In an effort to simplify the search for emerging e-learning / edtech, I have reviewed four new products that can be used inside and outside the classroom to bring new media technologies to education. In order of review they are:

• Social Media Classroom – an open e-learning platform developed by Howard Rheingold and offered free to students and teachers
• iKnow – an e-learing social networking platform developed by Cerego that focuses on language learning
• Edmodo – it is Twitter for educators… enough said
• Xtranormal – this application allows you easily create your own flash movies complete with dialogue and 3D animated characters

That was for the busy people. For a more complete look at each of these new platforms / application, continue reading below.

Social Media Classroom

Social Media Classroom is the brainchild of Howard Rheingold, a professor at UC Berkley and Stanford and the author of Smart Mobs. Social Media Classroom is built on the free Drupal CMS platform and provides teachers and learners with an integrated set of social media tools.

Each course created can use these tools as required and customize its usage for its own purposes. SMC has integrated forums, blogs, comment, wiki, chat, social bookmarking, RSS, microblogging, widgets, and video commenting.

The idea behind SMC was to create a free, easy to use, “student-centric pedagogy that engages students in actively constructing knowledge together about issues that matter to them, rather than passively absorbing it from texts, lectures, and discussions.”

Further enhancing its potential is the ability to utilize SMC in enterprise level organizations. The SMC becomes a collaboration platform where “groups, teams, nonprofit organizations, communities of practice can bring the advantages of online media to the purposes of their enterprises.”

So what is my personal take on this? I have not yet had the chance the chance to explore SMC, but I love the idea. I have been using Wordpress and Ning to enhance the classroom experience and bring the learning out of the classroom environment. One of the things that I appreciate most about Wordpress and Ning is the ability for every individual to customize their blogs (Worpress) or their profile pages (Ning). I have noticed that this feature does a lot toward encouraging students to take it and adopt these platforms for more than just classroom assignments. And I hope that SMC supports similar customization features. (If you have information on this… please let me know)

iKnow

Cerego introduced iKnow at DEMO Fall 08 as “the first intelligent social learning platform.” iKnow is built on sophisticated learning algorithms that is supposed to enable individuals to learn faster and improve memory retention. (Anyone have any data to back this up?) Because individuals learn at different paces each person’s training schedule is unique and customized according to their periods of time for studying and learning.

Even more exciting though is the community that iKnow is building around this platform. iKnow is not only a tool to help users learn but also an intelligent social network where they can share and collaborate with other users. The goal is to create a member-centric platform where members voluntarily help each other learn within these customized online systems. Ultimately, users from all over the globe will be able to remix content and share it with others within the learning community.

Reading about this I couldn’t help but remember the post that I had written on the XPrize for Education idea. There is no XPrize for Education yet, but already with iKnow it seems that we are seeing some of the ideas being bounced around there coming to life. The future is an exciting one for educators.

Edmodo

Edmodo is a tool for students to ask questions either within the classroom timeline, pose questions to the teacher directly, and submit their assignments. Edmodo is the brainchild of Jeff O’Hara and Nic Borg, two techies who work in the field of education. The simple explanation is that it is a microblogging platform (think Twitter) for education.

But it is much more than that. Edmodo contains the all the functionality of Twitter, but then adds some very useful applications on top of that, such as a calendar that teachers can use to post events and assignment due dates. But Jeff and Nic plane to expand Edmodo even further so that teachers can use it as a grading system and a way to interact with parents.

For more information on Edmodo, check out this interview with Jeff and Nic of Edmodo.

Xtranormal

Xtranormal is my favorite program on this list. Not because it is better as an educational platform… it isn’t even an education platform. But rather because it is a lot of fun. Xtranormal gives anyone the ability to create flash movies complete with 3D characters and dialogue… simply and painlessly – all you need to do is click and type. No programming required.

Now this won’t dramatically change the way we teach our students, but it can make teaching and learning a hell of a lot more fun. Want to make your student’s watch the Presidential debate? Why not have them create their own mock movie of it, rather than having them write a report.

I have not yet had a chance to use this for my classes yet, but you can be sure that I will. This would make a great project for my writing class… script writing plus animation. I wish something like this had been around when I was going through school.

Once I have given it a try, I will let you know how it works out.

Concluding Remarks

I hope you found this information useful. Check back regularly to find updates on new educational technologies. I will post them as I find them. If you have any suggestions, or if you have used any of the above, I would love to here about your experiences. Leave a comment below, or link back to this post.

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Furthermore, as we try to integrate these technologies into the classroom environment, it would be good for us to understand both the abuse that is possible with it, and also the point (legally) at which a students actions go from harmless fun / teasing to something deliberately hurtful.

J.S. v. Blue Mountain School District

Earlier this month a court ruled that a school was within its rights to suspend an eighth-grade student (J.S.) for 10 days after she created a fake page on MySpace.com that depicted her principal as a pedophile and a sex addict. (
J.S. v. Blue Mountain School District)

This is an interesting case because it speaks to the rights of students to express themselves. Had I been J.S.’s age I would more than likely have used MySpace or YouTube to make fun of my teachers, but I think that making fun of someone and slander are two different things.

Although I am a proponent of freedom of speech, I think that in this case I would support the judges decision mainly because the MySpace profile was a public one and also because from what I have read of the case, it was not so much a parody as it was meant to slander the principal by painting him as a pedophile and degrading him.

Additionally, J.S. made it a public page so it was intended for anyone and everyone to see. Had it been private, I don’t think the school would have had a case.

The one problematic point of this case is that J.S. did not mention the principle by name on the MySpace page.

What legal precedents are really being debated here?

First is whether or not the principle constitutes a public figure. If the principle is considered a public figure then the burden of proof is higher for him.

A public figure is a legal term applied in the context of defamation actions (libel and slander). A public figure (such as a politician, celebrity, or business leader) cannot base a lawsuit on incorrect harmful statements unless there is proof that the writer or publisher acted with malice (knowledge or reckless disregard for the truth).

So does the principle of a school fall under this definition of a public figure? I would say that he does. Although the case did not seem to think so (or at least the judge made no mention of it), he is the face of his school and so should be considered a public figure, and thus a valid target for students or parents who want to ridicule him and his policies, as long as such ridicule is truthful.

However, ridicule does not entitle one to libel or slander. So the next question is was this a case of libel? In order for that to be established actual malice must first be proven.

The legal definition of actual malice was established in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, a Freedom of the Press / Civil Rights Case.

The actual malice standard requires that the plaintiff in a defamation or libel case prove that the publisher of the statement in question knew that the statement was false or acted in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity…. Proof of “actual malice” was required in order for punitive damages to be awarded, or for other increased penalties. Since proof of the writer’s malicious intentions is hard to provide, proof that the writer knowingly published a falsehood was generally accepted as proof of malice, under the assumption that only a malicious person would knowingly publish a falsehood.

So in this case I think that actual malice can be legitimately established. The information about the principle was obviously false, and very few would consider the label pedophile to be a harmless one. Furthermore because no punitive damages were being asked for, rather only that the school be allowed to suspend a student for disrupting the learning environment, I believe that the burden of proof is even lower in this case.

Some may cite the Draker v. Schreiber as evidence that the court made an incorrect decision in this case. But the biggest difference between these two cases is the scope of the penalty being enacted. In the Draker case, the principle was asking for punitive damages, while in this case the school was only asking to do what it already had the authority to do.

Therefore I believe that the court made the correct decision in this case.

Legal Cases

:

New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
Tinker Case

J.S. v. Blue Mountain School District

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