Category Archives: Leadership Perspective

21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, Technology in Education, Web20

A Victory for Process: Facebook Privacy Policy to Change

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My July 18th blog post referenced issues with Facebook not meeting Canadian privacy laws. This week, announcements were made indicating that following the consultation process with the Canadian Privacy Commission, Facebook would indeed make changes to bring their practices in line with Canadian privacy requirements.

During the upcoming months, Facebook will make several changes to its privacy policy. This will include clarifying messages on the site that inform users about their control over their personal information when they join, deactivate or delete an account or sign up to use an application.

Specific changes Facebook will be making:

• Updating the Privacy Policy to better describe a number of practices, including the reasons for the collection of date of birth, account memorialization for deceased users, the distinction between account deactivation and deletion, and how its advertising programs work.

• Encouraging users to review their privacy settings to make sure the defaults and selections reflect the user’s preferences.

• Increasing the understanding and control a user has over the information accessed by third-party applications. Specifically, Facebook will introduce a new permissions model that will require applications to specify the categories of information they wish to access and obtain express consent from the user before any data is shared. In addition, the user will also have to specifically approve any access to their friends’ information, which would still be subject to the friend’s privacy and application settings.

My View:  To me, this represents more than a victory for privacy. It is a vote of confidence that the process works – and it worked through the identification of issues, consultation, collaboration and resolution. This is powerful and more effective than some ugly court case. The efforts of those involved in this entire process will positively impact the current 200 million Facebook users and all future Facebook users. Three cheers for a great process!!!

Related Reading:

Original complaint by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic

Original Findings and Recommendations

Facebook Press Release

Globe and Mail perspective

New York Times perspective

 

~ Mark

21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, Technology in Education, Web20

Digital Citizenship in the Classroom

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Digital Citizenship is an important theme in today’s online world. Educational systems are actively developing strategies to weave this concept into the curriculum. Mike Ribble describes Digital Citizenship as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use.  He believes Digital Citizenship is characterized by 9 elements.

1. Digital Etiquette: electronic standards of conduct or procedure.

2.   Digital Communication: electronic exchange of information.

3.   Digital Literacy: process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology.

4.   Digital Access: full electronic participation in society.

5.   Digital Commerce: electronic buying and selling of goods.

6.   Digital Law: electronic responsibility for actions and deeds (ethical use)

7.   Digital Rights and Responsibilities: those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world.

8.   Digital Health and Wellness: physical and psychological well-being in a digital technology world.

9.   Digital Security (self-protection): electronic precautions to guarantee safety.

The full details of the 9 elements are online at DigitalCitizenship.net.

In our Board, Digital Citizenship will handled as part of our Character Development initiative. While this is certainly a topic for most grades, we feel the greatest impact will be achieved working with students grade 4 through 9. We are in the midst of preparing classroom resources to assist with the delivery of this initiative.

To date, we have purchased reference books for each school library, shared some resources and teaching strategies with our Technology Steering Committee and designed a poster which will be distributed to all schools and also used for electronic media. Elements of the electronic media will be used as the background for the computer desktop display image.

The books we purchased for school libraries are:

Digital Citizenship in Schools by Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey (ISTE) and

Raising a Digital Child by Mike Ribble (ISTE)

Links:

Digital Citizenship and Creative Content

Cyber Smart Curriculum

Safe Social Networking

Brain Pop: Spotlight on Digital Citizenship

Wired Safety

Safe Surfing, An Introduction to the Internet

Doug Johnson’s technology ethics

Stop Cyber Bullying

Web Awareness Workshop Series Note: This series is licensed for use in Ontario publicly funded schools by OSAPAC. OSAPAC priorities for 2009/2010 will include Digital Citizenship and Online Safety through online delivery.

Thank you for teaching, promoting and role modeling Digital Citizenship.

~ Mark

21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, Technology in Education

Clarifying 20c / 21c learning

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This blog post is the result of connections made between a live event, Twitter, blogs and related commenting. This is a good example of technology supporting a focused learning session,  with an invitation extended for some participation by remote educators. 

Background: David Warlick was delivering a visioning and leadership session at Greater Essex County School Board. As part of the session, David had posed the question: What is the difference between 20th and 21st century learning? There is no doubt this is a great question to ponder and attempt to wrap your mind around. 

The Connections:

  • David wrote a blog article focusing on this question
  • An invitation to ‘weigh in’ on the discussion was posted on Twitter
  • Many active educators on Twitter would view the invite
  • Some would check out the blog post, while others would participate in the commenting as well
  • For those who commented, their writing was reviewed and posted if suitable

The original blog post and the comments are all well written and interesting to read. As an active member of the educational online community, I certainly appreciated the opportunity to ‘weigh in’ and participate. 

A few highlights from the ongoing discussion include:

  • positive traits of 2oth and 21st century learning
  • a decade into the 21st century, why do we still refer to 21st century learning?
  • student engagement – who owns this? and do teachers own it alone?
  • are education and learning the same thing? or different?

After reading the comments and decided to submit a comment, I was thinking about some connections to the Element by Dr. Ken Robinson. In his book, the Element, he discusses the need to develop ALL of the intelligences in a person. Robinson declares that you are in ‘the element’ when you hit the sweet spot of doing what you excel at and what you are passionate about. 

Helping students find their element, by using the best instructional strategies available while taking advantage of appropriate technologies to support student learning and success is the journey we are on together. Perhaps this is what we mean, at least in part,  by 21st century learning.

David Warlick’s original blog post:  What is the difference between 20th and 21st century learning?

My comment (now posted): I like your definition David. There are a few points that stick in my mind that I would like to share.

1. I believe the use of the term ’21st century learning’ is inclusive of embedding the technology tools that we have access to as part of the learning process. It is not about the technology itself, but rather strategic integration of the tools we have (now or at some future point) to foster the best possible learning environment and opportunities. Certainly, we have those that embrace, and those that do not and perhaps this comparison drives our notion of 21st century learning.

2. I also think that there is a potential to make today’s curriculum more individualized for the independent and collaborative learners we develop.

3. In some ways, we reference 20th century learning as if was all bad. This is certainly no so in my mind. I expect we could make a good case to revisit a few areas we excelled at before the ‘digital’ time began.

Our journey is all about the learner. Creating the best possible learning environment covers the ‘whole playing field’ – curriculum design, building design, teacher training, assessment, changing with the times, best use of technology and steady, reflective incremental improvement. After all, we are life long learners!

~ Mark

21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, Technology in Education

Blogging with iPods

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In our Board, we have had many literacy and writing successes with students involved in the blogging process as part of their course work. Teachers indicate that students:

  • are more engaged
  • are more likely to participate in the class activity
  • demonstrate improvement in their writing skills
  • are more likely to enter into dialogue about their reading materials

All of these success indicators point to involving more teachers and students in incorporating blogging as a literacy strategy. In order to achieve growth in this area, staff and students need to have sufficient access to technology to facilitate the blogging process and at the time you need it. 

Possibilities: Meeting this need becomes a key ingredient in the success formula. Along with some other staff at our Board, I have been looking at affordable ways to do this. One option would be to use an iPod touch (with classroom wireless access). There are currently 3 applications available for the iPod – WordPress, Blogwriter Lite and Blogwriter.

Software Application Cost: WordPress and Blogwriter Lite are free applications. Blogwriter is $1.99 CDN.

Other factors: Of course, training, assessment, support and sustainability are components of this picture too.

I am going to spend a little time reviewing and testing each application to see how feasible this approach might be. I will share what I learn in a future post. Off to start experimenting and learning about blogging with iPods.

~ Mark

21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, Technology in Education

PLN: Harnessing the power of Twitter

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Last week, during a break in our meeting schedule, I had a great opportunity to discuss the use of social media in the educational setting with friend, educator and fellow blogger Doug Peterson. On this particular occasion we were discussing our approaches to using Twitter and Facebook to make connections and keep our learning current. Doug captured our discussion eloquently in his recent On Going PD blog post, so I won’t repeat the entire discussion here.

Part of our discussion was centred around capturing and managing the rich source of information, ideas and resources within Twitter. I wanted to pick up on one point as a followup to Doug’s post as I have been using Seemic Desktop extensively over the last couple of weeks since that conversation occurred.

seesmic-logo

Seesmic desktop provides a powerful framework to organize and follow communications. The default setup gives 3 columns showing your main ‘Twitter feed’ – the list of communications from the people you follow along with your posts (like the Twitter ‘home’ screen on Twitter.com, replies, and private 1:1 communications.

With a little experimentation, I was able to streamline and view Twitter information in different ways, focusing on people or concepts.

Lists: People can be viewed as individuals or grouped by lists according to characteristics. For example, if you were following educators, you might have lists for your province or state, country and International etc. Each of these lists can be displayed in their own column within the Seesmic framework.

Concepts: Additional columns can be added to reflect the results of particular searches by filtering against the Twitter public timeline. Searches can be done with key words that you choose, or by the hashtag labels (e.g. #mlearning) which Twitter users include in messages for this tracking purpose. I have been comparing results for similar searches. For example, searches for mobile learning and #mlearning yield different results. It is rather interesting to view these columns side by side.

This approach allows you to become more of a consumer of information. Certainly, there will be ‘noise’ or distractions within the information flow. The Seesmic framework allows me to easily review posts at a glance by person, group or concept and zero in on items that catch my interest for further reading, bookmarking, commenting, responding or resource exploration. 

In my mind, there is no doubt that Twitter is a powerful learning and sharing tool. It is a core component of my daily learning and collaboration. In addition the in information I learn through the people I follow, I use this ‘concept’ approach to augment contacts, knowledge and resources in specific areas such as ipods in the classroom and mobile learning. 

I appreciate all of the Twitter participants who have become part of my PLN. Each day I look forward to the interactions, ongoing learning and collaborating!  See you online!

~ Mark

21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, Technology in Education

Classroom: Student use of Twitter

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 In Monday’s blog post, Twitter in Education, I outlined a few perspectives on using Twitter in the K12 Educational setting. Based on the reading I have done, there are 2 emerging trends.

1. There is little question about the value of Twitter as a tool that plays a key role in people developing their Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) and expanding their resources.

It is interesting to note a recent blog post on Mashable, reported that “Nielsen has compiled data from its NetRatings panel of 250,000 US Internet users and discovered that there are fewer young people on Twitter than on the Internet as a whole: one quarter of US Internet users are under 25, Nielsen says, but only 16% of Twitter users lie in that age range.”

Note: “While Nielsen is only measuring people who visit Twitter.com (not desktop and mobile clients), the analytics firm additionally claims that over 90% of TweetDeck users are over 25, making it unlikely that there are masses of uncounted young people on third-party Twitter apps.”

twitterteens

2. Despite the statistics that are currently available, there seems to be a slow but steady growing interest in using Twitter in the classroom as a communication tool for students within the curriculum delivery framework. I believe the key is finding a fit where Twitter makes a difference in the learning process and learning outcomes. In many respects, we are ‘early in the game’ of social media uses to deliver curriculum. Certainly, if developing collaboration and problem solving skills and PLNs is important for adults, then it stands to reason that this must be important for student learning too. Communication strategies and student engagement are often given as reasons for looking at Twitter use in the classroom. I believe the skillful teacher will find the right fit for Twitter as a curriculum support tool.

A Few Ideas for Twitter in the Classroom

Mashable: Twitter Guidebook

Songhai Concepts: Classroom Twitter

Tame the Web: Twitter in the classroom

Online Colleges.net 25 Twitter Projects for the College Classroom

~ Mark

21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, Technology in Education

Twitter in Education

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Over the last year, I have followed a number of online discussion regarding social media in the K12 education systems. This summer, I have specifically followed conversions regarding the use of Twitter in the classroom. As a general observation, it seems the people are more likely to be decisive with their yes/no stance with regards to Twitter. At least from the reading I have done, there seems to be more acceptance of Twitter use at the college and university levels. 

In the relatively short time that social networking has burst onto the scene, the debate over pros and cons continues to be batted about. On the classroom side, typically the conversations cover: engage the students, embrace new technologies, teachers modeling 21st century or life long learning, disruptive technologies, fragmentation vs time on task, responsibility to teach student online saftey and  and curriculum benefits (or not). On the teacher/instructor side, social networking can provide many useful connections and sharing as people build their Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) and build their resource libraries. As one reflects on this list of topics, it would be easy to argue that there is no one right answer, especially on the classroom side. Thus, the debate will go on.

Perspectives

According to Howard Rheingold, who teachers at UC Berkeley’s School of Communication and Stanford University, bringing social media into classrooms is “challenging the 1000-yr-old paradigm that you have to learn from a master and the only way to do that is to go to lecture and take notes.” 

Rheingold points to five reasons for teaching students social media:

  1. Developing students’ literacy in our new online environment is as crucial as developing their abilities to read and write. Communication is moving toward social media. We can either help students thrive in this environment or leave them flailing.
  2. Many students bring their computers to class. Why not work with this trend instead of fighting or ignoring it?
  3. Social media is just that: social. Students who use Twitter for class are “learning collaborative skills that are particularly important today.”
  4. There is only so much class time. Rheingold makes mini-lectures on video that students comment on between classes, allowing more time to engage the issues through in-class discussion.
  5. Shy students who hold back in class often speak up online. “If you can extend the discussion to an online message board, you enable students who may not jump into the discussion,” he said, to “make a thoughtful contribution.”
Regarding Twitter, Angela Maiers states that “it is the most influential tool in my personal learning network.” Angela is passionate about Twitter for a number of reasons including:             

  • “Twitter allows me to share and glean resources I can use in the classroom
  • I meet and connect with other educators from around the world whom I would otherwise never be able to meet
  • It gives me 24/7 access to the most creative, influential, and innovative minds the world has to offer, allowing me a virtual whiteboard and brainstorm group” 

David R. Wetzel views Twitter as a web 2.0 tool used to improve teacher professional knowledge, collaboration, self reflection, and ability to remain current with the latest news and trends in education.

Advantages of Twitter in Education:

Collaborating with Other Teachers

Self Reflection about Teaching
Remaining Current in Latest Education Trends
Building Reliable Networks of Teachers
Professional Development and Continuing Education

 

My view:  Personally, I land on the side of embracing social technologies in the K12 system. Different technologies will fit the learning environment in different ways. Just like using other software packages, you need the right tool to support learning in the most effective way. In my mind, there are clear benefits to using social networking tools for  student learning, curriculum delivery and professional development. Twitter, for example,  has been a core component of the development of my PLN and daily learning.

 

Where do you stand?  Share a comment or send a tweet.

Related Reading:

Angela Maiers:  My Twitter Engagement Formula

Jessica Grosse: Article in the Huffington Post blog.

David R. Wetzel: Article posted on  Suite101.com .

 

~ Mark

Leadership Perspective, Technology in Education

Open Space Technology for Teacher PD

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CATC By the Water is our Board’s summer 3 day ‘computer camp’ for teachers.

Background: CATC is our acronym for Computers Across the Curriculum. ‘By the Water’ is our catch phrase for the location. We have found great success in running this event away from home and away from Board premises to allow total focus on the task at hand by maximizing the learning and minimizing the distractions. Each summer we make the trek from our southern Ontario base north to Barrie (2 hours drive) to Kempenfelt Centre where we have hosted the event for the last 18 years. 

Organizational Strategy: The camp is organized by, and designed to function based on the principle of Open Space Technology to frame the facilitated but self directed learning experience. The principles of Open Space Technology are:

 

  • Whoever comes are the right people
  • Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
  • Whenever it starts is the right time
  • When it’s over, it’s over

    •                                              – Harrison Owen, 1985

    Areas of Focus:  Based on the planning sessions for this year, areas of focus are: literacy, ISTE Standards, collaboration, technology integration, writing and presenting through the use of: SmartBoards, Blogging, Wikis, Rapid Web Designer for the FirstClass environment (RWD), Podcasting with Garageband, Comic Life,  multimedia with iMovie, Adobe Premiere Elements, Adobe  Photoshop Elements and iPhoto,  Smart Ideas, Band in a Box and Finale. Software titles listed in green have been licensed by the Ministry of Education through the work of the OSAPAC Committee (Ontario Software Acquisition Program Advisory Committee).

    This year, camp facilitating staff are collaborating via the CATC By the Water wiki. Have a look at camp details, follow our progress and enjoy the learning! I am set to enjoy another day of facilitating and learning at CATC By the Water.

    ~ Mark

    21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, Technology in Education

    Social Networking in Education: Friend or Foe

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    Last night I read Joe Corbett’s post on ISTE Connects: Is Facebook the Enemy of Education? While looking for Facebook applications for education, he came across research indicating that Facebook could negatively impact studying. The general indication from the research was that Facebook is a distractor – Facebook users typically spend less time studying which in turn negatively impacts grades. Now, hold this thought!

    Like Joe, this got me thinking and I decided to review some of my recent readings on the topic. The links below encompass a good selection of views on the subject.

     

    Viewpoints

    Social Network Access: available or blocked/content filtered
    Classroom learning vs. socializing
    Supported by teachers, not supported by administration
    Social Networks are just tooks – can we use them in educationally effective ways?
    Keep the issues separate
    Social Networking is part of web 2.0 literacy and digital citizenship

     

    Reference Articles/Blog Posts

    Classroom 2.0: The Value of Social Networking

    Sue Water’s Blog: Educational Networking and Staying Out of My Face

    Cool Cat Teacher’s Blog: It Is About Educational Networking NOT Social Networking

    Fran Smith, Edutopia: How to Use Social Networking Technology for Learning

    Harold Rheingold: Attention Literacy

    Mark Carbone: recent blog post re school content filtering and social network access

     

    OK, you have been holding that thought …. I believe you will find Joe’s article interesting, and it includes a reader survey. His post and survey are at: Is Facebook the Enemy of Education by Joe Corbett, ISTE. Have you voted yet?

    ~ Mark

    21st century learning, Leadership Perspective, Technology in Education

    Strategic Planning for 21st Century Learning

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    A typical Sunday morning for me includes catching up on blog reading, and this one was no different. While the reading is always interesting, what intrigues me is the way in which things link together and stimulate new thinking about things. Topics today made me think back to comments I made in a presentation to our trustees as part of my technology strategy update. 

    There are many things you could do with technology in education. The real question is: what are the right things? Choices and decisions have to land on some key areas including: impact on student learning, investing in the future and a key one in my mind – sustainability and supportability in terms of both human and financial resources. This last point can not be overlooked, as I believe it is the fundamental reason many initiatives/projects fail. A final area looks at focus vs fragmentation. It is not possible to do everything, do it well, support it and sustain it. Strategic planning is about doing the right things for the long haul. 

    Here are a few highlights from recent reading.

    Angela Maiers – Mission to Transform
    David Warlick – Teaching and Technology
    Doug Peterson – A Plan Needed (netbooks, cloud computing)
    Howard Rheingold – Attention Literacy
    Will Richardson – If Every Student Had a Computer

    The content covered in these articles embraces many of the significant issues in K-12 education today: technology available to every student, netbooks, cloud computing, student learning, literacy in the 21st century and teacher training (changing instructional practices). From my perspective as a K-12 CIO, these articles are all right on the money. I will throw IT infrastructure planning into the mix.

    How do we best move ahead? Based on the validity of each of these key areas, none can be ignored – each one needs to be addressed. I believe the key to success and system level strength, is to work at these areas with an eye to alignment. Achieving major successes in some of these areas while others are excluded will not yield the best overall results. I believe the answer lies in alignment – the ability to drive each of these areas forward in a planned way at the same time. We are having these discussions in our Board. I am impressed with the dialogue, thinking and collaborative approach to date. It is early in the process, but I believe we are solidly headed in the right direction. We will keep dialoguing, learning and collaborating about best to move forward. I will continue to share thinking, dialogue and questions.

    In the meantime, more thinking and learning to do.

    ~ Mark