Tech Disruptions

“It takes a village and it takes a leader”

Elliot:  Some folks always manage to figure out a way to do what they want to do.
Cathie: You are being your usual enigmatic self; what are you saying?
Elliot: Well, public schools are always in need of funds to carry out new initiatives.
Cathie: There’s that keen sense for the obvious again…
Elliot: Ok , ok  all the schools have the same problem but, some school district people figure out how to raise the money.
Cathie: You are talking about Kyle Menchhofer, right?
Elliot: Why do you always know what I’m thinking???
Cathie: <smiles enigmatically>
Elliot: Yes, Kyle has figured out how to raise funds for the district’s 1:1, cellphone computer initiative.
Cathie: St Marys, a small town in north-western Ohio, where Kyle is the school district’s Director of  Technology, doesn’t have a growing tax base and isn’t raising bond money.
Elliot: But, St Marys leads the nation in the use of cellphone computers in the classroom! Kyle has managed to find funding to support for over over 600 mobile learning devices in the classroom. 
Cathie: His superintendent, Mary Riepenhoff,  is totally supportive of putting mobile learning devices in the hands of each and every student in St. Marys.
Elliot: And Kyle has asked for funds from everyone. Recently he wrangled over $3,000 from the St. Marys VFW Post 9289 and he convinced the town’s East and West PTO’s to contribute about $3,000 each and building principals have donated $2,000 each from their principals’ funds.
Cathie: Rotary Club, Eagles Club, and American Legion – get out your checkbooks!  It’s really wonderful to see people pitching in to help educate all the children in their city. 
Elliot: I am glad we’re in education; what we do matters.
Cathie: And, I am glad we know people like Kyle because he is closing the digital divide for lots of students in rural Ohio. What he does, matters.

From Convergent Analysis to Project RED: Understanding How Technology Impacts Teaching and Learning

Cathie: “Under what conditions do computers lead to increased student achievement?”
Elliot:  Good question!
Cathie: I know, we asked it 10 years ago.
Elliot: We did?
Cathie: How could you forget Convergent Analysis?
Elliot: Oh THAT Convergent Analysis. Now I remember.
Cathie: No you don’t.
Elliot: You are right; no I don’t.
Cathie: In 1999, under funding from the Milken Family Foundation….
Elliot: … it’s coming back… Cheryl Lemke was running the Foundation then …
Cathie: We did a deep dive into the research literature on technology’s use in K-12 to try to answer that question. And we invented a method for comparing and contrasting research studies to abstract the key findings.
Elliot: Yeah, THAT “convergent analysis.”  Our intent was to provide guidance for classroom teachers – specific suggestions, not vague generalizations.
Cathie: That’s right –  vague generalizations such as “more time spent using a word processor results in better writing.”
Elliot: Ha ha… right! But did the literature provide guidance when a teacher doesn’t have a lot of time for having her students writing with a computer -- what activities might the teacher use under those conditions?
Cathie: Yes,  And 10 years later, Project RED is attempting to answer the same question…
Elliot: …But this time, they are starting with surveying schools since technology is much more prevalent in the schools …
Cathie: … things have changed in a decade!
Elliot: Thank goodness.
Cathie: And Project RED shares our same goal - avoid generalities and try to ferret out real nuggets of wisdom.
Elliot: Project RED has some good folks running it. Leslie Wilson and Michael Gielniak of the One-to-One Institute, Tom Greaves,  and Jeanne Hayes. That’s important since we all know that statistics can be used  and ….
Cathie: … misused!
Elliot: Project RED has extended the deadline for schools to fill out their short online survey. The more schools participate, the more reliable the findings.
Cathie: While some early results are already posted, we look forward to the thorough…
Elliot: … and provocative…
Cathie: final report.

Keller ISD Wins Bragging Rights for their Mobile Learning Project

Elliot: Only Texas would have an award entitled “Bragging Rights.”
Cathie: That’s because Michigan has so much to brag about – having the highest unemployment in the nation, having the highest school dropout rate in the nation….
Elliot: Ahh, well…
Cathie: and did I mention some of the worst weather?
Elliot: Well, cough, cough … Your state has this great award entitled “Bragging Rights” that Keller ISD just won for their mobile learning project in 2009. 
Cathie: Yes, Yes - I just saw an email from Matt Cook, one of the two 5th grade teachers in the project ….
Elliot: … Cyndi Varella was the language arts and social studies teacher in the two teacher team…
Cathie: …  announcing the award made by the Texas School Business Magazine.
Elliot: It’s pretty amazing - 50 students and two teachers using cellphone computers  beat out all the other educational technology projects in the state – and Texas is a BIG STATE with many, many innovative educational technology projects.
Cathie: The magazine clearly thinks that mobile learning and cellphone computers are important and relevant for education.
Elliot: At the same time that 99% of the schools in Texas…
Cathie.. and the nation…
Elliot:.. ban cellphones from the classroom.
Cathie: I hope the other schools in Texas, at least, don’t miss this clear message!
Elliot: Like any recognized educational technology project Matt and Cyndi’s classrooms had great administrative support.
Cathie: Yes, Joe Griffin, Executive Director of Technology, worked with the vendors Verizon Wireless, HTC, Microsoft, and GoKnow* while Ron Myers, principal of Trinity Meadows Intermediate worked the back channel.
Elliot: And Len Avecilla, a parent, was the interface between the mobile learning project and students’ parents.
Cathie: The Pearson Foundation has created a wonderful 6.5 minute video that captured how the students used the Cellphone computers for their lessons.
Elliot: Keller definitely earned its Bragging Rights…
Cathie: … they are leaders.  In 2010 many more schools will be implementing mobile learning using cellphone computers and Netbooks, but Keller ISD has lead the way!

*Full Disclosure: Cathie and Elliot are co-founders of GoKnow, Inc.

Enough with the Mobile Already?

Elliot: Blog readers, we are in a quandary.
Cathie: Recently, we have blogged about mobile technologies and blogged about mobile technologies and … Are we overwhelming you? Are we boring you? We ask that because here is another blog posting about mobile technologies!
Elliot: In a recent article the following statement was made: “Also anticipating mobile device growth, investment bank Morgan Stanley expects that within five years, more people will access the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs.”
Cathie: Mobile isn’t just a trend; mobile is a MEGA-trend. Nothing grows at 50%--except mobile – if you believe the pundits.
Elliot: The heck with the pundits; when we open our eyes, it is easy to see how pervasive mobile is coming to be. And “we ain’t seen nuthin yet” as those pundits would say.
Cathie: Curious kind of pundit. Are you talking to yourself again, Elliot?
Elliot: Sometimes you are too witty by half. 
Cathie: You’re such an easy mark, my friend; you know I am only joking, of course.
Elliot: Of course, of course! Actually, I miss half your zingers anyhow since I am pretty oblivious.
Cathie: Oblivious? You’re a male; comes with the territory.
Elliot: Being serious for a moment…
Cathie: … Give it a shot, Elliot …
Elliot: eSchoolNews just published their 10 “top news stories” of 2009 and mobile technologies played no role in any of the 10 top stories. For K-12, at least according to eSchool News, mobile is not even a trend, let alone a mega-trend.
Cathie: But K-12 has historically been several years behind the world of commerce in its adoption of technology.
Elliot: 1:1 has been pervasive in knowledge-work professions and industries for years.
Cathie: 1:1? Hardly! In schools we measure it as “students per computer” but in the business world it is measured in “computers per individual.”
Elliot: Yes, and that is with mobile computers playing a rapidly increasing role in the business world. As Ned Hooper, Cisco’s chief strategy officer comments: “We expect the market for mobile data to double every year through 2013.”
Cathie: But, our educationally oriented blog readers…
Elliot: … if you are tired hearing about mobile, raise your hand – folks, raise’em high so we can see, please.
Cathie: <Spoken quietly lest “he” overhears:>  I don’t have the heart to tell Elliot that there’s no way for him to see your raised hands.
Elliot: See, Cathie; I see no raised hands; folks are not tired of our mobile blog posts. We continue with all things mobile. Yahoo!
Cathie: Why are you calling out a website’s name?  Well, Blog Readers, I will do my best to moderate mobile blog posts. But, I can only do so much; Elliot keeps changing the password on our blog posting site – to keep out burglars, he tells me.
Elliot: I hear you talking behind my back – again! But I know you are just joking.
Cathie: Just joking… oh yeah… just joking…

Google Goggles: A Context-Aware App Available NOW for Classrooms

Elliot: Have you heard about Google Goggles?
Cathie:  No, not yet, but I bet I will shortly.
Elliot: Ha Ha Ho Ho. This is truly COOOOOL technology.
Cathie: That’s code language for “it doesn’t quite work yet, so users beware.”
Elliot: You HAVE used it, then!
Cathie: My turn: Ha Ha Ho Ho.
Elliot: But listen.  On your cellphone, you can take a picture of some landmark or object in your environment that you wish to have more information about and send it to Google.
Cathie: Cellphone or smartphone? Do you need a dataplan?
Elliot: Good questions. Let me sidestep them for now.
Cathie: You and details just don’t mix.
Elliot: I am going to BUST; I must tell you about Goggles!! For the next 45 seconds, no questions, pretty please?
Cathie: <patient, adult smile on lips; nod of head indicating that I should continue>
Elliot: So the picture you just sent to Google from your cellphone camera is matched against Google’s Google-sized database of pictures for a match. Once a match is found…
Cathie: …IF a match is found…
Elliot:… Ok, IF a match is found, Google comes back with all sorts of info about what you are seeing. For example …
Cathie: If you took a picture of the Empire State Building, Google would tell you who built it, when, and other factoids about the Empire State Building. What if you sent Goggles a picture of a leaf?
Elliot: That was 46 seconds of blissful silence; thank you. Perhaps Google Goggles…
Cathie: …say Google Goggles 10 times fast…
Elliot: My, my you are feisty this morning; you must have gotten more than your usual 4 hours of sleep!
Cathie: No, less.
Elliot: I know, there is soooo much to do, there is no time to sleep!
Cathie: I won’t interrupt anymore – well, at least not again in this blog posting
Elliot: Merci. So Google will try to identify the tree type to which the leaf belongs.
Cathie: Ah, I have been reading about an emerging field of mobile computer applications that are “context-aware” – clearly, Google Goggles is an example of such an application.
Elliot: Yes!! Goggles is the intermediary between an individual …
Cathie: … or group of individuals who are cooperating,
Elliot: … and the immediately surrounding physical world.  By being “context-aware” the mobile application can be a more informed partner to an individual or group rather than behaving like a brick.
Cathie: The classroom application of Goggles boggles the mind.
Elliot: Sweet alliteration, Ms Schoolmarm; do carry on, please!
Cathie: My “leaf question” earlier in the blog was me already thinking about school uses. On field trips, the opportunities afforded by Goggles go without saying. In the classroom, a student could take a picture of an image in a textbook to get more up-to-date info from Google; a student group could send a picture of their science experiment set up to Goggles and access the Internet’s collected wisdom surrounding that experiment. A picture is worth a thousand words; some queries are better “said” visually, in fact.
Elliot: I have read where the Goggles sort of application is referred to as “augmented reality.”
Cathie: I can see how that name applies, but I like your term, “context-aware” better.
Elliot: Yes, “context-aware” more clearly says what function, what opportunity, the mobile application offers. And “context-aware” is much less pretentious than “augmented reality.”
Cathie: We must make a final point – such applications as Goggles would never have been developed for a desktop computer. One might put “context-aware” applications on a laptop, but five to seven pound laptops, as we have argued in the past, are transportable computers, not truly mobile computers.
Elliot: The mobileness of the cellphone is what prompted the invention of this new category of software applications.
Cathie: “Augmented reality” may not be the only thing that is pretentious in this blog posting.
Elliot: I get the point – but I am a professor; I am paid to profess!
Cathie: And stop at the end a lecture.
Elliot: Ahem, this is Cathie and Elliot signing off of their District Administration Blog “Tech Disruptions” – catch you all on rebound.

eBook Readers Go Mainstream – What Should Schools Do?

Cathie: Did you see that the “Kindle continues to be the most wished for, the most gifted, and the #1 bestselling product across all product categories on Amazon.”
Elliot: And the Kindle is no longer the only eBook reader in town. Everybody and his uncle are making eBook readers! Except Apple, of course.
Cathie:  You are feisty today!
Elliot: Cheap shot since they’re not here to defend themselves. eBooks are not just for adults.
Cathie: Yes, we estimate that over half of the books students are required to read, e.g., Call of the Wild, Scarlett Letter, are all available free in eBook format since they are out of copyright.
Elliot: So should schools buy dedicated eBook readers for their students?
Cathie: That’s an easy one. No!
Elliot: On this one, I agree with you immediately. No! Schools have limited budgets and spending money on a dedicated eBook reader – a device that only reads eBooks – is not a good use of scarce dollars.
Cathie: Careful, careful – a student can use Google on the Kindle to search the Internet over the Kindle’s wireless network.
Elliot: Yes, the Kindle’s cellular WhisperNet provided by Sprint in the U.S. is definitely a very cool feature of the Kindle.  And the Kindle can store and read PDF’s and Microsoft Word documents.
Cathie: Patience, patience.
Elliot:  I know where you are heading…..  the next version or the next-next version of the Kindle – or of a competitor’s Kindle – will provide more netbook-like functionality. It might make good sense for schools to purchase the Kindle 5 for students.
Cathie: I can see the Amazon advertisement now: Buy the Kindle 5 for the very low, one-time-charge of $250 and provide each student with a 24/7, Internet-connected eBook reader and computing device, with no monthly charges.
Elliot: No monthly charges? I don’t think so!  The telco’s are not going to let Amazon get away with that; the telco’s will want their monthly fee too.
Cathie: But by the time we get the Kindle 5, Amazon itself will be a telco!
Elliot: Lovely, lovely, lovely! Let’s save that juicy conversation for another time… But we can’t stop now; we are on a roll. Did you read the article I sent you about the newest eBook reader built specifically for textbooks?!
Cathie: Absolutely – I read each and every one of the dozens of emails you send me daily.

Elliot: Do I detect sarcasm in your voice?
Cathie: Feisty and sharp – all in one day!
Elliot: Very funny. Ho ho ho.
Cathie: Well, Santa, enTourage Systems just announced the eDGe, a $490, two-screened eBook reader. The screen on the left is designed to display black-and-white text and uses the same e-Ink technology used in the Kindle, Nook, Sony eBook reader, while the screen on the right is an LCD, touch-screen panel that can display colored, dynamic objects such as science simulations.  So there.
Elliot: I think the eDGe is a retrograde step; supporting existing textbooks with digital technology is like pointing the motion picture camera at theater.  The value of the motion picture camera wasn’t in preserving theater, but in creating new opportunities – Hollywood and the movies!
Cathie: Easy, Elliot; don’t blow a gasket on this one.
Elliot: But Cathie this is so, so, SO painful. Kids hate textbooks; they are so expensive; they are out of date instantly. They are written for the lowest-common denominator to appease lefties and righties and so they are often just pabulum. They weigh a ton…
Cathie: So, Elliot, tell us what you really think about textbooks! But maybe you’re being too narrow-minded – perhaps the eDGe will actually enable a whole next generation of interactive e-textbooks?
Elliot: *$#)!*@!_*# - I suppose you might be right. I suppose.
Cathie: Education will have to endure putting theater onto film – putting existing textbooks onto the eDGe – for a bit – until education’s Hollywood invents new textbooks.
Elliot: But we don’t want textbooks, new or otherwise.
Cathie: That’s not what you said in a blog posted on 8/10/2009.  There you extolled the virtues of textbooks.
Elliot: Picky, picky, picky. That was then, this is now.
Cathie: You would make a good politician; always changing your mind.
Elliot: Don’t start down THAT path; I can’t believe you said that!
Cathie: Ha, ha, ha. I was just pulling your leg. Relax Elliot. I think it’s time for nice, hot cup of chamomile tea…

Using the Students’ Technology Inside The Classroom

Elliot: Cathie, you do know that sometimes I make up these conversations.
Cathie: I figured as much. Like, I would ever say “I figured as much”???
Elliot: But most of the conversations really did happen.
Cathie: What does “most” mean to you?
Elliot: How about an easier question for a lesser value?
Cathie: We’re not on Jeopardy; just tell us the conversation, please.
Elliot: Deal… So, the other day I was talking with our friend Berj Akian, CEO of Classlink, about why you and I think that mobile devices are really valuable for learning in K-12 and the following snippet of conversation occurred (folks, really, it did!):
Elliot: Cathie and I feel that THIS time the technology will really have an impact on the classroom. Adults brought laptops into the classroom. Adults brought electronic whiteboards and clickers into the classroom. Yawn. But, the kids are bringing the cellphones into the classroom.
Berj: Yes, absolutely: the kids are using THEIR toolbox for teaching and learning.
Elliot: YES YES YES. That’s it!
Berj: Like a carpenter who builds better using his own tools, the kids may learn better using their own tools. That's all the cellphones are really, their tools which we largely haven't figured out how to use in the classroom, yet.
Elliot: Berj, ahh, do you mind if I borrow your line and use it? It really succinctly summarizes the core idea of why mobile technology is different than laptop technology.
Berj: By all means, Elliot my friend.
Elliot: So, fast forward, folks, about 2 hours. I was talking with another friend…
Cathie: …You have two friends, Elliot?
Elliot: Ha ha ha…
Cathie: It was too easy; sorry for interrupting.
Elliot: Now I lost my train of thought! Oh Oh Oh!
Cathie: Well, you were talking with Billie Baumann, Director of Curriculum in the Watkins Glen School District (NY) earlier today.  Does that help?
Elliot: AAAAh yes … I was talking with Billie about the rollout of cellphone computers in her 5th and 7th grade classrooms earlier that week.  And Billie related a conversation she had with a colleague; it went something like this:
Billie: The rollout is going well; the students are really taking to using the cellphone computers like ducks to water. We are talking their language.
Billie’s Friend: No, we’re in their world!
Cathie: Those observations are just like Berj’s observation! School is finally reaching out and meeting the students where they are.
Elliot: That is truly a profound change. A change brought about by the students themselves.
Cathie: And now, we’ll need to change the curriculum – how we teach and what we teach – in order to truly leverage the students’ use of 21st century tools.
Elliot: Please slow down; that is the subject of our next blog posting; we can’t talk about something we have written yet.
Cathie: Uh, excuse me?
Elliot: You’re excused. What’s the problem?
Cathie: Say good bye, Elliot.
Elliot: Good bye, Elliot.

“All’s the world’s information” in the Palm of Every Student’s Hand

Elliot: In an act of pure serendipity I stumbled upon a fascinating interview by Tom Ashbrook  of Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google.  Among the many provocative ideas Dr. Schmidt put forward, this one caught my attention: “Why do we teach the old way since all the world’s information is literally available on a [cellphone] … we should learn how to search…”
Cathie:  Succinctly put, Dr. Schmidt! 
Elliot:  But the problem with his idea is that students don’t have access to all the world’s information in school.
Cathie: The key phrase there is: in school. Outside of school they do. Outside of school students have their cellphones virtually glued to the palms of their hands. How ironic that in school, where we are explicitly learning about all the world’s information, students don’t have access to all the world’s information.
Elliot: Don’t tell me you are going to use Schmidt’s pithy observation to support the use of cellphones in the classroom?
Cathie: You always did have a keen sense for the obvious.
Elliot: Thank you.
Cathie: How would schools be organized if the starting assumption is that every student does have access to “all the world’s information” all the time during school?
Elliot: Well, I think the  role of the textbook changes; the role of the test changes; the role of the teacher changes.
Cathie: And, the role of the student changes!
Elliot: The really amazing thing is this: those changes are in the works as we speak. Within 5 years every student in every grade in every school in America will have, literally in the palms of their hands, “all the world’s information.”
Cathie: How many people do you think believe that prediction Elliot?
Elliot:  I don’t know, but I’ll bet the ones that don’t will let us know! 

Desktop, Laptop and Now, Thumbtop Computers

Elliot: Next time someone takes us out for a magnificent chili crab lunch at the Long Beach Restaurant (Singapore), please, don’t wear white.
Cathie: It doesn’t matter what I wear, you always splatter me with the red chili sauce and ruin whatever I am wearing.
Elliot: I think you are exaggerating.
Cathie: Blog readers, do you think I am exaggerating when I say that Elliot splatters his lunch every which way. Look at the attached picture if you have any doubts.

Elliot: Oh, but the chili crab at the Long Beach is so terrific. It’s well worth a shirt. 
Cathie: It’s called a blouse and I had to spend as much cleaning my St. John jackets  and blouses after having lunch with you as you spent on  that new netbook you treated yourself too.
Elliot: I needed that netbook.
Cathie: Needed? You needed a netbook?
Elliot: One man’s need is another man’s ….
Cathie: …. Care to get on with it?
Elliot: Oh yes… well I just wanted to tell our readers about an interesting term that Victor Chen* used at our non-chili-crab, crab lunch.
Cathie: When we explained to Victor that we call cellphones used in K-12 “cellphone computers” to emphasize their computer affordances, he said “Oh yes, thumbtops.”
Elliot: There are desktops and laptops and now we have thumbtops!
Cathie: Since the youth of today can type as fast with their thumbs on thumbtops as adults can type with their fingers on laptops, Victor’s observation is quite insightful.
Elliot: Yes, and remember that the principal …
Cathie: Ron Myers
Elliot: … at Trinity Meadows Intermediate School in Keller TX made a similar comment about how surprised he was at how fast his 5th graders were at typing with their thumbs on the thumb-boards of their cellphone computers.**
Cathie: Adults shouldn’t be surprised; students have had loads of practice typing on thumbtops. In fact, since most of them haven’t had typing lessons, they aren’t particularly effective typing on a laptop’s keyboard!
Elliot: It is hard for an adult to see things through the eyes of the children.
Cathie: Spoken like a parent!

*Victor is the Deputy Head, Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)
**See the Pearson Foundation video of 5th graders using cellphone computers/thumbtops now on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwuW9XAONBM 

It’s not a “cellphone” – it’s a “cellphone COMPUTER”

Cathie: We have to get people to stop calling them cellphones - and call them what they really are: cellphone computers.
Elliot: Better explain yourself lest readers think you are quibbling about the number of angels on the head of a pin.
Cathie: Listen to you! As a philosophy major I am sure you did your share of angel counting.
Elliot: Hey, hey. It was a strategic decision. I knew I would fail math so I found a major that didn't require any math classes.
Cathie: How did you get a PhD in computer science without taking math?
Elliot: I plead the fifth.
Cathie: Slippery, Professor Soloway, veeeeery slippery.
Elliot: Like I said, I plead the fifth. But enlighten us. Why cellphone computer?
Cathie: The smartphones that we use in our K12 classroom rollouts...
Elliot: …Such as the 600 or so used in grades 3 through 5 in St Mary's OH
Cathie: ...Yes ... are really computers with radios that enable those computers to place voice calls and send text messages. But first and foremost, the smarphones are computers. And, in those K12 classrooms, we have the telco provider not activate voice calling and texting.
Elliot: The proper term is "provision."
Cathie: You are insufferable.
Elliot: Sticks and stones....
Cathie:  …So the students can't make or receive voice calls or send or receive text messages. By not provisioning voice and texting, 95% of the problems educators have with cellphone computers are eliminated!
Elliot: Yes, the students use the smartphones only as computers. There are desktop computers, laptop computers, and now we have cellphone computers.
Cathie: If you want to see cellphone computers in a classroom, blog readers, go to http://cellphonecomputer.pbworks.com/ download the 30-40 megabyte Keller Video. This film was made by the Pearson Foundation to illustrate “best practices in the use of mobile learning.”
Elliot: You will see in the film how 5th grade students use cellphone computers – with their small screens and small keyboards – as powerful computers. This 6.5 minute film will make a believer of you. Trust me – this is a compelling video.
Cathie: Uh oh.  Normally when Elliot says “trust me” I would counsel: run for the hills. But I have seen this film – it’s more than a video. In this particular case, you can trust him: this is one compelling film.