Hard vs. Soft technology

Technology like smart boards or handhelds might be called hard technology, in the sense that it's more tangible, physical, and/or something you can easily tabulate on a budget. I am very interested in something I called soft technology. Another term that's been used is "Information Literacy." However, this term is itself under debate. Often it refers to making sure students in an educational setting meet certain standards - e.g. can they use a computer to write reports. I am interested in a broad view you might call social information literacy, where people in a community look to gain certain skills they need in order to function. Our schools are handling some of these skills, but not all of them. (Thinking later, the situation might find a parallel in sex education: either we help kids to learn about it in appropriate ways through the cooperation of parents and teachers, or they will pick up inappropriate information "on the street." )

Examples of areas for improvement

Research reports

Students writing research reports are told to "use the Internet" to find information. With no direction this is very difficult. Supporting the use of technology and the web in research-mode is part of information literacy. From my point of view, at least in the elementary schools, the use of the Internet for research is suggested, but not supported or well understood. For example, a teacher recently mandated referencing web sites as

www.ftc.gov

instead of

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/05/socialnetworking.htm

This is akin to referencing a journal article with no volume, year, or page number! Of course this becomes complicated as today's teachers were students when style guides didn't consider URLs.

And of course the typical suggestion for Internet use comes to our kids as, "you can use Encyclopedias, Books, Magazines, and the Internet for your research."

Computer science class

Computer science was not a formal classroom event until 7th grade, wherein kids were shown how to use Word, PowerPoint, etc. My son said this was the most boring class he ever had. I asked him about it last night and he was still incredulous at how boring it was. One activity they did was to find sports scores online, write them down on a piece of paper, then turn around and enter them into a database program of sorts. Not only did this activity show the kids how tedious using computers can be, duplicating work unnecessarily, but my son had no interest in the sports scores and the project had no relevance to him. Teaching kids about technology has to show it in a way that suggests it's useful within a kids sphere of influence and interest.

Online safety

About a year ago there was a school-sponsored meeting to tell parents about the dangers of MySpace , Xanga and the like:

"CAUGHT IN THE WEB? DON'T LET IT HAPPEN TO YOUR KIDS!

Attend a Community Forum in the Community Room…. Do you know what MYSPACE, FACEBOOK or XANGA are? Your children do! But do our children know what can come back to haunt them? Do you have concerns/questions about your children's online safety, privacy and security? Come to this community forum and learn how to address these issues. " (Note - the original email didn't have hyperlinks which I think is interesting.)

So: Parents who don't get it, though their kids do, are introduced to the power of the web in a scary negative fashion, their kids are not counseled on safe practices, and neither group is introduced to new and useful capabilities of our information environment.

Information Literacy

The ideas I'm talking about involve supporting the development of information-related skills in order to help kids become more well-rounded socially literate individuals. You cannot succeed in today’s world without being able to read and write. You can survive without understanding Google. But for how much longer? While schools manage the reading and writing part well, they are struggling with the web and information literacy. This seems distinct from the technology discussions around smart boards or tablet PCs but I think it is important.

While one way to introduce these concepts might be another 'specials' class, however I think, as I stated above, these topics need to be discussed in context, in a relevant way. In other words, I think information literacy needs to be baked into the class, not offered as a side dish. An interesting article discussing information literacy as a discipline requiring a curriculum approach has been Mentioned on the Information Literacy blog, “As we may think” by Johnston and Webber, Research Strategies 20 (2006? 2005?) 108-121. I differ somewhat from their opinion that a separate class is necessary.

A complicated part of that suggestion is that it requires teachers to change, update or modify their teaching style. A 'specials' class would allow this discussion to be aggregated around one class, or one teacher, however, I'm convinced it would be less effective.

Building on this concept of information literacy, I like to think of "-ing words;" verbs, where using technology means applying tools for practical reasons = doing something. And these "ing words" illustrate that: Exchanging, sharing, meeting, evaluating, coordinating, programming, searching, customizing, and socializing, finding, validating, remembering, learning, communicating, interacting, collaborating, publishing, protecting....

Life skills and information literacy

Some things that seem novel to those of us that were around to see the birth of the web, but that will be life skills, mundane, for our kids (or their kids):

Create a web site for personal reasons, hosted, or on a personal box

How to choose a type of site, e.g. web log, geocities, etc. Static vs. dynamic

How to best publish information, e.g. IA. It works better if it looks good

Upload photos to share with a group

How to use hyperlinks, send links to people via email

How to best distribute info to a group, via attachments, or links

How to use IM

How to and when to use asynchronous vs. synchronous communication

Manage 'found' information with browser or shared bookmark tools

Know how to craft a good Google query, and when not to use Google.

How to manage your search history (e.g. google/ig)

What to use when Google doesn't cut it

How to use online maps

How to find business, people, etc. using the web

How to build your own 'newspaper' through RSS feeds

How to use message boards, wikis, web logs

How to install software

How to uninstall software

Desktop shortcuts, e.g. Quick Launch menus, batch files

How to create short scripts or macros do complete repetitive tasks

How to manage files within a file system - how to find them again

Desktop search engines

How to manage calender issues, personal, group, family

How to use Google search alerts to keep up to date

How to back up data

How to use Amazon, how to shop online

Online and offline privacy

How to use Office, templates, tips and tricks

How to share videos on Google video, create movies, convert movies

These are tutorial topics, these should become a syllabus - part of the curriculum for elementary students.

Not all of the curriculum items are virtual. As we're hit with more information from online sources, we need better ways to manage our time, for example. Some items will be useful topics, though they're falling into obscurity, such as:

How to navigate a newspaper (and find follow up items online)

How to manage time and get things done

How to, and when to, use an actual library

How to use the Yellow Pages, (then how to use yellowpages.com)

Other ideas include:

Gaming as education (see the great book Don’t bother me mom - I’m learning, Prensky)

Using the Fairfield Library computer center to support Fairfield Schools endeavors

Finding communities of practice around innovation and technology in schools (e.g. blogs, sites)

Appropriate uses of cell phones, texting

What are MP3s?

What is the difference between digital and analog?

What are copyright laws and what are the issues around digital media?

Use Wikipedia in class! Kids could write reports on an obscure topics and post.

Email etiquete.

Use Second Life to explore cooperation and many many issues

Hit em where they live and actually create a School MySpace site.

Sponsor Innovations team activities (like family game night) where parents and kids get to learn these skills. How about a Runescape training session, or a digital picture night?

Other items with regard to the meeting.

I think communication of successes of the technology and innovations team is critical. Mail is not innovative. I understand that with traditional media you will contact the slow adopters, but you might consider using new(er) tools to promote your goals. I think an innovations blog would be a great idea. A group website would be useful as well, if only a place to easily post notes. Yahoo Groups sites work great for this. A team wiki would also be a useful way to develop ideas in a collaborative way. Note that all these ideas can be trialed at low (no) cost using WordPress, Yahoo Groups, or PBWiki or many many other sites like this.