Posts from — June 2010

Time to skip the scare tactics.

To be frank, it is the method most often chosen when working with young people. Take the worst-case scenarios and then use them to scare the bejesus out of our kids.

It has been utilized for years to try to keep our youth from using alcohol, tobacco, and harder drugs. It is also used all too frequently when discussing sexual activities including the risk of HIV.

And all too often it has been used to try to dissuade our youngsters from using social networking sites.

Unfortunately, the scare tactic approach has not proven to have the impact adults would like it to have. Not too surprisingly, a new report reveals that using similar tactics when discussing online safety is not the way to go either.

The Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWG), a federal entity created by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, recently released an online safety report (pdf) that provided specific recommendations for students, teachers, and parents. Instead of making students fearful about the perils of the internet or blocking such access altogether, the report encourages a broad approach to online safety that features both media literacy and digital citizenship.

Safety a Legitimate Issue

Referring to the Internet as a “living thing,” the task force did not minimize the importance of internet safety for our youngsters. But their report did indicate that scare tactics did little to influence the behavior of adolescents.

As expected, research indicates that both preteens and teenagers spend a significant portion of their waking hours on tech-based communication forms including interacting on social networking sites. Such interactions provide one of the greatest fears for many adults, that a child will fall victim to an online predator.

Those adult fears often lead directly to our use of scare tactics to try to keep our youngsters from using these sites. But, according to the researchers, recent studies have shown, “the statistical probability of a young person being physically assaulted by an adult who they first met online is extremely low.”

That finding is consistent with a 2008 report that appeared in American Psychologists indicating that young people’s use of social networking sites did not increase their risk of victimization. Furthermore, while “sexual predation on minors by adults, both online and offline, remains a concern, bullying and harassment, most often by peers, are the most frequent threats that minors face, both online and offline.”

Yet another common concern is the growing issue of sexting and the latest trend of sharing explicit photos. Unclear as how to handle such behavior, many communities have allowed local police to handle the matter with a heavy-handed, punishment-oriented approach. Those few, highly-publicized situations have provided yet another rationale for using scare tactics with our youngsters.

The report discourages such an approach, insisting that a united effort that takes advantage of the protective tools offered, but works in collaboration with parents and school personnel, is the best way to proceed. Furthermore, the task force insists that schools can safely incorporate the use of social networking sites into the classroom.

Education Critical

The educational approach should feature programs that model the appropriate use of technology and the sites frequented by our youngsters. In other words, instead of using horror stories and focusing on negative behavior, adults must model positive and productive use. To ensure the approach is effective, that modeling must come from all adult caregivers and not just educators.

From the report:

“Because the Internet is increasingly user-driven, with its “content” changing in real-time, users are increasingly stakeholders in their own well-being online. Their own behavior online can lead to a full range of experiences, from positive ones to victimization, pointing to the increasingly important role of safety education for children as well as their caregivers. The focus of future task forces therefore needs to be as much on protective education as on protective technology.”

As for the greatest threats children face online, the report indicates that cyber bullying is far more common than most people believe. The latest form of bullying begins as early as second grade and generally is initiated most often by a students classmates or peer group.

One interesting development of the report was the rather novice suggestion of looking to young people as experts in online tech usage to help guide adults in developing a set of best educational practices.

For more, read the full report (pdf).

Readers of our blog no doubt understand our fundamental mission statement featuring that very simple phrase:

Free education for all.

And that we license our work under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Given our fundamental commitment to providing cost-free educational resources, we featured a three part series on the need for a free, unregulated Commons, a series that featured Ahrash Bissell of the Creative Commons and highlighted some of the amazing projects underway based on the Creative Commons concept.

Our support for the movement today leads us to help the folks at CC with their new effort, the Catalyst Campaign, a program designed to raise seed funding for projects around the world devoted to increasing access and openness.

Launched June 1st and continuing for the entire month of June, the Catalyst Grants program is designed to help individuals as well as organizations harness the power of Creative Commons. Grants could theoretically support a study of entrepreneurs using Creative Commons licenses to create a new class of socially responsible businesses or enable a group in a developing country to research how Open Educational Resources can positively impact its community.

Jane Park, Communications Coordinator at Creative Commons, explains the Catalyst Grants will “empower individuals and communities that are deeply rooted in the principles of openness and sharing” while spurring the capacity for “CC adoption in much needed areas” including education.

“With the Catalyst Grants program, Creative Commons will seed activities around the globe that support our mission,” explains Park. “Our goal is to scale our community’s efforts and support them in becoming self-sustainable—hence, the grant sizes are around $1,000-$10,000 to catalyze communities into action.

“We are expecting at least a good number of CC jurisdictions to apply (currently, we have over 70 jurisdictions), and perhaps a few non-jurisdiction or jointly developed project proposals.”

According to Park, many of these jurisdictions could use the grant to jumpstart projects in open education, open web, open science, etc. The key is to help provide funding for those jurisdictions that are lagging behind other, more well-funded peers.

“We want to do all we can to help them become sustainable so that they can continue to do the great work they’re doing,” adds Park, “or start on innovative open projects that could transform the web.

The goal, to raise $100,000 from CC supporters, is off to a great start. The Milan Chamber of Commerce got the program off and running with a generous donation of EUR 10,000.

But the program could well rely on the basic generosity of thousands of small donors. With that in mind, donors offering pledging as little as $75 or more will be entitled to a limited edition “I Love to Share” t-shirts.

For more on how readers and fellow bloggers can ignite openness and innovation around the world, visit the CC Grants page.

He was legendary for his attention to detail, from his meticulous practice plans to taking the time to teach players how to put on their socks so as to prevent blisters. His enormous success led some to refer to him as the Wizard of Westwood, a reference he reportedly hated.

But to most, John Wooden was respectfully known as coach. Most importantly, for all the educators and coaches of amateur athletics the man was an example of what we should all strive to be.

The Coach and Player

A talented basketball player in his own right, Wooden was a three-time college All-American guard. He earned the nickname the “Rubber Man’’ because of how quickly he would bounce back up from the floor.

But he is most well known for coaching accomplishments, achievements that defy description. Coach Wooden’s UCLA Bruins made 12 Final Four appearances and won 10 NCAA championships, including seven in a row from 1967 to 1973. All three of these accomplishments represent all-time NCAA records.

His 1971-72 team posted an average margin of victory of 30.3 points, also an all time NCAA record. He posted a career winning percentage of .813 and his teams went unbeaten four times. From 1971 to 1974, UCLA would win 88 games in succession.

Prior to his success on the national stage, he transformed the Bruins from an unknown to a conference power, winning five conference titles and taking UCLA to their first Final Four in 1962 where the team lost in the semifinals to Cincinnati, the eventual champion.

Amazingly, Coach Wooden was successful with teams with all types of players – those that featured a dominant post-player as well as guard-oriented teams that were devoid of size. He didn’t recruit players to fit a basketball style; instead he recruited individuals that he felt would fit into his belief of how the game should be played: a focus on “conditioning, fundamentals, and working together as a team.’’

He would be the first man to be named to the Naismith Hall of Fame as both player and coach. Only two other individuals in the history of basketball have matched that accomplishment.

John Wooden, Teacher

The former high school English teacher was actually best known by his players, not for the titles he helped them win, but for the life lessons he provided them. According to legend, Coach Wooden carried with him, at all times, a handwritten copy of his father’s credo:

“Be true to yourself. Make each day a masterpiece. Drink deeply from good books. Make friendship a fine art. Build a shelter against a rainy day.’’

Deeply religious, Wooden was known for being a man of principle and those principles never varied, no matter how important or talented the player. When one of his most gifted and free-spirited charges, Bill Walton, balked at getting his hair cut, Coach Wooden reportedly acknowledged his respect and even admiration for a young man who wanted to live by his own personal creed before stating:

“We’re going to miss you, Bill.”

For those in the education business, it is important to note that he insisted that there were four laws of learning: explanation, demonstration, imitation, and repetition. And for success in the most trying of times, i.e., for his basketball teams on the national stage, he insisted that “the goal is to create a correct habit that can be produced instinctively under great pressure.”

But as with most great teachers, his lessons were given by his actions. Bob Ryan, the great sportswriter for the Boston Globe referred to Wooden as “a 19th century man who somehow thrived in an otherwise alien culture.” It seems that when Wooden’s wife Nell Riley passed away on March 21, 1985, he continued to honor a lifelong commitment to his partner. On the 21st of each month, Coach Wooden would pay a visit to his wife’s grave and then sit down to write a love letter.

Not without flaws, Coach Wooden was known to tell a fib or two. As Ryan also wrote, the UCLA great always stood by those who had managed to handle his demands on the court. Apparently Wooden once expounded to Ryan on how much he had enjoyed coaching Sidney Wicks, a man pro coaches deemed uncoachable.

Though deeply religious, it is interesting to note that when his body failed him completely, he took a page from Scott Nearing and made the extraordinarily difficult conscious decision to end his own life. The general consensus is that when Wooden’s body had completely betrayed him he checked himself into a facility where he refused to eat and awaited the end.

“Death with dignity,” wrote Ryan, “is what he deserved and death with dignity is what he got.”

The Man and Father

A quiet, personally-reserved man, Coach Wooden was never one to sell the substance for the shadow. He hated flashiness both on and off the court.

He never swore at his players yet many would attest that he put enough venom into ‘Goodness gracious sakes alive!’ that he could make a Marine drill sergeant proud.

In a day and age when most men smoked Wooden did so himself though he would quit each season to ensure he was a proper role model to his players.

And his children, they had this to say of the man:

“We will miss him more than words can express,’’ his son, James, and daughter, Nancy Muehlhausen, said in a statement. “He has been, and always will be, the guiding light for our family. The love, guidance, and support he has given us will never be forgotten. Our peace of mind at this time is knowing that he has gone to be with our mother, whom he has continued to love and cherish.’’

Perhaps surprisingly, there are those who think he was a man that could not match his success in today’s world of college athletics. According to The New York Times::

“A dynasty like Wooden’s would be almost impossible now, because the best players seldom spend more than a year or two in college before turning professional. No N.C.A.A. men’s basketball coach has won more than four championships since Wooden retired.”

I beg to differ. Wooden was a teacher first and a coach second. He would recruit young men who understood the word commitment. And as a man who understood how to motivate and how to lead, I think he would still be the man everyone would be chasing.

As Mark Kriegel at FoxSports notes:

“This may be a cynical age, but no more distrustful than the ’60s and ’70s. Cities were burning. Many a campus found itself under siege. It was black against white, and young against old, (defined as anyone over 30).”

“…. it was the best work done by any American coach, in any sport.
The championship streak is wondrous enough. But the fact that those years — 1967 to 1974 — coincide with the most famously tumultuous stretch in youth culture, elevates the achievement. It wasn’t a sporting accomplishment so much as a societal one.”

In a day and age when we spend as much time talking about ineligible players and team’s being sanctioned for breaking rules, Wooden would represent a return to the spirit of college athletics, where winning was secondary to developing character.

In life and in death the man was ever the teacher and coach. The great ones are great for a reason, they understand and function at a different level.

Such was the case with the wondrous husband and father as well as the greatest teacher and coach ever to walk the planet.