Technology in Schools...

Thoughts?

Blog change

We've moved to a new blog! Here's the address:

http://bbatechresearch.blogspot.com

Please make note because we'll be eliminating this one soon. Thanks! AP

Porch thinkin' at days end

I've gotta say, carrying a phone, iPod, camera with a web browser and all these info aggregation tools has been a great ticket thus far. I'm capturing more spontaneous photos, accessing info on the fly, and automating some routine tasks. Take one event today as an example. A few days ago I installed an app called ReQall. I was standing in line for a coffee yesterday and called ReQall to experiment. I told ReQall to "send a (coworker) a note tomorrow asking when the new projectors are coming in." ReQall sent out the note the following am and I received a response from my coworker today with an answer. A digital secretary service. Sure, I could have sent the note myself but it's pretty convenient to call a service, have it transcribe your voice to text, decipher the command words in the note of "send" and "tomorrow" and have it actually do it! Thus far I've setup ReQall to add things to my Google calendar, send me text reminders, send email for me and remind me of tasks I have floating about. It's also free. Thus far, it's been a great experiment. There's a delay when you call ReQall, while it transcribes your voice but thus far a delay of 5 to as long as 30 minutes has not been a factor. Texting the service provides quicker results. The trick here is that it writes it to my calendar, sends me reminders via txt messages, etc all from spoken words or style (verbal or written) sentences. Going to run more experiments.

In the last week I've attempted to move from the computer more for my reading, email and writing. Thus far, the iPhone has fit the bill. With these new capabilities I've been reading more, jotting down notes in a variety of places and taking far more spontaneous photos I otherwise wouldn't shoot because I rarely dragged around a camera. I've been on the mobile version of facebook, tossing out some txts with friends I used to speak to once a month. Ideas are flowing, I'm storing info in places where I can access it later in a much more seamless fashion. Great stuff.

Just got a message from my dog while I'm typing this here on the phone while I sit on the porch (picture above). Something like "dude, put down the phone your using to post to the blog and let's crank some fetch." Ok, Otis. Let's boogie. Picture shot, cropped and dropped the blurbs on the phone in about two mins. More later. Time to play fetch. Good dog.

Diving back into the mobile connectivity world

It's been ages since I have carried a cell phone. While it's been a
nice break I'll say there are times when it's damned inconvenient. The
new iPhone packs a lot of integration features that can replace a
large portion of my information based desktop activity aka reading
blogs, quick emails, news, calendar tinkering etc. So... I dove back
in. Bit like eating ice cream I guess. If you don't follow that then
try having some ice cream (a large bowl definately helps) and give it
another think.

I've Been Thinking...

A good friend of mine uses the title "I've Been Thinking" as the title of one of his blogs... and it seems fitting for this post.

Here's what I had been reading before this last school break:

Two books:
Disrupting Class

Grown Up Digital

Going through regular blog updates by:

David Warlik, Seth Godin , Jeff Jarvis and Will Richardson

I read through the New Horizons Report and one from the Web Use Project.

All of these the titles and bloggers above are worth multiple entries here themselves. But that's what's got me thinking... about taking a break. These books, reports and bloggers continue to share a common theme in that education is moving altogether too slowly and so often in the wrong direction on the technology front. Collaboration, creation, exploration and advanced use are too infrequently in place. Technology in many school settings is limited to how many computers the school has and most of those are used for general access. While a word processor is certainly easier to use than a manual typewriter it does not explore the potential of the machine. Add in limited web research opportunities, to say nothing of collaboration opportunities. Too many collaboration tools are restricted from use. Too many signs that prohibit or severely limit the use of technology use are still visible. Lots of potential slipping by I think. A Vermont education / technology listserv at UVM discussions reflect the wide scope of themes and discussions and the thoughts of the participants on these subjects. 

It's not the first time my mind was buzzing and I was a bit frustrated with the same old debates on whether technology had a place in education, if students were too plugged in. So I took a theme that was running through the many of these blog posts on "what is education for" and decided to give it a good think on a trip I was taking to Disney in Orlando, Florida with family and friends for the break. A perfect time to unplug, separate from reading, take a ton of photos, get some sun and let my mind wander.

Here's a bit of what caught my eye.

It had been just over a year since I had been in an airport. Wireless access, plugin stations for power, laptop, cell phone, and pda use were, well, everywhere. I decided to sit back and just watch it all for a bit. Then I got the itch to talk to some folks about what they were doing. Here are a few quotes I jotted down.

"It's so much easier to stay in touch."

"If you don't collaborate, if you don't network in my business you're done."

"Ebooks, video and podcasts are how I educate myself now. I have access to everything I need and more ways than ever to find new things."

A lady I spoke with reading on a Kindle (the old version) tossed out a gem:

" It's hard to unplug sometimes. I get used to the connectivity, used to the stream of information coming in. I used to feel the same way with books though and in college. Learning how to manage it, how to separate from work is more important than ever. This is better for me now though. I can access what I want and it's easier for me to find information, to find something new."

Here was another beauty:

"Our company just got these blackberry's. For a bit honestly I was thinking it was time for me to get another job. Now that I'm getting used to it it's saving me a lot of time and I've been thinking more and more about how I work and keep in touch with people."

At Disney, cell phones and, as you'd expect, digital cameras were everywhere. I spoke to a few folks on how they used digital photos:

"I can capture everything I want. I used to be worried about the cost of taking photos. Not anymore."

"I snap everything I can now to capture our time together. My parents lost all our family albums in a fire. Almost 30 years later I lost all my photos to a failed hard drive. Now I back everything up and I'm snapping photos like crazy."

"We all have cameras, my three children, my wife. I decided to do this because my Father only appears in a handful of our old pictures because he was the one behind the camera all the time. I want my wife and kids to have photos of me too. It's also been great to see the world through the eyes of my children. Seeing what they feel is important is an eye opener. We take less formal pose pictures now and we're getting more shots of how we act, how we live."

I have relayed this theme to folks for many years. My own Father appears in about 20 photos in our family albums. This gent and I chatted for about 20 minutes on the subject and shared some ideas about how we talk to our own children about taking photos. I split use of a camera between two children to this point but plan on adding another so they can both take photos at the same time after this chat we had. We both seemed to agree in this conversation that folks in our generation and those earlier seemed to take a lot of photos of places we've been. Now these places and scenes are readily available on the web. I told this chap about the projects with SeaDragon and Photosynth , geo-tagging and the like and it led the conversation further down this path. Capturing family members in those scenes and the emotions, the nuances of our families and the people around us we agreed was easier than ever before. We also agreed that our children seemed to take to this shift naturally.

I took tons of photos, video clips and enjoyed the time away from reading on education, the sun and the change of scenery and close family time away from all our household lives. Disney is an interesting place. It's like stepping into my childhood imagination at times and one hell of a high quality theme park. It's also overrun with expense and commercialism. It's inevitable though to provide a scene of that high quality it seems. Walt Disney would have been a fascinating person to chat with while he was building the idea and beginning construction of it all. Selling that idea to investors had it's trials I'll bet. Perhaps it would provide insight into selling one-to-one computing locally and in the State. Walking around in t-shirts and shorts in the sun in the afternoon and returning home to shovel 10 inches of snow from the walkway sticks in my mind. Traveling the world is certainly something we should all do more of if we can.  

The time away also reinforced once again that we're on the right track here in the Lab. Diverse challenges, loads of debate and discussion on all these issues in education and the role and use of these technology tools will get us closer to seeing it's potential. Ditto for the continuing quest to fire up innovative programs.

The trip also got me thinking about how this blog is used for the Lab. More posting, more discussion and.. we'll see what else is on the horizon.

On the horizon: Great work with students this semester will happily consume much of my time. Baseball starts up soon and there my continuing quest to leave the realm of general manager and dedicate more time to coaching. Burlington High School is coming to see the inner workings of the Lab and our scope of courses at BBA in March. Various presentations on what we're doing here at conferences and at other schools, foundation work on a State laptop pilot, further discussion on the shift in education and opportunities at hand will take place. Foundation work to improve local fields and instructional programs will certainly take some time. Whipping up a great local baseball clinic, that's definitely needed and in the works. We'll continue to refine our Help Desk program and direct people onto the potential of a one-to-one computing program here and the countless opportunities it can present to students to take part in education and skills in the changing world. Exploring creativity, the world and your role in it. A fine goal for what education means I think.

One of the blogs read today just pointed me toward Yale University's entry into the OpenCourseWare movement.  Another point that giving folks access to technology and then modeling and promoting sophisticated use can lead down great paths.

... and Heath Ledger just won the best supporting actor award for his role as the Joker in the Dark Knight. Not to be bias as a Batman fan, but it's well deserved. The tragic death of a brilliant actor.

Lots to give a think. Lots of lobbying to do. Some good pizza will help I think.

Inauguration Day: January 20th, 2009

Opening a new semester on inauguration day presents pretty stellar opportunities for discussions. Introducing a new class takes a back seat to the scope of this day in the history of our country. I have many tales to tell from my college days, what this day means to me in history and hope to hear many from folks in the Lab here as well during our conversations. Each President seems to be measured historically to some extent by the motion of their first 100 days in office. Immeasurable challenges face our new President in this term and the motion and discussions I've heard thus far seem very promising. Here's hoping that party politics can be cast aside on some of these items and that the best solutions are sought out and implemented. It's a great moment in the history of our nation and of humanity.

Holiday Wishes...

Many moons ago I remember asking my Mother what what she'd wanted for Christmas and received an answer I didn't quite expect at the time.

"What I'd like" she said, " is to sit around a table with all those folks who are no longer with me. I miss their voices, their quirks. I miss the way they laughed. All that time I spent, going through the motions, the food, the wrapping, the gifts and how it all seemed stressful seems so foolish now. Too often, I guess I found myself wishing I could just get through the Holidays. I wish now that I spent more time talking to them about how they felt about Christmas, what their memories were, what did this day mean to them. I'd love to hear them tell some of the old stories. I often wonder how many of those stories I never heard at all. I guess I wished I'd spent more time talking to them about who they were and what they felt when I had the chance. Sitting around the dinner table with all those folks again, that's what I want for Christmas."

Happy Holidays, AP

BBA Help Desk Proposal Update

Our full proposal was reviewed and a "beta test" model is being considered for the Spring. Discussions will resume over how many students will participate as well as the manner to proceed on the proposed Lab and IT Office location shift. Here is a document that has the evolution of our summary proposal and detailed notes including assessment examples, structural notes and points of emphasis. Discussions will resume over the coming weeks.

Help Desk 2.0: Proposing a New Direction for Technology Training and Support on Campus

In the business world a technology support department typically services a similar group of users, hardware and a core group of applications. Workstations in the business environment are often locked down, only certain applications are allowed to run and strict policies govern user activity.

In education though, administration and some classrooms need business class information terminals while some others demand flexibility, the kind of access that allows creative exploration and use.

Further, traditional support structures rarely incorporate anything more than reactionary training initiatives on core support programs (grading, school databases, office applications). As a result most schools have no training programs, sporadic dog and pony shows, or very expensive models that involve IT integration specialists who most often are often not infrastructure literate and train users only on systematic approaches.

With all those variables, IT support departments in education typically structure themselves in a business model. This rigidity often results in stifled educational opportunities.

Education often focuses on training adults and expecting the results to trickle down to students. The cold, hard facts are that students are often more technically literate than adults. Rarely are students provided advanced access, a venue to interact or collaborate in training initiatives or participate in technical support beyond the traditional classroom setting. Incredible opportunities exist if we shift these traditional philosophies.

Building off two years of success with the IT Internship Program, we unrolled this new Help Desk Proposal this Fall. This new model has students and adults working to create a Help Desk for their peers... everyone on campus. Another step in putting the "personal" back in personal computing. Our final round of discussions on this new proposal continue this week. We'll post our detailed plan shortly.

Look "SEE"

"Stanford Engineering Everywhere" hit the web yesterday. Building on the OpenCourseWare (OCW) philosophy, "SEE" adds more instructor content, video and collaborative work into the free information mix. It's easy to get inspired when you see the quality of this content being given away. There are more resources available on OCW too if you are new... or old at it:

http://ocw.mit.edu

MIT has a lens for high schools too:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/home/home/index.htm

http://www.ocwconsortium.org



http://ocwfinder.com

Toss in OLPC, other one to one laptop initiatives and the evolving use and functions of cell phones (Google Android phones are due out soon and here's a post from them on "The Future of Mobile Phones")... gourmet stuff.

Creating opportunities and inspiring a passion for learning are as important as ever don't you think ?

Engage...

I finally sat down and read through Friedman's The World is Flat this summer. While I tend to agree with Gary Stager on this book, Friedman brings up many points about the changing landscapes that many may just not think about. Will Richardson posts some reviews and thoughts on the book as well (search his blog for "Friedman" too for evolution on his thinking). Those involved in this "new web" have seen these social, economic and educational landscapes changes for some time now. Of course, it's easy to criticize the book for what it doesn't do in offering solutions... but the book wasn't about solutions... and the book was written in '05. The book did however add even more reinforcement to me that we are on the right track here in the RLab. It's a quick read, a bit redundant, a bit sensationalized but well worth the time.

I am about to read Bernard Goldberg's book called Bias. I've been looking forward to reading this book for some time now and I think it'll fit in nicely with our discussions on media and the changing landscape of journalism. I miss Goldberg's regular reporting wit in the news and am happy to see him cast it into books. We'll see how it reads.

Gearing up for the coming school year:

20 new iMacs sit in the lab here, loaded up and ready to go. We just need to move the desks around after the carpets were cleaned. These computers bring new software and power to expand horizons and explore.

For those that didn't hear, the RLab proposal on Google Apps was accepted and will be implemented in the beginning of this school year. While the graduated "RLab Alumni" who worked on this proposal over the last two years won't see the results directly, their work helped forge a new and exciting path here at BBA. Returning Lab Alumni, and it looks like we have a lot coming back in this year, will get to put these new tools in motion along with everbody else here. Immediately the Google Apps program saves us money by reducing licensing, hardware and power costs to run our email system.The program also increases user storage, usability and ramps in integrated threads for calendaring, blogs and chat services along with immediately having more training materials available. Add in that it offers superior spam and virus protection filtering and also eliminates tape back storage and gets the data off site as well... well, that's just icing on an already fantastic cake.

To all the RLab alumni who are moving on to new adventures, my best to you in your new adventures and of course keep in touch. We'll miss you here and look forward to hearing what you're up to as you move forward. Stop in anytime or drop some notes when you can.

A little touch up painting to do... adding new music to the Lab server... and restocking the snacks... new ventures... new projects... new discussions...

Engage...

Keep Moving Forward...

"Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long.

We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing things, because we're curious...
and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."

Walt Disney

Thanks, Tim. I feel the same way.

From my friend Tim Comolli:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Today is a very sad day in our little world. It's been reported that Arthur C. Clarke, among the most influential visionaries in technology and a personal hero of Engadget readers and editors both, has died in hospital care at the age of 90. Along with his many written works (such as the infamous and immeasurably influential 2001: A Space Odyssey), Clarke was possibly best known for conceptualizing the geostationary communications satellite -- clearly one of the most important technological innovations in history.

Arthur, you'll be dearly missed.

44.6 Billion of Big Internet Business

Microsoft's bid for Yahoo! has generated some great discussions in class. Google Senior VP and CLO Dan Drummond wrote a pointed post on the Google Corporate blog recently raising questions about the potential merger. Is the acquisition simply to gain market share in internet revenue and r&d or could it mean something quite different. If Microsoft were to go the route of subscription based operating systems, charging users for the use of an operating system and chat services... would they succeed or plummet ? Only time will tell if Microsoft's bid will be successful, what their motives might be and also how Google and possibly the Federal Government will react to this move. Wait... this just came in... and this one too ; )

PBS Frontline: Growing Up Online

We queued up the PBS Frontline Documentary called 'Growing Up Online' that aired on January 22nd, 2008 and have been discussing it in the lab. You can view the show online at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline

The documentary stirs up many points on the subject and it's well worth a look... and a good chat.

Changing Landscape

Fred Vogelstein whipped up an article for Wired Magazine Online on how the iPhone changed the cellular business landscape. A good read! The iPhone and the Google 'Andriod' project have already brought sweeping changes to the industry. Just imagine what this will look like five years from now.

Things Are Cookin' and Happy Holidays Everyone

We've had one exciting semester thus far.

Discussions on the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) are underway at BBA. Our reports have generated discussions across campus on how technology is used as well as the current internet filtering practices. Meetings will resume in January '08.

Work on a new building is in high gear here at BBA that combines computer lab facilities, audio and video editing suites, sounds stage/s, a fabrication lab and some ecologically sound practices and monitoring systems. A facility like this brings incredible learning and collaboration opportunities.

Our 'laptop proposal' has gone on to the Business Office for some research on demographics and for some discussions with potential vendors on pricing, warranty and insurance options.

Our proposal on the Google for Domains program posted last April has really gained some momentum in discussions here at BBA and across the State.

All these discussions are cookin' on the Research Lab Wiki and this web site. More and more people will be contributing and we couldn't be more excited. Collaboration makes our ideas stronger.

May The Force be with you over the Holidays. Have fun, be nice and be well. See you in January. AP

Innovative Architecture

More innovation from Ted.com

William McDonough delivers a great speech that focuses on design and how it should focus on the principles of "All children, all species, for all time." Ecological sustainability and the design of new cities are on the horizon for McDonough and his design partners. Well worth a look.

Interesting Times

About a year ago Carl Fisch produced a video called '20/20 Vision' that looked into the future as if he were speaking to the graduating class in the year 2020.

Google hit the web today with a major press release which was summarized by a NY Times blog entry.

Interesting ?

The oncoming release / sale of the 700 megahertz spectrum and Google's announcement about about the Open Handset Alliance will change how wireless carriers conduct business and all related services and costs to consumers in the near future. Verizon dove into the fray today announcing "any apps, any device."

Interesting times indeed.

InfiniteThinking.org

Lucie deLaBruere wrote an article for InfiniteThinking that highlighted our proposal to switch over to Google for Domains here at BBA.

Rich Ortiz

Rich Ortiz showed us his stellar musicianship today as part of our Guest Lecture Series. Rich spoke to us about how he's created this great sound, his experiences, the music business and played some great originals and a few requests. Rich's unique act, sound, lyrical music and stage presence filled the room for a great show. Thanks so much to Rich for coming in. You can find more of Rich's music on his web site and by searching on iTunes. A great send off for a well deserved Thanksgiving break. Enjoy !

Guest Speaker Series Continues Nov 20th, 2007

Rich Ortiz, a vocalist and guitarist plays bass keyboard with his feet (no kidding) and records rhythms he taps out on his guitar using a digital looper. Rich blends all this together on the fly, building each song, becoming a 6-7 piece band - by himself. Rich will be talking to us about how he got started, how he incorporated these new tools into his act, all things that went right and wrong as he developed his business and then give us a concert. 1215-230pm in the Riley Center Theater.

Time Mags Inventions of the Year

TIME Magazines latest features the innovations of the year. Worth a look.

Along the lines of Robinson's speech from TED.com highlighted in a previous post, students entering high school today will be retiring in the year 2058 (assuming they retire at the age of 65). We really don't have a clue what the world will look like in 2058 do we ? We don't really have a clue what will be on this innovation list five years from now actually. Five years ago even, most all of the innovations in this years TIME Magazine offering were not thought possible. Just imagine what innovations will be out five years from now. With the increase of mobile devices, e-paper and the expansion of the web many newspapers will be all digital by then. Perhaps magazines will too.

Thought Provoking, Brilliant Presentations...

19 minutes and 23 seconds... and well worth it.

So...

Things are cookin' here in the lab. 57 projects are underway at this time. Five students over three classes are working on expanding the visual presentation on the BBA web site. New projects hit the lab this year in farming technology and searching out related related grants, snowboarding technologies and one study in theatrical lighting. We've wrapped in our studies of the OpenCourseWare initiatives and are gearing up for our chats on crafting presentations.

The challenge issued to the lab about 'what education could look like in the future' has sparked some stellar debate in class. As we look at alternative approaches, modern work environments and 'social networking,' ideas on the future of education will no doubt spring to life. One interesting thread surfaced about combining academic areas into one facility (new building!). MIT has been pulling previously separate offices / departments together for a bit now. By mixing the brain trust together new ideas are generating... the lines between previously separate disciplines are vanishing. Discussions on a fabrication shop that incorporated wood, metal, robotics and a new look at energy efficient vehicles ramped up. Hands on design work, testing and building. High-end computer and networking labs, art and design studios, television, independent film and animation as well. Incorporate solar energy, wind energy and related testing gear - integrate the systems into the building. Hydroponics throughout to thread in a more natural environment, air filtration and humidity control to the environment. Many new buildings out and about mix in high tech environments with a more natural approach. The NRG building in Hinesburg, VT is one such model that we'll look at.

On another forward thinking note: Our laptop proposal continues to gain momentum here at BBA. So many students have contributed to this project and it is rewarding to see so much thought provoking work drive forward.

Have a great weekend! AP

Class Project ?

A request has come in this morning asking if we'd consider making a video proposal and follow-up survey about what technology could /should look like in the future at school. Along the lines of the '20-20' video we watched, this fits in with our discussions as of late over OpenCourseWare, Web 2.0 and the listserv conversations we've discussed. Check out the details on the class wiki, dive in and share ideas.

Not Your Typical Company: RechargeIT RFP

News from: http://www.google.org/recharge/rfp/

"Google.org is committed to finding innovative transportation solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Earlier this summer, Google.org launched its RechargeIT Initiative to accelerate the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology through technical demonstrations, grant-making, advocacy and investments. As part of this initiative, we are issuing a $10 million request for investment proposals (RFP). We plan to invest amounts ranging from $500,000 to $2,000,000 in selected for-profit companies whose innovative approach, team and technologies will enable widespread commercialization of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicles and/or vehicle-to-grid solutions. This RFP is global in scope, and we encourage responses from companies anywhere in the world."

Touch Screen Innovation

iPod! Apple shook up the stage with a new line of iPods today. The long anticipated 'iPod touch' complete with wi-fi (browse the internet) was introduced. Offering up a 'classic' version with 160GB of storage for the same price they used to offer the 80GB model was a nice surprise too. Apple is carving out some amazing products. Stylish, innovative design. The Apple web site has more details on the whole launch.

The new touch screens by Apple are drawing a lot of attention. Here are two other products that use touch screen technology. We're on the brink of some major changes with the way we interact with the digital world. Just click on the pictures below to see a glimpse of what's on the horizon.

Lab Prep Underway

Posted the new web site today and made a few modifications. Likely will make some changes over the next few weeks, tweaking here and there. The new web site was built in DreamWeaver and Photoshop. We created a blog on blogger.com and syndicated it to FeedBurner which sports some new tools to include feeds in web pages (FeedBurner was recently bought by Google). Including the new feeds here into this web page with these tools was not difficult at all. Blogger also has some new features that allow users to sign up to the blog and have updates delivered via email. We'll be looking at the improvements to the mobile blogging technology more as the year goes on too.


2 Mac Pros Appear in the Lab:
Configured two Mac Pro workstations in the lab today that should help us out with video, sound and animation explorations. These stations are a lot more powerful than the previous models.

Fired up the old lab music server today. This station takes a licking but keep on ticking. These workstations were not only works of art but they keep running! We have a few more of these stations running in and around the lab still for our server tests, networking lab configurations other experiments.




.

Post test

Trying out the new FeedBurner gadgets to get this underway !