Copy Right!

I thought on so many lines which I could write about when it comes to this topic. Kim’s link to Larry Lessig’s TED Talk did speak about how the past relates to future when it comes to laws which are incompatible and have a hard time keeping up with fast paced innovations.

It also brings to mind ‘Napster’ and all what followed – commonly known as P2P revolution. but the image above represents what came to my mind instantly when thinking about (c)opyright. I currently work and live in China and this country is known to be ignorant of words like copyright or intellectual property and it has a profound effect on the perceptions and minds of people who belong to this land or have spend parts of their lives here. It slowly becomes acceptable to observe and be part of the erosion of these concepts in our life. We indulge in purchase of knock offs and copied/cloned

articles of merchandise  in the multitude of shops and on Tao Bao. At the same time we consume a huge amount of entertainment media at zero cost when in other places in the world we would have to pay an appropriate sum of money to compensate for the work.

The discussion to have with not only students but also adult is a difficult one. The respect and worth of someone’s work needs to be explained in practical terms not only by words but also by actions, examples and better yet with a project which involves creation of content or a product by the students themselves.

When the efforts, time and even money is spent in creation of an object or content the realisation of the effects of ‘piracy’ becomes clear. As Larry rightly says in his TED Talk that extreme cannot be fought with extremism. There has to be a right balance to allow the creativity flourish and the respect of intellectual property given where it’s due. A parody of Gangnam Style by WAB‘s Grade 10 students was made about 2 years back and it earned them due praise as well as a great discussion on copyright and remixing.

At WAB we have a thriving ‘Broadcast Team‘ which covers and livestreams WAB events and is totally run by students. Students not only learn the creative arts of filming and commentating as well as handling the tech gadgets involved but also respect of intellectual property and an understanding of copyright. We had several speakers and theatrical productions where student teams sought appropriate licensing permissions

including rights to record and broadcast live to Internet audience. Librarians work hard with students to instil the understanding of copyright, fair use, acknowledgements, citations and at the same time water the seed of creativity in students.

I believe that if we continue to educate our next generations the joys of remixing with respect of original content and understanding of ‘livelihood’ for the creators of content we will be successful in striking the ‘balance’ Larry speak about in his talk. At WAB this is being done beautiful despite the DVD shop next door which sells all the latest released of Hollywood at 3US$ a piece and the one next to it continues to flourish selling fake Samsung Note phablets for 200US$ 🙂

The story of Adam, Eve and the garden of…

This video, I found, while looking for resources online for this week’s post is mind blowing! I was surprised at the mediocre applause at the end of Alessandro’s talk compared to the one for Eli’s titled ‘Filter Bubble’ featured in Kim’s post about this week’s work and I could not stop wondering if this was because it is only I who didn’t know about the depth of issues discussed by Alessandro? or is it because the audience in that TED Talk didn’t realise the gravity of the situation as well as he did? or is it because of his Italian accent? 🙂 I would like to think it’s his accent but I am more inclined to believe that the audience didn’t actually sense the seriousness of what he revealed by way of the results

from his experiments. I think we have truly and wholly become a ‘consumer’ and ‘feel happy’ society! The chemicals in our brain which shoot off at the thought of a new iPhone and Apple Watch numbs the sections of brain which should be seeing the link between the matter of privacy Alessandro touched upon in his talk and the ‘new’ features from iOS 8 which would now obtain, record and use our extremely personal and considerably important data from integrated health monitors.

The topic discussed in last week’s blog post and this week are intertwined in so many ways. I cannot stop thinking about how our understanding of ‘privacy’ online relates to our ‘digital footprints’. Does the discovery about how tech companies and governments use the algorithms and ‘big data’ to target us for their own financial and security gains define our use of the cyber world? and what information we leave behind while interacting with the Internet! At least I do for my part. Since the advent of Web 2.0 technologies I have been reading, thinking and embracing these technologies with caution and understanding. Even then I know that there are so many ways that I am leaving ‘important, personal and trackable’ data behind me in this vast and unerasable world of 1s and 0s. For example the current professionally oriented and well designed website of our dear Kim Cofino is vastly different from the very basic and personal website of hers back in 2008!

Digital footprints and Privacy are two important links in the chain of ‘digital citizenship’ we ought to be unraveling for our young generations who are living and breathing data 24/7 and conveying the underlying message in Alessandro’s talk about autonomy, freedom and huge cost of our privacy we may have to pay for the temporary benefits we get when we pour our personal information out into the ‘big data’!

Living in the Information Age

Last week, at a conference I attended one workshop of Darren in which he discussed the Digital Ethics. We watched this video (below). It created a stir among the participants. I heard expressions like ‘creepy’, ‘dangerous’, ‘oh wow’. There was a sense of ‘insecurity’ from the teachers in the room about social media.

When discussed, most people expressed unease in knowing their students via social media and the kind of complicated situations it can lead to.

My point of view on this topic are in line with the thoughts I touched upon in course 1 and that is about considering technology as a wonderful tool and means of fulfilling our thirst to discover, create, share and celebrate ‘knowledge’. The key principle to observe is to consider technology and cyber world as an extension of our real selves and to come forward in our online interactions similar to the real life. What is unacceptable in our daily life stays unacceptable in virtual life. If we approach the information age with this mindset I see only positive outcomes and it stands true for students as much as it is for teachers.

I have been an avid user of technology hence did not classify myself as a ‘digital immigrant’ even though I am not ‘technically’ from the age of ‘digital natives’ or maybe I totally missed the point of Marc Prensky. I am more inclined to conform to the conclusion of C. Brown & L. Czerniewicz in their research on the topic of digital natives and immigrants where they write ‘It is crucial that we as educators, as academics and as educational technologists reject deterministic and exclusionary labels and actively change this discourse’. Another conclusion by Gerald Haigh on this study that I find interesting states ‘Use of technology varies with age, but it does so predictably, over the whole age span. And secondly, although younger people are more likely to be positive about technology, there is evidence that a good attitude to technology, at any age, correlates with good study habits.’.

 I reluctantly joined Facebook in 2008 but since then have developed my use of social media in line with my real life and it has been a wonderful experience enriching my knowledge and life. My current digital foot print, thought I am not convinced of it’s accuracy (I believe it is more than that) came out to be:

but that is just based on the questions this digital footprint calculator asks. It may be right 😉 in which case I have to do more creative writing in my blog posts 🙂

Information Technology: Evolution or Revolution?

In my reflective post I would like to discuss my findings and understanding on this question about classifying information technology as evolutionary or revolutionary!

In a recent conference I asked the question to some participants and a majority of them tended towards the term ‘evolutionary’ and only a few considered technology as ‘revolutionary’. There seemed to be a concern that mentioning technology as revolutionary may scare some educators hence their choice!

I would refer to this excellent article dated 2012 I found on the topic of my blog post and you will read that the presenter touches upon some of the underlying principles of ‘education’ with eloquence, well suited vocabulary and and educator’s approach which I discussed in my posts for this course. In contrst to this a book ‘Information Technologies and Social transformation’ published back in 1985, in it’s chapter entitled ‘The Information Age: Evolution or Revolution?’ mentions in context of the British Industrial Revolution that “technology does not occur in vacuum. Instead it occurs in a social matrix and interacts with the society. Thus, despite the evolutionary nature of it’s individual technical components, the British Industrial Revolution marked a truly revolutionary transformation because it changed where and how people worked, lived, thought, played and prayed.’ The chapter concludes with the statement about information age: ‘While it might be evolutionary, in the sense that all the changes and benefits will not appear overnight, it will be revolutionary in its effect upon our society.’

While reading the ‘criticism’ section on the article of ‘Educational Technology’ I suddenly wanted to check the wikirating of this article which brought me to the criticism of the criticism part and that was an even more interesting read. Another article which did not attend to my topic of interest directly but touched upon the subject in some indirect way can be found at this link.

I do not feel I have found the answer yet but I have certainly made advancements in my understanding of the question which I have asked myself and my audience. I am keen to continue seeking more sources of information online and offline as well as design and carry out an action research. I very much hope and make commitment to myself that I will dedicate 2 hours every week from my busy work and personal schedule to dedicate to this and find partners in my quest from the school where I work. How fortunate am I to have these possibilities and access to such invaluable sources of knowledge.

I participated in active classroom teaching for this project of my COETAIL Course 1 with my colleague at  Western Academy of Beijing and used my learnings from this course in designing a unit for ITGS (Information Technology in Global Society) class on Digital Multimedia. The UbD document is attached below:

Empathy

Empathy is one of the words and human quality I always keep myself aware of, in all circumstances. How does that connect and work in terms of technology? In my humble opinion empathy has a strong connection with technology. All we need is to ‘notice’ and ‘appreciate’ that connection. As I said before, technology is nothing but a modern way we, humans,  have devised to assist in acquiring, processing, storing and sharing the information we collect about the universe around us. 21st century learning is not limited to ‘technology’ and at least I have stopped to think of this term in sense of it’s ‘technological’ connection. Humans can still learn, equally good, without the aid of 21st century technology. I have seen and continue to see examples of this and I am sure this will not stop even when we step into 22nd and subsequent centuries. However, we developed technology for a reason and it indeed has it’s prime place in our learning process today. We need to teach ourselves and our young ones the meaning of knowledge, have them appreciate the human qualities of inquiry, creativity and most of all empathy. Basics and fundamentals of technology need to be understood before indulging ourselves in the wild cyber west of information overload. Combine that with empathy and technology will do wonders not only in our endeavour of gaining knowledge but also in all aspects of human lives.

I hope to find a teacher in my school who will allow me to work with them in future courses of my COETAIL journey to share, discuss and have an action research project while incorporating my thoughts expressed in this course about technology and it’s role in education and future of humanity.

Learning through digital tools

I am not a teacher in it’s traditional and commonly understood sense but have I taught? Yes. Foremost and more importantly I have taught myself a plethora of information and skills. I tend to think that I have been successful to a good extent in retaining what I learned. Technology played a vital role in my learning process even though I am a child of 20th century but my quest and thirst for knowledge found no hinderance in jumping from libraries to computers to Internet and from books to software to apps and websites! I made it through this journey successfully and mostly on my own when it comes to understanding and deploying technology to complete my tasks and achieve the intended goals.

Today, I rely on technology as my most important communication tool to keep me in touch with my loved ones. I rely on technology to organise my life, arrange my travels, seek knowledge on new things which I come across. I have myself as a good example to use when I do get a chance to teach someone. I am often delivering teacher training or being asked to take and cover classes for high school students when they are in their course units relevant to my experiences and expertise.

While I coach I always refer to technology in the way I experienced it in my own learning experiences. I believe in fundamentals. I am always stressing on ‘understanding the basics’ which I believe help us in adapting and connecting to any new methods of learning specially when it comes to technology. My philosophy in adaptation of technology for learning was strengthened by attending the sessions of Alan November in one of the conferences. Technology is only but an improved and faster means we, humans, have developed to assist us in processing information we collect, analyse, store and share. All the new learning methods and models are devised to help us and young learners understand the ways to feel comfortable with and adapt technology to aid our personal learning journeys.

Blooms and SAMR

I have come across, read about and understand these terms. I hear them in the conferences I attend, from the ‘technology’ teachers or ‘coaches’ as they are now starting to be called and it all brings me back to the same question: Why all these new terms to explain the same old quest and thirst for excelling in gathering, understanding and sharing the knowledge about what is around us.

• How do these terms help us?
• Does following these learning models make an average learner an outstanding one?
• Do they improve learning?

… so many questions come up in my mind and I seek their answers. I am sure many educators and even those who are not in the ‘business’ of education have these questions. After all these questions are linked to survival of humanity. Aren’t they? For me they are. What do you think?

I feel the need to reconnect to the concept of 21st century learning as mentioned in my first post: Does that mean learning through technology or shall it represent all of today’s ‘different’ ways of seeking and gaining knowledge? I tend to lean towards the later.

I see technology in abundant use in schools today, specially those serving the influential parts of our societies. Then there are those where ‘traditional’ methods of learning are still in full swing oblivious to the rapidly expanding  technological evolution all around us. I may say there is a ‘disconnect’ between technology and education in a lot of schools around the world. In my country of origin I have yet to see a relevant example where technology has been incorporated in everyday scholastic learning. There seems to be absolutely no need of technology to ‘disrupt’ the way things have been done. After all same results, or even better in some cases, are being produced so why bother!

This touches upon the line of my inquiry for this course. Is technology the only or the ‘best’ modern way of obtaining knowledge and help us learning? The answer becomes more any more clear to me as I look around myself and analyse the information I obtain.

Technology, Communication and Information

Technology has been, from it’s inception, used primarily to develop new ways to communicate the information we acquire. It was true for books (publishing) and continues in forms of electrical and electronic methods. After all computers also speak a language and transfer ‘information’ we call data. I think that we, humans, created technology to mimic our own self. A brain which can compute, memory where information can be stored, ‘share’ information through ‘languages’ – we even call them ‘languages’. Cameras and microphones to provide the input, output, screen which perform the same functions as our face and hands i.e. express and provide information to the one we interact with. Technology is human creativity stretched further. A religious text comes to mind: ‘God created man in His own image’! and so did man when imagining and inventing computational technology. Here lies our intimate connection to technology. We shouldn’t loose this connection and ‘purpose’. Information and Communication Technology was created to assist us in the quest to seek and share knowledge, and it exists to act as an extension to ourselves. It mimics all the human functions – and we continue to improve the technology to compute more and faster, store more, over longer periods of time and share the knowledge with each other.

I also see fear in adaption of technology. This is often talked about in schools and educational circles. More terms were coined: ‘flipped classroom’, ‘blended learning’ to assist us in combating these fears and bringing this ‘new human clone’ into the methods of learning. So, can technology take the role of an educator? is it just like a human but simply on super steroids? and if yes then what is the role of a ‘teacher’ in today’s world.

21st Century Learning

This word had me search the net to find it’s true meaning. I was unable to grasp the meaning of it in it’s true sense as the creator of the word intended. Did he really mean learning through technology? or he meant to grasp all the new ways in which we learn today? What does it really mean?

Looking up 21st Century on Wikipedia tells me that it started on 1st January 2001 and will end on December 31st 2100! Will we still be calling it 21st century learning on December 30th 2100? My wild guess is… ‘NO’.

We, humans, are clever at coining new terms to express ourselves or, as I find in this case, to prove that we understand and are in ‘tune’ with the modernisation of our times. Prove to who? I wonder!

Coming back to the term 21st century learning and my understanding of it. In my honest opinion learning has been based, from the beginning of times till today, on the same deeply engrained human natures of curiousness, exploration and a desire to know the world around us. We, humans, created, languages to communicate with each other, sciences to explore the world around us, history and geography to record our findings and experiences, religions to try and give some meaning to what we cannot explain or understand. In the context of ‘learning’ or as I prefer to put it ‘acquiring knowledge’ we have gained a wealth of knowledge about our surroundings and technology, for me, is only another way we have advanced the means and ways to fulfil our ancient thirst for ‘knowledge’ and in doing this, my concern is, we have lost and are continuously loosing some of our inherent human skills: ability to store information in our brains, perform extremely complex tasks such as analysing data to extract information in order to obtain results, and most of all respecting and fulfilling our most basic human need – the human touch.

In this set of blog posts for course 1 of my COETAIL journey I would like to explore the ways in technology can be used not only to enhance learning but also to assist in maintaining our human nature to its true self. After all, it is those qualities which brought about this technological revolution. I, for myself, want to make sure that technology does not rip apart the most important quality of a human being i.e. thirst for knowledge.