What is Cybercitizenry?

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I'm drafting out a cybersafety policy for TCS.

It's not an easy task. The policy should apply to everyone involved with the school. That means the whole school community.

A mission of involvement:

I've drafted a sheet to introduce students and parents to what cybercitizenry is all about. It's the start of our mission to involve the whole school in being more responsible on the Net. It will be printed on one side of an A4 sheet. The sheet will also show the Hector's World logo that I am not permitted to display here.

Have a scan of it. Tell me what you think by putting your comment at the base of this post. I need your advice on this first introduction:

Things you must know about Cybercitizenship:

Young people find lots of different things when viewing the Internet using digital equipment. While a lot of this can be fun, helpful and useful, some of it may upset them or cause distress.

What is Cyberspace?

Cyberspace is made up of the parts of the Internet that can be seen with digital tools. Students using it can learn. They may also find entertainment there. As well, people can meet others there. Links can be made between family and friends. They can find information there on almost any topic.

What is Cybersafety?

Cybersafety is the safe and responsible use of digital tools and gadgets that can access the Internet. These include mobile-phones, digital cameras and webcams. Each day, New Zealand children are exposed to the benefits, and potential risks of cyberspace.

Even young children may be skilled in the use of digital tools. But they may not know how to use the Internet safely and responsibly.

Everyone has the right to be safe. Adults share a special responsibility for the safety of children in this new space.

What is Cybercitizenship?

Anyone who goes online is a citizen of cyberspace. Young people learn to find their way round cyberspace in many ways. But they must also learn the basics of good behaviour as cybercitizens.

Cybercitizenship is more than just knowing how to get on to the Internet. People need skills to think about things found there, as well as knowing how to look after personal data. They must learn to think of others and act in a responsible way to other cybercitizens.

Learners need to know how to deal with things that might be risky. Young people are more able to get the best from the digital equipment when they follow the rules of cybercitizenship.

Remember:

A learner who may seem to know how to use the Internet may not have all the know-how to be cybersafe.


For more on cybersafety, check out http://www.netsafe.org.nz/.

To learn about helping the very young online, check out

http://www.hectorsworld.com.

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Blogging, Learning and Desire to Learn

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Michele Martin has raised the issue of The Power of Blogging isn't Just in Reading Them, in a few of her posts. She has stuck to the idea that the power of blogging is in writing comments, rather than in lurking.
I admire her. She is committed to what she believes.

Learning through questions, and discussing in a classroom or social community, has gone on for hundreds of years. People have also learnt a great deal from books during that same time.

Writing comments:

So what’s wrong with just reading a post and learning from it? What is so special to learning about writing a comment on a blog post?

If learners want to learn, they will learn. The same desire may well tempt learners to put comments on blog posts. They may even ask questions there.

So the difference between those who lurk and want to learn, and those who comment, may not be so great. Learning takes place when the learner wants to learn.

Learning can happen if the learner sits quietly during class, for instance. Certainly, asking questions will help. But if learners do not ask questions in class, they may still go home and read about what they’ve learnt in a book. Many do. They may also lurk on a few blog posts on the Net.

Early research:

I have a lot of respect for the research done by Lev Vygotsky. He was a child psychologist who lived in the early 1900s. In recent years, Vygotsky’s findings have made people think about the importance of social interaction in learning. This led to a belief that learning may be better when learners study in communities.

Some educators have come up with the idea that interactive online communities could be good learning environments for young people. This is not far removed from Michele’s idea that learning is more effective for the commenter than for the lurker.

Most of Vygotsky’s studies were on mother and child. I doubt the notion is sound that Vygotsky’s findings can be extended to learners in online communities.

A better approach to this might be to study the use of online learning communities. That way they could be compared fairly with other ways of learning.

Learning methods:

So far, not much has been done to compare the use of interactive online learning in a fair way with other learning methods. There’s been little evidence that shows learners do any better when they study online than learning by other means, for instance.

So I sit on the fence about the idea of getting people to write comments on blog posts as a better means to learn. I'm not at all sure that writing comments would be needed in every case. But for those who do need it, could a better ploy be to work on their desire to learn?

Once they have that desire, they might even venture to ask questions - in comments on blog posts.

Reading Ease

I was catching up with my reading this morning.

I’d been looking for a good site for tips on elearning writing skills, when I came across this one by Cathy Moore. I recommend it. You’d find it easy to read.

She covers all the usual things on good writing: paragraphing, short sentences varying in length and structure, clear language and simple words.

Readability:

Cathy has an ideal set of slides that you can scan quickly. She also explains about setting up Readability Statistics in Word. I’d no idea the option was there.

Once set up, you can measure the Flesch Reading Ease on a click. It gives a first check on the ease of reading of a block of text.

A study of popular magazines and newspapers shows a direct match between popularity and Flesch Reading Ease. The highest and most readable scores for the most popular magazines come in at 65.

A tool, not a solution:

Cathy is careful to explain that it’s a tool, not a solution. Here’s how to set it up. Open a Word file and choose:

Check that there’s a tick in Show readability statistics. Running a spell-check on a typical post in Word follows the usual routine, ending in a report. It shows a list of data, as well as the Flesch Reading Ease.


I was a bit sceptical of all this at first, so I decided to put it to the test.

I selected a number of my posts that I knew had been very popular, and some that were certainly not so. I keep Word files of the text of all my posts, so it was easy to check them on their Flesch Reading Ease.

How I write:

What I found made me stop and think again about how I write. Here’s a list of titles of some posts. I put them in order of popularity, measured from data in Google Analytics, beside their Flesch Reading Ease.

FRE - Post Title

65.7 - 5 Explanations of a Zen Proverb
73.2 - Splitting the Knol
71.1 - How do I know what I think till I see what I write?
52.8 - So This is What You Want
38.4 - Complexity Science and Social Media Learning
34.8 - Science, Technology, The Silicon Chip and Social Need

I don't believe this is the only way to predict the popularity of a post. But clearly, these numbers are trying to tell me something. I think I may be looking at Readability Statistics in future.

By the way, the Flesch Reading Ease of this post comes in at 75.8.

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Empathy

I’m going to be very noncommittal (that’s a change! says you).

Just take a moment or two to check out the video I was sent recently from my daughter’s Facebook account.



Reflect on how you felt when you watched the video.

You might like to watch it again.

What’s the first thing you felt when the puppy responded?

• Was it an endearing feeling?
• Was it soppy cuteness?
• Was it an interest in Pavlovian reaction?
• Was it concern for the puppy?

I’d like to learn about your response to this video. Please share how you felt by putting a comment at the end of this post.

The Elearning Apprentice

Tony Karrer has taken the initiative to revisit a question asked in a previous post, about First eLearning:

What advice would you give to someone

new to the field of elearning?

This question is worthy of being asked twice.

I admit that I lurked on this one - for a few weeks.

Observation:

My observation of teachers starting into elearning has shown that the usefulness of their experiences in the early stages can vary considerably. This is often because of ad hoc approaches to their so-called upskilling.

This post outlines the areas of need I believe are essential for a first elearner. They are listed roughly in order of importance, but all are essential.

No skill is too rudimentary to acquire:

Learners who are willing to put in the time, pursuing a grounding in these basic skills, on their own or in a course designed along the lines given here, will be well on the way to coping with elearning.

At first reading, some of these skills may appear to be too rudimentary. If absent they will lead to faltering at the early stages when the elearning apprentice should be building on higher skills, as a student or as an elearning instructor.

All of the skills listed here are those an elearning instructor may well need in helping a student learn the same skills, and so must form part of the elearning portfolio.

Here's my To-learn-list for the Elearning Apprentice links to sections:
(Relevant information lies in a link at the start of each header.)

short-keys
file management
netiquette
search engines
study the URL
an image authoring tool
an html editor or html writer
skills in LMS or VLE

Pre-requisite 1: Why a knowledge of short-keys?

As basic as this skill may seem, it is essential for any elearning apprentice to have a practicing knowledge of the rudiments of using short-cuts on the keyboard. Without these skills, working with the mouse on pull-down menus would prove tedious in the extreme. Short-keys are powerful key-strokes that find universal use on a huge variety of software.

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Pre-requisite 2: Why file management?

File management skills are essential for e-tidiness. As much as these seem old hat (back to basics and all that) ignoring their essential worth can mean confusion, and even some real headachy problems for the apprentice elearner later on.

As well, fundamentals such as knowledge and understanding of file dimension and file size, and the distinction between the two, are part of the ABC that an elearning apprentice must follow.

Pre-requisite 3: Why netiquette?

Basic communication skills are often overlooked. Elearning apprentices need those skills if only to assist with their own learning. For anyone intending to use their elearning skills for the instruction of others, netiquette is a life and death necessity.

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Pre-requisite 4: Why search engines?

Being able to search effectively using a database or web search engine is another fundamental skill. It brings into play pre-requisites 1 and 2, and is the bread and butter of the elearning researcher.

Pre-requisite 5: Why study the URL?

Understanding the structure of a URL and what it means to the technician is key to understanding how links operate in web-based elearning today. An introductory knowledge of how a URL can be applied utilises a direct application of file management skills.

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Pre-requisite 6: Why an image authoring tool?

An in-depth knowledge of an image authoring tool is not required and could well be a waste of time. I’d recommend that this be a part of an introduction, but not a major component. It can provide significant useful transferable skills.

Designing images and attempting to make a simple animation can give an elearning apprentice the feel of how these tools work. Much of the fundamental theory of how they function is also transferable. Some authoring tools are more complex to use than others. The simplest is probably the most efficient to use in terms of time spent learning the basics.

For instance, creating an animation in PhotoShop ImageReady involves much the same principles as in Flash. ImageReady is more likely to convey the principles with less angst and in a much shorter space of time, and so prove more effective. It may be that a suitable Web2.0 tool can convey the same transferable skills.

The emphasis is on the transferable skills.

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Pre-requisite 7: Why an html editor or html writer?

Once again, there are a lot of transferable skills that can be acquired from a good introduction to html writing/editing, without having to learn much at all of the hypertext markup language (html).

A good WYSIWYG that permits the learner to appreciate layout as well as functionality, can open up a cornucopia of valuable skills.

Building html in single pages on a server with relative links to images and other pages on the same server can also provide invaluable practice in file management. Building html in single pages with absolute links to Internet sites can be a useful skill for the elearning instructor.

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Pre-requisite 8: Why skills in LMS or VLE?

The application of the aforementioned skills come into their own when an elearning apprentice operates, hands-on for the first time, a learning management system or virtual learning environment, such as Moodle. These applications are the bread and butter of elearning instruction.

In the unlikely situation where the elearning apprentice does not have the opportunity to use one of those applications, building a blog and actively using it with links, uploads, downloads and embeds can cover many of the skills required. Participation in challenges, such as the past Comment Challenge, can provide the elearning apprentice with many far reaching skills and ideas for life-long elearning.

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