| Tag Archives: networks

The Desktop Model of Learning?

by Clarence Fisher 3 Comments

I don’t know a single person who’s recently bought a desktop computer.

Not one.

Combine that anecdote with the stats showing that for the first time more smartphones were sold than PCs and another that shows over the Christmas season of 2011, the number of people who owned either a tablet or an ereader doubled from 10% to approximately 19% and you can see that the computing world is in complete flux these days.

We want to take our technology with us.

Is it the data that we want to have with us, our files and pictures, or the ability to connect with others? Both?

A couple of years ago, this video was making the rounds at conferences and it seems like we are fully arriving at this point:

Our data, our connections, our services, our media, our learning. We want to take it with us. We want access no matter where we are. We what to switch from work to play and back again quickly and easily. A desktop computer used to sit in the corner of a room in our homes. It had its own desk. It was a place. Like the internet, it was a destination all its own. It was someplace you went to. “Going online” used to be a saying. I’m not sure it even applies anymore. We’re surrounded by devices that slip between internet access and media consumption seamlessly.

How do these societal trends change learning? How do they change how we need to structure classrooms? Are complete labs filled with computers an outdated model? Do we need infrastructure that is more seamless? Are classes that are focused purely on computers and technology an outdated model? Do we need more integrated systems?

Are schools still pursuing the desktop model of learning? Learning as a place, a thing that is separate and sits off in the corner all on its own when really we should be looking at something much more integrated and faster moving?

New technologies make new things possible. They allow us to move in new directions and consider new possibilities. We need to keep moving.

Networked Society Shaping Ideas

by Clarence Fisher

This 22 minute video from Ericsson is a good overview of some of the large societal, systemic changes we are living through. It features people like Don Tapscott, Hans Rosling and Vince Cerf among others.

Looking for a good intro video for a staff meeting, parent night or student discussion?

This just might be it.

WPMU and Akismet

by Clarence Fisher 4 Comments

If you use WordPress, you probably already know about Akismet.

Akismet is a plugin that looks after spam comments. By far, it is the most effective spam plugin that I’ve used for WordPress. It learns as it goes and looks after by far most of the nasty stuff before it even hits your system. This is a great thing when you are working with kids.

Teaching kids to look after their accounts is a basic working – online – hygiene issue that I believe needs to be actively taught. But this doesn’t mean that they need to be wading through dozens of vi@gra spam. I always get the kids who set up blogs in my classroom to make an account at Akismet. Free and simple, it is usually a step that I take right away. But with running my own network in my classroom this posed a different problem. Does every student need to set up an Akismet account for their own blogs?

A simple google search solved my problem.

As the network administrator, I simply needed to do a bit of editing of the code of the plugin and the plugin runs for everyone on the network, with no option to turn it off.

Once you’ve downloaded the Akismet plugin for your site, simply go to the akismet site and set up a free account to get your key. Your key is just a series of numbers and letters like any password.

Once you’ve got this done simply go to the menu that shows your installed plugins and then choose the option to edit the code.

Once here, edit the file called akismet.php

This will let you into the code of the plugin itself. This is the part that often scares people off, but it really doesn’t need to.

In the next step, all you need to do is scroll down through the code and add your key, hardwiring it right in to the network. Like any plugin, the beginning of the code is simply preamble, explanation and notes for the hardcore coders. Not too far into this, you will find a code that looks like this:

(WPCOM_API_KEY).

All you simply need to do is to take that code out and paste in its place your Akismet key. There should be three instances fairly close together that you need to edit.

Once you have done this, simply save the changes you have made to your code and the plugin should be active on every blog running on your network.

There will still be a simple menu which lists a few options for your blogger, but overall, the plugin should protect your entire network from spam comments.

A pretty simple fix.

Chipin Completed!

by Clarence Fisher 2 Comments

It looks like the Helping Global Kids Connect project will move to programming.

Thanks to 13 different people from around the globe, I have managed to collect $410 USD ($10 more than I had even asked for!) to move this project ahead and begin the programming that needs to happen.

It takes a lot of trust to send off your hard earned money over the internet to some guy you might never have met so a large word of thanks goes out to:

Phil Taylor
Heather Durnin
Stephen Downes
David Jakes
Susan Sedro
Brian Metcalfe
Susan Carter Morgan
Adina Sullivan
Gary Lewis
John Finch
Jeannine St Amand
James Stauffer
Jody Hayes

The second phase of this project is to hire a programmer and begin putting together the vision for this site. Hopefully, this can happen in the next few days and then we can move ahead.

As things happen, I will keep everyone updated on things that are happening.

I think I have COMS… (Cranky Old Man Syndrome)

by Clarence Fisher 7 Comments

I’m 41.

That’s 536 in internet years.

I’ve been involved with edtech for more than a decade and seen a lot of tools come and go.

These days it seems I’m seeing a lot of tools come; but I’m choosing not to get involved with them. This has changed for me in the past 1.5 years or so. I used to get every account that came around. If it was new, I wanted in and I wanted in early. Beta tester accounts up for grabs? Yes please.

These days though, I find I am getting much more choosy about what I sign up for and spend my time with. Maybe it has to do with limits on the time I have to spend with tools. But there are a lot of spaces I’ve chosen to stay out of.

The most recent is Google +. While I admit that I am one of only approximately ten people in the Western world who aren’t on facebook either, I just can’t see a reason for signing up for this tool. The circles and hangouts seem more like a closed network that feels (as an outsider) like a high school popularity contest, and as for sparks, the item that Google advertises as “A feed of just the stuff you’re really into;” it’s called RSS, I’ve had it for years.

So what’s new? What’s different? I’m not seeing it.

But that’s not really different for me these days. That’s why I’m wondering if I’ve got a bad case of the COMS.

I’m not a facebooker. I’ve stayed out of Diigo. I dropped ning when they wanted me to pay. I don’t plurk or use voicethread in my classroom. The list could go on.

Meanwhile, some of the main tools that I use have been around for awhile. I love wordpress and all that is possible with it. While my google reader sometimes gets very full, I use it a lot as well. I will be in delicious until they shut the doors. Twitter has turned into a main space for me to find new people, new connections and new information. I’ve been a lot more choosy about what I use professionally and with what I use in my classroom as well, but I’m wondering about the consequences of this.

How do the tools you use effect the shape, size, and vitality of your network? How do the spaces you are part of effect what kinds of information you have access to? As far as I’m concerned, my network is meeting my information needs, but am I missing out on things / people / connections by purposely limiting my network and shaping it using certain tools? I am vastly in favour of open networks and connections, but at what point am I constructing a closed information ecology for myself by choosing fewer tools?

Networked Power

by Clarence Fisher 2 Comments

Picked this up off of twitter this morning from Harold Jarche.

Thought it was worth reposting here. A great metaphor for the power of social networks.

Lead Users

by Clarence Fisher

In the reading I’ve been doing about online communities, the concept of lead users is one that has emerged several times.

Lead users are those people who are constantly pushing the envelope, uncovering new ways to do things and new things to do, that most users in a network have trouble seeing. This concept grew out of research conducted in several different places. One of the first were groups of surfers in Hawaii who post videos of themselves online, only to have their moves improved upon and reposted several days laters from other groups around the world. The second place are break dancers who do the same thing. Finally, the original research on lead users, came from researchers who watched communities of snowboarders and mountain bikers who not only tried out new moves, but also modified their equipment to meet their needs.

You’ll notice several similarities about these communities:

1.) We can make an assumption that they are all communities that are filled with people who are younger. While surfing, mountain biking, break dancing and snowboarding can all be done by older folks, the odds are against it….

2.) Each of these communities is based around an activity that is fast paced and …. well….. active.

3.) Each of these communities has been aided by technology. While I’m sure they all simply started filming themselves to watch their own moves, or to share with a few others, they all grew into something bigger, something, in many cases which has become global and has been aided by the concept of crowd accelerated innovation (a whole other post….).

How does this apply to classrooms and learners?

I think the idea of lead users is valuable for educators to look at. Lead users are those kids in your classroom network who are always pushing things with technology. They are the first ones to find additional plugins for their blogs. They are the first to understand how to hack up an RSS feed in order to make it work. Lead users are the kids who see the potential of sharing their stuff with others, posting things that were never required in class in order to get people’s feedback on writing they have done, pictures they have shot, etc. These people can be creative, curious and motivated.

So how do we handle them in the classroom?

The first thing we need to do is spend time identifying lead users. While some people are lead users in several areas, these are not necessarily your most academically successful students. They can be quite driven and are usually fairly easy to identify once we go looking for them. These students can be used as a resource, as leaders in their area. They can teach others in the classroom a lot about how technology works. But be cautioned, the lead users in your classroom network are not necessarily the most tech-y kids either. They may be lead users simply because they post a lot of comments for others, driving them to write more. They may be lead users because they draw your community together by posting a lot of their own information. These students need to be given specific roles in a community. They might serve as “greeters” welcoming new students to your network. They might ensure that new and noteworthy posts are brought to everyone’s attention. They might make sure that every post receives at least one comment. Lead users might also be pushed to produce tutorials for others about how to accomplish a certain tech task (inserting a clustr map on to a blog, seeing the revision history on a wiki page, etc). These videos might be screencasts that are posted back up on the main blog.

In whatever way these people are lead users, they should be put to work for the good of the entire community. Don’t be afraid to let them lead. This gives them motivation, recognition and status in the community. And that, can only be good for everyone.

Knowledge Care

by Clarence Fisher 1 Comment

I’ve recently run into the concept of knowledge care. (downloadable pdf here) Having to do with learning communities, this concept teaches us that academic understanding, knowledge and output should only be half of the “product” we are interested in when we are working with students.

This article gave examples of corporations that are involved in global collaborations. It stressed that the innovation or product are only half of what is important that comes of these collaborations. The other half is the knowledge about taking part in work like this. A time of reflection, of bringing together knowledge gained about working in these ways.

Sounds like a great idea, so Heather Durnin and I, in our thinwalled classroom have taken up this challenge. Heather and I currently have our students collaborating on a final project to do with the novel The Book Thief. We’ve read the novel over skype and supported our students with a daily chatroom and a sticky wall for questions and reflections each day. Now that the novel is completed, the students are working on a field guide to the town of Molching, the place where the majority of the novel takes place. The students have come up with a list of people, places and events from the book. They have self organized themselves into groups, and using google docs, are beginning to write this field guide.

So far we only have had a few classes together working on this, but Heather asked her students to reflect on the process of learning online together. What they have come up with so far is quite interesting:

- People work at different speeds. Slow down and be patient. Not all of us are alike and we all work at different speeds.
- Not all people are comfortable participating right away. Ask them some literal questions to get them involved – something they will no the answer to.
- If someone is deleting your work, ask them to stop, ask them for their opinion.
- Assign a recorder
- If someone is going off track, don’t follow. In fact, don’t be scared to tell them to get back on track.
- It’s important to socialize and get to know your partner.

We’ll be adding to this document as time goes by. It is shared between the two classes and is something we are going to spend time reflecting on with our classes.

These reflections have nothing to do with the academic outcomes the students were asked to focus on. Yet, these are the skills, the scaffolding that make these types of collaboration possible. Powerful learning on the part of the students.

The End of Classroom Blogging?

by Clarence Fisher 9 Comments

I’ve had blogs in my classroom with my students for six full years. When we first started, we could only find a few others around the world who were doing this same kind of work. We ended up in the New York Times, on CBCand on Cnet as well. I saw blogging as transformative, giving students a voice to the world. I was proud to proclaim that I would never again have a classroom without blogs as they changed the possibilities.

I spoke too soon.

Last year and this year I have seen a change in my students. Whereas blogging in the past had pulled in many students, engaging and motivating most of them, in the last two years, I have seen more of a drift from the platform of long blogging. It required more work as a teacher to motivate students to write and fewer students were writing simply for the joy of writing. It seemed like a classic case of diminishing returns.

Yet I was confused as students stayed motivated by using technology. Skype calls with others classes and with outside experts brought excitement and interest. Time spent in chatrooms, taking photos and producing videos all brought students together and motivated them to work for sometimes hours on end. This was not a case of the “flash” wearing off.

Taking the time to consider this deeply, I’ve reached the conclusion that the killer app in classroom blogging isn’t the platform. Kids aren’t motivated by blogging because they have a cool space to write. The killer app in blogging isn’t blogging after all – it’s connecting and communicating with others. It’s about the community that develops around your platform.

While I’ve always talked about networks and communities in the past, these connections were always visited as one benefit among many. Now, in my understanding of technology based pedagogy, the aspect of community has moved front and centre. Kids are motivated by technology for the connections it helps them to establish. Whether those connections are based on blogs, on flickr, youtube, a wiki or in a chatroom – the aspect of communicating with other real people around the globe is what motivates and inspires learners. The connections inspire accelerating returns and positive feedback loops. The connections gives students a window into other’s lives and spaces.

This is why I am thinking of making a change next year. For years I’ve worked within a standalone blogging community. I have had a mother blog for my classroom and the students have each had their own spaces. Next year, I am thinking of building around a structure that makes the community aspect front and centre. I am wondering about centring my classroom community around a buddypress site with wordpress multi user activated. A site like this would allow students spaces for long form blogging, as well as spaces for shorter work such as groups. It would also allow students to share other things such as photos and videos in a single place.

Time for another reconsideration of technology based pedagogy….

Classroom as Intellectual Hothouse

by Clarence Fisher 1 Comment

Quote of the day from Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus:
“The hothouse environment of a collaborative circle can make the ideas and achievements of the participants develop faster than if the participants were were all pursuing individual goals without sharing.”

I love the idea of classroom as “intellectual hothouse.”

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