The Education Business Blog

New Thinkronize Research – Schools and Generation ‘Net - Shows that Porn Nudges out Predators as Leading Online Danger for Students

Editor's Note: Guest Blogger Randy Wilhelm, CEO of Thinkronize, will be sharing some insights from a survey they recently conducted on the concerns of Teachers and Parents what kids are finding on-line. This is relevant information for those who are in the business of producing instructional materials for web-based delivery. As parents become more skeptical about internet resources we have to double-up our efforts to promote on-line safety for children.

As the cold of winter is almost upon us, my wife and I have been digging out the kids’ winter coats, hats and mismatched mittens. Mittens are like socks – they get lost mysteriously – either eaten by the dryer or left to freeze somewhere on a snow bank. Whatever happened to those sturdy metal clips that parents used to fasten mittens to winter coats? The act of fastening those mittens was more than just to protect us from cold hands, it was an extra safety measure to ensure that when we ventured out, everything possible had been done to assure our safety.

Of course, the good old days of mitten clips pre-date the Internet, and now we have a whole other online world to consider for safeguarding our children.

Interestingly, a recent Pew Internet study found that parents have become even more ambivalent about the Internet, with fewer of them considering it good for children. And a study we commissioned in October – uncovering responses from nearly 1,000 educators – offered similar findings. The study, Schools and Generation ‘Net, revealed that 2/3 of K-8 principals and library media specialists see danger on the Internet increasing. .

Another compelling finding was that a whopping 45% of educators rated pornography as a great or significant danger, while 43% gave predators the same rating. And, when it comes to cyber-bullying, 37% of educators were greatly/significantly concerned about the danger.

As the Internet grows and becomes more ubiquitous and commercialized – and kids continue to be bombarded by masses of information – the challenge of finding useful educational content without encountering the insidious dangers will increase. Filters, training and safe and contextually relevant search engines, like netTrekker, are critical tools for educators to keep the Internet a welcoming and incomparable educational resource for our digitally native kids.

The study also had some provocative, need-to-know findings on such critical topics as information literacy, relevancy and commercialization and actions taken to protect students on line, all of which I will elaborate on in my next blog post.

And, don’t forget the mitten clips…

Link to second article in this series.

Technology & Learning On-Line has launched a set of forums on education technology issues. For some odd reason they selected me to moderate the Games and Virtual Worlds Forum. As the graphic shows teaching and learning is about a conversation, so lets get one going over there.

MaestroC got the ball rolling by stating that Second Life is the best platform and that games for education are a fad. Agree, disagree, keep it polite and lets all learn together. See my response on the forum and ad your own!

There is also a quick poll on which kind of game player you are. Several years ago Richard Bartle articulated the four primary styles of game play and a theory about how to balance them. Take the poll and see where you fit with your peers.

Other forums include:

• Student Personal Gadgets
• Free Stuff
• Security
• Digital Storytelling
• Letters to the Editor

  Credit to Jessica Hagy over at Indexed for the graphic.

Sometimes in the rush to finish a chapter on deadline or to get six copies to Paducah by Friday we loose sight of the essence of what we are doing.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietanmese monk, writing about how everything is connected expressed it this way:

When you look at this sheet of paper, you think it belongs to the realm of being. There was a time that it came into existence, a moment in the factory it became a sheet of paper. But before the sheet of paper was born, was it nothing? Can nothing become something? Before it was recognizable as a sheet of paper, it must have been something else - a tree, a branch, sunshine, clouds, the earth. In its former life, the sheet of paper was all these things. If you ask the sheet of paper, "Tell me about your adventures," she will tell you, "Talk to a flower, a tree, or a cloud and listen to their stories."*

Books are a way of passing along stories, but they are also stories in and of themselves. People outside the world of publishing don't hear those stories, but they see them in everything we do.

Now, you may be saying to yourself "he's gone a little woo-woo on us" - and you may be right. We still have to make a buck to stay in business. I believe that how we make a buck matters, and frequently in ways we never see.

Pass it on.

*

"The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching" (Thich Nhat Hanh) p 137

Every 2-3 months I share the new (to me) tunes that have been getting heavy rotation on my iPod.

This mix has a bit of everything - Dylanesque folk from Old Crow Medicine Show, the tube amplifier hum of Eels, Guy Forsyth grinding out blues, Linkin Park speaking out, Johnny Cash on the book of Revalations, Regina Spektor singing from the heart, Ozomatli with their Mexi-Rap, and Lyle Lovett swinging it.

Enjoy.

You need to have iTunes installed on your computer to hear samples of each of the songs.

Other Mixes:

Summer 07 Favorites
Spring 07

Barbara Russell asserted that we are not producing new entrepreneurs in the education market at her acceptance speech last week at the AEP Awards.

I respectfully disagree with her on this. Today the entrepreneurs are not in the traditional supplemental print business that Options was in, they are all in the technology arena. Some examples:

Bill Kelly - Learning.com
Randy Wilhelm - NetTrekker
Sandy Fivecoat - We Are Teachers
Larry Berger - Wireless Generation
Jonathan Harber - SchoolNet
Dave McCool - Muzzy Lane
Ntiedo Etuk - Tabula Digita
Jim Bower - Whyville
Mark Johnson - National Transcript Center

All of these entrepreneurs are building vibrant and interesting companies that are pushing the envelope across the education market. They share the traits she outlined in her talk. There are dozens more that I could have mentioned.

In fact - if you need solid evidence that technology is at an inflection point this is it. The old-line companies are consolidating the print business as it commoditizes while the entrepreneurs are drilling new wells of value using technology and services.

Barbara closed her talk by making much the same point. She talked about where she sees the business going and mentioned two things in particular that are going to shape our industry:

Rapid development of customized products. She sees a world of 2 week turnarounds on 4 color, bound, customized products. This is automation of the back end of the business.

Ubiquitous access due to low cost laptop programs will make technology a regular part of how we teach in the classroom.

As I have outlined in other posts (Technology Substitution, Information Overload) I believe we are in for a period of wrenching change in Education Publishing. I'm bullish about the industry's long-term future, there are lots of good ideas getting traction and plenty of entrepreneurs stepping up to make them real.

Disclosure - We Are Teachers, Whyville, and National Transcript Center have been or are currently clients.

Barbara Russell, founder of Options Publishing, was honored at the Association of Education Publishers (AEP) awards breakfast this week in New York. She spoke about entrepreneurship in the education market and why it matters to those of us who care deeply about providing schools with innovative high quality instructional products.

When multi-billion dollar companies like Pearson, Houghton / Riverdeep / Harcourt, and McGraw-Hill consolidate much of the business we need entrepreneurs driving change at the margins. Without pressure from this dynamic source our industry will collapse under its own weight.

She began by outlining the four characteristics that she believes entrepreneurs share.

They are hands on with customers. - You have to be fully engaged and listening. All the successful entrepreneurs she knows worked their trade show booths - hearing ideas and issues directly from customers and prospects. She mentioned Tom Milano , Rachelle Cracchiola, and Bill Evans as examples of this ethic.

They adapt to changing markets - Successful entrepreneurs turn their companies on a dime when a good idea comes their way. They are able to deliver product while the big companies are still debating whether to do it. Years before formative assessment became the rage Barbara cooked up the Comprehensive Reading Assessment at Laguardia Airport with a couple of customers. Six months later it was released and went on to deliver $2m in revenue its first full year in the market.

They are more focused on doing than planning - In her experience you don’t plan on becoming an entrepreneur. After 19 years in the classroom she started Options and within 12 years had build a $19 million business. I believe she meant that there was an element of leap - then look.

They find and nurture partners - She mentioned people who were her trusted partners throughout the construction of Options. Some came on as employees who started answering the phones and proved themselves, others were business partners who drove product innovation. The money quote:

“You are only as good as the people around you. You can’t do it alone.”

Congratulations to Barbara and the other award winners - it was a great event and a nice way to honor those who have contributed to our common welfare.