F.R. “Fritz” Nordengren (beta)

On teaching vs learning

George Siemens mentions the idea of teacher as curator in todays blog at elearnspace. He cites his own more detailed description of a curatorial teacher:

A curatorial teacher acknowledges the autonomy of learners, yet understands the frustration of exploring unknown territories without a map. A curator is an expert learner. Instead of dispensing knowledge, he creates spaces in which knowledge can be created, explored, and connected. While curators understand their field very well, they don’t adhere to traditional in-class teacher-centric power structures. A curator balances the freedom of individual learners with the thoughtful interpretation of the subject being explored.

I think there is genius in his phrase “expert learner”. What he describes, to me is very much the role of a producer in a video or recording project. Think of George Martin for the Beatles, Quincy Jones for artists from Sarah Vaughn to Michael Jackson, or Mutt Lange for Shania.

While I like the idea of curator in the classroom, and especially in the online learning environment, there is room to consider administrative need for accountability and outcomes measurement. In balancing these roles, the analogy of producer rings true.

I confess, it is my experience base as a producer for most of my working career, which is why educators, librarians and digital media professionals are pairing up to deliver new and exciting forms of learning.

What do you want to do?

As a strategist and as a creative thinking instructor, one of the tools I share with clients and students is the idea of turning around a problem or statement, to look at it from a new perspective.

So, the here are the 12/10 conspiracy tools examined from a new view. Each of the tools you are invited to explore as part of the 12/10 conspiracy can hep you do the following:
Do you want to?:

1. Improve your presentations with photos but you don’t have the time or money to search stock photo libraries (Flickr)
2. Have someone organize and collect new research articles and put them in one easy to find place (rss)
3. Empower students to work and share their learning collaboratively (wiki)
4. Eliminate (or limit) the amount of information clutter in your email — but still have access to information you want and need (Pageflakes)
5. Make a fun or clever or creative hand-outs without having to learn a complex program like PhotoShop or Illustrator (flickr tools)
6. Find new research colleges and share your insights - or - help your students gain a deeper understanding of your work and course lectures (Blogger)
7. Discover a new was of organizing disparate pieces of information based on your own use or a collective understanding (Technorati)
8. Set goals and have others cheer you on (43 things)
9. Use your drive time or workout time to catch up on current issues, or build student understanding of your lectures outside of class time (iTunes)
10. Create a controlled access point for students to interact with you (Facebook)
11. Find current article and news relating to any topic and have it sorted and categorized for you (Google Alerts)
12. Have your colleagues be able to edit the same document and archive all versions (your students can write a collaborative project, as well, with almost no risk of lost data) (Google documents)

Our initial response to the first 12/10 lunch and learn was impressive. Those who attended have begun to see the time and effort saving uses of RSS in and out of the classroom. I’ve already receive initial blog posts, 43 things lists, and a few pleas for “help” in getting the latest in PubMed searches delivered to desktops on demand!

And for those of you who wanted to see it again, below is the video presentation “What if” (a You Tube feed)

12:10 - the list

NOTE: Tomorrow’s Lunch and learn at 12:10 is on using RSS in research and the classroom.

Previously, I wrote about the 12/10 conspiracy. You’ll learn more of my thoughts on why 12/10 is a conspiracy as we go along, but to get us started, what is it?

Simply, 12/10 is a challenge and opportunity to you to try 12 new (free) tools in ten months. Tools that are good not because the are new, but can help you be a better researcher and learning partner. The goal and challenge I want to share with you is to try each of these tools, chart your progress, and when you’ve completed 12/10 we’ll reward you with a USB flash drive emblazoned with the 12/10 conspiracy logo. (Heck, it’s better than a “certificate suitable for framing”)

So here is the list and you do not need to complete these in any specific order. and if you have done some already, mark them off. A key here is this, you are welcome to keep your academic hat on and do these in a serious frame of mind — but I encourage you also to have some fun and play. Play is one of the best ways to learn and discover and if it happens to help you be a better researcher, or teacher, well, I won’t tell if you don’t.

1. Learn about RSS feeds and subscribe to at least one feed (And what do you know, tomorrow’s 12/10 lunch and learn is about: ta da RSS feeds!  Link to learn more
2. 43 things …
   1. Explore 43 things web site, You can create an account, and track your 12/10 progress. Share and cheer our learning partners on (You”l see what it is about when you get there: http://www.43things.com Link to learn more
3. Create a FREE Google Account https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
   1. Use Google documents to share a work in progress with a colleague Once you have your Google account, you’ll see the link to Google Documents. Link to learn more
4. Take that fancy new Google account and create your own blog using Google’s Blogger (Or use Wordpress.) Create your first blog entry. https://www.blogger.com/start
5. Page Flakes is a web page aggregator. It uses the RSS feeds and other tools of any number of web sites so that your sites come together in one url to quickly review. http://www.pageflakes.com/ Create your own view of the Web.
6. Search and alerts: use Google Alerts to be updated on content. Want to be notified by email when your favorite research topic in included on a web page or news article? Want to do a little “vanity” surfing? Google alerts will send you an email and a link whenever it finds new information.
7. Tagging .
   1. Use technorati to tag content you read or create. Dewey had a system. The web puts the taxonomy system in the hands of the viewer. Visit technorati www.technorati.com and explore tagging and what it means to the process of categorization.
8. Podcasting what it is and how it is different from streaming media. Use iTunes (installed on my DMU computers and find a list of podcasts on iTunesU.
   1. Subscribe to a podcast, listen to a lecture
9. Social Networking is the trend du jour. But the concepts of social networking web sites do have some influence on designing effective classrooms online.
   1. Make a profile on Facebook http://www.facebook.com
10. Wiki
    1. Create an account on a wiki (Wikipedia or other) and add content
11. Visit flickr. Sharing photos of everything is the purpose of flickr. You can upload and share photos with family, friends, co workers. A group of slides can be shared with a class or colleague. http://www.flickr.com Link to learn more
12. FD labs flickr toys
    1. Make a movie poster, set of trading cards, or another creation. (Many projects are free, some do cost.) http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

There is it, the 12/10 list. You can do as many or as few as you like, and in any order. But I think if you set your reluctance to try new things aside, and quietly, in the privacy of your home or office, just peek at some of these tools, you might find some new ways to learn, share, and have fun.

As you complete a 12/10 conspiracy item, drop me a note. — OR — send me the link to your 43 things page so I can cheer your progress.

Our goal is to do do these 12 thing in 10 months , the last day of the 12/10 conspiracy is July 31, 2008.

Trivia.quiz

Last week’s question we didn’t have a winner. It was:

According to the Educause study, what percentage of the 2007 report students indicate they prefer a “moderate rather than an extensive” use of IT in courses:

69%

59%

49%

and the right answer was 59%.

This weeks question: What is the 12/10 conspiracy?

a) a chance to better understand some learning tools by trying 12 tools over 10 months

b) figuring our this whole “web 2.0″ thingy

c) a deranged concept by the ed tech strategy guy

d) a way to win a cool USB drive

e) all of the above

Right answers to me

What is it the kids say these days?

I’ve been out of the office — and relying on dial-up into the Internet this week. Which probably warrants it’s own discussion about how Internet content has changed and how we now create things that are no longer dial-up friendly. But instead, for this learning partner update, I want to share 3 things that crossed my desk and how they relate to learning.

• Harris Polls included this info-bite in a recent newsletter:

With a 21 point increase of laptop ownership in the last two years…the dorm desktop appears as ‘old-school’ as the word processor did in the ‘90’s

• I shared an article about the death and life of Richard Jewell with a colleague’s son recently, and then it occurred to me the son may have been 8 or 9 when Richard Jewell saved 100 people (or more) for death or injury when a bomb exploded in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics. Students today, as always, may not have the frame of reference as faculty do.

• The Beloit C0llege Mindset List was published including this from the press release:

• Food has always been a health concern. Consumer awareness about ingredients and fats has always been energized. They’ve never “rolled down” a car window, and to them Jack Nicholson is mainly known as the guy who played “The Joker.”
• As usual, they remind their elders how quickly time has passed. For them Pete Rose has never been in baseball. Abbie Hoffman’s always been dead. Johnny Carson has never been live on TV, and Nelson Mandela has always been free.
• As for the Berlin Wall, what’s that?

That times change,
that new innovations work their way into the classroom,
that chronological age separates us from our students;
none of these are new concepts or even news to us as learning partners.

What is important in terms of change is the availability of learning opportunities and the degree of freedom of access we now enjoy. What the new technology — and younger student’s expectations — offer us is an opportunity to help them continue learning under our influence even out side of the class and classroom.

We can connect with students -or read another way- students can connect with learning, in more ways that ever before. Some of the “new” ways are just variations on a theme. Some are truely innovative.

But before we all jump too far on the new-tool-technology bandwagon, it’s important to consider what students are saying about technology use in the classroom. One of the best sources for this perspective, in the undergrad arena, is the Educause The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007 .

According to Educause,

the study, which reports noticeable changes from previous years, is based on quantitative data from a spring 2007 survey and interviews with 27,846 freshman, senior, and community college students at 103 higher education institutions. It focuses on what kinds of information technologies these students use, own, and experience; their technology behaviors, preferences, and skills; how IT impacts their experiences in their courses; and their perceptions of the role of IT in the academic experience.

“IT is not a good substitute for good teaching. Good teachers are good with or without IT and students learn a great deal from them. Poor teachers are poor with or without IT and students learn little from them.”

I think that speaks volumes.

The 12:10 conspiracy and what it means to you

Conspiracy is one of those words that evokes action, isn’t it?

Soon, you will receive an Outlook® Meeting planner or notice about the Lunch and Learn schedule. They are planned for the last Wednesday of each month beginning in Septemberand will begin at 12:10 (a clue). Each session will give some helpful advice and tips on different pieces of education technology. Some will build on earlier presentations — but — each will stand on it’s own — no prerequisites!

Not everyone can — or wants to — spend the lunch hour learning about web-techno-gizmo stuff. So along with this is another program called 12:10 (another clue). 12:10 is loosely based on some awesome work done by the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, set up by Helene Blowers, their Public Services Technology Director. 12:10 is an opportunity for you to explore 12 Education Technology tools and concepts and in addition to learning, be eligible for cool prizes. During September, I will post a list of 12 things you can do to learn more about education technology. Each of those items are things you can do on your own, when you want to. If you complete the item, you can record your progress. Our goal in 12:10 is to learn about 12 things in 10 months. (Yet another clue!)

All of the “things” are activities that are interactive — and will help you gain a better understanding of education technology concepts beyond pieces of software. So until later in September, be aware of the possible 12:10 conspiracy theorists… and look forward to having fun. (As preview, you might enjoy this short presentation 7 1/2 habits of highly successful lifelong learners)

We have a winner in our Trivia.quiz this week and I’m been very appreciative of the questions and the ideas for lunch and learn topics. Please keep them coming and feel free to visit, email, stop by if you want to talk about how I can best help you.

Last week we asked: According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project: What percent of all Americans have broadband access at home:

47 % or 29% or 15%

47% have broadband at home

15% are dial up.

29% are not connected. The balance of respondents had access some other place

This week’s Trivia.quiz

According to Pew (again) Which activity have more people reported they have done in the Internet:

1. Buy a product
2. Look for health/medical info
3. Search a map/driving directions

Email or post your comments to the blog. Winner receives desk-side beverage service!