Learning is Change

Is School 2.0 just a fad?

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Although there is a lot of talk about School 2.0 among those in the edublogosphere, I believe that many educators are going to try and wait out the torrent of technology integration that they currently are experiencing because they believe that it is merely a fad that will eventually go away. If we are serious about this type of systemic change, we need to be able to convince everyone that School 2.0 is not a fad. In this podcast I came up with a few observations about the nature of School 2.0:

1. We need a watershed collaborative School 2.0 event that causes all educators to take notice (I’m thinking of a hybrid between the numbers on myspace with the education of the K12 Online Conference (http://k12onlineconference.org/))
2. Once you give students the power to create their own learning, you can never take it back (nor would most teachers who have tried it, want to take it back).
3. Students are clamoring for School 2.0 classrooms, even if they don’t know that is what they are looking for.
4. School 2.0 is not a fad because it doesn’t repackage something that has come before (like many movements in education). It is truly something new.

Show/Chapter Notes:

03.05.07

Cores 1-4:

  1. Write-on: What parts of the song, “It’s not on the test,” do you find to be most true in your test taking experience?
  2. What does it mean to be prepared for CSAP in reading and writing? Are you?

Cores 1+2:

  1. Write out a playbook for CSAP this year using things that you “practiced” in class.

Core 3:

  1. Although digital storytelling is not on the CSAP (yet), the concepts that you did your digital stories on are.
  2. Be amazed at the learning that happened and review for CSAP using our Digital Stories:
  3. Reflect on the process of telling digital stories: What did you learn? What should we do differently the next time?

Core 4:

  1. Where is the best place to get ideas for our Utopias?
  2. Go through the process of selecting a Utopian/Dystopian novel that you think will have a great effect on your Utopian ideas.

What does support look like in School 2.0?

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Support is such an essential part of education, but many of us who are looking ahead to a technologically rich educational experience sometimes forget this. Because we are savvy, we expect others (including our students) to be savvy. I created this podcast in order to flesh out a few of the ways that we can support teachers who want to transition to School 2.0. The basic points that I came up with were:
1. All teachers need an aggregator starter pack.
2. School 2.0 must be framed in terms (and using tools) that most teachers understand.
3. Small groups of teachers must conduct relevant research within the specific school before many teachers will buy in.
4. School 1.0 teachers should engage in assessing School 2.0 products from the small group’s classrooms as a way of transitioning into a more collaborative model.

I have also decided to start including the chapter information and links as part of the show notes for those of you who do not have access to a podcatcher that recognizes enhanced podcasts.

# 00:00:00: Outdated Paper?
Dave Cormier’s Blog (http://www.davecormier.com/edblog/)

# 00:02:04: How does support look in School 2.0?
School 2.0 Wiki (http://school20.wikispaces.com)

# 00:04:20: An Aggregator Starter Pack
Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com)

# 00:06:16: RSS as Support
xFruits (http://www.xfruits.com)

# 00:08:32: Framing collaboration
Ourtenwords.org (http://www.ourtenwords.org)

# 00:12:20: Collaboration Take 2
# 00:13:35: Supporting Relevant Research
Terry Freedman (http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/db/web2/)

# 00:15:16: Flat Classroom Assessment
The Flatclassroom Project Wiki (http://flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com)

# 00:16:50: Summary and Conclusion
My blog (http://yongesonne.edublogs.org)

03.01.07

 Cores 1-4:

  • Collect any Personal Curriculum or AR Partner Points Passes.

Core 1:

  1. Go over vocabulary book exercises.
  2. Take quiz over chapter 10.
  3. How can a flat classroom help us to create a utopia?

Core 2:

  1. Discuss-On: Do moral imperatives exist? (Are there things that must be stopped because they are morally wrong? Or, does each individual’s morality dictate that there is nothing other than murder that should be stopped?)
  2. How can abolitionism not be seen as a moral imperative?
  3. Finish your Weekly Authentic Posts for Sem2_Week8 and put them on del.icio.us.

Core 3:

  1. Finalize your Digital Stories and get them in a presentable form. (If you cannot do this, please meet with me.)
  2. Turn in your storyboard with your name and the name of the movie/bubblr that you want me to watch.

Core 4:

  1. What can you do with a wiki that could help us to create a web of utopias?
  2. Watch “The Machine is Us/ing Us.”
  3. How can digital text help us to flesh out our ideas of utopia?

02.28.07

Core 1:

  1. What is the one word that you are going to remember next year from Unit 10 (including your own words and everyone else’s)?
  2. Finish Unit 10  activities and study for quiz tomorrow.
  3. Write-On: What do you think a flat classroom is?
  4. Can we use the internet to create utopian classrooms?

Core 2:

  1. Think about how flat classrooms can change the way we think about audience.
  2. Write your Weekly Authentic for Sem2_Week8 and post to Del.icio.us.

Core 3:

  • Weekly Authentic Self-Assessment and Reflection

    • You should fill this out correctly and honestly, leaving nothing for me to question in my grading.
  • Get the help that you need on your digital stories today and decide if you need to come in at some other point and work on them.

Core 4:

  1.  Write-On: If you could preserve one element of this world, what would it be and why?
  2. Revisit How the World Was Saved.

02.27.07

Cores 1-4:

  1. Weekly Authentic Self-Assessment and Reflection

    • You should fill this out correctly and honestly, leaving nothing for me to question in my grading.

Cores 1:

  1. Take a look at all of the Google Video Challenge posts.
  2. Take a look at my vision of writing without the dependency on paper technology.
  3. Write your Weekly Authentic for Sem2_Week8 and post to Del.icio.us.
  4. Trade Comments

Core 2:

  1. Compete for the Ultimate Framing Prize.
  2. Take a look at all of the Google Video Challenge posts.
  3. Take a look at my vision of writing without the dependency of paper technology.
  4. Write your Weekly Authentic for Sem2_Week8 and post to Del.icio.us.
  5. Trade Comments

Core 3:

  1. You can take a week off from Weekly Authentic writing in order to get your Digital Stories done on time.
  2. Work on your Digital Stories in the Computer lab and conference with me as needed.

Core 4:

  1. Take a look at all of the Google Video Challenge posts.
  2. Take a look at my vision of writing without the dependency of paper technology.
  3. Write your Weekly Authentic for Sem2_Week8 and post to Del.icio.us.
  4. Trade Comments

Paper is outdated.

 , ,

Paper is:
•   Static.
•   Linear.
•   Finite.
•   Singular.

Digital Writing is:

•    Dynamic.
•    Multi-dimensional.
•    Infinite.
•    Pluralistic.

With these things in mind, all writing should be:
•    Infinitely editable
•    Inherently clickable
•    Continually discussed
•    Focused on revisions and the history of revisions.

Dave Cormier turned me on to the idea that we are still writing for the technology of paper, even if we have moved beyond it in terms of its capabilities. I found intriguing and more than a little frustrating to think that we are still formatting our ideas to be read in a linear and static text form. We have put so much investment as a society in the technology of paper that very few people are ready or able to move past it. Yet, in order to fulfill the potential of a fully connected society, we must start to think in new ways, read in new ways, and especially write in new ways.

First, the idea of ownership must be changed. All writing should have the ability to be edited at any time. Just by clicking on the letters, you should be able to add your own piece of understanding. Anyone should be able to see the original iteration, but they should also be able to see any additions, subtractions, contextualizations, or expansions. This is the only way to have true collaboration. If we stop setting up boundaries for ideas—yours vs. mine—we will all become better writers and visionaries.

All words should blue and underlined; they must be clickable. There is no reason for a story, a poem, an essay, a blog entry, a novel, a biography or even a letter to lack context. Each word should take us to someplace new. Each word should let us explore the web of thought that caused it. Now, if one person were trying to accomplish this, it would never happen for want of a real life. Yet, if each user can add his or her own contextual links, the writing context would grow, the webs of knowledge would spin themselves, and reading and writing would change forever.

If there is anything that blogs have taught us it is that writing should not exist in a vacuum. Ideas that are not read and discussed are of no value. So, logically, we should share all of our writing, discussing each aspect of our discourse and getting instant feedback on our vital work. Comments focus us upon revision, but they shouldn’t be at the bottom of the page. They should be attached to the words, never separated from the context of the ideas. Paper doesn’t allow us to hyperlink our comments, connecting them to the words that made us think of the comments in the first place, but digital writing can allow this if we can move beyond our vision of the internet as Digital Paper.

Digital Paper does not allow us to push writing to what it can become. It limits us to think of writing as a singular and static process. Things like Google Documents are great resources, but they lack the pervasive nature that digital writing needs to have. The entire Internet should be editable, discussable, and clickable. Only then will we be able to shrug off our dependence upon paper as a substance and a metaphor.

02.26.07

Cores 1-4:

Core 1:

  1. Write-On: Do words influence our concept of Utopia or does our concept of Utopia influence our words?
  2. Utopian Poetry Analysis.

Core 2:

  1. Reflect-On: How difficult was it to incorporate other people’s ideas in your own frame?
  2. Elite 8 Tournament and Ultimate winner.
  3. What misunderstood concept that is important to you, could be made better by framing?

Core 3:

  1. Continued work on your Digital Stories and Storyboard check-ins with Mr. Wilkoff.

Core 4:

  1. Finalize Utopian Art analysis.
  2. Discuss the four chapters of Utopian Art.
  3. Take the Internet as Utopia poll as a class.

02.22.07

Core 1:

  1. Go over Vocab homework.
  2. Play Vocab basketball.
  3. Find words to substitute for the five words you crossed off.

Core 2:

  1. Discuss-on: What can 10 words do that 10,000 cannot?
  2. What is framing a debate?
  3. What would have been the great debate about feminism in the 19th century?
  4. Brainstorm reasons why men and women would not have wanted the 19th amendment.
  5. Split into teams for the framing elite 8.

Core 3:

  1. Anyone who is not an expert yet must answer one question about their topic and move on to storyboarding.
  2. Work toward getting your Storyboarding done.
  3. Show it to Mr. Wilkoff to sign off on it and start working on your Digital Story.

Core 4:

  1. Write-on: If you had a machine that could create anything, would you use it? Why or why not?
  2. Read: How the World Was Saved.
  3. How is the decision to create Nothing different from the decision to create something without having to work for it?

What Myspace can teach us about School 2.0

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This podcast was brought about because of the classroom discussion that my eighth graders had about what a terrible affect Myspace can have on their lives. I wanted to start brainstorming a school-sponsored space that we could substitute for Myspace that would be an extension of the classroom. This space would have the ability to connect students over academic interests as well as personal interests. It would allow for photo sharing and digital storytelling within these photos. Primarily, however, this space would allow students to comment on everything. Each element of the space (a module) would have a feedback form, so students would get comments about their school notes, their podcasts, their blog posts, their beliefs, and their photos. I can’t think of anything that would engage students more than being able to get specific feedback on all of the important aspects of their lives, and to do it all in an environment that wouldn’t allow the inflammatory remarks that are a systematic part of Myspace. Let me know what you think of this idea and its feasibility at benjamin.wilkoff@dcsdk12.org or http://yongesonne.edublogs.org