"I don't think education is about centralized instruction anymore; rather, it is the process establishing oneself as a node in a broad network of distributed creativity."
My aunt sent me the rules: no last names, girls must correspond with girls, and boys with boys; under no circumstances would the students be allowed to exchange personal email addresses.
But there are many more old things children are doing in new ways -- innovations they have invented or adopted as their preferred method of behavior -- that have not yet made their way into our schools. These include buying school materials (clothes, supplies, and even homework) on eBay and the Internet; exchanging music on P2P sites; building games with modding (modifying) tools; setting up meetings and dates online; posting personal information and creations for others to check out; meeting people through cell phones; building libraries of music and movies; working together in self-formed teams in multiplayer online role-playing games; creating and using online reputation systems; peer rating of comments; online gaming; screen saver analysis; photoblogging; programming; exploring; and even transgressing and testing social norms.
STUDENT: I think this is true. I am very active digitally outside of school.
it is crucial for educators to learn to listen, to observe, to ask, and to try all the new methods their students have already figured out, and do so regularly.
STUDENT: I wish my teachers would ask me about how I use technology. Sometimes I find that they are trying so hard to use new technologies that they lose track of the students in the class. They are overwhelmed, and we don't always benefit from their anxiety. I also think that teachers need to LET GO a little more and allow us to use skills we have acquired outside of school in the classroom. Haven't they heard Mimi Ito????
Ed Visionary - I'm wondering if based on what I've seen happen at YIS and other schools in the Kanto region and the tone of discussion at the GAFE Summit at ASIJ recently, if we aren't now finally progressing beyond this point. I'm thinking collaboration is happening more and more on line these days. We are creating together now not just passing docs around.
Student: I know I shouldn't USUALLY agree with my parents, but the other day in class, my teacher asked me to sign into wikispaces.com and I spelled it wrong, and a really not nice picture came up and made me and my group really embarrassed. The teacher apologized and said she THOUGHT the school had filters for that kind of thing but maybe it didn't work.
Cranky parent is cranky "Shouldn't teachers be responsible and lead? Why are the students ahead of us?"
Many also block instant messaging, cell phones, cell phone cameras, unfiltered Internet access, Wikipedia, and other potentially highly effective educational tools and technologies, to our kids' tremendous frustration.
As a parent, I cannot imagine a school that wouldn't filter the internet. My son might be exposed to porn. And while I'm at it, my child needs to have their phone put away. It will only serve as a distraction.
thinking that virtual relationships (those that exist only online) are somehow less real or important than face-to-face ones.
[Parent] Some parents may disagree with this statement, and believe that there is something essential about face-to-face interaction that cannot be replicated digitally
(Visionary) With the rise of the cloud, personal computers become meaningless. It is not necessarily the machine that matters, but the connection between the content and people.
according to longtime computer visionary Nicholas Negroponte, we will see a basic laptop computer for roughly $100.
Wow! This would make a big difference for my parents. My parents both work. Hard. A lot. One of my parents works every day of the week, so that I can go to an expensive international school. I am worried that the school will implement a one-to-one laptop solution that will ask my parents to pay more money. 1,000 dollars is not a lot of money for some of my classmates, but it is for my parents.
As a parent, I've been shopping for a laptop for my child, and I haven't seen any $100 laptops out there. If you could, would it have any usability for the current and future.
Admin Mariko: Need to include budget, plan roll-out, hire experts to train staff
For true technological advance to occur, the computers must be personal to each learner. When used properly and well for education, these computers become extensions of the students' personal self and brain.
These "digital natives" are born into digital technology. Conversely, their teachers (and all older adults) are "digital immigrants."
(Visionary) Assuming that younger generation is more competent with new technology is a myth. They just have a chance of starting young. They're not born with the skills.
such shifting certainly initially means more work and pressure on educators, who already feel overburdened.
[Parent] Why are teachers overburdened? They get summers off and go home at 3:00 every day. It is their responsibility to keep up with the latest technology that students need to know.
they often face antitechnology pressure from parents demanding that schools go back to basics.
Mariko Admin: need to have meetings with parents to clarify expectations and address their worries
For the digital age, we need new curricula, new organization, new architecture, new teaching, new student assessments, new parental connections, new administration procedures, and many other elements. Some people suggest using emerging models from business -- but these, for the most part, don't apply.
As a 'student' I think I know a lot about using online tools we can use for creating amazing activities in the classroom. I think our teachers should trust us and let us create what we want, because we do know how it works, and it would be great for us to get a chance to learn to use and experiment using more tools!
I would even include writing, creating, submitting, and sharing work digitally on the computer via email or instant messaging in the category of doing old things (communicating and exchanging) in old ways (passing stuff around).
ADMIN--Perhaps writing and sharing writing digitally is doing an old thing in an old way, but certainly some old things done in certain old ways may still have vallue, no?
You can mourn the passing of handwriting if you must
Teacher: Handwriting is not obsolete. It is still a valuable hand-eye coordination skill that people will always need.
But resisting today's digital technology will be truly lethal to our children's education. They live in an incredibly fast-moving world significantly different than the one we grew up in. The number-one technology request of today's students is to have email and instant messaging always available and part of school.
[Frustrated Parent] Why aren't teachers incorporating more technology into their teaching since it is what our kids use? Some teachers still are using lecture-style teaching that they've used for the last 20 years and they need to change the way they teach to adapt to modern-day learners.
Creating text-based games at http://t.co/tXSLumBX2w with @adriancamm #coetail #coetail4 #yispd
- Kim Cofino (@mscofino) November 16, 2013
Creating text-based games at http://t.co/tXSLumBX2w with @adriancamm #coetail #coetail4 #yispd