How effective are education technology conferences?
July 14, 2008
With NECC 2008 winding down, I thought it would be appropriate to post my opinions on education technology conferences.
Last year, I felt that Florida Education Technology Conference (FETC) was significantly better than NECC. But most education technology conferences are afflicted with the same problem: they are targeting the wrong people with the wrong ideas.
While I was not able to attend NECC this year, I suspect that I would have been as disappointed as Will Richardson:
But for me, at least, at the end of the day, I’m still left wondering, “what’s really changed?” And, where will we be a year from now?
NECC is the echo chamber writ large and in living color; more than any other conference, it’s where we feel “big.” But the reality of it is, as Dean suggests, the powerful learning that most of us experience in these online communities is still little more than a blip on the radar screen. (I wonder what percentage of the 8 million+ educators in this country are aware of these shifts on a basic level.)…
And I think it’s time we get serious about all of that. No doubt, the vendor floor in Washington will be filled with “Web 2.0 in a Box” and “Safe Social Networking” and control, control, control. And I’m going to guess that, like this year, “Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts” will be “Hot Topics” as well as a few other new tools. And we’ll be talking once again about new standards and 21st Century Literacies and all of that. But while we as a community have no control over some of that, is that what we aspire to? Is that what we want the emphasis on NECC 09 to be, once again? Or do we want it to be more?
I hope it’s more. More about learning and figuring out what it means to be connected. More about what we can do to begin systemic change. More tangible, non-toolsy, results oriented thinking. More models that work, models that provide realistic options for educators to wrap their brains around.
These are an incredibly insightful comments.
The echo chamber of education technologists reinforcing each other’s beliefs is not the most effective way to drive change in the education sector.
NECC and other big-name education conference are an extremely expensive venue to share ideas about collaborative tools, Web 2.0, and professional learning communities. Remember, we are living in the age of free.
The educators at NECC represent above-average wealth districts who can afford to send people to education technology conferences to learn about the latest technology. Is this what our emerging leaders in education technology should be investing their money in?
I believe that potential attendees should be investing their time and money into educating neighboring districts about online technologies and collaborative communities.
Social, participatory, online communities require user adoption. As Dean Shareski points out, only a small sliver of the educational community is participating in online communities. There will be greater impact, a more vibrant social community, and less expenses by technology leaders investing in educating their neighboring districts as opposed to attending fancy conferences.
We need a new approach to encouraging systematic change in the education sector and conferences are not the answer.
Update: University of Akron Professor, and OETNer, Jeremy Brueck, has posted his reflections on NECC 2008.
My cloud
June 22, 2008
Everyone loves those neat Web 2.0-ey clouds.
Anyway, Abby just introduced me to Wordle, a neat tool to create your own cloud.
I ran it on my del.icio.us tags and this is what I got:
Pretty neat!
Challenges and Obstacles of Integrating Web 2.0 into the Classroom
May 30, 2008
Challenges and Obstacles of Integrating Web 2.0 into the Classroom
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach was kind enough to invite me to participate as a panelist in an Elluminate session with 80 superintendents from western New York.
We started the session with the superintendents brainstorming the greatest challenges to shifting to a 21st century learning environment. The main bullets from my notes were:
- Time for collaboration
- Privacy and security
- How to get ahead of the students instead of trailing behind
- How to educate boards and communities
- How to build a shared vision at the school
- Where to find funding
As the managed service partner for a number of districts across the region, the Smart Solutions K12 group faces these challenges on a daily basis.
As the last panelist, I had to rush through my talking points and was not able to fully explain my ideas.
This blog gives me an opportunity to more clearly state my philosophy on these topics. I believe that managing school district technology comes down to three fundamental components: policies, budgets, and leadership.
District technology departments are expected to be superheroes. As a short example, look at this article from ISTE. District CIOs need to understand:
- Leadership and visioning
- Planning and budgeting
- Team building
- Systems Management
- IT
- Business Leadership
- Education and training
- Communication
District technology budgets are being repeatedly cut, levies are not passing, and administrators are expecting IT departments to be leaders in collaborative technologies. It is clear that the current model of district technology management is broken.
Going forward, there is only one way that districts will be able to handle the myriad challenges of managing technology. This is to bring a team-based approach to technology management.
The IT department can no longer be all things to all people. For starters, IT needs to represent an executive level position with equal footing to curriculum directors or treasurers.
Next, IT should be considered a partner in the organization to help the school achieve its curricular goals.
Superintendants should also trust outside experts such as my fine co-presenters, Dean Shareski , Christopher Sessums, Dennis Richards , David DeShryver, and Vance Stevens – to help them understand best practices in integrating technology into the classroom.
Finally, the only way for this to be successful is through strong leadership at the district. District leaders, superintendents, and curriculum directors need to understand the importance of building 21st century classrooms and invest their time and energy into understanding this new environment.
Districts can overcome the obstacles of integrating Web 2.0 into the classroom with a combination of policies, smart budgeting, and leadership.
Concerns in a Web 2.0 World
May 6, 2008
It is easy to read articles like this and believe that Web 2.0 is truly the “future of education”.
I believe that the read/write Web, or what we are calling Web 2.0, will culturally, socially, intellectually, and politically have a greater impact than the advent of the printing press. I believe that we cannot even begin to imagine the changes that are going to take place as the two-way nature of the Internet begins to flower, and that even those of us who have spent time imagining this future will be astounded by what happens. I’m going to identify ten trends in this regard that I think have particular importance for education and learning, and then discuss seven steps I think educators can take to make a difference during this time.
It is a bit more challenging to understand the dangers and risks associated with moving towards a connected Web 2.0 world.
My preliminary break-down of the risks of working in a Web 2.0 world come down to:
Privacy
As more content moves towards a digital space, privacy concerns multiply. Connect this digital content to a world wide web, where entire countries are attacking our most important institutions, and the problems get even worse. Create a Web 2.0 world where individuals are posting all their secrets, thoughts, ideas, and personal content to the web, and our definition of privacy is forever changed.
The amount of information that the digital native generation is sharing with their friends online is astounding. Pictures, resumes, journals, and chats are becoming part of the public domain.
A person with malicious intent can easily pose as a “friend” and find the most intimate details of their target’s life.
The privacy concerns in a Web 2.0 world are downright scary.
Ownership of Data
In previous generations, an individual was the owner and protector of his or her data. Today, companies such as Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft are the owners of your data. Information is being hosted through SaaS models, and information is essentially open to the wild.
When you do not own your own data, those years spent building something online is now accessible with a single password. There are no longer physical barriers to someone gaining access to your entire life.
One Point of Failure
This is something that I have had personal experience with. One day, I tried accessing my Gmail address, and got a disturbing message that my account has been disabled. Not knowing what to do, I started to realize how exposed I am to Google.
My calendar, e-mail, to-do lists, notebooks, references, online docs, RSS feed list were all hosted by a single company with no backup!
The few days that I had no access to Google products was truly a test of my entire system. It is easy to be blinded by all the great products offered by a digital world. Luckily, my account was enabled within a few days. I quickly backed everything up, but this risk can truly cripple an organization.
Reliability of Information
I was speaking to a Superintendent last week, and she shared a story with me about how one of her nieces created a research paper with faulty internet research.
The message, of course, is that students need to understand how to triangulate data, check sources, and decipher reliable vs. unreliable sources. Younger kids, in particular, are at risk of not being able to understand this distinction.
Therefore, it is important to keep in mind the reliability of information when doing research in a Web-based world.
Technology Limitations
The final concern, in my mind, of a Web 2.0 world is that the browser is simply not a mature application delivery tool. Any type of analysis involving spreadsheets, databases, or document processing still requires a desktop or server environment.
The browser was not designed to host applications. While Google Docs and Zoho represent a commendable effort at replicating desktop applications, they are not designed to accomplish what we want.
Bottom line: While I am extremely excited about the possibilities of a Web 2.0 world, there are important concerns to keep in mind when integrating these tools into the classroom.
How to Build a Social Mesh in Education
May 3, 2008
Many people in the education world are fascinated with the idea of online virtual learning communities to share best practices and increase collaboration. This is the main focus of great thinkers such as Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson.
Marc Canter (my new favorite blogger) takes the idea of social networks, and abstracts it to a significantly improved conceptual framework. In a nutshell, Canter believes that open networks, open IDs, open standards, structured content, and open APIs are the best way to tie all of the networks and data together in a meaningful way.
He recently posted 10 blog posts describing his entire philosophy. Canter’s writing style is concise, opinionated, and visionary. I believe that any designer of social networks – particularly in the field of education – should use Canter’s advice when creating their networks.
The 10 sections of Canter’s posts are:
[1] – ID, Personas, Social Graphs and Groups
[2] – Persistent Ubiquitous Content
[3] – Structured Content (and shared servers filled with that stuff)
Canter even specifically mentions educational content in a social mesh:
Educational objects are also a way for intelligent folks to make money. Imagine encapsulating some course, tutorial, advice, guidelines, how-to-guide in an object which can get you PAID for your work and intellectual property! Educational objects would fit seamlessly into the open mesh and be compatible with many DIFFERENT People’s Marketplaces.
This comes at a particularly relevant time for a company such as SchoolNet, which is in the preliminary stages of creating an education “niche social network.”
Our digital age is moving in the direction of better organized content, open standards, and social networks. It is of paramount important that 21st century businesses, media, government, and education become plugged into these trends to maximize their relevance in the future.
What is Web 2.0?
April 12, 2008
Last week, I met with a Columbia Business School professor to discuss the broad issue: what is web 2.0?
My standard answer: Web 2.0 is a marketing buzzword used to describe a large class of next-generation web applications.
I categorize Web 2.0 into the following sections:
- Personal productivity
- Syndication
- Tagging / Organization
- Online Collaboration
I also believe that Web 2.0 generally emphasizes the following themes:
- Creating and Consuming Information
- Global conversation
- Empowering the individual
- Knowledge sharing / discover
Web 2.0 is intimately tied to the concept of 21st Century Learning.
This PDF briefly describes the framework from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
- Creativity and innovation
- Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
- Communication and Collaboration
- Information Literacy
- Communication Literacy
- Technology Literacy
- Flexibility and Adaptability
- Initiative and Self-Direction
- Social and Cross-Cultural Skills
- Productivity and Accountability
- Leadership and Responsibility
It is amazing how fluency in Web 2.0 collaborative tools correlates with the same skill sets required to achieve success in 21st century learning environments.
Using twitter is engaging in a global conversation. Teaching oneself to use ning is the same “initiative and self direction” discussed in 21st century skills. Tools such as Google Docs or Sharepoint are primary platforms for online collaboration. (FYI – A division of Smart Solutions, Collaborative Technology Solutions, specializes in integrating online collaborative tools in the professional services arena.)
At Smart Solutions K-12, we are excited to bring practical solutions to integrating collaborative technologies into the classroom. Technology cannot exist in a vacuum. It must be accompanied by professional development, change management plans, technical leadership, and curricular support.
Our approach posits that educational institutions need a strong technology partner to help usher schools into the 21st Century.
Monetizing Web 2.0
March 22, 2008
One repeated challenge that we face in the educational technology industry is: how do you monetize Web 2.0?
In the Web 2.0 world, a 21st Century Literacy Specialist from Bangkok can rise to prominence and social networks exist with the sole purpose of integrating technology into the classroom. Therefore, Web 2.0 is not conducive to traditional resellers pitching products.
Also, most services in the Web 2.0 world are free! What does the educational technology business world look like in the era of free tools such as free-reading, ning, pbwiki, twitter, and blogger? Chris Anderson just wrote a major article in Wired about how $0.00 is the Future of Business.
Nobody seems to know the answers yet. Some would argue that monetizing Web 2.0 requires a platform such as Sharepoint. I am confident that there is a platform independent business model to partnering with school districts to bring innovative solutions using free tools.
The only certainty is that the world of IT and education is transforming. Those that do not consider the influx of Web 2.0 will be left in the past.
If you are interested in exploring these questions with me, please do not hesitate to drop me a line, comment on the blog, or message me on Twitter sharing your thoughts.