Wanderings…

Hopefully Paul Newman will not charge me for the title of this post – a take-off of his famous line in Cool Hand Luke.

I was shocked to read Will Richardson’s post today. I’m glad that he does not ascribe to the new AP pricing rules for quoting – or I would owe him money:

$12.50 for Five Words

That’s what it’s going to cost you to excerpt in your blog any content published by the Associated Press under it’s new pricing structure.

With a little more searching, I did discover a discount for educators. We would only owe $7.50 for quoting 5-25 words. 

What’s next? Charging students to use quotations from AP in their research papers? Might happen if any of said research papers should end up on the web.

Come on – figure out a way to make the web and web 2.0 part of your business plan. How are you going to police the Internet? Isn’t it better to figure out how to gain from your reputation as an authoritative source? I would think that bloggers quoting and linking to your sources would create a buzz, bringing more business your way. Get creative and realize that “You’d better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone.” How much do you think I should pay Bob Dylan for using that quote?

An interesting article appeared in the New York Times a few days ago. Lost in E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast By MATT RICHTEL Published: June 14, 2008.

It is another article pointing to the fact that literacy in a 24/7 connected world is different than the linear literacy we learned in school. Would love to read articles on techniques to teach students how to better understand the information and keep focused on their topic as they jump from hyperlink to hyperlink.

Here is my own personal solution – though I am not very good at forcing myself to do it.

My office does not have a computer. So – when I am feeling overwhelmed, I hide in there. I bring in work that can be done without a computer, along with print-outs of online lesson plans or whatever I am currently focused on. I’ve hung a sign on my door that says: “Do not disturb unless you are on fire.”

Now – if I could just force myself to get away from email, et al long enough……

“Education is not about filling a pail, it’s about lighting a fire.”
William Butler

I ran across an article today: Serendipity casts a very wide net by Bill Thompson. The author writes about some who feel that the internet has killed opportunities for the chance encounter – and then goes on to make the case for the other side. I have thought about the topic and wrote about it 2 years ago in this post: Serendipity.

The book “The Dumbest Generation” by Bauerlein touches on the idea as well. Being too immersed with only the social groups and ideas that interest us at the moment can limit our vision.

I understand the concerns raised …. to an extent. I just don’t see it happening to myself – or to my husband. Maybe it is because we have always been intellectually curious. Yes – my main interest for the past few years has been library issues – but following up that interest has opened up many other areas to pursue and new connections to make .

My husband is an avid photographer & this passion continually expands his thinking. His mind amazes me. Hillary Clinton once said “Bill and I started a conversation in the spring of 1971, and more than 30 years later we’re still talking.” I feel that way about my husband. He has a very serendipitous mind that leaps from one idea to another and then picks one to study in detail. His interests are wide-open and he keeps serendipity alive and well for me. Recently he took a photo on a portion of beach on Lake Ontario. In the picture was an interesting formation of mud and sand. Most people (if they noticed it at all) would pause for a moment and go on, never thinking of it again. Not my hubby. He began to think about what caused that particular lump of sand to form that particular shape. He was not satisfied with creating a beautiful abstract picture. He had to know what caused it so he could give the picture an accurate title and satisfy his intellectual curiosity. So – he emailed the photo to a professor of geology at a university 100 or so miles away. He included all the circumstances of the day – weather, lighting etc. The professor was intrigued and passed the email on to a colleague in another state. My husband, at home in a small rural village, had a conversation with 2 geology professors in different parts of the country and all 3 of them were able to add to their knowledge in their different areas of interest.

Yes – this COULD have happened prior to the internet – but this kind of serendipity was just not as likely pre-internet. Scholars were more isolated. People were more isolated. The internet has opened the world for both the scholar and the passionate amateur. This free exchange of information helps everyone.

“A rising tide raises all boats.”

What are the implications for education? I believe that educators need to teach students to be open to serendipity – to follow their passions and interests through a hyperlinked world. Bill Thomson says:

The real dangers to serendipity is not the technology we use but our attitude towards it and the opportunities it offers. If all our searches at school are guided and the range of answers we are open to are limited by a prescriptive curriculum, then we will learn to ignore the interesting sidebar and the unexpected link.

Of course I was disappointed that Thompson mentioned libraries only in a rather disparaging way. Another instance of the general public not recognizing our role in a changing information landscape. Librarians have more of an opportunity than ever in this type of world. Our new standards are not prescriptive. Our standards encourage divergent thinking. Here is an excerpt from the AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner:

Learners use skills, resources & tools to:

Use both divergent and convergent thinking to formulate alternative conclusions and test them against the evidence (2:2:2)

Now – just how do we go about teaching these “dispositions in action”? The “habits of mind” that lead to serendipitous finds?

…. Serendipity that brings meaning to life ….. or a cure for cancer.

I ran across an interesting question on a LM_NET today. Here is part of it.

….The [Newsweek] article focuses heavily on a recent book by Mark Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University, entitled “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30)”

So what is the opinion of the online school media community? Is this generation dumber in comparison to others? What’s the cause? Can it be traced to television, computers, video games, the Internet, the new communication technologies? What, if anything, can be done
about it?

Ed Nizalowski, SMS

I just read the book. There is much I agree with and many things that I do not. It is a book that I plan to read again.

There is a lot of talk out in blogland about the book and, judging from some of the comments, many folks have NOT read the whole book. I have read the Newsweek article as well as the book. I am not entirely sure that the writers of the Newsweek article have actually read the book in its entirety. The magazine writers cast blame for the educational deficiencies of young people on the parents, teachers and baby boomers – implying that Mark Bauerlein is solely – or even mostly – placing the blame upon the NetGens. He most definitely is not. He casts big time blame on teachers (and librarians) for abdicating their role as cultural guardians and warriors. He casts blame upon parents who allow their children to come home and immerse themselves in “screen time” as opposed to spending time reading, doing homework and interacting with parents and other adults. Bauerlein’s primary thesis is that the social aspect of net use is keeping kids in an extended period of adolescence. The social side of life has ever been the favored domain of adolescence. But in the past there were large chunks of time that were spent away from other teenagers, allowing more space for them to read, think and communicate with more mature minds. There is a lot of truth in what he says.

This book will probably equally infuriate teachers, librarians, parents AND NetGeners. Interestingly, a few days ago I found the most thoughtful responses on the school newspaper of Emory College. Mr. Bauerlein in a professor there. The article and comments appeared to be primarily student written the last time I had a look.

You will find more of my thoughts in the last paragraph of this blog post. Who Are You & Why Should We Believe What You Say

Mark Bauerlein sees a return to a more scholarly, traditional approach to education as the answer. For another point of view on the efficacy of “traditional” education, I found Doug Johnson’s post today to be very interesting. The Impetus for Educational Change

Once again, I have found a questionable website that a student has used as a major source for her term paper.

Marijuana Legalization Organization.

As far as I can see – there is nothing on the site about the authors or sponsoring organization. Why should we believe anything written there? Yes – there are complicated ways that I can search out the domain and find out who is responsible for the site. But why should I, the reader, have to go to such lengths? Isn’t it the author’s responsibility to show me why I should listen to what he/she/they have to say?

I may well be only a “voice crying in the wilderness” – but whenever I see shoddy documentation on a website – I send off an email. Replies are rare. We’ll see if this one gets anywhere:

I am a high school librarian and I support and assist student research on all aspects of issues. I try to provide a balance of opinions in my print collection and train my students to examine the credentials/reliability of all sources – both print and web sites. I teach them that they cannot accept information from web sites that do not contain information about the author or sponsoring organization. I therefore respectfully suggest that you place an “about us” link somewhere on your site. This link should tell us who you are as an organization, what expertise you bring to the topic, what sources you have used for your information, and who is responsible for vetting the content for accuracy.Thank you for considering my opinion. Please be assured that it is in no way influenced by my personal opinions. I send these requests/comments to web sites on all sides of many issues. I feel very strongly that writers owe their readers some insight into their credentials and information sources.

Perhaps the information is there somewhere and I am overlooking it. If so – please let me know. Thank you again for your consideration.

NOTE: To their credit – I did find a link to their sources after I sent the email. While it is great that they included that – it is not enough. The authors need to be transparent about their credentials.

I suspect that student use of such sites is epidemic. I correct the works cited lists for major papers in the 9th and 10th grade – but I am only involved with the AP American History papers in the upper grades. I really need to spread my influence further. Having just read The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30) by Mark Bauerlein, I feel that librarians and classroom teachers have a “Mission from God” to insist that our students learn to discern quality information and then actually READ it! Note: Every time I go to Amazon the rating on this book goes down. Could it be the NetGens feeling burned by the author’s premise? Don’t judge a book by it’s cover – or it’s title. This is not a polemic from an old curmudgeon who hates young people. It is a thoughtful, well argued treatise on what “screen time” as opposed to “book time” might be doing to our ability to think – starting with the net generation who have largely abandoned books and deep thinking for the instant gratification of the screen in its many forms.

Additional links to look at showing an opposite trend:

• Teens buying books at fastest rate in decades

• ‘Teens buying books at fastest rate in decades’: Shouldn’t publishers release more e-titles for the Net-oriented young?