ISTE10 Will Richardson: How Teaching Social Networks Might Save the World

It's been a long time since I blogged... today should make up for that! I am at ISTE10 and will live-blog some of the super thoughts that Will Richardson will share with us.
Here are my notes:


Will is working off an iPad - oh do I want one! Links to preso: http://bit.ly/istegreen


Gulf oil disaster--> it's hard not to look at pictures of it and not ask how can we help? For most of us it's a matter of donating money and good wishes. What can we do? How do we participate? How do we DO SOMETHING????? There are facebook groups that have been put together to share resources and give each other support. These groups are probably blocked at our schools - kids would have to participate on their own. Big on twitter, too. The point is over the last 10 years, these types of social interactions are changing the landscape in a lot of different ways. Must visit ted.com - they are livestreaming from the gulf. There are technologies and ways to come together that just weren't around 10 yrs. ago.

This is a challenging moment no matter how you look at it. Should we go to Deepwater Horizon oil spill page on Wikipedia: yes, it is the most current and unbiased information on the spill. We can learn outside of school, that makes school look less relevant for our kids because we have this ability to connect around our passions. These are important moments --defining moments in history - a defining shift. We have to solve the education problem before we can solve the environmental problem. There are all sorts of resources that we are not modeling for our kids in schools. Doesn't matter what the topic is, if you are not feeling uncomfortable, then you are not paying attention - what is our role as teachers and educators?

Will became a vegetarian because of ecological reasons, not health reasons. His way of trying to pay attention to the environment. Blogging has been transformative in Will's life - he can participate in ways he never had before, a voice to the world. Small attempt to change his world.

Will is showing his clustrmap and what he really wants is his kids to have a clustrmap like that too. This is what kids need - a different classroom then the school classroom. Educators have to help kids understand what these global interactions mean. Teach kids to connect around their passions and then become part of something bigger than themselves.



MacArthur report says teens are using 'friendship-based' tools, but a growing movement towards 'interest-based' around their passions and meeting people they don't know. This is the stumbling block we get to: kids are connecting to adults they don't know - we say 'oh no, that's not a good thing; but what we have to say is "it IS a good thing." Students don't undertstand the skills and literacies that go along with this - not getting it necessarily from teachers and parents. How can we MODEL those interactions (tech/librarians listen up!). Steven Johnson: "There is no doubt that five years from now, when my kids are teenagers, they will be comfortable living in public ways that will astound and alarm thier parents."



4 books that have influenced Will:



1. Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken

2. Ecological Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

3. Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirkey**

4. Tribes by Seth Godin - we have everything we need to build something bigger than ourselves and this is what we should do.





This is a compelling, different moment in time that we are in right now. Social technology is an opportunity that has not been in our context before; it's speed and creativity; put up a basement video on youtube and it can go viral. "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See" on YouTube has gone viral over 7,5000,000 views - created by a physics teacher, led to him writing a book, "What's the worst that could happen?"



"There have always been networks of powerful people, but until recently it has never been possible for the entire world to be connected-Paul Hawken. "For kids, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades."



How are we as schools to be those problem solvers?? We have to give them opportunities to solve problems in the classroom first. Examples of students taking initiative to solve problems on thier own.

"25 Days to Make A Difference" blog - kid made her efforts to do great things everyday. Has connected all over the world--kept making a difference.

Ryan's Well blog -7 year old who changed the world 7 yrs ago to bring clean water in developing countries.



This is k-12 curricular integration.We need to have literacies around this. BP has bought google ads--it is interesting for a lot of kids who don't know what sponsored links are - are we teaching them about those kinds of literacies? NCTE has created new 21st c literacies. Are we doing this? Very similar to ALA standards.

If we are not there ourselves, how will our kids be???



WE all have to be Walter Cronkite - we have to look at info and make sense of it, participate in it, not just consume it. Daniel Goleman says we need a shared intelligence.

Discussion pages in wikipedia is where people negotiate the truth, critical thinking and analysis. The info comes in through twitter, delicious, we share and we all get smarter potentially.



Goodguide.com - you can scan products with your iphone and will give you info about the health of the product and rated it's effects on environment and society. Info that would help us make the world better. In schools, how do we prepare kids to tap into and make sense of this flow of knowledge? Look at google earth presentation on how climate change will effect California by Jean Ricshard.



How do we prepare students to create, navigate and grow their own plns in safe and ethical ways.. this is where they need us to model how to grow this network in safe ways.

We are being greenwashed - bunch of crap. Everything now is marked as green aWe are being techwashed in education - cause we have to understand which tech is transformative. We have to get serious about where we are going in environmental and educational technology.

1.Know your impacts.--what is impact of standardized testing

2.Favor improvements--we should always be looking to make things better, never be satisfied with status quo - we need to advocate and push for better tech and resources.

3. Share what you learn --take the best things you are doing and be transparent, share with the world



We need to teach environmental education, integrated

Ourmedia.org - post stuff for advocating environmental causes. Wiserearth.org; takingitglobal participate in great projects. Sprout ecourse for social innovators and environmental entrepreneurs who want to grown their project ideas.



Video from Michael Wesch-PdF2009 - The Machine is (Changing) Us



Seth Godin: "Leadership is a choice. It's the choice to not do nothing."



We need to think deeply about the choices we make for ourselves and for our kids.