TWO Simply Very Smart Books by Mr. Abner McWhorter that can put YOU on YOUR PATH to Your Personally Sustainable Destiny!

OUR 21st CENTURY EDUCATION FUTURES: THE WINNING the FUTURE FUNDAMENTAL INGREDIENT! (We're In It to Win It!)

(Just Follow the Easy Step by Step Directions)

EDUCATION 101: RACE to the TOP (In It, to Win It!)

State of the Union mystery: What do Obama's Race to the Top plans mean?

Obama called education key to 'winning the future' and wants to replace No Child Left Behind with a plan based on his Race to the Top initiative. But that left some experts scratching their heads.

President Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 25. In his speech, he challenged Congress to invest in new research and education to meet 'our generation's Sputnik moment.' He proposed replacing No Child Left Behind, which is due for an overhaul, with a plan modeled after his Race to the Top program.
(Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

By Amanda Paulson, Staff writer
posted January 26, 2011 at 1:43 pm EST

Education held a prominent place in President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, as he called for a re-commitment to "investing in better research and education" to meet “our generation’s Sputnik moment.”

Obama declared, "To win the future ... we also have to win the race to educate our kids." His words deliberately echoed his administration's Race to the Top program, even as he sounded some familiar themes, including the responsibility of parents and communities, the need for higher expectations in schools, and the importance of excellent teachers.

And he also put forth a few more specific proposals:

• Prepare 100,000 more science, technology, engineering, and math teachers by the end of the decade.
• Make permanent the tuition tax credit – worth $10,000 for four years of college – and expand the Pell Grant program.
• Replace No Child Left Behind with a new, more flexible law, that he said should be modeled after his competitive Race to the Top grant program.

IN PICTURES: Back to school 2010

That last point had a few education experts scratching their heads, since Race to the Top is a totally different animal from the broader Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the formal name for No Child Left Behind. The ESEA is the means by which the federal government delivers most of its money to schools and states – more than $100 billion, mostly determined by certain formulas, compared with the $4 billion of competitive grants that made up Race to the Top.

“He’s putting his chips on something that has limited usefulness, but it’s not a broad usefulness, and we don’t even know yet how well states will spend the money from Race to the Top,” says Jack Jennings, executive director of the Center on Education Policy in Washington, who otherwise liked the education themes Obama sounded in his speech. “With No Child Left Behind, he should have talked about [the need for] broader reforms and improvements and raising standards, rather than making the theme of competitiveness the main thing.”

Race to the Top was widely seen as spurring big legislative changes in states, particularly around more accountability for teachers, as they vied for the pools of money. But it was also criticized by many who felt the priorities it emphasized were wrong, were disappointed in the selection of winners, or felt that a competition – that by definition left many states and districts out of the grants – was the wrong way to go.

“I think he’s trying to say Race to the Top … is the way to get consensus between Republicans and Democrats for the reauthorization of the ESEA, and I don’t think it will play out that way,” says Grover “Russ” Whitehurst, director of the Brown Center of Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.

IN PICTURES: Inside the State of the Union

Mr. Whitehurst also says he would have liked to have seen a more coherent, comprehensive education agenda laid out rather than a few pet proposals, and wonders what the federal role will be in goals like increasing the numbers of math and science teachers.

“The devil will be in the details here, and we’ll need to see them in the budget proposal,” he says.

Still, many education reformers were gratified to see education accorded such a prominent place in the speech and in Obama’s agenda, particularly at a time of economic hardship.

“The themes were clichéd, but they were good clichés,” says Frederick Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, who says he’s happy that Obama continued to emphasize the role of parents, the need for better teachers, and the need for funding to be attached to school performance.

“If we take these steps – if we raise expectations for every child, and give them the best possible chance at an education, from the day they’re born until the last job they take – we will reach the goal I set two years ago: by the end of the decade, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world,” Obama said.

“These were strongly phrased sentiments, and something that would have been startling to hear a national Democrat say even four or five years ago,” says Mr. Hess. “Even as we’ve been wrestling with foreign challenges and economic difficulties, to his credit, he and his administration have continually tried to put education forward."

CONFIRMATION: Meeting ARTS Schoolhouse Incubator Thursday, January 27, 2011 12:00PM to 4:00PM (General Cleaning & Design Charrette)

Meeting: Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 12:00PM Confirmation

Good Morning Sharon:

It appears ALL are available for our meeting on Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 12:00PM.  Can you confirm?

OnInnovation (The Henry Ford) Submitted by Jim Bates

A social system to emulate!

You might imagine that this really caught my minds eye, this quote from the following interview of

Mr Jamie Lerner speaking to how the public was integrated into their own salvation as to integrate them into a unique opportunity to develop a social capital system of recycling, he says -  " The children taught their parents to do it."

                                               Not magic, just planning…Jamie Lerner.


Jamie Lerner, the former Mayor of Curitiba in Brazil who patented the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system which is now being implemented, with modifications, in 83 cities across the world, is a genial, portly architect and planner. At the UN Habitat conference in Istanbul in 1996, Curitiba was cited “the most innovative city in the world”. In an interview during the second Urban Age conference on Mega Cities in Sao Paulo — the first was a year ago in Mumbai — he emphasises that the essence of the system was its simplicity.

“You have to understand that the bus transport system is integrated into the city,” says Lerner, who is 71. As many as 85 per cent of Curitiba’s 1.8 million people travel by bus every day. “There is no subsidy: it pays for itself. It is one of the few in the world which is self-sustaining.” In the late 1960s, Lerner’s Master plan for the city closed a highly pedestrianised street to traffic, among other novel measures.


Commitment to simplicity

Asked why the system was not replicated more widely elsewhere, Lerner replies that the resistance was, paradoxically enough, to its simplicity. “Why was it not thought of before, people wondered. A city is not as complex as people imagine. The public transport system is no miracle. It requires commitment to simplicity and the desire to innovate.”

He introduced the transport network in the first of his three terms, between 1971 and 1975. This depended on reserved express bus lanes, integrated “Tube-like” stations where one-fare tickets were purchased in advance and articulated buses in three sections could be boarded at “platform” level. “Buses should be boarded in 30 seconds to a minute and buses are very frequent,” he says.

Somewhat shakily, he sketches the system by hand in my notebook. An integrated bus network can cater to 300 passengers per minute on one route; 18,000 per hour. If there is a reserved lane for buses, the capacity doubles to 36,000 passengers per hour, which is equal to an underground railway — at a fraction of the cost. A bigger articulated bus can take 48,600 passengers every hour. An underground system combined with BRT extends the capacity further.

After Lerner served two more terms as Mayor in the late 1970s and late 80s, he inspired another architect-Mayor, Enrique Penalosa, to replicate the system in Bogota in Colombia, which used to be one of the world’s most violent cities (along with Sao Paulo). Penalosa, who has visited India and was also present at the Urban Age conference, points out that London’s buses carry one million more passengers than the underground. His city’s service is called the TransMilenio.

Lerner recalls that Curitiba lacked $300 million to buy a new bus fleet in the 70s. “So we built the backdrop: we built public sector stations and routes and left it to private operators to run the buses. There is co-responsibility.” The Mumbai architect, Charles Correa, who visited Lerner in Curitiba en route Sao Paulo and was bowled over by the system, cites how “public transport was retrofitted into the city”. He notes how Mumbai was one of the few cities in the world to get its initial impetus from public transport.

Thanks to Lerner and his innovative methods, Curitiba has made major strides in other social sectors, promoting the city with some of the best quality of life indices in the world. By targeting children to segregate waste, 60-70 per cent of Curitiba’s is recycled in situ, possibly the highest in the world. The children taught their parents to do it. He noticed that slum dwellers were used in the highways to collect and sort garbage, which made it easier to get the waste picked up by trucks. He “bought” garbage by paying slum dwellers with bus tokens, and in the process cleared the favelas which pockmark every metropolis in Brazil, particularly under flyovers.

In the 90s, Lerner was twice elected Governor of the State of Parana, of which Curitiba is the capital. He thinks of the “multi-use” city, where amenities are put to alternative uses. Thus, roads can be closed to cars in the evenings, and switched to recreation. “Allow the informal sector to take over downtown areas after 6 p.m.,” he advocates. “That will inject life into the city, with a formal-informal equation.” When he noticed that a bay in the river was clogged with rubbish, he paid fisher folk by weight to collect it when they had free time. That way, they had more fish to catch when it was cleaned up. He has greened quarries and set up public amphitheatres all over the city.

He has four mantras: good design (he is a practising architect and planner), sustainability, co-existence and identity. Curitiba is world-famous for its urbanism: it has 54 sq metres (580 sq ft) of open space per person, as against a UN norm of 16; Mumbai has an abysmal one sq metre. The reforms have helped reduce the racial antagonisms of Brazilian cities. “We should celebrate ethnicities!” he exhorts. “We don’t throw away a family portrait, just because we don’t like the nose of an uncle!”


Getting popular

Other cities are getting the message. Lima has integrated its BRT with the electric train: 80 per cent of its 8.5 million people use public transport (Mumbai probably has the highest proportion in the world, with 87 per cent). New York’s Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan told Urban Age that the city was introducing the first BRT on 34th Street. Only five per cent of New Yorkers use cars (only slightly more than Mumbai’s commuters) and 56 per cent don’t own one. Iconic sites like Broadway and Madison Square Gardens will be networked for bicycles. Even Los Angeles is following suit with an Orange Line bus (and a new rail-based network). Closer home, Delhi has already introduced its BRT, to the much exaggerated protests of its motorists, and Ahmedabad will soon have its system.

“I am not against the car,” Lerner clarifies. I am against the bad use of a car, against owning a car. Public transport is meant for routine trips and the urban car should be for non-routine itineraries. It is mandatory to have a good alternative to the car. There can be individualised transport, without ownership.” This has an echo in public bicycle-hiring schemes, like the Velib in Paris, which have proved an outstanding success.

As Lerner concludes, with a twinkle in his eye, “No a frog can’t be transformed into a prince! I am happy because many personal dreams have been fulfilled, not necessarily in my professional or political life. If you have a dream, make every effort to achieve it: remember, you may not get another chance!”

The author is Chairperson, Forum of Environmental Journalists of India (FEJI), Mumbai.

I'd vote for having Detroit and Curitaba designated as Sister Cities. There is much to learn from each other. Check out their transportation systems and just consider how much creative (renewable) energy could be generated by design and inclusion of citizen planning to install one of the worlds best and cheapest mass transit bus, education, social services systems.... etc. etc....
 http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/fellows/brazil1203/parks.html .
Take a tour on this site you'll find numerous creative options that could stop the whiners in their tracks, you know the oh me oh my what are we going to do. Uhhhm but I digress, We'd like to hear your thoughts on the subject, pleeze.

A Shout-Out on the "D" from those whom have the most to gain from it's continued success!

Empire State of Mind: Detroit Style from frank collins on Vimeo.

Two small things WE should hang our hats on

Digital Media and Literacy: A Plan of Action

http://www.knightcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Digital_and_Media_Literacy_A_Plan_of_Action.pdf

Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age

http://www.knightcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Informing_Communities_Sustaining_Democracy_in_the_Digital_Age.pdf

FLOSS for the Creative Commons- Pioneering a new Democracy

• Varieties of Peer Production
• Ubuntu Helps Take Linux Global
• How Shall We Govern the (Online) Commons?

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Expanding the Circle?

Can digital commoners become more cooperative and federated with each other?

By David Bollier

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"The Open Source Way," image from opensourceway via Flickr, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution, ShareAlike license.

Why should the free and open source software community regard their work as a commons? For people focused on building a specific piece of software, the need to label it a “commons” may seem gratuitous. What’s the value? But there are some good reasons for understanding free/open source software as a commons, as I explain in a recent essay published by the FLOSS Roadmap project.
First, a quick aside on terminology: “FLOSS” stands for “free/libre/open source software,” with the French word “libre” often used because it does not have the double meaning of “free” -- “without constraint” and “at no cost.” Free software and open source software both have similar systems for developing software, but they have different cultures and political philosophies. The term “FLOSS” (or sometimes "FOSS") is used as an inclusive, non-judgmental reference to both.
The FLOSS Roadmap is a collaborative space in which all sorts of hackers, business people and others speculate about the future of FLOSS between now and the year 2020. Every year, a series of contributors make informed guesses about how the software will evolve, and also how the economy, politics and culture may be affected by FLOSS developments.
There are three essays this year. I write about FLOSS as a commons (see below). Michael Tiemann,vice president of Red Hat, the Linux vendor, writes about the embrace of FLOSS by BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China). And Philippe Aigrain the head of a French software firm, Sopinspace – Society for Public Information Spaces – that hosts the public debate of policy issues, writes about the future of user and programmer freedoms as computing moves into the “cloud.” The cloud is the emerging practice of having remote servers host sophisticated Web applications and user data, supplanting the need for PCs and allowing greater use of rudimentary mobile devices.
Everyone is invited to comment on the essays on the site. My thanks to Jean-Pierre Laisne, who invited me to contribute to this year’s FLOSS Roadmap. My essay follows:
FLOSS as Commons: What is the way, what are the actions for having FLOSS acknowledged globally as a strategic and crucial common for knowledge society? Is FLOSS paving the way for bigger initiatives and larger variety of commons?
Even though FLOSS has generated countless high-quality software programs, public recognition of FLOSS as a powerful alternative mode of value-creation - functioning outside of the marketplace, yet in constructive symbiosis with it - has lagged. Similarly, the deep affinities between FLOSS and other forms of online collaboration are not readily recognized by economic theorists, public policymakers and the general public. They tend to see communities of online collaboration either as interesting novelties having no larger theoretical significance or as "open business models" that happen to rely upon the social relationships of users (e.g., "user-generated content" and "social networking").
FLOSS and Web 2.0 innovations, however, are based on socially created value, and they constitute a distinct paradigm of economic and cultural production. This paradigm needs to be recognized and honored as a powerful generative force in its own right.
One way to advance this understanding is to conceptualize FLOSS and other collaborative endeavors as commons. The language of the commons can help validate the distinctive social dynamics of online sharing and collaboration and generalize them as significant forces in economic and cultural production. This can help popularize the idea that FLOSS and digital collaboration more generally are critical forces in the global knowledge society.
Without such a language of the commons, market metrics and discourse tend to prevail. This is fine as far as it goes. But the conventional market narrative provides a misleading ontology and epistemology for describing FLOSS communities. Market discourse focuses on "rational" individuals seeking to maximize their material self-interest and "utility"; profit and capital accumulation are seen as the preeminent goals.
FLOSS and other commons, however, are based on a more expansive set of personal and social goals; material self-interest is not the paramount or exclusive goal. Creative freedom and political autonomy, not to mention social camaraderie, reputation-building and the sheer pleasure of collaboration, tend to be the animating attributes of digital commons.
FLOSS has its own special governance systems and social ethic to manage its shared resource (intangible software code). But there are many related types of digital communities - wikis, web archives, social networking sites, remix and mashup communities, open access publishing, eclectic pools of Creative Commons-licensed material, etc. - that have their own systems for protecting their work, organizing their participants, disciplining vandals, etc.
It helps to see these diversified "digital tribes" as part of the same, larger phenomenon - the Commons Sector. Collectively, collaborative communities represent a significant non-market mode of productive capacity. FLOSS has also shown that it is entirely possible to conjoin the interests of a commons with those of the market, provided that the rules and ethic for monetizing the fruits of the commons respect the integrity of the community of practice.
There are a number of significant works exploring the nature of collaborative creativity (Yochai Benkler, Clay Shirky, Jonathan Zittrain, Lawerence Lessig, Mathieu O’Neil), as well as studies about the functioning of FLOSS in particular (Samir Chopra and Scott D. Dexter, Steve Weber, Eben Moglen, the Free Software Foundation). Notwithstanding many academic studies, we do not yet have a shared conceptual framework or popular language for describing the serious work performed by open, collaborative communities on the Internet.
For example, we have not adequately explored the governance and sociology of self-organized, online communities. We need richer analytic models for explaining why digital commons are generative; what rules and social norms are critical to their functioning and continuity; what types of activity are (and are not) amenable to open collaboration; and what governance structures may be necessary to enable commoners to manage and preserve their shared assets (code, information, photos, creative works, etc.) while still engaging with markets.
The discourse and literature of the commons can help address these issues. They can also help situate FLOSS in a larger digital and cultural context. And they can more accurately describe the on-the-ground social dynamics of FLOSS communities than market theory.
The commons discourse has been steadily gaining ground over the past two decades, thanks in part to the pioneering work of political scientist Elinor Ostrom, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009 for her studies of the governance of "common pool resources." Commons analysis has been elaborated and extended by natural resource scholars associated with the International Association for the Study of Commons; theorists such as law professors Lawrence Lessig, Yochai Benkler and James Boyle; and by activists such as Silke Helfrich, Michel Bauwens, Philippe Aigrain and myself, among many others.
What has emerged over the past ten years in particular is a rich contemporary vocabulary for thinking about the management of shared resources - a perspective that eludes conventional economists and market-based policymakers.
FLOSS has been a key inspiration for much of the commons literature because it is such a relatively pure embodiment of the basic principles of the commons. Through the General Public License and open-source licenses, communities of programmers are able to generate valuable shared code, assure their ability to share and improve the code, and most importantly, prevent its private appropriation. FLOSS communities have solved many of the recurrent problems that afflict commons, such as how to preserve the commons (resource, community and social values) over time and how to prevent the appropriation or abuse of a common resource.
The FLOSS social-production ethic is so admired that the term "open source" has become a universal cultural signifier for initiatives that honor bottom-up innovation, participation, collaboration, transparency and community accountability. Unfortunately, "free software" and "open source" are also seen as arcane, complicated technical fields. This deters the public and policymakers from exploring the substantive dynamics of FLOSS - and in any case, the specific governance schemes for FLOSS projects are likely to differ from those of Wikipedia, the DailyKos, the Internet Archive and various "content commons."
The language of the commons provides a rigorous framework for considering diverse collaborative communities in a single landscape. It offers a powerful way to identify and legitimize them by showcasing their reliance on socially created value. By seeing itself as the "anchor tenant" of the Commons Sector - and not as a standalone enterprise that is a junior partner to the marketplace or a peripheral player in the democratic polity - FLOSS can assert a stronger solidarity with the many worthy commons initiatives now emerging.
It can also fortify democracy and the market economy by showing that the FLOSS ethic of participation, transparency, accountability and performance is not an aberration; its values and practices are broadly shared by a diversified and growing Commons Sector. One of the key challenges facing FLOSS - and online communities more generally - is finding new ways to amplify this sensibility by federating and coordinating the energies of the digital commoners.

Posted July 21, 2010

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Work in Service to the Design Visioning Muse

Good Morning Sharon: 

As you know when one slightly draws-away from the intentional (muse) momentarily, the sub-conscious goes to work producing the ah-ha moment.  And while getting our collective-brains around the entirety of your "work in progress" may well neigh be impossible it is possible to bring true-value to the elements that when combined by patient design, produce the much larger imagined picture.  


Too that end I believe we need to spend some additional informal time in service to your efforts (this value distraction-work could be anything from general cleaning, stripping, painting, etc.) to allow for the real deeper-meaning mutual opportunities to be of service, speak to us and/or be discovered in those unconscious moments.  My instinct's tell me it could be in your current "computer lab" reincarnation but you may have more urgent work that needs to be addressed.  


Would you be so kind and give this some consideration and let us know what your thoughts might be and accordingly what dates, times, etc. would work for you and would be appropriate?


Or should we just "come on down?"


Hoping the day is finding you well.

Why Blog?

Web 2.0 | Feature

Can Blogging Make a Difference?

• By Denise Harrison
• 01/12/11

When Michigan State University doctoral student Todd Ide needed a research topic for a large-scale study required for his Ph.D., he looked at the classes he was teaching in his role as a graduate assistant. He wondered if there was a meaningful way to incorporate Web 2.0 into his curriculum for "Reading and Responding to Children's Literature." He reviewed current literature about blogging in education and saw an opportunity to further the research.

Formal studies about incorporating blogs into curricula were minimal, and what was out there was more anecdotal in nature, said Ide. "Most other studies reflected what the researcher's experience was and what they believed the students took from the experience," said Ide. "What I found lacking was research that examined blogging's effectiveness from the student perspective. There was little discussion of student perceptions concerning the value of blogging as an activity or whether the students believed blogging impacted their learning."

Ide began with a pilot study in 2009, which sought to answer three main questions:

• Does participating in a blog help reinforce learning that is done in the classroom by extending these conversations outside the confines of class hours?
• Do students believe that participating in a blog was valuable to their learning and understanding of key course concepts?
• Do students view the blog as a positive addition to their course learning or as another obstacle or requirement to be completed?

Another goal was to offer insights to instructors as to how to incorporate blogging in a way that is beneficial to students. "Most educators use technology for administrative tasks rather than instruction because they don't feel prepared and aren't getting the technical support needed. The results of the study, I believed, could help suggest best practices for using blogs as learning tools."

Nature of the Blog

While there are certainly plenty of other Web 2.0 communications media from which he could have chosen, Ide decided to study blogging because it combines solitary thought and social interaction to engage students and reinforce learning. The theory is that blogging increases collaboration, helps students transform and refine their ideas owing to the reflective and interactive nature, and improves critical thinking. Blogging disrupts and transforms, said Ide. In addition, blogs, these days, take very little time for a teacher to set up. "The ease of blogging with new tools such as Blogger and Wordpress and the fact they are hosted and are free to use, also make it easier to get started," said Ide.

Another reason Ide chose blogs as the topic of his research is that blog posts are accessible to a large global audience. According to Ide, blog search company Technorati reported more than 133 million blogs in existence, and there are currently 346 million people globally reading the 900,000 blog entries that are posted every 24 hours.

"The numbers are not consistent," he said, "but it's explosive, and it's trending vertically. This means that blogging allows students to publish their thoughts and ideas in a public venue that potentially has a worldwide audience. This public exposure should lead to students being even more reflective and thoughtful about their posts and comments, because anyone and everyone around the world can view what they write."

To Find Out

Eight out of 25 students in Ide's "Reading and Responding to Children's Literature" class volunteered to participate in the study. Ide set up the blog before the semester began. "We used Blogger mainly because it's free and fairly intuitive when learning how to use it," he said. "Students were given author access so they could create posts and comments."

He began the semester by sharing articles about what constitutes a quality blog post to give students a benchmark for achievement and to take the guesswork out of what is expected. "We also discuss what a 'substantive' post looks like mainly to avoid the 'Here's a great Web site' or 'yes, I agree' comments that are really not helpful in furthering the dialogue," he said. Ide also warned them that owing to the nature of the Internet, once a blog post is out there, it's there forever. "I wanted to make sure they are thinking through their arguments to put them in as good a light as possible," he said.

All students were required to post or comment a minimum of five times during the course. Two posts were assignments. In one, for example, Ide posted a link to a video and asked the students to watch that video and respond. Another assigned post was to gauge their reaction to a particular reading. The three other posts or comments were to be of the students' own choosing. "They were free to extend the discussion of topics covered in class, respond to the readings, ask questions, pose ideas about course themes, or to bring up material that they encountered elsewhere," said Ide. "The only requirement was that these posts be substantial in nature and that they needed to somehow tie into the course theories."

Ide mostly stayed out of the blog. "I tended not to comment," he said. "I wanted this to be a conversation they are having: engaging in the course material and thinking about children's literature. I am afraid if I am involved it will be seen as 'word from on high' and it might shut down conversation if my opinion is different from somebody else's."

One example of how blogging was an integral part of the coursework was a discussion about fact versus fiction regarding a piece of United States history. "We reviewed an article about Rosa Parks," Ide explained, "which looked at what really happened and debunks a lot of the myths. So, for instance, we talked about how she was not just a tired woman who didn't want to move to the back of the bus because her feet hurt. She was an active member of the civil rights movement, and that the act was planned, not spur of the moment as the myth would have it. The act was part of a very well thought-out strategy to push the issue into the public domain and have the public debate it." Many students did not know that, said Ide, and only knew the storybook version of this part of U.S. history. "This encouraged them to find other resources and write about their findings on the blog," said Ide.

Another example of blog participation was when students argued about the appropriateness of some of the books read in class. "One student's post was called 'How The Book Thief and The Hunger Games ruined my spring break' because he hated the downness of the books," said Ide. "That post sparked a good conversation of what is and isn't appropriate reading to offer youth and what themes these books offer young readers that are beneficial."

Participation in this online activity represented 10 percent of the students' grades. Extra credit was offered to the students for greater participation in the form of one percentage point added to the final grade.

Eight separate interviews were conducted over the course of two weeks. "The interviews were conducted toward the end of the semester so that it diminished fear in terms of how their responses might affect their grades," said Ide.

Prior to the start of each interview, students were told Ide was seeking to examine whether or not blogs and blogging improves student learning and engagement in the course. Each interview, which was digitally recorded and transcribed, lasted between 45 minutes and an hour, and the participants were asked a set series of questions. Follow-up questions were asked if Ide felt the need to clarify or further probe the subject's responses.

Ide interviewed them about their experience and their perceptions, probing their own understanding of how they learned, and what they did or didn't get from the activity. The transcripts were then coded for analysis using HyperResearch 2.8 qualitative analysis software.

Positive Results

Students reported positive results, with benefits such as "providing an outlet for thinking about things we talked about in class." Students began almost immediately as a result to make more interesting observations online than in class or in papers. In collaboration with peers they extended the analysis beyond the obvious, building arguments carefully yet succinctly, often by synthesizing the postings preceding theirs. "They made a real attempt to communicate something about which they felt strongly," said Ide.

Other positive results included:

• The class was only held once a week, and blogging proved to be effective for extending the discussion during the days in between;
• When a student encountered something interesting pertaining to the subject, he or she didn't have to wait an entire week to share that information with the rest of the class;
• Blogging also provided a way for students reluctant to share in a classroom setting to find their voices and express themselves in a less intimidating setting. One student thought it was "cool that she was interested enough in the subject to post about it";
• The blogging aspect of the class helped some students overcome a sense of isolation;
• The blogging helped create more intimacy with fellow students, leading to a greater sense of community;
• The exposure of their posts to meaningful audiences, including other students, and a potential global audience, encouraged careful reflection and articulation of the subject;
• Blogging helped students direct their own learning;
• Blogging increased the sense of engagement in the course material, providing the scaffolding necessary to support student learning.

Challenges of Incorporating Blogs into Curricula

"While the students reported positive experiences with blogging overall, that's not to say this technology is without its problems," said Ide. "Some reported that at times, they responded for the sake of responding rather than processing the information and learning," said Ide. "They posted fast and did it because it was an obligation. Another student said that, sometimes, her schedule made it difficult to focus. If her attention was needed elsewhere, she would just read as quickly as possible to find something she could comment on to fulfill the requirements. Two others shared similar experiences."

The results also seemed to confirm perceptions reported in earlier studies, which indicated that subjects did not perceive a connection between classes and blogging.

"All the respondents in this mini study indicated they would have liked a more explicit connection between course content and the activity of blogging," said ide. "They needed the connection to be made more clear and maintained during the course of the semester in order to understand why we were doing it and encourage them to continue to make the types of connections necessary to make the activity meaningful."

The Study Continues

This last year, Ide continued the study with a larger section with a larger pool of 40 students and a larger number of required posts and comments, and he was able to incorporate the lessons learned in the pilot study.

"Clearly the issue of how to get students engaged in the activity without simply doing it because it's a requirement [was a challenge to be addressed]," said Ide. "And regarding the blog-class separation, the students were right. So I needed to change the way we use blogging in class."

In direct response to this mini study, said Ide, he incorporated new ways of using the blog during lessons. "I call it the Blog All Stars. I select two or three posts that were very good and well thought-out and I explain to the class why these are great examples. I ask the poster to read them, then I open up the floor and ask if there are other things on the blog that people want to talk about."

The second batch of students were also better able to make the connections because Ide explained early in the semester how everything that goes on the blog needs to be connected to course content, and he offered suggestions. "During class, I might say, 'This is a good topic, and if you wanted to write a blog entry about it, it would work well.' I also point out areas that might need more explanation or research, and a lot of times students do look up the extra info and post about it."

Ide said his research confirmed what earlier studies found, that blogging "combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction by actively promoting the development of learning communities." His study indicates that this is true from the student perspective as well.

"Blogging does go a long way toward helping students be autonomous, creative, helpful, and provocative," he said, "by providing them with the type of environment that allows students to direct their own learning in a manner that transcends the existing curriculum."

Blogging helps blur the line between formal and informal learning, he said, and the blogging activities in his course have real world implications too.

"Blogs and wikis and podcasts are real-world stuff," said Ide. "In terms of blogs, look at things like Slate Magazine, which is basically a political blog, and many other blogs and Web sites have stepped into the mainstream in terms of journalism and news reporting. Students can get real world experience doing this."

In fact, Ide said, advertising majors have come to him and reported that while they were on job interviews, they were asked specifically about their blogging experience. "The ad agency is only interested in hiring students who have experience in social media because that was a weakness in their agency. They need people who are able to do that, and we are providing that experience."

About the Author

Denise Harrison is a freelance writer and editor specializing in technology, specifically in audiovisual and presentation. She also works as a consultant for Second Life projects and is involved with nonprofits and education within the 3D realm. She can be reached here. 

Do YOU know as much about BLOGGING as a 2nd GRADER?

What is... What Will Be Obsolete...in Second Grade?

 Permanent link

Cross posted to Langwitches Blog

At the beginning of most calendar years, especially at the beginning of a new decade, century or millennium, we tend to take a closer look at our past and future than perhaps at other times. In the past few weeks I came across the following two articles: You're Out: 20 Things that became Obsolete this Decade by the Huffington Post and Things that Babies born in 2011 will Never Knowby Money Talks News are listing books, travel agents, video tapes, cassettes, watches, CDs and other items that will have or will become obsolete.

The above mentioned articles came to mind, as I was in one of our second grade classrooms getting ready to talk to 7 & 8 year olds about being promoted from merely commenting on their classroom blog to co-authoring a weekly blog post to document their learning and to be able to share it with their parents. Their classroom teacher and I had discussed that students would receive a weekly "Job Assignment" as the "Math Blogger","Science Blogger", etc. and that these jobs would rotate among all students just as the other class job responsibilities.

As I was in their classroom waiting for the students to finish a previous activity, I was looking at their prominent bulletin board displaying students and their corresponding class job.

1. Morning Opening Leader
2. Teacher's Helper
3. Pencil Sharpener
4. Line Leader
5. Door Holder
6. Line Monitor
7. Paper Collector
8. Paper Passer
9. Board Cleaner
10. Book Organizer

The teacher wanted to keep the list of jobs to ten, one for each student in the class. The class started with a discussion about which current jobs they c(sh)ould be eliminated based on necessity and importance within the classroom community. Most students seemed to agree that the "Book Organizer" and "Pencil Sharpener" could be eliminated. I threw them a curve ball by asking them:

What classroom jobs could possibly not exist anymore in 50 years? What kind of classroom jobs would simply NOT exist anymore when their grandchildren would be going to school? We looked at each job title individually:

1. Morning Opening Leader- Could still be around.
2. Teacher's Helper- Could still be around.
3. Pencil Sharpener- I held up my iPad and my stylus and they immediately made the connection. Then I showed them how I use the NoteTaker HD app to take notes and how I could switch between different colored pencils as well as their thickness. They agreed that I was not in need to sharpen pencils anymore.
4. Line Leader-Could still be around, IF kids still were going to a physical school every day to learn. I reminded them of our Skype calls and how we could have class with children who lived in different cities, states, countries or continents. There would be no need for a line leader.
5. Door Holder- Virtual classrooms would not have a door anymore that needed to be held open.
6. Line Monitor- No students would be lining up in a virtual classroom to walk one behind the other to the lunchroom, resource or library...no monitor needed.
7. Paper Collector- I pulled my iPad out again and showed them how I could simply e-mail or share my notes with the teacher and she could do the same. We imagined how every student in 50 years would have some sort of device that allowed their teacher to simply have access to their work without the work having to be "collected"
8. Paper Passer- Passing out paper would also be obsolete, since teachers could share any "papers" or assignments via their device with students.
9. Board Cleaner- One click... board is wiped clean
10. Book Organizer- I showed the class my iBook and Kindle app and how I access any book on my shelf. Close the book...and it is "neatly" stored and even remembers the last page I read.

  

Take a look at the new bulletin board, that their teacher created for her class the following day. Since her second grade is not a 1:1 iPad class, nor holds virtual class for her students, some of the original jobs are [still] valuable and necessary in their classroom. The new added jobs are:

1. Science Blogger
2. Spelling Blogger
3. Reading Blogger
4. Writing Blogger
5. Math Blogger

Their teacher created a "template" blog draft with an outline of a format including the different subject areas. The bloggers of the week will be writing daily in the draft version to document and reflect on their lessons and their learning in different subjects. They will collaboratively revise and edit the draft as a class before publishing and sharing the post. For me, this "blogger" job describes beautifully (at an appropriate developmental stage of a second grader), one of the roles to develop empowered learners that Alan November lists as "Official Scribe". I am looking forward to seeing their progress as they get comfortable with their new class job as bloggers, practicing online writing, documenting, reflecting on their learning, sharing, collaborating and so much more...

Adapted from Alan November (pp.188-193), Curriculum 21 (ASCD, 2010) by Heidi Hayes Jacobs.

What are some of the classroom jobs that are becoming obsolete in your classroom? What jobs are replacing the old ones? Please share!

Welcome!

Let me see if I can summarize our meeting of yesterday!  WOW!