The world (school) in 2007…. 2027?

Posted on November 24, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt shares his views of the world in 2007 – putting things nicely in context for those new to appreciating the significant changes taking place in our networked world. A good read, and lots of “oh yeh” moments.

Some highlights:

The internet is much more than a technology—it’s a completely different way of organising our lives. But its success is built on technological superiority: protocols and open standards that are ingenious in their simplicity.

In 2007 we’ll witness the increasing dominance of open internet standards.

Driving this change is a profound technological shift in computer science.

Sophisticated browsers and technologies like LAMP or AJAX—not neon lights or Greek heroes but simple building blocks that enable people to produce and distribute content—are critical in this new world. They are the kind of technologies that transform audio, video, text and digital data into intuitive, easy-to-use services. They make Google, MySpace, YouTube, Gmail, Yahoo! and Microsoft Live possible, and they haven’t even entered adolescence.

Today we live in the clouds. We’re moving into the era of “cloud” computing, with information and applications hosted in the diffuse atmosphere of cyberspace rather than on specific processors and silicon racks. The network will truly be the computer.

The lesson is compelling: put simple, intuitive technology in the hands of users and they will create content and share it. The fastest-growing parts of the internet all involve direct human interaction. Think about the blogging phenomenon and social networking sites like MySpace in America, Bebo in Britain, Orkut in Brazil, CyWorld in Korea and Mixi in Japan. In 2007 the virtual communities so prevalent in Asia and among students will become mainstream. Online communities are thriving and growing. The internet is helping to satisfy our most fundamental human needs—our desire for knowledge, communication and a sense of belonging.

So what do we do about learning 2007? Spot the difference to start with!

Recognise that our learners are involved in “an architecture of participation” rather than just being consumers of information and knowledge.

Now they are

creators
contributors
communicators
collaborators
co-ordinators.

Online learning from a school’s perspective looks very different from online learning from a students perspective. Schools are still talking content management systems, learning management systems – getting excited about rolling out online classrooms. Well, they are nice for sure. But let’s not forget to plug in the web-based social networking tools – particularly if your version of LMS doesn’t include blogging, bookmarking, photosharing, chat, document collaboration, slidesharing, etc etc.

If you need help in grasping (planning for 2007 or 2027) take a look at FutureSight and discover what case-studies can tell you about the e-enabled future primary or secondary school.

Then join the conversation through School 2.0. and take a long hard look at Learning 2.0 school map. There is no one path to the school of tomorrow, so this brainstorming tool is idea for getting your planning underway.

I would say that there is nothing surer than the fact that learning and ‘cloud computing’ go hand in hand, so we had better get our school 2.0 designs underway now!

Some notes on why I am doing this!

Posted on November 22, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

Quite surprisingly, the anniversary of the first six months of this blog is about to arrive May 29……. see first post Hello World. Yikes!

To celebrate I am going to spend some time in the coming weeks tinkering with my BlogRoll….because it’s time! I can’t fit all of my Heyjude Bloglines in the roll – but there are some blogs that have provided great leadership for newcomers like myself and to whom I want to say ‘thanks for supporting innovation and change’. As a group you represent the ‘big names’ and the ’emerging names’. You pick which one you are! Without your inspiration I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t be learning at such a breath-taking pace.

When I hit the 12 month mark I hope to be able to list a significantly growing Australian list. Come on Aussies – let me know if you are out there in the blogosphere!

Here’s a recent (though well-known) arrival at Parallel Divergence.

You know, it shouldn’t be this easy to engage in such far-reaching and indepth professional learning. It has been the best six months – and I have learned more in this six months than I ever could have done any other way. Is this a true reflection of blogging…. or the rapidly changing landscape of the digital scene of Web 2.0.

I don’t know the answer to that. But I do know that the amazing personal and professional links with fellow bloggers, fellow social bookmarkers, fellow photo-sharers, fellow bloglines buddies, fellow poddies (yes, that’s what we do in Australia…truckies, roadies, firies, sparkies…) has been terrific.

Just to be different, I’m going to share another blogger with you….Alison Croggon, who provides independent theatre reviewing and discussion. She’s Australian too, and has been making her mark in the blogosphere for some time now.

I’ll let her share her own beginnings about why she is doing this!

Some notes on why I’m doing this

“honest and searching dialogue about theatre”

theatre notes

Blogging, like much else in the cyberuniverse, is a chance to be your own star. Even if no one reads your blog, there’s the mirage of public exposure. It’s peculiarly seductive. But apart from the appeal to an illusory sense of self-importance, there’s another reason to like the concept. Blogging has re-introduced the independent public commentator; but unlike underground magazines or samizdat, which were available only to the few, anyone who has a computer with an internet connection can look at a blog.

So I decided to start this blog, as an experiment. Will anyone read it? I don’t know. But I hope it will be fun to do and interesting to read.

Well I guess lots of people are actually reading her blog.

Just like mine – lots of people are reading it too.

So as I said in my first post –

Time to chuck our preconceptions away! Time to undertake a journey of discovery. Time to influence the shape of things to come.

Wiki Wonders!

Posted on November 21, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

Oh……I didn’t know there were so many! Next time you think you might like to use a wiki for some kind of collaboration online, you might want to check in at WikiMatrix first – an interesting wiki comparison tool.

The site allows you to put wikis against each other and get side by side comparisons. Plus, there are forums and articles that will help in the decision making process as well as assistance throughout the early stages of your “wiki-ing”. Very useful.

From Library Stuff.

Learning! New approaches, new spaces, new tools

Posted on November 21, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

Recently we held a 1-day mini-conference looking at the issue of learning – in new spaces with new tools. Our keynote speaker, Leanne Cameron from the Teacher Education Program Instructional Technology Centre, Macquarie University , presented some thought-provoking ideas about kids learning, and the changes they have made in adapting to the learning modes of digitally native tertiary students. Changing Learning space design, incorporating digital tools, and a 24/7 approach to learning was what it was all about. Of particular interest was the physical changes of classroom environments and resulting assessment tools – e.g. use of chat as an assessment tool.

Even just one example shows the changes possible if we use web 2.0 tools in a blended way to support learning.

For instance, running chat discussions and learning frameworks via the LAMS system, offered innovative opportunities.

..three chat sessions of the prescribed readings accounted for 20% of the total marks (and will be lifted to 25% in 2006); authoring of a LAMS sequence was compulsory, but marked only as pass or fail, with an accompanying analysis and reflection of the pedagogical design worth 35%.over a topic allows remote access, and for the teacher leader, provides a ‘transcript’ of conversations far more powerful than the usual groupwork method – particularly when tied to assessment processes.

Discussion about the changes needed in creating a Library 2.0 environment was the natural extension of these changes being noted in student learning needs.

In the blogosphere these conversations are being had all the time. I recently picked up the Conversation about the Future of Libraries from David Warlick – check out the podcast and circulate it to your colleagues. We need to keep this conversation happening.

Leanne also showed us the future automated system at Macquarie uni library for storage and delivery of books. Remember the old stacks that postgrads used to use? Catch the concept at Sonoma University Automated Retrieval System. The retrieval system provides quick access to an additional 750,000 items housed in a three-story, computer-managed shelving system located within the library building.

So where does that leave us with information management? and access to knowledge repositories? and building wise connections from what we read online or off, and as we engage with others?

On this topic I was much taken by Dave Pollard’s Adding Meaning and Value to Information. Let’s take it from another angle – the real world rather than the school world that educators seem to live in – though not our digitally native kids!

He shows us a great table exploring how we make what is written down more meaningful, more valuable. Whether online or off, this is what it is about isn’t it? He then draws an example of the cognitive and metacognitive pathway of that process.

Finally he says:

The great challenge in this task is enlightening management — the majority of executives still seem to see IT as a means to disintermediate information and get rid of the Information Professional role entirely. It has been my experience that no one in the modern organization is as under-utilized and under-appreciated as the information professional.

OK – can you hear the highly relevant echos of this sentiment in our schools?

Web 2.0 special

Posted on November 6, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

From the Weekend Magazine of Guardian Unlimited – a summary of Web 2.0 in the “Weekend Web 2.0 issue” – giving us a roundup of the creators of some of our most popular tools.

It’s great to see pictures of these people! Fun roundup. Matt at WordPress really is amazing – he just keeps on churning out those enhancements and developments – making it possible for people like me to blog like this 😉

Web 2.0 to Library 2.0 – the next publication

Posted on November 6, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

PART 1

Earlier in the year Part 1 of a two-part series of papers was published with the title Engaging the Google Generation through Web 2.0. This article was just a small effort on my part aimed at introducing teachers and teacher librarians to the world of Web 2.0. It has worked quite well for introducing newcomers to Web 2.0. I have seen copies of it with highlighter pen marking key concepts and places to visit. I have had people come to workshops and sessions with their well-thumbed article ready to learn more.
Part 2

Now Part 2 has arrived Engaging the Google Generation through Library 2.0. Perhaps it has something to offer you as well.

I was not as happy with this paper, but writing it inspired the Library 2.0 Matrix. I will have to update my Matrix on Flickr now to reflect the version presented in the article. The pace of change means that anything we read these days needs to be sifted and sorted for ideas – so I guess it’s your turn to sift right now 🙂

There are points in the article which are not correct. The editorial addition of the SCIS (Schools Cataloguing and Information Service) website review is confusing and misleading. I suspect that the writers of the review of the Second Life Library 2.0 blogspot didn’t quite understand what they were writing about. The blog is now at InfoIsland, and is a great place to get an overview of the action in SecondLife even if you don’t yet want to go into the 3D world.
Delany Library’s Delicious account is a good example of how one of our teacher- librarian is making use of the social bookmarking site to hook teachers and students into Web 2.0, as well an ensuring currency and relevancy of her library services. But it is not a ‘blog’! Sorry.

Anyway, you might find something of interest in the article, or you may like to circulate it between friends or colleagues. Enjoy!

Our Schools are Flat

Posted on November 4, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

Warlick: Our Schools are Flat

Originally uploaded by mstephens7.

David Warlick shares his presentation from the SLJ leadership summit, and I really appreciated this particular image. I picked this up from Michael Stephen’s Flickr collection – I’ve got him in my list of contacts.

So this image shows how not only schools are flat but we are getting flat too! From David to Michael to Judy, via flickr, and the blogging template embedded within Flickr, which I am testing now.

I am also reading The World is Flat by Thomas L Friedman. Wow!

He says in his introduction:

It is now possible for more people than ever to collaborate and compete in real time with more other people on more different kinds of work from more different corners of the planet and on a more equal footing than at any previous time in the history of the world – using computers, e=mail, fiber-optic netowrks, teleconferencing, and dynamic new software.

I am also listening in to the Fireside Chat of the K12 online conference via Skype!

Whether we like it or not our world is flat, and all the better for it, when we recognise the amazing power of this new information landscape.

Graphical images everywhere!

Posted on November 4, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

Another librarian in comics, this time The Librarian, from the made-for-TV movie, Return to King Solomon’s Mines.

Flynn Carson, guardian of mystical artifacts scattered throughout world history! Originally appearing in the hugely popular made-for-cable film “The Librarian: Quest for the Spear”, Carson is back and this time his mission is to prevent the powerful Key of Solomon from falling into the hands of a ruthless warlord! He is joined in his quest by Emily Davenport, a beautiful fellow scientist who may be his only hope to locate the legendary Mines of King Solomon before it is too late!

Not to be outdone by movies and comics, we also have the microsoft powered LiveSearch of Ms Dewey – leaving many of us wondering if this new interface actually works!

Take a look and enjoy!

But it does have potential doesn’t it? in making the knowledge work of information seeking fun in the first instance and bringing a new interface to searching which just might hook kids?

It is a real ‘information’ problem – a globe of information – and the only discussion in some circles revolves around how to engage students with use of technology tools, forgetting that engagement involves cognitive and affective domains – i.e. I seek, I get confused, I want help, I don’t undersand, etc. While it is vital to learn to integrate technology and Web 2.0 thinking, it is also a gross error to assume that using technology = using our intelligence to full capacity.

Human knowledge is complex and requires deep thinking – and sometimes a deep capacity to search, find, sort and synthesise information, viewpoints and knowledge. 21st century wisdom builds on all that came before.

Let’s not forget the cognitive dimension of Web 2.0 and technology integration – and lets have fun with Ms Dewey and King Solomon’s mines.

Internet futures

Posted on November 1, 2006 by Judy O'Connell

Interesting to think about the future of the internet locally and globally, as Web 2.0 launches the digital future.

BBC news reports on the global Internet Governance Group. In a column for the BBC News website, Mr Desai said: “The forum will give voice to the citizens of the global net and help identify emerging issues which need to be tackled in the formal processes.” The forum is not a decision-making body but instead is designed to give stakeholders in the internet a chance to form consensus around key areas.

The four key agendas for the conference are security, diversity, openness and access.

[The forum] is about the future, the net as it will be some years from now and how we can give a voice to all who use it…… Nith Desai

Two things of particular interest:

Have Your Say: What is the future of the internet? Read the comments!
BBC Net safety guide The pdf is worth downloading, as the focus is broader, as it includes security and network issues.

You might like to Read the views of the global internet panel.

Well, this delightful picture of the Dharamsala wireless mesh and the latest addition to the Mesh at the Lower-TCV School shows how the expanding technology blanket is being wrapped around the globe.