TechTalk

"The talking iPhone has only just started to change the world."

"Anything that can be structured into discrete bits of data will eventually be worked into natural-language-processing systems like Siri’s."

The best is yet to come!

Much like the apps on the original iPhone, Siri is more of a demo than a final product. It’s Apple’s way of illustrating the value of an effectively designed bot. When the iPhone launched in July 2007, there were no third-party applications. Similarly, Siri has yet to fully open up to outside developers.

Just as the true value of the iPhone became clear only when the App Store blossomed, Siri will have her most significant impact only after integrating further with a wide range of data sources. When that happens — remember, the iPhone took a year to open up — people will grow accustomed to asking their iPhones for health remedies, gardening tips and Scrabble lessons. They’ll search for and book restaurant tables through OpenTable. They’ll book tennis court reservations that Siri will automatically cancel if the forecast she monitors changes to rain.

Personal Data: Dramatic Business Impact

In the realm of personal data, Siri could have a dramatic business impact. If manufacturers of devices like the Zeo and the Fitbit, which measure sleep and fitness patterns, become Siri-compatible, we’ll increasingly query our phones not just for generic weather, stock and movie info, but about our own health, diet and fitness patterns. We’ll ask Siri whether we’ve exceeded our daily calorie count, whether we’ve hit our walking goals, and whether our heart rate has strayed from our target range. We’ll ask our fridge to notify Siri when it’s time to replenish the milk and butter. She’ll remind us when the phone’s GPS indicates we’re in the store.

Global research firm RNCOS estimates the mobile health market — devices monitoring health and fitness — to exceed $2 billion. Just as Apple has partnered with Nike on the Nike + workout app, other partnerships will arise. The most likely result is an ecosystem of apps that plug into Siri through an application program interface, much like Microsoft’s SYNC system works with cars. Just as we can customize phone ring tones, we may eventually customize the language and vocal inflection in which Siri speaks to us.

The inclusion of social media data in the algorithms that search engines now use to help people find relevant information online could create a “new digital divide,” educator and consultant Angela Maiers believes—“those with a powerful network and those without."

"You are what you share."

Mobile vs. Stationary Technology

Stationary Technology: "Reinforces a teacher-centric model of learning."

Interactive Whiteboards..."I feel strongly that these are not the best investment for our future in educational technology."

We need to embrace more fully mobile technology.

Mobile Technology: The Way to Go

Mobile technology caters to individualization and differentiation, which is the present and future of student-centered learning. Mobile technology is cheaper and also represents the concept of “democratization of information,” the openness of high levels of information to the masses. The Interactive Whiteboard is still locked and loaded into the antiquated philosophy of “sage on the stage” rather than “guide on the side.”

Yes, the remote clicker technology gives the very important immediate feedback, but gaining access to remotes is not dependent on the purchase of the boards themselves. The fact is that 99% of all students carry their own remotes right there in their backpacks.  

Background: Student engagement is and has been an important focus of school improvement efforts.

1. Dropouts consistently cite a lack of engagement with the school and learning as the primary reason for leaving school.

2. Students who are involved in school activities are less likely to drop out.

3. Increasing student engagement has been shown to increase student performance.

Study: Social Media Increases Engagement

Although this was a study of college students using Facebook, it is easy to see how schools could use other forms of social media to increase:

1. student-to-student interaction

2. student engagement in learning

3. involvement in school activities

Reference

Yu, A.Y., Tian, S.W., Vogel, D., Kwok, R. (2010). Can Learning Be Virtually Boosted? An investigation of online social networking. Computers & Education, 55, 1494-1503.

Almost half of students are concerned that things they have posted on Facebook
might affect their future career prospects.

Here are over 100 ways that different social technologies (and tools) are being used by learning professionals worldwide – compiled from the comments of those who have contributed to the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009 activity.

Blogging

Collaborative Calendaring

Podcasting

RSS Readers

Mindmapping

Micro-Blogging (Twitter)

Photo Sharing

Screencast Sharing

Presentation Sharing

Video Sharing

Social Bookmarking

The following highlights are filtered for the benefit of busy school leaders.

1. Share information liberally!

We live in an information age, where just about anything we want to know is but a few keystrokes or mouse-clicks away. Yet in many of our organizations, leaders withhold information as a way to maintain power and authority over others.

In the absence of information, your people will make up their own version of the truth. Share information openly so that your people know the facts about what’s going on in the organization and trust that they will use and respond to that information responsibly.

2. Increase employee involvement in decision-making

My friend, colleague, and organizational change expert Pat Zigarmi, likes to make the point that contrary to popular opinion, people don’t resist organizational change; they resist being controlled.

When people are shut out from contributing to decisions that will directly impact them, they develop a sense of distrust and skepticism toward the decision makers.

Involving your people in making decisions will lead to higher levels of trust and commitment. Remember, those who plan the battle rarely battle the plan.

3. Give people what matters most – your time and attention

Google is legendary for the perks that it offers its employees. At the Googleplex, Google’s corporate headquarters in Mountain View, CA, team members have unlimited access to free haircuts, massages, meals, dry cleaning, and even on-site medical care.

Yet when Google undertook a study to determine what employees valued most, they overwhelmingly said “even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.”

Just like workaholic parents who fool themselves into believing they can make up for their lack of presence in their kids’ lives by spoiling them with all the latest toys and gadgets, leaders often fall prey to the same line of thinking by believing corporate perks and benefits can make up for the lack of intimate one-one-one leadership. Developing genuine and authentic relationships is a primary way to build a culture of trust.

Ian Quillen is a staff writer for Education Week Digital Directions.

Anonymity Encourages Cyberbullying

"While the faceless nature of the Internet can bring out the worst in cyberbullies of all shapes and sizes, it also means concerned bystanders can more easily report wrongdoing without the stigma of public identification."

"The same anonymity you use as the bully, you can use as the quote-unquote 'snitch,'" said Mike Hawkins, the coordinator and lead mentor of YOUmedia."

Opt-Out Option a Must

While many advocate for the right to use the  social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, students should know they have the option to opt out should any of those environments should become threatening because of cyberbullying.

Maintain Two (2) Profiles

Teachers who are active on Facebook should consider maintaining two profiles. Teachers could have one profile for their personal lives and another for their school persona, from which they could monitor the cyber activities of their students, the repercussions of which often spill inside the school walls.

Best Way to Intervene....

is not to limit access to social networks, but to be present and active in the "student's digital world."

The Long and Short of Bullying

In the long-run, we need to teach students how to behave appropriately in different contexts. Socialization has long been a part of the "soft skill" instruction that schools provide our students. The internet and social media are simply new contexts in which  we need to expand that instruction. Cyberspace is one area that parents are "out of their element." If schools don't take up the slack, who will?

We look very old and foolish when we try to act like we can block out cyberspace. Instead of filtering out and shutting down, we should face reality and acknowledge that social media is not going away. Let's use it, not refuse it.

In the short run, schools need to make it clear to our students that mistreating other students is unaccepatable and will not be tolerated. Our schools must be a safe-haven where our smallest, weakest, and defenseless feel welcomed, safe, secure anywhere in our schools at any time. Any form of harrassment or mistreatment must be viewed as serious and treated with a sense of urgency. We must assume that we are usually the last to witness this "bad behavior" and, instead of viewing "bad behavior" as an abberation, we must assume that, if it goes on in our presence, the behavior must be ten times worse when we are not around. 

Schools Legitimize Institutionalized Harrassment

Institutionalized forms of harrassment send a conflicting message to our students. Allowing seniors to yell "go home Freshmen" at pep rallies seems harmless, but is is a part of a whole range of behaviors in which one group, usually the older students, place themselves above another group that is usually younger and smaller.

Many schools unwittinly label obvious forms of hazing and harassment as "kids being kids," but it is what it is. Other forms of "institutionalized harrassment" include: initiations into clubs and other organizations, upperclassmen "taping" underclassmen in both girls and boys sports, and the seniors in the marching band "initiating" the freshmen.

We are all a part of the same team or family and everyone must be treated with respect and dignity at all times with no exceptions, period.

Note: Does your school have an anti-hazing policy?

Rural schools crowd the top of U.S. News’s inaugural ranking of Most Connected Classrooms.

1. Crooms Academy (FL)

2. Piedmont HS (AL)

3. Humboldt HS (KS)

Click the headline above to access the entire list.

To ensure a diverse marketplace of ideas and an informed citizenry, literacy is also essential. Beyond knowing how to read and write, digital literacy means knowing how to leverage digital tools to express ideas, reach a wider audience, and engage with diverse people and ideas from around the world. In these ways, digital tools can help to "ignite the learning light" in each and every student.

To understand how social media, an almost integral part of our current culture, can benefit K-12 schools and districts, we asked eSchool News readers: “Name one way you use social networking in your school/district.

10. Professional Development

9. Community Outreach

8. Course Assignments

7. Parent Communication

6. Distance Learning

5. Assessments

4. Cross-Cultural Communications and Learning

3. Collaborative Learning

2. Networking With Colleagues

1. Integrating real-world applications into teaching