A couple weeks ago, Karen Blumberg and Don Buckley sent out a great article on teenagers social networking behavior. Instead of an article warning parents and teachers about online safety which has been the focus of discussion for many years regarding social networking, it referred to the MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. The report finds that youth engage in peer-based, self-directed learning online. Below are some notable quotes:

“Teens share their creations and receive feedback from others online. By it’s immediacy and breadth of information, the digital world lowers barriers to self-directed learning.”

“New media allow for a degree of freedom and autonomy for youth that is less apparent in a classroom setting,” the study said. “Youth respect one another’s authority online, and they are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults.”

“Implications: New media forms have altered how youth socialize  and learn, and raise a new set of issues that educators, parents, and policymakers should consider.”

You can also find more information about the research at the link below:
http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/report

From this discussion came the topic for NYCIST’s December meeting, which will be held as Spence today, December 17, 2008 at 4:00PM EST.  After sending out a Google Form, I received several responses with quality additions to the topic. Adam Kenner, from Horace Mann suggested that we spend a little time also talking about Michael Wesch’s collaborative learning method using web 2.0 tools. I’m looking forward to hearing more from Adam on this topic.

The meeting will be streamed live at starting at about 4:15 EST at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nycist. Join us and participate! You can also go to http://nycist.net anytime to view the meeting notes, and the video recording of the session.  We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Here I am testing out ustream.tv and camtwist!

The NEIT unconference has been excellent so far. The best conversations still happen at the dinner table, but otherwise unconference style definitely works very well to promote discussion and sharing. So far I’ve gone to the following sessions:

• David Shipley’s keynote
• Moodle Language Learning Labs
• Smartboard Tips and Tricks
• Games and Game Design in the Classroom - There are a TON of great links from this session
  
• “The Golden Triangle” - working with OD and AD. The podcast is below for your listening pleasure!

So far the Games and Game Design in the Classroom was my favorite session. Sylvia Martinez from Generation Yes lead the session and gave so many great resources in the session that it will take a while for me to digest them all. Thanks Sylvia!

I’m about to head up to Mohonk Mountain House and I’m getting very excited for the NEIT (NYSAIS Education and Information Technology) unconference. With the use of Twitter, a conference wiki, and many other web 2.0 technologies I think this will be a great unconference. In enjoyed the format very much last year and think it will be even better this year now that most everyone has experienced the format. While these technologies were relatively new last year, they seem to be much more ubiquitous this year and I expect more participation from everyone at the conference.

If you are interested in listening to a NEIT2008 preview, check out EdTechTalk with Arvind Grover and Alex Ragone.  They were nice enough to have me on as a gues to discuss potential topics. Below are some of the topics I’m interested in this year:

• Moodle Language Learning Labs (with Covcell or Gong)
• Site Visit Program (Technology Evaluation similar to NYSAIS 5 and 10 year evaluation but much more geared at technology and evaluated by many academic technology and IT specialists)
• Peer Mentoring Programs
• Professional Development

See all of you up at Mohonk!

It seems everything is going to the cloud. Email is going to google or exchange offsite. The web is being hosted by whatever company you choose, and many other cloud hosts are available: moodle rooms, mosso or whatever you choose. I even noticed that Blackbaud is now going to the cloud… kind of. Senior Systems has been there for years. Will file servers be a thing of the past? I doubt anytime very soon, but as ISP’s increase speeds so will the need for off site file hosts. Is the server room a thing of the past?

Adopting the cloud mentality might be hard if you’ve held a server room for some time. It is hard to deny that the savings will happen with the cloud, and it is inevitable that this will happen as ISP speeds increase. Backup and maintenance are very costly and can be easily done by an outsourced cloud company. This might sound threatening to a Network Admin, but I don’t believe will change the need for a position to maintain and control these servers. As more people connect to a network, the need for technicians increases. Even with the cloud Network Admins are needed! The role will change slightly as servers go offsite. The minutia of server maintenance will be gone. I hope this only helps Network Admins understand their role in the future. That time is soon!

So the big question - How is your institution respond to increased demand for speed? Fiber is the obvious choice. If you have it, love it. You can probably turn up your speed with a phone call (and a lot of $$$). For others, this might be a problem. You are probably looking at a multiple T1 situation over copper. This gets expensive and frustrating because the speed is not what you want for the price. Towerstream just offered our school a great deal for and 8Mbps symetrical speed for an excellent price. This is not to say this is the only provider you should go with. A backup is always a good way to go. We went with a Time Warner Business backup solution and used Promenet to provide the failover solution for both ISP’s. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but so far Towerstream is super fast.

Increasing bandwidth is really the most important institutional decision in the coming years. The cloud is growing….

I’ve been discussing the possibility of moving our school to Google Apps instead of Firstclass for some time now. The benefits are a no brainer for the IT side of things. No server work, lots of space (6 gigs), and it’s free. There are also plenty of benefits from the academic side of things. Teachers and students can share documents, calendars, and sites. I don’t want to write about the features of Google Apps. Go here for more features with Google Apps for Education. I am most interested with how teachers will respond to change with such a critical technology such as email. More specifically, I am very interested in trying to create a community that is excited by new technology and inspired by the possibility of better communication and interaction.

Last week Ewan McIntosh wrote an excellent post about community-building. It inspired me to look at my own practices as an educational technology advocate. What are the best practices for building a community of teachers willing to learn and improve on their current teaching methods? Ewan is certainly right that finding grass-roots initiatives and supporting those will foster change and improvement. The bottom-up resulting in a top-down approach seems to be a good system. Also, identifying faculty willing to change and evaluate projects/curriculum is one of the biggest challenges as a technology integrator.

I also think planting the seeds for a grassroots bottom-up approach is important. So when thinking about changing to Google Apps, I know that I need an “ambassador” of change in each academic department. This worked very well for our change to Moodle. We first had a trial period, in which the early adopters took to it quickly and loved it. I also did a little bit of “selling” to Faculty that I thought would be interested. This gave a strong base of people comfortable with Moodle before implementing it school wide. The Faculty room was then full of “ambassadors” for Moodle and were very helpful to others. I’m hoping that the same can happen with Google Apps. Of course it helps when the technology is great to begin with, much like Moodle and Google Apps!