After working on this project for  EDER 679.09 I worried about how I could address this entire issue with my students. I know they get a lot of web safety, cyberbullying and direction to not use the Internet for social networking. I feel that much more needs to be said.  This guide is meant to be a companion piece to the reflection that Kevin Gilchrist wrote called Guide to Implementation.

Our Journey into a Mass Technological Shift:

A Conversation With My Students

    I have some questions for you, my students, about your effective Internet navigation and your use of the rapidly changing Internet landscape. When I have observed you using the Internet I noticed that many of you spend a lot of time on superficial activities like gossiping and surfing.  I want you to improve your effectiveness and safety online. I’d like to discuss some of these guiding questions with you regarding how we use technology in our work:

1.    What is worth doing?

2.    What do you need the school to do for you?

3.    How could school prepare you for your career?

4.    How could school prepare you for life?

(Adapted from Davis, 2007)

 1. What is worth doing?

    The reality is that the entire collective intelligence is virtually floating around you at all times (Wesch, 2008). Every single possible reality can be made available to you. You are faced with a major life choice: you can create the reality you want to live or you could get sidetracked. You could let yourself be bombarded with stimulus and petty entertainment, or you could create your chosen reality by controlling and focusing your activity online.

    Ralph Nader (2001) gave a speech about the increasing number of 20-year-old drifters in 2001 and he asked them to take themselves seriously.

You just can't be smart in physics class or economics class or computer class by day and expose yourself to trivialization on weekends or by night. You have to re-define enjoyment, self-discipline, your own creative outlets, and not let anyone marginalize and trivialize you, because otherwise you'll not only lower your expectation level of where this world should be; you'll lower your own expectation level of where you can be as a citizen. (2001, para. 19)

    When people allow their existence to become trivialized, they make the choice to disengage from what I believe is the most important gift we impart on the world, their creativity. “Drifters” do not truly respect their gifts and talents, they are not committing to themselves and their purpose. They are not the key world players, busy creating real solutions for real problems. I challenge you to avoid becoming an Internet “drifter” by taking your goals seriously.

    According to a recent UN report, we are at a much better position to change the world than we ever have been before.  Yet we run the risk of missing this chance because “the world's decision-making processes are inefficient, slow and ill-informed, especially when given the new demands from increasing complexity” (Lean & Owen, 2008). Our decision-making processes could become more efficient. It needs to be. Our collective potential makes everything you do or don’t do meaningful; “money, fame and power are things people seek in order to do what is worth doing” (Downes, 2007). 

    What is worth doing for you? Are you doing it? Do you focus your time online on worthwhile activities? Do you make the Internet work for you? Do you value your creativity and produce quality products? Are you proud of your online social connections? Do you know how to maximize your online effectiveness? Your personal integrity and your understanding of what is worthwhile frame these questions. A major part of your lifetime’s contribution will be the mark you leave on the Internet and how you contribute to the online collective intelligence. You could either be a liability or an asset to yourself.

2. What do you need the school to do for you?

    Recent studies indicate that a growing number of students find schools dangerously irrelevant to their lives. A significant number of students love learning but dislike school (Wesch, 2008). There is growing evidence to suggest that the next generation’s ability to learn what is needed for tomorrow is more important than what is known today (Friedman, 2005). How do you learn best? What do you learn best? Evidence suggests that people learn best through significant, creative and authentic experience (Lombardi, 2007).  You need the school to nurture your creativity (Robinson, 2007). If you spend as much time as possible doing the things that you’ve identified as worth doing; you will be living a creative, significant authentic experience.

    Let’s look at our classroom as a participation and coordination launch site. We all need to bring ideas into the classroom. Together we can test and debate them. If we deem them worthy, we can cherish them. Technology can be a place for group sharing, discussions and collaborations. Think beyond social networking as entertainment and consider the educational impact of Youtube, Google documents, Slideshare, Blogs and Wikis. Technology can also be a space for hosting and showcasing ideas.

    We could find, organize, and synthesize the best information in the world. We could develop a community of practice to reflect on your ideas before you publish them to a greater community. We can get feedback and begin the process over again. When information is everywhere the memorization of facts is less about knowledge collecting and can be viewed as a brain exercise important for creating synapse connections and personal efficiency (Reiner, 2008). We could be saving money on textbooks by engaging in authentic online learning and action planning. It’s ridiculously easy to create and join groups online. This grassroots organizing, sharing, and conversation leads to collective action (Shirky, 2008). World Skateboarding Day is an example of this type of bottom up online action planning (2008, Go skateboarding day). Skateboarding has been marginalized and, in many cases, outlawed. Skateboarders use the Internet to informally organize World Skateboarding Day. This is effective online organizing. Teachers in your schools can provide you with practice using group process. They can provide you with tools to make solid judgements, teach you to stay safe online, and instruct you how to navigate copyright laws when you are ready to publish. They can provide you with the hardware necessary to engage with the experts in the online community. Schools could create private and safe open learning environments where you could work on your practice before you publish to a public community. 

    How do you know if the information you find is true? How do you know the author hasn’t made an error? How do you know when you’re being sold something? How do you know you’re not at a parody site, like for example http://www.whitehouse.org/? How do you see through style for genuine quality? How do you know when you are being manipulated? How do you organize information? How do you test and question the authority of the information you find? How do you communicate your own understanding of the information? Teachers can help you answer these questions. 

3. How could school prepare you for your career?

    According to Thomas L. Friedman’s book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, “we are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet” (Friedman, 2005).  Even though we don’t know what your job is going to look like, we can make some predictions about who you will need to be and what you will need to know.  The first prediction I want to share with you is that you’ll need to be “googelable” (Richardson, 2008).   Most people are “googelable” because everything that you ever put online stays online forever. Your future boss will search online for you to find out who you are and what you think. It’s important that this person sees the work you’re proud of and not embarrassed about.  You want your future employers to find a digital portfolio and an online identity that they want to hire. You want your social recognition to be positive and about creative work.

    Guy Kawasaki, a business blogger, lists ten things he wishes he learned in school. His blog suggests he needs to be able to teach himself whatever he needs to know. He needs to be effective during group meetings. He needs to bring solutions to work, whatever the problem. He needs to write 5-sentence emails and quick text message responses. His idea pitches take 30 seconds. His PowerPoints are no more than 10 slides and take 20 minutes (Kawasaki, 2006). I predict that this will still be relevant advice when the majority of you are in the work force. We can practice effective communication in class.

    Another prediction is that you will be expected to use the ever-changing online tools available and specific to your field. You can practice for this, too. Ask yourself how you can teach yourself to figure anything out. How fast can you learn a new application? These are important activities that you can practice at school to prepare yourself for your career.

4. How could school prepare you for your life?

    Schools can help you to live meaningfully. They can help you identify the change that you wish to see in the world. They can help you communicate your wishful thinking. I recently came across a website where students from around the world post a digital picture and statement sharing why they love the earth. The idea is that we will create a ribbon around the whole world. This is a community that it isn’t difficult to join and requires meaningful actions (Planetfesto Projects, 2007). The principles of changing the world stay the same online and off, but it is easier to communicate actions online. These are 8 steps that have been identified for effective change.

1. Identify a need.

2. Pull together a team.

3. Develop the change vision and strategy.

4. Communicate for understating and buy in.

5. Empower others to act. Help people understand what they can do.

6. Produce short-term wins.

7. Don’t let up.

8. Create a new culture.

(Kotter & Rathgeber, 2007)

Moving these principals online make the research easily available, and online collaborations make for teams that potentially include field experts. Best practice stories can help you create strategy, and communication platforms such as Youtube make this easy to promote.

    What does it mean to be a global citizen? How can you create the world you want to live in? What do you think of current events? How do you best communicate your ideas? How do you create collective action? These are all questions that we can develop answers for in the classroom. They are also questions we can continue answering online.

You will have to choose a course of action for your life. Make decisions about living that life with personal integrity. The world is literally what we make of it (Downes, 2007). Live purposefully.

    I know we all have different concepts about what is worthwhile. I hope that we can use my classroom as a space to explore your individual autonomy and develop our contributions to the collective intelligence. I hope that you have the opportunity and the courage to develop your gift. I hope that the school community will be a place for you to practice using technology effectively. I hope that your school experience prepares you for your life. We need to keep discussion open about the mass technological shift. Technology and our understanding of the future are evolving and who you are and what you want to give to, and take from, the world are also changing. The nature of this discussion will change with the input that you, my students, give to me when you respond to these questions. I will design the year’s projects with your perspectives in mind.

References

Author. (2008). Go skateboarding day. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTx86_n_DVw

Davis, V. (2007). On being connected: George Siemen's presentation today. The Cool Cat Teacher Blog. Retrieved July 18, 2008, from http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/02/on-being-connected-george-siemens.html

Downes, S. (2007). Things you really need to learn. SlideShare. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/what-you-really-need-to-learn?src=related_normal&rel=40271

Friedman, T. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century

    New York: Farrar, Straus and Girous.

Kawasaki, G. (2006). Ten things to learn this school year. How to Change the World. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/08/ten_things_to_l.html

Kotter, J. R., & Rathgeber, H. (2007). Changing and succeeding under any conditions. Our Iceberg is Melting. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.ouricebergismelting.com/html/8step.html

Lambardi, M. (2007). Authentic learning for the 21st century: an overview. Educause White Paper. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from

Lean, G., & Owen, J. (2008, July 13). We've seen the future and we may not be doomed. The Independent. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/weve-seen-the-future--and-we-may-unotu-be-doomed-866486.html

Nader, R. (2001). Speech at St. Cloud state university, Minnesota. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.sharmuse.com/sharmuse/nader.htm

    http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3009.pdf

Projects, P. (2007). Planetfesto. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from Planetfesto: http://planetfesto.org/index.php

Reiner, B. P. (2008). The brain that changes itself.   The American Journal of Bioethics, 8(1), 62-63.

Richardson, W. (2008). Making kids “googlable.” Weblogged. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://weblogg-ed.com/2008/making-kids-googlable/

Robinson, K. (2007). Do schools today kill creativity? YouTube. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Shirky, C. (2008). Clay Shirky on new book “Here comes everybody.” YouTube. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_0FgRKsqqU

Wesch, M. (2008). A portal to media literacy. YouTube. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s

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