Teaching for the Future

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In this episode I interview Dr. Scott McLeod. Scott is the coordinator of the Educational Administration program at Iowa State University and director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). You may be more familiar with Scott's work on his blog, DangerouslyIrrelevant.org, where he discusses education and technology from the perspective of administrators and teachers.

Though it seems like I have been spending a lot of time defending YouTube, I want to make it clear that video sharing sites are not all butterflies and rainbows. YouTube has greatly effected the way interpret and interact with the media. Just think of the recent controversies in national politics. In an article in the Hartford Currant, aptly entitled "YouTube, A Blessing and a Curse". The author discusses how the permanence and the availability of video news, gives certain videos an impact they would not have had earlier. Just think of McCain's "Bomb Iran", Clinton's sniper fire, and the controversy surrounding Jeremiah Wright. How would things change if video coverage and the videos themselves were not available on demand 24 hours a day. "In past years, controversy... might have lasted a day or two before people lost interest." (Weir)

This 'on demand effect' isn't limited to the presidential campaign. What if you applied this to classroom management? More specifically issues like behavior and cheating. With little or no effort it is easy to find a ton of instructional video on how to cheat on tests and game the system. Over at his blog, Learning in Hand, Tony Vincent collected many of these interesting videos. What happens when kids have access to material that allows them to game the test and cheat their way through class? While these videos are concerning I am more interested in what I found on Scott MeLeod's Dangerously irrelevant. In this post Scott has collected videos by students taken with their mobile phones. These videos show scenes of teacher/student confrontations in class. One one hand these are an invasive look at a few bad moments in what are probably good classrooms, while on the other hand these videos could be student-citizen journalism exposing the abuses teachers. To try to make sense of all of this I brought Scott McLeod on the show to talk about his post and the changing role of YouTube in the Classroom.

LINKS:
YouTube A Blessing and a Curse By William Weir
http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-youtubepolitics.artapr06,0,4268424.story

How to Cheat
http://learninginhand.com/blog/2008/04/how-to-cheat.html

How can I cheat on the test? Let me count the ways…
http://www.teach42.com/2008/04/02/how-can-i-cheat-on-the-test-let-me-count-the-ways/

Cell phone cameras in the K-12 classroom: Punishable offenses or student-citizen journalism?
http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2008/03/cell-phone-came.html

Labels: dangerously irrelevant, ipod, learning in hand, teaching, teaching for the future, technology, video, video sharing, youtube

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Posted by Dave LaMorte at 5/04/2008 11:16:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Financial Aid Shake Down: How the US Congress is trying to take away your child's financial aid.

Democrats in the Congress have introduced a bill that will force colleges and universities to crack down on file sharing. The bill introduces stiff penalties on colleges who do not fight file sharing in two ways. By reducing federal financial aid and by push schools to subsidize student accounts to music subscription services. Some equate these penalties to pork-barrel legislation designed to help Record Companies to stay in the black. ( HughMcGuire.net) More likely this is a sign of the times and more evidence that the RIAA is loosing direction.

Co-authors of the new legislation:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

I think that this law is overtly classist. It's obvious that the MPAA/RIAA are angry. They're pissed off and want to hit students where it hurts, in their financial aid. It's too hard and costs too much to target/litigate each file-sharer, so targeting schools would put the accountability on universities to enforce MPAA/RIAA policy. By penalizing financial aid benefits, this law would almost completely target low income students. If aid is cut, it will be those students who can't afford school on their own who will be affected the most. Which is unfair because students from all socio-economic classes are file sharing. Part of me thinks it is easier to target poor students because they have less resources and capital to fight back, but I think it has more to do with a lack of forethought.

From News.com: "The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) applauded the proposal"... "We very much support the language in the bill, which requires universities to provide evidence that they have a plan for implementing a technology to address illegal file sharing," said Angela Martinez, a spokeswoman for the MPAA." George.Miller@mail.house.gov
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BUY 2 DONATE 2: Why you don't need to buy an OLPC to your computer collection

LINKS:
OLPC Twitter Feed: http://twitter.com/olpc
Give One Get One Campaign: http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php

This is the bulk of the show, but I don't have the energy to write it all up. I hope you forgive me.

If you want to help out or participate with Teaching for the Future you can leave a comment on the homepage or link to us on your blog or podcast. If you want to get in touch, feel free to email at teachingforthefuture@gmail.com.

Tags: Dave LaMorte, teaching for the future, technology, education, podcast, teaching, financial aid podcast, media literacy, visual literacy, new media literacy

Labels: dave lamorte, education, financial aid podcast, media literacy, new media literacy, podcast, social activisim, teaching, technology

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Posted by Dave LaMorte at 11/19/2007 07:57:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

NEWS:
Schools test Edugaming in Classroom from Joystiq: This is not a new issue and we have been talking about the pedagogy of video games. I'm just glad to see the video game industry is taking notice of this gap in the market. I'd love to see some of the innovation in gaming be applied to educational games.

On Hit Lists, Anger Finds an Outlet from the NYTimes.com: Though school violence is down, student created hit lists are on the rise. Though some may consider these harmless many schools are treating these like threats.

Stitched into Memory from the Boston Globe: This is a great art project being done at a local Massachusetts school. Students are stitching small figures to signify each of the fallen American soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not only is this a creative way for students to make connections and honor soldiers who were lost in the war.

TOOLS/RESOURCES:
The Boring Store from Laughing Squid: This strange store is a front for a 826 National Writing Center which were founded by author Dave Eggers. These hidden gems are spread all over.

• Brooklyn - Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.
• Seatle - Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co.
• San Fransicso - The Pirate Store
• Chicago - The Boring Store

USB Drive helps find lost child from Daily Cup of Tech: This is an interesting story about how parents who used a program designed to retrieve lost USB drives to find their three year old son. Though this could have also been done with a dog tag, but I think this is an interesting application of a neat trick.

EDITORIAL:
I was inspired by short film that I found through a blog post at think:lab called "You Were Supposed To Sing and Dance...". The short cartoon created by the team that puts out South Park led by Matt Stone and Trey Parker uses audio from Alan Watts.

Notes:

• Cartoons are "easy to swallow" media.
  
• New Media's Effect on our Culture.
• New Media allows kids to be cultural producers.
• The whole point of Teaching for the Future
• My goals
• Research
• Collaboration
• Filling in Gaps
  
• What I've learned
  
• My upcoming "Podcast-iversary"
• Upcoming Changes to the Show
• What can I do for you?
• More listener participation
• Voice Mails
• Email
• Comments
• Link Backs
  

UPCOMING:
I sat down to talk with Diane Farsetta is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Media & Democracy and PRWatch.org. She explains the current penetration and the potential dangers of Video News Releases.

OTHER LINKS:

• Puffle Kerfuffle from Wired: An interesting article about discipline in a virtual world.
• Alan Watts Podcast
• Aaron "the Art Guy" Smith
  

If you want to help out or participate with Teaching for the Future you can leave a comment on the homepage or link to us on your blog or podcast. If you want to get in touch, feel free to email at teachingforthefuture@gmail.com.

TAGS: Dave LaMorte, teaching for the future, technology, education, podcast, teaching, Video News Release, media literacy, visual literacy, new media literacy

Labels: bostonglobe, dave lamorte, education, financial aid podcast, gaming, interview, media literacy, new media literacy, nytimes, podcast, teaching, technology

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Posted by Dave LaMorte at 3/26/2007 01:45:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Welcome Soft Reset Listeners, I hope you strike podcast gold with Teaching for the Future

News:
Conservapedia is like Wikipedia, but without all of the Liberals from Wired News: The Conservapedia is a new wiki-based encyclopedia that was created to get away from a perceived liberal bias in the Wikipedia. This is an interesting article about the new site and the reaction from the online media.

YouTube for Contract Negotiations from Weblogg-ed: This is an interesting video of a group of teachers from Nashua, NH commenting on recent budget changes and contract negotiations. I think this is just more evidence of the import role new media is going to have on our person and public lives for years to come.

Sky Mall Liberation (Not Safe For Work) from Ni9e.com: Ni9e.com decided to do a visual inventory of the Sky Mall catalog. While on a flight they had decided to dissect the catalog. They removed and collected the faces of the models and then arranged them in different ways outside of the context of the catalog. I was not surprised when they separated the photos by white and non-white.

I think I'm going to steal this idea and use it in a lesson plan. I know we talk about racism and multicultural education, but this is a great way to generate a really important discussion in your class.

Girls Suspended over 'Vagina Monologues' from CTV.ca: From the article:

"A public high school has suspended three students who disobeyed officials by saying the word 'vagina' during a reading from a well-known feminist play."

I am not sure what to make of this article. Part of me is annoyed that three girls were suspended for using the proper medical term. Another part of me is annoyed that if the students were allowed to perform a play about what it is to have a vagina, without saying vagina. Related: The Hoohah Monologues via boingboing

Don't Choose Facebook Over Your Job from TechCrunch: Michael Arrington tells the story of a man who has a facebook problem. "Charlie" is a trader at Goldman Sachs who was warned by his company about his time on the facebook at work. From "Charlie's" facebook page:

“It’s a measure of how warped I’ve become that, not only am I surprisingly proud of this, but in addition, the first thing I did was to post it here, and that losing my job worries me far less than losing facebook ever could.”

The Real Cost of Facebook from Storygeek.com: Mark Bell discusses the real cost of Facebook. I think this is an interesting blog post that makes a clear argument for being careful online.

Dan Rather Interviewed by Andy Carvin: Andy is an interesting guy that I met at Beyond Broadcast 2007 and who happens to be the DC Metro correspondent for Rocketboom. This is a great video that he did of an interview with Dan Rather.


Bum Rush The Charts: On March 22nd you can help promote independent music and education at the same time. More information in the podcast and at BumRushtheCharts.com.


Editorial: What is Education?
For centuries artists and art historians have always asked the question, "What is art?" As the years go on it seems that this question is getting increasingly harder to answer. On a recent episode of ABC Radio National's Philosophers Zone host Alan Saunders discusses what art is with Arthur C. Danto, Emeritus Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. They spent a lot of time explaining how this question has become harder to answer since Marcel Duchamp's The Fountain. Danto makes an interesting point how we never know if we are in the presence of art.

"I was invited to give a talk for some of our history students, and I walked past a classroom that was being redone, and I thought to myself, How do I know that that's not just an installation? How do I know that's not a work of art that happens to consist of ladders and paint buckets and so forth?"

Education is changing in the same way. Teaching and learning is no longer confined to the classroom as there are more opportunities to gain enlightenment. When we watch TV, read the paper, or listen to a podcast we are learning without realizing it. These instances are rich learning experiences that need to be incorporated into our schools. How can we capture these powerful experiences to be able to educate in a way that is both effective and profound?

I'm beginning to realize that that the answer is proper assessment. The way we assess student learning is a direct reflection on our values as educators. To check for understanding and to create a rich learning experience we need to have rich assessment. We live in a world where students get information in many different ways, so we need to check up on them in different ways. Writing in art, singing in health, and crocheting in math.

I'm being overly dramatic, but I think we need to be assessing students more often and in ways that allow them to make connections with what they are learning. What's important is that we are giving them chances to check in with us. How we assess makes a clear statement to students what we value as teachers. What does your assessment say about you?

Upcoming:
How can you help with Teaching for the Future? Well that's easy. You could leave a review in iTunes or link to us on your blog or podcast page.
Tags: Dave LaMorte, teaching for the future, technology, education, podcast, teaching, media literacy, visual literacy, new media literacy

Labels: dave lamorte, education, facebook, financial aid podcast, media literacy, new media literacy, podcast, teaching, technology, texting

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Posted by Dave LaMorte at 3/20/2007 01:27:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

News:
The End is NEAR from TechLearning.com: As an artist the medium is always part of the message, but what if your medium is a Pringle? David Jakes talks about all the new ways we are getting information. He talks about a bunch of interesting online and off-line ways of spreading a message. This could be an interesting article to work into a lesson about different kinds of literacy. It would be interesting to ask your students how the message changes when it is a YouTube video, on a potato chip, or etched into a plant.

Big Brother State by David Scharf and Stephen Taylor: I cannot remember where I originally found this video, but I think we need to share it. It deals with interesting ideas of surveillance. I'm not sure where I fall on this issue, because as a podcaster I live a lot of my life in public, on the web. I'd love to get your comments on this. Related: The Real Cost of Facebook
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New Media Super Heroes by Dave LaMorte: This is not really news that I'm working on my graduate thesis. My work is going to be arts based, which means my paper needs to have a body of artwork to go with it. I put up my first bit of artwork recently in the form of a low-tech web comic. You can follow my thesis work at my personal site at DaveLaMorte.com.

School Without Google? from TechLearning.com: This is an interesting look about how blocking web tools can put teachers and students at a real disadvantage. Wesley Fryer talks about how blocking things like Google is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The comments on this post are also pretty interesting. You should also check out Wesley's podcast on his homepage.

Recently access to YouTube was shut off at Lesley University. Which is another case of not realizing the learning potential of a lot of these new media sites. Related: Turkey Lifts YouTube Ban, Don't Choose Facebook Over Your Job

Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use: This is an interesting document that I learned about at Beyond Broadcast 2007. This is a great document that explains the rules of fair use as they stand. Though it is written with filmmakers in mind, this is a valuable resource for content creators who may want to use content from other artists.

Other Links:

• Bum Rush The Charts
  
• Apple iTunes staffers have become music's unlikely power brokers.
• Georgia is to introduce two literature classes on the Bible in public schools.
• Conservapedia is like Wikipedia, but without all of the Liberals.
• Sky Mall Liberation. (Not Safe For Work)
• Girls Suspended over 'Vagina Monologues'
  
• Who Knew People would be upset over White Power?
• The Real Cost of Facebook
• Turkey Lifts YouTube Ban
• Don't Choose Facebook Over Your Job

Thanks:
Thanks to HappyKatie for the image of the TV and to Dan Flannery for all the great music.

Tags: Dave LaMorte, teaching for the future, technology, education, podcast, teaching, media literacy, visual literacy, new media literacy

Labels: dave lamorte, education, lesley, media literacy, new media literacy, podcast, teaching, technology, wikis

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Posted by Dave LaMorte at 3/12/2007 11:06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Link to mov file.

If you want to help out or participate with Teaching for the Future you can leave a comment on the homepage or link to us on your blog or podcast. If you want to get in touch, feel free to email at teachingforthefuture@gmail.com.

Tags: Dave LaMorte, teaching for the future, technology, education, podcast, teaching, media literacy, visual literacy, new media literacy, beyondbroadcast2007

Labels: dave lamorte, davidtames, education, media literacy, new media literacy, podcast, stevegarfield, teaching, technology, video

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Posted by Dave LaMorte at 2/28/2007 12:30:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Today's episode was originally going to be my way of prepping myself for Beyond Broadcast 2007. I could not get this show out before my conference, but a lot of my ideas still remain the same. The conference was a way for academics and the media to get together and discuss the changing nature of communication and the role of new media. A lot of the conference dealt with ideas of Participatory Culture and participatory democracy. How can we use new media and social networking as a tool for political activism and social change. I think these issues are really important and I have spent a lot of time talking about them on Teaching for the Future. But how do we harness our new participatory culture and turn that into pedagogy? Well that's what I want to talk about today.

This past week Patty Bode, from the MFA, came to run a workshop in one of my classes. Patty teaches at the MFA's art education department and she had been a classroom teacher for several years. Her presentation was about using important topics and events as a way of getting students to become more involved in the art curriculum. Patty talked about a project she did with a group of 7th graders about Hurricane Katrina. She talked about her motivations and how students used their artwork to explore their ideas. Students were able to discuss issues surrounding Katrina and as a way for raising awareness and advocating for victims of the devastation.

A lot of the student work centered around the images that were being used in the media. The students would critique photographs that they collected and ask important questions. A lot of the questions looked at who was being depicted and who was not, which related to who was effected most by the hurricane. They began to deal with issues of race and class in their work.

Patty's presentation showed how students can connect to curriculum, but really illustrated how education can be a tool for political activism and social change. Not only was she generating interest in current events in her classroom, she was empowering students to think critically and help others in need.

All of this got me thinking and reflecting on what I've been doing here on the Podcast. I would not categorize Teaching for the Future as a political podcast at first glance, but I think it is fair to say that all education is political. How we structure our schools and our curricula are decisive political acts that can be made to include or exclude certain individuals. The teachers we hire and the books that we choose all serve to frame the debate and influence. Even the way we teach can effect who will struggle to meet state standards and who is able to succeed. (If you want evidence of this you should listen to the LD Podcast)

Some of these ideas are also illustrated in two very interesting articles written by Patty Bode at RethinkingSchools.org: A Letter from Kaeli and The Puerto Rican Vejigante. These articles are really good illustrations of what you leave out is as important as what you leave in.

A Letter from Kaeli deals with how people of color and minorities are often excluded from books. Though this may seem innocent enough, but this can be damaging to a child's education. Under representing minorities implies that they are not important or not worth writing about.

The Puerto Rican Vejigante is an article that deals with issues of multicultural education and how schools will exoticise the other. Exoticising a culture means examining that culture only on it's obvious or basic features, without any real depth. This also deals with issues of equity that I think I should devote a who podcast episode.

Final Thought:
This brings me right back to the whole point of new media. New media is about giving anyone a voice. The goal is to bring equity back to public discourse so that we can better understand each other. If you were tuning in to Beyond Broadcast or PodCamp Toronto, don't forget that the whole point of these events is to get people to have a voice and to participate in the conversation.

Upcoming:
I'm going to talk a little bit about Steve Job's comments about education.

I know that among podcasters there is always a lot of shoptalk. I'm beginning to wonder if we're too geeky for our own good. On an upcoming episode I want to ask... Are we focusing too much on how to communicate to be able to communicate effectively?

If you want to help out or participate with Teaching for the Future you can leave a comment on the homepage or link to us on your blog or podcast. If you want to get in touch, feel free to email at teachingforthefuture@gmail.com.

Tags: Dave LaMorte, teaching for the future, technology, education, podcast, teaching, media literacy, visual literacy, new media literacy, beyondbroadcast2007

Labels: dave lamorte, education, media literacy, mobile technology, new media literacy, podcast, teaching, technology

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Posted by Dave LaMorte at 2/26/2007 01:10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post