Gamifying Education

I think you should watch the following…

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/gamifying-education

…and then come back here to add as a comment about what you thought.

There’s 100XP for the first person to do it and 25XP for everyone after. An addition 10XP if someone comments on your comment on it.

I’ll start a leader board as my next post.

[UPDATE]

An interesting side thought. My good friend Chris Alvino “liked” my Facebook post directing people to this blog. On Facebook, Twitter, and in Google Plus I wrote “Connect Penny Arcade and Gamifying Education. Ready. Go. http://ping.fm/Nwjxq”

So Facebook people can “like” or “share” my post. Should they go on the leader board? Someone on Twitter can reply or retweet. Should they go on the leader board? Those on Google + can +1 or Share what I posted there, should they go on the leader board? I say yes Should the credit be the same for everything? I guess, for now. Should a “like” be worth more than a “tweet”? No. Should something posted on Facebook be worth more than something on Google +? No.

Theme

Since moving this blog over to my own domain, I’ve been using the default theme. I plan to take some time soon (probably this week) to hunt down an appropriate theme, but I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion. If so, feel free to leave it in Comments. The theme should match (or reflect, or capture, or…) the content in some way.

What’s good for the goose…

For some time now we’ve been hearing about grade school administrations that have been holding students accountable for things they post to social network sites when they are not at school. There have been numerous stories of students who have been suspended, kept from their prom or graduation, etc. because of something they posted to Facebook, or some other social media.

Well, apparently its ok to punish students for doing that but when a teacher does it, then its free speech.

This high school teacher from Florida recently went on a rant on Facebook about New York approving gay marriage. He certainly has a right to his own opinion, although I’m not sure why he cares so much about what goes on in a state he doesn’t live in, but I digress. According to this article http://huff.to/pzCUp0 the teacher

“wrote on his Facebook page that he “almost threw up” when he was having dinner and news came on of New York’s decision to allow same-sex marriage showed up July 25.

“If they want to call it a union, go ahead,” Buell wrote, according to ClickOrlando.com. ”But don’t insult a man and woman’s marriage by throwing it in the same cesspool as same-sex whatever! God will not be mocked. When did this sin become acceptable???”

Now, this guy has over 700 friends on Facebook, so this isn’t really a “private” matter, or just his opinion, he’s got a bit of a pulpit there and he is using it. Ok, fine, his choice. Although some of his friends did push back (and he promptly told them to unfriend him if they didn’t like what he wrote), but still others started a Facebook page to support him. All of that is their right, I guess, sort of, until it become hate speech, then…not so much anymore. Substitute the idea of “blacks” or “jews” or [insert any other minority group name here] and we’re talking prejudice, the kind that land people in some big trouble.

Well, according to the tweet that directed me to this article, the teacher was suspended but has since been reinstated. According to the HuffPo article, this teacher claims “everything was done on a personal basis: on his own time and personal computer at home.” [note: the quote is from the author of the article and not necessarily an attribution to the teacher]

Wait – hold on one second. Lets roll back to the beginning of my blog post here. Schools are holding students accountable for the things they say on social networks when they are not at school, on their own time, and not using school equipment. But according to this guy, its ok for him to spout anti-gay sentiments because, as he told The Sentinel that’s his “way I interpret things” and he was doing it not at work, on his own time, and not using school equipment.

Hmmmm.

Who’s being abused?

A teacher, enforcing a previously (and apparently clearly) state rule about surfing non-class related web site during classes, “slams” a laptop closed. Unfortunately for the teacher, the students fingers were in the way. Now the teacher is in court over it, charged with assault. Here is the article.

http://bit.ly/hfk4Tv

Have things gone too far?

Naughty kids on Facebook

Last night, on Twitter, Amy Bruckman posted the following

asbruckman: Middle schoolers forced to show principal facebook accounts, then threatened with expulsion for calling teacher names:http://bit.ly/fqUzYC

The story is about a principal at a school where kids are, what, 11, 12, 13 years old, forced – FORCED a student to show her their Facebook page. There were some awful things posted about a teacher, with words like pedophile and rapist. I’m not defending what the kids said or wrote. This is a parent issues. These kids are young and their parents should be monitoring what they do on Facebook.

What this principal did was wrong, and I’m not a lawyer but I’d guess it violated the rights of these children. I know that it was in a public domain, and if that’s the case, and the principal found the comments in a public way, then it is well within her right to take action. She has no right to FORCE (their words, not mine) this student to show her the Facebook page.

I responded to Amy on Twitter

sorry_afk: @asbruckman def. Violation of childs priv. Either facebook is/is not a school thing. Can’t have it both ways. I hope they sue the principal

and someone name Erica Glaser wrote back

EricaGlasier: @sorry_afk@asbruckman @ToughLoveforX WDYT of the particular names the students called the teacher? WWYD if you were that teacher’s boss?

To which, someone named ToughLoveForX responded:

@EricaGlasier WID? It’s a eachable moment. Make it part of Public Discourse in skl. Disciplining is the ez way out. @sorry_afk @asbruckman

My response was far too much for 140 characters, so I decided to put it here.

First off, I think the principal should be disciplined. There was no imminent threat to the school, this is not like opening a kids locker (which is school property anyway, Facebook is not), it’s a somewhat private space, one which schools like these have been arguing, ironically, that should not BE in schools. And yet…

If I were the parents of these kids, I would file a law suit. There are checks and balances for authority.

If I were the school system, I would do a community program on the positive AND negative things about social networks – and NOT bring up these kids directly. Everyone will know, from the press, what the genesis of this is – no need to give these kids more attention than they have already had.

I would also bring the kids AND THEIR PARENTS into school for a conference, and talk about why this happened and how.

I don’t know this teacher in question, but I might want to find out what prompted these comments. It could very well be a few kids acting out for no reason, and it very likely is the case, but I wouldn’t let this go unquestioned.

So, that is what I would do – right or wrong, and I’m not involved in K-12, I don’t have kids, its easy for me to sit here in my office and write this. But these things seem logical to me. The most important thing is, this principal was wrong, with a capital W.

VeriziPhone vs iPhone (2G)

My great friend Anthony Fontana is visiting for a couple of days and he’s staying with me. He is proudly showing off his new iPhone from Verizon, subsequently called the VeriziPhone. Since my iPhone was stolen a few weeks ago I’ve had to revert back to using my old 2G iPhone which I got the January after the original came out.

We decided to use Speedtest.net to test the speed of the networks. Now, this is REALLY not a fair test. Anthony is on a brand new iPhone 4G and I’m using and I’m using a pretty old phone. We’ll have to try this test again in June when I have some other visitors thanks to the Emerging Learning Design Conference*

So, this was the response from Anthony’s test:

Test Date: Feb 12, 2011 7:43 PM
Connection Type: Cellular
Server: Newark, NJ
Download: 0.83 Mbps
Upload: 0.69 Mbps
Ping: 211 ms

And here was my test:

Test Date: Feb 12, 2011 7:40 PM
Connection Type: Cellular
Server: Newark, NJ
Download: 0.05 Mbps
Upload: 0.03 Mbps
Ping: 1025 ms

Clearly a HUGE difference, perhaps even more than the old network/new network can account for. We’ll have to try this again with similar phones.

* Make sure to check out the Emerging Learning Design Conference, scheduled for June 3rd on the campus of Montclair State University. The line-up of speakers is amazing and the price, which we’ll be announcing in a few days, is going to make the a can’t-miss event. Go to the Registration page and sign up to get notified when we open conference registrations and you’ll get a discount code.

Acceptance

Thanks to my friend Stephanie for passing this along. Steph, you have no idea how timely this is, thanks for sharing.

Fable of the porcupine

It was the coldest winter ever. – Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions even though they gave off heat to each other. After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. This way they learned to live with the little wounds that were caused by the close relationship with their companion, but the most important part of it, was the heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.

Moral of the story: The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but the best is when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person’s good qualities

The Moral of the story?……….LEARN TO LOVE THE PRICKS IN YOUR LIFE

Help with Forms in Google Docs

I’m using Google Docs and creating a form. I’ve moved some questions around but the columns in the spread sheet have not changed position. I tried making a copy, to see if the columns reordered to match the form, still no luck.

Is there any way to rectify this?

When is a friend a friend

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how and when to allow someone into a specific network. I know the word ‘allow’ carries some of its own baggage, but that truly is what we do – it often even says “allow” on the request. When this whole dustup happened with Facebook, everyone was griping (including me) that the FB folks were “allowing” others to see information we did not want them to. Technology, and specifically security, is all about “allowing” or “permissions”. Permissions are often toggle type settings written into code and are at the very basis of everything we do.

Has this person presented the right credentials (user name and password) to authenticate to this site? Yes – allow. No – do not allow.

With social networking moving at the just sub-light speed it has been for the last few years, we have started to develop within us a set of “permissions” based on the networks we interact with. Do you have the same criteria for who you follow (or block) on Twitter as you do on Facebook or Linked In? Probably not and you probably should not because each tool serves a different purpose.

When I get a notification that someone has followed me on Twitter I look at their profile to see if there is something they are posting that I’d like to follow back. Many times, although interesting, I have to make a choice as to who to follow back because there are just too many options and information is wildly fluid and difficult to keep up with on Twitter. Yes, Twitter’s lists have helped, and some 3rd party vendors help manage this. But the amount of work to manage this needs to be proportionate with the benefit. I’ve found Twitter to be a much better information spout than pail, and great to keep up with what is going on in real-time. For this reason, I’m not at all picky about who follows me and open, within reason, of who I follow back.

Facebook is another story. I must have some kind of connection with the person I friend on Facebook. The more personal the connection the more likely I am to accept the connection request. I’ve even gone through and unfriended some folks who I had no personal connection with – folks I’d let in when my Facebook network was smaller and FB was better about their privacy issues. Since I know that the folks at FB have a habit of mishandling privacy issues, I keep as little private information on FB as possible, but use it as a connection tool to those I have a personal connection with. If something else were to come along, and address my needs, I’d consider a phased switch.

LinkedIn is an even tighter network for me. When you sign up, and in several places around the site, the folks at LI tell you how important it is when you get connected to someone. They suggest that we should ”Thoughtfully select those people you know and trust because these are the people you will seek advice from and request Recommendations about your/other’s quality of work. Because of this, the quality of your connections is always more important than the quantity of connections. It is important you know your connections because you may be asked to recommend one of your connections to another. If you know little about the connection you weaken the integrity of the Recommendation and your network.” (citation). I take this advice very seriously and only allow into my LI network those who I have some work experience with.

Any other social networks I’m a member of, I typically don’t spend my time “tending” to them. Usually I signed up for an account as research, so when someone asks me why Facebook is better than MySpace, I can tell them (which is actually part of my job). In order to update all of my statuses (or would that be stati), I use a service called Ping.fm. I simple tell Ping what networks I’m a part of – I then post to Ping and Ping goes out and updates all my networks for me. Easy Peasy.

Ok, i didn’t just say “easy peasy” in a blog post. [blink blink] Yeah, I did.

How do you decide? Do you even think about it? Do you have your own rules of etiquette for your interactions in various social applications? How important is it that we pay attention to this? If we’re in education, and using technology in a classroom, are should these types of thinking be included in the learning objectives? If we are going to require these technology, how much is it our responsibility to make sure students know how to interact with them responsibly?

sorryafk

Category Archives: Random Thoughts