Cyber Warfare

Wes Fryer has a very interesting article entitled, "Cyberwarfare Capacity and Partial Quotes by Journalists" up at his website, Moving at the Speed of Creativity. He references a USA Today article entitled, "Military Beefs up Internet Arsenal." Fryer writes, "The article makes it sound like at least some members of U.S. military believe a capacity to “dominate cyberspace” can and should be developed. Perhaps that is accurate, but I would guess a capacity to act decisively [including fighting when ordered] is being developed rather than a capacity to “dominate.” I think the distributed nature of the Internet’s architecture insures no single entity can “dominate” it entirely."

Questions for Discussion:
1. What does it mean to dominate?
2. What is the Internet?
3. Terrorists can certainly take over confined places such as airplanes and buildings. Could a terrorist ever hijack the Internet? Why/why not? Would a terrorist have to control every website to control the Internet? Why/why not?
4. In his post, Mr. Fryer contemplates quotations, wondering whether readers might be better served if writers included entire quotations when possible, rather than simply excerpting them. He explains that writers definitely have this ability on-line. In what way does the power to determine what part of a quotation to include in an article parallel the power to control the Internet? What can we learn from this parallel?

Just some questions in response to a blogger who I find particularly interesting.

BABO

Much has been written about today's anti-cyber bullying day. I just wanted to add one little idea. The simplest things are the things that are easiest to remember.

I'm going to therefore begin ending each of my posts with the acronym BABO.

This new word stands for "Bloggers Against Bullying Online."

Everytime I write this acronym I'll remember this importance of civility. You are invited to join me in using this acronym. If enough people use it to sign their posts the acronym will take on a meaning of its own. Within this meaning there'll be plenty of room for complexity and sincere efforts to eliminate cyber buyllying.

BABO

A Teenager's Take on Internet Safety

Terry Friedman's site contains an article written by a teenage girl entitled, "A Teen’s View of “Their Space” and Internet Safety"

The article states, "When hearing about incidents of teenagers being put in danger or being taken advantage of by adults posing as kids on the internet, most of my friends do not really feel much sympathy for the children involved. We don’t take much notice of these risks because incidents like this happen so infrequently – it is easier to take the view that it would never happen to one of us than to constantly make risk assessments of everything we do. There is a much greater risk of being hurt by a stranger when walking down the street or out shopping. One of my school friends (aged 15) when I asked what she thought about the dangers of talking to strangers said “Well, that’s just tough isn’t it – if you’re stupid enough to talk to a weirdo on the internet what do you expect?”. This was just before she logged onto Myspace and accepted three new friends, all of whom she had never met before in her life. "

Questions for Discussion:
1. What does it mean to be safe on the Internet? Safe from what?
2. How do you maintain your own Internet safety?
3. Is it OK for a student to say that when somebody else gets hurt because of something that he/she did it's their fault, so they deserve it? Is it OK for a teacher or a parent to say the same thing? Why/why not?
4. Post the quotation included above and ask students what they would say to somebody who readily acknowledges that somebody who speaks to "weirdos" on the Internet deserves what happens and then accepts invitations to chat with strangers.

Note: These questions might appear simplistic. But ask students to respond to them in writing and they will promote thinking.

Innertoob

Yesterday Vicki Davis pointed to a podcast by Wes Fryer about cyberbullying. It's always interesting to listen to Wes. But today, we'll consider the tool that Vicki used to post the podcast, Innertoob. If I'm understanding it properly, Innertoob allows podcasters and vodcasters and their listeners to place annotations within a pod/vodcast through which a listener can specifically point to the annotations and listen to that specific part of the podcast.
In her blog, Vicki explains that one problem of Innertoob is that it completely copies the pod/vodcast from the place where it was originally posted and does not list a source.

Questions for Discussion:
1. What does it mean to be the owner of information? Is it important to think about ownership of information? Why/why not?
2. Sources typically tell individuals how to find where information was originally posted. If information is completely copied is it important to know where it was originally posted? Why/why not?
3. Should a listener/viewer/reader be able to take something created by somebody else and change it by including new ideas and information? Why/why not? (Imagine the consequences if people did not do this. Imagine the consequences if people did do this?)
4. Vicki Davis slightly changed Wes Fryer's podcast by adding in new annotations. Who's the creator of the podcast that Vicki placed on Innertoob, Vicki or Wes? Does it matter? Is there a certain point at which the product ceases to be Wes's and becomes Vicki's?
5. Innertoob is relatively new. What services will the next podcasting tool offer? How could Innertoob be improved?

Steve Dembo asks about Impartiality

On his blog, Teach 42, Steve Dembo writes, "I Try to Remain Impartial, Do You Care?" Apparently, Steve started his blog before he started working at Discovery Education. He didn't want his blog to become an online advertisement for Discovery so he limited what he wrote about his professional life on his blog. But understandably he's proud of the work that Discovery is doing and wants to know if readers will leave if he writes more about Discovery?

Questions for Discussion:
1. What does the word "impartiality" mean? Is there really such thing as impartiality?
2. What is/are the purposes of writing?
3. Do your students think that a business owner would rather take out an advertisement in a newspaper or on a website or have somebody write about their product in glowing terms? (For the purpose of this question, imagine that the advertisement is free of charge.)
4. Consider asking your students to read Mr. Dembo's blog and comment in response to his question.

Death Threats

This morning as I was searching for something to write about I came across something that I wish I hadn't on Bud the Teacher's website. Bud has a post entitled, "Standing Up," in which he links to a post by Kathy Sierra at Headrush. Kathy writes, "As I type this, I am supposed to be in San Diego, delivering a workshop at the ETech conference. But I'm not. I'm at home, with the doors locked, terrified. For the last four weeks, I've been getting death threat comments on this blog." I would not suggest showing Kathy's blog to kids. She's posted some of the horrendous images and words that people have threatened her with. I don't know Kathy but I feel for her and I thank Bud for pointing to something that I wish I hadn't seen but recognize the importance of seeing.

Questions for Discussion:
1. Why would somebody threaten somebody else?
2. Write five characteristics of somebody who feels that they need to threaten, or actually hurt, somebody else.
3. What should people do when they feel as if they are being threatened?
4. What should smart people do when they feel like threatening somebody else?
5. Is it easier for somebody to threaten somebody else on-line or in person? Why?

Just some questions about a horrible situation!!

David Sirota Complains

David Sirota is complaining that some members of the media, he particularly mentions Bill Schneider, are questioning hte political implications of Elizabeth Edwards' cancer. He titles his piece, Is Absolutely Nothing Sacred. Sirota writes, "Are these people really so soulless that they are speculating on who "wins" and "loses" politically from the revelation that Elizabeth Edwards has a life-threatening battle with cancer?"

Lesson Ideas:
1. Here's a great opportunity to consider the difference between a primary source and a secondary source. First ask students to read Sirota's short article. Based on what he writes, what do they think that Bill Schneider said in his article? Consider asking them to write the article that they imagine Schneider wrote. Then, have students read Schneider's article. Is Sirota's take on it appropriate or not? Why?
2. What do your students think motivated Schneider's article? What do they think motivated Sirota's article?
3. What does the word, "sacred" mean? Do students think that anything is sacred in the United States anymore? They should support their opinions thoughtfully. What might be sacred? (e.g., money, beauty, God).

Just some thoughts in resposne to a very popular blogger's thoughts.

An Incredible Opportunity Has Come My Way

This morning I was teaching Hebrew school. The principal had a guest, another principal, visiting from Israel. After school the principal invited the two fifth grade teachers into a meeting with the guest. Apparently they want to develop a relationship between the fifth grade in our two day a week, for a total of five hours, school and the Israeli school that is a regular school meeting six days a week. (In Israel Sunday is a regular day.) Fortunately, they want to use technology to faciliate this relationship. I'm thinking that we should use both emails and a wiki to facilitate this relationship. We could link pairs of students for emailing and use the wiki for general questions. It should be interesting.

Interestingly, the Israeli school is relatively impoverished. Many of the students' families immigrated from Ethiopia. Most of my students live relatively standards upper-middle class lives in Michigan. They should have a lot to learn from one another.

Tribalism

Stephen Downes writes, "I have met the enemy and it is Tribalism." He quotes John Udell,

"Tribalism is an aspect of human nature, so it must once have served a purpose, but it no longer does. It's a piece of evolutionary baggage that we can no longer afford to carry around. I don't know if we can let go of it, but we had better at least try."

Questions to ask students:
1. What does the word "tribalism" mean?
2. Is there any way that "tribalism" influences life at school? How?
3. Evaluate the costs and benefits of tribalism.
4. You could ask students to draw a graphic depiction of the tribal structures within your school. Then ask them to explain how these connections extend beyond the school walls, beyond the community, beyond the state, beyond the nation. Where are the connections strongest? Why?
5. What would be the costs and benefits be of loosening the connections at the local level and strengthening them at national and international levels? Would it be possible to do this?

Just some thoughts in response to a very smart blogger.

The Living Textbook

I'm really excited. Obviously like everybody else, whether we want to admit it or not, I hope to generate some revenue from my work, which in my case is writing. Several months ago, I started receiving an email from Joel Comm. If Joel is everything he says he is, he's done very well finanically from his Web 2.0 work. Well I got excited by some of what he said and decided to buy his book. (I followed the advice in the book and lo and behold I LOST money. I generated less money from my ads.) Several days ago I decided to look at his blog and see how he set up the ads instead of reading his book. The ads are set inside of the text. Well I tried doing that today. I wrote about the U.S. House decision yesterday to bring home the troops within a year. After an introdcution, I wrote the words "Discussion Questions." I then included the Google Ads. Then I wrote the questions.

Well, when you look at the webpage now, it looks as if the ads actually bring you to lessons about the first paragraph. (The ads are clearly marked with Google's name.) I obviously hope that people read my questions. I love writing them. But I don't make a regular pay check. I'm a new independent consultant and I guarantee that many months go by when teachers with my experience make four times the amount of money that I make. (Actually there are some months when I make nothing.) One very well known and well respected blogger told me that he'd had to put up his house for remortgage twice in order to make ends meet as he was developing his career. I guess I'm being apologetic for trying to make some money by having people click ads.

Take a look at the page and let me know if you think it's OK.

By the way, before I close I just wanted to show something that I saw on Joel Comm's website this morning:

I treat my online businesses pretty seriously. I have to. They feed and house my
family and that's a pretty serious business. But sometimes I wonder if I'm not
missing something.

Just surf at random around the blogs at Blogger.com and you'll come across a bunch of sites that have been put up for no other reason than to make the people who write them smile.

They might make the half-dozen or so regular readers of each of those blogs smile too, but I doubt if those sites are making enough even to cover the cost of the coffee drunk while typing the posts.

I'm not sure how to take Joel's perspective from this first paragraph, but think sometimes a smile is worth a lot more than a dollar or even all the money in the world. But it's hard to think that way when you've got a growling stomach.

I wonder if other on-line writers ever wonder about the ethics of making money on-line.

The Struggle for an Education

Meet Selina - Her father wanted to marry her in exchange for twenty cows when she was only a pre-teen. She convinced her father to let her continue her education and he sold a cow to keep her in school for one year. Selina has now completed the Kenya education system. According to an article from the Church World Service Newsroom, Selina's message is simple: "Education is very important. Without education, there is no life." I can't help but wonder what it means for somebody in Kenya to get an eduation? Do they have access to computers or the global superhighway?

Selina's community helped her afford her last years of secondary school. Now, she wants to go to college? She clearly has potential? Do we, I mean you and I, have responsibilty for helping people like Selina succeed? Why/why not? Does it matter to us if she succeeds? Why/why not?

House Passes Legislation Limiting Presence in Iraq

The New York Times is reporting that the United States House of Representatives passed legislation calling for a major withdrawal from Iraq by September 1, 2008. The article states,

The withdrawal timetable provision, which calls for most American troops to be
out of Iraq by Sept. 1, 2008, is part of a bill to provide about $100 billion to
finance the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would also impose a series of
performance benchmarks, for Baghdad and for Washington, to show progress in the
new Iraq. Withdrawal would be required even sooner if progress on those
benchmarks could not be demonstrated.

Students could consider how todays vote in the House of Representatives reflects the importance of core democratic values in this country. If your students had been in the House would they have voted for or against a bill calling for a withdrawal? What kinds of consequences might stem from the passage of this bill, even if it never becomes law?

Do You Put Family First? A Podcast

Listen to the podcast!

The Audience is Up to Something

I just found an interesting video at Chris Anderson's The Long Tail blog. It refers to the power of the audience. I can't help but wonder about the accuracy of the video. What percentage of the population has actually exerted the power available to them through the Web 2.0? Has the core of our culture changed or simply the edges?

Joanne Jacobs' Book in Paperback

Several weeks ago I learned that Joanne Jacobs' book, Our School: The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea and the Charter School That Beat the Odds, has been published in paperback.

Our School follows the principal, teachers and students at Downtown College Prep, a San Jose charter high school that turns underachievers -- most come from low-income Mexican immigrant families -- into serious students. The charter school’s educational philosophy is: Work your butt off. Students aren’t told they’re wonderful. Teachers tell them they’re capable of improving, which turns out to be true. All graduates in the first three classes have been admitted to college; 81 percent remain on track to earn a four-year degree.

Since Joanne has been very nice to me ever since I started blogging I don't think it's a problem to promote her book. She is a great author. Buy it here!!!

Social Studies, Art, and Music

I participated in a conference call with Senator Lamar Alexander and eight other educational bloggers this afternoon. The call was more of a press conference for educational bloggers than anything else. People simply chimed in and asked questions. As somebody who is very interested in social studies education, I asked the Senator if he and his colleagues would consider including a mandate for social studies testing in No Child Left Behind. The short answer was "No." In the long answer, the Senator explained that rather than looking at the subject as social studies he preferred to see it as U.S. history. He wanted to fund continued teacher development for the teaching of U.S. history. But, the federal government, he explained should not get involved in developing local curricula.

Interestingly, I didn't ask the federal government to develop local curricula. I simply asked for the mandate of a test. If the government can do it for math, reading, and science, shouldn't they also be able to require tests for social studies? The Senator did explain that the NAEP was going to include a beefed up section on U.S. History. The NAEP? Isn't that a little bit like a non-binding resolution? As I've written before, non-binding resolutions are worth as little as the paper they are written on.

The Senator lumped social studies with music, art, and physical education. Thinking back on this comparison after the call, I became incredibly frustrated. How could a United States Senator compare civics education, which is contained within the social studies to band class? Social studies is the subject in which students will learn the importance of core democratic values. Have these values lost importance? Students will learn about social advocacy in social studies. Perhaps this is not important anymore, either?

The scariest part is that in no way does Senator Alexander stand alone in de-emphasizing the importance of social studies. Senators Kennedy, Reid, and McConnell are right with him. It's bi-partisan. The President of the United States hasn't emphasized the importance of social studies education, either.

If we get rid of social studies maybe we can just have another King George???

A Conversation with U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander

Last night I received an invitation to speak with Senator Lamar Alexander about the America Competes Act. I know that Will Richardson received the same invitation. I'm not sure who else received it. But, Will's invited readers to suggest talking points. I'd also be happy to take suggested talking points. But, I'm going to read Will's blog as well. So if you've already posted over there don't feel obligated to double post.

I do think that it will be essential to emphasize the importance of social studies education to ensure that our nation has the capacity to continue to compete. Social studies education is designed to teach students how to get along in the world in which we live. Technological tools are simply the instruments that we have available to get along, if you will. Unfortunately, No Child Left Behind mandates neither the teaching of social studies or the testing of it. This omission has diminished the subject's importance. But if students don't learn how to get along in the world they won't be able to do so. Therefore the subject's obviously very important and should be included in the revision of NCLB.

Learning about Today for Tomorrow

I had the following essay published on Edspresso's website at the end of February. I get so annoyed when people tell me that they don't have the time to teach current events in their schools. This essay helps to explain why!!!

Science and technology knowledge doubles every four years, if not faster. This means that any facts a freshman in college learns has a high chance of becoming obsolete by the time they graduate. Who can guess what the world will like look when today’s kindergarteners enter the work force? Will anybody work in an office setting? Will people still carry cash? Will marketers still be able to purchase commercials or even website ads?

Nobody can answer these questions or hundreds more like them. Yet, many educators see their job as preparing children for the future. How can we possibly prepare students for an unknown future?

The answer is simple: We can’t. Nor should we even try to do so. Instead, we should help our students develop the capacity to understand and influence the world in which they live. Our students don’t yet live in the world of the future. They live in today’s world. Therefore, as educators we must help our students think about today. If we do this, they’ll also develop the capacity to succeed tomorrow.

So, how should educators help students think about today?

Using and Developing Disciplinary Knowledge
Our students must learn to consider the fundamental questions of various academic disciplines through a lens of today. For example, when studying math, questions and problems should relate to current events. Sports games provide wonderful venues through which to consider arithmetic. Local, and well known national and international construction efforts provide venues through which to grapple with higher level math.

Consider the science questions that students can grappled with when they consider current events. How and why does today technology work? How can we advance today’s technological devices to develop more useful tools? What is it about our physical world that enables technology to work as it does? Consider the biological and ethical questions that cloning raises.
Great literature should not be ignored. But great literature is great because it contains eternal messages. Students should contemplate the ways in which literary ideas connect to their own lives and the world in which they live.

Regardless of the lesson at hand, educators must encourage their students to consider the importance of what they are learning. We should ask students how they can use what they are learning. How might this knowledge benefit them in the future?

Textbooks
Traditional textbooks don’t work anymore. They become obsolete before they reach the classroom. Fortunately, a curriculum focused on current events has a ready made textbook, the newspaper. Local, regional, national and even international newspapers contain important ideas, related to every sphere of life and society. These are the ideas of our time.

Sure, newspapers are not ideal textbooks. However, every competent teacher knows that they can’t completely rely on the textbook. Teachers must help students interact with the information contained in the text. We need to ask questions that require students to consider the text and encourage them to ask their own questions. We need to develop lessons that enable our students to consider the fundamental ideas of various disciplines through a lens of today.

When students learn to think knowledgeably and critically about today’s world they will develop the ability to approach tomorrow and the preparation of tomorrow with knowledge, insight and curiosity. As educators, these are the greatest gifts that we can offer our students.

The Demise of Great Civilizations

Consider this poem from Sir Alex Fraser Tyler 1742-1813

"The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed thorugh this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back into bondage."

Any Predictions???

Michigan Council for the Social Studies

It's been a whirlwind week for me. Last Saturday I was in Indianapolis having participated in a conference for the state's history education group the day before. I spoke about the film, Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good. A bunch of people asked for copies of the film which made the foundation that I do some consulting work for very happy. It's kind of nice, my job is to give out something for free. The story is also so powerful. We've set up a wiki about it here.

On Monday I turned around and went to Lansing, MI, the capitol of our great state, for several days. The Michigan Council for Social Studies held its annual state conference. I loved it. Last year when I went I hardly new a soul. But then I got onto the board and obviously met lots of folks. I made three presentations: one was a short speech in front of the entire convention, about 800, about the film I'm marketing. The next day I presented to about 60 on using current events in the classroom. While I can definitely do the keynote thing and have people laughing and learning at the same time, it's not really my favorite style. I much prefer engaging the audience in group work. For this particular workshop I distributed newspapers and had people develop lesson ideas. We then shared the ideas with the whole group. Since there were a lot of groups, not every group could present to the whole group. So I asked groups to join with other groups and share the ideas that they had developed. It's such an honor to have so many people come to my sessions.

I really love doing professional development. But to tell you the truth, I'm also really proud of my newsletter. It's hard to believe that my ideas are being used throughout the nation, albeit sporadically. I've got people who use it in their classrooms in New York, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas, California, and Florida.

Yesterday I found myself in a conversation with a assistant superintendent in a large Pennsylvania school district. He asked me how he could be confident that the newsletter would promote quality discussion and not just too much attention on the "pop culture of our times." I told him that ultimately he had to hire good teachers who had the ability to manage quality discussion. My questions aren't going to do it alone. Then I also said that the way we think about educational textbooks is becoming obsolete. When information changes as fast as it does, it's going to become increasingly sillier to purchase expensive textbooks that you can completely preview before purchasing them. I suggested that when school districts spend money on information they are going to have to trust the source that will produce the information. However, that trust should be built on a track record of prior quality and consistency. In my case, I pointed the assistant sup. to my Living-Textbook as evidence of my work. Whether or not this individual purchases the newsletter I really enjoyed interacting with him. (I'm never sure if I should use names or not, so in this case I won't do so.)