Today we finished optimizing our site for use on most popular mobile devices. While traditional browser users will not notice a difference, mobile users will receive a streamlined site that still contains all of the key features. As mentioned earlier, this is an overdue design move. We believe this will provide a better experience for our users that prefer to visit EDBuzz on their favorite mobile device and help us move into the future.

Take a minute to check out the experience and let us know what you think, both good and bad. We’re anxious to get your feedback and suggestions. If you like what we’re doing feel free to friend us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter (Shawn/Daryll).

This is the perfect time to look back at 2010. Several events stand-out in 2010. Here’s a quick walk down memory lane.

Shawn’s post Using Facebook to Improve School Communication continued to be of great interest. The great reception of this article led to several opportunities. One of the more interesting of these being chosen as guest contributors to Clara Shih’s revision of The Facebook Era (2nd Edition). Our collaborative rewrite of this article provides a streamlined guide to leveraging the communication power of Facebook for schools. The Facebook Era (2nd Edition) continues elaborating on the phenomenon of Facebook and its implication in all areas of life (business, education, and leisure) and is a great read that we recommend (Note: We have no financial interest in your purchase, we just like it!).

In March EDBuzz.org delivered a very well received conference session at the 17th annual California Charter Schools Conference Web 2.0 for Teachers. In this session we highlighted several current Web 2.0 tools and illustrated their benefits for both teachers and schools. In addition, teacher’s and administrator’s were excited by our examples of their successful implementations.

In June, teachers were urged to look at the 2009-2010 school year and reflect on their craft. The popular article End of School Reflections provided a process for teachers to assess their performance. Identify opportunities for change, and create a growth plan.

2010 has truly been a great year here at EDBuzz and we look forward to the next year. The shear amount of  innovations and entrepreneurial spirit directed at education is incredible. Implementing this knowledge and the opportunities provided will continue to be a great challenge for education as a whole.

At EDBuzz.org, we realize that our current projects have a great impact on our future direction. We would like to share the areas that have attracted our attention and energy. Both currently and moving into 2011, we are focused on a variety of projects, the largest of which include creating a new hybrid school (online and traditional classroom learning) and creating a open high school Economics course that demonstrates Layered Instruction (personalized learning path).

The hybrid school project is a joint-venture between a San Diego based education foundation and the Pollinate group. Its focus has been to deliver twice the education at half the current average price. Our focus of this project has been to identify key areas that can be transformed to achieve these goals. Among these are the teacher’s role, the way students spend their time on a topic, and Web 2.0 tools, as well as other technology tools, to better accomplish these goals. This project will provide numerous posts and opportunities for community discussion.

The Economics project focuses on three key concepts. The first is the implementation of differentiated learning and options for students. The second is to incorporate current Web 2.0 technologies to improve collaboration. The third is to provide an example of how an Open Course (available for all to be used) can be constructed and implemented. This project is ongoing and should be available to all in the second quarter of 2011.

Now it’s your turn. Where have you been? What are your reflections of 2010? In what project are you engaged? What trends do you see? Are there any goals that you would like to share? Where do you want to go in 2011? Take a minute today to join our community and share where you’ve been and where you’re  going. You can post here or reach out to us on Twitter at @darylljohnson or @sroner. We look forward to hearing from you…

1. Who can see the things you share (status updates, photos, videos, etc.)?

“Probably the most critical of the “privacy” changes (yes, we mean those quotes sarcastically) was the change made to status updates. Although there’s now a button beneath the status update field that lets you select who can view any particular update, the new Facebook default for this setting is “Everyone.” And by everyone, they mean everyone.”

“If you accepted the new recommended settings then you voluntarily gave Facebook the right to share the information about the items you post with any user or application on the site. Depending on your search settings, you may have also given Facebook the right to share that information with search engines, too.”

“To change this setting back to something of a more private nature, do the following:

• From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click “Privacy Settings” from the list that appears.Click “Profile Information” from the list of choices on the next page.
• Scroll down to the setting “Posts by Me.” This encompasses anything you post, including status updates, links, notes, photos, and videos.
• Change this setting using the drop-down box on the right. We recommend the “Only Friends” setting to ensure that only those people you’ve specifically added as a friend on the network can see the things you post.”

2. Who can see your personal info?

“Facebook has a section of your profile called “personal info,” but it only includes your interests, activities, and favorites. Other arguably more personal information is not encompassed by the “personal info” setting on Facebook’s Privacy Settings page. That other information includes things like your birthday, your religious and political views, and your relationship status.”

“After last month’s privacy changes, Facebook set the new defaults for this other information to viewable by either “Everyone” (for family and relationships, aka relationship status) or to “Friends of Friends” (birthday, religious and political views). Depending on your own preferences, you can update each of these fields as you see fit. However, we would bet that many will want to set these to “Only Friends” as well. To do so:

• From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click “Privacy Settings” from the list that appears.
• Click “Profile Information” from the list of choices on the next page.
• The third, fourth, and fifth item listed on this page are as follows: “birthday,” “religious and political views,” and “family and relationship.” Locking down birthday to “Only Friends” is wise here, especially considering information such as this is often used in identity theft.
• Depending on your own personal preferences, you may or may not feel comfortable sharing your relationship status and religious and political views with complete strangers. And keep in mind, any setting besides “Only Friends” is just that – a stranger. While “Friends of Friends” sounds innocuous enough, it refers to everyone your friends have added as friends, a large group containing hundreds if not thousands of people you don’t know. All it takes is one less-than-selective friend in your network to give an unsavory person access to this information.”

3. What Google can see– Keep your data off the search engine.

“When you visit Facebook’s Search Settings page, a warning message pops up. Apparently, Facebook wants to clear the air about what info is being indexed by Google. The message reads:

‘There have been misleading rumors recently about Facebook indexing all your information on Google. This is not true. Facebook created public search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your name and see a link to your Facebook profile. They will still only see a basic set of information.’ ”

“While that may be true to a point, the second setting listed on this Search Settings page refers to exactly what you’re allowing Google to index. If the box next to “Allow” is checked, you’re giving search engines the ability to access and index any information you’ve marked as visible by “Everyone.” As you can see from the settings discussed above, if you had not made some changes to certain fields, you would be sharing quite a bit with the search engines…probably more information than you were comfortable with. To keep your data private and out of the search engines, do the following:

• From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click “Privacy Settings” from the list that appears.
• Click “Search” from the list of choices on the next page.
• Click “Close” on the pop-up message that appears.
• On this page, uncheck the box labeled “Allow” next to the second setting “Public Search Results.” That keeps all your publicly shared information (items set to viewable by “Everyone”) out of the search engines. If you want to see what the end result looks like, click the “see preview” link in blue underneath this setting.”

Although taking these three small steps may not seem very important, they are certainly worth considering. If educators are utilizing Facebook to interact with parents and students, it’s important they fully understand how information is being disseminated by Facebook. Furthermore, as educators we have a special responsibility to to protect the privacy of our parents, students, and staff members.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter!

While many secondary schools continue to utilize basic Web 1.0 website technology to communicate with parents, students, and the broader community, most of the people schools are trying to reach, particularly the students and parents, rely on Web 2.0 technology like Facebook to share and receive information, even when it relates to education.

Most school websites are one-way information highways that might be appealing in design but lacking in functionality. As a result of the Web 2.0 revolution, students and parents are becoming accustomed to using social media technology to gather important information. From an educator’s perspective, it seems what makes these technologies appealing, particularly to the edupunks, is the various social media tools that enable users to easily publish ideas and broadcast them to a wide audience. Unlike the one way communication associated with Web 1.0, today’s technology enables users to create a sort of digital identity by sharing personal thoughts and relevant ideas. By utilizing social networking tools, savvy users can create and participate in a vibrant online community. For the 21st century student, this is powerful stuff.

With this in mind, it’s important for educators to consider the different ways this technology can be used to improve how schools communicate with students and parents. It’s also important to consider how social media technology can be used to create a dynamic online presence or digital community that promotes important aspects of the school’s mission. One particular Web 2.0 platform with enormous potential to improve the way schools communicate is the social networking site Facebook.

More and more teachers and administrators are taking advantage of the different tools Facebook offers to improve how they communicate with parents and students. What’s exciting is the way Facebook is being used to create a vibrant learning community.

For the past few months, I’ve been using Facebook to communicate with parents. I have to be honest. Being a high school administrator, I had serious reservations about using social media technology in this way. At first, I guess I was really worried about all the potential pitfalls. I suppose it was the administrator side of me!

Anyway, I thought I’d share a few examples of how administrators at my school are using Facebook to improve the way they communicate with parents and students.

1. Constant Contact– Managing a school today is as difficult as ever. With state-mandated testing, extracurricular activities, fundraising pressures, academic concerns, and so on, effective communication is particularly important. But, finding ways to effectively communicate with parents and students is certainly not an easy task. Today’s digital world  is noisy, complex, and often times disorienting. The result often means school communication gets muddled and with it the intended message is often lost in translation.  With all the other things going on, it’s not easy getting the parents’ attention, let alone the students. This is why frequent contact with parents and students is vital to successful school communication. If schools can find a reliable conduit to communicate to parents and students on a regular basis, school administrators are able to share important information that will not only improve student achievement but help build a productive and healthy school culture.

Facebook’s social networking tools can help build the sort of communication structure that enables school administrators to communicate with students and parents on a regular basis. Because most parents and students are comfortable using Facebook to communicate, utilizing the following applications can really help improve school-related communication.

• Group Feature– Creating targeted communication groups, such as for parents, students, specific grade levels, or extracurricular activities, allow administrators to easily share information in a way that is specifically tailored for the recipient.

• Event Schedule Feature– Because most schools need to communicate information related to numerous school-related events, Facebook’s event scheduling feature can really facilitate effective communication. Scheduling an event is very simple and its broadcast feature allows school administrators to not only reach a large audience but easily remind parents and students of important events (For the busy parent, this is certainly a plus!).

• Send Message Feature– This feature enables school administrators to send messages directly to parents and students. Administrators can create a variety of groups based on communication needs. What makes this application so appealing is, much like e-mail, administrators can pinpoint communication to specific parents or students.

• Multimedia Feature– School administrators can share multimedia with parents and students. The ability to easily share multimedia with parents and students can greatly enhance the way schools communicate.

• Announcement Feature– School administrators can easily broadcast announcements and reminders to help parents and students stay on top of important school-related events.

• Blogging Feature– By using the “What’s on your mind?” feature or the “Notes” feature, administrators can provide daily updates, blog about important events and issues, and provide valuable information for parents.

2. Back-to-school– One of the most powerful ways school administrators can use Facebook is to provide parents with a unique inside view of the daily operations of the school. Administrators can take pictures of daily events, record interviews with teachers and students, film student projects or particular parts of a teacher’s lesson and share this information with parents. If designed properly (and in accordance with student privacy rights), these “snapshots” can provide a powerful insight into the school’s community. Because today’s parents really want to be involved in the day-to-day activities of their students, utilizing Facebook can be a very effective way to create this meaningful connection for busy parents. Besides, by emphasizing certain aspects of the school’s community, administrators can have a powerful hand in shaping it.

3. Digital Discussions– By using the discussion feature, school administrators can create a safe and effective way for parents to share ideas with school administrators. As long as the discussion items are properly designed and managed, they can present a wonderful way for parents to participate in the school’s decision making process.

4. Alumni Communication– One of the most popular ways school administrators use Facebook is to help former students connect with their classmates after graduation.

Facebook is a powerful tool for school administrators because its social networking structure can be used to facilitate communication and build a dynamic online community. Most parents and students have Facebook accounts, and they update them on a regular basis. This means school administrators have a powerful communication tool at their finger tips, one that can be used to share all kinds of information– blogs, event updates, photographs, and video. This information can easily be tailored to meet the personal needs of the school’s community.

With this in mind, it’s important for educators to rethink how they communicate with parents and students. This new communication transformation must involve the sorts of social media tools normally associated with Web 2.0. These tools present an exciting opportunity to improve the way educators communicate.

Here are a few links to help you develop a vibrant school community. Good luck!

Opening Facebook: How to Use Facebook in the College Classroom

The Facebook Classroom: 25 Apps that Are Perfect for Online Education

Schools Use Facebook, Twitter to Get Out Their Message

Teacher’s Guide to Using Facebook

PBS Teachers

If It Doesn’t Spread, It’s Dead

Best Practices for Educators Using Facebook

How To Social Media Videos for Administrators

Drive Belonging and Engagement in the Classroom

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter!

Start-up helps teachers learn their lesson– Dara Kerr, cnet

Sony Plans to Adopt Common Format for E-Book– Brad Stone, NY Times

“Social Learning” Buzz Masks Deeper Dimensions– Frank Ganis, Gilfus Education Group

Good Teaching Can be Enhanced with Technology– Miguel Guhlin, Around the Corner

The rise of the $299 Wal-Mart laptop– Brook Crothers, cnet

Facebook buys Friend Feed: Is this a big deal?– Caroline McCarthy, cnet

Twitter Study Reveals Reveals Interesting Results about Usage– Ryan Kelly, Pearanalytics

University Offers New Grade for Cheating Students: FD– techdirt

Bubbl.us: Free Mindmapping Tool–Byrne, Free Technology for Teachers

In the “good old days,” dealing with cheating seemed much easier, didn’t it? Instill the fear of God in your students (This is the where we gave the big pep talk about honesty!); implement effective classroom management procedures (especially during exams); keep your eyes peeled, and for the most part student cheating seemed to be minimized to the usual suspects, right? Unfortunately, due to new technology circumstances have changed.

In recent years, it seems the minds of our students have changed in a significant way. Today’s students spend dozens of hours a week on the Internet– playing video games, constantly chatting with friends, and religiously cultivating their Facebook accounts. It appears as students spend more time communicating with their peers using mobile and social media technologies, their minds are being wired differently. I suppose this is why we, the digital immigrants, refer to our students as being digital natives. But, it’s not only their minds that are changing. Their perspectives are changing, too.

Today’s students have developed different learning needs based on the way they process information, particularly the digital kind. As they spend much of their crazy adolescent years navigating through the Wild, Wild West we call Web 2.0, these kids are developing different ethical perspectives, new perspectives formed by their youthful experiences with this new technology. I suppose what is most concerning is this new perspective is much different than that of the educators who are entrusted with the duty of teaching them every day. One particular area where the difference is startling is in how today’s students view cheating.

Perhaps this is why a recent poll conducted by Common Sense Media suggests that students are using mobile technology at an alarming rate to cheat in school. I suppose this isn’t terribly shocking for those of us who are still in the classroom. But what is disturbing is another aspect of what the poll found: The number of students who think it’s okay to cheat. It’s not that students cheat using technology that bothers me. It’s that they don’t think it’s a big deal.

Here’s a few results of the polling:

1. A little more than a third of students with cell phones admit to cheating at least once with their cell phones.
2. Twenty-six percent of the students who admit to using their cell phones to cheat also admit to storing information on their phones to use during tests.
3. Twenty-five percent text friends during test to get answers.
4. Seventeen percent take pictures of tests to cheat.
5. Twenty percent search the Internet during tests for answers.
6. Nearly fifty percent of students call or text their friends to warn them about pop quizzes.
7. A little over half of students surveyed admit to using the Internet in some way to cheat.
8. Twenty-one percent say they’ve downloaded a paper to submit for an assignment.

I could keep going with the statistics, but I think you get the point. Things aren’t looking good for our kids. I think what is most disturbing about the survey, aside from the extent of cheating in school, is the following statistic: Only half of students polled think using their cell phones during tests is a serious cheating offense! Only thirty-six percent of students who have downloaded a paper from the Internet to submit for an assignment think their behavior represents a serious form of cheating.

I can hear the student now. “What’s the big deal?”

After reading the report, I was left wondering why so many kids think it’s okay to use technology to cheat. Perhaps part of the reason has to do with the fact that kids have spontaneous access to all sorts of mobile technology while at school. This makes monitoring students terribly difficult. In other words, cheating is so darn easy! But, why do kids think it’s okay to cheat?

This is where the student “wiring” comes in. After talking to dozens of kids about cheating, whether texting during tests, getting answers from the Internet, or illegally downloading music, etc., I think I might know the reason. Today students think very differently about information (i.e., the stuff they’re putting together to form knowledge and understanding during class.) because of how they interact with it on a day-to-day basis. Unlike the educators who teach them, students see the Internet as a seamless part of their youthful reality. It’s not simply a tool or a form of communication. It’s a social experience based on digital democratization– i.e., total openness, few rules, and little personal accountability. While on the Internet, many students feel it’s okay to do whatever they want, say whatever they want, and there really shouldn’t be accountability for them or their peers.

I think there’s another reason, too. Unlike the “brick and mortar” communication where students have been taught the various protocols of appropriate communication, this hasn’t happened yet for the digital natives. Very few schools implement coordinated efforts with parents and teachers to inform students about the ethical parameters of not only online communication but using technology in general. Just as in any other area of their lives, kids need to learn the rules of the game.

With the emergence of social media technology in the classroom, teachers are finding innovative ways to promote student learning. As educators become more sophisticated in terms of utilizing Internet and mobile-based technologies to share information, they are taking advantage of new and exciting opportunities to improve their teaching practice. One particular area of interest to me is the way in which this sort of technology might improve the critical thinking skills of high school students.

Perhaps the most difficult task for a high school teacher is promoting critical thinking in the classroom. As students navigate through the giant web of state-mandated curriculum and federal testing requirements, many of them fail to develop the thinking skills necessary to succeed in college and the work world beyond high school. By graduation, high school students find themselves disinterested and unprepared. Perhaps this is why recent studies have shown American students not only lack the basic skills necessary to be successful in today’s global economy but too often they graduate from high school lacking the most important skill: creativity.

As I understand it, the creative student has highly developed critical thinking skills and is able to formulate relevant questions. The obvious importance of critical thinking to student success is not only confirmed by educational research but by the experience of business and community leaders too.  In fact, a recent study, Ready to Innovate, found that the ability to think critically about problems and find creative solutions are the most important attributes business leaders look for when evaluating candidates. According to the business leaders surveyed in the study, creative thinking involves, at a certain level, that a person exhibit such things as curiosity, the ability to recognize new patterns of information, integrate knowledge across disciplines, and, most importantly, the ability to identify problems. Perhaps the most important aspect of these skills, in terms of promoting critical thinking in high school, is the ability of the learner to formulate meaningful questions and articulate thoughtful answers.

Unfortunately, many high school teachers fail to promote this type of thinking in the classroom. A brief visit to a typical high school classroom will prove as much. Students sit quietly in desks, rarely engaged, while the teacher lectures about state-mandated curriculum with the expectation that the students will reproduce the material on the soon to be taken multiple-choice exam. Perhaps this is why American students lack the critical thinking skills necessary to compete in today’s global economy.

The author Tony Wagner thoughtfully analyzes this problem in his recent book The Global Achievement Gap. According to Wagner, all too often public school teachers fail to develop the types of skills normally associated with critical thinking, particularly the skills that enable students to ask good questions.

One important way for high school teachers to promote critical thinking in the classroom is by simply encouraging students to ask good questions. Effective questioning techniques help students analyze academic problems. By asking appropriate questions, students find themselves able to identify problems and, with some guidance, articulating solutions. Utilizing social media technology to stimulate and manage classroom discussions presents an interesting and, perhaps, effective way to accomplish this.

Taking advantage of social media technology to facilitate discussion can make it possible for students to explore the multifaceted nature of academic problems in a way that is normally difficult to achieve in a classroom setting. Where the usual high school curriculum presents standardized information in preparation for year-end mandated exams, this technology may enable high school teachers to foster critical thinking by enabling them to build unique learning situations in which students explore complex academic topics. Moreover, by utilizing the innovative networking features associated with this technology, students can share ideas, work with other students to solve complex problems, and improve their ability to ask thoughtful questions.

The four types of social media technology that seem most promising in this regard are weblogs, podcasts, wikis, and Twitter. What makes these types of social media technology so promising are their accessibility to both teachers and students, wide-spread use in both education and the private sector, and their relevancy to students. Moreover, because these technologies can be used to foster unique technology-based interactions between students and teachers, they present a wonderful opportunity for educators to develop meaningful student-to-student and teacher-to-student discussions. These discussions, of course, represent opportunities for students to develop better thinking skills as they work to understand complex information and formulate thoughtful questions and responses.

There are certainly challenges to using this technology in a typical high school classroom, however. Perhaps the biggest challenge with social media technology is its newness, if you will. Although teachers are experimenting with different ways to use this technology to foster critical thinking and build collaborative teamwork in the classroom, the success so far is limited at best. This means teachers interested in utilizing social media technology are left with few examples of best practices to follow.

The inherent complexity that results from integrating different types of social media technology with traditional high school curriculum presents significant challenges also. Utilizing social networking tools (e.g., Facebook or MySpace) in conjunction with collaboration (e.g., wikis) and multimedia tools (e.g., Flikr or YouTube) is a very difficult task for a high school teacher who has limited experience with this type of technology.

There are other challenges that should be noted. Often basic technology limitations (e.g., lack of resources, school policy, etc.) make it difficult to utilize social media technology in the classroom. Another problem is this technology requires a significant investment in terms of training and resources if teachers are to effectively design and manage learning activities. Perhaps the most challenging limitation for a high school teacher is time. Is it reasonable to expect high school teachers to spend countless hours developing specific learning activities that use social media technology when they are already strapped for time?

At this point I’d like to hear from you. For those teachers or administrators who utilize social media technology in the classroom, please provide your thoughts. Has this technology enabled you to improve student learning? Has it helped your students develop the skills necessary to ask good questions and, more importantly, think critically about academic topics? Have you found it difficult to create projects or curriculum that require integrating two or more of these programs at the same time? I’m looking forward to your comments.