Vision-ary Committee

Interesting new video from Cool Cat blogger Vicki Davis:

Norman Morgan emailed this video which I had seen floating around the blogs recently, and it seemed fitting to share it on our technology committee’s website as a vision of how the new interactivity of the web is changing our culture.

It was created by a Kansas State professor of Digital Ethnography(interesting title), Michael Wesch.

What  has happened with this video is an example of the new web in and of itself.   On his website, Wesch writes:

On January 31st I released the 2nd draft of The Machine is Us/ing Us hoping to receive feedback from my colleagues…. I sent it to 10 people. Four days later it was the most blogged about video in the blogosphere and the wild ride had begun. It has been fun and amazing for the most part - sometimes overwhelming - but always exciting. It is hard to believe that a little video I created in my basement in St. George Kansas could be seen by over 1.7 million people, be translated into (at least) 5 languages, and be shown to large audiences at major conferences on 6 continents within just one month of its creation. In some ways, the journey of the video speaks volumes that the content of the video could only hint at. I know I could not have done this with the technology available 3 years ago - certainly not 13 years ago….

Also, as part of the “new” open source concept of an interactive web, he has licensed it under Creative Commons, which means that people are free to add to it, change the music, etc. 

As part of the class, students are responding to the video with their own videos.

I found this video an undeniably powerful one that asks us some very hard questions.

I believe in line with Daniel Pink that the new skills that will be important in this web 2.0 world will have to do with design and empathy–and the effectiveness of this video to move us and inspire thought is a tremendous example of the power of communication skills.  

What are your thoughts?

To see a video explanation of Michael Wesch’s class, use this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYcS_VpoWJk

This is cross posted at www.futura.edublogs.org.

Our technology subcommittee met last week to work on our technology initiative, which we’re calling “WHS 2.1.”   (Meaning both 21st century and one step beyond web 2.0.)

Our chairperson(and student) Christina Chang defines web 2.0 in our planning document:

“Web 2.0 provides the ability for students and educators to connect, share, and publish online and it allows for more individualization and self-directed learning.”

The theme of our initiative is “Connect, Collaborate, Create.”  We wanted a mission statement that was short and to the point,  and that would be something students could identify with.  As Christina  wrote in our planning document, the theme emphasizes using technology:

to continue to make inter- and intra-campus connections, to use this growing foundation for collaboration, and finally to create new opportunities for learning, expansion, and extension of knowledge at Westlake.

Our art teacher, Dale Baker, is going to redesign a logo and  add the motto to it for us so we can “brand” the technology effort.  We want this to be a mission that our staff and students can connect with.

The staff development committee’s survey will help us identify some preferred methods of delivery for inservice.   We’re looking at both short term training goals for the rest of this year, (like use of the document cameras), and longer term goals.

Also, we discovered that we’ll be able to gather data on our incoming student competencies from student surveys being done currently by 8th graders on Learning.com at both middle schools.  It’ll be very helpful to know what technology competencies our students are entering our school with.

We also have discussed surveying the staff about how they would like to be supported relating to technology–what computer configurations they see working in their classrooms, what software is needed, what amount of time is needed for training, etc.  We’ll be working on the survey at a future meeting.

We’re also hoping to tie in with work from other committees on guest speakers.

One aspect I’m hoping we can do more on is identifying some best practices for using technology in “transformational” ways.  There are a lot of models out there, but I think finding some links or examples we can point teachers to would be helpful.  The Partnership for the 21st Century has a lot of helpful information, including a self-assessment for staff of their technology use, and some best practices models that we can consider.

Another piece we’ve been discussing  is how to share this initiative  k-12 so that the other schools see what direction we are trying to take.   This idea for a community-wide book relating to technology has been floating around, and I would like to look into that more.

It’s interesting to see work from various committees and at the district level converging all at the same time, and it’ll be exciting to see how we can move forward.

This post is by a guest poster–Vicky Abney–who writes about Facebook.

In recent conversations, the site visits team discussed Facebook and the phenomenon sweeping the planet with this online social network that EVERYONE under 25 is addicted to.  So, I went to the site … but what intrigued me was the BLOGS (link found at bottom of Facebook homepage) which were enlightening, relevant, and juicy, maybe because I’m still feeling West Coast-ish!
Check it out:
Readership trends of Facebook (popular TV shows effect whose online)
How to explain RSS the Oprah way
Enthusiast Evangelist at Microsoft - “The newly created position at Microsoft … Our jobs are basically to go out and mingle, bond, and touch influential end users and show them all the cool things that Microsoft has to offer” … (you have to read the blog, name dropping like “I got to see Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in person. Ballmer screams loudly like Chris Farley’s motivational speaker character … I got to visit the mother ship. I got to be an insider at one of the most influential companies in the world.”), oh but then her next blog …”9-1/2 weeks: Leaving Microsoft not as sexy or tormenting …  I am a creative, right-brainer, and truly passionate lover of the web … (Steph’s life story) explaining, “People are literally creating great things out of nothing because, well, we can, with open source, web-based apps … explaining 2.0 is the democratizing technology making it accessible to anyone regardless of economic status, class, or means. If you have some kind of computer or handheld device, web 2.0 has everything one needs to start their own business … so many thoughts strengths of blogging, Microsoft Office, winning behind the scenes, etc.”  Conflicts from within for this idealist, so she resigns … A great read!