K12Online: 7 Degrees of Connectedness

This week the K-12 Online Conference kicks into high gear with video presentations that cross four strands.  If you know of any teachers who could use some mid-semester encouragement or motivation, please point them to the conference.

My presentation is based on 7 Degrees of Connectedness, and will go live in the "Getting Started" strand on Wednesday.  This video was produced with the support of a few of my online colleagues whose stories weave in and out of the narrative.  In short, my talk invites educators to foster authentic relationships by connecting with others through a range of social media tools.

What is it for you that leads you to pay closer attention to the learners in your network? Do you feel close to those colleagues you interact with, even if you've never met? Are you more attuned to those people whose voices are amplified because you met at a conference; exchanged stories; shared a meal? As our connections grow with online colleagues, we may find ourselves in qualitatively distinct relationships with co-learners. By sharing our ideas alongside details of our personal lives, we have a tendency to become more and more familiar to one another. Augment these connections with voices and imagery, and it can lead to deeper and more fulfilling connections. In this presentation Rodd Lucier (AKA The Clever Sheep), invites you to walk along with a few of his colleagues who join him in reflecting on how modern tools are impacting our online relationships. The concept of '7 Degrees of Connectedness' is introduced as one way to qualify the relationships we foster with online colleagues.
Presenter: Rodd Lucier Location: Komoka, Ontario, Canada

The Digital Story of the Nativity

It makes me smile to realize people keep forwarding the link to the Digital Story of the Nativity... via email. Even if you've already seen it, I hope you'll appreciate this video as a 'social media' Christmas card. Merry Christmas!

Social Media Advisory

The Ontario College of Teachers released today, 'Professional Advisory: Use of Electronic Communication and Social Media', advising members to make appropriate use of social media with students.

My fear is that many educators will see this as a warning, granting reasonable grounds to remain on the social media sidelines. The first headline I read, spun the story as a cautionary tale: "College of Teachers says social media the wrong way for teachers to communicate".

Even though the 'professional advisory' is filled with caveats, fear of social media can be allayed, provided teachers use common sense in their e-communication. The news release put it this way:
“Represent yourself in social media the same way you would in person.”

In partial contrast, the OCT also released a companion video that rationalizes why educators should engage the use of modern communication tools:



Take the time to review the document. If you have questions or comments that you'd like to share, I'll be happy to bring them along to one of the regional information sessions taking place in the next few weeks. Are there any other 'appropriate use of social media' documents' I should reference?

Think Before You Post Online

My colleague, Royan Lee, from a few hundred clicks up Hwy #401, has just posted 'Think Before You Post Online', a graphic poster, on The Spicy Learning Blog. The graphic shares a number of mini-lessons that should be taken to heart by social media participants of all ages, and when I saw it, I immediately wanted to share his wisdom.

Since I know Royan, getting permission to reproduce this graphic was relatively easy. I posted a request on his blog, and the next day, I discovered that Royan had granted me permission to share his work; but I couldn't help thinking that the inclusion of a Creative Commons icon on this piece of work, would've made it much easier to reproduce. In fact, the licensing on such a piece of work can serve to provide an additional lesson about copyright.

If you have a piece of work you'd like to share, my first suggestion would be to visit the Creative Commons website to Choose a License. After answering a few questions, you'll be supplied with a graphic that you can add to any work you'd like to share, along with some code that you can embed along with the work. Others visiting your work will have the option to hyperlink to your Creative Commons license to see what uses are permitted.

You can see by the icon and hyperlink on this blog, that I commonly license my creative work with an attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license. Royan... I'm going to revisit your blog soon. Will a lesson on sharing be embedded in future posts?

Late addition:
Following a tweet from Royan, I visited again... and was pleasantly surprised.

Vintage Ads & Social Media Inspiration

This morning, I came across some "super-neat-o" vintage ads for modern social media tools. It took some time to discover the provenance of these ads, but with the assistance of Lisa Lane, I discovered posters advertising Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype are free to download from Maximedia.

In learning more about these 'historic' print ads, I also stumbled upon a vintage video in the style of narrated black & white educational films. Though campy, the production quality is very good and the tips are apt for members of the Facebook Generation.



In case you just want to engage your students in critical thinking about authentic vintage footage, your learners might be interested in investigating a modern viral video. The story of a time-traveler who may have inadvertently used a mobile communication device in Charlie Chaplin's 1928 film: The Circus, is certainly being used for promotional purposes. (The conspiracy has even found inclusion in the Wikipedia entry.)



By coincidence, as these vintage ads were being bookmarked, I responded to a minor commotion as our chaplain hung up a modern poster in the hallway outside of my office. Whether you're looking for a creative way to introduce social media, or are interested in leading learners to think in critical or creative ways, the works of advertisers have the potential to inspire a wide range of media works.

Image credit: Print ads downloaded and 'hung' courtesy of download from Maximedia

The Social Network

'The Social Network' is one of those trailers that seems to work one its own as a short subject movie. At the opening, the words of the choir over the computer screen close-ups are ethereal, intimate, and sad all at the same time.

Do you yearn to fit in? Do you need a digital channel to enhance your sense of belonging? Many of the quotes within this trailer help me to understand how individuals may be inclined to value their online social connections above all else.



While hundreds of millions engage in social experiences through Facebook and other social media channels, I wonder how many will engage in online conversations about this movie, rather than experiencing it first hand with real friends? The film opens in October... How many educators will see it as a piece of media worthy of consideration?


LATE ADDITION

A number of days ago, I came across this explanation of Facebook that might be worth considering as a teaching tool, especially when it comes to privacy settings and terms of use agreements.

A Movie for Anyone On FaceBook from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

Protest 2.0

Over the past few years, I've had a few richly engaging conversations with Peter Purgathofer, an associate professor at the Vienna University of Technology: Faculty of Infomatics. His email tonight is a striking story that has yet to grab headlines here in North America.

"In the last 7 days, we've had massive student protests against the accumulated mis-management of universities by the ministry (most universities here are financed by the state).

What is amazing is the way these protests are organized; they are neither initiated nor supported by the student unions. They just "happen", and are organized mainly through the means of social software and mobile communication.



Twitter plays a major role here (search for the topics #unibrennt (University Burns) #unsereuni (our university) and #tubrennt (University of Technology Burns) and you will find an amazing stream of support messages, coordination, calls for activities, etc. Also, there are a number of Facebook groups; USTREAM.tv is used to stream video from the occupied lecture halls at the Vienna university (ustream.tv/channels/unsereuni) and the Vienna University of Technology (.../tubrennt); wikis are used for working groups that organize food, garbage handling, sleeping; but also demonstrations and rallies, actions, and support the discourse surrounding the formation of demands of the protest.

Also, the students have collaboratively written and created a newspaper that can be printed out by every student and dropped in public transport or public places, in order to explain what is going on to the broader public.

Of course, there is a blog with all the news, and a YouTube-channel with videos produced by the students about the protests and everything around.



Today, a giant demonstration took place, around 40,000 students marched through the city for two hours, without any noteworthy excesses, riots or other negative events (other than a bag of paint thrown at the facade of the ministry building) - everything organized without participation of the traditional political caste that usually carries the flag here. It's really the base speaking, facilitated through the means of social networking, mobile communication and a series of meetings in occupied lecture halls. Absolutely fascinating to watch. It feels like protest 2.0.

There is no end in sight. they are determined to stay until policy-level politicians (minister and chancellor) discuss their demands with them.

I'll keep you updated."

The order and organization demonstrated in the videos I was able to find, are striking. I'll be happy to share more as Peter shares first hand news...

Social Media Revolution

The Social Media Revolution is bigger than most realize. Sources for the statistics in this presentation can be found on the Socialnomics - Social Media Blog. Unfortunately, this message will be missed by those not already in this space...

#iranelection

The potential of social media is being realized in telling the story of the election in Iran. Citizen journalists are using the tag #iranelection to create a historic blip on the World Wide Web. And by following the story, our trend-setting is telling the media which news is most important.





Related Links:
#iranelection
The Big Picture (photos from Boston.com)
Tweeting from Tehran
Tweets from Tehran
Iran's Day of Destiny (as witnessed by Robert Fisk)
Extraordinary Scenes (more first hand reporting by Robert Fisk)
Twitter Reschedules Maintenance for Iranians
Open Letter to the World (a plea from Iranian Artists in Exile)

Three Milestones

This weekend was a milestone weekend. My online network led me to blast through three milestones in what has become my ongoing social learning experiment.

1] Thanks to a number of coincidental weekend retweets, my Slideshare presentation: Creative Commons: What Every Educator needs to Know, passed 3000 views in its first month online.



2] The Teacher 2.0 Podcast had episode download number 50,000!



3] My Twitter tribe surpassed the 1000 mark, the same weekend that I found followee number 500. How could I resist sending my 3000th tweet?


It's been about a year and a half since I've engaged these diverse channels in publicly sharing my personal learning, and though these numbers in some way quantify the number of folks I've been networking with, these values pale when I consider the rich learning these connections have led me to experience, both as a teacher and as a student.