Little Brother and the Creative Commons

I've mentioned before that I'm reading Little Brother. What I hadn't realized until recently, is that you can read this book or any of Corey Doctrow's other titles, for free, by downloading the text versions from Corey's website: Craphound.com.

Little Brother goes into great detail about how the youth of San Francisco use their technical know how to outwit 'big brother', played in the book by the Department of Homeland Security, so it should be no surprise, that Corey is swimming against the tide of the book publishing system. Click the link on at the bottom of the widget below to hear Corey explain things.




Listen to the followup Teacher 2.0 Podcast: "Engaging the Power of Creative Commons" with special guests Corey Doctorow, Larry Lessig and the Canadian Mounties

Remote Participation in NECC

The Good News: It's Summer at the Cottage

The Bad News: NECC is taking place in San Antonio!

With the internet, even the bad news doesn't have to be so bad. This morning I was able to attend the National Educational Computing Conference remotely by diving into a few remote feeds courtesy of UStream.tv and a few intrepid edubloggers.

Prior to this event, the publishing of the NECC's restrictive terms of use on multimedia productions had me wondering whether or not any broadcasts would emanate from the conference. Today, I'm glad to see that consenting presenters are finding ways to share their
messages beyond San Antonio.

Will remote participation become the norm for conference participation? Conferences that encourage remote participation may not bring funds into the coffers of conferences, but they may yield more important benefits. The recent launch of the EdTV wiki provides a menu of edu-blogger channels that heralds the arrival of open, remote, self-selective professional development.

Although I'd love to be there in person to solidify relationships with virtual colleagues, I am content to visit NECC participants remotely... between chapters of Little Brother. Keep the feeds coming!

Today's 5 minute podcast provides a snapshot of my remote participation.
Photo Credit: Rodd Lucier

5 Ways Youth Soccer is Like School

Have you seen a youth soccer game/practice lately? Below this 2008 soccer photo, are five parallels to school, based on my observations of my little guy's play on the pitch.



1] As with classroom lessons, many soccer drills fail to 'engage' participants.

2] Like the chalkboard/smartboard, many skills are practiced with the active involvement of only one person at a time.

3] Just as most students are required to be on the same page at the same time, youth soccer sees most players follow the ball as a 'hive' in lieu of playing independent positions.

4] If things aren't interesting enough, the kids will find their own entertainment to replace game/practice activities.

5] Similar to the anticipation of recess, the highlight of most games is the half-time snack break!

Do you see any other parallels?

Photo Credit: Rodd Lucier

Will Different Become the Norm?

The Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Open Course is ramping up with participants planning a number of networking events including face-to-face get-togethers. In "More is different..." George Siemens anticipates how scaling up a learning event to include hundreds of participants increases the complexity of the learning environment:

1. Less control on the part of the instructor
2. More need for learners to define and forage for needed content and relationships/learning connections
3. More noise, chaos, confusion
4. Greater flow of information, leading to individuals with high “network literacy” feeling more at ease in the course.
5. Greater involvement of learners in assisting each other
6. For some learners, increased need for centralized spaces that serve as “jumping off” points.
7. Reduced sense of singular expertise (i.e. facilitators) and greater reliance on ideas and expertise shaped through collaborative/collective discourse
8. Greater segmentation - learners will find others with similar interests and they will form small sub-groups as a means to cope with complexity and to individualize their learning

Although it wasn't always appreciated by my colleagues, many of these 'different' characteristics were signs to me that learning was taking place in my own 'small scale' classroom. Scaling up, these differences are also evident in the greatest mass classroom on the planet: the World Wide Web.

In leveraging current and evolving network structures in CCK08, my hope is that the characteristics predicted by George, will be emulated in future networked learning environments, both large and small.

Photo Credit: David Reece

Summer Fun with Seesmic

I've been thinking, writing, and speaking of late about the fourth 'R'... Relationship; and I can see how Seesmic has the potential to personalize participation in any of a number of learning networks.

Educators (and their classes) can now leverage microphones and cameras to participate in engaging asynchronous conversations on a range of topics. Care to test it out?

Time to Repair and Be Repaired

As the school year winds to a close, many are ready to reconnect with family members that are lost amidst the hustle and bustle of the school year. Students, spouses, colleagues, children... regardless of the roles these people play in our lives, they are people first; and though our relationships with these people may be as fragile as butterfly wings, they too can be repaired:



In fact, repairing relationships may require much more than the tools and deft touch needed to repair a butterfly wing. Thankfully, the summer offers most educators the most important tool of all: TIME.

This summer, take time to be a human 'being'. Take time away from the 'busyness' of life to celebrate the wonder that surrounds us every day. Take time to appreciate the uniqueness of the people in our lives. And, when school begins afresh in the fall, continue to take the time!

We are People First is the Teacher 2.0 Podcast today...