Stumbling into Relationships -- Reflecting on Twitter and SMS at #BbWorld13

Look on my works ye mighty and despair!
Blackboard World is in Vegas!

Decided to end my self-imposed blogging hiatus with #bbworld13. I should have a post about why I went offline for a month (standardized testing depression mixed with catastrophic data failure) and some posts focused just on Google Glass (yes, I have them. Feel free to be jealous) coming up soon. But this week is devoted to Blackboard World...or at least the random thoughts that occur to me as I attend the largest corporate bash celebrating educational technology vendors! This year I am going to try more posts that don’t take quite the commitment to read...no promises...I might decide to get Ranty.

Session 1: Twitter!

So, there is this new thing the kids are using called Twitter. Maybe you have heard of it? It is, like, all the rage - Taylor Swift is even on there. Cheryl Boncuore and Aurora Dawn Reinke from Kendall College presented their experiences using twitter in their classes, focusing in particular on a capstone project class.

Two quick impressions:

Sharing the results of a semester of Twitter

1. given the amount of time we spend talking, blogging, and sharing about the use of Twitter on #edchat, #patue, and #edtechchat (as well as so many other places, conventions, policy meetings), it was a little bit of a disconnect to hear people talking about this fresh and new -- it was a good way to revisit this little microblogging service with fresh eyes.

2. They had data! Bless the college folk and their need to actually prove the things that we talk about anecdotally all the time!

Major Takeaways:

The Good

• Twitter is awesome! (woot!)
• Twitter is very useful for finding and sharing research in particular fields
• Twitter has the potential to allow students to connect to industry leaders and interact with them on a limited basis -- some leaders respond enthusiastically to this interaction, particularly if it is authentic and does not appear forced.
• Twitter is a powerful tool for engaging students and forming relationships between students and faculty. It is a quick and easy way to encourage positive behaviors and affirm students (through favoriting and retweets).

The Bad

• Twitter should NOT be used as homework reminder system. This leads to negative impressions of the platform and decreased engagement (note: while I know teachers in my school who do this, it is not exclusively this or a majority -- will be an interesting discussion for next year though).
• Twitter should not be used to stalk students. Focus on the classroom aspect and not what the students did over the weekend. Unfollow if necessary. (another note: There was very little in this session about my personal obsession with developing #digcit skills in students. Thus, there was a high level of comfort with “have students create a professional account” rather than “talk to students about why their drunken dancing should not be broadcast on Vine” -- not sure if this was due to the college environment or if there is some other disconnect).

And the oh-so-very-ugly

There was a conversation at the end about the appropriate way to assess the use of twitter. I actually heard the comments “It is just not feasible to grade every single tweet.” It is cold comfort that it is not just the k-12 set that has become obsessed with testing culture.

assessment obsession not just a k12 issue. theres no need to assess twitterfeed - engagement & empowerment are inherent goods #bbworld13
— JD Ferries-Rowe (@jdferries) July 9, 2013

Session 2: SMS Marketing for Prospective & Current Students

(note: I only attended part of the session. Had to get ready to live-tweet the keynote)

This session gave some of the most staggering number about the sheer amount of texting that is done worldwide, in the US, and by kids. A few interesting tidbits out of the gate: the US now leads the world in texting. there was a period of time when that was not true, but it is a reality now.

Conversely:

81% of mass emails will not be opened. 94% will not respond to email actioncall -- how much did your organization spend on email? #bbworld13
— JD Ferries-Rowe (@jdferries) July 9, 2013

The session focused on the sheer practicality of texting. This included using short-codes to encourage the downloading of apps or to facilitate engaged responses. Using SMS for follow-ups during the decision making process in order to accurately gauge yield of students from the accepted pool, and using responses to establish communication lines that could encourage a student to come or at least give the real reason why she is attending somewhere else.

On Reflection: Stumbling Across Relationships

What struck me about both of these sessions is that both sessions started with the hard-hitting numbers: Metrics for engagement, potential audience, yield, etc. But both of them ended up focusing on the the environment that is created when adults communicate informally and personally -- both sessions talked about relationships!

“60% response rate -- that is incredible. And you get that response rate because you are having a conversation with a real person. It starts with a simple text, but when the response to a question is personal -- that means something to the student” 

“A student gets a favorite, or even better a retweet, and that student is excited that something they did was noticed” 

“Students were able to go beyond what was required -- they wanted to”

In Jesuit education, the foundation of the system lies in the relationship between the student and the teacher -- understanding their context, creating an environment where they feel empowered to seek out Truth and have the time and resources to reflect on their experiences and ask questions.

In each of these sessions, the real revelation was partly obscured by the numbers and the data and the metrics: students learn better when they are known by their teachers. Students want to attend a school where they feel a personal connection with another human being.

It is easy to paint technology as the dystopian-disconnector of our modern age. I have certainly had discussions with the 8yo and the 11yo about the siren-song of TIny Castle and Candy Crush Saga. But in reality, most of time that teenagers are engaged with technology, they are also engaged with people.

Our responsibility is, in part, to help them engage appropriately and effectively. But as educators, the takeaway from this is that learning happens with most students not because the textbook is so riveting or because the subject matter is so enticing -- learning happens because someone with whom they have an authentic relationship cares about something enough to share it.

...And that beats sharing tomorrow’s homework assignment anyday.

Up Next: Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky, and the irony of leveraging freeware in Vegas

The Vendor Corollary to Lord-of-the-Flies: an open letter to edtech companies on Twitter

Save Our Tweetups

When the head of the Indiana Department of Education and I agree completely on something, it is a special time. So when I heard him refer to twitter as an excellent source of professional development, I noted it as that rare convergence of educational worldviews.

I currently devote about 5 hours of my life (more for curation) each week to the low-impact professional development, personal learning networking, and link-and-learning available on Twitter. Hastag chats are near and dear to my geeky little heart: #byotchat, #edchat, #flipclass with a strong pull to #isedchat, #pblchat, and, if i ever figure out when they regularly converge I will add, #digcit and #edtech.

These are great places to be affirmed, to learn new techniques, to ask questions, and to pull tons of resources (which i routinely tag and then go back to read and add to @pearltrees -- although they need an ANDROID app in such a bad way. *hint*).

But, in a variation of what often happens in a capitalistic society, whenever two or more are gathered in the name of anything, someone is going to try to sell you something. And so, it is with a heavy heart but a great deal of optimism over the power of the human spirit that i offer this corollary to my Social Media Lord-of-the-Flies Rule: Student, left to their own devices in social media, will create their own norms of behavior.

The EdTech Vendor Corollary: 

Educational Technology Vendors, without guidelines of appropriate conduct, will attempt to hijack, dilute, and flood every professional development opportunity. (or something like that)

Follow the Trends:

This has happened in all sorts of social media spaces. I was following the trend with mommy-bloggers a couple of years ago as the social media mommy market exploded and the brands took notice. Over the course of time  I saw partisan lines develop over the affiliation with branded products, I saw an increasing amount of posts about that issue rather than about the things that made mommy-blogs popular, and i watched  new entrants to the medium fail to see value because it had been diluted with pitches, thinly veiled paid endorsements and little real content.

This happens with celebrities too. Fans like to follow the real lives of celebrities and call foul when a celeb who has been so good at interaction and personal sharing gives the account over to a professional media company. The cool and slick varnish of a marketing person sticks out like a sore digital thumb in the twittersphere. I have not investigated if there is a decline, but i have seen the backlash first hand.

My Proposed Rules of Conduct for #EdTech Vendors:

1. Keep Chat Times Generic Ad Free

It is to the advantage of an advertiser to post information when the most eyes are looking at it. This rules has been true since the Mad Men days. Thus it makes sense that Advertisers will want to set up their auto-ads to play when fifty or a hundred or a few hundred are looking rather than just a few.

But when i log into #edchat, it is with dread that i wait through the rush of generic ads from vendors large and small that often have absolutely NOTHING to do with the topic which has been voted and deliberated by educators who are a part of the community.

Solution: use the 5-10 minutes before the chat and after the chat. Many of us log in early and stick around afterward. Those who visit later scroll through. It's not as many eyes, but you will get more respect from those of us in a position to take advantage of your services.

The Counter Cultural -- and Counter-Intuitive Response -- to Gadget Overload (A Rant)

"Now think of yourself as a battery. You really are, you know. Your brain runs on chemically converted electrical current...Okay, the point is this: everything you think, everything you do, it all has to run off the battery. Like the accessories in a car...

Watching TV, reading books, talking with friends, eating a big dinner...all of it runs off the battery. A normal life -- at least in what used to be Western civilization -- was like running a car with power windows, power brakes, power seats, all the goodies. But the more goodies you have, the less the battery can charge. True?"  

 -- Glen Redman, The Stand by Stephen King (1989 or earlier)

Before we talk of human beings and batteries and how the comments of a mid-level character in a 25+ year old book got me motivated to write this blog entry, a preface in three parts: 2 vignettes and a little jesuitical context:

Vignette #1: 

My wife and I are members of "Koko's Kittens" -- geeks who have been on BOTH of Jonathan Coulton's jococruisecrazy. Last year, we skipped out on the 9th birthday of our eldest to go hang with internet musicians and comedians. I highly recommend this. This year, we took the Daughter Prime (now 10yo) and the Undivided Middle (7yo) with us. A good time was had by all. But I digress to this happy time to share a tough conversation that we had three days into the cruise. 

Prime and Undivided Middle with Jonathan Coulton

After 2 nights of concerts, I glanced over to watch the 7yo working her way through Mario 3D and the eldest on her phone playing a word game. My first thought was that the girls were not even listening to one of the musicians who they LOVED! Then i realized that they were both mouthing the words while playing. They were listening but not paying attention (parents will be nodding in recognition of this behavior).  {PAUSE}

Vignette #2

Tweetdeck: Infowhelm writ large

Each year, I have the pleasure of meeting, connecting with, teaching, and - in many cases - learning from amazing student at Brebeuf Jesuit. One of these students, @kcklippel, and I were having an internet conversation through twitter one relatively low-key afternoon about a year after he had graduated. About an hour into the conversation, this tweet came across the deck: 

"Oh, sh**. just blew off my class talking to you." 

"You skipped class?!?"

"No, I'm here. I just wasn't paying attention"

"*Sigh*"

A Few Jesuit Lessons

• The Jesuits task the teachers and administrators who work in their schools to give students the ability to develop the "counter cultural response". The basic idea is that the culture-at-large has got some things wrong. Thus, instead of limiting ourselves to math, science, writing, core curriculum, logical thinking, and 21st century skills (WHEW), we also try to equip our students with the critical eye to examine their culture and their actions within it and analyze whether they are making the best decisions or just the culturally easy ones ("best" in Jesuit-lingo is AMDG - doing things for the greater glory of God).
• Another tenet of Jesuit education is that God, for whom we are doing things, is EVERYWHERE. The rocks, the rivers, other people, and even the NEW iPAD w/ retina display. One of the keys to the counter-cultural response is to be open to seeing God in places where we are not used to looking and responding accordingly.

On Stephen King's THE STAND, Conversational Opportunity and the Counter-Cultural Response

As  I was listening to the Audible version of the post-a-plague-alyptic novel yesterday, the passage above struck me as closely related to what I have been talking about regarding technology, social media, and digital natives for the last few years.

The initial reaction to personal technology in the classroom and schools in general was (and is) to keep it away.

• Parents: worried that items would be lost, stolen, or damaged...
• Administrators: reminded me that "Chaucer never used a laptop -- he didn't even have Facebook"...
• Teachers: concerned about the loss of control "how we we keep them from twittering all day"

But when we keep technology out of the hands of students, we are not JUST denying them educational opportunities. We are not JUST keeping them from developing the skills they will be expected to have in college and beyond. We are not JUST putting our need for control ahead of them.

We are missing out on the opportunity to help them develop a necessary skill in the info-whelm, postPC world: The ability to choose to shut off the noise -- to disconnect.

My girls and my former student each experienced the same thing. The draw to the technology, whether it was the human connection at the other end or the exhilaration and relaxation found in a video game, was so intense, so consuming, that they were unable to avoid its siren buzz-beep-whir-ding. Thus, they missed out on a lecture that may have contained some perfect insight. They missed out on those unique never-to-be-repeated moments that only happen during live shows. They missed out, in some small way, on the opportunity to discover a God-moment.

I see this a lot in adults as well. Watch the next meeting with more than ten people. Observe the number of them who zone out of the conversation to answer email or surf the web. Watch the jump as they reach for a phone that is on vibrate for a reason but still has to be checked, "just in case". Then notice the tired look in the eyes at the end of a day that was constantly plugged in and connected. "The more goodies you have, the less the battery can charge"

BUT... (And if you made it this far, you need to stay for the end)

The answer is NOT to take away technology, it is to give it to them!

Students learn by doing, the same way that adults do. 

If we never give our children technology, we never get to have the conversation with them about putting the technology away to experience life as it happens before your eyes.

If our students are not confronted with and tempted by the technology in their pockets and their bags, then they will not have the resistance to put it away when it is not appropriate. And we will have raised another generation of meeting-zombies and phone-check junkies to replace the digital immigrants that came before.

In our school, the phrase that we have been using is that student need to develop the ability to
"be present in the moment". 

There are times when your presence is taking notes from a teacher, working on a problem, or listening to a friend. There are times when the moment allows for a quick glance at the twitter feed. Or that 3-coin attempt on DRAW SOMETHING.

Part of our responsibility in the task of developing Digital Citizens out of Digital Natives is providing the opportunity for Experience and the follow-up Reflections on which moment is which. This is not something that can be taught on a fill-in-the-blank test, but it might HAVE to happen in the classrooms, the playing fields, and the homes. 

Knowing when to disconnect is a vital skill.

And our batteries, ourselves, may depend on it.

Messaging Social Media to Parents: The Crossing the Digital Divide Presentation

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting to a group of parents about Social Media and Children's usage. There are a lot of big names out there willing to take funds for this purpose, but we have found that it there are a number of advantages to keeping it in-house. Beyond budgetary thoughts, this is a great way to help strengthen the partnership between parents and school faculty/administration about this digital world in which we spend so much time.

Based on this experience i wanted to share some of the findings and research to the blog, but i wanted to do it in a way that might be useful to other schools doing the same thing. You get to judge how useful these meandering thoughts are to you. Comments are always welcome. For I bit more orgnaization, I refer you to the  Lord of the Flies Rant. This is an important issue from which educational systems have for the most part abdicated their role.

My Word Things Have Changed
The last time I presented to the parent group at school was 2008. So like all good presenters, i went digging through my (at the time) PowerPoint folder and discovered the original presentation. Wow! Things have really changed.

• The "Social Network to watch" was this new-fangled thing called Twitter
• A huge recommendation was to keep the digital devices (I called it a computer) in public spaces in the home -- hard to do with these new-fangled phone thingys the kids have.
• I predicted that Social media would grow with you seeing more social media on news casts, websites, and billboards -- virtual as extension of real life.
  

The Presentation 
(note, I talk a lot more than is on the slides. Comment if you want follow-up posts)




The struggles in creating  these presentations are multiple - Some Advice in Development:

• There are real social media concerns, but it easy to fall into the scare-monger trap of talking about nothing but stranger danger. Back up your commentary with research. The Pew Internet and American Life Project's work with Teens is phenomenal and worthy of our support as educators.
• There is a real gap between parent and student comfort with technology and social networks. This discomfort leads some people to SHUT DOWN which is never a good option. Demonstrate the broad strokes of social networks as people ask about them (you will get the "what is twitter?" question, so let it happen naturally).
• There is no magic app or program or technique that will alleviate all of the fear or concern. Parenting in this day and age is tough and it is easy to see social media as the digital straw that will break our collective backs. But (see magic bullet slide below) we have two things going for us:
• Parents are the source of information that teenagers WANT to rely on for difficult situations
• Good parenting: open communication, clear expectations, reasonable boundries works for social media talks as well as it does for most other parenting situations.
• This stuff moves fast. Keep the information current and updated.
• Give examples. Give scenarios for parents to think through. 
• Leave lots of time open for questions -- They will have them and they are good!

Create a Forum to Keep the Information Flowing - 
The How to "Privacize" Facebook Part of the Blog

Parents were thrilled to hear that as a part of our required Freshman course on Digital Citizenship, we offered a "how to check your privacy settings on Facebook" lesson. What was interesting (but not surprising) is that they wanted the information as well. Be ready for a feedback forum. Since I gave my blog, here you go:

1. Watch the video below a couple of times. It is the "where to go"
2. Read each section carefully. If you are not sure what something is talking about (for example "tagging" is referring to a Facebook user with a link to their profile. You can tag pictures, articles, posts, etc.) then a) look it up or b) when in doubt, lock it down.
3. Think about who you want to see what. FRIENDS, FRIENDS OF FRIENDS, NETWORKS (less common anymore), and PUBLIC are all options in Facebook. 
4. Periodically Google yourself to see what is public.

Sources 
(Taken from the 2008 Presentation and Refreshed with links in the presentation):

·         http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_9/barnes/

·         http://Staysafe.org

·         A parent's guide to online safety: Ages and stages.

·         http://clubpenguin.com

·         http://www.electricbiscuit.com/SLS

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

·         http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec14.shtm

·         http://medialiteracyinfo.blogspot.com/2007/05/forum-4-2nd-paper.html

·         http://www.netlingo.com/emailsh.cfm

·         http://onguardonline.gov/socialnetworking.html

·         http://www.utexas.edu/its/secure/articles/social_networking.php

Tweeting about Lord of the Flies: Social Media in Education

My name is JD...and I like social media.

I tweet...a lot. I post on Facebook; I'm one of the thirteen or so people on G+, and I agonized over giving up my foursquare account (until I did...whew. that was nice). I post pics and reviews to Yelp. I like social media.

So it is not surprising that my avocation for social media and my vocation for teaching were going to meet. What remains surprising to me is that there are so few teachers who are doing the same. Ok, to be honest, it is not surprising. Schools are disallowing it as a matter of policy, a number of technology admins are under the impression that it is disallowed under CIPA (it's not), and we are living in an age where politicians and lawyers are able to determine educational policy based on the potential of something to go wrong (and the lawsuits, besmirched reputations, and bad press that would ensue).

But educators and parents have a role in social media:

HAVE YOU READ LORD OF THE FLIES?
The @40ishoracle and I have been talking about the "Lord of the Flies" effect for a couple of years now. There is enough difference (lack of immediate facial feedback, lack of immediate physical harm, biochemical response differences between being alone and being in groups, psychological responses to the same....you get the idea) between communication through social media and live interaction that the normal rules of behavior do not cross over for teenagers. I could give you lots of examples but you can Google this or talk to any teenager to find this to be true.

At the point that the normal rules do not transfer, adults have two choices. 1. Either provide boundaries, rules, guidelines, etc. for the new medium or 2. Let kids set their own rules. I would argue that for the better part of a decade, adults have defaulted to the latter. Thus the online behavior that minors demonstrate in public (or semi-public) space which would be abhorrent in the real world is a variation of normal in the cyber-social sphere. Need to test this? Print out the transcripts of two students who are being mean to each other on social networks and have them read their comments out loud to each other across a table. As the social-network rhetoric is confronted in the context of real-world norms, the impact is embarrassing, tense, sometimes even filled with shame.

At the point that we decide to embrace option one (boundaries and rules, guidelines and examples) then normal educational practice takes over. What is the best way to teach? Draw upon the context of the student, give them hands-on experience, reflect on those experiences with experts and peers, and assess the new knowledge in the context of decisions the students will now make.

But we can't draw upon the context if we are unaware how students are actually behaving in social media.

But we can't give them formalized experiences when every social network is blocked at the school.

Ironically, e-rate federal guidelines now require schools to have a unit on cyber-bullying, but most schools block the forums and venues on which the cyber-bullying occurs. My child is taught to control her mouth (and hands and feet) by being corrected by adults, at home and in the classroom. Yet we are shocked when students, left on their own in Cyberland, perform actions which, while bad, we have never corrected -- isn't that what immaturity is all about?

ISN'T THIS ABOUT FORMING RELATIONSHIPS?
As we have been discussing for the last few blogs, the key to education, educational technology purchases and policies, and maybe life in general is forming relationships. It is in the context of the relationship that learning happens. It is in the context of the relationship change in behavior can occur.

I received a tweet last night from a student immediately after he had sent a typical-teen-venting tweet that said something along the lines of "i sometimes forget @jdferries reads these". It was an opportunity (a small one) to open the door of self-reflection and analyze behavior. It is in the context of the social media relationships that I have with students that we discuss online identity, good choices, and bad ones.

In a practical sense, the relationship that is enhanced by social media gives credibility and leverage to change real-world as well as cyber-world behavior for the better. It meets students where they are. It encourages them, through example, to apply the norms that we demonstrate to their online activity.

ARE THERE RISKS?
Yes. Adults have to be more cognizant of relationships with young people than they do with their peers. It's true in the hallways, the grocery stores, and online. Relational Power plays a huge factor in determining how this works. Being able to keep a personal life and a public life separate is a consideration (and, not to tip my hand, but ALL student-adult relationship are PUBLIC). Keeping records to protect yourself is a necessity in this day and age. Schools should develop policies along with parents and students and educators and administrators that take all of this into consideration.

WON'T THE LAWYERS SAY "NO"?
I don't have an answer to the lawyers beyond this: a lawyer is paid to help you make money (sue someone) or prevent you from losing money (suit proofing). If you ask the question, "Should a school do X?", the lawyer will likely answer in the negative. Nothing schools do make money (we generally don't sue), so the lawyer only advises you to avoid things that could be litigated -- Which, in America, is EVERYTHING.

To school administrators: Ask yourself if the above arguments make sense. Talk to your teachers. Talk to your students. Talk to your families. If, in the final analysis, there are valid educational and developmental reasons for teachers and students to use social media together, then the question to ask the lawyers is "Since we are going to do this, what advice do you have to best protect ourselves?" -- Everything else is just asking to be shot down.