It was one of those Fridays today when I would much rather have been lying in bed. My students also looked rather zombie-ish with dark circles painted under their eyes and postures resembling cavemen in need of a chiropractor. Here’s the thing: It’s winter in Canada and my grade 7s are going through their Michael-Jackson-in-Thriller-pubescent-transformations. Sometimes it’s best if we just respect one another’s space. Anyway, I was trying to lead this wonderfully enigmatic lot in a backchannel discussion deconstructing oral presentation skills. It was like pulling teeth. Here’s what they wanted to chat about instead. Do I swell with pride seeing that my students care that much about Radiohead? You’re darn right I do. Was that my plan for our lesson and use of the tool? Nope. If you want to have a class where kids have a certain degree of control over the whats, whens, and hows of technology, especially in regards to the mobile variety and social media, don’t freak out when they start having arguments about how much "[Coldplay is] a suckyer [sic] version of Radiohead". We all have our frigid Canadian Friday mornings. Now that we’ve settled that, let’s get to the really important stuff. Is it Coldplay’s "Trouble" or Radiohead’s "Karma Police"? Vote in the comments below.

I’m really looking forward to Apple’s ‘Education Event’ coming up this week. Yes, I’m a moderate fanboy, but my interest is mostly piqued because I simply want to know how they’re seeking to dominate our education sphere. I don’t hear about too many Samsung 1:1 tablet roll outs. The sex appeal of Apple is already mesmerizing many districts and schools to delve into their budgets in a big way. Keep in mind that this is even with Apple doing very little to overtly target or customize their products for schools. What will happen once they properly lock their targets in?

This is quite major, folks. Or maybe not.

Overheard in my classroom the day many sites went #blackoutsopa: Boy 1: Dude, did you hear about the Google page today? Boy 2: Ya, it’s so cool. Booooo! SOPA!!! Girl 1: What’s SOPA? Boy 1: The government wants to stop us pirating movies ‘n’ stuff. Girl 2: WHAT?!?! Boooooooo! Boy 2: Ya, I need to pirate stuff! Are there more difficult teachable moments to enact than Wikipedia going black? As Clay Shirky reminds us, SOPA and PIPA are less about piracy and more about democracy. For my students, however, it’s challenging to take the conversation meaningfully in that direction. They don’t perpetually juxtapose a world of share, send, download, and upload  with one where we sat on a couch waiting for an old white guy to tell us about what was happening in the world. They don’t know that latter world. It’s a History Channel episode. The ability to pirate video, audio, and gaming content means a lot to them, however. Want to see a group of kids collaborate like a pride of lions stalking buffalo? Ask them if they know how to get movie x or game y for free. Yes, it’s so important that we engage students in learning about CC licensing, intellectual property, and the ethics of the internet. And, yes, most young people today are grossly ignorant about these issues. But, no, the best way to do this is not by wagging one’s finger like so many Just Say No educational videos. And, no, it’s not the kids that are the problem. All of us adults are conveniently looking the other way when we pretend that swiping the credit card for the hardware is the end of the transaction. We’re also turning our glances when we say we are against downloading the Harry Potter movie yet will work that Xerox machine in the copy room until you can cook an egg on it. Now, to get off my own soapbox and back to that teachable moment… Do you know what made it a lot easier to have a discussion about SOPA and PIPA in my class? The fact that my students post regularly to the internet, comment on one another’s work, receive comments from the far reaches of the globe, remix work, share links, and honour CC licensed work. I asked the students how they would feel if their ability to do all of things was restricted, or even taken away, without debate or a tribunal of some variety. The room went silent for a minute which felt like an hour, but we proceeded to have a rich discussion about democracy without ever mentioning the word itself. I know they still care much more about whether the next Eminem song will get on their iPods, but at least we were speaking about something we really know, not just have heard of. You may be able to stop people from sharing their creations, but you can’t unlearn the power of the act itself. Stop SOPA and PIPA.

Lucy is almost 15 months old. She’s chunky, juicy, and has dimples that you can fall into. I was sitting on the couch after a typically awesome but tiring day when she grabbed the stool and started putting on her little demonstration. I’m sure it’s very easy for you to see the sheer pride in Lucy’s face and body. We never trained her to do this, nor suggested it in any way. So if you’re like me, analogies for the process of learning are likely flowing through your brain like so many pints of Guinness in a Dublin pub. The main connection I instantly made was to our conversations around student motivation and feedback. In the many great debates we have around this topic (extrinsic/intrinsic, rewards/punishments, badges, etc.), I feel we have a tendency to simultaneously overcomplicate and oversimplify the matter. Overall, I feel we need to resist the urge to turn it into Republicans vs. Democrats, because it’s when we become too sure in our stance that we walk down the road of confirmation bias. What I see in Lucy is a need to a) challenge herself b) accomplish things she is inately compelled to pursue, and sees people around her doing c) have a shared celebration of those accomplishments. Which leads me to consider what a celebration or acknowledgement of an accomplishment entails. In our house, if our little baby gets excited about being able to stand by herself on a stool, we clap along with her and shout various affirmations. Is that praise? Is it feedback? Do we give babies different kinds of feedback than we do to our teenagers? Is she motivated intrinsically or extrinsically? I’d love your thoughts on this. What other analogies do you see in Lucy’s video? Stay tuned for an accompanying post in which I reflect on the extent to which culture impacts our notions of ‘punishment’ and ‘reward’.

I know many of you have seen this before. It’s the ‘gorilla video’ which admonishes us for tunnel vision. I showed this in class the other day in a discussion around how you can get good at making people pay attention to your message when creating media. My students, unsurprisingly, were mesmerized by the clip. And then one precocious thinker in my class asks me, "But, Mr. Lee, does media try to keep our eyes on the ball or the gorilla?" It just blew me away. I love it when students ask questions the teacher can’t answer. What do you think? Is it the ball or the gorilla?