A Reflection ~ Setting the Stones to Force Kids to Be Free - Part II

Empowering students has long been a personal passion of mine.   Just like the name of my blog, it's all about setting stones.

In April, I mused in A Reflection ~ Setting the Stones to Force Kids to Be Free about setting up a Facebook Group that would serve as ISB MS's student information / student government hub.  "Forcing kids to be free", while providing stone circles of support (some seen, some unseen).  . . .

As part of the efforts to get the SOAR Center Group up and going (without having to take too many backwards steps on the way forward), an Acceptable Use Policy has been drafted. 

An important part of the process was using kids were used in the drafting . . . and they will be instrumental in its evolution.

As importantly is setting the cyber-stones so that the kids can actively work to create and maintain an atmosphere on-line that will be reflected in our halls.

It's got to be real.

A new study was presented this past week at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science in Boston that showed today's university students show less empathy than a generation ago.  Three articles . . . from MSNBC . . . from  the Telegraph in the UK . . . . and US News and World Report

My gut tells me part of the reason is the virtual world many of today's young people inhabit.


That's why we stone setters need to help the kids stay real.

Through their Facebook Group page, we stone setters can help them experience and practice the kind of reality we all say we value.

After all, it takes a community.    It IS our job, man.

Spiderman and my Mom’s Mushy Black Box

Told to ponder the “power of the Web” as the topic for this post, my mind seemed to automatically shift into a metaphor. (. . . is the Web is a metaphor for something else, anyway? . . . ) What leapt up from my memory was an evening close to forty years ago when I sat out on the fire escape of my summer apartment and watched a spider weave its web (almost from the start.)

Radial thread by radial thread, the spider walked along what it had already laid out, the silk trailing form the its silk gland, building the Y-shaped netting. Then came the spiral threads . . . with the completed web being an artifact of the spider’s travels over the previous hour.

The power of a spider’s web is in the connection of individual, delicate threads into a cohesive whole that has a strength and resilience far greater than a single strand or junction would suggest.

Kind of like The Web.

We, as individuals, navigate our way through The Web, leaving behind us our own digital trails (artifacts) with their new connections to other webs creating and building still new webs.

Kind of like millions of spiders being able to connect their individual (static) webs into a dynamic mega-network that would fill much of our world. Nothing would be safe. Now that’s an image.

Any thinking spider would choose to engage because they would see that solitary unconnected spider would lose out.

Kind of like The Web.

Because of what these connections allow for . . . a level of ease of sharing, and a degree of connecting and collaborating that still can’t be dreamt of . . .

In my Science class, we were exploring particles and the concept of particles being in constant random motion. At room temperature, air particles can bump in to other air particles a billion times a second. I get the idea, but cannot really comprehend it.

Kind of like The Web.

The power of The Web is in the incomprehensible degree of connection we can make if we remember one thing. To paraphrase Andrew Torris, in a posting about leadership style in a posting on Sentiments On Common Sense, “Learning is about connecting at a human level to the people you are learning with.”

A few years ago, my Mom passed away. As part of the cleaning out of our family home, a number of family artifacts were put aside to sort through. This Spring, my sister sorted through my Mom’s “mushy black box” – a box on the mantelpiece where she has kept letters that had touched her heart – and sent each of us siblings our own set of the Straub/Hill family artifacts.

Reading through the original letters (or their photocopies) was a very powerful emotional experience for me. I know the same was true for my brother and sisters . . . . because of our shared life experiences and connections . . . otherwise it was just paper.

In this business of education, it does come down to creating meaningful learning artifacts (check out this thought provoking video from Lawsom Journalism about using student blogs as meaningful “Me, changing” digital portolios) that will allow us to connect (better) with each other.

As we leave our digital trails and weave our webs, one power of The Web is to invite others into our black box on the mantelpiece and share in the connection.

The power of possibility is indeed rich. My Mom knew. So did Spidey.

Ees Not My Job, Man! . . . or is it?

When I was a younger man, I used to delight in watching Freddie Prinze perform. In just about every routine, we could count on an incredible story being told, with the punch line (spoken in an exaggerated Hispanic accent) ''Ees not my job,man!”

In his stories, Freddie’s refrain was perfect.

Today, the connected way (love it or hate it) that our kids are connected and exposed via technology is causing many to raise the question of their safety . . . and whose job is it to help them to be safe(r)?

In my science class this year, we like to try to encapsulate general concepts with a “Mother Nature’s Rule”. This year, one that has emerged is “Plus ça changes, plus ça même choses.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Recently here at ISB, Michael Thompson, a well known psychologist who specializes in adolescence, spoke to our kids (and parent groups) about issues facing them - including friendships and bullying. I have known Michael for a few years, but was a bit surprised when I brought up the story of a Massachusetts girl who committed suicide after some relentless cyber-bullying for Michael’s reaction was a bit different (at first) that I expected.

Essentially he said that kids are kids. When we were kids, kids were kids. When our parents were kids, kids were kids. Kids will be kids.

Kids being kids is old. The vehicles they use may be new.

Maybe that's why it's hard for us.

In his post "Times Change . . . Do We?" Michael Smith humorously points out some of the differences between the day to day realities the kids we operate in compared to where we come from in. How about to kids today, " Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible." The trappings of society sure seem to change.

But adolescent issues like friends and bullying is not new. Today, cyber-bullying is a problem . . . one that needs to be dealt with.

One way to deal with cyber-bullying is to “ban the vehicle (social networks) ”, like Ridgewood, NJ Principal Anthony Orsini promotes because “the sites do more harm than good -- facilitating bullying and putting kids at risk to online predators.” (View attached ABC story .)

Is this the answer? If not, what do we do?

Whose job is it anyway?

While revolution of technology has advanced into the third millennia, the evolution of humans may be lagging a few years back.

So let’s go back to the good old days . . . when we grew up in neighborhoods, and all the segments of the community (seemed) to work together for the good of “the youth”.

A saying from the ‘60s has rolled around my head now for years . . . and I found it attributed to the black activist Eldridge Cleaver. . . . “You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem.”

It’s all our jobs – not just the families raising their children, not just the schools teaching their students . . . . it takes a community caring for its kids, perhaps working in new ways and confronting new details (even if it’s new territory).

But hey, that’s what parenting and teaching is all about, anyway.

And what’s better than a healthy dialogue with our kids?

Together, let’s get at it.

I think Freddie would agree.

Is there such a thing as a stolen idea in education?

During my early years in education, my colleagues and I were continually searching and sharing ideas and approaches as we looked for ways to transform education (or so we thought). Some of the best in-service days we had was when we had the chance to share with each other (such a novel idea) . . . and along the way, our catch phrase became "In education, there is no such thing as a stolen idea."


We meant this in the best sense - we viewed our overall work, work that fed off of itself, much like an artistic community. Perhaps even a Creative Commons. There was a real joy of exploration, discovery and delight in our work - and the learning our kids would exhibit.

Perhaps they were simpler times.

In our second COETAIL course we are having dialogue about copyright and fair-use issues that has caused me to pause.

The easy availability of all sorts of materials through today's technology - my goodness, what can't we download or access?

Things have gone far beyond creatively using the Xerox machine or making custom cassette tapes from LPs. (Oh, and I made some great ones!) I wonder some of the dialogue has gone past common sense.

Perhaps websites like A Teacher's Guide to Fair Use and Copy Right are now needed, and appropriate use policies need crafting. And while I found many of the threads on Doug Johnson's blog on Copyright to be interesting because of numerous issues and situations that are raised . . . and some have made me re-evaluate some of my own specific practices (like all these photos come through Creative Commons and being linked to their sources) . . . . I have found that my intent, as an educator, has remained the same.

And that intent is to be an ethical user of other people's works in the transformative work of education . . . and to assist my students to do the same. True education is sacred, and to help guide young people in their education is a sacred trust.

In that shared journey, my bet is that we will wrestle with the questions around whether being legal equates with being ethical . . . and wondering if something is ethical, will it necessarily be legal?

In that work, I hope our use of organizations like Creative Commons will flourish, so we (and I am paraphrasing here) can share our work, and build upon the work of others, while being consistent with the rules of copyright so that the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share in and remix the work . . .

So that together we can move forward.

Kind of like our idea a generation ago.

The World-wide Party Line

I am old enough to remember the (one) phone in my family’s house being on a “party-line”. For those of you who are too young to know, a party-line was not the inside track to the nearest gathering, but a phone-line shared by at least two “parties”. My memory is that there was only one other family on our line, other party lines had more. When the phone rung – we counted the rings to make sure it was for us.

Of course, we could pick up the phone and listen in to the conversation the other party was having . . . and, as kids, we did. Sometimes we weren’t caught. Sometimes – especially when we snickered – we were.

Even if the members of the other family eavesdropped on our conversations, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal. Not much to hide in our household.

Maybe it’s a good thing we went to a private line while I was still in Elementary School. But by then, we had two phones in the house . . . and could still listen in . . .

All pretty harmless, all told.

I wonder if this naïve sense has followed us up into the age of complete connection. When I grew up, we needed to rely on actual memories of conversations or things experience; now many of our conversations (albeit most in text form) and images of our experiences are accessible somewhere on-line to refresh our memories . . . or to "inform" other

folks.

Now, many of my memories are ones that could readily be shared. Some aren’t. I’m glad some of those memories come from private times.

However, today, with as Husna Najand points out in her post, Beware: the Internet could own your future "Privacy no longer means having control over who has access to pictures and information."

Hmmm. As I drift farther from those days, I have grown fond of the saying, "Youth is wasted on the young". Ahh, exhuberance, energy, and having the ability to bounce when dropped after having done "youthful things". Let’s hope that some wisdom creeps in there, too.

On a lower moral developmental level, the wrong-ness of something depends partly on if we get "caught" or not. Perhaps the permanence of our words and actions now (more of a) reality with the internet creating a greater likelihood of "getting caught", we have an opportunity to have a dialogue to re-evaluate what is appropriate and respectable.

Who knows, we might learn something . . . like when my Mom caught me listening in on the party line.

I’ll hang up now.

Can We Walk Softly

Wilderness travel has the maxim "Take only photos. Leave only footprints."

I wonder how many kilometers of path I laid down before I had any inkling that I was leaving a trail. Hmmm. Probably plenty.

I like to walk pretty quietly, observing the landscape and countryside - and when something of interest grabs my eye, I will stop, explore and engage. When a connection is made (sometimes we can't tell why), it is very common for me to return or to engage fostering the new connection. This is metaphorically true - and true of how I engage those around me.

It probably is no surprise for me to say that I am an introvert, and that plays out not only in my real life, but also in my digital life.

That being the case, I would assume my digital footprint would resemble a print left by a moccasin worn by a soft stepping walker. My assumption was not verified, however. Using the Digital Footprint tool from E=MC2, I calculated my current footprint is approximately 27 GB. More like stomping in hiking boots?

In the Calculate Your "Digital Footprint" with New Tool post from EMC (March 24, 2008) Sarah Perez tells of how John Gantz of IDC explains that our digital shadow is "simply 'information about you,' but what's surprising about this shadow, he explains, is that 'for the first time your digital shadow is larger than the digital information you actively create about yourself.' " Even when we are stepping lightly, we could be treading deeply in casting this digital shadow.

Could be.

How truly meaningful is the data we leave in our wake? Of course, practically some of it could be quite valuable (identity information and the like) and we need to be prudent. Some of it will also just be and take up space on a hard drive. (Smile for that security camera . . . . ). Should this change how we view how to live our lives?

Where we stand depends on where we sit.

My seat allows me to see towards the end of my active educational career, and the beginning of my grandfather career. I will continue to reach out to connect to (meaningfully) connect to others - in old ways and in new ways (like this). As the sun has moved past its zenith in my life, I have come to cherish my connections more. I have reflected some on what impression I want to have left when all is said and done . . . and while I want to have made some systematic differences in the learning communities I have been part of, what really matters is the individual connections and moments.

My digital life and its footprint is part of that. My digital life flows from my real life. If that has any veracity, the footprints I leave will be a decent path.

A Reflection ~ Setting the Stones to Force Kids to Be Free

My memory of things that never happened is getting much better, thank you. Some memory loop me that Muhammad Ali once said "Force people to be free." Even if he didn't, he could have . . . and it rings as true today as when he (might have) said it.

If you have been following my posts, you will know that our work in this first course of the Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy, Information Literacy and Ourselves as Learners, while pushing me to glimpse into the educational future, has caused me to look into my educational past - to re-identify the foundation of what education and learning really are.

Perhaps Ali's statement is the point.

With instantaneous communication (0n so many levels) afforded by the technologies that are now part of our lives, our pondering needs to focus how we can, at least, better do what we say we should have been doing (Old Things in New Ways) and truly explore how we can do New Things in New Ways.

As my educational foundation was constructed, one of the cornerstones laid was that of student empowerment . . . empowerment to believe in their themselves, to think, to ask for and accept responsibility, to realize that their learning comes not from "us", but from them. It is not what you are given, but what you make.

When I was a young(er) man, this empowerment was felt by some as a threat to the (elite) establishment . . . and perhaps it still is in many ways.

While the explosion of access to information and communication has been a bit daunting to me, it has been my belief in efficacy of student empowerment that has helped me attempt to understand and embrace it.

It (is having) and will have an impact in my Science class. And that is important.

However, my dream is for our new abilities to have an impact on the Middle School Student body by affording them true student voice. For a variety of reasons,

• many of our Middle School students seen content to be told what to do, to have things done for them, and are not eager to initiate or risk.
  
• the Student Council structure (especially the accountable representative part) in our Middle School has been rendered anachronistic.
  
• our Middle School community does not have true core from which its spirit comes.

Force young people to be free.

Through the provocation of this course, we will be attempting to open up and access student voice and engagement through a medium that is part of their lives. To help force kids to be free, a Facebook Page/Group is being established that will serve as a center-point for information giving and gathering, student dialogue, sharing and celebration, and whatever else they might choose.

Our role? That of advisers and an (in the) background guides. As stone setters. Giving the youngsters the assistance and guidance and support to impact their own (school) lives and community .

Does it matter if this is an Old Thing in a Better Way, or a New Thing in a New Way?

It's about them. Not us.

Interesting how moving forward has sprung from reflecting back.

Now it's time to go out and gather some stones.

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