Twitter and Truth: More questions than answers

A few weeks ago I had the honor of presenting a Webinar for the Easy Bib Summer PD Series. This presentation was a real stretch for me. I have spent enough time on Twitter to feel comfortable and I have done considerable research on Twitter as an instructional and informational tool and even some practice teaching with Twitter and about Twitter. However, given the complexity of the subject, I think my presentation, as given is at best a starting point, for myself as well as my audience.

The focus of Twitter in the Classroom, was on Twitter as an information source. My central point is that people are increasingly getting information via social media and are more influenced by peers in the Twitterverse than by traditionally published material. Opinions and perspectives are formed online by interactions with others and the posting of influential individuals, some of whom are actual experts but mostly by self-appointed 'experts,' who may or may not be passing on correct information. To me, it's obvious that librarians need to be a part of the conversation on and about social media, or risk becoming irrelevant as information professionals.

So who am I? I'm really another self-appointed expert with some experience, but by no means a genuine expert. I can say, I've done much reflecting and additional learning about this massive subject and read some contrary viewpoints such as this one by Molly McHugh.

Ms. McHugh is an informed skeptic that is mostly dismissive of Twitter as an information source. I agree with many of her points, especially the fact that information on Twitter is largely suspect because it is contaminated by commercial interest and public relations.

Nevertheless, my point is that as educators we need to train our young people to recognize self-promotion and sensationalism in its natural context and be able to sift through it to glean useful insights. In my talk, I was primarily concerned with conspiracy theories, because they are prevalent on social media, while traditional library information sources generally do not publish conspiracy theories as fact.

Training young people to recognize conspiracy theories is, in my view, vital to the preservation of democracy. That's actually a relatively straightforward process, but one I feel librarians are neglecting. And what are we as librarians if we're not concerned about the role of information in preserving democracy?

What's more complicated is addressing the whole notion of 'who is an expert?' and utilizing experts' perspectives in online research. While I can't claim to know where all this social media is taking us, I know that Twitter has dramatically altered publishing and the overall information ecosystem for better and worse. Let's pay attention.

Here's the recording of my Webinar.

Reflections on Parenthood and Ed Tech

For the last 17 years, I've been occupied professionally with educating other peoples' children. That all changed a couple of weeks ago, when God blessed my wife and I with a daughter. I feel as though my life in education is just beginning, since I know have at least 18 years to focus my efforts on educating one child instead of basically starting over every few years. Obviously I have done a lot of reflecting about my views of education for my own child and as I write this, I'm thinking about how this personal endeavor may influence my professional practice. Here are some thoughts.

I've long had an image as a tech guy, and I've earned the image, as I have advocated for student computer use for my entire career, and more recently have been outspoken about the potential benefits of video gaming, mobile technology and social media. That being said, I have always worked with teenagers who, by and large are already enthusiastic about technology use and I believe the use of technology in institutions of education can help these teens become more involved in learning and can potentially drive better pedagogy. Now, here's where my personal and professional viewpoint would seem to diverge.

I'm actually ultra-conservative about technology use among children and I convinced my wife to grant our daughter a 100% screen-free life until the age of 8. That means no television (educational or otherwise), no videogames, no ebooks, no screens at all. That would be in line with the strictest opinion from pediatricians. The most permissive would limit screen time until age 2. Why do I want to follow the strictest opinion? The answers are based on both my professional and personal experience.

In a nutshell, I believe that kids raised with highly limited media are more imaginative, better behaved, and better able to succeed academically and professionally. This opinion was cemented in college when I was cycling with a friend. When I made a casual reference to a TV show, he didn't know what I was talking about because he was raised without television. I also realized at that time that this guy was a tremendous athlete in spite of having asthma, a gifted student of many subjects and an all-around creative person with a great sense of humor. I wanted to live in a world with more people like him, and I started watching less and less TV.

There is really no upside to introducing screens. It may be cute to see a 3 year old playing with an iPad, but that only proves how easy it is to figure out an iPad, and how unnecessary it is to have a class at an elementary school on an iPad. Personally I find it horrifying when parents constantly give their kids electronic pacifiers, going as far to always have a screen on, even while driving in the car. It's also horrifying to me (and I see this all the time) to see parents staring at their smartphones while their kid plays in the park. I am determined not to become that sort of parent and I don't want any person, let alone my own child, think they are less important that my smartphone. I have also seen schools resort to electronic pacifiers, and that is infuriating as well. Honestly, I'm also complicit in this, as I allow video games in the library. Though I see some positives, especially when I manage to tie a game into a life-lesson, but much of the time, its simply the path of least resistance. Games allow kids to kill time without much benefit to them.

The reality is that we public educators get more an more kids are being parented by media and devices. It's just sad, and I don't believe anymore the positive spin about the digital natives. They're not learning social skills such as making eye-contact and engaging in scintillating conversation or have clever things to say in writing. The kids that do have conversational skills and creative abilities...they are almost always readers. The kids that have great social skills...their parents talk and interact with them. Schools need to bring out more of these skills and not resort to electronic pacification.

So, does this effect my outlook on technology in education?  Not really. I still thing secondary students should be taught explicit skills about using the Internet as an information source, establishing a positive digital footprint and learning Digital Citizenship, etc. These are not just buzzwords to me. However, we're fooling ourselves if we think these digital natives are going to thrive in the future if we as educators don't give them something on top of their comfort with technology.

As a parent, I frankly I will not rely on schools to fully train my daughter for the complex, high tech future. I have to provide a solid foundation for her, giving her lots of books, talking with her, playing chess, doing science experiments to foster curiosity, etc. When I finally do introduce a computer into her life, I want her to see it as a serious work tool and not merely a toy. I want her to understand how computers work, before she learns to waste time on games, videos, etc. I plan on modelling this behavior by using a computer or device only when it serves a purpose, and not just to kill time.

As a high school librarian, always admired good auto shop teachers. They wanted their students to understand cars just as the kids were learning to drive. There students learned practical problem solving skills that applied to life in general. This is the way I think we should approach computers as well. Kids should learn how to troubleshoot and work out creative solutions within applications they use and create their own applications. However, most students just don't get this kind of training at school.

I see the focus on standards and testing as a big obstacle to achieving any kinds of results in so called "21st Century Skills." It's hard to find time for the things I think are important for young people, when there are so many arbitrary standards that are assessed annually. I'm not against testing and standards, but I do wish school systems were more flexible in how they teach and assess them.

I'll continue to promote the reading of books, recruiting kids into chess club, encouraging Apps programming, demonstrating my love for learning on all subjects, talking to kids about their mission in life and how to accomplish it. These are the things I will always to for my daughter, but will only be able to do for a small percentage of the kids I see at school.   It's not a perfect world, but I plan on making the best of it.

Librarians, Media Specialists and New Tech

Today I confirmed what I long suspected...I am the only Library/Media Specialist at the New Tech Network training in 2011. This is very worrisome to me. Most of all, I am concerned about what this says about the library profession.

I'm personally very invested in this profession and I've called myself a librarian for a full decade now. I've always bought into the idea of a librarian as a leader in teaching 21st Century skills. There are many of us that play this role and I'm proud of many of my colleagues, but the writing is on the wall. Not enough librarians are making the leap into the 21st Century.

Many of the people from New Tech Schools that I have spoken with recently cut their library positions after their librarians retired. Others have librarians, but they have not made themselves critical to the mission of the school. One person said that it took 3 years for the administration to figure out the librarians role in their New Tech school. That is so sad.

I am not just concerned about the profession, but our entire culture. Libraries represent so much that is critical for the continuation of Democracy. I don't think the Internet by itself is a substitute. I believe the future needs reflective people that understand complexity and the many perspectives of different people and cultures; people read widely and deeply. Nicholas Carr has called the human mind of the Internet era "The Shallows." I think he's correct. I'm concerned that there won't be enough people capable of deep and abstract thought to sustain this great country as a bastion of freedom. Ignorant people are prone to tyranny.

The New Tech model of teaching is wonderful, but I think every New Tech school needs a library (even if it is called the Media Center or the Learning Commons). The library is nothing without a passionate and skilled librarian. Without such a person, who will advocate for students to read full-length books in the course of their high school careers? Who will teach how to find and process quality information in the vast sea of propaganda and who will man the information hub of our schools? It's possible that teachers can fill this void, but it is equally possible that no one will do so.

I'm proud to be a part of the New Schools Network, and I don't blame anyone within the organization for the state of affairs in public education and school libraries. I simply urge more of my librarian colleagues to get involved and be a part of the future of education.

New Tech Network 2nd Day

I'm now starting to settle in and get familiar with the group, the instructional model and the software of the New Tech Network. One thing I noticed today is that most of the schools at this training are from smaller cities or rural communities. My school of Dallas and another school from San Antonio are the only truly urban ones represented here. This is actually something I'm very proud of. We have a great group of people on our staff, and I really think we can make this school of South Dallas into one of the crown jewels of the New Tech Network, and encourage more urban school around this country to adopt this excellent model.

If Schools ran like Google

I just finished reading Inside Larry and Sergey's Brain by Richard Brandt. It's an breezy and thought provoking book that isn't really about education technology, but it brought up some things I think are relevant to schools. Here's my half-serious list of items entitled, "If schools were run like Google":

1. The primary driving value of schools would be the experience of the end-user, aka the students.
2. Mediocre education software and textbook oligopolies would be very afraid.
3. Administration would truly value the ideas of its employees and encourage problem-solving collaboration across the organization.
4. Pragmatic idealism, the idea that all students can learn would be actively pursued and all solutions would be considered.
5. School technology would be run by people that know how to get the most for the money we would never endure network outages that stop productivity.
6. At every decision point, the discussion of ethics would center on the question, "is this good for students."
7. All cell phones would work with school tech systems and students would be busy using them for productive purposes.

Any other ideas or criticisms are welcome.

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• Google Apps Education Training Center (edutraining.googleapps.com)

Customer focused Web site

I have seen school districts adopt all sorts of technology systems including grade books, online curricula, learning modules, and other information systems. Most of the time, the selection of these tools is based on the administrator's need of the moment and little thought is given to the usability of the system and how well it will adapt to changes elsewhere in the system. Countless hours of teacher time are wasted training them to use horrible software and millions of dollars are thrown away on systems ill-suited to the needs of teachers and students. On top of that administrators' dictates that require teachers to use these systems create enormous amounts of stress for teachers for little benefit. What is needed is a new approach that focuses on designing flexible systems, run by knowledgeable administrators who's primary mission is to meet the needs of busy teachers and students.

This brings me to my new big idea. My new Web site, www.wildcatlearning.org is focused on quickly building a learning portal for our school that grows organically while giving teachers many options and making their lives easier. My dream is to harness all of the creative energy of the most tech-savvy teachers in the school toward building a "one-stop" destination for information and learning technology. I'm offering these teachers not just a technology platform but the necessary support and training that helps them get the job done.

I'm not going to do any training or staff-development train users for this Web site, but I do hope to steer teachers here because it makes implementing technology in their class much easier. It must be my crazy idealism, butI think it's better to try to entice teachers by offering them help and point-of-need training and easy implementation rather than trying to bribe them to attend tech trainings with food or without the administration mandating anything. We'll see if it works.

Technology Tuesdays

Technology Tuesdays are a new tradition at my school. It's a simple and great idea that any school can do. For the first meeting, I brought Starbucks Coffee and Donuts and had an informal discussion among teachers that use technology and those that want to incorporate more into their repertoire. From the initial meeting, we identified some areas for future meetings. Today we had an innovative session about Online Calendars, which I called "pick your own" staff development. I based this idea on those old "Choose your own adventures" books.

I'm really proud of this concept, even if I need to work on the implementation. As, the "pick your own" title suggests, I tried to individualize the training based on the orientation and comfort level of the participants. More importantly, this approach allows me to market technology training in a far better way. Instead of a generic, geeky sounding topic like "wikis" or "blogs," I can focus the description in more human terms. For online calendars, I promoted the tool as a solution for 4 different customer segments:

1. Busy people that are looking for a way to stay organized and on top of their work and personal lives
2. Club sponsors and extra-curricular organizers that need to communicate with students
3. Classroom teachers that want to help their students be more organized
4. Coaches and sports fans.
   

The response among the staff here was great. While 6 attended the morning training, many more expressed an interest in learning the skills at a later date. If anyone is interested in the materials, let me know. I'll try to post them soon.