Yesterday was release day for the new iPhone GS, and our family now owns two iPhones. We upgraded my wife’s “normal” cell phone to the iPhone GS, and are going to the AT&T store later today to swap SIM cards and register that swap with AT&T so our numbers will remain the same. She is getting my 1st generation iPhone, and I’m getting the iPhone GS. I was surprised that the new iPhone 3.0 software downloaded free to the 1st Gen iPhone, I was expecting we’d have to pay for the update. We would have to pay for the update ($10) to put it on our son’s iPod Touch, but the feature set doesn’t seem to justify it yet.
The first thing I was eager to do on the new iPhone GS was shoot a video and directly upload it to YouTube. Here is our first iPhone recorded/YouTube published video, taken by my 8 year old daughter. She was a little shaky holding the iPhone still, but overall I think the quality is really good for both audio and video. The key is, this video was DIRECTLY uploaded to YouTube! The title of this one minute commentary is, “Irrelevant Paper.”
iPhone GS owners: Welcome to the world of “publish at will” mobility to YouTube.
In the fall of 2005, I was surprised when leaders of the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) decided not to publish one of the articles I’d submitted for their quarterly magazine, The TechEdge. I’d faithfully contributed to and published in the TechEdge since 1996-97, and this was the first time I’d ever been told, “No. We don’t want to publish your article.” It wasn’t a case where TCEA didn’t want me to write for them anymore, instead they objected to the SPECIFIC ideas in a specific article. I had originally titled the article, “Blogging the Conference,” and renamed it when I submitted it as “Blogging TCEA 2006: Create, Share & Access.”
I blogged about this on September 25, 2005, in the post, “Disruptive Technology Censorship?” Certainly TCEA had and has editorial rights to determine what ideas they do and do not share in their various publications. The interesting thing in this context was that my article was apparently TOO POTENTIALLY DISRUPTIVE for the organization. What I proposed was conference attendees blogging the conference, sharing Flickr photos, and inviting discussion/conversations about sessions on their own blogs/websites outside the control and purview of TCEA leaders and conference organizers. In that 2005 post I reflected:
I do not view this situation as upsetting, rather, I find it to be quite instructive. The disintermediation of traditional publishing that I discuss in the article is naturally a disruptive phenomenon, I think. I am not going to rush to conclusions, we’ll see how this situation continues to develop, but my perception at this point is along the lines of Virginia Postrel’s analysis in her book, ““The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress.”. Traditional, established organizations often play the part of “statists” rather than “dynamists” in opposing change, or at least being reluctant to embrace it.
That may be the case here. If so, it is not necessarily a bad thing, more an expected thing. I would expect TCEA to come around eventually. Blogging, according to my own crystal ball, is here to stay, and publication methods like blog tagging that allow users to “blog a conference” are going to move forward with or without formal organizational support.
Until today, my article “Blogging TCEA 2006: Create, Share & Access” had not been shared publicly on the open web. I’d planned to seek an alternative print publisher for it, but never made the time to do so. Today I’ve both republished it here on this blog post, and also added it to my TechEdge article archive on my older site, “Tools for the TEKS: Integrating Technology in the Classroom.” These ideas may not seem nearly as radical today, given the explosion in social media use we’ve seen and continue to witness, but they certainly were challenging in September of 2005 for TCEA leaders. Many organizational leaders, I’d assert, still have problems / issues with this type of organic, distributed content creation and sharing. We’ve come a long way in three years, but we still have a long way to go.
This article was not published by TCEA. Please see this Septebmer 2005 post for more background.
The annual conference of the Texas Computer Education Association (www.tcea.org) is one of the largest gatherings in the US of teachers interested in more effectively utilizing technology in their classrooms. This year, I invite you to help make the conference even better by joining a volunteer crew of text and photo bloggers that will document the event better than ever.
The advent of web technologies like text blogs (www.edublogs.org), photo blogs like Flickr (www.flickr.com), and tagging/search tools like Technorati (www.technorati.com) are revolutionizing the way people create, share and access real-time content. Rather than wait weeks or perhaps months for a conference CD to be released containing presenter handouts and media attachments (that may have been created and submitted months before the actual conference), read/write web tools like those discussed in this article permit anyone to create, share, and access multimedia content created during and after a conference immediately.
Translated, this means that during the TCEA 2006 conference, you will be able to access real-time critiques and highlights of presentations, comments about vendor offerings, photos from the vendor fair or presentation rooms, podcasts, and anything else posted to the Internet with a shared “tag.” A post’s “tag” is like a keyword label. In this case, the key that will let you into this free information exchange is the tag “tcea2006.” To access any web content posted with this “tag,” you can point your web browser to the following Technorati tag web address:
I would recommend that as an organization, TCEA officially embrace this concept by posting a link to this dynamic Technorati search on its homepage before, during and after the conference. Whether or not this is officially sanctioned, I invite you to join in as a publisher as well as content consumer. Here is how it works.
AN EXAMPLE: THE WEBZINE2005 CONFERENCE
An excellent example of a recent conference that put into practice these techniques of distributed, organic content publishing and organized access was the Webzine2005 conference in San Francisco September 24 and 25, 2005. The official conference website (http://webzine2005.com) includes links to a multitude of resources, including some created and literally built by the conference attendees themselves. According to the website, “WEBZINE is a real world, face-to-face celebration of independent publishing on the Internet.” Not a surprise a creative gathering like this would model cutting edge publishing techniques for others to study and possibly emulate.
The Webzine2005 conference Wiki (http://webzine.jot.com) is a dynamic website anyone can log into and either create new webpages on or edit information on existing pages. This works like the free WikiPedia (http://en.wikipedia.org), except it is driven by a commercial application wiki service (www.jot.com) rather than free, open-source Wiki software (www.mediawiki.org).
In the upper left corner of the Webzine2005 conference Wiki, there is a link to “Technorati tag: webzine2005.” This actual hyperlink is www.technorati.com/search/webzine2005 - an address which as of this writing, contained over 75 different posts related to the conference and its presentations.
This model of content publication is not only dynamic, innovative and exciting, but revolutionary as well. Why? It is revolutionary because gatekeepers of content control are completely excluded from this organic publication process. In business economics, this is referred to as “disintermediation.” On this subject, WikiPedia authors observe:
… disintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in a supply chain: “cutting out the middleman”. Instead of going through traditional distribution channels, which had some type of intermediate (such as a distributor, wholesaler, broker, or agent), companies may now deal with every customer directly, for example via the Internet. One important factor is a drop in the cost of servicing customers directly.[1]
This article could be renamed “Disintermediating TCEA 2006,” but that title might scare off many potential readers! The idea, however, is relatively simple: direct publishing power to conference attendees, with access rights granted to a global audience. Creative, dynamic, and powerful. And also free, once you have access to the Internet.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Participating as an information consumer in this TCEA 2006 documentary blogfest is easy. Simply point any web browser to the following address:
As the conference draws nearer and actually begins, increasing numbers of posts tagged as “tcea2006” should appear in the dynamic search results of this web link.
My challenge to each attendee of TCEA 2006, however, is to not merely participate in this blogfest as an information CONSUMER, but also as an information PRODUCER. This models a key contention I have for digital literacy acquisition in the twenty-first century. Our students must not merely be consumers of digital content, but also producers of their own original multimedia content. Experience is the best teacher. Here is how you can get involved.
STEP 1: Set up a free blog that supports tagging
A growing variety of options exist for creating a weblog. To blog TCEA 2006, I recommend you setup (if you have not already) a blog that supports “tagging.” One of the best blog software options is WordPress (www.wordpress.org), an open source software tool offering a wide variety of customizability options for users. Edublogs (www.edublogs.org) is a free service for educators offering hosted wordpress blogs. Visit their website to create a free Wordpress blog.
Blogger (www.blogger.com) is also a popular free blogging service, but currently does not support blog post categories (a straightforward way to organize your blog entries) or an easy way to create new tags other than modifying your Blogger template, which can seem a bit daunting (http://help.blogger.com/default/bin/answer.py?answer=120&topic=39). For those reasons, I recommend setting up a WordPress blog with Edublogs instead of Blogger. It is free, straightforward, and effective for this and other blogging purposes.
STEP 2: Create a “tcea2006” blog category
Technorati (www.technorati.com) treats blog categories and tags as the same thing. Technically speaking, they are not equivalent, but for our purposes, they will function the same. If you are an experienced Wordpress blogger (or become one in the future) you may consider installing a free plugin like Ultimate Tag Warrior (www.neato.co.nz/ultimate-tag-warrior/) and use actual “tags” rather than or in addition to categories for your blog posts. That, however, is an advanced topic we will not address further here.
When you login to your Wordpress blog with your username and password, you will be able to click a “manage” link, and then select “categories.” After making those menu choices, click to create a new blog category titled “tcea2006”. Make sure you do NOT insert a space in this category. This is the category you will select and use for each of your TCEA 2006 conference blog posts.
The last administrative configuration change is to make sure the Technorati website is notified as soon as you post new content to your blog. In WordPress, click on “options” and then the “writing” menu. At the bottom, under “update services,” make sure you already have the web address for Technorati (http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping) and Ping-o-matic (http://rpc.pingomatic.com) added. If they are not, add them so blog tracking services will be notified as soon as your blog is updated.
STEP 3: Start blogging
From any computer connected to the Internet: at the conference, your hotel room, or anywhere else, log onto your blog website using your administrative username and password, and post new content to the blogosphere. If you have your own laptop, you may consider using a software tool like Ecto (http://ecto.kung-foo.tv) to post content even faster, without logging in through a webpage.
I recommend you post recommended web links you learn about at the conference, information from great presentation sessions you attend, reflections about the conference keynote speakers’ ideas, links to software and hardware that catch your fancy on the vendor floor, and anything else worth sharing with others from the conference.
If you are using blog software that does not support tags or categories, you can manually tag a post by adding the following code to it:
There are many benefits to your participation in the TCEA 2006 blogfest.
1.Participation is free!
2.The process of blogging at the conference will enhance your own retention and ability to remember what you have learned.
3.Your posts may help other people locate great resources they did not personally encounter but can use in their classrooms when they return home following the conference.
STEP 4: Post TCEA 2006 Photos to Flickr
To really get into the experience of sharing your TCEA 2006 experience, create (if you don’t already have one) a free Flickr account by visiting www.flickr.com. Flickr is a website that allows members (free account holders as well as “pro” account members) to post photos and “tag” them with specific words.
Using your digital camera or picture phone, take pictures at TCEA 2006 and upload them to your Flickr account. It is possible to configure your Flickr account to specify an email address (which you will want to keep private from others) that can be used to directly web-post photos from the conference to your Flickr account. These photos can even be automatically tagged “tcea2006” so you do not have to manually tag them using a web browser later. For more information about how to do this, visit www.flickr.com/account/uploadbyemail after creating your Flickr account. If your photos are not set to automatically be tagged, manually tag each one “tcea2006” (again WITHOUT a space) so your photos will be indexed in the Technorati search for TCEA 2006 web resources.
STEP 5: Post TCEA 2006 website recommendations to del.icio.us
Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us) is a popular “social bookmark” website. It not only allows users to post and share websites they want to remember and recommend to others, which include a short sentence about the site, but also allow users to “socially” link to other saved websites posted by others with the same “tag” or category.
The process for posting website recommendations to del.icio.us is the same as previously described, except TCEA 2006 conference attendees will need to register for a free del.icio.us account and then tag their posts “tcea2006.”
We live in a rapidly changing informational environment, where anyone has the potential to “publish at will” content that can include text, images, sound files, and even video. For those with ideas to share and stories to tell, there has never been a more exciting day to be alive. Join us as a creative content publisher at TCEA 2006! See you online, and hopefully at the conference!
Wesley Fryer is an educator, digital storyteller, and creative podcaster. Catch up on his latest thoughts at www.speedofcreativity.org.
I was delighted with the results of my continued experiments with webcasting this morning, this time using a Nady Wireless lapel microphone for the first time. Use of this microphone yielded by far the highest-quality audio recordings I’ve been able to achieve using Ustream.tv to date. The image below shows the equipment I’m using for webcasting, with labeled items detailed in the legend below the photograph:
A - A Digital Video (DV) camcorder (in this case, my VERY old Sony Digital 8 camera)
B- A long firewire cable (purchased from CompUSA in Hawaii in Dec07, incidentally, before the chain went out of business)
C- M-Audio Mobile Pre (Converts analog, unbalanced audio from a 1/4″ male to male plug, connected to the wireless mic receiver)
D- Nady UHF-3 “true diversity” (two-antenna) wireless receiver and lapel microphone, powered with two AAA batteries
E- USB cable connecting the laptop to the Mobile Pre
F- Tripod (Radio Shack model, very cheap!)
G- 20′ 3 prong extension cord
H- A 5 plug power strip, a VERY important thing to remember!
I- MacBook Pro Laptop
All of this equipment IS pretty cumbersome to lug around, but the improvement in quality in both audio and video is significant over what I’ve been able to achieve simply using a cell phone and the Ustream mobile application. I think of webcasting with Ustream mobile as more “webcasting guerrilla style,” with a minimum of equipment and overhead. When I’ve webcasted with my cell phone, in contrast to the equipment above all I’ve needed is:
A- My cell phone with Ustream mobile
B- A GPS unit car windshield holder (to hold the cell phone in place- basically it functions as a tripod but holds the irregularly shaped cell phone which does NOT have a tripod mounting hole)
C- A laptop to use as a backdrop for the suction cup on the GPS unit (in this case cell phone) holder
I’ve found a cell phone charging cable also comes in handy, when webcasting repeatedly all day. Whether I’ve webcasted “guerrilla style” or with all the equipment outlined above, a fast WiFi connection is a must. My cell phone doesn’t presently work over 3G, but if I had a Ustream Mobile compatible 3G cell phone it would be possible to use the cell network rather than WiFi. I’ve gotten around this in the past by connecting my laptop to the Internet with my 3G data card, and then sharing that 3G connection as a shared, ad-hoc WiFi network to my cell phone. Fast wifi provided at the location where the webcast is being recorded is the faster and more reliable option, however. Blocked ports can be an issue on many networks with Ustream, so it’s important to test it in advance and make sure everything works fine.
In addition to the MUCH higher audio quality which was possible today using the Nady wireless mic, it’s also great to use a camcorder with a 10X optical zoom. This lets me zoom in to the speaker much closer, and create what I think is a much higher quality webcast.
My webcasting efforts still look pretty amateurish, I’d guess, but the quality is improving. I heard about the Nady UHF-3 wireless microphone several months ago from a Radio Shack employee, who I was questioning about inexpensive, wireless microphone options. He said it is ESSENTIAL to get a “true diversity” wireless mic, since it has two antennas and is MUCH less likely to drop the RF radio signal than a single antenna model. I purchased this one online for about $150. I’ve had the M-Audio Mobile Pre for several years now, having purchased it originally for workshops I did about musicmaking using GarageBand software and needing to connect higher quality XLR vocal microphones to my Mac laptop. I’d like to purchase a new, smaller mini-DV camcorder to use with this setup, and did see one on clearance at WalMart recently for $150. One of the biggest headaches with DV camcorders, I’ve found, is that you have to have a tape in the camera AND be recording for the video camera to remain on. I’ve searched the menus on my unit for a “don’t shut off automatically, stay on all the time” feature, and haven’t found one. I’m hopeful if I purchase a new DV camcorder it will have that option. When I’m webcasting for an extended period of time (like several sessions at a conference) it’s a pain to have to use tapes. It is advantageous to have a backup copy of the presentation on DV tape, but as long as the WiFi connection is good the web-recorded version should be fine without a backup. I guess your need for a tape backup depends on how valuable the actual event recording is to you. In some cases, it could be very important to have.
Today I experimented for the first time with Ustream’s feature to put LIVE, SCROLLING TEXT as an overlay on top of your video. This was pretty cool, as I was able to add the name of the speaker, the topic, and the location where the webcast was originating.
Far and away, the most amazing thing about webcasting with Ustream is the ability to IMMEDIATELY record and web-archive an event. I’ve written about this before, and experienced it repeatedly to date, but it still never ceases to amaze me. When I worked at a university in 2001-2006, we literally spent tens of thousands of dollars to have this capability, but we could only archive videoconferences which either originated in one of our designated H.323 videoconferencing rooms or utilized a portable videoconferencing equipment setup that cost around $10,000 by itself. Immediately webcasting AND recording / archiving the event was VERY expensive, and could be fairly complicated to accomplish.
In contrast, the sum total expense of the webcasting setup I used today was (not including the Mac laptop, of course):
- $230: M-Audio Mobile Pre
- $150: Nady Wireless Mic
- $150: Digital camcorder
- $20: Firewire cable
- $20: Extension cord and power strip
- $15: Tripod
TOTAL: $585.00 (U.S.)
This may seem expensive, but given the comparative cost of webcasting solutions I’ve worked with in the past, this is VERY cheap. It’s amazing that it’s now possible to literally bring in your own bag of equipment, as I did today, and by using an available WiFi connection (or 3G cell network connection) webcast and digitally record/archive an event for a global audience. This is a phenomenal capability. It’s also amazing to think that this camcorder, when I purchased it new around 8 years ago, cost $1200. Now a MUCH higher quality and smaller digital camcorder can be purchased for just $150. Amazing.
I’m hoping to rope several other folks in with me to lead a session at EduBloggerCon on “Webcasting, Live Blogging & Backchannels.” I really enjoy learning more about “low budget webcasting” and think this offers great potential for individuals as well as organizations wanting to amplify, archive and share their story as well as the presentations of different speakers who they may host in person at different venues.
To learn more about webcasting, check out the links and archived video from a session I’ve presented in the past titled, “Webcasting on a Shoestring.” If you’re looking for a cell phone to buy which supports webcasting, consider the Nokia N96. Hat tip to Joe Corbett for this recommendation. We’ll be using a Nokia N96 (among other tools) at NECC2009 to webcast on ISTEconnects.
Wednesday night I posted “Webstreaming Storm Trackers” to the ISTEconnects blog, and noted how webstreaming technologies along with more pervasive cell tower connectivity is empowering a new generation of storm trackers / storm chasers to broadcast “live” from the field as severe weather hits local communities. Actual storm spotters, in contrast to amateur storm chasers, perform a vital role during severe thunderstorms in providing on-site reporting about suspected tornados which have a characteristic, tornadic radar signature. According to NOAA’s official “Introduction to Storm Observation and Reporting” webpage:
Even with all the technology used by the National Weather Service to prepare severe weather warnings, storm spotters still give us the most complete picture of what’s really happening in and around severe storms. Radar simply cannot tell us everything we need to know. Storm spotters are the eyes and ears in the field.
For more than 60 years, storm spotters have been the Nation’s first line of defense against deadly storms. Working with their local communities and with the local National Weather Service office, spotters provide invaluable assistance and critical information to decision makers when hazardous weather threatens. Countless lives have been saved because of this unique partnership between volunteer storm spotters, emergency management and the National Weather Service.
For better or for worse, advances in mobile webstreaming and webcasting technologies have ushered in a day when increasing numbers of people are putting themselves in harms way and broadcasting the results, most likely hoping for publicity and a moment of fame for their shared video footage. While increased connectivity and video sharing can be used in positive, constructive ways, it also is and can be used in harmful ways which can encourage people to take foolish risks. The following story is a case in point.
This evening I watched the CNN iReport and subsequent interview over the phone with Missouri resident Michael Ambrosia, who rather recklessly got within about 50 feet of a tornado this past Wednesday in the video sequence he shared on the iReport website.
In his CNN interview, Michael reveals that a few minutes later after his iReport footage stopped, he drove further but stopped his car. The same tornado actually passed over his location, and he caught that moment on video. Michael posted that longer length video to his account on YouTube.
As humans, many of us seem to be psychologically wired to be interested and intrigued by video sequences like this. Clearly CNN producers know this, and although the CNN interviewer makes a statement at the end about viewers not endangering themselves to get footage for iReports, the implicit message here is, “This is exactly what we are looking for when it comes to citizen-produced media and journalism.” In some respects, I think it is unfortunate CNN chose to broadcast and amplify these moments of foolishness and poor judgement by Michael Ambrosia, since the rebroadcast of his video will likely encourage more people (probably young folks) to go out and attempt similar videography near tornados. This is a grim prediction, but I strongly suspect it is only a matter of time before we hear a news report about a tornado chaser with a flash-based camcorder who gets killed because s/he got too close to the storm. I hope that will not be the case, but it seems we’re on that sort of trajectory.
Michael Ambrosia: I’m glad you were not injured or killed as you took this footage on Wednesday of the tornado in Novinger, Missouri. I commend you for not using profanity in those moments of stress as the tornado actually passed over your location. I noticed you titled your re-posted video “My Tornado Encounter 13MAY09, lessons to learn” but you did not indicate in the video that you’d learned any lessons, or that any were there to learn. I suspect the lesson many people may learn from your experience is, “Hey, I need to get my own flash-based camcorder and get in my car next time there are tornados around, so I can get interviewed on CNN like Michael did.” While I think it can be a very positive thing to encourage people to become citizen journalists, I think it is also imperative that we emphasize ethics and good decision making in multiple contexts. I think you have a window of opportunity here to encourage others to use better judgement than you did on Wednesday, and be specific about what people should do. I would suggest this include:
1. Do not chase tornados unless you are traveling with others who are knowledgeable, experienced storm chasers and storm trackers using radios, radar, and other equipment to carefully monitor storm situations at all times.
2. Do not put your own life at risk to simply try and capture some video footage which may be memorable. Being an iReporter can be both fun and valuable for others, but it is not worth it to recklessly risk your life for video of a tornado. Life is precious, and no one’s life should be sacrificed for storm footage no matter how enthralling or exciting it might be.
— end of message for Michael —
Professional stormchasers are now trying (through June 14th) to capture better data than ever before about tornados and severe storms here in the midwest. See the CNN article from Thursday, “Scientists chasing killer tornadoes across Midwest” for more information about VORTEX2. According to the VORTEX2 website:
VORTEX2 is by far the largest and most ambitious effort ever made to understand tornadoes. We expect over 100 scientists and crew in up to 40 science and support vehicles to participate in this unique, fully nomadic, field program in May/June 2009-2010. The National Science Foundation (NSF) foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration (NOAA) together are contributing over $10 million towards this effort. Participants will be drawn from several universities, and several government and private organizations, and will be international including members from Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.
The basic questions are simple to ask, but hard to answer.
- How, when, and why do tornadoes form? Why some are violent and long lasting while others are weak and short lived?
- What is the structure of tornadoes? How strong are the winds near the ground? How exactly do they do damage?
- How can we learn to forecast tornadoes better? Current warnings have an only 13 minute average lead time and a 70% false alarm rate. Can we make warnings more accurate? Can we warn 30, 45, 60 minutes ahead?
It is great scientists are embarking on this study to better understand tornados, so more accurate predications as well as storm tracking can take place to protect and save lives. For those of us living in the midwest, I think it is an important “safety topic” to discuss how we should leave the tornado chasing and videography to the professionals, even though CNN likely wants more iReports like Michael’s.
I think this situation can provide a good case study / teachable moment for participants in our StoryChaser digital storytelling workshops / Celebrate Oklahoma Voices workshops. There are some very important safety lessons to learn here.
About 25 teachers visited the K20 Center at the University of Oklahoma to participate in “K20 Alt Goes Webcamping.” They received webcams and instructions on how to use them to connect with fellow teachers and other outside resources. They also learned about the K20 Center’s Web site dedicated to interactive alternative education lessons for math, science, social studies and English. Alternative education teachers can create a Web page on the site and interact with other teachers.
I’d love to see some short, digital stories created by Celebrate Oklahoma Voices and StoryChaser participants about how these webcams are used in the months ahead by Oklahoma AltEd students and teachers. Andrea Ford’s Video “Skype in the Classroom” (posted to COV by Tammy Parks) is one of the best Oklahoma examples I’ve seen to date of webcam/skype use to support learning.
I haven’t posted the podcast yet, but two weeks ago at the PodStock conference I interviewed a teacher from Sterling, Kansas, who was able to bring former U.S. Senator Bob Dole into his classroom via Skype for the first time. (The first time Senator Dole had used Skype, but not his first time to videoconference.) Dean Mantz was/is the technology director extraordinaire “behind the scenes” who helped facilitate this classroom connection to Washington D.C. Sterling teachers and students (USD 376 in Kansas) are so fortunate to have a tech director like Dean!!! Perhaps Oklahoma AltEd teachers can convince Senator Jim Inhofe and Senator Tom Coburn to skype into their Oklahoma classrooms? If they do, it might help “Unmask the Digital Truth” for more Oklahoma school board members, school administrators, parents and community members when it comes to the constructive value of technology solutions like Skype in the classroom.
Hat tip to Dawn Danker for letting me know about the Webcamping event earlier in the week.
The light weight of a Netbook is alluring, but most I’ve tried have keyboards that are just too small for my fingers. The HP Mini 1000 is the best I’ve tried, but I want to find/purchase a Netbook with even LONGER battery life. Dell is supposed to be releasing a new Netbook sometime before September, which I might be willing to consider. According to Chris Davies:
As for the Dell Inspiron Mini 11 (codenamed the Mini 1110 Argos), that will be “very thin and light” with “laptop-like performance” from an unnamed processor. The 11.6-inch screen will HD capable, presumably 720p, and there’ll be 250GB HDD and 2GB RAM options to go with the Vista OS. It’ll start from $499.
I’m delaying a personal purchase of a Netbook, however, until after Apple WWDC June 8-12, 2009. Why should I wait? Well, I’ve been reading the Apple rumor blogs off and on (as well as traditional news sources who reference these issues) the past few months, and a few things seem to be adding up.
Apple co-founder Mr. Jobs, who is considered the company’s creative leader, is also involved in the development of future projects, they say. People privy to the company’s strategy say Apple is working on new iPhone models and a portable device that is smaller than its current laptop computers but bigger than the iPhone or iPod Touch.
Sound intriguing? Absolutely. We are planning to add an iPhone to our family phone collection this summer, and CNET’s report “Analyst: Apple placed chip order for 32GB iPhones” suggests we’d be wise to wait till after WWDC to purchase a new iPhone. New iPhones are to be expected, I suppose, but what about this “new portable device?” What will it be?
I don’t have a crystal ball, and I also do NOT have inside information on this from anyone at Apple, but I’ve got a hunch Apple will turn the Netbook-oogling world (myself included) upside down this summer with a new product announcement.
Don Wilson told me months ago he thought an iPod Touch device with a digital camera could be THE transformative solution for 1:1 computing in his school district. The explosion of available applications for the iTouch as well as the iPhone continues to be amazing to witness and experience. As a digital textbook, a platform for photo and video consumption, and of course an engaging gaming platform, the iTouch is already an amazing device. In my view, however, it can’t be a 1:1 learning tool until it supports audio, photo and video recording with a microphone and camera capable of enabling these functionalities. (CCC pedagogy.) I think we’re going to see a 10″ touch screen device from Apple this June which is going to do that.
The functionality of iPhone applications AudioBoo and Geo-Graffiti is amazing for mobile, digital storytelling. For K-12 contexts, however, iPhones which require costly monthly service plans can never work for scaled, school-wide 1:1 learning projects. A device WITHOUT a phone contract is essential. Given the rumors of the past few months, I think we’re going to see this sort of device (along with a larger capacity iPhone) announced this June.
I was going to start a “no screens” time at 10:30 pm CST this evening and read more in my latest analog book, “Presentation Zen” by Garr Reynolds. Picking up our family’s iTouch and reading a bit in Google Reader (my 21st century free digital newspaper, don’t you know) changed that, however, and I feel obligated to share the following thought provoking paragraphs from Clay Shirkey’s post from Friday the 13th last month, “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable.”
Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism. For a century, the imperatives to strengthen journalism and to strengthen newspapers have been so tightly wound as to be indistinguishable. That’s been a fine accident to have, but when that accident stops, as it is stopping before our eyes, we’re going to need lots of other ways to strengthen journalism instead.
When we shift our attention from ’save newspapers’ to ’save society’, the imperative changes from ‘preserve the current institutions’ to ‘do whatever works.’ And what works today isn’t the same as what used to work.
We don’t know who the Aldus Manutius of the current age is. It could be Craig Newmark, or Caterina Fake. It could be Martin Nisenholtz, or Emily Bell. It could be some 19 year old kid few of us have heard of, working on something we won’t recognize as vital until a decade hence. Any experiment, though, designed to provide new models for journalism is going to be an improvement over hiding from the real, especially in a year when, for many papers, the unthinkable future is already in the past.
For the next few decades, journalism will be made up of overlapping special cases. Many of these models will rely on amateurs as researchers and writers. Many of these models will rely on sponsorship or grants or endowments instead of revenues. Many of these models will rely on excitable 14 year olds distributing the results. Many of these models will fail. No one experiment is going to replace what we are now losing with the demise of news on paper, but over time, the collection of new experiments that do work might give us the journalism we need.
Who is going to save journalism? We are. Live blog and webcast the local school board meeting? Sure. Our focus shouldn’t be, as Shirkey points out, “Who is going to save the newspapers?” The better question is, “Who is going to save journalism?” And the answer is: We are.
If you’re interested, btw, my shared items from Google Reader are available here, in my blog’s right sidebar, on the “content” page of my personal website as a FriendFeed embed, and on my FriendFeed page directly. We couldn’t do all that sharing in the 20th century when we “read the news” with an analog newspaper, could we?!
Bring on the StoryChasers. Stay tuned, updates on that front are coming soon. The revolution is in progress.
Tonight was an evening of several personal “firsts:” My first Edmond Public Schools board meeting to attend as a parent, and the first school board meeting I’ve both webcast (via Ustream) and live-blogged via CoverItLive. The live blog included 83 comments from me as well as remote attendees, who numbered around 16 at one point during the meeting and included folks from other parts of Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and even New Zealand! The live blog text is available as an RSS feed and the CoverItLive iframe embeddable code:
The Ustream webcast actually held up pretty well during the meeting, but we were disconnected toward the end of the meeting. I’m not sure why. My AT&T broadband connection via my laptop remained connected online, but my phone disconnected for some reason and would not reconnect to Ustream. This is a partial recording of the meeting on Ustream. Yes, unfortunately this does appear to be “Blair Witch Project” quality at some points. Definitely an example of guerilla webcasting. Still, this demonstrates a remarkable capability which would not have even been possible a year ago, before our 3G cellular network was completed here in Edmond.
Here are a few of the “lessons learned” which come to mind following this event, which relate both to the board meeting itself as well as the technology I employed to share and document this event.
Now that technologies exist which permit live event coverage like this, we should equip and support student Storychaser teams to webcast a variety of school events for a virtual audience. In the case of tonight’s meeting, this was an open, public meeting, and copyright as well as permission issues didn’t come into play as they could for school music and theater performances. Those copyright issues can and should be addressed, however, and should not prevent student Storychaser teams from documenting a wide variety of school as well as community events.
In many ways, digital technologies can be used as humanizing and socializing influences in a community. One of the virtual attendees (Ernie Cox) tonight commented, “as a father of 2 small children I could be even more involved in civic life if more meetings where covered like this…..” Ernie is exactly right. Webcasting and recording events like this can open up many more doors for civic engagement and involvement. School board meetings and educational technology conferences are really just the tip of the iceberg. If we want to help motivate and direct our students to become meaningfully engaged in the civic activities of their community, state, and nation (and I think this is an important goal) we should advance this purpose by encouraging them to become citizen journalists. Equipped with a Ustream-capable cell phone and a high speed 3G cellular connection or WiFi connection, students can now be live, on-site reporters for community events.
I need to get to the school board meeting earlier next time I want to attend. The room was PACKED, and it was very small. The small size of the room actually makes the case for webcasting as well, I think. Everyone who wanted to get into the room tonight could not fit. How many more Edmond residents and school district constituents could “attend” the meeting if it was both webcast live and archived? Many, many more. Now, I realize some communities do carry their school board meetings live on their local TV cable affiliate channel. The benefit of using a tool like CoverItLive (which was free, incidentally) was the opportunity to engage in a backchannel discussion with others during the meeting. This would not have been possible if we were simply viewing the board meeting on the TV. I could even envison the school board making time for virtual attendee/participant comments and questions. Are there going to be hundreds of Edmond residents interested in attending each and every school board meeting if they are webcast in the future? Probably not. But as school district constituents, wouldn’t it be beneficial to be able to virtually attend either live or after the meeting, asynchronously, if we wanted to? Wouldn’t it be great to have our students involved in webcasting and documenting school board business? Absolutely. This can and should be a context where the transparency afforded by social media tools produces numerous ancillary benefits for those involved, besides the simple act of documenting and sharing an event.
Our school board should go paperless. It was AMAZING to see how thick the binders of paper were which each school board member had in front of them during the meeting. In our digital world, it would be both prudent and useful to have all those documents digitized so they were full-text searchable. Would laptop computers in front of each board member likely be a challenge to their personal learning styles and technology skills? It most likely would be, in at least some cases I’d guess. Yet the school board SHOULD be modeling the appropriate and effective uses of digital technologies to communicate and work. In fifty years, paper-based meetings are likely going to be considered an anachronism. Progressive and forward-thinking school districts should embrace paperless workflows TODAY. My school district, Edmond Public Schools, should be on that list of progressive school districts nationally and internationally. Electronic Board Meeting is one commercial software product (shared by JSW_EdTech during the live blog backchannel discussion tonight) which is being used by some school boards to make this move into the digital future. With Netbooks now available for $200 - $400, this is a more affordable move than ever for school board members. It’s a relatively common refrain, here on my blog, that Netbooks should be put in the hands of all students in grades three and up, but it can make sense (in some contexts) to start this Netbook and 1:1 learning revolution with school board members. In those situations, districts shouldn’t wait too long to implement the student 1:1 initiative after the school board takes the lead!
The school board approved six year CLEP plans for each school in the district at tonight’s meeting. I have several responses to this. First of all, did any of the school board members actually read ALL the text in these plans? None of the board members asked any questions about the plans. These are the plans which ostensibly will drive all the learning at our schools for the next six years. The district representative who presented these to the board indicated that the district’s professional development plan is closely tied to these site improvement plans. So WHAT IS / ARE the professional development programs for Edmond teachers, particularly as they apply to topics like digital literacy, media literacy, and the effective integration of technology across the curriculum? I’m not talking about PD for teachers specifically tasked to “teach technology” at our middle and high schools. I’m talking about PD for REGULAR classroom teachers. There was not any discussion about this at all. As a parent of children in the district, I’d like to know more about this. We have had several Edmond secondary teachers complete our statewide Celebrate Oklahoma Voices digital storytelling “phase 1″ training, but the district blocks all videos and photos from the learning community so they are inaccessible by students as well as educators on the district network. I’d love to see EVERY teacher in the district become “digital video certified,” able to not only create basic digital stories (using still images and audio) but also facilitate student digital storytelling projects. Is this in the professional development plans for any of our schools? These are SIX YEAR PLANS. What mention of technology integration is made in any of the plans? If these are not revised again until the six year school improvement plan cycle plays out, that will be 2015. No one can predict with complete accuracy what the information and communications landscape is going to look like in 2015. How is this dynamic environment addressed in the site plans of our schools? I’m curious if these site plans will be made available electronically for parents to download and read. I think they should be. This is a question I may pose to our elected school board member, Charles Woodham.
I could likely write more, but I’ll close with this thought. I’m delighted to have, at last, been able to attend a local school board meeting. We are exceptionally blessed in this community to have an ENORMOUS amount of resources with which we can educate our children. I’m optimistic that social media technologies, like Ustream and CoverItLive which I used this evening, can be used in constructive ways to increase civic awareness and participation for community members of all ages. Bring on the Storychasers!
I was also enviously holding the predecessor to the HP Mini 1000 Netbook at the CoSN conference today. The keyboard on the HP Mini is about 92% of fullsize, so unlike other netbooks I’ve briefly tried (like the Dell Inspiron Mini 9) this netbook doesn’t feel “toyish” when my fingers are on the keyboard. This doesn’t feel at all like an XO laptop. Of course it costs about three times as much as an XO does, but it is still less than $500 with the extended battery.
Despite my admitted techno-lust for this netbook, if I’m able to purchase a new laptop in the next few months I’ll probably opt for the Apple Macbook which was updated this past fall. Honestly I just can’t see myself living without Mars Edit and Skitch! I’d definitely buy the netbook with a Linux operating system rather than Windows XP, however, if I was buying.
These are my notes from the closing keynote at the 2009 CoSN conference, “Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns,” presented by Dr. Clayton M. Christensen (via video) and Michael Horn (in person.) MY COMMENTS AND THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. I WAS ABLE TO MEET AND VISIT BRIEFLY WITH MICHAEL PRIOR TO THE KEYNOTE. I WAS THRILLED TO LEARN THAT HE KNOWS ABOUT THE K-12 ONLINE CONFERENCE!
21,000 messages generated in February 2009 alone from the Ed Tech Action Network (ETAN) focused on the stimulus package
Dr Christensen is sharing a presentation at Vanderbilt University today, and was going to join us at the end of this session for Q&A, but that is not working out schedule-wise.
- is the author or co-author of six books
From Christensen’s video
- you have a critical role to play in the next several years in our schools
INTERESTING HE SAID “NEXT SEVERAL YEARS,”
being a professor is my 2nd career
- I founded and ran an advanced materials company with some other professors at MIT
- a puzzle had emerged in my head as I grew my country: why is success so difficult to sustain? Why do some companies which were on top at one point, end up at the bottom?
- the principles of good management which we teach at the Harvard Business School sow the seeds of failure for these companies
- several years some leaders from the school reform movement brought a request to me: Problems our schools face issues related to innovation
- asked me to look at school problems and challenges through the lens of innovation
- this is what we’d like to summarize for you today in our remarks
I will begin by showing you a diagram of “Sustaining and Disruptive Innovations”
- there are two trajectories of improvement (x axis is time, y axis is performance)
- first: in every market there is a trajectory of improvement which customers can utilize
- there is a distribution: there are some customers that will never be satisfied, others that can be easily satisfied
technological progress almost always outstrips the ability of customers to utilize or leverage
Remember Intel’s 286? It often couldn’t keep up with your fingers
- Intel kept introducing new chips, 3 GHz chip a few years ago went beyond the processing power most customers needed
some advances in technologies are real breakthroughs
- move to optical signaling was an example
what we find was the purpose of both trajectories (incremental and radical) are designed to sustain the same direction of the company
- we found the same companies in these battles with sustaining technologies, figured out a way to do it and stay on top
there was another technology which vexed the leaders: we call that a “disruptive technology”
- we chose that word not because it was a dramatic breakthrough, but instead of making a better product perform better, it brought a simpler, more affordable and not nearly as good product to the market
- at the beginning of a market: products are complicated and expensive
- a disruptive technology makes them affordable and accessible (also simpler)
so now our graph has a new plane of competition
- initially it competes against non-consumption
- working on my PhD I remember using a multi-million dollar computer with punch cards
- personal computer revolutionized this
- at the start, it was just simple things, and the mainframe center still did the complex stuff
- as the PC got better, one by one what we had to do on the mainframe could go to the PC (out of the back, into the front)
- until eventually, every manufacturer of mainframe and mini-computers were out
incumbents were killed off
Watching Digital Equipment Corporation collapse was part of the puzzle for me in the 1980s
- was the most widely admired company in the world economy
- success was attributed to the quality of the management team
- the stumbling of the company in the press was attributed to the management team
- I wondered how the same management team could get so stupid so fast? This is a common rationale to use
Every mini-computer company in the world collapsed at the same time: this suggests it was not management
- they didn’t “collude to collapse”
Those kinds of computers don’t exist any more
- they were mini-computers because they weren’t mainframes
- still as big as
- cost $250K to buy
- lots of training, service
- lots of related costs
Digital had to generate about 45% profit margin on computers that sold for $250K to be profitable
THIS IS AN INTERESTING STORY TO BE SURE. THE KEY FOR THIS AUDIENCE IS CONNECTING THIS TO SCHOOLS AND SHOWING HOW THE CONNECTION OF THIS TREND TO EDUCATION IS RELEVANT.
Management at that time could see the PCs out the window
- but they also saw how poor the quality was initially
- Apple sold the Apple II as a toy to children
- the PC didn’t matter to their customers at first
- management had to make a choice: make better products that we can
we teach in business schools that you should always listen to your best customers, always focus on the products that give you the best profit margins
- but when a disruptive innovation emerges (defined as we have here) those principles of good management paralyze good companies and make it almost impossible for them to address these opportunities which Michael is going to address with you.
Now a listing of companies who have gotten to their position of leadership through disruption:
- Ford
- Dept Stores
- Digital Equipment
- Delta
- State universities
- Xerox
- IBM
- Cullinet
- AT&T
- General hospitals
- Sony DiskMan
Today:
- Toyota (came in at the bottom of the market with the Corona, to the Tercel, to the Corolla, then eventually to Camery / Avalon … they didn’t start with the Lexus)
Who is killing Toyota
- look at the bottom of their market at the Koreans, at the subcompacts
- not because they are asleep, but because why would they invest in the least profitable part of their market (low end)
Others today:
- Toyota
- Wal-Mart
- Dell
- Southwest Airlines
- Common Colleges
- more…
Cell phones are disrupting now
Apple doesn’t feel they are being disruptive but they are
[END OF VIDEO OF DR. CHRISTENSEN]
Prior to this Michael worked at AOL
- worked with David Gergan as his research assistant also
- his full bio from the CoSN program:
I walk through a couple more models from the research on innovation
- I am sure a lot of you are asking: how does this apply to my school or the district I am leading?
- we will get there, I promise!
What is the natural instinct of an organization when a disruptive innovation is coming
- think back to the days of vacuum tubes
- 1947: Bell Labs invented the transistor, solid-state electronics
- companies took a license to it, and started doing R&D on it and framed it as a technology problem
- they seemed to think if they spent enough money perfecting the technology, they could swap it into their products
I AM WONDERING IF LED BULBS AND PROJECTORS REPRESENT A DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY
RCA spent over $1 billion in today’s dollars to make this swap into the existing products
- this was trying to “cram” the transistor into their existing way of serving customers
1952: so first application for the transistor appeared in the hearing aide
- didn’t require much power
- at got better year over year
1955 a company no one thought much of, Sony, introduced the pocket transistor radio
- it was pretty crummy as it initially existed
- Clay jokes that he grew up in Utah and had to face west to get a good signal at that time
- this was a blessing for the low end of the market (lots of teenagers who couldn’t afford tabletop radios
- they were thrilled with it relative to the alternative: nothing at all
4 years later, the portable TV came out
- Sony made its beachhead even more
- made a profit, re-invested profits
- at some point the TV became good enough that tabletop radios and floor-standing TVs just vaporized / disappeared
You can really see that RCA saw the disruptive innovation, licensed it, invested money trying to perfect it it
- they never got it: Sony went on to change the world, while RCA got left behind
- RCA didn’t change its model
Another theory from our research: there are 2 types of service architectures
1- very interdependent
- the way 1 part works depends upon others
- so if you hope to built 1 part, you have to build it all
- initially in a market you
- tradeoff: interdependent architectures compel standardization
example: think of Microsoft Windows
- lines of code work in very interdependent ways
2- modular architecture
- allows us to plug and play best of breed components
I AM THINKING OF K-12 ONLINE AS I LISTEN TO THIS AND THINKING ABOUT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE FUTURE IS CUSTOMIZED PD. ELEMENTS FROM THE CONFERENCE NEED TO BE SHARED IN THIS SAME WAY. AS DIGITAL OBJECTS.
another way to think of this: Dell personal computers
- I assume many of you are using Dell computers, you haven’t switched to Macs like I have?
- Dell is very modular: so you can pick and choose the elements you want in each PC
- 24-48 hours, Dell builds it for you and ships it to you
- modularity makes it customizable
What does this mean for schools?
1- Conflicting mandates in the way we teach vs the way we learn (and the way we test)
2- Computers have failed to make a difference because we have crammed them into conventional classrooms (they must initially be deployed against non-consumptions)
3- Individualized computer-based instruction requires a disruptive distribution model
4- Separation is critical. Chartered schools should be seene as heavyweight teams, not disruptive competitors.
5- We have imposed disruption on our schools three times in recent history by moving the goalposts: the metrics of improvement
6- Education research has not shown the way forward
New research shows that giftednewss is very fluid
We acknowledge that Howard Gardner’s model is not perfect of multiple intelligences
We all learn differently
- no one disagrees about us having different paces of learning
Ongoing cognitive science research
- fMRI scans - Shally Seyworth’s (?) work on dyslexia
- this reveals a great deal, but they are a bit like studying a baseball game from 2 blocks away from the stadium (I can hear the crowd noise when someone scores, and I know when the game is over when everyone leads, but I don’t really understand baseball as a game)
- this is a good metaphor for where we are in cognitive neuroscience today
Lots of research in practice now
- Scientific Learning (product “fastboard”)
- Universal Design for Learning/CAST
- K12, Inc.
takeway from all this: we don’t know the differences right now, but we DO know we all learn differently
so if we know that, we might expect that schools would give us different learning opportunities
- we know from our own experiences this isn’t the reality at all
- think about your own Algebra classes, World History classes
Why do we do this, if we as educators know that children learn very differently
- that is because of the highly interdependent architecture of schools, which makes it very expensive to customize learning opportunities
temporal interdependencies: pre-requisities
lateral interdpendencies
physical interdependencies: often classroom layout inhibits problem-based learning (PBL) for example
hierarchical interdependencies
bottom line: drives us toward standardization
- look at how much it costs to create an IEP for a special education student
- 2 to 3 times more on average
- some of you might admit in some cases you’re not doing the full IEP which the student needs because it is too expensive
So our question: how can we migrate to a modular system twhich can be customized, which is truly student-centric
One idea we had is to move much of the learning to computers, for computer-based learning which permits students to have different paces
- this brings up a mystery: we’ve had computers well over 3 decades, for the last 2 decades we’ve been spending wildly on them, but they have not transformed the classroom at all
- are computers for basic word processing, a presentation, or some internet research, or a computer lab to learn keyboarding
Larry Cuban has written a lot about this
- schools have done just what we’d expect them to do in the face of this disruptive model: cramming computers
Where would these areas of non-consumption be in our schools, where schooling is compulsive in the U.S.
lots of areas
- credit recovery
- drop outs
- advanced placement and other advanced courses
- scheduling conflicts
- home-schooled and homebound students
- small, rural, and urban schools
- tutoring
- professional development
- pre-K
- after school
- in the home
- incarcerated youth
- in-school suspension
25% of high schools don’t offer an advanced course (above Algebra II, basic biology, or ….)
Looming budget cuts and teacher shortages are an opportunity, not a threat
School boards have been moving “up-market” to focus limited resources in the “new” trajectory of improvement
graph of time on x axis, importance of the program on y axis
- German
- Statistics
- Psychology
- Economics
- Math
- Science
- English language and literature
so now let students go to computer-based learning, compete against non-consumption
online learning is growing very fast now in traditional disruptive style
- follows an S curve
- there is a way to predict where we are on the S curve by plotting the percentage of the market
This means for online learning, where we
- 45,000 in 2000
- 1 million enrollments in 2007
- grew over 30% last year
by 2019 50% of all HS courses will be offered online
- so changes are coming relatively fast
44 states have some form of online learning setup
- 25 states have supplemental state-led programs
IN OKLAHOMA OUR STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IS ON THE VERGE OF ADVANCING PROPOSALS FOR VIRTUAL LEARNING, I THINK
4 of the programs have over 10,000 enrollments
- over a quarter of them grew over 50%
Policy implications of this (which are not in the book)
What can states do (THIS IS PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS PRESENTATION, VERY PRACTICAL)
- schools can create Autonomous units
- self-sustaining funding
- not beholden by the old metrics
– seat time –> mastery
– student: teacher ration
– teacher certification (teacher being a facilitator, mentor, and coach)
- human resources pipeline and professional development
- treatment and use of data (you can get a very good contextual, whole sense of the student)
schools and states can do these things to unleash the force in these trends and potentials
just like Amazon.com can recommend a book for you, those same technologies can be used for student learning
Clay’s new book: “The Innovator’s Prescription” just came out 5 weeks ago
- we have not put these new learning models into business models
this is really a new technology meets a new business model meets a new value chain
- new models can be more affordable
true Southwest Airlines has been very disruptive, operating according to a different model
Elliot Sollway question:
- you’ve painted a dichotomy between traditional schools and online schools with kids on the computer: why does that have to be, why can’t the egg crates give the customization the kids want and the teachers want to give, and not be RCA
Michael’s answer:
- core message of the Innovator’s Dilemma in 1997 is if you all do what we expect you to do, you are dead
- next book Innovator’s Dilemma gave an answer: how the incumbants could change if they leadership has the vision to lead the change
- the reason we wrote the book: we called it “disrupting class” and not “disrupting school”
- still custodial and socialization roles for schools to play
lots of distance learning is taking place with teacher involvement and intervention
- local teachers can sweep in and help
- much more rewarding for teachers, human 1:1 interaction
- my conception of the ultimate disruption: schools will look much more like community centers, will be much more open
- instruction is not always online
- sometimes going off to do something physical
- much more fluid: bell schedules rethought and perhaps extinguished
- I am wary of putting a definitive vision on this, those people are almost always wrong
Another question: most people here are from schools, not state governments
- so how do school districts reinvent themselves for disruptive innovations
Answer: we are using multiple case studies now looking at this
- pushing states to break out of these old metrics
- we have a voice and leadership at the state level
- districts that have seen declining enrollments have setup their own online schools to recoup some enrollments
- some have setup schools for dropouts
- start seeking out these opportunities
- if you are just pointing to Florida Virtual School, you are still limiting student options
I THINK THIS POINTS TO VERY IMPORTANT WORK WE NEED TO DO ON DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS, SHARED CURRICULUM ON PROJECTS LIKE CURRIKI, AND WORK ON ASSESSMENT: FORMATIVE, ONGOING, AS WELL AS SUMMATIVE.
This has been a very rewarding for us, thanks!
MICHAEL NEEDS TO SETUP A FACEBOOK SITE FOR THIS PROJECT, LIKE DON TAPSCOTT DISCUSSED WITH US YESTERDAY!
WE HAVE GOT TO STOP THE MADNESS WHEN IT COMES TO OUR CURRENT, MYOPIC FOCUS ON SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS. WE HAVE TOO MANY SMART PEOPLE IN OUR NATION AND WORLD TO CONTINUE FOLLOWING THE DESTRUCTIVE AND COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE PATH WE HAVE FOLLOWED OF LATE WITH HIGH-STAKES TESTING AND ACCOUNTABILITY. LOTS OF GREAT IDEAS HERE TO REFLECT ON FURTHER AND APPLY.
I was not able to attend this CoSN09 presentation in-person since it was scheduled at the same time as Cheryl Lemke’s preso on web 2.0 research, but the presentation is available online (on Google Presentations, not surprisingly) and I recorded audio from the session with presenter permission, which I’ll republish here soon.
Netbooks prove that the “cloud” is no longer just hype. It is now reasonable to design computers that outsource the difficult work somewhere else. The cloud tail is wagging the hardware dog.
Netbooks are a major game-changer for laptops, 1:1 learning initiatives, and computing more generally. Netbooks represent an INNOVATION that is disrupting and will continue to disrupt the computing industry. Thompson writes in his article:
In The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen famously argued that true breakthroughs almost always come from upstarts, since profitable firms rarely want to upend their business models. “Netbooks are a classic Christensenian disruptive innovation for the PC industry,” says Willy Shih, a Harvard Business School professor who has studied both Quanta’s work on the One Laptop per Child project and Asustek’s development of the netbook.
In his article, Thompson also confirms the assertion I’d read elsewhere that OLPC was the cause/source for the netbook outbreak.
I’d heard that Microsoft has extended its licensing of Windows XP (oh joy) for another two years, but until reading Thompson’s article I hadn’t realized the primary reason for this extension was the netbook outbreak which Microsoft terms “ULCPCs” in its announcement about WinXP’s extension.
I’m not QUITE at the point of being ready to purchase another laptop, but I’m getting close, and I’ll readily admit I’m eyeing netbooks closely. (As someone very interested in constructively disrupting teaching and learning patterns in traditional schools, how could I NOT consider a netbook?!) I’d love to buy a MacBook Air if the hard drive was bigger and the price point lower. I’m tempted by the new MacBook, but the lack of firewire (and therefore the laptop’s impotency to Ustream conference sessions with a DV camcorder) has me hesitating. Is there a netbook in my computing future? I think the answer is yes, but I’m not sure about the timeframe yet.
I wrote the post “Netbook Classroom Experiences And Related Resource Articles” for ISTE’s NECC 2009 blog this evening also, which includes a variety of links and resource recommendations related to netbooks. My top recommendation in that article as far as netbook technology integration “voices” and resources go is Tony Vincent’s February 12th “Soft Reset” podcast “Netbooks in Fort Smith.” Tony’s description for the episode is:
Fort Smith Public Schools has nearly 20 classrooms using Eee PC netbooks. George Lieux, technology professional development specialist, gathered up nine classroom teachers to talk with Tony Vincent about their use of the mini laptops. Tony speaks with these elementary, middle, and high school teachers who all share valuable classroom management tips as well as great curriculum integration ideas. If you are thinking about getting class sets of netbooks, you have got to listen to this episode!
While I’m a vocal proponent of learning opportunities which focus on higher order thinking, I also readily acknowledge that in some contexts rote memorization is still important and needed. Multiplication facts are a case in point. If students do not set to memory all their multiplication facts during their late elementary years, virtually all higher level mathematics courses in middle and high school are going to pose frustrating challenges for them. Students NEED to have their multiplication facts memorized so they can recite them as easily as they breathe, see, talk or text. I hope that by working consistently with our older children (now 8 and 11) on their multiplication facts each week, we can give them the GIFT of confidence in their mathematics courses in the future which can come through mastery of basic, foundational knowledge.
This past week I attended most of Kelly Croy’s eTechOhio 2009 presentation, “An iPod Touch in Every Classroom.” Two of the applications Kelly mentioned during his presentation were gFlash+ and gFlashPro, which can be used as interactive, multimedia flashcard environments to practice multiplication facts as well as a myriad of other topics limited only by the creativity and time of willing content creators. The past two days, in addition to downloading and using gFlash flashcard sets created by others, I’ve taught my oldest children how to use gFlashPro and also created two customized / original gFlash card decks (using Google Docs) which I’ve now shared with the gFlash community:
25 Troublesome Multiplication Facts (the 25 multiplication problems my 11 year old identified as being the hardest for him to remember currently)
Famous Oklahomans: Photographs and names of 30 famous Oklahomans featured in the museum where I’ve worked since July in Oklahoma City
Both gFlash+ (free with advertisements) and gFlashPro ($5 without ads and with some additional features) permit users to directly download additional flashcard sets from Google Documents. These specially formatted Google Documents can be created using the pre-defined Google Document “templates” which the gFlash developers have created and shared. The idea of using “templates” for educational learning is a topic I addressed in the TechEdge magazine in 1999-2000 in the article “Teaching with Templates.” In this case, by using templates in Google Documents, the developers of the gFlash applications have empowered virtually anyone to become a flashcard set content publisher and collaborator. The potential here for student learning is fantastic.
I went ahead and sprung for the $5 commercial version of gFlashPro, but everything I have done to date (with the exception of using flashcard sets in “quiz” mode which keeps high scores) can be also done with the free version of gFlash+. After you download and install one of these applications to your iPhone or iPod Touch, this is the home screen. It is pre-populated with some sample flashcard sets. The gFlashPro version also permits mp3 audio and even YouTube videos to be embedded as flashcard question content.
When you click the DOWNLOAD button in the lower left corner of the home screen of gFlashPro, you are presented with three download options.
I first chose the middle option, to download from the gWhiz catalog, and searched for the keyword “multiplication.” I downloaded two different multiplication flashcard sets.
Most flashcards can be used on gFlashPro in two modes: honor scoring (where you say the answer to yourself, touch the screen to see the correct answer, and then click to show if you got it right or wrong) or multiple-choice scoring. In the case of practicing multiplication facts, I think “honor scoring” is the better method. Kids need to know their multiplication facts “cold,” and it is very easy and fast to practice your facts this way. You can turn the “scorecard” on or off as an option, which appears on the right side of the screen as a series of green boxes (for correctly answered questions) and red boxes (for incorrect answers.) If you mistakenly give yourself credit for an answer or mark yourself wrong accidentally, you can immediately go back and change that answer.
After letting my 11 year old son work with one of the multiplication fact sets on gFlashPro which someone else had created, I asked him to complete a 12 x 12 multiplication fact grid on paper. (Yes, it looks like he did miss 9 x 4. I didn’t catch that at the time.)
After he completed it, I had him identify the 25 problems which he thought were currently the most difficult for him to personally remember. I then utilized the gFlashPro/gFlash+ Google Document template for two-column flashcard sets (with the question in column A and the answer in column B) and created a new 25 row flashcard set with it. I named this, “25 Troublesome Multiplication Facts” and shared it back with the gFlash developers (gWhizMobile [at] gmail [dot] com) so it can be available to others using gFlash and wanting multiplication practice.
If it doesn’t show up in the gWhiz online search, you can directly open the Google Document in your own Google Account, create your own copy of it in Google Docs, and then add it from your own Google Docs account using gFlash+ or gFlashPro. Note that Google Documents you want to import as flashcard sets should NOT be organized into folders if you want to open them with gFlash: They should remain at the “root” level of your Google Documents account.
One of the fantastic features of using gFlashPro for flashcard practice is that after you’ve completed all the cards in a set, the program will give you another CUSTOMIZED round of flashcard practice focusing primarily and specifically on those questions you previously got WRONG. This is superb!
After successfully creating and using a basic two column flashcard set, I decided to create a more advanced multiple-choice flashcard set which included online photographs. Earlier last fall, I created a Moodle quiz for the museum where I work, which students who visit the museum on field trips could take afterwards to assess their abilities to identify famous Oklahomans. Standard two column gFlash sets CAN automatically be used in “multiple choice mode,” but in that case the incorrect answers for each question are randomly chosen from other correct answers in the Google Spreadsheet. By using the gFlashPro and gFlash+ Multiple Choice Test Template, I was able to specify the correct answer to each question as well as up to four incorrect answers. I ended up using just three incorrect answers per question, because four answer choices fit neatly on the iPhone or iPod Touch screen and don’t require users to scroll to see answers.
Instead of typing a question in column A of the Google Spreadsheet, for this image-based flashcard quiz I simply pasted the direct URL of the photo I wanted to use for each question. Following the instructions provided for gFlashPro, I used iPhoto and batch-resized my folder of images so the widths were always 220 pixels or smaller, and the heights were always 145 pixels or less. I resized them for a max height of 145 and this worked for all the images except one which I had to slightly crop with SeaShore. (SeaShore is my favorite free PhotoShop replacement image editor on my Mac.)
When you download a gFlash card set which includes images, like “Famous Oklahomans,” you are prompted if you want to download the images offline to your iPhone or iPod Touch.
This is a good idea, since it allows the flashcards to be used offline when Internet access is not available, and also for the images to load much faster on your handheld computer.
A second Google Spreadsheet worksheet is provided on the template file to add meta data information, as well as the opening greeting or message you’d like displayed when people start using your flashcard set.
As with other flashcard sets, your current scorecard can be displayed along the righthand side of the screen.
I am VERY enthused about the possibilities of using gFlash+ and gFlashPro. gFlash+ is also available for Blackberry users. The way the developers have integrated Google Documents / Google Spreadsheets as the integrated publishing platform for new flashcard sets is ingenious and very empowering. Creating text-based flashcard sets per their provided instructions is very quick and straightforward. It takes more time to create flashcard sets with images, of course, since the images must be resized and uploaded to a webserver before their direct links can be inserted into a Google Document. Overall, it took me about two hours to create the 30 question “Famous Oklahomans” gFlash flashcard set, but that time also included figuring out how the process worked for the first time. I’m sure future flashcard sets will take less time. My process was certainly expedited by the fact that I already had my answer choices written and photographs located which I wanted to use in the flashcard set.
Flashcards have been used for decades by students to memorize and learn new content, but custom, multimedia flashcards like those available via gFlash+ and gFlashPro have NOT. These digital learning tools can be used in “accommodating” ways which merely replicate analog learning methods, but they can also be utilized in “transformative” ways which make new modes of learning and faster learning possible for students.
The QUESTIONS we ask our students to answer both in and outside of class are critical, and there are certainly plenty of ways a flashcard program like this can be abused or used poorly. I don’t relish my children having to agonize over the memorization of U.S. state capitals. When it comes to multiplication facts, however, I definitely see the clear need and importance of that rote learning. I feel pretty confident my own children are going to learn their multiplication facts MUCH better and practice them more regularly since they’ll be able to use these flashcard sets on my iPhone and our family iPod Touch.
When are ALL the students in my home state of Oklahoma going to have a handheld, wireless learning platform on which they can not only practice memorization with flashcards, but also learn how to appropriately create, collaborate, and communicate with a global audience? I hope that day is approaching soon.
These are my notes from the presentation “Cellphones in the classroom? Yes way!” by Ryan Collins at the eTechOhio 2009 conference on Feb 2nd. MY REFLECTIONS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Presentation notes are available on http://ryancollins.org/wp/etechohio09/. I AM RECORDING RYAN’S SESSION AND MAY PODCAST IT, BUT HE IS RECORDING IT AND IS DEFINITELY GOING TO PUBLISH/PODCAST IT.
SOMEONE IN THE SESSION SITTING BY ME SAID RYAN IS ONE OF THE MOST HELPFUL EDUCATORS IN OHIO. HE IS THE GUY WHO IS ALWAYS HELPING OTHERS VIA LISTSERV QUESTIONS AND SO MANY OTHER WAYS. I MET RYAN BEFORE MY KEYNOTE THIS MORNING AND HE INVITED ME TO HIS SESSION WITH HIS BUSINESS CARD. SO HERE I AM.
Ryan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mr_rcollins
We have about 2000 students in our district, spread out over 7 buildings
We give students lots of opportunities to use multiple operating systems to prepare them for their future
If you pay for it, you can ID who is responding to what (know cell phone numbers of submitters)
Now is the most exciting time to be involved in technology and education
We’ve had computers in our classrooms now for 30 years
- Apple IIE has been here for 30 years, since 1977
- mentioning this can help some teachers wake up
- IBM PC in 1981
- Macintosh 1984, brought use the mouse and GUI
I am controlling my presentation now with my iPod Touch
- this computer is more powerful than the desktop computer I had just a few years ago
I am not saying we are going to replace the laptop and desktop with the handheld
- but there are ways the
When you bring a laptop into your classroom for every student, you immediately bring in a wall between you and your students
- because they are going to need to update facebook - there are other issues: batteries, power cord issues, etc.
271 million cell phone users in the US
- 32 million Americans don’t have cell phones
- in 1985 only 35 million Americans had cell phones
- so who are those without cell phones? Babies? In prison? Babies in prison? [FUN SLIDE TRANSITION]
According to PEW research in April 2008, 700 teens were surveyed: 71% of respondents already own cell phones, while only 59% own computers
First cell phone call
- Martin Cooper April 3, 1973
- same year of Dark Side of the Moon
- Ohio became the first state to put up road signs in metric units
6 billion minutes of voice calls daily
- 766 minutes per month per user on average
I lot of what I am going to discuss in this session does not have to take place INSIDE your classroom
- it’s scary out there
- all kids having cell phones? That scares people. what is going to happen? Are the kids going to organize a revolt?
www.k7.net provides a free voicemail service
- how many of you have a homework hotline?
- you can do it with this website
- the sound file is then emailed to you
- you can setup different numbers, some for parents, some for students
- you don’t have to give out your home number
- downside: is area code 206 from the state of Washington
- it is free
- there website is kind of 1999″ without many bells and whistles, but it does work
www.youmail.com
- piggybacks on your current cell phones busy answer call forwarding
- visual voicemail for any phone
- customized greetings for groups (when students call in, they get a particular greeting_
- retrive voicemail from your phone, email or the web
- similar to what k7 does, but the downside is you have to give people your cell phone number to use it
Coolest service: www.grandcentral.com
- purchased by Google in 2007
- actually gives you a phone number
- give that number out to your students
- currently not accepting sign ups
- when someone calls your number, they will call your home and cell and see who answers first
- that is a number you can use
- rumors are Google is doing something big with this and will reopen signups soon
- also gives you a ‘web call’ button you can put on your website
Gabcast
- cell phones are a great way to record content INTO the computer
- so kids don’t have to be AT the computer to record
- this can be great
Those are some of the ways you can use Voice in your podcast
- I have 40 slides and 45 minutes, so I am slowing down
TEXTING
- first text message: Dec 3, 1992 - 17 years ago (from the UK)
- first message was “Merry Christmas” on Dec 3rd
- you know you can update your facebook status with a text message, right?
- why do we want to look at text messaging, why don’t we want to call people?
- calling has a time penalty
- my wife at school is not able to have her cell phone on her
almost 200 billion texts sent in 2008
now a little demo
the why of texting
- immensely faster than voice
- having a video playing, showing both the sender and the receiver
- best part: if you know someone who is long winded, they have to be short and fit into 160 characters
- “brevity is the soul of wit” - Shakespeare
another good part: If I have to share something my wife is going to be upset about, I can text it to her and she can have all day to think about it before I see her at night
My phone is limited to just let me send a text to 10 people, but it just lets them respond to me, not to each other
now service for one to many communications: textmarks.com
- everyone who is subscribed to that word gets a text message when I update it
- students can view responses on the web too, if they don’t have a cell phone with text messaging
- can also do 1 to 1 communication with it (but if you are going to do that, just text their number directly)
- can also do many to many, as a virtual chat room
- nice part of this is you can have this collaboration and no one has to share their cell phone numbers (instructor or students)
I setup a discussion one for this, text 41411 sub discuss
- preface things with the keyword
- to unsubscribe, text “unsub”
Textmarks power is the many to many communications
Now Twitter
- excels in 1 to many
- really no way to do a group chat with Twitter
- twitter just limied to 140 characters
I DIDN’T REALIZE THERE WAS A LENGTH DIFFERENCE IN SMS AND TWITTER. SMS LIMIT: 160 CHARACTERS. TWITTER LIMIT: 140 CHARACTERS.
Twitter is very programmable behind the scenes
- we use this for Kenton schools to announce school closings
- http://twitter.com/kentonschools
- story of a teacher who loves this, because the twitter updates come to her phone for school cancellations
- Ryan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mr_rcollins
Twitter doesn’t have a many to many functionality
- so for eTechOhio attendees, we setup eTechOhio09 on Twitter (http://twitter.com/etechohio09)to get updates from people here at the conference
MMS:
- can send audio, video, etc
- verizon users can send media by sending to cell phone number @vzpix.com
I have a WindowsMobile smartphone
- I use EverNote a lot, they have a WindowsMobile Client
- majority of the articles I wrote for our school tech newsletter I write on my mobile device
- many of you are asking, “how on earth are you typing on that device?”
In Japan, 5 of the top 10 novels were WRITTEN on cell phones
NYTIMES article from 1-20-2008 on 21 year old Japanese woman who write a novel over six months in her senior year of high school, and it went viral
Mobile web discussion [CUT SHORT]
High School examples
- talking about WorldWarII
- debating different aspects
- can text message Google to get information (how many died in a particular battle)
- doing research
- can use Gabcast to interview a veteran and use it as a podcast
AGAIN LIKE WE SEE IN MANY OTHER CELL PHONES FOR LEARNING PRESOS, THIS “APPLICATION PHASE” IS THEORETICAL. WE NEED MORE ACTUAL EXAMPLES OF CELL PHONE USES IN CLASSROOMS. OF COURSE A BIG ISSUE RIGHT NOW IS THERE ARE NOT MANY EXAMPLES. I NEED TO MAKE CONTACT WITH THE EDUCATORS IN OXFORD, KANSAS, WHO ARE WORKING ON A CELL PHONE LEARNING PROJECT THIS TERM.
Middle school example using Twitter
- setup a twitter account for each class
- post info that is coming up: assignments, quizzes, etc.
- students can follow
- you have to be 13 years old to have a Twitter account, but you don’t have to have an account to view the website
Another idea
- 3rd grade class going on a field trip to the zoo
- divide up the class into groups
- have each group document different aspects of the zoo
- use textmarks for many to many communication: reconvene the group when needed
- all free except
issues
- costs
- off task
- inappropriate communications
- filtering
- teacher and student training
students may know how to use technology, but sometimes they are using it inappropriate
- how are students going to learn to do things correctly if we never talk about these issues
I give all my students email accounts in our district at grade 1, through grade 12
- starting with 3rd grade, students according to Ohio edTech standards are supposed to be sending and receiving email
What can we use as a replacement?
Netbooks
- more expensive
- still have battery issues
Ryan’s wife shared a session on iPod Touch in the classroom
- I’D LIKE TO SEE THE LINK TO HER SESSION IF ANYONE HAS IT!
Other possible replacements
- Nokia N800/810
- Game systems: PSP/DSi
- new $180 game system coming out with cameras and more…
started with Greg Whitby’s video on school change / reform
- there is a fundamental mismatch in the DNA of our kids and teachers
- we need a new pedagogical DNA for the 21st century
- co-constructors of knowledge
- we have to change that DNS so we can pass it on to the
- Stephen Heppell is right that we spent the 19th century perfecting the 18th century model of education
Acts are going to be 9 minutes long today
- small intermission of 60 seconds at the end of each act
Act 1: Our tools have changed dramatically in the past several decades
- desktop to laptop computers
- cell phones
“put your hand up if you cell phone does NOT have a camera”
[THAT IS A GOOD QUESTION TO ASK AN AUDIENCE]
Every one of your students is now carrying around a moon computer in their pocket
CNET quotation on
If given the choice between keeping their TV or mobile, US and UK children pick their mobile phone
music has gone digital too
My family calls our GPS “Gloria” and they did not like it when I turned the voice into Yoda
Digital photography
- none of us will likely go back to film cameras because of the affordances of digital
- all of us are citizen journalists
YouTube video of kid laughing
- that video has a worldwide audience of 18 million people
[I AM NOT SURE A BABY LAUGHING VIDEO IS THE BEST ONE TO SHOW IF WE WANT TO HELP CHANGE EDUCATORS' PERCEPTIONS POSITIVELY ABOUT THE EDUCATIONAL / CONSTRUCTIVEV USES OF YOUTUBE
Then there is the evil Facebook and Myspace
- YouTube is #3 most popular site on the web now
- Facebook and Myspace help us to connect with each other in ways that we find meaningful
Other examples
Club Penguin examples
Webkinz
- this is basically MySpace training
[I THINK
These tools empower us in ways we never have seen before
- question for the audience: how have technology tools changed the
our tools have changed and so has our information landscape
- David Weinberger's book "Everything is Misc" chronicles this well
Another video "Information R/evolution"
- typewriter starts
- looking in card catalog
- using microfiche
- information has a specific place,
- I think this must be a Michael Wesch video (it is of course)
- almost 500 billion links on the Internet today
- English wikipedia nowis 15 times as large ad Britannica
As Clay Shirkey noted in "Here Comes Everybody"
- advent of the printing press slowly changed the common perception that everyone should be able to read
- now we are realizing that everyone should not only be a reader, but also a publisher
Russell Davies quotation
- web 2.0 "It's not an audience, it's a community"
- it is no longer an information push-out environment
we don't just have eyeballs as an audience, we also have mouths
- look
Rupert Murdoch quotation from Wired 2006
Time person of the Year
- that meant "you" if you are controlling your digital destiny
we are just getting started as millions of minds are back hauled into global conversation
Quotation from Dean Shareski "If you generally think of the Internet as a 'place to look up stuff' you're missing the best part"
New question for the audience: What was your favorite TV show growing up?
- new TV screenshot: Leave it to Beaver
Act 3: Jobs have changed
- books "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman and "Wikinomics" by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams
Labor economists like to look at the type of work people do
- manual jobs are disappearing overseas as fast as possible, mainly due to lower labor costs, less environmental regulations
- routine work is being replaced by software and machines, or outsourced
From Autor, Levy and Murname 2003, "The skill content of recent technological change, an empirical exploration" Quarterly Journal of Economics 188, 4, updated 2008
Examples of job replacement
- your local accountant, used to pay them several hundred dollars, now you can purchase tax software for about $75 that will handle all of those situations for taxes except the most complicated
think of your local attorney, needing a will, power of attorney, etc.
- if you know about the legal industry, they are basically dropping in names and numbers and charging you several hundred dollars
- now for a $40 piece of software you can do this and have the
only sector that has been growing in the last 40 years in the United States are abstract jobs/work: complex communication, critical cognitive thinking, where humans still have the advantage over machines
- problem solving, collaborative teaming
All those other jobs which were the story of the 20th century are on their way out
Richard Flordia ("Growth of the creative class"_ says we can divide the economy into 4 sectors
- agriculture
- working
- service
- creative
Sharp uptick is visible around 1980 with the intro of the personal computer
Dan Pink's questions (author of "A Whole New Mind")
1- Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
2- Can a computer do it faster?
3- Is what I'm offering in demand in an age of abundance?
China is rapidly becoming the factory to the world, even with the economic downturn
India becoming the backoffice to the world
For every call center opening in India, they have about 2000 applicants for that job
- they all speak English, and gladly work for about $250 per month
China and India alone have about 2.5 billion people, and staggering levels of poverty (Scott was in Mumbai about a year ago)
- the "other 20%" moving into middle class standards of living (half a billion people) is equal to the entire labor force of the United States and Europe
- we have doubled the number of global workers in the last two decades
Graph of prototypical US industry in 10 years if all goes well: much more creative work
- comparisons of what engeineers work for
How well do local communities understand this need to change for the new workforce
These are seismic shifts
Act 4
schools haven't changed much
The fundamental question: how can schools change and adjust
- we have
SCOTT IS MAKING THE POINT THAT IS IN THE 2009 HORIZON REPORT, THAT WE NEED TO CHANGE CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT
THE TEACHERS SITTING BEHIND ME IN THIS SESSION RIGHT NOW ARE SAYING, "I DON'T WANT MY SURGEON TO NOT MEMORIZE THE PARTS OF THE BODY AND KNOW HOW TO OPERATE ON HER. I THINK AMIDST MAKING THESE KINDS OF STATEMENTS AND ASSERTIONS ABOUT PROCESS SKILLS AND HIGHER ORDER THINKING, IT IS IMPORTANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE FOR THE AUDIENCE THE NEED FOR FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS. THE ANALOGY TO LEARNING THE PIANO AND OTHER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS IS APPROPRIATE HERE. KIDS STILL NEED TO LEARN THEIR MULTIPLICATION TABLES (THE 12 X 12 MATRIX) TO SUCCEED IN HIGHER ORDER MATHEMATICS. ONCE THAT FOUNDATION IS THERE, LOTS OF CREATIVITY CAN BE REALIZED. SCOTT IS NOT SAYING KIDS DON'T NEED FUNDAMENTALS. I THINK SOME AUDIENCE MEMBERS ARE INTERPRETING THAT. I THINK IT IS A PROBLEM THAT MANY TEACHERS ARE VERY COMFORTABLE WITH "BACK TO BASICS." AS OTHERS HAVE OBSERVED, HOWEVER, MANY OF OUR SCHOOLS HAVE NEVER GOTTEN BEYOND THE BASICS. REF THE SLOGAN OF THE UCO COLLEGE OF EDUCATION: "EMPHASIZING THE 3 R'S SINCE 1890"
KIDS DO NEED FUNDAMENTALS AND BASICS. WE HAVE TO RAISE OUR EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENT ACHEIVEMENT, HOWEVER. NO, THAT STUDENT
Time quotation "How to build a student for the 21st Century"
David Warlick and Clarence Fisher quotations
[HOW FANTASTIC TO HEAR SCOTT SHARE QUOTATIONS FROM DEAN, DAVID AND CLARENCE ALONGSIDE RICHARD FLORIDA, TIME MAGAZINE, ETC. THIS IS GREAT MODELING OF THE POWER AND RELEVANCE OF EDUCATORS BECOMING GLOBAL PUBLISHERS]
Now going to discuss four levers which can move us forward
global awareness
- have to get beyond memorizing foreign capital names and foods they eat
- need high quality learning experiences where 21st century skills are the core lens through which
10 states have adopted the Partnership for 21st Century Skills
- Oklahoma is NOT one of them
Graph of student engagement in school
- engagement nose dives (kids have tasted the honey, then bread and water never tastes the same)
- kids get to taste the honey at home
MY NEIGHBOR IS MAKING A GOOD POINT ABOUT THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: NOT ALL STUDENTS ARE IN THIS WORLD OF SHARING AND COLLABORATION. I ALSO THINK THE POINT NEEDS TO BE MADE THAT ENGAGEMENT IN SCHOOLS HAS BEEN A PROBLEM FOR A LONG TIME BEFORE “DIGITAL NATIVES” ARRIVED ON THE SCENE.
Our kids are mostly passive information consumers
Lever 2: is a robust online environment
- example is the Florida Virtual School
- providing over 1000 courses
- have a 20,000 student waiting list
- the more Oklahoma can do on this front the better
Lever 3: Technology
- quotation from Chris Lehmann of SLA: technology should be like oxygen: ubiquitous, invisible,
we have to stop pretending it is a paper world
Lever 4: We have to invest in our leadership
- the people who are in charge of leading our schools and universities are often the least knowledgeable about this environment
- yet they are in charge
- if the leaders don’t get it, it is not going to happen
- substantive change never bubbles up from the bottom”
I DON’T ENTIRELY AGREE WITH THE STATEMENT ABOVE. I THINK CHANGE COMES BOTH FROM ABOVE, BELOW, AND FROM THE MIDDLE
Miguel Guhlin quotation: No one jumps a 20 foot chasm in two 10 foot jumps
We have to stop being ruled by fear
Our digital landscape
- digital natives, bridges, immigrants, undecided, and the refugees
- HEY THIS IS MY GRAPHIC AND IDEA! HOW COOL! THANKS SCOTT!
We have to make strategic investments in our children’s future
Wesley Fryer is the author of Moving at the Speed of Creativity. DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are my own and not necessarily those of my employer(s). See my disclosure policy for more info. I am wfryer on Diigo.
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