The concept of ’software as a service‘ has been gaining momentum in recent months, with many schools I visit now using Google Docs and web-based wikis and other applications to create and share content, as opposed to using traditional locally hosted software installed on the user’s own machine or local server. Supporters of SaaS cite the following benefits

• easier administration

• automatic updates and management of ‘fixes’
• compatibility (all users will have the same version of software)
• easier collaboration, for the same reason
• global accessibility.

There are, of course, still concerns over things like security of the content that is produced and stored online, and the fact that these applications are still maturing in terms of the features they offer, but things are developing rapidly in these areas.

Recently GoogleDocs introduced the ability for users to create and edit content offline using their Google Gears technology, a plug-in that extends your browser to create a richer platform for web applications. Over the weekend I’ve been playing with the latest release of Zoho which has been adding significant updates to several of its applications over the past few months, including its word processor (Zoho Writer), spreadheet (Zoho Sheet) and its presentation application (Zoho Show).

I’m impressed with Zoho Writer, built on Ajax technology it’s easy to use and I can create documents online (and offline too using Google Gears!), and access them from any computer, at home or at work. Plus, the instant collaboration, inline commenting and chat facilities enable me to develop documents in true collaborative style - no more emailing drafts back and forth. Writer has an increased range of features that you expect in a word processor, and the ability to export my documents in a range of formats, including HTML, WORD and ODF.

The other apps are all significantly improved since the last time I played with them - in particular ZohoShow which now exports to Powerpoint and has integration with Flickr and Picasa.

While exploring several of the applications in the Zoho suite, I was intrigued to receive an email soon after from someone in the Zoho team, offering to assist me with the service should I need it - providing me with links to online help docus, forums, blogs and even a twitter account! Now that must be a sign of things to come!

Future Learning is a new blog set up by the Secondary Futures project. Apart from some quirky behaviours in the way the blog is constructed, the content and intent makes it worth a visit - and contributing to. A browse of the comments that have been posted reveal that there may still be a lot of talking required before we can reach a point of agreement on many of the important issues.

At a different level I found it interesting interacting with this blog (as compared to many other blogs I read and comment on). One of the hallmarks of the web2.0 world I’ve become accustomed to is the ‘personality’ of the blog poster (or posters) that emerges through the style of writing, the identity of the poster listed with the post and through my ability to read their profile online. I found it interesting that on the Future Learning blog each of the entries has been posted anonymously, and there are no links to the original contributors apart from the about link which refers to the four guardians of the project, but does not specify whether they are the ones generating the discussions or not. The cynic in me wonders if this is an attempt to employ a web2.0 approach by someone who is not familiar with how it all works? The graphics an interface are attention grabbing - if not reminiscent of a previous century of education rather than the future (and I’ve been trying to figure out what that blind does) - but some of the expected functionality isn’t quite there.

Despite this I’ll certainly be reading this blog regularly to see what sort of discussion it generates.

Here’s a document that will be of interest to those who enjoy thinking about the “bigger picture” of the impact of the internet on society.

Over thirty Ministers (including NZ’s David Cunliffe, Minister for Health, Minister for Communications and Information Technology) met on 17-18 June 2008 in Seoul to consider social, economic and technological trends shaping the development of the Internet Economy. They forged broad principles that can provide an enabling policy environment for the Internet Economy that are recorded in this publication.

The group express their… “common desire to promote the Internet Economy and stimulate sustainable economic growth and prosperity by means of policy and regulatory environments that support innovation, investment, and competition in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector,” and their intention… “to work together to promote ubiquitous access to ICT networks and services enabling widespread participation in the Internet Economy.”

A read through this document provides a good understanding of the underpinning principles and philosophy behind the investment of many governments in the infrastructure required for this to occur. Let’s hope we see the current impetus in New Zealand continue in line with these principles and statements of intent!

Seems there is a new video service starting up every day - JohnLocker is the latest I’ve come across, providing a range of free documentaries online. Very useful video clips classified under History, Science, Music, War, Religions, Politics, Conspiracies, and more. Free registration, and the usual tools for uploading and making your own collections etc.

Here’s a great online seminar for you to join if you have the time on Tuesday 17th June from 10.00am - 11.00am (NZ time). Details on the DEANZ blog.

About the Session: Wikipedia is unquestionably the most significant social phenomenon of our time. In May 2006, the Commonwealth of Learning established Wikieducator — a Commonwealth sponsored project leveraging the power of distributed production systems for developing Open Education Resources (OERs). In this session Wayne will reflect on COL’s experiences to date and assess the success of the project in turning the digital divide into digital dividends. As ODL practitioners, a key question comes to mind: Does the project suggest the reincarnation of distance education or a new innovation?

Looks like we’ve hit the jackpot - day two at the multiple literacies working group and the sign at the door has been changed - although it is still taped over the top of the LCD screen Pity we may have to tell them that the next time we meet it may be to talk about 21st Century Literacy.

Second day at the Multi literacies working group - immersed in thinking about what it means to be literate (or becoming literate) in the 21st century, and the relationship of all this thinking with the use digital technologies.

In the midst of all this thinking I received an email from Fiona at College@home who let me know about her recent post titled 100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner. Fiona and her colleagues have organised their list using the VAK framework, with the various online tools classified in sub categories within each. It’s a great resource and very usefully organised - and quite timely in terms of the topics of discussion where I am currently.

Thanks to Fiona and friends for providing this useful resource - lots of familiar web tools here, along with some I haven’t heard of before!

I’m sitting all day today in a working group convened by the Ministry of Education focusing on Multiple Literacies - with the sign to the left having been generously posted by the venue hosts to identify the room we’re using. Amidst the exciting discussions we’re having about what sorts of literacy development is required for 21st Century learners, the sign serves as a useful reminder that we mustn’t forget the conventions of traditional writing!!!!! (The thing that makes the sign doubly amusing is that it is printed on paper and taped to the front of an LCD screen which is normally used to display notices like this
Literacy has in the past been ‘centred on language’ but with the introduction and use of new technologies and visual texts into school literacies and home literacies, we now encounter, use and interpret multiple kinds of literacies which are embedded in multimodal texts. The focus of this group is on the notion of multiple literacies (or mulit-literacies), a term chosen by the
The New London Group who recognise that literacy pedagogy is changing rapidly in our global world.
The term ‘multiliteracies’ is thus being considered by this group to describe what constitutes literacy in today’s world. Over these two days the group is working to develop the detail around a literacy acquisition framework (LAF) which will eventually be published and distributed to schools to assist teachers in their literacy teaching endeavours.

There’s certainly a lot to consider here, with the ever expanding opportunities for the expression and communication of ideas and information offered through digital technologies, and the consequent changes in communication behaviours. Earlier in the week my friend Tony sent me a link to an online article titled Is Google Making Us Stupid? - with the subtitle, What the Internet is doing to our brains? It’s an intriguing article that explores the ways in which our reading behaviours are being shaped by our use of the Web - suggesting that we have lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print, preferring instead to quickly scan short passages of text from many sources online. While the article is more a blend of anecdote and references to other writers, it does point to some important areas for further research to inform our understandings of literacy and how we engage with print and other modes of communication in the digital age.

Good grief - what is the world coming to??? Just ten years ago I was accosted in the middle of a central city mall by an over zealous salesperson trying to convince me of the benefits of investing in an encyclopedia - the paper variety, you know, the one they convince you will become a family heirloom etc etc. I politely advised the salesperson that I wasn’t interested in purchasing yesterday’s technology, instead preferring to do my searching using a CD ROM encyclopedia that I owned, together with what was available online. This was met with screeches of horror and dismay, and claims that such a thing would never happen to this particular encyclopedia, being of such high quality and impeccable credentials, it would never happen to such a ‘brand’.

Well it has. First we saw the Encyclopedia Britannica indeed appear in CD ROM format, and later online. This week the famed stalwart of the reference world has announced that it is entering the wiki world! “The main thrust of this initiative is to promote greater participation by both our expert contributors and readers.”

This seems to be a response to the runaway success of the user-edited online reference tool Wikipedia. Scholars have been adamantly opposed to Wikipedia citations in academic papers because the authors and sources are always changing. In response, at Britannica, “readers and users will also be invited into an online community where they can work and publish at Britannica’s site under their own names,” the encyclopedia’s blog explains.

But it won’t be a complete free-for-all. The news release adds that the core encyclopedia itself “will continue to be edited according to the most rigorous standards and will bear the imprimatur ‘Britannica Checked’ to distinguish it from material on the site for which Britannica editors are not responsible.”

You can preview the new site, which is still in beta testing, at http://www.britannica.com/bps/home. I must confess, the pop-up ads put me off, both because of what they are advertising (eg advising that “someone I know is crazy about me’ etc.), and because of the ‘garish’ way they intrude onto the otherwise reasonably well-designed interface.

This development speaks volumes about the way(s) in which the world is being molded and changed by the technologies we adopt - often in quite unanticipated ways - and that we must be prepared to ‘let go’ of the past in order to embrace what the future is becoming. As one of the respondents to the Britannica release observed; “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Chris Betcher is all fired up on his “BetchaBlog” with a recent post titled “Enough Excuses“. He finishes his post with the following:

…it’s time for those teachers who have not accepted ICTs to shit or get off the pot. I’m tired of accepting excuses. Technology is, and will continue to be, an absolutely integral part of the lives our students will lead. The work we are doing in our classrooms to prepare them for this future must contain a significant amount of access to, and understanding of, this technology or we are failing them as teachers. To be a technologically illiterate teacher in the 21st century is unacceptable, unethical and unprofessional. To hold students back from using the tools that they need to be literate for the 21st century is, quite frankly, immoral.

Seriously, if becoming technologically literate is too hard, or you don’t think it’s “your cup of tea”, then get out now. Quit. Let someone else take over and do the incredibly important work of educating our young people using the tools they deserve.

The frustration expressed by Chris in his post is something I hear from many of the people I work with in the field of professional development re ICT in education, and from an increasing number of parents and employers who are increasingly expecting students with these sorts of skills to front up to work. While the ways in which these people give expression to their frustration may not be as blunt as Chris has been in this instance, the frustration is there all the same.

Of course, there’s always another side to the story - and I can hear the counter arguments now, about the wider purposes of school, the importance of (apparently) non-ICT related subjects in the curriculum, the in ability of our school systems to provide the level of access to ICTs in the first place, and the higher priorities we must give to issues such as the “long tail” in literacy and numeracy to name just a few. Several of these point’s of view are well represented in the responses to Chris’s blog - providing for a very robust discussion which I recommend you read.

Of the responses I do like the one offered by Terry Freedman (whose article prompted Chris’s post in the first place). Terry simplifies the arguments by stating…

The key issue for me, which I don’t think has been touched on in any of this (or at least, I missed it if it has) is that all of the arguments about leadership, time, incentive etc are all irrelevant in the light of some simple questions that any teacher should ask him/herself:

1. Would you feel OK about not being able to read?
2. Would you feel ok about having to ask someone else to count up your loose change?

For me, using a computer is a pretty basic skill these days.

But even more important, why do these people feel so proud of their lack of ability??!

But even more important than even that, we should be educating kids for their future, not our past.

Terry’s last comment uses a quote that I’ve used as the title of some talks that I’ve presented over the past year or so - which probably exposes where I sit on the continuum of the debate! Our challenge as educators is how we will choose to respond - as individuals, at the school level and at the government/policy level.