On Monday, after the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, I remembered those block towers and watched children play again (I’ve been long term subbing as a team teacher in a classroom with K, 1st and 2nd graders.) Many of the students hadn’t heard the news, and most of them were spared the kind of graphic descriptions and images modern reporting makes possible–but not all of them. And one student has family in Mumbai (not physically hurt in the attack). We had some simple discussions. We expressed care and love for our classmate who will soon travel to India to see his family. He’s bringing our Flat Stanley visitor with him on the trip, as well as cards and notes with classmates’ well-wishes. Mumbai hasn’t bubbled up in play, yet–although it has in a few conversations.

Today, Wednesday, many of our students began “constructing” toys: building them with tape and paper, drawing with pencils, and bits of plastic strips one student had brought in from the recent home installation of a hot water heater. Some students were asking the best construction engineers in our class to create models for them. Other students were elaborating on the theme, adding attachments and enhancements. It was a quiet classroom fascination during indoor recess (weather didn’t allow us to go outside).

Today’s play was a reflection of our changing world, I thought, and I was a bit relieved to think it wasn’t a reaction to scary times. I found watching this day’s play helped me. It helped me to be hopeful about a peaceful future. These 5, 6, and 7 year olds weren’t building guns, or laser weapons. They weren’t fighting space battles or bad people (although they’ve been known to do that!). They were getting connected, they were creating a flat world. They built miniature Ipods and handhelds. They drew on screens, control wheels, speaker grills. One student constructed a docking station for his, and then went on to build a miniature computer, and removable flash drive.

It’s a connected world, alright.

This year, I’m pleased to drop the administrative hat and concentrate on teaching. Catching up will take a little bit.  I’ve hundreds of blog posts to read waiting in my RSS feeder, and new (to me) products and services to evaluate (for instance, what are the latest options for student blogging? It’s been a year since I checked that out!).  I’ll be checking back in with the people and blogs who were so inspiring to me to start with–everyone from Will Richardson to Rick Biche.  I have a new colleague or two who I expect will be leading me into new, cool tools and effective practices, too.  I want to read about what has been going on with gaming and online collaboration. I want to experiment with “wow” services like Twitter and see if they’ll really be useful and who they will be useful to. I’m really looking forward to resuming reflective practice.

We’ve managed to cope, what with wonderful scenery, week-long visits from grandparents, daytrips to shopping meccas (the Maine Mall in Portland), the release of the Harry Potter movie and book, bringing home fish for a sushi-making session which everyone partook in…

But still, we did find that we needed to feed the internet demon (it was the only way to book airline flights, and other necessities–the phone line just wasn’t cutting it, honest!) and took a trip into Boothbay Harbor. There, the public library has a T1 line and wireless access 24/7, even when they are not open! Plus, the nearby wireless Cafe really knows how to create a fine cup of brew! Here I am, flanked by Nathan and Corwin (he’s got his dad’s laptop), at the counter of the Moose Head Cafe.

I’ll drop back off the network in a little while. Honest. We’ll go mackeral fishing off the pier. Just let the tide come in a little bit more…

My children have led me into new uses of technology ever since they were little. It’s happened again!

The Back Story

12 years ago, when we brought my two older boys away from school for half the school year, to rural New England, we learned how to get a computer in the public library to dial up and log on to another computer at a university in our hometown (techno-babble term: telnet). My children’s classmates also had logged onto the hometown computer from their classroom, and people from the two locations typed messages which appeared at both locations, thus enabling classmates and teachers to “chat” long distance.

Years later, when we were vacationing away from home, our boys figured out they could play a role-playing game (RPG) with their friends back home, and with no long distance charges, by using the “voice chat” option in IM (techno-babble: using an “Instant Message” computer program to transmit sounds back and forth in real-time).

Now, I have one son using an online project monitoring program to coordinate collaborative efforts of a team of writers and editors–most of whom have published together before, but never met in real life.

And Now…

I’m at Autism Network International’s Autreat (a conference/retreat run by and for autistic people-read the web site for a better description) with one of my sons. People came from Japan, Canada, Israel, and the U.S. for the event. One presenter set up an informal discussion session about the future of their aims and the direction members want to pursue. He had a projector on the screen at the front of the room, and it showed the window of an IRC chat channel that had been set up for this. A typist was at the keyboard, transcribing the discussion in the room onto the chat channel. The presenter moderated, passing a microphone to people in the room, taking time now and again to read aloud the comments being posted in the chat channel from members who were not physically present, and passing along questions or comments from those physically present to those present in the chat room. The typist had her hands full from time to time, but the people in the room helped her recap, and everyone was valuing the inputs. It was a rich discussion, enhanced by those who joined via the internet–people from Britain, the Netherlands, Georgia (U.S.), and so on who could not join us physically.

It was amazing! The level of discussion, the consideration of everyone including each other in genuine discussion, the head-spinning ability to ask “so and so, what’s your experience with government regulation of this educational program in Britain?”

I had no idea what a wonderful resource IRC could be. Frankly, I’d overlooked it, assuming it would be too clunky and slow, difficult to use. Yet, here I was barely keeping up with the conversation sometimes. I am aware that it was the conversation, and the people having it, that made the session so wonderful–but their use of this tool was superb, and they used it to enhance their ability to have a genuine interaction–to connect.

And it wasn’t a fluke, there was another discussion later that evening–different topic, different moderator, same rich quality and international connections.

I’m so glad my children are educating me!

Photo: “Lead Me” courtesy Spleenboy http://www.flickr.com/photos/spleenboy/270741497/

Anyhow, here’s my first voice avatar. I’m putting her in the sidebar–if this works.

UPDATE:  It worked, and was fun, but I don’t think added much to the conversation.  One of my children found it annoying as he reads lips to confirm his auditory processing, and the lips weren’t really exactly my real-world expressions. I used the email feature and that was great fun.  For now, I will take the VOKI off the sidebar, but will keep it in mind as I am putting together a unit on creating online personae and the choices we make in doing so.

First, this brave young man’s Eagle Scout project as pointed out by Karl Fisch on his blog:

“First, please download and watch this movie (18.4 MB, 11:36). Then think about how often we stamp “can’t” on somebody’s forehead.”

The Fischbowl: Ability Awareness

Second, this Edutopia article: Overcoming Underachievement which showed how a short self-affirmation essay at the start of the term buoyed up students — and gave them a psychological inoculation against something called stereotype threat — so that their performances improved and stayed improved. While the same short exercise wasn’t seen to have the same extra benefits for those students in the majority, they aren’t subject to stereotype threat.  I recommend this article as a good read for all of us.

That got me to thinking about those wise educators whose words stirred a similar “that’s so right” gut reaction in me. They are from many different fields, but their messages carry the same voice.

Quakers talk about “that of God in everyone.” I have heard several say that sitting in silence helps them to focus on “the still, small voice within.” A favorite song declares “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” They treat children as beings to be listened to and respected, as they have the potential to speak truth to us because they share “that of God.”

Conflict resolution methods often start with getting each side of a conflict a chance to speak, and to know that they are heard (for examples, “Google” active listening).

Multicultural and diversity awareness educators I’ve known say that we should always start with connecting to each person where they are. Getting to know, and accept the “other’s” values and culture should begin by examining and sharing your own.

Helping someone with an Exceptionality (Differently-abled People, People with Learning Differences (gifts, delays, and challenges)) entails beginning with an examination and evaluation of the person in question — I have colleagues whose mantra is “begin with the child”or “the child is your handbook.”

Affirmation is a powerful thing. No wonder so many wonderful, wise educators begin there.

Privilege is like that–it’s easy to assume everyone else gets the same courteous treatment from the bankers/employers/schoolteachers in their lives that we get, until someone helps us to see the different treatment that still does happen to others whose group identity is different.

I began to understand how easy it is to overlook my own privileges when, in 9th grade, I interviewed a local community leader for a report on civil unrest and learned that there were no pharmacies in his end of town, because bankers weren’t willing to back a business in that neighborhood. That community leader helped me look at something I’d taken for granted (people willing to invest in my community) from the point of view of those less privileged.

Looking at my own situation from someone else’s point of view, and looking at someone else’s situation from their point of view, are not easy things to do–without help. I believe it is a very necessary thing, however, if we are to have social justice in this world. It helps me to be a better communicator to know my audience. It helps me be more effective as an educator. It helps me to know where I need to become an activist, a cheerleader, a philanthropist, a supplicant.

So, I would like to thank those people who have shared their point of view with me lately:

The concerned educators and other professionals forming learning communities (a la social networks at ning.com) around stopping cyberbullying and around developing our teaching skills and tools for the web 2.0 world.

The teachers and administrators at the non-profit where I teach. The Board members and Quakers who share their principles for peace, education, and seeing “that of God” in everyone–especially each and every child.

My husband and children who understand that teaching well means working many hours outside of the school day.

Conversations have been about access and the digital divide, filtering (I am grateful that I CAN TURN OFF THE WEB FILTER — Many of my colleagues can’t), school policies, physical location. We’ve been talking about brain format. We’ve been talking about the freedom to teach, and to choose our own assessments to help us, in a private school setting.

My husband designed this bumper sticker slogan. I’d like us all to be able to declare it:

It really is quite a privilege.

www.scottmcleod.net – Cyberbullying

With all that good stuff getting added to the net, I need some time to process and research. But I also want to add to the discussion’s visibility, since that is an important way to help stop cyberbullying!

I teach about cyberbullying, safe and civil behavior, and general groundrules. I enjoy those discussions with my students, but today’s discussion has me thinking about what else I can do. I have come up with two things (maybe three):

1. Post to raise awareness.

If I could figure out how to get one of Scott’s badges in my sidebar with this edublog theme it would be there. The only sidebar widgets available don’t have an option for inserting an image! But I can add a cyber-bullying awareness message to my rotating messages in my personal email tag line, and I can suggest that others use a badge.

2. Make my expectations for civil discourse on my blog explicit.

I really enjoyed Beth Kanter’s suggestion, on a forum discussion at the Stop Cyberbullying ning site that we might think about posting ratings for our sites much the way movies are rated.

Here’s the possible third thing: I will join the discussion over at the ning site, which has already begun a wonderful collection of resources, including videos. My “to-do” list is growing…

Students are really enjoying this exercise!

• Siblings have been enjoying commenting on sibling blogs (”You never tried octopus, how can you say you like all seafood?”)
• Some students find it frustrating not knowing who made a comment.
• Students are replying to comments on their “blogs” and inviting conversations.
• Students are discussing the pros and cons of keeping negative or nitpicking comments.
• Some conversations are between students who never knew they had a common passion.
• A bevy of intermediate students asked permission to head for the library to “check their blogs” during their lunch break!
• Favorites include pea soup, and root beer floats with mint chocolate chip ice-cream.

Conversations have opened up about family customs (Monday night milkshakes), ethnic foods, our diversity of taste, and body image. The body image discussion really impressed me, as one student complained that she couldn’t eat her favorite food because she was “too fat”–other students argued that she was lovely and should know that; that she shouldn’t worry about dieting if she usually made good food choices; that there were less-fat versions of her favorite; and one offered a recipe and shared that she was dieting, too.

Having the 5th grade girl and the 3rd grade boy and the 8th grade boy all learning that they share a passion for shrimp with cocktail sauce may not change their lives, but it has been a nice way to connect with each other. As we prepared to leave for Spring Break yesterday, I saw one student crushing a comment slip in a hug before replacing it on her “blog”! I am so glad we are helping these students feel the excitement of blogging in our small community, rather than online.

I could be talking about email, or mobile networking, or IM-ing, or online gaming, or blogging. Pick whichever.

It’s widely available to most of my students, and quite popular.
Therefore, most of my students will learn to use it–whether or not I show them.

What about the other students, who don’t have access? What about the students who do have access but don’t have tech-savvy parents hovering over them and teaching them online safety and savvy?

I devised a safe-chat game on paper, which I posted a little about earlier, to give all of the students in Grade 3 through 5 a chance to practice how to chat online, spot safety issues, and avoid some traps. That practice made me feel good about how the social skills of students transferred easily to the online simulation, so that my youngest and most inexperienced (no access at home) students were very successful in spotting and politely extricating themselves from conversations they should avoid.

I know that it’s good to anticipate, and practice, using any new skill–but I want to do more. I want to give these students lots of successful and confidence-building experiences. Especially the students without access at home. I don’t want those students to feel unprepared and disadvantaged in the online world of their peers. I am keeping my eye out for more “practice on paper” for this young age group. I’ve come across a one paper exercise that I think will transfer well to the students in the Intermediate and Middle School levels:

To provide a hands-on, interactive explanation of (mo)blogging, and the way that blogs can be used in education as powerful learning tools.

Mobile Learning » Workshop Activity: Paper Blogs

(mo) blogging refers to using a mobile device to post your blogs, I believe.

I’m going to try this on paper with the Intermediates, but I think I’ll be trying it in a word-processor with the Middle School level. I want the Middle School students to be thinking about how they compose visual space this week. If it works well, I may try and have the Intermediate students try it on the word processor, too, at a later date.

I will take advantage of the opportunity to have a conversation about passions and learning communities, on-line and in person, too!