In an age where we are concerned about privacy and the role that closed circuit video has in our society for catching wrong doers, it is ironic that people think nothing of the potential surveillance in people’s hands and pockets in the form of their smartphones. So, when things swung out of control in Vancouver, those “caught up in the moment” never considered that their actions captured and uploaded to the web might come back to bite them on the backside. One of the sites that Stephen points to is run by Captain Vancouver, who combines the actions of naming and shaming real people behind the protection of an online alias. Here, commenters sway between admiration for this new form of online accountability or the reviling of an online vigilante squad caught up in their own moment of “seeking justice”. I’m still not sure where I sit because some of the actions of those participating were so moronic and lacking in any moral fibre that seeing some form of justice dished out seems to be perfectly defensible. But then the comments take their own dark turn and the Captain’s intents are being hijacked by others and turned into racist, misogynist, homophobic attacks that undermine the moral high ground that the site’s owner wants to be able to maintain.

In a lot of ways, the rioters who posted about their own antics on Facebook and Twitter have messed in their own nest, and are reaping the consequences in more ways than they ever could have anticipated. It is a fascinating insight into mob human behaviour. People behaved as if they were truly anonymous, unleashing their most inappropriate and hedonistic actions on property, public and private – and what I’ve viewed across the web, there is certainly no stereotypical rioter. In fact, most of the names and faces that crop with regularity seem to be bright, ordinary people – kids still at high school, people working for charities and university students. Did they fail to notice the array of mobile phones held high recording moments for posterity? Except posterity is now a Facebook profile, or a Twitpic link or a YouTube upload. And are the bystanders whose footage is now being used in the digital witchhunt just as guilty for standing by and being part of the rebellion? Or were they adopting the position of citizen journalists?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tzofia/5840853460/

So the rioters had their fun, the police dispersed them eventually and the mainstream press filed their reports. But many net savvy citizens were very unhappy about the way that individuals had not only trashed their city but gleefully shared their antics for anyone in the world to see. So, the various shaming sites I mentioned before started to spring up. Some merely had the goal of posting clear pics of persons of interest asking if anyone recognising them to contact the Vancouver Police Department.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-06-22-facebook-vancouver-riots_n.htm

Just five days after the June 15 riot that plunged the Canadian city into three hours of chaos, police had received 3,500 e-mails that included 53 videos, 708 photographs and 1,011 hyperlinks to social media sites such as Facebook.

Now police have warned outraged residents to avoid using social media to exact vigilante justice. Authorities “are asking the public to resist the temptation to take justice into their own hands,” the police said in a statement.

Others, like Captain Vancouver, decided that some meticulous research across varying forms of social media held to some personally defined standards would be the way to ensure that these everyday people were held to some form of justice. These sites weren’t buying the “I was caught up in the moment” reasons offered by some identified and also felt that the court system would merely give out a “slap on the wrist” for anyone who was arrested anyway. But there is always the risk of getting the facts wrong, as the police found out.

So, maybe not quite uberveillance but another cross-pollination of mobile devices combined with social media mixed in with old fashioned mob rule produces results that spiral and viral way beyond the control of any individual whose profile can be matched. I mean, what are the odds of wearing the same outfit when stealing from a store as on your social media profile? And someone is ready to mix and match the whole concoction together in another example of internet remix interactivity.

Name That Moron Screengrab

I really enjoyed the sessions with Travis Smith late last year and took his advice of “don’t rush your school community into things” advice to my site as we grapple with our own proposals for a 1 to 1 program. We are close to running a 1:1 classroom trial for the year in a key classroom to answer a number of the questions posed by our parent community. But what if the tried and true model of 1:1 laptops has already had its day?

Quite a few high schools around Adelaide have already jumped into the breech, rolling out parent funded laptops to their Year Eights. Through my contacts, I’ve seen some of the laptop choices (ranging from a 10 inch netbook to a Apple Macbook) and heard some of the stories. Paraphrased quotes and stories following below:

“My son was proud when his class received their laptops in the first week and he knew how to log on and get using it straightaway while some of his classmates struggled. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been called upon in classes since.”

“My sister had her laptop in her backpack when she went down to the beach after school with her friends and it got stolen.”

So, the popular move is to use a one size fits all model. Working for a large system, I understand the thinking behind this – control, control and more control. It’s seen in the way we set up wireless and networks in schools where digital certificates and complex logons manage and restrict the connected environment. This way, the school owns the laptops, can manage the software licensing, keep technical issues down to a minimum (which is lucky because most schools operate on a shoestring budget when it comes to technicians) and keep track of laptop movement via library barcodes. We can feed our filtered “safe” internet through these networks onto identical, predictable machines that equalise the connected experience.

But is this the only scenario?

I lurk on a mailing-list called Oz-teachers where the regular contributors debate topics in such an in-depth and authorative way that I feel more comfortable dipping into their conversations via my Gmail. Brett Clarke is an Oz-teachers frequenter whose observations really challenge my fairly conservative (conservative as in limited in scope, not as in right wing political leanings) world view. On a number of occasions, he has posited that 1 to 1 as a managed roll out is a concept that passed its start by date. Recently, he stated the following:

If you’re at a school that didn’t already catch that wave several years ago, then just skip it and move on. The kids will thank you  for it and the staff won’t have to learn the whole laptop thing and then learn what it means to go mobile 12 months later…

Another gem that has me wondering about what we should be doing in the primary when investing for the future:

I’ll say it again – now is NOT the time to be starting a laptop/netbook programme in your school!

This is not to say schools shouldn’t have some laptops – but not high ratios – just for the few situations where the tablet may not be the most convenient/appropriate alternative…

I’m also intrigued by David Truss’s BYO Laptop program as a concept. I know from conversations with my students that a sizeable number of them already have a laptop of their own. I then wonder what their parents’ reaction would be when the school announces a laptop program that dictates a particular model and cost. I can hear it already.

“Why can’t my child just bring their laptop to school?”

There would need to be several major shifts in thinking to be able to say yes.

Firstly, our wireless network would have to change its security settings so that non-networked laptops could gain access. There would be the issue of software licensing and a well thought approach so that office software like OpenOffice or possibly GoogleDocs become ways to avoid breaching proprietary software licenses. The biggest shift would have to come from teachers who are comfortable with familiar programs, network paths and occasional use of computing technology.

There are times when I think that the students are more ready for these shifts than we are.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brownpau/5108073282/

The blurb:
Travis Smith has over 10 years experience in the classroom teaching Psychology, Geography, History and English, and managed the very successful notebook program at Frankston High School in Victoria. He lectured at Monash University for many years in the Education Faculty and has presented at many conferences worldwide on the effective use of technology in the classroom. He was Deputy Principal at Frankston High School for two years before this year becoming the National Manager of Expanding Learning Horizons. The business works with schools Australia wide to assist them to implement 1-to-1 programs and develop and run effective professional learning programs for teachers within schools.

This workshop is aimed at teams of leaders from schools who are looking to implement 1-to-1
technology programs in their schools. Part of the day will revolve around case studies of what other schools
have done in their deployment of technology to students. This program will have a focus on the educational
value of technology programs for students and give leaders a chance to discuss and plan for the many aspects
of a successful and sustainable 1-to-1 program. It will involve a combination of presentations as well as time
to work in school teams on their implementation plan.

The morning started with an introduction from DECS’s Peter Simmonds and a quick summary of where our system was in relation to the nation before Travis was introduced. His morning session was mainly focussed on the why for 1 to 1, and what it would mean for your school and your teachers. He described the use of laptops in the school environment as the biggest change in over a hundred years and the absolute need to be aware for progressive Professional Learning. Sessions after school for 90 minutes aren’t going to cut it any more and the right sort of professional learning is costly but crucial. Travis’s great quote was “It’s all too easy to think that it’s all too hard.” He also pointed out that schools were the last place in the workforce still arguing about the role of ubiquitous computing.

He talked at length about the challenges a classroom of laptop laden students would have on the teacher. There are those who will fear the loss of control but this is too important to walk away from. It is important for teachers to be comfortable in software not necessarily experts and merely view the laptop as the tool to support your good teaching and learning. When teachers talk about not having time, it is important to remove the legwork for them. Effective classroom management is still the key to making it work, (my classroom, my rules) but there are big implications for the pace of delivery. He shared a sample of work designed in OneNote by a group of English teachers that utilised the power of digital resources and the higher order part of Bloom’s taxonomy – creation.

Travis offered up a number of alternative ways that someone in a role like mine could re-think support for teachers. These could include term action research projects, curriculum planning with improved digital access and sharing success around the school in a more visible way. After a morning tea break, he talked us through “15 Mistakes You Don’t Need To Make.” This was timely advice from his experiences and covered aspects like pace of implementation, ownership of the laptops, who controls the software and laptop image, network readiness, technical and technician support, budgets, expectations for the community, student readiness and skill levels and re-thinking PD.

In the afternoon, we had time to work on our own school’s planning. This was useful as Travis supplied us with a planning tool that asked a lot of key questions around readiness, and he freely offered a lot of conversation with me on my own school’s possible directions and moves so far. All of the ground covered leaves me plenty to unpack and think through and take back to the rest of the school to work on. I certainly saw ways to improve on my effectiveness in my Coordinator role that I was unable to clearly see before today.

Tomorrow, I bring another classroom teacher with me and Travis is promising a lot of digital hands on as we look at what a successful 1 to 1 classroom looks like.

Travis's 1 to 1 implementation tool graphic.

Today it was a publisher offering blackline master books for the teaching of “computing skills” and “inquiry learning”. I don’t even remember the company’s name.

Then there was the pdf from this mob with their “low cost” student laptop. Honestly, should schools shell out A$599 for a 7 inch screen and 128 MB internal memory machine? Heck, I paid nearly $200 less than that for an Acer Inspire One with a 10 inch screen and 250 G hard drive, and I’ve seen them cheaper than that since then.

Obviously, plenty of companies are just flat out guessing with what is actually useful in a classroom, or they see us as the biggest bunch of suckers going around. I suppose the BER rorting just confirms to many in the business world that schools are just  fair game for any sort of financial exploitation.

I’m sick of Windows’ complete vulnerability to trojans, worms and other nasties especially when I’m trying to get mid year reports written on my school XP laptop. Files don’t play nice across platforms so doing it all on my favourite MacBook Pro wasn’t really an option. Interestingly, I can plug in a USB flashdrive into the Mac and see all these weirdly named folders (Kalba, Doda, Gravity etc.) that I just know shouldn’t be there but the Mac won’t let me delete them. Plug it back into the XP laptop and they become invisible but the crazy stuff happens then. I have found that I can plug in, see and delete these nasties in my son’s Ubuntu netbook. Another win for Open Source, I suppose.

I got another invitation in my inbox to be on one of those Top 100 Edublogs lists that seem to be all the rage. What disinterests me is how many policy, corporate and cause based blogs keep making those lists. I’m only interested in reading edubloggers who write for themselves, that are identifiable individuals with clear personalities and quirks – now that’s a list I’d be honoured to be on. I find it hard to take sites that call themselves onlinedegrees or onlinembas seriously, especially when the internet is a great conduit for learners who don’t want to follow a traditional credentialling process. Give me an empassioned teacher breaking free of the confines of their classroom over some politically driven ISTE-style bandwagon hopper. Jose sums it up better than I can anyway.

While I’ve been looking at how one might go about setting up, fund and implementing a 1:1 laptop program, David Truss has introduced a new concept that really resonates – the BYO laptop program. Not sure how it would fly in Australian government schools with the bureaucratic need to cover liability but it is worth considering. And I’m beginning to warm to the idea of iPads in the classroom, especially in the younger years.

Meh.. not really much to say. But it’s a start. I’ll see what gets my brain churning next.

My son loves computers and is fascinated with operating systems and sub-folders but tends to see a computer as a pastime, an outlet for fun rather than a focussed tool for achieving things. I thought that going with the Windows 7 default OS that came with the Acer Inspire netbook that we picked for A$450 would be too big a distraction in the classroom so I wiped that off and installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix instead. There is no wireless access in his classroom so the software options all had to reside on his hard drive  and be easy to navigate. The Netbook Remix does that very well.

If you are not familiar with Ubuntu (as I wasn’t prior to playing around with it during this summer) then it takes a little getting used to.  But it so simple and logical – Aaron picked it up very easily and intuitively.

So, he has a clean, very fast running netbook that will give him word processing, an excellent file system for his documents, a nifty webcam that can take pics and video and I can add any number of educational programs (like Tux Paint, Tux Type, Marble, View Your Mind) from the open source Ubuntu community. It works well on wireless at home and because Netbook Remix was developed with the screen of a netbook in mind, you don’t get the minitiaturisation effect we get on our netbooks at school running an XP desktop. I’m hoping that in time, this helps Aaron in his classroom endeavours and the netbook can become a digital repository of his learning.

You get the picture.

I’m trying to put my finger on whether this year feels different yet. It feels normal enough but in my visits around the classrooms when previewing our new ICT Use Agreements, the biggest buzz was around the idea of having permission from home to bring mobile phones, portable gaming devices and digital cameras to school. Nearly 90% of my class have a mobile but the big market share device around the school is definitely the Nintendo DS or DSi. It doesn’t matter which classroom I walked into – kids from five to twelve owned these pieces of personal technology en masse.

Very interesting. In the primary school setting, maybe more of a potential gamechanger than an iPad?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moe/1467542988/

The post Christmas catalogues came out and one item at Harvey Norman caught my eye – a turntable/tapedeck with USB connection for the conversion of LP records and cassettes to digital format – and so I went off to see if they had any in stock. They were all sold out before Christmas so I wondered if it was as simple as having the right cable to connect our old “boombox” to make it happen in a cheaper fashion. A quick Google turned up a surprisingly easy result that even a non-techy, non-geek could manage. I have a large collection of cassettes from my mis-spent youth that I rarely ever listen to because of the format they are tied to but as I’m entitled to make a copy of music I already own, I went down to Tandy this afternoon and bought a 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm plug to see if I could get this to work. $19.95 to get a better quality insulated connection and I was back ready to experiment.

The circa 1991 JVC tape deck was connected to my MacBook Pro, Audacity opened up and a few preferences changed before getting started. I had to ensure that I selected line in, not microphone, and check that it was enabled for stereo. Put in a cassette to test the levels and I was away. Now I just want these tracks for my iTunes so a bit of tape hiss is to be heard but that could be erased with a bit of work in Audacity as well. So, now I’m listening to Matt Finish’s Short Note album for the first time in many years and hope to slowly convert my cassette collection over the course of the year. Of course, I only need to convert songs that I really want as in the 80′s I was in the habit of buying a cassette for only a couple of tracks. Why cassettes? Well, it was the portable format of the time and I remember many a trip over to the West Coast of South Australia scrabbling for a new tape on the long trip. I am looking forward to seeing what I’ve forgotten about – but being the respecter of copyright, you won’t find my offerings on Limewire anytime soon.

Anyway, one of the nice things about my new combo is the fact that I got a Gig of mobile internet data thrown in as part of my plan, and I can now “tether” my phone to my new laptop to access the web wherever and whenever the need arises. For the first time, I can be hyper-connected. I literally have the internet in my pocket, except for the fact that 3′s coverage can be a bit spotty. Initially, I was unsure how far 1G of data would go in a month and I was cautious about how often I would tweet, check email or look up something to settle an argument in the staffroom. But interestingly, as Darcy Moore pointed out, the iPhone doesn’t use a whole lot of data even when regularly accessed so I could rest easy about blowing this allowance within the allotted timeframe. So, really, I can now live the totally connected lifestyle with any digital whim a finger swipe away.

But I am a bit of a pathetic in this regard. I’ve come to the conclusion that my lifestyle doesn’t lend itself to fully exploiting the new toys tools. For example, so far this month, I have only used 82 MB of my allocate 1024. I’ve tried checking emails, feeds etc in my lunch breaks, I’ve even used the Maps tool to find a nearby school location when I missed the turn off and this week, I finally worked out how to tether the phone to my laptop and used it to access the web for an entire morning working in the front office. But I haven’t even managed to use up ten per cent of my allocation.

And it resets back to the full quota tomorrow.

With customers like me, no wonder telcos are making a killing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wza/3749831130/

– Post From My iPod Touch