One step beyond

Earlier today on Twitter I said: 'To use any social media to its full potential in education you must venture beyond the classroom.' And I meant it. To achieve its optimum effect, the use of any social media - whether it be blogging, wikis or any other form of sharing of content - must breach the walls of the traditional learning space. Social media are time and space independent. They do not operate within, or rely upon, traditional ways of learning. Nor do they exist within a single timeframe. We need to see them in this context, not just as software and content on a computer screen, but as a gateway to a huge network of connections in an ever expanding global community. Facebook isn't just about friends and family anymore. It's about friends of friends, and connections to groups and online communities.

The ability to transcend the boundaries of the classroom is absolutely one of the best affordances social media provide. I have written in the past about opening up classrooms, not just the doors, to let others see what is happening and celebrate - but to let others in to the experience when they would previously have had no chance of sharing the joy of learning with you and your students. I wrote that open classrooms should also let your students out - to communicate, collaborate, and create together with other students across the globe. Traditional learning has never been that successful at achieving this, no matter how many exchange visits or pen pal schemes were instigated. Now we have the chance to take our classrooms out into the world on a global scale, never before possible.

The use of blogging, as several schools (primary/elementary and seconday/highschool) are already discovering, has the powerful potential to expand and extend students' experiences to a new level of enrichment, where interaction with students in other countries, or even just around the corner in the same city, are paying huge dividends. When they receive comments back from their peers, young bloggers are spurred on to write and create more and at a higher level of quality and achievement than ever before. It's a very powerful motivator.

The use of GPS in smartphones, working in concert with geo-specific social media such as Foursquare; the context aware systems now being introduced into museums and art galleries; QR tags and magic symbols; the Augmented Reality applications that are now proliferating - all of these and more are now avialable for teachers to exploit. We are merely limited to our own imaginations.

So what are we waiting for? Child safety and protection issues are always at the forefront of teachers' minds when they plan for blogging or other social media based learning activities. Health and safety, risk assessments for those venturing outside the coziness and 'safety' of the traditional classroom. All of these have to be considered, but if we make them an excuse for not being adventurous, we will miss the boat. Ask the outdoor schooling movement for their views on this. Let's set the kids free.

Image source by Paul Tomlin

One step beyond by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Yesterday's blog post

You are only as good as your last game - so goes the sporting maxim. And it's true - in sport you can't rest on your laurels, or live on past glories, because before you know it, some young pretender is ready to bury you, and you are suddenly second best. Fortunately, for most of us at least, the academic world usually isn't as cut-throat as that. But it is probably still true that you are only as good as your last journal article, book, or conference presentation. It's important to keep moving forward, because if you stand still, you stagnate and quickly lose touch with the leading edge of your profession. But are you as good as your last blog? Does yesterday's blog post still hold currency or must you continually press forward to write better, to expand on your ideas and elaborate your understanding of your subject?

Well, it's yes to both. Old ideas go out of date. But some old ideas are fine, and the great thing about academic blogging is that the more you write, the greater will be the repository of content you have written. As you post your ideas up on your blog, your archive of posts grows, and people still come to read them, weeks, months, sometimes even years after they have been published. My Teaching with Twitter post from January 2009 is still going strong with 12,000 views. It has been updated several times with new links to relevant related content. This is a little different to publishing a paper based journal article or book. Sure, people still read your article years down the road, but you are a hostage to your own fortune with published printed material. What you have written is there, preserved forever, including old ideas that are later outdated. Perhaps you subsequently rethink, revise or otherwise change your ideas as you learn more. Yet you can't change the printed word. Several times, I have revisited articles I published 5, 10 or even 15 years ago, and I think - ouch - I wish I could change that now.

Blogging is different. I can go back and change something I have written if I subsequently discover that I made a mistake (maybe just a typo, but perhaps even a fundamental error of theory, or a miscalculation) and change it. The new version is still time and date stamped for when I published it. But the content is now more accurate, relevant or appropriate to the message I originally intended. I can also delete something completely if I need to (I have never done this). You can't delete a journal article, and you can't change it once it's in print. All you can do is publish a retraction, but it's like hammering a nail into wood. You can remove the nail, but the hole remains (sometimes in your reputation).

We can debate the ethics of changing a blog post once it has been posted, and yes, there are those who take content under Creative Commons licensing and repurpose it, translate it, embed it. There's little that can be done about that. But with your own blog, you can be master of your own destiny. Should blog posts be changed once they have been published? I think it is up to each individual blogger to decide. What do you think?

Image source by Kristina Barnett

Yesterday's blog post by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Ten years of arguments

I know this is a strange title for a blog post, but let me explain: This week, in the north of the Czech Republic, I have just completed my tenth spell of teaching at the Technical University of Liberec. Each year, around half-term time in May, I am invited to teach a week of 'Argumentation and Rhetoric' to a group of international students of the University Neisse. What is argumentation and rhetoric? Well, as a psychologist, I interpret it as the study of interpersonal communication skills. To that end, when I was first invited to teach at University Neisse in 2002, I put together a 5 day programme which explored a number of social psychological theories around interpersonal skills, which involved lectures, demonstrations, discussion and games that focused on debating, argument and critical dialogue. Over the years I have included several social media elements including the use of blogs and wikis, when these were still seen as new in the education world.

Neisse is an international degree programme funded by the European Union through its Erasmus programme. Since 2002 almost 200 students have been through the classes, including many from Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland, as well as a small number of students from Vietnam, Nigeria, China and, in my current group - from Egypt. One of my students today came up to me and asked me why I keep coming back to teach at Neisse every year. I thought for a few seconds and then replied that I enjoyed the challenge of teaching multi-ethnic groups of students. It's the only chance I get each year to teach students from so many different countries, all together in one classroom. The mix is a dynamic one, full of possibilities, and you never know what is going to emerge during the discussion sessions. Today we enjoyed a particularly animated debate on genetic engineering where some of the group became quite vocal about whether they should, or could argue from a perspective they didn't actually agree with. Others in the group responded that if one wasn't familiar with the other person's perspective, then it was difficult to argue effectively. And this is what Neisse is really all about - in their first year of study, the group lives together in Liberec, Czech Republic. In their second year, they move to the University of Wroclaw, in Poland. They complete their third year of study at the University of Görlitz, in Germany. During this time, they learn not only their own academic subject of information and communication management, but also take on board all the customs, social nuances and languages of the other nations, and of course they learn very good technical and conversational English in the process.

In conversation today with one of the leading lights of Neisse, Professor Jaroslav Vild, I asked what was the main aim of the Neisse programme. He told me that central Europe has had a history of ethnic tensions and problems in the past, including wars of course. University Neisse is a small part of the movement focused on bringing young people together from diverse backgrounds, to mould them into a force for better international understanding. I have completed 10 years teaching at University Neisse this week. If they invite me back, I won't say no.

Image source by Sludgegulper

Ten years of arguments by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Back stage front stage

Today I enjoyed an interesting chat with Dr. Robert Nagy over lunch in Liberec, in the North of the Czech Republic. Robert is a lecturer both at the Technical University of Liberec and also at Charles University in Prague. He's a fellow psychologist, and we had a lot to chat about subsequent to him sitting in on one of my sessions this morning.

I was discussing one of my favourite theories with the group - Erving Goffman's Drama model of social interaction. Goffman suggests that each of us attempts to 'manage our impression' before our 'audience' as if we were performing on a stage. Front stage representation draws upon scripts, costumes, roles and props, as each person tries to present themselves in their most favourable manner. Back stage is different - this is the region where we are at our most informal, and where we let our guard down. I was applying Goffman's theory to online spaces such as social networks. I asked the group how many of them had a Facebook account. Of course, as I expected, everyone did. Next we discussed how people represent themselves on Facebook through their profiles, pictures, games they play, groups they join, and people they 'friend' online. Part of the downside of Facebook, I reminded them, is when you (or someone else) posts images of yourself onto the site. It's difficult to remove them once they are posted, and if they are tagged, it is easy to find them. Most people don't mind this, we agreed, but if an image is inappropriate (falling out of a pub at 3 am, the worse for wear), this may work against you when you apply for a job and your prospective employer decides to check you out on Facebook.

The problem, I theorised, is that many Facebook users perceive the social network as a 'back stage' area where they can let their hair down a little, remove their mask, relax and banter with their friends, and generally say what they want to. The mistake of course, is that Facebook is quite public (depending on how you manage your privacy controls) and open to many people to view. In reality it is a front stage region, yet with your guard down, you are likely to make a public fool of yourself if you are not careful and think you are bacjstage. The rules of social interaction, I suggested, are changing.

Afterwards, over lunch, Robert expressed doubt that the rules are actually changing. His argument is that most social conventions are usually quite rigid and that bad or good behaviour is the same, whatever platform, real or virtual, it is acted out upon. To an extent I agreed, but I pointed out that some conventions are in fact changing because of new affordances being introduced by technology. What is considered rude or aggressive by one person may not be seen as such by another. An innocent text message sent by one person may be construed by its recipient to be offensive or threatening. This may be due to a reduction in social cues, or simply not enough supplementary information being embedded within the text. Failure to include emoticons, or other 'non-textual' communication may render the message void of emotion, and then readers are left up to their own devices to decide whether the message is in fact ironic, or sent with some malice. Lack of experience in an online environment may lead the recipient to take the least form of resistance and miscontrue the message.

For me, the rules of engagement are changing to adapt to the technology that is increasingly mediating our conversations. The reduced or 'squeezed' text that is redolent of short message services such as mobile texting has spawned a new style of communication. If you are on the inside you will ROFL when you read the message. If you are on the outside, and not used to this style of communication, you may very well take offense or miss the point. So are the rules of social interaction changing, or are they the same as they ever were, just dressed up in a different form?

Image source by Slimmer_Jimmer


Back stage front stage by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Misplaced ICT

I'm firmly of the opinion that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in schools is misplaced and therefore misused. In essence, the way it is conventionally deployed negates much of the potential of ICT, and unless there is a dramatic reappraisal, we won't be witnessing much in the way of learning gains in schools. Here's my argument in two points:

My first argument is that ICT is almost always delivered in schools as if it were a subject to be studied. It is not a subject, and never has been. ICT represents a set of tools which should be embedded across every subject in the curriculum. As it stands, this will never be fully realised, because ICT is delivered as a discrete subject. Let's not confuse ICT with computing. Computing is a subject in its own right. You can do a computing degree at most universities. By contrast ICT is simply a set of very powerful tools that enable children to learn other things. Why waste valuable contact time teaching kids how to create PowerPoint slides, or how to write a webpage? They can be spending their time doing much more important things in the classroom, and many probably already know how to do the basics anyway.

My second argument is, why do schools spend so much of their resources creating ICT suites? This is quite clearly placing all your eggs in one basket, where only one class at a time can gain access to valuable if not essential resources. Computers are tools just as pencils or calculators are tools. But we don't set up pencil suites or special calculator rooms in schools, do we? I damn well hope not, anyway. As Craig Taylor so eloquently stated this week in his discussion on redesigning learning spaces:

"Lose the ICT suite. This only serves to isolate technology from current learning activities as opposed to embedding it within them. It also stands empty for the majority of the time, which is a waste of space and resources. IT access could still be gained by providing netbooks/laptops to each learner attending events. These can be kept in purpose built storage/charging trolleys. Coupled with a WiFi connection this will allow learners to connect to the outside world as opposed to relying solely on the knowledge that is being shared amongst the facilitator/delegates, a great example of social constructivism. A modern approach to learning which fits with a modern building."

I couldn't have put it better myself. Another problem with positioning ICT within one room is that children get themselves into the mindset that 'this is where we use the computer.' I would actually go farther than Craig (who speaks from a corporate training context) by arguing that children should be using handheld, wireless devices around the school, rather than lugging around laptops or netbooks. The vast amounts of money that have been invested in expensive ICT suites should be diverted to this kind of untethered learning instead. This way they are being prepared for learning on the move, in an increasingly mobile world. Craig makes a very valid observation in his post that the separation of ICT from all other learning spaces engenders a perception that ICT and learning are somehow separate. They should not be, of course. ICT should be embedded into all learning activities as is appropriate. This brings me back to my first argument about ICT not being a subject, but rather being a set of tools for learning. I hope you get the point.

Image source by ejk

Misplaced ICT by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Free thinking

A lot of stuff never gets done because it's 'against the rules'. Rules and regulations are the bane of creativity, and can stop innovation dead in its tracks. Every organisation has an IPD - an Innovation Prevention Department which is there to ensure that the rules are abided by, and that nothing happens without a rubber stamp of approval.

My reading of 'The Facebook Effect' recently has led me to believe that mavericks and anarchists - those who tend to bend the rules, or simply ignore them - are at the centre of many creative projects, and in some cases actually become the gamechangers. Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard student friends have radically changed the way we communicate with each other, and they have changed it on a global level. Regardless of your opinion of Facebook, you would probably agree that it was a game changer. Zuckerberg was not, and is not someone who 'tows the line'. He got into trouble while at Harvard and ever since, he has led an edgy existence at the vanguard of a movement which has fractured many of the social conventions that existed prior to the advent of online social networking.

Zuckerberg isn't the only one who has kicked against the rules and bent them to get where he needs to go. Richard Branson, in his recent book 'Screw it, let's do it,' also admits to being a maverick (but we all knew that anyway). He says 'Though I have never followed the rules at every step, I have learned many lessons along the way. I am still learning and I hope I never stop.' Branson has carved out, time and time again, business opportunities that have broken the conventional mould with outrageous success. Beside their vast fortunes, what do Zuckerberg and Branson have in common? They are both free thinkers. They disregard the structure and restrictions of their surroundings, and dream up new ways to circumvent the constraints imposed upon them by 'the rules.' For them, the way forward is to 'just do it.'

There are many other free thinkers I could talk about - in the field of art (Picasso, Monet, Pollock), music (Mozart, Stockhausen, the Beatles), and science (Einstein, Darwin, Edison) - who were renowned for bending the rules and sometimes ignoring them. Creativity in this sense, is not so much about building on old models (although this is sometimes the case), nor is it about extemporisation around a known theme. No, it is more to do with what Margaret Boden called 'transformational creativity' where scant regard for what is acceptable or achievable, is replaced by the will to make something happen regardless of the constraints, the rules, the expected.

Is this the kind of ethos we see in our schools, colleges, universities? As teachers are we fostering a sense of the impossible in our learners, and are we nurturing dreamers and entrepreneurs? Or are we instead continuing to impose rules and constraints which are no longer necessary or simply outmoded, because 'it has always been done that way?' Carl Rogers, a free thinker in his own right, once made it clear that the educational situation which most effectively promotes significant learning is one in which 1) threat to the self of the learner is reduced to a minimum, and 2) differentiated perception of the field of experience is facilitated (Smith, 2004)

In clear language, this means that people learn best when they feel that they are under no constraints to express themselves and when they are given licence to change things and make them personal. How could this be applied to our own classrooms, and how many of us as teachers facilitate free thinking within our practice? Next time, don't ask for permission. Just do it.

'It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission'

Image source by Jack Lyons


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Danger Dog, Pandora and a cast of thousands

The highlight of yesterday's student education conference at the University of Plymouth was the final keynote speech from Deputy Headteacher Dave Mitchell. Dave has carved out quite a reputation for himself as a champion of blogging for early years children. Much press and media coverage has celebrated the many and varied successes the school has achieved through good pedagogy and the appropriate application of social media tools. It was fitting then that he should have the last word at the #earlyyears event held in the Faculty of Education.

Dave (aka @DeputyMitchell on Twitter) talked about the way he has established blogging as an inspirational tool to promote more engagement in learning for primary school age kids. He documented the rise in success of blogging at Healthfield CPS, a Primary School in Bolton, North West England. From the early stages, where parents and peers were engaged, to the latter stages, where Year 6 children (10-11 year olds) are writing creatively for a worldwide audience, Dave explore the nuances and practices of educational blogging. Dave presented some astounding statistics for his audience. Since the start of this academic year, the Year 6 blog alone has received more than 200,000 hits worldwide, and over 4000 comments from readers in over 130 countries. Such an audience (some would argue 'community') of people does wonders for the self esteem and confidence of the young bloggers. They are articulate, inventive and fully committed to blogging their way to better standards of literacy, and in the samples Dave showed, they are clearly succeeding. From The Island and Pandora (Avatar alien planet) projects, to the random appearances of Danger Dog, these kids write about anything that grabs their interest, and the teachers turn these ideas into learning that locks into the National Curriculum. The children have even appeared live (at 0740 in the morning) on BBC's Breakfast programme, where they were interviewed as they blogged. But this is not the end of the story.

Dave Mitchell showed evidence that all Year 6 pupils in the scheme had each (through teacher assessment and the more formalised SATs tests) gained an average of 6.6 points on the literacy scale. This is equivalent to almost two years of development in writing and reading skills. Whilst it is important we don't point to the blog as the only catalyst in this amazing success story, it is clear that blogging has had a major influence on these young lives, and the audience they write for has more than an impact on their enthusiasm to learn. Dave finished his presentation by bringing in one of his small groups live onto the screen using Coverit Live. Through the posting of images and sounds, he asked his pupils to respond by writing live what they felt and thought. It was clear to the audience that this group of young people are just as articulate in their writing, using rich combinations of adjectives and syntax to convey their ideas to us, their new audience. Some have even broken away from the main school blog to set up personal blogs of their own, such is their passion for writing. Dave left us all, students and lecturing staff alike, with the impression that if the right tools are employed in the right place at the appropriate time, learning will have no boundaries.

Image source by Lee12 (Heathfield CPS)

Danger Dog, Pandora and a cast of thousands by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.