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.