Their space: Education for the Digital Generation

Posted on January 24, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

From Scotland via Derek Robertson at Hotmilkydrink:

On my way through to Edinburgh this morning I decided to listen to the latest edition of the BBC’s Digital Planet podcast. This is a really good show that never fails to throw up something of interest and relevance to me in my professional and personal dealing with technology.

The first article featured a new research paper from DEMOS called Their Space: Education for the Digital Generation. It proved to be quite an enlightening listen because they actually had a digital native on the programme! This 15 year old girl talked about how she and her friends used ICT in an invisible way in their lives. The only time it became overtly visible she claims was when teachers, (due to government regulations no doubt she mutters under her breath) told pupils that ‘this is a mouse’ or ‘save your file to the appropriate folder’!!! The contempt was tangible I tell you.

The DEMOS paper draws on qualitative research with children and polling of parents to counter the myths obscuring the true value of digital media. Some quotes from the Executive Summary of this 81 page document gives an indication of the content:

In an economy driven by knowledge rather than manufacturing, employers are already valuing very different skills, such as creativity, communication, presentation skills and team-building.
Schools are at the front line of this change and need to think about how they can prepare young people for the future workplace.
Schools need to recognise the new digital divide – one of access to knowledge rather than hardware – and start to redress some of the existing imbalances.
Students are changing the society they live in along the progressive lines that are built into the technology they use everyday – of networks,
collaboration, co-production and participation. The change in
behaviour has already happened.We have to get used to it, accept that the flow of knowledge moves both ways and do our best to make sure that no one is left behind.

Technorati Tags: MySpace, social software, technology, DEMOS, research report,

The [library] world is flat – too!

Posted on January 23, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

We have a central library catalogue (SirsiDynix Unicorn) serving 77 schools K-12 plus some specialist libraries, which allows for individualisation and sharing of information – we can search our own library or all libraries across all our schools as well as the specialised support libraries.

Unicorn’s architecture makes it easy to change databases and to implement new functionality. We have ‘content enrichment’ – book jackets, reviews, teacher notes and more also added to our basic catalogue. We could extend our services to include electronic packets (learning objects) and electronic files, provide federated searching of our resources, which includes an excellent range of subscription databases such as Britannica and EBSCO.

We could launch an enterprise portal solution, or implement any number of excellent options that SirsiDynix offers to revolutionise access to digital knowledge resources, as well as bibliographic resources.

At this stage, we have not rolled out the really effective enhancements that makes this system of delivery revolutionary…….. information anywhere, anytime.

We ‘stand out‘ in the school library sector in Australia for having implemented this system – yet we are hindered in making further developments because ………the potential of the innovation goes unrecognised! Urrrrggghhhh – so frustrating! Such Web 1.0 thinking. So yesterday!

The Information Network for Ohio Schools has done much of this, and is worth exploring to see some of the possible ways of supporting learning and teaching across schools.

I am delighted that at least a public library in Australia is leading the way in Web 2.0 using the same platform as our own (Unicorn), though obviously for a much smaller group of libraries.

The SirsiDynix WebSeminar “Hopping into Library 2.0: Experiencing Lifelong Learning” will be presented by Christine Mackenzie —Chief Executive Officer, Yarra Plenty Regional Library, in Melbourne, Australia. She will talk about why they decided to implement Learning 2.0 and how this has equipped them to get bold in their thinking about social networking. They’ll discuss 4 themes for their Library worker 2.0 staff development program in 2007 – getting information, enabling learning, creating content and celebrating culture; and how they are encouraging an environment of lifelong learning within the organization. Grab the podcast if you can’t join in the conversation. Of course there is also an excellent Yarra Plenty Library Blog, currently promoting great summer reading.

Singapore National Library shows an interesting MashUp with BookJetty. Some nice Web 2.0 enhancements, and a curious blend with Amazon. Can’t borrow the book? I guess you can buy it! My test searches provided pretty interesting results – in some cases, only providing Amazon information. Port the same search across to WorldCat – and get a very comprehensive result – all the information leads you could want for collection development, research sources, or unusual collections. Why not put the WorldCat search box on your site?

In terms of nice innovation, I love what MIT libraries have done! MIT Libraries now have RSS feeds for new additions to their catalogue.

Of course, they have lots of other nice things too, but RSS feeds for new resources is a cool Web 2.0 touch for keeping informed!

Technorati Tags: sirsidynix, MIT, bookjetty, MITLibraries, InfOhio, YarraPlentyLibrary, unicorn

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!