Just Skype It

Posted by arvind s grover Thu, 15 Dec 2005 04:47:00 GMT

Skype is a software-based phone network. You can call anyone (through your computer) who has Skype for free over the Internet. You also have the option of paying to be able to dial a standard phone from the computer.

I downloaded Skype years ago but never got into it, because I didn’t know anyone on it. That was when Skype was very rough as well. At the NYSAIS Conference for IT Managers, I watched Alan November (podcast of session here) demo Skype and propose that every class be podcasted, and students give presentations in front of audiences of parents patched in through Skype. Very cool ideas.

But today, let’s get into the reality. My mom is in India (where I am headed on Friday), and she is at her sister’s house. Her sister has Skype on her computer, and my mom was chatting with my brother (in Virginia) using Skype. They called me (in New York City), and we had a conference call, all using Skype. In the mean time, my aunt came online (in Bombay, India), and we patched her in. It was incredible. Family whom I don’t get to speak with very often, all communicating via the Internet, with nearly-perfect audio, and of course, for free.

So the project we have been discussing at school is an easy one. Forget the e-pals, let’s get some Skype pals in other places. French classes should be calling the Cote d’Ivoire and Skype chatting with kids there. Debates don’t need to happen between half the kids in the class and the other half. They should happen with classrooms half way across the globe. Let kids prepare for to defend their position to students in Norway instead of students they see each day. The possibilities are of course, endless. Dream away teachers…and please do share the results with the rest of us.

So, while I

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Wiki Under Fire

Posted by arvind s grover Wed, 14 Dec 2005 01:32:00 GMT

Wikipedia has been coming under fire as a result of an article written in the USA Today by former RFK administration member, John Seigenthaler, Sr. He was upset that someone has slandered him on his Wikipedia biographical page. Any anonymous prankster insinuated that Seigenthaler was somehow connected to the Kennedy assasinations. I can imagine that it would be awful if something like that happened to me. What I can’t imagine is shooting the messenger.

My two cents: Yes, someone slandered you. Yes, they used Wikipedia to do it. Yes, sometimes Wikipedia has incorrect information. Beauty of a wiki – you didn’t need to call your lawyer, and your son didn’t need to call you. Just press the “edit” button and correct any misinformation. Better than writing an editorial, you actually get rid of the offending content!

You cannot deny the power of Wikipedia. Thousands of people are willing to write for Wikipedia, and millions are willing to read it. The medium means something. Wikis empower people in ways we haven’t fully grasped yet. Maybe Wikipedia isn’t the best place for educators and students at all times, but it certainly is relevant. It is a study in media literacy, cultural contexts, bias, reading comprehension, web literacy, analytical writing and more.

Educators and librarians should be teaching the difference between encyclopedias, journal articles, opinion pieces, Wikipedia, newspapers, TV, video blogs, etc. Students should be able to decipher these different mediums, and take out the credible information they need.

Relevant reading:

Corollary: I was at the grocery store the other day and one of the tabloids had a cover story about the American girl who disappeared in Aruba being found. Now it is not true, but are they being blased by USA Today editorialists? Might the false news within Wikipedia make it like a mixture of Brittanica and the National Enquirer? Should rating functions be more intertwined with wikis? Perhaps…

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Wiki for Educational Technology

Posted by arvind s grover Sat, 10 Dec 2005 22:30:00 GMT

Fred Bartels posted a call today on the ISED listserve, to contribute to a wiki called The Online Independent School Technology Guide.

A Wiki is a web page that anyone can edit. Yes, anyone. So I headed over to the site and posted some information on Course Management Systems and Student Information Systems. Now when you head there, you can add to my info, get rid of it all, edit it, or just read it.

How can this sustain itself? Well, every change ever made is saved. This way, if you post ads all over the site, someone else browing through can turn the clock back to the pre-ads page. It always amazes me how wikis sustain themselves with responsible users cleaning up unconstructive postings. The prime example is Wikipedia (available in 10 languages) of course, the largest encyclopedia in the world, also editable by anyone.

If you are involved in educational technology in any way, please contribute to this beginning knowledgebase. Blogging is one way in which we try to tap collective knowledge; wikis are another very powerful tool for this.

If you haven’t tried a wiki with students yet, get going! Example project: a wiki on the book you are reading – groups of students are responsible for creating chapter summaries, study questions, character reviews, etc. See how much more time they are willing to put it knowing that anyone in the class can see their work at any time.

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Abstinence Only Web-ducation

Posted by arvind s grover Sat, 10 Dec 2005 03:34:00 GMT

The surgeon general says that abstinence education is not enough. Successful sex education must include both abstinence education as well as safe-sex practices. Educating students about using social-networking sites, and more broadly, the Internet requires just the same. While we acknowledge that the safest behavior is to abstain from social-networking communities, we also want those who enter them to do so with the knowledge to do so safely. This is my recreation of the Surgeon General’s report, but made for the online education we are working towards:

Provide access to education about online safety and appropriate use of the Internet that is thorough, wide-ranging, begins early, and continues throughout the lifespan. Such education should: recognize the special place that the online world has in the lives of young people stress the value and benefits of being online anonymously until involved in a community where one feels confident that information is protected and secure * assure awareness of optimal protection from online dangers for those who participate in online communities, while stressing that there are no infallible methods of protection except “abstinence,” and that restricted communities can still leave one’s information exposed

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Plagiarism, Fair Use and Handbags

Posted by arvind s grover Mon, 05 Dec 2005 03:01:00 GMT

I have recently been engaged in many discussions on plagiarism. We have been trying to create a curriculum on academic dishonesty across all grade levels. We want students to be able to distinguish when they cite vs. when they don’t. We want students to know when they can ask a classmate for help and when they have gone too far. We want students to understand that taking material or giving material without citations are both problematic.

These are all terribly difficult topics to clearly convey to students. Now, add the rub. I was in a department meeting with teachers discussing how to set up an effective foreign language multimedia lab. The teachers felt strongly that all the DVD and VHS content they had should be digitized and be available in streaming form to students. Fantastic, who wouldn’t agree? Well, me for one. I asked the teachers to go out to the publishers and ask for digital content. We cannot break DMCA and rip DVD’s to our servers. We have to license content, just like we buy a textbook for every student rather than making photocopies. This didn’t go over too well, and was not totally understood. Teachers saw the hurdle as technical, where the real hurdle for me is ethical/legal. If we don’t want students to download pirated music, we can’t show them pirated science experiment films.

Fair Use, the most overused and misunderstood words in this topic area. Librarians are the key in the discussion. Yes, we can tape shows from PBS under conditions X, Y, Z. Yes, we can photocopy a chapter, but not the entire book, and not for every year, but for some years. Ok, there are difficult rules to examine, but those discussions are healthy and powerful. Students can engage in similar discussions exploring ethical use of media.

My favorite example: a teacher had a fake Coco Chanel handbag and was somewhat defending the purchase. My comment: how will a student understand that it is ok for a teacher to buy a pirated bag, but not ok for a student to download a pirated song?

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The MySpace Generation

Posted by arvind s grover Mon, 05 Dec 2005 00:26:00 GMT

Most educators are aware that students are deeply involved with social networking websites like Friendster, MySpace, Webshots, The Face Book, Xanga, Live Journal and others. Business Week has an article our this week called, “The MySpace Generation,” in which they try to explain what is happening with these sites and why.

One of the most shocking points in the article:

“Fifteen- to eighteen-year-olds average nearly 6 1/2 hours a day watching TV, playing video games, and surfing the Net, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey.”

Doing some rough mental math – the average student gets home around 3:30, meaning with a 30 minute break for dinner, they are done watching TV, playing video games and surfing the Net at 10:30. Then maybe a little homework till 11:30pm-midnight, then bed? And if you are a student who plays a sport and gets home at 7:00pm, well then all bets are off.

We all understand that we are in the middle of a big shift in adolescent behavior. In the coming years it will be essential for young people to gain the skills they need to manage their time. More important than multitasking, students will need to be able to turn off the IM/MySpace and struggle with a philosophy problem, or try to understand the mitigating factors of the cold war, or work through Gregor Mendel’s pea pod experiment. You cannot concentrate while watching TV, talking to 3 friends online, downloading music and reading your favorite blog while posting to your own. You will certainly give your brain exercise in keeping information in order, but deep-thought process never has the chance to begin.

There is certainly value in being able to multitask, most jobs demand it in some ways. But most also demand well thought out, creative, analytical processing as well.

In the end though, if students are willing to spend 6.5 hours engaging with this multimedia, educators have to find a way to carve into that time. My idea? My lessons need to be part of their online experience – they should be IM’ing with study partners, they should be watching videos of lab experiments, dowloading podcasts of lectures, creating a U.S. History blog. Empower students to use their tools for their own learning.

Open note to the MySpace creators – come out with MySpace School Edition and give me a call.

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