Liz Halina and I collaborated to compile the digital proficiencies students in Physical Education should have, within four groups (Early Elementary (Pre-K-Grade 2), Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5), Middle School (Grades 6-8), and High School Grades 9-12) at AES.

Leaving world problems alone for the time being, I have found that collaboration within my classes has done wonders for some of my students.  Programs, such as google docs and Voice Thread, have been used in my class all year, and the amount of participation that I have gotten is astounding.  To be able to have your entire class edit and comment on documents and presentations in real time, is something that I never envisioned growing up.  My sense of collaboration was working in a small group of peers to come up with a collective product.  Now that this capability is available online, the reach of collaboration is endless.

Some of the only drawbacks that I’ve seen, or things that must be taken into consideration, is that everyone should accountable for contributions to the making of pie, before they get a bite.  It’s just not fair if some people give and some only take, and then everyone receives the credit.  The difference between what collaboration used to be, and what it is today, is that when group collaboration was used to make a product before, it was impossible to tell who contributed what to the project.  Now, with the technology we have available, this too can be closely monitored.  I think group and mass collaboration are great, as long as there are checks and balances, and ways of ensuring that everyone provides contributions.

Through the Voice Thread this year, I’ve had my students create projects with partners, giving presentations that can be viewed from any computer or mobile device with proper access.  After watching the presentation, the students’ classmates were able to comment on their projects.  This was valuable for many reasons.  I’ve found that when teaching to students within an ESL community, that many of them are self-conscious of the verbal skills in front of the class.  Voice Thread eliminated that fear.  It also allowed students that preferred written work to oral, a chance to type their presentation, while still showing their project through video.  The collaboration that my students used during this project was amazing, and I believe that many of them were more intrinsically motivated to do well on the project… especially with the feedback from their peers.

I’ve thought about implementing something on a grander scale- maybe something with a comparable cohort from another country.  Using mass collaboration, students would be bouncing ideas off of students in a similar curriculum that they’ve never even met.  The benefits from doing this would allow for more ideas, less individual work/stress, and reducing valuable time.  Again, the only drawbacks that I see are issues of accountability.  There will always be the student or colleague that will take advantage of the work of others in a collaborative setting like this.  Ensuring that everyone contributes would have to be key.

The important lesson, I feel, is that we understand the benefits of this technology and do our best to use it wisely… it’s definitely not going away.  In Wikinomics – How Mass Collaboration changes everything, Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams state, “The Internet is moving into a new phase. More than connectivity, the real value of the Net today probably lies in connecting people and organizations together through blogs, Wikis, chatrooms and social networks. Mass collaboration is encouraging consumers, employees, suppliers, partners and competitors to share information and ideas. This is radically transforming the traditionally accepted business models. Vertically organized hierarchies and closed business systems are giving way to flat organizations and open platforms. It is an exciting world today of “citizen journalism,” wikis, blogs and social networks. Both individuals and companies need to change to adjust and operate effectively in this world. If they do not, they risk being left behind, even before they realize it.”

My goal is to get my students onboard before they are left behind.  This is the way the world is moving, and it’s not going away.  We need to do our best to ensure that our students understand this technology, embrace collaboration, and do our best to teach them to use this technology responsibly.

Teaching cyber safety must be holistically taught in all areas of our students’ education.  It is not only a technology responsibility, but rather cross-curricular endeavor.  It needs to be taught, practiced, and reviewed in every grade level, both at school and at home.  In today’s technologically advanced society, when online social networks and media are so prevalent in most of our student’s lives, these safety tools must be available and reiterated from all angles.  In some respects, the web has taken on the form of our students’ “playground”.  We all see the benefits of letting children explore relationships and learn from interactions within those relationships, but if they are not taught to do so responsibly and respectfully, problems arise.  This type of safety should be no different than any of the other safeties that we try to teach our students.  We have implemented Restitution in the elementary school, dealing with social responsibility on the physical playground; we must do the same for the online playground.

Throughout AES, a great deal of emphasis is placed on the overall wellness and safety of our students and their right to a safe learning environment.  This is reflected in our Mission Statement and Values, and these same values could and should apply online.  It is our responsibility to ensure that our students both recognize and know how apply these values in all situations:

The American Embassy School serves students from the United States and other nations. It provides a quality American education that enables students to be inspired learners and responsible global citizens through the collaboration of a dedicated faculty and a supportive community.

We believe that:

each individual has intrinsic value
people are responsible for the choices they make
diversity enriches us
every person needs nurturing to thrive
every person has a right to learn in a safe environment free of prejudice
service to others strengthens us
trust and respect are essential in relationships
life is more meaningful when lived with integrity and passion.
every person has a responsibility to contribute to peace and harmony in the world.
every person has a responsibility to protect and preserve the environment of our planet.

We are committed to…

developing a community service ethic and practice in all students.
ensuring a caring school atmosphere is evident in how we work
with students, families and one another.
the practice of an open, transparent and collaborative decision-making process.
reducing our school’s environmental footprint.

I truly believe that it takes all aspects of a community to raise a child. The task of teaching cyber safety is too monumental to leave strictly to technology teachers; the responsibility is too great and the mediums in which the web is used is far too widespread to leave strictly to one subject or discipline alone. Our students use the web for EVERYTHING.

In recent years, there have been numerous stories about cyber bullying and the effects that they have caused.  The most serious of which, are those of young people who turn to suicide.  Stories, such as those of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl from Missouri, took her own life after being humiliated on MySpace, and Ryan Halligan, a middle school student from New York, who’s online abuse from classmates resulted in his suicide, are exponentially sad.  Although stories of bullying are by no means new, the size of the audience that online social networks, etc. amplifies the bullying.  As Ryan Halligan’s father says on his son’s memorial,

“It’s one thing to be bullied and humiliated in front of a few kids. It’s one thing to feel rejection and have your heart crushed by a girl. But it has to be a totally different experience than a generation ago when these hurts and humiliation are now witnessed by a far larger, online adolescent audience. I believe my son would have survived these incidents of bullying and humiliation if they took place before  computers and the internet. But I believe there are few of us that would have had the resiliency and stamina to sustain such a nuclear level attack on our feelings and reputation as a young teen in the midst of rapid physical and emotional changes and raging hormones. I believe bullying through technology has the effect of accelerating and amplifying the hurt to levels that will probably result in a rise in teen suicide rates. Recent statistics indicate that indeed teen suicide is on the rise again after many years of declining rates.”

Personally, I don’t believe that cyber bullying is that far removed from the physical and emotional bullying that takes place at school or in student social settings. The holistic education that we provide for our students should not only incorporate cyber safety skills, but overall social safety skills.  I think these skills need to be intentionally taught within the curriculum; we have to make room for it. Putting the responsibility of this kind of education on the entire “village” is the correct approach, but unless it is introduced, reviewed, practiced within every aspect of the community, things have a way of slipping through the cracks.  Let’s face it, as teachers, we have a lot of things to cover, regardless of discipline. When you put the responsibility on the community, without mandating its implementation through curriculum, teachers will assume that it’s being covered by others and put emphasis on their subject curriculum.  I believe that the incorporations of such skills should be taught in the same manner in which we teach wellness.  It’s a cross-curicular, cross-medium issue, and therefore must be taught as such.

In my opinion, the concept of online privacy is not that drastically different from privacy anywhere else; the only difference between privacy in the flesh and privacy online, is that it might take a little more work to achieve it online.  The more that we discuss privacy issues online and managing our digital footprint, the more I catch myself falling into this “old school” rhetoric of how much simpler things used to be and how scary and dissimilar they are today.  I’ve made a conscious decision to STOP being quite so narrow-minded.

I’m starting to feel like an old curmudgeon, in some respects.  I told myself when I first entered into the education field that I would not become complacent, and that I would roll with the times and the changes to better relate with my students; I would be a perpetual learner and continue to grow.  On the one hand, I feel as though I’ve been pretty good about that, but it is impossible to drive down the highway of life, without getting a few bugs stuck on the windshield.

A friend of mine discussed living in India, and how socially unacceptable people can be when you’re out, as a foreigner.  She talked about having people take pictures and getting in her personal space, with no regard to her privacy.  Her story made me smile, as I’ve found myself in similar situations.  However, after some self-reflection, I decided that it was just a few of what many of us expats have come to know as “India moments” catching up to me.  Yes… Things are different here; at times, due to our perception of normalcy, it may seem that things like this are “socially unacceptable”, but in India, as many of us expats have found, it isn’t so “unacceptable” for people to invade others’ privacy and space. A prime example- I don’t think I could tell you how many times have I’ve been asked by complete strangers whether or not I am married.  Having been single for a large portion of my time in India, prior to getting married last summer, my answer was “No.”  My response was always followed with another question, “Why not?”  I’m in my early thirties, and some view being unmarried at that age as “socially unacceptable” here.

From a cultural standpoint, it’s easy to say that one way is wrong, while another is correct, but I think it’s important to remember what life is like here. New Delhi, specifically, is a huge mass of people, on top of people, on top of people… it’s been that way for longer than the life of the oldest person living here.
The lines between what we deem as rude and what many that live here see as “a way of life” grow blurry at times.  In asking myself what my views of online privacy are, I can’t help but wonder if my perception of privacy from my own culture is similar in the online world.  Social normalcy and privacy sure seems to be different online, but I found myself wondering if online privacy for digital natives are different from those of us that didn’t grow up with facebook, google, etc.

The truth of the matter, is that with technological advances, so goes the world.  This is no different from the times of the ancient Romans.  I’ve concluded that privacy online is really no different than privacy in the flesh.  Due to vast growth of online sites and newly added abilities of tracking users, online privacy has become much more difficult to manage, but it is still in the power of the person managing their own privacy.

Interestingly, many people that put a high value on their privacy offline, are not even aware that their online privacy has even been infiltrated.  This brings me back to my point about complacency.  If you don’t understand how the online world functions, then you’ll be susceptible to privacy invasion; this is the downside of these new technologies.  On the upside of things, however, I am awestruck with the capabilities of these new advancements.  I’m not going to lie… I think it’s great that google+ can bring up things that I’m interested in, based on tracking.  I love the fact that when I search for things, I’ll get what I’m looking for faster.  I find it extremely helpful that I can type a person’s name into a search engine and find their phone number, address, etc. with the click of a button.  Many people might not like this, but tracking is not a new feature online or in the physical world.  In Gizmodo‘s recent article, How Will Google’s New Privacy Policy Affect You?, it echos this by stating, “One of the chief gripes about the change is that Google will “track” you across all of its services. Just to clarify: Google has always stored user data.”  THIS IS NOT NEW!  It may be done in a different way, but how is this different from magazines and catalogs being delivered to our houses in the pre-internet years?

Advertising & Tracking

I think the most important lesson, just as in managing one’s digital footprint, is that we must stay diligent in maintaining our privacy, if that’s what we are seeking.  In the end, it really is up to us.  Navigating between the public and private online information we share, or don’t share for that matter, is really in our control.  It just takes being a little more thorough.  I also think that automatically clicking “agree” on the terms and agreements set forth by these sites is a little less safe than it used to be.  In other words, I think it’s time that we start investigating sites that we associate ourselves with a little more thoroughly and start truly reading the fine print.

What this means to me as an educator, is that I have to teach my students to be aware of their online privacy and teach them how to manage their privacy.  It’s also important that they understand their rights within the Fair Information Practices Act (FIP) and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).  The dangers are there, but just as we were taught when we were in school, keeping one’s privacy is important.  The way in which we manage that privacy is different, with possibly greater ramifications, but the idea is the same.

Our greatest obligation as educators, I believe, is to prepare our students for the future in which they will live.  In the quickly advancing digital age in which we find ourselves today, many of the jobs and careers that we’re trying to prepare our students for, do not yet exist.  This is why it is so important that we do our best to teach to the skills that will be utilized tomorrow.  With these new skills come new responsibilities.  We must be knowledgable and current in the practices of protecting and respecting creative ownership, as well as help our students understand and differentiate between collaboration and cheating.  Not only should we teach these skills to our students, but we should also demonstrate the use of these practices ourselves.

In an era where “cheating” seems to be more commonplace than ever, from the steroid scandals in Major League Baseball to the countless stories of misused bailout appropriations, I believe it is more important than ever that we educate our students about what “cheating” actually is.  Collaboration is one of the major components in teaching to the 21st Century fluencies, but where does collaboration end and cheating begin?

If we truly believe that collaboration through technology is a necessary skill for the 21^st century, then sites like Slader, that could be compared more to an online tutoring site than a homework cheat site, could prove to be a valuable tool.  In the Mindshift article- Redefining “Cheating” with Homework, Slader shows a viable option for students to get help with their homework.  The three elements, in my opinion, that legitimize this site compared to others are-

1)    Slader is working for the site to become a student-to-student resource, rather than just an answer service.

2)    Students can earn points/credit/cash for their contributions- there is a monetary award for helping and working with others, thus giving incentives to learn and share what they’ve learned.

3)    The system doesn’t solely give the answers- The system shows, step by step, how solutions are found, giving students knowledge of the process.

This is obviously a controversial topic, but if a site like this is governed well and collaboration, rather than cheating, is being taught, I can definitely see some benefits.  In an ideal world, resources and parental support would be at every student’s fingertips.  In reality, outlets for academic help are not always as readily available as we’d like to believe.

The fact of the matter, is that that sites like this will continue to exist, regardless of how we feel about them.  Rather than have our students use them to “cheat” without our knowledge, gaining nothing for themselves, I think it’s in the better interest of our students for us to provide reputable sites that help give our students support away from school that nurture collaboration and growth, rather than cheating.  Our obligation as educators is to prepare our students for their future, and collaborating with others to find solutions is one of the key skills that they will need to do that.  It’s just as important, however, that we instill within them a sense of ethics and responsibility while collaborating with others.

In addition to this post, please see the My AES project, that I created collaboratively with Liz Halina (Click Link Below).  We created this video as an exemplar of Creative Commons use.  In addition to teaching our students how to collaborate effectively and ethically, we must also share and demonstrate those same practices to add validity.  Enjoy!

My AES

Blog Assignment #1 Questions

From the perspective of a United States citizen, based upon my understanding of U.S. copyright history and law, I believe that the lines of copyright regulation have become extremely blurred.  The interpretations of copyright laws today, seem to hardly reflect the original intentions of our Founding Fathers.  Whereas copyright was once used as a form of encouraging intellectual creativity, promoting technological progress, and stifling the formation of monopolies, it now seems to serve the exact opposite purposes.  In the technological age that we now find ourselves, with Multi-media and other readily available resources being no further than a click of the mouse away, the justice system has granted more and more intellectual-property protections.  In many respects, this shift is understandable; on the other hand, in doing so, we’ve created a culture that suppresses collaboration and ultimately slows advancement.  From a global community standpoint, I believe that there needs to be a much clearer balance between intellectual collaboration and intellectual protection.

T.J. Hooper- Flickr

In Malcom Gladwell’s Something Borrowed, the argument between ethical and legal practices versus creative freedom becomes even harder to distinguish between.  The U.S. Constitution advocates and promotes the “sharing” of ideas and technologies for the progress of Science by limiting exclusive rights for a certain time period.   In that sense, our words don’t really belong to us exclusively… or at least forever.  Article I, section 8, clause 8 of the United States Constitution states that Congress shall have the power: “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”  While this time period used to be a limit of 20 years, it has since grown as much as Life plus 70 years in the U.S.!  Is this what the original Framers intended?

Gladwell further complicates the idea of intellectual ownership, and the extent to which that ownership lasts, by trying to define what actually constitutes property:

“In ordinary language, to call a copyright a “property” right is a bit misleading, for the property of copyright is an odd kind of property. . . . I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you put in your backyard.  I am taking a thing, the picnic table, and after I take it, you don’t have it. But what am I taking when I take the good idea you had to put a picnic table in the backyard—by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting it in my backyard?  What is the thing that I am taking then?”

The two measurable elements to this dilemma seem to be the length of time ownership can last and how much of it can be shared without it being plagiarism.  Many publishers want to share their ideas, or at least part of their ideas.  In Gladwell’s, Something Borrowed, Dorothy Lewis wasn’t upset that her research was being used.  In fact she enjoyed seeing her contributions to the field of study being utilized and portrayed through various mediums.  What she didn’t appreciate, however, was Lavery’s use of events that took place in her own life, portraying them as original to the Broadway play, “Frozen”.

Many people made the correlation between Lewis and the psychiatrist character in the play.  She felt that her privacy and personal experience had been violated, that her work had been copied and pawned off as original, with no attribution, and ironically the most distressing thing to her, that some of the fictitious accounts in the play would be associate with her.  Attribution is important and ethically responsible, but at what point have we gone beyond ownership and entered the public domain?  In a letter to Lavery, Lewis wrote, “I am happy to be the source of inspiration for other writers, and had you asked for my permission to quote—even liberally—from my piece, I would have been delighted to oblige. But to lift material, without my approval, is theft.”

It seems to me, that the best possible way of countering the creative theft, as well as maintaining intellectual freedom globally, is to collectively subscribe to similar method and philosophy that  Creative Commons uses.  On their website orientation, the first two questions they ask are, “What does it mean to be human, if we don’t have a shared culture,” followed by, “What is a shared culture, if you can’t share it?  Creative Common’s philosophy provides a simple way for creators to have the freedom to share their creativity, while at the same time requiring attribution.  Creative Commons gives tools to creators to make their own choices about their own copyright, and those same terms apply to everyone.  This is all good in well, in countries like the U.S., but in order for this practice to work in other countries, where international copyright law is not often followed, this doesn’t answer all the questions.  For real buy-in and honest collaboration, international courts have got to start putting their foot down, and governments must hold their citizens accountable.  I believe that with the technological age we find ourselves, and with the wide access to information, there needs to be a global watchdog.  After all, the information that is on the web is accessible by everyone, not just members of a certain country.  This, to me, is not so different from the collaboration it will take the world to bring down greenhouse emissions.  Some things cannot be done as an island anymore… it’s too widespread.  If we’re going find solutions to some of these problems, we’re going to have to work together.

Although my generation was just on the cusp of the technology and information revolution, I am most certainly NOT a digital native. The advancements in technology, from the time I left high school until now, are so great that most of the technology that I first learned is outdated and irrelevant. These advancements seem overwhelming at times, but I feel fairly confident and comfortable taking on these new challenges.  The fact of the matter, is that regardless of our comfort levels, technology will not go away. We have one of two choices- 1) Become complacent, and do things as per usual… the way we’ve always done them. Or, 2) Practice what we preach, and continue to be lifelong learners. Despite the fears and reservations that some of us may have, technology and the advancements that come with it, are not going away. If we are determined to stay relevant and relatable to our students, we need to understand the technologies they are using. Once we have that understanding, we’re better qualified to determine which technologies are advantageous to our teaching and which are not. Hiding from technology is not an option; it’s here to stay. Jump on the bandwagon now, or get left behind. Anything new can be scary, but as educators we must stay current. I’m leaving my reservations and fear aside to enhance my teaching and to better understand and relate to my students.