Conversation starter – Did You Know 4.0
Several weeks ago, Karl Fisch of Did You Know fame announced a new release with a media convergence feel to it.
The Economist Magazine is hosting their third annual Media Convergence Forum in New York City on October 20th and 21st. Earlier this year they asked if they could remix Did You Know?/Shift Happens with a media convergence theme and use it for their conference.
Fisch takes very little credit for what is being called Did You Know 4.0 and says that while the focus is not necessarily on education:
I certainly think the media convergence ideas discussed in the video have great relevance for education.
I’m a bit torn.
Videos like this are great when used to generate actual conversations that lead to change. But too often, it seems, these types of things are thrown up on a screen for the simple purpose of making us feel good about all of the gadgets we can bring into schools. Or to justify some short-lived staff development project that does little good in the long run.
The video does provide some interesting information about how information and media is changing in the 21st century – and does it with a beautiful design and feel. So go ahead and use the video.
But use it to help start the conversation, not be the conversation.
Better yet . . . watch the video and then read Convergence Culture: Where Old & New Media Collide by Henry Jenkins of MIT. Use the information to start making actual changes that will impact student learning long-term.
I got an email this morning from a colleague asking for advice. He’s working with a teacher who’s wanting to get her students into Google Docs for collaborative work. The kids need email addresses. The school apparently won’t provide them.
An obvious solution would be for the school district to issue email addresses to all of its students. I can hear the admin and tech types from way over here . . . “but we can’t do that. Kids would misuse email.”
Hopefully videos like Did You Know 4.0 can start conversations within those districts and buildings that still believe kids can learn 21st century skills without 21st century tools.
I’ve embedded the video below in the hope that we’ll use it for real change.
History Tech 
I remember showing the first “Did You Know/Shift Happens” to my staff a few years back. Most of them felt defeated afterward because of the content and because they felt they wouldn’t be able to compete in their own classrooms.
We have a 1:1, and sometime I feel it’s harder to do these things (like the email) because many teachers see it first as a classroom management nightmare, more than an educational opportunity. I see that Google Wave is going to be out in the public in small ripples now, and I wonder how quickly teachers will want to embrace this sort of, all-encompassing tool. It seems like a great 21st Century tool, but how many teachers will see it that way?
Mike,
I agree completely! Teachers (and admin types) are often reluctant to use some of the newer tools – need a new AUP, need a bigger server, need new lesson plans, need to give up some control, need to loosen the screws on the filtering software a bit – they see the need to do a lot of things and it’s scary.
Emails are a perfect example of some of the change that needs to happen. In some ways, even if we hand out email addresses to students, we’re already behind. How many kids, grades 5-12, even use email anymore? For creating online accounts, maybe but just about all other kid communication is online or on a phone.
If nothing else, the video clip can help teachers, admin and tech sysadmins begin to talk about what is already happening outside the cloistered world of education.
glennw
You do happen to have a Google Wave invite to share, do you? ‘-)
glennw
I came up with a new response to the argument against giving (or allowing) students access to email in school out of fear they will do bad things.
Basically that argument means I shouldn’t teach them to write, because they might pass notes. I shouldn’t teach them to speak because they might spread rumors. And I most certainly shouldn’t teach them to think critically for themselves and persuasively debate a meaningful topic, because they might end up at a town hall meeting.
Not that I’m an advocate for guns, but the pro-gun slogan has a point: Guns don’t kill people, People kill people. Email doesn’t do bad things, people do bad things (with or without email). Our job is to teach responsible use of the tools they will be expected to use when they leave school.
Email has became as basic a tool as a pen and pencil. If we are not teaching students to use these tools, where will they learn them?
Furthermore, what better place to give them access to email (when a tech guy or teacher has access to their username and password information) than at school. It’s so much easier to address misuse of in-house tools (district email addresses) than generic corporate tools like gmail and yahoo.
Finally, students need to learn that not all email accounts are the same. Adults have professional email accounts where we are careful what we say or forward, and personal accounts where we can be ourselves a little more freely. Students need to learn this. School emails are the perfect opportunity. Honestly, students already have their personal email accounts anyway.
Sorry, I know I’m preaching to the choir. But I think we need all need to start standing up to this (dare I say) ignorant and short sighted thinking and start demanding policies that support and prepare students for the 21st century. (Side note, email is now 15-20 years old).
Aaron,
I agree completely that, when allowing more access, schools should start by assigning emails to their students using the district server. And I know this scares admin and tech people but where better to control and train in its use?
The irony, of course, is that so few students actually use email as a form of communication. But for many of the online tools that can improve learning, an email address is a requirement. This is where your thinking of “professional” vs “private” communication comes in – an email for school related work and text/chat/Facebook for personal communication. (I do believe that we can, and should, use those tools in school as well but I’d be happy with the baby steps of email!)
Thanks for the comment!
glennw