I think it is a given that young people are going to connect online. All of the research indicates that young people are flocking to the free online communities like facebook at an unprecedented rate. As educators, parents, concerned citizens, the big question for us all is not “should our kids be online in social networks”. This is beginning to be a bit like asking “should our kids be able to mix with others in the playground?” The world of online and offline is really beginning to blur and let’s not forget that our kids are mostly connecting up with people that they know already when they go online. The problem for adults is knowing what they are doing online and whether and how to support them.

I guess a big part of this is knowing what sort of things to support youth doing online. This is the reason for the explosive growth in online communities for anything from horseriding to learning mathematics.

Many schools are beginning to switch onto the fact that they are trying to force their students into a “walled garden” to access learning that is tightly controlled and dictated by the school whilst the students themselves would rather be a part of a wider community of learners.

It will be interesting to observe the conflict that is going to continue to build between trying to get students to spend time in the school created network whilst the students and their parents are being marketed to by increasingly sophisticated and engaging networks of interest outside of the school community.

After all, we all only have so much time to dedicate to any sort of network online or offline.

Do any of you have stories of this conflict arising already in your schools? Who’s to say that they learn more from your closed network than the fascinating and engaging networks that extend across the planet?

Photo: Links http://www.flickr.com/photos/pocphotography/3274242344/

I have copied a summary here for your interest:

Some think it is okay to include students as friends but are very circumspect; others think that it is crossing the line between private and professional lives, particularly with current students; others set up particular pages for particular purposes; others think it has no place in their lives.

Most people said that if they got a request from a student to be a ‘friend’ they took care to “let them down” lightly but some said they just ignored the request. It was suggested that if a student asks to be your friend, that you befriend their parents instead. Some said they would agree to a student asking them, but would never ask a student.  Others asked if the young people even want us in this place, and if it is our role or responsibility to be available to students 24/7 in this manner.  It was asked whether we take the time to consider the time and management aspects of setting up a page, even for a specific purpose.

There was general agreement that we should not condone breaching the T&C of 13+ and that if this was known to have occurred, it could become a teachable moment on Internet safety.  It was agreed that Internet safety and ethics need to be taught explicitly, and information needs to be sent to parents about their responsibilities in this.  Ignoring breaches was seen as a breach of professionalism. However, if we do have FB pages that students can access, then we need to model the appropriate behaviour as part of that explicit teaching.

There was advice about the legal aspects of digital duty-of-care, and some schools do, indeed, have policies about appropriate out-of-school interactions with students. Others asked for examples of these policies, particularly relating to interactions in the Web 2.0 environment..

Some suggested that to be online with a students in this environment was like being alone in a classroom with them, although others thought that it was making any interactions more visible. There was concern about inappropriate posts being made either by students or your other friends, or being made to the students, and the students being able to access inappropriate material by going to your friends’ accounts.  (It is this aspect that means that these sites -and most Web 2.0 tools – are blocked to students in most government schools, at least, in Australia.)

Someone suggested that it can work both ways – if a student is maligning the school or another student, then it shows up on the teacher’s page and the school can deal with it.

There were many, many concerns about privacy and how and where  information you posted might end up.  Someone pointed out that the first thing the media does if they get a sniff of a story is to troll Facebook and MySpace et al to see if the person has a page.

A previous discussion about what would be appropriate for reaching the under-13s for library news etc suggested a ning was a better environment because it could be more easily managed. Even though this also has the 13+ restriction, it was suggested a responsible adult could create additional accounts over which they have control. Reading Clay Shirky’s excellent book ‘Here Comes Everybody’, which explains everything you could possibly want to know about social networks and tools, was also suggested.

And finally, it was suggested that Facebook Group could be established where only the members of the class are invited..  Members of the group do not need to be “friends” with one another in order to be a part of the one group.  A student is the administrator of the group (along with the teacher) and everyone can post resources for our class within the group’s site. Discussions have started on the current assessment pieces which the teacher occasionally logs into to make sure they are heading in the right direction.  Students also post links to resources which can be annotated and due dates are shown in the calendar of both the group and personal pages.

An enriching discussion

Barbara

Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
COOMA NSW 2630
AUSTRALIA

Photo: Facebook Touchgraph http://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/3293404080/

I have had some meetings with a keen group of teachers here in Hong Kong and we all agree that it is a good idea but everyone here is insanely busy! It is a Hong Kong thing! It is around two and a half weeks since our initial meeting and noone has added any ideas to our google doc about the student strand. I have sent a couple of reminders out to keep up the interest but I am not in a position to drive this along with the other aspects of the conference. My thinking, right or wrong, is that if we had an idea or a concept to rally around, we might be better directed and motivated.

So, in the interests of getting things moving along, here is my latest idea.

It is based upon a blog post I wrote some time ago about social networking for kids under 13 in the Asian region. What about we give the kids around here the problem and tell them to solve it? We tell them that this needs to be a social network that is analogous to the Superkids Plus model so it is safe, moderated, attactive to kids from 6-12, and successful.

This would be no mean feat! I can see them having to come up with ideas for all of these things and more:

• Pitching to their peers
• Getting a platform
• Convincing someone to fund it
• Deciding if it should have a commercial aspect (hopefully not)
• Convincing schools to back it
• Producing some initial content to attract and maintain a following
• Letting parents know about it
• Getting moderators (Uni Students) onboard
• Getting media coverage

I am optimistic that it could be done and that the conference would be the place to kick it off, but I see it as a huge challenge! Fits the bill for me really.  Over to you guys for comments.

Picture: Student Social Network by firesign_329

Once again I acknowledge how busy you all are and trust that you are finding some time in your days to reflect on our ambitious plans for a student strand at the conference.

A very big thanks to Colin who has taken some time to put together a logo (see the sample on the right). So far this is the only one that we have. In the spirit of Daniel Pink, I would welcome any feedback or ideas about the logo.

Last week I came across a posting by Michael Stephens, who I originally thought was the Educational Director with CISCO who was coming out to the conference and has now sent Andrew Thomson in his place. Turns out it is a different Michael Stephens! Nevertheless, his post on Ten Tech Trends & Technologies for 2009 written from the perspective of a librarian, is a little easier to read than the horizon report but remarkably similar in tone!

I have attached a PDF copy for you. It might get you thinking about this connected student project that we want to run in conjunction with the conference.

What has been happening here in the last 2 days has been really significant. It is about learning, sharing and doing meaningful things with kids. It is the student element of this conference that has really got me excited. I don’t know how much an external person can garner from the reading of the conference ning here. Maybe the instructions on this wiki might be clearer. In any case, you need to imagine a group of really switched on motivated students working flat out to achieve a goal that they believe in and know can make a difference in the world. You need to see that these kids are from different countries with different cultures and that they are in mixed teams and want to stay that way.

Running parallel to this is a fantastic program for teachers and leaders who really want to try to embed connected learning into their schools. This is supported by some great presenters and leaders including ISTE’s CEO, Don Knezek and their Senior Strategic Initiatives Officer, Lynn Nolan. These guys have been great at working with the teachers here to get them to reflect on where they have come from with their use of ICT for learning and where they might best invest time, effort and energy in the future.

In addition to all of this, which I have to say is better than the workshops and sessions I attended at BETT, there have been a lot of other great opportunities for sharing and for listening to great input from switched on Educators and authors. A highlight was a live link-up with Thomas Friedman, world renowned author of ‘The World is Flat’, Friedman addressed his talk to the students here and answered questions that were some of the most reflective and best framed that I have heard. I doubt if the adults in the room could have asked better ones!

I just came from a sharing session where Jeff Utecht did a great job with this presentation.

Professor Barry McGaw
Head of the National Curriculum Board and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute

Valerie Hannon
Director of Strategy for the UK Innovation Unit

Chris Wardlaw
Former Deputy Secretary of Education in Hong Kong

Michael Stevenson
Vice President of Global Education at Cisco Systems

Here is a direct link to the audio file of around 55 minutes duration.  I urge educators to have a listen as the comments are quite considered and telling.

I was glad to be given a link to a Cisco paper by Michael Stevenson, who by the way, makes some great

statements. In this paper, entitled “Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century” it gives a telling chart on page 13 “Exhibit 4″. This chart shows the average Dutch Student’s Media Consumption over a 24 hour period. Guess what parts of the day, other than sleeping, are where it drops lowest? Yep! Good old traditional School time!

There appear to be some other good resources on the Cisco 21st Century Learning site.

I will look forward to checking them out in due course but for now, time to listen to the rest of the podcast.

Oh! If you are Aussie Expat and you like catching up with Education Issues from “back home” make sure you subscibe to ABC radio’s EdPod. Definitely worth listening to and always great questions from Aedy, a former English teacher and now well-researched journalist.

The replies and advice were so good that I wanted to record them here.

The first bit of advice comes from Anne Mirtschin, a teacher from country Victoria who gave these pearls of wisdom:

1.   Initially I would have one blog that students contribute to. This would mean they save their files on a drive and allow you as teacher to grab them  by eg email attachments and upload them onto the blog post. More work for you, but when confidence with the system grows, revert to individual blogs if all goes well. Students are amazing and they love to use their blogs as daily or weekly journal entries. Or, they could all be added as users rather than administrators to a common blog. What is role of tutor parents? I would encourage parents to comment back on posts as much as possible.

2. Wondering whether to start off with a ‘closed’ network so that students
can freely post images of themselves, family etc?

Except in exceptional circumstances, I would never advise closed blogs as this destroys the very nature and potential powerful learning outcomes that can arise. One reason our student blogs are so successful, is that they are ‘out there’, students love them online, comments come in from global students and teachers and this encourages them to continue writing more effectively. The connectedness with other global citizens is something that needs to be experienced to understand the amazing increased learning outcomes. Sharing, connectedness and social networking is what kids love and thrive on. If parental permission is provided, wallow photos of students, groups etc as long as they do not name who is in the photo. You can use software like www.befunky.com to disguise quite well the actual individual photos. After 10 months there have been no cyber safety issues at all.

3.  What subject strand to follow?

I would start with just general topics and themes, for everyone to get comfortable, confident etc eg Set five goals for the remainder of the year. Describe why the area you live in is unique. Prompts are great and students may be responsible for providing some of the prompts each week. A general literacy or English area would be the easiest or civics and citizenship. Geography might be a good one due to the nature of the blog.
4. Cyber safety issues: A page linked added to the home blog with some valuable links. I like some of those linked on the global teacher page.
5.  Same with understanding copyright issues.

This is a big issue. Students and even some staff feel that anything on the internet is free for all and it needs to be constantly ‘drummed in’. There are some great little videos on youtube and teachertube. Be prepared to keep commenting back when issues arise. It is another learning activity.

6. Anyone who is running a class blog envisage what I may need to prepare/have missed?

Start simple, then add to it as it evolves. Students themselves will drive the direction and indicate other things that can be added. An about me page is essential. Links to other global class blogs will encourage students to read other’s work, and see the potential of blogging. Encourage them to add comments on other student work. Other keen global students will then return to the blog, comment and the connections start. I have started getting students from other areas and countries coming to my blog and commenting on post prompts, so my class is increasing in size all the time and this makes it so exciting for teachers. Add the clustr map as that is a great motivator.  If students have individual blogs, get them to add a photo a week with a brief description (one they have taken of course) Encourage the addition of multimedia to cope with multiliteracies. A voicethread for students to introduce themselves would be great on one page (avoiding any personal details.) Photo manipulation and resizing needs to be taught as well.

As a follow up John Pearce chipped in with some advice and a series of links that could be a lot of help to the starting out teacher:

Given that you are working with junior distance ed students, like Anne said my experience is that when introducing blogging to students it is easiest for a number of reasons to set up a class or group based blog, (class blogs take the pressure off of all students to write all of the time yet have the blog continue to grow, it also means that you, the students and parents have only one webspace to have to focus on initially). It also means that things are easier for you from an administration point of view.

Especially in your situation with Distance Ed it would be relatively tricky I would have thought to set up a closed blog. That apart, at the schools I have worked in, and that is in excess of 300 blogs, we have always had the blogs completely live to the web. Part of the process of working with blogs is educating the students about the fabulous opportunities as well as the many pitfalls that can occur from using the internet. This can only be done by working live to the web. Students draw so much encouragement when they embed maps such as Clustrmaps which show where their readers live.

As far as personal images go, as Anne says there are a number of ways in which these can be altered. It can also be useful for students to discover ways of showing images that don’t include facial features. Again this is part of educating the students about being aware of the pitfalls of using the internet, Most parents also, once they realise what the images are to be used for are only too ready to allow appropriate pictures to be inserted into the blogs.

Like Anne suggested, I would definitely start out with just a general blog probably with the aim of telling about what is happening.  In the class situation, this is relatively easy, and probably in the distance ed situation where students maybe doing lots of diverse things, there will also be lots of things to talk about.

One thing you might like to take account of the is the fact that blogs, especially into blogs allow you to set up categories.  This is a powerful way of allowing individuals to access just their work.  In the case of Middle P Prattlings, http://mrpbps.learnerblogs.org/ ,you can see down the left-hand side the list of all the students in grade, listed as categories.
You can also see in the posts, the name of the post-author and the category in which the post belongs.

As far as safety goes, there are lots of resources out there that may help.
On all of our later blogs, we have included a set of rules that you can access and copy at http://mrpbps.globalstudent.org.au/the-rules-rule/ .  The Commonwealth government cyberquoll site http://www.cyberquoll.com.au/hub.htm
is also worth a look at.  As far as Copyright goes the smartcopy site http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/allright/index.htm is well worth a look at especially to yourself and you might also like to consider the copyright for kids linked on my test blog http://mrpbps.globalstudent.org.au/ .

To get some idea of the other tools, and which it is in things it you can use to spice up your blog, you might like to have a look at http://saltysolutions.pbwiki.com/ and http://projectingpassionately.pbwiki.com/FrontPage which both have short discussions and examples of a range of other add-ins some of which Anne has mentioned in her post.

Are there are a number of blogging portals out there, the one that I like use edublogs http://edublogs.org/ .  To help get you started with edublogs, you can find a tutorial handout http://www.box.net/shared/mhta5gtc0c , that you can download at my blog http://johnp.wordpress.com/ at under the tutorials tab.  On my blog, you’ll also find a link to a new book that I and a colleague have written as an introduction to blogging and lots more elements of Web 2.0.

As Anne suggested once you start blogging there are lots of other skills, and things to learn about, which will no doubt be challenging but also very exciting.

This final link was also shared by another educator. http://hfsconversations.blogspot.com It looks as though it might be useful to primary level teachers wanting to visit some sample blogs. It also contains good content for teachers.

Photos:Blog by owspupils, Aizhamal by Nurgeldy