Meet a 21st Century Learner, a prosumer, a student!

For the past couple of months I have worked with 100 eighth graders as they navigate their way through a private Ning, a social network, we created for their language arts classes. We followed the protocol of creating gmail accounts for the students based on a special gmail account. The end result is that the students do NOT use that email to receive any communication. The communication from teachers and students takes place on the Ning. (This in effect is due to the CIPA regulations for students under the age of 14. )


The Ning was created as a walled garden where students can practice their online skills in a supportive environment. The skills we are teaching have to do withinternet safety, cyber citizenship, appropriate use of content, specifically looking at Creative Commons and how to find music, images and video that is available for shared use. The language arts teachers use the site for writing prompts and soon will open it as a forum for discussing a grade level novel. The clever name of theNing is grade8ourspace .

Students spend class-time working on their writing prompts, they reflect and comment to other classmates instead of the teacher being the only one to comment on a prompt. Students soon realized that they could use the site all hours of the day or week, including weekend days and they were posting their own writing prompts for their peers. I have to admit that I thought their prompts generated much more conversation than the prompts about character development. However, if we don't start with character development, there may not be the next level of writing!



Here are some examples of student prompts :
Relationship problems?
Where do you go? Who do you talk to? Who will listen? Will they understand? Why don't they care? Doesn't anyone feel the same way?

Feeling alone and depressed.
Many teenagers between the age of 13-18 go through depression. It could because of parents divorce, friend fight, losing a boyfriend/girlfriend or living in regret.
There were 22 comments in response to this.

What is your idea for the 8th grade trip?
I would like to get some good ideas for the meeting we have with Mr.G, so what are you ideas?
22 comments

What is your fear?
My fear is falling off tall things like cliffs or the stage or the thingy on the rock wall. And spiders they are just creepy and gross!!!!!!
22 comments

Each student prompt had about 20 responses, or 20% of the students. The teacher prompts had the full class of students responding and then students responding to other students.

During school vacation, I received an invitation to another ning. The Ning was created by one of our students. I joined and was happy to see a decidedly different ning. The student had invited all the 8th graders and teachers. The Ning was created just because she could. I asked if I could interview her about this and she agreed.
This is what I learned. Darian started the Ning because she was bored. She thought up the name based on her personality. She send out a broadcast notice to join her Ning to all in the Language Arts Ourspace Ning. So far about 20 people have responded. She mentioned that it was a place to hang out and have conversations about anything anyone decided to write. At her site, the members started a couple of groups. One student has added a series of videos about "Who will sit with Josh?" This is a spin off of a YouTube series about a boy and his life. Another group that has started up is Save the Wildlife,A place to talk about animals... and environment!! About our planet and other things to like recycling!!
Darien mentioned that her creation of this Ning will probably help her in the future when she is working. I asked some questions about being the creator of the site and if she had a plan about how long she would keep the site alive,( probably forever) and if she knew how to make the site private or how to block people. She confessed that she saw those were possibilities but hadn't read how to do that. I shared some tips with her and she made some changes.

What does all this mean and how does it relate to schools, teachers, curriculum and content? The ourspace for language arts Ning, social network, was received well by the students and teachers. Many of the students began their own prompts and participated in replies to multiple questions on the language arts Ning. This was allowed and monitored. Once Darien realized the power of the network she then created her own social network to reflect her personality. Darien also confided that another student she knew created a family Ning for her own family. I don't believe we can restrict and confine learning to our school day hours. I am hopeful that with more Web 2.0 tools and less emphasis on school control, that we will open the pathways for our students to participate in their own form of on demand learning. How can educators use the current online real estate for projects to continue 24/7 learning? What are some projects that make sense for our digital learners? What are the tools we can provide? What are the connections we can offer? Once we share these kinds of tools we can't close Pandora's Box, why would we want to?

I want to thank the students at my middle school. I learn so much from them each day. We are on this journey together. The names were changed for this blog post. You know who you are!

A stunning video listen to the voices.

This video is an excellent video to watch prior or after a book talk on Disrupting Class by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Horn and Curtis W. Johnson. The SEEDLINGS were honored to have Michael Horn with us on Thursday March 5, 2009 to discuss the implications for all educators, students and parents.
Sharon Betts offered up this video as a reminder to us about who are customers really are.


What do you think?

Conquering a Challenge!

 Cross-posted at Techlearning.com
Two years ago I tried something I had never tried before. I entered the Mt. Dew Vertical Challenge ski race. My first race was all new to me. I had never raced on skis, never in a slalom and never in a crowd of all ages from 5 year olds to 70 year olds. My heart was pounding when I reached the gates during my first race in 2007. My purpose was to have fun, but in the process I discovered the same kind of feeling many of us have when we encounter something new and challenging.


In January 2009, at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine, I raced the Mountain Dew Vertical Challenge slalom course. My youngest son raced at the same time I did, he was on his snowboard trying to best his record. I started out with him, but soon was pretty far behind him, but I keep at it.  I was almost as nervous as the first time I raced and throughout my race I talked my way through the slalom course to the  bottom. I kept reminding myself that I could keep going fast and not to slow down until I was past the finish line.   By the time I was at the end of the slalom course and still standing, I was thinking about whether I had beat my old record and if I had improved. My goal for the entire year had been to beat my previous time, and since I moved into a new age group I hoped I could be first in my age group.

While I was racing this year, I was reminded  that when I am presenting to others, I have to imagine that there are some in the audience who are feeling nervous, scared, and probably that "just get me out of here before anyone notices how little I know feeling". I think all presenters who are mindful of that nervous feeling will be able to reach some timid members in the audience and encourage them to try something new with purpose.

I am happy that I have kept at my own Vertical Challenge for the past three years. I am happy that each year I have gotten a little bit faster. I am happy and surprised to report that I did win my age group, FIRST PLACE. I have a medal to prove that I won, but just knowing that I kept at it was enough for me. As much as I enjoyed winning, I am confident that I will remember the nervous, heart pounding sensation that accompanies trying something totally new and out of my comfort zone. If I can take that to each professional development event that I am involved in and share, I hope those in the audience will gain some confidence that they too can conquer any challenge. I will be right behind you!

Oh, by the way, my son not only won his age division but was the fastest snowboarder on the mountain! Way to make his momma proud!

How are you using technology in your school?

How are you using technology in your school? cross posted at TechLearning.com/blog

School systems have done a great job getting up to speed with getting information into the Student Information System (SIS) with technology. The technology is available, for example, to make attendance an automated part of the day, and now attendance is easier and more efficient than in the past.

When aggregated information needs to be looked at it is easy to sort and filter the information in order that the presentation is timely and focused.

Rather than looking through pages and columns and rows of information trying to find a needle in a haystack, teachers and administrators can answer a question using a filter or sort. When you ask teachers or administrators to give examples of how technology is being used today in their schools they can quickly list things like attendance, testing, looking at data, communicating with the staff by email, communicating with the public, by email and webpages.

The teachers did not readily come up with how technology has impacted their instruction. I wonder why?

Our teachers are using an online writing program to score student writing, at first this was confused with supplanting the way students would learn how to write, but in the long run, it provides a structure on how students should write giving the teacher lots of time to work with individuals on the how to write and individual instruction. So, in effect you can say that technology allows the teacher the opportunities to give more individual instruction while others are writing. The teacher has the same goal to instruct students on how to write a descriptive paragraph, give students time to practice and to write for an audience. Technology can help but it doesn't take over.

My son told me that in college he has an awesome writing teacher, she uses the technology to edit his work and by using arrows and speech bubbles on the papers he emails her as her feedback, she gives him guidance on how to improve. She is able to tailor the instruction to her individual student. He liked it, maybe it made the edits and changes more about his writing. Maybe it made the edits more focused about the writing and he was able to get past that it felt like it was directed at him the person.

How are you using technology differently in your instruction? Do you have some suggestions about what made your students more interested and engaged in their work? Share them with the group here in the comments.

7 things Meme, thanks Jennifer Dorman

When I was checking my technorati account I found I had been tagged by Jennifer Dorman in a Meme. This is a fun way to share with the network, some things about myself that they many not know.
Quickly put:
1. I am a Webhead since 2005, February. Being a Webhead has opened many doors.
2. I am a Webcaster, at EdTechTalk, Thursdays a SEEDLINGS show 19:30 GMT.
3.I am getting ready for the Mt. Dew Challenge, this weekend. Looking to break my record.
4. I get to blog with one hundred 8th graders at my school, and one hundred 5th graders, can you say busy?
5. I love my job at Wells Ogunquit CSD where teachers, students and our community touch the future.
6. Meeting my virtual friends/network in a face 2 face setting is a highlight of any year!
7. I am teaching in an online class with the best group images4education!

I will tag Susan Ettenheim, Alice Barr, Carla Arena, Sarah Sutter, Jeff Bailey, Jim Burke
Ernie Easter (who already has posted his 7 meme)

Happy Learning and Sharing, it is about the conversations!

My Facebook Account was Hacked!

hacked
Originally uploaded by cheryloakes50

This blog post is cross posted at TechLearning.com

In one afternoon during our 6 days without electricity and heat in the Maine Icestorm, I received no less than 6 frantic messages from my young college friends. "Did you know your Facebook was hacked?" was the basic theme.

My first thought was, hm, that is a crazy page to hack and what had I last done on my account?? When I was finally able to talk to my son, Nathan, he wondered if I had seen the page, yet?, No not yet, we still have no power, and although we had power at school, Facebook is blocked at my school. ("I've yet to have a compelling educational reason to unblock Facebook".) So, I asked him to take a screen shot of my page getting hacked and then I would contact Facebook. My youngest son Daniel was ready to take on the hacker, until he thought better of it, that he too might be hacked. I assured them both that Facebook would help out.

Early in 2008, I had read a blogpost about a blog being hacked and then ransomed for money. It was a blog and an online business, so it would appear someone had a financial reason to expect the website was worth some money to someone, who would pay to have their account restored to them. As I researched for this post, I found a recent ransom article that surprised me. Then we all heard how Gov. Sarah Palin's email was hacked late in the Presidential campaign of 2008.

Why a Facebook account?

When I was finally able to view my page, my photo had been taken over and a message replaced my photo, a sinister message, had been left, "tell her, her page has been hacked, ha, ha, ha." I contacted abuseATfacebookDOTcom, after I had read through their FAQ section on what to do with problems with an account. I explained what had happened and wondered if they could help. I received a noreply email saying that they received my email and someone would contact me in 72 hours. Within that timeframe, I was contacted by email, my page was reset, and I entered my 'ransacked' facebook page. There were 2 images in my photos and while I could delete one, the other was still not in my control. 2 days later, a comment appeared in my profile from my hacker, which again I was notified by my son to go in and delete the profile message. At that time I was able to get rid of the hacker photo, and the hacker profile information that had been added.

What had I done to open myself for a hack? Usually on my Facebook page, I add information about teaching and 21st Century Skills for educators. I have a link to my high school, my college and my personal learning network of virtual acquaintances. I never leave my page open, and 90% of the time I access Facebook from my home computer. What had I done to invite a hacker?

I had accepted a snowball fight! You know those cute little 3rd party applications that Facebook warns you about, here is the warning!
Allow Access?
Allowing Snowball Fight! access will let it pull your profile information, photos, your friends' info, and other content that it requires to work.

By proceeding, you are allowing Snowball Fight! to access your information and you are agreeing to the Facebook Platform User Terms of Service in your use of Snowball Fight!

That was the only thing I could think of that was unusual about what I had used my account for, I threw a snowball. The next day my page was hacked. Was this a fluke or was something tied to the snowball fight? I don't know, but what I do know is that I won't be using the 3rd party cute applications on my account.

What are some things to do to prevent any of your online accounts from being hacked.

Use different passwords for your online web2.0 tools/games/sites than you use for personal banking and online ordering. ( I know, I know, it is hard to remember all the passwords you need, but nonetheless important.)
Change your passwords for your personal online banking, credit cards, personal ordering on a regular basis.
Use applications that you are familiar with and read the fine print.
DO NOT USE the standard remember your password Question!!!Why? Your mother's maiden name, your birthplace are in the public record. Sure it is easier to remember, but also easy for hackers to find.
Make up your own question and answer in order to retrieve your forgotten password.
Keep your identity yours.
URL of the image @ flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/coakes50/3152363334/

Happy Holiday 2008 to all of my Network

The best to all of you.