21st Century Learning

21st Century Workforce Readiness

I had the opportunity recently to facilitate a group of business, education, political and community leaders in a discussion about developing a workforce ready group of graduates in the 21st Century.

I was given the task of relaying the experience. I have decided to share with you to see if you agree or disagree with these leaders' ideas and action steps and why. I encourage you to read and weigh in in the comment section below. I look forward to your responses.

Executive Summary

Newport News Public Schools is moving quickly to address learning in the 21^st century, its barriers and its possibilities, and kicked things off for 2009 with a 21^st Century Leading and Learning Conference.

As a precursor to the conference, held Jan. 9-10, 2009 at Heritage High School, global and regional leaders in education, business and religious organizations met to brainstorm together 21^st century learning concepts in a Global ThinkTank. 

An electronic global panel discussion kicked off the day’s events with an impressive group of thought leaders from Scotland, Thailand, and the U.S. logging in to Elluminate, a webinar software platform, to share their ideas and answer questions. Bios of the guest speakers can be found here. An archive of the conversation that took place can be found here.

In the following facilitated discussions, leaders were given a chance to voice their opinions about what they saw as barriers to implementation of 21^st Century workforce readiness and a re-culturing of our curriculum to meet the needs of today’s changing student.

Through the economic lens, business leaders expressed a need for 21^st century students to not only be prepared for the technology of the changing world, but to still grasp soft skills needed in the workforce, such as problem solving and leadership skills.

Education leaders saw disconnect between teacher preparation programs and the changing learning environment. High stakes testing was seen as another barrier to learning in the 21^st century.

“That accountability hinders the changes in curriculum and teaching practices needed to impact instruction, problem solving, literacy…”

“If pass rates are high, teachers/students feel a certain sense of fulfillment, but the SOLs are a minimum competency assessment. They are not enough to prepare kids for the future.”

A major theme from the breakout sessions was the disconnect between education and relevance.

“Students need to have the tie in – that what they are learning has relevance to the career they choose.”  

“When kids fall in love with learning it’s because they see the relevance.”

Leaders in the sessions admitted fear as a big barrier to 21^st century learning – the fear of change, of trying something new. This fear hinders the modeling necessary in 21^st century learning.

“Everyone needs to model from top down. . . .Principals model to teachers, teachers model to students, etc.”

After the facilitated discussions, leaders were asked to come up with proactive recommendations to the barriers addressed. From this long list, leaders filtered and organized their recommendations under different categories and then ranked the categories by the most important in their opinion. Some of the top ranked categories included leadership development, cultural awareness, professional/teacher development, partnerships/community involvement and student curriculum.

Empowering educators through leadership development, building relationships and cultural awareness, training and modeling were some of the most recommended steps to overcoming the barriers.

Out of the discussions recommended action statements emerged:

- Inventory the technological skills already available in the division to identify and address gaps. 

- Ask students to teach the teachers how they use technology and how they see these tools being used in a classroom.

- Allow teacher experts to train other teachers so there is no additional cost involved in the training. The business community can also provide in-kind support by providing training in these technologies.

- Build cultural awareness and infuse relevance into our instruction by teaching educators and students the facts of our global economy and community. 

- Teach educators the importance of and how to build their own online personal learning networks as a 21^st Century networking literacy leveraged for student growth.

- Teach students how to develop their own personal learning networks and discriminate information value and organization.

- Use technology to access and examine current events from various world perspectives through original sources and global connections.

- Teach the whole child by using inquiry driven approaches that reexamine curriculum through a 21^st Century lens.

- Work on belief systems, so that they produce citizens who can meet the challenges of this world with confidence and embrace all its people with compassion.

- Develop leadership networks that collaboratively function as professional learning communities to address and solve barriers to learning. These networks would include administrators, teachers, school staff, community and business leaders, and student leaders in the district, state and world.

Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Lead a Group
In addition to the facilitated focus groups that addressed 21^st Century issues, one group of community leaders also had the privilege of interviewing a special guest and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Rebiya Kadeer. A copy of the transcript of her interview can be found in Appendix E.

To review all data collected at the Global ThinkTank please refer to the following appendices:

Appendix A – Participants List- Removed

Appendix B – Round Robin Discussions

Appendix C – Categorization of Ideas

Appendix D – Crafts of Recommendations

Appendix E – Interview with Rebiya Kadeer

Appendix F – Panel Discussion Archive

Appendix B – Round Robin Discussions 

After breaking down into groups, participants engaged in round robin discussions of the barriers to 21^st century learning. They responded to the question, “Thinking in terms of the skills, knowledge, abilities and opportunities needed to prepare today’s students for the 21^st century workforce – what are the barriers that are currently keeping this from happening in our classroom and community?” One participant acted as scribe for the group, recording responses, while another facilitated the discussion. The notes from these discussions are reprinted below.

Group A

Round Robin Notes:

Financial Constraints are a barrier especially when we look at the technology budget. 

 There is not enough investment from all of our organizations.  Exposure and experiences are another part of 21^st century that our students are not getting.  Critical and Creative thinking is a big part of children’s learning.

We got away from the basic skills.  We still need to be able to read, write and do multiplication tables.  Attitudes start at home and are nurtured at school regarding the importance of learning. No matter whether their disposition is to go to college or not, these skills are important and you are not a failure if you don’t go to college.  And students ought not be stigmatized because they want to be a carpenter.  We ought to help kids know what they want to do and then help them do it and not stigmatize them if that means they don’t go to college. 

We are only allowing kids that can’t do to go to vocational classes. 

NNPS has the burden of raising children because of societal issues.  So now schools have to be responsible for social development too. 

Skills, Attitude and Disposition don’t cost a lot of money.

We underestimate kids’ ability to learn.  Expectations build the attitude that is needed. 

There needs to be a better cultural awareness across schools and business and finances need to be available.  Students need to be geared towards their interests not just college.  Tools to help students know their interests are needed and the finances to provide them need to be there.  

You can’t just work with the students and then send them back out in the community.  It needs to be a community effort. 

Young people have built their own community through technology.  Social networking, texting, etc.   We need to pick up on the skills our kids have and build on that with kids. 

As an instructor and parent, I am dealing with fear, not knowing what the kids are doing.  Amazement at kids’ ability to write a report, listen to iTunes and  text all at the same time.  How uncomfortable are educators and parents. 

Importance of educating our community…

Money is a problem.  We don’t have enough equipment.  Teachers are afraid that they are going to break the equipment.  They have to have critical thinking skills.  We are bad about the SOL’s but they have to be able to think.  It is more than rote memorization. 

 Consensus Issues:  Money issues, Critical Thinking, Tapping into the knowledge base of students around technology.

Group B

 I asked the question in the classroom of how our bureaucracy hinders us.  “Every school should be looked at as an independent franchise.”  So students and staff in the building has a sense of ownership.  Mediocre has become acceptable in this country.  I’m a stickler for more independent in the public structure.  Empower the individual school.

The current structure is interrupting the learning potential.

I’m coming from a different background.  I’m new to education.  “My insight is four years out of high school.  I wish I had this in my high school.  Why didn’t we have smart boards in high school or college?”  A lot of school board members are stuck in how school s use to be.  If we focus on that point that people are still involved in this process.  Teachers and students will be more willing to learn. A fear of learning something new seems to prevent the progression of the 21^st century concept.  A Student’s perspective.

Kids who start of in school are excited in the elementary level and by the time they get to high school they are brain dead.  “Why am I learning this?” Teachers have technology in front of them, but they don’t have the role models to know how to use it in the workforce arena because the have nothing to relate to. “We have to train our teachers to learn and teach in a different way.”  Relationship, relevance and investment.  When kids fall in love with learning it’s because they see the relevance.

A lot of what kids learn in the old way of learning is not relevant to what is happening in the real world.  It doesn’t mean necessary learning technology it means teaching kids so it’s meaningful. “We tend to teach kids how we were taught.”  Change is feared. Our perspective is what limits our growth.  One of the largest bearers is not teaching kids collaboratively. 

“For us to see this type of education is amazing.  We do not sit and discuss education in China.  In US a child can study any subject they chose.  That is not the case in China.   The Chinese education system only praises the Chinese government.”  Embrace change! American students should understand how fortunate they are and become global citizens to see how they can make the world a better place.  Later I was in prison for speaking about lack of human rights in education.  It is very important for me to let the children know in America how fortunate they are.

Besides the global competitive gap we need to get our kids to understand the global haves and have-nots.  We have to compete and support in service projects, awareness projects, etc.

Change is the wall that we need to overcome. “If we introduce it the right way it enables one to overcome the obstacles.”  Everyone needs to model from top down. . . .Principals model to teachers, teachers model to students, etc.

What points of consensus emerged in the discussion? The need to learn, teach, train and communicate not only within our community but throughout the world.

On which points were the participants’ responses divided?  none

On which points did participants reveal a wide range of responses?  Student learning, cultural awareness, exposure and appropriate modeling, best practices

Group C

In the classroom, too much emphasis on lower levels of learning due to standardized testing occurring- incredible peer pressure for kids to fit in instead of being individuals. “Kids need knowledge” but we teach facts, but not how they connect to their world.”

A barrier for SPED pop is transition. I like European out of the box thinking. “Keep the bar up, but we know were the students is heading.” Look at the child’s ability and go that track. Train them so they are vocationally sound by the time they exit school (rather than pushing them to be college bound – when we know they may not be). 

A barrier I see is a conformative mentality. We have lost the sense of being an individual. It is not sportsmanship or working as a team. WE have lost a sense of civility. We are not working in teams or offering assistance. Emphasis on SOLs, NCLB, - schools, teachers, principals are evaluated on how kids score on a mc test – critical thinking skills is missing. “The soft-skills of team-work and problem solving need to be part of our education to be ready for the work force.  We need situational leaders in addition to supervisors, etc. Know when to lead, when to step back, be cross-functional”

Barriers:  homelife – a major part for students who don’t have the support structures at home = community issue

School issue = playing the blame game on parents/community

Not all children learn the same way – we teach like they only learn one way. We teach in the same classroom environment as the one from the civil war. We need to convert the methodology of teaching to using the tools kids use today. = relevance!

Kids don’t believe their teachers care about them. So many distractions/baggage in the classroom. Teachers need to be thoughtful and think in terms to being able to relate to a particular student who is different or struggling…the teacher is influential –one of the most influential people in children’s lives. Engagement between teacher and student is critical piece. All the kids aren’t likeable – but they are all human beings, need to have a future. I am not casting aspersions on all teachers, but teachers need to get into the lives of kids – go beyond the content.

Kids cannot relate what they are doing in the classroom that day to the future. There needs to be a connection – this is why dropouts occur. Serious systemic challenges

Serious concern with the SOLs being the end all, be all of education. And it shouldn’t be.  If pass rates are high – teachers/students feel a certain sense of fulfillment – but the SOLs are a minimum competency assessment – they are not enough to prepare kids for the future.

Not enough articulation between colleges and public schools – teacher prep programs. 1^st year teachers often enter the teaching field ill prepared for the reality of teaching and learning in the 21^st century. There is also a disconnect in the classroom in the classroom to the real world = relevance.  There is no questions about the fact that we have different societal practices as before but we cannot let community “situations” interfere with teaching kids.

Global, 21^st century is exciting, but we have to pedal furiously like ducks on a pond.

Lack of training, experiences and connectedness between teacher prep training and teaching reality.

From a SPED perspective, one of the barriers is isolation. If you are the only teacher certified in a certain disability in a building, it can be very isolating.   The emulation exercise could be an interesting way to connect people via technology.

Lost sight of vocational side of education (for SPED students). Unrealistic expectations for students based on their abilities.

The preparation of elementary school teacher = 20 hours of elementary ed. We only test knowledge, not can the teach the knowledge. Does that teacher know how to communicate to that kid and teach him?

Deficit model – we cannot give up on the children, let them drop out and it becomes a community problem.

 Teacher quality is critical – do they know the content? Do they know the pedagogy?

Key barriers

“Trust, communication, team work, caring and vision are missing”.  Issues: “we can’t give up on kids”

We can predict a roadmap of a student (in school, in community) – we see it coming – there needs to be something we can do to prevent it from happening.

Prisons predict future jail population based on 3^rd grade reading pass rates of the SOL.

Most issues were agreed upon by all----

Group D

Barriers to 21st Century Learning

 Guiding Question: Thinking in terms of the skills, knowledge, abilities and the opportunities needed to prepared today’s student for the 21^st century workforce, what are the barriers that are currently keeping this from happening in our classrooms and community?

Respondent 1:

Part of barrier in our community – most of the businesses in our community are not global minded at this time – fear if school system goes ahead, businesses are not going to be ready for the students when they come out of school, her company builds buildings and the global market doesn’t impact what they do on a daily basis – is a progressive student going to be satisfied with what her company has to offer,” I can see there being problems”, students coming out today seeing everything as flexible time as opposed to working standard hours – doesn’t feel there is currently a demand for a supply of technologically advanced students – are they going to be more attracted outside the city of NN – not opposed to what the education system is doing just afraid of the outcomes

Respondent 2:

Colleges and university teaching 1950’s education – works with leadership and universities to redesign teacher and leadership programs – colleges and universities not training teachers to teach in 21^st cent mindset – works with school division leaders as well – just redesigned the principal leadership program – school districts are far ahead of colleges and universities – until we get colleges and univ.’s in line with school divisions, were not going to get there

Respondent 3:

One barrier is our history and educational bureaucracy – not preparing teachers as we are preparing students – 21^st cent. Learning is larger than just the tools – values and work ethic – that is part of the 21^st century skill set as soft skills – schools are still subscribing to minimum competency based standards that is scary concept– economy is a barrier to the success of 21 c learning over the net few years

Respondent 4:

– this area loosing many of its best and brightest – the numbers support that concept that there isn’t as much of a demand – we loose a percentage of our brightest college candidates to other states because the jobs aren’t here – while we focus so much on the tools of technology, there is a loss of values, social skills, personal interactions, teaching respect, but we can’t loose sight of trying to help our students learn how to get along – the heart of how we learn to move our schools forward

Respondent 5:

Education is critical to him – rapid technological advances – cultural lag in applicants that come forward, technology advances exponentially and inversely with students who can use them, analytical abilities not there, lack of motivation – problem with work ethic – no long term goal setting – need to have desire to excel and overcome learning shortfalls, lack of emphasis on why a solid education is important, students need to have the tie in of what they are learning has relevance to the career they choose, need to have long term goals and objectives instilled in kids early, HS diploma doesn’t guarantee students have the skill sets to perform the tasks, students having difficulty passing national exams, goes back to elementary school and the parental support system – we need to look globally, technology is just a small sliver – more emphasis needs to be placed on the soft and human skills – need to have long term objectives and goals, need to realize that college is not a universal goal

Respondent 6:

-emphasis on values and work ethic cant be overstated, starts in preschool with the early education and early intervention, spend years trying to catch up, in many cases they don’t have parents who are educated and realize the importance of all of these skills, reading comprehension and math are critically important need to have other skills before you can really use the technology, people who don’t have the confidence to learn the technology are always playing catch up need to be able to play catch up through self-directed learning, we need to be teaching are children make sure you have enough money to make good decision

Respondent 7:

Key barriers – high stakes accountability testing, when you look at needed competencies that accountability hinders the changes in curriculum and teaching practices needed to impact instruction, problem solving, literacy numeracy, people are beginning to see the importance of that

What about the children who are not going to need 21^st century learning sk

Appendix C – Categorization

After a round robin discussion of barriers to 21^st century learning, participants tackled the task of coming up with proactive solutions and steps to addressing those barriers. They were asked to think in terms of the questions: What’s working now? What’s missing? What can individuals/organizations do? And other innovative ideas not related to overcoming barriers.

Participants then paired up to discuss their steps and find common ideas. After sharing in pairs, participants organized their ideas with sticky notes under different categories, from leadership development to finance and budget issues, among others. After the steps were categorized, participants voted which categories were most important or pressing. These ideas and categories, as well as the weight each category received, are reprinted below.

Leadership Development - 16 Dots

·         Empowerment

·         Great leadership team

·         What about kids who won’t need the tech (21^st) skills to make it in life?

·         Basic skill sets missing: 1. Reading comprehension 2. Math skills 3. Analytical capability

How to motivate students? Need to have desire to overcome

·         Communicate, trust, teamwork

·         Leaders should be able to identify with subordinated as peers

·         Rapid technological advances- cultural log to utilize the advances need to have students

Cultural Awareness - 26 Dots

·         Relationship building

·         Give students an understanding of world

·         Cultural awareness between teachers and students who all “other”

·         Involvement in local and global community

·         Engage stakeholders in global conversations with other cultures to learn from each other

·         Solutions: 1. Create pen-pals in other countries 2. Websites/email/chat with foreign students live under dictatorship countries 3. Teach students about the unfortunate situation of children in other countries 4. Invite representative of foreign student groups to speak on campus 5. Visit the countries of less fortunate children 6.create a textbook on the lives of third world children

Professional Development/ Teacher Development - 27 Dots

·         Training

·         Professional development is learning differently

·         Individuals do- pair with each other to learn new strategies

·         Missing- knowledge of new ways of teaching

·         Teacher internships in business

·         Professional development that is on-going

·         Continue to focus on ways to develop good teachers

·         Teach adults how to be willing to accept empowerment

·         Top-down modeling

·         Overcoming barriers bring higher ed teacher prep programs into 21^st century

·         Teacher training that models that “one size does not fit all”

·         Create teacher candidate residencies in classes of highly effective teachers known for 21^st century skill teaching

·         Must start with the teachers

·         Professional development commit to lifelong learning

·         Develop appropriate professional learning programs for educators

Partnerships/ Community Involvement - 15 Dots

·         Effectively integrating community based programs into schools (mentors)

·         Community participation in schools- let students know what employers expect

·         Higher ed partnering with school districts to solve problems through data collection, analysis and research. Using college students in a clinical model and fieldwork based learning.

·         Increase utilization of social workers and community workers in collaboration with educators

·         Community partnerships are working

·         Invite community members to solution focused meetings

·         Increase community partnerships

·         Build more business partnerships

Student Curriculum - 18 Dots

·         Reprioritize education goals- career goals. Focus on students interests, abilities vs. only “college” goals

·         More class time

·         School-wide global awareness projects

·         Use other tools of assessments (e.g. something different from SOLs) that don’t bog down actual creative teaching- make classroom learning fascinating not repetitive.

·         Basic computer classes in elementary schools

·         Allow students to “educate” students

·         Development of career pathways

·         Expose our students to the human network by giving them a chance to interact with others and the world around them including the use of technology of course but also giving them the chance to see the outside world physically not only on a screen

·         Continue efforts toward differentiation of technological learning

·         Distribute lap tops to students

·         Let kids finish course as they learn it and do something more

Critical Thinking - 10 Dots

·         We need to teach critical thinking skills

·         Focus on lifelong vs. finite/terminal degrees

Engagement of Legislators/ Policy Makers - 9 Dots

·         Work with state legislators and policy makers to change ideas and needs of schools to prepare students

Parents - 8 Dots

·         Increase parental involvement

·         As individuals- learn what’s new- pay attention engage in the unknown

·         Encourage parents to keep in touch with teachers all of time when things are going right or not

·         Telephone call from each teacher to each parent at the beginning of the year

·         Parent involvement

Data Driven Decision Making - 5 Dots

·         Collection of data- not good at analyzing the data

·         Missing- assessments that truly measure what’s important- critical thinking

·         Allow more “independence” for schools

Collaboration - 7 Dots

·         Organizations, educators and community leaders must be open to what works for individuals

·         Teach openness-be open to new ideas

·         Business leaders to help contribute to school computers

·         Create action plans centered around skills needed for success in a society

Finance/Budget - 4 Dots

·         To look at the budget differently

·         Rally public support for our public school initiatives for 21^st century technology

External Resources - 4 Dots

·         Apprentice programs

·         Get rid of textbooks

·         Lap tops to be signed out just like books

Character Development (Soft Skills) - 2 Dots

·         Missing: Soft skills, etc, needed in place? Early development and continued emphasis

·         What’s needed? Etiquette classes as a “required” elective

Early Childhood Education - 2 Dots

·         More early childhood education

Set the Stage-Defining

·         Acceptance of change

·         “21^st century learning” needs to be defined so that everyone can understand exactly what it is without misunderstanding. Misunderstanding=fear=conflict=not productive. Must understand in order to implement and be successful.

·         Reduce the fear by giving a global definition of 21^st century learning

Relevance - 15 Dots

·         Real world education. Relating curriculum to jobs.

·         Organizations make their needs as employers known- join the conversation- help shape the education of their future work force

·         Establish a career emersion program to highlight career opportunities in a non college career path- i.e. Fire Cadet Program

·         Making teaching relevant to today’s learner. i.e. technology/flexible schedules

·         What do/will business need? Now and for the next 100 years!

Communication - 11 Dots

·         Explore learning through collaboration with and without use of technology

·         Effort of teachers/administrators

·         School districts are working together and sharing ideas

·         Open line of communication parent/teacher

·         Now? Kids can “text” 24/7 and think it is the best way to communicate

·         Proliferation of virtual schools

·         Communication between the community and school

·         Home visits

Appendix D – Crafting of Recommendations

 As a final activity, participants again formed their groups to craft specific recommendations for the school system to address barriers to 21^st century learning. Each group’s notes and recommendations from this discussion are reprinted below. Group B interviewed Rebiya Kadeer at the conference and their notes are included in Appendix E.

Group A

Inventory the technological skills already available in the division so that you can then identify the gaps. 

Have students teach the teachers how they use technologies and how they see these tools used in a classroom.

Allow teacher experts to train other teachers so that there is no additional cost involved in the training.  Also, the business community can provide in kind support by providing training in these technologies.

Group C

Cultural Awareness:

Build cultural awareness by teaching educators and students the facts of our global economy/community and infuse relevance into our instruction.

Teach teachers understand how to build their own personal learning online networks so it can them be disseminated to the students.

Teach students how to develop their own personal learning networks – discriminate information

Use current technology to examine current events from various world perspectives.  – ie. Change up the URLs to see what other countries’ perspectives are about the same issue.

Clash of values – disenfranchisement – look beneath the jacket – from disadvantaged to ‘different”

Teach the whole child….

Work on belief systems – can every child learn

Group D

Leadership network,

recognizing leadership qualities

community leadership

educational leadership

Objective

Develop leadership network that includes administrators, teachers, school staff, community and business leaders, and student leaders; that collaboratively function as professional learning communities to address and solve barriers to learning

Action Steps – Option I

Research current models of PLC’s and compare information             

Develop a school and/or district leadership team

Develop a clear communication system to share information, etc. with all stakeholders

Empower leadership team members and distribute leadership responsibilities

Build capacity within the school/district that encourages and ensures sustainability

Action Steps – Option I

Identify the stakeholders in the school community who should be invited to participate in the network.

Identify barriers to the target

Empower members of the network to lead data collection analyze the results to network and all stakeholders

Provide recommendations/approaches to solve the problem or remove the barrier

Appendix E – Rebiya Kadeer

Rebiya Kadeer, Chinese businesswoman and political activist, attended the conference and participants had a chance to work with her in a small group. Participants interviewed Kadeer, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, about her life, which included being tried and imprisoned in 1999 until 2005 when the United States pressured for her release. The following are notes from that discussion.

Concept: Reform

We would die for freedom in China.  I think that’s why your people take things for granted.  We take nothing for grant in my culture.  It’s a very unique culture.  We have our own music.  In our culture women are trained to cook.  We have respect for animals and we have stories related to these animals imbedded in our culture. 

The Chinese government could wipe us all out.  People would be detained if they learned a foreign language.  By being multi-cultural students can learn about any cultural.  They have the opportunity and privilege.  There are less then 1,000 Uyghurs in this country.  The government separated their people throughout China to keep them from forming strength.  Her two sons are in prison because of what she is doing in this country.  All her grandchildren were kicked out of school.  In China the entire family is punished when one family member does something wrong. 

Were you limited because of tracking or because you are a female?  I was limited because of my families’ social class. 

The government strips you naked of your freedom, your religion, your rights to force you to become Chinese.  The Chinese government is trying to wipe out our language.

Professors, teachers, professionals were fired and forced to become janitors or unemployed because they could not speak or teach in Chinese.

How was she able to create a business?  When the former Chinese president was in place he allowed for a few lower class citizens become business owners in an attempt to become wealthy.

Appendix F – Panel Discussion

 An electronic global panel discussion kicked off the day’s events with an impressive group of thought leaders from Scotland, Thailand, and the U.S. logging in to Elluminate, a webinar software platform, to share their ideas and answer questions.

 Biographies of the guest speakers can be found here:

http://21stcenturylearning.wikispaces.com/NNPS+Symposium

An archive of the Elluminate session can be found here

https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/recording/playback/link/meeting.jnlp?suid=M.B35EA4F8E3D03B8032D6C429C65CB0

Internet Safety? Or Just Plain Weird?

A primary school has been accused of being alarmist for covering up the faces of pupils on its website – apparently to protect them from pedophiles.

Bizarrely, the images have been altered with the type of smiley faces popular during the Acid House dance craze of the 1980s.

The decision was taken at Cann Hall Primary School in Clacton, Essex.

Read the article here.  (thanks John Norton for the article via email)

Here is the part I am having a hard time understanding in all this. Traditionally, (think back to your school years) newspapers have published student's pictures and names together when highlighting accomplishments that warranted kids getting their name in the paper (eg. touchdown in football game, winning spelling bee, won scholarships etc.). Can you imagine the lessening of the "pride factor" for Grandma and Grandpa if their loved one had been recognized with a smiley face covering what should have been their 15 minutes of fame? And what about newscasts? I mean my children have made the TV news (in a good way hahaha) and the newspaper several times- somehow it just wouldn't have been as exciting if they had been unidentified in such a way as this.

Seriously- aren't we taking this a little too far?

Video Podcast - Chillin' with Kevin

Do you know Kevin Honeycutt? If you do not, you should. He is wise, talented, sincere, loves kids, and wildly funny. Here is a vidcast we did at the recent NCAETC conference. The most fun I have ever had in an interview.

Culture Change- Breaking Down Tradition

Interesting discussion over on Student 2.0 by Sean (the bass player) a student in Scotland and a group of teachers.

The post was inspired from some well meant questions from a caring American adult (teacher) who was chatting with Sean at 1:30am (Scotland). I think it was more the perceived inferences Sean drew from the questions that inspired his post, not necessarily the intentions of the asker, but regardless, the conversation struck a chord with me.

Where do we draw the line?
Sean asks, "Where do we draw the line?" in response to the question- “Does it seem strange to you to associate with a bunch of adults?”  There is more to the conversation- I encourage you to go read Sean's post for contextual reference for this discourse that follows.

The line Sean is talking about has more to do with the hidden rules of tradition and territory than it does with a moral or digital citizenship line of sorts. It is one that while more visible in the 21st Century has been around since Amateur radios began showing up in homes.  It also has a bit to do with motivations, goals, intellect and family culture I think. Let me explain.

It is a matter of family norms and culture
Sean's preference for adults is not new and he certainly isn't the only one. There are others who don't quite fit the mold and in some families it is by design. I homeschooled my four kids. Amber, my oldest (http://myaimistrue.com), only attended 1 year of conventional education. And Grace, my youngest, entered the traditional system in 5th grade(11-12 year olds).They mostly hung with adults and each other- which had some real advantages. Sure, they had some friends that were their own ages who they mostly saw at church or later in the collaborative school I created, but mainly they preferred adults. Why didn't that bother me? Because in our family the culture (mantra) was- I am raising adults, not kids. I wanted the end product to be adults, so having lots of interaction with adults seemed to make sense.

My kids were mature for their age and had lots of questions and interests that other kids simply were not into, so it just made more sense for them to connect with folks who could help them learn what they wanted to learn. Besides, learning in our family took place 24/7 even at 1:30am-- as we all had people we spoke to around the world. And I do not think that is so different than it was for my father as he was a Hamm Radio nut when he was a kid and up at all times of the night trying to accommodate for time zones.

And being a homeschooling family, the more interesting or diverse the adults my kids befriended, the better. Since my kids could pursue their passions in terms of content studied, we actively sought out adult mentors who could serve as SMEs (subject matter experts), and technology helped a great deal with that. My kids would often attend the college classes I taught and participate in the discussions. They felt as comfortable around adults as they did children, not because they were so different- but more because our culture and experience was different. 

Tools today are more powerful
While we didn't have the same tools we have now, we did have some. Bulletin boards and asynchronous chat boards were popular, IRC chat, and various protocols that gave us direct access to each other's machines. Sometimes I would make the relationships online and introduce my new found friends to my kids and sometimes they would introduce me to who they had met. I will admit- in the beginning of all this- there were typically more "techie types" online than there was Joe average, so less chance for a need to exercise digital citizenship (safety)  skills. It simply hadn't caught on yet. However, if I had been given a choice between my kids being online at 1:30 am talking to someone in Scotland who was a responsible adult or having them out riding around in a car, breaking curfew with other immature, age-specific peers-- well you get the idea. Plus, when you raise your kids to be responsible online and have open lines of communication there is a level of trust that is developed. And until that trust is broken, there is no reason to doubt that the relationships  they are making in person or online aren't healthy. Staying involved is the key.

I say all this to say- not all kids are the same. Not all parenting styles are the same. My kids now are all very successful and madly creative. They are well adjusted and have lots of friends. They all say they have fond memories of growing up in a house that included such different learning opportunities and access to a variety of interesting adults through both hands-on and virtual experiences. And they all have continued to develop relationships with interesting adults from around the world.

Teachable Moments and Networking

Let me help you understand the different mind set. Because the culture in our family was learning as a life style and not just when school was in- we were always on "game" in terms of teachable moments.
I remember going to WalMart and seeing two young adults (my age at the time) on bikes who were traveling long distance. I thought, what a cool experience this would be for my kids. I struck up a conversation with these strangers and invited them to stay at my house for a few days. Turns out, Jenny and Dan were from Seattle and had just gotten married. As part of their honeymoon, they decided to take a cross country bike trip for a year and Jenny, a writer was documenting it all on a laptop!!! (Remember 15 years ago laptops were not as common). Boy did I score. Here we had young, interesting adults who used higher order thinking to plan a year long trip, one was a writer, they were traveling and could share their experiences with my kids.

We got out a map and documented everywhere they had been with pins and yarn. (picture shows how we used this technique to study other things too) We researched the geography, culture, and landforms. We talked about how you plan a year long trip and the kids planned their own using their newly found skills. We  looked at bikes in general, the mechanics, how to wrench, the science behind them and the environmental impact. The curriculum we discovered in Jenny and Dan was endless. When they left- they emailed back their locations and we continued to track them on the map.

Well meaning friends asked-- How did you know they weren't mass murders? What if they had been drug addicts or had hurt your children while you slept or what if they had stolen things? All valid questions I guess but  not part of our reality, much like Sean 's feeling of  surprise, " I surprisingly hadn’t thought about it before."

Not Wrong- Just Different
That isn't to say this way is "the" way to raise a family. Homeschooling sure has gotten its share of criticism as well. It is to say that there are different ways to raise kids that are acceptable even if they do not fit into the traditional vein. And adults are not the only ones who feel discomfort with breaking tradition (Sean's post).  Teens also feel territorial about places like MYSpace. My kids use to get asked all the time if it creeped them out that I was on MySpace and Facebook. They would laugh and say not at all as I was there first. 

Bottom Line
I think the most important message I got from what Sean wrote was this- Teachers we need to ask ourselves...

Do we want what we are preaching or not? Do we want kids who know how to use these tools in powerful and pervasive ways to connect and collaborate with others from around the world-- even at the cost of breaking our comfort and relationship with the status quo. Are we willing to unlearn most of what we know and relearn new ways -- new norms-- for how healthy relationships are established and nurtured in the 21st Century? Do we believe in learning ecologies made up of very diverse people who help inform our student's interests and passions?

Model for your students how to build a personal learning network
The kids are ready for relationships defined by community and what each learner has to share- and not bound by the traditions of teachers having to be the expert. I feel I have come full circle. Now rather than looking for teachable moments with interesting adults so my kids can learn what they need to learn, I find myself looking for opportunities to learn with/from interesting students who have garnered skill and wisdom through their use of these participatory medias. I want to learn all Sean has learned in his late night ventures with interesting adults. I hope he doesn't hang with kids all the time and that his parents continue to allow him to be part of a learning community that is trying to leave education a better place.

As educators we need to get ready for a real shift in culture. The shifts that are coming will not allow "business as usual" rather it will be "business as unusual". That is why it is critical for all of us to first own these emerging technologies and the pedagogy/culture that surrounds them, by using Web 2.0 tools to connect- in an effort to chase our own passions. Through the experience of building of your own PLN, not only will you model for your students how this should be done, but you might find some transformational moments along the way -that like mine with Jenny and Dan- will leave you a better person. And do NOT discount what those younger or older than you have to offer. Use expertise and passion- not age- as criteria for who you should learning from and for who should be part of your learning network.

I look forward to your comments, concerns, and push back. Let's have this hard conversation.

Photo credit: http://www.ky4ky.com/yhn.htm

Just Came Across These...

Picked this up via MiddleWeb's biweekly newsletter-

EVERYBODY LOVES FREEBIES
http://snipurl.com/1vd88
You may have visited the Teachers Pay Teachers website in the past.
It was started a couple of years ago by teacher Paul Edelman, who
eventually sold it to Scholastic and is now the site's general
manager. Good pay, we'd guess. Anyway, you may not know that the site
features nearly a thousand free teacher-products (in addition to
5000+ you can buy for fairly small change). This link leads to a
search engine for the no-cost stuff. While you're there, you might
look into sharing or selling some work of your own.

   
Digizen.org
Digital citizenship isn’t just about recognizing and dealing with online hazards. It’s about building safe spaces and communities, understanding how to manage personal information, and about being internet savvy - using your online presence to grow and shape your world in a safe, creative way, and inspiring others to do the same. This site includes curriculum and videos about cyberbullying awareness.

Internet Safety

A group of teacher leaders were discussing Web 2.0 tools recently. A friend of mine posted this...

Hey Guys,

Had an interesting interaction today----I had a parent stumble onto a discussion board that is hosted on the main page of the wiki service that I use.  This is a page hosted by the wiki company---not something created by my kids.  It's also several layers deep in the website---I'm not sure my kids even know it's there.  Finally it's a page that I can't "turn off." It's there and it's not going away------but it's got some raunchy sex posts on it that include language that is inappropriate! The parent wants me to close our wiki down.  "This is unacceptable," she said.  "There should never be a time when my child is exposed to that kind of language or thinking.  We need to protect them from this kind of stuff."

So what do you think?  Should my students abstain from using our wiki---or the internet---because of the chance that they may (will?) come across inappropriate content? Is the proper decision for me to protect my children from the risky elements of the Internet by not using it and encouraging them to stay away from it until they reach a more responsible "age of consent?"  Or is the more realistic/responsible decision to teach children about safe surfing habits and what to do when they come across inappropriate content?

Another interesting question----Does your school/district practice technological abstinence in an attempt to protect children?  Do your parents?  Your colleagues?  What damage--if any--do technological abstinence practices have on children?

Rock on,
Bill

I responded with this:

You should do all of the above. Because of CIPA
http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/civilliberties/cipaweb/cipa.htm schools have to protect students from inappropriate content. The easiest way to do that is to filter everything. Lock it all down. But that it is very much like "throwing the baby out with the bath water" or "burying your one talent in the sand to remain safe" isn't it?

John Seely Brown talks about the Web as as a transformative infrastructure which he compares to electrafication. But it can also be compared to another transformational infrastructure -transportation and its impact on the United States at the turn of the 20th century. The infrastructure of roads and highways changed nearly every aspect of how we lived, how we worked and where and how we learned. It changed many of our social practices. People were not limited by geography any longer. We became a global society.  Consider the car, plane, train, trucking industry as just a few examples that transformed how we lived and learned.

It took 20-30  years for transportation to take hold and for society to develop new social practices that leveraged the potential of that entire transportation infrastructure, and so it will be for the Web.

Transportation is part of how we do things --- and yet cars are lethal weapons. We do not just toss the keys to a kid and say, look this is a gift, this is an incredible tool that will change your life forever; sure bad stuff can happen, but we will hope for the best. Instead we teach them to drive at school and put them in driver safety courses. We make sure while they are at school we are very proactive in how we indoctrinate them to this technology, the car. I am sure there were many parents who said that cars were just too dangerous and their kid would never drive one. That horse and buggy was good enough for them and it will be fine for their kid. But as Ellen reminded us... we truly are the last generation with the prerogative of choice about whether we use technology or not. Our students are not afforded this same choice if they are to be successful in the 21st Century. They must use these tools within the safety net of our classrooms.

Your students need you (us) to teach them how to use technology safely and appropriately in the information age. We teach them not to run with scissors and to not to talk to strangers. They already go into convenience stores where there are pornographic magazines and exit unscathed and they sit for hours unsupervised in front of the "flickering blue parent" where values are shaped, often in front of cable where inappropriate material is a few clicks away, just like your wiki. They already have access, but their innocence keeps them from accessing it. It is *both* about teaching responsible use, teaching them discernment *and* making sure while they are on your watch that their innocence is protected.

Here is what I would do.

1. If I was going to start using the read/write/Web (thank you Will Richardson) as a valid instructional tool I would make sure that I knew my kids were not going to be exposed to anything inappropriate. You would never just pop in a video tape not having watched it as an instructional tool. Don't give access to a resource you have not thoroughly checked out. It is the Wild Wild Web right now as this transformative infrastructure evolves. (Think-- we are finding out we need seat belts. Cars didn't use to have those you know.)

2. Cultivate a relationship with your district IT person. Find out what the protocols are in your district, what the AUP that you and your students signed says, and who is in charge of filtering in your district and what the steps are for getting Web sites blocked and unblocked. Many times it is just a simple form. And through this relationship you can both work together to make certain students have access to this incredible resource and yet remain safe. It is important that central office knows you are not acting irresponsibly in relation to the use of the Web.

3.  I would do two things related to your wiki that you have already spent
so much time creating.

I would write or call the wiki's creator and let them know your dilemma and start a discussion of how their company can make this resource safe for students (maybe create a permissions level for students that will not give them access to the discussion board- done with a log in.) Who is your wiki provider? I know many of them and might be able to help you out. This gets at the bigger conversation of helping to make the Web a safe place for schools. This is the teacher leader level and you are the one to get the conversation going.

But immediately, I would ask  your district IT person to block the IP address to the page(s) that are offensive that can be accessed from your wiki. If it is only accessible from a site map link at the bottom (footer) I would go into the template and remove it. This is done by removing source code. Call IT, give them the web address of the discussion board and ask them to block it. Then when your students or parents click on it it simply will come up as blocked. You can still use the wiki, just not have access to the discussion board. Either way, I would be proactive and build trust in Web 2.0 tools by making certain your parents and colleagues know that you are protecting the innocence of your students. What they watch on TV or surf when they go home will be their parent's responsibility.

4.  Educate yourself, faculty, and parents on safe Internet use. Offer an after school workshop or make it the topic of a PTA meeting. As a teacher leader and a trailblazer advocating use of these tools you have to be proactive and not just toss them the digital keys and say drive, this road is nice but that one will kill you. Don't teach them... help them learn. Help them become discerning so thy can make responsible choices as they grow.

David Warlick says  say being literate means being able to read text, write a report, and calculate numbers on paper. But these Basics of the industrial age are merely a starting place for twenty-first century (contemporary) literacy. Students today must gain a range of skills.

What David calls the 4 Es rather than 3 Rs:
Expose- them to valuable information from a global electronic library
Employ- digital information in order to accomplish their goals
Express- ideas compellingly so that they not only communicate, but also
compete for the attention of our information customers
Ethical- teach them the ethics of operating in an information-driven world

The very nature of information is changing. In what it looks like, what we look at to view it, where we find it, what we can do with it, and how we communicate it. Our definition of literacy must also change. I am proud of you Bill for grappling with these issues and being a pioneer in helping to address how this transformative infrastructure will play a role in redesigning the way we teach and learn in the 21st Century. Many other educational bloggers are looking closely at these same issues. Let me know if you would like some resources and I will be happy to share.

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog/

How would you have responded? Please share in the comments below.