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June 28, 2008
Edubloggercon and NECC
Almost the first day of NECC and I'm attending the Edubloggercon. This is an "unconference" which is supposed to be very unstructured. This has been "organized" on its own wiki for several months now.
But this one has over 200 people attending so we drop back to the way conferences get organized more traditionally. We've all voted on what the schedule of discussions should be using polleverywhere.com.
So, the folks here have twittered out and the world is discussing whether this is really an "unconference."
Good to get the conversations going! This alone is enough to validate the worldwide connections that are possible and empowering for everyone.
Posted by Pat on 12:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 1, 2008
Finally Getting Twitter...
Last night, I think I finally started to "get" Twitter! I had my window open and just randomly commented on whoever I saw say something interesting. Kind of the "bull in a china shop" approach. Had some wonderful exchanges with Mindelei (who I only know from last night's conversation), DMCordell (who I've followed on Twitter and worked with online), and many others.
The conversation was all around David Jakes' recent blog post, Tragedy of the Commons, and a blog post commenting on this from Al (no last name), Special Twitter Message.
Okay, I'm not going further down that path, but it did get me thinking and tweeting.
The question everyone seems to be grappling with is how to balance followers and following.
- Should you follow everyone who follows you? Is that a question of sociability or building your source of information?
- Should you expand your list of folks you follow and graze widely or should you prune your list to those who say something you find useful?
- What's the right number of each?
Besides my ed tech RSS feeds and podcasts and Twitter friends, I have a number of technology-focused feeds, podcasts and Twitterers. Among my favorites are Leo Laporte's collection of podcasts and GeekBrief.TV They are both Twitterers with many followers. (Check the list at Twitterholic) For them the whole point is really to get lots of followers so they can tweet out updates to their products...their blogs and podcasts which have the advertising that pays their bills.
BTW, the Twitterer with the most followers is BarackObama who is following more people than follow him ( 27,746 - 27,393). Hillary Clinton only has 3554 followers and only follows 0, not even Bill! And who knows this is the real deal....after all one of my MySpace pages is this one.
Posted by Pat on 12:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 25, 2008
Beyond Second Life
Last night I spoke to a parents' group about Social Networking and balancing the opportunities and dangers on the Internet for kids of varying ages. By the end, we started to get to the fact that we really are at the very beginning of all of this when we look at things like Club Penguin or MySpace.
Today, I came across this slide show from Cory Ondrejka
. Mr. Ondrejka offered this as the final session of a faculty seminar at the Annenberg School at USC, part of the Charles Annenberg Weingarten Program on Online Communities (APOC).
Mr. Ondrejka was the CTO of Linden Labs and a leading architect of Second Life so he's got an important and well-informed viewpoint on all of this.
And in my continuing Twitter story....I came across this via a tweet from gsiemens directing me to a blog post from Brett Bixler with this slide show embedded.
This is the kind of thing the I hope I got across to parents as we think about what social networking will mean in kids' lives.
Posted by Pat on 7:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 23, 2008
Did I miss anything?
Today, I'm attending the final day of the Internet2 Spring Meeting in Washington, DC. Right now, the main session is going on, but I hate sitting at the back of the room straining to balance on one of the chairs and trying to see over everyone's head to squint to view the PowerPoint slides. Instead, I'm in a comfortable chair in the lobby, watching the whole thing via the live stream, which of course will be available long after they finish talking. And, I'm not the only one.
At the same time, I'm working on a presentation I have to give tomorrow first to a K-8 faculty and then to their PTA. The topic is social networking and Internet safety. So many great resources, including access to full transcripts from the latest Congressional hearings.
Meanwhile, I've got my twitter stream coming in and came across this poem posted at the Library of Congress Poetry 180 project.
I don't know what all this means but surely people who don't live in this world are missing something, right?
Posted by Pat on 11:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 27, 2008
Blogs, Wikis and Safety?
Just finished reading an interesting blog post from Wes Fryer of Oklahoma entitled Blogs, Wikis, District Polices, Walled Gardens and the Open Web. Wes talks about how his belief in and ongoing support of students and teachers operating in the Open Web.
The starting point for the conversation is a video from gfrancomtube entitled District Policies Regarding Blogs and Wikis This is a mashup of a 1960's video of a father and son discussing drugs, with a mix of the original audio and some new audio from grancomtube discussing district policies that keep students safe from predators on the web by keeping their wiki and blog usage in some protected space. (Unfortunately, if you look at this from your school, you may very well just see a black square since the video is only available on YouTube.)
Contrast this with the article "Online 'Predators' and Their Victims: Myths, Realities, and Implications for Prevention and Treatment" from the Feb-March 2008 issue of the American Psychologist. This article reviews just who the predators are, what behavior is most likely to put kids at risk, and just what risks really exist. Turns out it's not what we've all been taught for the past several years. The article is fascinating in both its extent and citations, but it boils down to some things we should have known from the start. 1) Kids who engage in risky behavior (chatting with strangers, posting suggestive pictures, etc.) are at risk. 2) Kids who hang out in risky places (unmoderated chatrooms, private chats with unknown individuals, etc.) There is no evidence that blogs or wikis are dangerous, including MySpace.
While I've grossly oversimplified the article, both of these resources (the YouTube video and the article) make great starting points for formulating realistic approaches that protect kids and enable kids to prepare them for their lives in the 21st Century.
Posted by Pat on 3:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 26, 2008
Personal Learning Networks and You
I just finished reading an excellent article by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach reflecting on her own use of the network for learning and on how teachers can become more involved. Her latest blog posting is entitled So Much to Say-- So Little Time.
She says a lot of what I've been experiencing as I continue my use of Twitter. Right now, I have switched to using Twitbin, which is "an extension for firefox that brings the power of twitter right in your browser." It works by keeping a constant stream of tweets running down the left side of my browser. 
This constant companion now provides me with lots of links, including Sheryl's blog, as well as entrée to lots of additional twitterers as the folks I'm following converse with the folks they are following. (still with me??)
Her post goes on to talk about collaboration and how her personal learning network enables that. In fact, I see that all day long in my twitter stream. Will Richardson will tweet about some question and the answers come rolling in. David Warlickannounces that he's doing a presentation and will all his twitter followers please say hello and the audience responds. Are they collaborating or harvesting the twitterverse? Conversely, I, with my 35 followers, ask a question and get one old friend responding to see if I've gotten any responses. ;-)
I'm enjoying the whole thing and am certainly getting a lot out of this. However, I'm sure it looks different for everyone in the twitterverse. Right now, I'm wondering if this kind of networking tool can work for classroom teachers. And, how do we use the tools so that the everyone has access to good information through their participation. Or is being there enough?
Posted by Pat on 4:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 21, 2008
Preparing my next presentation
I'm starting to really think about my conference presentation for this year's Delaware Instructional Technology Conference. My topic and blurb as submitted.
How Do We Know?
When we were in school, the question was "What do you know?" Now, for most of us, the question is "How can I know this?" and "how do I know it's true? " This presentation will go beyond searching to discuss some real-world dilemmas in Knowing in the 21st Century.
Of course, that was when I only needed 50 words and a catchy title!
When I started out, what I really wanted to focus on was how we help students "know" the difference between what's true and what's not on the web. I really liked the article from TechLearning by Kathy Schrock and it made clear a lot of the issues in learning on the web. I also want to include the powerful words of Bob Sprankle's third and fourth graders from a few years ago about using Wikipedia. Of course, the latest story along this vein is the tale of the college study group via Facebook at Ryerson University.
But with my recent use of Twitter, I'm finding another dimension of this topic. I've been "collecting" a number of local experts who help identify useful or interesting new bits of information. I'm also learning to look at other experts through the eyes (or tweets) of those I'm following. For example, David Warlick's tweet today led me to a great post More Twitter types from Martin Weller, a Professor of Educational Technology at the Open University in the UK.
I'm thinking this is a different kind of "knowing" that consists mainly of a kind of swimming in the knowledge base that is constantly swirling around me.
I've set up a wiki to collect other ideas for my presentation and would love folks to post their del.icio.us links for me.
Posted by Pat on 1:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 6, 2008
Making More Sense Out of Twitter
Still trying to figure out what makes sense in my use of Twitter, I found this video via a Twitter post from Mark Wagner.
One thing Twitter is doing for me is really putting me into touch with the people I want to listen in on. I saw this 3 minutes after Mark Wagner's tweet. 3 minutes later Jeff Utecht tweeted that he had blogged about it!
And don't forget to follow me!
Posted by Pat on 8:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 7, 2008
Learning Del.icio.us
For my first day back, I'm cleaning out all of my notes from 2007! One of the things people have asked is for better instructions for using del.icio.us. I really got the hang of this and used is extensively in 2007. So, my first offering for 2008 is these two guides.
For those who prefer text instructions, How to: Del.icio.us Part 1 from Benibshop.me.uk. There is no part 2, but this is pretty complete for starting.
For video instructions, a simple tutorial from LBurch and posted at teachertube.com. This is 30 minutes long but it's easy to jump around and get just to the part you need instruction on.
Posted by Pat on 10:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 18, 2007
Cyberbullying Advice
One question that comes up often is just what cyberbullying is and how it can be addressed. This month's issue (Nov-Dec 2007) of bNetSavvy is all about cyberbullying. What made this issue especially useful for me was that it had articles from four perspectives: a therapist, a teacher, a parent and a child. The articles not only define the problem and provide examples, but there are some great lists of what you really can do to recognize and address this growing issue.
One thing is definite...adolescents are in no way prepared to deal with this on their own. At this developmental level, they are still working out appropriate social responses and the anonymity of the web makes that much more difficult, sometimes impossible. It's also a time when kids don't want adult intervention but that's often what it takes to stop the behavior. The tips in all the articles should make it easier for adults to spot some of the signs of a victim and a perpetrator.
Posted by Pat on 11:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 5, 2007
New Internet Safety Wrinkles
This week, I'm updating my presentation called "Social Networking, Internet Safety and the Collision called MySpace" to present at the Delaware Instructional Technology Conference 2007. Since last March, I have been delivering versions of this presentation to various faculty and parent groups. With last year's news blitz of scare stories, many of them true and many of them staged, I tended to emphasize safety over networking. But this was hard for me since I really believe in the value of networking for authentic learning. Hopefully, I hit a balance.
As more study has gone on, it seems that, just like in real life, kids that engage in risky or promiscuous behavior are the ones that are most likely to get approached by predators. What that really means is that parents should incorporate a digital version of "don't talk to strangers" into the usual repertoire. What it also means is that kids who use the social networking sites intelligently can do so intelligently.
Okay, so now that we've got MySpace and FaceBook pretty much under control, two new sites may give some pause. Right now there are two big deals in the tech community. Twitter.com allows anyone to do real-time blogging from their computer or cellphone. Each "tweet" is limited to 140 characters. What is interesting is the frequency that these come at you. There are also new mashups that incorporate tweets in realtime. The most famous of these is twittervision.com.
The second one is justin.tv. This fellow has committed to wearing a camera and microphone 24-7 for the rest of his life! Currently the tech community is wondering about his prospects for marriage and dating.
Posted by Pat on 10:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 8, 2007
Cheating???
This item caught my eye today.
Cheating at a popular Web site worries educators
The lure of having the coolest igloo on the block may be teaching some young children that cheating is acceptable. At the increasingly popular children's virtual-world site ClubPenguin.com, cheating has gone mainstream, with some children downloading software and consulting blogs that help them to pad their virtual pockets with ill-gotten gold coins instead of earning their way fairly. Chicago Tribune
I'm wondering whether these kids believe they are "cheating." Maybe they are using technology for communication (ISTE NETS*S #4), research (5), and problem-solving and decision-making (6). Maybe the idea of "cheating" is the adult view from a world where games were played mainly against others, rather than an electronic world where the challenge is against the machine or collaborating with others against the machine.
So where do I get this cock-eyed view of the world? I've been an avid video game player since the Nintendo days -- just plain Nintendo. I'm now laid up after a knee operation and playing my way through Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It's a great game with lots of puzzles. But sometimes the puzzles are tougher than I'm able to spot or they call for seeing some small item on the screen or recalling something from several dungeons past. The point of the game is for me to have fun, right? When I am thoroughly frustrated, I'm not having fun...so, I go to GameFaqs where people have published elaborate 100+ page hint and walkthrough books. I find just the next sentence to make it fun again.
I've discussed this with my 15-year old nephew who has been playing games on consoles and online since he was about 4. His great frustration early on was an inability to play any game that required reading. Pretty good incentive and practice space. By the time he was 7, he was playing complicated adventure games by using a printed guide. Why? Because it wasn't fun when he couldn't advance. The payoff was an ability to read better and to follow directions. Just what teachers wanted him to do!
Now, I'm not a regular in ClubPenguin but there might just be another perspective...
Posted by Pat on 4:59 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 9, 2007
Why do people post on the Web?
Here's something that caught my eye today -- Why Do People Contribute to Digg or Wikipedia? This is of particular interest after Time named You as the 2006 Person of the Year.
This really affects us on two levels. First, as we use this site for research or information, it's very useful and interesting to know about why people might post to these sites. Knowing what the motivation of the folks who contribute may help make more informed decisions about what to trust.
Second, knowing why people contribute may help in crafting assignments with "authentic audiences." Why will some students shine and others shy away from these? Are there strategies in creating those assignments that we should take into account?
I don't know the answers to either of these questions, but I do think it's important to think more about the questions than the answers and develop new questions every day.
Posted by Pat on 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 5, 2006
Bookmarks in Del.icio.us
I've been reading about the folksonomy and darting over to del.icio.us for more than a year now. I've tried shared bookmark spaces like ikeepbookmarks.com many times in the past, but this is something different. Using del.icio.us should enable me to take advantage of reorganizing using tagging and sharing the finds of people all over the world.
So, I've now really started my del.icio.us tagging in earnest and I've even added a tag cloud to my Resources page. Over time, I hope to replace all of the links that I've maintained over the years, but there is much still to be learned!
Posted by Pat on 2:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 27, 2006
Managing the Free Flow of Information
Here are three interesting quotes I heard today.
The first is from Sasa Vucinic of Media Development Loan Fund, a New York nonprofit organization providing low-cost financing to independent news businesses in emerging democracies.
"More than 80 percent of people live in countries without a free press. In other words, more than 5 billion people can't trust what they read in the newspaper, hear on the radio or see on TV, and do not really know what is happening in their own country."
The second is the article "Blogs And Wikis Move In As E-Mail Overload Becomes Unbearable" from Information Week, which says that businesses are using these new formats to manage the transmission and receiving of information.
The third concerns schools and Social Networking sites from an article in eSchoolNews.
"More than three years after social-networking web sites such as MySpace and Facebook first began cropping up online, school leaders still struggle with how to set policies regarding the use of such sites both inside and outside of school--and many school systems lack these policies altogether, according to a recent survey."
I was struck by the three counterpoints. In the first, we have a group that is actively attempting to increase the free flow of information so that people can access and harness information for their own daily lives. In the second, the free flow of information has become so overwhelming that new strategies are needed to manage it.
But the third story was the scariest, we have already claimed that our students are Digital Natives who understand how to utilize the technology to manage their lives and information. They have clearly embraced social networking as a way to operate in the digital landscape. With 3 years behind us, educators are still baffled by the whole phenomena. Surely, there is a way to bridge these three ideas and harness the technologies to lead and support students to manage information.
Posted by Pat on 2:36 PM
September 5, 2006
Wendy's Smart Wants to Be Your Friend
I spent Labor Day weekend preparing my Urban Affairs and Public Policy course: Planning IT-Enhanced Projects in the Government and Non-profit sectors. This seemingly takes me away from my primary area which is K-12 educational technology. It’s always interesting to me, though, how much they intersect.
One of the big issues right now in the K-12 world is how to handle social networking. In K-12 this amounts to keeping naïve kids from exposing too much. In the business world, it’s about leveraging these tools to make the best possible contacts and get the most exposure. In fact, MySpace is dealing with how to balance the number of ad-based personas within the space. Wendy’s Square Patty now has 81,000 friends. Take a look.
On the flip side, one of the sites I turn to for much of the information and advice for the non-profit agencies is TechSoup. While there is a strong professional community, the driving force here is really the international network of contributors. Many of these people are revealing exactly the kind of information that we warn K-12 kids about, and that’s what makes the site alive and rich.
Interesting to ponder how to facilitate the crossover.
Posted by Pat on 8:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 29, 2006
Saving Social Networking
Tomorrow I am giving my first of several talks to groups of parents at local schools. Last year I spoke about this for the first time focusing on MySpace. At that point, the news media was covering MySpace and the dangers of predators every day. In my own review of MySpace, I saw a lot of the dangers, especially for younger kids.
As I redo the presentation now, the fad of MySpace has proceeded like all fads. The older kids are moving off of MySpace and on to FaceBook. The younger kids are taking over MySpace.
It looks like this fad will eventually fade but what will be left behind is social networking online. My dilemma is how to give a balanced view of all of the benefits of social networking while everyone is focused on the dangers of MySpace. The US Congress xx is considering the passage of DOPA (Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006). This is scary legislation inspired by fear. It’s aim is to stop all social networking sites in any school or library receiving e-Rate funding. But the definition of social networking sites is any site where a user can add content. And the final determination of what those sites will be is the FCC. This could mean all blogs or collaborative projects online or Wikipedia.
This would certainly be a loss for education and puts educational decisions out of the reach of educators.
Posted by Pat on 8:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 28, 2006
Starting out...again
Today seems like a good one to begin writing in my blog on a more regular basis. I went out for my morning walk and kids were at the bus stop for the first day of school. Well, actually, kids, mothers, dogs and SUVs were at the bus stops, but that’s for someone else to blog about.
On my walk, I listened to a podcast of an interview with Shuna Fish Lydon the author of the blog EggBeater . She blogs about her expertise, the food industry, but I could have inserted education in almost everything she said. Many of the people she deals with everyday can’t even open an attachment.
But the experience she has had in the blogosphere has really been all about networking. By blogging, she has “met” people around the world and has online friends who have given to her and she has given back to. As an educator, I’m concerned that we help kids use social networking to have this kind of experience. These aren’t the 20,000 MySpace “friends” but real people who have become friends because of the give and take.
It’s hard to articulate these differences, but it certainly is something worth pursuing. It seems to me it is really an extension of how we taught kids not to talk to strangers and began refining that with every new person we met.
Posted by Pat on 2:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
