Survey: Barriers to Web 2.0 Use in Schools Still Exist

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Not surprisingly, a new survey shows that teachers and students are driving the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in schools, but that human and technological barriers are holding back the use of these technologies as learning tools in many classrooms.

The survey, commissioned by Lightspeed Systems and Thinkronize Inc., creator of the kids’ search engine netTrekker, shows that online communication tools for parents and students have caught on quickly, but online social networking for instruction has a long way to go.

The most frequently identified “human-factor” barriers to the use of Web 2.0 technology were:

– the need to monitor appropriate use of online social networks (55 percent)

– lack of teacher knowledge about how to use the technology effectively (51 percent)

– teacher perceptions about its lack of instructional value or appropriateness (48 percent)

The most frequent technology barriers were:

– concerns about student safety (76 percent)

– concerns about district network or data security (35 percent)

– limited support systems, including technology personnel (27 percent)

You can read more about the survey at eSchoolNews Online.

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More on Social Media, Colleges and Universities

Many thanks to Heather Mansfield of Diosa Communications for promoting my post, “Why Schools Need to Get on the Social Media Bandwagon,” on her website. You can find my post here and at PROpenMic, one of my favorite Ning social networking sites. Speaking of Ms. Mansfield, she’s a web 2.0 consultant and expert with a great site that, among other things, lists good reads on the topic of using Web 2.0 tools in education. On her higher education page, she lists Web 2.0 Articles, Blogs, and Resources for Higher Education.
She also highly recommends the use of MySpace by colleges and universities, since they’re listed there on MySpaceSchools anyway. Here are two great links she sent along:
Her MySpace Portal
Her FaceBook page
Let’s see if her hard work pays off and if colleges and universities eventually get on the Web 2.0 bandwagon.

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Using Video to Support Public Ed

The latest video to hit YouTube for a good cause — to shock people out of complacency long enough to do something about the downward trend in U.S. public education — is ED in 08‘s video, now on YouTube and viewed (at this point) more than 400,000 times.

The video points out that in 2002, UNICEF compared public education in 24 nations around the world, and the U.S. ranked 18 out of the 24 nations.  EDin08 is the communications effort of Strong American Schools, a nonpartisan campaign supported by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to promote sound U.S. education policies.  The organization does not support a particular presidential candidate, but urges the public to “demand that every presidential candidate has a plan to improve America’s schools.”

Here are some of the disturbing statistics you can find on their website:

1.2 million students drop out of high school every year

1/4 high school students don’t graduate on time

2/3 jobs require college education

70% of 8th graders can’t read at grade level

93% of American science teachers have little or no training in science

While the Strong American Schools website has some cool tools that parents and educators can use to educate their children, network with others, and so on, I really like the YouTube campaign. It’s effective, and the videos ought to be used at every education conference out there.

Here’s their latest example:

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Tech TV

I was just rooting around YouTube the other day, searching for decent high school news shows I’d intended to promote here as a way to highlight how technology has come so far in the 21st century. Much to my chagrin, a lot of what I viewed on YouTube was either two years old (or older), and looked it, or was fairly pedestrian and not clearly connected to the school itself.

Coincidentally, eSchoolNews sent out an email this morning announcing that it has launched a new video news network, Student Video Network, which will provide students interested in video production with information on the most popular and relevant educational technology stories in the news.  Participating schools can then shoot a script based on the stories and choose to integrate graphics and photos into the news report.

“This is a real-world application of the technology skills they’re learning in school,” said Tom Lapping, president and CEO of JDL Horizons–the company hosting eSN‘s Student Video Network. “It will be good for school exposure, but also for students who could use this material as part of their college admissions or eventual job application.”

So far, I only see two high schools with videos on the site, but the quality is top-notch and the subject matter (gaming to school assessment information) timely. The videos don’t seem to be embeddable at the moment, but they will hopefully move in that direction.

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Creativity by Sir Ken Robinson

You will enjoy this 20-minute talk by Sir Ken Robinson at the TED Conference in 2007. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started in 1984 as a conference that brings together people from those three worlds. Since then it has become larger and broader.

The annual TED conference brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. The TED website makes the best talks and performances from the conferences available to the public for free. More than 200 talks from the TED archive are currently available. Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. He’s worked with governments in Europe and Asia, international agencies, Fortune 500 companies, and national and state education systems, and cultural organizations that include the Royal Shakespeare Company, Sir Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, and UNESCO. He also was Professor of Arts Education at the University of Warwick, one of the five leading research universities in the UK, for 12 years.

In this video, a must-see for every parent and teacher, Robinson makes a profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity. Enjoy it and share it with colleagues, principals, teachers, and parents you know.

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Will Technology Redefine Art?

I’m not a great artist. Or am I?
If you walked into Damian Powers’ Commercial Art classroom at Southern Westchester BOCES (where I work as PR coordinator in my day job), you would smell creativity in the air. This remarkable classroom is home to dozens of iMac desktop computers, their huge, 24-inch screens an irresistible invitation to any student wishing to create.
And create they have in this busy place. Last year, Mr. Powers’ students brought home numerous awards and honors, including two Audience Choice Awards in the 2008 Lower Hudson Region’s Youth Media Arts Show, third-place honors in a competition held by the Association for Career and Technical Education, and nine winning students posters chosen by the Westchester County Coalition for Drug and Alcohol Free Youth for its yearlong “Collateral Damage” public service initiative.
In nearly every case, the student artwork was created with the help of technology. In Powers’ classes, students primarily work with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator on those beautiful iMac desktops.
Which brings me to my point: Could I be an artist like one of Mr. Powers’ students? Although I can’t sketch or draw worth a damn, there might be hope even for me.
This week’s eSchool News article, “Technology makes art education a bigger draw,” points out that new and emerging software being used by art students is making “artistic production accessible to a far greater number of interested students and aspiring artists than ever before.”
At the same time, writes Senior Editor Laura Devaney, traditional media, such as charcoal drawing and oil painting, are being enhanced rather than thrown aside by this technology, which “encourages and facilitates the acquisition of more advanced, traditional techniques and skills by far more talented beginners.”
One teacher in Devaney’s story says:

I don’t think technology is replacing traditional art instruction, but I think it’s a really good piece to use alongside it. …It’s really a skill they need to go on and be competitive with the rest of the world.”

It’s possible, say educators, to strike a balance between traditional artistic techniques and learning new technology-based techniques, such as digital imaging.
At Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, which introduced digital image making into its curriculum about 10 years ago, students practice traditional techniques as freshmen and sophomores, then move on to learning digital art techniques as juniors and seniors.
The eSchool article also takes a look at Fablevision’s “Animation-ish” software program, which lets students create their own animation. In Roanoke, Va., where fifth-grade students use the software, one teacher said it “permits kids to create original and meaningful drawings, doodles, and even complex animations. It encourages exactly the kind of adventurous, blank-page thinking I try to generate in my classroom.”
Other schools are using DrawPlus, desktop publishing, design, and graphics software that also provides teachers with free resources including lesson plans, guides, handout sheets, and project ideas.
The IPAX education program, from Sony Pictures Imageworks and Sony Pictures Animation, recently announced a new online mentoring program set to begin this winter.
The program, Animation Mentor, pairs top students from 18 IPAX member schools from around the world with Sony Pictures artists, who provide online mentoring, training, and guidance. The program is designed to help students develop and sharpen skills they will need in digital-arts careers.
There could be hope for me yet.

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Lessons Learned: The Gustav Information Center

A lesson for your classes this week — the power of the Internet during a crisis or catastrophe.  The latest example of how the Web joins in to get vital information out is the Gustav Information Center, a wiki created on Ning by Andy Carvin. This wiki, which I joined (see my widget at the bottom of my sidebar), is providing news updates, weather maps, photos, forums and videos. Teams of people are working on getting the word out to families, pet owners and others on a minute-by-minute basis.

It would be a great class lesson to examine the online efforts of individuals and groups to get the message out instantaneously during events like hurricanes, tornados, natural disasters or large-scale violence.

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New York — The Virtual Learning Backwoods

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I received an email today from Rich Finlinson, Public Relations Specialist for the Utah Education Network, who attended my NSPRA Gold Mine Session in Washington, DC, in July. The session, “School PR and Social Media,” focused on using social media in doing public relations for schools.

Rich wanted some advice about online press release creation and distribution sites, which I’ll get to in another post, probably tomorrow.

But in communicating with him, I decided to check out the Utah Education Network online and was blown away not only by the agency’s website but by the educational programs the state of Utah offers its kids. Most notable was the Utah Electronic High School, that state’s version of online high school courses as an option for students.

I recently heard Susan Patrick, President and Chief Executive Officer of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL), speak about virtual schools at the staff development meeting of our Lower Hudson Regional Information Center.

Patrick spoke about the growing presence of virtual schools, online courses and distance learning in the U.S., with state education departments jumping on this bandwagon with zeal. Patrick’s organization, NACOL, is an international K-12 nonprofit association representing the interests of practitioners, providers and students involved in online learning worldwide. You can see the lengthy list of institutional NACOL members (schools) on their site.

The Utah Electronic High School has been in operation since 1994, and provides a wide variety of courses to Utah students. Courses are added each year as interest and funding permit. The Electronic High School courses have been developed by master teachers and are correlated to the state of Utah’s core standards and objectives.

Students enrolled at the UEHS are able to work at their own pace until the class is completed. Most students, they say, spend about 200 hours on a full-credit course, and all courses are rigorous.

This is the case in many states, but when Ms. Patrick showed us a map of the U.S. depicting states either with government-funded virtual school programs or with partially government-funded programs, New York was one of a handful of states without either. How entrenched and backward is the state I live in?

The public approves our public school budgets, except in the state’s large cities. So most New York boards of education are under pressure each May, during the budget vote season, just to get a bare bones budget past the voters. I work for school districts where every penny, from textbooks to salaries, is picked apart by taxpayer groups sick and tired of paying high local, New York, and federal taxes. Property taxes alone in my neck of the woods run anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000 a year.

Unfortunately, I don’t see virtual schools making their mark in New York, unless they’re privately funded, the state overhauls the public education financing system, or the voters decide to be gracious. Or none of the above.

And the sad thing is, our kids will be the beneficiaries of this sad, backwoods legacy.

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Pbwiki Ready to Help Public Schools

Dave Nagel over at TheJournal.com is reporting that collaborative technology developer PBwiki has announced $25 million in new grant programs for education, offering free upgrades to its hosted wiki service and other awards.

Back To School Challenge will allow up to 100,000 teachers and librarians to earn a free gold-level PBwiki account, which usually costs about $250. Other prizes include a $1,000 gift certificate for purchasing school supplies, Lego educational products, and games.

The Partner Program for Education allows districts and associations to offer free PBwiki gold accounts to members.

“With schools and libraries feeling the pinch of the slowing economy, PBwiki wants to make sure educators can still afford the tools they need to make 2008-2009 the year of collaborative learning,” said PBwiki CEO Jim Groff in a statement released this week. “Giving away 100,000 premium wikis lets us help out and spread wiki-based collaboration to an even wider audience.”

Both programs are open now through Oct. 31. Go for it!

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A Back-to-School Wakeup Call

I am a major fan of Dr. Michael Wesch, professor of digital ethnography at Kansas State University, best known for his video, The Machine is Using/Us, which went viral on YouTube.
Because I just dropped off my two college students for another year of learning, and because the public school year is about to begin here in New York, I thought I’d provide this gift to you of another Wesch video, which serves to remind us who our students are. The video was made after 200 students collaborated on the topic: “A Vision of Students Today.” Enjoy — it’s an eye-opener.

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