Creative Web 2.0 Learning

[I posted this on educatorslog.in and hence the rather long drawn-out intro to Web 2.0]


Web 2.0 is a buzzword that many of you may have come across in your wanderings around the Internet. In fact educatorslog.in, too, is using Web 2.0 technologies like blogging and tagging, to facilitate bringing people together to discuss issues, share and organize (through tags and categories) resources, and participate in a common space.

Among the common Web 2.0 technologies are blogs, wikis, RSS, tag-sharing (folksonomies) tools like del.icio.us, mashups (bringing together information from various sites to create a more "unified" or "integrated" experience, like in Google Maps). Social networking sites like Facebook & Orkut, and video/photo sharing sites like Flickr & YouTube which bring together elements of the aforementioned technologies are all part of the "Web 2.0" revolution.

Probably the most important "affordances" of Web 2.0 are sharing, collaboration and the ease with which anyone can create/publish content (text, audio, video, or a combination of these) on the internet. This new generation Web is a great leveler, in some sense, where one does not have to be a web developer or geeky programmer to publish his/her thoughts, stories, artwork, stories, photos, video clips, on the Internet.

(You can find tons of information on "web 2.0" on the Internet, including videos on youtube. I found this slideshow and this one interesting, although someone completely unaware of the concept may find it hard to get it without any accompanying commentary or notes, but they may be worth a viewing, anyway).

After that rather long drawn-out introduction, I guess I should come to what I really wanted to share - an interesting slideshow titled "Creative Web 2.0 Learning" which focuses on the idea of "Library 2.0" but also describes in several interesting slides the meaning of web 2.0 technologies in education.

Slide #8 is referring to this impressive youtube video - The Machine is Us/ing Us which provides a definitive look at the web 2.0 interaction paradigm. I think slide #16 is a good description of web 2.0, and slide #24 provides a wonderful look at where education is, or should be, headed in this century, especially when we have at our disposal these great technologies of the "read-write" web (another way of describing "web 2.0") --

* Formal Learning Spaces --> Informal Learning Spaces
* Mass Learning --> Personalized Learning
* Competitive (or I would call this "Individual") --> Collaborative learning & assessment
* Restricted & Constructed --> Creative & Extended
* Instruction --> Personal Author & Innovator
* Content --> Knowledge & Understanding

Creativity in the Classroom

[Read more on this at educatorslog.in]

Creativity & Innovation seem to be buzzwords today, not just in the world of design, but in the corporate world as well as in education today. I wrote a couple of posts about a year ago on the idea of "possibility thinking" - in this post and this one.

I attended an immensely fascinating workshop on Creativity at the recently held TAISI conference in Bangalore (where I also held a session - on "Technology Tools for Collaboration" - see previous post here). This workshop conducted by Dr. Susan Baum of the International Center for Talent Development was called "Creativity 1,2,3", and was centered around characteristics of creative thinking and creativity in children, and how to nurture these in the classroom.

I found the presentation slides to this workshop. Some slides relating to participant involvement & action during the workshop may not make sense, but there are several slides dedicated to what "creative folks" do and look like, "divergent thinking", brainstorming strategies in the classroom that encourage kids to be creative, and "problem finding (not problem solving) and discovery in science."

The big take-aways for teachers were --

• to provide ample opportunities in the classroom for play and "problem finding" (a more important skill than "problem solving"),
• to teach divergent thinking skills and integrate them into the curriculum, and most of all,
• to model creativity and spontaneity in the classroom.

Chirp, Chirp! Here come the crickets...

The latest offering to emerge from research at the Lifelong Kindergarten group at MIT Media Lab, has once again got proponents of “hands-on”, creative learning excited in eager anticipation. The PICO Cricket kit, due to be released in the coming weeks presents some thrilling possibilities for informal learning spaces. As someone who volunteered for the workshops at MIT Museum in 2003 during the ‘Playful Invention & Exploration’ (PIE) research project, I have a personal connection as well with this product.

PIE Workshops at the MIT Museum - Pictures of my (then) 6-year old son at the 'e-Insect Invasion' workshop in April 2003

Simply put, PicoCricket is “a LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Kit meets a Klutz Craft Kit” i.e. LEGO pieces + ‘Electronic Thingees’ + Craft materials, where ‘Electronic Thingees’ = a microcomputer (the legendary MIT Media Lab “cricket” encased in a plastic body, much like the LEGO RCX brick), LEDs, sensors & motors. The colorful craft materials range from foam balls to pipe cleaners to straws, beads and buttons. [In the hands of a resourceful, creative individual, the kit could be “enhanced” by any number of “craft materials” from all around us - there is no dearth of plastic and metal knick-knacks that could be recycled to find a new home - and use.]

What differentiates this product from the Mindstorms, is, of course, the emphasis on creativity and craft, which as I see, will serve to bridge the technology gender divide (I speak from first-hand experience – boys have outnumbered girls by far in the after-school Robotics Club I have run for high-schoolers for the past 3 years). It is not only the inclusion of craft materials that sets this apart from the Mindstorms, but also the exclusion of the vast numbers of wheels, axles, tires, treads and hubs, that account for a large percentage of the Mindstorms kit. Kids take one look at the Mindstorms kit and “roving bots on wheels” is probably the first "robot" idea that strikes them. One look at the Crickets kit and kids could think of a zillion different exciting, colorful artifacts. "Arts & Crafts for the Digital Age", is how NYT has described it.

At $250, this kit seems quite pricey (more so for the Indian market), especially given that the LEGO Mindstorms NXT seems to have a lot more (in terms of sheer size of the kit) for the same price; but that has not deterred critics from giving this product a thumbs-up. (I queried Mitch Resnick at the Media Lab about this when he showed me the Cricket kit this past spring; he thinks that bulk production - driven by demand, will hopefully bring down the price some time in the future).

I, for one, cannot wait to get my hands on one of these ...

Exploratory Learning Environments

The Tech Museum of Innovation (popularly known simply as "The Tech") in San Jose is such a wonderful space that works to de-mystify the whole "technology" thing for kids (and interested adults as well). From visual representations of the boolean logic that drives circuits to chunks of silicon and the insides of all kinds of electronic components of computers and other gadgets that are all around us - kids can "see", "touch", "feel", "experience"...

Schools in the area leverage the presence of this fantastic informal learning environment and avail of the various events and activities that the Museum aims at schools. The Tech runs summer camps and also the hugely popular annual "Tech Challenge" for school kids.

This museum obviously benefits from being in the heart of Silicon Valley for ideas and artifacts. Why can we not have a similar space in India, in Bangalore - purportedly the "Silicon Valley" of India? There is no dearth of tech activity around here; sadly, there's just a dearth of good intent that will translate into action...

        Hands-on and Interactive - A 'desi' explains the history of the silicon chip (left picture)