Overcoming Obstacles in a Web 2.0 World

[Learning 2.008 Conference]

By Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

Boundaries formalized by education in the “industrial age” shouldn’t hinder educators as they seek to
reform and transform their classroom practice. In this session, we'll talk about how to deal with issues like:
lack of access to tools/computers, copyright, filtering, cyber bullying, online safety, and other IT concerns.
Room: C-126/127
Session 6
Leadership

[Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach]

The virtual handout for all my sessions can be found at:
http://21stcenturylearning.wikispaces.com/Learning+2.0+%28China%29/

Shorter link: http://tinyurl.com/yw3zkk

[Kim Cofino]

Obstacles:

YouTube
Facebook/MySpace
Texting
Wikipedia
Filters/Firewalls
Access
Inappropriate content
MP3 Players
Fear/Fear Mongering
Cyber-bullying
Consistency
K-12 schools
Managers/Admin
Bandwith
Passwords/Security
Massively Multi-User Role Playing Games
Social Networking
3rd Party Email
Overload
Privacy
Requiring an e-mail address for web 2.0 tools

21st Century skill set - teaching responsible digital citizenship

What is the compelling case that we want to make for using these technologies in schools?

what problems do these technologies solve - what is our goal - how does the tool achieve the goal?

do you want your child to be a better reader, writer? It's literacy

See our role as teacher leaders / advocators: your responsibility is to prepare students for the future so you can show people why these tools are worth it.

These technologies are their world - why would we want to completely separate education from the world they live in?

They're going to do it anyway without us - it's more important to teach them how to use the tools responsibly so that they can stay safe online

Walled Gardens: only people within the community can see what's happening

Open to the world: searchable, clickable, shared, authentic

essential to understand the environment that our kids are experiencing - teachers need to model appropriate use. we use scissors in the classroom, we teach them how to drive - if we can manage those tasks, we can certain figure this out

What is private and what is public?

Teaching kids to have balance, understand how to leverage data for learning, access information and vet information, use technologies that are safe, effective and ethical

Strategies

1. Start conversations to ensure that everyone gets buy-in. A systemic evaluation of these tools - this is the way we do business: this is the way teachers do business, this is the way admin does business, so this is the way students should do business

2. Consider it part of curriculum based on thinking and safety, like driving and drug awareness.

3. Model productive use in an academic sense and then give kids time to explore and play - teachers need this time to experiment too. But we're now at the point that we have to get serious.

Lots of teachers don't know the academic potential of these tools so they can't explain why they're important. We need PD for the teachers so we can make the shift from a scary problem to a useful tool.

Teach limitations of these tools too.