Education | education | technology | ai & NOT A.I. | design

Esafety: Thoughts about it

Paul White led a discussion about e-safety with an idea of a 360° tool, found here at generationsafe.ikeepsafe.org. It is a self-assessment tool that asks educators to see how effective they are implementing safety through the cyber-world. Some other resources that were mentioned included:

Things to consider when creating content were in reference to pod-casting and video editing online. No specific items were mentioned in conjunction with these ideas, but some things that come to mind would be to make sure that people, especially students remain anonymous. Ways to do this, would be to use fictional names and places in podcasts, to not allow any names to accompany children’s images in video, as well as to ensure that no imagery gives away the location of said children. For example, crests and logos on shirts, billboards in the background, etc.

Another idea brought up was to have a focus with an Anti-cyberbullying week. The UK has a week designated to this from November 21st – November 25th. At the website bullying.uk they stated a study found these stats, “43.5% of respondents aged 11-16 had been bullied via social networks such as Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, Twitter. 51% felt that blocking the bully from further contact or communication was a vital tool and a further 68 % felt that being able to report the perpetrator’s bullying activities would be advantageous.”

A simple way to cut down on the bullying would be to involve parents. For example, parents or teachers could teach kids how to PrntScreen the bullying taking place online. The parents of the bullied child could take this PrntScreen as evidence to the bullies parents and engage in a suitable conversation to try to rectify the problem.

One question that seems to arise again and again is, “Do schools block or not block Facebook? Why or why not?” I am definitely on the side which says, “Do NOT block Facebook”, but rather teach about profile limiting, privacy settings, using and what abuse is. As educational foundations I think it is our job to be aware of all environments our students will be, and educate them about these environments. Blocking such sites will do them no good when they get into the real world. That said, these are some of the things that we need to concern ourselves with:

Facebook has incorporated a report button for people. This is the dialogue box that pops up when it is enabled:

The REPORT/BLOCK button allows for the options necessary to report this person as you can see in the picture above.

As a school administrator, you can educate a large population. Create a fake account and befriend as many students as possible. You will be surprised how many and how fast students unwittingly allow access to their online personal lives through befriending. After many of the friends have been established, have an assembly or an unveiling of who you actually are. Watch the astonishment around the room, but also watch shortly afterward the action that takes place by students to put up safeguards against such actions. Many of them will possibly re-evaluate their whole friends list in order to weed through actual friends and those who they don’t actually know.

But don’t just consider the little ones. Run a course called “Facebook for the over 40s”. Most often the young kids and teenagers have a pretty good grasp at much of the technology that is out there. It is the non “digital natives” who are taking a slower time to jump on this bandwagon. Therefore it is often necessary to help them out in order for them to properly guide their sons and daughters. A course designed for them is just the thing to jump-start that relationship.

On the subject of esafety a debate naturally arises between primary and secondary teachers. “Who should be blocked? What should be blocked? Should anything be blocked?” are all good questions with opposing answers depending upon whose lens you wish to view the answer through. As a school, different proxy settings need to be put into place to enable and disable certain viewers from content depending upon age range or maturity. A neat esafety site for kids to play games and learn is found here.

Finally, as educators, don’t limit the scope of the student’s online social networking to Facebook, but introduce them to other free online tools for collaboration: Google Docs, Scribed, Google Scholar, and a whole slew of other ideas are out there. A great resource for finding Online Collaboration Tools is found here, at MindMeister.

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Posted by Dr. Thomas Johnson | ict-design.org on March 17, 2011 in Technology

Tags: Cyber-bullying, Education, Online, Parents, Safety

Basic Reading in Google Search – ISTEC final notes

13 Mar

At the ISTEC meeting we had the session that I usually enjoy the most. It is a time when people come up and show a thing or two they find nifty. It is usually the cutting edge stuff that no one has seen before. For example:

Search for kids

Google – Advanced Search (basic reading age)

Go to Google – Advanced Search

Choose Reading Level:

Another great Kids Search example was:

simple.wikipedia.org – wikipedia for kids

Some of the latest resources mentioned are listed below:

dropitto.me – a dropbox add-in allows others to send files to your dropbox
edmodo – an excellent, free (course management system) CMS for teachers and students
packrati.us – adds twitter feed URLs to your delicious account
calibre – e-books library management system
epubread – allows you to read ePubs in Firefox
posterous.com – fun ways to share and collaborate online

Concerning e-portfolios, these items were presented:

livebinders – eportfolios
mahara – works with moodle
yakapaca – mentioned, but not well regarded
google sites – portable, excellent resource for creating websites

A noteworthy site to work in conjunction with those listed above:

topicmarks – summarizes text documents for you electronically

Concept driven curriculum | Collaboration | Braingym

11 Mar

The professional development I attended today was about Concept Driven Curriculum, Collaboration and BrainGym in the PYP. Some of the main points driven home from the first session were that:

Concepts and related concepts are the links between specialist subjects and core teachers.
Teachers should vocalize concepts, “We are learning about change. How are you learning about change in another class?”
“Less is more” – Related concepts should be focused upon for in-depth learning, rather than a whole slew of concepts lightly touched upon.
Related Concepts should be embedded in the Central Idea
Lessons should be universal – transdisciplinary, over time, local and global
A good central idea is one that can be used in any grade.

The following session was a reflection about collaboration.

One new idea to me was that “Collaboration is not always a good thing.” These ideas were adapted from Robbins, H., & Finley, M. (2000) They mentioned these pitfalls:

Sameness – If teams are too collaborative they adopt rigid standards and impose them on themselves, not ready to think outside the box
Groupthink leads to purges of perceived outsiders and stultification of insiders.
Blurriness. Too much democracy leads to mush and might lack focus.
Slowness. Concensus doesn’t “snap to” the way intimidated agreement does.
Leaderlessness. When everyone is encouraged to lead, the result is that no one does.
Defencelessness. Some teams become so intimate and sensitive with one another they can’t function among outsiders.
Interiority. Teams who work too long together have a way of becoming cross-eyed over time.
Mercilessness. “The many are stronger than the one” is the motto of supercollaboration, which is also the motto of fascism.

Don’t teach for knowledge, but what to do with that knowledge – to teach for understanding. For example, don’t just teach about the French Revolution. Think about what you do with and through the knowledge. For more about this concept up on read David Perkins
To find out who is a leader and who actually has better answers use the LOST AT SEA test.
Is there are difference between collaboration and cooperation?

Braingym was the final session that is a program of 26 movements to enhance learning and performance

Feed your body with water and oxygen
The human body was made to be used
Be Positive, Active, Clear & Energetic
Make connections between left and right hemispheres of the brain
Laterality, Centering, Focusing
Combine fine motor exercises, reflexology, yoga and fitness.

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Posted by Dr. Thomas Johnson | ict-design.org on March 11, 2011 in Education

Tags: Curriculum, Education, Professional Development

ICT integration at NIST

08 Mar

I am researching what ICT integration is and what it looks like. While doing so I came across an interesting document from NIST that stated exactly what I was looking for:

What is ICT and what is ICT Integration?

ICT stands for Information and Communication Technology and is used as a term to describe all technologies that manipulate and communicate information. This term is the preferred term in education because ICT covers all digital equipment such as computers, camera’s, PDA’s, calculators, sounds recorders, mp3 players and all other digital equipment imaginable.

In the Elementary School at NIST Information and Communication Technology is part of the classroom experience and students use digital equipment on an almost daily basis. To make meaningful connections between the units of inquiry and ICT experiences, the ICT teachers work in close collaboration with the homeroom teachers. This way we can ensure students make connections between previously acquired concepts and we support them with their inquiries.

What are the underlining principles?

We believe that ICT is a catalyst for learning, promotes creativity, brings members of the community together, enhances understanding and gives people a voice. Below are some essential agreements about ICT in the elementary school:

Well integrated ICT into the classroom allows us to expand, broaden, and enhance all aspects of learning

The ICT department works in collaboration with the year level teams to make meaningful connections between classroom content and ICT activities

We believe that the ICT experience should be inquiry based and that there should be room for exploration and discovery

What does ICT Integration look like in practice?

The Elementary School is equipped with two computer labs and one drop-in lab that can support up to one full sized elementary class. Students in year 4, 5 and 6 have laptop carts available that can be used in the classrooms.

The Elementary ICT team works in collaboration with the different year levels to plan lessons and make meaningful connections to the units of inquiry. The ICT teachers are on a flexible timetable which gives room for flexibility and homeroom teachers can book us to assist in the classroom or for lessons in the computer labs.