Making Me Nervous

[Rob Sbaglia]

I feel I'm a constant disappointment to people sometimes. For example, being an Ultranet coach, people expect me to be interested in and capable of fixing technical problems. Sadly for these people, my version of solving technical problems looks at little like this:



(image courtesy of thereifixedit.com)

Similarly, as I sit here on Melbourne Cup day, I realise that not only do I have no interest in horse-racing, but really in any sport since I was in my early twenties. This makes conversations with fellow males rather difficult at times. For example, I follow the Brisbane Lions in the AFL, nominally at least, due to a tragic love affair with Fitzroy since the age of eight. When the conversation turns to footy, as it invariably does when meeting new people of the heterosexual male persuasion, they attempt to engage me in analysis of Brisbane's new recruits, how we only won those premierships becuase of salary cap concessions, blah blah blah. This is where I nod and smile weakly, whereas the truth is that I don't care. Seriously. It's like this - it's nice if Brisbane wins, but I realised I wasn't a true supporter because of the following two observations:

1. If you offered me the choice of a Brisbane Lions dynasty, consisting of winning each of the next ten premierships, including narrow Grand Final heroics over the filth that is Essendon, Richmond, Carlton and Collingwood, OR a really nice meal, I would take the nice meal.
2. If you offered me a really nice meal, but the consequence would be that the Brisbane Lions would lose every match by fifteen goals for the next ten years, I would still take the nice meal.

So please, don't presume things. Don't presume I'm interested in WAPs and suchlike because I'm an Ultranet coach. And please don't presume I'm interested in football, or any sport really, because I possess a Y chromosome.

Another presumption that I don't like is that, given the opportunity, kids will use technology for evil rather than good. The fallacy of this presumption was illustrated to me rather neatly last week. I was demonstrating etherpad, a real-time collaborative document where users can see each other add content to the document in real-time. This has the advantage over a wiki of being able to have multiple users edit the same document at the same time, and has the advantage over a googledoc of being able to easily identify user contributions thanks to a handy colour-coding. Other interesting features include being able to export the etherpad as a Word document or PDF, or a curious Time Slider, where you can see exactly how the collaborative document "evolved".

Anyway, the task set this particular Grade 5/6 class was to use etherpad to collate all the data they could find about their current topic, the Solar System. Some of the information they already had discovered, but some they had to research to complete the task. Below is a screenshot of what the kids produced.



You might notice that in the bottom right hand corner of the screenshot there is a little chat window. Now, the kids had not been told anything about the chat window - how to use it, or that it was even there. One could easily assume, though, that upon its discovery, the kids would waste their time saying "Hi" to each other ad nauseum. On closer inspection, the kids actually seem to be using the technology to help each other complete the task by operating as a team rather than simply collecting together their facts. One student asks for sources of information about Pluto, and the others provide weblinks (below).



What role do you think the task set moulded how the kids used this technology? What other examples do you have of students using technology spontaneously to address a problem?

(The title of this blog post is from the album "I don't know what I'm doing" by Brad Sucks).

[Marcellinus]

I saw The Omen- There are evil kids out there! Oh yes- I saw Terminator too. Technology can be evil too. Luckily those films are works of fiction a bit like some of the poor ideas about technology in education that are out there!

[Narissa Leung]

Speaking of student doing evil deeds on computers...A VERY interesting discussion occurred on a conference wiki after a presenter (promoting server security) called his prospective presentation 'The Enemy Within: Stop Students from Bypassing Your Web Filters' Boy, did he open a can of worms! Check it out: http://nyscate.wikispaces.com/The+Enemy+Within+-+Stop+Students+from+Bypassing+Your+Web+Filters

[Narissa Leung]

HI Rob, I agree with your frustrations on people thinking that kids will use technology for evil wherever possible. It was interesting to note that at the recent Kids Congress held in Bendigo it was the Non Netbook schools' students who were the first to see what they could look up and find on the supplied unfiltered wireless. It was very pleasing to see that the majority of the netbook school students just got down to the job at hand, preferring not to waste precious time looking up things such as YouTube and Facebook.
I am currently working at one of the high schools who will be getting the netbook students next year- it is hard work trying to convince them that not all students (most of them in fact) are not out their plotting their next evil technology related deed as we speak. I also agree with Dianne, in that it does all relate back to the task. That is why professional sharing is so critical in today's technology rich classrooms. We need to share the love (and the things that work too).
Loved the song too. :)

[Dianne Davies]

dont you just love that it is assumed we can "fix" the technical problems ie server, printers etc. Will have to have a go at using etherpad sounds good. If we end up meeting on the 11th - show us. Kids are not what makes the technology evil - it's the task set before them thats not good. Given a good task I have the strong belief that kids will use it wisely.
Cheers for yesterday. Back a winner and go TIGERS!!!!

[Darrel]

Hi Rob,
I also like using Etherpad, it's a great tool! I've been using it for group note-taking since last term. There is something about the writing task that fundamentally changes when students have to collaborate on shared notes. It might be the responsibility to the group, the supportive nature of having other writers to help, or just that fact that everyone's contribution is seen. My experiences are that given a good, interesting task, students almost always use the tech for 'good'.

[Leslee Rees]

Rob, you could never disappoint us! We are all different and as teacher the fundamental we all embrace is an acceptance of differences. It is our principle but our Achilles's heel.