Going Mobile

New location, please update your links

Hello, We have a new blog location and look forward to seeing you there. Please go to http://www.districtadministration.com/blogs/elliotandcathie to read and comment on our latest blogs.

Thank you,

Cathie and Elliot

The Khan Academy: I told you so – teaching is easy!

Elliot: Did you read the article about the Khan Academy in Wired Magazine?
Cathie: Yes; about a thousand colleagues sent me the link!
Elliot: The Khan academy has clearly touched a nerve.
Cathie: Yes, and it worth analyzing why.
Elliot: I think first and foremost Khan is appealing to deeply-rooted belief in America that teaching is actually easy ….
Cathie: … and as one placard at a rally in Wisconsin said: “You are glorified baby sitters who leave work at 3 p.m. You deserve minimum wage.”
Elliot: The Khan Academy clearly demonstrates that all one has to do is put out a bunch of engaging videos and bingo kids will watch them and learn. See, teaching is a snap; I told you so.
Cathie: The Wired article reports on two schools – Santa Rita Elementary and Egan Junior High, both in Los Altos, CA – that are successfully using the Khan Academy videos.
Elliot: Yes and the free & reduced lunch rate in each of these schools is 4%. On the webpage with that info, if you hit the button “show homes in the area around the school” you will see homes that range in price from $900,000 to $4,000,000.
Cathie:  Santa Rita Elementary is a “California Distinguished School” and has been designated as a “National Blue Ribbon School.” These schools are not your typical schools; these schools are not the troubled schools that one reads about.
Elliot: Using these already successful schools – and communities with parents who care deeply about education for their children to illustrate the value of the Khan Academy is a huge mistake. But apparently, Clive Thompson, the article’s author and the editorial staff of Wired Magazine can’t see the mistake.
Cathie: Showing that an innovation…
Elliot: … Khan Academy is not an innovation…
Cathie: … relax, relax… showing that an innovation works in a district like Los Altos illustrates how little the author and Wired editors understand education and the challenges facing America’s school system.
Elliot: Whatever ever happened to SBR – scientifically-based research? Remember how vociferously George W’s administration argued that education was riddled with bad research – “research” of the sort described in the Wired article.
Cathie:  Picky, Picky, Picky! John Doer, ace venture capitalist and Bill Gates, ace everything support the Khan Academy – that’s all the “research” that is needed to tie down millions of grant dollars. Who needs SBR when we have the word of John and Bill.
Elliot: And don’t forget John’s wife, Ann; she supports the Khan Academy, too.
Cathie: I stand corrected; thank you.
Elliot: The Wired article talked about how the Khan Academy with its video archive is “flipping” school – instead of the teacher lecturing during class, the kids watch the lecture (aka Khan videos) at home. Having the students watch the videos at home frees up teachers during class to work one-on-one with students who are having problems.
Cathie: How many kids in Detroit, Houston, New York City, etc., etc., do homework? How many will voluntarily listen to lectures – video or otherwise – at home, after school?
Elliot:  Since approximately  49%  of urban kids don’t have an internet computer at home, for starters, we are losing at least half the potential watchers.
Cathie: And for the half that have an internet-connected computer, what percentage will choose to watch a video on long division over a music video – at home???
Elliot: Well, the model works well in Los Altos schools!
Cathie: But Los Altos schools already have a successful educational model. What value added is Khan?
Elliot: Wired didn’t ask that question. Wired was just happy to give America some good news about education. And what a great story: Here is one young person, turning his back on making (more) money on the stock market and devoting his life to helping people of all ages learn. WOW!
Cathie: And by implication…
Elliot: …. With a few more Khan’s and a few more Khan Academies, we can dump the bad, overpaid teachers, and lickety-split, we can fix America’s schools.
Cathie: Absolutely! Education is really easy; just show the kids some videos, have them practice over and over – and over and over again with free software and America’s educational crisis is no more.
Elliot: BLECH!! Articles – such as the Wired one - that fawn over educational non-innovations serve only to distract us from the real problems and challenges in America’s schools…

Schools Need to Start Where the Students Are: Schools Need to Start with Mobile Technologies

Elliot: There must be something in the water; how else can we explain the sudden growth in mobile learning “events”?  For starters,  within a span of a few days, two other bloggers(Blog#1, Blog#2) have pointed out the coming “revolution” in K-12 due to mobile technologies. Why now?  WHY ALL OF A SUDDEN?
Cathie: Well, it means we are truly moving headlong into the Age of Mobilism.
Elliot: And eSchool News proclaimed mobile was at the tipping point last year.
Cathie: Right, but you need to be careful. Who said the “revolution in K-12 was due to mobile technologies”?  It is the word “due” that is going to give folks heartburn.
Elliot <with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes>: You don’t miss a beat, do ya?! I know, I said that on purpose. HA HA HA!!!
Cathie: It is interesting: While our friend and colleague Chris Dede is quoted as saying “devices are catalysts…the device never produces learning” and a school principal is quoted as saying "The answer is not necessarily technology," you are saying something stronger.
Elliot: Chris and the principal are technically correct.
Cathie: Here comes the but…
Elliot <beaming a triumphant smile>: … but, it all STARTS with the technology!
Cathie <eyes narrowing slightly; thinking cap clearly working overtime>: You are on thin ice, Dr. S; that’s what we hear from the folks who say: let’s buy a cart of iPads and see what happens.
Elliot <exasperated pout appears>: Ohhhh… what I mean…
Cathie: Yes, please be clear, this is really important; we have to get this right!
Elliot:  We need to start where the kids are and the kids are “mobilists par excellence” – they are the quintessential users of mobile technologies, 24/7. Julie Evans, in a Project Tomorrow report about mobile phone use amongst America’s youth, included this kid quote: “Let me use my own tools & devices.”
Cathie: Ah, so what you mean is: Schools need to start with using the tools that the youth they serve want to use – their mobile technologies.
Elliot <a sigh of relief> YES, YES. It starts with the kids’ technology; that’s what I mean…
Cathie: … but what you’ve not been saying. That’s still quite a radical claim:  Schools typically start with curriculum – that which they need to teach.
Elliot: Yes, schools in 2011 start with the curriculum which was established in 1892 by Harvard College’s Committee of Ten—ten people decided it all!!
Cathie <concern for her colleague’s well-being clearly visible>: … blood pressure, blood pressure …
Elliot: … and they called for a didactic, memorization oriented pedagogy. How can we wonder why today’s youth find school irrelevant and boring!
Cathie: But, if we start with their mobile technology-based tools and the inquiry-oriented pedagogy that all manner of organizations are calling for…
Elliot: … yes, THEN we have a shift from “I teach” to “We learn.” But the technology is absolutely necessary to making that transformation work. With a device in their hands, 24/7, students have their own, direct, personal access to information, people, events; their access no longer needs to be mediated by a textbook or a teacher.
Cathie: Yes, Chris describes technology’s role as “…devices are catalysts…”.
Elliot: But saying it that way puts the mobile technology in the background; I want to put it in the foreground!
Cathie: Remember the goal Elliot: the goal is to have schools adopt mobile technologies; thus, we need to say it in a way they can hear it – and not run for the barricades as noted in one of the blogs: “Some teachers worry that … students will spend their time texting or playing games or… ”
Elliot: <finally breathing regularly>: You are right. But just this once!
Cathie: <smiling beatifically; relieved that the Big Guy didn’t pop his cork>: Yes, just this once….
Elliot: Yes, the goal is to help classrooms shift from “I teach” to “We learn” and if we have to put the mobile technology in the background so folks can hear us…
Cathie: Mobile technologies are catalysts; but unlike chemical catalysts, mobile technologies are not consumed in the process; no, they continue to play their catalytic role all the time, everywhere.
Elliot: <pale face if you can imagine that; drained of all adrenalin>: Ok, let’s write an article in a way the Bifocal Generation can hear it; deal!
Cathie:  Deal!

Korea Goes Mobile Learning in 2015 – As We Predicted! (Sort of)

Elliot: Someone in Korea has been reading our District Administration column!
Cathie: How do you know that?
Elliot: Well, Korea just announced that they will provide a mobile learning device for each child by 2015 and they will require all educational materials to be in digital form and thus accessible on the MLDs.
Cathie: Yes, we did predict that by 2015 every child in the U.S. would be using an MLD…
Elliot: And Korea scooped us!
Cathie: Hmm.. It appears that Korea has been experimenting with mobile learning devices since 2000, in fact.
Elliot: And, it isn’t clear what device will be selected – it appears that Korea is leaning towards a tablet-sized device.
Cathie: Well, then, Korea hasn’t been reading all our prognostications and analyses since we have consistently come out in favor of smarthphone-sized devices since those devices are truly portable – not “carry alongs.”
Elliot: By using the cameras and audio recording capabilities in their MLDs, students can easily link abstract ideas from the classroom to concrete objects in their everyday world outside the classroom.
Cathie: Remember that Dave Whyley, in his learning2go mobile learning project in the U.K. pioneered that idea.
Elliot: And Dave just told me about the “Ladybug Survey” a new school-community project his students have just completed that showed again the powerful impact that portable MLDs can have on learning.
Cathie: While we may sound like broken records, that specific value of truly portable MLDs is definitely worth repeating. 
Elliot: And maybe Samsung and LG, two of the world’s most powerful mobile manufacturers who both just happen to be located in Korea will come up with a yet another form of MLD that preserves the mobility of the smartphone…
Cathie: … and preserves the increased screen real estate of the tablet. I have no doubt that those two companies can and will do just that!
Elliot: And I am sure that behind the scenes Samsung and LG have pushed their country’s educational leaders to make what is clearly the right decision – to move Korea’s educational system into the 21st century.
Cathie: Why aren’t America’s leading tech companies pushing America’s educational leaders towards mobile learning?
Elliot: Oh boy! That topic warrants more than a short blog posting…
Cathie:  Wrong! It is a short posting given all that our companies aren’t doing.
Elliot: Right on!
Cathie: Right on?
Elliot: Sorry, I’m an old hippie…
Cathie: Right on both accounts…
Elliot: She’s back!!

Hear Ye, Hear Ye: It is the Dawning of The Age of Mobilism

Context: While Cathie and Elliot were attending a UNESCO-sponsored meeting in Paris (no, not the one in Texas, but the one in France) the Museum d’Orsay was also holding an exhibition of Eduard Manet, the Father of Modernism , the first such exhibition in 30 years in Paris. While it wasn’t an easy process, they bought tickets and spent about 3 hours at the show.

Elliot: What’s “modernism”?
Cathie: It says in the guidebook that modernism was a reaction to realism…
Elliot: What’s “realism”?
Cathie: I saw that coming. Manet and his colleagues adopted new ideas in art and those ideas gained widespread adoption, ushering in the Age of Modernism
Elliot: Oh.
Cathie: Similarly, mobile technologies are gaining widespread adoption – and ushering in the Age of Mobilism.
Elliot: Boy oh boy, are you a lateral thinker! How you got from Modernism to Mobilism… I haven’t the foggiest. But you are right on the money! Mobile technologies are absolutely becoming totally pervasive…
Cathie: … except in K-12, where, rough guess, 95% of schools ban them from their campuses.
Elliot: Ironic since it was today’s youth who were the early adopters of mobile and have been the major intensive users of mobile technology.
Cathie:  We definitely need to label the youth of today as the “mobile generation”…
Elliot: … Yes, “digital generation” was appropriate for 1995-2005, but now “digital” is too vague a term.
Cathie: The defining characteristic of the Age of Mobilism…
Elliot: … and for the mobile generation…
Cathie: … is connectedness – being connected via mobile technology to each other, to information, to resources, 24/7.
Elliot: Ha, ha, ha… Ask the kids what is the very first thing they do after they open their eyes in the morning and they will say: check my text messages!
Cathie: The need to be connected, to not feel isolated, is a deeply human emotion; now the technology…
Elliot: … the mobile technology…
Cathie: … enables us to be that much more connected to each other, 24/7.
Elliot: The pundits, who are adults, talk about the shallowness of such connections and the shallowness of the mobile generation.
Cathie: And the mobile generation has the right to say: adults just don’t understand!
Elliot: Yet again!! 
Cathie: In 1995, when the Internet was beginning to rise in importance, every company needed an “Internet strategy.”
Elliot: And now, in the Age of Mobilism, every company needs a “mobile strategy.”
Cathie: But “mobilism” isn’t even in the dictionary!