Educational Origami

The UK, like many countries is struggling with how to teach ICT. They have been teaching a skills based program in isolation from the context. They like many people have taught “excel” or “powerpoint” rather than integrating these skills sets into every aspect of teaching and learning. (I know this is a broad and sweeping generalization, but it is supported by the articles attached and this podcast also from the BBC)

“Imagine the dramatic change which could be possible in just a few years, once we remove the roadblock of the existing ICT curriculum. ”Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word or Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations,” he said.”

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16493929

What the royal society is proposing is changing ICT to computer science. teaching programming via robotics and web development from the early years of  school. The implication is that the teaching of basic ICT skills like:

• File management and standard operating procedures,
• principles of graphical design,
• principles of data processing,
• principles of presentations,
• Digital citizenship,

“If we cannot address the problem of how to educate our young people in inspirational and appropriate ways, we risk a future workforce that is totally unskilled and unsuited to tomorrow’s job market,” he said.

The aspiration, said Prof Furber, was to allow all children with an interest in computing to gain experience of programming and robotics, from basic computer languages in primary schools to web-based systems for those in senior school.”

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16515275   Royal society offers ways to overhaul ICT program.

Here is another related BBC article - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16493929 School ICT to be replaced by computer science program.

The podcast - http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9675000/9675420.stm – “a nation of digital illiterates”

I have updated the Senior students Digital citizenship agreement. I have added in two elements into:

• Protecting others – I will moderate unacceptable materials and conversations
• Respecting Intellectual property – I will acknowledge primary sources

Global Digital Citizenship is a critical element of any teaching program at any level. Our students are connected. Irrespective of the age of the student they are wired. We are seeing devices reducing in cost, increasing in availability and entering most classrooms and almost every school.

If you ask a students a question there first response is likely to be to “google” it. If you go to a library for research, the students are most likely to use the computers.The digital world is a world almost universally without boundaries (Some countries do still attempt to restrict access, but these are usually the same countries that are restrictive with their people as well). Visiting, talking, chatting, messaging are seemless, real time and simple. The distance between two people is now measured in milliseconds rather than miles.

All of this, the speed, immediacy, accessibility and ease of use means that Global Digital Citizenship is paramount.

But how do we teach Global Digital Citizenship, a fluency that is critical at all levels of education?

I think there are four aspects of this.

1. Clarity and rationale – Whether we are giving the students guidelines (my personal preference) or sets of rules there must be clarity and a transparent rationale behind the statements we make. Too often the communications that the students and staff sign to are not explained, written in quazi-legaleze and are too specific. I have seen schools and school districts present year1-3 students with documents to sign, stipulating what they can or can not do, written in language that I struggle with. The fact that the language used means the kids DO NOT understand it and therefore it is irrelevant AND the reality that a minor signing an agreement is immisable is often ignored. So a better option is to write guidelines that are flexible, encompassing and age specific. This adds CLARITY. The guidelines must have a logical basis – this is what we need from you and THIS IS WHY WE NEED IT – this is the rationale. If you can not provide a reasonable explanation for a decision or guideline then it is a POOR decision.
2. Understanding and Purpose – this is the communication aspect with the students and  the community. You have to develop and instil in the students an understanding of WHY we are making these recommendations and setting these expectations. They need to see the bigger purpose of respecting and protecting themselves, other people and intellectual property. They need to understand about their actions and the consequences of these. They must be aware of global considerations and inherent in this the cultural difference that exist. Again this is age specific.
3. Monitoring and consequences – As critical as rationale and purpose, monitoring and consequences should be transparent, timely and appropriate. We are building a trust model, which digital citizenship inherently is, but there must be a process of keeping safe and learning lessons. It is appropriate to have filtering of the internet at different age levels, it is critical to have tracking and recording of use and access – but these MUST be CLEARLY communicated. There needs to be immediacy in dealing with actions that are unacceptable, whether it is inappropriate content, actions or communications. The consequences must reflect the action. I would guarantee that most schools would have different levels of consequences for similar real and virtual actions. Consider this…. a student goes into the music department and steals a CD of the latest popular music  – the consequences of such theft would be severe. Take the online equivalent the student uses the schools network to pirate (steal) the digital equivalent of the album. The students is likely to be told this is not appropriate. How are the two actions different in the underlying action -both are  stealing media. But one is considered a lesser crime or action. Similarly how is cyberbullying less damaging than bullying face to face?
4. Individual and community involvement. In developing and implementing our digital citizenship guidelines and processes we sought, valued and used feedback from staff, students and the community. We ask our parents to apply our guidelines at home. We had our students critique our guidelines and THEN WE MODIFIED THEM based on student voice, where appropriate. Getting buy in and understanding from all sides is critical. If the student is involved in designing, implementing and using the guidelines they develop ownership and it becomes their guidelines and their ethical and moral compass, a compass that is hopefully aligned to respecting and protecting themselves, other people and property by their actions, behaviours and in some cases inactions.

So what have I missed?

A collegue asked me the other day “what is next?” We were discussing email and how this very simple and now relatively old system has changed the face of communications.

The first APRANET email was sent in 1971, and use of email has grown exponentially. In many instances, email has replaced the letter as our means of communication. It isn’t to far from the truth to suggest that infact email is just a letter in digital form. The speed, ease, simplicity and flexibility of emails has led to the current situation. Consider this:

“294 billion messages per day means more than 2.8 million emails are sent every second and some 90 trillion emails are sent per year. Around 90% of these millions and trillions of message are but spam and viruses. ”

Source: http://email.about.com/od/emailtrivia/f/emails_per_day.htm

So what is next? or are emails here to stay? Is the co-operative document/wiki/post going to be the next “letter” and the comment button the reply tool?

Is instant messaging going to develop beyond the current word/charactor limits into a suitable communication tool? We are already seeing the merging of text and IM in apples iOS 5 – imessage system.

Will video become accepted as a form of legal medium, can we sign agreements via VC as we do with letters and email?

With any change like this we will also have to consider the etiquette that  accompany these changes. What of txt-speak? will this be acceptable or does it leave too much for room for interpretation. Or in video communications, the subtle application of irony or sarcasm, of humour, anger or aggression, the nuyances of body language can and will completely change the meaning of a message.

So “what is next?“

I just got tweeted a nice diagram showing iPad applications against different levels of Bloom’s revised taxonomy. Its a good and well considered diagram and I like it. Some applications there that I haven’t seen yet and I will have to look up.

The only thing I would say is that the applications are just the medium in which the student demonstrates the level. They facilitate the cognitive action. – This is NOT a criticism, rather a statement from me and one I know that Kathy Schrock has definitely taken into account.

I know a number of people who have questioned whether tools like animoto should be included because it can be so easy, but the reality is yes you can “throw” music and images at Animoto and get a good product. But the deliberate and considered student who designs, considers, structures and evaluate will make the excellent product. Puppet Pals, which is also in the creative slot, is another excellent tool which can be used (I have seen this one work really well with my own kids) to produce creative, well considered, planned and evaluated products.

Tools like Pages and Touch Draw can be used across the taxonomic levels depending on the task and purpose. Taking notes is understanding where as authoring a book is creative, both would use the same tool. Copying a diagram  and making an infographic are at different ends of the spectrum, but still would utilize the graphic development capacity of touch draw.

Nice work and thanks for sharing

Thanks for the feedback and the comments – I have updated the JS guidelines and invite comments and suggestions.

JS internet-computer use guide

Computers at school

When we aren’t at school we use computers for lots of reasons. When we are at school, we use computers, ipads, ipods, the internet, printers or cell phones for our learning in class.

Using our Computers

We use our computers for learning. We do not play games without our teachers permission.

We will not download movies or videos, music or games without permission. This could be stealing. We will check with our teacher.

We will look after ourselves online.

Sometimes we see stuff that is rude, nasty, mean, dangerous or inappropriate, we must close down the application and tell the nearest teacher.

We will not put any personal information about ourselves on the internet. We won’t post photos or videos about ourselves. We will not share information like our address, phone numbers, hobbies or daily activities.

We will look after other people.

We will not share any personal information about other people over the internet. We won’t post other peoples photos, videos or share information.

When we write anything about a person we will asks “how would I feel if somebody said that about me?”. If it is mean or nasty, don’t say it.

We will look after ourselves and other people by telling our teachers or parents about people who are being mean or bullying.

Using other people’s stuff

We will acknowledge all stuff we use in doing our research from websites and include web addresses in our work.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

TVNZ has today reported that Rangitoto College is going to allow its students access to youtube and Facebook! Controversy!!! YOUTUBE how could they allow that and Facebook …. OUTRAGE

http://tvnz.co.nz/technology-news/college-keeps-youtube-facebook-in-digital-strategy-4457086

I mean, really, what planet are they living on?

My students make very good use of Youtube, they access how to videos, revision clips and posted lessons. Youtube has recently started a teaching channel called http://www.youtube.com/teachers Why when you have ultra-fast broadband would you block a premium resource like this?

I know that some people will say that the students will be distracted and off task. But the likelihood is that they would have been distracted and off task with or without access to youtube or Facebook. Off task behavior is a classroom management issue. Part of the strategy of rolling out a 1 to 1 program should be classroom management, providing the teachers with the techniques and strategies to manage student use of technology. The solution isn’t to block it. Do you take pens of students because they might write a note or doodle a picture?

But what about FACEBOOK I hear them cry… What about it? Do you think they can’t get access to Facebook at school already? When every 2nd mobile device connects to Facebook? When you iPhone at 2 clicks can set up a personal hotspot which by-passes filtering? Yes, students could use Facebook inappropriately, just like any other technology be it a pencil or a iPad. Yes, you can use Facebook for bullying or it can be distracting. But as I previously mentioned distraction is a classroom management issue. And bullying?

Well, bringing Facebook out into the open will actually prevent bullying. Consider this.

• Most people are NOT cyberbullies
• Most people use Facebook in an acceptable manner
• Students are able to access Facebook from most mobile devices
• Since these devices do not connect through school networks they are essentially untraceable
• Cyberbullying can therefore happen whether the school blocks Facebook or not

I am working on Junior School version of the digital citizenship materials. I would love comments and suggestions on this rework of some earlier stuff I put together.

Junior School Computer use Guidelines as a PDF JS internet-computer use guide (PDF)

Computers at school

We come to school to learn. Here at school, we have computers and the internet for our learning. We only use computers, ipads, ipod, the internet, printers or cell phones for our learning.

Using our Computers

We do not play games without our teachers permission.

Sometimes we see stuff that is rude, nasty, mean, dangerous or inappropriate, we must click on the HOME button immediately and tell their teacher.

We will not download movies, music, videos or games. This is stealing.

We will look after ourselves online.

We will not put any personal information about ourselves on the internet. We won’t post photos or videos about ourselves. We will not share information like their address, phone numbers, hobbies or daily activities.

We will look after other people.

We will not share any personal information about other people over the internet. We won’t post other peoples photos, videos or share information.

When we write anything about a person we will asks “how would I feel if somebody said that about me?”. If it is mean or nasty don’t say it.

We will look after ourselves and other people by telling their teachers or parents about people who are being mean or bullying.

Using other people’s stuff

We will acknowledge all stuff we use in doing our research from websites and include web addresses in our work.

This is an interesting article from the US about the effects of social networking on learning.

The paper finds that social networking helps the students. Here is one quote from the article

“When kids feel connected and have a strong sense of belonging to the school community, they do better in school,” said Greenhow, an education professor. “They persist in school at higher rates and achieve at higher rates. … It’s pretty promising that engaging in social networking sites could help them to develop and deepen their bonds over time.”

Essentially it relates to student engagement. A student who is engaged is a student who is learning. I have seen numerous examples of students using Social Networking for positively in the classroom. My own students have set up facebook groups for specific subject areas to discuss and support each other in their learning. These are powerful tools.

Obviously spocial networking is not without its pit falls – distraction and alike, but the paper also recognises this too.

“There is still considerable debate over whether teachers should use social-networking sites in the classroom. The dangers and abuses of social media – sexual predators, cyberbullying and harassment, and the posting of inappropriate photos and other material – have made some educators skittish. Many are not convinced that the sites improve communication, and some fear students simply use the sites to procrastinate and catch up with friends.”

http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/social-networking-helps-students-perform-better-professor-says-12292#.ToASq-_flvc.email

Worth reading.

Source: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2336/2197859476_eebb9aa79f_o.png

It was reported by the Australian news agency ABC that 80 students at a high school – Prairiewood High School in Sydney’s south-west.

The students were suspended for accessing and using teacher computers to access blocked online materials – namely facebook and twitter.

This raises several questions for me regarding the teaching and modeling of Digital Citizenship within the school.

The Core three aspects of digital citizenship are:

1. Looking after yourself (respecting and protecting yourself), which includes personal safety  – passwords
2. Looking after others (respecting and protecting other), Which includes social responcibility
3. Looking after property (respecting and protecting Intellectual property)

Digital Citizenship resources: – http://edorigami.wikispaces.com

http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/The+Digital+Citizen

http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Digital+Citizen+AUA

http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Digital+citizen+Analysis+Tool

To teach digital citizenship you must also model it. The staff needed to protect their passwords and access to their computers. Did they have a policy that saw the passwords changed regularly? Was anyone monitoring the use of accounts to check use or abuse? Being a digital citizen means the students are expected to behave in a suitable ethical and moral manner, but its not realistic to let them have unfettered access, there MUST BE MONITORING AND SUPERVISION. How do EIGHTY students gain access to and use passwords  – How was this not noticed before it reached this critical point?

source: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/197/517966692_d5e100b039.jpg available for reuse

The students did not access illegal material like pornography or change school records, rather they communicated and collaborated using social media. Interesting huh. Not porn, just talk. Why are sites like twitter and facebook blocked when many students will have access through their smart devices (iphones etc) to them. In many ways this, blocking social media on the school network, is trying to patch holes in the dam when its collapsing. Controlling access to social media by use of smart rules like time based filtering is a better solution and allows you to monitor who is accessing social media, where and when. This brings this activity into the open, rather than being clandestine and allows monitoring.

While suspending the students is sending a strong message, the number of students involved is indicative of a systemic failure, who owns this problem? The students who took inappropriate advantage or the school that by their action or inaction allowed them to reach this point

Here is the article

“Eighty students at Prairiewood High School in Sydney’s south-west have been suspended for illegally accessing a teacher’s internet account.

A statement from the New South Wales Education Minister says the students logged into the teacher’s departmental computer account to access sites like Facebook and Twitter, which students are not allowed to view from their own accounts.

The statement says no illegal, pornographic or student record material was accessed, but police were called.

The 80 students have been suspended for four days.

They will have to attend a meeting where they will be warned by police about the criminality of accessing computer material without authorisation.

All Prairiewood High School teachers have now changed their computer passwords and have been reminded about following appropriate IT security measures.”

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-25/high-school-students-suspended-over-internet-security-breach/2809744