Both Tim Wilson and Will Richardson have commented on the Long Tail in recent days, each expressing a different perspective. Tim states (in Jargon watch: The Long Tail) that… (1st perspective)
…there are a lot of great thinkers out there blogging and working in the long tail. If you restrict your students to using a traditional textbook they will never find the gems out there in the tail where so many fresh perspectives and new ideas can be found. We don’t need to wait for information to show up in dead tree form anymore. This blog is great example of the long tail.
Will offers a more cautious view (read The Long Tail Problem in K-12 in full), and I snip viciously here. (2nd perspective)
If we are going to help teachers see blogs as “research safe,” we’re going to have to give them some tools by which to assess those blogs. Right now, I would teach teachers and students that they should
- try to find out who the blogger is….
- find out who is linking to the site…
- spend some time reading a range of posts…
- spend some time looking at the comments…
I want to offer two more perspectives. Although I agree whole heartedly with Wills cautions (see also Terry Freedman’s recent post on Evaluating Information) and equally with Tim’s enthusiasm over the growth of content and perspective, it seems to me that there are two levels of value here (3rd perspective). There is, and always will be, value in well founded and supported facts, information, and knowledge. Some problems, only the “truth” will solve.
However, in a time of rapid change, sometimes the test of trial and time are too slow. Often, the best ideas are going to come from thinkers who lack the perspective, credential, and backing that we would logically like to see. Yet the ideas, coming in from a backdoor (the basement, or upstairs window) is just what’s going to help us solve this brand new problem.
So I would urge teachers to pay attention to enthusiasts’ conversations in the blogosphere, and selectively expose their students to these ideas. Then ask the students to research the idea and its context and try to provide their own grounding as a knowledge building project.
Another angle (4th perspective), and the one that I most often approach the Long Tail from in my presentations is that this is a new market. That long tail represents information products that there were no buyers for five years ago. But with todays expanding digital bazaar, people, who could never write a best seller, produce a blockbuster film, nor perform a hit album (oops, CD), are now making at least part of their living buy producing information. This sort of cottage level information industry may play an important part in our students future, meaning that communication becomes much more than just a basic literacy skill.
Just 2¢ worth!
What a moment of serendipity! Ten minutes ago I was reading my daily listserv for German teachers, which today was full of complaints about one of the most popular German textbooks. It seems that since there are so few German programs in high schools not much attention is being given to our textbook. Its pictures haven’t been updated since the early 90’s (hence the need for me to explain that Germans are not a decade behind us fashion-wise) and many mistakes have been reprinted through several editions. The publisher has no plans to update the book, because there’s no money in it.
Wouldn’t this be a perfect opportunity for someone to get in on the “long tail” and maybe do an entirely online textbook? We already use the online version of our crappy textbook in class- imagine how many teachers would subscribe to a really good text online. Maybe even one that could be constantly expanded as teachers create their own materials?
I want to move my students in this direction. I’m going to order your book on classroom blogging and try to find the imte to read it this semester. I’ve linked to the book and your blog at The Endless Faculty Meeting.
Jana,
Thanks so much for your note (and obviously for yours, Bill). But I must confess that I had not thought of the Long Tail from the perspective that you offer, Jana. I have pitched it to educators as a niche to publish into, but not thinking about actual markets who are being so ill-served by traditional publishing, music, and film industries. It’s something to pay attention to. In fact, prospering in an increasingly fluid and “flat*” economy will require people who listen out for unfilled needs. This is another question, but how do we integrate that skill into our curriculum? That’s another blog.
Taking this into another direction, what if we turned things around, and you (and a cadre of colleagues) produced your own text book. Using a service called Lulu (http://lulu.com), my latest book was published three hours after I finished writing and editing it. Or just keep it digital, and use something like Moodle as your interactive textbook.
Let me think out loud here for a moment. Might we push this just a little further, (and I’m in no position to speculate on how this might work) but what about partnering with an English teacher in Germany, to collaboratively produce a digital textbook (term used loosely). It could be contributed to by students, continuing to cultivate the product with new writings, explanations, media (images, audio, video). You might integrate in a web tool where German english students peer review work done by American german students, and visa versa.
I’m closing before I get to far out there.
* Refering to Thomas Friedmans writings on flatism — Friedman, Thomas. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. New York: Farrar, Straus & Girous, 2005.
Jane and Dave,
Love the thought. What about using like a Wiki as an online format for a textbook. Take your idea Dave and then allow people all to edit the ‘textbook’ with new informaiton as it happens. The great thing about a ‘living textbook’ is it would never be out of date. Students could continuly update history and events as they happen. Could you imagine having a science textbook that already had lessons learned from last years Tsunomi and this hears hurriscans. As an educatator, I can’t think of a better way to motivate students to learn, find and evaluate information, and then apply that information by updating a textbook that others are using. Talk about authentic learningJane and Dave,
Love the thought. What about using a Wiki like system as an online format for a textbook? Take your idea Dave and then allow students to edit the ‘textbook’ with new information as it happens. The great thing about a ‘living textbook’ is it would never be out of date. Students could continually update history and events as they happen. Could you imagine having a science textbook that already had lessons learned from last year’s Tsunami and this year’s hurricane? As an educator, I can’t think of a better way to motivate students to learn, find and evaluate information, and then apply that information by updating a textbook that others are using. Talk about authentic learning! Students today are use to having information updated by the second, and we wonder why a 10 year old textbook doesn’t capture their attention. We are in a time of instant information, love it or hate it, that’s all our students know.
Some fellow German teachers have thrown a wet blanket on this exciting self-perpetuating online textbook idea: state standards. Part of the reasons that textbook publishers claim our books are like they are is that the publishers are trying to meet different standards in all 50 states.
This is the reason that so many of us teachers today have a “state mandated” textbook, whether or not we use it. I chose my German III text last year because I had to have a state approved text, not because I like the book. Most resourceful teachers will tell you they pull information from a variety of sources anyway, but still we are required to have that state mandated text.
I wonder if an ever-changing online text could ever meet state textbook requirements?
Jana,
It seems to me that the answer to your questions (I wonder if an ever-changing online text could ever meet state textbook requirements?) is “yes”. You know your state standards. You also know your standards (as the instructional leader of your classroom). You know your particular strengths and weaknesses when it comes to teaching German as well as your unique experiences that you bring to the class. You know your students and their interests and their likely responses to the instruction.
It seems to me that you could extend and enhance the state adopted text book with a growing and evolving digital resource, with the assistance of your students. By collecting:
pictures and video, downloaded from the Internet, and even commissioned from english classes in Germany,
e-mail and audio (Skype, iChat, Google Talk, etc.) interviews with students and/or business people, scientists, artists, etc.,
Digital information products (video, animation, images, poems, etc.) created by your students,
You can manage and utilize a learning resource for your students that would achieve and exceed state standards, and make your students true participants in their own education.
I suspect that at some point we’re going to have to come up with a new name for this home-grown digital resource. But for the time being, digital textbook probably provides the best frame of reference.
2 more cents.