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=Student Engagement, Free Tools, and Where We Go Next=

A Presentation for BCERAC - November 6, 2009
Here is the slideshow from the opening:

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Welcome to the wiki page for today's presentation. Hopefully you enjoy the chance to play in one of new tools that are available to all of us through the read/write web. If you would like to have discussions about anything that comes up, please go to the **Discussion Tab** and share ideas/start conversations.

**Goals:**

 * Start discussions about how we can harness the technology to help students to go new places
 * Challenge some assumptions about teaching and learning
 * Experience "Schooling 2.0"

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What has changed in the last 3 years?
We are finally moving beyond being excited about the technology. Presenters spoke about [|Thomas Friedman] and The World is Flat, and showed the [|Did You Know Video] with statistics about the changing world. We get it, the world has changed, so now what?

Changes are Disrupting Every Industry
Education is one of the very few examples where there has been [|little disruption]. Just this fall, [|Seth]Godin [|predicted] the fallout in education could be greater than that of the newspaper business.


 * **Politics**
 * You can get a [|podcast or videocast] from Stephen Harper
 * Or you can watch Michael Ignatieff on [|Liberal TV] online
 * Or even customize your Federal [|NDP Blog]
 * If provincial politics are more your style, both the [|Liberals] and [|New Democrats] have Facebook groups to join (login required)


 * **Media**
 * We can now decide what is news with sites like [|Digg] and [|reddit] and even traditional sites like [|CNN] are embracing participation through their [|iReports] and organizing news by [|popularity]. News websites are[| highlighting] how you can connect with news and your friends in one place.
 * All the [|media outlets] referencing Twitter during the recent election in [|Iran], show the power of social media - we are all editors, and publishers - and newspapers continue to [|decline].
 * Industries like [|music] and [|movies] are wrestling with how to deal with all these changes. You can now stream any [|movie or tv show] to your computer.


 * **Business**
 * We don't look to the newspaper classified ads, or even the Buy and Sell to exchange goods when we can use sites like [|Craigslist] for free.
 * Online shopping shows [|no signs] of slowing, and those retailers without a presence online are facing trouble.
 * Industries from [|books] to [|electronics] to [|travel] have been transformed by the participant-driven web.

From the yellow pages to movie rental stores,there are many more [|extinctions] on the horizon.

What is Social Media?
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If you like this [|Common Craft Video], you can find others, including: [|blogs] , [|RSS] , [|web searching] , and even [|electing the U.S. President.]

Changes Happening Inside Education
No longer are teachers and schools the keepers of knowledge. Knowledge is available for free everywhere. [|MIT] has made all of its courses available for free and has [|translated] many of them into other languages through its open learning model. The same is true for many other universities around the world.

Education also exists in a completely virtual world, like in [|Second Life]. Harvard, among other schools, have [|courses] that exist completely within this virtual game.

Blogs are being used by [|administrators], [|teachers], and [|students] to connect to networks of people locally and globally.

There are clearly a new set of [|challenges].

A New Backpack
For students there is a [|Web 2.0 Backback]they can carry around with them, replacing everything from textbooks to calendars to [|calculators].

What do Cell phones have to do with Engagment?
Cell phones can be a [|real distraction], and many places are looking to ban them. [|Stats] say that 46% of kids 8-12 use cell phones and 80% of teenagers have a cell phone.

But cell phones are also:

a calculator a camera an agenda a microphone a video machine a stereo a web browser

If you have a burning question you can [|Text Google] at 466453 for the answer or leverage your cell phones to create[| instant polls] or build a screencast.

Cell phones allow us to teach digital responsibility and citizenship, and help to push change and innovation.

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5 years from now, are we going to have more or less cell phones in students' hands?

Liz Kolb describes cell phones as the Swiss Army Knife for students.

**If We Are Not Moving Forward We are Falling Behind**

 * We now can do simple things that we never could have done even a decade ago. More importantly, we can tell stories, new stories, in ways that have never been possible before. And it is not just an IT story. It can be a story across the curriculum:

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 * We can use technology to help prepare students not just for 21st century jobs, but also for [|21st century citizenship]. How can we see global citizenship in new ways, like [|giving loans] to change lives, sharing our [|digital wealth] with the developing world, or giving a [|gift that grows].

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To see the entire video go [|here].

Going Deeper with Twitter and Wikis
What is [|Twitter], who is using it, why would I use it, and what could it do for education?



The Twitter Life Cycle is something may users experience. Twitter moved from being a tech tool to a mainistream tool during the recent [|election in Iran].

If the goal is authentic, personal communication, districts and district leaders should have Twitter accounts. There are some [|Trustees]who are dabbling in the world of Twitter.

A Little More on Wikis
A quick intro from Commoncraft:

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The most commonly referenced wiki is Wikipedia. What is often more interesting than what is posted, is the [|conversation] behind the story.

There are thousands of great examples of schools using wikis to engage learners.

LInks to Data Referenced
CNET / Nielsen - [|Myths and realities of teen media trends] - June 2009 Cox Communications - [|Teens may be more safety conscious than previously thought]- June 2009 UCLA - [|Is Technology Producing a Decline in Critical Thinking and Analysis?] - January 2009 MacArthur Foundation - [|TIme Spent Online Important for Teen Development]- November 2008

**Looking for Some Additional Videos to use:**
[|80 Plus Videos] categorized for technology and media literacy. [|Top 20 TED Talks] for busy school administrators. You can also find many of the TED Talks organized by teaching discipline [|here].

Looking for a project students can use to develop their fluency with these tools, here is an [|Olympic Reporter Program] that is being sponsored by several school districts in partnership with BCELC.

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 * Contact Information: Chris Kennedy: ckennedy@sd45.bc.ca or Twitter: [|@chrkennedy] or Facebook: [|chrkennedy]**=====