Just Back From The Mother Ship

I am just back from the Mother Ship. Apple HQ in Cupertino.

The folks over in the Apple Education Division helped our 21st Century Skills group get its head on straight about the role of technology in a modern education with an Apple Executive Briefing.

No, it wasn't all about tools (as you know, they do sell those.) I would say it is all about how students learn to be productive citizens in their near future and promoting student learning.

How do you get your information? How do you get current information? How do you collaborate? How do you find the next useful idea? How do you create your next big idea? How do you tell the world what you know? How are we going to promote higher levels of thinking? How are we going to promote deeper understanding? How do we do all of this and keep our kids safe?

Can you really say you are doing all of this without technology? Any of this?

Yes, they have solutions for these questions and I am sure they would be happy to take our request for a bid. Yes, they did have a principal talk to us about pulling off a one to one initiative. Don't worry about the hard sell. They really didn't push for a sale at this meeting.

This really is them providing you the opportunity to think about what we are doing. When was the last time anyone did that for you?

I would say that, if you are ever invited to an Apple Executive Briefing, accept.

Thanks Apple.

P.S. No, we didn't get to see the new iPad. I am sure they are really busy getting the launch ready to go. I know what did get to do was way more important. Thanks again Apple.

The iPad

I got lucky with my lunch break today... the time zones aligned and my lunch hour (actually, lunch 20 minutes) worked out to be the same time as the iPad roll-out. I think it is fun to read coverage of an event while it is happening. We live in amazing times.

Say good-bye to books on paper. I know others have done it first. I know that Amazon has its Kindle. But this seems like a very good fit for the other Apple on-line sales efforts. Is this the synergy that e-books need, or is Apple too late and the other earlier entries into this kind of book sales/publishing gotten to big lead? I don't think Apple is too late and the presentation is wonderful.

Putting my school teacher hat on:

(Warning! These are pretty random.)

If a teacher couldn't find a use for this in the classroom, they are not trying very hard. This could easily become the entry level learning tool for many learners. Will we be putting something like this in every student's hands anytime soon?

The price may seem to be a little high, but have your priced a text-book lately? Replace a back-pack load of books with this and get the internet and some computer power at the same time. I think the iPad may be close to a great deal.

The cost of books is a concern at school. Is there going to be a library app? Maybe there is already and I don't see it. There is a Kindle app from Amazon for the iPhone and Touch already. Free content? I don't know where to find that app.

The ports that don't seem to be there may be worry-some. We will have to see what developers can do with that dock connector.

I am hoping that there is some decent way to project what is on the teacher's (or student's) iPad to show the rest of the class. I suppose that a document camera could do this.

As a music teacher, it would be nice to be able to attach a high quality mic for one of those recording apps. I can do that pretty easily with Firewire or USB a computer now. I guess that a more powerful computer will always need to be there for a certain creative class of user. I didn't notice, Garageband? (I need a longer lunch break.)

No multi-tasking? Most kids I know don't work this way. It is good to be able to have a couple of programs open at the same time. Maybe that will come with generation 3 or so of these. In the mean time, think of it as focusing attention and working one step at a time...

I am looking forward to seeing one of these in the wild. It really gets the creative thoughts going. The iPad has some real possibilities as a school-changer. It is great to see a browser, a suite of office tools, access to a whole bunch of apps, choices on connectivity and disc size in a 10 hour portable for less than a $1000. Amazing.

Book Ideas

So I have a few ideas for a book based on this blog.  What else would people like to know about?  Feel free to use the comment link to let me know....

Money seems a little goofy sometimes.

Money seems to get spent a little goofy when it comes to technology in schools. I hope this isn't everywhere and every government project. We had a building Shared Decisions team meeting in our building last week. On the agenda was how we are going to spend $20,000 in E2T2 grant money. The thinking going in by most members was we need more $3000 interactive whiteboards and student response systems.  

I had other thoughts after getting the inexpensive Wiimote solution to work.

Why wouldn't we go with the Wii deal and put the whiteboard and student response system dollars towards a laptop lab on wheels?  

With this website at http://www.quickieq.com the laptops would be response systems on steroids.  At QuickieQ, you can do your multiple guess quiz or do an actual short answer in English quiz.  Which one do you think would fit our writing mandate better?  OK.  They are free because they are in beta right now, but they were just the first link I came to in a Google search.  There must be something more flexible and worthwhile than 4 buttons for answering.

Turns out that the point is moot.  The decision we were supposed to be sharing was made for us as the grant was written.  Apparently, changing what you buy with the grant is not permitted after you get the money.  So much for Shared Decisions.

I suppose there is something about the administration not wanting to risk going to jail over my ideas.  I probably would be ok with that... them going to jail.. (just kidding.)

Personally, I want whoever decided that there can't be revisions if conditions improve to go to jail.  I think it is a crime to spend about $19k more than you should on a lame ed-tech product.

SmartMusic Tip

If you go (and I think you should) with the site license for SmartMusic, be careful about over ordering.  It is easier to add more subscriptions than it is to return them.  

But be careful about under ordering as well, because there has been a price break for quantity.  (Ask a rep,  because the pricing structure has changed and I am not 100% sure the discount program has remained...)

I am starting to get into this Wiimote thing

There is a very nice business case for the Wiimote/Whiteboard  by Drew Mckinney at YouTube.

Basically, if you need out the box and can afford it, get the board.  Otherwise, the Wiimote is more flexible as any surface will do.  

No board may be big advantage.  Since I am home for the summer and away from projectors, I have been trying it out on my monitor-- making it into a kind of touch screen.  So it is not just the price point making this case.

I also wonder about saving the work.  The commercial tools have the ability to save the sketch-ups.  I also wonder if I would need to do that save.  I think saving work would be more important for other subject teachers-- a math teacher saving a drawing of a geometry solution for internet posting for instance.

Thanks for the help Mr. McKinney.  Good analysis.

Tom Sextro is helping me out a lot with my Wiimote Cheap Whiteboard Project and he doesn't even know it!  

The original cheap whiteboard concept was a Johnny Chung Lee.

Tom's YouTube videos have been very helpful.  Tom's first video on this project is here, be sure to look at his other YouTube/Whiteboard postings to see how it works in the wild!

My principal was apologizing that she couldn't get a whiteboard for everyone, but she could get a projector for me.  I'm thinking a little extra research on the internet is going to get me the rest of the way.  I am thinking $50 and a little improvising and I am golden.

Governor Pawlenty

I was watching a favorite TV show of mine on Minnesota PBS this weekend and the Governor was on talking about how schools are always in a state of emergency.  He's right.  I don't think that American schools have ever been given boat loads of money.  Schools buy, with the money they do get, things that have been getting more and more expensive.  Health insurance and energy to name two.

He also commented that schools are going to go through a radical change in the next 15 years or so; as technology comes more and more into play.  (I am not direct quoting here.  Please visit Almanac here and look for the the April 4, 2008 episode.)

I wonder if he thought that tech would make education cheaper?  It has been my experience with technology in education that the technology doesn't really mean you can use fewer teachers to do the work if you want to have high quality work done.  That is still going to take a teaching staff.  A technically fluent, well-trained, teaching staff.

Technology can help teachers communicate ideas better.  It can also help diagnose problems and gaps in understanding.  Technology can also make help available 24/7/365.  The mission really is about making certain student understanding is created.  That is still going to take teachers.  

Computers haven't wiped out accountants from the American workforce. Computers haven't replaced engineers or lawyers either.  I'm sure computing has made it possible for those professions to do their jobs better.  Technology in education can do the same.

Now about the funding.  My district is cutting this year.  From what I hear, we are not alone.  We are roughly a million and change in the hole right now.  Our plan to get out of debt involves hundreds of thousands of dollars of cuts for the next 5 years.  

Whole programs are being disposed of right now.  

We do not have enough tech support staff right now.

One of the things cut back was training for the staff.  If schools are going to change we need training right now.  

If technology is going to change our schools, we need the means to cope right now.

Please don't use change as an excuse to not invest now.  We need to do change right.  Now.