You Can't Hide in the 21st Century!

Here is a story that illustrates how the world is changing...

A friend has been estranged from his daughter for about 15 years. (Actually she was my student about the time they parted ways, but I did not know him then). He is thinking he may want to reconnect with her, but knew only the she was in a city (that will remain unnamed here). As he was telling me the information he thought might help me, I sat at the computer and typed her name and the city where he thought she lived into the FaceBook search box and clicked. Before he finished, I turned the monitor to him and said, "here she is." Sure enough, she was friends with dozens of my former students!

Today, we can't hide. The information available about us through the web is considerable (even if you are not a "netizen"). To minimize their exposure, I know people who use fake names on FaceBook and tell their friends and family what their FB identity is so they can use the site and stay in touch with some level on anonymity.

I have a FB account and I am friends with colleagues, distant family members, high school friends, but not students in the school where I teach. (Not even with students who graduated a few years ago.) I am careful about what I post and what groups I join (only am only a member of a few)... that is all we can do.

Tech User Typology...

The Pew Research Center's Internet & AMerican Life Project has been a leader in documenting the patterns of Internet use among diverse populations in the US for several years. Their Technology User Typology has been around for a couple of years, and many teachers find it fun to use as a way of recognizing the different views individuals have towards technology.

I always caution users, however. Just because you may be "Technology Indifferent" does not mean that you are excused from including useful technology your class, not does it mean that your classroom is immune from the effects of technology.

Wisdom

"What do students need to be able to know and do?"

That question has been the focus of educators and politicians for recent decades. At least it has since the 1960's when stating goals became part of our public planning; yes, desired outcomes is something that entered our thinking only about 50 years ago!

As I have observed the standards-craze in the decade and a half, I have become increasingly convinced that we are just shooting at meaningless targets. I see little connection between the goals I read in science and math and technology standards and what I do as a science and math and technology literate citizen. Ostensibly, we can feel good about making progress towards teaching students what they will need in the future, but the reality is that no one knows the skills and knowledge necessary for future generations. Stephen Hall's Wisdom is an interesting take on what "skills" are needed for the future. I think there is some wisdom in his list, and I think this will cause forward-looking educators to turn a critical eye towards what we ask kids to do.

Wolfram Demonstrations

Earlier I posted about Wolfram Alpha, the computational search engine that has changed my thinking about  what we should be teaching math students. A related project is Wolfram Demonstrations.

By downloading and installing the Mathematica Player (a free download available for Windows, Mac, or Linux), users can download and run animations that are built in Mathematica (a program used by professional scientists, mathematicians, and engineers). There are thousands of animations that have been written by and posted by programmers with a wide range of experience and perspectives and for an equally wide range of audiences.

Most demonstrations are designed to help students visualize an idea (an equation, an experiment, a model) and manipulate it so they can see how changing a variable changes the visualization. Here is a a typical example of the kind of demonstration that may be useful to a middle school math class:



Click here to visit the page.

There is a good 2-minute video introducing Mathematica Player on the Mathematica web site.

Qwiki

A student showed me this site yesterday... Qwiki.

Think of it as a quick encyclopedia article that is read to you and that has pictures to accompany the reading. I am not convinced it is the future of information; I am not convinced it is going to answer every questions we will ever pose. I am convinced that users can leave the entry with questions to drive further research. 

Science Simulations

Here is another of my favorite web sites... PhET. It has great science simulations give students a chance to play with variables and observe systems and even record data. I am not going to argue that students should do all lab activities on the computer, students need lots of opportunities to set up science lab apparatus, but this site gives an option for gathering data and demonstrating principles quickly.

WolframAlpha

Some tools make me want to go back to teaching math... WolframAlpha is one.

If you are unaware of what this is, here is the synopsis I give teachers: WolframAlpha is a "search engine" that focuses exclusively on information that can be calculated. Math problems are solved, equations are graphed, statistics are reported, and words are defined.

Universal Access... a New Problem

I have been ruminating on Kevin Kelly’s book What Technology Wants for a week or so. I think his proactionary principle is helpful for educators to think about (check our my posting on January 11). Another insightful observation he makes has to do with the digital divide.

Basically, Kelly argues that technologies begin as the toys of the rich. When technology is new and expensive, we see a “divide” between the “have’s” and the “have-not’s.” The digital divide that occupied educators’ attention is a recent example. Kelly notes, however, that it is those with the resources to be first adopters who give the technology a road test. These users pay for the research and development that allows for the good uses to be separated from the silly or unnecessary or cumbersome uses.

Once the good uses are identified and refined and once the production methods (both designs and manufacturing) have been developed and refined while producing the expensive (and less than optimal) initial versions of the technology, it becomes more widely available. This phenomenon has been seen with digital information technologies: Desktops and laptops were expensive, and they evolved quickly as processing capacity and storage and networking were refined.

Now, we see that the number of cell phones in the world is approaching 70% of the world population. It appears that the “good” information technology is not the desktop or the laptop (or even the net book), rather it is the Internet-capable phone.

Educators have a new problem: Now, everyone (or nearly everyone) has a cell phone or smart phone. The problem of access has evaporated, and now we face the opposite problem.

And we are unprepared.

Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, Semantic web... Trends and Titles...

The question of “what is the future of the web?” has been asked around my school recently... here is my take on the history and the future...

We are all familiar with the Web1.0 transition to Web 2.0 . Web 1.0 was the first “generation” of sites where content providers posted and “net-surfers” consumed. Web 2.0 started when we (that is the collective group of World Wide Web users) started creating content. eBay feedback, Amazon recommendations, Facebook, Blogger... any space where you log on and “post” content is Web 2.0.

Web 3.0 is generally used to describe “cloud computing,” where we (again any user with an account) uses applications provided on a web site. Google Docs and all of the other online apps systems are familiar examples.

We are also starting the hear about the semantic web. This is more difficult to define, and when one reads about it, we see tautologies and meaningless descriptions and links back to to other descriptions (is that a hyper-tautology?). Here is my understanding of what the semantic web will do:

First, we need to recognize that human language contains (a) what we say-- the syntax, and (b) what we mean-- the semantics. Sometimes these are in agreement-- we say what we mean; sometimes these aren’t in agreement-- we use double speak, euphemisms, and otherwise take poetic license.

So, designers of the semantic web seek to create search algorithms that are based on our semantics as well as our syntax.

Whenever I see the Bing commercials in which someone starts with a term and within seconds the search has turned into something far different, I see the motivation for the semantic web. Although the divergent search results portrayed in the Bing commercials are based on our syntax, they are not based on semantic.

Just one person's take on the terms that are kicking around...

Cool Tools...

In reading Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants, I was intrigued by the term technium which he coined to describe the complex of humans and the tools we have created. Kelly is one of a number of recent author who have argued that we humans and our technologies cannot be separated.

In further exploring his idea, I have been messing about on Kelly's web site. On one section, Kelly lists "Cool Tools," and it does indeed list all sorts of cool technologies. Ostensibly, this section is a good time waster or maybe a good place to find gift ideas for the person who has everything. On further reflection, however, the creativity on display on this page is incredible. We know that something happens to students in the years between when they enter school and when they leave school that results in a terrific (make that horrific) loss of creativity.

Perhaps pointing out creative tools such as are identified here and encouraging students to include them as elements in their writing or otherwise use them in their academic life can reduce this loss of creativity.

Teachers' Domain

In the world of digital media, where students are highly engaged with games and video, Teachers' Domain is an excellent source of media for students. Much of the content is provided by PBS, so there is plenty of very credible and reliable information.

The site provides options to search by content area and media type and the resources are labeled by grade level.

Fish Kids...

This interesting game came across my inbox recently... the publishers suggest it is for grade 3-8... I am not sure 8th graders would like it, but certainly the 5th and 6th graders I have taught would find this engaging.

Fish Kids

Proactionary Principle

At this point, we must assume that technology is a permanent part of our schools (after all technology has been a part of humanity forever). Educators do have a responsibility to engage with technology and our technology-using populations. Many have adopted the precautionary principle which means that they will adopt no technology until it proves to be harmless. Ostensibly, that allows one to be careful and to proceed only when the path is known. In reality, the precautionary principle results in one never adopting any technology. Although that may be many educators' goal for adopting the precautionary principle, it is a position that is increasingly difficult to justify.



I have recently finished Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants (look for more of my reactions here once I get a chance to reread the more provocative sections). He recommends that humans are better served by the proactionary principle which suggests that we adopt new technologies but that we immediately begin evaluating the technology and that we continue to assess and evaluate throughout our use of any technology. All of this video is worth watching, but at about 13 minutes, Kelly talks about his proactionary principle.

The World is Changing...

Educators complain about you people's infatuation with online video... this online video explains both why it is so appealing and how it can be used in a positive manner.

Are we better off?

I am reading Kevin Kelley’s What Technology Wants right now. Kelley is a founding editor of Wired magazine and has been writing about technology for decades. I have just finished the section in which he considered the question Are we better off with technology? He concludes that in important measures such as access to health-giving technologies (such as clean water, sanitation, and antibiotics) and access to information, modern technologies have benefited populations around the world. Kelley is not a technology Utopian, he recognizes that environmental damage does result from the mining and energy production necessary to build and operate his computer, but he concludes that there are more benefits than consequences resulting from the technologies.

This got me thinking (as I walked to work)... Are educators better off with information technologies? We could all do a cost benefit analysis of computer-rich education. We could contrast the access to information that we now have with the information overload that we all experience. We could contrast the ability to interact globally with the loss of real-life personal interaction. We could contrast the opportunity to interact “24/7” with the potential to bully “24/7.” We could contrast the access to vast academic resources with the loss of students’ opportunity to build in wood shops and cook in kitchens in schools.

After reflecting on these during my morning walk, I have concluded that we are better off in our schools because of technology. We have access to more information and the ability to analyze that information and the ability to create more and disseminate our creations to a level never. I have also concluded, however, that we are not using computer technology for the greatest advantage for our children.

We will only see really effective technology-rich schools when the academic learning becomes authentic and engaging (which technology can help us do) when domain knowledge is effectively managed (which technology can help us do) and when information is effectively shared within and among communities (which technology can help us do). Once we have those schools, then we can get to the important work of encouraging more painting and running and building and performing that results in the true human development.

Worldwide Telescope

Every time I turn around, there seems to be a new tool that makes me wish I was teaching science again. With Worldwide Telescope, users can access a telescope... yup stars, galaxies, nebula, the whole universe on your computer. This is a Microsoft-supported site and requires SilverLight, the MS browser plug-in, but the install is worth it.

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx

Gamestar Mechanic

Increasingly I conclude the educators have a responsibility to give students the opportunity to take control over computers through programming and similar activities. Students also have a great affinity for computer games, and Gamestar Mechanic is a site where users can use the tools there to create arcade-style games. The site requires registration, and a fee is necessary for the full set of management tools, but even the free version will allow middle school students in enrichment classes or after-school clubs to build skill and unlock more advanced features while having fun.

http://gamestarmechanic.com/

Internet Privacy

As 2010 came to an end,several commentators were focusing on our privacy in the digital age. Most agree that the development of deep packet inspection and a business and regulatory climate amenable to unrestricted use of such technologies (and the information gleaned from the technologies) has for the most part ended any reasonable expectation of privacy.

For educators, privacy concerns are an important for several reasons:

First, we work with sensitive populations and with sensitive information about those populations. One sure way to maintain privacy when online is to be very careful about what we post when online. Of course, the real threat to privacy is not the actions we take (such as sending and email or posting online) but the actions that are taken without our knowledge.

Second, we have a duty to ensure our students are prepared to fully participate in the technology-rich communication world. Awareness of the potential hazards and potential use and misuse of information about them is necessary today and into the future.

Here are links to some of the recent stories that have piqued my interest...
Morning Edition
BBC
Scientific American

Body Browser

In the middle of December, Google released a demo test version of BodyBrowser. This does for the human body what GoogleEarth did for the planet. Basically, users get a 3D body, and the skin, bones, cardiovascular, nervous systems (oh yeah, the major internal organs also) can be seen. The body can be rotated and labels toggled on and off.

I have only been able to get BodyBrowser to work on Macintosh computers by downloading and installing Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta. For many users, it may be best to be aware this will be rolling out soon. My colleagues and I have been having fun brainstorming lists of features we would like to see... we expect links to descriptions of organs soon... perhaps a menu of diseases that can afflict the model with a mouse click. I am wondering how Google will make money with BodyBrowser, but I know science teachers will enjoy it for as long as it is available.