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This study provides insights about

educational goals of using social software tools; enablers or drivers within the institution, or from external sources which positively influence the adoption of social software; benefits to the students, educators and institutions; challenges that may influence a social software initiative; and issues that need to be considered in a social software initiative.

social software tools support a variety of ways of learning: sharing of resources (eg bookmarks, photographs), collaborative learning, problem-based and inquiry-based learning, reflective learning, and peer-to-peer learning.

Henry Jenkins

y su equipo

Al respecto, propone la metáfora del campesino y el cazador. El campesinos debe completar toda la secuencia de procesos para conseguir lo que necesita (su cosecha) y, por tanto, sus habilidades deben ser muy específicas. El cazador, en cambio, ha de ser más diverso, debe escanear el paisaje y ser lo suficientemente hábil como para localizar su presa e ir por ella. Durante siglos, el sistema educativo ha formado “campesinos” y el futuro nos demanda educar sujetos que cuenten con habilidades que respondan a ambos perfiles.

The basis of coolhunting is that you can use Web 2.0 tools to locate creative swarms of individuals who are developing new ideas before they reach a tipping point. Web 2.0 forums, chat, bulletin boards, etc. (even emails) afford a window into the communication patterns of people who are engaged in creative swarms.

That means when searching Web 2.0 for information, at least 80% of people are at a distinct disadvantage. Without being involved in a conversation, they don't earn the trust of the individuals who are involved.

I highly recommend reading the book Coolhunting by Peter Gloor and Scott Cooper if you want to know more about social network analysis, swarm creativity, collaborative innovation networks and so on. There are some very powerful search tools in this field that are like Google on steroids. I'll blog about that later.

NSSE, the National Survey of Student Engagement reports for 2008 that . . . “Students taking most of their classes online report more deep approaches to learning in their classes, relative to classroom-based learners. Furthermore, a larger share of online learners reported very often participating in intellectually challenging course activities.”

ess important for students to know, memorize, or recall information

more important

to find, sort, analyze, share, discuss, critique, and create information

As part of Social Actions' Change the Web Challenge we were excited to host the "Change the Web Conversation Series," open online chats to discuss how to use specific technology platforms for good. We invited a number of 'rock star' featured guests & moderators and our amazing community to ask questions, share examples & ideas, and in general rock the the discussions! Most all the chats occurred in the chat client Meebo (except for the Twitter chat - which was held on Twitter!) - and you can find the transcripts below!

traditional notions of credibility as coming from a centralized authority (e.g., a teacher, expert, or author) and individualized appraisal processes are challenged by digital technologies.

Credibility assessments as constructed through collective or community efforts (e.g., wikis, text messaging via cell phones, or social networking applications) emerge as a major theme in recent discussions, and phrases like "distributed" and "decentralized" credibility, the "democratization of information," and "collectively versus institutionally-derived credibility" are common.

At core is the belief that digital media allow for the uncoupling of credibility and authority in a way never before possible.

Website Investigator: Information Forensics Goes to School

The purpose of this session is to provide participants with an understanding of efficient methods for evaluating online information and to demonstrate effective ways to teach these information fluency skills in classrooms.The new generation of NETS standards for students (ISTE, 2007), is based on the premise that efficacy and productivity depends on students’ abilities to conduct research and manage digital information fluently. An essential skill is the ability to evaluate information from a variety of sources and media.This session directly addresses this information fluency standard by helping participants…1. Understand the role of investigation (information forensics) in evaluating information:• Two types of searching: how investigation differs from speculation;• Determining when investigative searching is necessary and when it is not;• Effective means of finding critical information with limited clues;• Using specialized search engines and browsing techniques to track down information;• Analyzing results to determine credibility of the source and content.2. Observe effective methods for helping students exercise speculative search skills:• Off-line 'readiness' activities;• Group and individual Search Challenges;• Interactive tutorial games;• Think-aloud searches;• Evaluation reporting;• Group discussion about credibility.

Story HighlightsChristensen, Horn: Federal spending on schools is set to jumpThey say it would be a big mistake to use money to let failing schools resist changeCo-authors: Federal money should go to innovators challenging traditional waysThey say technology should be used to create new forms of schooling

The most likely result of this stimulus will be to give our schools the luxury of affording not to change.

Fourth, direct more funds for research and development to create student-centric learning software. Just a fraction of 1 percent of the $600 billion in K-12 spending from all levels currently goes toward R&D. The federal government should reallocate funds so we can begin to understand not just what learning opportunities work best on average but also what works for whom and under what circumstance. It is vital to fund learning software that captures data about the student and the efficacy of different approaches so we can connect these dots.

Tom refers to this as the “Red Queen Effect” after a scene in Alice’s Adventures Through the Looking Glass, where Alice is shocked to be standing in the same place after running quite fast for an extended period of time and the Red Queen explains, “if you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”

nother Hong Kong presenter, Stephen Heppell, was also careful to emphasize that the biggest challenge today is the pace of change: exponential. With this rapid pace of change there is no time for the “staircase mentality” (pilot, review etc).

what are we mistakenly not valuing now?

The new classroom is about information, but not just information. It’s also about collaboration, about changing roles of student and teacher, and about challenges to the very idea of traditional authority. It may also be about a new cognitive model for learning that relies heavily on what has come to be called “multitasking.”

Every effective teacher uses the same principle – come up with an engaging topic or idea, then investigate the best tools for scaffolding student learning

So, let’s stop handing the kids the ‘toolkits’ before we have created a challenging ‘worksite’ for them to be used and get back to focusing on ‘quality workmanship

The paradoxical thing about information and searching is that the more of it there is, the less of it we will see. The results we retrieve will be a smaller and smaller sample of what's actually available. And I don't see how this trend can be reversed.

When I ask workshop participants if they've ever gone to the end of the list retrieved, I've never encountered anyone who has. Most searchers stop after the first page; the number who look at two pages is much smaller. For the 8 people in 100 who go beyond the third page, they have access to 0.1% of the information theoretically available. For the majority who never look beyond page one, that number falls to 0.025%.