What is the World of Emerging Tech all About Anyway?
Technology is the vessel on which the next generation of uncertainty is traveling toward its unknown future. They only need to learn how to navigate the uncharted waters, watch ahead, discover, map, that's it really. Enjoy the trip. Brave the storms. Attitude is critical. Perspective is essential. We can't grow past the concepts we hold. Mindsets are the barrier to overcome. We need to learn, yet "what" we learn can become either the portal or the barrier to our progress. And there should be a "who" we learn more than a "what."
10 Trends for Global Education in 2011
- Image via Wikipedia
1. Ubiquitous - The Internet has brought us a host of online education choices including everything from unscrupulous diploma mills to a myriad of so-called learning games as well as apps for nearly every subject, platform, and device. This trend will continue. The challenge to identify quality amidst the quantity will grow.
2. Social - Face it, we are social creatures and the only things we learn well in isolation are survival techniques (and even then, we wish we had some others to help us). The Internet's social layer is solidly in place so expect to see education delivered more broadly on the social grid.
3. Mobile - The mobile generation will expect mobile access to all matters beyond mere communication and game-playing. Devices are personal links to best practices and apps will be developed to meet the ever-increasing demand.
4. Pushed - Traditional supply-side education will continue to lose ground to demand-side education where location-aware apps push just-in-time learning. Instructional design should take advantage of push technology.
5. Personalized - Learning will be personalized more and more in the way of both eportfolio content creation as well as learner-specific and contextually relevant assessment. Department of Education initiatives include plans to aggregate student achievement from cradle to grave and this data will empower apps to deliver personalized learning experiences.
6. Media rich - Whether we agree with it or not, future literacy will demand our reading of symbols that go beyond mere letters on a page. The digital landscape requires a broader skill set than previous generations learned.
7. Computer free - Web 1.0 was platform and software specific. Web 2.0 has been rather device centric. However, technology has a way of becoming invisible with wide-scale adoption. Expect the same in the education arena. The Internet of things will include more than kitchen appliances. The tools of the education trade will integrate smart technologies to seamlessly deliver interactive experiences previously relegated to traditional face-to-face settings.
8. Relevant - Thanks to gps chips, technology will afford customized delivery of learning opportunities contextually relevant to the learner.
9. Augmented - Emerging technological innovations are adding ways for learners to interact with subject matter in ways previously unavailable. Virtual field trips enable learners to transcend time and space barriers. Virtual technologies allow learner avatars to transcend identity barriers.
10. Layered - Just as the social layer has been added to the globally networked world, and just as a game layer is being constructed as I write this, watch for an education layer to be integrated where Like and Comment buttons may be accompanied by a Learn This button (Similar to Apture's Learn More plugin but more developed).
These trends will continue while civilization continues to transition from the industrialized model of nation-state institutions to the globally networked collaborative model. Despite the fact that only half the world is Internet-worked at present, an ignorant populace can only be distracted by superficial entertainment and/or narrow cultural indoctrination for so long. Eventually, the thirst for fulfillment will drive the demand for genuine and deep learning on a global scale. Will greed give way to good? (posted 1/1/11)
How to Gather Students Around the Glow of the Monitor for Subject-Centered Learning
Recently I posted a link concerning the history of the printing press and how this revolutionary innovation affected and ultimately transformed society,culture, and the world.
Interestingly, hand written books were generally read aloud to groups. Recalling my time in Haiti and my research into the Haitian culture, I learned about "Krik-krak" the art of Haitian story-telling. Similarly, stories were recited around an evening fire when the work was done and the day was gone.
However, the printing press allowed the mass production of written material and corporate gathering for book-reading and story-telling gave way to independent study and ultimately to silent reading.
Aside: Silent reading was not readily accepted of course. People caught reading to themselves were considered demon-possessed by those observing them moving their lips without uttering a word.
Yet the information is not necessarily student-centered either. Though it should be appropriate for the intended audience, the subject matter becomes the campfire around which the students gather to listen, observe, hypothesize, experiment, interact, collaborate, and report.
The usefulness of technology today is grounded it this ability to create rich, immersive environments for such gatherings. When this atmosphere is cultivated in the classroom, students and teachers are no longer in opposition to one another but are fellow-explorers navigating the new subject matter for a better understanding. (posted 3/1/10)
Counterfeit Learning Watchwords
Lesson plans are designed to meet learning objectives by providing some form of measurable performance that demonstrates an increase in capability. The language of genuine performance objectives for lesson planning is listed below. Please note, however, the counterfeit learning watchwords here:
Examples of Counterfeit Tasks*
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Appreciate, Be Aware, Believe, Comprehend, Enjoy, Hear, Know, Learn, Like, Practice, Rehearse, Remember, See, Think, Understand
Next time you listen to a politician speak, count the number of times they use the counterfeit words above rather than the authentic task-centered words below. Much of society is busy processing information rather than education. Information reduces risk whereas education increases capability.
Below are the lists of measurable vocabulary for proper performance objectives than can be assessed and evaluated to determine degree of actual learning taking place...
Examples of Analytical Tasks
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Analyze, Alter, Appraise, Arrange, Assemble, Categorize, Change, Chart, Classify, Collect, Combine, Compare, Compile, Compose, Construct, Contract, Contrast, Create, Defend, Design, Detect, Diagram, Differentiate, Discriminate, Evaluate, Examine, Expand, Experiment, Explain, Extend, Formulate, Gather, Generalize, Generate, Group, Include, Inventory, Itemize, Manage, Modify, Organize, Paraphrase, Plan, Predict, Prepare, Present, Propose, Question, Rearrange, Reconstruct, Regroup, Rename, Reorganize, Restructure, Rewrite, Save, Set up, Shorten, Simplify, Sort, Structure, Systematize, Test
Examples of Application Tasks
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Calculate, Choose, Classify, Complete, Compute, Demonstrate, Dramatize, Employ, Illustrate, Interpret, Modify, Operate, Prepare, Schedule, Sketch, Solve, Use
Examples of Calculation Tasks
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Add, Check, Compute, Count, Derive, Divide, Estimate, Extract, Extrapolate, Graph, Group, Integrate, Measure, Multiply, Plot, Prove, Reduce, Sequence, Solve, Square, Subtract, Tabulate, Tally, Verify
Examples of Comprehension Tasks
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Arrange, Categorize, Cite, Define, Describe, Differentiate, Discuss, Document, Duplicate, Explain, Express, Find, Generalize, Identify, Indicate, Interpret, Label, List, Locate, Map, Match, Memorize, Name, Organize, Outline, Paraphrase, Quote, Recognize, Record, Repeat, Report, Reproduce, Restate, Return, Review, Select, Sequence, Signify, Sort, State, Suggest, Support, Tabulate, Tell, Translate, Underline, Volunteer, Write
Examples of Evaluation Tasks
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Assess, Compare, Conclude, Critique, Defend, Estimate, Evaluate, Grade, Judge, Justify, Measure, Predict, Prescribe, Rank, Rate, Recommend, Score, Select, Support, Validate
Examples of Interpersonal Tasks
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Accept, Agree, Aid, Allow, Answer, Ask, Assist, Collaborate, Communicate, Compliment, Confront, Contribute, Cooperate, Disagree, Discuss, Explain, Excuse, Follow, Forgive, Greet, Guide, Help, Inform, Initiate, Interact, Invite, Join, Laugh, Lead, Lend, Manage, Meet, Offer, Permit, Praise, Question, React, Relate, Respond, Serve, Share, Smile, Supply, Talk, Thank, Volunteer, Vote
Examples of Language Tasks
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Abbreviate, Accent, Acknowledge, Alphabetize, Argue, Articulate, Capitalize, Compose, Define, Describe, Edit, Explain, Hyphenate, Indent, Outline, Present, Print, Pronounce, Punctuate, Read, Recite, Repeat, Respond, Speak, Spell, State, Summarize, Translate, Type, Verbalize, Write
Examples of Physical Tasks
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Assemble, Blend, Brush, Build, Calibrate, Carve, Color, Combine, Connect, Construct, Convert, Crush, Cut, Decrease, Demonstrate, Dissect, Draw, Drill, Finish, Fit, Fix, Fold, Form, Frame, Graft, Grind, Grow, Hammer, Handle, Heat, Illustrate, Increase, Insert, Lengthen, Limit, Make, Manipulate, Melt, Mend, Mix, Mold, Nail, Operate, Paint, Paste, Plant, Position, Pour, Prepare, Press, Reduce, Remove, Replace, Report, Reset, Roll, Rub, Sand, Saw, Set, Shake, Sharpen, Sketch, Smooth, Specify, Stamp, Stick, Stir, Straighten, Time, Trace, Transfer, Trim, Varnish, Weigh, Wipe, Wrap
*Source http://www.virtualtrainingpartners.com/visitvtpisland.html
(posted 2/18/10)
3 Obstacles of Opportunity for Education
- Image by NLanja via Flickr
Illustration...
Assume you're an ER doc and a patient presents with severe bleeding from a gunshot. Of course you would do everything you can to mitigate the bleeding; slow it down; even stop it. But that's only the temporary fix to the deeper problem – the bullet.
Problem...
Education is losing vitality in several arenas. Public education suffers from lower tax revenues in a crippled economy of devalued property. They also suffer from increased competition for enrollments via charter schools and private institutions as well as new online opportunities.
Higher Ed is losing ground as well via lower endowments, lower enrollments, and increased competition from for-profits, community colleges, and online approaches.
Most are trying to slow the speed of loss (a short-term solution) just like in our earlier ER doc example. But even if they succeed in short term fixes, the long-term problem remains: Education is changing around the globe. Here's a review of the three obstacles, why they present a problem for educators, and one way they can be turned into opportunities for long term, sustainable solutions.
Obstacles...
According to many mainstream educators, Social Media is a distraction. Students check Facebook before they check email. Many dispense with email altogether unless absolutely necessary. And text messaging is harmful. An entire generation is ignorant of the skill of written communication. How are they supposed to complete book reports and turn in essays?
Mobile phones are problematic, so say many school officials, because they encourage cheating. They also distract both individuals and entire classes. And as mentioned above, they reinforce poor writing skills by encouraging 160 character text messages with emoticons rather than Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.
Money is in shorter supply and budgets are being cut across the board. How can we educate when we can't afford the equipment, technology, textbooks, desks, electricity, staff, ... and the list goes on. Therefore we inadvertently focus on fund raisers and government handouts to alleviate our pain.
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." – Helen Keller
Social media has changed our world into a relationship economy. Avoiding this revolutionary platform of interaction is like avoiding the subject of Economics when teaching History, Math, or the Social Sciences, etc. Social media is made up of user generated content within a defined space. Education must adapt to this new paradigm by offering students some customization and personalization options within the curriculum.
This does not mean students decide what to learn but it could mean they are given some choices regarding sequencing when such options are viable. How about personalizing learning spaces such as furniture arrangement, location for a class one day, or choosing a teammate for a project?
Mobile phones are more ubiquitous than computers. They are the single most useful device available to the masses (Africa now has the highest per capita concentration of them) since offering access to the Internet. Students find their cell phone to be the most relevant personal belonging (Identity) they own. Yet schools ban them unless they can exert some control over their use.
It's vain to seek to destroy this perceived enemy of our traditional education process. Rather we best befriend this new platform and embrace its use because the new paradigm is about mobile delivery to a mobile generation (Remember! It's a relationship economy).
Money woes could be reduced by embracing the new paradigm. E-textbooks are a fraction of the cost of traditional bound and printed matter. Aggregated relationship feeds can be monetized by the educational institutions themselves rather than waiting for Doritos and Budweiser to do it.
(I'm expecting some to raise a fuss about such a suggestion but perhaps they are not aware of the way our students are monetized already within the obese educational institution).
What society values, it should propagate through education so the next generation may carry the torch onward. We used to value colonization and we indoctrinated others accordingly. Then we valued industrialization and we used behaviorism to educate the masses. When we entered the management revolution of the mid 20th century, we changed our tactics to cognitive learning approaches.
Today we are facing a new paradigm that requires constructivist and connectivist learning strategies to educate a sustainable society that is equipped to emerge wisely from our impending collision with a future where the human and the machine are merged in a bio- and nano-tech world.
The future will be social and mobile. If the institution of education wishes to survive economically, it must adopt and adapt the new platform of interaction. (posted 2/16/10)
Land Ho! ... arriving on the other side of Web 2.0
Not everyone agrees with Thomas Friedman's descriptions of our networked world in his best seller, The World is Flat. However, most would agree that human-kind is indeed on a journey from our agrarian past, through our industrial and post-industrial 20th century, into our present 21st century techno-savvy culture.And many – at least those who have studied the history of education – agree we have traveled a long way from our behaviorist past (focusing on reward and punishment), through the cognitive 20th century (brain centered learning), to our constructivist present (knowledge is constructed both within and without; both personally and socially).
The crystal balls of those in the know seem to be affirming the same conclusion: We are at a critical nexus with regard to technology innovation in just about every possible arena of social interaction whether medical, governmental, educational, business or military as depicted below...
- Medicine ... Nano- and Bio-tech advances
- Education ... Online and Mobile delivery platform migration
- Government ... OpenGov2.0
- Business ... Relationship economy driven by social media platforms
- Military ... Drone technogies
Just how far have we come? We cannot measure how far we've come unless we know how far we can go. Futurists (wfs.org) use various trend detecting techniques to peer into the future. Based on current research, where we are today is in keeping with Thomas Friedman's claim that we are at the end of the beginning. In other words, where we are today with our emerging tech-culture and nearly five decades of Internet under our belt, is only at the end of the first phase of the tech revolution. When it comes to merging the electro-chemical human with electro-mechanical technology, we are just getting started.
It is precisely this initial transitory phase that has kept us disoriented; in the beginning due to future-shock (fear and resistance) and now due to future-disconnect (denial and reckless abandon). How will we enter this next phase of innovation that will lead us beyond the so-called Web 2.0 with its community-encouraging connectedness, into an age where the real is augmented (AR), intelligence is supplemented (AI), and human needs are predictably anticipated rather than simply computed?
The human culture vessel has been sailing for some decades across this ocean of change from industrial to technological. There have been and still are many in the crows nest with an eye on the horizon. The good news is, land is in sight. However there remains the unnerving prospect of uncertainty regarding the promise and/or peril that awaits. And we can't control all of the events with which we will collide. Therefore, we owe it to ourselves to arm our most powerful weapon over which we do have control; the mind. A mind trained to think critically is a formidable opponent.
The explorers of centuries past faced the same plight that stares us down today. Uncertainty was the common lot, then as now. To educate and equip the next generation to face their unknown future is our prime directive. But the education I'm speaking of goes beyond being social-media adept or rich in cultural experiences. It requires more than tolerance and understanding. These qualities would be sufficient if we only faced increasing interactivity among the human race. But the human is merging with its technology.
Just as the industrial era produced machines to mimic and exceed human physical power, so tech advances will mimic and exceed human cognitive power. How will we engage these innovations for the common good? How will we increase human capability (education) and skill (training) within the new paradigm? (posted 2/13/10)
10 Tech Trends to Watch in 2010
As near as I can predict, based on what I've been hearing, reading, and researching in the Educational Technology field these past couple of years, the major trends to watch through this next academic year (in no particular order) are:
- Cloud computing - as demand for scalable networks spreads dynamically during the ebbs and flows of our recovering economy, the power struggle for control (or at least not losing any perceived footholds already assumed) will continue to be a hot topic for debate and a popular hook of tech-tabloid headlines.
- Green technology - The aforementioned economic turbulence will continue to drive demand for such innovations as eTextbooks, paperless assignments, redesign and allocation of formerly tech-centered spaces toward more socially inviting ones, and power consumption reduction solutions.
- Web 2.0 collaboration - I expect to see increased migration among faculties and staff toward web-based collaboration apps including off-site storage, social-bookmarking, and eportfolio creation tools.
- Security - IT departments will have their hands full dealing with security and privacy issues both real and imagined.
- mLearning - pushing information to handheld devices as well as delivering instruction to mobile platforms will be one of the hot attention-getters world-wide this year (it's about reaching the masses).
- Bandwidth - The battle for bandwidth will continue as new technologies are developed to speed delivery through existing channels as well as create new models for wireless delivery.
- Tablet readers - The publishing elite and their parasitic entourage will be working around the clock to deliver content to this new platform du jour.
- Social media networking - Social Media will continue to buzz about "who" you know (not "what"), and "how" you are connected.
- Monetizing the web - The new relationship economy will continue to churn creative models of monetizing the web via lite app upgrades, click-thru ads, push content, subscription feeds, paid apps, and ??
- Knowledge management - The data deluge will increasingly pressure enterprises of all types to ensure digital literacy among their constituents through new models of continuous professional development delivery promising baseline technology adoption, adaptation and integration within their defined best practices.
The new models are trending toward virtualization of servers, networks, and storage which simply means the top 10 trends to watch will resolve themselves in some virtualized solution as opposed to a device-centric fix. In other words, the networked crowd will benefit from a distance.
So grab your smart device and find a seat near the babbling data stream. Watch the ebb and flow of these trendy buzzwords as they move with the tide. And add your valuable input by interacting with the networked crowd. More data is better if we want an accurate picture of the future. (posted 2/12/10)
The Fallacy of Composition: A Senseless Contradiction
I wrote about the Land Conservation movement a few years back. In light of education reform efforts it's worth revisiting the senseless contradictions inherent in many debates of this type.
The Land as Place...
The old paradigm has caused a polarity between conservation and development. Therefore developers 'greenwash' their plans to appease to conservationists. This becomes a political game.
So we educate learners to become one or the other; a developer or a conservationist. We thereby strengthen the polarization and it becomes a senseless contradiction that has no resolution in and of itself.
Like the cruise control directions to "set your speed a little slower than the person in front of you;" if everyone did this, we would slow all traffic to 35 mph as each repeatedly adjusts their speed downward in reaction to the continually slowing traffic before them. Why 35 mph? Because that is the minimum threshold for operating cruise control. Thus, the dumbing down of the majority, the mediocre mainstream, the leveling of minds to the least common denominator.
What we want adds up to what we don't want. This is known as the fallacy of composition. Oscar Wilde wrote, "Each man kills the thing he loves." We love the wilderness but each time we go there it becomes less wild, if only by a few more footprints. Synergy is always with us for good or ill. So we can't point fingers.
Rather we need to sidestep the old debate and focus on man's relationship to the land. 'Place' is the union of the land with people and their stories.
In 1957 President Truman spoke at a strip mall dedication. It was built on some land that his grandfather had farmed in the 1860s. He realized he couldn't stand in the way of progress but he also realized that progress "pays no attention to individuals." Growth expands needs. It is therefore in direct conflict with progress which is all about improving our ability to meet needs while keeping up with insatiable appetites for wants.
Demanding both unrestrained growth and unlimited progress is self-contradictory. We live in an age of accelerated growth and diminishing returns. A post-scarcity world is right in front of our noses.
We measure what we value. What we value we exploit but what we love, we defend. We become what we measure. We measure economic growth so economic growth is our primary purpose. Today the economic crisis is causing us to lose our sense of meaning and connectedness because we've been valuing and measuring the wrong thing.
Consumerism is the new citizenship that keeps our society healthy. We have more Malls than High Schools in the U.S. We've been tricked into believing that what we want in life can be bought in a store rather than learned by way of education.
We live in a society defined by laws (prohibitions) more than loves. A new paradigm must be defined and taught to produce a new generation with a healthy understanding of 'place' and our relationship to it. (posted 2/9/10)
Three Building Blocks for a Firm Foundation in Education
What are the building blocks of a healthy body? What ingredients are required to ensure the building blocks are present and integrated correctly to maximize performance? Top athletes know how to fine tune their bodies for maximum output. They recognize the building blocks needed to assure the necessary ingredients are provided for optimum balance.
The three building blocks on which athletes train are:
- Highest Standards
- Proper Modeling
- Expert Coaching
This can be illustrated by a person who is sick and in the hospital. Even though the sick person may have a problem with one of several vital systems operating in their body, doctors don't ignore the healthy systems. They attend to the whole person with a view to the goal of optimum recovery. Those advocating for education reform would do well to keep this in mind. Otherwise, we may fix a broken part of a bigger systemic problem that doesn't really meet the need (like a mechanic replacing tires on a vehicle that has no brakes).
High StandardsEducation should always be designed with the highest goal in mind. We recognize the need for accommodation to meet the needs of some, however the goal should remain the same if society wishes to sustain itself in an ever-progressing way. After all, education is a function of culture to ensure its mores, ways, and beliefs are able to be propagated optimally.
Proper Modeling
Training requires a model that visually confirms the standards are high, the goal is possible, and there is help available to get us there. Among athletes in our earlier allusion, these models consist generally of the coaches and fellow athletes. Within the educational framework, proper modeling requires teachers, administrators, and the community at large to uphold the agreed upon building blocks. If any group of stakeholders demeans or depreciates one of the building blocks, the foundation will remain shaky at best.
Expert Coaching
Coaches know how to push players to the next level. Competent teachers know how to motivate students to grow in their understanding of subject-matter knowledge. Qualified, skilled, and competent teachers as well as administrators and even support staff, should be our baseline, not our goal. Settling for the next best thing does not lend to a firm foundation for the institution.
Balance
To maintain a balance, all the stakeholders (teachers, students, admin, and community) must agree on these three fundamental building blocks. Then, procedures to ensure their maintenance must be established. The education standards are designed as baseline standards not the goal toward which we press. Demanding proper modeling among our school staff is not asking too much. If I demand optimum performance from my body, do I feed it junk food? If we demand quality education from our children, do we supply them sub-par examples in the learning environment? And we must nurture the coaching skills that help students push the limits within their minds.
Challenges
Some proponents for school reform place too much emphasis on one building block to the exclusion of the others. This will not reform education but rather build another topsy turvy institution requiring more patches and bandaids in the future.
Changing ideologies, philosophies, mind-sets, and old-think attitudes, takes time but that time should be spent following the proper procedures to ensure a healthy balance of the three building blocks.
What are the baseline standards of an excellent education?
What requirements do we uphold for our staff who model the proper practices?
Are we nurturing an envelope-pushing generation with skilled teaching?
These three building blocks should be the foundation of our reform efforts. All other accommodations should not only support these building blocks, they must not detract from them. In other words, just because we desire to accommodate, say, English language learners (ELLs) in order that they too might reach the highest standards we have set, such accommodation must not retard the attempt of non-ELLs to achieve the same standards.
As an example, imagine the cruise control directions to "set your speed a little slower than the person in front of you." If everyone did this, we would be repeatedly adjusting our speed downward until we would slow all traffic to 35 mph, the minimum threshold for operating cruise control. Thus, the dumbing-down of the whole, the mediocre mainstream, the leveling of minds to the least common denominator in the name of accommodation rather than reaching the highest standards as our baseline.
The education system today is muddling along at 35 mph because of a wrong focus on accommodation for accommodation sake and because we want to prove we are doing a good thing, we teach to the standardized test instead of to the former high standards we once held. As a result, charter schools have become a popular alternative with each touting its strengths and unique approach to the challenge of the mainstream institution. This is a bandage approach because it abandons the teetering institution in its unstable state in order to build something new elsewhere. Is this the highest and best use of public monies? (posted 2/9/10)
Democracy in the Educational Institution in 1945 ... and Today
I want to extrapolate on last year's post about Democracy in the Classroom and apply the same principles to the Administration – Teacher/Faculty relationship in today's educational institution. The post then and now is based on an intriguing YouTube video from 1945 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT7p1Tqs9lc)
I want to compare the four principle elements of a democratic society noted in the video (1. Shared Respect, 2. Shared Power, 3. Balance of Resources, and 4. Enlightenment), with the typical characteristics governing the public educational institution today (1. Disrespect, 2. Top-down Control, 3. Poor Allocation of Resources, and 4. Narrow Mindedness).
Granted, I don't believe the institution has swung to the opposite extreme of a democratic one. However, the tendency can trend in the wrong direction when any of the four characteristics are found wanting. This is the danger that must be avoided by maintaining a proper balance among the four characteristics.
Shared Respect
A democracy requires shared respect among its constituents. This means understanding and tolerance of different cultures, skin colors, practices, beliefs, and corresponding opinions. This fits with today’s emphasis on cultural diversity in the classroom.
Whether or not Admin and Faculty agree with one another, mutual respect must be the norm for every school if open discussion is to be promoted. When certain ideals are depreciated, they go underground and fester. Only a platform conducive to open dialogue and debate can make genuine progress that is in the best interests of all.
Shared Power
Shared power in a democracy means that decision making is supported by the community and is enforced by the community (I'm speaking of the community of stakeholders here as consisting of Admin and Faculty).
This can be carried out in schools where Admin allow Faculty input regarding best practices in the education process. Stakeholder participation to establish the rules of engagement as well as rewards and penalties to be imposed on infractions, communicates to the Faculty that they are part of the the community and exist as a facilitator of outcomes more than as a babysitter focusing on the next standardized assessment commanded by the institution.
Shared power in a democracy means the right of individuals to voluntarily vote. Volunteering to vote implies personal motivation which is a vital ingredient to the education equation: Faculty must be motivated toward agreed best-practices in teaching. In a school where faculty are granted an ownership stake, personal motivation to excel in such best-practices is enhanced.
Balance of Resources
In the 1945 film, this particular point focuses on the balance of economic resources by ensuring a strong, healthy, and dominant middle class. I apply this to schools by interpreting it to mean a balance of intellectual resources and access to resources among Teachers and Admin.
This notion of balanced resources goes back to Aristotle over two millennia ago and was reiterated at the founding of our nation by James Madison who explained that imbalance of resources causes conflict between groups of have’s and have nots.
I have seen this in schools and school districts when policies that are on the table for discussion serve mainly to isolate and polarize Admin and Faculty based on resources they naturally possess. Rather than encouraging discussion and debate, top-down dominance often ensues and democracy is stifled as minds close up to hidden strongholds rather than critically evaluate other viewpoints and options.
Enlightenment
This point has to do with free speech as a responsibility as well as a right. Free speech not only enlightens stakeholders, it also fuels their mind to judge, which grants them responsibility. Therefore, an education environment of free speech requires everyone to participate. It places the responsibility on the stakeholders to bring knowledge to light.
It does not mean some are free to be silent when a question is debated, but rather all bear the burden to ensure every point of view is presented so the entire institution can optimize best practices.
However, it bears noting that mere access to information alone is insufficient. Democracy in the educational institution means presentations of all sides of issues should be balanced. Sources should be disclosed. Otherwise, credibility could be questioned. Competence is assured by adequate disclosure.
Democracy in education is pivotal to encouraging personal motivation; a character issue that many stakeholders complain is lacking within the institution beyond the motivation of self- and/or position-preservation.
Shared respect and shared power, when understood by all stakeholders, empowers them to dig out the resources available among the community which in turn optimizes opportunities for enlightenment.
These four principles are not based on some new theory but on more than two thousand years of great thinking (the movie mentions Aristotle's contribution). The bottom line is, when democracy is cared for, it thrives. When it is neglected, it diminishes. (posted 2/9/10)
Six Ways to Use Twitter as a Listening Device
- Image via Wikipedia
Web 2.0 (Social Web) created new platforms for multi-user (beyond two-way) communication that could be both synchronous and asynchronous. Subscribing-to, befriending, and following status updates on platforms such as Facebook, Myspace, Ning Networks, and the like, have allowed for new spaces of communication to emerge. These new spaces resided in a specific place or page where aggregated communiques could be archived.
Twitter is a unique development that allows for the pure mind-surfing thought feeds provided by the status update feature of former platforms. Rather than providing a new space for interactive communication, Twitter provided a portal for calls to action. Whereas the crowd has been gathering in so many "spaces" (Ning, LinkedIn, etc), Twitter is not space-centered but real-time activity centered.
New apps that allow for the formation of select "lists" and "groups" further enhance the new social communication platform where many of us find ourselves interacting today. All this communication has simultaneously created a cloud of data that can be accessed by custom APIs and mashed up to serve any number summary overviews of this brave new networked world. And because of this data deluge, we now have ways to "monitor" or "listen" to the babbling data brook as it flows by. Here are six (6) simple ways to use Twitter as a listening device to monitor activity on any subject matter.
1. Use Twitter's search feature (http://search.twitter.com) to listen to the global crowd converse about your interest, theme, subject, product, or service. Focus on conversations about a particular source (@dallasm12) or topic (#education) or just monitor any tweet containing a keyword of choice (Iran).
2. Limit results of conversations to geographic area by using Twitter's advanced search features. Here is an example of the same topic search above (Iran) but limited to within 15 miles of Chicago...
Don't have a specific keyword to follow? Use http://trendsmap.com to view popular conversations in any particular region of the world. A good way to catch the news before it hits the airwaves.
3. Use desktop applications to monitor many conversations simultaneously. There are many from which to choose. I use TweetDeck illustrated below. Such apps allow multiple, scroll-able columns to display your search inquiries. Searches can focus on keywords, hashtags, users, you name it. There are browser based apps such as Monitter.com that share TweetDeck's look and feel.
4. Follow lists and groups. This is a nice feature in TweetDeck and similar apps (at the top of TweetDeck or on their website at http://www.tweetdeck.com/#directory ). This is a clever way of seeing what a group (your competitor?) is saying about you or your product and/or service, etc. Lists are generated by twitter users who want to gather specific people around a particular topic. By listening to a list's feed, you can stay informed without having to reinvent the search wheel.
5. Discover how people feel about a particular topic, product, company, service, idea, etc. Twendz.com allows you to follow a conversation according to degrees of positive or negative feedback.
6. Create an intellectual community of impact around your search results by participating in the conversations, creating your own RSS feeds, making new lists, forming Groups, and sharing your learning with your colleagues. This is by far the most powerful reason to listen to the conversations. By honing in on topics relevant to our needs, we can learn and share with others. In fact, our own quality input and output will make us a node of impact to which others can subscribe and follow. Then we impact our world for the better and contribute real value to the data stream.
I love history and enjoy researching time-lines and maps of where we've been and where we are today. But the really cool thing about real-time web monitoring is how it allows us to stay on the forefront of cutting edge trends and ideas. You can even listen to what the crowd is NOT saying. See what pieces to the puzzle are missing. Investigate, extrapolate, and engage in higher order critical thinking. Try it. Find a place to sit by the babbling data brook and see what you discover. Share your insights with others. Build a reservoir of knowledge that has impact on your community. (posted 2/4/10)
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Engagement does NOT Ensure Learning
Just because students may appear "engaged" does not mean genuine learning is taking place. Gaining attention and building capacity for understanding and capability for application, are not the same process.
Certainly it helps in the classroom when students are engaged. However, engagement alone may merely inform. Genuine learning occurs when skill sets and/or real capability is enhanced.
This is why so many educational games are just that; games. They engage and entertain but do they "teach?" Remembering facts is helpful but understanding how to apply facts via extrapolation, is the higher order thinking goal.
Knowing history and understanding history are as different as knowing what certain foods taste like versus understanding how to prepare them and in fact, possessing the skill to do so.
Media fights for attention. Engagement is the goal from every direction. But there is a difference between informing and educating. Informing is a tool that facilitates the reduction of uncertainty. Education increases capability. The value-added increase of capability is achieved by blending practice with feedback that is tied to targeted outcomes.
Too much education is merely informational albeit engaging. Many in education contend rightly that technology as a tool is more engaging than traditional pedagogical practices. However, technology must be used to teach by integrating curriculum, incorporating feedback loops, and result in evaluative outcomes already agreed upon.
The bottom line is, it's easy to engage. The challenge is to teach. Skilled educators know not only how to engage, but how to "educe" real learning from their students.
Faculty that are equipped with the pedagogical skills will then understand how to apply emerging technologies in a way that supports and streamlines old practices. Educational technologists are needed as liaisons on campuses in order to facilitate this integration. (posted 2/3/10)
Educators all a-Twitter Over Emerging Platform Game-changer
Twitter is a web-based application interface that allows users to feed the data stream with their own generated input. Because the Twitter data stream is so large now (75 million accounts by end of 2009, 25 billion tweets in 2010), there are plenty of useful ways to navigate that data.
Clearly the Twitter interface can be used to add your own input for any of the following reasons:
- To simply participate in the new phenomenon of tweeting
- To communicate with your followers or group
- To communicate with the World-at-large
- To archive your online and/or offline activities
- For branding a product or service
- Because it's required by a school assignment
SocialOomph.com, Tweetlater.com, others like them, offer the ability to time-delay tweet postings as well as automate replies to new followers, etc. Apps likeGrouptweet.com and Present.ly enable the formation of private groups for both input and output benefits.
These multiple input apps are attempting to simplify the needs of active Internet users. Is it a sustainable model? Time will tell but for now, it's necessary as the crowd filters out the superfluous and drills down to the preferred mechanisms for communication.
However, an important alternative to merely adding to the data stream (input) is the myriad of ways people are using Twitter to monitor the output. There are many ways tolisten to the data Twitter is streaming. Reasons to listen include:
- Simply to watch the stream as it flows by
- To stay informed
- To monitor trends
- To mine data as its own resource
Trendsmap.com allows location-based, real-time monitoring of what's being tweeted in specific places. Take a look at the homepage and see what you can determine just from the U.S. map in general. Could be a useful tool in the classroom to teach critical thinking skills such as higher order extrapolation. Twazzup.com uniquely allows the viewing of real-time tweets according to specific keywords and displays them in a nice page that includes photos, news, and the most popular links related to that keyword. Here's an example using Haiti.
Both TweedGrid and Monitter allow users to create dashboards of keyword-specific twitter feeds that update in real-time. There is an ever-increasing host of apps that are seeking new ways to mashup the Twitter data stream and output in some unique fashion. With Geo-location api's added to the mix, forthcoming apps should prove to be quite interesting to say the least.
Augmenting our daily routine, whether personal, social, academic or business, is the new reality we all face. Fresh views of what's going on around us in real-time, is sure to open our eyes to mundane experiences we've been taking for granted. What cool, new twitter apps have you been using to augment your real-time learning? (posted 2/9/10)
Apple's Contribution is More than Content and Devices
I read another blogger today saying the Apple's tablet is not as important as the content and then going on about the new media subscription platforms that may appear with the iTablet to be announced tomorrow. However, I believe Apple's intrinsic contribution of value is beyond even their innovative approach to content delivery.
Apple's real contribution to the world of technology is their streamlining of how we interact with devices and information content. Rather than focus on a solution itself, Apple looks for answers to the most natural way we want to resolve challenges using technology. Hence, their intuitive mashup APIs and the innovative use of gestures on screens, touch-pads, and mice.
Contrast the development trends between the Industrial Age of the 19th and early part of the 20th Centuries, and the Information Age of today. With industry, electro-mechanical power was related to mass (size). More power required bigger machines. However, with technology, the speed of bits traveling on a microprocessor is enhanced by reducing the size of the chip and thereby reducing the distance traveled. This is a simple illustration, clearly, and certainly there are exceptions but I speak in general, panoramic terms.
Technological innovation trends are tending toward ubiquitous delivery and merging with our identity to the extent that human and technological are no longer separate. This paradigm has long been researched with recent discoveries unveiling the cyborg generation's understanding that even our physical body is a a prosthesis we have learned to manipulate.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that nano-technology developments are seeking ways to "invade" our physical prosthesis (body, brain, etc.) to merge the electro-chemical with our electro-mechanical devices.
Body snatchers or body enhancers?
The fear of loss of privacy and the taking over of our minds by some unscrupulous person/s is certainly a peril about which to be concerned. However, the medical needs that often drive innovation, offer promise to millions who lack the mobility and subsequent lifestyle choices of the masses.
Our responsibility is great and should not be underestimated. But fear of the future should not preclude our invention of a better future. We are creatures of hope, not victims of fear. If allowed to carry out their course, cynical minds stifle and dumb down the masses to an ultimate police state existence. Critical minds create. Either may be sustainable, but which option advances human inter-contributory dependence which is what builds community? (posted 2/9/10)
Tablets Transforming Education, Teaching, and Learning
Why will the highly anticipated Apple tablet – suspected to be called iSlate – transform the brick and mortar classroom as well as the way teachers interact with students? Will learning be affected? Will learning improve? Will the improvement be worth the investment of time and money required to adopt and adapt to the new technologies with which we will shortly collide?
Those who resist the forthcoming changes will find it difficult to adapt and adopt. Those who embrace the changes will discover new opportunities to engage and learn both individually and collaboratively. Society always merges with its adopted technologies. The coming innovations are reflective of our desire to connect to others more deeply. The social web has demonstrated this phenomenon. It should come as no surprise really.
The way we connect is visually via gestures and verbally via voice and text. Therefore our innovations should enable and empower these modes of communication and connection. Furthermore, our minds store, organize, archive, reflect, and recall images and sounds and we our technologies should extend such practices. The iPhone transformed the way we interact with external devices. The 100,000 plus crowd-sourced applications extend our own physical presence into the Cloud wherein we can now share and comment beyond the previously limiting space-time restrictions.
The more natural our interaction with devices that grant us access to information, the better our chances of deep learning. The past couple of decades, we have struggled with shallow learning when it comes to technology in the classroom. What I mean to say is, we taught interim skills like keyboarding because that skill allowed us to interact with the information storage device.
Now, as devices become more naturally innate to human gesture and experience, we will be able to return to learning the deeper skill set of critical thinking. Learning how to learn will not require preemptive and intermediary exercises in hardware and software interaction. Rather, information will be directly accessible to all in a more assimilable form. Teachers will be able to focus on the curriculum to be taught and students will be able to focus on the knowledge to be gained.
However, as I noted at the beginning, will this change be resisted or embraced by educators and the educational institution? Personally, I don't believe the institution has a choice. But if it resists, the cost in time and money will be felt by increasingly strained budgets. There's a real opportunity for schools to save both and improve learning exponentially. Embracing the change is a win-win for all. (posted 1/22/10)
Tech-savvy Professionals Needed
The Legal Profession has witnessed a change much like the Automobile industry. The invention of the Automobile permitted only three color choices according to Henry Ford; black, black, or black. Today, Auto manufacturers compete among a myriad of choices available to consumers. Law practice has likewise changed, according to the recent 2009 ABA Summit held in Scottsdale, AZ. Competition for choice has arrived and Lawyers must become nimble navigators of change.
In the techno-rich world in which we live, speed trumps size. The "billable hour ponzi scheme" (ABA Summit, 2009) is toppling. To gain and maintain a big and fast competitive edge requires technology investment. Because the consumer controls the marketplace today, technology is needed to stay abreast of data. Simulation and interactivity are the norms, not the exceptions.
The main skills needed are retrieving information and making sense of data. These skills are taught by doing. According to findings reported at the ABA Summit, "the legal profession has done least well in creating a framework in which to store and retrieve data and make sense of it critically."
Young lawyers training today have grown up in a world where information is ephemeral. They do not care about information that will be outdated tomorrow. They live in a just-in-time world and want to know simply HOW TO FIND WHAT IS NEEDED WHEN IT IS NEEDED. They want to know HOW TO FIND IT WHEN THEY NEED IT. And even though they are viewed as "natives" to technology, we shouldn't assume they understand it.
For these reasons, professionals must possess a personal learning environment (PLE) that is strategically networked to an intellectual community of scholarship. Such environments become the resource for timely updates and support. Such environments are the leveraged edge upon the fulcrum of our Inter-networked world.
However, even the creation of PLEs is not the end-all solution to the problem. The difference between informing and educating is that informing is a tool that facilitates the reduction of uncertainty. But educating produces an increase in capability. The value-added increase of capability occurs when we blend practice with feedback which is tied to the outcome we want to achieve. Our use of technology should increase the value of our specialization as well as our skill set/s.
One example of a skill set deficit, according to the ABA, concerns how visual presentation tools are neither used enough nor employed effectively. "eDiscovery will become the most important stuff lawyers do," according to the ABA's assessment. The best way to achieve the needed skill set is via systematic, simulation-based CLE (the Med School model).
If we want to teach competence, we must combine knowledge of case-law with skill development (which includes technology use). What does a competent lawyer look like? Certainly they are skilled in the use of technology. Such skill is the baseline, not the target. Clients demand tech-savvy representation and firms must supply that demand. (posted 1/19/10)
The Solution IS the Problem
The tensions resonating within the educational system remind me of so many "professionals" who opined their varied diagnoses and prescriptions yet without a hint of resolution in sight. Why?
What's worse is that a cursory overview shows nearly all the experts agree on the current state of affairs and the necessary goal we should have in view. But finding a solution to target is the challenge. In other words, the solution is the problem.
Three points summarize the deluge of data streaming the blogosphere:
The solution should be self-evident. What is needed is Professional development of teachers that is focused on creating impactful, intellectual communities that will grow and emerge with the unknown future innovations as they develop.
The old static, boxed in knowledge-bases become irrelevant too fast to use any longer as our structural paradigm for instructional design. The desperately needed changes are slow coming because the old top-heavy, hierarchical institution is resistant to change and would rather remain in its entrenched state, feeding on the public dole.
Professional development is key. Timing is of the essence. Change IS inevitable. The only question is, who is willing to embrace the solution? (posted 1/4/10)
What's worse is that a cursory overview shows nearly all the experts agree on the current state of affairs and the necessary goal we should have in view. But finding a solution to target is the challenge. In other words, the solution is the problem.
Three points summarize the deluge of data streaming the blogosphere:
- All are interested in education.
- The future is unpredictable.
- Kids have an extraordinary capacity for innovation.
The solution should be self-evident. What is needed is Professional development of teachers that is focused on creating impactful, intellectual communities that will grow and emerge with the unknown future innovations as they develop.
The old static, boxed in knowledge-bases become irrelevant too fast to use any longer as our structural paradigm for instructional design. The desperately needed changes are slow coming because the old top-heavy, hierarchical institution is resistant to change and would rather remain in its entrenched state, feeding on the public dole.
Professional development is key. Timing is of the essence. Change IS inevitable. The only question is, who is willing to embrace the solution? (posted 1/4/10)
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