talkingaboutschoolandsociety

=Introduction=

Thanks to Marc, Patrick, Dean, and to those in attendance.

Opening Discussion:
Technology in education is a complex issue, but one that needs a variety of voices and experiences. Educational technology goes back a long way, and I wanted to start with getting some feedback here on some of your earliest memories of using any sort of technology in learning, in or outside of school.

=**Context**=

Technology has Changed: (Alec)
When I think back to my Apple ][c, there are a number of differences. - processing speed and storage - today's mobile phones have many times the processing. - multimedia, on demand video and audio. - abundance of information, we no longer have a condition where we have to go to school to get information. - creation vs. consumption (rise of democratic media, user-generated content) - human connections, we can connect to people and groups across the planet quickly and easily.

The World Has Changed Around Us - **The World is now Flat (Dean)**

 * 1) **Collapse of Berlin Wall**--11/89: The event not only symbolized the end of the Cold war, it allowed people from other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream. (11/09/1989)....**Providing a more equal playing field**
 * 2) **Netscape:** Netscape and the Web broadened the audience for the Internet from its roots as a communications medium used primarily by 'early adopters and geeks' to something that made the Internet accessible to everyone from five-year-olds to eighty-five-year olds. (8/9/1995)....**Addressed the Digital Divide**.
 * 3) **Open sourcing:** Communities uploading and collaborating on online projects. Examples include open source software, blogs, and Wikipedia. Friedman considers the phenomenon "**the most disruptive force of all**."
 * 4) **Outsourcing:** Friedman argues that outsourcing has allowed companies to split service and manufacturing activities into components, with each component performed in most efficient, cost-effective way. **Drive thru at McDonalds and Accountant in India**
 * 5) **In-forming:** Google and other search engines are the prime example. "Never before in the history of the planet have so many people-on their own-had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people", writes Friedman.
 * 6) **"The Steroids":** Personal digital devices like mobile phones, iPods, personal digital assistants, instant messaging, and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). **This has been seen most disruptive as of late**.

Friedman talks about the kind of person that will be successful in the future:
 * **Special workers** – workers whose extraordinary skill and talent make them irreplaceable
 * **Specialized workers** – those with specialized knowledge
 * **Anchored workers** – those whose physical location is important
 * **Really adaptable workers** – those who continually evolve

Hard to ignore these changes. Consider how they impact everything we do. Do you think these changes might have an impact on how we educate?

=Emerging Issues:=


 * New Literacies:** What are the new important literacies? Are our schools and teachers equipped to teach and support learning in the 21st century? If not, how do we need to prepare teachers differently?


 * Information Abundance vs. Scarcity:** With so much information available, literally at our fingertips, should the role of schooling change? What sort of things should be taught in schools today? Do we need schools? Do we need to acknowledge the rise of informal learning opportunities.


 * Information Filtering and Management:** How do we handle the challenges of information exasperation? How do we determine what is worth reading? What is worth producing? What is worth doing? What about the inappropriate nature of much of the media and activities found online? Does access to this media harm children or adults? And how should schools react? How should parents react? Is there a role for gatekeeper of knowledge, or do we need to help our children learn to sift and form better relationships with knowledge?


 * Technological Determinism vs. Instrumentalism:** How is technology transforming the way we look at our world? Is Facebook or MSN or World of Warcraft changing the way we view relationships, friendships, communities?


 * Informal Learning & Social Networks:** How do we embrace students today who, in some cases, seem highly connected through devices. How are they connecting? Are they learning? What are they learning? Can we leverage this in teaching and learning? Or, should we follow suit with many educational institutions by banning mobile phones? By banning laptops? Is there a cultural shift needed?


 * Role of Teachers:** What about this control? In regards to terminology, we have moved in some ways from teacher, to facilitator or coach. What does this shift mean? Is it meaningful?


 * Control of Information & Technology:** And finally, in regard to control in the bigger scene, what about the issues regarding the control of information? We now live, as Lessig refers to it as "an age of prohibitions" where more people live outside of the law than people live within it. We have music and video downloading - P2P, bittorrent, jailbreaking devices, DRM ... there is a constant battle among copyright holders, corporations, creators, and consumers. What will the outcome of this battle be? Will we maintain a place where cultural can thrive? Will our children have a neutral net environment where all voices are heard equally? Or, will this time, this conversation about all of these issues slowly fade away with our freedoms.

**Examples:**
1. Thin Walls Classroom....Clarence Fisher 2. The Craik Story......Cellphones in Education 3. Starting Young...Kathy Cassidy 4. Creating Digital Footprints...Laura Stockman (I might bring Sheryl in to talk about this one)

We live in an incredibly exciting time. While we have many challenges, it is important to maintain perspective. We live in a time that we can fly in seats in the air, that we can connect to people across the world with little technical knowledge or expense, and we live in an age where information is more abundant than we ever dreamed. But, as I have listed here, there are many important issues to consider, and that's why we are here today. Thanks for taking part of this important discussion.