https://wiki.sfu.ca/public/index.php/User:Jtoal∞ ^

Want to see one way to use the Web to teach? Berkman?s Jonathan Zittrain and Stanford Law?s Elizabeth Stark are teaching a course called Difficult Problems in Cyberlaw. It looks like they have students creating wiki pages for the various topics being discussed. The one on ?The Future of Wikipedia? is a terrific resource for exploring the issues Wikipedia is facing.

Among the many things I like about this approach: It implicitly makes the process of learning ? which we have traditionally taken as an inward process ? a social, outbound process. By learning this way. we are not only enriching ourselves, but enriching our world.

My only criticism: I wish the pages had prominent pointers to a main page that explains that the pages are part of a course.

The 2010 edition of the Horizon Report is now available. I won?t comment on the content of the report ? I?m sure others will critique/approve the specific trends addressed. Instead, I want to discuss the process of putting the report together. I received an invite from NMC earlier this year to participate on the Advisory Board for the Horizon Report. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Alan ?mock George for not being practical? Levine and others have put together an effective process for brainstorming, discussion, and final selection. Method matters. A good research project can unearth cause/effect/correlation that may not be obvious at the start. But, when you?re trying to identify trends, a method is needed that permits sharing diverse views and then trusting that people directly involved in the educational technology field will be capable of identifying and classifying key trends. The iterative, conversational approach that NMC has adopted is among the most effective I?ve come across for identifying trends and future directions. Two suggestion for NMC:
1. Pioneer educational informatics and visualization approaches to expand the report. Given the enormous amounts of data being produced through social media, Department of Education statistics, etc., making sense of data is critical. Targeting a few key data areas would extend the value of report. (for example, have a look at numerous social media monitoring services).
2. Enlarge the pool of participants. While I can see the logistical value of having an advisory board assist in the final production of the report, I would like to see a broader net cast at the start of trend identification. Why not open it up completely? Yes, it?ll produce a mess of views, but that diversity is exactly what prevents calcification of views that occurs when similar groups of individuals are involved in brainstorming.

Nice fine by Will Richardson. Concord, a school in Melbourne, thanks in large part to Richard Olsen?s effortshave been using open source and home grown apps to begin to teach the benefits of publishing and networking. As Will says,

What?s most compelling to me here is not necessarily the tool set, however, as much as the vision that brought this to fruition. While most all of this work is done locally on an internal network, the concepts are preparing kids at Concord for the very global network they?ll inhabit once they leave the system. And here is the best part: Concord is a special needs school, a place where kids with all sorts of disabilities attend. The work that these kids do in these contexts is very rewarding on a number of levels.

The larger point here is that this isn?t too far out of the reach of most schools provided they have the courage and the leadership to make it happen. Aside from the photo-sharing tool, the rest is freely available. There?s nothing really too difficult about it aside, perhaps, from creating good teaching around the tools. Makes you wonder what so many other schools are waiting for.

Concord School Web-Based Social and Collaborative Learning Concord School Web-Based Social and Collaborative Learning willrich45 How the Concord School outside of Melbourne created and implemented a variety of social networking tools in it school.

Anyway, makes me think that there must be some non-cloud options for similar things. Flickr etc. are great, but for school?s where privacy is a massive concern to parents, it would be nice to have some internally hostable options.

Over the weekend, I gave a talk at the Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology. I have made a crib of the talk available for anyone who might find it valuable:

Abstract: Many American youth are embracing a wide array of social media as part of their everyday lives. From social network sites and texting to blogs and wikis, many youth are leveraging the power of social media to create, communicate, share, and learn. In this talk, I will use social network sites as a case study to examine critical shifts that are underway as a result of social media. I look at how inequality is perpetuated through these systems and the challenges that educators face when trying to incorporate these systems into the classroom. Finally, I conclude by discussing implications for educators.

I recently wrote in praise of Salt Spring Island Coffee. So I was happy to patronize their charming UBC location during Northern Voice. I was a little less praiseful, though, after read the sleeve on my hot chocolate:

In case you can?t read it, here?s what it says:

This cup travelled over 2000 kilometers from the forest to your lips. Slow global warming by using a travel mug.

Here?s how I read that:

We?re entirely comfortable selling you an environmentally insensitive product, but want you to feel guilty about giving us your money. Plus, [as filmgoerjuan points out on Flickr] we?ve been unwilling or unable to find a more sustainable source for cups.

I suppose this cheeky chastisement might work with the UBC crowd, but I think it just redirects blame away from the coffee shop to the consumer.

I was going to leave a suggestion in their suggestion box, until I saw this: