Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Anywhere, Anytime Learning by Janet Barresi

These are my notes from Oklahoma state superintendent Janet Barresi‘s opening comments at the February 7, 2012 Oklahoma Technology Association / Encycl-Media Conference. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

I want to talk to you about anywhere, anytime learning

Fundamental question: What is the value of a book?
– the glue binding and paper
– books have remained unchanged for about half a millennia
– the book is a medieval business model
– I have a soft spot for books, but I”m not afraid to embrace eBooks and their power to bring positive change to education

I can bring an entire library around in an eBook reader
– our kids are being exposed to this technology every day outside of the classroom, it’s time for it to make it into the classroom

We are moving into “The Great Tech War of 2012” (per
– Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple
– fighting for marketshare for eBook
– Facebook going public
– Apple now offering iBooks platform
– this is good news
– disruptive technology is going exponential
– what used to take years now takes months

Smartphones and tablets are now ubiquitous
– broadband is expanding
– free content is exploding
– digital natives in our classrooms have never known anything else

Tom VanderArk was our summer conference
– his new book is “Getting Smart”
– he said 10 years ago we passed a threshold in human history, now anyone can learn anything for free or cheap
– our calcified school system is giving way to a new digital world

new SDE summer conference will be Vision2020: June 12-15, 2012

Kahn Academy has had 80 million YouTube views with over 2000 free videos
– Sal Kahn is working with a California classroom on a flipped model
– Kahn Academy has sophisticated data and tracking tools
– Sal says we’re at an inflection point, it’s crazy that every other field is being revolutionized except education

MY COMMENT: I’M TIRED OF GENERALIZATIONS LIKE THAT, WE DEFINITELY HAVE SCHOOLS AND EDUCATORS IN OKLAHOMA DOING AN EXEMPLARY JOB EMBRACING THE DIGITAL LEARNING REVOLUTION, AND WE NEED TO BOTH CELEBRATE AND AMPLIFY THESE SCHOOLS AT EVENTS JUST LIKE THIS. FAILING TO DO SO PAINTS OUR STATE AS A FAILURE FOR DIGITAL LEARNING. THAT IS INACCURATE, NOT FAIR AND MISLEADING. CERTAINLY WE HAVE LOTS OF CHANGES TO MAKE, BUT WE ALSO HAVE MANY EDUCATORS, STUDENTS, AND SCHOOLS RIGHT HERE IN OKLAHOMA THAT WE NEED TO CELEBRATE. JUST AS SHE DID IN NOVEMBER 2011 AT ODLA, SUPERINTENDENT BARRESI SQUANDARED THAT OPPORTUNITY TODAY TO RECOGNIZE THE CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE EDUCATORS AMONG US. 🙁

Last week we (Oklahoma SDE) announced a partnership with SASS Curriculum Pathways to offer thousands of free lesson plans to Oklahoma students
– also with Pangea Learning Inc. to provide supplemental tutoring services to 10,000 students statewide who are struggling to learn Algebra I skills
– also offering over 1400 digital files contributed from National Archives, LOC, NPR, NASA, National Institutes for Help
– web-based resources in ELA, Math, Science, Spanish, more for grades 6-12
– audio tutorials mapped to meet OKlahoma standards
– now this SASS Curriculum is going to be available free to Oklahoma learners

Pilot project with 16 high schools and 23 middle schools with Pangea Learning Inc.
– includes free teacher training to schools
– teachers will use this program as a supplement for Algebra I

In April we will convene a digital learning summit to write a document together
– we will use Digital Learning Council’s
– 3 organization: customization/success for all students, robust offering of high quality offers, robust infrastructure

MY COMMENT: IT IS SIGNIFICANT AND REGRETTABLE THAT “TEACHERS” ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS ORGANIZING FRAMEWORK

[end of notes]

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One response to “Anywhere, Anytime Learning by Janet Barresi”

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    Anonymous

    Thank you for this report!