Teach42

I don’t know that I agree with the need for separate EduApps. Actually, here’s my stick in the ground - that’s not what we need.

If “lifelong learning” is really what we’re trying to foster, having anything locked behind the walls of a school defeats the purpose. Having tools that only work within the school firewall is meaningless in the larger scope of the students’ outside-school lives.

I think that everyone needs EduApps, and so by definition these apps aren’t specialized tools for use only in schools. We need things like KidPix etc… for use by everyone, everywhere. The school is just the introduction point (or is it?)

OK, this post is based on a couple of preconceptions. Maybe I can extract them…

Red tape sucks. Raise your hand if your school blocks Flickr… What’s the difference between TeacherTube and YouTube? Nothing much except branding and content.

The problem is, the people developing things like TeacherTube are the same people who are lobbying for the regular stuff to be blocked. By supporting them, you are actually enabling the blocking.

You need to state - accurately - that the ‘educational’ version is no safer, and in certain ways less safe - than the ‘wild and free’ version. In addition to putting all the kids in one closed area where they may be easily preyed upon they foster an attitude of security which poorly prepares them for the wider world.

Don’t aim for the other side’s objective. Aim for your objective.

You don’t start students off in Final Cut Pro. The goal isn’t for teachers to use these tools. The goal is for them to teach students to use them.

Well yeah. But these tools aren’t Final Cut Pro either. Seen Flickr lately? Not in the same league.

That said - the students can handle Final Cut Pro. It’s the teachers that can’t handle it. This software - yes, even the really expensive stuff - isn’t made for the teachers, it’s made for the kids.

And part of teaching is scaffolding, modifying the lesson based on the skill level of the learner and then increasing the challenge. In order to teach kids Photoshop, I started them off in Kid Pix.

A better way to teach PhotoShop would be to teach PhotoShop.

But that’s not the point. The point is this: it is incorrect to think that only educational apps are or should be scaffolded.

Look at computer games, even the very complicated ones. They very gradually draw the player through a series of ‘levels’ or ‘missions’ or ‘opponents’ or whatever.

If applications like Word or PowerPoint were intelligently designed, they would do the same thing (and to a certain degree, with things like templates, they do).

Life - and not just learning - is and should be scaffolded. No matter what we do, we ease into it.

So why would the design of educational apps and everyday apps be different?

It is based on the presumption that living and learning are fundamentally different things. And while that used to be true - even to the point where we built special buildings for learning - it is rapidly ceasing to be true.

@D’arcy (Twitter becomes habit): I 100% agree with you. If it sounded like I was talking about keeping things behind a firewall, then I wasn’t very clear. The reason I say in Point 1 that red tape sux is because most schools in the US won’t allow the use of current tools in an open environment. I’m thinking about apps designed with the educational process in mind in an open environment. Maybe I’ll have to elaborate a bit more on what I mean in another post. But I do agree, behind the firewall defeats the purpose.

@Stephen: “The problem is, the people developing things like TeacherTube are the same people who are lobbying for the regular stuff to be blocked. By supporting them, you are actually enabling the blocking.” I beg to differ. While that may be true of some people, there are numerous other teachers, particularly in the US, that use TeacherTube so that they can share videos socially in schools that already have YouTube blocked. I’m guessing that those teachers would much rather have YouTube unblocked, and are probably trying to make that happen, but are currently stymied. While I agree that TeacherTube is not a great solution, I do believe that a YouTube like app BUILT for education (not just branded for education) would be beneficial to teachers.

“…the students can handle Final Cut Pro. It’s the teachers that can’t handle it. This software … isn’t made for the teachers, it’s made for the kids.” Is Final Cut Pro appropriate for kindergarten? I would say no. First grade? Second grade? I understand what you’re saying in principal, and am a firm believer that teachers do NOT need to understand a technology first before letting students tackle it. In fact, I restructured my old school’s middle school curriculum to try to get teachers out of students way. But I do believe software like Final Cut and Photoshop are not be appropriate for ALL students at all grade levels. That’s just not realistic. I mean, c’mon. When kids are learning how to use a mouse, Final cut may be a bit out of reach.

“If applications like Word or PowerPoint were intelligently designed, they would do the same thing (and to a certain degree, with things like templates, they do).” To some degree. But for the most part they aren’t intelligently designed, and certainly not for a learning environment. I would love to see tools like Clicker embedded into Microsoft Word. But they aren’t.

I understand where you’re coming from, but I still think I disagree. The vast majority of schools in the US today are blocking YouTube. In some states, they’re blocking it by law. While I believe that doing so is wrong and would do anything in my power to get that changed, it’s also a reality. And if a tool like TeacherTube gets these technologies in students hands, then I support it even though it isn’t what i think would be best. It’s better than what they currently have access to. And I think the educational versions of these apps will come along faster than popular opinion will change, and school policies that reflect those changes.

Stephen - you make a grand accusation about TeacherTube by claiming

While I agree that there probably are people out there lobbying to keep some websites blocked, the people behind TeacherTube are not some of them. Did you know that there are 3 creators behind TeacherTube? Did you know that 2 of them are educators? Did you know that they have actually REMOVED ads from some TeacherTube pages in order to increase page load speeds? Full Disclosure: I’m not one of the creators, but I know 2 of them - and they are far from lobbyists trying to keep their “competition” blocked safely behind the content filter.

They created TeacherTube because Federal law (in the form of the Children’s Internet Protection Act) prohibits the general unblocking of inappropriate web sites. YouTube has plenty of material that could be construed as obscene, therefore it meets the “letter of the law” for a blockable web site. If a school willfully disregards the law, they could (and would) loose desperately needed Federal funding (found in the form of E-rate).

The development of EduApps that mimic mainstream Web 2.0 applications is the direct result of EDUCATORS wanting to utilize the idea of the Web 2.0 tools without having the willfully break Federal law. Does this environment create a false reality? YES IT DOES, but politicians (at the request of constituents) have created the laws in order to protect children from explicit and offensive content that they might intentionally or accidentally access. Is it right? Who can say for sure - I firmly believe that children must be taught to dangers of the Internet but I’m not sure showing pornographic images to third graders is the method of choice.

[…] goes prime time, trust me when I say you want to be on the list for a beta invite. There are so few Web 2.0 sites that are designed specifically with education in mind, I get the feeling that this one is really going to lead the way. Author: […]