Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

EduPunk: An Introduction and ReMix: NpTechPunk

NpTech Punk

Leslie Madsen Brooks has introduced me to a new term called "EduPunk" that is spreading quickly in the edutech blogosphere and beyond. 

In short, edupunk is student-centered, resourceful, teacher- or community-created rather than corporate-sourced, and underwritten by a progressive political stance. Barbara Ganley's philosophy of teaching and digital expression is an elegant manifestation of edupunk.  Nina Simon, with her imaginative ways of applying web 2.0 philosophies to museum exhibit design, offers both low- and high-tech edupunk visions.

Edupunk, it seems, takes old-school Progressive educational tactics--hands-on learning that starts with the learner's interests--and makes them relevant to today's digital age, sometimes by forgoing digital technologies entirely.

Stephen Downes has a roundup of the references by other edtech bloggers here.  And, of course, here's the short list of EduPunk Heros == of course CogDogBlog is one of them!

This is something for nonprofit technology trainers who developing curriculum and delivering workshops on social media to embrace ...

I'm going to be on the Women of Web2.0 Podcast Next Week!

I'm going to be the WOW podcast next week on Tuesday, November 13th at 9:00 PM EST talking about a lot of things including my trip to Cambodia this past summer.  I most excited to get a chance to talk in real time with one of my favorite bloggers, Vicki Davis.

Dancing in the Space Between Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

Lynetter Flickr

This flickr photo made me hit the pause button because of the date, not the content.  That quote comes from a speech that Murdoch gave over two years ago.   And, the terms "digital native" and "digital immigrants" comes from an essay by Marc Prensky dated 2001, over six years ago!

The quote helped me weave together some cross-disciplinary themes that have been bubbling up through my networks in the last couple of weeks -- a synthesis of my recent Facebook explorations, some quotes overhead during the Games for Change Conference by Clive Thompson who writes about video games for the NY Times and Wired Magazine, something that Barry Joseph of Global Kids said in a plenary discussion during that same conference that has been haunting me for weeks, and noticing more slide shows being tagged as  "Enterprise 2.0" and analyzing the evolving thinking about technology adoption issues.   

These patterns point to some larger trends about generational shifts, digital divides, and dancing in the space in between.  (Imagine Bob Dylan song in the background, "the times they are a changin ..."

I'm thinking about Clive Thompson's session at the Games for Change Conference.  It was a late afternoon session and I was brain dead.  But a few points he made really stuck me.  I didn't capture his quote on the video, but he was talking about writing a book about games.  He said he didn't want to do that for another 15 years.  He talked about the difference between his Wired readers and NY Times (wildly paraphrasing here).  He went into a bunch of game jargon and explained in an excited tone of  -

"I don't have to explain those terms to my wired readers.  On the other hand, for an article in the NY Times I have to and (he did a brilliant step-by-step of context setting) ending with "I'd have to explain electricity."  And he ended with, "It's better to wait 15 years until they are dead."

Someone said in a slide show that "Email was for old people."  (And perhaps I should "like me," after all I'm on the dividing line between baby boomer first and second cohort).   Anyway, I stumbled upon a group on Facebook called "Email Bankrupcy"

Most of my emails now are notifications that someone has posted, either something to do with facebook, or a comment on my blog, or a reply to a forum message I'd left, or something along those lines. Given how bad email is as a tool for actually tracking histories of communication, and how much better other services are, why not declare email bankrupcy today?   Tell people you are no longer reading emails, and that the best way to get hold of you is to post a message somewhere you WILL read.

I thought to myself, wow I'd love to do that, but I can't because so much of my work is dependent on people use still use email.   And think about it, email has been around for a really long time but the web, Internet, the amount of information, and how people use it has changed dramatically!   Is that quote the future?

I'm thinking back to what Barry Joseph of Global Kids had to say in a large group discussion at the Games for Change Conference. While I don't think he used the term digital natives and I'm wild paraphrasing:

"We've been working on a job description for a new staff person and have been talking about what software skills we should identify in the job description.  I think this is less important than having the skill to learn new software.  My father is very comfortable using a particular email client and that if he had learn a new one, he probably couldn't.  Playing games as a kid gave me an important skill set: the ability to figure out software.  And that today's youth have those skills."

 

Someone else in the conference mentioned the Berkman's Digital Native wiki that is looking at the difference between people who grew up with the Internet and those who didn't - and what that all means.

One of my favorite Web2.0 addictions these days is slide share.   I recently noticed a number of new slide shows about "Enterprise 2.0" which talk about integrating web2.0 technology tools, strategies, and practices into the workplace.  While most of these shows are focused on the for-profit sectors, there are certainly lessons and food for thought for nonprofits.   I've been interested in the issues around ngo organizational adoption of web2.0 stuff, inspired by my colleagues Nancy White, John Smith, and Etienne Wenger and their exploration of technology stewardship for communities of practice.

A point that Jeremiah Owyang made about enterprise 2.0, although talking about in the context of for-profit sector really resonated:

6) Embracing the Cultural shifts
It’s difficult for traditional folks to understand that the next generation of workers is has already networking online in college, and will bring those networks to the workplace. These new workers will already be connected to employees, prospects, and competitors, and there’s nothing a corporation can do about it. Communication in general is shifting, as my kid sister told me she only uses email to talk to old people like me.  The biggest challenge?  understanding that these communication tools shift power to the lower ranks and file of the company.

So, as someone who is eligible for ARP, with aging parents, and with digital natives for children,  I sense that generational shift really strongly. I'm also one of the odd ball baby boomers who experienced the Internet in the 1980s and have a perspective.  So, I feel like I'm dancing in the spaces in between and doing a lot of translation.   

There's actually a word for people dance in the spaces it called "network weavers."   Nancy White has written about Network Weavers and Evonne Heyning.   And in a post over at TechPresident, Patrick Ruffini, gives us some examples of it in practice and refers to the tools as "Technology Hybrids."

So, I end with more questions than answers, only because I really should be working on finishing my presentation for next week's Bridge Conference about fundraising2.0.  But some questions linger:

• As we enter this 15 year period of generational shifts in the workplace, how do organizations manage it?  How do we provide a bridge for "elder generations" to understand the new tools?" 
• Do old people (like me) have to change or retire?  Is there a role or need for a new breed of translators?
• What does this mean for nonprofits -- both from a workplace perspective but how they do fundraising, communication, and programs?

What is rapid attention shifting?

Photo in Flickr - CC "by/nc" license -  Mr.GluSniffer

Read the post from Brian Lamb

Stephen Downes points to his post with the following commentary:

This would be pretty funny if it weren't such a sad commentary on our media, not merely for using a photo of  Brian Lamb and his laptop out of context, but in pandering to a resurgent anti-computer and anti-networking sentiment.     Lamb links to another story: "wireless network might be used by terrorists," the headline screams. Well, yeah.  But "Terrorists might also use our bus service to move about the city undetected."   What is with these scare stories? Are the authorities really losing control? And (given the ease with which they peddle these blatant fabrications) is that such a bad thing?

It made me think of the Berkman lecture I heard called "Legal Education in the Networked World" where there was a hot debate about whether laptops in the classroom were a good or bad thing.  Are students just checking their email and tuning out or does the laptop help them think?

If you read down the comments on the flickr post, Darcy Norman says

could it be that students who use laptops in class are bored with the lecture, and THAT's why they do poorly? blame the internet! :-)

 

Reminds me of this slide from an old workshop I did on how to make technology trainings more interactive.  That's how much we pay attention when we're subjected to a long one-way lecture.  Notice how for the first ten minutes our attention rises, then plummets and doesn't regain its original height.

This makes me think of something Gavin Clabaugh said recently in a brilliant post about RSS.

With things like Blogs, Wikis, and social networking in general, institutions and organizations don’t quite know what to do. Even a recent call for organizational examples of “non-profit blogs” over at NetSquared failed to turn up more than a handful of nominations. The simple reason — despite the hype that “everybody must get blogged” — may be that the tools don’t fit organizational needs. The fact is that many organizations already have an “institutional blog” It’s called a web site.

With all due respect to Gavin, I think I disagree.  I think of a web site as a one-way lecture where someone is talking at me.  I think of blogs as a two-conversation where I'm engaging or paying more attention to the content.  That could just be me and my own laptop induced add.   

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to replay the blogs versus web site debate (here, here, and here) and you should go read Gavin's post because there is some really good pointers about RSS and an excellent demonstration of Technology Stewardship:

Let’s get back to the question at hand. Philosophical points aside, technically and operationally RSS presents a series of institutional problems, challenges, and questions:

1. How could or should I incorporate it into the enterprise?
2. What were my options, what were the available tools and practices?.
3. What role can it, or should it play compared to the myriad other information flows and sources?
4. How would or could I balance its role against costs, both real and opportunity?
5. What neat tricks could I do with it to enhance access to information?
6. How could I use it to increase productivity?
7. How could I use it to increase our knowledge and, thereby, directly enhance the work that we do?
8. What is the institutional response to the need for some sort of reader or aggregator?

Congratulations Nancy White!

 

Nancy White won an Edublog Award 2006!

Katya's Five Minute Guide to Social Networking

The above powerpoint is from 1999 and excerpted from day-long workshops I used to lead when I worked at NYFA and design and ran a program called "KIT: Knowledge in Technology - Technology Planning for Arts Organizations."   

Before we jumped into the technology tools, I always covered technostress.  It is really about how  individuals within the organization could be more comfortable with adopting technology tools.   It got at the human barriers around technology adoption in the early days:  stress, fear, anxiety, frustration.  What happens when you don't have the time to experiment or play so you feel comfortable?   

Since the participants were from arts organizations, we made them draw pictures of what techno stress look like.  I would scan the pictures and embed into my presentations to do the debriefing - and overtime would have user-generated content in the curriculum!   One of my favorite drawings was the metaphor of being in a foreign country and not being able to speak the language.

I went searching my harddrive for that visual after reading Katya Andresen's Five Minute Social Network Guide where she used the analogy of travel in a foreign country to explore social networking tools.

"to most of us (including me), social networking—using the web’s latest and greatest ways of connecting to people—feels akin to being a stranger in a strange land.  People have their own customs online, they act differently, and it can be hard to find your way around.  It seems so foreign and intimidating.  At least it did to me, until I figured out I should simply apply the same skills of assimilation I’d apply anywhere else outside my experience."

She goes on to introduce her travel analogy and link it to exploring social networking tools.

I've been reading Henry Jenkin's book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide" - I ordered after I heard him speak at the MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning briefing (Nancy Schwartz recently wrote about it here) and read his white paper on participatory culture.   He defines participatory culture as a culture:

1. With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
2. With strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others
3. With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is
passed along to novices
4. Where members believe that their contributions matter
5. Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they
care what other people think about what they have created)

Our conversations here in the blogosphere are participatory, although it would be nice to have multimedia conversations.   After listening to both Katya's and Michael's comments about fundraising widgets, it made me realize that they enable a participatory culture ...

Somehow that's connected to what Nancy is talking about in Second Wave Adoption and what Michelle from the Bamboo Project refers to do in her recent post about technology adoption and nonprofits.

The Birth of a Field: Digital Media and Learning

That's my avatar, I'm live blogging from Second Life. That's Danah Boyd in RL who was also live blogging the event.  Photo from public photos tagged with macarthur in NMC flickr stream.

This morning I attended the MacArthur Foundation Digital Learning briefing that was taking place at the Natural History Museum in NYC.  It was the ultimate digital media multi-tasking experience.

From my office in the Boston,  I teleported myself into the Virtual World of Second Life and headed straight for the New Media Consortium virtual campus where I joined about 65 other avatars representing educators from all over the world (even Austrailia where it was 3:00 a.m. local time).  I also had a web browser window open so I could watch the videocast of event.  While the speakers were talking, the avatars in Second Life were carrying on a lively debate in chat about the points raised, suggesting questions to be asked in the room in New York City, and passing along urls/resources related to the discussion at hand.

Several avatars were also in "real life" in New York City.  In fact,  my colleague Rik Riel IM me and asked for a teleport into the location.  He was also in NYC and live blogging the event as was Danah Boyd - the official MacArthur Foundation live blogger.  At the end, when asked what it was like to be live blogging the event, Danah observed that she took a lot of notes that no one would want to read unless they put into context.  "As a blogger, one issue is 'who is reading?' and I have to put this into context for people who were not at this event and may have only heard of the MacArthur Foundation on NPR."

This was a rich conversation and was not able to capture all the details as my audio faded in and out and was multi-tasking in a major way, so here is what I as able to capture...

• The MacArthur Foundation announced that it will be funding a five-year $50 million initiative, mostly for research, to try to understand how young people are using digital media and its impact learning.  As the president of the MacArthur Foundation noted, "It is the beginning of a new cross interdisciplinary field and we all feel it."   At that comment, all the avatars started clapping, cheering, and agreeing with quips like "Wow, MacArthur Foundation really gets it.  They are walking the walk, talking the talk."
• Some statistics about how many young people are using various social media tools.  But it was pointed out that there is a lot known about the numbers and less is known about how they are using, the role it plays, and what it means to them.  The environment for learning is no longer in the classroom and its online, and outside of school.  MacArthur wants to know:  How is digital media changing the way that children learn and develop and what are the implications?

• Digital media is being shaped by the private sector (YouTube, MySpace, etc).  These social networking spaces are becoming the place where a lot of (informal) learning by young people is taking place.   Educators need to intervene and make creative alliances.

• There is a huge gap in understanding between what young people are doing with social media spaces and what adults perceive.(The opening presentation showed kids talking about how they social media and adults misconceptions ..)   It isn't entertainment.   These are complex learning environments where young people are making decisions, learning and collaborating with peers, etc.  Learning is happening outside of school and it needs to be understood better.

• Henry Jenkins notes that it isn't about the tools and that it was more about the culture growing up around the technology.  "We are in a moment of time where 57% of teens produce and share media.   Media isn't just happening to kids.  We should be   more concerned with what our kids are doing with media.  Also, not all kids are digital natives." 

• He described a new digital divide that wasn't about having access to computers.  Young people have access to computers in schools and libraries, but there is a difference in the quality of experience.  There is a gap in social skills, experience, and knowledge when you only have 10-15 minutes of access in library versus 24/7 access at home.  The young people who don't have pervasive access will fall behind in terms of skills. 

• He warned that parents and educators do not need to be looking over the shoulders of young people and that we shouldn't be leading by fear and anxiety, but my knowledge and information.  He noted that media literacy has to be integrated as a skill  set in all places.  It starts in the home.  Parents are facing challenges.  Parents have an opportunity to spend time with   kids  and learn about the media they're consuming.  The only advice out there is to limit screen time. He suggests   developing a dialogue with your child about media.   

• Media literacy and creation skills can't be add-ons in schools, but have to be integrated across the curriculum in all subjects.

• Dr. Mizuko Ito made the point that digital learning is happening primarily outside fo the classroom and in more of a social and play context.  "We know very little about the learning that is happening outside of classrooms."  She mentioned that  learning is being initiated by young people on their own terms and by having a better understanding of these online  environments, it will give some hints about how to harness the technology for formal learning in the classroom.

• Jenkins from MIT described something called "convergence culture."  He used the example of Harry Potter books - not just reading them, but young people working on collaborative writing projects via the Web -- writing and getting feedback from peers around the world.  He also described the educational projects in Second Life where young people are constructing their  own worlds and are teaching other programming skills as well as social, economic, and cultural interaction. "What are the  things that kids need to know to be rich participants in these spaces?"

• Dr. Mizuko described some findings in their research about informal learning and using games, even simple games like card trading games. "It is important to recongize that these are complex learning environments and information systems. The design of media is for more activist and personal interaction.  We need to understand the properties of how knowledge is  exchanged and developed in these peer-based online networks.  There is no question that these are robust learning  environments."

Dr. Nichole Pinkard identified three implications:
-rethink what we mean by learning environments
"Learning is happening outside of school and in informal ways."
-rethink who are educators - who do kids learn from - not just adults
"Kids are learning from each other."
-rethink what counts as traditional forms of evidence of learning
"All our kids have laptops, when we go to museum - kids take their laptops and cameras with them.  They focus on the media  creation of what they learned.  They document their learning."

Later in the conversation, it was noted that change will come, but slowly.

It was opened up for question and answer both in New York and in Second Life. I'm picking out two questions that were interesting to me.

• Someone from PBS asked a question about how TV might be part of the future of the world that was being envisioned?  Jenkins answered, "What does the next generation of Blues Clues look like?  How does social networking/web2.0 get embedded in PBS programming?  It has to be governed by Web2.0 - kids will be making media.  It can't just teach them to think about media, but making it on your own terms."   Media literacy is a paradigm shift - not an add-in subject.

The other question was about mult-tasking and how it impacted learning experience. 

• Dr. Mizuko mentioned some research they were doing on continuous partial attention of young people's media and mobile phone use.  "Kids are inhabiting multiple  worlds with 26 IRC and IM windows open.  She alluded to the upside and downside to continuous partial attention.

This inspired quite a lot of comments in the backchannel chat on Second Life.

• yes, getting people to really concentrate on one thing, and think deeply about it
• That sounds like me right now
• I don't think that "inhabiting multiple worlds" is the same as multitasking.
• I think sdhe meant that they have these many windows open all simultaneously on the screen
• Is multitasking is a myth? It seems more like rapid attention shifting
• Lstening to one conversation while talking about the same conversation in a separate space counts as multi-tasking to me
• It crosses devices and time and not just one screen is the reality Rapid attention shifting is not the same as continuous partial attention, in my view.
• We are having a conversation here, listening to this presentation, and I for one am exploring linkspeople have posted all relatively simultaneously, is that multitasking?
• Is there any literature on that conceptual distinction? Very interesting...
• This chat is gettign pretty good! Love the backchannel!!
• I think that rapid attention shifting is one way of thinking about "critical thinking"
• This is a very interesting discussion about multitasking. What are the NY folks talking about.
• But isn't rapid attention shifting one mode of sophisticated and responsive awareness?Nothing wrong with it (imo) - just v. different than what goes on in many schools now
• I have a piece in the Sept./Oct. Change magazine that tries to get at it ... clumsily at times. :)

META REFLECTION as it Relates to Nonprofits:

-One of the points mentions that this is a new field - digital learning and media and that it was a cross disciplinary field.  Given all this potential change in education, what do we need to think about how all this applies to nonprofit sector?  How does media creation and social networking skills change the way we work in nonprofits?   

Other links:

MacArthur Foundation Digital Learning and Media Site

Press Release for the Event (Blog post about the PR aspect)

NMC Consortium Summary

NMC Flickr Photos

Gary Hayes photos in flickr
In Kenzo's notes

The event was streamed into Global Kids Teen Grid
Here's what the kids has to say and photos

Special Geek Link: The Technical Setup

Check out my flickr photos of the event and my desktop

This Young Woman Keeps Her Gloves On: Maria Estela Godinez

story and photo via Ricardo's Blog

The young woman in the pink shirt and gloves is Maria Estela Godinez.  She recently shared the stage with Intel Chairman, Craig R. Barrett, during his keynote at the Digital Leaders Forum as part of his Latin America trip.

Maria Estela Godinez is currently studying high school in her hometown San Francisco del Rincón, México.  She lives with her mother, a single parent, and five other siblings.  Her passion is electronics.  Ricardo tells her story on his blog:

Maria Estela built a glove that allows speech-challenged people to move their fingers in a similar fashion to Braille language and have those signals recognized by software that converts them into speech. She did it all by herself  (hardware and software) with the help of teachers and mentors. She did such a great job that she went on to win three awards this spring at ISEF, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair that Intel sponsors every year. Maria Estela won two awards for Computer Science (one in the individual category and another one in the overall category beating the winner in the group category) and won the IEEE award as well.

Maria Estela recalls how when they announced the winner in the first category, the announcer couldn’t quite pronounce the name of her town well. The person presenting the award said “San Francisco…” and hesitated to say “del Rincón”. In the mean time the San Francisco, California team began to scream and celebrate… only to hear her name as the winner.

She went on stage when Craig invited her up. The only truly familiar face in the crowd was her mother. She went on stage confidently and started to tell her story.  She told Craig about her project and demonstrated how the electronic glove works. As she made every move everybody was fascinated with her story. Colombia’s Minister of Communications began to cry in her front row seat; deeply touched, as most of us were. We were all listening to every word she said. When she was done, we all cheered her with a warm ovation.

BTW, Ricardo Carreon is a blogger living in South America and works for Intel.  He is interested in NGO activities, including youth leadership and education.  I follow his delicious tag stream and enjoy his flickr photos, particularly those depicting South American landscape and culture.

Official Intel Press Release here

Women of Web2.0

As I'm scrambling to get out of my office early tonight so I can join the Boston TechnoBabes dinner tonight,  I came across a post from Vicki Davis who writes the Cool Cat Teacher Blog called "Women of Web2.0 EdTechTalk" on this Sunday.  Vicki writes:

Despite what I hear some people may think, we just feel there is a need for a feminine in Web 2.0 discussions and haven't really seen a lot of inclusion of women in some things. Because so many teachers are women, we just think it is important that a female be included.

Vicki will be joined by three other women from the edtech field.  They are: 

Sharon Peters (check out her first podcast, the Power of Peer Review
Jennifer Wagner who writes a blog called "Thoughts From a Technospud"
Cheryl Oakes who writes WOCSD TechTalk

A hat tip to Ashley Cooper, a fellow GIGI (Girl Geek of the World Cafe) for the pointer.

Joe Dale's Blog

I just discovered another great blog.  It is called "Integrating ICT into the MFL Classroom" and written by Joe Dale.  While browsing the useful articles and links on the side bar,  I found a little wiki called "Webnotes" and created my own space.  It is sort of close to what I've always wanted - a diagramming or visual wiki.  Think mindmanager wiki.