Final Narrative and Self-Assessed Rubric

 

    In order to understand the learning stretch I have made in recent years, and especially in this class, I must first describe my relationship with technology in the earliest parts of my life.  As a child growing up in the 1970's and 1980's, I was not exposed to the same technology that many of the younger students in the class were at an early age.  I grew up the oldest of three kids, and we were all very active.  My brother and I were involved in varying sports all year round, and my sister took dance classes all through her childhood.  When we were not doing those activities, we were always outside playing with friends.  We did not even have cable television in our home until I was 12 or 13 years old, and none of us watched much television.  We were either doing our work for school, or playing with other kids in the neighborhood most of the time.  Visiting our grandparents, aunts, and uncles also occupied a lot of our free time.  There was not much technology involved in either my education or my home life during my early life.  When I was around eight years old, my parents decided to reward us at Christmas with a video game system that we could only use for pre-determined amounts of 

time, and only when our school work was done.  Maybe on rainy weekend days we would be able to play with it as well.  This was the Atari 2600, and there were many simple games that could be played on it.  It does not even begin to compare with the length, complexity, and graphics of the video games and video game systems that exist today.  As a teenager I would upgrade this for an original Nintendo video game system.  Although we had this technology, my brother, sister, and I were never kids that spent a lot of time playing with it.  It was only something to do when there was nothing else to do at the time.  We did not have any sort of home computer at all, and would not have one until after I went away to college years later.

      Throughout most of my childhood, Scott Noon would have considered me as technologically preliterate.  I really had no experience with any technology beyond playing a few video games.  This did not change very much even into my high school years.  I chose to attend attend a private Catholic college prep school named Bishop Hendricken High School mostly because I had been recruited to play baseball there.  Throughout my four years there, the only experience I had with technology was a keyboarding class that I took.  This really helped me with my typing and word processing skills, but students really did no work with computers beyond learning this particular skill.  This also did not change much when I went away to college.  I attended Brandeis University, where I was also recruited to play baseball.  I graduated 

with a Bachelor's Degree in History in 1996.  Keep in mind that my graduation year is still two years before Google would even exist as a company.  Being a History major, I did not use technology for anything more than word processing papers for class.  Essentially, this was just using the skills I learned in my high school keyboarding class.  It was not until 1999, when I attended Rhode Island College for the RITE program to teach Social Studies in Rhode Island, that I received and email account through the school (which I never used), and actually started a personal email account with Yahoo.  I hardly ever even looked at that email either, as it took too long for a dial up modem and very early internet services  to access and actually see my email in a reasonable amount of time.  I only used my email account to sign up for things that required you to give an email address.  

    When I was hired for my teaching job in the Warwick Public School System, I spent my first three years in three different schools.  I have been lucky enough to spend the past fifteen years at Pilgrim High School as a Social Studies Teacher and Baseball Coach.  Baseball is mentioned quite a bit in the early part of this because, as you will soon read, playing and coaching baseball has taught me a great deal about how kids learn best.  If Mark Prensky were to label me, I would have been classified as a digital immigrant.  I would have agreed with him, even though I do not believe in this type of label being placed on people.  In terms of just myself though, I would agree.  I was very slow to adjust to burgeoning technology in the classroom, and was very uncomfortable using attempting to use it in my classes.  I had a fear that I did not know enough about it, that it would not work properly, or I would look like I do not know what I am doing (I didn't).  I was more comfortable trying new things and lesson types in classes when the final work products would be on paper, and my teaching was no tech or low tech.  This would begin to change as teachers in my building were beginning to get some training using technology like Smart Boards, and as our internet became faster and more useful.  Although I was dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty first century, I would begin to make some strides slowly integrating technology into my classroom.

    My slow progression with technology over a period of years began to speed up rapidly when students were issued Chromebooks four or five years ago.  I had to figure out ways to make these useful in the classroom.  I used them in fairly basic ways, but in 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic hit.  My timeline for learning how to have students use their technology for genuine learning experiences was suddenly accelerated rapidly.  I quickly had to learn how to use Google Classroom, and many of the apps that were capable of being used with it.  I became familiar with Edpuzzle, Newsela, Kahoot, and many others in a fairly rapid amount of time.  The pandemic was not the easiest of times to teach, but I realized I was capable of making technology work for me, and what I was trying to do with my students in the classroom.  When we finally returned from the pandemic to in-person learning, I continued to use technology, and was more open to learning about more apps that I could use with Google Classroom that could help keep my students engaged in their learning.

    The pandemic actually helped shift my views about kids and technology use.  I originally had similar views to Sherry Turkle, as expressed in her TED talk.  I came across as anti-technology, even though I really was not.  I just thought kids were too obsessed with their phones, distracted by them, and did not form the in-person relationships that were necessary for meaningful human relationship development.  Much like Turkle, I felt kids were missing out on important aspects of life, and it was also dangerous for them because the internet can lead them down "rabbit holes" that kids should not be going to.  Most of the technology use I saw from my students was on their phones, and it was usually unsupervised, and unrelated to anything having to do with school.  The view I had began to change during the pandemic and distance learning.  As I learned about more apps and ways for kids to use technology to demonstrate what they have learned, I began to appreciate technology as a way for my students to express their learning in different, and often more creative ways.  My views began to resemble those of Danah Boyd in It's Complicated.  I realized that it is a valid concern to worry about the technology use of kids like Turkle does, but most of these "digital natives" as coined by Mark Prensky, have do not have the necessary skills in the digital world to properly use the web for learning purposes.  Boyd believes that it necessary for students to have a guide to navigate the technology and use it in constructive ways.  This is the job of the teacher at school, and probably a parent or guardian at home.  I am beginning to see myself in this role for my students as I learn more about the technology I can use in my classroom.  I am learning that Sir Ken Robinson's three principle that guide human life into flourishing (diversity, curiosity, and creativity) are very compatible with technology use in the classroom.  As a social studies teacher, there are very valuable uses for technology to study different cultures, and creative ways for students to demonstrate understanding important concepts and gain an appreciation for our diverse world and history.  

    This brings me to my why?.  My why? is formulated from years of teaching and also both coaching and playing baseball.  I have learned that in both cases kids learn better when it is done together.  I believe that kids learn best when they work together to achieve a goal.  They use their individual and different strengths to contribute to learning and help each other in different ways.  Working together helps bring about individual feelings of achievement as well as communal.  Also, working together, even using technology, helps foster the social aspects of education that are so needed after such a long period of distance learning due to the pandemic.

    For my change project I was going to approach the first unit of the year teaching it in a different way using technology that we have learned about in this class.  The first unit we work on is Ancient India, and we study the first major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization named  Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.  Normally I teach about these two cities using more traditional methods like reading, answering questions, looking at slides, and then taking a quiz or writing a short essay about what they have learned.  

    I want to have students work together to learn about these two cities.  In small groups students will research these two cities using guiding or essential questions to guide their search for information.  The essential questions will be open ended and designed so students look for aspects of these societies that make them considered advanced civilizations for the time in which they lived.  An example of material that could be used to guide the research of the students using essential questions about the civilization can be found here.  

     I would start by having a class discussion about what the different groups learned in their research about the two cities.  Directing the discussion towards what they discovered and how it fit into the essential questions would help clarify the purpose of these activities for some of the students.  Following the discussions, students would create a blog post discussing what they learned, and how it helps answer the essential questions.  They would be doing this in a creative way, and I would urge being as creative as they want in expressing what they have learned.  They will assume the role of a travel blogger who is reporting on why a civilization may be worth visiting or not.  Essentially they are time traveling travel bloggers who will visit many different civilizations throughout the year.  This will be an ongoing activity all year long.  Just like in our Curriculum 501 class, students will be expected to provide links and pictures in their blogs.  Students will also have to read and comment on classmates blogs as well.  At the conclusion of this we will come together as a group and discuss what they learned from each other, and I will introduce the next part of the project.

    Students would then get into their small groups of 2,3, or 4 (depending on class size and support need), and work on scripts to create a podcast using Soundtrap.  Students can do this in any format they would like, and I want them to be as creative as they would like to while still addressing the essential questions and what they have learned so far.  After script writing, recording, and editing, the class would listen to all of the podcasts that have been created, and we would once again have a class discussion about both what they have learned, and also about these activities themselves.  I want my students to learn about these civilizations, but I also want to know if they enjoyed these activities, felt they were worthwhile, if they enjoyed working together on activities such as these, and if they thought this was a good way for them to learn.        

    What will I be doing during all of the group activities taking place during the lesson?  I will be watching (probably in awe of their ability to figure out how to use the technology), monitoring, and guiding when necessary.  As Danah Boyd suggested, the students do need guidance to responsibly navigate the digital world to properly facilitate learning using technology.  I would also be helping students that need hints or suggestions to help them arrive where they need to be.  Redirecting students who may stray from the activity would also be a task that I am taking on at this time.  I have added the cartoon image of Caillou because my students often tell me I look like a grown up version of him.  I think of myself more as a Charlie Brown, but that is another story.

    My students would receive a grade for completion, participation, and working together for this first project.  I usually have an activity or two at the beginning of the year that are easy good grades in order for students to get motivated to do well at the beginning of the year.  I would use the information learned from how this project goes to generate rubrics for future use.  I do not want to give a grading criteria for these activities until I see a baseline product from any of my classes.  I like to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the students in classes to see our starting point for all future activities.  

    I really enjoyed doing this project, even in the compressed two week time period we had this class in.  The tools I learned in this class will definitely become a big part of my technological repertoire for lessons during the coming years.  I also have to say that I enjoyed the people in this class as well.  Everyone was extremely supportive and helpful.  I will leave you with a basic to do list of what I will be working on to prepare for the coming year using these tools.

To Do List

• Set up a class blog for each of my 5 classes so I have a homepage with links for the blogs of all of the kids in the class
• Add basic instructions for how students can set up their own blog on the homepage class blogs
• Play with Soundtrap over the summer to become more familiar with it
• Create a podcast using Soundtrap that talks students through how to set up a Sountrap account
• Create Google Slides for setting up a Soundtrap account as another resource for students
• Once a Google Classroom is set up for each of these classes I will post the podcast and the Google Slides on each period's Google Classroom
• Post the instructions for setting up a Blogger account on Google Classrooms for each class as well
• Have students set up these accounts during the first week of school

My self-assessed rubric can be found here.

    

    

    

Disney Analysis and Link to Disney Princess Worksheet

 You can access my Disney Princess/Encanto Worksheet by clicking this LINK.

    I have always enjoyed Disney Films throughout my life, and especially as a child and even a teenager.  I was a big fan of The Lion King and Aladdin.  My all time favorite character in a Disney film is the Genie played by Robin Williams.  I have always watched Disney movies simply for the pleasure, but have heard some critique of messaging in some of the films from some of my co-workers in the teaching field who have children.  I really did not think too seriously about this at all until it was brought up in this class.  After watching the Disney slide deck, and reading the Linda Christensen article in the textbook, I am looking at some of the Disney stories a little bit differently.  I had always known that some of the older Disney movies were blatantly racist and sexist at times.  I remember that even at the time I was a teenager I was uncomfortable with the way the crows in the movie Dumbo were depicted.  At the time I just summarized my thoughts as "things were different back then at the time the movie was made".  After studying history, and becoming a history teacher, I realized just how wrong it really was.  That movie was made during the time of the Jim Crow laws of the south, and crows were portrayed as the stereotypes of black men of that time.  I was horrified by this.  I have been very limited in my viewing of more recent Disney movies as I have gotten older, but I have not seen anything that struck me as being "so incredibly wrong" as that particular movie and characters.

    

    After watching the slides and reading the article, I have to say that it was a lot different for me watching Encanto than it was for any other Disney movie in the past.  Looking at the film critically most likely took some of the enjoyment out of it for me, even though I have to say that I enjoyed the film anyway.  I was really trying to take in what each character was doing, expressing, potentially symbolizing, and looking for what subtle potential meaning I could take away from what I was seeing and hearing.  I was looking for things that were overtly blatant as well that could rise to the level of the crows in Dumbo.  I did not see anything that was overtly obvious in this film, and I saw that the messages were mostly positive.  I took quite a few Spanish classes over the years, and I remembered that Mira means "look" in Spanish.  I was wondering if this meaning, and the fact that she wore glasses had any meaning.  I decided to look online and I discovered that the name and the glasses do have symbolism.  It has to do with "how we view the world and each other".  It was also interesting to see how the crew of the film used attributes of their own family members for the superpowers given to the different members of the Madrigal family.  The link I provided gives some insight into why the writers and crew gave certain family members the gifts they received, and why Mirabel was not given a power that anyone could see on the surface, but in actuality she did have one.  

    I was intrigued that this movie did not have a villain in the classical sense.  It teases that Bruno might be the villain at the beginning, but that is quickly squashed when the audience sees just how fragile, heartbroken, quirky, and possibly mentally ill Bruno is.  Abuela also comes across as a villain at times in the way she treats Mirabel, and also her having pushed Bruno away.  This really is not the case either.  Abuela actually had the best intentions to keep her family strong, but her execution of these intentions actually were detrimental to keeping the family strong.  The family was essentially breaking under the weight of Abuela's expectations of the family.  This breaking is most quickly realized in the stress weighing upon the physically strongest character, Luisa.  In the link I provided it discusses how Luisa was supposed to be the "rock" of the family who conquered any troubles family members were having.  She begins to show signs that this is beginning to break her as the family trouble mounts.  It was rewarding to see that the happy ending of this movie did not result in a wedding of a prince and princess character.  It results in one actually being called off because Isabella did not want to get married to the prince-like character.  I discuss how this may potentially be LGBTQ on the worksheet as we discussed from the post movie discussion.  The ending was happy because an entire family that was on the road to ruin was saved by the character that supposedly had no powers.  The reward was a family saved, restored their powers, reunited with Bruno, and finally respecting and appreciating Mirabel as the key to family happiness.  It was definitely a fun movie to watch, and now I find myself doing Google searches about other Disney movies and what the symbolism and messaging may be about.  I am going deep down the rabbit hole....lol

Link to Final Presentation

 Here is my Presentation Link.

The Truth About Helen Keller pgs 89-98 by Ruth Shagoury

 

    This chapter of the text was written by Ruth Shagoury, and it discusses the portrayal of Helen Keller in Children's Literature.  Most of the discussion centers around the fact that Helen Keller is not portrayed as anything more than a hero for the blind and deaf.  Ruth Shagoury discusses how most stories of Helen Keller focus on the first few years of her life when Annie Sullivan was working with her.  This has become the classic story that is told about her life.  Many do not even realize that she lived to be over 80 years old, was an author, public speaker, and activist for many causes throughout her life.  Shagoury discusses how the real bravery of her story is not from these early years of her life, but more so from her years after this when many of the causes she advocated for were considered controversial at the time.

    Shagoury discusses that while Helen Keller's abilities to overcome her disabilities, with the help of Anne Sullivan, is truly a great story, not all aspects of this story are told.  Some of the aspects were not considered acceptable during her time.  A major aspect of this story that is left out is that Helen Keller attributed her achievements in overcoming her disabilities to her level of privilege.  She believed that poor people with disabilities would not have the same chances to overcome them that she had.  Such a discussion of financial inequities in our society would not have been received well by people in powerful places at that time, so this belief of hers is left out of the telling of her story in most cases. 

    Most authors refer to Helen Keller as an inspirational figure who was brave, and worked tirelessly for the rights of the blind and deaf.  That is what is written the most because it is the least controversial aspect of her life.  These stories leave out many aspects of true bravery that she exhibited during her life.  She was a socialist who advocated for more equity for all people.  She attacked Nelson Rockefeller as a "monster of capitalism" because of his child labor practices (especially following the Ludlow Mine Accident) in which many women and children were killed.  She spoke out in favor of women's rights during a time when this was not a socially popular view to have.  She was also an early supporter of the NAACP during a time when the Jim Crow south was still very real, and the support of a white woman for the organization would bring scorn to her from many.  Helen Keller was also a supporter of radical labor unions.  People in power did not want to see these unions be successful because it would greatly effect their financial bottom lines.  She did not care about that.  She supported more financial equity in American labor practices, and greatly supported what labor unions stood for.  

    Despite all of these achievements, and real acts of bravery, Helen Keller is depicted as an almost saintly person who worked tirelessly to support the deaf and blind.  While she did do this, there is so much more to her story that is either ignored or quickly brushed over in the telling of her story.  Ruth Shagoury asks us to consider why this may be so.  As teachers, we should try to help kids become informed of as much of a complete story as possible.  I personally believe after reading this, that she was simply too controversial for the time in which she lived for her story to be told.  It is not right at all, but those with money and power (and the ability to publish her story) were not inclined for people to have easy access to the truth about her.  Her complete story is amazing, and it is a shame that most accounts of her life spend more than 90 percent of its pages on the early years of her life and very little about anything else of significance.  I think Shagoury is letting teachers know that there is a lot more to a story in most cases, and eloquently uses Helen Keller as an example of this.

Edpuzzle as a Useful Classroom Tool

 

    I chose to do a tutorial on an app that I discovered just this past year, and have found very useful even though I only used it to a very limited extent.  Edpuzzle is easy to sign up for and works well with Google Classroom.  The app can be obtained using any platform.  Many of us have Chromebooks for use in the schools, and Edpuzzle is available as a Chrome extension as well.  This app is very useful in that it allows a teacher to take videos from youtube, or create your own videos, and add questions the students must answer to continue with the video.  The questions can be multiple choice or ones that students need to write out answers for before they can continue with the video.  A teacher can monitor the progress of students in the app, and score their answers as well.  Multiple choice questions can be graded by the app itself, allowing the student to see the percentage of questions that were answered correctly.  Edpuzzle has a large collection of video assignments created by other teachers that are also able to be used or modified to suit the needs of a teacher.  It is a very good tool for introductory lessons or for reinforcement of material learned in class.  The videos pertain to multiple subject areas, and any video in any subject area can be turned into an assignment with Edpuzzle.  I will continue with how to get started if this is something you would like to try.

1.  Go to edpuzzle.com and click on sign up in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

2.  On the next screen select I'm a Teacher.

3.  The next screen will allow you to sign up for Edpuzzle in multiple ways.  For most of us, our school emails will be Google, so I find that signing up with Google will be the easiest way to utilize the features.  My instructions will be continued using Google, but you can also sign in using Edpuzzle itself or with Microsoft.  To continue, click on Sign in with Google.

4.  The next step will be to enter your Google Email and basic information.  You must also agree to the terms and conditions, and you can enter an optional password for Edpuzzle if you choose to.

5.  Once you have filled out the information, you will see a screen that lets you search existing edpuzzles that you can use that were created by other teachers, or you can search for a video on youtube and begin editing your own videos using edpuzzle.

6.  Clicking on the menu in the upper left hand corner of the screen will allow you to add classes and student rosters directly from Google Classroom.  If you click on Google Classroom and Add Class, you will be prompted to choose a class and name it.  You would then click on Import Students to add the students from your class in Google Classroom to the class in Edpuzzle.

7.  After you have hit Import Students, your students and their emails will be imported and displayed just as the image above displays them.  You can also click on Gradebook and you will see their names listed.  The percentage scores of any assignments given to them will be stored here.  If you click on Assignments you will see all the assignments you have given the class in Edpuzzle.  You can click on any of them to look at the grades and/or to check how much of the assignment has been completed.  Here is an example of the screen below.

8.  Each class that you set up will need to be imported one at a time.  Just follow the above example for each class.  The image above shows all of your classes that have been imported on the left hand side of the screen.  You can click on any of them at any time to change the class you want to look at.

9.  If you want to assign a video to a class you can choose one that has already been created by another teacher, or you can create one by editing a video yourself.  You can watch a quick video on how to create one yourself by clicking this link.  

10.  When you have found a video or created your own edpuzzle video that you would like to assign to a class, you can look above the video to where it says Assign and click this.  This will bring up all of the classes you have imported.  You can check off the ones you want to assign the video to.  

11.  As you can see on the screen above, you will be able to choose which classes you wish to assign it to.  You can choose to turn on close captions if available, prevent skipping, and choose to post it on Google Classroom for your class to access it there.  It even allows you to post it at the time you want, and also to make it due at a certain time.

This tutorial was meant to show teachers the basics of how to set up an Edpuzzle account using Google and linking it to Google Classroom for teachers that use this platform.  For those looking for further information and guidance in how to use Edpuzzle in other ways, you can check out this Edpuzzle Tutorial

from Youtube which will walk you through different ways to access it and use it with classes beyond just using it with Google Classroom.

Brainstorming Project

 

    My project is going to be redesigning one of the first topics we study in 9th grade World History class.  I plan to use this redesign with my classes when we start up again after the summer.  We start the year with the topic of the Indus Valley civilization, and the major cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa in modern day India and Pakistan.  These two cities were very advanced for the time in which they existed.  

    In the past, lessons on these two cities have not been conducted using much technology.  It is one of the first lessons as we finish up doing the introductory and beginning of the year activities in class.  I will have a description of how I usually present and have students work with this material in my final project.  It is mostly covered in a way that involves students reading, me presenting slides, and students either writing about the achievements of these civilizations, or creating Google Slides that serve the same purpose.

    I want to modify classroom learning on this topic to allow students to explore more on their own about these two cities, and develop a final project that demonstrates that they understand the major achievements of the Indus Valley Civilization.  I am still working out the details of this, but I am leaning towards having students either create a podcast or blog.  I was thinking that either form could be done as a travel theme, and could be carried out during the year as we explore different civilizations all over the world and in different time periods.  I want to use both of these technology tools in this manner during the course of the year.  I am still thinking of which one to start with for this topic.  Right now I am more comfortable with the blog because we are using them every day, and I am more comfortable with that.  I am going to play with podcasting a little more this weekend, and may change my mind about which to start with.  I will end with my "to do" list which I will be working on over the weekend, and may change a bit as I think of more ideas.

To Do List

• Create short narrative about how this material was covered in class in past years.
• Create list of categories for achievements...ex. agriculture, technology, city planning, architecture.
• Choose the medium students will use to report out their findings-probably blog or podcast
• Consider how my beliefs about how students learn will be demonstrated in the structure of the lesson and the products created by students.
• Link the activities and learning to texts studied in class this week.
• Create an outline of the paper that can be used to inform the slides for the Pecha Kucha.
• Write paper and begin laying out the slides and script.

**This to do list is subject to change as I collect info and plan this out.

Role of Teachers in an Online Environment

 

    The TED talk by Sugata Mitra was really inspiring, but I was left with a lot of questions about the overall effectiveness of his studies, and how they would translate to an American classroom today.  Granted, his points about why education was what it was during the days of the British Empire, and why that model is obsolete today, are convincing.  He also makes valid points when he discusses the jobs of today, and what they might be like in the future.  We definitely need to adapt our models of education to prepare young people for a future that will be more interconnected and technology based than ever before.  We also need to make sure our students have knowledgable guides to help them as they utilize this technology in responsible and productive ways.  This is one role that teachers are slowly moving into in these more modern technology based classroom environments.

    While Sugata Mitra's Hole in the Wall studies seem to show some impressive outcomes, I feel that there are aspects of it I would need to know more about to be fully comfortable with his described results.  In his descriptions of dropping off computers in rural villages he says that students were browsing, playing games, and also learning a great deal about DNA sequencing in English, a language that was not their native tongue.  This is impressive regardless of the problems I have with his description of what they learned.  I noticed during his talk that Sugata Mitra did not mention anything about whether the children of these rural villages had total internet access, or if the large amounts of information on the computers were just internal files.  This could also be the case with some of the games they were playing.  Were there any guardrails to keep the students on only certain games and DNA sequencing files?  Having complete internet access in a rural Indian village in 2010-2013 would be a challenge.  I feel that his study produces great results regardless, but I would be less skeptical if he explained all of the parameters in which his study was conducted.  

    It is my belief that students need limited guidance by teachers while navigating an online environment in a school setting.  Sometimes this can simply involve checking in on progress, words of encouragement, or even direct guidance to help students navigate a step of a process that may be taking place in class.  There are many rabbit holes that we can go down and easily become distracted with on the internet (even the teachers).  I am guilty of this all the time.  The number of web sites in the world has grown exponentially in recent years, and there is plenty potential for distraction from educational goals.  I 

discovered (especially during distance learning) that students may need very little guidance, and some may need more at times.  I believe that using an online environment in class works best when a teacher sets the stage of the learning by introducing what is trying to be achieved through the activity, allowing the students to navigate the space to discover information and make their own conclusions with the teacher acting as a resource to help guide them when necessary.  I believe in giving them the freedom to discover answers to the questions they seek for an activity, find information to support their answers, and hopefully enjoy what they are doing as they learn.  However, I do think a teacher has a responsibility to guide when necessary, and also monitor for internet safety in the school setting.  Whether intentional or inadvertent, there will be students off task and potentially in unsafe internet spaces at times.  A teacher can help guide them back to the task at hand when this happens.  At times in my school, teachers use Go Guardian, and can see when students are utilizing the internet for things other than the task at hand, and it is useful to help get them back on the task at hand.  I am by no means anti-internet or pessimistic about using online environments for learning.  I simply think there are too many unknowns about the studies in the the TED talk, and have personal experience in trying to maintain on task behaviors in the classroom while doing online tasks.  The students are usually great working on these tasks, and love doing them, but I definitely see the role of the teacher in these activities as being minimal at times, but also very important overall.