Shanghai - ruweb2 ?

Innovative Technology for Teaching and Learning
Social networking - the primary classroom and beyond

This post is set for those people who are at the Learning 2.0 Conference in Shanghai where I was due to give a presentation this weekend. Unable to travel I put much material into a blog at www.ruweb2.blogspot.com and for some reason this is now not accessible from China.

In view of this I have copied the bulk of the materials here ... enjoy !

I will also be doing a virtual 'unconference' session at 9.45 AM Shanghai time on Sunday 16th September ... perhaps you can make it ?

So ... RUWEB2 ? or more importantly ... 'are your children/students?'

'The future is already here - its just not evenly distributed'
William Gibson

We have seen it coming, we have used many elements of it and we all call it different things. Is it ‘social software’? Is it Web2.0? Is it ‘New Generation’? The title matters not, but the operation is the difference between ‘push’ and ‘pull’.

In our own social and professional lives as mainly digital immigrants (see the work of Marc Prensky) we have begun to embrace a new form of ‘living’. We have returned to older ways of finding out; we ask to know. But our asking is wider and involves interaction and debate. We have begun to embrace the technology to help us with this but its exponential change leaves us gasping at what we can now do and who we can talk to and, best of all, what we can say.
There is real power here for our own professional development that we have only just begun to tap into. We need to make a personal move from ‘immigrant’ to ‘native’.

The latest generation of social software is evolving. That is part of its power and its excitement.

In our schools we are dealing with digital natives. This is their world and they have never known one that is different. If we do not make use of the power of their native technology in our work with them as educators then there is a high chance that they will want to bypass our system. The very essence of schooling as we know it is at stake here.

Up until now the questions and the answers have been applied to older students working in our secondary schools but now the message is coming down the age range. Older brother and sisters have younger brothers and sisters who want to know. They watch their older siblings deal with ‘MySpace’, ‘Facebook’ and ‘Bebo’; they use ‘Flickr’, ‘del.ic.ious’ and ‘Diigo’; the write on ‘Zoho’; they communicate on ‘Skype’ and ‘MSN’; and they ‘Google’ everything from calculations to maps and beyond.

They already know how to do it and they bring their skills and knowledge with them to the school education party.

What, if anything at all, are schools doing about making the best, most efficient use of this power to enhance teaching and learning? What are the strengths that we can latch on to and work with? Where are the weaknesses and the problems? Where will we find best practice?

Have a quick glimpse into the future before you start ... we all could do with 2020 vision. Written in 2003 in the time of 'Web 1.0' does excite or ...?

The age group is falling and falling for the use of social software and we must all be aware and beware of that. It is our job to educate and support our young people in the educational and social use of the tools that they have available ... the distinction between the two aspects is, after all, ours not theirs.

Below is something to watch and listen to so that the focus shifts ... what we want to do here is to move with our young people ... to change practice where appropriate, both theirs and ours.




There is a tremendous debate about this and I expect that a large part of the audience at the Conference will have their own views and their own personal definitions.

So what is the Web 2.0 thing and how will it affect teaching and learning particularly for our younger children?

A sensible, starter version of the variety of basic applications can be found on the Softease site.

But if this is you ... have you tried your ideas on teachers who are not as knowledgeable as you? How can they see through their own practice that there is power to be had and why are they so frightened?

You might like to read here:



There is some terrific work going on in Primary Schools around the world ... Some schools have easily taken on board the excitement and the potential that Web 2.0 offers:

Newbridge Primary School offer a 'mash up' site that gives a flavour of what can be done.

Some of the things that Miles Berry says are very apt as far as primary education is concerned. You decide.

If you don't know it a really good read is the collaborative book edited by Terry Freedman entitled Web 2.0, Coming of Age:An introduction to the NEW worldwide web ... this link from Chris Smith's Shambles site.

Here Brian Kelly reports on Andy Powell's use of Facebook in the Primary School. Another example of a 'mash up'.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand at Stratford Primary School they explored the goodd, the bad and the ....

So listen to Paul Harrington from Cefn Fforest Primary school in Wales and his view on Web 2.0 in the primary classroom.

You could go here and see the links that East Carmuirs Primary School in Falkirk have saved on del.icio.us or even read their blog.

In New South Wales, in Australia del.icio.us is widely used.

Teachers TV has run on blogging ... well worth a watch and a listen.

And so on and on and on ...

Are you there yet ?

Worries about the Web 2.0 ideas and how they will affect teachers are rife ...

Whenever I talk to teachers or advisors about using Web 2.0 applications in curriculum contexts they invariably come up with worries about security. In a growingly litiginous society this is understandable but the worries should not provide barriers.

There are ways forward and I note that my good friend Peter Woodhead from Hong Kong ( who is there with you all in Shanghai) offered a look at how they are making steps or even leaps forward ... 'To see how we are using Web 2.0 on our learning platform - which gives all students a safe place to create their digital identities - go to the ESF home page and sign in with the guest account details as given on the page explore the web 2.0 folder for goodies - nothing new but it's what we like doing and also see how I have used a freebie java script editor to embed an RSS feed from my Furl site onto the home page - something your kids could probably do easily' ...

From parents to Local Authorities the constant worry about using web 2.0 applications is one of security and who will have access to what. In this litiginous society everyone wants to be safe and secure. A quick type into Google shows numerous conferences and articles seeking to clear or even muddy the water.

The State of the Net Conference has some interesting bits on 'child safety on the net'

Nancy Willard has a good grasp of things to think about.

In the UK the agency Becta has the responsibility to lead.

In the UK the Government announce a new review about e-Safety:

Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls said:

“Children and young people have faster, easier and more immediate access to online information than ever before. More and more children and young people have mobile phones and play video games in their spare time.

“These technologies bring our children new, fantastic opportunities and lots of fun but we need to balance this with the risks and worries that parents have of their children accessing inappropriate content.

“This Review is not about stopping children having fun or preventing them from taking full advantage of the educational, social and entertainment benefits that the internet and video games technologies offer. But it is about making sure they can do so safely, as far as possible, without being exposed to harmful or inappropriate material.”

Let us just take a look at blogging as a Web 2.0 example ...

My daily trawl of my 'feeds' brings up a useful blog, from John at the now famed Sandaig Primary School, related to blogging in the classroom.

Well worth the read if you feel that blogging has an important place to play in an educational/school context.



If you have not kept up with the Marin Country Day School's Trout Blog then you have missed an unfolding treat of really powerful education.
The story told in blog, video, poetry and song is a testament to the work of a dedicated teacher and a group of children who excitedly 'wanted to know'. An example of good practice education at its very best.

Subscribe to the podcast here and listen, watch and be enchanted... or simply go the blog ... enjoy !!

... and so to Podcasting ...and we will stick with 'educational' podcasting ( though it is a good bet that most podcasts will be educational in one way or another!)

Your views are urgently sought .... please !

How's this for a start:

Why Educational Podcasting?

• Provides another way of sharing and transmitting audio for teaching and learning in schools and at home
• Children and young people are able to record, produce and publish on the Internet podcasts of their very own
• Tailored to any curriculum area
• Can provide bespoke materials to support any learning situation
• Provides instructional content to reinforce learning
• Excellent for homework
• Potential to support or extend the work of any pupil with special needs
• Great community/school link potential
• Useful for children who miss sessions/ illness etc
• Useful for those with a reading difficulty or for English as a second or third language
• Promotes a concept of ownership of materials
• Promotes sustained effort in publishing for specific audiences
• An easy vehicle for personalised learning.

Some Contexts

School weekly magazine

Reports of school visits on line

Development of collections of poetry

Collaborative work with other schools

Audio jargon busters

Information for parents

Information for new pupils

Historical interviews

Regular school sports reports

Summary …Podcasting has the potential to offer the following for personalised learning in schools:

• creating audio material for learning "on demand", at anytime and anywhere
• using differential materials that can be matched to the abilities, needs and motivation of identified children and young people
• engaging in curriculum activities grounded in an emerging technology and integral to the world-wide communication revolution
• providing curriculum-related teaching and learning in a wide range of contexts and in different locations both within and away from school
• As with all technologies, podcasting has the potential for releasing the imagination of children, young people, their teachers and parents/carers.

Trawling through my various feeds I came across this interesting guide to podcasting from the world of education outside schooling but often referring to schools. More food for though. The podcast on the 'kineo' site by Donald Clark of Ufi is well worth the effort.

I like the idea that podcasts are pure content which help rather than distract

The University of Leicester in the UK is doing some interesting work in a study called IMPALA that takes podcasting into the realms of HE.

The thing about podcasting is that for it to work in a classroom context the technical issues have to be none existent and the software that is used has to be transparent, simple, quick and straightforward. So the question here is 'Is your podcasting software fit for purpose?' bearing in mind its use may well be about creating autonomous experiences for children. Anthony Evans, primary ICT consultant in Redbridge says: “if an application is going to take a long time to work out, or if the interface looks unfamiliar [teachers] will leave it to the tech teachers to do.” He continues, “teachers need something easy, something they can switch on and work out quickly”.

In my opinion such a piece of software is Podium from Softease. You can read more of Anthony's views on the Podium blog.


Honeycomb


For a while now we have been thinking about how we can move people forward so that they will take advantage of the enormous potential that Web 2.0 apps offer and how we can make them safe and secure for users in educational contexts but also take into account the power that comes with publication and peer review etc.

Moving people forward is like herding cats ... not for the faint hearted but gives immense satisfaction. As the man says 'I wouldn't do nothing else.' (thanks to Tricia for this)



(The video just seemed appropriate ... we have no connection with EDS)


And we have made a start ... it is called 'Honeycomb'

What is it ?

• It is an online tool … delivered online, used online and accessible from anywhere at any time and is always 'up-to-date'. No CDs to load, no updates to install. Every time you log on you are working on the latest version.
• It is a safe tool as it exists in a secure environment for which access is customisable at a personal variety of levels
• It is a collaborative tool designed for users to work alongside each other on documents and ideas from wherever they are
• It is an engaging tool as it fits the current idiom of customisation and personalisation. It is ‘your’ tool… a users tool !
• It is a creativity tool in the hands of creative people who will think in spaces and communicate appropriately
• It is a community tool because ideas created in it are designed to be shared
• It is an easy tool to publish ideas with as access can be granted to anyone anywhere
• It is a tool designed for education to move forward from the one person - one recording system idea into a multi-collaborative, cooperative environment
• It is an easy to use intuitive tool where items are placed, moved, changed and adapted to suit the developing ideas
• It is personal to each and every students
• It is a tool that can and will be integrated into every aspect of educational life

It is a honeycomb ... each bit tessellating with each other bits, separate but totally integrated. It is not a 'mash up', a collection of apps in a carrier bag. It is an entity and works as such.

So to find out what the bees do go to Softease and discover ...

At the Conference seek out Eugenie Morley or Danielle Markland and whisper the code word 'Honeycomb' and find out more.