AU Blogspot

             Thanks to Alex Hopkinson for permission to use this Photo.

The Pew survey is of Americans only, of course, and so there’s no way to know whether the U.S. is leading a trend or catching up with the rest of the internet world. Still, the trend is a good one.

Teens are producing more content, and “the survey found that content creation is not just about sharing creative output; it is also about participating in conversations fueled by that content.”

And, again, I think if people actually looked, they’d see that the internet is creating what is likely the most creative and literate generation in history. (more…)

 
          Thanks to Marcin Kuligowski for permission to use this Photo.

I recorded this audio interview with Michael Russell of Boston College, who gave powerful presentation at a conference I attended earlier this year.  The topic of his presentation was: ”Where Is the Technology Revolution in Education?”

You’ll notice that I organized the interview in slightly different order than his presentation –while Michael started his presentation by talking about the ways in which technology has transformed business, I wanted to jump right into the discussion of educational technology and the history of education, then to look at the business examples. Even though I think Michael has some very interesting things to say about trends in business technology that are likely to be played out in education, I prefer to downplay that concept a little because I’m not sure that business examples are always the best ones to trot out for education (although, to Michaels great credit, I think he’s largely on the mark). (more…)

I conducted the following podcast interview with Susan Patrick.  Susan is President and CEO of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL).  Susan states, 

“Our biggest barrier is our memory of what schools look like. Those of us running the schools have a very strong memory of ‘this is how a school looks, this is how it works.’ And the system itself is designed to be very resistant to change. But the innovation and the change is going to come very naturally to our students, and if we are going to keep our students in school–which we have to–…we’re going to have to make these jumps and these adaptations. And the thing is, if we don’t make them, students will simply go around us. We really need to strengthen our public institutions by being open to new ways of doing things and having them adapt to the School 2.0 model…. I don’t think those of us in the U.S. understand how stuck we are in the status quo, and how precarious the situation is for our kids to be successful in the new global economy.”

Click here to listen to this fascinating interview.

         Thanks to Anthony Goto for permission to use this Photo.

Steve Hargadon
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*Steve Hargadon is one of the most respected education technology consultants in the education field. Steve’s website, Classroom 2.0, his blog, and his multimedia site, EdTechLive—represent three of the best resources anyone interested in the future of education can find on the web.  Steve has been nothing but open and helpful since we first contacted him.  We’re honored to have this opportunity to share the perspectives of Steve Hargadon with the Ashworth University community.  Thanks Steve!

Darren Draper, the technology specialist in Utah’s Jordan School District, and the creator of the super-viral Pay Attention video, interviewed me last week about Classroom 2.0 social network. Hopefully, it’s a good introduction to the network and the whole idea of social networking in education.  To watch the video, please click on the image below.  Let me know what you think.

                Thanks to Gretchen for permission to use this Photo.

Steve Hargadon
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*Steve Hargadon is one of the most respected education technology consultants in the education field. Steve’s website, Classroom 2.0, his blog, and his multimedia site, EdTechLive—represent three of the best resources anyone interested in the future of education can find on the web.  Steve has been nothing but open and helpful since we first contacted him.  We’re honored to have this opportunity to share the perspectives of Steve Hargadon with the Ashworth University community.  Thanks Steve!

Here’s the link to my presentation last week (video and slides), where I look at the relation between reality and online learning. You will also get to see me struggle with the backchannel, as the discussion taking place behind me sometimes completely flummoxed me.  Enjoy!

Stephen Downes
Educator and Creator of Stephen’s Web
Ashworth University Special Guest Contributor

*Stephen Downes is one of the most fascinating, prolific, and influential thinkers in the education field.  Throughout his career, Mr. Downes has built a reputation for developing innovative solutions to complex issues facing the education (learning) system as a whole.  He has been generous enough to allow us to openly share his perspectives with the Ashworth University community and we greatly appreciate this opportunity.  Guided by a deep sense of integrity and purpose, Stephen Downes is a model for educators around the world.  Visit his website and learn. Thanks Stephen!

“Arthus” is the web name of a 14-year-old student in Vermont who has recently become actively involved in the online dialog about educational technology. I find his voice an interesting–maybe a critically important–addition to the discussion. To me, Arthus is not representative of most 14-year-olds, but is representative of the kind of independent, engaged, proactive, and self-directed learner we often think will thrive in the flattened and connected world of the Internet.

Now the big question: will the use of Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies do more than just highlight intellectually mature youth, and actually help to promote, encourage, and support this learning style? If so, are we ready for it? Some of what he says is going to be very hard to hear for teachers, and will feel threatening–maybe especially because of its accuracy. It’s one thing to hear a teacher say some of these things, it’s quite another to hear them from a freshman in high school. How would the learning environment of 9th grade, for example, have to change when you have a classroom full of youth this intellectually independent?

Notes:

• Arthus started by seeing someone with a blog, and then starting his own. Was a technical interest, then moved to the subject of education. Started at age 11, HTML websites at 12, PHP at 13.
• Really likes Twitter.
• He thinks that schools teach students to “fear technology” and to really only use it for limited things and not for deeper conversations.
• He doesn’t feel that he is any danger in the web. The only precaution he takes is the pseudonym. Has never had anything weird happen to him on the web.
• His school has a good number of computers, and is relatively well-funded, and even though they buy new computers every couple of years, the teachers don’t engage with them or use them actively in the classroom. Would really like to see his school go to a 1:1 laptop program.
• Outside of school he spends “quite a few hours” a day on the computer. He is not a gamer, though.
• He feels that his life is in balance. He does school clubs. He feels comfortable turning off the computer to do other things. Believes that not using games (a “strict” rule he made for himself) has helped him not become “addicted.” (Pretty self-disciplined!) Feels that one of the most important things is to have a “set task” when you get on the computer.
• He was the one who decided to use a different name online to protect his privacy, but his mom is glad he did. Even though his mom doesn’t personally use technology very much, she is very understanding of his interests.
• Twitter is the “realization” of his network, since you can see what everyone is thinking and doing. You can also ask questions–almost like a “better Google.” Twitter is not distracting to him. He feels he can ignore if he needs to, and he also purposely limits the number of people that he is going to follow. He’s been blogging for a year, but once he got on Twitter it was amazing how interactive things became.
• Doesn’t like MySpace (interface is “shoddy”). Likes Facebook. Can easily eat up 30 - 60 minutes a day on Facebook. Uses Google Docs (formal things) and Zoho Notebook (planning). Uses Del.icio.us for social bookmarking. Hasn’t used wikis very much. Uses Feedburner for tracking. Uses Quizlet.
• Is considering doing a student-run session at the SLA EduCon.

               Thanks to ricanlad for permission to use this Photo.

• Most of the people he knows who are older just use email and search, don’t do any of the “pro-sumer” aspects of web. But same could be said of his own generation–many use social networking, but not other aspects.
• He’s interested in education because he is in the education system right now. Feels that when students come to school their (technology) “tentacles” are cut off. He knows that there is bad stuff out there, but the problem is that we are fearing the technology instead of the content.
• If teachers are worried about the use of laptops in class for things that aren’t related to class, then maybe teachers should be thinking about why students wouldn’t be paying attention. Students should have an option of whether they want to pay attention. It’s not a given that students will pay attention if you are not talking about something they care about. This whole technology is really good at bringing out the flaws that might be in the system.
• The current learning system–one task, one person teaching–will just not be relevant in the future. And it’s not reflective of what college or work life are like. The education system owes it to students to prepare them for that world. We shouldn’t necessarily be teaching the tools, but teaching the thought processes that go into them. The teachers owe it to themselves and their students to be learning these new Web technologies.
• If he had to pick one technology for an educator to start learning, it would be Twitter. It is the easiest one to use, and is so powerful. Also, if he had one message for his high school teachers for the next four years: they really need to stop being so disconnected from the technology. It’s not about learning the knowledge, but the thinking.
• He has a cell phone, but he doesn’t text. Doesn’t have a text plan, so it would be expensive. He doesn’t watch TV, but watches some NBC shows online. He has an iPod video, but he’s never bought a video–the screen is too small. He has 3,965 songs on his iPod–would be twelve straight days to listen to all of them. He listens to his iPod constantly, all day long, whenever he can. He doesn’t feel that having the earphones in stops him from socializing. He values face-to-face speaking a lot.
• He does worry about youth using technologies for “stupid” purposes: YouTube videos that shouldn’t be public, that you wouldn’t want a college administrator looking at. Has never seen an example of cyber-bullying. His computers at home are not filtered, and he runs the “networks” in his home.

Arthus blogs at http://myfla.ws/blog.

(It is important to note that I spoke with Arthus’s mother prior to conducting this podcast interview to make sure she was comfortable with this level of exposure.)

Steve Hargadon
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*Steve Hargadon is one of the most respected education technology consultants in the education field. Steve’s website, Classroom 2.0, his blog, and his multimedia site, EdTechLive—represent three of the best resources anyone interested in the future of education can find on the web.  Steve has been nothing but open and helpful since we first contacted him.  We’re honored to have this opportunity to share the perspectives of Steve Hargadon with the Ashworth University community.  Thanks Steve!

I think we’re in–in a lot of ways–a period of the most profound reinvention of …education and how people need to learn since the invention of literacy.”

Tim O’Reilly is the founder of O’Reilly Media, and one of the originators of the phrase “Web 2.0.” His essay on Web 2.0 certainly is considered the seminal description.

Tim and I talked about Web 2.0, education, and what the future holds for networked computing. I haven’t put this in my “School 2.0″ series because, as you’ll hear, Tim’s take on education isn’t nearly as technology-focused as one might expect.

    
             Thanks to Scott Beale for permission to use this Photo.  

Listen to this podcast interview here.  Topics that Tim covers in this podcast interview:

• Being self-taught
• Having a mental model of how the world works to let you figure out what’s important
• A new “digital divide” today between those who know how to think about search and those who don’t; those who know where the current hot information is being shared, and those who don’t.
• Tim’s skepticism of formal education, coming from the computer industry and seeing creativity from those with very different backgrounds, with their formal education almost alway not in the area where they have made an impact (himself included).
• Self-learning.
• How most periods of a creative renaissance start with inspired amateurs.
• The importance of “doing things,” “tinkering,”, and “exploratory learning.”
• That “engagement” is not new to Web 2.0, but the opportunity is being democratized by the technology.
• That it is important not to generalize too much about where the technology is headed from the initial formative period.
• How he believes that spending on educational technology is a bad idea (smile!), and that smaller class sizes would make the most difference in education, period, by giving more interaction with passionate adults who have time and ability to focus on kids. (See if you feel comfortable with how I respond to this point.)
• How we need to get rid of unionized seniority to get fresh blood, so the best can rise to the top instead of the most senior. (Again, I’m interested in your responses to this and your take on how I responded.)
• Open Source software, and how Web 2.0 is actually antithetical to open source software.
• Clayton Christiansen’s “law of conservation of attractive profits,” where value in Web applications moving toward the harnessing and collecting of data and intelligence.
• How it’s not free software that we need but free data.
• The inevitability of large companies absorbing the web 2.0 technologies by leveraging their data collection capabilities.
• The biggest change he sees on horizon: collective intelligence based on our being “sensory enabled.” “Live Software” that learns from that data.
• What Web 2.0 technologies that he likes
• His final words for educators: “have fun.” Share your own enthusiasm, excitement, and passion.

Steve Hargadon
AU Contributing Blogger

*Steve Hargadon is one of the most respected education technology consultants in the education field. Steve’s website, Classroom 2.0, his blog, and his multimedia site, EdTechLive—represent three of the best resources anyone interested in the future of education can find on the web.  Steve has been nothing but open and helpful since we first contacted him.  We’re honored to have this opportunity to share the perspectives of Steve Hargadon with the AU community.  Thanks Steve!

I recently interviewed Anastasia Goodstein, the author of Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online.  Anastasia blogs for for teen/youth media and marketing professionals at Ypulse.com, about Teen and Tween online life at Totally Wired. We met virtually when she, Jim Daly (the editor-in-chief of Edutopia), and the Yahoo! for Teachers team selected Ben Wilkoff as the Totally Wired Teacher of the Year.

I stayed up until the wee hours of this morning reading her book, which I had intended only to skim but which kept me totally engaged, and which I recommend as a very insightful look at the online life of youth today. There’s even a chapter on technology in schools called “Teaching the Teachers,” which I thought did a really good job of portraying the current state of computing in education. Listen to my EdTechLive interview with Anastasia Goodstein here.

Steve Hargadon
Contributing Blogger

*Steve Hargadon is one of the most respected education technology consultants in the education field. Steve’s website, Classroom 2.0, his blog, and his multimedia site, EdTechLive—represent three of the best resources anyone interested in the future of education can find on the web.  Steve has been nothing but open and helpful since we first contacted him.  We’re honored to have this opportunity to share the perspectives of Steve Hargadon with the AU community.  Thanks Steve!