Isaac Asimov on Education and Learning

I am finding more and more informal mentors in my professional growth and learning. There are people that have done things and learned things and have great ideas around me all of the time. When I ask them questions and look to them for guidance they become and informal mentor to me. I draw on their experience and knowledge to help guide my own ideas and practice.

There are a few people in EPSB that I consider my informal mentors. I have encountered them in various Ed. Tech. training sessions and particularly at the Goolge Apps. info and sharing seminars. One of my informal mentors, Rick Stiles-Oldring, recently pointed me to a video interview of Isaac Asimov that is truly astounding.

Rick blogs at Heeding Thamus and he can be counted on to provide challenging, insightful and occasionally annoying ideas, both on his blog and in person. The reason I say annoying is because some of his ed. tech. ideas end up challenging my core assumptions about technology and learning. When a "core" assumption is challenged it means I have to re-examine and also alter most of my thinking. I have always assumed that a schools network infrastructure should stay platform neutral, any system can be supported. That is until Rick comes along with an idea that has been nagging at me for a week now. Isn't there value in platform equity? Shouldn't schools provide, especially considering the rapid decline in cost, the same platform for each student? Don't schools already have the resources to provide every student with a cheap and identical network tool? Like say a tablet or a chrome book?

I have spent the last two years thinking that the future of ed. tech. in the classroom was to increase student owned devices, now I am not so sure... thanks Rick!

This was supposed to be a post about Asimov. Watch the video below:
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Key Ideas

1. Lifelong learning is not just for the young - especially with the internet and open access to learning. Free education at Stanford!!
2. Everyone can become creative - we were able to teach reading and writing to all youth, why not creative thinking?
3. The teacher can be eliminated. Everyone now has their own personal teacher (source of knowledge and information) at their fingertips.
4. Interactions with other students and teachers is still needed. School has a role to play, but not the same one as before. What is that role?
5. If you follow your own bent, and aren't told what to learn then learning will increase. This one is key!!! Let students find their own interests and follow it for real learning, and find your own. Be the sole dictator of what you learn, and allow your students to be the dictators of what they learn.

Thanks for sharing this video Rick.

Who is Protecting Whom?

I have to put this out there as much as possible.

I remember hearing the president of the U.S. as being referred to as, "the leader of the free world."
I don't know if we can still call the U.S. a member of the free world.

Pepper Spraying at UC Davis on Friday

This is one image among many that are revealing police brutality in response to Occupy movements across America.

Here is the video of an Iraq and Afghanistan War Veteran being needlessly beaten by police in Oakland

...and of course, this 84 year old grandmother was such a threat to public safety in Seattle that she had to be pepper sprayed.

Exactly who and what are these police protecting?????

Keep Your "Opinion" to Yourself

Maybe it is written into my professional code of conduct, or maybe it is just common practice, but wherever it comes from I am tired of keeping my "opinion" to myself.

To be honest, I don't actually mind keeping my mouth shut on issues, controversial or not, because it makes the students think for themselves, and that is what this whole thing is about, but there are one or two ideas that I fervently support in my own life which I am having a hard time keeping to myself.

Image taken from google without permission

I'm not going to beat around the bush today. I am going to jump out and say it. These two ideas that follow are supposed to be kept to myself. I do such a good job of this I doubt if my students this year would even be able to tell you how I actually feel (do you see, I am beating around the bush even though I said I wouldn't, and that somehow counts as being clever at 11:00 p.m. on a school night). 

My first "opinon" that I try so desperately not to poison my students with is that, I am an environmentalist.

This is first image in a google image search
 of environmentalist - lazy or making a point?

What being an environmentalist means is something that I will talk about at the end of this post (if I remember), but there is the bigger issue that I as a role model to students am supposed to keep my mouth shut about this idea. A professional should not have an opinion??? I can still present the industrialist argument  with some degree of merit, but why shouldn't an informed citizen model what being an informed citizen actually looks like? 

My editorial confession #2, I am also the 99%,and I support the major tenets of the occupy movement, and of course there are major tenets. Just because many of the confused anarchists in the movement can't adequately express why many people are making valid complaints about the current power and wealth structure does not mean there isn't a focus or clear reason to the protest.

I see the world in a certain way, and I will make a professional guarantee that I will never force, coerce or unfairly persuade a student to see the world from my point of view, but that does not mean I will not present my own view of the world. The argument runs that as a trusted teacher I will have undue influence on a child's point of view. I counter, that is only the case if that is my intent. When the issue is contestable then my opinion or worldview needs to be presented as valuable, but also deeply flawed. It is our responsibility to have an informed opinion, but to present it as only that, one person's opinion. 

So what about when the issue is so completely clear? Even though some still consider it a debate?

For example, What Goldman Sachs did was wrong, and we should be able to discuss the economy without blind allegiance to the free market, talk about preaching an "opinion" as if it were truth. Here is Elizabeth May on the topic, “Excuse me, but are the lunatics running the asylum? Can’t we have a healthy economy, and yes, even capitalism and corporate profits, that serves the interests of communities and that accepts its marching orders from democratically elected governments?”

Okay I need to focus.

The main point I want to make (which I haven't even done a mildly adequate job in alluding to up to this point) is that according to every valid source that I read is pointing to the fact that human caused climate change is a reality, one that is having and will continue to have devastating effects on humanity and life on Earth in general, so why the hell am I teaching the topic as if it is a debate between environmentalists and industrialists?

Professional Growth Plan

Like everything in teaching, if you want your students to do it you should be able to do it. Also, if I truly believe in the changing nature of knowledge transmission and the shift to a visually based on demand style of expression then why would I write the same old two-page Professional Growth Plan..

Those Darn Infographics are tough work. btw the last slide is supposed to be an infographic.

This Year I Break the Cycle

I will not get stressed out this October!

According to some research. October is when the reality of my job assignment comes crashing down on me and fuels the depressing burning mess that was all of my unmet goals and ambitions that have been building up over the last two to three months.

This is What I Have Felt in the Past and What I Refuse to Feel  This Year.

Apparently Teachers tend to set high expectations and lofty goals for their career and their classroom over the summer months. These ideals then meet their opposition in underfunded classrooms populated by apathetic creatures that honestly could not care any less than they already don't. This sounds familiar, and it may even be what I am feeling this exact second, but I will not follow this well-worn cycle of anticipation and defeat.

There are a couple of things I will do to steel myself against the onslaught of reality.

1. I will be aware that it is coming and I will not be another teacher trapped in this cycle.
2. I will start by establishing clear routines.
3. I will Stay Fit. I will continue my own personal fitness and family goals and give them equal priority alongside my classroom and career goals.
4. I will achieve my goals anyway - yes the membership in the media group will drop after excitement wears down, but even if there are only four kids that is still four kids learning skills after-school.
5. I will destroy disillusionment. Even in the face of all of my goals being unmet I will not allow disillusionment
6. I will treat myself often. New York City Here I Come!!
7. I will reflect through blogging all year.
8. I will be mean to myself in June!

What Should a Blog Post Look Like??

A Good Blog Post should contain a number of elements.
The first important element is the TITLE!!!

What is the title of this blog post. The title should draw me in and get me interested. Mr. Greene's blog post is NOT a good title.

The second important element I will call the Language Arts element. Every Blog Post needs to have

• paragraphs
• complete sentences
• Correct Spelling and Grammar

Third, a blog post needs great information. I should learn something from your blog, and I should be intellectually challenged. Say something interesting. Give me your opinion, your view, your voice. Why did you choose this topic? What did you already know? What did you learn? What questions do you have?

Lastly, a good blog post should have:

1. Links
2. Images
3. Video (if possible)

Waiting for Extinction

Something happened at a summer trainging session yesterday. I was in a classroom with other teachers, and I heard a senior high English teacher say, "I don't let students use the internet in my classroom."

We have to wait for the dinosaurs to retire because we aren't going to change their minds. 

Really, is this still happening? The same teacher rationalized her approach by accusing students of cheating when they have open-access. Through the same fear of cheating the students in this particular classroom could not take their written work home because then they could get help from their parents. 

There are, of course, several problems with this rationale. 1) What you call cheating, I call collaboration. If students or parents or tutors are helping other people write then learning is taking place, and the student is becoming a better writer. 2) How does one have an authentic audience if everything is written on paper for the teacher's eyes only? 3) No internet allowed in my classroom?!? serious... Do I even have to comment.

If one classroom like this exists in an Alberta high school I would guarantee that more classrooms like this exist. Education is barely even the same in my classroom and a classroom where, "the internet isn't allowed."

Billings Beta

Jac de Haan posted this about me, and we all know how self-absorbed I can be (get it, we all know, as if anyone actually knows hardly anything about me, but the self-absorbed part of me thinks that of course everyone knows and cares..... nevermind)
http://www.technologywithintention.com/2011/05/steven-greene/#more

Also check out the Billings Beta blog - always inspirational and informative.

The Medium is the May Long

May Long Weekend in Alberta

Maria Bustillos, author of Dorkismo and Act Like A Gentleman, Think Like A Woman, both books that I have never read, has written an interesting post for The Awl titled Wikipedia and the Death of the Expert. This is my response/summary to the article and the ideas I am taking from it. I can tell it is a long weekend because I a) have time to catch up on articles from the Awl that I have been meaning to read and b) I also have time to blog about it. 

Holy McLuhan, it is time to revisit the original in the Gutenberg Galaxy and maybe even the revamped in the The Medium and the Messenger. I've already placed a hold on these at Edmonton Public Libraries, so you will have to wait your turn. In the meantime try this out the medium is the message. 


Such big ideas, and I have to try to condense them into something short and appealing in order to build and maintain readership, but like anything experienced in this summarizing and refelctive practice, at least I get to learn something, whether I am read or not.

The premise of the article can probably be guessed from the title, but what it came down to was this, "if I wanted to understand the significance of wikipedia, I should read Marshall McLuhan." Alright no problem, go and do that. Go to your libraries website and search up the Gutenberg Galaxy or the Medium is the Massage or even just McLuhan and place a hold (Do you see what I am doing here?)

The reason we should all read McLuhan, and also the reason why we should understand Wikipedia is because of the massive shift away from the need for authrotative knowledge and the shift towards colllaborative knolwedge. We don't need an expert to tell us something interesting. Anyone can be intelligent and thought provoking and interesting, that is the big shift. Hence wikipedia is completely valid and the change is relevant for everyone, especially educators.

I may have posted about it before (May 2nd actually), but compare how people (me) reacted to the recent news items i) Canadian federal election ii) death of Osama. For both event I was involved in creating content and meaning. Interest and conversation was happening in a whole variety of media, and the most effective was the one in which I could play an active role. I, in turn, learned more about my political views from some non-authority on twitter that was challenging my position on issues. Thank you @susanfelicity for being ignorant and mean enough to teach me many things (there I did it again.)

The point is, the collaborative nature of knowledge in the internet mediated realm of communication and thought is fundamentally different than the individual expert based approach of the print controlled era that preceded it! NOW HOW DOES EDUCATION DEAL WITH THIS NEW REALITY?


It looks like the head in the sand approach is the most commonplace reaction. Message to teachers - stop being scared, it is not that hard to do. Trust me, you will catch on, and if you aren't willing to try, then think about changing jobs. 


I said I would sometimes be controversial, but it is not fair to the students that you are not able to do it. Neither was I, it only took a few months for my practice to change, and I am still growing because of that willingness. 


Time for a random interesting quotation from Maria's article:

Go back and study the shift in human communication, what McLuhan called 'the shift to print,'" he said. "The place where an idea could be owned by a single person. One of McLuhan's genius insights was his understanding of how the shift from an oral culture to one based on print gave rise to our modern notion of the individual as the originaator and owner of particular ideas."

I'm not quite done, but I will try to be nicer. Here,

According to McLuhan, Bob explained, "the ownership of an idea" was made inevitable by the invention of printing; it is this era that we are outgrowing, as McLuhan foresaw. "If the printing press empowered the individual, the digital world empowers collaboration."

That's right, empower collaboration! My school can't afford to have the 1 computer per student scenario, but everytime students look to each other for support, interest, knolwedge, understanding, or an answer to their questions, instead of you as the teacher that is winning. 

Empowering collaboration means the answer is not in the textbook or in the teacher's head. Hell, it may not even be online. The answer is the question, the thoughtfulness, the ability to find out from others and then to give back to that knowledge community with your own ideas. 

I clearly don't fully understand - please comment (there it is again, but no really, can you be the first person to comment on my blog?)

Back to the article:

McLuhan's chief insights centered around the idea that technology strongly affects not only the content of culture, but the mind that creates and consumes that culture. He maintained that technology alters cognition itself, all the way down to its deepest, most elemental processes.

BTW - confirmed by current understanding of neurology. We are talking about a change in how our brain works and navigates information, understanding, itself and other people.

The article that I read, and this blog post are not necessarily cheerleaders for technology. I am in fact a little frightened about where this path will take our species, especially if you are following this guy, who I happen to consider a prophet, if there is such a thing for our age he would be it. We are not saying "this is so great, now buy-in." We are simply saying, this is the world, we all have to navigate it. As teachers we have to show students how to navigate this world. Not the post-printing press world, but the post-internet world (last time I will do that thing I have been doing).

I want to close with a quote that does paint this idea in a positive light because with the openness of information creation, the breakdown of "expert knowledge" as the only legitimate source of knowledge is that it turns us all into potential poets, constructive creators, media mediators, technological teachers, innovative inventors, and economically energetic entrepreneurs (sorry). 


Here is that quote I was talking about, think of it as a palate cleanser for your mind after that last paragraph, "we are all of us becoming scientists in this way, entering into a democracy of the intellect."

I've never read this book .

and really what is better than democracy?

Completely Connected or In Praise of Twitter

I was more engaged with the election last night than I have ever been in the past. My increased connectivity is due completely to Twitter.

Before writing this post I was going to talk about how connected I was last night for election coverage: watching CTV news on the television, following the polls on my netbook on CBC, and tweeting and reading tweets on my android phone, but then I realized that wouldn't be very honest.

Indeed I did start the night with all three devices running and plugged in, but both the television and the netbook became unnecessary, even boring. Twitter ruled them all. The riding by riding updates were coming from the people I follow, and the commentary from the citizens on twitter was much more interesting than the political pundits and guest speakers on the news channels.

The most important reason I was engaged, however, was the fact that I was adding to and actively taking part in the conversation. When I had thoughts I wanted to share I put them out there into the twitterverse. Not many people read them, but I know some did. My friends did, some random followers of mine did, and a few people that were able to keep up with #elxn41 also read my tweets.

When the network I follow came to a lull I was able to look in on #elxn41 and find more people to follow and comment with. I have never been so engaged, it was exciting. At one point my wife and I sat out on the patio in my backyard and I would read her the tweets as they were coming in, it led to some fantastic discussion. I was able to connect with my brother (@bangsht) in Victoria (@elizabethmay's riding), and he ended up calling me for the first time in months because he wanted to discuss my tweets further.

There were so many ultra-negative comments about the impending gestapo state led by the evil Mr. Harper who had been elected by stupid Canadians. I even got involved in a twitter war with a particularly rude and insulting woman.

I only have this left to say to @susanfelicity, I cannot believe your disdain for your fellow Canadians. You must accept that in a democracy you will not always be happy with the results. Many intelligent Canadians voted Conservative for valid and legitimate reasons. Calling people that don't agree with you ignorant, stupid, and idiot simply because they do not share your views is inherently anti-democratic, and quite frankly, it is exactly that kind of closed-minded combative attitude that is responsible for the election of a conservative majority.

Last word for @steven_greene in that twitter war.

Twitter is changing politics and current events. Look at the news for Osama bin Laden and the Canadian election as the justification for creating student twitter accounts and promoting the use of twitter in the classroom.