Category: edublogs

CQ + PQ + EQ > IQ

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Laurel Papworth has some interesting comments on generation-Y (digi-kids) and the disconnected nature of our current governments. Laurel’s post references this article in the Sydney Morning Herald (Laurel: the reason why Fairfax doesn’t believe in the long tail is that it hasn’t worked out its business model yet)

Having spent two days with a selection of passionate Victorian School Principals, I am more concerned about our Governmental policies and the silent digital majority than those on the ground in the classroom.

The YouTube presentation at the beginning of her post puts stark numbers on the story from The World Is Flat.

Thomas Friedman was in Australia a few weeks ago, and spent time with both sides of Australian Federal Politics. I hope he was able to talk and explain that Education and Bandwidth are critical to the future of this nation. If being a Nation is that important anymore.

I am going to extend Thomas’ equation:

CQ + PQ + EQ > IQ

EQ is emotional quotient, emotional intelligence or emotional maturity. You cannot teach EQ from books. Passionate Teachers provide a role model for our kids for the future.

Let’s hope the generation after us repairs the mistakes we’ve made.

Online = talking about what you are interested in!

From World in their Hands, Sydney Morning Herald Icon today:

But Dr Jan Fletcher, of the Child Study Centre at the University of Western Australia, is wary of virtual lives for children. “There is a danger that this online interaction might be limiting the amount of social interaction the child is actually having,” she warns. “I want kids to talk to each other about what they’re interested in, not about a world invented by a toy company.

Hmmm, online interaction takes many forms – and kids do talk to each other about what they are interested in. Online, offline, within and without borders.

It seems the world of “toys” and “information” joined together magically means “education”. What if information is actually, well, fun? Gone are the bookish days of reading an encyclopedia and welcome to the world of instant information.

The critical skill is information literacy.

Learning Technology Challenge. It’s not the Technology.

As highlighted by one of Australia’s leading Social Networking thinkers in Education, Mike Seyfang, technology in schools is already in schools. Mobile phones, the MSN Messenger communities, blogs, Myspace, Wikipedia: these technologies are being used by students today.

One pervasive technology that hounds parents today is the use of MSN Live Messenger. It’s the standard tool for all kids today. Without Messenger, kids are outcasts from their social networks. They use it to gossip (like the telephone of previous eras) and to collaborate on school projects. And probably bully, too. In all instances, collaboration is king. Today, the ability to collaborate in work and life scenarios is underdeveloped in K-12 (especially at the pointy end of K-12) as the focus moves to individual achievement.

Unless you are stuck on a deserted island, your life is going to be collaborative. Work, too. In a connected world, this is amplified and packetised.

What is needed is policy and technology-frameworks to unlock the power of the networks that exist. It might be Single-Sign-on (sometimes referred to SSO), firewalls and other pieces of technology that corporations already use. Microsoft (my employer) eats its own dogfood: smartcards, firewalls, network security and the like.

However, it is my contention that the first hurdle isn’t the technology: it’s enabling the passionate teachers to engage in the learning networks. Removing the blockages of knee-jerk blanket restrictions – as they do not work. Remember, the internet was designed to deal with failure and route around it. Censorship is classed as a failure, and therefore is routed around.

I’d love to hear teacher stories.