VSTE+09+Keynote

Dr. Tim Tyson (tim@drtimtyson.com) "Hyper-Connected Students"

Challenge Your Thinking Profound shifts over the last 600 years...
 * New Technology = Textbooks!
 * Telephony
 * Recorded Audio
 * Television (Broadcast) - controlled the content and disseminated culture

A New Age (far more significant) = The Era of the Internet
 * connect people instantly
 * collective action for change
 * inexpensive
 * "hyperconnected"

implications for educators?
 * a platform for participation and engagement
 * the internet is in it's "adolescence"
 * distribution and accessibility
 * the small can act really big!
 * every URL is a latent community
 * potential to challenge the status quo
 * invite participation
 * welcome depth
 * consensus

The student generation:
 * consume
 * produce
 * share
 * community
 * personal production to the masses
 * not limited by geography
 * quality = expertise
 * Few role models for quality, depth, and significance: experimentation and display that lacks these things ("Hello Educators!!")

Attention Economy:
 * limited attention, only able to give our attention to one thing
 * media is distracting
 * information has to be compressed to fit between commercial breaks
 * irresponsible media?

New research:
 * stop multitasking
 * actually make learning less effective
 * learn more slowly
 * brain research says there is no such thing as multitasking: continuous partial attention
 * true multitasking: motivated by a desire to be more productive and more efficient
 * continuous partial attention: motivated by the desired tob e a live node on the network ("addicted to technology")

The need to be connected is beginning to be dissatisfying. Is everything really that important?
 * overstimulated
 * overwhelmed
 * unfulfilled

Are we imitating our hyperconnected students or are we modeling for them? 60% of students actually used their phones to call or text after they turned the lights out to go to bed

Can we communicate efficiently and effectively with "twittering"?

Digital trial and error is not understanding

Literacy is predicated on the intelligent and intentional action to achieve meaningful goals

Curriculum focused on the bigger picture. Doing and saying what we truly value.
 * Math isn't about numbers
 * Lit isn't about letters and words
 * Music isn't about notes chords and rhythm
 * School isn't about grades adn high-stakes testing

Positive emotional attachment to learning and knowledge Help them think deeply, to feel with their hearts compassionately, and to create

We are training children to go out and "make a buck" = globally competitive

Live your calling passionately!

Blooms 21st
 * Remember
 * Too much focus on education
 * Understand
 * Apply
 * Analyze
 * *Contribute
 * note just remix
 * not just connect and acknowledge

Students love technology, but for all the wrong reasons

If we repurpose 1% of world's cognitive surplus: 10,000 Wikipedia projects

Collective action instead of low-level use of cognitive surplus

A passion for contributing to the beauty of humanity.

If we leverage these tools...to do that which is unparalleled...

What will we do when students begin bringing cell phones that will record and stream live audio and video??

We're not engaging them in their own learning process?

Can we move fact acquisition out of class time?

Where will you spend your energy....banning engagement or guiding facilitation, model best practices, help students make meaningful contribution Manipulate how they use their cognitive surplus.

iTunes k12

Are we giving our best to our students? What's holding us back?

The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and to make the most of one's resources.