The Open EDge

Throughout the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to present a number of sessions and panels related to Web 2.0 and social networking in education at several conferences, including the Consortium of School Networking Professionals K12 School Networking Conference in Washington D.C., the Computer Using Educators conference in Palm Springs, CA, and the Community College Foundations's TechEd 2008 in Ontario, CA. If you attended my sessions, thank you very much! It was thrilling to see so many educators excited and engaged in the discussion about the potential of Web 2.0 in schools. I personally believe that social networking tools can change the way we think about educational content creation, student and teacher interaction, collaborative, project based learning, and 21st century skills as a whole.

I have already posted some great social networking related content on this site (like here, here, and here), but, for those of you with whom I have been unable to connect, I thought I'd post a recording of the session. Enjoy!

[ Download - audio/mp3 ]

Below is a list of a few of my favorite open source applications for the desktop. Most are available for any platform, and many are available on the OpenDisc for Windows systems (which you can download here, or, if you are a Saugus employee, simply ask and we'll send you one.) It's important to keep in mind that these applications:

• Are free
• Can be given to students to install and use at home
• Offer educators the opportunity to introduce new technologies in their educational environement
• Provide essential skills that are transferrable to applications of similar types in the commercial world

Each year, the Consortium of School Networking Professionals (CoSN) holds the premier national technology leadership conference dedicated to policy and effective implementation from school district, state and national perspectives. The conference attracts more than 1000 key technology decision-makers seeking to learn from other leaders as we define the future of information and communication technologies in our nation's schools.

As a part of this excellent conference, I was offered the opportunity to lead a session entitled "Virtualization and Consolidation: The 21st Century Network Infrastructure," in which I covered a variety of topics related to server and storage virtualization.

Enjoy! (approx 1 hr.)


Download mp3

Wow - it's been a busy couple of weeks out there in conference-land, with CUE and CoSN back-to-back this year. I was personally involved in a total of 7 presentations and panels on both coasts across the two conferences. On Friday afternoon at CUE, Steve Hargadon hosted a live panel on Social Networking in Education (on the EdTechLive channel on Ustream.tv.) Panelists included:

• Jim Klein (Me) - Director of Information Services & Technology, Saugus Union School District
• Sylvia Martinez - President, Generation Yes
  
• Dennis O'Connor - Consultant/Program Coordinator, E-Leaning & Online Teaching, University of Wisconsin-Stout
• David Jakes - Instructional Technology Coordinator, Community High School District 99, Downers Grove, Illinois
• Mark Wagner - President, Education Technology& Life Corp.

We had a lively discussion with a great group on the merits of social networking in K12 education - I hope you enjoy it. Running time: approx. 60 minutes.

Yesterday, I participated in an excellent discussion on Creative Commons, Open Content, and Copyright, hosted by Steve Hargadon for the new Classroom 2.0 Live Discussions series. The panelists for the discussion included:

• Wesley Fryer - Director of Education Advocacy for AT&T in the state of Oklahoma
• Julie Linder - Education Outreach Coordinator, Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Judy Salpeter - Contributing Editor, Technology and Learning Magazine
• Scott Merrick - LS Tech Coordinator/Teacher-in-residence, University School of Nashville/Vanderbilt University
• Jim Klein (Me) - Director IS & T, Saugus Union School District

As educators' adoption of Web 2.0 technologies continues to grow, and as students and teachers continue to move from mere content consuming toward content creation, copyright and licensing issues will undoubtedly represent some of the greatest challenges in the learning environment. It is critical that we, as tech-savvy educators, endeavor to not only understand the issues at play, but also that we find ways to foster discussions around the topic of "digital citizenship" in our environments, and seek every opportunity to share our knowledge effectively with our peers.

Click below to listen to the podcast (approx. 1 hr):

Download mp3

The notes from the discussion are here, and the chat log, which contains a number of great links to valuable resources is here.

Our next, live conversation is scheduled to take place on February 20, 2008 at 12pm Pacific, 3pm Eastern on Talkshoe. Feel free to join the conversation!

ISTE (the International Society for Technology in Education) has posted a feature article from the February/March issue of Learning and Leading with Technology entitled "Social Networking for the K-12 Set," written by yours truly. In the article, I discuss the potential of social networking tools, the development of the SUSD Teacher and Student Community sites, (you're in the SUSD Teacher Community site now,) and the impact that their use has had on our education environment.
This article also offers an example of a successful open- source based education technology project in every respect. Not only did we leverage open-source resources and the community around them, but we also made modifications to the software necessary to fit our environment, and have made the new code available to the community at large, in true open-source fashion (you can find the latest version of the code here.)
There has been much talk of Web 2.0 in education these days, with social networking tools receiving much attention. I, for one, believe that social networking tools have the potential to change the way we think about education and community, by providing a platform upon which 21st century skills can be nurtured and developed in both students AND teachers. The trick is to figure out how to do it well, and to create a safe, effective, and comfortable environment for students and teachers to work in. (I discussed some of the reasons I believe social networking has yet to see wide educational acceptance/use in my post, "Why Hasn't Social Networking Taken Off in K-12 Education?" from last April - check it out, and let me know what you think.)
For more information on open technologies, visit the CoSN Open Technologies Initiative web site at http://k12opentech.org. There you will find a wealth of relevant information for K-20 educators on open-source, open standards, and open content.

Lawrence Lessig is perhaps the most prolific proponent of open content and copyright reform in the nation. He is the former CEO and continuing board member of the Creative Commons organization. His talks are always inspiring, thought provoking, and controversial, yet, in my view, foundational to our understanding of content and freedom in the digital age.