Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Janet Wozniak: Think back to the reason you got into education: To change the world

These are my notes from Janet Wozniak’s keynote address, “Think back to the reason you got into education: To change the world” at the 2010 MACE (Mid-America Association for Computers in Education) Conference in Manhattan, Kansas. MY THOUGHTS AND FEEDBACK ARE IN ALL CAPS. Janet works for Apple Computer with IT and Learning Technologies. Her email is janetwozniak [at] apple [dot] com.

Janet Wozniak at #mace2010

Opening comments about MACE:
– this is MACE’s 6th year here at K-State
– Janet was a former Kansas teacher (15 years ago)
– she is working with teachers around the world helping them do exemplary work
– Janet is married to Steve Wozniak
link from Woz’ WikiPedia article about Janet

Janet’s keynote:
– I was a grad of Kansas schools, was in grad school here about 10 years
– I want to talk to you about the reasons I got into education and you got into education, to change the world

Educators are the most important people in the world
– to solve problems you can either use brawn or brains, I prefer brains

Photo of Woz at age 7 after he caught a fish
– photo of Woz during “dancing with the Stars”

Woz and I met on a “Mac Mania” cruise
– Woz loves Kansas, believes our nation is in dire straits and our country is going to have to rebuild ourselves from the inside out
– Woz is speaking to a huge RSA conference in San Francisco today
Photo of Woz playing segway polo

Story about talking with others about finding your passion in life
– program Woz participated in with 10 kids in a camp, he taught each one how to ride a segway
– we travel all over the world now and play segway polo

We like to do a lot of charity / philanthropy work
– photo of release of duck fundraiser

Plane wreck after Woz founded Apple led to a big life change
– he taught for 8 years
– never let any press into his classroom
– kids took some very good field trips, on a Concorde to Europe and elsewhere
– those kids are now in their 20s and 30s
– they had a very unique experience

Woz’ philosophies of education are available online
– built his own ham radio (could get that license when he was young, but not a driver’s license)

I grew up as a SK (superintendent’s kid)
– so my best present ever was a chalkboard
– I was so excited to become a teacher because helping someone learn something new, expand their mind, is so exciting

motivation is so key

Story of high school science class: it was so great with my first year teacher because it was self-directed and self-paced
– I completed the entire curriculum fast, so I was able to design and carry out experiments on my own
– I had a similar experience with math and a math teacher who “let me do math”

THIS REALLY MAKES ME THINK ABOUT THE MYTHICAL VALUE OF PACING GUIDES / SCRIPTED CURRICULUM

Before my husband designed a computer, computers were the size of a house

sometimes you do things for all the wrong reasons, and it takes youp down a different path

This is my vision of Eric Rochester
– my 2nd grade teacher let us sit together in groups
– I used to talk with him a lot

The power to crush or inspire
– story of being sent into the hall for talking, meeting her dad

My parents never talked to me about that
– it really made an impression on me about the things people in authority tell me do things

The art and science of teaching
– I thought about this a lot as both a scientist and a teacher

The Art and Science of Teaching

story of one of my high school students who had grade skipped several times
– student would write me a letter in French, I didn’t know French

Synergy: The interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a comobined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects (Oxford dictionary def)

If you are going to fail at Apple: fail big, and don’t fail alone

I did a little research with Papert

Papert: The role of the teacher is to create the conditions for invention rather than provide ready-made knowledge
– quoting GenYes blog

As teachers we often have the power to make students see what we want them to see

Digital Age: engage, explain, explore, elaborate, evaluate

Our mission: create the best possible learning environment…

More than 50% of 21 year olds have created content on the web
– kids today are very connected (with RSS)
– are in virtual communities
– have collaborative communities

kids are informed: subscriptions, sharing ideas, producing

I THINK IT’S A MYTH THAT LOTS OF KIDS ARE USING RSS TODAY (THAT WAS CERTAINLY NOT TRUE FOR MY T4T STUDENTS AT UCO THIS TERM)

video blog of Sam Saper

this is the first time in history when kids may know more than their teachers

Full Sail University in Florida
– Sam is on the board there

Now showing video by Ysleta student (tech rap) – Digital Lifestyle
– video shown at T&L several years ago

here are 3 of my favorite URLs

www.newseum.org

MY SON, ALEX, GOT TO VISIT THE NEWSEUM IN WASHINGTON DC LAST SUMMER!

Guess how many newspapers are online in Africa? Four!

MY THOUGHT: GUESS HOW MANY OKLAHOMA SCHOOLS HAVE THEIR STUDENT NEWSPAPERS ONLINE ON AN INTERACTIVE, MODERATED PLATFORM? ABOUT THE SAME NUMBER. STORYCHASERS WILL CHANGE THIS.

Another site I love: www.tenbyten.org
– gives a visual depiction of what is going on in the world at that time

article in Vail, Az
– WiFi turns rowdy Bus into rolling study hall (NYT)
– kids are wired and online for their 2 hours
– wireless access point costs $200, and $60 per month
– why don’t we have these on all our buses in schools

all our buses at Apple have wireless access (high speed)

Now I want to show you some of my favorite projects

Kindergarten project from Grant Island, Nebraska: “I Love You”

[KIDS VOICES, VERY CUTE]

How many grandparents would like to

Another project from an ADE: Rethink Reading

[VIDEO IS PLAYING IN AN IPHONE]

These kids read in GarageBand and then can edit out their mistakes / imperfections

I am dyslexic so in 2nd grade I really struggled
– I picked out books by the size
– I got thick books, and always read to my parents

No one ever told me I couldn’t read when I was young

iREAD project by Kathy Shirley in Escondido, CA
– talks about 4 R’s of reading
– research, relevance, rapidity and results
– how many words per minute (fluency)

Dr Timothy Shanahan in Fluency Instruction (2006) – table of end of year fluency goals by grade

I WAS WITH KATHY IN HANGZHOU, CHINA, IN OCT/NOV 2009 – HOW COOL TO HEAR HER VOICE AT MACE IN JANET’S PRESO!

Now sharing Radio WillowWeb from Omaha, Nebraska

Now showing “Who Lives” video from Mabry Academy in Georgia
– students interviewed a world-reknonw

[I THINK THAT IS MABRY MIDDLE SCHOOL IN COBB COUNTY, WHEN DR TIM TYSON WAS PRINCIPAL THERE. I WONDER IF ANY OF THAT DIGITAL STORYTELLING IS CONTINUING AT MABRY NOW THAT TIM IS NOT THERE?]

Now showing “Rock our World” video from a teacher friend who works at Will Smith’s children’s school
– this is a video from when she taught blind students

[THIS IS CAROL ANNE MCGUIRE! I WONDER HOW THINGS ARE GOING FOR HER NOW… SEE THIS AUDIO INTERVIEW SERIES FOR MORE LINKS ABOUT CAROL’S AMAZING WORK!]

When I went into this blind classroom, all these kids were happy
– they were probably happy because they have her for a teacher

iWeb-based portfolio of student work:
wwww.solon.k12.ia.us/~holly_plunkett/Site/Home.html

8th Grade Foreign Language Project
– students animate their own pictures

HOW DID THEY DO THAT?!

Now showing Jenny’s Art Portfolio
– Westside High School, Omaha, NE
– student used this portfolio to get a scholarship

Now showing “From the Heart” video
– thank you song she wrote, directed, produced and published
– Corina Bertsein: “Thank You”

I think music is probably as important to her as

Student film documents Holocaust memories
“We Must Remember”
– journalism teacher in Carlsbad, CA who visited Holocaust sites in Europe
– wanted to take 16 kids there to tell the story of the Holocauset, they planned for a year and raised $3000 each

Carlsbad High School Television
Carlsbad High School broadcast journalists win Peacemaker award

AT the first showing of their documentary, an anonymous donor gave them $100K
– that was not their intent

they created curriculum guides and materials on DVD, and gave them away free to all CA schools

[I WONDER IF THESE MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE? IF THEY ARE AND YOU HAVE THE LINK, PLEASE SHARE IT AS A COMMENT!]

this is a challenge based learning project for them
– Steven Spielberg has seen their movie now

– very different from me publishing my thesis at the Univ of Kansas, which has been

this is not about typing faster, it is about thinking different and solving problems

closing thought: (paraphrase) – don’t let anyone stand in the way of your dreams

Janet will have 2:15 breakout session also here

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5 responses to “Janet Wozniak: Think back to the reason you got into education: To change the world”

  1. Vernon Conaway Avatar
    Vernon Conaway

    Wes

    You say “THIS REALLY MAKES ME THINK ABOUT THE MYTHICAL VALUE OF PACING GUIDES / SCRIPTED CURRICULUM”. This is a point brought up many times by Meier in “The Power of Their Ideas” but I am wondering how you do this with math (especially with a child going through Algebra). How do you avoid having to have the basics down cold (adding/subtracting/multiplication tables)? Also, I can see how you might let a student focus on a historical time period or scientific area that speaks to them but I don’t see how this would work with math as each part builds on what was learned before.

    Thanks for the post!

  2. Wesley Fryer Avatar

    I definitely don’t advocate education without a curriculum. Curriculum is vital. We don’t have to use pacing guides and attempt to put everyone on the same page, on the same day, however, to provide high quality educational experiences.

    Janet’s point was that teachers who differentiate learning experiences and lessons for students are the ones that really help them fly, metaphorically. I agree with her point.

    Does that help?

  3. Sam Repas Avatar
    Sam Repas

    I’m Sam Saper and just stumbled across this — Did she mention me in her speech? Wow! Very cool!

  4. Wesley Fryer Avatar

    Sam: Yes she did mention you by name, that’s how I was able to share the link to your site. VERY cool! So glad you learned about this from my post. Keep up the GREAT work!!! 🙂

  5. Sam Repas Avatar
    Sam Repas

    I had heard to some degree that Apple was “showing me off” at education speeches, I had no idea it was so high-profile 🙂
    ps. Did she show a short documentary of me (made by a friend of my parents’ at Full Sail University) talking about education (and using apple products to edit my videoblog?) That seems to be how apple found out about me…
    pps. I do have an RSS feed, but I’ve actually never IRL met ANYONE with an RSS (as far as I know)!
    Also, while animoscars is pretty cool, my main videoblog is here:http://www.youtube.com/user/SamECircle