21st Century Learning with Alec Couros

The learning design team at Fraser Heights had a privledge of sitting down with Alec Couros today to have a conversation about 21st Century learning. 

Alec Couros is a professor of educational technology at the University of Regina.  With regards to social media in education, we had many questions for Alec.  Below are some of the key points from our conversation.   

It seems as though there are many teachers who are resisting the shift into "21st century learning" and the use of social media because they are concerned about students losing traditional literacies. 

- How do we find a balance between paper/pen and technology integration in project-based learning?

- What if the course is content driven like ss11, in classrooms where the students and teachers are comfortable inside the box?  Do we really need to change?

What does 21^st Century Learning really mean?

-          NCTE standards

-          Develop proficiency with the language and tools

-          Global communities

-          Manage, analyze and synthesize a multitude of information (multimedia text, multi-literacies)

Essentially, we need to start somewhere because education is changing whether we want it to or not.  There are new ways of understanding the world around us and they can be found with the touch of a button...not even a button...by tapping a screen!  Kids (and teachers) have the information right in front of us.  We need to teach them how to gain access to this information in a safe way.  We need to learn how to collaborate online and use the resources around us.  No longer do we need to teach dates and times of events in history.  We need to teach our students how to think about these things critically and how to efficiently access and share the information.

Struggles – what’s appropriate and what’s not? – Where’s the line?  What should be private (tweets etc)?

Do we need to worry about losing penmanship?

TED – Wade Davis

Looks at the loss of culture

What does it mean to be the last speaker of your own language?

http://www.ted.com/speakers/wade_davis.html

What are we holding on to and why?  - you can never get rid of peer review it’s just done differently now – faster, more efficient, wider scale (more opinions)

Scott Mcleod @mcleod – "If you are not becoming digitally literate, you are slowly becoming illiterate"

      - What does this really mean?  What does it mean to be literate?  What is literacy?

Possible Solutions -

Using facebook pages?  Facebook.com/pages – that way you don’t have to add students to facebook – opens it up but keeps your profile private

Twitter is good for professional development resources – being social and fun is not a problem.  It’s ok – build your digital identity and show your students how to too!

There are problems that exist with technology in education BUT Don’t blame it on the technology itself – it’s the way it’s used and our understanding of that.

Learning how to use blogs in different ways? – School blogs are not social blogs - teach students the difference and teach them how to appropriately build their digital identity

-          What if we don’t have time to teach how to blog?  How do we teach the literary aspect without having to waste time with digital identity?

How do we assess the differentiation – are they really meeting criteria?  Make sure criteria is CLEAR…as long as it’s met, then delivery is up to the student – do a reflection at the end that explains learning – did you try something new?

Some tools worth checking out:

GoogleDocs – collaborative writing https://docs.google.com

PollEv - online polls for the classroom (great for intros, critical thinking, presentations, etc) www.polleverywhere.com

Remind101 – set up texting and class subscribes http://remind101.com/

EdMoto http://www.edmodo.com/

GoogleReader – if class blogs, it becomes more of a portfolio (get students to subscribe to eachother) https://reader.google.com/

KidBlog.org (wordpress based) – shows up on one page http://kidblog.org/

#commentsforkids (post work to twitter and get feedback from everywhere)

Give kids the choice?  Publish for world or publish for private? Communicate with parents for consent

Pinterest – like a corkboard that allows you to pin things – art, picture, ideas, interests, school stuff???  Becoming very popular. Possibly used as a classroom bulletin board online?? http://pinterest.com/

Online social bookmarking – http://delicious.com/

"Let me google that for you" (search on google) – how to use youtube (for example)

"Real time world war II" - Tweeting the war day by day (6 years real time)

Google “my fake wall” – social media profile without actually having to go on twitter or facebook.

Foursquare – checking in using geolocation – “girls around me” (is anything really private anymore? ) The reality of our digital identity – make kids aware!  Share this with them to show how public their info really is, and the potential implications of that.

Some people who were mentioned who may be interesting resources:

Seth Godin – inundate Google with good stuff about us

Moving towards “the new social”

Scott Mcleod @mcleod

David Chrystal – texts and tweets myths and realities (youtube)

Kathy Cassidy – blog (innovative teacher award.  Moosejaw sask.)

NCTE.org (This gives a really good definition of digital literacy)

Danah Boyd – Public by default, private by effort

Wade Davis - Search on TED

You can’t control the conversation unless you are in it.  Get in on the conversation.

The internet has shifted from a place from which we can download stuff, to a place where we can now contribute to the conversation (web 2.0) – assignment idea: learn how to do something via the internet (eg. Play piano, speak a language)

Join the Conversation! Make mistakes! Share your ideas and don't be afraid to PLAY!