The AUP

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My wife Jo and I teamed up to do a little work on our school’s (Seoul Foreign School) Responsible Use Agreement.  This is a timely topic, as our school just went 1:1 this year, and there are some kinks we would like to see worked out.

First, a little background.  Two factors impacted our decisions.  First, our roll-out was not school wide.  Though our school is pre-K through twelfth grade, only the fifth and sixth grader’s were part of the initial roll-out.  Second, of the grades involved in the roll-out, computers are student owned.

As a whole we both agreed that the document is pretty well written.  It includes all the key pieces like appropriate communication, identity protection through the promotion of privacy, adherence to copyright law, non-disruptive use, proper care of hardware, and that students follow all classroom expectations.  However, we do strongly feel that, after a year of witnessing student behavior and attitudes toward technology that there are areas of the plan that do not go far enough.

One area of our policy that seems to be in need of refinement is the stance on the misuse of technology.  Perhaps the school was hoping that students would naturally follow the plan, however, we have had repeated incidents of cyber-bullying and it feels as if we don’t have the means to deter it at this time.  Our policy isn’t clear enough or doesn’t go far enough to discourage the practice.

This is where not having a school-wide implementation, and not using school owned machines causes problems.  Kim Cofino’s school YIS has, what we think, is as close an ideal three strikes policy.  Student’s are all on school owned computers.  Those that don’t follow the Responsible Use Agreement repeatedly (three strikes) are given corrections laptops with limited features allowing students to participate fully in class work, but without having the ability to use the computers in a hurtful manner.

This is all well and good, but the truth of the matter is no matter what the policy is if students want to bully others enough they will find a way.  What is to stop them from getting on other computers outside of school and using them to continue to make poor choices? The best policy, it seems to us, is education.  The Responsible Use Program is only part of what was done to implement the 1:1 program. A school-wide Technology Bootcamp complete with a passport of learning, much like other digital citizenship programs, is a crucial part of the puzzle. It’s one thing to say, “I will use resources in a way that does not disrupt learning.” We need to define for students what those resources are, for example Facebook, email, games, etc.  It’s not fair to hold students to expectations we haven’t explicitly taught.  The bootcamp model provides us with that vehicle.

 

Positive Time Suck

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One day, as I was perusing a few blogs, I came across one by Kim Cofino.  The entry I was looking at, entitled “Status Update: 3 Key Learnings From Our 1:1 Implementation” was of particular interest to me because my school, Seoul Foreign School, is in the midst of a 1:1 adoption.  High interest for me to be sure, but should it really have taken an hour to read her 1-2 page post?  Blame the links.  She has 6 within the first two paragraphs and many more scattered throughout the post.  God forbid you actually have an interest in a subject because before you know it your four or five clicks (if you’re lucky!) deeper into it and you’re lucky to find your way back to the original document.

That, I think, is the beauty of these little clickable tangents; they instantly transport users deeper and deeper into topics often taking the reader (me, anyway) places  never imagined.  When I reflect back to the days of writing term papers in college and the amount of work that went into tracking down sources I begin to understand how truly amazing this feature is.  Back then, if an author made reference to someone else’s work we’d go to the card catalogue or the Reader’s Guide to Periodicals and look it up, find out where it was located, physically search for it, find it or, more than likely, reserve it, or wait to have it sent from another branch etc., etc., etc.   So it’s really a contradiction to say these are time “sucks” because in reality they save hours.  Links truly bring a fresh meaning to the word “web” as we begin to see how ideas are connected in multiple ways, and we do it instantly.

Wes Fryer, in his post The Ethic of the Link, Hyperlinked Writing and Mainstream Media Link Hangups, states, ”Hyperlinked writing is one of the most important topics we can address, share, and encourage educators to learn ABOUT and how to DO personally today.” And again,  “Hyperlinked writing is the most powerful form of writing, and provides one of the most important aspects of complexity in writing for a global audience.”

That’s high praise, but not without merit.  Seriously, if we can link to the actual document with this be the death of the bibliography? Will footnotes go the way of the typewriter’s we used to type them?  That possibility alone makes getting lost in a few links totally worth it.

So, I was just checking out a couple of other blogs.  I was hyperlinked in one of them, a first for me, so I’m going to give some of that right back to Cheryl Terry.  Thanks Cheryl.

 

 

Social Practice

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Sometimes I feel like, as a teacher at an international school, I am so insulated from the “real world.”  Case in point: A couple of months ago my wife came home and was so frustrated with the disruptive behavior of one of her students that she ”was that close to sending him to the principal’s office!”  I laughed out loud at her, but went on to remind her that at her former inner city public school in the states this was a daily occurrence for her.  But I have to admit that in the area of cyber-bullying my school feels as “real world” as I’d ever want it.  Perhaps it’s the ease of access.  I teach fourth grade and most of my students have smart phones, access to computers, and a strong desire to communicate on-line.  However, just because they have the hardware, it doesn’t mean they’re equipped to use them.

In my classroom my students are very aware that I’m experimenting on and with them.  I have to.  I’ve learned that if I’m ever going to implement new technology in my classroom I can’t wait until I have all the bugs are worked out or I’ll never use it.  So when I launched Edmodo, a secure social network for the classroom,  a couple of months ago I knew there would be times that we would hit walls.  I developed a very informal responsible use agreement with my class.  They were allowed to use the chat feature on the home page to say anything, as long as they treated others the way they wanted to be treated and they did not use language or images that they wouldn’t use in front of their own parents.  My students have gone beyond my wildest expectations in respecting this.  At least part of the reason for this is, and I agree with Dan Dykwel, president of the Palo Alto Council of PTAs when he says, “Often it’s self-regulating.  If somebody posts something nasty, kids descend on them and say, ‘Stop this.’” My fourth graders are not posting anything “nasty” but they often post without thinking about the consequences.  For example, one time a group of girls set up a play date without including three of the other girls in my class.  This led to some tears and to a wonderful discussion about feelings.  It never occurred to the offenders that not including others might feel just as hurtful as saying something mean, but it was.  As Danah Boyd states, “Empathy is the core of the problem and the solution.”

I think if we’re going to use it we need to be the ones who teach it.  When I say teach it I don’t just mean the technical aspect of using the internet. I think we’re getting better at that.  I mean the hard part where we have to roll up our sleeves and show students that being civil online is no different than being civil in person.  I think it’s important that a child’s first experience in social networking should not be their own Facebook page, but rather the closed environment that a class wiki or Edmodo page offer.  Then, when the teachable moments arise l, there’s someone able to identify them, and offer guidance.

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Digital Jaywalking

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If I were teaching in my former public school position, and that school was located here in Seoul, and not Minneapolis, I would have absolutely no idea how to teach the idea of copyright to students.  Fortunately, I teach in a Christian school whose mission statement includes the words, “promotes Christian values, personal integrity, and responsible global citizenship.” When the inevitable question of why bother following copyright law arises, I need only point to the statement and appeal to my student’s own understanding of right and wrong.

But living in Asia presents a problem.  What can’t you get a pirated copy of or download of here?  More importantly, who doesn’t, at one time or another, make use of it?  Often we feel justified by the very fact that the language barrier makes use of Asian media impossible, so why not make use of the convenience of pirated media?  Even more to the point, how often do we violate copyright law without even knowing it?  Piracy and copyright infringement are, it seems, the digital equivalent to jaywalking.  So, how do you teach it?

I think teaching responsible copyright use starts with demonstrating responsible copyright use.  My students are very aware of the fact that I am a work in progress, especially in the area of technology integration.  (Someday I’ll make it through a day without needing to be technologically rescued by a fourth grader, but that day is in the distant future.) I have tried to be very transparent about my progress.  As I’ve learned new things old classroom rules have changed.  Where we might have “borrowed” any image we wanted from Google last month, this month we’ve moved to Creative Commons and give credit to the borrowed image’s creator.  I’ve tried to demonstrate that it’s OK to start responsible use right where we are, and not to wait until we understand it all because I’m not sure anyone does? As Wesley Fryer points out in his article, Copyright 101 for Educators, “The only way to obtain a definitive answer about the legality of perceived “fair use” today is to hear the verdict of a judge in the courtroom: everyone else’s ideas about fair use truly are just opinions.”

The temptation is to stick our heads in the ground and admit that it is all too hard to keep track of and therefore we’ll just keep sneaking content, because who’s really going to police all this?  Who’s really getting hurt by it anyway?  Or, and this is the extreme I lean toward, let’s just avoid the whole problem by creating our own content.  The problem with the first tack is that we remain part of the problem, and the problem with the second tack is that, though it’s a perfectly legal way to go, it doesn’t teach the kids anything about responsible use.  It teaches responsible avoidance.

Bug Sex

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You know what that’s a picture of?  That’s a Giant African Millipede.  About ten years ago I was involved in a program that brought exotic species of bugs to classrooms for students to observe.  There were giant hissing cockroaches, butterflies, and, of course, the Giant African Millipede.  One day, I observed that our millipedes were locked in a vicious battle and that a flap had opened on the back of one of the millipede’s causing it to exude some sort of gelatinous looking goo.  It looked mortally wounded. I snapped a quick photo and emailed it to the university professor in charge of the program and asked him about my hunch.  He reported back succinctly, “bug sex.”  Only I hadn’t just emailed the professor, I had emailed my whole school, and he hadn’t only replied to me, he replied to all of them as well.  I was ridiculed for weeks about my bug “fetish.”

I give this example to illustrate just how easy it is to lose our privacy.   In my case, I did this to myself.   Not only that, but the result really was pretty innocuous-I can handle a little razzing.   The real question is are we ready for what’s next?  Are we ready for a future(a present?) where employers to go trolling through our online information and social network pages to dredge up all they can on us?  Wouldn’t you do it if you were an employer?

What about when people go out of their way to invade our privacy and they do it for reasons that are not at all innocent.   At least the employer was hopefully looking to fill a position with the best possible applicant.  John Brownlee in his article,This Creepy App Isn’t Just Stalking Women Without Their Knowledge, It’s A Wake-Up Call About Facebook Privacy, demonstrates that there are apps out there designed to allow users to not only track the location of innocent victims, but also give users enough personal profile information to become world class stalkers.

I get worked up about these possibilities.  I have kids.  I’m not so sure I like the sound of the “open” world they’ll inherit.  Then I come to my senses.  We can do something about most of this.  We don’t have to allow ourselves to become victims.  We may not be able to eliminate the problems completely, but we can be aware of what we post.  We can limit the visibility of our personal information. And, most importantly, We can be smart about who we give access to what.

 

Asbestos:Landfill :: Content:Web

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About twenty years ago my wife and I decided to update our old octopus-armed, asbestos   laden furnace with a newer, more efficient model.  Little did we realize the true cost of such an undertaking.  You see, you can’t, unless your my Uncle Wally, just tear out an old furnace, jam it in a bunch of Hefty Lawn bags, and drop it in strategic dumpsters all over the city.  Not in Minneapolis anyway.  No, you have to hire an asbestos abatement company that will show up at your house dressed like NASA trainees, who will then hermetically seal off your basement to make it air tight, and will carefully seal all the parts of your furnace into 100 gallon barrels that will be diligently labeled with your name on them.  You, of course, will then sign documentation claiming ownership of the barrels that will then be hauled away and buried in a sanitary landfill.  All this for just a bit less than the new furnace will cost.  Oh, and you own those barrels forever.  Should they ever make an unscheduled public appearance, you’re responsible for their additional disposal.

What does this extremely interesting story about barrels of hazardous waste have to to with the internet and our use of it? Maybe the following quotes can help illustrate that:

“As millions seek new jobs to replace positions lost in the recession, keep in mind that the Internet gives employers unprecedented access to information about you.”-Kim Kommando USA Today

“Of the respondents who are actively hiring this year, 92% said that they either “currently use or plan to” use social networks for recruiting new employees. “ John Paul Titlow /

“One of my worst fears as [my children] grow older is that they won’t be Googled well. … that when a certain someone (read: admissions officer, employer, potential mate) enters “Tess Richardson” into the search line of the browser, what comes up will be less than impressive. That a quick surf through the top five hits will fail to astound with examples of her creativity, collaborative skills, and change-the-world work. Or, even worse, that no links about her will come up at all. (p. 16)”- Will Richardson

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So, in other words, employers are looking at more than resumes, they are looking at potential employee’s online presence. They are looking beyond just the work related content because their searches bring in social media as well. And, most importantly, it is up to us to create an online “portfolio” that demonstrates we are capable of more than slamming a beer or painting ourselves blue for homecoming.  We have to demonstrate that we are capable of generating useful, creative, articulate content so that our employers can see that we can independently get fired up about stuff and act on it.

For teachers the message is even more critical because it’s up to us to help students not only see the need to create that content, but also to assist in the content generation by giving students opportunities to explore authentic use of the web, and to expose students to areas of future interest for possible independent exploration.

I realize that my analogy is not a perfect one.  While my furnace barrels are buried in some old salt mine somewhere probably, no one (I hope!) will likely go out of their way to dig them up, and just by conducting a thorough search, employers, and let’s face it-anyone else that has an interest, will have access to our online “barrels.”  It’s our job to not only make sure that our barrels are not filled with crud, but that they’re not empty either.

 

Course 1 Final Project

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At my school, Seoul Foreign School, we just adopted a new social studies curriculum in the elementary school called Storypath. My students really enjoyed our first unit on building a toy company, but our second unit just wasn’t making sense to my 4th grade team and me. It’s called Radio Station. As you can probably guess, it’s about radio stations, and how they operate, and the types of jobs they offer, and the service they provide to the community. The first problem, as we saw it, is that none of our students really listen to the radio. They go online and watch Youtube videos, or sample Itunes, or listen to Ipods, etc. The second problem is that we live in a large, multi-cultural Korean city where English is really not a priority. Some of my students speak Korean, but some don’t. We were looking to make this into a project that would be more authentic for our students. What we came up with was The Newspaper. Our thinking was that, whether digital or otherwise, news and the role of news gathering entities were not outdated yet.
So basically, the unit that follows is an adaptation of an existing unit. Much of the curriculum would apply equally well to a newspaper or a radio station. The technology infusion came when Mr. Jeff Utecht visited our campus a few weeks back(When you grade this remember you’re grading yourself!)We had been struggling with how to help our fourth graders safely navigate the inquiry part of this project(As part of the newspaper creation students will be asked to research and write articles on various topics). Using RSS reader’s I learned that I could control the sources where the information would be coming from so as to keep the research authentic, and safe. In addition I learned about some of the templates offered through Google Docs-newspapers being one of them, and also some interesting ways to publish those newspapers (Youblisher) to create fippable PDF pages and such.
We are in the infancy of running this project. There is a huge learning curve tech crew and me here at SFS. I have set up Google accounts for my class, have had them practice writing documents and storing them in collections they have made. I have set up an Edmodo account so they can track assignments. I have sent links to articles available through our schools media for them to practice the writing skills that will be necessary to get this thing off the ground. Admittedly, I’m not sure how this is going to end, but I’m learning that’s sort of what this whole technology integration is about. Trying it anyway.

Trans-Warp Beaming

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There is absolutely no way to accurately answer the question “How is technology changing the learning landscape and global education?” because not only is it changing everything, it’s changing everything continuously.  I wish I could back that statement up with a cool fact like, “By the time you finish reading this sentence 5 classroom teachers will have moved to digital portfolios as a means to better assess student learning.”  Or maybe, ” 4 out 5 superintendents surveyed prefer global collaboration for classrooms that do collaboration.”  Sadly, I can’t do it.  It’s not my fault, really.  It’s similar to what Scotty says in the newest Star Trek movie about trying to beam someone aboard a ship moving at warp speed, he said,

 

“The notion of transwarp beaming is like trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet, whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse.”

- Montgomery Scott

There you have it.  That is what it is like to try to accurately answer the question because by the time you’ve answered it the question has moved on.

On Friday the international teachers in Korea(KORCOS) got together for a workshop day.  I attended three breakout sessions, one on blogging, one on Edmodo, and one on Evernote.  Earlier, in my own classroom I worked with our tech teacher to get Googledocs up and running in my room so my students could work on their collaborative radio dramas at home.  I uploaded the Garageband stories my students wrote last week to our web page.  I finished my online grading.  Sunday, I created a video of my son’s play on my Iphone, uploaded it to Dropbox and emailed a link to my family.  I skyped, I blogged, I scanned, I modified, etc. etc. etc. That’s only some of what I did, and I consider myself an idiot in the IT world.

For me, it all feels like groundwork.  I have been a consumer of information for far too long.  Reading about the Flat Classroom Project and about global collaborative science projects like Down the Drain or Global Grocery List get me excited because I can easily do these things already, and because they are authentic they immediately carry a weight that students will buy into.  Questions like, “Why do we have to learn this?” are forgotten.

Finally, if it’s true that people fear what they don’t understand, and we have an opportunity to better understand others in this world by working with them collaboratively, than we as teachers have an obligation to make that happen.  My friends back home marvel at how strange Korea sounds.  I marvel at how similar it is to Minnesota.  People are people technology is giving students a chance to figure that out for themselves.

New Wine in Old Wineskins

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I’m originally from Minnesota, land of Lake Wobegon and Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” When I was a kid, my parents would put “Mystery Theater” on whenever we happened to be in the car on a Saturday night, and no one breathed until the commercials.  I have a long love affair with radio dramas.  So it’s not surprising that, when I was in grade school, one of my favorite writing assignments ever was the creation of a radio drama.  I remember the group came over to my house after school to work on it.  I can’t for the life of me remember what our drama was about other than to say it was a horror show, not unlike Mystery Theater.  What I do remember, though, was the four of us crowded around the cassette tape trying figure out different ways to make sound effects, (crumpling a paper bag sounds just like rain to a 12 year old in 1978), and laughing hysterically, and getting a really good grade on it.

 

This past week I decided to use this same strategy with my 4th graders.  We’re working on voice.  Some of my students, it seems, view publishing as the written equivalent to a root canal.  They don’t see the difference between taking notes on a textbook, and getting free reign to create whatever they please.  So their creative works read a lot like notes from a textbook-no voice.

 

Last weekend, with the help of my son, I wrote and recorded a very goofy radio drama.  We had a blast using Garageband with its jingle bank and sound effects of creaky doors and laser blasts.  Then, I played it for my class.  It’s a good thing I did too, because they really lacked the context when I told them they would be writing radio dramas.  In fact, this is the truth too, when I cued up the loop and it started to play, three students rushed from their seats to claim prime viewing spots on the floor and stared at the still blank Smartboard until one, in a very bored voice, had the audacity to tell me I had forgotten to turn on the projector again.

 

So, I tell you this long, convoluted story to illustrate some very key understandings that I started to make this week:

1)   What I like to think of as innovative use of technology, some would argue is just a step above dabbling.  In fact Mark Prensky, in his article, “Shaping Tech For The Classroom” would probably categorize my effort as doing old things in a new way.  (I can live with that if the content improves!)

2)   I got personal with some of the barriers that are out there when it comes to tech integration.  At my school we are not one to one in the 4th grade yet, and our laptop cart is not filled with Mac products.  Therefore-No Garageband.  We do have an Ipad cart, but Garageband for Ipad does not have the sound effects that make this project fun.  Our solution: We are going to use Imovie with the Ipad covers over the lens of the camera.  It’s not a perfect solution, but we’ll have access to the sound effects.

3)   Every time I attempt something that pushes me outside my technological “immigrant” boundaries, I learn at least one thing that helps make the next push easier.

Now the rest of the bible quote I used in the title makes me a little nervous,”And people do not pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”(Mark 2:18-22) I’m sure Jesus wasn’t talking about 21st century teaching, even if it feels a little bit like I might burst at any second.

A Split Decision

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Is anybody else having a syntax issues?  What some have described as “messing around” I might be tempted to describe as “excruciating time consumption better spent in a million different ways. “  Case in point, this week’s assignment: “push yourself in understanding how your blog works.”  Well how hard could that be?  Ninety minutes later and I found myself still trying to jam an image of myself into 1000 by 288 pixels without making it look like a penny left on the railroad tracks.  Did I want to use my forehead or my chin?  Tough call.

Well, I guess I could have tweeted my “tweet nation” to get some immediate feedback, but I think we all know how helpful that would have been at this stage of my “tweet” life (two weeks). Besides, you know what?  Despite my obvious inadequacies I have to admit I’m starting to get dangerously tenacious in my approach to troubleshooting.

As I reflect on the week I think this new attitude is the most encouraging aspect of my “growth.”  There’s been a minor, and as yet, incomplete, paradigm shift.  I’ve become stubborn about “figuring it out” in a way I wouldn’t have thought possible for me.  Earlier I called this dangerous because I’ve also come to realize that I don’t like asking for help. I only like help when the person helping doesn’t know they’re helping, like when I watch a “how to” video.  Then I can claim I knew it all along and everyone can be dazzled by my prowess.

But I also realize the old approach doesn’t work.   We’re all in a state of continuous lag.  By the time we figure out how to use something it’s been changed, updated, or scrapped.  I’m just falling behind at a faster rate.  Unfortunately, unlike bell-bottoms or long hair, digital illiteracy isn’t coming back anytime soon.

Is it hopeless?  Nope.   I have a theory, well, more like a hope.  I’m hoping that all these bits of knowledge that I’m beginning to acquire are eventually going to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, and that I’m just a few key pieces away from making some serious connections that are going to increase my rate of learning exponentially. Then I can “geek out” because I enjoy it, not for survival.