A few days ago Greg Stager , guest blogger on the TechLearning.com posted Whiteboards – A Modest Proposal – a passionate argument against investing in IWBs in classrooms.
Although I’m not sure I agree with all he says it certainlty is worth reading and considering the points he makes as well as some of the reactions to his post.
Without making light of a Gary Stager’s post or what is a serious issue for educators and schools to consider, I have to share an item that gave me a moment of pause and then hardy chuckle.
This post which argues IWB’s are terrible investments that “breathe new life into medieval educational practices” is completely surrounded by ads for SMART. 🙂
One of the best feelings as a blogger is when someone takes the time to comment on a post. If they agree, it’s affirming; if they disagree, but do so respectfully, it’s a chance to grow and see ideas in a new light while rethinking your own position. I almost always enjoy the conversation.
One of the blog posts I wrote last summer that received some comments and feedback was on foursquare and its role in twitter. I posted here on this blog and on my former district’s blog .
My point was that I thought foursquare and apps like it dilute the value of twitter and made it harder to explain the networked learning that occurs on twitter to those who are not in it. I suggested Foursquare made twitter more easy to dismiss. People who I’d talk to about twitter and learning looked at updates from grocery stores and fast food restaurants and decided this “twittering” was just not for them.
I was pleased to receive all comments, one by Vicki Davis (whose work I’ve followed for sometime) gave me some food for thought. And while I did not agree with all the comments – one comment closed with “I am not an educator robot,” which I thought was ironic because the foursquare updates have a very robotic feel. I can almost here HAL900‘s voice state, “I just became the mayor of Starbucks on foursquare.” I appreciate that folks took the time to post comments, and I did spend some time reflecting and wondering if this foursquare disgust was a little of my “old codger” flaring up and whether I had missed something.
Well, I’m at it again. And while I stand by my earlier thoughts about the twitter “noise” created by services like foursquare, I’ve changed my focus to some potential pitfalls to using foursquare or any other geolocation reporting apps.
Before making my case, there are at least a few items I want to make clear:
I’ve advocated teaching students to use technology and social media responsibly at workshops and PTA events. So I am not for the blocking of socialmedia or most websites for our students and schools. I don’t believe in scaring people off the Internet (more on this soon).
I am not a “conspiracy theory kinda guy.” I am not blogging in my basement with a tinfoil hat on to prevent the government from spying on me. I do think we landed on the moon. I don’t think the US government blew up the Twin Towers…
Finally, I am not arguing teachers or anyone else doesn’t have the right to use services like foursquare or should be treated any differently than any other person.
While it may be a sign I’m not that social to start with, the idea of self-reporting locations throughout my day seems on some level pointless, a little narcissistic and maybe even foolish to me when it first came out. Now I’m wondering if services like foursquare, gowalla and facebook locations might be . . . dangerous.
I know, I know I can hear myself saying that and thinking I sound just like some of the fearful internet safety presentations I’ve sat through and later tried to dispute. I’m not a cyber fear factor kind of guy. What would danah boyd say?
I’ll start with a movie. I am a sci-fi movie fan and remember a scene from 2002’s Minority Report , where protagonist John Anderton lives in a future where retina scans reveal locations, recent purchases made at the GAP and caters the ads to fit the person. The movie explores some important big themes regarding freedoms, surveillance and freewill. But I remember being a little creeped out by a future where every movement and purchase is potentially recorded and monitored. And I thought I wouldn’t want anyone tracking all of my movements and behaviors like that. And we live in America – we’d never let that kind of surveillance happen.
I’ll cry fowl when I feel like technology is invading our privacy, but this is another issue – this is incentivized self-reporting of location, habits and probable purchases using technology. I wonder if these are dangerous habits?
Report your every movement and purchase, and I’ll give you a badge or a free latte. What would Orwell or Phillip K Dick think of this?
So when Please Rob Me came out, I thought it was a brilliant way to address the issue of “over-sharing.” The site no longer reveals updates stating “We are satisfied with the attention we’ve gotten for an issue that we deeply care about.” Apparently ICanStalkU feels it still has a point to make as they’ve continued to “raise awareness about inadvertent information sharing.” But I’m not sure if some of us understand “over sharing” anymore. Or think about the caches of data it can create.
I’m not afraid of the “social web,” and I know that is the direction the ‘net is headed. But I’m not sure if this is the same as getting advice on a restaurant or film to see, and I wonder if this kind of self-reported surveillance has any unforeseen consequences for those “checking in.”
Again am I wrong? Paranoid?
“And while new media bring with them new possibilities for openness, transparency, engagement, and participation, they also bring new possibilities for surveillance, manipulations, distraction, and control” – M. Wesch
“But let me end with something I think is much more important, much more important Than business. It’s the point about how this connects to Our Kids . We have to Recognize they’re different from us. […] We made mixed tapes, they’re remixing music. We watched TV, they’re make TV. It has made Them That technology is different . And as we see what this technology can do, We Need to Recognize you can not kill the instinct Produces the technology, we can only criminalize it . We can not stop Our kids from using it, we can only drive it underground, We Can not Make Our kids passive again, we can only make them “pirates” . And Is That Good? We live in this weird time, this kind of “age of prohibitions,” WHERE many Areas of Our life, we live life Constantly Against the law , ordinary people live life Against the law. And that’s what we’re doing To Our Kids. They Live They Live Life Knowing it Against the Law. That realization is Extraordinarily corrosive. Extraordinarily Corrupting. And in a democracy, we ought to be Able to do better, do better at least for Them, if not for opening, for business.” – Larry Lessig (2007) TED
Recently, I’ve read a lot of accounts about the role social media and mobile technology played in some of the recent political uprisings around the world. And while I don’t want to minimize the roles facebook, twitter and mobile phones may have had, I wonder if too much is being made of the tools. Social media and mobile technology can be a valuable tool for mobilizing, organizing and giving voice to protest, but it’s a very different thing to be out there on the street as the tanks are rolling in and put oneself in harm’s way for a cause. I’ll acknowledge that social media provides a wonderful medium for communicating and organizing the protests, but I am more amazed at the courage of the people willing to die for change.
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m appreciative of the ways social media aids these campaigns. Back in June 2009 I remember watching in awe at the events of the disputed Iranian elections outlined in “real time” on the twitter feed. I found it noteworthy because on the television in the next room I heard the reports from CNN, but here on the twitter feed I could see the short, live accounts of what was happening on the ground. I felt a filter had been removed. The social media presence was amazing, but the event from the Iranian protests I most remember from that summer was the tragedy of Neda.
As I’ve followed the developments in Tunisia and Egypt I’ve seen more than a few blogs and posts that seem to be saying, “Look at the power social media has for changing the world.” I wonder if it’s more accurate to say, “Look at the courage and power of those people who are using social media to mobilize and communicate.”
So while I’m not dissing social media as a tool for change, I don’t think the revolution in Egypt is about the technology – its about the people…who are using technology.
I have been watching my young son play games. When he begins to lose a contest he will often start the game over. I see this when he plays sports, cards, the Wii – almost any event where he has assigned a competitive quality. Even when he cheers for a team on television he becomes a little anxious if it appears his favorite may not win. I don’t think this is extraordinary. I would bet many parents have similar stories to tell, and in fact I know people a lot older than him who don’t handle losing or even the prospect of losing well.
Friends who have known me for some time (I won’t call them old friends) will chuckle because once upon a time I was notorious for my hatred of losing at anything. If we were keeping score I wanted to win – at anything. And while that kind of drive and determination was a valuable aid at times, it didn’t always make me very fun to be around. I measured winning with the absolute lens of the final score. And truthfully looking back I think I missed opportunities and experiences because of this. There were things I could have done or attempted to do that I didn’t because I couldn’t accept not winning. I allowed the risk of failure to narrow my options at times. My determination was often a strength – my narrow view of “success” was a weakness.
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I’ve always lived in North Carolina, never too far from Tobacco Road, and while I knew John Wooden’s name and his dynasties at UCLA, he was never mentioned in spirited college basketball discussions as much as the iconic coaches of the ACC. And what I knew of John Wooden back in high school and college was related to his accomplishments and records, but I knew very little about how he approached winning.
However as an adult, John Wooden is someone whose wisdom about sports, winning, competing and success I’ve tried to learn, absorb, emulate and finally teach to my children. There may be no better graphic for success and leadership than Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. It is beautiful in its simplicity, and while everyone can’t win the game it defines ways we can all have success. It defines success by effort, attitude and character, which are things we have far more control over sometimes than the final score.
Although my kids are young I’ve started trying to plant the seeds of Coach Wooden’s philosophies about success. It is a fine line. I’d like to encourage determination, effort and desire to win, but I’d like to encourage them to see their success in ways that go beyond the score and the winner. I’d like my kids to see success and something that transcends the score.
Here is John Wooden from a TED talk entitled “John Wooden on True Success” that is a great starting point for learning more:
evmaiden 