Save these dates for upcoming conferences:
February 2–5, 2008, National Conference on Accelerating Learning, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida Check out their suggestions for funding to attend. What a great title for the conference.
February 4-8, 2008, Texas Computer Education Association’s 28th Annual Convention & Exposition Austin, TX. This is one of the premier assemblies about high tech aided learning and schooling.
February 21 & 22, 2008 - Designing the 21st Century Classroom, Las Vegas, NV. Also available online.
Find more events at THE Journal's online Conference Calendar.
Let us know what you learn about picking up the pace.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Florida Adopted K-3 Online Supplementary Reading Program
Meris Stansbury reports that Florida education officials adopted FreeReading.net on its short list of K-3 supplemental reading programs that schools may use state instructional money to purchase for the 2008-09 school year.
Educators are invited to participate in discussion boards; take part in the full, 40-week scope and sequence of lessons; or tailor materials to their students’ individual learning needs.
FreeReading.net offers a free, sequential, research-based reading intervention program designed for students in kindergarten through first grade. This is the first open instructional program to be approved through an official state adoption.
The site’s content is provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License, sometimes referred to as the “wiki” license. This license lets any site visitor copy, share, and distribute the content in any medium, as long as the visitor includes appropriate attribution.
Larry Berger serves as co-founder and chief executive officer of the program’s creator, Wireless Generation.
Educators are invited to participate in discussion boards; take part in the full, 40-week scope and sequence of lessons; or tailor materials to their students’ individual learning needs.
FreeReading.net offers a free, sequential, research-based reading intervention program designed for students in kindergarten through first grade. This is the first open instructional program to be approved through an official state adoption.
The site’s content is provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License, sometimes referred to as the “wiki” license. This license lets any site visitor copy, share, and distribute the content in any medium, as long as the visitor includes appropriate attribution.
Larry Berger serves as co-founder and chief executive officer of the program’s creator, Wireless Generation.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Questions for Educators in Ubiquitous Exponential Changing Times
Monday, January 28, begins Educause Learning Initiative 2008 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX. Conference planners accept that
We live in exponential times:
2.7 billion searches are performed on Google each month.
The number of text messages sent and received each day exceeds the population of the planet.
The amount of unique, new information generated worldwide this year will be more than in the previous 5,000 years.
Graduates can expect 10–14 career changes in their lifetimes, some into fields that don’t even exist today.
Many of these changes are catalyzed by technology, which continues its own rapid pace of change.
And that's only the beginning, setting background for speakers. I especially appreciate sentiments assumed for these two of ELI's four purposes:
How will we update our definitions of learning as well as rethink many of our assumptions about teaching, learning, and our profession?
What unique capabilities does IT offer to help colleges and universities ensure today’s learners are successful (whatever success may mean in this context)?
What does any of this mean to student and teacher Tableteers, UMPC and other mobile PC users?
Teacher, how might one most effectively prepare in school for a life of exponential change?
How do you know you aren't misdirecting students when no one knows what life in 2010, let alone 2020, will offer?
I'm glad that society uniquely expects the social institution of education (including schooling to some extent) to provide questions, not answers. I wonder what questions ELI will offer?
We live in exponential times:
2.7 billion searches are performed on Google each month.
The number of text messages sent and received each day exceeds the population of the planet.
The amount of unique, new information generated worldwide this year will be more than in the previous 5,000 years.
Graduates can expect 10–14 career changes in their lifetimes, some into fields that don’t even exist today.
Many of these changes are catalyzed by technology, which continues its own rapid pace of change.
And that's only the beginning, setting background for speakers. I especially appreciate sentiments assumed for these two of ELI's four purposes:
How will we update our definitions of learning as well as rethink many of our assumptions about teaching, learning, and our profession?
What unique capabilities does IT offer to help colleges and universities ensure today’s learners are successful (whatever success may mean in this context)?
What does any of this mean to student and teacher Tableteers, UMPC and other mobile PC users?
Teacher, how might one most effectively prepare in school for a life of exponential change?
How do you know you aren't misdirecting students when no one knows what life in 2010, let alone 2020, will offer?
I'm glad that society uniquely expects the social institution of education (including schooling to some extent) to provide questions, not answers. I wonder what questions ELI will offer?
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Keynote Address: Tablet PCs Open an EMMIL
I recently learned of someone seeking a keynote speaker for an important technology in education conference. I subsequently began thinking about what I'd like to hear that speaker say.
First, I thought of the many educators I know who have offered keynote addresses, sometimes to a classroom of students at the beginning of a new school term, fewer to a parent-teacher or a union meeting, as well as some to a professional organization of peers or interested policy makers and journalists. The addresses I remember described student learning in schools and ways teachers showed students how to overcome risks of failure they faced to obtain these accomplishments. Kudos to all of you who offered these memorable addresses!
But these descriptions, with few exceptions, seems to beg for an important follow-up in today's rapidly strenthening era of ubiquitious electronic communications, at least outside of schools.
As a result, second, I tried to clarify what follow-up might seem useful. It's the "utility" qualification that causes a problem. It's difficult to know what we don't know without knowing something about the unknown's hidding place, disguise or cloak. What do teachers not already know about our duties, rights, venues, resources, and behavior that we don't already discuss, whether by fact or opinion?
Then, bingo, something reminded me of the juxtaposition of two facts: (1) most learning occurs and likely will continue to occur outside of schools, irrespective of how many hours of schooling a student attends; and (2) someone in the economic marketplace will likely figure out how to address this learning and tie it together, with or without teachers' participation (for example, as Google and Microsoft developers have done for communicating information searches, in spite of teachers' and librarians' historic efforts).
I think of this as an open venue for innovative, venture teachers, a emerging mass market of independent learners (EMMIL). Tablet PCs, UMPCs, and other mobile PCs (as well as some smart phones and similar devices with less power) have opened this market for commercial development.
I want to hear descriptions of these developments and of how school teachers may use them without having to rely on boards of education authorizations.
How do teachers use mobile PC student learning outside of school to accelerate, complement, or in other ways link to authorized canons of learning, whether or not boards permit use of mobile PCs in schools?
Which commercial efforts seek teacher input in the design, development, testing, and distribution of their learning products?
What perks do students and teachers receive for participating? Teaching requires time, so how much time will a commercial venture buy from teachers?
How may an interested student or teacher apply for participation?
Yes, I listen for these kinds of things as teachers and others interested in education offer their keynotes.
What do you want to hear? (I ask, because some keynoters read this blog, and may find your comments useful as they prepare their speeches.)
First, I thought of the many educators I know who have offered keynote addresses, sometimes to a classroom of students at the beginning of a new school term, fewer to a parent-teacher or a union meeting, as well as some to a professional organization of peers or interested policy makers and journalists. The addresses I remember described student learning in schools and ways teachers showed students how to overcome risks of failure they faced to obtain these accomplishments. Kudos to all of you who offered these memorable addresses!
But these descriptions, with few exceptions, seems to beg for an important follow-up in today's rapidly strenthening era of ubiquitious electronic communications, at least outside of schools.
As a result, second, I tried to clarify what follow-up might seem useful. It's the "utility" qualification that causes a problem. It's difficult to know what we don't know without knowing something about the unknown's hidding place, disguise or cloak. What do teachers not already know about our duties, rights, venues, resources, and behavior that we don't already discuss, whether by fact or opinion?
Then, bingo, something reminded me of the juxtaposition of two facts: (1) most learning occurs and likely will continue to occur outside of schools, irrespective of how many hours of schooling a student attends; and (2) someone in the economic marketplace will likely figure out how to address this learning and tie it together, with or without teachers' participation (for example, as Google and Microsoft developers have done for communicating information searches, in spite of teachers' and librarians' historic efforts).
I think of this as an open venue for innovative, venture teachers, a emerging mass market of independent learners (EMMIL). Tablet PCs, UMPCs, and other mobile PCs (as well as some smart phones and similar devices with less power) have opened this market for commercial development.
I want to hear descriptions of these developments and of how school teachers may use them without having to rely on boards of education authorizations.
How do teachers use mobile PC student learning outside of school to accelerate, complement, or in other ways link to authorized canons of learning, whether or not boards permit use of mobile PCs in schools?
Which commercial efforts seek teacher input in the design, development, testing, and distribution of their learning products?
What perks do students and teachers receive for participating? Teaching requires time, so how much time will a commercial venture buy from teachers?
How may an interested student or teacher apply for participation?
Yes, I listen for these kinds of things as teachers and others interested in education offer their keynotes.
What do you want to hear? (I ask, because some keynoters read this blog, and may find your comments useful as they prepare their speeches.)
Reading to Mom as She Recites from Past Memorizations
Granny J offered on january 15, 2008, that she reads to her mother and her mother recites portions of what she had memorized previously.
For the past couple of years, as Mom's short-term memory has slowly eroded, I've found that she really enjoys having me read poetry from her past. Often she will recite bits and pieces along with me; she is definitely of those generations that were required to memorize all manner of verse and oratory, as well. R.L. Stevenson ...Whittier... Longfellow ... Riley ... Wordsworth ... Burns ... Scott, among others ... realize just how being able to recite the same words bound old and young together across the generations.
Thankfully, my teachers required us to memorize other people's words. To prove we "committed them to heart," each of us individually stood before everyone else in class and recited the same poem, speech, or excerpt from a noted orator in a previous generation. I took advantage of Paula and several other girls wanting to recite first, assignment after assignment. Their recitations gave me a chance to practice silently before it was my turn to stand and deliver.
Like Granny's mother, I find myself sometimes reciting bits and pieces of this common literature at odd times. Sometimes a grandchild says something that triggers my response. For example, Kimberly might say, "If, (and then pause)." More than once I've said out loud, "...you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, and blaming it on you, ..." I'm lucky, because, Kim also memorized Kipling's poem If one summer between elementary school grades, and we can recite it together.
I've often wondered what young people today will have to talk with their younger generation. What have their teachers required them to stand-and-deliver, personally, in public, on demand, just because some people of authority consider it a good set of words to remember? What words of wisdom will they recite as guidance for their lives when their judgment falters, their world seems chaotic, or they want to concentrate on in order to endure yet another pain?
As teachers, it seems that we have short changed youth when we do not expect them to carry forward bits and pieces of accumulated wisdom from our pasts. Some call these bits of the Western Canon, as though their preservation means nothing except bad news to future generations. I wonder ...
Thanks, Granny J., for sharing about your time with your mother. And thanks for using your journalistic skills to produce an insightful blog about the former frontier town of Prescott, AZ., where individual responsibility and integrity still prevail. Yep, "a bunch of old people live here," as my grandson said.
For the past couple of years, as Mom's short-term memory has slowly eroded, I've found that she really enjoys having me read poetry from her past. Often she will recite bits and pieces along with me; she is definitely of those generations that were required to memorize all manner of verse and oratory, as well. R.L. Stevenson ...Whittier... Longfellow ... Riley ... Wordsworth ... Burns ... Scott, among others ... realize just how being able to recite the same words bound old and young together across the generations.
Thankfully, my teachers required us to memorize other people's words. To prove we "committed them to heart," each of us individually stood before everyone else in class and recited the same poem, speech, or excerpt from a noted orator in a previous generation. I took advantage of Paula and several other girls wanting to recite first, assignment after assignment. Their recitations gave me a chance to practice silently before it was my turn to stand and deliver.
Like Granny's mother, I find myself sometimes reciting bits and pieces of this common literature at odd times. Sometimes a grandchild says something that triggers my response. For example, Kimberly might say, "If, (and then pause)." More than once I've said out loud, "...you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, and blaming it on you, ..." I'm lucky, because, Kim also memorized Kipling's poem If one summer between elementary school grades, and we can recite it together.
I've often wondered what young people today will have to talk with their younger generation. What have their teachers required them to stand-and-deliver, personally, in public, on demand, just because some people of authority consider it a good set of words to remember? What words of wisdom will they recite as guidance for their lives when their judgment falters, their world seems chaotic, or they want to concentrate on in order to endure yet another pain?
As teachers, it seems that we have short changed youth when we do not expect them to carry forward bits and pieces of accumulated wisdom from our pasts. Some call these bits of the Western Canon, as though their preservation means nothing except bad news to future generations. I wonder ...
Thanks, Granny J., for sharing about your time with your mother. And thanks for using your journalistic skills to produce an insightful blog about the former frontier town of Prescott, AZ., where individual responsibility and integrity still prevail. Yep, "a bunch of old people live here," as my grandson said.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Photos of 2008 CES Tablet PC Gathering
Loren, the Incremental Blogger, posted photos of the 2008 CES Tablet PC Community Gathering. That's the fifth such CES gathering. About 100 people attended, including teachers! I'll post more about this later. Thanks, Loren, for capturing the excitement of those moments. I agree that you probably had to be there to appreciate the constant good natured and informative chatter that you also recorded. :)
2008 Tablet PC Academy
Rob Mancabelli, Director of Information Systems at Hunterdon Central School District, Flemington, New Jersey, invites teachers to consider attending their 2008 Tablet PC Academy, July 15-17 and July 22-24.
Rob said in an email, Our teachers began using tablet PCs 4 years ago, and it has evolved into a District-wide initiative where over 250 teachers use tablet PCs each day in conjunction with a wireless projector and wireless connectivity. It has had an amazing effect on the integration of technology into instruction and has improved teaching and learning outcomes across our classes. In fact, Purdue University Press just published the findings of one of our research studies in a book called Beyond the Tipping Point which illustrates the implementation of pen technologies in education.
As a Tablet PC Cohort teacher said about using a tablet in the classroom, “This has been the most fun and exciting [time] of my teaching career -- after 14 years, that's saying a lot” (title page).
And that's just the beginning of useful information in this research report.
The Academy appears to address important points for teachers wanting to use Tablet PCs and other mobile PCs in classrooms:
�� Learn practical applications for tablet PC integration in your classrooms
�� Use the tablet to increase student engagement
�� Practice productivity tips
�� Share knowledge with colleagues
�� Collaborate with other professionals
�� Understand how to plan a successful tablet PC program
Kudos, Rob, your IT team, and school personnel from Board of Education, administrators, and instruction and support staff for setting a brisk pace by demonstrating how public schools can use mobile PC technology to increase student learning.
And thanks, community tax payers, for supporting and encouraging this bold move to provide contemporary schooling practices for your young people.
Thanks, Rob, for reminding me of your program! Let us know of your progress. Many of us are interested.
Rob said in an email, Our teachers began using tablet PCs 4 years ago, and it has evolved into a District-wide initiative where over 250 teachers use tablet PCs each day in conjunction with a wireless projector and wireless connectivity. It has had an amazing effect on the integration of technology into instruction and has improved teaching and learning outcomes across our classes. In fact, Purdue University Press just published the findings of one of our research studies in a book called Beyond the Tipping Point which illustrates the implementation of pen technologies in education.
As a Tablet PC Cohort teacher said about using a tablet in the classroom, “This has been the most fun and exciting [time] of my teaching career -- after 14 years, that's saying a lot” (title page).
And that's just the beginning of useful information in this research report.
The Academy appears to address important points for teachers wanting to use Tablet PCs and other mobile PCs in classrooms:
�� Learn practical applications for tablet PC integration in your classrooms
�� Use the tablet to increase student engagement
�� Practice productivity tips
�� Share knowledge with colleagues
�� Collaborate with other professionals
�� Understand how to plan a successful tablet PC program
Kudos, Rob, your IT team, and school personnel from Board of Education, administrators, and instruction and support staff for setting a brisk pace by demonstrating how public schools can use mobile PC technology to increase student learning.
And thanks, community tax payers, for supporting and encouraging this bold move to provide contemporary schooling practices for your young people.
Thanks, Rob, for reminding me of your program! Let us know of your progress. Many of us are interested.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Call for Fordham Scholar Grants
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is launching a new grant program called Fordham Scholars.
(The program) ... aims to fund junior researchers working on key issues in American K-12 education.
The foundation will award three to five grants ranging from $15,000 to $25,000 each year.
Advanced doctoral students and junior faculty members--especially those in economics, law, political science, and public policy--are invited to apply for these grants.
This year's theme: The Courts and K-12 Education. Successful projects will examine how the courts (state, federal, etc.) may affect the ability of educators, policymakers, and entrepreneurs to foster stronger pupil achievement; greater choices for families; more efficient school operations; promising innovations in curriculum, instruction, school organization and, leadership; and sound, workable accountability mechanisms.
Under the topic of "School finance litigation and its effect on sound budgetary practices," I wonder who might submit a proposal to examine the redeployment of budget items from, say, personnel (administrative?) lines, to Tablet PC, and other mobile PC equipment purchases and support in order to increase teaching-learning efficiency.
Or perhaps, under the topic "Special education litigation (and costs)," to analyze the extent to which special education funds may be used to purchase and maintain mobile PCs for special education students to complete successfully more regular curricula than now.
Application deadline: February 15, 2008.
Thanks, Mark Walsh, for the tip.
(The program) ... aims to fund junior researchers working on key issues in American K-12 education.
The foundation will award three to five grants ranging from $15,000 to $25,000 each year.
Advanced doctoral students and junior faculty members--especially those in economics, law, political science, and public policy--are invited to apply for these grants.
This year's theme: The Courts and K-12 Education. Successful projects will examine how the courts (state, federal, etc.) may affect the ability of educators, policymakers, and entrepreneurs to foster stronger pupil achievement; greater choices for families; more efficient school operations; promising innovations in curriculum, instruction, school organization and, leadership; and sound, workable accountability mechanisms.
Under the topic of "School finance litigation and its effect on sound budgetary practices," I wonder who might submit a proposal to examine the redeployment of budget items from, say, personnel (administrative?) lines, to Tablet PC, and other mobile PC equipment purchases and support in order to increase teaching-learning efficiency.
Or perhaps, under the topic "Special education litigation (and costs)," to analyze the extent to which special education funds may be used to purchase and maintain mobile PCs for special education students to complete successfully more regular curricula than now.
Application deadline: February 15, 2008.
Thanks, Mark Walsh, for the tip.
Family Holiday Mobiles
During the holidays, I counted the following mobile communication units in our house and cars. What a great time we had with them; yes, someone in the family owns one or more of each of them. As usual, owners ranged from age 14 up.
1 Kendle
2 HP TC 1100, one with XP, one with VISTA
1 Motion LE1700 Model T006
1 Toshiba Portege 400
1 Toshiba Portege M700
1 Lenovo x60
2 Gateways Convertables
2 iPhones
5 Zunes
1 Acer (still chucking along after 5 years)
1 XBox 360
3 Dance Revolution Mats
1 NBA basketball
1 racing program (forgot name, but it's good reaction time practice for me)
2 Project Gotham Racing wheels/pedals sets
Plus cameras, and the usual TVS and related appliances.
One or more of these was in use over 22 hours on most days we were together. What a great time for me to learn more about contemporary and recent electronic communication devices.
Then, promptly off to CES to check out more devices for use in almost any setting. It's clear, we ain't seen nothin' yet compared to what's coming. As Teachers in this emerging era of communications, we're among the most lucky people to have lived. I'm still trying to figure out how to keep up with the back of the racing pack of early adopter youth who take electronic devices as their natural right to express themselves. :) Now, let's also figure out how to share that "right" with people who do not yet use such devices.
1 Kendle
2 HP TC 1100, one with XP, one with VISTA
1 Motion LE1700 Model T006
1 Toshiba Portege 400
1 Toshiba Portege M700
1 Lenovo x60
2 Gateways Convertables
2 iPhones
5 Zunes
1 Acer (still chucking along after 5 years)
1 XBox 360
3 Dance Revolution Mats
1 NBA basketball
1 racing program (forgot name, but it's good reaction time practice for me)
2 Project Gotham Racing wheels/pedals sets
Plus cameras, and the usual TVS and related appliances.
One or more of these was in use over 22 hours on most days we were together. What a great time for me to learn more about contemporary and recent electronic communication devices.
Then, promptly off to CES to check out more devices for use in almost any setting. It's clear, we ain't seen nothin' yet compared to what's coming. As Teachers in this emerging era of communications, we're among the most lucky people to have lived. I'm still trying to figure out how to keep up with the back of the racing pack of early adopter youth who take electronic devices as their natural right to express themselves. :) Now, let's also figure out how to share that "right" with people who do not yet use such devices.
Empower Each Child to Take Responsibility
Learner-centred teaching and use of interactive materials
and processes empower each child to take responsibility
for his/her learning and to become an autonomous but
active partner in the learning process. Enhancing learning
through such an approach has to be viewed from a rights based
perspective, and not merely from an instrumentalist
angle.
Ndong-Jatta, A. T. (2007). Enhancing Learning: From Access to Success - Report of the first experts’ meeting: Defining areas of action, Paris: UNESCO, p. 15.
I remember checking this report when UNESCO first released it in March. Someone sent me another useful quote from it earlier today. Thanks, rr, for the reminder.
and processes empower each child to take responsibility
for his/her learning and to become an autonomous but
active partner in the learning process. Enhancing learning
through such an approach has to be viewed from a rights based
perspective, and not merely from an instrumentalist
angle.
Ndong-Jatta, A. T. (2007). Enhancing Learning: From Access to Success - Report of the first experts’ meeting: Defining areas of action, Paris: UNESCO, p. 15.
I remember checking this report when UNESCO first released it in March. Someone sent me another useful quote from it earlier today. Thanks, rr, for the reminder.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
If Education Was Invented Today
If education was invented today, it would likely debut at an international consumer electronics show, perhaps like ones held annually in Las Vegas, Europe, and Asia. Hundreds of thousands of people attend each, ranging from high profile corporate executives, corporate buyers, inventors, voluntary and government sector representatives, and curious local citizens. A press release announcing the invention of education might read like this:
FOR RELEASE
AnyLearn Offers New Access to Original Content for Direct Learning
Las Vegas, NV, January 12, 2008 - OpenLearning, Inc. (OLI), PanTechnology International, Inc., (PTI), and WiseTravel, Inc. (WTI) announced their new cooperative venture, AnyLearn, today on the first day of the Global Electronics Show.
Speaking at a joint press conference following a demonstration of AnyLearn, Randolph Reads, president of OLI, identified innovation, technology, choice, and learner services as the four primary elements that drive education.
PanTechnology president Akura said he believes that AnyLearn introduces the end of an era for large semi-static groupings of learners assembling in specified geographical and architectural settings to dominate formal learning. AnyLearn offers a new generation of two-way mobile electronic platforms (2MEPs) that permit ubiquitous direct learning from primary sources about any topic, anytime, from anywhere to any criterion each learner chooses on demand.
Ima Traveler, president of WTI, said that AnyLearn serves as a launch pad to converge mobile personal computers (PCs) with television and other communication and data management products underdevelopment. This convergence allows a personalized experience for each learner. It links quickly and easily to original learning content available over the Internet and on television, DVDs, as well as in theaters.
Traveler’s appearance at the show offers further evidence of the convergence of learning with other aspects of daily life. “Learning,” she said, “is simple today because of the highly sophisticated consumer electronics used to make original content available on demand directly to anyone, any time, and in any place.”
A learner, whether enrolled in a school program or seeking information for other reasons, may download a 120 minute lesson in two minutes, including videos, charts, tables, and other data. For the first time, the platform allows each learner to find, watch, and manage original learning content in one place with one device, whether in school, at home, at an employment, and while traveling.
U.S. Department of Learning Secretary Harold Wildo led these presidents in a 20 minute question and answer session before reporters. Answers highlighted the importance of increasing public access to original content for direct learning and use of electronic procedures to guide and assess individuals’ successes with open learning. They also addressed other hot-button issues.
These presidents agreed that they plan to offer open access to original content, and to underwrite direct access to AnyLearn to children according to their learning needs.
They see AnyLearn as a supplement to other learning venues, including schooling. They also acknowledge that, with AnyLearn, an increasing percentage of children will accelerate their learning rates quickly beyond even the most academically gifted school students today.
These presidents also agreed that AnyLearn provides a way for adults to upgrade their learning to keep up with children’s learning in an economically friendly way.
For the latest information about AnyLearn, watch this website.
x X x
(All names and references are fictionalized.)
I wonder if anyone would take notice of such an announcement, because most of what’s described in this press release appears possible now or in the near future (according to electronic developers’ roadmaps)? Would news media cite it?
I’ll bet there are more parts of this vision of education in place now than I can find online. Will you tell us, Teach, what parts of this vision you are bringing to your students?
FOR RELEASE
AnyLearn Offers New Access to Original Content for Direct Learning
Las Vegas, NV, January 12, 2008 - OpenLearning, Inc. (OLI), PanTechnology International, Inc., (PTI), and WiseTravel, Inc. (WTI) announced their new cooperative venture, AnyLearn, today on the first day of the Global Electronics Show.
Speaking at a joint press conference following a demonstration of AnyLearn, Randolph Reads, president of OLI, identified innovation, technology, choice, and learner services as the four primary elements that drive education.
PanTechnology president Akura said he believes that AnyLearn introduces the end of an era for large semi-static groupings of learners assembling in specified geographical and architectural settings to dominate formal learning. AnyLearn offers a new generation of two-way mobile electronic platforms (2MEPs) that permit ubiquitous direct learning from primary sources about any topic, anytime, from anywhere to any criterion each learner chooses on demand.
Ima Traveler, president of WTI, said that AnyLearn serves as a launch pad to converge mobile personal computers (PCs) with television and other communication and data management products underdevelopment. This convergence allows a personalized experience for each learner. It links quickly and easily to original learning content available over the Internet and on television, DVDs, as well as in theaters.
Traveler’s appearance at the show offers further evidence of the convergence of learning with other aspects of daily life. “Learning,” she said, “is simple today because of the highly sophisticated consumer electronics used to make original content available on demand directly to anyone, any time, and in any place.”
A learner, whether enrolled in a school program or seeking information for other reasons, may download a 120 minute lesson in two minutes, including videos, charts, tables, and other data. For the first time, the platform allows each learner to find, watch, and manage original learning content in one place with one device, whether in school, at home, at an employment, and while traveling.
U.S. Department of Learning Secretary Harold Wildo led these presidents in a 20 minute question and answer session before reporters. Answers highlighted the importance of increasing public access to original content for direct learning and use of electronic procedures to guide and assess individuals’ successes with open learning. They also addressed other hot-button issues.
These presidents agreed that they plan to offer open access to original content, and to underwrite direct access to AnyLearn to children according to their learning needs.
They see AnyLearn as a supplement to other learning venues, including schooling. They also acknowledge that, with AnyLearn, an increasing percentage of children will accelerate their learning rates quickly beyond even the most academically gifted school students today.
These presidents also agreed that AnyLearn provides a way for adults to upgrade their learning to keep up with children’s learning in an economically friendly way.
For the latest information about AnyLearn, watch this website.
x X x
(All names and references are fictionalized.)
I wonder if anyone would take notice of such an announcement, because most of what’s described in this press release appears possible now or in the near future (according to electronic developers’ roadmaps)? Would news media cite it?
I’ll bet there are more parts of this vision of education in place now than I can find online. Will you tell us, Teach, what parts of this vision you are bringing to your students?
Monday, January 07, 2008
CES Mobile PC Gathering
I hope to see more educators at the Fifth (?) Annual CES Tablet/UMPC/mobile PC Gathering tomorrow. Let Lora know promptly, if you plan to attend, and if you haven't done so already. Tell her that Bob encouraged you to attend; I don't think it will hurt you.
It's a great time to meet other educators who use mobile PCs in classrooms daily, as well as to talk with education software developers and hardware designers. Yes, manufacturers will also be present to accept your praises and listen to your suggestions of how their machines might work better with your students.
It's a great time to meet other educators who use mobile PCs in classrooms daily, as well as to talk with education software developers and hardware designers. Yes, manufacturers will also be present to accept your praises and listen to your suggestions of how their machines might work better with your students.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
What Ever Happened to the Faculty? Drift and Decision ...
I'm catching up, finally, with some posts that sat too long on hold. I hope you findd them as useful as I have for sharpening my thinking about learning, science, and schooling.
John Staddon offers an interesting critique that I missed about Mary Borgan's book What Ever Happened to the Faculty? Drift and Decision in Higher Education.
Burgan ... thinks that the faculty in American universities are too passive and exert too small a voice in university governance. She argues her point, somewhat digressively, in nine chapters, covering a wide variety of higher education topics. ...(
she) takes a few gentle pot-shots at the lowing herds of educational theorists grazing the aca-demic plains -- people who say things like “We won’t meet the needs for more and better higher education until professors become designers of learning experiences and not teachers” (“design-ers of learning experiences”?!). She deplores the flight from teaching ... She cites favorably Steven Pinker, another Harvard psychologist, noted pub-lic intellectual and critic of the fad of “constructivist” education.
I find Stoddon's contrasting points about (higher, and therefore lower levels of education, if you accept the trickle down view of information transmission through schools) education refreshingly consistent with many, if not most, top drawer scholars and scientists.
Professor Burgan writes as if all universities and colleges in the U.S. are much the same, have similar problems, and need to be governed in much the same way. They are not and can not. There are light-years of difference between elite research universities like Harvard, Duke, MIT and UNC-CH, and urban part-time-ed institutions like Adelphi and the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as the numerous small and often sectarian colleges like Wofford, Sweet Briar, and Hollins. The “HBCUs” (historically black colleges and universities) represent another category with its own unique characteristics.
While such points contrast with now popular schooling practices, he elaborates what he considers an incomplete analysis of education by Burgan, a highly respected educator.
Hmm. I may come back to this later. Happy reading!
John Staddon offers an interesting critique that I missed about Mary Borgan's book What Ever Happened to the Faculty? Drift and Decision in Higher Education.
Burgan ... thinks that the faculty in American universities are too passive and exert too small a voice in university governance. She argues her point, somewhat digressively, in nine chapters, covering a wide variety of higher education topics. ...(
she) takes a few gentle pot-shots at the lowing herds of educational theorists grazing the aca-demic plains -- people who say things like “We won’t meet the needs for more and better higher education until professors become designers of learning experiences and not teachers” (“design-ers of learning experiences”?!). She deplores the flight from teaching ... She cites favorably Steven Pinker, another Harvard psychologist, noted pub-lic intellectual and critic of the fad of “constructivist” education.
I find Stoddon's contrasting points about (higher, and therefore lower levels of education, if you accept the trickle down view of information transmission through schools) education refreshingly consistent with many, if not most, top drawer scholars and scientists.
Professor Burgan writes as if all universities and colleges in the U.S. are much the same, have similar problems, and need to be governed in much the same way. They are not and can not. There are light-years of difference between elite research universities like Harvard, Duke, MIT and UNC-CH, and urban part-time-ed institutions like Adelphi and the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as the numerous small and often sectarian colleges like Wofford, Sweet Briar, and Hollins. The “HBCUs” (historically black colleges and universities) represent another category with its own unique characteristics.
While such points contrast with now popular schooling practices, he elaborates what he considers an incomplete analysis of education by Burgan, a highly respected educator.
Hmm. I may come back to this later. Happy reading!
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