Welcome to all the readers from M*U*S*H. Please watch this space for transcripts to my online lecture: The Advantage of Ignorance: Technology In Education. This lecture is primarily about sharing my experience in education and inviting other computer-savvy folks to consider a career in educational technology.
For those not in the know, this conference took place on April 7 2007 in the text-based virtual world M*U*S*H. M*U*S*H is built on the pennMUSH engine, which allows people to create brilliant text-based games, and virtual worlds. I use my nom de plume, Boris there. Onto the lecture:
Boris says, “Greetings.”
Boris says, “This lecture will focus on technology in education. I will discuss my experience in education, my current position, and my thoughts about effectively using technology in education. I will discuss the importance of blogging your successes. The objective of this lecture is to pique the interest of fellow mush’ers who might be interested in a role in technology education.”
Boris says, “The point is, as digital natives, younger, curious, and competent IT teachers can essentially do whatever they want to do, so long as they follow a few simple rules.”
Boris says, “Digital native: A term I swiped from Mark Prensky who uses it to make broad generalizations about people today: digital natives and digital immigrants. It works for broad generalizations, but as we will see later in the lecture, we need to have a slightly more nuanced view of people.”
Tokeli emerges from the Linux Lobby.
Tokeli has arrived.
Givur emerges from the Linux Lobby.
Givur has arrived.
Boris welcomes Tokeli
Boris welcomes Givur, as well.
Boris says, “I started educational life in 1999 as a mathematics assistant, working for meager wages in a small elementary school (ages 6 to 14 for you Non-Americans out there). I showed an active interest in technology in my school, and began helping teachers with technology problems. Most of the time, this help manifested itself as quiet and desperate pleads for help with utterly trivial technical issues.”
Boris says, “I noted the teachers had an amazing u,interest) in technology, but no support to use it or learn it. I quickly established myself as the goto guy for a quick technical support. I did this without the blessing or knowledge of our building system administrator, and worked very much “under the radar” for a while. The technical help I gave them was remarkably trivial - but in their eyes, a blessing. Imagine a giving a really thirsty person a drink.”
Boris grins at the ansi mistake
Boris says, “Remember those simple suggestions I was talking about earlier? Here’s a suggestion: help people who need help.”
Boris says, “I’ll continue my story in a moment...”
Boris says, “The State of Affairs”
Boris says, “A slightly depressing but common scenario in many public schools is old, and vastly disparate technology systems, little to no support, and very little understanding (technically and pedagogically) exactly how to use computers in education. Many school system administrators are responsible for hundreds of computers in many different schools - collating vast amounts of student data, and ensuring compliance with many laws. They administrate a bevy of servers (email, ldap, web, caching, etc...), and are generally “overworked and underpaid”. Many of them have turned to the dark side.”
Boris says, “It’s rather interesting then, in public education, there is a very strong, and commonly held belief computers and technology are vitally important for our children, and their education. Heh.”
Boris says, “Enter the school computer lab.”
Boris says, “Many schools, short of funds, technical support and guiding pedagogical vision opt to create a computer lab. The computer lab often has 20 to 30 computers, and the students are dropped off once a week for about 40 minutes to learn about powerpoint, word processing, and databases. This makes sense to most school administrators, who want to maximize exposure to a valuable resource. Pedagogically it’s a disaster - but that’s for another lecture.”
Boris says, “The sad fact is, through no fault of their own, schools have a tremendous amount of ignorance around educational technology.”
Boris says, “...back to my story”
Boris says, “Little did I know that this habit of helping teachers on the side with technical problems would become a hallmark skill, which still serves me today. I have to manage my time a little more carefully now, but stopping to help a teacher attach a LCD projector to a computer goes a long way. Really.”
Sketch interjects, “I agree.”
Boris nods to Sketch 
Boris says, “I then started teaching ages 12 to 14 (grades 6, 7 and 8 for you Americans) part time. I worked part time as a building technical support person - so my position was split between fixing and setting up computers and teaching computer science. It was here I made a few important realizations:”
Boris says, “1) Spending 4 weeks learning about word processing is stupid”
Boris says, “2) most school administrators have no clue about technology”
Boris says, “3) technology can make normal learning better”
Boris says, “I started to integrate classroom content into my lessons. So we stopped learning about powerpoint, and used powerpoint to illustrate a pond life-cycle. I walked down the hallway looking at projects - if the third grade was studying the Pilgrims and the Mayflower, we worked on similar content, except using technology. I turned to webquests, and made a fundamental switch:”
Boris says, “Here’s a suggestion: computers and technology are about learning, not about computers and technology.”
Boris says, “Forgive me for another brief pause in my story...”
Boris says, “Building cred”
Boris says, “Cred is credibility, and it was critical for me to have it as I explored new territory. I went out of my way to help as many teachers as I could. I paid special attention to teachers who showed an eagerness and willingness to use technology in their classes. It wasn’t long (6 months) until I had built myself a reputation as a hard worker, willing to help, and knew what I was doing.”
Boris says, “Here’s a suggestion: Know your stuff.”
Boris says, “The water cooler effect.”
Boris says, “Here’s my observations about how and why teachers use technology in their classrooms. They talk to their friends and colleagues about everything - including what works, and what doesn’t work. I put my technology integration faith in this human social network. Alice talks to Bob and tells Bob all about this great thing she’s doing in class. Pretty soon Bob gives me a call and asks me about this “Google Groups” thing. And on it goes.”
Boris says, “It might sound kind of weird (it does to me) but it really works.”
Boris says, “...back to my story.”
Sketch raises a hand.
Sketch says, “What about those people that have no friends? 
”
Boris says, “Please?”
Boris laughs!
Trinsec throws popcorn at Sketch.
Sketch eats it. :D
Boris says, “When you are working with 13 year old boys and girls, you HAVE to have friends!!!”
Boris says, “The day came. I was offered a full time position at my school! I was teaching grades 3 to 8 (thats ages 9 to 14 for you non-American folks) and teaching staff development. I started writing howto’s (which you can still here: http://www.mackenty.org/index.php/ed_tech/ and here: http://www.hchs.hunter.cuny.edu/index.ph”
Boris says, “oops!”
Êlvïrå notes if real friends are lacking, there’s always MySpace 
Boris says, “The day came. I was offered a full time position at my school! I was teaching grades 3 to 8 (thats ages 9 to 14 for you non-American folks) and teaching staff development. I started writing howto’s (which you can still here: http://www.mackenty.org/index.php/ed_tech/ and here: http://www.hchs.hunter.cuny.edu/index.php/teacher_zone/how_to/). I was responsible for student servers (all running OS X) and the student network. It was a lot of work, but I was in charge. It felt wonderful. I had a computer lab, I was integrating as much as I could, was finally making decent money (I have a masters degree and was making about $52000 USD a year starting).”
Boris says, “I started to really branch out, looking for ways computers could be used to strengthen, deepen, and broaden classroom content. I branched out into some really cool stuff, including using games to teach (I even used a Star Trek MUSH to teach XYZ coordinate-plane once). I did everything I could to connect technology with the learners.”
Boris says, “Here’s a suggestion: I’m a geek. I love geeky stuff. I do what I love. I think it shows. Do what you love, it shows.”
Boris says, “I failed so many times I lost count. I tried podcasting, but we didn’t have enough time in class. I tried making our own games, but it totally flopped. I tried playing unreal tournament in class (what the hell was I thinking?!). I had all the kids blog (way to much work to keep track of everyones blog). But with every two steps backwards, I made three steps forward. A critical lesson I learned early in my life as a computer teacher was to learn from my mistakes, and be open to feedback.”
Boris says, “Here’s two suggestions: ask your kids to write you a report card. Don’t let your ego get in the way of learning from your mistakes!”
Boris says, “I started blogging about my adventures in computers (http://web.archive.org/web/*/mackenty.org) this proved to be one of those “I didn’t realize it was so important” things. Blogging opened up a few important doors:”
Boris says, “1) it serves as a constant online portfolio”
Boris says, “2) it helps others in the community find ideas and inspiration”
Boris says, “3) it’s the best way to find a better job”
Sketch raises a hand for real this time.. :p
Boris says, “one sec, Sketchy.”
Boris says, “...and as a little secret between us friends: there are a whole lot of people who write about technology in education, but very few classroom practitioners. Your ideas carry cred because you are close to the truth.”
Boris sketch?
Boris says, “Sketch?”
Sketch says, “I do have a blog, indeed. But… I don’t have a lot of people viewing it that are computer-knowledgeable. Aside from that, some ideas I don’t want to document, since I’m afraid people will steal them, implement them before *I* do… Plus, I’m a little paranoid about, well… `anyone can read this!`.”
Boris says, “Ah! Good comment! In my experience, I ratchet down the technical level on my blog, and I’ve found the more I share my ideas (lesson plans, classroom activities) the more people seem to pay attention! Go figure To your second point:”
Boris says, “I still feel a little “tiny” nervous about people knowing my real name out there....to be quite honest with you, having a blag has really done wonders for me...especially as far as using it to share ideas that work. Does that make sense? did I answer your comment/question?”
Sketch snickers. Blag. :D
Boris says, “oops!”
Sketch says, “CHalk it up to an xkcd reference. ”
Boris says, “heh...I only have a few minutes left...and then we canopen it up to more questions...”
Sketch says, “Okay.”
Sketch shushes. :3
Boris says, “Here’s a suggestion: blog (not blag)”
Boris says, “In summary, many public schools (private as well) have lots of technology that isn’t being used, or being highly under-used. Enter the young ambitious IT teacher (you). Spend some time building cred, and soon you will have a fantastic sandbox to use your IT skills in a genuinely meaningful way!”
Boris says, “I’ll end with a few random observations and suggestions, and then open the floor to questions. It may help the pace of conversation if you pre-type your questions before your turn.”
Boris says, “Get certified: getting a certificate in instructional technology usually involves 2 or 3 basic reading and writing tests, and then a general IT test. The IT test will focus more on integrating technology in the classroom rather than configuring ACL lists on a router. Most IT certs are good fro ages 6 to 18 - so the certificate is far broader than other educational disciplines.”
Boris says, “Technology is not age-specific. Some of the greatest technology proponents are older teachers who get all amped up about powerpoint...this is where having a more nuanced view of who is going to use technology helps.”
Boris says, “There is this pull to the dark side; to make all the machines in the building windows (or macs). Resist the pull to do what works best for you and instead, try to do what works best for your teachers. It often means administrating disparate systems, but that’s better than a mono-system that tries to do everything for everyone, and doesn’t really get it.”
Boris says, “That’s all I have! I have one @mail question I’ll get to in a moment, but I’d like to thank you for coming, and I’m open to questions now ”
Êlvïrå raises a hand
Boris says, “Elvira?”
Êlvïrå says, “Boris, I’d just like to say thank you very much for taking the time and making the effort to talk to us. This has been really interesting with information that applies across more than just the educational field. Your time has been really appreciated. Thank you 
Ok… back to the questions ”
Boris says, “thanks Elvira!”
Sketch says, “Totally agree with Elv. ;D *handraises*”
Boris says, “Sketch?”
Sketch says, “Regarding toning down technology in my blag: Well, technology is what I do. It’s my kick, and probably only how I’d actually WANT to write in it. (In fact, I think this may get me going more!) but… I don’t want to dumb it down too much, since that’d be tedious for me… How do I keep it interesting for *myself*, and also for my readers?”
Boris says, “ah”
Boris says, “application of said technology.”
Sketch hmms.
Trinsec mms?
Sketch nods to Boris.
Boris says, “so I blag about educational technology. What is sexy to me is fiber, acl lists, LDAP everywhere, etc...”
Êlvïrå says, “You should totally put music and animated gifs of dancing girls on it”
Êlvïrå coughs and shuts up again
Sketch laughs.
Boris says, “but what I end up talking about is the application of that technology in education”
Trinsec hmms.
Boris says, “so if you are blagging about technology, that is fine - but perhaps you might focus on the end-use application (like: how is this going to end up helping someone in a very specific and concrete way)”
Boris says, “does that make sense, Sketch?”
Sketch says, “It does. ”
Boris says, “any other questions? I have an @mail one I’d like to get to”
Boris says, “This one is from Huz, who couldn’t make it:”
Boris says, “If it’s a subject you don’t cover during the course of the lecture, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the dangers of overusing technology in education. Particularly in the UK, there is a big push in schools to introduce computers into almost every area of the high-school curriculum, but I worry that overuse may cause more harm than good in some areas - harming attention spans or stunting the development of good spelling, for instance. Do you see future over-reliance on technology as an issue? How can teachers strike the right balance between traditional and computer-aided teaching techniques?”
Sketch says, “Oooh. Nice.”
Boris says, “here’s my answer:”
Boris says, “Great question. There is this very annoying tendency to breathlessly exclaim “technology will change the face of “. We have learned differently, of course. The guiding questions we ask ourselves are:
Is technology making this lesson materially better? Can we prove it’s getting better? Is it strengthening, deepening, and broadening learning? As an example, a science teacher put a USB cmaera onto one of her microscopes, and then attachedit to a laptop and LCD projector. She was able to show the class exactly what they should be looking for, and if a student found something interesting, they could put the microscope camera on the students microscope!”
Boris says, “For the record: I do not think technology is a panacea (at all) but I do see it providing meaningfully important improvements in how we learn and teach.”
Trinsec nods slightly.
Êlvïrå says, “four words: Monopoly: Electronic Banking Edition *shudder*”
Sketch says, “Do you recommend not using spellcheckers until the students are in college? I do. :p”
Boris says, “funny thing, that, Sketch.”
Boris says, “many of my students refuse to email now, because it is to slow”
Trinsec blinks.
Boris says, “they primarily IM”
Sketch grins, nods.
Molikai laughs.
Êlvïrå stares at Sketch
Boris says, “and with this increase in speed of communication, their spelling has, sadly resulted in this:”
Trinsec Covers eyes in advance!
Boris says, “ok gtg! cul8r!”
Sketch screams and flees.
Trinsec says, “Oh, that’s tame.”
Sketch says, “Hm.”
Trinsec would be expecting like ‘c u l8r d00d!’
Sketch Too many spaces, Trin.
Boris says, “It’s horrific, but rather normal, I’m afraid. So I say, use the spellchecker....”
Boris smiles in that “grue” sort of way, and asks “any more questions?”
Trinsec hmms..
Êlvïrå says, “but in a casual email, is that not fairly acceptable if irritating? I mean, I use that sort of thing if I’m texting, but I can format an essay. It’s all a case of context”
Êlvïrå says, “or even more so in IM”
Trinsec raises her hand for another question.
You say, “And why not refuse to answer anything that isn’t actually written in english?”
Êlvïrå says, “elitists ”
Trinsec giggles.
Trinsec is guilty of that sometimes.
Boris agrees, and loves the new firefox which underlines mistakes....quite handy, that. Trinsec?
Trinsec says, “You said something about certification. Are there any specific ones? I’m not in the USA and can’t seem to recall those you named.”
Trinsec would probably have to do a 4-year course for IT technology teacher.
Boris says, “eek. For the UK I don’t know..and you bring up an interesting/sad point, Trin.”
Trinsec is Dutch.
Boris says, “IT teachers in schools do NOT need to understand anything about technology.”
Boris says, “I know this sounds odd, and it is.”
Trinsec nods slightly and got taught by a few teachers at school who simply happened to know that one or two programs.
Trinsec says, “And they bought books related to that program so they could try to teach us some more, even though they didn’t quite understand themselves.”
Boris says, “it is not uncommon to find an IT teacher who doesn’t know what the OSI model is, or what DHCP is...or how to do even basic troubleshooting...”
Giotto says, “A question about the earlier issue about spell checkers...”
Boris says, “this sort of goes to the core point of my lecture:”
Boris says, “if you know your stuff, and you are willing to build a little cred in schools, you can do some really cool stuff”
Boris says, “did I answer your question, Trinsec?”
Trinsec nods, “Somewhat, yeah.”
Boris says, “I imagine it would be a test for basic reading and writing, maybe a “technology integration” test, or something like that.”
Boris says, “Giotto, ewe half aye kwestion aboot speil chekurs?”
Sketch loads the Canadian dictionary.
Boris giggles
Trinsec blinks.
Sketch says, “ABOOT! O_O”
Boris says, “Giotto?”
Giotto says, “Well, yes. More like, how technology can affect spelling, positively or negatively. Have you ever had experiments where people had to converse with non-native speakers of English? As a non-native speaker, I know that deviations from the accepted standards tend to make communication very difficult...”
Sketch says, “This is relevant to me too.”
Trinsec snickers and nods, having experience with this situation.
Boris says, “My experience is kids write more when using computers, and they tend to make more edits of their work, but when they don’t use a spell-checker, there is significant deviation from the norm...The last international project we did was set up a video-link with a school in France, and the French kids practiced their English, and our kids practiced their French. It was very fun.”
Boris says, “however the few email projects I’ve been involved in (international) have worked pretty well ”
Boris says, “did I answer your question, Giotto?”
Boris taps the microphone
Trinsec prods her ears.
Boris says, “any other questions?”
Sketch says, “Mmmh..”
Trinsec finishes her cup of tea.
Trinsec might have another question.
Sketch says, “Could you expand a bit more on the devolution of English, and its impact? ”
Sketch says, “In your opinion.”
Boris says, “Sure. It has to do with speed, I think. (more)”
Trinsec waits until Sketch’s has been answered.
Boris says, “There has been quite a bit of talk about multi-tasking in the US popular press lately (Time magazine, New York Times, etc)”
Giotto says, “Oh, thanks, yes. Sorry, I’m slow.”
Boris says, “and basically, it says, sure: these kids are multitasking, but they are understanding less and not communicating as clearly as they would if they were only doing one thing.”
Boris says, “So the devolution of language I see is related to speed, and our kids doing many different things at the same time...a quick story...”
Êlvïrå iz down wit da kidz
Boris says, “I once saw a student (about 14 years old) having 4 open IM sessions, on her cell phone, and writing a homework assignment. It looked cool, but what was she really getting from that assignment?”
Boris says, “does that answer your question, Sketch?”
Êlvïrå . o O (That’s me. Right now) O o .
Trinsec smirks.
Boris says, “oh, wait.”
Boris says, “the impact of this (IMHO) is as teachers, we need to not give our kids stupid work.”
Sketch nodnods. :3
Trinsec says, “Heh, define stupid work?”
Boris says, “stupid: name 10 cities in Poland. Not Stupid: how is the current econmic health of Poland related to it’s history as a communist state?”
Trinsec nods.
Boris says, “I hereby assign here homework to google/grok “Blooms Taxonomy"”
Boris says, “I hereby assign everyone here homework to google/grok “Blooms Taxonomy"”
Molikai yahoos it, instead.
Boris says, “We should be asking our students to evaluate and analyze information: not to simply spit it out.”
Trinsec nods, good point.
Boris says, “Trinsec, I think you are next?”
Trinsec nods.
Trinsec says, “I’ve seen on a few schools that they’ve got this idea that it is totally cool to have a few computers in every classroom next to the one big computer lab they’re having. What’s your opinion on that? I didn’t get the impression that they were being very useful with it.”
Boris says, “Well.”
Boris says, “I believe technology works best when it’s integrated into the teaching...so my earlier example of the microscope would be what I see as a “best practice” but what makes me crazy is when schools have this computer lab, and they send the kids there once a week for 40 minutes and call that “technology class"...."
Trinsec grins and nods.
Boris says, “the only exception I see is if the lab is being used to support classroom learning”
Boris says, “so if the kids go to computer, and learn about, for example, fractions using some cool web-game or something.”
Trinsec says, “I can imagine a computer in every class can be useful. I’m only afraid the teachers don’t have a real knowledge of that said possibility yet.”
Trinsec saw the kids MSNing and gaming, while that is explicitly forbidden at that school. But the teachers couldn’t figure out what they were doing.
Trinsec says, “Especially MSN is being masked with some specific spyware tools so the teachers couldn’t spot that easily.”
Boris says, “Trinsec: this is the exact point of this talk: if you know your stuff, and build cred at your school, you really can do some cool stuff in education. It kind of makes me mad that the kids need to hide technology...you know what I used IM for in my classroom?”
Boris says, “touch typing”
Tokeli hrms.. In his school, every classroom has 4 computers, 4 computer labs with at least 30 in each, a couple computer-classes with 30 or so, and the library has about 40 as well. Just something random.
Boris says, “You European folks might call it keyboarding?”
Molikai says, “nope, I was taught touch-typing at school.”
Trinsec says, “I’m not sure. Just typing blind?”
Molikai says, “On a typewriter, no less.”
Boris says, “We are nearingthe end of our hour, folks.”
Trinsec says, “If it’s typing lessons, the ancient cmputers at my former school had cool typing software. It all vanished when they upgraded to newer boxes. :/”
Sketch says, “Reader Rabbit is my homeboy.”
Trinsec nods slightly.
Boris says, “in the interest of keeping the conversation going, you are all warmly invited to visit my blog, http://www.mackenty.org and I’m here almost every day ”
Boris says, “Thank you very much for coming, and your questions were great!”
Trinsec nods and applauds.
Trinsec gives a standing ovation.
Molikai gives a doughtnut.
Sketch gives an ampersand. :D
Boris says, “thank you!!!”
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