The Best Thing About Chromebooks: It's Complicated

by Shelly Blake-Plock

The best thing about Chromebooks has nothing to do with the actual physical devices themselves. It has nothing to do with how much they cost. It has nothing to do with the fact that they are made by Google or Samsung or Acer or whomever. The best thing about Chromebooks is what they suggest about the way we are now thinking about computing.

Computing used to be about hardware and software. Now it's about connecting. So when you hear people naysay technology, you might point out that, to an extent, they are actually naysaying the connection between people.

There is of course the issue of money money money and all the big players who stand to make a buck off our tech needs.

I was talking to a school's IT guy today and he said: "Look, I'm vendor-neutral." And that makes sense to me -- in terms of a way to approach tech. Because when it comes down to the brass tacks, the connection is more important than the device; in the same way that my used car gets me where I'm going just the same as Joe Schmoe's Ferrari. The highway is more important than the car.

But you can never really be vendor-neutral any more than you are neutral when you decide to buy a car. There are no generic cars. There are no generic tablet devices (despite what some of them look like).

There's also the matter of what the devices do and how they connect us socially. That's not generic either, though to maintain those connections, we are somewhat beholden to the general terms and operating structures of FB, Twitter, etc.

Read an article in the NY Times today about backchannels in schools. And it was immediately apparent both in the article and the comments that the majority of the critics of social media in education have no experience actually using social media in education. And as I suggested later on Twitter, that's pretty much like those folks who will protest a movie they've never seen.

At the same time, I understand where the critics are coming from. They are a bit jaded (once again) about the idea of "change" in education and yet nervous about what it could mean (this time) in terms of shaking up their worldview (and their paycheck, to be frank). But I think their criticism would be better levied against the producers of the means -- for example, arguing that the big tech and big textbook money should be removed from the educational landscape and that they should all do business as non-profits or social ventures (fat chance... ie getting the change there, not the levying of criticism) -- rather than against those teachers and students who are re-imagining the ways we connect for the sake of learning in a connected world.

This connection thing is complicated, no?

Thinking about it, the real importance of the Chromebook is not the vendor, it's not the device, it's the fact that it makes the prediction that the Web of the future is not just a place to go look for stuff, or even a place where we can share stuff and network, but rather it's a place where everything is done. And the social technology that the current Web represents is the reality of the world -- it's not auxiliary to our reality, it is completely merged with it. To the point where we don't need a download of a song much less a cd; we just need a connection and access to Cloud based playlists. We don't need to be accepted to MIT to learn about physics; we just need a connection and access to their open courseware. We don't need to wait for the mainstream media to tell us what's happening in the world; we just need a connection and access to the social stream.

And that direct connection to the net: as the place where we do our work, express our feelings and opinions in the public arena, and grow as networks of engaged citizens -- that direct connection is what the Chromebook represents. And it's not like its unique to the Chromebook. It's inherent every time we work on the Cloud. It's just that the Chromebook magnifies that by making it the "sole" purpose of the device.

It also represents the reality that we depend so much on tech companies to provide that access. And as teachers, we depend so much on tech companies to provide the way to make that connection. It's a position I think many of us are plenty wary of. But we are living in an era where the means is so technologically specific and nearly impossible to reproduce without the industry, yet the potential outcome is so great.

We don't get 'On the Road' without the automotive and oil industries. And we don't get the blogosphere without the tech industry.

Again, this connection thing is complicated.

In the end, as we become more connected, we inevitably become more dependent upon the providers of our connections. So we have to go forward vigilantly, not scared of the connection and not naysaying reality, but as truly aware citizens. And we're gonna have to think about what this whole connection business is all about.

Because this connection thing is complicated.

In the practical, as educators, we should be considering the following: how do we help teachers understand the change in the culture of computing and how do we best help them become empowered users?

And in the philosophical, as educators, we should think about this: how does the new idea of computing -- Cloud-based, app-driven, mobile -- affect my relevance and reality as a teacher in the physical world? How does this connection thing complicate my identity?

Being Paperless Is Not Enough

by Shelly Blake-Plock

Your students turn in all of their work electronically. You grade everything on your Tablet PC. All of your lectures are supported by PowerPoints. You haven't been in the copy room in months. You are a completely paperless teacher.

So what?

As we've discussed on this blog since the very beginning, being paperless is not just a matter of using no paper. It's a matter of bringing the live and dynamic content of the world into your classroom in real time and connecting your student's voices to the conversation of the world.

It's not enough to be "paperless". You've got to be connected. The connection is the key.

What We Are Doing Today in Class

by Shelly Blake-Plock

Our AP Euro class is currently discussing the French Revolution. And, of course, a topic of interest has been similarities and dis-similarities to what has been happening in Egypt since Jan 25.

Below is a brief outline of what we're doing in class today. We would love readers to leave comments and questions for us to think about and discuss. We'd also love to talk to people on the ground in Egypt about what they are experiencing right now. Please get in touch @TeachPaperless on Twitter.

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We are going to be looking for similarities and dis-similarities between the French Revolution and the current revolution in Egypt.

French Revolution // Egyptian Revolution

Essentials:


1. Compare / Contrast Louis XVI and Mubarak.
2. In each case, WHY were the people protesting? (Cite primary sources).
3. What role did women play?
4. What concerns are their about the current situation in Egypt? How might they relate to the days following the fall of Louis XVI?
5. How did/are people express(ing) their views?
6. Are the current protests violent?
7. What do people on the ground in Cairo think is going to happen now? (Directly contact reporters and bloggers in Egypt via Twitter during this class period).
8. Based on your study of the French Revolution and your current observations of the situation in Egypt, what do you think are possible outcomes? How are the possible outcomes in Egypt alike or different with outcomes in France -- both in the short and long term.


Sources:


Sources on French Revolution


http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook13.html




Sources on Egypt


Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/10/live-blog-feb-11-egypt-protests


New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/latest-updates-on-day-18-of-egypt-protests/?hp


NPR
http://www.npr.org/?refresh=true
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/02/11/133675132/live-blog-latest-on-events-in-egypt


CNN
http://www.cnn.com/?refresh=1


NBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/egypt


Twitter Search
http://search.twitter.com/search?had_popular=true&q=%23Egypt&result_type=recent

Making Connections: A Little Soda-Pop Story

Generic Names for Soft Drinks by County
http://popvssoda.com:2998/countystats/total-county.html

A note here to folks getting this via a reader, you definitely want to check this out on the site: www.teachpaperless.com so that you are sure to get all of the pictures; this just won't make sense without the pics. 

The map here is pretty amazing. Color-coded, it shows the national distribution of terminology used to describe soft drinks. You'll notice some telling facts. For example, the thin swath of yellow running down an otherwise red Florida's coast. That's East Coast migrants (aka retirees) bringing their slang to Florida. And notice which state seems most pluralistic? Yup, that's all those military folks from across the country huddled together in New Mexico.

Maps tell a story. And that's what my Human Geography students and I talked about today. We talked about how you could lay a map of something as seemingly innocuous as how people describe soft drinks over the context of patterns of human habitation and find a telling correlation.

They were pretty blown away.

Until somebody said, "But how do we know that's accurate?"

So we decided to do a little informal test. The 9th graders and I tweeted out the following:

Question from Freshman class: Hey world, what is the generic name you use for a softdrink? Please give name & yr location. THX! #JCHUMANGEO

And then we started chatting about the accents and dialects of different folks in different parts of the country. Had a nice discussion. And then I remembered to check to see what had come in via Twitter.

And I saw this:

Tweets 9/9/10

How's that for a little confirmation?

In real-time, sitting in a classroom in semi-rural Maryland, my 9th grade Human Geography students reached out to the world, asked it a question, and got a response.

We looked through the responses -- many of which included little stories of people's own lives and migrations -- and compared them to the map. The map proved most accurate.

Now that's what I call 21st century education: analyse information, check it against the real world in real time, and evaluate what it all means.

On the Deeper Connections Built Into Throw-Away Questions

So the Tweet goes...

Latin Students: How many museums can you find on Twitter? +10 pt coupon to anybody who Tweets 20 museums with collections in Ancient Art!

A throw-away question like this -- casually posted after school -- can create so much opportunity, so much grist for the next day's classroom discussion, such a great compilation of resources to be bookmarked up on Delicious, so much potential for future investigation.

I call it a throw-away question because in-and-of-itself, it's just a simple question of the first type Bloom recognized.

But we're living in a world where even throw-away questions can produce stunning by-products.

For we are living in an age in which questions themselves -- questions of all varieties and supposed levels -- are capable of tapping into links far beyond whatever our initial thought or intention of the question originally was.

Certainly, this has long been the case with questions. But now, a simple question like "How Many?" Produces results like "I didn't know they had Twitter in Italy!" and "Why do all these museums need to be on Twitter?" and "Do they have Greek Art in museums in China?" and -- one of my favorites -- "How did you know about all of this stuff before the Internet?"

The kids are ready for the Network.

That is, of course, if you've prepped 'em to use social media effectively.

The best way to do that is to make social media -- and the whole instant global connected network itself -- a regular and ordinary part of your classroom environment.

Students don't need you lecture them on how to use it; they just need to see you use it.

They'll pick it up.

Especially if they get to see immediate benefits. Like when you let them use Twitter as a lifeline to their classmates on a test. Or when you let them access Delicious during an in class essay.

Or when you let a throw-away question veer off into the philosophical.

Your use of social media doesn't have to be flashy to produce good results. There was nothing flashy about Socrates.

Sometimes the simplicity of asking students to Tweet a list of resources is not only enough to fill several days' worth of classroom conversation and 'homework browsing', but it's also an investment in the future connection your kids are making with social media and networked learning itself.

It's the difference between a throw-away question (i.e. 'I wonder how many museums are on Twitter?') and a deeper connection.

Talking Alumni Blues

Almost missed posting today because I was at an event at school.

We throw an annual Country Fair at John Carroll and this year, one of our teachers put together a music stage full of student and local bands as well as teachers' groups. I did a solo set of electric blues following a great set of Irish and Scottish ballads performed by an ensemble led by one of our art teachers.

One of the great things to see, despite the rain we've had all day, was the number of alumni who showed up to support the current students as well as their former teachers. I think it's really important for both our current students and our alumni to see us as real people and not just in the confines of the classroom.

Been thinking about alumni alot recently because we are entering into the week where we start evaluating Senior Projects. Many alumni have supported our Seniors as mentors and it's really a great way to make connections between students recent and past. Those connections are what allows a school to fit into the larger community.

A lot of people have been discussing community and the larger role of schools recently. There actually still is an idea out there that schools aren't predicated on the concept of test scores, but that schools are foundational as the places that instill a understanding of and sense of power in democracy.

And I think that's where 21st century learning fits in perfectly.

The Internet provides access to information. Any student in just about any public library in this country has immediate access to almost all of the information that humanity has produced over the last 5000 or so years. So it becomes a matter of what to do with it.

And that's where alumni mentoring programs fit in perfectly.

We often approach education from the point-of-view of creating and training new professional teachers. But what about the greatest resource our schools produce: alumni. Our alumni are going to be entering into a wide variety of careers. Careers that operate within the reality of a 21st century digital world.

So why not activate that alumni connection and help former students create authentic bonds with current students.

It is authenticity that we're going for, isn't it?