Feet on the ground, head in the iCloud

iCloud is Apple's latest attempt at cloud computing, and this time they got it right. 

iCloud is now like several products wrapped into one. To take full advantage of it, you should turn on all the iCloud stuff in iOS. To do that go to Settings: iCloud. There you should turn on Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Safari (very important), Notes, Passbook, Keychain, Photos, Documents and Data, and MOST IMPORTANT- Find My iPhone. 

I'll just mention a couple of things here, as some are pretty obvious.

If you use iCloud with Safari, it will sync all your bookmarks automatically between all your devices. Add a bookmark on your iPad, it shows up on your desktop and your iPhone. Fantastic. But even better, you can access any open tab from any device on any other device! Just go to the iCloud icon and it has a list of all open tabs. Very nice.

Photos is important because you get all the pics you take with your iPhone or iPad automatically aded to iCloud. And you can create shared albums in the cloud which can be viewed by others.

Documents and Data allows you to keep your Pages, Keynote, and Numbers docs in iCloud rather than on your desktop. I've got all my assignments from my entire Master's program at Wilkes in iCloud. I can start a doc at work on my Macbook, come home and open on my iMac, or even on my iPad. Docs and Data also allows other iOS apps to use iCloud to store data. I pay an extra $25 a year to go from the free 5GB storage to 25GB, so I don't have to worry about limits.

So how do you access iCloud? Go to iCloud.com. Use your Apple ID and password to login. There you can access your Mail (assuming you use the Mail app on either OS or iOS), Contacts, Calendar, Notes, and Reminders. You can also access all your Pages, Keynote, and Numbers documents there. And, perhaps most important, you can use iCloud.com to find a lost or stolen OS or iOS device. It can find and track any device you have "Find My iPhone" turned on on. 

iCloud is free, unless you want to add the extra storage. All you need is your free Apple ID, and it works best on a Mac running OS 10.9 and iOS 7.

From e-World to 2020, an Educator’s Vision

Back in 1969, Richard Lee Evans, of the group Zager and Evans, wrote the lyrics to the song In The Year 2525. One of the verses read, 

“In the year 5555

Your arms hangin' limp at your sides

Your legs got nothin' to do

Some machine's doin' that for you.”

That song was written before the personal computer revolution, but during the time of the space race, and in a period of increasing use of technology. Looking back however, it seems almost quaint, certainly outdated, as our use of technology has exploded in ways Evans could never have imagined.

Today I am not looking at the year 2525, but a year much closer to our own, 2020, a mere six years into the future, and attempting to glean from my own crystal ball what wonders are in store for us as we round into the second decade of the twenty-first century. Specifically, I’ll be looking at changes in the use of technology in education. If the last decade has taught me anything, it is that there will be leaps in technology that are nearly impossible to predict, and also that in many ways technology use will change very little in the actual classrooms across America.

Perhaps it will help to look at smaller pieces of the big picture, examining each one for potential changes. Then we can piece them together to form a vision of the future which may be somewhat realistic. Let us begin with Web 2.0.

When the World Wide Web emerged as a popular entity it was more of a static creature. Only the dedicated technologists among us were using the web at its birth around 1991. And a few years later when Mosaic, the first graphical web browser was released, the web was a fairly static place. It was read-only, which meant you did not interact with web pages, you simply read them and consumed content.

Web 2.0, the Read-Write Web, changed things. A variety of technologies were introduced to make it easy for non-techie people to publish to the web. This power of publishing revolutionized how the web was used. Now people could easily create blogs and wikis, and have them seen by potentially millions of people. Later came podcasts, audio recordings which could be listened to by everyone, and still later vodcasts, bringing video to the masses. The video revolution was completed by the website YouTube, which allowed anyone to publish their homemade videos to the web. There seemed to be no limit to what people would publish!

This won’t change in 2020. People will be publishing, but the publishing will be easier, and more integrated into our workflow. In Web 3.0 the culmination of the efforts to move applications to web browsers will be complete. With Web 3.0 all web-based applications will seamlessly publish to an included webspace, and those spaces will automatically generate URLs to be publicly shared when desired.

The race to complete this task will be between Apple and Google. Although Google has a head start with its Documents and Sites products, Apple has been in this game for longer, starting with its attempt to create an online BBS called e-World back in 1994. And Apple is unquestionably the world’s innovator when it comes to creating unique, user-friendly products. Apple has begun this move with its move to iCloud, where users can easily store their photos, and documents created by the iWork suite of web-based apps, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. And already, any of these documents can be shared with others.

But Web 3.0 will be more than just an extension of Web 2.0. It will erase the boundaries between products such as blogs and wikis. It will erase the boundaries between applications, making everything interoperable. And since apps will have moved to the browser, it will be imperative that the web is operated on open standards, so we will finally say goodbye to Flash, with its proprietary infrastructure, and move to a free, open architecture HTML 7. (Note: I am bypassing HTML 6, as I think it will be surpassed already by 2020.)

Web 3.0 will erase the boundaries between people who wish to publish together. Like a wiki, which can be shared, and the history of individual contributions both preserved and viewed, web publishing in Web 3.0 will have this as the default. Perhaps an example is in order. Today, when one writes to a blog such as this one, one can open that blog up to comments. And like this blog, should you comment back on it, that comment will be published for all to see. But unlike the blog itself, the comment is not editable. Why not? Why shouldn’t we each be able to change our minds, improve our writing, delete things we said in haste. Web 3.0 will change that.

So what will all this look like in the classroom? Well, since it is only a mere six years away, and education by nature and design is slow to change, perhaps not all that different looking, except in subtle ways. And perhaps a few not so subtle.

By 2020 ebooks will have become the norm. School districts across the country will have recognized the waste of money it is to purchase textbooks that are beginning to be obsolete nearly as soon as they are printed. Since ebooks can be continuously updated with new text, graphics, animations, etc. at any time, and simply uploaded for users to download, their currency and capabilities will make it obvious they are clearly the better choice. 

The move to ebooks will be one of many reasons all districts will finally commit to providing portable 1:1 computing for all students. This device will be a tablet, which will also run any of the thousands of apps developed for education. The move to tablets, with their reduced storage capacities (when compared to laptops), will coincide with the Web 3.0 capability of online storage for everything. Photos will be stored in places such as Flikr, iCloud, Drive, and Dropbox. Video will be stored in places like YouTube, Vimeo, Drive, iCloud, and Dropbox. The same for documents and audio files. And because Web 3.0 has now standardized publishing with HTML 7, these tablets will be able to create and publish websites as well. There will be no more pages which can’t be viewed! Note to teachers: there will also be no more copiers or paper handouts, everything will be delivered digitally!

The social nature of Web 3.0 will also bring changes to the classroom. Since all students in school in 2020 have been raised with the internet being constantly available, they will use it naturally, seamlessly sharing data and resources with each other, ignoring the constraints of ownership. Contribution will be the defining factor of learning, not a final product. The ability to share, to collaborate, will become the primary means of measuring educational success. 

Since collaboration has become the new standard, previous methods of evaluation will begin to be seen as relics of an education era gone by. No longer will standardized tests, the static measure of progress in 19th and 20th century education, be seen as valid measurements. Since it is now obvious that all information is readily available, the skills of retrieval, manipulation, and synthesis of information will become the new standards of measurement. Student progress will be judged by the ability to connect with other students, to find information, to collaborate with others, and by finding solutions to problems together. 

This will require everyone to make greater, and more precise, use of tagging, along with improved social bookmarking in such sites as diigo and delicious. RSS feeds will be ubiquitous, automatically generating collections which will self-publish in pre-defined categories to web-spaces of our choosing. All tags, feeds, and social bookmarks will conjoin, allowing public mashups which can be republished in new forms. This manipulation of data, now simplified in Web 3.0 using HTML 7, will allow all students, not just those who are avid programmers, to create sites utilizing the work of others to collaborate the creation of new work. And this work will be open for others to use. Imagine Creative Commons on steroids. All student work becomes CC, no attribution. All work is expected to contribute to the work of others.

Education in 2020 will be different than today. It will require teachers to become collaborators as well. Educators will share resources with peers, just as students will be expected to share. At the upper grades, teachers will become facilitators, guiding students toward resources and helping them make connections between prior, current, and future knowledge. The prevalence of video technology and the pervasive use of an improved access to the internet will mean some  teachers will be available at all times for distance education. 

Some things may not change in 2020. We will still have politicians asserting their world views into education. We will still have a society which values sports and entertainment over education. We will still have people fearful of technology, fearful of change, fearful of loss of control. Such is human nature. 

But we will still have hope. And within that hope is the dream that we can use these technological advances to improve and strengthen the education of our children. We can help them use their natural curiosity, and their natural inclination to work together, to create a model which they will carry into adulthood. And in the end, by working together, they will teach us what we should have known in the first place.

Resources

http://sixrevisions.com/resources/the-history-of-the-internet-in-a-nutshell/
Picture of e-World disc by Jim Braley

Look, up in the sky, it's a cloud!

Apple’s iCloud now includes the iWork suite of apps, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. Though, not the first developer to develop web based apps, or even the first try for Apple, this contribution to online webware is significant. 

Like Google docs, Pages documents can now be created and edited in a web browser. Documents are saved to the cloud. The browser can be either Mac or Windows OS. But unlike Google docs, Pages documents can be edited in the Pages app on a Mac, as well as in a browser. And while they haven’t completed the transition to allow them to be edited in the Pages app on iOS (iPads and iPhones), a copy of a Pages document can be downloaded and open in those iOS apps.

Once iCloud is turned on, one uses one’s Apple ID to access documents. Backups are automatic, as is the saving of changes. Documents can be renamed and moved into folders for better organization. One great improvement to this beta version of these apps, is the ability to share them with collaborators. Documents can be shared via iCloud (via Message, Mail, Twitter, or Facebook), or through Mail, Message, iTunes, or any WebDav connection. The owner of a document can revoke sharing of the document at any time, or may make it “view only”.

I would recommend the use of Pages to students for a variety of reasons:

• Automatic backup of work, so work is never lost.
• Availability of iCloud via web browser makes it ideal for students who need to move around using different devices to access work.
• Cloud based storage means documents are always available, no more forgetting work at home or losing work. 
• Flexible documents easily allow the addition of graphics, tables, images, text boxes, and objects- all of which can be placed anywhere on the page (big difference from Google Docs).

Copier, what copier?

This has been an interesting school year. We switched to 1:1 iPads instead of laptops for all our students. And I stopped using the photocopier.

I didn’t go cold turkey. I’ve been weaning myself for a few years now. But I literally have not photocopied a handout yet this year. And we are in the fourth quarter, so it is very likely I just won’t use one at all.

However, in the interest of full disclosure, I have used books in my English classes. I’d rather not. I’d really rather have students try ebooks, but I don’t have any budget for them. So I guess technically I haven’t gone completely paperless. 

But mostly I have. Here’s how: I stopped using composition books for journaling with my English students. We now use Google docs. At the beginning of the year I have them create a folder and share it with me at my Google address. For the rest of the year, every assignment they want to share with me just goes in that folder. 

I add each of them as a contact. Then I create a group for each class and tag them as by group. I can then share any document I like with the class simply by typing the group name. And they get those docs no matter where they are, home sick, in Florida, or in a workshop. They pass in the work by putting it in their folders, which I have moved into folders I have created and arranged by class.

Even better, if there is a link to follow, and video to watch, a form or whatever, links can be embedded in the docs, making it foolproof for students to access the necessary information. 

This is long-winded, yes, and hasn’t really answered some of the questions we were to respond to. So let me add this. For me, given my students’ constant access to technology, my role as a teacher has changed by allowing more interactivity between students, as well as with me and my students. Learning has improved as students have more access to information, and are more interested in pursuing information using digital tools. 

My measurements of learning haven’t changed a whole lot, as I have been using multimedia tools for a long time in my classroom. They are much more common than papers. And finally, using paperless space is so much easier to build learning networks because they are designed to be fluid, flexible, and interactive.Students aren't limited to receiving or doing their work sitting in my classroom. Now their it available everywhere. They don't lose it, can't leave it at home, and can't say they left it in their locker. And so far this year, the dog hasn't eaten anyone's homework!

Try Pushing in the Clutch

Viktor E. Frankl said, “When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.” It strikes me that this is exactly the point for educators today. We cannot move back to a time when teachers were the sage on the stage, our students are just not interested  in learning from one source, or listening to a teacher drone on at the front of the room.  The genie is out of the bottle. 

One way this is evident is in Richardson’s Big Shift 4. In this shift, teaching becomes a conversation, not a lecture. Students are empowered to contribute to their learning. By publishing their work, students see that their learning matters. This shift has already happened in many classrooms, mine included. My students publish all forms of digital work, from blogs, to presentations, to animations and movies. I really don’t lecture anymore, but rely on prompts to springboard discussions. 

But I am interested in using technology. I am interested in changing the way I do things in my classroom if I think it will benefit my students. Probably most teachers feel that way too, at least about changes benefitting students. And this course has helped me see more clearly how and why some of these tools make sense to my students, even helping me re-vision how I might use some of these tools. 

The Big Shifts Will Richardson explained are significant. But they are no longer revolutionary ideas for educators and students who have 1:1 access to computing devices. These shifts have already happened.  For the students, that is. However, teachers are adapting to these shifts as humans adapt to any change, individually and uniquely. 

It is no more realistic to think that teachers have, or will, make these shifts, than it is to assume everyone has gotten rid of their DVD players and now all have BluRay. That is not the way people are. BluRay is clearly a superior technology. It looks and sounds better. Heck, it is even affordable now. But that doesn’t mean we all have adopted that change. I’m guessing there are some people who still even use their cassettes! Change is individual, the unique choice of each person.

Richardson is correct in saying the way we access information has changed. And I agree with the ideas of all ten of his Big Shifts. He is even correct in saying we as educators must change and adapt to and incorporate these shifts into our practice in order to be relevant and effective. So I don’t disagree with the big ideas here.

But in a show of hands, how many of you still don’t have 1:1 computing at your schools? Or reliable wireless? Or internet based content? I’m counting over half the room here. And until that changes for everyone, until we have time and training to become at least comfortable, if not adept, with these technologies, then the times, they ain’t a changing. Teachers need the tools, the training, and the time to become experts, change agents, in this new paradigm. Until then, our system will remain stuck, like an old model car whose transmission has failed, no big shift.

Richardson, Will. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2010. Print.

Connectivism as a Theory

Connectivism is a learning theory proposed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes. It assets that learning comes from an initial connection to something. It has its roots in the concepts of connections as nodes, each interconnected, and each with the potential of spawning new connections. Siemens and Downes drew inspiration for this theory from the behavior of the internet, specifically how Web 2.0 technologies allow people to read, write, interact, and react to each other, with each new comment creating the potential for new learning.

There are those who counter that Connectivism is not a learning theory. They argue that the process of learning cannot be observed, only the results of learning can be proven. They also argue that the theory depends too much on the use of the internet as the basis for learning, arguing that if the internet were to go away, learning would not. Clearly that is true. Learning occurred long before the internet existed, and occurs in countless places where people have no access to it.

However, what that argument ignores is that Connectivism is about learning through connections. We learn when we make a connection. That the theory uses the workings of the internet as a basis of example, does not then lead to the conclusion that other examples cannot be made. So let me provide another. 

Classes have been taught for years without the use of the internet. In those classes, people interact and make connections. In making those connections, new information is shared, and learning occurs. While it is true that the learning might be different for different people, it is also true that the learning that occurred in those instances, would not have occurred without the connection which was initially made. Thus the learning itself occurred as a result of the reaction from the connection. And that makes Connectivism a learning theory.

Link to anti-Connectivism wiki

Link to pro-Connectivism wiki

Heartbleed- just another reason to change your passwords

Encyryption is the way internet data is kept safe in transit. Data is encrypted, and given an encryption key necessary for it to be unencrypted. The Heartbleed bug is a flaw in the encryption used by many sites. It has been around for a couple of years, potentially exposing personal data in such sites as Google and Facebook. 

Yes, it is time to change passwords folks. Now. 

For a great list on what sites may be affected, read the Mashable article below...


FMY on Mashable.com- "The Heartbleed Hit List: The Passwords You Need to Change Right Now"

Skype Hunting

Somehow, in the span of about a decade, it became normal to be able to be able to click a few buttons and magically see and speak to someone in real time hundreds of miles away. For free.

Using the magic we call Skype, Jenn and I had quite the discussion last night. We spoke of many things, and I got to meet her adorable daughter, who is determined to become an artist. (Or so it seemed.) And during this video chat, I was amazed, as always, that we can even do such a thing.

It is good to be full of wonder.

You see, I'm not only old enough to remember rotary phones, but when I was a kid we actually had party lines. And I'm not talking about Democrats and Republicans. Nope, a party line was shared by several people, which in my case, all lived on the same street in my small hometown. So when the phone rang, which wasn't that often, you had to listen to how many rings, as they told you who the call was for.

But last night I clicked my heels and was magically transported to a den in Pennsylvania, watching a mother multitask, and remembering how hard parenting can be. (My youngest is 25, it's been a while.)

And while Jenn managed keeping her darling little one entertained, we spoke of distance education. I am interested in facilitating online courses, so was very interested in picking Jenn's brain. It struck me that we were doing a kind of professional development. We were sharing some experiences and helping each other envision new ways of doing things.

It's a far cry from the party line.

Some things considered

Ok, it's not NPR. Not even close. But it is an attempt at a new vision for a student run paper. We can not only write articles, but we can post podcasts, maybe even interviews, which we can include on our website. 

And introducing this exciting new concept is (nope, not Robert Seigel)...me. Sorry folks.

Here is the link for the Weekend Edition of All Things Considered.


And I'm also adding a link back to the podcast page of our class wiki.

And for the copyright freaks out there, I wrote, performed and recorded the theme music of my podcast.

Wait, that's not snow!

The Flikr Photostream creates a live, updating collection of one's photos. Some people have elected to have their Flikr photo stream (where I got the picture above) listed as Creative Commons Attribution, which means anyone can use that photo in these ways:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

So I thought, what if my students create a story of just pictures, all CC attribution, that they take themselves and upload to a common Flikr account? I can embed a feed from that account into my website and we can watch the story unfold. 

The story can then become a writing assignment, which each student telling what s/he thinks the pictures are saying.

Now obviously I would have to be very clear with the students what kinds of pictures are acceptable! And they would need to clear each one with me before uploading to the photostream. They would also have to agree to the CC Attribution. But those considerations aside, we could have a very creative opportunity here!

CC Attribution License:
Sebilden. (2014, February 28). First signs of spring. sebilden's Photostream. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/sebilden/12837849513/in/photostream/.