On Identity and Firedrills

Had a half-day today and two really cool things happened.

First, because of our weird schedule, I had a Freshman Latin class for longer than usual. So, we took a little extra time to have a class discussion about online personae and the importance of owning your own.

The kids really got it. These 14 year olds want to be in control of how they are portrayed online. And so we worked on building Google Profiles that demonstrate good digital citizenship and which can be authenticated by email. Then, we went through examples from the students' profiles on their blogs and social bookmarking sites. We discussed what works and what doesn't.

And I was really proud of the kids because they 'got it'. They understand that the profiles they are making today will evolve and grow with them throughout their high school career. And they are getting off to the right start.

Second thing...

We had a fire drill today. No biggie. Most schools have fire drills in the first few weeks.

But something was different about this one.

My buddy Bob (from Follow Bob fame) got the idea to take a few cameras out onto the football field where we all meet on the bleachers during these drills. Enlisting a few students and our Fine Arts chair, he caught the whole school together in one place both on film and video.

And the school responded.

It's not that the students were rowdy, it's that they were happy. Joyous. There we sat smiling and laughing under a beautiful blue sky and had our picture taken. All of us. Students, teachers, admins, staff. A family.

The Seniors led the students in the Wave. The Freshmen got to see what it was like to be part of the school family rather than just being the 'new kids'.

And it all came together. Like artwork.

It's been a great week. My excitement for this year is boundless.

What the Iran Protests Suggest about Social Media and the Future of Education and Societal Organization

This is more than a compelling example of why we need to include Twitter in education.

Regarding yesterday's protests in Tehran, Andrew Sullivan blogged:

As the regime shut down other forms of communication, Twitter survived.

Those rooftop chants that were becoming deafening in Tehran? A few hours ago, this concept of resistance was spread by a twitter message.

Think about it. When all else failed, there was Twitter.

To all of those naysayers who have excoriated social media -- likely only because you don't have the imagination to see its vast potential for human exchange or because you lack experience in making it work for building authentic and connected societal networks -- I ask you to do one thing for the rest of us: sit on your hands and watch. Watch as the new socially connected peoples of the world demonstrate for you what it means to participate in the global network.

Watch as we become aware that there are millions just like us, dying for the truth.

Watch as we take responsibility for our own understanding of what is going on in the world. Watch as we use social media to enact that responsibility in manifest ways.

And watch as we unapologetically teach our children and our communities how to use social networks for educating themselves, for empowering their neighborhoods and families, and for enacting change both on a local and a global stage.

Andrew nails it:

You cannot stop people any longer. You cannot control them any longer. They can bypass your established media; they can broadcast to one another; they can organize as never before.

And if we fail to recognize what has really happened here -- give or take whatever the outcome in Iran -- we will be doing direct harm to our future.

Now is the time that we must bring social and participatory media into the classroom. Not as an auxiliary to learning. Not as an extension of learning. But as the primary means of engaging real and authentic learning.

Learning that matters.

Learning that does things.

Learning that changes lives.

This is our challenge.

Arne Duncan, the Seven Day School Week, and the Myth of Sisyphus; or an alternative...

I think the reason Arne Duncan got a lot of bored stares from kids in Denver when he said

"I fundamentally think that our school day is too short, our school week is too short and our school year is too short. You're competing for jobs with kids from India and China. I think schools should be open six, seven days a week; eleven, twelve months a year,"

was because it's such a... well.. "boring" prospect.

Why in the world do we continue to think that if we just keep kids in classrooms longer that they are going to learn more?

Mr. Duncan, you are familiar with Sisyphus, I presume.

If we want kids engaged in learning year-round, why not take a new approach? I'm just brainstorming here. How about rather than send kids to the classrooms, how about sending teachers to the kids?

We could send teacher teams and current college tech students into the neighborhoods where the kids live. Whether we're talking about an urban block or a suburban cul-de-sac, we could run in wire and set up street-by-street Wi-Fi service. Then start community organized tech centers exclusively set up for project-based learning. We'd teach math and computer science in context as students work on neighborhood history projects -- researching, recording, and archiving their locale's history and voices in online interactive databases. As students interact with folks, they'd extend tech-ed outreach to people in need of new skills for a new economy.

We'd do all of this during the period we now call 'summer vacation', which really to a lot of kids ain't much of a 'vacation' anyway. And for kids who need time to work through the summer, we'd offer grants for them to do service projects instead. It'd be a lot cheaper than keeping school buildings open all summer.

Just an idea. Teaching content and tech as students engage in a connected and personalized project-based historical research project with community outreach and service requirements.

Step away from the rock, Sisyphus.

Access and Community

Reader Knaus on Snow Days:

Great cartoon. Raises lots of questions though. Do all your students have computer and internet access at home?

We're a 1:1 computing school, so I do have the benefit of knowing that at least all of my students have a computer.

With regard to access, I see this as no different than when I was a kid growing up in Baltimore and our teacher gave us a 'video-project'. My family certainly didn't have a video camera and neither did many of my friends. But, there were always a few kids in each class whose families owned one, and so we'd get together and do projects together. Making the best of what you have goes a long way.

So whether it's everybody going over to Billy's house one afternoon to do a school project online, or whether it's meeting up at the public library to use the Internet, the means are there.

The rest is motivation. And I see, through ongoing and authentic use of the Internet in the classroom, something related to that coming through: more of a sense of community among the members of the class.

And that is why I see blogs as having such potential for great change in education: because they make the students responsible both to themselves and to the community. They put the student in a place where his or her work can be seen by whomever you give access to (including parents, administrators, other students, fellow teachers of the student...) and, more importantly, they create a situation where the community only benefits through the sustained participation of each individual in the class. Motivated by a skillful teacher, the student develops a real sense of responsibility towards their blog. It becomes a public face of their educational experience. It becomes an identity thing.

By and large, I see students willing to step up to this challenge. And they will meet together to overcome individual technological deficiencies. They will rendezvous at the library to sustain their part in this community. They will take responsibility for their work if they believe that it actually means something to the larger community.

Sounds like I'm getting ready to throw down some ideas combining blogging with project-based-learning, doesn't it? (All in due time...)

With regard to their own educations, the sense of personal responsibility and self-direction is what is fundamentally at the heart of a sustained and motivational community. It all feeds itself. It's the best of the 'Net in microcosm. And I'd argue it's the way in which individuals and communities will grow in the 21st century.