The Tipping Point - Windows on XO

Yup. This is it in my humble opinion. The tipping point for XO - One Laptop Per Child. It's going to run on Windows now. OLPC also has a Board member on AALF as just announced (but not yet on the Web site.) So the business model now will make sense for real across the board, across multiple countries (read: US schools) ubiquitous use of One Laptop Per Child.

This is what we've been waiting for. We will likely see large increases in 1-to-1 implementations soon and not just using XO computers.

Map of Future Forces Affecting Education Preso

On November 17, I presented before officers of the NEA and members of the NCSEA for Knowledge Works about their Map of Future Forces Affecting Education - on the "HotSpot" of Deep Personalization - along with the dilemma of standards and standardization - and with the educational ideas of participatory pedagogy and personalized learning plans. Researching the preso was about the most engrossing educational fun in some time - considering this idea of how people express their strong opinions and "do-it-yourself" motivation in ways that eschew traditional institutions, including education. Web 2.0 provides one means for this deep personalization, but by far not the only one - bumper stickers, tatoos, and lots more provide ways to express personal feelings and opinions as well. Through lots of use of Jing Project we looked at Harry Potter Fan Fiction, Voice Threads, uStream TV, and local newspapers with active "Comments" sections. With written permission of Buns and Chou-Chou (signed "hugs") from Rabbit Bites, we watched their interview of Andrew Keen author of "Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture" and grappled with what deep personalization in our society means to our classrooms and our roles as teachers and our own learning. We considered some schools offering project-based student-centered learning including Florida Virtual High School, Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy, and Minnesota's Harborside International School.

Now I wish I could say this paragraph is how we came to solid consensus and conclusions, and were able to find the balance between deep personalization and standardization, but of course we would have had to spend considerably more than a day on this discussion. However, it was affirming to see this many educators willing to roll up their sleeves and consider ideas that are expected to have a profund impact on teaching and learning.

1-to-1 Resources

Posting resources that will be shared during a laptop roundtable this week, 10/26, at Tech Forum in Palisades, NY:

1-to-1 SIG and Wiki for ISTE members
http://sig1to1.iste.wikispaces.net/

Anytime, Anywhere Learning Foundation
http://www.aalf.org

Chris Smith of Shambles.net compiles 1-to-1 links:
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/1to1laptop/

Dr. Mike Muir’s 1-to-1 Laptop Learning Advocate
http://www.mcmel.org/MLLS/1to1PR/index.html

K12 Computing Blueprint – Resources for One-to-One
http://www.k12blueprint.com/k12/blueprint/index.php

Maine Learns – Maine’s online learning community
http://www.mainelearns.org

One-to-One Information Services – includes case studies
http://www.k12one2one.org/

Penn State’s Center for One-to-One Computing in Education:
http://1to1.ed.psu.edu/

Technology & Learning – The One-to-One Tsunami
http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604373

The Irving Independent School District site on 1-to-1
http://www.irvingisd.net/one2one/documents.htm

The Lausanne Laptop Institute – A yearly 1-to-1 conference:
http://www.laptopinstitute.com

Dr. Mike Muir on Laptops and Test Scores

Dr. Mike Muir posts an excellent article for ISTE on laptops and test scores for the new ISTE 1-to-1 SIG that formed as of this past NECC. Dr. Muir has a terrific blog, was one of the architect's of Maine's program, has added a great body of work and resources to 1-to-1 and happens to be a really nice person as well.

Basically what Mike says is that improving test scores is all about great teaching and that placing laptops into a classroom without understanding this will make no impact at all.

He's so right.

K12 Online Conference - David Warlick's Keynote

Listened to David Warlick's keynote for the K12 Online Conference earlier today. First off, I just have to say that David Warlick has to be one of the nicest people you will ever meet and talk to, which is all the more remarkable when you realize he is in the business of challenging educators. This keynote gave yet another example of how he makes ideas accessible and real while gently prodding and challenging us all.

Many analogies made sense for me from his keynote - the first thing being the idea that if there are no boundaries and therefore no walls, where do we get traction? How do we orient ourselves? He talked about how he isn't entirely comfortable with speaking to a video camera sans a live audience and how he misses the "furrows in foreheads" and other feedback when giving a presentation. If we have no walls and no boundaries how do we know where we are, where we're starting from, where we're going?

He talked about the Orson Scott Card book "Ender's Game" (which I love - I read it as an assignment in grad school) and how Ender's soldiers learned to work within the constraints of no real walls or boundaries, and even used the other soldiers who had been rendered unable to move, as traction. (Note: a fascinating aspect of this book not mentioned by David is how Ender and his sister become these agents of change in society, using the Internet-like communication described in the book to influence politics. They were pre-bloggers!)

He also said his was the last generation to look at their own fathers and see their future careers and in a touching evocative way described how his dad would shave and put on his white shirt and tie his tie every morning and go to work. David instead works at Starbucks, or in his basement office or on airplanes or at schools and corporations all over the world. He said we educators are preparing our students for a future we cannot describe, because the world of work is now so different.

The idea of networks and how students and young adults use their networks is another fascinating discussion he touched upon. How when he and his wife were at college on his son's first day there, that he continually kept checking his cell phone, sometimes closing it, sometimes texting something - to his friends all over the country who also were just starting college. When David went to college he said goodbye to his friends, some of whom he never saw again. His son didn't say goodbye - he took his friends along with him. (Note: I keep thinking - who's in our networks - how are we connecting - Twitter and listservs and social networks keep me rooted and allow me to ask amazing people questions and they ... answer! Teachers, of all people, need rich networks because the nature of the classroom can be isolating.)

So these adolescents and young adults are creating their networks full of tenacles and they come to school - and school chops off the tenacles. He said it's because we want the students to be who and what we want them to be, and don't accept who they really are. Whoa on that one, and wow and other things. I keep thinking of how we were told to "chunk" information - but that I found a lot of kids don't want the chunks, they want the whole thing. Tenacles cut off. I am still thinking about that one.

David also talked about how students and adults are creating material and publishing it directly from the author, sans editor or librarian. How then to create our own personal digital libraries.

Information overload was another topic - how information is competing for our attention - and what does it mean to be literate today? How to shape and reshape information? How to safely make mistakes?

He said one of the most important things we have to teach our students is how to teach themselves.

It would seem we need to model that and show them how we are teaching ourselves as well.

This Thing Called Twitter

I just realized that my last blog post was September 22 and today is October 4! This was not the plan I'd had after speaking with David Warlick this summer when he talked about how important and vital blogging was to him - and after speaking with Will Richardson recently when he said his blog posts come out of reading or thinking about something and are intentionally "thin" because there's always more to add and that's how blogging should be.

But I haven't blogged since September 22. Why? I feel like I've been blogging and keeping up with things and thinking about issues and participating and writing and ruminating.

It's the little Twitter that's making me think that.

Because now Twitter is becoming how I keep up and converse and it's more of a conversation, albeit it a disjointed cocktail party conversation, than my blog has been and more than posting on other blogs has been. More than an RSS feed. More than a PageFlakes page.

I've got Twitterific always in my back pocket - or in the lower right hand corner of my screen.

And I follow some people and a few people follow me.

And I find out about things like the live Weblogg ED-TV sessions Will Richardson, Steve Dembo and David Jakes conducted last night from a bar in Chicago before the Cubs game.

Or that Andy Carvin is on NPR in San Francisco - right about now.

And the latest news from the K12-Online Conference fed right to my screen. Realtime. Short, sweet, to the point, tweets from the twitterati world.

So I'm really enjoying this crazy little thing called Twitter.

NJECC - 1-to-1 Assessment and Pre-Assessment

Part 1: NJECC meeting

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking to NJ tech directors from NJECC at Montclair University's beautiful campus (see photo of this room) and also saw my friend Dr. Donna DeGennaro, a talented professor at Montclair who wrote Chapter 8 of my book.

The topic was 1-to-1 and the discussion was lively and challenging.  Trevor Shaw of Dwight-Englewood School (year 3 of their tablet PC program just beginning) kindly came to participate as a panelist and administrators from Springfield provided panelist expertise and advice as they are also in their third year.

Here are some ideas from that discussion.  One question came up about budget - how can a school district afford one-to-one?  We all agreed that the answer is varied and depends on the school or district.  Some have parents pay for all or part of the hardware, some use bond money, some reconsider how their budget is spent (e.g., not replacing desktops anymore but using the money for laptops.)  At The Urban School in San Francisco, selling parents on 1-to-1 was part of the approach at this independent 9-12 school, so they polled parents to see who was planning to either purchase a new computer or dedicate a computer just for their high schooler and nearly 90% said they were.  Urban offered to purchase the computer instead of the parents, put educational software on the computer, fix it, have loaners, and have it used in the classroom. As so many parents now consider a computer an essential part of their child's education, the program was a go.  

Another important discussion was about leadership.  It was obvious Springfield has solid leadership and commitment as does Dwight-Englewood.  We agreed that having both a principal/school head and tech director onboard are vital to successfully starting and continuing a program.  

One question was - what if the tech director is onboard but other leadership isn't?  Some said not to move ahead, but a few of us suggested starting with carts or with a pilot program to demonstrate what's possible.  An element here to consider is that the students are continually moving on to the next phase of their education or to their careers - and not preparing them with 21st Century learning skills hampers their success.

One agreed theme for success - 1-to-1 needs to be systemic and part of learning/pedagogy/curriculum and not just an isolated technology initiative.

Part 2. - Assessment and Pre-Assessment

The NJECC meeting discussions and several recent requests from schools have me thinking more deeply about assessment of existing 1-to-1 programs and pre-assessment for schools considering 1-to-1.  

While there are a number of components to evaluate before starting 1-to-1 including infrastructure (can the network handle 1-to-1), logistics (cases, transportation, insurance, repairs, loaners) and support issues (internal or external people to troubleshoot and repair), there are important philosophical elements that don't respond to the same "list-making" approach and require delving into mission, school culture, and the school's prevailing instructional model.  

If most teachers at a school or district are the center of the classroom most of the time and aren't comfortable with morphing from teacher to learner,  aren't sometimes the coach and facilitator, and don't walk around while children work independently or in groups, 1-to-1 won't achieve deep learning goals.  This doesn't preclude the necessity for some whole class activity and times when laptop lids or tablet pens are down.  It just means a different dynamic is operational when every child has his or her own powerful digital learning assistant.  The question becomes - can enough educators shift to embrace the potential benefits.