Remote Access

What Business are we In?

I'm re-reading Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody. I whizzed through it when I first got my copy in June and now need to go back and put more effort into actually digesting some of what he has to say.

".... the scarcity of the resource creates the need for a professional class..."

this quote is taken from a section where Shirky is discussing institutional changes. Specifically about newspapers, he is moving towards an argument about information itself. Libraries require librarians. Newspapers require editors. Schools require teachers.

But this is all in the face of "resources" being in scarce supply. What is our resource in education? What is the one, most important thing that we are about?

Schools used to be seen in many communities as the place with information inside of its four walls. Schools often had the largest (or many places, the only) library for example. Teachers were seen as beacons of enlightenment and knowledge. They were "educated." Schools were places where people came to get that knowledge. "School knowledge" or "book learning" was seen as being deposited inside of schools and if you wanted it, you had to come there to get it.

And now?

Now we are one source of information; but only one among many. We also do ourselves and our students a great disservice when, instead of teaching them to be their own filters and responsible users of information, we do it for them thinking we are protecting them for the world. Even the type of knowledge schools can supply is often in doubt as many studies have shown there is often little correlation between success in school and success in life.

So if we view our resource in education and schools as being information, we will find ourselves more and more as one option among many. So I think that we need to ask the question: what is our core mission? What can we offer in classrooms and schools that can be gained nowhere else? What makes our spaces different?

Can we survive if we are about information? Is this how we are of the most benefit to society?

Tags: Shirky, Here Comes Everybody, schools, information, learning

What the Web is For

I love the kids version of Small Piece Loosely Joined. It's something that turns into required reading in my class at one point or another almost every year. This year, when we read it, I wanted the kids in my class to work on several things.

 1.) Most basically I have to ensure that kids comprehend what they are reading. While often this means discussions and lit groups, it sometimes means questions. As the kids read, I asked them to take between 5 and 10 notes from each small chapter. What catches you? What is truly important in this piece? After reading, I asked them to answer these questions:

1.) What is the web for?

2.) How is the web different from a “real place?”

3.) What do you usually use the web for?

4.) What does this quote mean: “We are human because we are connected to other humans.”

5.) How does the web help us form networks of people?

 2.) Following this and the discussion which ensued, I asked the kids to do a quickwrite. If you're not familiar with this strategy, the idea is that kids simply write for a set period of time on a topic. In this instance the topic was "what does the web mean to me." They need to write. It doesn't have to be organized, it does not necessarily even need to make sense. If they get stuck, they need to write a single word or idea out over and over again until they break out from it. The idea is to develop fluency.

After writing for a full 5 minutes, I had the kids take a highlighter and choose up to 5 ideas they thought were valuable or significant and we did some sharing about that. Finally, I asked them for up to 5 words that were going to be there keywords. What does the web mean to me? Many kids wrote things like "connections" and "global." Others had a few more specific things like "games" and "music." Others looked at ideas of "knowledge" and "learning." It was quite a collection at the end.

One final step: a form of representation of some kind.

I told them I wanted them to stretch a bit and so they were not allowed to make something ON paper. I didn't want just drawings. They could USE paper and it should be something 3 - D. We talked about criteria such as neatness and originality. We talked about the fact that they had to produce a piece of writing at the end which explained their piece. Then, over five classes of 80 minutes, they worked. I had kids making podcasts and others making paper - maiche. Some kids made dioramas while others built. It was a busy time that was fairly noisy but also productive and interesting.

In the end, some interesting projects emerged that now sit on a table outside of my classroom in front of the bulletin board. (Remember the bulletin board?) A full set of photos on flickr and a few samples below.

 

Tags: smallpieces loosely joined, kids version, david weinberger, internet, classrooms

Outsource My Life

Serious question now...

I posted this on twitter earlier today and got a few bites but I thought I'd try here as well.

Is there anyone in my network who is using a personal outsourcing service of some kind?

I'm looking for home services more than professional. The kind of service that can make appointments, schedule things to be done, contact people on my behalf etc. Some of it would be professional, but much would be home management tasks. Life is just far too busy sometimes and I'm thinking about trying this out.

I'm looking for ideas, recommendations and thoughts and advice you might have about doing this.

Feel free to get in touch with me personally at: glassbeed@gmail.com if you don't want to leave your comments in here.

Thanks muchly.

Tags: personaloutsourcing