This was recently emailed to me from Sparkpr (and I am sure it was emailed to thousands of others as well).   I have included a slightly editted version below, with a little less marketing.  All in all, an interesting debate.

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I saw your blog and thought that you and your readers would like to know that today, Economist.com kicked off a new Oxford-style online debate tomorrow on social networking and the value it adds to the classroom. Since you’re a member of the technology and blogger community that is highly relevant to this topic, The Economist wanted us to give you a heads up.

This month’s debate proposition is: “The house believes that social networking technologies will bring large [positive] changes to educational methods, in and out of the classroom.”

• Our expert debaters are two leaders in education and technology, and will square off for three rounds of debate.
  • CON - Michael Bugeja, Director of Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, Iowa State University of Science and Technology. The author of 21 books whose research is often cited by the New York Times, Dr. Bugeja was among the first to analyze the use of social networks (Facebook & Second Life) before their use by students and educators was widespread and well-understood.
  • PRO – Ewan McIntosh, National Adviser on Learning and Technology Futures for Learning and Teaching Scotland, the education agency responsible for curriculum development, and a member of the Channel 4 Media Advisory Board. He writes about social media and learning for the Guardian and the BBC, speaks internationally and consults for organizations including the British Council, the RSA, General Teaching Council of Scotland, RM and Scottish Enterprise, advising on how social media can be harnessed for to improve learning. He blogs at http://edu.blogs.com
  • Guest participants will also contribute featured comments.

o Parry Aftab, Founder & Executive Director, WiredSafety.org

o Judith Krug, Directory, Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association (ALA)

o Ann Flynn, Director, Education Technology, National School Board Association (NSBA)

o Nancy Willard, Executive Director, The Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use

Here’s a short debate schedule:

· Tuesday, January 15 – Opening statements & floor opens to comments from public

· Wednesday, January 16 – Guest Participant, Parry Aftab, WiredSafety.org

· Thursday, January 17 – Rebuttals

· Monday, January 21 – Guest Participant, Judith Krug, American Library Association

· Tuesday, January 22 – Guest Participant, Ann Flynn, National School Boards Association

· Wednesday, January 23 – Closing statements

· Thursday, January 24 – Guest Participant, Nancy Willard, Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use

· Friday, January 25 – Debate winner announced

I recognize the irony of posting the content of this message that I received through my “Contact” page since I am giving it more eyeballs.

Posting information on a blog requires a few critical media literacy skills, especially on what you decide to post and why you post it.  I’m not interested in being someones marketing tool.

Along similar lines of “An Inconvenient Truth” is the documentary “Who killed the Electric Car?”

Although, it is slow moving at times, it is well worth watching.

Learning = Change

Originally uploaded by qd.

And a new year begins again ….

Scott and Karl have updated the Did You Know presentation. Here are their notes, with suggestions for using this presentation.

Possible origins of the often quoted “Any teacher who thought they could be replaced by a machine, deserved to be.” B. F. Skinner supporters in the 1960′s on p.16 of “Never Mind the Laptops” by Bob Johnstone.

Image source vaxZine.

I am about half way through the book “Never Mind the Laptops: Kids, Computers and The Transformation of Learning” by Bob Johnstone. It has been an interesting trip into the history of educational computing, and I hope it will help to inform some of ideas in the future.

One quote I really enjoyed on pg 82. by Seymour Papert:

“What computers had offered me was exactly what they should offer children! They should serve children as instruments to work with to think with, as the means to carry out projects, the source of concepts to think new ideas … “

By a parent and friend:

“My son uses his computer for his homework and produces great quality work, and then goes to school and can’t use the computers there. Something is wrong here.”

Image source vaxZine.