Transcript Digital Divide Network

Embracing Web 2.0
in an Education 1.0 Universe
Andy Carvin
PBS learning.now
[email protected]
www.pbs.org/learningnow
www.andycarvin.com
A Quick Overview
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Internet history
Internet in education
Web 1.0 and Web 2.0
Blogs, Podcasts, Vlogs
The Digital Divide
Content producers
Online Social Networks
Copyright
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Open Content
Creative Commons
PLoS
Wikipedia
ICT literacy
Web 3.0
Are schools ready?
PBS learning.now
A Quick History of the Internet
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Late 60s: first TCP/IP Network
Decentralized - to survive nuclear holocaust
70s-80s: Utilized for research, academia
Early communities: e-lists, USENET
Late 80s: Web invented
Early 90s: Networks privatized
1995: AOL opens Web gateway
…and the rest is history….
The Internet Goes to School
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Late 80s: First schools gain Net access
Early projects: IEARN, Kidlink, GSH
1994: Just 4% of classrooms online
NetDay ‘96: Volunteers wire schools
E-Rate: Federal subsidies for Internet access
Today: Nearly 100% of schools online,
90%+ of classrooms, 70%+ of students at home
Who’s Producing the Content?
Until recently, to produce content for a large
audience you needed to be a...
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Publisher
Broadcaster
Billboard owner
Pilot flying a sign-dragging airplane
Guy holding up signs at televised football game
Enter stage left: Web 1.0
Most people read the Net instead of producing
for it, because producers needed:
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HTML coding skills
Programming skills
Graphic design skills
Hosting ability
Promotion mechanisms
Creating a Content-Friendly,
People Friendly Internet
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Late 1990s: New classes of online software
to simplify content creation
Allowed people to focus on ideas and
creativity rather than technical know-how
“The Read-Write Web”
AKA “Web 2.0”
AKA “We Media”
Example: Blogs
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Early days: online geeks posted personal
homepages or diaries (example: me)
Blogging software made online publishing
easy; anyone with Internet can do it
Fill-out-a-form publishing
Today: 60-100 million+ blogs online
Podcasting & Vlogging
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Podcasting: blogs with audio content
Vlogging: blogs with video content
Both use RSS to allow user subscriptions
iTunes is the big gorilla in the market
Now, thousands of podcasters and vloggers
creating their own content streams
Example: Atlantic City Rough Cuts
Social Software and the
Democratization of Content
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classblogmeister.com: edublogging tool
flickr.com: photo blogging community
epnweb.org: education podcast network
blip.tv: make your own video blog
youtube.com: 100 m videos downloaded daily
Common thread:
Online communities where people
are actively encouraged to use
and share each other’s original content
But What About
The Digital Divide?
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About 70% of US households online
African American households lag behind whites
Disparities based on income, education level
Pew: 80% of English-speaking Latinos online?
The more people are online, the worse off are
those without access
Content Production:
Everybody’s Doin’ It
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48 mil Americans have posted content online
One in 12 Internet users publish a blog
One in four have shared original content
Young people more likely to post content
Race, income, education less of a factor
Latinos, African Americans slightly more likely
to post online content than whites
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, Home Broadband Adoption 2006
Online Social Networks
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Websites that focus on community
Encourage interaction, discussion, debate
Public member profiles
User-generated content
Often target specific audiences
We’ve All Heard of This….
But What About This?
Or This?
Or This?
Dealing with Copyright
Historically there were two extremes:
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Give it away (ie, public domain)
Maintain strict control (ie, all rights reserved)
For Internet content to thrive,
we needed middle ground.
The Growth of “Open Content”
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Emphasis on “Access to Knowledge”
Content published on liberal license
Freely available to the public
Encouraging user contributions
Sometimes peer reviewed, sometimes not
Example: Creative Commons
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Popular copyright strategy used by bloggers,
online communities
Creates spectrum of choices for copyright
choices based on creator’s comfort level
e.g., noncommercial use only, citation,
don’t alter my content
“Share Alike” license - require users to pass
along original intent of your copyright license
New: “Developing Nations” license
Example: Public Library of
Science (PLoS)
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Reinventing traditional publishing model
Authors pay fee to have research considered
rather than charging high subscription fees
Journals published on paper, online
Libraries no longer forced to pay high fees
Articles openly available to the public using
an Attribution Creative Commons license
The Wiki Revolution
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Online workspaces where anyone can read,
write, edit documents
Previous edits trackable; virtual “paper trail”
Encourages group collaboration
Wiki=Hawaiian for “quick”
Wiki Wiki People Mover
Examples: PBWiki.com, MediaWiki
The Wild World of Wikipedia
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The world’s largest
encyclopedia
Launched in 2001
1,000,000+ entries in
200+ languages
A magnet for
controversy
The Central Issue
Pro:
Anyone can create or edit Wikipedia entries
Con:
Anyone can create or edit Wikipedia entries
The Siegenthaler Controversy
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John Siegenthaler Sr. visits Wikipedia
Entry claims he was involved in JFK’s death
Remained on Wikipedia for months
Seigenthaler demands its removal
Wiki activists insist he edit it himself
Seigenthaler writes USA Today op/ed
Result: No more anonymous entry creation
Students Expose Sex Offender
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Young man tries to enroll in school
Claims to be Caspian James Crichton-Stuart IV,
5th Duke of Cleveland, ie “Your Grace”
Students research Duke of Cleveland on Wikipedia
Identify person who edited entry: Joshua Gardner
Discover Gardner on national sex offender registry
Who was Joshua Gardner?
The young man trying to enroll in school.
Wikis and Free Speech:
Wikipedia and China
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Chinese
Wikipedia grows
rapidly
Chinese govt
keeps blocking it
Officials upset
Wikipedia doesn’t
reflect official line
A Threat to One-Party Rule?
“Foreign media reports suggest that as many as
1,000 protestors were killed.”
Neutral statement of fact or disseminating subversive propaganda?
Give-it-away, Give-it-away,
Give-it-away Now
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Wikipedia allows anyone to copy, edit,
disseminate content for any purpose
Content copied by other sites, eg answers.com
When Wikipedia is updated, other copies not
necessarily updated promptly
Concern: You could cite three separate online
sources - all originating from Wikipedia
Potential Solutions?
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Requiring multiple citations for everything
Discouraging anonymous Wikipedians
(but what about wiki dissidents?)
Highlighting entries vetted by experts
The eBay model: allowing users to rank
entries, Wikipedians according to trust,
accuracy
If You Can’t Beat ‘em....
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Wikipedia as research exercise
Assign Wikipedia entries to students
Students examine entries’ accuracy
Use multiple sources to correct entries
“Final” version given seal of approval
More Pedias Than You
Can Shake a Stick At
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Wiki software often free or open source
Thousands of wikis now online
Buffalopedia... Turkopedia...Golfopedia...
Ethiopedia... Jazzopedia...
Supportblogging.com: Wiki on edublogging
Content created for the community,
by the community
Whom Do You Trust in a
World of Open Content?
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Recent wiki controversies make educators
nervous
Many users don’t know wikis are a work-inprogress
Delaware Supreme Court: blogs, online forums
inherently “untrustworthy”
What’s More Reliable?
Is offline content “better” than online content?
Are lines blurring?
What’s Needed: ICT Literacy
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Technical skills
Content generation skills
Research skills
Information literacy
Media literacy
Online safety and responsibility
What’s Next?
Web 3.0, of course!
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The read/write/execute Web
Users executing their own scripts
Tools that let you build online, create software
Immersive virtual environments, user controlled
Example: Second Life
Are Schools Ready?
The Jury’s Still Out
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Many schools just getting comfy with Web 1.0
Blogs sometimes get bad press
Congress: Force schools to filter Web 2.0 sites
Districts blocking Blogger.com, MySpace, Wikipedia
Wikipedia now blocking school districts!
Established Web 2.0 education projects popular
overseas, not here (Cyberfair, IEARN, ThinkQuest)
Web 2.0 projects are inherently constructivist
But does NCLB make them irrelevant?
PBS learning.now
www.pbs.org/learningnow
Thanks!
Andy Carvin
[email protected]
www.pbs.org/learningnow
www.andycarvin.com
ebook.telecentre.org
Presentation:
www.andycarvin.com/buffalo.ppt