I go to college this Saturday, August 9th, 2008. I will be a freshman at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. I have a little more packing to do (misc items and clothes). Bard College starts rather early, as they have a three week workshop for freshman, called “Language and Thinking.” I’m not so excited about doing work during summer, but at least it’s better than going right into a 4-5 course schedule.

Map of campus.

My roommate is from China, which is totally rad. I’m in the dorm Oberholzer, a 5-10 minute walk from campus. I’m excited and nervous. I’m happy I’m not going to be across the country, I’ll be 3.5 hours away from home, and 2 hours away from New York City. Also, it will be nice to go to school with a few people I know (there are 3 from my high school going to Bard, in addition to a few others).

The one thing I’m upset about, is that Apple hasn’t yet released new MacBook Pro’s. My college technology “situation” will be simple(r), as I’ll only have one computer (my MacBook, and in the future, a MBP). I’ve made a few purchases (hard drives, mouse, keyboard, monitor), but nothing major.

I can’t promise anything, but I hope to keep blogging and podcasting, maybe even more regularly. I’m sure my Twitter stream will be over-active, particularly in the first few days and weeks, and I’m going to take lots of photos. I’m bringing my (new) portable recorder, USB interface, and my microphone, so I’ll be well equipped to podcast. I’ll probably write a blog post a week after I settle in, but if I’m feeling particularly lonely, you may hear from me sooner.

Wish me luck.

PodCamp Boston 3 was amazing. The venue this year was unbelievable, thank you, Harvard! It was easier to run into people this year, which was fun. PodCamp Boston 2 was nice and big, but this year the event was very close knit. I was more social at PCB3, and this year overall – last year I was very reserved. I also knew more people in general, those I had met on Twitter and at various Social Media Breakfasts. (For those interested in the Academic Technology session I led at PodCamp, check the end of the post.)

My junior achievement award. Photo Credit: Gradon Tripp

I won a Junior achievement award this year! Thank you, Adam Zand (I think, at least.) Unfortunately, I was the only teenager (I knew of) at PodCamp Boston 3. Last year, I was 1 of 2, this year, I was 1 of 1. I had hoped more teens would show up. I did know a few who wanted to come, but couldn’t. Next year!

Jamming at PodCamp.

Being social and having fun makes a huge difference. Don’t be afraid, introduce yourself to everyone. We have so much virtual, or digital, contact with each other, it makes such a huge difference to get together and have fun in person. Twitter went down for maintenance on Saturday July 19th, during PodCamp, and I think it actually was for the better – it helped people actually connect with each other. Not to say that Twitter is bad; sometimes, the best part of the session was the conversation taking place on Twitter. Check out the PCB3 tag on Twitter Search.

Steven Sherlock.

My Session

I led a session at PodCamp Boston about Academic Technology, mostly outlining the work I did at the Cambridge School of Weston, for my Capstone Project. If you’re interested in the presentation, you can see it on Slideshare, download it as a PDF, and download the audio recording.

On Friday May 2nd, I had the privilege to attend a Digital Natives Forum at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. The event was labeled as an “interdisciplinary roundtable discussion: Investigating young people’s use of digital and networked technologies.” When I arrived, I was surprised to discover that I was the only teenager, or “young person”, at the meeting. I already felt out of place.

Background

The event was amazing – I found out how adults observe and understand teenagers’ use of technology and the Internet. At the beginning of the meeting, there was a short presentation by Andrea Flores and John Francis citing research conducted about kids using technology. They talked about identity, privacy, skills and tools for teenagers and adults, and the importance of design. For more about the content of the forum, check out this blog post and my Twitter, I live-blogged most of the meeting.

Silence

I didn’t speak during the entire meeting, only to some people individually during lunch. I wish I had spoken up. I learned, but didn’t teach. It felt like people in the room didn’t understand what kids were about. With the exception of a few, it seemed that people were only beginning to formulate their opinions; it was too early to introduce the young-person’s point of view. Being a teen in the room, it felt like we were being addressed as the problem that needed fixing. Per usual, adults were assigning issues to kids. As the group discussed how some kids feel safer sharing their thoughts online versus offline, I only felt comfortable sharing my thoughts on Twitter. I let the group silence me.

For next time…

The only problem, I can think of, was the lack of primary sources, or “young people,” in the room. Yes, case studies and reports were cited throughout, but as my history teachers tell me, you need primary sources to support your argument. I was the only teen in the room, and I wasn’t even previously involved with the project. It is difficult to discuss teens, or any other group of people, without them present. Not only that, it is undiplomatic to discuss and refer to teens as if they’re not in the room, when in fact, I was sitting right there. My presence was never acknowledged – the adults failed to exploit me as a resource. It felt weird having adults tell me how I used technology.

Video about the event

Digital Navies Forum from Kabren Levinson on Vimeo.

Or on Viddler.

Kabren Levinson
kabren@kabrenlevinson.com
www.kabrenlevinson.com

I will be streaming my capstone presentation tomorrow, Wednesday May 21st at 12:00 PM EST. My capstone was all the Academic/Educational Technology work I’ve been doing over the past many months. Check it out. Join in in the discussion remotely! I hope the stream will work, school Internet is slow.

Click here to watch the stream, or look below. Here’s the Facebook event.

Stream:
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Chat:

Frozen from Kabren Levinson on Vimeo.

Thought I’d post another video. Here’s an update on my technology project.

Let me know what you think.

tech@csw from Kabren Levinson on Vimeo.

Yesterday morning, I found out about Educon 2.0 from Whitney Hoffman on Twitter. I really wish I could attend the conference. Yesterday, I was watching a session about “Learning to Teach: First Year Teaching in a Progressive School,” and today I’m watching two sessions, one on Student Voice, and one on Student Led Technical Support. It’s right up my alley. These educators have radical ideas about the future of education.

Sometime in the next two weeks, I will be leading a 1.5 hour faculty seminar at my school, the Cambridge School of Weston, about podcasting. I spoke for about 5 minutes at the faculty meeting on Thursday about my project, they seemed impressed. My hope is to get some of the faculty/staff to sign up for my course which will be offered in Mod 5 (starting February 11th and lasts approximately 5 weeks). The course title is “New Social Media: Podcasting, Blogging, and Internet Journalism”. I can only fit 10 people in the class, so far, I have three or four faculty/staff members interested (I have 10 interested in my seminar so far). This is really exciting for me. Right now, I’m designing what the seminar will look like and creating a Keynote presentation.

(photo credit: taylorkoa22)

I realize now that my program is less about technology and learning/teaching technical skills and more about radically shifting the power paradigm in education. I need some help. I need resources on education, teaching, and technology. What do you think of the course? Would you take it, as a student or a teacher?

Feel free to email me.

At my high school, The Cambridge School of Weston, I am creating a technology program for my senior project. Quite a project, eh? At school, I see this initiative more than necessary. The school has been left behind technologically; for example, the main line for Internet is a T1 (1MB up, 1MB down), servicing over 300 people, including 80 boarding students.

Late last month, Dan Coleman, the assistant head of the school, approached me asking if we wanted to talk about technology in the school. Before Dan and I spoke, a teacher had said “Hey, has Dan talked to you yet?,” and a good friend said that Dan would be talking to me to create a technology committee. Well, we started talking. I spoke about how the school is falling behind – it’s so progressive in its academics and the arts, but what happened to technology? I came to the idea that there should be a student-led/created curriculum and a student technology committee. And that’s where it started.

So, this mod, I started working with him in “School Service” on these courses and the committee. But I realized, this should be a whole program, not just a few courses, but an entire program. Since I started working with him, I’ve turned this venture into my Capstone senior project. I am now creating a technology program at my school.

The program is called “tech@csw” . This program will have four components; a Student Information Technology Strategy Team (the ITST), a student-led and created curriculum on technology, partnerships, and special student technology initiatives. Right now I am writing a main proposal (vision, mission, and description) for the project, and several “mini proposals” for the components. The ITST has already met twice and has a Facebook group. Right now I’m designing a website for the program and the team.

Since I began writing this post about a week ago, new things have happened. Instead of overplanning the program, I want to jump into action and get things moving. One of the teachers at the last ITST meeting (yesterday), gave me the idea of leading a faculty seminar on something about technology (probably recording a podcast or setting up a blog, or both). That will (hopefully) happen within the next few weeks. After that, starting sometime in February, I will (hopefully) be teaching my first course, giving the program more credibility and momentum.

I want to hear what you all think. I want your input. This is huge for me. I never thought I’d be doing something like this… Here’s my email address: kabren@kabrenlevinson.com. Please don’t hesitate.

So, as I’m sitting here in a session, might as well talk about the event so far.

My session on Teen Podcasting, late Saturday afternoon (yes, it did happen!), was unbelievable. Some great people, including Ann Bernard from Pownce, showed up with great ideas on teens, podcasting, education, and (new)media. Forget the fact that it was a “session”, it seemed more like a group brainstorming session. Later, once I can get my thoughts together (that’s a sleep issue), I’ll be sure to write it up and put it up somewhere. As far as I know, there will be an audio recording of the session, but that won’t help too much because the session was highly participatory, and only I had a microphone. And, thanks to Dave LaMorte for giving my his session slot.

And, thank you Ann, Hugh, Derrick, Dave, Leslie, and everyone else, for coming to see the session. I had fun.

Currently, I’m in the “Is Podcasting a Revolution?” session in room 206b.