This month’s SGD topic is brought to us courtesy of  David Harris, a Tampa home educator and Director of Studio Production of Telecourses for the College of Engineering at the University of South Florida, as well as a web developer.

David writes,” I am homeschooling Sierra because she doesn't fit the available molds of the education system. I am proud of that. There are many issues facing humanity and the recycled perspectives lack the necessary innovation to solve these complexities. With the ubiquity of technology, we find ourselves with an array of tools that dissolve our dependence on the traditional education complex (assimilation factories, if I may). We now have the tools to collaborate across the state, country and world. We can have experts discuss programs such as Roots and Shoots in our living rooms from Africa via Internet broadcasting. This is a time where we can think globally based on empirical perspectives and act locally empowered with an understanding that transcends imposed apathy from the local powers that be.

“I am actively exploring ideas on integration of the tools of the Internet (websites, blogging, video production and broadcast, collaboration, creative expression and design) into the home-school curriculum, not only for Sierra, but at a broader level that can involve the home-school community. The most exciting attribute of the technology is the new social landscape. Collaborative tools and development is a tide that raises all ships with the skills that lead to the realization of all our children's dreams. I envision a community of home-schoolers (parents and their children) that grow together, share resources (information, tips and tricks) and explore the possibilities as a community.

“I am working on an initiative to distribute laptops with the Linux (open source, free, operating system that can be programmed allowing for unlimited potential and innovation) OS to kids. This would facilitate a primary goal of technology assimilation, skill set and access on one level, and on another level, the kids would have access to the opportunity to not only have the tool, but learn to build the tool. As a community, the kids can evolve their operating system to accommodate their needs and functions - bouncing ideas off of each other, sharing ways and means, expanding on the global Linux community's knowledge base.

“I am going to offer tutoring to anyone interested in website creation and design, Dream Weaver, Flash (as I grow with it), blogging, vlogging, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator) and Linux (as I grow with it). This is not a definitive, top down instruction, but a guided tour into these worlds where you and your children are able to explore on your own and realize the possibilities.

“Many of these technologies are duplicated with free software, so there are no real financial obstacles to using these tools. Some examples are:

•   open office http://www.openoffi ce.org/
•   web editors http://www.thefreec ountry.com/ webmaster/ htmleditors. shtml
•   pix editing http://picasa. google.com/

“This is intended to be a dialog, so please reply with any and all information, suggestions, interest, methods of communication - whatever. Together, we can offer our home-school community an amazing technology component to our home-school curriculum.

David Harris
813.601.3582
http://myweb. usf.edu/~ dbharris
http://mediarevolutionary.org
http://YourNewWebsite.org

We're delighted that David has brought this open dialog to our Learning is for Everyone forum, and encourage you to discuss technology in home education here, and among local groups. 

What are your thoughts on integrating Internet Technology in home education? 

Do you use a lot of technology in your homeschool?  How? What type?

How might home educated students use the Internet different from public school students, and vise versa?

If you decide to share your group discussion experience with us (and we hope you do!), please reply within this thread with “Homeschool & Technology” in the subject line. Tell us where you live, about the group you discussed the topic with, and how you felt about the experience, along with your responses to the talking points above, or whatever thoughts occurred as a result of your discussion with others.

The point of these Education Conversation starters is to engage in some thoughtful and reasoned discussion about education, teaching and learning, something more far-reaching than knee jerk opinions or "gut" responses that may not fully give the due consideration that the many issues and topics facing us truly deserve.

We'll look forward to hearing back from you with your thoughts on this or any of our other SGD topics.

Thanks!

Theresa Willingham
Learning is for Everyone, Inc.
www.learningis4everyone.org

Ode magazine recently published a story about the learning potential of "games" as well, in "The Future of Homework": http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4345
It's an interesting read.

Terri
LIFE Inc.
www.learningis4everyone.org

Technology offers infinite resources to use, explore and share.  In the past, students would go to a central place and eat whatever was being served, with relatively little breadth of content and perspective.  Now, students can access the Internet which opens doors to communities (locally and globally), resources and perspectives that can take an interest and allow it to blossom into...sky's the limit.

My daughter, 9, is interested in fashion.  Strike that.  She is in love with fashion.  When she was in an arts magnet in Tampa, this manifested into girl talk about Abercrombie and lipstick.  There isn't anything wrong with that.  But, now she is homeschooled and her passion can manifest into projects.  Talk has turned into sketching designs that are influenced by some of the greatest fashion designers in the world via the Internet.  She explores other artists designs that she has access to with the technology, and she grows her own ideas into innovative expressions of her perspective.  Content gets richer as more people join in the conversation.  There wasn't a fashion sequence at her school, but now she is in a fashion community that transcends geography.

She wants to express her ideas to the community, so she has started a blog: Passion for Fashion.  Here she can use the free tools to self publish.  Her perspective, sketches and ideas can be broadcast to the world.  Anyone interested in fashion can read her ideas, view her sketches and add comments about their perspective, not just a few friends at her school.

Sierra is also looking for a real world community and will use technology to facilitate that.  !Yahoo groups is a common resource to network people.  She will start a group for homeschool kids interested in fashion.  This group will serve as a message board to inform, share ideas and comments, and coordinate meetings.   Kids from different neighborhoods and counties can connect and add to the conversation, enriching everyone's experience.

There are physical skills that will be developed: drawing, sewing, earning money for materials and meeting with friends are a part of this project.  People won't be reduced to faceless digital personalities.  The real world is not taken out of the equation, simply enhanced by amazing tools.

We are going to take time over the winter to build a website to serve as a creative project and teaching opportunity about the tools of the Internet and learn how to build those tools.  She will be able to design the site (including a link to her fashion blog) and see the nuts and bolts of these pages.  The main page will have a map with places like a library (a link to her book report blog with summaries and recommendations) and a zoo (reports on animals and natural science).  She is excited to design her site, do the drawings and have a platform to express herself.  This excitement will translate into real experiences with design, writing mechanics, construction logistics, building a technological skillset and computation.

Sierra could be just as passionate about Africa, model airplanes or sports and the model could be the same.  She would still have access to the tools and communities to add to her understanding and journey down any path.  Technology enables a free spirit to soar past the immediate resources and express themselves.  Through this process, they learn the skills necessary to be successful, unique members of society.

Here is an article on Web 2.0

Web 2.0 gives applications legs

The first computer took up an entire room and didn't have the processing power of most coffee makers on the market today.  Advancing technology continues to shrink computer hardware.  In the near future the term computer will mean just the monitor, keyboard and Internet connection.

Computer engineers freed the computer from its birthing room, moved it into millions of homes and offices across the globe and spawned the Internet.  Web 2.0 is the next step in this evolution.  It will release computers from their boxes and move applications online.  Hard drives, including the highly portable thumb drives, will go the way of floppy disks as all storage moves to the Web.

No more excuses about forgetting assignments at home.  Documents created and stored online and can be downloaded right from the classroom.  No more losing data.  As documents are created on the Web, they are constantly updated and saved.  Simultaneously, the data is backed-up on several web servers.  No more heavy laptops or clunky towers. 


"It is fundamentally better to keep your money in a bank than in your pocket," said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in November.  This is also true for data.   It is fundamentally better to keep your documents and files in a central, fortified server farm then on individual, buggy computer systems.  This movement of data storage enables portable devices - like smart phones emerging on the market - to connect to the Web.

Lightweight high-resolution portable screens with high-speed wireless Internet access will decrease in price and be more available.  Instead of opening applications on stationary computers at home or at school, users will log onto their accounts from anywhere.  Their applications and documents will come to them, wherever they are.  This, for example, article was written online.

Google developed Writely.com, an online document and spreadsheet program.  Anyone with a Gmail account has the application already.  Using that software, part of this article was written from one location.  Later, it was revised from across town.  Google Docs and Spreadsheets, as the app is called now, also offers the ability for long distance collaboration.  An author can authorize other users to view and edit any document.  All the revision versions are saved and changes can be used or discarded.  This article lived online.  The Montage editor at the Oracle accessed it, made final revisions and published.  No hard copy.  No disks.

Google is engaging the Web 2.0 movement by buying many online applications that are growing in popularity.  The recent purchase of YouTube seated Google firmly in the Internet video market. "Something happened this year where all of the sudden video became a fundamental data type on the Internet," said Schmidt.  "The underlying draw of seeing what people are doing - having a computer suggest related kinds of videos - is a whole new paradigm."  Other Web 2.0 applications are already widely used.
 

MySpace and Facebook accounts are held by millions.  These Web 2.0 applications are the next generation of websites, because they not only allow users to read about their friends and acquaintances, but offer them a platform to talk with them.  Posting comments and continually updating profiles brings a static page alive.  This many-to-one and many-to-many model of conversation was born out of the Web.  Tim O'reilly, founder of O'reilly Media, promotes the collaborative advantage of Web 2.0.

O'Reilly wrote in his 2005 article, What is Web 2.0, that it is, "Harnessing network effects to build applications that get better the more people that use them."  The more users who post a profile and comments on these sites, the more interesting the site becomes.  User generated content advances the site past the platform.

MySpace designs and hosts the platform and users add to it.  Users share templates, page designs and functions.  The best designs and functions have a viral effect.

A cool photo viewer can come from a piece of code created by one user.  This code is then picked-up by another, and another.  Soon thousands of users are using that photo viewer on their homepage.  The design was not created by the few that designed the platform, but where created and implemented by the many users.  The users are creating the site.

O'Reilly titled this collaborative as "harnessing collective intelligence."  Many hands make light work and many minds make innovative content.  Blogs are another way that this model has taken hold of communication.

Publishing a weblog, or blogging, is a Web 2.0 application that has changed the way we receive information.  There are many free, user friendly services that allow anyone with basic Web surfing skills to publish their thoughts and perspectives to the many.  Being able to retrieve information from many sources about practically any subject has had a revolutionary effect on the new industry.

“I remembered that old cliche that journalists write the first rough draft of history. Well, now the bloggers write the first draft,” wrote Dan Gillmore in his book We The Media.  Citizen journalism is emerging as a credible news source.  Many issues regarding journalistic standards and reputation have surfaced.  But, there is no denying the power of decentralized information when seeking truth.  Blogging isn't the only online application that has threatened business as usual.

Craigslist, an online classifieds started by Craig Newmark in the San Fransisco Bay Area, was a way for him and some of his friends to trade things they no longer used. Now, Craigslist is in 310 cities all over the world.  It has been credited with adding to the newspaper industry decline by putting classifieds in the hands of the sellers and buyers. Without the newspaper control, a community is formed.  Users place the adds and communicate with each other.  Craigslist is the platform, but the content is from the users.  Web 2.0 is changing the standard business model.

The book Cluetrain Manifesto proclaims that "a market is a conversation."  Web 2.0 gives consumers a platform to discuss products and services.  Instead of relying on companies' ads or persuaded press, consumers are able to talk to each other and find an authentic, first-hand opinion.  The more people in on the conversation, the more accurate the information.  And this is just the beginning.

"The Web 2.0 of next year is going to be very, very different from the Web 2.0 of this year," said O'Reilly at the beginning of this years Summit.  People are joining the conversation, creating new content and learning from each other.  Innovation with virtually unlimited resources is infinite.  Web 2.0 is a new platform, that will serve as a foundation to the next level of the technological evolution.

 
David