played at every one and rated each one (my husband is an engineer. What can I say) I think it took them two summers to finish them all. Crazy. Fun.

Image by striatic via Flickr

Now my children are almost grown-up. But yesterday I spent hours shopping with my daughter who is heading off to college this week. We kept losing each other at the Farmers' Market. Ate some very sticky but delicious cinnamon buns from the Market. We stopped at a second-hand clothing store because she's into recycling. Then we trekked on to the downtown mall (we parked blocks away because I hate to pay for parking). At the mall, we kept buying stuff--big stuff like comforters, duvets, pillows. Eventually we had to head back to our car. We looked like bag ladies (no shopping cart though). We kept laughing about needing sherpas to help us carry everything.

The crazy park thing my husband did when the kids were young created amazing memories for them. I know that yesterday my daughter and I, bag ladies needing sherpas, created some more memories--links in

Image by guy.p via Flickr

that chain that binds us together as family.

(Thanks to Chris Brogan [http://dadomatic.com/the-simplest-of-pleasures/] and Steve Bell [http://stevebell.com/2009/08/saying-bye-to-jess/] who inspired me to write this post because of their reflections on their children and all the joy.)

Digital Nomadic Student feeling Lonely

2009-08-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

A month ago I read an article in the newspaper about Digital Nomadic Office workers (Rosenwald, 2009). These lucky people work wherever they like, as long as they have an internet connection. They rarely need to go to the real office but can stay home and work in their pyjamas, sit by a hotel pool somewhere, or hang out at the mall (in those comfy chairs that some malls have). The downside of all this lovely freedom is loneliness. Some of those digital nomads are gregarious individuals who like the water cooler visiting that takes place in a real office. Therefore, a few of these digital nomads invented something called a jelly (named this beca

gallo..." style="border: medium none ; display: block;" width="239" height="640">Image via Wikipedia

use of the bowl of jelly beans they were eating at the time) in which digital nomads get together to have company while they work on their individual projects. They will meet in private homes, in libraries, or in coffee shops. (See my blog post for more info: http://rielliott.blogspot.com/2009/08/digital-nomads-feeling-lonely.html)

At the time that I read this article, I did not realize that this year (from September 2009 to June 2010) I would be a digital nomadic student. I have an education leave this year so I am not teaching in an elementary classroom as I have for the previous ten years.

The university that I attend for my Masters of Curriculum of Studies in Education is the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. However, I am actually enrolled in two online classes from the University of Alberta for the fall semester. In January I will be working on my thesis so won't have any on-campus classes. I don't even need to go to the University. However, I like being at the University. I love working in the library there or in the computer lab. I enjoy the conversations with other people (although if I have no classmates, who will those other people be?). I have booked a study carrel space that I will share with many other graduate students. I'm just not sure what my days and studying will look like.

I know that I will need some structure in my days. I plan to go to the university three days each week. I will be working with a prof as a research assistant. Yet I do feel lonely already. I wish I could find a nomadic student jelly or create one with other online students who are physically attached to the University of Saskatchewan and yet are digitally in classes with other universities.

Perhaps, once the school year begins, I will put an ad in the student newspaper or put something on the bulletin board in the education building.

I'm feeling displaced--a student without a classroom (and a teacher with no students[but that's a whole different trauma]). I am grateful for this year to study and learn but the amorphous shape of my days and my year is making me feel discombobulated. (Note: "amorphous" -

Lacking definite form; shapeless. See synonyms at shapeless.
Image via Wikipedia
Of no particular type; anomalous.
Lacking organization; formless.
Lacking distinct crystalline structure.)

I encourage myself with the thought that a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Maybe I'll find me some jelly beans along the way.

References:
Rosenwald, M. (2 August 2009). Digital nomads ditch their cubicles. In the Calgary Herald. p. D9.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]">

The Future of Books? Vinge or Kelly's Vision

2009-08-26T15:59:00.000-07:00

I don't usually read Science Fiction books (in fact--never). Someone recommended Vernor Vinge's book "Rainbows End" as a novel that looks at where technology will take us in the future. So I read it (just finished today). It is set in 2025. Since I have been immersed in a Web 2.0 world for almost eight weeks now, I can visualize what this book is talking about. There are people clinging to their laptops and others using a single sheet of paper which becomes a technology interface for them (somewhat like a recent innovation of a table top becoming a touch screen for computer use). Some people wear their technology in their clothing. However, the most advanced users can simply see and hear the technology with no wires or gadgets.

Image via Wikipedia

So what does this have to do with books? Part of the story in the book is the conflict between those wanting to digitize the books in a University library and those wanting to preserve the actual books on the shelf. The way of digitizing the books is to throw the books in a wood chipper machine and digitize all the bits of information as the bits of pages swirl by. This destroys the physical entity of the book but preserves it as a digital entity.

Earlier in the summer, I participated in a discussion about reading online. I came across some interesting writing by Kevin Kelly.

Kelly (2006) wrote about the process of scanning of books. "In the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford University (one of the five libraries collaborating with Google) is scanning its eight-million-book collection using a state-of-the art robot from the Swiss company 4DigitalBooks. This machine, the size of a small S.U.V., automatically turns the pages of each book as it scans it, at the rate of 1,000 pages per hour. A human operator places a book in a flat carriage, and then pneumatic robot fingers flip the pages — delicately enough to handle rare volumes — under the scanning eyes of digital cameras."

Kelly (2006) says that the books that are scanned can then be accessed digitally. Unfortunately there will be items missing from the grand library of scanned writing-- "The grand library naturally needs a copy of the billions of dead Web pages no longer online and the tens of

Image by heather via Flickr

millions of blog posts now gone — the ephemeral literature of our time."

Kelly (2006) has a vision for this digitized and connected library "When that happens, the library of all libraries will ride in your purse or wallet — if it doesn't plug directly into your brain with thin white cords. Some people alive today are surely hoping that they die before such things happen, and others, mostly the young, want to know what's taking so long. (Could we get it up and running by next week? They have a history project due.)" Kelly talks about the option in the future to create one's own virtual bookshelf filled with a phrase from this book, a chapter from that--somewhat like a playlist on an I-Pod.

Kevin's picture of the future of "book learning" and Vernor Vinge's image have many similarities. In Kevin's picture, there are still thin white cords while in Vernor's image, there are no white cords. In both images, the digitized bits of information are accessible to the whole world.

I like the idea of information being accessible to the entire world. However, I do not want to see actual physical books disappear or be destroyed in the process of digitizing them. There will always be room for more books in my study carrel or on the floor beside my bed. I love books. I also love reading online. However, when I head to bed and read before I sleep, I want to hold an actual book or magazine in my hand. Somehow it wouldn't be quite the same to hold my laptop.

Image via Wikipedia

What do you think of the future of books?

References:

Kelly, K. (2000). Will we still turn pages? In Time Magazine. Online at http://www.kk.org/writings/time_turn_pages.php (June 17, 2000)

Kelly, K. (2006). Scan this book. In the New York Times magazine. Online at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/magazine/14publishing.html?_r=1

How I Use Google Docs

2009-08-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Recently one of the computers in my house died. The motherboard is toast and needs to be replaced. Hopefully, everything on the hard drive will still be accessible once some parts of this computer have been rejuvenated. What if I had been in the midst of a huge assignment with everything stored on that computer? I would have been toast just like the computer is now.

Have you ever had the experience of working on a document on one computer and then needing to move that document to your home computer? I have had to email the document to myself as an attachment or save it on a memory stick.

This summer, I took an online class about Web 2.0 tools. Part-way through the class, I went on holidays. I took our laptop with me and simply continued to work on the class while on holidays. One reason that I could do this was because of something called Google Docs (Documents). Here is a video to introduce you to Google Docs.

Google Docs stores your documents online so that you can access them from any computer that has an internet connection. You can

Image via CrunchBase

keep the documents private so that you are the only one to view them. You can share the documents with a few others or with the entire world. As well, you can create a web page from a Google document (as I did with this survey of the type of tweets people use on Twitter: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfzz97d8_28gmfkm45f)

Every day when I first log on to my computer, I go to Google Docs right away. I click on a page that I have created called Web 2.0 tools. I keep this document open in my tabs all day. I have all the sites that I visit regularly: my blog, Twitter account, email account, Google Reader, Flickr, etc. With one click, I am at the site. I don't have to sort through bookmarks, I just use this one page document.

I also use Google Docs when I am keeping notes for creating a blog post or writing a class assignment.

Two negatives I have found with using Google Docs are:

1. It doesn't work quite the same as Microsoft Word, the word processing program that I am most familiar with. It is more difficult to create tables with adjustable column and row size. It is more difficult to create links to websites or URLs. It's not impossible, just more difficult.

2. If the site for Google Docs ever crashed, I would be in trouble. It hasn't happened yet for me. It would be a good idea for me to follow Harold Jarche's suggestions for protecting the data that I store online (See his blog post here: http://www.jarche.com/2009/08/wheres-your-data/) I could save all my Google Documents as Word documents on my computer's hard drive.

I encourage you to try out Google Docs. Let me know what you think.

Ruth's Random Resource Round-up Sept 1/09

2009-08-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

I have been gathering interesting resources for teachers (although everyone would enjoy creating monsters which will dance [see below]). I decided it is time to post this. The ones with two stars (**) are the absolute best. Check them out. I found all of these resources using Twitter (great way to share resources) and Google Reader (which collects new posts from people's blogs). (A round-up for those who don't live in ranching/cattle country is when cowboys and girls gather the cattle together.That's why I have included a cowboy picture.)

**A few days ago I came across a Grade One Teacher's work in blogging with Grade One students. That is only one aspect of all that she does. Kathy Cassidy teaches in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337

Kathy Cassidy (teacher above from Moose Jaw) uses Vocaroo to record student voices. This looks much easier than using Audacity and then having to upload files to the internet. I did not try it myself. http://www.vocaroo.com/

**Students can use the mouse to draw strange monsters which will dance. Try it. It's fun. Good way to practice mouse skills. http://roxik.com/pictaps/index.html

A teacher of Grade 1, 2, 3 using blogging. http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=188510

Google Sketch-up Projects for K-12. Sketch-up download free. http://www.3dvinci.net/teacherguide/Teacher_Guide.htm

Using Animoto to create a poem. http://langwitches.org/blog/2009/08/22/telling-a-story-creating-poems-with-animoto/

Teaching about online safety. http://langwitches.org/blog/2008/12/25/blogging-lesson-plan-online-safety/

Using Google Docs with students. http://marynabadenhorst.globalteacher.org.au/google-docs-in-class/

Voice Thread resources from the New York Public Library for elementary students (also for other students but I only included elementary). http://nypl.voicethread.com/share/582887/

**Natural Disasters for Grade 9 students (amazing). So many ways to use technology and put students to work--learning and having fun. http://burbankarw.edublogs.org/

Create a font from your own handwriting. http://www.fontcapture.com/

Comparison of wikis, Google docs and Blogs. When to use each. http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=ddnzwcn8_15g3jrbpdf

**Huge list of Web 2.0 tools for the classroom (Amazing. Everything you could want & more. You can also send in your suggestions.) http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=ddnzwcn8_15g3jrbpdf

Enjoy this Animoto I created to celebrate the seasons on the prairies of Saskatchewan.

Music in my Life

2009-08-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

Joni Mitchell via last.fm

A few years ago, I was driving down an Ontario highway and listening to CBC Radio. The DJ played two versions of Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell. Joni hails from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan although she has lived for many years in the United States.

This song is beautiful. I love the lyrics and the music. In the first video below, Joni sings this song in 1970 or so.

Joni sings the same song, Both Sides Now, in 2000 after thirty more years of life and living. Her voice is much rougher (I believe she is or was a smoker) but the depth of emotion and feeling is incredible.

That day, driving down the highway with my Dad, the DJ played both versions. What did I learn? "Life changes our song."

Earlier this year, in the early morning hours of May 8th, I sat at the bedside of my Dad, Don Sanders. Dad had just turned 86 a few days earlier. For the last 20 days of his life, Dad was in the hospital and we knew the end was near. My Dad was a man of faith who knew he was going home to see the Jesus he had served for most of his life. He was at peace.

On May 8th, my husband and I sat beside my Dad. I was playing a CD that my sister, Dorothea Dantouze, had made. (She now has some songs up on YouTube.) We were singing along with In the Sweet By and By.

Image by Ivan Makarov via Flickr

"There's a land that is fairer than day. And by faith we can see it afar. For the Father waits over the way. To prepare us a dwelling place there." "We shall meet on that beautiful shore." "And we'll sing on that beautiful shore. The melodious songs of the blessed."

My Dad's breathing was growing more and more shallow. Half-way through the song, my Dad stopped breathing. I've told many people, "Dad heard the beginning of the song with my sister (on CD), my husband and I singing here on earth. He heard the end of the song up in heaven with the angel choirs singing on the beautiful shore."

Last night we had a family birthday party for my daughter. We were gathered in the backyard around the firepit roasting marshmallows. Someone suggested that we should have a s

Image by JelleS via Flickr

ing-along. I started with Kumbayah. Then my daughter led us in a cool echo song. Next she suggested that we sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat as a round. I led out, then came my daughter, and lastly my son. Grandma, aunt, and cousins joined in. It was a beautiful summer evening and our harmonious melodies rose up to the stars.

Music plays a chord within me that nothing else can play. The best of music drills down within me to touch my soul--mind, emotions, and will. Music gives me a way to express my fears, joys, and sorrows.

How does music touch your life?

Get a Dose of Hope and Vision

2009-08-20T19:32:00.000-07:00

Image by _william via Flickr

Tonight I came across three things I want to pass along for that touch of inspiration that we all need to brighten our days. danah boyd in her blog post mentioned the Symposium for the Future http://wp.nmc.org/future/ taking place October 27 - 29. danah and two others have been asked to write think pieces to provoke discussion leading up to the conference. One of the two others is Gardner Campbell. His piece, The Stars Our Destination, is a joy to read. He talks about the drawings and plans that Leonardo da Vinci made for planes and other inventions. In reality, those plans would not have worked (engineering details incorrect) and yet those plans inspired others down through the years until the plane was built. As Gardner (2009) says,

"If one thinks of Leonardo’s vision as a kind of song, a music that challenges us to shed our mannered attention to the grinding and broken processes of our wonderless calculations, it is a music that may well shake us out of our grim and measured comfort zones."

Gardner encourages us to value and treasure the wonders of the age that we live in: "I type these words and send them to you in a blog-shaped bottle upon a sea of articulate connections that depends on daily miracles born of technological innovation."(2009)

Gardner encourages all of us to do our part, whether large or small. "We may be forced in the circumstances of our various lives to work on smaller scales, but even a modest contribution may change the world if one is inspired by the vision of that possibility."

In another blog post, Angela Maiers shared a video that I found very inspiring. This video encourages me to notice and enjoy the small moments that make up each day.
It's not just about the end of the song and the last crashing chord. It's about savouring each moment as precious and valuable.

Watching that video caused me to remember a song that always cheers me, What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. I found this YouTube video for your viewing pleasure.

Tonight it's probably not you who needs a dose of hope and vision. It's actually me. For six weeks I wrote this blog within the straight jacket of needing to fulfill the requirements for a graduate level class I was taking. I thought it would be so wonderful to throw off the straight jacket that confined and directed my blogging efforts. Now that the class is over, I am floundering around, wondering which direction to take next. I want to continue writing my blog. I know that I have had visitors from other continents and countries outside of my own. Maybe they were visiting because they wanted to learn how to use Twitter or how to do podcasts. Now that I have abandoned (if I have) those topics, maybe those visitors will abandon me. I do love to encourage others and I love to teach. Maybe I should keep doing that. I also love this whole social

Image by Binks via Flickr

media thing--using Twitter and blogs for professional development. However, as far as I can find out, only three people from Saskatchewan were involved (one as a real life attendee and two of us as virtual attendees)in the #opened09 conference in Vancouver. How do I stir up some interest in social media? Where do I begin to get others to jump on the bandwagon with me?

I guess, that as Gardner Campbell says, I need to start small and work on a modest scale. I need to make my plans for the airplane and have some vision just like Leonardo da Vinci. Someday the plane will fly and reach the stars. However, until then I need to appreciate and enjoy the wonderful world in which I live.

And so I cast the blogging bottle out upon the waves. Will anybody pick it up and read the messages stuffed inside?

Reference:

Campbell, G. (2009). The Stars Our Destination. At the Symposium for the Future website. http://wp.nmc.org/future/ideas/gardner-campbell/

Blustery Bandwagon

What's new?

Seamless and Ubiquitous Technology

Just-in-time, Just-for-me Professional Development

Transparent and Professional Online

I found so many great resources to use with students that I will just list them here. Educators and parents need to inform students about the pitfalls of being unaware of privacy needs online.

Youth Privacy Guide for Parents and Teachers (Canadian) http://www.youthprivacy.ca/en/guide.html

Dwarfs on the Shoulders of the Giants

Bridge over the Digital Divide

Filter Frustrations: Why Block Google Docs?

Digital Pioneer Buys Grey Cup Tickets

Are you ready for the future?

RT @InternetHaiti We are all Twitter volunteers for #Haiti

Haiti Earthquake Twitter Lists

Jamming with the Generations

This Broken Road of Grief

Part 1, The Sharing Phase of Inquiry Learning: Introduction

Part 2, The Sharing Phase of Inquiry Learning: Who and What?

Part 3, The Sharing Phase of Inquiry Learning: When & Where?

Part 4, The Sharing Phase in Inquiry Learning - Why and How?

Part 5, The Sharing Phase of Inquiry Learning: Discussion Questions and Reference List

Two Children's Books by Canadian authors (with booktalk podcasts)

Global Issues for Teachers

Ruth's Random Resource Round-up October 18, 2009

Surfing the Wild Ride in Elluminate Sessions #eci831

Building a Network with Twitter (#eci831)

Ruth's Random Resource Round-up Sept. 17, 2009

Newspaper Rant

Ruth's Random Resource Round-up Sept 10/09

Back to School Musings

Be a Virtual Attendee at ALT-C 2009 (#altc2009)

Twitter Poetry on the Plinth #oneandother

Why I like Twitter

Making memories

Digital Nomadic Student feeling Lonely

The Future of Books? Vinge or Kelly's Vision

How I Use Google Docs

Ruth's Random Resource Round-up Sept 1/09

Music in my Life

Get a Dose of Hope and Vision