Wesley's Titanium:Documents:School/Education:Meeting …:Alan November 2-7-0… Page 1 of 4
Friday, February 8, 2002 Printed: 11:35:46 AM

Alan November's keynote - TCEA 2-7-02

KS teacher resigned because her students were cheating on the internet, she
punished them, school board didn't support her

In our enthusiasum to connect kids to the internet there are problems
- students have access to any version of any truth at any time

means the role of the teacher is more important than ever

schoollsucks.com

Have you ever changed your mind about the role of teaching?

Gayle taught students to design their own homework (another Christa McAuliffe
educator with Alan)
- she taught middle school science, inquiry based learning
- moved locus of control of learning to the kids

Of all the questions asked, one is the single most important in trying to
understand the role of technology in teaching and learning:
- what is the locus of control between the organization of the school and the
learner?

- When kids cheat, we could blame the internet or the kids, but we can also
blame the assignment
-- we can catch them, or we can fundamentally change the relationship of
control

We have underestimated kids for a LONG time, underestimated what they can do
- 9th grade science students in Lizard Lick, NC can design their own
assignments
- This has NOTHING to do with technology

Technology = unbridled access to information and people

In 5 years, a handheld wireless palm will be more powerful than a desktop
computer
- every kid will have internet access 24/7 in their hand

You/We are DIGITAL IMMIGRANTS
- we speak digital with an accent
- you were paper trained
- you are the paper people

'I know how to use the internet, I don't know WHEN to use it'
- story of son's pinewood derby

Knowing HOW to do something doesn't help you if you don't know WHEN

Dennis Hopper and Generation Y: kids can teach adults technology

Is amazing to look at websites that other kids have produced
- thinkquest.org has more than 4000 student projects
- you have to know something can be done in some cases to do it

Taught 20 teachers who brought a kid
- we should delcare a moratorium on all technology workshops (PPT, Excel, etc)
- all workshops should be focused on LEARNING not technology

Only way to teach is to have kids and teachers there together learning

Natural behavior of kids to want to do what other kids can do
- Alan believes that every teacher should have a website (also every family,
but he will focus on teaching)
- one reason: celebrate the work of children (like being published)
- this brings an amazing sense of pride, you need pride
- every teacher's website should should have links to student projects that

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relate to the testing objectives of things we have to do (TAAS)

OK we are doing testing, but obviously there are many more things to do

Demographic trend of young adults ages 18-29? Going up!
1990s economy wise were as good as it will get probably
- and more young adults are living at home
- call this generation the 'boomerangs' (you send them out and they are coming
back to live with you)
Why?
1- Parents are begging them to come home? No
2- Coming back to take care of aging parents? No
3- It's the economy! Yes. Alan works out of his house with 6 phone lines and a
high speed cable connection, and he works around the world. He can actually
live anywhere. Just moved back to his childhood home, a little village on the
Marblehead, Mass. Amazing sense of freedom. Being able to invent your own work.
Many people don't want this or weren't educated for it. Public school system
was invented for the industrial economy: boss tells you want to do. This is why
teachers give homework.

Most of us were not educated to invent our own job our of our imaginations.
Took Alan 10 years to be ready for this. Let go of job security, industrial age
notions, etc.

VISION: need to produce FEARLESS learners. Ready for this type of economy.

Question: Are you producing fearless learners?
- technical skills don't make it in the knowledge economy
- these are basic

3 basic skills (these are not tested by the way)
1- must be self directed (ability to work without supervision)
2- be collaborative (be a team, solve problems that are beyond a single
person's ability, solve complex problems together) - even a GLOBAL team
-- teachers' website should have connections to other classrooms around the
world to put kids in touch with each
3- Can gather data to measure the success of your work (don't need others to
tell you you are doing a good job)

-This is a locus of control issue

Most difficult task: asking people to give up CONTROL - that is hard!

Any technology you teach kids is going to be short lived
- tech skills short lived compared to critical thinking skills

Kids will actually work harder for someone they can't see than the teacher in
the room
- example of kids partnered with nursing home
- kids are very willing to share intimate

Next generation of schools are going to be community centers
- not just places for children, places for the entire community
- learning network of people helping each other
- ARE going to teach skills we do now, but will do in in a connected rather
than isolated way.

CREATING RELATIONSHIPS / Building relatiionships with kids is the key
- much more important skills for teachers than technical skills
- designing the audiences for kids

What is the relationship between information coming into the classroom and info
flowing out
- we should have more flowing out than in

Danger of connecting kids to the world is 'they say stuff'

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BTW: Really facinating thing is the teacher learned more about his kids by them
sharing writing with senior citizens than regular teaching
- teachers NEED to know their kids
- it is healthy to connect kids to the world

Another part of being connected is the family. Family behavior at home is the
single biggest predictor of test scores
-school was designed to keep parents out - not involve parents

Equity issue is huge
- Alan believes technology is a polarizer, rich getting richer, poor getting
poorer
- it is not a matter of just HAVING it, it is knowing WHAT TO DO with it

Need to treat every family / home as a center of learning
- if we just improve what happens in school, we miss the equity opportunity

Alan is a big believer in small computers going home

Alan does some work at stanford, distance delivered curriculum

epgy.org

Huge interactive curriculum

Comfort the inflicted and inflict the comforted

In the next 10 years, horrible thing would be if sites like epgy.org become
wildly popular
- if you give kids access to the entire curriculum (like at Stanford and TTU),
they ask more questions than ever
- we will need more teachers than ever
- when you circle the wagons you are supposed to shoot out, not shoot in
(problem is many schools are shooting in)

the more we teach kids to access knowledge and information online the more they
will need their teachers

Alan: WE NEED TO PROMOTE HOME SCHOOLING!

Basic school: can you learn online to continue your education
- all high school students should take at least 1 online course

Alan has signed up for 3 online courses and has dropped out of all 3

Alan is facinated by critical thinking
- we are teaching kids the technical skills of accessing the internet, but not
teaching them the critical thinking skills of what to do after you find the
information

Example of Holocaust false site
- student didn't know 'grammar of the internet' to identify a subdirectory on
Northwestern University's site that is a home directory
- issue not teaching teachers to use internet, skill is teaching teachers what
material manipulates / really influences children

Teaching kids to VALIDATE the information is key
- his next session is all about the grammar of the internet

Any technical skill we teach kid is short term (DOS)

'I used to think it was about teaching kids technology. Now I know there are 2
main skills:'
- being info literate (deconstruct the media you are working with)
- being relationship literate (organize people, relate and collaborate with
others)

Equity issue: biggest issue looming before us in the next decade

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- need to focus on the family to do this

Online learning will be biggest impact to education in the next 10 years
- we will either circle the wagons, shoot in or out
- have to give kids this knowledge

Organizing value of the web is harnessed thru the teacher's website

Critical thinking skills must be more deliberately embedded in all content
areas

'For those of you who love textbooks, IT IS OVER'
- we have 2-3 years before the handhelds become cheap enough for everyone

www.anovember.com