School Board Presentation

On December 20, I presented some of the recent info (Did You Know, The Long Tail) to the South Kitsap School District Board of Directors. Here's the rough outline of the speech...

Thanks for the opportunity. I understand some of you have heard Ian Jukes at the WSSDA conference and were inspired by a look at the future.

I have 5 glimpses to show you tonight… only 5 because we don’t have time for all 173,000.

To frame our context tonight, I’d like to quote Gary Marx, president of the Center for Public Outreach:

“We have a choice. We can simply defend what we have…
or we can create what we need”

Our first glimpse comes to us from Jeff Allen, ed tech director at Olympic ESD.
Walt Bigby was at the last board meeting talking about services they provide, and technology leadership is among them. Credit for the original presentation goes to Karl Fisch of Arapahoe High School in Colorado for this 8 minute video highlighting data points in the world around us.

Did You Know Video
http://www.oesd.wednet.edu/blog/

If you have read the World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman, this sounds familiar.

Behind you is the state uniform bar for WASL scores. I’m sorry to report there is nothing uniform about the technology curve… it’s growing EXPONENTIALLY.

I was curious about Karl and Arapahoe, so I visited his Staff Development blog and would like to paraphrase a recent entry for our second glimpse.

Fischbowl Blog
http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/12/this-is-not-education-as-usual.html

I am fascinated by the student introspection about their own learning and the pursuit of relevance. In a recent article in Converge magazine, I was struck by Bianca's response to the "What do you predict..." question and how it contrasts with the adult answers.

Converge Article (pp. 60-61)
http://media.centerdigitaled.com/Converge_Mag/pdfs/issues/Converge_Fall_Issue.pdf

The digital natives are becoming restless. Again, remember Marx’s quote. Defend or create.

I recently finished “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson talking about the new marketplace, fueled by demands from the digital natives. Early in the book, he sets the stage by comparing his childhood with that of Ben. Let’s take about 5 minutes for a listen.

(Audio clip of Ben the teenager)

(Graphic of the Long Tail from the Wired archive web site)

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html

Anderson’s concept is that with more and more choices being made available through digital means (atoms vs. bits), there’s a very compelling market shift going on. This isn’t the record label/movie studio/book publishing house model we grew up with.

The last glimpse comes in wrapping up The Long Tail, there’s discussion about a 3-D printer we’ll soon have in our household. Need a set of legos? A widget? A kitchen utensil? Order it online and have it print out in your den. We have one of these printers at the high school, and while still expensive, it shows the idea isn’t that far-fetched. Bits back to atoms… and shipping is free.

http://www.zcorp.com/


As you continue to watch the accelerating pace of change, remember Gary Marx:

“We have a choice. We can simply defend what we have…
or we can create what we need”


Thank you.

The Long Tail

In a random search of e-books at my local library, I happened upon The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. ...WOW!!!! If you liked The World Is Flat, this is a must read. The style is a combo Friedman/Malcolm Gladwell "Tipping Point" that looks at oh-so-many facets of our changing society. It shows not just how the Natives are changing, but how the marketplace of print, music and video must change to keep up with ever-increasing information stream. You can see the original article from Chris that appeared in Wired at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html

Upside Down...

I'm thinking of the old Tom and Jerry cartoon, where one chases the other...then all of a sudden, they trade and begin chasing in reverse order. That was my reaction to the recent eSchoolNews headline of Riverdeep buys Houghton Mifflin for $1.8B (http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=6729). This isn't your father's textbook anymore...

Weekly Reading - Dec 1

From Converge Magazine, Fall 2006, article about Fort Wayne (p. 22), Mayor Graham Richard has a vision to build a city that is "wired and inspired".

Franke Park Elementary - the Mouse Squad. "We're making students responsible for teaching teachers...to set up a computer or the video conferencing equipment. These are not 'A' students. They are the kids who need some responsibility and need to build their self esteem". p. 26

Speaking of videoconferencing, Mayor Richard: "We do digital town hall meetings from my conference room to government classes where I am just there. The kids can all see me, they can see each other and they can ask me questions."

And my personal favorite from this issue. Question was posed to a series of influential panelists: "What do you predict to be the next big thing for education technology?" The usual suspects: kids will have PDA's, classrooms will have stuff, big networks. The best response was from a 14 year old high school student: Freeing students from substandard teachers and boredom are the biggest challenges. I'd like to see textbooks totally replaced by Web-based learning sites that are fun, personalized and up-to-date like MySpace.com, but connect people for learning, not just to chat. Out of the mouths of babes, so to speak.