Go, TX GOP - MN will benefit!

In his Dangerously Irrelevant blog post, Scott McLeod expresses outrage about:

The Republican Party of Texas states in its official 2012 political platform:

“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”

This is astounding since most everyone else in America seems to understand that our educational graduates and our employees need greater, not less, development of critical and higher-order thinking skills in order to be effective citizens, learners, and workers in our hyperconnected, hypercompetitive global information society. This political platform item is an absolutely stunning example of educational and economic cluelessness and is a surefire recipe for complete irrelevance in the 21st century. [Scott McLeod]

Scott, my friend, you need to celebrate this plank and hope it gets enacted. While I pity the Texas children who will be forever doomed to either a low level job or a life of meaningless indolence enabled by hereditary wealth, think of the benefit to those of us here in Minnesota and states where creative problem-solving is valued in workers.

If Richard Florida in his book The Rise of the Creative Class is correct, those families who do want their children to become creative, critical thinkers and now live in Texas will vote with their feet and move to places like Minnesota. We will get great kids in our schools, great employees for our companies, and more tax revenues to provide better services for everyone in our state. If Texans want a third world economy, who am I to say they shouldn't create one - especially if I am not forced to live there. I hope Texas would then be open to Minnesota's Tea Baggers moving to a more politically friendly state as well. (Think about it, Michelle - please, please, please!)

We'd like to see the housing market warm up again here in Minnesota, so motivated Texans just call the movers and head on north (just get on I35 and keep going). Miguel G, there is this nice rambler just down the road from me - right on the lake - that would be perfect for you.

And Scott, for gosh sakes, look a the big picture!

The neglected side of intellectual freedom

Intellectual freedom is the right to freedom of thought and of expression of thought. As defined by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is a human right. Article 19 states:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

The modern concept of intellectual freedom developed out of an opposition to book censorship.  Wikipedia

Intellectual freedom includes having the right to create and disseminate information and opinions as well as having the right to access the intellectual products of others. Given the difficulty and exclusivity of publishing in print (primarily books, newspapers, and magazines) prior to online publishing, the expression side of the intellectual freedom coin has been largely ignored by school librarians and teachers. 

But given the increased importance of social networking, the availability of Web 2.0 tools, the realization that knowledge creation is a valuable skill, and the growing recognition of creativity as a primary means of securing a place in the contempory workforce. all educators should be advocating for students' rights to be read, heard, and viewed.

The library profession is only slowly acknowledging that our battle over student rights to access to digital information sources is as, or more, important that our battle over student rights to access print resources. (AASL has a Banned Websites Awareness Day vs. ALA's Banned Books Week.) But already the battle ground is shifiting once again.

Many of the websites schools are blocking are those that allow students to share information. Much of the fear associated with today's Internet is less about what students will find on it and more about what students will post to it. To some degree these concerns are justified - contact with dangerous strangers, cyberbullying, and online repution damage are all negative consequences of the ignorant or malicious use of Web 2.0 and social netwoking tools. Digitial citizenship training needs to address these safety issues, of course.

But there is also a real "danger" in probibiting students from accessing the tools needed to build and share digital portfolios of original work, of participating in collaborative online learning experiences, communicating with global experts and fellow students, and using Web2.0 tools to do primary data collection as a part of research projects. The modern learner needs to share his or her ideas, receive feedback about them,participate in discussions surrounding school topics, and use online tools for collaboration. Too many students find schools blocking or limiting the tools that make publication and communication possible.

Librarians, are we ready to fight for students' rights not just to access, but to produce? Get ready = this will be the real intellectual freedom battle for our kids this decade.

Image from zazzle.com 

Happy 20th, LM_Net

It seems to me that school librarians have had the same concerns over the years: support or survival of their programs; sharing information on program and collection development; software selection and use; and simply being able to find sympathetic and helpful colleague who will listen to their joys and woes on the job Peter Milbury. LM_Net turns 20, SLJ

In my busy-ness with ALA and ISTE these past couple weeks, I've not acknowledged LM_Net's milestone anniversary. Please read the article linked above, an interview of LM_Net founders Mike Eisenberg and Peter Milbury. It's great to get these two library leaders' perspectives on school libraries.

When Peter and Mike retired as LM_Net moderators in 2007, I wrote this short homage to my first PLN:

Continuing Education

Head for the Edge, Library Media Connection, September 2008

You Know You’re a Librarian in 2008 when…you know more librarians in Texas than you do in your home state because of LM_Net.

Peter Milbury and Mike Eisenberg, the founders and moderators par excellence of LM_Net for the past 15 years, announced last November that they are passing the torch.

For the one or two of you reading this who don’t know about LM_Net, it has been the mainstay electronic mailing list for an estimated 100 million school librarians in 2 million countries, on a dozen other planets, and at least two identified alternative universes. It produces in excess of a billion e-mail messages each day - 10 billion on “recipe day.” (These numbers are rough estimates.)

I was an early subscriber and participant on LM_Net using my university “vax” account back in 1992 when I first joined. This was 1200 baud modem dial-up, line interface, pre-WWW, uphill-both-directions-in-the-snow Internet days. Not soft and cushy like young‘uns have it today with your graphical interfaces and wirelessness. The computer screen was hard to read by lamplight, too.

Anyway, LM_Net became my first Internet “continuing education” experience. And the learning began early.

It was my second year as library media supervisor and I was getting lots of push-back from the district librarians I had inherited. I was determined to make them tech integration specialists and they seemed just as determined to remain print-only librarians. After one particularly frustrating day, I turned on my computer, opened my e-mail, and just let rip about the reactionary, troglodytic, myopic, nature of school librarians, concluding that they had better damn well wake-up and smell the coffee or they would all be replaced with techs and not to let the door hit ‘m where the good lord split’m on the way out. And off the rant went to LM_Net. 

Let me put it this way - I got some reaction. I knew librarians had good vocabularies, but even I learned some new words. I believe after that other LM_Netters opened my e-mails simply wondering what idiotic thing I might say next. In LM_Net I found my voice.

But more importantly, I found colleagues who offered information, encouragement, and support. It was my first true “continuous learning” experience not because I was the one doing the teaching, but because we were all learning together – as we do to this day. The virtual community built by LM_Net (a professional learning community before they were so named) was a lifeline and sanity-keeper for many of us.

My subscription to LM_Net has been set on nomail for awhile. In honor of this milestone anniversary, I'm turning this puppy back on. Let's keep it going for another 20 years.

On a personal note, I first met Joyce Valenza at an AASL conference in Portland in '97 where Mike Eisenberg was hosting a "Late Night with Mike" amateur hour event. Joyce did impressions of single cell organisms -paramecium, protozoa, etc. We became friends anyway. 

Thank you, Peter and Mike. You've made a huge impact on my career and my life.