Crowdsourcing Questions

The Freshmen in my West Civ class are crowdsourcing questions and ideas for their daily blog posts. Check out westcivproj.wikispaces.com and leave a 'daily' or two.

We'd especially like questions from your students!

TeachPaperless on Facebook

New readers:

Join the TeachPaperless Facebook Group, meet other teachers, and take part in the conversation!

Just Browsing...

An observation.

I take occasional polls of my students to gauge where their feelings are on a variety of issues. So, last year I had taken a poll asking which browser they liked best. 80% reported using Internet Explorer and 20% used Firefox.

Took the same poll this week. The results: 1% Internet Explorer, 4% Firefox, 95% Google Chrome.

Hmm.

Yes, Internet Access is a Civil Right

In deference to international readers, I begin by saying that this post is specific to the situation in the United States; but I would love to hear responses both from readers here and abroad.

A reader writes:

Internet access is a civil right? Ha! That assertion just denigrates the passionate fights for real civil rights.

I appreciate this comment because it really made me think.

And I thought about what would happen if poor people were only allowed access to public radio if they paid a monthly fee. And I thought about what would happen if poor people were only allowed to watch public television if they paid a monthly fee. And then I wondered what would happen if poor people were only allowed to check books out of the public library if they paid a monthly fee. And what would happen if poor people were only allowed to go to public school if they paid a monthly fee.

Each of those institutions -- public radio, public television, public library, and public school -- comprise a facet of the intellectual life of all American citizens. To deny access to any of these on the basis of class, race, gender, etc, would not only devalue the potential of the citizenry, but would amount to an infringement of Civil Rights.

It should be no different with regard to access to the Internet.

We need a public system to provide and ensure access for all Americans regardless of where one lives or the ability to pay for a monthly service.

In this time when so many Americans are out of work, we are presented with the opportunity both to re-train and re-employ citizens and spread access throughout the country by means of a public works program for Internet connectivity and community training in digital literacy.

This would be tied to a push for computer manufacturers to step up and help equip all of our nation's schools with 1:1 computing at a reasonable and fair rate; the cost for this 1:1 initiative will be redirected from purchases of paper and printed resources.

The result would be guaranteed free universal Internet access for all Americans.

Yes, I believe firmly that Internet access is a Civil Right. And I welcome suggestions and debate on how to move forward on the issue of once and for all closing the digital divide.

The Key to Personalized Learning

It was nice to talk to Kathleen Manzo about student blogging and personalized learning; her piece on 'Digital Tools Expand Options for Personalized Learning' in Ed Week popped up on the Net the other day and comes out in print tomorrow.

From Manzo's article:

For educators who struggle to integrate technology into their daily routines and strategies, the notion of a kind of individualized education plan for every student is more pipe dream than prospect. Yet the most optimistic promoters of digital learning say the vision of a tech-immersed classroom for today’s students—one that offers a flexible and dynamic working environment with a range of computer-based and face-to-face learning options customized for each student—is not far off.

Reading the piece, I'm very interested in the progress of students at New York City's School of One. Especially because much of the focus there is on tech-individuated math learning.

But the success or failure of tech integration in education isn't going to be determined by the success or failure of the School of One.

And it isn't going to be determined by whether textbook publishers are going to be able to make the shift to digital.

Or by whether any particular venture capital firm supports education.

Rather, tech integration is a part of a cultural shift. It's becoming, and soon will be, something expected and necessary.

Teachers already tapping into the great free resources of the Internet and Web 2.0 already know this.

And so, I humbly submit that if we really want to bring meaningful tech integration and digital empowerment to every classroom, we can't do it by courting Big Tech and Big Textbook. We have to do it by demanding laws and statutes that ensure free universal Internet access and coverage for all.

Access as a Civil Right.

That's the key to personalized learning.

For New Readers: Three from the Archive

I've noticed a lot of new readers showing up at TeachPaperless. Welcome!

Here's a selection of articles that lots of folks here have commented on and which, I think, will give all you new readers a sense of the type of writing and conversation you'll find on the blog everyday.

Why Teachers Should Blog

There is no substantial qualitative definition of a blog. Blogs, or rather blogging platforms, just exist. The quality or essence of a blog is given meaning only via what the author does with the blog and how the blog is responded to.

And in my mind what this means is that I blog and what I blog -- and how that message is received by others -- tells me what I think.

And it tells me how I think.

read the full post...

The Top Eleven Things All Teachers Must Know About Technology

We have already produced babies who will see the 22nd century. So let’s stop trying to prepare them for the 20th. The Internet as it exists today is equivalent to the Model A; let’s be wise for once and not build the highway of the future with the notion that our kids are going to be driving Model As on it.

read the whole post...

The Five-Minute Twitter Verb Crunch Drill

This is the outline of a five minute verb crunch drill I've been using with my Latin I, II, and III students. You and your kids will need to be comfortable using Diigo, Twitter, & Twitterfall, but the payoff has been great.

read the full post...

Thoughts about EduCon

Purposefully refrained from blogging during EduCon this year.

Instead, I spent my time in Philadelphia doing lots of one-on-one conversation, listening to a lot of conversations, and thinking about a lot of conversations.

In a way, engaging with such a big group of educators gives one a unique opportunity to reflect on one's own practice.

And these are the three things I reflected upon the most:

1) We can't just teach kids. We've got to liberate and empower communities.

We can't just 'think' beyond the classroom walls; we've got to 'go' beyond the classroom walls. We can't just invite parents into our schools; we've got to go directly into the homes of those we serve in our communities.

We have (or could have) the mobile capabilities. We don't need the kids (or their parents) to meet us in one central location.

And schools should not be the 'safe' place for kids to go -- that concept is nearly cynical. We need to help empower the residents of communities to make their neighborhoods 'safe' places; and part of the solution -- just like neighborhood cops walking the beat and chatting with folks in their communities and on-call health providers who go into the communities that need help to make house calls -- part of the solution is us teachers being a routine and understanding part of the web of the community on a street-by-street, farm-by-farm, cul-de-sac by cul-de-sac basis.

We've got to walk the beat.

This, of course, suggests a complete change in the physical and temporal concept of what school is. As usual, I'm always following the most practical route.


2) Teachers are not waiting for the 'okay'. Teachers are just doing it.

Will this cause problems? Yes. Will this change the world? Yes. Am I a totally naive idealist? Probably. Does that change the answers to either of the former questions? Not in the least.

EduCon gave me a burst of faith in the performative and instinctual goodness of people who love humanity so much that they are willing to give their lives to the service of its children.


3) From a purely personal perspective, I went to EduCon with an experiment: to see how this particular group of progressive teachers would respond to free improvisational music. I left EduCon feeling like I've finally come to understand the one unique thing that I can bring to the community: namely, using free improvisation to help people more closely pay attention to one another, help each other, collaborate, reflect, and build meaning and habits of mind that they can then take out into the work of their lives.

I want to pursue this.

I want to meet more teachers, more thinkers, more folks who are willing to sit down for a bit and enter into a deeper experience of collaboration. More on this forthcoming as I wrap my own brain around it.

So, thanks to Chris and all the teachers and kids at SLA. And peace to all of you who I met there. This community is real, vibrant, alive, and changing the world one school, one kid, one life at a time.

Far out.

Next stop...

...Philadelphia!

Concerning the iPad

Concerning the iPad, Mr. G writes:

If you have $500 to burn, feel free, but realize that you are a beta tester. That hasn't been talked about enough in the 24 hours since the announcement. This is Apple's MO. I know. I have a $400 first-gen iPhone in my pocket. It only took Apple two more generations of the iPhone to come out with what should have been the first product. I'm typing this on a 1,1 MacBook. Within months of buying this MacBook they threw the dual core processor's in that should have been there in the first place.

When iPad 2.0 comes out with it's video camera and multitasking, I'll have my tongue wagging to grab one. Until then I will be staying far, far away. I've learned my lesson with Apple's first-generation products.

As a long-time Apple user, (though one who's also got a soft-spot for Linux), I totally concur. Buying a first generation Apple product is always a dicey investment.

But once their products set into the stride of second and third generations? Well... that's just a whole other kettle of fish. Which is why I think the big subtext to the Apple story from yesterday is next-gen iTunes going cloud-based and the coming 2010 iPhone.

My greatest interest in the iPad itself is what it means in terms of leading to a race to replace paper media with legitimately easy-to-read digital alternatives. That and the rather concerning notion of a single corporation (via iBooks) owning both the media and the device to read and buy the media. In a sense, the iPad experiment, like the iPod, is focused on the realignment of channels of distribution. If iPad wins, it will alter not just the few mom-and-pop bookstores left (they might actually become specialty shops for non-digitally-available media), but could shake up (or shake down) the Amazons, Borders, and B&Ns of the world.

As I said in yesterday's post (as well as in the comments), I see the potential of the iPad (or some similar device) as instigating a movement towards communal computing. That is, a device sitting on the coffee table at the dentist's office or a device I find lying on my pillow when I check into my hotel room. I don't own the device, but rather can use it to access the web and all my stuff.

From the looks of it, the iPad's absolute best use is reading text on the Web. That's been the bane of so many folks who insist on paper, so by combining touchscreens with a larger portable device, Apple can only up the ante for other companies to produce better alternatives to paper books. On this front, a part of me wonders if the first iPhones were just a test to see if folks would go for that sort of interface. Because familiarity with the iPhone has totally set up a swath of the culture now to be perfectly attuned to use the iPad.

Furthermore, I understand the frustrations folks are expressing: no Flash, no phone (barring Skype... maybe?), no multi-tasking, no camera, no audio/video production suite. But again, this is just the beginning. I'm not saying that Apple will (or deserves to) rule the media landscape, but I see this as one of several steps -- throughout culture and across media and consumer outlets -- in taking the act of reading to a paperless place.

As for all of those folks on the tech blogs, (and especially in the comments, jeez... I'm so glad we have 'mature' readers commenting on this blog -- kudos to you), there's been a lot of complaint that this thing is just gonna sell on sex appeal. Well, guess what?

Design matters.

It matters to adults and kids alike. And I think where Apple is getting this right -- no matter what you think of the price (which I personally actually think is pretty reasonable despite the fact that I can't currently afford one... ehem!) and no matter what limitations the device provides for content creation in opposition to content consumption (though we are ultimately the producers of the Internet and we really don't have to rely on Apple's apps and way of doing things with their device just because they want us to) and despite all of the various problems and threats this device holds, it has one advantage over every device I've ever seen meant to provide for reading on the web: it makes you want to use it.

And if we can figure out a way to get these things into the hands of kids who don't like books (boring) and who don't like reading online (headache) we might be able to make the reading experience attractive. I understand that that may seem totally counter-intuitive to any of us who grew up curled around books. But I've got three kids of my own: two of them love books. The other? Not so much. But put him on a computer and he'll read anything. To us, counter-intuitive; to him, not so much.

You should have seen his eyes light up when he caught a glimpse of the web promo of this thing.

Now, what's it all mean?

First of all, the iPad is not -- nor do I think is it meant to be -- a do-everything device. At least in it's initial form, it's a really rad e-reader. And I mean that sincerely. I've read on the Kindle. The Kindle sucks. I feel like I'm stepping back in time when I read on the Kindle. And not in a good way. More like in a creepy way like when you see a movie you thought was funny as a kid and now, seeing it again by chance, you don't find any humor in it.

Second, I love the idea of everything going on the cloud. But I think right now is the time to demand an inclusive method of distribution so that small publishers, independent authors, and alt media outlets aren't excluded. I'll be impressed when I see Apple open up its system to authors regardless of saleability. And yes, I realize that's total idealism.

Third, any business with a waiting room should do us all a favor and buy a couple of these things. Cancel your magazine subscriptions and let us access our own stuff while sitting around waiting for the root canal.

Fourth, obviously Apple wants to make this thing as ubiquitous as possible. That's the reason for the $499 entry tag. That's also why this thing doesn't have the camera or the multi-tasking or the...

It's about creating a market. And I think it's an interesting experiment. That market is not schools (at least not yet), it's folks who can drop a few Franklins, like great design, and like to read. I know quite a few people like that.

Fifth, this thing ain't (as I've read so much over the last 24 hours) a big iPod Touch. This thing is an experiment in whether Apple can get people either to change the way they read or make the reading experience more pleasurable. And of course capitalize on that in big dollars.

Sixth, I think this whole thing represents something a lot bigger than Apple. I have no stake in the company, but as a teacher and a human-being I do have a stake in the future of the written/printed/digitized word. I recognize that the iPad can't do half the things I use a 'real' computer for (recording and mixing heavy-duty audio, playing video-heavy MMOGs), but I also recognize that that's not the purpose of the device. I'm interested in the outcome, despite whatever the product is; after all, the Google tablet is on the horizon (which may or may not be better for production) and who knows what personal projection and advances in augmented reality hold down the line.

So, I agree with Mr. G that this is basically a consumer device. Will the iPad and the iMac someday merge into a teacher-approved wonder device? Not today.

But will the iPad up the ante in e-readers and force any potential competitors to create devices that don't feel like they were built (and meant to work) in 1990? We'll see.

Hype or no hype, what we're considering here is whether we are going to let technology alter the way we relate to text. Hopefully in round two it'll be in a more interactive way. Can't wait.

Guest Blog: Creating A Space

Counselors are teachers, too!

Here in our second guest post of the day, Shelley Krause talks about EduCon. Shelley is Co-Director of College Counseling at Rutgers Preparatory School. Follow her on Twitter @butwait.


My work with young people locates me in a place full of longing and possibility. I work as a college counselor, and my students often find that the idea of leaving one community for another is fraught with emotion. Some students yearn for a kind of belonging they have yet to experience, while others crave the relief of relative anonymity. But none of them wants to feel alone, I think.

I watch and listen as my students try to imagine themselves into their unknown futures. Sometimes, I edit their questions in my mind. They ask, "What college can I get into?" and I hear, "Do I want to go to college?" The classic "What do I want to be when I grow up?" becomes, "Who do I want to be?" or even, "Do I have to grow up?"

But this kind of imaginary cut and paste results only in my altered version of their story, when what they need is the space to create more fully realized version of theirs.

***

I am heading off to EduCon2.2 this weekend after having missed last year's gathering due to illness. Several members of my school community attended a Building Learning Communities conference and came back raving about it, but I'm not sure I've managed to lure any of them to EduCon2.2.

"Why do you want to go?" someone in my school community asked me with an air of puzzlement. I think they were trying to figure out where I fit into this picture. I am not a classroom teacher. I am not a school leader. My job title does not have the word "technology" in it.

Part of my excitement about EduCon stems from a desire to define myself in terms of what I am rather than what I am not. I say to my students, "You be you." I ask them, "When are the times you've felt most fully alive?" I feel as though in reaching out in search of community, I am listening to my own counsel. I am discovering that I am a member of a school community who also wants to be be an active member of multiple learning communities.

Even if I haven't met a single one of the hundreds of EduCon2.2 attendees prior to this weekend, the lure of that community of learners has been a powerful one for me. Chris Lehmann and the SLA community have worked so hard, not only to share their learning, but to then create a space in which others can share theirs.

***

So I'm heading down to Philadelphia on Friday, unsure of what to expect and excited by the prospect of happily exploring a space so full of energy and possibility. In actively following the threads of my interest, I am trying to model what reaching out to connect with one's tribe looks like. And this spring, when a junior I'm working with lets on that he's both excited and nervous about the prospect of college, I'm going to smile and say, "Can you say a little more about that?" Trying to open up a space.

Guest Post: "I want to use technology as a method -- not has a cool activity."

Today we have two guest posts from folks in the TeachPaperless community! One of my absolute favorite things as a blogger is to be able to provide you all with the authentic voices of teachers making their own way through these digital times. I hope you enjoy reading these pieces as much as I enjoyed publishing them.

Heather Mason is a middle school teacher with 14 years experience in the Language Arts classroom but has only realized the power of technology in education recently. Follow her on Twitter @hrmason.


A confession before I start. The whole paperless thing kind of frightens me a bit. I was raised reading the comics on my dad’s lap, flipping through the pages of a journal and curling up with a paperback book. But one look at the papers stacked up mercilessly on my desk and I know there must be a better way.

When asked what I would want for technology if money was no object, my first thought wasn’t a new gadget or piece of hardware. They always seen to be outdated right after the PO is put in. Plus those tools often stay in the classroom.

As a writing teacher, I know that when kids write for me they are concerned with how many paragraphs do they need to get a good grade. But when they write for others, the grade no longer matters. They want to know how to make their writing good enough to pass peer inspection. Tech is no different. A tool that never leaves the classroom will only provide learning that stays in the classroom. I want something more.

In order to get more, though, we have to do a better job putting the tech into student hands, both at school and at home. Computers, and more specifically the internet, are now a ubiquitous part of our lives. The problem is they aren’t really a useful part of many students’ lives.

I know there is this myth of the digital native better able to communicate through electronic means that traditional ones. There is truth to that for some, but for many kids technology is only a new means to pass notes, and beyond their cell phone and MySpace/Facebook account, they have no experience in using technology to serve a purpose. Recently I told a few kids they could email me their presentations; only one knew how to add an attachment to an email. During parent conferences, many parents have confessed to getting rid of internet for safety concerns or monetary troubles. And recently I took a poll of my students and almost a quarter of them don’t text; some don’t even have cell phones. No new gadget in my classroom will overcome that.

I work in a system that supports technology, but doesn’t have the funding to fully realize its dream. There are two computer labs at my school: one for the business classroom, one in the media center, and one in its own room. I get to use one about once every two months or so, sometimes not even that much. That means that instead of making tech a key part of my class, it becomes a project… a unit that I have to plan specially for. And if we can’t finish in the two days I signed up for, well… students are out of luck unless they are already familiar with the tool we’re using and have access to a computer at home.

I’m not complaining, some schools don’t even have one lab. I have a doc cam and projector with cables strung across my floor like booby traps, but I know teachers who are still using the overhead out of necessity.

While I am happy with what I have, I want to use technology as a method -- not has a cool activity.

I want to teach students to manipulate many different forms of text. I want students to think of email and blogs as the main way to turn in papers, slide shows, photo essays, movies, whatever means of creating they choose, not as a thing for only the few special kids who happen to have internet and know how to use if effectively. I want to get them beyond passing notes. That’s where I see myself going over the next few years.

Meanwhile, I have a stack of papers to grade. Sigh.

First Thoughts About the iPad

Immediate Reaction to the Announcement of the iPad:

1. Apple is taking on the mobile phone industry and Amazon at the same time. Wow.

2. The plug-in keyboard/charger is the future-now of mobile computing. Hands down.

3. They actually priced this right; and with no contract required.

4. I'm thinking about cancelling my cell phones and my home DSL, Craigslisting my various computer crap, and buying two of these on the 3G plan.

*add 3:41PM: But @deangroom just reminded me that you can't play WoW on this thing... guess I'll keep my home LAN for the time being and just ditch the phones ; )

***

More nuanced immediate reaction:

I think there's something that's largely going unsaid here.

In making iTunes cloud-based, this device really doesn't have to be 'owned' by anyone. What I mean is: this is just a device for connecting to your content (and record collection, and games, and magazines, and bookshelf) on the cloud. Which means that we could see these popping up in every hotel room and on the coffee tables of every office; we could see these things lying around for public use in the faculty room, in student centers, and in libraries.

I think what I'm suggesting is that this could sort of mash up what we think about when we think about personal computing.

Instead, could we be looking at the dawn of communal computing? Where the device is ubiquitous and shared -- sort of the Zip Car of computing. The real essence of what's going on is that the 'stuff' is out there on the cloud; all we really need is an easy to use device to access and play with our stuff.

We own our stuff; who cares who owns the device?

That said, I'm sort of envisioning one or two at home with one hooked up to an LCD projection to watch movies and whatnot. But I'm also imagining communal Pads lining bookshelves at school and a Pad or two sitting where the magazines used to be at the Jiffy Lube.

One place where I definitely see a future if this thing takes off (and it will) is in accessories. You're gonna need some way to carry that thing. Enter skinny bike messenger iPad bag.

I'll take two.

EduConversation: What Free Improvisational Music and Networked Learning Have in Common

Hey there, kids! Going to EduCon?

Well, if you're looking for fun stuff to do and happen to get the chance to pop in to our conversation on Saturday, don't forget to bring something to make noise with.

Noise!

That's right: you can expect the session to be 'highly participatory'; which is ed speak for "We're gonna raise a racket."

What do free improvised music and networked learning have in common? Bring your noisemakers this Saturday and find out.

What Blacksmiths Can Teach Us About Teaching

Spent the weekend pounding on things with hammers.

For 16 hours -- my swollen fingers and aching back are both happy it took place spread across two days -- I attended blacksmith classes at the Carroll County Farm Museum's Academy of Traditional Arts.

Led by master blacksmith Bill Clemens, (whose license-plate reads 'Blxsmith'), my classmates and I -- eight guys, mostly sporting beards -- learned the basics of metallurgy, coal firing, hammer-and-anvil technique, and forge welding.

And when I say 'learned', I mean 'LEARNED'.

There were no PowerPoints. No lectures. There were no required textbooks and there weren't any tests.

Just learning.

Blacksmith Bill would demo a technique slowly, and then once again at full speed. And then it was our turn. We went off to our forges and banged stuff out.

In a way, it reminded me of the Aikido classes I took sometime ago. In both cases, technique is modeled by a teacher and then learned and reinforced through actual practice. The sensei doesn't grade your understanding of Aikido by whether or not you can pass a multiple choice test; she assesses your understanding by judging whether or not you have figured out how to roll safely on a mat after having been thrown over the shoulder of a burly classmate. She assesses whether you've learned how to defend yourself from a sword attack by seeing if you keep getting hit by a sword or not.

Likewise, in blacksmithing, you demonstrate your understanding of pig tail scrolls and tab hooks by banging out pig tail scrolls and tab hooks. You learn which part of a two-and-a-half foot rod of mild steel is safe to touch by burning your fingers. You learn how to bring a shaft of glowing hot steel to a point by messing up over and over and over again until you get it right.

And once you do get it right you feel SO GOOD about yourself. And you want to do it again and you want to show everyone what you did and you want to learn more.

I'm going back in a few weeks to take the intermediate class. And then it's on to knife-making. My wife isn't crazy about the fact that I've got burns on six fingers and the slash of a scar above my elbow where a hot shard of steel knicked me, but she was nonetheless supportive of my wanting to build a brick forge in the backyard.

I learned a lot this weekend, and more than anything I learned about what really motivates folks: it's stuff we "can't" do, but nonetheless figure out how to do. And for eight guys who sweat and labored over anvils for a weekend in January, we figured out that you learn by doing and do by learning.

Thought for the Day

The very fact that we teach children that certain words are "SAT Words" illustrates the fact that an enormous swath of folks involved in the education of American children have little to no understanding either of what constitutes an authentic approach to language or any concept of what it means to motivate children to want to learn.

Is Your School Whale Blubber?

The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel. Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth. Then gas came along and you'd be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history's moving along. Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it.

- Brian Eno quoted January 2010 in The Guardian newspaper

Eno's talking about records and the music industry here, but I think quite a good analogy is to be made to mass-produced printed books, institutionalized/industrialized public education, and a number of things the digital landscape is rendering obsolete.

And I think every teacher, admin, schoolboard member, and super oughta be reviewing the recent history of the past 15 years of the music industry -- from the rise of low-cost digital alternatives to traditional analog studio recording to the rapid decline in profit and usefulness of cassettes and CDs. [You do remember cassettes, right? If you are like me, your most recent auto is the first you've owned that hasn't had a cassette player.]

'Alternatives' and 'Usefulness': they are the key words.

Oh yeah, and 'Whale Blubber'.

We don't need digital textbooks any more than we needed paper textbooks.

This is a big mistake:

The maker of the iPhone is discussing ways to include McGraw-Hill and Hachette e-book titles on its tablet, due to be introduced Jan. 27

If Apple really wanted to help out in education, it's new tablet would automatically erase e-textbooks.

We don't need digital textbooks any more than we needed paper textbooks.

Kids need primary sources and smart teachers, not manufactured questions and one-size-fits-all standards.

[Thanks to @NMHS_Principal for Tweeting out the original article.]

Printed Books vs. An Unlimited Literature

It was never about Paper vs. Digital.

It was never about No Tech vs. Tech.


It's always been about Static vs. Dynamic.

Passive vs. Active.

Inflexible vs. Flexible.

Rote vs. Improvisatory.

Manufactured Printed Books vs. The Unlimited Literature of Humanness.


We tried for 400-some years to use printed books to get the word out to more and more people. But we also used books as a means to limit authority and make lots and lots of money for a relative selected few.

We're at the end of that era. And nostalgia and comfort notwithstanding, I say we're all the better for it.