Today I had the honor to see George Couros speak at the Summit Country Day School. It seems appropriate that about a year after my initial post on this blog about Innovator's Mindset, I would finally follow up with more details from its author. I found George to be fast-talking, funny and human and susceptible to sharing multiple youtube videos that made me get all verklempt (it's just allergies, I swear). I was going to tweet all of the moments that gave me pause during his presentations today but figured a longer post was a better fit as I work out the ways I want to put what I learned today into practice.
George mentioned that when adults use technology to find answers, we call them resourceful. When students use technology to find answers, we call that cheating. Why aren't students permitted to use their resources when they are taking a test? If the answers can be found by googling, do they really need to have that content memorized? Isn't it more important that they use that knowledge to make a connection, solve a problem, or create their own content?
Your Fears & Beliefs Create the Edges of a Child's Playground
I often hear discussions in our schools about what and when we should and should not allow students to have access to in terms of websites, technological apps, and social networking. The focus on what we, as adults, are afraid of what kids might do online comes from our own lack of experience and from actual stories of what has happened to some children due to bad choices. I have never believed that web filters keep students "safe" online. We all know how well banning something from students works in general. What if instead, we embraced using the technologies with our students? I appreciated George's message today about modeling positive uses of technology within real-world contexts.
Someone today asked the question of how to help kids become digital leaders online within the context of building positive uses of social networking. How do we help kids to deal with FOMO and keeping up with the curated lives of peers on Instagram and other networks? George's answer was not what teachers or parents can do, but how can we help kids to create leadership teams interested in building positive culture online.
My favorite idea - I want to create a communications team of students for our classroom where they get to decide how and what we share about our learning with the greater community.
Your Digital Footprint Matters - And Is a Part of Who You Are
George showed us all the ways in which his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter already has an online presence. While many parents shy away from having photos and info about their children online, George's point was that he and his wife want to help their daughter create a positive online presence - not from a public relations point of view but from an authentic digital self-timeline. Colleges and employers already regularly Google potential students and employees. What would they find if they Googled your name or your students' names?
While I love Google Classroom for managing the work students complete and turn in, one of its limitations, in the name of keeping students safe, is that no one outside the school domain, including parents, can access the course. I appreciate so many of the free tools that Google has created and keep finding new ways to use these to improve the instruction I provide to my students, but I think student work needs to have an authentic audience. I'm considering how blogs, websites or another tool might be better to help students develop a positive online footprint as well as make their work public to an authentic audience.
Teachers Need PLNs | Students Need an Authentic Audience
George did a great job of illustrating the power of Twitter as a learning network for teachers. He also made a good case for going beyond being simply a consumer of content to becoming a digital leader that gives back to the community through creating content - both as teachers and for our own students. We ask our students to solve the problems and scenarios we design for them. There are certainly enough problems already in the world that can be used to connect to the content and skills we are expected to teach. Why not help students find the problems they are interested in solving and teach through a more authentic and student-led pedagogy?
There are many great online resources, thoughtful quotes, and ideas I received this morning thanks to George's willingness to share his wisdom with today's audience. If you liked any of these ideas, I suggest you read his blog and consider purchasing his book, Innovator's Mindset.
Most of all, today was an uplifting reminder to do a better job of creating content, be a more active member of my PLN, offer more opportunities for my students to find problems that matter and then solve them, and model positivity, the high road, and being nice, online and IRL!
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