In this update we have some interestingr esources for science and the environment, humanities, the arts, ipads and the flat classroom. 1. The story of Bottled Water - http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/ This is a great video that examines bottled water. The story, which is animated and real video talks about the history of bottled water and the environmental impact of this. Great and challenging. Also look at: http://www.storyofstuff.org/capandtrade/ http://storyofstuff.org/index.php http://storyofstuff.org/cosmetics/ http://storyofstuff.org/electronics/ 2. Google Art Project - http://www.googleartproject.com/ This is a stunning resource for the Art historian and art student. Imagine visting the best galleries and museums and creating your own collection to share with your peers. Well this is the virtual way to do this. A google project it has huge potential - http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/explore-museums-and-great-works-of-art.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FMKuf+%28Official+Google+Blog%29 3. Apps for Education - https://market.android.com/apps/EDUCATION/ - this is an application store for the Android operating system. Like the Apps store for the iPad and Ipod this store has a variety of free and purchased tools to use. Worth considering if you are an android user.  In a related article Singapore is trialing the iPad as a replacement for textbooks - read the article here - http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_life/2011-01-14/196332269116.html 4. RPGMaker - http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/ - if you have ever wondered how to combine the language arts, with computing, imagination and creativity this is a tool for you and your students. RPGMaker allows you to create your own Role Playing games. This is a bastion for higher order thinking - creativity, analysis and evaluation and finally at the end of the month I am heading over to China to the Flat Classroom Conference - this will be an amazing trip and one I am looking forward to immensely. I have a number of sessions I am running, including Global Digital citizenship, ipads and ipods in education and a TED Style talk… http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/ and http://www.flatclassroomconference.com/

I think its fair to say that most people accept that the 19th century model of education is not applicable in our 21st century world. However, few people have ever experienced 21st century learning, particularly our students parents and in many case ourselves as teachers. I think most educators accept as well that the focus on lower order thinking skills within teaching and assessment is out dated and inappropriate. If I was asked to find out the capital cities of the world, beyond the ones that have relevance to me, I would look it up online using my laptop, ipad or phone so why  should I memorize it? Is it critical to my life and employment, probably not. Even given that we all accept this, there are many obstacles that have prevented us from breaking the mold of education and changing what, how, why, where and when we teach. Inertia - Definition - the property of matter by which it retains its state of rest or its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force. - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/inertia Educational inertia is something we have experienced. Education will happily stay in the same place or keep moving in the same direction until an external force acts upon it. Unfortunately the external forces that might shift education are: too small or ignored - this is the students voice. Its their education but does the system listen to them? Unaware and basing their decisions on their own educational experiences - Everyone has an opinion on education, but few have a vision of what education should be like rather than what it was like. The world has changed but the vision remains the same . Aware but politically motivated - I would say almost every politician has heard about 21st century education, but its not palatable because they want to be re-elected and everyone is an expert on education. Step too far away from the norm and you are branded a radical and doing education a dis-service. So the challenge for education, educators and educational leaders is to make the shift, too break the mold without upsetting to many people. I have seen examples of schools applying the best pedagogical practice and failing because they attempted to do it all at once and with out community buy in. Source: http://zeenatsyal.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/footprints-sand-beach-sunrise.jpg?w=392&h=315 And it community buy in that is the change that counts. A child does not go from crawling to running in an instant. Instead this development takes time and is composed of small steps culminating in the running child. Changing the communities vision and opinion of education, and this is essentially what community buy in is,  is the same. Small steps, each one achievable, each one with clear benefits, each supported and championed, that leads to the wider change. So what will be your first small step?

The Term Digital native has been broadly used to describe people who through continous immersion in technology are neurologically different to those who have not had the same degree of exposure. For a considerable amount of time this was theory and subject to much skeptacism, however the body of research into neuroscience has provided a huge amount of supporting evidence. (See the work of Dr Gary Small in his book iBrain, Nicholas Carr in the Shallows, Understanding the digital generation by Ian Jukes and Lee Crockett  and so on). Their brains are wired differently to the generations who did not have the same degree of exposure. Similarly, your brain will adapt and change throughout your life. Age is not a barrier to learning and experience cause the brain to adapt. In general the charactoristics we see for this digital generation are that they are: Highly visual and have a preference for multi media information, technology and media savvy multitasking (rapid task switching) and often lack patience, wanting immediate access, feedback and rewards communicators and collaborators producers, remixers and creators value transparency and fairness adaptive and like customising their environment to suit themselves In the classroom, many people expect that the students walking into their learning environment are able, almost by instinct and dint of being a digital native, to use software and technology instantly with a degree of competence. They are suprized by the lack of skills that these "Digital natives" possess. So its probably worth expanding the "technology savvy" component of the charactoristics of the 21st century learners. source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/22/xbox360_games_console.jpg They are technology savvy, but technology is not just computers and software, computers  and software are elements of technology. Technology surrounds us and them, its the television, media recorders, players, games consoles, gps, cell phones, remote controls, robots and so much more that surround us. Our digital natives can manipulate and use these technologies, they are adept at using technology and can quickly pick up the underlying concepts and processes within these. BUT…. it is dependent on what they are exposed to.. The general exposure to and immersion in technologies has led to the neurological changes we see in the digital generation, but their competence or lack of it competence in a particular tool is dependent on their experiences with it. So when our brand new students walk into the classroom at the start of the year, we must put aside the expectation/assumption that they come with a skill set on how to use computers and software. Rather, we should consider them as sponges that will quickly absorb the skills to a basic level but need direction, support and critique to reach their potential.

In this update of on the wire we have a variety of resources including some brilliant digital citizenship videos. 1. Exposed - CEOP -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ovR3FF_6us Exposed is the latest release from the CEOP, Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. This video examines  sexting from the perspective of a young person. This 10 minute videofor 14 to 18 year olds. Also produced by CEOP is concequences - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK5OeGeudBM&feature=relmfu Check out the CEOP website - http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/11_16/ this is an issues facing schools around the world - here are some current articles New Zealand - http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/8811235/schools-ban-cellphones-to-stop-sexting/ BBC article - teen sexting experience - video - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8182133.stm 2. 7 things you should know - ipad apps for learning - http://www.educause.edu/Resources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutiPadA/223289 This is one of the ongoing series of resources for educators. it focuses on the variety of applications available for the iPad. Recent briefs include: open ended responce systems - http://www.educause.edu/Resources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutOpenE/221241 directory of briefing papers - http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/ELI%207%20Things%20You%20Should%20Know/33438 3. Divided attention disorder - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12406677 - This article examines Divided Attention Disorder or DAD - it looks at the effect of technology on attention and concentration. This is worth reading. Other recent articles include this one from USA today -http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-02-01-tech-overload_N.htm - Social media users grapple with information overload from mashable http://mashable.com/2011/02/01/deloitte-survey/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Twitter The Rise of Digital Multitasking [STATS] From the Star the no facebook experiment - http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/906199-no-facebook-experiment-yields-dramatic-results .

If you were to ask a group of teachers if exercise is important, they would unanimously say that exercise is very important. Many of them would state the health and welfare value of exercise  - they might mention diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Some would state that it has benefits for student behaviour - it expends "excess energy", reduces behavioural issues, increases student engagement;  some too would note the cognitive benefits that exercise benefits brain function, decision making, higher order thinking linkage between the hemisphere of the brain post exercise. Then others too would mention the emotional benefits, the value of exercise in managing depression, self image, general feeling of well being etc. And then we may also hear about the benefits of exercise on sleep patterns etc All of these are, in fact, correct. We know that each of these points or benefits are derived  from regular, preferably daily,  exercise. So why do we see so few schools implementing regular daily exercise even with the huge physical, emotional, behavioural and cognitive benefits are clearly demonstrated? Primary schools DO implement daily exercise, but why does it drop of as we progress up the school? I have heard arguments that the students are more self directed and should be making their own decisions, but this is from the same schools that implement vigorous uniform policies, rigid attendance procedures etc so this only applies to exercise and no other form of choice. source; http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/images/ency/fullsize/19383.jpg I have heard from some people that they can not afford  the lost of teaching time. Yet if each class lost 5 minutes and instead gained an improvement in concentration, focus and improved cognitive benefits which would translate directly to improved teaching and learning the benefits would outweigh the loss of a small amount of class time. From a holistic aspect too school is about establishing appropriate behaviours, values and attitudes as well as the curricula outcomes. We know that the habits, values and passions they start in their formative years under our guidance will stay with them for life. Isn’t exercise something we would all agree is of benefit worth emphasising?

My students are currently investigating IT and education for the IB ITGS course. As part of the course they are producing a multimedia training resource for the year 7 students on how to use the windows 7 operating systems. They are producing an interactive resource that has the following elements: graphics - moving or still or both text audio interactivity One of the restrictions set for them is that any media they use must be royalty free. The students have sent me a coule of links that are worth using: Free graphics - http://www.freegraphicsworld.com/ available under cc attribution licience - http://www.freegraphicsworld.com/license/ Free Audio - http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/ check the licience on the individual tracks but the ones that I have seen are CC licienced Nice stuff

One of the sessions I ran at the Flatclassroom conference was iPad, iPod, iPhone and iEducation. The session was short but very well attended and Apple China lent the conference 10 iPads and 40 iPod touches to use. The premise of the session was what would I put on a class set of iPads or iPods for use in a classroom. Some comentators have said that the iPad is a consumption device and I would agree with that comment for the average user, but in education, the iPad is a tool of creativity, imagination and production. One of the teachers at the session asked me what were the limitations of the iPad and my answer was that, other than size related issues and lack of a camera, that web development and programming was hard. But for your average student is this a problem? The iPad doesn’t have the power of a laptop or desk top, but do we use that power to its potential? For the average student, i suspect that the iPad would be a more than adequate tool. So what would I place on my class set of iPads and what assessories would I want? Productivity tools pages - Word processor keynote - presentation tool numbers - Data processing mindmapping tool - iThoughtsHD (I am sure there are other but I know and like this one) Image editor - Adobe Photoshop Express File management tool - Good reader Comic development tool - Comic Strip CS Video editor - I would probably have either Splice (i haven’t yet got it to find video on my iPad though) or ReelDirector Language application - iTranslate GIS tool - Google Earth Note taking tool - Audio Note (records sound while allowing you to type notes and draw illustrations) Projector - enables other applications to use the VGA adapter Communication tool - Skype This is the basics, these are the tools that I would make regular use of in the classroom. There are many others worth mentioning too like Math Board, Virtual Frog dissection, storybook, Play2learn all of which are of value and worth using. For the iPod the list is not as broad. You lack the productivity tools  but the others remain the same. mindmapping tool - iThoughtsHD Image editor - Adobe Photoshop Express Comic development tool - Comic Strip CS Video editor - Splice Language application - iTranslate GIS tool - Google Earth Note taking tool - Audio Note. In my class set of assessories I would have Camera adapter (SD Card and USB adaptor allowing direct connection to the iPad) VGA adapter - connect you iPad to a projector One microphone/earphone set per iPad Have I missed anything? What would you add?

The flatclassroom conference was a very interesting event for a number of reasons. The two parallel strands, one for teachers and one for students, with the interaction between them was brilliant. As was the fact that this was an action based conference, not a sit and listen conference. The students and teachers both had to produce a product (or project) by the end of the  conference. In the students case the product was a video and for the staff it was to design and develop a global collaborative project. The students in developing their product had to "pitch" the video concept to the teachers twice. The first pitch was a ‘elevator pitch" an oral explanation of their concept. The second pitch was an "animatic pitch" where they storyboarded their video and presented this to the teacher. These were both challenging stages of the product development. At each stage the students received formative assessment and detailed feedback and were able to modify their design and concept if required or if they felt the feedback was justified. The teachers also had to "pitch" their global collaborative project to the students and receive formative assessment and detailed feedback from the students about the concept they had developed. Students pitching ideas to teachers and receiving feedback is pretty "run of the mill" stuff. The inverse isn’t. When we asked the teachers about the experience most of them said they were nervous presenting to the students. When we debriefed the students they said the process was empowering and that they would be more engaged in their learning if they were able to shape how they learnt it. Discussing with my own students has indicated that they would love to be involved in the method and mode they are taught. they accept that the content is often dictated from "higher authorities", but the way they are taught isn’t. Some students, at the conference,  didn’t want to do this and I suspect that is the exam focused "I want it handed to me on a plate" approach, but for many or actually most, they would love to be involved. source: http://cus.oise.utoronto.ca/UserFiles/Image/PEV116.jpg The advantages of this are obvious - student buy in to their learning, student engagement, student ownership and improved learning. The disadvantages are that is threatening and challenging to teachers, that it can make learning messy, that the teachers vision of what teaching should be and the students reality of how they want to learn could be different. It requires the teacher to be flexible and open to critique and to have developed a level of repore with their students.

Its great to have a rant about firewalls and filtering, but its irresponsible to not suggest a solution. Here are some thoughts on what might be a suitable solution. Solution: The core issue is having the student establish/develop a suitable moral and ethical approach to using the Internet. Establishing this moral and ethical approach will be of benefit to the student not only at school but at home, university and work. The key facet of the concept is timely and appropriate use of the resources namely internet access . Source: http://www.acastle.com/images/SolutionPuzzle.jpg For schools the key use of the resources (internet and email access) is for learning. Therefore students need to manage their resources including access to online social media, quota, educational and recreational use of the system. Students need to understand that access to social media etc during lunchtime, breaks, before and after school is OK, but they have to manage their use/quota. They must also act in a appropriate manner while accessing these sites. They are to be digital citizens. Access in class is strictly for educational purposes and other uses are unacceptable. Other activities are effecting the students learning and potentially the learning of other students in the class. Therefore, such behaviours must carry consequences, similar to using a cell phone in class or other off task activity. To facilitate this strategy schools would: 1. Block sites that are absolutely unacceptable - pornographic etc - set rules to report students who attempt to access pornographic sites - follow up on any attempts. Attempting to access a porn site is essential the same as accessing one. The intent is the same. 2. Establish a culture of open access - core to this is that  access at school is for education not entertainment. We should have the students ask the question "does this have to do with my learning?" We must follow up on students who attempt to access anything via closed methods (i.e. proxy tunnels), this must be dealt with as a serious offence, because with open internet they can visit any site except those that are completely unacceptable. 3. Establish rules and procedures  that allow staff to examine who is accessing which site and when - Who, What & When? 4. Establish a process and procedures where staff follow up on unacceptable/non education related activities in class time. Often this will require a few "object lessons", the student grapevine is incredibly efficient and they will quickly get the message about actions and consequences. 5. Establish suitable consequences for inappropriate behaviour. Since such actions are essentially a betrayal of trust, the consequences should reflect this. 6. Communicate this to staff, parents and students. Its an open model, with open process and clear consequences Caveat This is an age dependent process - we know that the ethical and moral development of students is age dependent. I would recommended a progressive withdrawal of restrictions as the students progress up the school and accept responsibility for their learning and actions.

One of the frustrations I had in China was the so called "Great Firewall of China" which blocked access to many sites often without apparent reason. The Blocked sites include social media like facebook, communication tools like twitter and strangely enough Google Spreadsheets , sites but not documents. However, tools like Astrill which allow you to access these sites and more through the firewall are not blocked by the Chinese government. Some of the blocked sites included: Diigo blogger.com Wordpress.com Google docs and spreadsheets Google Sites PB wiki NetVibes YouTube (and many other video sharing tools) Edublogs.com tinyurl.com The reasons for these actions, in China, have to do with control of the populous, freedom of speech etc. They are, after all, a single party state, communist and at times quite repressive. source: http://sendanonymousemail.com/img/Firewall.jpg Reflecting on this state of affairs has me wondering about schools policies regarding firewalls and access to web 2.0 tools and social media. There are perhaps some parallels that could be drawn and it is worth reflecting on the reasons for blocking sites. Why do we block websites? Well, we block some because they are total unacceptable. For example pornographic sites But what about some of the other sites like social media? If a student is accessing social media in class we should be asking why are they accessing this rather than learning. This is surely a teaching/engagement/motivation problem. (This is not pointing the finger at the teacher, as sometimes inspite of interesting programs, student involvement and motivating activities some students will not engage, however often it is a reflection of the teacher him or her self. ) Blocking the site is masking the issue rather than addressing it. Would it not be better to monitor the site and act appropriately when require seeking the source of the issue be it lack of engagement, motivation or classroom management. A concern is the potential damage to the school of students posting material that may not be appropriate, the abundance tools and sites combined with the students level of access from their own tools (like cell phones) and at home have rendered this agrement obsolete. The argument for conserving bandwidth is also now weakening. The availability and reducing cost of internet connection is reducing this argument. So students do not seriously effect other by surfing such sites. The question of duty of care arises - blocking the site may mean that we can say yes we are protecting them, but it doesn’t really holistically address the issue, its a bandaid a sticking plaster. it protects the schoolat the expence of the students.  Isn’t it better to allow opportunity, monitor and then deal with the issue rather than saying "I’m alright" its now someone else’s problem. We expect our students to be responsible digital citizens, we do not encourage or develop this by removing the potential. An ethical and moral digital citizen makes a conscious decision or choice rather than having the decision removed. Similarly, we expect the students to make appropriate decisions about when and where to access social media, and again we don’t do that by removing the opportunity. I think it is time for us to consider what we are filtering and whether such filtering reflects the ethos that we uphold.