Social Software Published 2006-09-18 under conferences

Perhaps the best of day one at the "Future of Web Apps" was the presentation by Tom Coates - Directions in Social Change on the Web.  (for comprehensive notes on the session, visit CenterNetworks -thanks Allen!)

The tag line of the presentation, and for social software in general is "The sum is greater than the parts".  When blogs were first being noticed outside the geekosphere, they were panned and largely viewed as irrelevant.  This was because it was easy to point to individual posts and even whole blogs that were crap.  Taken by themselves, blogs looked amateurish at best.  As we have seen, blogging is much more than just individual posts.  This blog, though I try, does not reach that many educators, nor is what I post so important that it will change education.  However, if you combine all of the blogs of those in my blogroll and all the blogs in those bloggers' blogrolls, you have a community that is making a difference.  Ideas are introduced, discussed, and perfected.  Educators are trying new techniques to enrich their curriculum because they are part of a bigger community and that they are not out there on their own.

In his presentation, Tom likened the reaction MyS%*#@ is receiving to that which blogs got when they first emerged.  People are focusing on individual pages and saying this site is full of junk with no value at all.  But when viewed as a whole, it is remarkable.  Hitwise puts MyS%*#@ as the most popular website (based on US usage) above Yahoo! and even Google.  So what is it about the site that folks (mainly under 25) like about it?  It is certainly not its appearance - most pages are ugly. It is all about community or the social aspects of the web.

[Note: obfuscation of the actual name of the enormously popular social networking site that has the words my and space in it is to allow those people in districts that band content mentioning this word a chance to read this post.  Oh yes, and I want to be uber-DOPA compliant]

Tags: edtech, futureofwebapps, futureofwebapps-sf06

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Day One - Future of Web Apps Published 2006-09-14 under conferences

Wow - what a full day.  Eight presentations, five spotlights on coming apps and lots of networking, I am exhausted.  Did I forget to mention the Google party?

Here are a few items that I can share in these few minutes before I head back for Day Two.

First, I am so impressed with those who can blog while at a session.  I do not multitask very well and if I try and capture all of the ideas in a post I am unable to sit and synthesize. Luckily, there are many others who are capturing the ideas presented at each session.  [Here is the one that most impressed me.] 

Second: this is a web tech event so you should not be surprised that wifi was available.  In fact, there were seven (I think) connection to choose from.  This was way more than NECC 06 with far fewer attendees.  So why could we not get connected during the sessions?   Perhaps is was because at least 50% of the audience had their laptops out, trying to connect.

The plethora of laptops really interested me.  During one session, I watch the activity of those around me.  Some were taking notes - perhaps for their blog.  Others were snapping photos, downloading to their laptop and up to Flickr (when they had connectivity).  Many were staying connected with jobs, drafting emails, touching up work products, perfecting the message on a page, even collaborating on a project.  During a conversation prior to a session, I was listening to a Microsoft .NET evangelist discuss the future of ColdFusion.  During the conversation he continued reading/responding to emails - all the time remaining coherent. 

I compare this to the activity in our classes where we (traditionally) expect students to "stay focused" and "on task".  I would love to hear what others think about our expectations in the class and what kids are doing outside.

Stay tuned for posts on the some of the actual topics in which we as educators might be interested.

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Future of Web Apps Published 2006-09-12 under conferences

I am on my way to a two day conference titled "Future of Web Apps" presented by Carson Systems. So what is a educator doing at a conference full of "Ruby on Rails" coders and high tech entrepreneurs? On the one hand, I see this trip like a visit to the zoo; instead of wild animals, I get to meet and hear from those that brought us such tools as Flickr, Technorati, Google Calendars, and Digg. I know that I am not part of their world, but I am hoping to get a glimpse of what might be in store for us down the road. Additionally, I cherish the chance to talk with folks outside of education about education. These folks get social networking, collaboration, and innovation.

tagged: edtech carson summit web apps edtech carson summit web apps

Adding "Share on EdBloggerNews" link to your Blogger Published 2006-09-11

As Dave Warlick and others have reminded us, Will Richardson has setup a fantastic resource for all of us who love to read (and write) EduBlog posts but are finding it difficult to read all of the articles in our RSS feeds. Take a look at EdBloggerNews, which is similar to Digg but for Education Blog posts.

Recently, Chris over at Open Source Classroom, posted a pluggin for Wordpress users who want to add a "Share on EdBloggerNews" link at the end of each of their posts.

I have taken Chris' lead and offer the following for uses of Blogger.

To have the link automatically added to each of your posts, you will need to edit the blog's template.

Step #1: Make a backup of your current template. It is always a good practice to copy the current template into a file on your computer in case you need to revert back to the "Last Known Good" version of the template.

Step #2: Add a script section in the <head> of your template. Notice that this script is relatively simple (one function) that opens a new window.

<script type="text/javascript">
function ToEdBloggerNews(title, permalink) {
 // constants
 const winAKA = "EdBloggerNews";
 const baseurl = http://edbloggernews.crispynews.com/article/new_edit'
 const windowSettings = 'toolbar=1,scrollbars=1,location=1,statusbar=0, »
menubar=1,resizable=1,width=800,height=700,left=0,top=0';
 
 // setup the url
 var url = baseurl + '?link=' + encodeURIComponent(permalink) + »
 '&title=' + encodeURIComponent(title) + '&pop=yes';
 
 // open the window and give it focus
 var w = window.open(url, winAKA, windowSettings);
 w.focus();
}
</script>

view code

Step #3: Add the following code to your template where ever you want the link to be (usually right after the <$BlogItemBody$> blogger tag).

<div class="edbloggernews">
<a href="<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$>" »
onclick="ToEdBloggerNews('<$BlogItemTitle$>','<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$>'); »
return false;" target="EdBloggerNews" »
title="Post this article to EdBloggerNews"> »
Share on EdBloggerNews!</a>
 </div>

view code

Step #4: Save your template and re-index your blog.

Notes: I included a class "edbloggernews" for the DIV tag that surrounds the link so that I can control the appearance of the link in my CSS.  This is optional.

Hope this helps and if you have any improvements (or questions) please let me know.

Tags: edtech, edbloggernews, blogger

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Plagiarism - Blame the Assignment? Published 2006-09-08

Do you remember the first time you caught one of your students cheating.  Wasn't it shocking!  I don't know about you, but I took it personally.  Sure I knew kids cheat, but my kids would never cheat on ME.

Well, I am older now and a bit less naive (perhaps jaded).  Kids do cheat. According to The Center for Academic Integrity, over 70% of the high school students surveyed admitted to have engaged in one or more instances of serious test cheating.  The Center also suggests that plagiarism, especially Internet plagiarism, is a growing problem.

I just finished reading an article by Doug Prouty titled "Plagiarism? Blame the Assignment" published in the recent OnCue newsletter from CUE. [note: I could not find a digital copy of the article but it draws on an earlier article "Combating Digital Plagiarism" by the same author]

I agree with much of what Doug states including the impact of "cut and paste" on plagiarism.  We are also in agreement with the need to re-think the assignments to encourage original thought and higher order learning skills.  Where our opinions diverge is on blaming plagiarism on the assignments.  While I don't like what is referred to as "Go Find Out About..." assignments, I won't excuse a student who plagiarizes on such an assignment or blame his behavior on the assignment.

"Basing assignments on who, what, where, and when questions invites plagiarism."  Yes, it does make plagiarism easier, but "invites" is too strong a word. I recall a meeting with a parent whose son copied from another student's work on a take-home test.  The parent defended her son by blaming the teacher for assigning a take-home test.  "Of course kids are going to copy each other" was her defense. 

Students plagiarize because: a) they don't realize they are stealing someone else's work and passing it off as their own, OR b) they know they are stealing someone else's work and don't care or don't think they will be caught. The lack of knowledge reason is a serious issue and one that is exasperated by the easy access to information provided by the Internet. Certainly this is an area that we, as educators, need to address.  In fact, I would suggest that every teacher include a discussion of what constitutes plagiarism so that students are clear as to the teacher's expectations.

It is to the second reason that I draw more concern.  Again from the Center for Academic Integrity:

In the absence of clear direction from faculty, most students have concluded that 'cut & paste' plagiarism - using a sentence or two (or more) from different sources on the Internet and weaving this information together into a paper without appropriate citation - is not a serious issue. While 10% of students admitted to engaging in such behavior in 1999, almost 40% admit to doing so in the Assessment Project surveys. A majority of students (77%) believe such cheating is not a very serious issue.
Research by Don McCabe - Center for Academic Integrity [link]

Is plagiarizing OK?  Certainly many students (and parents) think so, or at least can rationalize plagiarizing.  In our quest to get better standardized test scores, have we forgotten about ethics?  Are ethics and morality too difficult (or divisive) to teach in school and should be left to the home and church?  I applaud those institutions that seek to create an environment that celebrates academic integrity, where discussions on the unethicalness of plagiarism take place. 

While we can take measures to make plagiarism more difficult (e.g. change our assignments, detect plagiarism), let's not leave the ethics out of the classroom.

Tags: edtech, plagiarism, ethics

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