Message to Paly teachers

Message to Paly teachers Dear Paly faculty and staff,

To those of you who have been around long enough to remember me as a colleague (English, 2007-2009), hello! I am writing to let you know that we have just released an app called “Paly Journalism” designed to increase readership of student publications and to encourage more robust discussion around the stories. The app was designed by a research team of Paly students over the last several months as part of a joint research project between Paly Journalism and Stanford’s Transformative Learning Technologies Lab, where I am a PhD student. The app release is part of a pilot study which will last from now until winter break; if it is successful, Paly Journalism may choose to take over management and further development.

The research side of the project explores how schools might more productively engage with the digital spaces connected to them but which they do not control. (For example, these spaces include social networks of their members, Minecraft worlds, and digital student journalism.) Generally, these are scary spaces for schools (cyberbullying, etc.); we as educators are used to designing and controlling our students’ environments. I want to suggest that schools frame these spaces as learning environments and support students in taking on powerful identities within these spaces. I hope the app will help me characterize Paly’s journalism program as an example of this move, and help me to describe its dynamics.

The press release, details on the study, and the process of developing the app can be found at the project homepage, http://chrisproctor.net/paly, but I thought i would address here a few points that might pertain to you specifically as leaders of the school community.

The research team felt it was important to create a students-only discussion space where all users must be logged in, but where users may comment anonymously. We will monitor comments during the study period and can delete comments or suspend accounts if necessary.
While I encourage you to download and check out the app, please hold off on jumping into conversations. If you download the app, it will ask for your student number—you can make up anything you want.
Please feel free to use the app in your classroom if you can think of a way it might be useful. I’m really interested in how a school’s public sphere affects students’ school identities.
Our default plan is to take down the app after the study period; this will give everyone a chance to discuss the terms of a more permanent re-release.

If you have thoughts or questions about the app or the study, I would love to hear from you or grab a cup of coffee. We are planning to conclude the study in January with a presentation to the editors of the student publications, but I would be happy to host an educators’ discussion as well if there is sufficient interest.

Sincerely, Chris Proctor

cproctor@stanford.edu http://chrisproctor.net/resume chrisproctor.net/paly