1-to-1 and Getting Work Done

Was in Los Angeles with a group of administrators/teachers at schools and colleges talking about 1-to-1, what's possible, what the research says, what the components for success are, logistics, caveats, hindsight from other schools, etc. Related this story but not in so much detail.

A neighbor of mine is in computers and during a neighborhood event started talking about what he did and asked what I did. When I talked about 1-to-1 initiatives in schools, and going to schools and districts to help them get started or move ahead, he laughed. Yes, laughed. Because he thought that giving laptops to kids was about the most ridiculous thing you could do with money. He felt kids would not take care of the computers, just use them for downloading music and games, and generally not be "serious."

I asked him about his computer use. Oh yes, he has a computer at home, actually more than one. Oh yes, he has a laptop. Yes, it goes with him everywhere. But he said, "I have work to do."

Don't children and teens have work to do also? Isn't this the era when there is so much information and expectation and accelerated programs in schools? Aren't we trying to compete in the global economy? Isn't there a proliferation of homework and projects and assignments and requirements for reports, presentations, research ... all work expected that our students accomplish on time and well and present or hand in? Why should their work have so much less value than my neighbor's work?

Intel Quits OLPC

Well, the Intel and OLPC partnership is over now - Intel quit this partnership over "philosophical differences" with Nicholas Negroponte. Could it be the child-centered nature of the OLPC, or the open architecture, or something else? Competition of different devices is cited by some articles, requiring only one device. My personal bias is I want more kids to have laptops, having seen the power and possibilities of self-directed learning when every child a laptop or tablet.

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.