Future of Education website

It was difficult for me to focus on reading and writing during the last couple of days due to me catching an annoying head cold. I was, however, able to play around with a free web hosting/making site to create our "one pager" for our multimedia project. After some loosing of my stuff a few times, some swearing, and lots of nose blowing, I managed to create a product that all though not perfect, I am please with. I learned to copy and paste photos, which wasn't as easy as I hoped, to drop in text, and to move images around to make a visually pleasing layout. Although it was not working on the IMovie, I still felt like I was learning some new technology!

check it out:
http://futureofeducation.webstarts.com/index.html

The Future of the Internet

Umm, so what will the internet look like in 2020? I did a bit of googling and reading myself and this is what I found:

Google won’t make us stupid

Reading, writing, and the rendering of knowledge will be improved

Innovation will continue to catch us by surprise

information will flow relatively freely online, though there will be 

flashpoints over control of the internet

Anonymous online activity will be challenged

This is based on an online survey of 895 technology stakeholders’ and critics’ expectations of social, political  

and economic change by 2020, fielded by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life  

Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center.

http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2010/Feb/~/media/Files/Reports/2010/Future%20of%20internet%202010%20-%20AAAS%20paper.pdf

Another youtube about the future
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q41HJTsCoI4

On the “next” Google

Susan Crawford, former member of President Obama’s National Economic Council, now on the law faculty at the University of Michigan is “optimistic that Google will get smarter by 2020 or will be replaced by a utility that is far better than Google.” Others surveyed described new ways of searching (perhaps without realizing that’s what they were doing). Rich Osborne, Web Innovation Officer, University of Exeter, for instance, predicted that “it will become commonplace to be able to overlay reviews of a product simply by pointing a screen at it, or check the weather forecast by pointing your phone at the sky.” (And you can do some of that now with products like Google Goggles and Shaazam.)

http://searchengineland.com/the-future-of-the-internet-search-looks-bright-36585

December 22nd, 2009 by Arley McBlain

OK Internet, let’s call a truce for a minute or two.

As anyone who has spent time on a site’s comment section knows, the Internet can be a cruel place. Articles with the word "Prediction" in the title can invite some pretty terrible and/or amusing flame wars, but I want this article to be just friendly enough that you, the reader, are feeling comfortable enough to jump in with some predictions of your own! There are no wrong answers in a brainstorm. 

1. Audio web surfing

2. We surf on any device

3. Input revisited

4. Mobile networking

5. The end of .com domination

6. IE6 stops being used

http://sixrevisions.com/web-technology/6-predictions-for-the-future-of-the-internet/

EDUCAUSE: Reflections on Play, Pedagogy, and World of Warcraft

I just ran across an article that talks about Warcraft - which is interesting to me as I speak about how my children played Warcraft in my previous post.

Link to the article: http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/ReflectionsonPlayPedagogyandWo/213663

Warcraft and Toontown taught my kids a heck of a lot

Okay, so I was one of those moms, and still am I suppose, that doesn't particularly monitor my kids with time watching TV or while on the computer. I found that just when I would be at the point where I'd start to worry about how much time they spend in front of a screen, they then mellowed out all by themselves - or got bored or moved on - without me fighting with them about it. Well, I guess video games and the X-box have been the big influences of their time over the years. Warcraft was first, then Toontown, on to World of Warcraft (WOW) and then Halo - with a short stint of rock band (my favorite). I have to say that my kids learned a ton from playing (obsessing about) these games.

Strategy, collaboration, and accuracy was learned and practiced as they built armies and spoke online with their teams. And, they learned to type might fast as they learned their way around a keyboard at a young age.

Tootown is where they learned about meeting strangers online and begun social networking - years before Facebook took over that function. They created their toon (profile) and while mastering different tricks they met up with people in different rooms.

My youngest graduated to World of Warcraft and continued to build armies and meeting online friends and about this time my oldest became a member of the YMCA and focused on soccer - leaving the gaming world behind with only a few stints of FIFA Soccer when a friend came over. Not to worry though, he is now in-tune with his Facebook account.

And then came Halo (which I admit was a bit too violent for me) and Guitar Hero - my youngest got so good at Guitar Hero that he started taking drum lessons. He was already playing the violin so he knew how to read music, but his drum teacher was impressed on how quick he learned the drumming techniques (Guitar Hero isn't suppose to be anything like actually playing the drums, but I do believe it at least helped create the passion to learn how to play correctly). He has now found his bike and at 13 is extremely social as he runs around with this pack of friends - with only occasional X-box challenges as part of their activities.

So, I believe that video gaming provides valuable opportunities for learning. Kids love to play video games (as do many big kids, aka adults) and if playing a game online or with a console motivates a person to learn math, strategy, team building skills, and or a new language, then let the games begin! My kids are comfortable with the computer, new software, and use it as a tool for school daily. And so, I may have not been such a bad mom for letting my kids have unlimited amount of time on the computer after all - well, maybe I don't have to feel quite so guilty anyways!

What about the co-curricular activities?

Maybe because I view students participating in co-curricular activities as a valuable component of university life, or perhaps because co-curricular activities is my profession, I wonder how students will still be able participate in all the things that happen on a campus outside of the classroom once colleges go predominately online. As I have come to grips of the fact that online education will no longer be a choice, but a reality, and as I read the literature that describes the future of higher education, I have been thinking about how students can still be exposed to some of the same learning and social opportunities that they are today. I am referring to living in a dorm, joining a Greek organization or club, running for student government, sitting on committees with faculty, and participating in intramural sports or even NCAA sports. And so, even when I get excited about learning and thinking about the possibilities of distance learning, I find myself stuck on the co-curricular and extra-curricular aspects of campus life. Ernest L.Boyer in his book Campus Life: In Search of Community (1990) lists 6 Principles of Community that include Purposeful, Open, Just, Disciplined, Caring, and Celebrative. How can distance learning support community?

Okay, so I need to think creatively. Perhaps instead of being on a school athletic team, cities or communities have club teams, maybe Greek communities are locally based along with other clubs. Maybe there are learning bases or communities where students meet to study or have discussions no matter what online college from which they are taking classes. Mark Baulein, in his article Literary Learning in the Hyperdigital Age in the World Futurist Society Magazine, articulates that nondigital space will still be needed to learn classic writing – a balance will need to be made between digital and nondigital outlooks that create a productive tension between technology and the conventional approach to writing. Perhaps online colleges and universities will contract with such centers that offer particular courses like writing and then enable community to be created around opportunities that were once available on the traditional campus. In the name of student development theory and my profession as a dean of students I need to be thinking outside of the box and dreaming of the possibilities to engage students where they are challenged with social, civic,  athletic, and pre-professional opportunities to facilitate the growth for students to become productive and global citizens. 

Digital Natives

Watching Julie Evans from Project Tomorrow - NetDay at the EDUCAUSE 2007 was interesting and relevant to the research I have been doing for the ED 400 project as my group is working on question 2 - higher ed goes completely online. Julie Evans shares some great stuff that gets me thinking about what to expect in 2020 - and I also notice that the talk is already about out of date. I mean, who uses Myspace anymore? Facebook is a better buzz word when talking about social networking - everyone knows that MySpace is best for music, not so much for socializing. Julie Evans introduced to me the term digital natives. She shared that it will be 5 to 7 years, probably more like 5 now since the talk is three years old, until we who work in higher ed will feel the true impact of the digital natives. Our students currently in college didn't have as much technology in elementary school as the kids do now in those grades. This fits with what I have been finding in the research about the students will soon expect, heck, demand, more flexibility with when they want to learn and how. I think of my 17 year old who a couple of years ago was in a math class that utilized an online math tutoring program. He could go to a website and he could listen to instruction on how to tackle a math program that was part of his homework assignment. Believe me, this was helpful as I was a Sociology major and could be of no help! I think Spencer is on the brink of that digital native and that my 13 year old will be right in there with being ready and wanting more use of technology in the classroom - or having class outside the traditional classroom. This is big news that our brick (UCSB) better thinking about the click! My now 13 year old was making friends online as early at 8 years old as he played online games - and only just left the computer where he loyally played World of WarCraft (WOW) and had many online friends for his bike - a new found freedom of roaming the neighborhood. Even though he has traded WOW for the face to face social life and his bike, he is jumping on to Facebook when he gets home and meets the expectation of the typical teenager by averaging over 2,000 text messages a month (thank goodness for the unlimited text message option with Verizon!). As Julie Evans labels us "older" folks - we are digital immigrants! I'm paying attention to my kids and what they are doing in hopes this will help me navigate what to expect in my future work with college students!

Waiting for "Superman"

I just got home from the theater and my head is spinning. I'm pissed off, I''m frustrated, I'm sad, and now I'm motivated. I went into the theater after spending a few hours reading about NCLB, the ESEA re-authorization, and Race to the Top trying to understand what it was all about. Waiting for Superman helped me get to the simple truth about education - it is broken and needs to be fixed! The bureaucracy of funding and policy from the federal level to the state level and then the district and school board levels is enough to complicate any school system. Teachers are not valued, or teachers continue to teach but do not value kids and only think of themselves. My head hurts and my heart aches. And yes, I am now motivated to make a difference and have more clarity - paper, here I come!

Personal Growth Goal

My personal growth goal is to continue my journey of thinking differently. Thinking differently for me is approaching challenges from a leadership perspective, not just as a practitioner's perspective, and to push myself to look at my work through the lens of a person who has the ability to facilitate change.

I was introduced to a new technique using multimedia this summer that was so simple but worked brilliantly. My colleague, Don Lubach, is a technology junkie, much like my instructor, Patrick Faverty. Don turned me on to the concept of using a PowerPoint presentation with a speech (we both had to act the part of deans at Orientation sessions this summer by presenting a deans address that was packed with information and was also serious) where only a few words or a picture was shown on each slide and was timed with our speech. There were about 25 slides for the 10 minute presentation with some that had a word, or a sentence, or a picture that illustrated or brought home the concept or seriousness of the message. Don learned this technique from Lessig.org. Lawrence Lessig is known for his book Code and other Laws of Cyberspace.
I was nervous about doing these presentations, not feeling like I was dean enough, but using this method I felt like it gave the audience, the presentations were in Campbell Hall in front of about 600 people, something to pay attention to as I read along (there was no way I could have memorized this speech - it was too serious and the message was one that needed to be thorough, not told from the hip. Reading Mayer and Moreno's paper on cognitive theory of multimedia made me think that not only did using this technique during my serious dean talk help me get through it, but perhaps the audience retained more of the information then they would have if I just simple read it to them because they got to see something visual to support the message that was being delivered verbally.

Parents educate their children naturally outside of the classroom...

Thinking about how our children are taught in schools and imaging how teaching  can be approached differently I began to think about how parents teach their children. Children learn tons from their parents, and the setting is usually (even for the home schooled) not in the traditional classroom setting behind a desk and in front of a chalk board. Some of the most interesting conversations I have had with my boys have been in the car driving to soccer games and talking or listening to music, in the grocery store looking at ingredients, walking downtown and seeing a homeless person or a kid getting arrested or watching a movie and them asking me questions about is going on. Interacting with real life as it is happening and through the use of technology my children are learning - outside of a traditional classroom.

I am an emotional being or better yet, creature...

This statement reminds me of one of my favorite Tedtalks by the amazing Eve Ensler. I was fortunate enough to see her perform her famous Vagina Monologues in Campbell Hall 8 years ago and again perform her newest work that is shown in this video at last year's Governor's Woman's Conference hosted by Maria Shriver.
The passion she exudes as she talks about her work and others saving girls from mutilation, prostitution, and abuse is moving. I am inspired by her spirit and love. I too am passionate about my work, at the university, with non-profits, and with my children. Monday night's class was the first time in awhile that I felt inspired and intrigued about school - almost passionate even. I am an emotional creature and I love leading with my soul!

Eve Ensler: Embrace your inner girl