2 Web 2.0 or Not 2 Web 2.0 - That = ?

Edubloggers make me angry!  They have too much to say.  I can't handle it all.  I get confused.

This morning, I read Ray Schroeder's Educational Technology post "Teachers Told To Be Wary Online" from the BBC.

I read the realities, like this one...

Concerns were raised about teachers contacting pupils by e-mail, or communicating through social networking sites such as Bebo or Facebook.

Some fear that it could lead to the kind of accusations that have ruined careers in the past.

Teachers in Scotland have been asked to adhere to a new code of conduct.

Later, one of the teachers says...

There has to be a balance between building a rapport with pupils, but also maintaining a distance and a level of formality.

There is always an element of naivety, particularly with those who are new to the profession, but this new code will benefit us and protect us.

I can't argue with this reasoning.  Some teachers simply aren't able to distinguish between the need for building both "rapport" and "formality" with their students. [By the way, I have finally found a word I like to substitute for "professional" when it applies to teachers.  The British folks have come to my rescue.]

But then, Wesley Fryer, being the terrific learner he is, decides to take notes on Kevin Honeycutt's keynote at ESSDACK.  Hi Tammy!  Wes does a great job of "topic sentencing" presentations.  Here are a few that hit me...

This whole business of school is about relationships: connecting with kids and making them superstars.

Hw are you going to win me?
- the relationship is key

Want to find the best teacher in a building?
- often the one who is in trouble
- the one who is not afraid to get snot on them

when the human brain is on survival mode, it has a hard time learning
- the only way to help a child like that learn is to build a relationship and create a safe space

kids we teach today are living in a different world
- they are playing on digital playgrounds we didn’t play on
- we’ve got to get there so they are not alone

Do you see my problem?  Can you synthesize the two and be comfortable? 

On the one hand, teachers need to protect themselves from obvious setups that students will bring their way.  Look at all the Out-Of-Context, Student-Edited YouTube videos.  Search for "Angry Teacher" on YouTube and see the mess. 

Remember, some kids lie in order to get what they want.  What they want is the same as what some adults want...they want power and control of their life.  One way to feel they are in control, is to control the lives of others.  Students know they control the school in the new era of teachers are guilty until proven guiltier...teachers are never innocent in the 21st century.  So we must protect ourselves.  But this sets up an adversarial relationship...not good.

On the other hand, if we are to reach the students who are forced into our classrooms (and we are forced to teach) then building rapport, developing relationships, and letting them know we will meet them where they are so we can take them where they need to be is very high on the priority list for the effective teacher.

As I type this, my son comes in asking about pedagogy questions for his GACE test on Saturday.  What method of teaching is the best in a certain situation?  Theories abound, curriculums written (and sold en masse), and ultimately it comes down to knowing all of them, applying them when the need arises, and being comfortable with how you approach the art of teaching 21st century students.  

Funny how things still come back to the basics of the Greek aphorism γνῶθι σαυτόν Know Thyself, and from Shakespeare's Hamlet as Polonius prepares to send his son into the world - To Thine Own Self, Be True.

Teachers - If you know yourself, know your strengths and weaknesses, and are true to yourself (thus avoiding uncomfortable situations) you will be fine.  In other words, if the idea of social networks makes you uncomfortable, uneasy, or concerned in any way - don't use it in any way.  To Your Own Self, Be True

Just don't tell those of us who are comfortable with these tools that we can't or shouldn't use them.  Or worse, that we're misguided.  Trust me, I keep all my digital conversations archived.  I seldom enter a meeting without a recorder.  I'm comfortable with my approach.  Teachers wonder why I want video equipment in my class - perhaps it's more than just for podcasting...perhaps it is as much for protection as it is for educating.

Image:
Yelnic. “Blaisdell Center.” Yelnic's Photostream. 27 May 2007. 12 Jun 2008 http://flickr.com/photos/yelnoc/515719778/.

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Engage or Enrage

I still don't like the word "engage" as it relates to a student's attraction to a lesson.  I'm not fully sure why it bothers me...I just don't think the word fits.  I think someone was trying to do the old-timey sermon alliteration, and they had two other words that started with the letter 'E' so "engage" became the word to sell something.

Anyway...

Wes Fryer has done a great job (which is quickly becoming an expectation for many of us - so keep it up!) outling Marc Prensky's recent NCCE speech.  It is Prensky's Engage Me or Enrage Me speech from a couple years ago, but we all need to be reminded of things...especially if we were not engaged the first time through. :-)

Highlights from Wes's notes: followed by my personal reflection of the brief comment in bold italics.

Prensky: 

Our kids will either cry or laugh at the education we gave them in 2008 [30 years from now].

Our kids are already doing this.  The cry and get sick before color-the-bubble tests because teachers tell them their life depends on how well the kid does on it.

We can do on today’s cell phone what people did with room-sized computers in the 1960s.

This is incorrect in a couple very important ways.  1) Phones are portable, not confined to the room.  2) There is more information available to us today (on the phone) than was available to the room-sized computer.  These two ideas put together make the cell phone more powerful than the 1960 room-size computer.

Quoting Charles Handy: "Walking backward into the future helps us keep looking at familiar things…”

This might become my favorite educational quote.  We tend to do many things bass-ackward.

We can be a big part of the solution to the digital divide...
Almost every student already has a powerful computer
- we are far along with 1:1, because a great percentage of your students has a powerful computer in their pocket: a cell phone
cell phones are
- powerful computers
- inexpensive
What is missing here is often our imagination.

Here, Here...Amen...I hear you talkin'...
What is also missing is the fundamental belief from adults that students can use cell phones responsibly.
I think the digital divide is bridged with the cell phone.  I think the money schools waste on buying computers only to spend more money to filter content to the point of censorship and constitutional violations should be redirected to getting cell phone providers to offer unlimited access to their data networks during school hours.

I believe in open phone tests
The teachers who give open phone tests can ask harder questions
- high school senior said after a presentation: most of our tests are already open phone tests, you guys just don’t know it….

Or move away from the concept that a test is the only way to assess.  The idea that a student would call a parent for the answer to a simplistic, knowledge-based question (like a state capital) is only valuable as a way to assess the student's network.

Metaphor for today’s education
- kids used to grow up in the dark intellectually, until they went to school
- at school we started opening up the door, showing them the light, helping them learn about the world
- so in the past we were the people who showed kids the light

What happens today?
- kids grow up in the light:they are connected with their cell phones, computers, etc
- when they come to school, we make kids turn off all their connections to the LIGHT and essentially make them work again in the darkness

Not a bad metaphor...perhaps could become a good parable.  The dark-light allusion would be better with more character development - at least more than "we" as a descriptor.  I might have something to work on this month...stay tuned.

“I’m bored all day because the teachers
“it’s not attention deficient, I’m just not listening”

From Office Space - It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.  On my own kid's Facebook page of favorite quotes.  The not listening aspect of school is as old as education itself.  My concern about the use of technology taught by schools, is that teachers will make the wonderful world of tech as boring as they have history, science, reading, math, and language arts. 

The new paradigm is kids teaching themselves, not all on their own but with the teacher’s guidance
- you don’t even need technology for that, but technology helps.
Technology isn’t the answer
- we are going to have to change how we are teaching before we introduce the technology.

The Everlasting Dream...that kids would just teach themselves.  The teacher will always have to provide more than guidance.  Constructivism works...but only when the student has basic skills, available resources, and motivation.  The teacher might need to study to characteristics of great public speakers.  Revival (religious or otherwise) always occurs on the heals of great oratory.  That is why people are currently enamored with Barak Obama.  Teachers could learn a lot from using YouTube to critically evaluate the great speeches throughout the 20th century. 

I am currently working on how educators/counselors have taken the burden away from themselves by creating a new vocabulary.  Really, we have taken the words motivation and manipulation and talk of intrinsic motivation vs. extrinsic motivation (and tried to get rid of the negative, but effective use of manipulation).  We've done the same with the word discipline (which is from always from within - self-discipline is redundant) and punishment...stay tuned for this one too.

Fryer:
SEEING THIS AGAIN MAKES ME RETHINK MY CURRENT PROFESSIONAL CAREER TRACK. I SEE MOVIES LIKE THIS, AND I WANT TO GO BACK INTO THE CLASSROOM AND FOCUS ON HELPING STUDENTS DO THIS. NOT TALKING ABOUT IT. DOING IT. NOT ENCOURAGING OTHERS TO DO IT. DOING IT. NOT SAYING “WOULDN’T IT BE GREAT IF WE….” DOING IT.

Welcome to my party Wes.  I have spent the last two years out of the classroom.  Prior to that I taught students how to use technology, because that is where we truly were in 2001.  It's time to get back to the Social Studies classroom and go back to the work of teaching.

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