Can IT make a difference?

Framtidens skolbibliotekMalmo University23 April 2009Dr Carol Gordoncgordon@scils.rutgers.eduRutgers University

What do we know about youth in the digital environment?

•50% of American teens played games “yesterday.”

•86% of teens play on a console like the Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii.

•73% play games on a desktop or a laptop computer.

• 60% use a portable gaming device like a Sony PlayStation Portable, a Nintendo DS, or a Game Boy.

•48% use a cell phone or handheld organizer to play games.

•Most teens play video games in a social environment

•99% of boys and 94% of girls play video games. Younger teen boys are the most likely to play games, followed by younger girls and older boys. Older girls are the least “enthusiastic” players of video games, though more than half of them play. Some 65% of daily gamers are male; 35% are female.

•Most popular games are racing, puzzles, sports, action and adventure

Video Games

•Children who game together—whether in family basements or after-school clubs—are more likely to volunteer, raise money for a charity or participate politically than those who play alone. Their engagement did not appear to be affected by how often the teens played or the types of games they chose.

•Sixty-four percent of those who play video games with others in the room said they have raised money for a charitable cause, for example, compared with 55 percent of those who are in a room alone when they play.

A Participatory Culture

•The Education Arcade, a consortium of educators and business leaders working to promote the educational use of computer and video games ;

•GAMBIT, a lab focused on promoting experimentation through game design;

•The Knight Center for Future Civic Media, a joint effort with the MIT Media Lab, is using new media to enhance how people live in local communities.;

• Project nml is developing curricular materials focused on promoting the social skills and cultural competencies needed to become a full participant in the new media era.

Gaming in Education

Blogs

Facebook/MySpace

Twittering

I-Phone, Blackberry

Social Networking

Hole in the Wall ExperimentCan Kids Teach Themselves?

New Delhi physicist Sugata Mitra has a radical proposal for bringing his country's next generation into the Info Age

Does language matter?

Will they steal the computer?

Will anyone teach them?

Self-organizing Systems

Traffic jamsStock marketSocial and disaster recoveryTerrorism and insurgency

Second LifeMoodleWikiBearshareHole in the Wall

Is it possible to produce learning that is self-organizing?What kind of learning would it be?Who would use this learning?

Can Education be a self-organizing system?

What would happen if India placed 100,000 computers with minimal intrusive instruction in the slums of India?

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MUVE: Multi-User Virtual Environment3-D graphical environment simulates real world

Created by its residents; high level of interactionLinden Lab creates new land. 64 acres

has become 65,000

Who is in Second Life?

Colleges & Universities BusinessesMore than 200 universities &

learning-focused organizations Arcada University of

Technology (Finland) Australian Film TV and

Radio School Finger Lakes Community

College Harvard Business School Institut Ingemedia (France) New York University San Jose State University SUNY Empire State College Universidad Carlos III of

Madrid (Spain)

Adidas Reebok BBC Radio 1 Dell IBM Reuters SirsiDynix Talis ToyotaLow cost protyping, collaboration,

new products, education/training,

marketing/advocacy

Is this the library of the future?

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Has a medical library thatprovides information aboutconsumer health and resources

The Alliance Library System manages Info Island. In March 2007, the Info Archipelago had 17 islands, 10 of which were library islands. In April 2008, the Info Archipelago has“more than 40 islands including over 50 libraries and over 75 educational groups.”

Are dedicated to provide a space for participating libraries from around the world to showcase their local resources in Second Life

•Linden's Technology Development VP announced that the company will open-source the back end so servers can run anywhere on any machine . "SL cannot truly succeed," Joe Miller told an audience of executives, "as long as one company controls the Grid." Again, this is a vision of a world that is not a niche product, but the Web in 3D.

•Global Kids is an organization which regularly runs events through Teen Second Life

Second Life and Youth

MIT Media Lab’s Sixth Sense Project

A gadget that reads the world

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

The Challenge

Gaming and social networking are learning environn- ments Learning is socialLearning is self- directedLearning through mulit-taskingLearning is funLearning is freeGender Digital Divide is disappearing

How does school fit into this picture?

Today’s schools are print-centric. Today’s student s are image-centric

Students are immersed in pop cultureTeachers have no training to link pop culture to the classroom

Schools are retro-fitting technology to conform to a 19th century model of teaching.

•Literacy and Inquiry emerging as biggest challenges

•Reading and writing are not enough

•Literacy incorporates reading in many formats

•Inquiry is the pedagogy of the 21st century

And what about the school library?

Will there ever be enough technology?

Should schooling be high tech? Are we dumbing down education?

Have computers in schools produced higher performing students?

Is technology the answer?

Have we lost our ability to concentrate? Are we more social or more isolated as a result of our constantly interconnected lives? How is the internet affecting our brains?

BUTOnline Youth are Content Producers•More than half of American teens online have produced media content

•About one-third have circulated media that they have produced beyond their immediate friends and family.

The Net Effect

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

The Partnership for 21st Century survey showed a significant majority of voters ‘are deeply concerned that the United States is not preparing young people with the skills they need to compete in the global economy.’

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/

21st Century Questions

What do we want them to learn?Traditional literacy Information literacyMedia literacy Digital literacyComputer literacy Technological literacy Critical thinking Innovative skills; creativity Inquiry skills

How will they best learn it?Authentic learning; real life situations; problem-solving; role playing

How will we know they have learned it?Performance-based assessment Formative assessments (rubrics, journals, portfolios, checklists, exhibition; peer review; self-evaluation)

Do we want to evaluate student problem-solving in the visual arts?Experimental research in science?

Speaking, listening and facilitating a discussion? Doing document-based historical inquiry?

Thoroughly reviewing a piece of imaginative writing until it works for the reader?

Then let our assessment be built out of such exemplary intellectual challenges.

Grant Wiggins, 1990

Why Authentic Learning Tasks?

What doesn’t an authentic learning task look like?

Many resource-based assignments

contribute little or nothing to learning have little evidence of authentic engagement have little evidence of construction of new knowledge are rarely guided throughout the research project rarely equip students with information and technical competencies

necessary to complete the task

Teacher/textbook give backgroundPick a dinosaurTeacher provides worksheet: Describe how it looks What did it eat? Where/when did it live? Draw a picture of your dinosaurLibrarian explains a few sourcesStudents copy and paste/plagiarizeStudents hand in report for grade

Students make a digital recording

of response to a book they read.

They create digital images to accompany their narrative

They work with their friends to add music to the background

They post their book review on

the library website where the

librarian has created a digital repository for virtual book talks.

The new book talk?

Students can access the virtual book talks when they come to the library to choose a book

Students are reading, “The Diary of Anne Frank” in their English class.

They go to the library to explore the topic of the Holocaust

They browse through print and digital text and respond to writing prompts supplied by the

teacher and librarian in a blog.

As they are blogging the narrated stories of Holocaust survivors is streamed through the computers at low volume.

After students have collected information they set up a wiki and post what they have learned

The new term paper

Rubric for the Authentic Learning Task: The Task…

Is meaningful: derives from standards, Is meaningful: derives from standards, curriculum, and students’ interests curriculum, and students’ interests

provides opportunities for problem-solving provides opportunities for problem-solving

requires learner to use tools of the expert requires learner to use tools of the expert

Offers opportunities for sharing outcomes Offers opportunities for sharing outcomes

is interdisciplinary is interdisciplinary

These are CONTENT criteria for the ALT.

Rubric for ALT: The Learner…

relates new information to prior knowledge relates new information to prior knowledge

applies new information/knowledge to new applies new information/knowledge to new situations situations

uses critical thinking uses critical thinking

is actively engaged in a variety of tasks is actively engaged in a variety of tasks

has choices has choices

has opportunities for revision has opportunities for revision

has opportunities to work in a group has opportunities to work in a group

These are METHODOLOGY criteria for the ALT

Rubric for ALT: The Teacher…

makes expectations and outcomes clear makes expectations and outcomes clear

provides exemplars provides exemplars

identifies required resources identifies required resources

chooses assessments appropriate to the taskchooses assessments appropriate to the task

gathers input from learners for assessment gathers input from learners for assessment

asks learners to evaluate the task asks learners to evaluate the task

attends a post-mortem to critique and revise the attends a post-mortem to critique and revise the task task

These are DESIGN criteria for the ALT.

Assume role of studentsAssume role of students Assume role of historians, Assume role of historians, writers, scientistswriters, scientists

Focus on content of Focus on content of curriculumcurriculum

Focus on inquiry driven by Focus on inquiry driven by academic questionsacademic questions

Choose from presented Choose from presented optionsoptions

Create responsesCreate responses

Are assessed through Are assessed through recall, recognition, minimal recall, recognition, minimal competenciescompetencies

Are assessed through Are assessed through performance, problem performance, problem solvingsolving

Are assessed summativelyAre assessed summatively Are assessed formativelyAre assessed formativelyAs well as summativelyAs well as summatively

Depend on authorityDepend on authority Students are criticsStudents are critics

Projects Authentic Learning Tasks

Hall of Fame Research “Greatness”

Where/when born, died, lived

Education/Jobs/Career Challenges overcome Qualities that led to

greatness Awards/

Commendations Political offices held Best remembered for

what Connection to NJ

Grade 8 Research Project

20th Century Assignment

Critical thinking and Deep Knowledge?

Walt Whitman (Camden) Considered by many to be the most influential poets in U.S. history

20th Century learning outcome

A student who has not been interested in doing this project conferences with the librarian.

The librarian finds out that the students likes jazz and suggests Ella Fitzgerald as a topic.

The student listens to Ella Fitzgerald’s music on Bearshare.

The student decides to write a poem rather than a report about Ella Fitzgerald.

21st Century Mentoring

Lonely, Nervous, Brave, Determined, SassyDaughter of parents who filled their house with musicMusic must have filled her loneliness when her father diedMoved to New York for a better life.Who loved the night magic of Harlem, Who loved the celebrities and begging for autographs with her friendsWho really loved singing and scatting Who loved her Aunt that took care of her as a child.Who felt loss, when her mother died Who felt anger when she was put in an orphanageWho felt trapped in those walls but they couldn’t keep her down because she felt the pull of her song and the night magic of Harlem.Who felt nervous and fear at auditionsWho feared not being able to sing because she had no one to care for her Who feared dying from diabetes and possibly going blind, Who feared whom she would pass her singing crown down toWho wanted to see someone take over her singing crownWho would have liked to have spent more time with her late parentsWho wanted to work with the best bandsWho changed the world of jazz and swingWho was very proud of her awards and achievementsShe was “The First Lady Of Song”; she was “Sassy” and a Legend of JazzBorn in Virginia, grew up in New York, adopted by the world.Ella was greatFitzgerald

Ella

21st Century Learning Outcome