The lessons behind the burger…

Part of the rationale for the project is developing guidelines and processes for the application of some of these Web 2.0 tools in a school setting, and simply trying how they can and will work in an appropriate way. Many of my colleagues, I know, are hesitant about using the technology for a start, and that is before they are sometimes aware of the potential issues with being truly immediate and online with your students. Here are some areas that were considered in advance:

Access

Managing passwords/access rights to the various Web 2.0 tools requires thought. Under the model for this project, each student needs ‘contributor’ rights to the blog so they can write posts directly, with me – the teacher – as ‘administrator’. This takes some setting up through edublogs, though the tutorial steps are adequate to get things rolling. The most difficult part of the process was getting each of the twenty-seven students an edublogs account that linked to their school webmail account, and then to have students log on and activate their account individually. Once that was done, each student had to be added to the BurgerLOG.

Access to the e-mail address behind the registrations, the Twitter, ustream and Google Analytics accounts are all kept and controlled centrally by me.

Moderation

Monitoring/moderating posts (outgoing posts and incoming comments) to the blog is one aspect, as is the intranet, portal-based discussion forum. I take on the role of approving blog comments before they are posted. The student discussion on the portal (initially relating to marketing ideas and forming ‘personality-based’ groups) did get a little out of hand. Students – having that ability to start new discussion threads, reply to posts and make announcements – did so! Off-topic posts and announcements were deleted and a ‘discussion’ (albeit one-way) held with the group to outline the purpose of, and processes for posting only relevant and task-oriented material to the forum. End of issue!

Privacy and anonymity

Conforming to safe practices regarding student images, names/identities and personal information is another consideration. For the sake of ease, images of student ‘at work’ will not include faces. Students will not be using their names on the blog, and in fact, are generally only identified by their group letter T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z. This is just one less thing to be worried about. Students are well aware that any private information will not be published.

Legalities

Avoiding direct identification of the source of the burger seemed a safe way to play things (no lawsuits, thanks!). Although this project is not about taking an anti-fast food, anti-corporate stand, some of the findings of the project may be incidentally ‘incriminating’.

A letter to parents of those involved outlining the activity and its safety considerations was contemplated, but in reality, to the extent things have gone thus far, this has not proved necessary. If, however, mobile blogging (via utterli) is to be used (utilising students’ own phones), a permission letter would be a must given there is a cost, if for not other reason.

This is a teaching project designed to take something ubiquitous and accessible, and to turn it into an Internet phenomenon using low/no-cost Web 2.0 tools. In the process, I hope to motivate and engage students, and also to see the degree to which the 14 year old of today (in a developed country) is really a ‘Digital Native‘.

As planned, this activity will involve acquiring and monitoring a cheeseburger. Due care will be taken not to identify the source of the burger – and this is irrelevant to the task anyway – nor to attack a brand (and I certainly don’t intend to be subject to any legal action!). Having said this, the fact that some cheesburgers are apparently so full of preservatives will work to our benefit.

The burger is destined to take on something of a personality, with the students representing it online directly, and also undertaking various subject-based qualitative and quantitative tasks. ‘The Burger’ has various accounts online and a location where writing, data and multimedia can be posted for all to see and comment upon: The BurgerLOG.

Several staff associated with my Year 8 Homeroom and beyond, have already been approached for thoughts on taking part in various ways, and are keen to be involved. The students are already informed about the activity, and indeed are extremely keen to pursue it. The class as a whole has already increased appreciably in enthusiasm and motivation.

The activity also marries well, coincidentally, with other initiatives going on in the school presently. The first is the Year 8 Homerooms’ focus on learning about and utilising the 16 Habits of Mind (HOM) developed by Costa and Kallick. We have been looking at these in one-at-a-time during a period per week. The final term task for the year is to be a reflection on the HOM and a presentation as a homeroom group. All of the requirements of this burger project are compatible with, if not enhanced by the application of HOM (which, in short, are sixteen means by which one knows how to behave intelligently when not knowing an answer).

The second school initiative is an investigation of how the application of technology can be beneficial and motivating, especially to boys. The ‘Boys Ed’ project at the school encompasses a couple of technology-intensive projects to see how the boys react and achieve though their course. Although my class is mixed gender, it will still be significantly different to the things we have done regularly throughout the year.

So for many reasons, this project will be an interesting experiment.