Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

School 2.0 and the Future of School by Tim Manger

THESE ARE MY NOTES FROM TIM MAGNER’S PRESENTATION AT NECC 2007 ON 26 JULY 2007. TIM IS THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY FOR THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. AT TIM’S REQUEST I AM NOT GOING TO PODCAST HIS SESSION.

Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore (Dorothy Gale)

As late as 1996 there were thousands of phone booths everywhere
– today: different environment
– what has happened with cell phone

There is something fundamentally different about a cell phone compared to a land line
– the cell phone is a fundamentally different communication device: it allows you to call a person, not a place
– when you think about that type of shift, from location-based to person-based, that frames this well

65.4% of US population owns cell phone
– is an entry point into a different information landscape
– In Japan the SIM card can be used to pay for things (SIM card)
– features: text messaging, still photography, playing games, accessing the internet, email, web searches, trade music, more…

Home media ecology in 1975: limited numbers of routes, displays, and local storage
– many more options, and the interaction map much more complex

Consumer Electronics Assn. of America estimates average home has 26 different devices for electronic communications

Internet users are flattening out when you look at age demographics (more young users now, growing demographic)

Internet impact on decision making
– a third of respondents to a recent sayed the Internet was a major influencer in their purchasing patterns
– advice and support
– finding people
– finding professional services and access points to products as well

we are more connected in more ways to more people and more info than ever before

graph of Home Broadband penetration (is a global phenomenon)
top web 2.0 applications in Brazil
Global tools for localized content: WikiPedia

Using technology for social empowerment, outlets for opinions (Global Voices Online website)

Internet is enabling the youth of the world to become empowered and become agents of social change in their own environment and the world
– cell phones are generally more engaged with media and the global environment
– stats on teens and cell phones

Exposure to media among this age group is staggering
– amount of multitasking that goes on is huge
– overlaps in the media spaces is striking

Jr High is tipping point for internet and web use

email is used by students to talk to old people, preference is IM
– using the info landscape in a different way than adults to
– adults are more likely to do some things online than younger people
– some categories are the same
– many categories have younger people more likely to use the info landscape to accomplish those goals

younger people are having entirely different life experiences through their use of digital, social media

music, the internet and mobile devices are key channels for supporting student needs for community, self-expression, and personalization
– Yahoo did a graphic that shows these three key areas

Community is critically important
– want to build new relationships
– stand out and express their individuality but still strive to feel connected to others
– are regional differences, but many of these trends are global

high premium placed on self-expression
– students sharing their voices
– kids are not just defining and sharing their identity at the mall anymore, they are doing it online
– media allows for self-expression on a global scale

Youth want to control inputs and filter them
– prefer self-directed and self-programmed usage of technology and media…

Internet is the platform which enables all of this to take place
– students are building relationships with people in different cities and countries
– international connections tends to be of higher interest to youth outside the US

our kids are engaged in these substantial activities, and that places them in a different place globally
– comparisons of students in different countries
– 49% of US students with cell phones are using them for text messaging, 97% of Australian youth with cell phones are text messaging

Traditional media is still heavily used
– serve vital but niche functions
– often pushed to background status
– redefine the roles and functions of traditional media
– kids are developing a literacy sense to parse/filter the media landscape, and among other things filter out advertisements

increasingly students have different expectations about the availability of people and data
– email, IM, cell phones and the growing ubiquity of

Where is all the knowledge we lost with information? – T.S. Elliot

education in the 20th century was location dependent
– could deliver via lecture, text, and practice

in 21st century education is location independent
– distribution has been flattened
– fast amounts of data and info are available, many are free

shows Bloom’s taxonomy with WISDOM at the top
– why do many adults not use the “I’m feeling lucky” button on Google?

[THIS IS A PRETTY GOOD, RAPID-FIRE PRESENTATION, BUT SO FAR TIM HAS JUST DESCRIBED THE LANDSCAPE, NOT ADDRESSED THE WAYS SCHOOLS NEED TO CHANGE]

Whole new organizations have been and are being created to create and share knowledge

WikiPedia entry for textbook (has warnings at the top on formal tone, and other warnings)

learning model:
– [TOO FAST FOR ME TO TYPE]
– includes idea of authority for the information model

after the first 2 steps for textbook, all steps are focused on delivery
– organizations have a process for creating “authoritative and suitable information” (textbook companies)

[I THINK TIM’S EMPHASIS ON THESE WORDS, “AUTHORITATIVE AND SUITABLE INFORMATION” IS A KEY POINT HE’S MAKING THAT IS INSIGHTFUL]

The value of

– data
– information
– insight
– knowledge
– wisdom

information really becomes meaningful when it becomes PERSONAL

value can be general or personal

Robert Solow “You can see the impact of the computer industry everywhere except in the productivity figures.” (economist)

Productivity Paradox
– only when you create new business models and new business processes using technology did productivity incrase and spawn other new businesses and business models

What does this mean in education?
– we have spent and invested billions in education
– some will argue “lack of project”
– question is how can we “re-engineeer processes and structuers”
— instructional delivery
— use of data
— management and organization

We need to align technology to educational challenges, goals, and instructional strategies
– align tech with school improvement and accountability plans
– reallocate researches
– question assumptions

Jon Madonna quotation….

think about other professions: Medicine
– has been fundamentally changed
– used to be name of the doctor, job roles were receptionist, physician, tech was stethoscape and xra,

Now entirely new job roles have been created for physicians and the medical profession

in Education, then it was “Welcome Back Kotter”
– now: what is the new model?
– are there new job roles?
– what does this mean for teachers?

technology plays a role at every point of delivery for education
– we haven’t taken a systemic look at this in the past
– we didn’t see it as an integrated platform before
– allowing us to feed, transport and educate students

need to evaluate impact with metrics to inform ongoing implementation
– this is historically an area of weakness for our schools
– we need to collect more and better data to drive our decisionmaking

we need to link the “back room” and the classroom

Push is now for data-systems, but we have to link this back to
– linking student data
– interoperability
– this is the kind of things that puts most people to sleep
– unless you can do this to understand who your students are, etc, it becomes impossible

it is really not just data, it is INFORMATION we are after

[MY THOUGHT: IT IS REALLY NOT ABOUT DATA OR INFORMATION, IT IS ABOUT HUMAN BEINGS AND LEARNING. PEOPLE ARE NOT DATA POINTS. KIDS ARE NOT REDUCIBLE TO STATISTICS. THIS IS A BIG PART OF THE MINDSET PROBLEMS WE SEE AT HIGH LEVELS WITH EDUCATION POLICY TODAY.]

We need to make decisions based on the best information available

think of our classrooms as inputs into data systems, and outputs into data distributions
– that creates a different platform to ask different questions about how to personalize education
– if we can understand who each child is, we

[MY THOUGHT: WE DON’T NEED TECHNOLOOGY AND DATA GATHERING TO DO THIS. WHAT WE NEED ARE GREAT TEACHERS WHO ARE EMPOWERED TO KNOW EACH CHILD AND DIFFERENTIATE LEARNING FOR EACH CHILD. TECHNOLOGY CAN REALLY HELP THIS, BUT IT IS NOT THE PRIME MOVER. THE PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH THE TEACHER TAKES TOWARD LEARNING AND TOWARD CHILDREN (LOVING AND CHERISHING EACH ONE, HAVING HIGH EXPECATATION OF STUDENT CAPACITY FOR LEARNING, ETC.0]

Having students vacilitate student learning during software use is key
– teacher explication of connections between technology-based and other learning activities

need for using technology resources and NOT using tech resources was a key message of a recent conversation I had

Principal and administrator support for software implementation

[MY THOUGHT: SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION? WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT THAT? IT IS NOT ABOUT THE SOFTWARE. IT IS ABOUT THE LEARNING TASKS AND THE ENGAGEMENT OF THE STUDENT IN MEANINGFUL TASKS THAT IS KEY. SOFTWARE IS SECONDARY.]

need to have a clear rationale and plan for integrating software use with the corecurriculum and scnetral instructional goals of the school or class
– ongoing teacher collaboration around software implementation and improvement of practice with the technoogy
– training and ongoing support for software implementation on an ongoing basis
– quality on-site technical support

we are living in a technology infused, hyperpaced environment
– we’ve talked about what we see about youth and how info is changing
– our schools need to change too
– it is often difficult to have this conversation at the community level is because there is not an entry point for the conversation

[I THINK THIS IS A GREAT POINT.]

there is a fundamental disconnect between stakeholders
– we’ve created a big picture online
– we’re not just talking about school, we are talking about a learning ecosystem: home, school and community connected via technology
– want to get stakeholders around the table to talk about what they want to see

[THIS CONVERSATION IS HAPPENING NOW ONLINE IN THE BLOGOSOPHERE.]

We have an information age economy and we need
– none of us know what that looks like because none of us have ever been part of that
– we need to talk intentionally about what is different
– if kids need to have problem solving skills, be ready for globalization, we need to have a conversation about how that can be manifested in our school systems

School 2.0 is providing some ideas to begin that conversation

[I AGREE WE NEED TO STIMULATE THESE CONVERSATIONS, AND FIND ENTRY POINTS INTO THIS CONVERSATION FOR MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS. I AGREE WE NEED TO FIND MORE ENTRY POINTS FOR THESE CONVERSATIONS. I THINK THE DIGITAL STORIES WHICH STUDENTS CREATE AND SHARE CAN BE AN ENTRY POINT, AS CAN GLOBAL INTERNET-BASED COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS.]
– we realized having a poster was a good start but not enough
– so now we are working on developing more tools that permit exploration, discovery, and collaboration

we want to make the school 2.0 poster interactive, so people can drill down into it and use media
– see the different elements: how do node devices play out in different learning ecosystems
– drill down in different ecosystems
– so we can explain ideas and concepts in visual ways, to engage people and inform about the ideas being shared
– get down to the real examples
– hardest part: explaining what stuff is
– there are hundreds of vendors who are trying to explain this

[NO THEY ARE GENERALLY NOT DOING THIS. MOST VENDORS ARE THERE TRYING TO SELL THINGS, NOT EXPLAIN SCHOOL 2.0 AT A BIG LEVEL. SOME ARE CERTAINLY PROVIDING INSIGHT INTO THIS BUT I THINK IT IS WRONG TO LOOK ENTIRELY TO THE VENDOR FLOOR FOR THIS VISION. I THINK IT IS MOST APPROPRIATE TO LOOK TO OUR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CADRE OF ACCOMPLISHED TEACHERS, AS WELL AS TO OUR STUDENTS, TO BUILD THIS VISION TOGETHER. WE ALSO NEED TO LOOK AT THE GROWING BODY OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, TO BE TRULY RESEARCH-BASED IN MUCH OF WHAT WE DO.]

We need self-assessment tools for educational leaders
– it is hard to provide leadership if you don’t know what you don’t know
– Google is not very helpful if you don’t know what you don’t know

[THAT IS WHY EDUCATORS NEED TO TURN TO OTHER MENTORS (YODAS) IN THE EDUBLOGOSOPHERE INSTEAD OF GOOGLE DIRECTLY FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT]

We are partnering with different organiations to bring this about

meeting in a box: it is hard to convene a conversation about technology in your community

[NO IT’S NOT. THE WAY TO DO THIS IS TO HAVE A LOCAL DIGITAL STORYTELLING CONTEST AT A SCHOOL AND IN A SCHOOL DISTRICT. EXAMPLE: MABRY MIDDLE SCHOOL. MORE ON THAT TOMMORROW I’M SURE FROM TIM TYSON IN HIS KEYNOTE.]

Need to merge the concepts of strategic planning with technology planning
– need to create starting points for technology planning

need to build a platform that will enable the next generation of strategic planning

we’re looking at providing a collaborative visioning tool
– it is often very difficult for people to communicate their vision if they can’t encapsulate it visually
– we’re wanting to provide teachers with tools of what school should look like
– if you can draw it, you can do it

[MY THOUGHTS: I THINK THERE IS A LOT THAT NEEDS TO TAKE PLACE THAT WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO DRAW. BUT PERHAPS THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO FOSTER CONVERSATIONS. THIS SOUNDS VALUABLE.]

How can this engage your community in a conversation

Next thing: Bandwidth planner
– without access to bandwidth most of this stuff doesn’t work
– bandwidth tutorial is in the works: what is it, impacts, case studies, network models and state models, glossary, tools and resources, a “bandwidth calculator”

John Schaartest: “The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths to it are not found, but made, and the activity of making these changes…..

tim [dot] manger [at] ed [dot] gov

assessment and testing need to be part of the entire learning process, not just something we do at the end
– when and how you assess gets embedded in your framework for learning
– we have lots of summative assessment, and we need to look more at how we can do formative assessment

resources and effectiveness will continue to be the biggest challenges for schools in the future

telephone pole demographic: number of people in the tax paying group is shrinking while the number of people in the tax receiving group is growing
– lots of pressure for resources, in education and elsewhere, health care, other areas

we may need to do different things with our network topologies to deliver resources

there is not a standard “bandwidth amount” that each school needs. that is like asking “What kind of car should I buy?”
– if you want and need to deliver high quality video to every school, or go to 1:1, or connect students to a thin client network architecture, then your needs to support those goals vary

American Digital Schools Report, Appendix B, interesting analysis of a looming bandwidth crisis
– what do we have now, what do people say they want, and then extrapolate that out
– this gets to the point of “how much is enough?”
– where on the network does that throughput matter?

we need to create an instructional justification that sets the stage for a re-prioritization of resource allocation
– traditionally schools have often approached this in the opposite way

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3 responses to “School 2.0 and the Future of School by Tim Manger”

  1. […] Speaking of “Social Bookmarking” — Megan Golding shares her notes from Redesign Research with Social Bookmarking which includes good information on using del.icio.us effectively for research and learning. School 2.0, School 2.0, School 2.0! Who WASN’T live-blogging this session?! I came across session notes from Wesley Fryer, Jeff Utecht, Chris Lehmann, Chris (Crucial Thought), and Ryan Bretag. Lots of good stuff in each of these posts — my favorite quote: “We’re not in Kansas anymore.” Jeff Utecht shares his screen and a chat between him and several other bloggers during this session. That one post by Jeff Utecht is such a good example of School 2.0. We need to learn how to be better teachers in this emerging environment. Imagine students chatting — about the content — while sitting in the classroom — or away from the classroom — during instruction… teaching/learning is no longer a one-way interaction. No Dorothy, indeed, we are NOT in Kansas anymore! Funny quote from the chat — “[9:23:15 AM] Vinnie Vrotny says: and now we know why so many kids are being diagnosed with ADD.” […]

  2. Wesley Fryer Avatar

    Sorry to everyone for the double post on this entry, I’m not sure what happened but I think I got a double post from Ecto (my offline blogging software tool) because of an interrupted conference Internet connection. Anyway, if you’re following comments on this thread as well as trackbacks, you might want to visit the other post as well. My content is the same, but trackbacks/comments are different.

  3. Arun Kumar Avatar

    You should check out Kerika — it is being used by students at the university level for group collaboration, and by professors for guiding students working on projects, and it has potential for wider educational use in the future. Plus it’s free for the education market!
    Take a look at http://www.kerika.com/kerika_for_school.html