project 1 final - chris atkinson - edad 694

EDAD 694 Chris Atkinson Project 1 Literacy and Technology ISLLC ISLCC Standard 2We must overcome the awful inertia of past decades (Fullan, Michael). For years the educational system has been stuck in an industrial mindset while our kids have changed and technologies have changed the way we all communicate and learn. Therefore, it is time we change the way we teach, lead, coach, and inspire our teachers. The goal of my project was to help take literacy 1.0 to literacy 2.0, to empower language arts teachers to engage students using web 2.0 tools for collaborative communication and work, pushing them to argumentative literacy and higher order thinking. Of course, all of this was done while focused on incorporating state standards. The video below explains my own thoughts on how schools should be thinking:

Using the Indiana Academic Standards, the preexisting curriculum, and the work the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade teams have been doing in literature circles I set out to use my expertise in educational technology to help bring free engaging tools to teachers in order to meet the standards in a way that reaches the 21st century learner.

EDAD 694 Chris Atkinson Project 1 Literacy and Technology ISLLC ISLCC Standard 2My role in this project was to work with the district literacy coach to train teachers on using new web 2.0 tools to foster and authentic literacy environment where 21st century learners are collaborating, discussing, and creating together. I held a staff meeting training and then a workshop with teachers, then offered continual support for these teachers. 1. How have your assumptions and beliefs been changed? I think that before I started this internship I had an assumption that teachers in our Carmel Jr. Highs were really taping into 21st century technologies to bring literacy to life. I was surprised to see that this was not the case. As I talked with teachers, administrators, and the district literacy coach I began to understand that it has been a process to get teachers to move into the idea of literature circles and they have now been looking for ways to fold technology into what they are doing, in order to engage the 21st century learners before them. I assumed that teachers at this level in our district were privy to the needs of their students, technologically speaking, and were being trained to meet these needs. Seeing the desire that the teachers and district literacy coach had I knew that with my background I could be of assistance so I immediately jumped into this project; hoping that I could help plug the holes. Throughout the project I was amazed at the willingness and openness of all stakeholders involved to integrate technology into their practice. My assumption was wrong; teachers were ready but unprepared to integrate technologies into literacy. I think much of this

EDAD 694 Chris Atkinson Project 1 Literacy and Technology ISLLC ISLCC Standard 2has to do with leadership not casting an appropriate vision for the staff in this area. The bottom line is new media demand new literacies (Ohler, 2009), and the school leader must be prepared to cast the appropriate vision and inspire his staff to open up and be willing to understand that! 2. What ISLLC performances (skills) have YOU developed? I feel that I have developed several ISLCC performances while working on this project. I would like to address four specific performances that were emphasized during my work on this project. ISLCC S2.P19 states that the school leader should be emphasizing the use of technology for teaching and learning. Emphasizing technology was not my principals strength, nor the assistant principals I have worked with. Fortunately this is a strength and passion of mine. This allowed me to be able to use my skills to strengthen the delivery of literacy curriculum and hopefully will help to better engage students. I did this by working with teachers and administrators to create a wiki and hold professional development on how to use free web 2.0 tools to engage students in authentic literacy. Below is my wiki and workshop signup blog post: WIKI Blog Post Regarding Workshop While promoting the use of technology to inspire more authentic literacy I have had to offer ongoing learning opportunities for staff (ISLCC S2.P9). This can be challenging when there are so many demanding schedules in the spring so part of what I have done is create a wiki where resources and tutorials can be held. One thing web 2.0

EDAD 694 Chris Atkinson Project 1 Literacy and Technology ISLLC ISLCC Standard 2tools can offer school leaders are the ability to bring ongoing professional development to staff on a more frequent basis. High expectations for staff and students is crucial to the success of an organization (ISLCC S2.P3). I really had some high expectations for training teachers to use web 2.0 tools to enhance instruction and engage students. The great thing about these expectations, is that they were nothing new to the staff, being that my supervisor is a high expectations and a no-nonsense straight shooter. One way that I plan on communicating expectations in a way that inspires teachers to try the tools Im training them to use is by setting up a way o collaboratively share successes in using these new tools. The wiki is one medium I can use to do this, I also plan to keep an open line of communication and support. I think that while leaders take this approach they show their own passion for something and that can spill over into staff, helping to maintain that positive expectation relationship between you and the staff. This is also tied into being able to cast a vision that is tied to core values and that must be maintained in a positive school culture. Another performance that was developed while working on this project was ISLCC S2.P6: barriers to student learning are identified, clarified, and addressed. I think that the biggest barrier was not necessarily the students, but the teachers lack of knowledge of new web 2.o tools that can be used in the classroom to promote active and authentic literacy. Students need to be able to use new media collectively as well as individually (Ohler, 2009). If students are to use new media literacies we need teachers who are willing to let go of an industrial education and shift paradigms to the 21st century learning. This old style of thought and unwillingness is a barrier I see in many schools. One way I tackled this was being enthusiastic about the potential that new web 2.0 tools bring to the classroom and by

EDAD 694 Chris Atkinson Project 1 Literacy and Technology ISLLC ISLCC Standard 2reassuring teachers that they can do it and that I would be there for them when they needed me.

3. Which ISLLC dispositions (attitudes) have YOU developed? I feel that I have developed several ISLCC dispositions while working on this project, some of the dispositions I feel that I have developed most are S2D1: student learning is the fundamental purpose of schooling, the proposition that students learn in a variety of ways, S2D3: students learn in a variety of ways, S2D4: lifelong learning for self and others, S2D5 professional development as an integral part of school improvement, S2D7: preparing students to be contributing members of society. This project helped me to develop my stance on the importance of professional development for staff and the use of technology in education. I wanted the staff to truly understand new ways to engage students into higher level thinking using a variety of web 2.0 tools. We are in a changing world of education and communication. This changing world will need visionary leaders who pride themselves in lifelong learning because this thirst for learning new things must be modeled to the staff. During the course of this year I have really worked on fleshing out exuberance for the continual learning process. Throughout this project I also grounded my thoughts in the fact that students learn in a variety of ways, and one proficient way to address this is through the use of technology and web 2.0. We also want our students to be contributing members of society, and with the changes in the way we communicate (via web and tech) we need to prepare are students to use these technologies in order to be functioning and contributing members of society.

EDAD 694 Chris Atkinson Project 1 Literacy and Technology ISLLC ISLCC Standard 2

4. How will you deal with this differently next time? TIME! I wish I had more time with the staff to flesh out this project to more fruition. Since this was my off-level experience the biggest challenge for a curriculum project of this magnitude was not being at the school during the bulk of instructional time. I really wanted to have an ongoing model of professional development for growing teachers into using technologies with literacy, but I needed to first establish some rapport and work in conjunction with the literacy coach at the middle school. If I did this project again I would have started at this right away and planned some informal trainings to get a few of the teachers hooked into the ideas I was presenting and then build off of that following. I think if I would have approached the project this was I would have allowed myself more time to develop staff and left a more enduring instructional impression. None the less this project was a complete success in my eyes, I was able to have a direct effect on instruction, including the mastery of Indiana Academic Standards, by offering meaningful professional development and modeling an exuberance for technology and lifelong learning.

Artifacts Attached Below Rubric

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Click the Wiki image to be brought to the live wiki I created on the web for this project.

NMC Horizon Project: K-12 Edition 2009 Short ListTime-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less Collaborative Environments Communication Tools Personally-Owned Devices One-to-One Laptop Initiatives Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years Mobiles and Next-Generation Mobile Virtual Worlds New Forms of Assessment Cloud Computing Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years Smart Objects New Tools for Filtering and Security Expanded Personal Web Semantic-Aware Applications Critical Challenges Key Trends

2009 Horizon. K-12 Short List

DISCUSSION DRAFTNOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

2009 The New Media Consortium

Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less

Collaborative EnvironmentsA growing emphasis on collaboration in education and in the workplace has led to the proliferation of collaborative environments in online spaces designed to support teams working together. Online collaborative environments range from shared document editors like Google Docs (http://docs.google.com), to openly editable websites like wikis, to social networking sites that include profiles and communication tools to add a sense of connectedness and community along with tools for shared work. Virtual worlds such as Second Life are also a part of this category. Collaborative environments are effective virtual spaces for sharing information. Some platforms such as Facebook allow members to embed user-generated multimedia including video, music, and images along with text into web pages to share with their network of friends. Online collaborative spaces like Ning or PageFlakes can be created easily by anyone interested in a particular topic for others interested in the same subject. Some teachers use online collaborative environments to manage their classrooms and to share resources with other teachers within a media rich environment. A common feature of all of these applications is a workspace that may be shared by students and their teachers with fewer geographic and time limitations than a physical classroom.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression Students collect news stories online, share them with their network of friends and offer feedback and responses to the news medias perspective. Students synchronously collaborate online to create a mind map of course notes from their computer technology class. Teachers expand their professional knowledge through networks of teachers who have a shared affinity for a particular topic. Since social technology knows no geographic boundaries, it brings teachers who may be isolated within their schools in contact with people they might never work with otherwise.

Examples Voicethread facilitates secure online conversations around a shared document or documents about which students may comment via phone, voice recording, text, video, or uploaded files: http://voicethread.com/#home With MindMeister, users may edit graphic documents such as mind maps online as a group while working from a number of Web portals: http://www.mindmeister.com/ Classblogmeister is a searchable network of classroom blogs and bloggers, both students and teachers: http://classblogmeister.com/index.php Classroom 2.0 uses the Ning online collaboration platform to support teachers interested in integrating Web 2.0 into the classroom: http://www.classroom20.com

For Further ReadingCollaborative Work Environments http://thinkofit.com/webconf/workspaces.htm (Maintained by David R. Woolley, updated September 2008.) This website includes reviews, articles, and links to services for online collaborative workspaces. iCue http://www.icue.com/ This site hosted by NBC presents news stories in a collectible format. Students may keep stories or share them with classmates along with their critical perspectives about the content. Social Networks in Education http://socialnetworksined.wikispaces.com/ This wiki site hosts an updateable list of social networks online that are used in school environments.



2009 Horizon. K-12 Short List, Page 1


Communication ToolsBecause the nature of work has changed and people are working more remotely, the use of online communication tools is growing. These same shifts are mirrored in the lives of K-12 students. Programs like Skype allow free online video conferencing, which many young people already use to communicate with their extended families. Brief, synchronous online communication through instant messaging and Twitter, a microblog application, allow real time conversations not bound by physical space or time limits. Meebo, a webbased instant messaging aggregator, eliminates the need for schools to support software from a variety of instant messaging vendors by enabling access to different accounts in one interface. Though many schools are cautious of introducing instant messaging into the classroom where it could be a distraction to students, the value of these technologies goes well beyond social interaction. Online communication tools provide students with invaluable experience in remote collaboration that prepares them for future careers. Desktop video conferencing knocks down classroom walls and brings subject experts and colearners from all over the world into the classroom. And when a teacher inserts a chat feature into her classroom blog or website, suddenly school learning hours extend beyond those of the traditional school day.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression Teachers manage classroom activities even outside of classroom hours through synchronous, two-way online communication that can provide time-sensitive information about projects and assignments and reach multiple students at once. Content experts in a field of study are invited into the classroom to spend time with students via desktop video-conferencing, without needing to leave their work. Without having to download any software onto the schools computer, a teacher can place a real time chat box into a blog entry so that students may comment and ask questions about content outside of classroom hours.

Examples Edmodo is a private microblogging platform that teachers and students can use to manage classroom assignments and activities as well as for synchronous communication: http://www.edmodo.com/ The free online telephone and video-conferencing program, Skype, allows students to broadcast current events to their classroom events and interact with their fellow students about the content in real time: http://skype.com Meebo allows synchronous, online chat from a variety of sources to be dropped into a website or blog to facilitate class discussion about a topic: http://meebo.com

For Further ReadingCollaboration Tools http://connect.educause.edu/Library/ELI/CollaborationTools/47200 (Cyprien Lomas, Michael Burke, and Carrie Lee Page, EDUCAUSE Connect (White Paper), August 2008.) This white paper discusses everyday communication tools used by students, ways that students already use them, and ways that faculty can leverage students familiarity with and use of these tools to collaborate and extend discourse beyond the classroom. Online Videoconferencing: Web Tools Such as uStream Make Video Broadcasting Accessible http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-34670276_ITM (Gary Stager, District Administration, June 2008.) This article provides an overview of major online video technologies used in K-12 classrooms and examples of how they are used. Skype Interview: Around the World with 80 School Projects http://langwitches.org/blog/2009/01/10/skype-interview-around-the-world-with-80-schools-project/ This blog post features video of a Skype interview with technology integration facilitator, Silvia Tolisano who uses Skype to facilitate interactions with 80 schools for her schools Global Studies program.





Personally-Owned DevicesPersonally owned devices such as smart phones, gaming consoles, and netbooks or mini-laptops are fast becoming ubiquitous features of students lives. By connecting with information and each other via these devices, students automatically model many of the collaborative behaviors valued by teachers in the classroom. Since many personally owned devices have access to the Internet around the clock, students have the opportunity for just-in-time learning that connects new knowledge with current experience. Students prior familiarity with such technology means that they are able to learn new concepts in a context that is a common part of their daily lives, taking advantage of the minds natural cognitive scaffolding. Personally owned devices provide both a shared learning environment as well as the opportunity to address individualized needs. Audio playback devices allow students to access and review classroom lectures recorded by the teacher. Portable game consoles have built-in features that allow teachers to upload podcasts, photographs, and video in other languages, with which students may then interact. Netbooks free students and teachers to share more assignments online, providing students the functionality and flexibility of personal laptops at a fraction of the cost. Schools continue to struggle, however, with the challenge of how to ensure responsible use of such devices as well as with privacy issues for students and teachers.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression Fourth graders in Fort Smith, Arkansas use netbooks to visit national seismological centers online to track earthquake activity in real time and to plot activity trends using latitude and longitude lines. A math class in India uses cell phone cameras to document steps taken as they complete complex math labs. The images are then turned into class presentations the teacher can review. Students in California use the iPod Touch to research and display their multimedia California history presentations on their classroom TV without the need for projectors or laptops.

Examples In a Japanese classroom, Nintendo DS gaming consoles provide practice testing and instantaneous feedback for students as they hear, see, and apply their English lessons at their own pace: http://www.nintendo.com/ds Apples iPod Touch enables Internet browsing and multimedia production capability as well as access to many free educational applications, all in a compact size: http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/ Lenovos IdeaPad S10e netbook is designed for classrooms pursuing one-to-one laptop ratios for students. Weighing less than three pounds, it has a generously sized screen, Internet connectivity, multimedia functionality and full keyboarding capability. It is also less expensive than a traditional laptop: http://Lenovo.com

For Further ReadingHandhelds: Getting Mobile. Handheld computers bring K12 classrooms into the 21st century. http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1638&p=1#0 (Cathleen Norris and Elliot Soloway, District Administration, July 2008.) The authors describe the identifying properties of personally owned devices, their unique pedagogical value, and the challenges that integrating such tools into the 21st century classroom bring. Game Consoles Remain Classroom Rarity http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26199898/ (Jane Clifford, MSNBC, August 2008.) This article describes examples of ways portable gaming systems and other digital games are being used to facilitate learning in classrooms throughout the world, including Japan, Scotland, and the United States. K12 Cellphone Projects Wiki http://k12cellphoneprojects.wikispaces.com/ A wiki description of several examples of school projects that incorporate the cameras and other features of typical cell phones owned by students. Many items include links to page descriptions, slide presentations, or podcasts about the projects.





One-to-One Laptop InitiativesOne-to-one computing refers to the ratio of computers to students and teachers in a learning environment. Ideally, each learner and instructor has access not only to a computer but also to a well-managed high-speed network with access to the Internet. One-to-one computing offers students quick access to information and the most current research on a just-in-time basis as well as a shared network of utilities, many of them free, with which students may collaborate, create and contribute. Successful one-to-one initiatives, however, are a function not only of students having access to hardware, but of a strong technological infrastructure, long-term financial commitment and rigorous ongoing professional development for teachers. Benefits of one-to-one computing are also specific to the visions schools have for their students. Some teachers may be attracted to the individuation in student learning plans that one-to-one computing allows, since individualized resources may be sent directly to students based on their needs. Other teachers may value the quick feedback students can receive when they submit work to other students for editing. Suggestions can be tracked via the Internet so that teachers can monitor the work of the writer as well as the editors. With the right support and commitment, laptop classrooms tend to be more student-centered, project-based, and collaborative, conditions that also help prepare students for living in the creative economy of the 21st century.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression Irving, Texas teachers find that the direct access to timely information and the collaborative nature of one-to one-computing helps them meet their goals for integrating problem-based learning. Auburn, Alabama students receive teachers lecture notes directly on their laptops as they are generated, allowing students to devote more attention to classroom discussions than to note taking. In turn, teachers monitor thumbnail versions of every students screen on their own computer for classroom management purposes. Students may download iTunesU podcasts of language lessons from their teacher to their laptop, which they may then review during class or at home at their own pace.

Examples Students at Science Leadership Academy (SLA) in Philadelphia are given Apple Macbooks as a tool for facilitating SLAs vision of being a student-centered school: http://www.apple.com/macbook/ In Campinas, Brazil, students use the compact personal Classmate PC for everything from experiencing simulated explosive reactions to examining cultural costumes: http://www.classmatepc.com/ As one-to-one computing expands, some manufacturers offer educational seed programs, trials and discounts to schools as they introduce new products. The Acer Aspire One netbook is an example: http://www.acer.com/us/k12/k12_landing.htm

For Further ReadingOne-to-One Links at Classdrive http://lgfpms.classdrive.net/29499 This webpage provides a list of one-to-one computing projects and implementation policy suggestions. Links to studies of how one-to-one initiatives impact student learning are also provided. Podcast237: Unleashing the Transformational Power of One-to-One Computing in K-12 http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/03/15/podcast237-unleashing-the-transformational-power-of-one-toone-computing-in-k-12-cosn-panel/ (Welsey Fryer, March 2008.) This podcast of a panel discussion at the 2008 Consortium of School Networking (CoSN) conference offers insights for implementing and sustaining one-to-one computing environments. Up Close with One to One Computing (Video) http://news.zdnet.com/2422-13568_22-218682.html A look at how an art class in Campinas, Brazil, part of one of South Americas largest one-to-one computing initiatives, uses laptops to complete assignments.




Time-to-Adoption: Two to Three Years

Mobiles and Next-Generation MobileOver the past few years, mobiles have undergone a continual transformation, becoming more capable and flexible with each new release. The ability to record audio and video turned them into tiny multimedia devices; as storage capacity increased, they became the storehouses of our digital lives; and geolocation, web browsing, and email has brought much of the functionality of a laptop to the pocket-sized devices. Then, a year ago, another transformation took place. Devices with touch screen displays appeared on the market. These new mobiles can access the Internet over the increasingly higher-speed 3G networks or by using wifi, and they can sense motion and orientation and react accordingly thanks to built-in accelerometers. They can use GPS to locate themselves and can run robust applications. They communicate with other devices. Most significantly, their manufacturers are working with the developer community to open up the devices to all the innovation that third-party developers can bring. New interfaces, the ability to connect to wifi and GPS in addition to a variety of cellular networks, and the availability of third-party applications have created an almost entirely new device with nearly infinite possibilities for education, networking, and personal productivity. The implications for education are dramatic: the potential for mobile gaming and simulation, research aids, fieldwork, and tools for learning of all kinds is there, awaiting development.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression Nearly every student carries a mobile device, making it a natural choice for content delivery and even field work and data capture: mobiles and their networks are virtually everywhere. Language learners can install applications on their mobiles that let them look up words, practice hearing and speaking, and practice writing. Detailed reference materials are available for medicine and astronomy; graphing calculator applications turn mobiles into sophisticated mathematical tools; hundreds of flash card applications are available for an array of subjects; and Google Earth now can be installed on mobile devices.

Examples ChemiCal is a chemical calculation application for the iPhone: http://www.twssworldwide.com/ChemiCal.html The iPhone version of Google Earth includes all the detail of the desktop version and is available in 18 languages: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/introducing-google-earth-for-iphone.html Math tools like Kids Fraction Fun help students practice skills they are learning in school in a game-like format on the iPod Touch: http://www.nscpartners.com/kidsmathfun62233 Poll Everywhere uses short messaging service (SMS) messages to allow student response in place of expensive clicker systems: http://www.polleverywhere.com/ Seismometer uses the iPhones accelerometer to visualize and measure seismic variation. http://iphone3g-india.com/detect-earthquake-using-iphone-seismometer-iphone-app/

For Further ReadingHow Mobile Is Changing Our Society http://tarina.blogging.fi/2008/10/18/speaking-at-mobile-monday-amsterdam/ (Teemu Arina, Tarina, 18 October 2008.) This blog post explores the blurring boundary between mobile devices and computers and the potential future of what we now call mobiles. iPhone: 3 Features That Will Impact Education http://www.edutechie.com/2007/06/iphone-3-features-that-will-impact-education/ (Jeff VanDrimmelen, EduTechie.com, 12 June 2007.) This blog post describes three features of the iPhone multi-touch display, widgets, and iPhone applications with full Internet access. Mobile Learning in Classrooms of the Future http://www.convergemag.com/story.php?catid=421&storyid=108262 (Suren Ramasubbu & Bruce Wilcox, Converge, September 2008.) This article describes the potential of smart phones to revolutionize K12 education.





Virtual WorldsHundreds of educational institutions have chosen to enter the virtual arena over the past few years. Early projects that drew heavily on real-world forms and practices gradually have given way to more experimental ventures that take advantage of the unique opportunities afforded by virtual worlds and other immersive digital environments. Now we are seeing increased use of these spaces for truly immersive forms of learning and for a level of collaboration that is erasing traditional boundaries and borders rapidly. The technology that supports virtual worlds is advancing at a rapid rate, paving the way for more realistic environments, connections between different platforms, and new ways to enter and use virtual spaces. As participation and development both continue to increase, these environments are becoming ever more interesting spaces with obvious potential for teaching, learning, and creative expression. With more widespread use comes increased demand for content and for tools to create content. Since this topic was first addressed in the 2007 Horizon Report, we have witnessed enormous development in building tools, climate simulators, physics engines, and the overall capability of these platforms to simulate reality. There is increasing activity in this space; Gartner, Inc. has estimated that by 2011, 80% of Internet users will have an avatar in a virtual world, and hundreds of platforms are already available or in development. Given the number of schools already experimenting with Second Life and other virtual worlds, it is clear that these spaces will become more common as educational environments in the coming years.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression Virtual worlds have obvious application for distance learning, connecting far-flung learning communities with each other and with expertise that may not be readily accessible locally. Flexible learning spaces, simulations, and alternative experiences allow students to take part in activities that are difficult to host in real-life classrooms, such as touring a working industrial plant or facility. Virtual worlds provide a rich environment for scenario-based learning, allowing learners to interact with or even construct places and objects of historical or scientific significance.

Examples The Appalachian Ohio K-12 Second Life Learning Community seeks to create, promote, and support teaching aids and interactive science experiments in Second Life that are based on state curriculum standards: http://vital.cs.ohiou.edu/learningcommunity.html An immersive experience set in the virtual world of Second Life, Virtual Macbeth takes learners into the psychological space of the title character: http://virtualmacbeth.wikispaces.com/ The Virtual Classroom Project at Jokaydia in Second Life is providing a platform for educators to experiment with designing spaces for learning: http://jokaydia.com/jokaydia-projects/virtualclassroom-project/

For Further Reading2008 Metaverse Tour Video: The Social Virtual Worlds a Stage http://www.personalizemedia.com/2008-metaverse-tour-video-the-social-virtual-worlds-a-stage/ (Gary Hayes, PersonalizeMedia, 5 August 2008.) The author visited over fifty virtual worlds; this blog post includes a video with clips from many of them and a summary of a few observations. The Future Will Be Better Tomorrow http://www.christianrenaud.com/weblog/2008/05/the-future-will.html (Christian Renaud, Christian Renauds Weblog, 9 May 2008.) This blog entry makes eight predictions about developments in virtual worlds over the next 3-5 years. The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research http://jvwresearch.org/ This online journal launched in July 2008 and features topics such as research, consumer behavior, culture, and pedagogy as they relate to 3-D virtual worlds.





New Forms of AssessmentAs schools embrace collaborative and creative technology tools, students learn and demonstrate learning in new ways, building skills that are increasingly valued by potential future employers. However, it can be difficult to assess the nature and extent of learning that occurs when students create nontraditional work products. Further, while skills in information literacy, visual literacy, and multimedia communication are highly desirable for learners and workers in the 21st century, these proficiencies are not generally the ones measured by high-stakes testing. When we consider that the tools that support those skills also tend to increase students interest and engagement in the learning process, the disconnect is all the greater. Clearly, new forms of assessment are needed, both to demonstrate in-class achievement and to track students progress in the way that standardized testing is currently meant to do. Recognizing this, some schools are experimenting with new approaches, but the work is far from mainstream at this point. Because of the emphasis on standards by funding agencies means they cannot be ignored, this often means implementing side-by-side assessment systems in an attempt to report progress using accepted scales while still evaluating the new skills students are developing. Such bolt-on approaches are likely to be attractive to only the most innovative of schools. Several writers have made the case that an ideal form of assessment would employ technology that allows formative as well as summative assessment of student learning, that involves the student in reflection on his or her own learning process, and that assesses facility with new tools and skills as well as the discrete contentbased knowledge acquisition that is more easily measured by old methods. Our research did not lead us to any tools currently in place or under development that would do this however.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression As part of an ongoing study to align new assessment tools with state math standards, two Indiana schools are using activity-based assessment with fifth grade math classes. Teachers and students work together to review their work with the help of student-oriented formative feedback rubrics. In a San Francisco school, new forms of assessment that involve students as peer reviewers help teachers evaluate the learning that occurs in open-ended, project-based assignments. As in the above examples, new forms of assessment open the doors to a wider array of teaching practices and new learning experiences for students.

Examples Wireless Generation produces a tool that helps teachers track reading performance online and then assess and deliver feedback to handheld devices. Information is automatically updated for teachers to analyze it and use it to inform instruction: http://www.wirelessgeneration.com/ Moodle is a virtual learning environment that allows online assessment of student work, including peer review assessment for students in higher grades: http://moodle.org/about/ SimpleAssessment is designed to assess technological literacy: http://www.simpleassessment.com/

For Further ReadingElementary Math Assessment Project (EMAP) http://crlt.indiana.edu/research/emap.html (Dan Hickey, Research Project, Indiana University CLRT 2002-2005.) This is a description of a controlled experiment of two forms of testing fifth grade student learning in math using traditional assessment methods and more project-based approaches grounded in formative assessment. iCTLT Authentic Assessment (Slide Presentation) http://connect.educause.edu/Library/ELI/CollaborationTools/47200 (TAS, The International Conference on Teaching and Learning with Technology, Singapore, 2008.) This session presentation provides a clear working definition of authentic assessment as well as several examples of ways authentic assessment is working its way into the school environment. On the Way: Nations First Tech Literacy Exam http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=55483 (eSchool News, October 2008.) This article describes plans to have technology literacy become part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation's Report Card, by 2012. 2009 The New Media Consortium DISCUSSION DRAFTNOT FOR DISTRIBUTION 2009 Horizon. K-12 Short List, Page 7


Cloud ComputingThe emergence of large data farms specialized data centers that host thousands of servers has created a surplus of computing resources that has come to be called the cloud. Aspects of computing that used to be considered expensive, like disk storage and computing cycles, are now becoming cheap and ubiquitous. Layered on top of the cloud infrastructure are development platforms that are enabling thin-client, web-based applications for everything from image editing to word processing to music and video manipulation. Specialized applications like Flickr live entirely in the cloud; there is no single computer, or even specific group of computers, that can be pointed to as housing Flickr, Google, or YouTube. To the end user, the cloud is invisible; the technology that supports the applications doesnt matter the fact that the applications are always available is key. There are three types of services associated with the cloud. The most straightforward set of services from an enduser perspective are cloud-based applications that serve a single function, such as Gmail (http://gmail.com) or Quicken Online (http://quicken.intuit.com/online-banking-finances.jsp). The next tier is one step removed from this: instead of offering end-user applications, these services offer the infrastructure on which to build such applications, along with the computing power to deliver them, like Google App Engine (http://code.google.com/appengine/) or Heroku (http://heroku.com). The final tier of cloud services are those that offer sheer computing resources without a development platform layer, like Amazons Elastic Compute Cloud (http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/) or the GoGrid (http://www.gogrid.com).

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression Cloud-based applications can provide students and teachers with free or low-cost alternatives to expensive, proprietary productivity tools. Browser-based applications are accessible for a variety of computer and even mobile platforms, making these tools available anywhere the Internet can be accessed. The shared infrastructure approach imbedded in the cloud computing concept offers considerable potential for large scale experiments and research that can make use of untapped processing power.

Examples CloudTrip is a fledgling directory of cloud-based applications, sorted into categories: http://www.cloudtrip.com/index.php?category=Education A partnership between SimTone Corporation and Frank Porter Graham Elementary School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, will leverage cloud computing technologies to provide students and staff with virtual computers: http://www.simtone.net/snapbook.htm Collections of images can be used for research or learning in a wide range of disciplines; for instance, histology images on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=histology&m=text

For Further ReadingComputing Heads for the Clouds http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2007/tc20071116_379585.htm (Aaron Ricadela, Business Week, 16 November 2007.) This article defines cloud computing and describes ways it is in use by IBM, Yahoo!, and Google. Down on the Server Farm http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11413148 (The Economist, 22 May 2008.) This article describes the infrastructure of Internet computing and its implications for the future. How Cloud Computing is Changing the World http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2008/tc2008082_445669.htm (Rachael King, Business Week, 4 August 2008.) This article describes a perceived shift in the way we think about computing.




Time-to-Adoption: Four to Five Years

Smart ObjectsA smart object is simply any physical object that includes a unique identifier that can track information about the object. There are a number of technologies that support smart objects: radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, quick response (QR) codes, and smartcards are some of the most common. The thing that makes smart objects interesting is the way they connect the physical world with the world of information. Smart objects can be used to digitally manage physical things, to track them throughout their lifespan, and to annotate them with descriptions, opinions, instructions, warranties, tutorials, photographs, connections to other objects, and any other kind of contextual information imaginable. Thus far, smart objects are awkward to tag and difficult to scan for the everyday user, but that is beginning to change as manufacturers create user-friendly systems for tagging, scanning, and programming smart objects. The vision for the future of smart object technology is a world of interconnected items in which the line between physical object and digital information is blurred. Applications that tap into the Internet of things, as this vision is called, would assist users in finding articles in the physical world in the same way that Internet search engines help locate content on the web. Reference materials, household goods, sports equipment: an actual instance of anything a person might need would be discoverable using search tools on computers or mobile devices. Further, while looking at an object, a prospective buyer could call up reviews, suggestions for alternate or related purchases, videos of the item being used, and more, as well as finding out whether something similar lay forgotten in the garage back home.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression Libraries use smart tags to track books and assist with check-in and check-out. Students examining tagged cultural objects brought into the classroom could use handheld devices like the iPod Touch to call up a wealth of information, including photographs, maps, video and audio recordings, related to the object they are holding. A school- or community-wide scavenger hunt might make use of QR codes or other smart tags to offer clues for participants and direct them to certain locations.

Examples The Illinois Institute of Technologys ThinkeringSpace combines physical and virtual components to produce an environment where physical objects, like books, can be annotated with contextual information that is added manually or retrieved automatically: http://www.id.iit.edu/ThinkeringSpaces/ Semapedia is a collaborative project that aims to connect tagged physical objects with online information from Wikipedia using QR codes: http://semapedia.org The Attendee Meta-Data Project at the 2008 Hackers on Planet Earth conference was intended to bring conference-goers together based on shared interests, recommend sessions to attendees, and facilitate hallway networking: http://amd.hope.net

For Further ReadingInternetting Every Thing, Everywhere, All the Time http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/02/digitalbiz.rfid/ (Cherise Fong, CNN.com/technology DigitalBiz, November 2008.) This article describes the Internet of things and illustrates some current examples of smart object technology. The Net Shapes Up to Get Physical http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/oct/16/internet-of-things-ipv6 (Sean Dodson, Guardian.co.uk, October 2008.) This article describes the Internet of things and discusses the technologies involved, as well as considering potential applications for networked smart objects. iPhone in Education: Using QR Codes in the Classroom http://olliebray.typepad.com/olliebraycom/2008/11/iphone-in-education-using-qr-code-in-the-classroom.html (Ollie Bray, OllieBray.com, 24 November 2008.) The author explains and demonstrates a way to use QR codes to convey homework assignments to students.





New Tools for Filtering and SecurityIt is well established that access to the Internet gives students increased access to research materials, global experts, information, and educational opportunities. The other side of this coin is that students also have access to material that is less desirable, and from which authorities are expected to protect them. Twenty-one states in the US have Internet filtering laws that apply to schools or libraries. Currently, many schools and libraries use Internet filtering software to block access to undesirable material, but many of the filtering packages do not allow subscribers (that is, schools and libraries) to customize the lists of blocked sites. As a result, students may be prevented from using tools that are of educational value because those tools could also be used to distribute objectionable material. A related issue is security and privacy keeping students personal information from being published online, which could endanger their safety; filtering tools address this by blocking sites where personal information might be posted. This solution potentially keeps useful tools out of students hands. Commercial solutions to filtering are most often driven more by legal concerns than pedagogy, and thus are more focused on defining limits than access. Educators are beginning to consider alternative options that place more control in the hands of teachers, libraries, and schools. New, open source tools that allow finer control over what is blocked and what is allowed are emerging in direct response to that need. A promising new class of tools focused on blocking content rather than URLs is emerging that makes use of algorithms originally developed to combat spam. A emerging area of thought driven by Web 2.0 technologies and the increasing importance of social networking is that filtering strategies should be based on a social contract with users that focuses on usage guidelines and user responsibility, as such strategies allow both for a looser level of top-down control, and the possibility of tailoring access to an individual childs needs and maturity.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative ExpressionAs the entire purpose of filtering tools is to block certain content or disable certain user actions, the relevance to teaching, learning, and creative expression is largely in the inverse. Less is more is an emerging area of thought on the topic, and the questions posed are largely about how far schools should go to limit access to online content, and who should decide what those limits may be. Most discussions of the topic focus on being able to make finer-grained choices about what is or is not available to kids in schools, but that is only a technological challenge on the surface. Of far more import to this topic than the technology that would support it are the policy considerations that must be tackled school by school. Where choices are made in the organization about what is and is not available to students, and what aspects of those choices are to be left to teachers and students are key policy questions that must be addressed. Until they are, the applications for any of the various technologies for filtering and security are far more about protection than about teaching, learning, or creative expression.

Examples The Kansas Public Library system has implemented an Internet content filter whose blacklist is maintained by librarians and which is easy for librarians to enable or disable: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/KSL/libtech/kanguard/ OpenChoice is a research project at the University of Texas at Austin to develop filtering software that gives schools and libraries control over what content is filtered: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~choice/ SquidGuard is a URL redirector that works with Internet proxy software Squid to maintain blacklists of undesirable websites: http://www.squidguard.org DansGuardian takes the approach of filtering content, rather than blocking blacklisted URLs, for a highly customizable filtering solution: http://dansguardian.org/?page=whatisdg

For Further ReadingJust Give It to Me Straight: A Case Against Filtering the Internet http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/burbules/papers/straight.html (T. A. Callister, Jr. and Nicholas C. Burbules. Retrieved February 19, 2009.) This article describes Internet filtering for schools and libraries and makes a case for not doing it in most situations. State Internet Filtering Laws http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/cip/filterlaws.htm (National Conference of State Legislatures. Updated 31 December 2008.) This article covers the Federal Childrens Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and discusses state filtering and blocking laws. 2009 The New Media Consortium DISCUSSION DRAFTNOT FOR DISTRIBUTION 2009 Horizon. K-12 Short List, Page 10


Expanded Personal WebPart of a trend that began with simple innovations like personalized start pages, RSS aggregation, and customizable widgets, the personal web is a term coined to represent a collection of technologies that confer the ability to reorganize, configure and manage online content rather than just viewing it. Using a growing set of free and simple tools and applications, it is easy to create customized, personal web-based environments that explicitly support ones social, professional, learning and other activities via highly personalized windows to the networked world. Online material can be saved, tagged, categorized, and repurposed without difficulty and without any special knowledge of how web pages are put together. In fact, the underlying technology that supports the web has all but vanished for most users; all that is necessary is to know which tools to use, and any task from creating and distributing class materials, to organizing groupwork and team tasks, to developing a library of resources that constantly refresh and update themselves becomes point-and-click trivial. As a result, students can create customized, personal web-based environments to support their social and academic activities using whatever tools they prefer. Tools that foster personal and social forms of learning and expression, though technically unrelated, work together seamlessly without any need for complicated setup, thanks to open applications programming interfaces (APIs) and easily integrated web feeds. Teachers can easily create online spaces for their classes that contain just the information they want their students to see, and students can create and work in online spaces that reflect their own interests and studies. The vast collection of content that makes up the web can be tamed, filtered, and organized, and anyone can publish as much or as little as they wish: the web has become personal.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression The ease of online publishing gives students a place to voice their ideas, opinions, and research. Personal learning environments help students organize their own work as well as manage online references and resources. Personal publishing sites that offer printing services make it possible to create tangible products of student work, customized and inexpensive textbooks, and more.

Examples SmARThistory is an edited online art history resource to augment or replace traditional art history texts: http://smarthistory.org Studywiz Spark is a commercial product that allows teachers and students to create content-based learning spaces, accessible by computer or mobile device: http://studywizspark.com Eduglu is a content aggregator developed for educational use that includes a rating system: http://eduglu.learningparty.net

For Further ReadingDatagogies, Writing Spaces, and the Age of Peer Production http://writersatwork.us/sites/Joe_Moxley/Articles/datagogies.pdf (Joseph Moxley, Computers and Composition, Vol. 25, Issue 2, 2008; pp. 182-202.) This article (PDF, 676k) suggests that a different kind of teaching and learning takes place in learning communities that use peer-to-peer technologies. The Evolution of Personal Publishing http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_evolution_of_personal_publ.php (Alex Iskold, ReadWriteWeb, December 2007.) This post traces different categories of personal publishing blogs, social networks, and microblogs and posits that each appeals to a different type of writer and fills a particular purpose in social publishing. A Widget Onto the Future http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/12/08/widgets (Andy Guess, Inside Higher Ed, 8 December 2008.) This article describes widgets tools for personalizing online information and provides examples of some developed expressly for education.





Semantic-Aware ApplicationsThe vision for the semantic web, originally advanced by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, is that eventually it might be able to help people solve very difficult problems by presenting connections between apparently unrelated concepts, individuals, events, or things connections that it would take many people many years to perceive, but that could become obvious through the kinds of associations made possible by semantic-aware applications. There are currently two theoretical approaches to developing the semantic capacity of the web. The first is to add metadata to each piece of content to include information about its context; tagging at the concept level, if you will. The other approach focuses on developing natural language search capability that can make those same kinds of determinations without any special metadata. Semantic-aware applications allow meaning to be automatically inferred from content and context. The promise of these applications is to help us see connections that already exist, but that are invisible to current search algorithms because they are embedded in the context of the information on the web. Semantic-aware applications are still in early development; errors and incorrectly identified bits of content are not unusual. However, there is a great deal of work going on in this area, and we can expect to see significant advances in the coming years.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression Semantic portals that aggregate information from a variety of sources could facilitate research; see http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/public/UseCases/FoundationBotin/ A fully-developed semantic web could return results from a topical search with video, images, text, and other content aggregated and presented in a meaningful way; see http://learninginmaine.blogspot.com/2008/09/web-30-semantic-web-cometh.html Other projected educational uses for the semantic web involve personal learning networks and personal learning environments, which are envisioned as more dynamic and contextual than what is available now.

Examples TrueKnowledge is a semantic search engine, still in private beta, that is capable of answering questions as well as linking to web pages that might include the answers: http://trueknowledge.com/ TripIt is a semantic application that parses travel-related emails sent to it, instantly creating detailed trip itineraries: http://www.tripit.com Twine is a semantic-aware social network organized around topics of interest: http://twine.com

For Further ReadingAn Introduction to the Semantic Web http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGg8A2zfWKg (Manu Sporny, YouTube, December 2007.) This six-minute video explains the idea of the semantic web in simple terms. The Semantic Web of Data http://www.uplandproductions.com/s4/films/trm/ts06/index.htm (Upland Productions in collaboration with Technology Review, 2007.) In this video (8:24), Tim Berners-Lee describes his vision for the semantic web. The Semantic Web in Education http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/TheSemanticWebinEducation/47675 (Jason Ohler, EDUCAUSE Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 4, 2008.) This article introduces the concept of the semantic web in an educational context and suggests some ways semantic-aware applications might be used in teaching and learning.




Critical Challenges1. There is a growing need for formal instruction in key new skills, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy. The skills involved in writing and communication have changed from those required even a few years ago. Students need to be technologically adept, to be able to collaborate with peers all over the world, to understand basic content and media design, and to understand the relationship between apparent function and underlying code in the applications they use daily. Questions of assessment and support of new literacies across the curriculum continue to surface. Teachers, too, need training in these skills in order to support and guide students in visual communication and learning with technology. Before such training can take place, we need a fuller understanding of what constitutes new literacy skills. 2. The changing state of pedagogy, curriculum, and teaching practice is an ongoing challenge. As pedagogy changes for instance, as more schools turn to project-based learning practices technology needs to be integrated with the curriculum in a way that supports new teaching practice. Simply adding technology to the existing curriculum is not a viable approach. Likewise, technology must effectively support emerging practice: the current lack of easy-to-use tools for project-based learning, constructivist pedagogies, mentoring, peer tutoring, team collaboration, and student-driven discovery limits movement beyond the current system. 3. Students are different, but educational practice and the material that supports it is changing only slowly. Schools are still using materials developed to teach the students of decades ago, but today's students are actually very different in the way they think and work. Schools need to adapt to current student needs and identify new learning models that are engaging to younger generations. Many education professionals feel that a shift to a more learner-centered model focused on the development of individual potential instead of the imposition of a body of knowledge would lead to deeper and more sustained learning across the curriculum. To support such a change, both teaching practice and the tools used in the classroom must adapt. Assessment, likewise, has not kept pace with new modes of working, and must change along with teaching methods, tools, and materials. 4. Learning that incorporates real life experiences is not occurring enough and is undervalued when it does take place. This challenge is an important one in K-12 schools, because it results in a lack of engagement in learning on the part of students who are seeking some connection between their own lives and their experience in school. Use of technology tools that are already familiar to students, project-based learning practices that incorporate real-life experiences, and mentoring from community members are a few practices that support increased engagement. Practices like these may help retain students in school and prepare them for further education, careers, and citizenship in a way that traditional practices are failing to do. 5. There is a growing recognition that new technologies must be adopted and used as an everyday part of classroom activities, but effecting this change is difficult. Technology tools that are part of everyday life for many students and working professionals should be seen as core tools of the teaching profession that teachers are required to master as any professional would master the tools of his or her trade. However, making such a profound shift in a well-established system is a difficult challenge. Professional development, intellectual interactions with peers, adequate training, and preparation time all scarce resources for teachers are necessary for such a shift to take place. 6. A key challenge is the fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment. While the focus remains on maintaining the basic elements of the existing system, there will be resistance to any change in practice that upsets the status quo. Learners have increasing opportunities to take their education into their own hands, and options like informal education, online education, and home-based learning are attracting students away from traditional educational settings. If the system is to remain relevant it must adapt. 7. As we enter the digital age, a new system of ethics is called for. Schools have the opportunity to play a key role in the development of new citizenship for physical and virtual communities. Schools should engage in a discussion about identity, privacy, ownership, credibility, and reputation that engages teachers, administrators, parents, and students as a first step down this road.




Key Trends1. Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed. Information technologies impact how people work, play, gain information, and participate in communities. Increasingly, it is also a component of success in almost every endeavor, as those who can use the technologies to a greater extent are more likely to advance, while those without access or skills lose out. The digital divide was once seen as an "earning divide" but is now more of a "learning divide," with those who have access to education in a better position to obtain and make use of technology than those who do not. Evolving occupations, multiple careers, and an increasingly mobile workforce are aspects of this trend. 2. Technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication and socializing, and a ubiquitous, transparent part of their lives. Technology is impacting our lives, and the lives of students, in new and expanding ways. Once seen as an isolating influence, technology is now recognized as a primary way to stay in touch and take control of ones own learning. Multisensory, ubiquitous, and interdisciplinary, technology is integrated into nearly everything we do. 3. The web is an increasingly personal experience. We have an unprecedented level of control over online content, not only in terms of the information and activities that we select, but also in the way they are represented to us. Students are very familiar with the idea of skinning customizing the look and feel of their virtual experiences. They expect and experience personalized content in games and websites that is at odds with what they find in the classroom. 4. The notion of collective intelligence is redefining how we think about ambiguity and imprecision. Collective intelligence may give rise to multiple answers, all equally correct, to problems. The notions of collective intelligence and mass amateurization are redefining scholarship as we grapple with issues of topdown control and grassroots scholarship. Todays learners want to be active, connected participants in the learning process not mere listeners; they have a need to control their environments, and they understand that content and knowledge is available at their fingertips. 5. The ways we think of learning environments is changing. Traditionally, a learning environment has been a physical space, but the idea of what constitutes a learning environment is changing. The spaces where students learn are becoming more community-driven, interdisciplinary, and supported by technologies that engage virtual communication and collaboration. This changing concept of the learning environment has clear implications for schools, where learning is the key focus of the space. 6. The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing. Innovation is valued at the highest levels of business and must be embraced in schools if students are to succeed beyond their formal education. The ways we design learning experiences must reflect the growing importance of innovation and creativity as professional skills. 7. Web 2.0 applications continue to grow in popularity in a variety of forms but remain hard to bring into schools. Tools for social networking, mashing up and sharing digital media, and online communication, along with personal devices that keep those tools close at hand, are converging with more traditional technologies like telephones and media players. Students understand and rely on these tools, yet there remains strong resistance to incorporating them into educational practice. It is likely that with or without formal support, students are using tools like these for collaboration; if pressed into service, web applications and personal devices could become powerful enablers for student-to-student communication, tutoring, and personal instruction.




Are Digital Media

Changing Language?Its natural for languages to evolve. But what should really concern us is the way computers and mobile phones are changing our attitudes toward language.Naomi S. Baron

A

re instant messaging and text messaging killing language? To hear what the popular media say, a handful of OMGs (oh my god) and smiley faces, along with a paucity of capital letters and punctuation marks, might be bringing English to its knees. Although journalists tend to sensationalize the linguistic strangeness of online lingo, quantitative analyses of instant messaging conversations and text messages reveal that abbreviations, acronyms, and even misspellings are comparatively infrequent, at least among college-age students. For example, in a study I did of college students instant messaging conversations, out of 11,718 words, only 31 were online lingo abbreviations, and only 90 were acronyms (of which 76 were LOL). In a study of college students text messaging, my colleague Rich Ling and I found a few more lexical shortenings; yet the grand total of clear abbreviations was only 47 out of 1,473 words, which is hardly overwhelming. Yes, young people sometimes accidentally slip a btw (by the way) into a school essay. But a recent study by theTHE GRANGER COLLECTION

Pew Internet and American Life Project confirms that middle school and high school students understand what kind of language is appropriate in what context (Lenhart, Smith, & Macgill, 2008). Whats more, scholars of new media language, such as David Crystal and Beverly Plester, remind us that the new technologies encourage creativity, which can spill over into school writing (Crystal, 2008; Plester, Wood, & Bell, 2008).Minor Shifts: Vocabulary and Sentence Mechanics Those of us studying electronically mediated communication (language produced on computers or mobile phones) have been looking for evidence that mediated language is changing traditional speech and writing. To our surprise, the list of effects is relatively short. Here are my candidates: Incorporation of a few acronyms into everyday language. These days you sometimes hear students saying brb (be right back) to one another when they temporarily take their leave. I have also overheard lol (laughing out loud) in conversations among young people. However, these neologisms need to be put into perspective. Infusion of written

acronyms into everyday speech is a common linguistic processto wit, RSVP, AWOL, or ASAP. If a few more lexical shortenings make their way into general usage, thats nothing out of the ordinary.

Attitudes toward linguistic rules have shifted.Decreased certainty about when a string of words is a compound, a hyphenated word, or one word. This is a more nuanced proposition. Take the word newspaper. Should it be spelled newspaper, news-paper, or news paper? Obviously the first, you say. But historically, words tend to begin as separate pairings (news plus paper); gradually make their way to hyphenated forms (news-paper); and eventually, especially if they are high-frequency, become compounds (newspaper). The journey from electronic mail to e-mail, and, for many, to email, is a case in point. Enter computers and the Internet. If I write news paper (two words) in an e-mail, no one is likely to correct me, because on the Internet no one isA S S O C I AT I O NFOR

policing the grammar of the personal messages we construct. Whats more, the two-word version handily passes spell-check (typically my students criterion for correctness). URL addresses for Internet sites may also be affecting our notion of word breaks. URLs allow no spaces between words. To create a Web page for selling beauty products, I need an address such as www.beautyproductsonline.com. It is easy to imagine beauty products crossing the line into beautyproducts in offline writing without many people giving the merger a second thought. Diminished concern over spelling and punctuation. Spell-check, along with online search engines, may be convincing us that devoting energy to honing spelling skills is anachronistic. Even before you finish typing a word containing an error, spell-check often automatically corrects the word. Similarly, if you type a misspelled word (or phrase) into Google, chances are the search engine will land you pretty much at the same list of sites you would have reached had you been a finalist in the National Spelling Bee. In the same vein, I am increasingly finding that my students have little regard for apostrophes. (And as weAND

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know, URLs disallow punctuation marks.) My studies of college students text messages show that required apostrophes (in a word such as doesnt) only appear about one-third of the time. These effects on vocabulary and sentence mechanics are actually fairly minor. New words enter languages all the time. As for word separation, hyphenation, and spelling more generally, it helps to take the long view. A quick check of the Oxford English Dictionary reveals that lexical practices evolve, and yesterdays oddity may be todays normor vice versa. In studying new media language, however, Ive become convinced that more fundamental linguistic changes are afoot. The shifts Im talking about are not in vocabulary, spelling, or punctuation, but in our attitudes toward language structure.Attitude Shift 1: Whatever Language is rule-governed behavior: That is, languages are constructed according to identifiable patterns that people follow. Native speakers have a mental template of these rules. Obviously linguistic rules have exceptions (the plural of man is men, not mans). And rules change over time. (Chaucer would have written hath holpen rather than has helped.) However, we recognize exceptionsand changeby referencing our knowledge of rules currently shared within a language community. By rules, I dont mean normative, prescriptive grammarsuch edicts as, Dont end a sentence with a preposition. This arbitrary rule was concocted by 18th-century self-appointed grammarians who took Latin, which has no word-final prepositions, as their model. Instead, I have in mind such rules as, Subjects and verbs need to agree in numbermaking a sentence like Cookie Monster eat toast for breakfast ungrammatical. If a language community adheres to the rule-governed model of language, its members will render44

consistent judgments about linguistic usage. Yes, we all make performance errors, but our rule-governed linguistic brains recognize, perhaps after the fact, that we have erred. Since the 1960s, a constellation of factors have combined to alter our sense of good language use (Baron, 2000). Revolutions in school pedagogy began replacing teacher-directed classrooms with peer review and activities designed to foster collaboration. The infamous red pen was now used more to encourage intellectual exploration than to correct sentence mechanics. Multiculturalism led us to encourage students not to be judgmental about their peers. No longer do we say that Li Po talks

One day its may; the next day its can. So what?strangely; rather, she is an English language learner. Instead of criticizing Bill from Appalachia (who says Him and me went home), we note that Bill speaks another dialect of English. Gradually, we have become less obsessed with correctness and more focused on tolerance and personal expression. This shift, however admirable, has linguistic consequences. School is no longer necessarily a place to instill a sense that linguistic rules (or even linguistic consistency) matter. Each year, I ask graduate students in my Structure of English class if it matters whether English continues to distinguish between the words may and can (May I come in? versus Can I come in?). Many of the students fail to see why anyone should care. The same laissez-faire attitude applies to distinguishing between the words capital and capitol (the first identifies the seat of state government, whereas the second

refers to a building, such as the U.S. Capitol). Why not just ditch one and let the other do double duty? My point is not to pass judgment. The issue is that attitudes toward linguistic rules have shifted. A wide swath of educated speakers of English (at least American English) simply dont worry about the niceties of such rules any more. One day its may; the next day its can. So what? This attitude reminds me of spelling in Middle English, where you would often find the same word written half a dozen different ways, all on the same page. Standardized English spelling didnt become a reality until nearly the 18th century. By 1750, Lord Chesterfield famously warned his son that orthography . . . is so absolutely necessary for a man of letters, or a gentleman, that one false spelling may fix a ridicule upon him for the rest of his life. Today, it is difficult to imagine anyone taking Chesterfields admonition seriously. If spell-check doesnt catch the problem, whatever! Does spelling really matter, anyway? The shift away from caring about language rules or consistency predates new media language. It even predates personal computers. However, computer and mobile-phone technologies add fuel to the linguistic fire. An e-mail manual such as Constance Hale and Jessie Scanlons Wired Style (1999) encourages writers to celebrate subjectivity (p. 9) and to play with grammar and syntax. Appreciate unruliness (p. 15). Scholars like David Crystal and Beverly Plester, as I noted earlier, highlight the creative potential of text messaging. We should not be surprised to find linguistic free spirits applying similar latitude to everyday speech and even to more formal writing.Attitude Shift 2: Control Besides amplifying the linguistic whatever attitude, computers and mobile phones are instrumental in a second

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attitudinal shifta change in the degree to which we control our linguistic interactions. Human communication has always involved varying amounts of control. If I see you coming down the street and dont wish to engage in conversation, I might cross to the other side and start window shopping. If you phone me and I dont like what youre saying, I can always hang up. Contemporary online and mobile language technologies ratchet up the control options. On my instant messaging account, I can block you so you never get a message through. (I always appear to be offline, even though Im busily instant messaging others.) I can multitask, talking with you on the phone while I search for a cheap airfare online or instant messaging you while Im conducting half a dozen other online conversations. Social networking sites offer additional forms of control. People exercise control in the way they design their pages: Staged photographs, exaggerated profiles, and padded friends lists enable online users to manipulate how others see them. In the words of one undergraduate, her Facebook page is me on my best day. These sites also enable users to maintain relationships with friends without expending much effort. For example, young people commonly check up on their friends activities by viewing their online photo albums or status reports, obviating the need for a phone call or e-mail, much less a faceto-face visit. One popular move is to post a Happy Birthday greeting on the Wall (a semi-public message board) of a friends Facebook page without making real personal contact. On mobile phones, caller ID informs us whos calling, so we can decide whether to answer. Sometimes when Im

meeting with students, their mobile phones ring. A quick glance at the screen, and then the phone is silenced and slipped into a pocket or backpack. Its only Mom, they explain. Another form of control on mobiles is deciding whether to talk or text. I might choose to send a text message rather than call to keep the communication short (meaning, I dont want to get

engaging in this behavior at least once a month. And 25 percent reported that they fiddled with text-based functions on their phones (such as checking old messages) to evade conversation with people they knew. In each instance, technology enhances our ability to manipulate our communication with others. As the arsenal of control devices continues to grow, we increasingly come to see language not as an opportunity for interpersonal dialogue but as a system we can maneuver for individual gain.Responding to Language Shifts In thinking about the effects of new communication media on language, we need to distinguish between may fly language (here today, gone tomorrow) and changes that are more substantial. If we care that a couple of new acronyms and alternative spellings could make their way into everyday spoken or written language (particularly when it comes to schoolwork), it actually is possible to just say no. Students already understand that particular styles of language are appropriate for one venue but not another (calling a teacher Mr. Matthews but using first names for friends). They understand (and probably even expect) reminders. Responding to the linguistic whatever attitude is a more complex proposition. Parents and teachers need to understand that young people are not the only ones manifesting this attitudinal shift. One of my favorite examples is from the environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, who wrote this in praise of a book: Go find a friend and tell them all about this fine book. Weve all learned that a singular noun such as friend needs to be paired with a singular pronoun (here, him or her). Yet SimonAND

MoM keeps txtN Me bt I cNt blok her or shell Gt >:-( N shut off fb. o wel lol dNt tel her w@ I sed.

bogged down in a conversation in which Im obligated to listen to what you have to say). In cross-cultural research I conducted last year, more than one-third of the Swedish, U.S., and Italian university students I surveyed said keeping the message short was an important reason for texting rather than talking. One inventive control technique is pretending to talk on your mobile phone when you see an acquaintance approachingeven someone you like to avoid conversation. In my studies, 13 percent of U.S. students reportedA S S O C I AT I O NFOR

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and Schuster had no qualms about putting this blurb on a book jacket. Depending on our pedagogical goals, we might choose to be linguistically hard-nosed (perhaps pluralizing the noun to friends and avoiding the gender question entirely). Or we might admit more casual spoken style into the classroom, following the general trend today for writing to reflect informal speech. Before we despair that language is going to hell in a handcart, we should remember two lessons. First, normativeness in language goes through cycles, much like taste in music and politics. All is not lost. And second, regardless of the swings that language goes through, there is room for individual schools or teachers to set their own standards. Most schools have abandoned teaching handwriting, but a few have held their ground, to the good fortune of their students. Just so, if you choose to insist

on written precision, students generally will follow your lead. The issue of control is trickier, because it involves personal empowerment. Here the battles arent about acronyms or noun-pronoun agreement but about such questions as, Should students be allowed to have mobilephones in school? or Is it the job of the school to teach online and mobiledevice etiquette? These concerns rarely have easy solutions. However, by understanding that new language technologies have shifted our students attitudes about who holds the power in linguistic exchange, we will be better prepared to understand their perspectives and to reach common ground. EL ReferencesBaron, N. (2000). Alphabet to email: How written English evolved and where its heading. New York: Routledge. Crystal, D. (2008). Txtng: The gr8 db8.

Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Hale, C., & Scanlon, J. (1999). Wired style: Principals of English usage in the digital age. New York: Broadway Books. Lenhart, A., Smith, A., & Macgill, A. R. (2008). Writing, technology, and teens. Washington, DC: Pew Internet and American Life Project. Available: http:// pewresearch.org/pubs/808/writingtechnology-and-teens Plester, B., Wood, C., & Bell, V. (2008). Txt msg n school literacy: Does texting and knowledge of text abbreviations adversely affect childrens literacy attainment? Literacy, 42(3) 137144.Naomi S. Baron is Professor of Linguistics and Codirector of the TESOL Program at American University in Washington, DC. Her most recent book, Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World (Oxford University Press, 2008), received the Duke of Edinburgh English-Speaking Union English Language Book Award for 2008; [email protected].

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Becoming Network-WiseSchools can do a far better job of preparing students for their connected futures online.Will Richardsonet me tell you how our kids learn about Facebook and MySpace, the high school principal said with a wry grin. Id just finished up a presentation on the potentials and pitfalls of online social networks, and I could tell he was looking to offer a helpful if somewhat sarcastic dose of reality. They get a great lesson, he said, when I pull them into my office and give them a good tongue-lashing about the stuff theyre putting up on their sites. I chuckled, and so did most in the audience. So if thats your curriculum on the topic of responsible online conduct, I asked, smiling, then whose fault is all that not-so-great-stuff the kids are putting up there? He thought for a second, then smiled broadly. The parents! he exclaimed, and we all laughed at his deft deflection of the question. But should we be laughing? The explosion of connective online technologies such as blogs, wikis, and the social networking sites so many students love to use (and, in some cases, abuse)have given many educators pause as we try to understand and navigate a fast-changing, much more public, collaborative landscape on the Web. The challenges of keeping up with students as they create and publish in ever-increasing numbers are daunting, especially when most educators have little context for those activities in their own lives. But the fact is that students continue to explore networking online, few of them are being taught how to leverage its potential and benefit from the deep learning that can ensue.

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Their Networked Futures Leverage these connections they must, for the growing consensus is that much of our students learning lives will be spent interacting in online, virtual networks, forming groups with others on the basis of their passions and their need to learn, all the while making complex decisions about whom to connect to, how much information to share, and how best to achieve both collective and individual goals. In the process, students will need to build their own curriculums, create their own projects, and assess their own products and their contribution in creating them. In short, they must be self-directed, self-motivated, lifelong learners who are network-literate in their26 E D U C AT I O N A L L E A D E R S H I P / M A R C H 2 0 0 9

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creation and participation in these spaces. This is no small shift, to be sure, from traditional classroom spaces where the curriculum is fixed before the fact and parceled out as the year progresses in neat, linear pieces; where standardized tests require little if any selfreflection or interaction with others; and where work is seldom shared publicly or created for the public good. Its a shift that challenges the relevance of the traditional classroom in some fundamental ways. Learning is no longer primarily fixed in time and space; it can happen anytime and anywhere that we are connected in a virtual, asynchronous classroom, for example, with self-motivated and self-directed people who want to learn with us. In that context, it forces us to rethink our physical teaching and learning spaces and our roles in students lives. Regardless of the level of discomfort that these epochal changes (Shirky, 2008, p. 17) create for teachers, administrators, and parents alike, not addressing these shifts by attempting to simply filter them away or ignore their reality is no longer an option. Students will beand to some extent already areliving in a world of online interactions for which they currently have few learning contexts or models. Like it or not, we must begin to prepare them for their connected futures online. To do that, we must be willing to embrace these new technologies in our own practice and add an important expectation for learning to our curriculums and classroomsnamely, that by graduation, students will be able to create, navigate, and grow their own personal learning networks in safe, effective, and ethical ways.28

Stanford professor Howard Rheingold, a blogger and author of Smart Mobs (Perseus, 2002), put it this way:Learning to use online forums, be they social network services like MySpace and Facebook, blogs, or wikis, is not a sexily contemporary add-on to the curriculum its an essential part of the literacy todays youth require for the world they inhabit. . . . The way todays students will do science, politics, journalism, and business next year and a decade from now will be shaped by the skills they acquire in using social media and by the knowledge they gain of the important issues of privacy, identity, community, and the role of citizen media in democracy. (2008)

people online, those numbers continue to explode. More significant f

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