New Media Literacies Panel

New Media Literacies Panel at The UPEI New Media Institute September 29, 2007 Dave Cormier Alexander (Sandy) McAuley Sharon Peters Will Richardson

Where are we with pedagogy
1. Alexander (Sandy) McAuley
  1. Neil Postman's Questions
    1. What problem are you trying to solve?
    2. Whose problem is it?
    3. What new problems are you going to create?
  2. Teachers don't automatically "get it" in terms of pedagogy, evening though they love the tech...
2. Dave Cormier
  1. New Media Changes the Scale and scale matters
  2. A classroom with acces to 20 peple is not the same as one with access to 1000s of people
  3. Pedagogy must change
    1. Knowledge had cahnged
    2. Sources of knowledge have changed
    3. We're tapping into different buckets
    4. Knowing how to learn is better than being learned
3. Will Richardson
  1. Can schools in their current for exist in this environment?
  2. What's the place of schools when we have access to all the answers all the time.
    1. Start all over
    2. Adapt current schools
  3. It seems that schools do not want to give up the learning
    1. I think that schools don't want to give up the teaching...
4. Sharon Peters
  1. We need to de-mystify technology
  2. It's about literacy
    1. More than 3Rs
5. Alexander
  1. School is a place to create knowledge
    1. Living Archives Project
    2. Schools can be reformed around the notion of knowledge building process
      1. Requires a different mind-set among teachers and administrators
6. Dave
  1. Not just the teacher and administrators who need a mind set -- it's also the parents.
  2. How do you educate that community
7. Sharon
  1. Disagrees about parent resistance
    1. It was 1:1
    2. Parents saw the value of
      1. Crosscultural
      2. Tools
    3. Believes that the major problem is the administration of schools and districts
Is new media necessary?
How do you do it?
In 20 years, what do you see as the positive possiblities
1. Will
  1. This is a conversation about learning than it is about schools
  2. I (Will) learns differently
    1. More independent rather than dependent learning
  3. People will be opting out and leaving physical space as the anchor point
    1. Less place-based
    2. Many alternatives
  4. Critical that we do not seperate education haves and have-nots
    1. This is important, and means that public education is absolutely critical
2. Alexander
  1. In 20 years, if we survive, we have to be much more globally oriented
3. Dave
  1. Likes what Sharon Peters is doing in Quebec
  2. It's a policy issues
  3. Scientific education should go away
4. Sharon
  1. Implimentation is the tough part
  2. Seeing virtual schools and even virtual world education
  3. Does not believe that schools are going away
  4. But there will be alternatives, some of them we haven't even imagined
Parents actually want to see Will's "pile of paper" It's what they expect. How do you change the community of learning that is accepted and inclusive of parents and students?
1. Will
  1. Must be willing to include parents in what's happening
    1. Included parents in reading of "Secret Life of Bes"
    2. Teacher in Bangkok is setting up a Ning for students -- and for parents
    3. Need to be more transparent invited the parents in
    4. It's crucial that we do this even though
      1. Very uncomfortable for many teachers
      2. Kids don't want it either
2. Dave
  1. Have to decentralize the role of the teacher
  2. Reconsider the audience
    1. Parents need to be an audience of the learning
3. Alexander
  1. Community in schol is not the same as the community outside
    1. Have to bring them together
    2. Use the new media (medium) to accomplish this
4. Sharon
  1. Agrees about transparency
  2. But with 3 teenage children it is important that we do have some seperation
    1. However, For them, having an audience is central to their culture
What about teacher-training
1. Alexander
  1. Is Faculty
  2. IBM recently complained about no instuction in technology
    1. Not in my school
    2. We do creative and innovative things
    3. The barriers are in the schools
      1. Poor bandwidth
      2. inability to install good free software
  3. Need to promote pedagogy discomfort
    1. If you are comfortable with what you are doing in the classroom, then there's a problem
    2. Need to continually question their own teaching
  4. Quotes Will
    1. ..that digital imigrants are perhaps the best people to teach it...
2. Dave
  1. TEachers want to be told what button to press
    1. If you think that being toold the steps to knowledge, then you are probably teaching poorly
    2. The way that you learn has a direct affect on the way that you teach.
3. Sharon
  1. Rechallenge to have self-directed professional development
  2. Most PD is not assessed and, therefore, it is not important
  3. Pre-services need to be able to take risks and be innovators
  4. Learn to be comfortably in their own skin...
How do you inspire change in school stakeholders
1. Dave
  1. It's about how you communication.
  2. You have to be carfule about what you say to different members.
  3. Need to be constantly paying attention, especially to the best people to do the inspiration
2. Will
  1. Focus on the Personal Learning
    1. How do teachers learn?
    2. How do you administrators learn?
    3. How do you parents keep learning?
3. Sharon
  1. Focus on the positive
  2. Share the successes
4. Alexander
  1. Think of Pogo
    1. "We have seen the enemy and it is us!"
  2. We have to change ourselves first...