Edubeacon

Edubeacon continues but it has a new home integrated with my website Linking for Learning.  Come over and check it out – Edubeacon

• Commons 2.0: Library Spaces Designed for Collaborative Learning (EDUCAUSE Quarterly) | EDUCAUSE.edu

  The idea of the information commons as a space for students to gather and work with technology has been with us for over a decade now. Carving out these areas has allowed many university libraries to remain relevant in the academic lives of students. Just as libraries have historically provided reading rooms for users to access and work with print collections, they now provide common spaces for them to access and work with digital collections. The information commons is a natural extension of the library’s traditional mission in a wired world.

  tags: learning commons libraries librarydesign onmyradar

• What if You Flipped Your Faculty Meetings? – The Tempered Radical

  I’ve got a professional challenge for you: I want you to flip every faculty meeting during the 2012-2013 school year. Bil Ferriter

  tags: flipped Flipped Classroom professional_learning teachers meetings onmyradar

• Boys’ Reading Commission Report 2012 (UK)

  The Boys’ Reading Commission has found that boys’ underachievement in reading is associated with the interplay of three factors:
  -  The home and family environment, where girls are more 
  likely to be bought books and taken to the library, and where 
  mothers are more likely to support and role model reading;
  -  The school environment, where teachers may have a limited 
  knowledge of contemporary and attractive texts for boys 
  and where boys may not be given the opportunity to develop 
  their identity as a reader through experiencing reading for 
  enjoyment;
  -  Male gender identities which do not value learning and 
  reading as a mark of success.
  Boys’ Reading Commission Report 2012 (UK) http://t.co/UsIkVTmF 30% couldn’t find things to read that interest them #reading

  tags: IFTTT Delicious from twitter reading boys report literacy onmyradar

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Opening day of International Boys’ Schools Coalition conference, in Melbourne today. Here is the Twitter stream from the keynote presentation by Dr Rufus Black, Master of Ormond College, Melbourne entitled “Practical Disciplines for the 21st Century Mind”.

• Digital Storytelling resources

  The use of digital storytelling in education is in its infancy but seems to offer a useful tool in assisting reflective learning, investigating and recording the student experience.

  tags: digital_storytelling writing literacy onmyradar

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Having been a player in this field for quite some time, I often find it frustrating that we converse within the ether of our social networks totally isolated from colleagues we meet in the school staffroom.  My frustration lies in how  we illustrate the value of new media to these colleagues in that elevator ride (30 second) timeslot we have to capture their attention, before the shutters come down.

I’m also aware of the right of every student to be educated to live and work in today’s society.  For this reason, I’ve embedded here a video from Becta Web 2.0 in Education which deserves more than the 7221 views it’s had to date. Reason being, I believe it provides a clear explanation of why we should be using Web 2.0 tools in education.  The term ‘Web 2.0′ is actually becoming redundant as the Internet evolves as an interactive space for creating, collaborating and communicating, however, it’s worth retaining for now as increasing numbers of educators are exploring change in the classroom.

Coaching at school on a daily basis and interacting with participants in the SLV/SLAV Personal Learning Project (PLN) reminds me constantly of the need to meet people where they are at with new media.  It’s easy to unconsciously slip into jargon  and suddenly be out of reach.  Developing a climate of safe questions and conversations via Twitter and Facebook has evolved through the PLN project as an exceptionally effective support tool, illustrating clearly that success in adopting new media is not about struggling with it alone but rather, being part of the larger conversation.

Our students live socially interactive lives.  A 2010 report Social Networking in Developing Countries is a market research document but it shows the social networks available across these countries that are also being used for communication.

Finally, a member of my personal learning network Hamish Curry @hamishcurry distributed a reference today via Twitter.  It’s a post from January 2011 by Mahomed Kharbach entitled The 21st century pedagogy teachers should be aware of - I recommend this post as an accessible overview to anybody still trying to grasp details of the new media literacies.

• 10 things to remember about social learning (and the use of social media for learning) | Learning in the Social Workplace

  This post by Jane Hart approaches social media in education from the point of view of a business. Good summary.

  tags: social_media education social_networking onmyradar

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• 2012 Horizon Report Wiki – home

  2012 Horizon Report: Higher Education edition – preview and shortlist.  Full report due soon.  To be followed by K12 and Australia & New Zealand Report.

  tags: HorizonProject Horizon Report education future report onmyradar

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• The Digital Citizen – Andrew Churches

  To be a citizen, of a country brings certain rights nad responcibilities.In Rome, a citizen was exempt some taxes, protected against certain punishments, empowered with rights like voting, making contracts, marriage and standing for office. But with these rights also came responsibilities.

  tags: digitalcitizenship cybersafety digital_citizenship onmyradar students internet Andrew Churches

• iBooks Author: An ebook publisher looks at Apple’s textbook creation app | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

  iBooks Author is designed for creating textbooks. If you’re thinking about using it for other types of books, you can — but understand that this app may not necessarily be the tool you’re looking for if you want to create and sell books on all ebook platforms.

  tags: ebooks iBook apple publishing textbook onmyradar

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Howard Rheingold has written extensively on what it means to be ‘literate’ in today’s world of exponential information growth and social connectivity.  See his excellent article published in EDUCAUSE Review entitled Attention, and other 21st Century Social Media Literacies where he explains that to be information fluent today requires an individual to think critically and to build literacy through:

• attention
• participation
• cooperation
• critical consumption, and
• network awareness.

This video focusses ‘critical consumption’ – the ability to think critically and identify the difference between true and false information sources.  How do we teach this to our students? Rheingold explains that literacy is not simply skill development but a combination of skill building and social involvement.  Literacy today, he insists, is no longer text based but is a combination of:

• Skill – The ability to read, write and participate in the world of literates
• Tools – Search Engines and web tools  that can be trusted for credibility.  e.g. Health on the Net
• Social – Your Personal trust network consisting of authorities and experts, e.g. teachers, commentators, information curators you follow online and come to trust as credible sources of information. Connections on Twitter, Google, Facebook and members of your personal learning network.

This video Crap Detection 101 by Howard Rheingold is informative and provides ideas that can easily be transferred into the classroom for the benefit of students.  25 minutes well spent.

Much has been published in recent weeks about the proposed US SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) legislation, the intention of which was to provide control over copyright and the free use of resources shared via the Internet.  This proposal started with the intention of controlling the widespread sharing of resources online.  However, sharing online in today’s information landscape doesn’t only relate to media corporations and information related businesses, it relates to every individual who uses Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and all those applications we use on a daily basis.  The ramifications of this legislation were far reaching and would effectively close down the Internet as we know it today.  Thankfully, common sense has prevailed through online networks, influential individuals and sites like Wikipedia rallying to highlight the consequences, and the legislation has been withdrawn.

Why should we be concerned about this issue as Australians?  New models are required for all industries today.  The banks and telecommunications industry were early players in the field, the retail and education industries are amongst the latest.  We are all having to rethink of the value, worth and influence of our products and services.  Libraries are reinventing themselves. It is now spreading to the classroom where students have increased access to resources beyond the knowledge of the teacher.  Like the media companies, we cannot run away from this but must look at new ways of working within a changed information environment.  This is not a United States issue, it’s a world issue of which we all need, at the very least, a basic understanding.

Clay Shirky provides a succinct overview in his TED Talk: Why SOPA/PIPA is a BAD idea

Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media lays out the argument on Google+

PCWorld also provides a clear discussion in relation to small business

There will be more said about this topic and more legislation proposed both in Australia and elsewhere.  In 2009 the Australian Federal Government was pushing to censor the Internet via ISP providers giving rise to sites such as No Clean Feed.  This will be an ongoing issue until new models evolve of which we must all be aware.