Beyond School

As my 1:1 MacBook laptop school drives further into 21st century education - attempts to, anyway, despite getting stuck in the deep mud of 20th century teachers, parents, and students - I’m more and more realizing that it’s the early adopters who are the exponential change-agents.

Among the adults at my school, the early adopters fueling the shifts at our school are history teacher Jason Spivey (I posted about him on my guest-blogger post at Wes Fryer’s blog yesterday, and spoke of him in my Apple Distinguished Educator presentation video from Bangkok recently), middle school social studies teacher Anthony Armstrong, and my high school principal and vice principal, Rich Boerner and Robin Schneider.

But having a few adults that get it at school isn’t enough. You need students to get it too. The effects of over a decade of schooliness, I’m discovering, prevent most high school students from getting it at all. I’ve joked on Twitter about the need to create de-programming workshops for schoolified students along the lines used for ex-cult members (hm - school as cult: there’s a post idea). So I’m really pleased to see students who do see it, and rise above the herd who don’t.

Introducing Patrick Nam, a Quality Student Podcaster

Patrick Nam is one such student. He’s in Project Global Cooling, and he used Skype, ecamm’s $15 USD Call Recorder download (Mac only), and GarageBand to record and edit this podcast interview with my guest-blogger Bill Farren (see his two posts over the last eight days below), creator of the “Did You Ever Wonder?” video and “Education for Well-Being” website. Here’s the podcast embed:

I admire Patrick’s care for production values in his podcasts, as well as his ability to interview adults with the confidence that should belong - but doesn’t, as a rule - to young adults like himself. So many of our students are scared to relate to adults, to talk to them, to learn through conversation. Patrick is not socially stunted in this way. I hope other students at my school see how cool Patrick’s podcast projects are as real-world ways to learn and create. When was the last time any of them interviewed an expert on the other side of the planet, and published it for the world as a digital radio show?

He’s definitely our best school podcaster. For more, see his interview with Lindsea of Project Global Cooling, Hawaii (and Students 2.0) here. And check out Patrick’s blog here (he podcasts an interview with me there about Apple Remote Desktop and student rights to privacy at school - quite a scoop, since I explain how students can hide files from teachers’ prying eyes). His podcasts make good models to use for your students. Patrick knows a podcast is more than hitting “record” and then posting it. Patrick knows quality.

Me? I’m Asking, “What is Schooliness?” on Wes Fryer’s Blog

Come join the fun with a history of schooliness and a wicked invitation to some Open Thread goodness on Wes Fryer’s Moving at the Speed of Creativity. Help make a Schooly Devil’s Dictionary in the thread!

“What is Schooliness?” - Discursus and Open Thread (Clay Burell guest-post 2) » Moving at the Speed of Creativity via kwout