When we block social media we block learning

At New Canaan High School students have the freedom to learn using tools they love and the websites they need to be most successful. One of the two freedoms were taken away from them in honor of “Banned Websites Awareness Day.” On that day students were blocked from using the sites they commonly use for learning and collaborating such as YouTube and Facebook. Not having the ability to use the tools necessary for success in the real world for learning at school deeply interfered with their ability to get the education they deserved. It really drove home the fact that the young men and women at this school were fortunate to go to school in a place that trusts and respects young people.  

Watch this video created by librarian Michelle Luhtala to see how these young people felt when this freedom was taken from them.

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Yes. Teachers & Students Should be Interacting - My New York Post Mention

If you're here because you saw my mention in the NY Post today, welcome. This is not a new topic for me. I've been talking for many years about the importance of social media in general, and Facebook in particular, when it comes to education. I have also written dozens of articles as well as been quoted and published in places like The New York Times and Tech & Learning on the topic.

If you want to run for office, run a business, or have a say in how your school is run you better be savvy in the use of social media. If you are, you not only have an opinion, you have a voice. A voice that matters and can make a difference. Unfortunately, more and more policymakers are putting restrictions on teachers and students when it comes to communicating online and in the end this hurts not only educators, but also our children.  

If you didn't see the article, it is here.
School big rips teacher Facebook ‘ban’


That article was written as a result of my comments in this article.
Less than ‘friends’ - Teachers told: Stay offline with students

If you want to read more about why I believe teachers and students interacting shouldn't result in everyone panicking, you can view what I've written about Facebook in education, by clicking here.

You have read this article BANdates / break the ban / Facebook in education with the title BANdates. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/03/yes-teachers-students-should-be.html. Thanks!

AASL Thinks Outside the Ban with Banned Websites Awareness Day - September 28th

Editor's Note:  This article was also posted on the American Association of School Librarian's site.  If you'd rather read it there, go here.  


More than a decade into the 21st century and the very tools and sites we need to ensure student success in the world are banned and blocked in many school and learning centers. Though banning and blocking is more convenient, it  is not what is right when it comes to preparing children, who will need to use and navigate these waters, for success in the 21st century. The American Association of School Librarians (AASL)  is bringing awareness to this problem by naming September 28th “Banned Websites Awareness Day.” This serves as an extension of the American Library Association’s long-standing censorship awareness campaign, Banned Books Week, beginning September 24. This new campaign directs national attention to the important conversation of the impact filtering has on our students.

In many schools today, our children are living in a digital world, but being prepared in bubbletest schools that whittle kids down to easily measurable, but often irrelevant and outdated, data points.  In fact, using the tools necessary for success in the world is considered cheating when completing these outdated assessments. Most educators, parents, and business leaders understand that these high-stakes, artificial situations do little to meaningfully prepare children for success in the 21st century. Sadly, outside of today’s test prep-dominated curriculum, there are virtually no opportunities to share resources and collaborate with the real world.  This is understandable when we recognize that doing so is not measured or valued in our schools. This is in part what makes banning and blocking so desirable.  Since schools are not evaluated on providing equity and access to real-world skills or tools, not providing access to the world outside of schools becomes most desirable.  However,  when life inside of schools looks so different than life in the world of work, civics, and personal relationships, one must consider what what the real purpose of schools has become.  Unfortunately, many students today feel the disconnected life in schools much more resembles that of a prison than one which will prepare them for successful careers and relationships.


For students to successfully engage in the world outside of school, the world inside of school needs to match it.  This can’t happen unless school leaders begin to think outside the ban and make children’s success a priority.  Common sense dictates that blocking and banning students from the sites they need to succeed does not keep them safe. While no one would argue that doing so is easier, it clearly leaves our children unprepared.  The Banned Websites Awareness Day campaign brings attention to the fact that this must change in order to keep our 21st century learners competitive and ready for life outside school walls.  Teachers and leaders must become educated on how to use the web responsibly and enable their students to do the same.


To do so, here are some shifts that need to happen.


We need to move...

From	To	with sites such as…
restricting use of sites	responsible use and support in enabling safety filters	Google Images, YouTube
standardized textbook learning	personal network learning	Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Blogs
disconnected classrooms	rich, global communication centers	Skype, Google Hangout
teacher as the only source of information and lessons	on-demand learning from others around the world	YouTube, Twitter, Open Ed Resources
students doing work for an audience of one (the teacher) or some (the class)	students doing work worthy of the world for real audiences	Blogs, YouTube, authentic publishing sites

Banning, filtering, and blocking keeps students locked up in an artificial world that does well at ensuring compliance but little when it comes to enabling students to expand their wings and have the freedom to learn what is important in the world today.  To that end I’d like to commend Michelle Luhtala for conceiving of Banned Websites Awareness Day and the American Association of School Librarians for bringing to life an essential ingredient necessary for learning in the 21st century.



For more information about Banned Websites Awareness Day resources and support materials, please visit AASL Essential Links and Banned Websites blog posts.

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Is your school like a prison?

I recently shared how so many of the freedoms we have in life are "Banned in School." In this post I ask you to consider the similarities between schools and prisons and then share your results. 





What are you doing to help students find their sentence?

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

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A Break the Ban Debate

Barry Bachenheimer over at the  A Plethora of Technology blog challenged me to push back on his response to my latest post about breaking the ban and giving students the freedom to learn. You might want to take a look at that post and comments first.  When I get comments like this, my hope is that they’re asked because of a genuine desire to have thinking pushed. I hope I’m right because there’s a whole lot of mind shifting that needs to happen for kids to be allowed to have the freedom to succeed in the 21st century.

To follow is Barry’s comment, with my responses embedded.  

First, let me begin by saying that in theory, I agree that we should have learner freedoms to learn as they want and schools should provide all the resources needed.

With that said, I don't think it is an simple as flipping a switch and letting kids use their cell phones, laptops, open sites, etc. any time they want to.

1. As Patrick said above, bandwidth. Not just the tech bandwidth, but the human bandwidth as well. I believe in teaching students how to use the tools in an ethical and responsible way. Do we have the staff and the training (not theoretical, but in reality) who have the skills and time to immerse this into the classroom?

Response: As one of my blog contributors Peter Kent says, “Teachers need to get over the PD excuse.” Read this for more on that. And, the reality is, kids don’t need to teachers to know how to use the tech.  The teachers need to get out the way and let kids use the tools they love to meet their learning goals.  Empower the students to own the learning and stop trying to dictate the tools they need to do it. The reality is kids not need teachers can develop policies for acceptable use when it comes to tech. Jason Suter and other teachers have had great success with this. Here’s an example.

2. I believe that part of what school is should be "coercing" kids into being exposed to things they would not choose if left to their own devices. If on their own, kids would choose ESPN, Facebook, and video games. Very few, if any would choose Shakespeare, Calculus, and Advanced Physics. Part of the mission of school is exposing them to this so they know what (or what not) to study when they get older.

Response: WTF? Really?  You think we need to coerce kids to expose them to things?  And, why must these things be crap like algebra and calculus most of us will never use or Shakespeare who many of us could care less about.  It may be important to some people, but for others it’s the reason we hated math and English.  We spend all of elementary school exposing kids to stuff.  We don’t need more of the same in a secondary education. When we overexpose kids, what we end up doing is getting students that know.  I HATE MATH. Or worse, as the movie RACE TO NOWHERE reveals, we get kids with stress, anxiety, stomach pains, or worse, they end up dropping out or even committing suicide as a result of being forced to do well in subjects that they’re just not good at or don’t care about.  

So, what if we let kids spend more time on ESPN, Facebook and video games???  Well, my cousin was a sports fanatic.  His dad had a sports memorabilia business.  He watched ESPN and the like all the time.  His parents embraced that.  He got in on the ground floor of College Sports Network which I believe was recently purchased by ESPN and he’s still there.  Say they loved social media and were on it all the time.  Maybe they’d do what Rahaf Harfoush did and intern as a social media advisor on the presidential campaign.  What if they loved video games like Aaron Iba did? His school psychology report identifies him as a multiple problem child who acts if nothing in the world matters besides video games. Google just paid Aaron 10 million bucks and gave him a full time job as a result of an online app he made.  His favorite year in school was as a fifth grade when his teacher let him sit in the back of the room with the computer all day. Everyday.  

3. They are still kids. As a parent, as much as I believe in letting my kids self-explore and have access, they are still kids and lack self control and make ill-informed or poor decisions. I don't think a lot of kids (let alone adults) have the self control NOT to be distracted by many of the tools that are "banned". I was at a PD conference recently where the teachers (adults) were not listening to the speaker and instead were playing on their phones, surfing the web, and shopping. If educated adults can't control themselves, how can we hope kids to?

Response: I know a whole lotta parents and children who’d be really pissed at a statement like that.  They’d push back and say, kids don’t have self control because school doesn’t give them an opportunity to have it.  They tell them what to learn, shuffle them from class to class, tell them when they can talk and who they can talk to.  But if we gave them more ownership over their time and their learning they’d be amazed at what kids could do.  

I had the pleasure of listening to Sandra Dodd last night who brilliantly explains just how successful her more peaceful approach to parenting can be. I asked her about how she feels about screentime for kids. Her answer went something like this:
How can controlling someone else teach them *self*-control? She has three children herself and several other parents in the room have children who they empower to make their own decisions.  They explain that the end result of not limiting screen time is that my kids learn to listen to *their own* inner guidance about how much is "too much". They are learning what *they* enjoy, not what others think they should enjoy.

This is a much talked about issue.  Recently when listening to This American Life on NPR it was interesting to hear what happened at the Brooklyn Free School when kids were empowered to determine how much screen time they should have.  Guess what? The kids figured out how to use technology respectfully and responsibly. 

This is another example that just came in to my Facebook feed from a Librarian who helped break the ban on social media in her school.  Students use Facebook freely.  Here's what they do with it when given the trust and freedom to learn.
Facebook Group  as Collaborative Research Log from michelle luhtala on Vimeo.



As far as adults not listening to a speaker at a conference, who cares?  The audience members were voting with their attention.  Maybe the speaker sucked.  Maybe s/he wasn’t engaging.  Maybe the audience just didn’t care what the speaker had to say. Maybe the speaker was great for some and not for others.  Perhaps some of them were like me listening to the speaker and capturing and Tweeting great thoughts and ideas, making connections, and later writing an article to share with a wider audience.  

When I speak I have the entire audience get out their cell phones.  My presentations are interactive.  I talk to my audience through their responses.  They have their technology out.  We think outside the ban.  They focus.  It’s great.

At my tech professional development sessions we have a no ban zone.  At many sessions we ask teachers to bring their students with them.  They have computers, phones, video cameras, smart pens etc.  They are doing fun work.  Creating, exploring developing.  When all this tech isn’t taboo and people are given freedom, you’d be amazed how the self control follows.

4. I am all for innovation. I think the tools should be available for teacher discretionary use. If they want to use FB or cell phones for a lesson or unit- great. But it shouldn't be open access, all the time. Give TEACHERS the power to control student access based on their needs and skill.

Response:  Ugh, when I hear teachers say things like “Give teachers the power to control students” it makes my skin crawl.  Why not give students the power to develop self-control.  Why not let students own the learning and use the tools they want to use.  Why make it the teachers discretion when we all know the kids are usually more likely to know the best tool to use.  Give up control, you might just be lucky enough to discover what happens when students own the learning like Keith Ferrel explains in this post.

5. Economic realities. I wish we had unlimited funds. Now with a 2% cap in NJ, hard choices need to be made. It is a hard sell to the public (who 100% fund our schools) to say that class sizes are going up and we are letting teachers go, but we are buying laptops and hiring support technicians.

Response: Don’t buy more tech.  Let students use their own tech.  For students who don’t have tech, help them figure out ways to get it.  Options are endless.  Write this sentence. "Kid needs your old technology."  Post on Craigslist.  Post on Facebook.  Post on Twitter. Post at the supermarket. Post at a fancy car dealership. A student I know just did this and got a laptop. I did this and got a computer lab DONATED. Then I got 50,000 in books DONATED. Let kids and their teachers take ownership and agency over getting what they don’t have. We need to stop always looking for others to give us what we want and need. When we allow students to use their own learning devices, you suddenly have a whole school of technicians because they have ownership over their devices in sickness and in health.  When they break, they fix it or replace it.  

6. Educating parents and community. People "know" school as they were educated. Not that it is right, b/c it isn't...but that is what they know. Look no further than the current rhetoric of what a "bad" teacher is. Most likely that impression is not based on skill or results but on how a teacher made you or your child feel. The public needs to be educated on what 21st century needs are...and businesses don’t seem to be pressuring schools to change their ways.
-Providing information for others is what this blog is all about. 

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Banned in School

An essential element for 21st century learning is thinking outside the ban, however, many schools fail to do this banning the very items that are crucial to success in the world. When viewing this compilation of items banned in school it is clear we are not preparing students for success in the world.

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Wanna Chat in School? These Services May Not Be Filtered

In the never ending quest to educate innovatively despite bans and filters, a colleague asked if I knew any chat services that may not be blocked. My trusty Tweeps provided these suggestions.

rickettskp Kevin Ricketts

@innovativeedu - Google Apps has several chat options http://bit.ly/1XwspX

»

marynabadenhors Maryna Badenhorst

@InnovativeEdu Chat options 4 schools: Perhaps http://www.chatzy.com/, http://www.dimdim.com/, http://notaland.com/, http://en.linoit.com/

»

clcteacher Danielle Bayes

@InnovativeEdu Skype has chat functionality

»
Mr_Casal Mr. Casal

@InnovativeEdu Try Google Wave while it's still available... (Google Chat is blocked)

»

Ideas_Factory Julian S Wood

@InnovativeEdu Edmodo?

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Break Political BANdates, Boycott Outdated Assessments, and Empower Students to Learn

Innovative educators are frustrated when forced to follow political BANdates (i.e. a mandate banning something) such as one that has taken hold across many cities in the nation requiring students to power down at school. In New York City, the largest of these districts, the iPad toting Mayor, Mike Bloomberg relies on the same tools he refuses to let students bring with them to learn in school. While he purports wanting to develop students who are prepared for the 21st century world of career and academic success his technology BANdate prevents students from bringing any personally owned digital devices they may rely on at home into school. There are even metal detectors at schools to ensure the devices they (and he) could depend on for learning are not be used in the classroom. If we really wants our students prepared for the 21st century, then we must speak out against political BANdates. Educators not politicians should be empowered to make the decision about whether they want to allow students to use the tools they need to know how to use in the real world to succeed. Here is why this is so important.

6 Reasons Political BANdates Should Be Broken

1. BANdates Result in Dropouts
2. Schools Can Not Offer Real World Opportunities When BANdates Are Enforced
3. Saying Yes To Students Means Saying No To Political BANdates
4. Outdated Assessments with Tech BANdates Results in Students Prepared for The Past
5. Educators Who Think Outside the BAN Are Penalized
6. Political Bandates Shouldn’t be Driven by Success on Outdated Assessments

1. BANdates Result in Dropouts
If you ask educational visionary Marc Prensky, he’ll say, “Let’s admit the real reason that we ban digital devices is that, given the opportunity to use them, students would vote with their attention, just as adults would ‘vote with their feet’ by leaving the room when a presentation is not compelling.” But students don’t have that option. Unfortunately as NYC DOE Innovation Design Director Jonathan Skolnick, shares, “A traditional compulsory education requires students sit through 12 years of classes they never signed up for.” With drop out rates nationwide at about one third with many cities having rates hovering closer to 50% of students leaving school, many secondary students are indeed exercising the option to leave. The top reason motivated students with high GPA gave for leaving school is that class were not interesting and students suggest school offer opportunities in alignment with the real world.

2. Schools Can Not Offer Real World Opportunities When BANdates Are Enforced
Without technology, without the ability to connect, without the ability to use the tools necessary for success in the real world, school becomes a place where students feel trapped and disconnected which is why many innovative educators are morally opposed to enforcing political BANdates. Although New Jersey Principal Eric Shenninger knows that “Banning certainly is the easy way out”he knows educators didn’t get into this work because it is easy. When we ban, nobody has to change the way they do business. Teachers teach the same way. Testing companies test the same way. Politicians measure students the same way and most disturbingly, students are assessed and prepared for a world that no longer exists. When the world inside our schools looks so different than the world in which we live, do we make it our priority to think outside the ban and prepare our students or to we accept our charge to make our students easily and inexpensively measurable political pawns?”

3. Just Say No Is Fine for Drugs, but Not for Technology
Educators and parents who care about preparing students for the 21st century, know it’s time to stop fighting and start allowing students to use the tools they love for learning. If we did we would instantly have an influx in the availability of technology reaching millions if not billions of dollars. Like in the real world, schools would not need to provide tech for everyone, but instead follow the model of internet cafes, libraries, or coffee shops where device-agnostic internet is provided for those with their own equipment and additional devices are available for check out with those in need. Forget the the scary and faux excuse of the needing to secure student data. That can and should be housed separately. Forget hiding behind filtering laws. The internet can be configured to the schools specs. Schools that prioritize this like The School in Harlem figure it out.

4. Tech BANdates Result in Students Prepared for The Past, Not the Present or Future
When we continue to assess students using outdated measurements we are imprisoning them to a school life stuck in the past. Sadly, all too frequently I have walked into schools I know have ample technology resources and have not seen a single computer being used. Instead I’ve see kids writing on paper with pens and pencils because “that’s what is used for the test and that’s how we’re judged.” Even schools with the best intentions require students to duplicate efforts because they are judged on outdated assessment. In these schools students are told, go ahead and do your work on the computer as you like, but you must also get practice with paper /pencil since that’s how we are judged. Why are we wasting student’s time? Why aren’t we boycotting outdated assessments created for industrial workers?

5. Educators Who Think Outside the BAN to Empower Students Should Not Be Penalized
Our current system not only is doing a disservice to our students but research shows that innovative educators are being penalized. If teachers empower students to use technology they intuitively know that they will see a dip in the outdated bubble sheet test scores. Though Generation Tech has been scapegoated by some as the reason for declining test scores, when digging a little deeper we can see the research indicates (you can read more here and here) students who have become proficient using technology will see a decline in paper /pencil tests scores that use outdated assessments. The outdated assessments are keeping our students stuck in the past. We must start to acknowledge that we are not doing what is in the best interest of our children, but rather doing what is easiest and cheapest to provide quantifiable data for politicians and testing companies.

6. Political BANdates Shouldn’t Be Driven By Success on Outdated Assessments
Let’s face it. The impetus for using outdated tests that are no different than those used when compulsory education started in the early 1900s, is that it’s just plain easier and cheaper. It’s easier for testing companies to administer and for politicians to measure the results. When put in perspective it all makes sense for them. Lifting the ban and allowing students to use technology would make the job of measuring students, teachers, administrators, and politicians more difficult and more costly. Weeding out those teachers who don’t have a passion for test prep is easier than measuring teachers who have a passion for real student learning.

These political BANdates result in the establishment of a workforce of educators that look no different than the those who taught our silver-haired politicians and prepared students for the industrial age of the last century. In fact in our current system innovative educators, creative thinkers, and tech savvy students are severely penalized. They are banned from 1) using technology on the test, 2) working cooperatively as you would in the real world or 3) connecting with those in their personal learning network to solve problems. Can you imagine if the iPad-dependent Mayor of New York City had his technology taken from him prior to a speech? Can you imagine if he was told to prepare for work with out the help of his learning network? If it’s not right for the politicians, then it shouldn’t be right for our students.

Break the Ban and Give Schools The Authority to Empower Students
We will never prepare students for success in the 21st century when we 1) follow political BANdates that prevent students from using the tools we all need to succeed, 2) filter them from accessing the sites they need to learn (YouTube is the #1 educational site) or 3) prevent them from developing their personal learning networks using social media like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs they need to connect.

What’s good for the politicians IS GOOD FOR OUR STUDENTS. The do as I say, not as I do mantra of the past is no longer acceptable for students who want to spread their own wings doing as they want to say and do to pursue the passions they want to explore.

If we continue abiding by BANdates cultivating students to be prepared for the outdated world that is mandated to exist inside schools, we may make politicians happier, we may making testing companies richer, but we will not be preparing our students for their future or even their present. It’s time to let our students come out of the dark and allow them to power up for learning!

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