According to Bramble,

“Researchers have already enumerated the benefits that kids can get from traditional media. Watching Sesame Street or Blue’s Clues improves children’s problem-solving skills and school readiness. Teaching students how to use word-processing software, Web-design programs, and video-production tools is a proven way of refocusing at-risk teens on school, and, eventually, getting them jobs. Social networks can also pull in students who are otherwise disengaged, because they draw on kids’ often intense interest in finding new ways to communicate with one another.”

Putting aside the potential pitfalls of utilizing social networking tools in a traditional school setting (i.e., privacy issues, inappropriate student behavior, etc.), how can educators effectively do it? Here’s Bramble’s suggestion,

“For starters, students could talk about what they’re doing on Facebook and company, map out the ways they’re making connections with one another, and share videos and software they’ve created. Once the conversation gets going, teachers could figure out whether some kids were being left out and find ways to increase those students’ media literacy and bring them into the fold. Teachers can manage the project by selecting the best content and conversations, and incorporating it into other parts of the curriculum. If a student created an entry on Wikipedia for a local band or sports team, other students could work on revising the entry and building it into a larger local history project. The audience for school projects need no longer be one hurried teacher.”

Some of Bramble’s ideas sound good, but his suggestion that teachers should set aside valuable instructional time so students can discuss how they are using applications like Facebook to connect with one another seems very simplistic, to say the least. Simply having kids share the content they created over the weekend, for instance, is certainly not effective in terms of  improving student achievement. If social networking technology is going to be used successfully in the classroom, it must be implemented in a systematic way, in a way that directly and clearly supports academic learning. It’s nice to use social media technology as a way to link curriculum to student prior knowledge at the beginning of a lesson, let’s say, or as a discussion starter or wrap up to a lesson, but this sort of approach is only marginally beneficial. Considering the potential pitfalls, most teachers are left wondering, “Is using this technology really worth the hassle?”

Bramble also argues teachers should take advantage of our students’ desire to produce things using this technology. Why not have them use it to do something productive? Bramble suggests schools have students

” produce a school-sanctioned video[s]—the re-enactment of a literary or historical scene, for example. This isn’t as simple as a teacher saying, “Why don’t you write a poem about your frustration, rap it on video, and put it on YouTube?” Instead, a teacher could assign students the task of filming a scene from The Scarlet Letter in the stairwell, identifying the dynamic of shaming in the novel, and writing about how it might be playing out in their Facebook news feeds. In math class, students could develop statistical models and graphs of the patterns of information flow in their social networks. To understand how advertising works, students from different backgrounds and with different online habits could compare what’s being hawked to them. And for a school journalism project, teams of students could aggregate other students’ narratives from blogs, Facebook, and Twitter and compile a real-time collective analysis of the state of their educational union.”

This sort of approach makes sense. As I noted in a recent post, having students actually “do” something with their learning is a very effective way to utilize social media technology in the classroom. In other words, social media technology provides an easy way to enable students to actually demonstrate their learning. The “doing” part is the last phase of what Curtis Bonk refers to as a learning wheel– read, reflect, display, and do.

Social networking technology certainly has a place in schools. The hard part is finding truly beneficial applications that promote student learning or foster positive communication between members of the school community.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter.

Here are three related articles from Inside Learning Technologies magazine:

1. Using Free Public Social Media Tools, October 2009
2. Using Google Tools, November 2009
3. Using Free, Public Social Media Tools, Elgg, January 2010

Follow me on Twitter!

Teacher’s Worries Blossom into District’s Online Program– Eva-Marie Ayala, Star-Telegram

Competition Seeks Ways to Transform Learning– eSchool News

10.5M Pre K-12 Students to Take Online Course by 2014– Michael Horn, Disrupting Class

ELearning Conferences– Tony Karrer, eLearning Technology

Mobile Learning Jam Reflections– Judy Brown, mLearnopedia

How Technology Can Help Improve Education– David Andrade, Tech and Learning

Educational Networking: The Important Role Web 2.0 Will Play in Education– Steve Hargadon, Whitepaper

Revenge of the Edupunks– Shawn Roner, Edbuzz

Because of advances in technology– mobile technology, new and exciting social media platforms, iTunes, and YouTube– the way today’s students share information is very different than in the past. This new information paradigm requires educators to consider new approaches to educating students. Because of the way today’s students learn, it’s important that educators tailor instruction to meet individual student learning needs and design curriculum that addresses student interests.

One of the first successful ventures into this new learning paradigm was MIT’s free online coursework venture in 2001. Kamenetz points out,

“Today, you can find the full syllabi, lecture notes, class exercises, tests, and some video and audio for every course MIT offers, from physics to art history. This trove has been accessed by 56 million current and prospective students, alumni, professors, and armchair enthusiasts around the world.”

What’s interesting about these new sorts of technology-oriented changes is they are disrupting the traditional model of teaching and learning. As schools like MIT take advantage of the Web, they are able to “disseminate high-quality materials at almost no cost, leveling the playing field.”

According to Cathy Casserly, a senior partner at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, organizations like MIT are

“changing the culture of how we think about knowledge and how it should be shared and who are the owners of knowledge.”

The problem, it seems, is most universities are still mired in a 20th century mindset when it comes to how educators think about knowledge and learning. While universities remain prohibitively expensive and unnecessarily rigid in terms of how instruction is provided, a growing movement of high-tech do-it-your-self students or “edupunks” are creating a new and exciting market for decentralized learning.

According to Kamenetz,

“The edupunks are on the march. From VC-funded startups to the ivied walls of Harvard, new experiments and business models are springing up from entrepreneurs, professors, and students alike. Want a class that’s structured like a role-playing game? An accredited bachelor’s degree for a few thousand dollars? A free, peer-to-peer Wiki university? These all exist today, the overture to a complete educational remix.”

The education futurists see the development of Web 2.0 as the final death knell of the 20th century learning model. The proliferation of open source learning tools, social media technology, mobile learning tools, and the ability of educators to cheaply and effectively construct rich, complex, individualized learning experiences for students is bound to revolutionize education.

As teachers move to utilize new technologies to improve curriculum and pedagogy, there are a few important problems to consider. Perhaps the most difficult problem, at least in a practical sense, is how teachers effectively integrate different technology-based learning tools to create a seamless learning experience. As a pedagogical practice, using new technologies to disseminate the different sorts of academic information high school and college students need is a very complex task. Therefore, teachers are left asking an important question: How should teachers use this technology to deliver effective instruction, and once we’ve identified effective ways to do this, how exactly should teachers organize the curriculum?

In some ways, integrating technology with high school and college curriculum may seem like a simple task, but any experienced educator will tell you it’s definitely not. Shifting from a classroom mindset to an online mindset not only presents significant practical problems, but the transformation can be very difficult for teachers to conceptualize. Perhaps this is why many universities, including MIT, have been unsuccessful at creating highly effective learning environments using Web 2.0 technology, at least compared to the traditional classroom experience (MIT’s online courses could hardly be considered examples of effective curriculum and pedagogical design!).

It’s not to say there aren’t individual examples of online curriculum that incorporate innovative design principles and rigorous curriculum to create a rich, student centered learning experience. The problem is finding examples of large-scale models that can easily be incorporated by any given university or high school. Although there are certainly emerging models that show exciting promise, most tech savvy educators would admit we’ve got a ways to go.

It’s also important to consider the problem of deciding exactly which digital tools educators should utilize to improve student learning. Digital tools such as micro blogging, open source learning management systems, and web-based student information systems are important tools for creating a robust and integrated learning platform. But which tools should educators use, and for what purposes? Furthermore, how can these tools be integrated to create a seamless learning experience? What’s exciting, I think, is that the tools and information are presently available. The problem now is constructing a learning infrastructure that truly works? Today’s teaching environment requires educators to utilize a variety of programs in order to deliver effective instruction– a learning management system, a different grading program, a different student information system, and so forth. Teachers, therefore, are faced with a difficult challenge. Not only do they have to figure out which technologies to utilize, but they have to figure out how to make them work together. Figuring this out requires a lot of time, experience, and perseverance. Once all the factors are considered, designing a great online course can be quite expensive, time consuming, and frustrating.

When this problem is considered at the high school level, moreover, the issues become even more complex. Perhaps this is why high school teachers and administrators are reluctant to move courses online.

Although the potential benefits online learning presents are exciting, shifting the way educators think about teaching and learning is definitely not an easy task. Nevertheless, the more students and their parents demand highly individualized and inexpensive curriculum, educators will be forced to change the way they deliver instruction. The market forces that are shaping today’s schools will, at the most fundamental level, disrupt the current educational model. The problem we face as educators is deciding which tools we should use and the best ways to use them. Finding a solution to this problems might require the sort of radical thinking the edupunks like to embrace.

A Challenge to the Multitask Assumption– Clive Shepherd, Clive on Learning

Alpine Online Case Study– Michael Horn, Disrupting Class

Models for Learning Questions– Tony Karrer, eLearning Technology

The Science of Motivation– Danial Pink, TED

More Questions Than Answers on Google Books– Tom Krazit, cnet

The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine– Robert Capps, Wired

Look Ma, No Pen! Electronic Impulses Can Reproduce Handwriting– Hadley Leggett, Wired

TPACK Explores Effective Ed-Tech Integration– Laura Devaney, eSchool News

Tips and Tutorials for Everything Google– Free Technology for Teachers

Statistics Show Social Media Is Bigger than You Think– Socialnomics

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.

Texting girl falls into NYC manhole– Andre Yoskowitz, Afterdawn.com

Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning– Richard Baraniuk, TED

Psyched Out– The Economist

Network Skills– Tony Karrer, e-Learning Technology

Intel Social Media Guidelines– Intel

Google Calendar Goes Gadgety– Adam DuVander, Programmable Web

Dave Eggers Confident that America’s Literature-Devouring Youth Will Save Print– The Cajun Boy

Layoffs prompt teachers to move online– Laura Devaney, e-School News

Software rivalry gives schools more choice– e-School News

Classrooms Go High-Tech to Engage Students– Megan Scott, U.S. News

Individual Value Required– Tony Karrer, eLearning Technology

ED Media 2009– Honolulu, Hawaii, June 22- June 26

Pre-Requisites for Personal Learning Networks– David Warlick, 2 cents Worth

Schwarzenegger: Printed texts are old school– eSchool News

Google Wave has great potential for education– Laura Devaney, eSchool News

iPod Touch, iPhone Mandatory for Students– Daryll Johnson, edbuzz