This is the third year of the EduCon conference (http://www.educon22.org/), one of the more interesting phenomenons that I can think of in recent times. The genesis of this conference was built from an idea and brainstorm and has it has grown into a sold-out, 500 physical attendee conference. Once again, there is a buzz as members of the edublogger/twittersphere are descending on Philadelphia for three days of conversations and brainstorming.
This is the third year that I will not be able to physically attend. During the first year, I was unable to attend primarily due to my obligations to my family. We were just coming out of dealing with a major medical crisis that I did not anticipate. Last year and this year, I have become active in the leadership of our local chapter of the Illinois Computer Educators, the Northern Illinois chapter. For the past 20 years, NICE has put on a really great mini-conference which has conflicted with the dates of EduCon. This year’s mini-conference promises to be special, as 200+ educators will be attending our half day event with presentation by many great educators, including Steve Dembo, Scott Meech, and Nadine Norris.
While I would love to catch and ride the buzz being in Philadelphia, I am at peace with the fact I will be attending once again, virtually. Thanks previously to the efforts of Chris Lehmann who tried to uStream all of the events and this year to Chris and Steve Hargadon for helping to set up Elluminate rooms for all 76 of the conversions so that I can participate from my home on this cold and frigid weekend. I enjoy being able to capture a bit of the excitement while not getting consumed by the swirl of activity. Not perfect, but it allows me to maintain balance.
One outcome that I would love to see from the conversation at this years EduCon is how to spread the word so that more people are encouraged to participate. My fear with this conference and many others which occur within the twittersphere/edubloggersphere is that these ideas are shared within an echo chamber. We need to encourage new individuals to be comfortable enough to participate and we need to spread the ideas outside of this small cluster in order to begin to shift education in many of the ways which will be discussed this weekend. I am not sure how to do this, but I feel that it is important that we try, lest we burn out.
Why should you want to know? Don’t you mind about the future?
Don’t you try to think ahead?
Save tomorrow for tomorrow, think about today instead.
What’s the buzz, tell me what is happening
I could give you facts and figures. Even give you plans and forecasts
from What’s the Buzz, Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice
It is already a trending topic. There are more conversations and rumors swirling about the announcement that is going to be made tomorrow, at 12:00 noon CST ( – 6:00 GMT). Just like 26 years ago, everyone is whipping themselves into a lather, hanging onto the idea that tomorrow, on January 27, 2010, we are going to find out why 2010 will not be like 2010 anymore.1 I can imagine how Steve Jobs will walk up on stage and make the announcement and demonstrate Apple’s “newest creation”. Like the original Macintosh commercial, the Apple lemmings will march along to queue up and wait for the newest device.
Now that does not mean that I won’t be excited or will be interested in obtaining this new device, especially if this is the long rumored Apple Tablet, Apple iSlate, or whatever they choose to call it. In fact, if it is, I will break my usual habit of waiting until the second generation of a new technology to get this device. Because of existing contracts and coverage area, I have not gotten on the iPhone bandwagon, although the rest of my family each has their own iPod Touch. Me, I have been dealing with my used 3rd generation 30 Gb video iPod for a few years . This device may be revolutionary and may transform education, but the transformation will take time, it will not be instantaneous.
Why do I feel this way? For one thing, we have all been down this road before with a variety of new initiatives. SMARTBoards are going to transform teaching (1998). 1-to-1 Laptop programs are going to transform the classroom (1996). Palm handhelds are going to provide the mobility and create an equity of access (1996). All of these innovation in the hands of individuals made significant impacts in individual classrooms. But these products did not scale to the level that many initially predicted, with the exception ofsome schools using a 1-to-1 Laptop model. Even when successful, these transformations have taken more time than we first hope and believe. We are still waiting for systemic transformation using any of these paths. I am seeing a growth in the potential of using iTouchs in the classroom, but again, this is still an emergent technology with potential and has not been successfully wide scale implementation over time in a sustainable fashion.
Apple has been down this road before too. They introduced innovative products that were not ready for adoption by the masses and then subsequently dropped. One only needs to remember back to the Newton (1993) which at its introduction was intended to be a complete reinvention of the personal computing paradigm. (I really cannot wait to hear if we hear this repeated 17 years later). There were plans and models of this technology on the drawing board and in 1997, Apple introduced its new under $700 ($699.95) personal computer based on this technology, the eMate 300. This system was rugged, had a smaller keyboard and stylus, built in applications for word processing, spreadsheets, and communications. It has 4 Mb of flash memory (state of the art at that time) that would instantly turn on and back-lighting that would turn on and off, and a battery which would get 10 – 12 hours per charge. It was everything that a user currently now desires when looking for a netbook, or other computing device with the exception of more memory which is now more widely available in larger capacities. Thank you Gordon Moore and the engineers and chip designers who have made this possible.
The eMate was a dynamite product with so much potential. Apple released the technology that could have cornered the educational market and fulfilled the promise of the Newton technology. So why didn’t this device take the world by storm? Most importantly, because the wireless Internet we are beginning to take for granted did not exist. These products were mainly individual computers. The system was not open, individuals could not create new applications for use in these systems, like the current iPhones and iTouchs. Without a strong developer core and a way to browse the emerging web at the time, the product was doomed. Apple was also reeling as a company, trying to stay solvent enough to stay in business without being sold. It was in this same year the Steve Jobs returned to an Apple Computer to salvage the company and to focus on its core product line, the Macintosh that enabled Apple to become more of a consumer media company, via its introduction of the iPod, iTunes, and the iPhone.
So like many, I will be eagerly anticipating the new announcement. I will be interested to see what emerges and look forward to how this device may transform personal computing. I will be wary, however, once burned by my excitement over the potential of the eMate. I realize that the web and wireless connectivity have matured and may allow the “newest creation” the opportunity to grow and even survive. As for revolutionizing personal computing and education, again, it comes down to creative teachers finding creative ways to implement the tool. It will take a savvy Director of Technology and their team to create the environment and the plan to be able to scale this into a building wide, district wide, or state wide success. We will all need to be patient and let the product grow. This product should be allowed to grow and fill the new niches, some of which we may not be able to identify. We need to be ready to think outside of the box and let this product grow in new directions.
And yes, I will be one of those in line to get my hands on this new product.
Notes
1 – For many of you who are too young to remember the buzz around the introduction of the original Macintosh computer, during the Super Bowl, a commercial which has been seen only 1 time in its entirety aired. Directed by Ridley Scott, this commercial which aired January 22, 1984 alluded to George Orwell’s novel 1984. The ending tagline on this commercial, was on January 24th (1984 – nearly 26 years to the day of the announcement), we were going to find out why 1984 was not going to be like 1984.
Over the past 18 months, I have been collaborating with two of our history teachers, Frank Dachille and Tim Curren, with their project to revamp our 9th and 10th History courses. This year, rather than creating a written assessment culminating the 9th grade curriculum, Frank wanted to create an assessment where student recorded their response to one of thirteen essential questions.
During our brainstorming, I showed him VoiceThread, which I believed would meet 85% of his original goals. After playing with an example project, Frank enthusiastically embraced VoiceThread to use for his assessment. For this, students had to create their reflection (2 minutes or less) and find one image that they thought best represented their idea. Students were asked to add their image and record their comment, either via text or voice.
For the most part, the students were easily able to complete this assignment. As usual, there were a few glitches, but Frank has begun to brainstorm new ways to incorporate VoiceThread into projects which will occur later in the year.
It is with his permission that I share the VoiceThread which was created for this project. I hope that you enjoy.
We are in the midst of planning for a potential renovation of our high school, beginning as early as this upcoming June. I have been asked to sit in many meetings with the architects discussing what the new learning studios will potentially look like. One of the solutions that they have proposed is implementing Steelcase’s media:scape (see picture on right) workstations in a collaborative learning studio and in project spaces which are adjacent to three learning studios on one of our floors.
This system works by pulling a “puck” which connects to the video out port of your computer system. By hitting the puck, you can select your screen’s display to appear on the large monitor. We tested this system with a Tablet PC, Macintosh, and PC laptop. It worked seamlessly.
Last Wednesday, I took the opportunity to work with three seniors and the Steelcase media:scape demonstration unit set up in one of our large conference rooms. To a person, each of the students thought that the system was “cool”. They were so impressed that they wanted to continue to work with it Thursday and Friday. I asked each of the students to share how they thought this system could have been used to enhance their educational experience at North Shore. Here are some of the replies that I got:
Quick exchange of evidence during a debate, such as the ones held in US History, AP US History, and International Relations
Switching between PowerPoint Presentations in multiple classes
For showing graphs and working equations for Math class
Using a tablet to write and share notes
Quickly change between videos on different student’s computer for the documentary presentation, such as done in English 11
Compiling student’s research data
For teachers to see what their students are working on.
White board presentations for Physics
StoryCorps presentations for US History
For showing strategy as a coach to team members
Additionally, I believe that it could be used to:
For working on a shared Google Document so that eveyone can see on a larger screen
For brainstorming project ideas and presentations, like are done in the 9th Grade Service Learning Projects in English and History
To facilitate group work on a project such as the Google Earth/Explorers Project
Culminating group research project which is currently undertaken in the Freshman Seminar class.
Additional thoughts on where these systems may be helpful and we may want to seed their use would be:
In the Learning Specialists spaces. It would benefit our learning specialist to be able to pop up an individuals computer screen on the larger display, while working with groups of students. Also, there are times in which they are working with students on a same project, so it may be beneficial for students to learn from each other at the same time.
I can also see this as being beneficial to place in our library. Our library is becoming a hub for classes of Middle School and High School classes working on group projects. Most of these projects do have a computer component. Just today, the seventh grade was working on a textbook chapter, in groups of four, sharing research. Working together on a unit such as this would have encouraged a new way to exchange ideas.
With the new space, there is planned to be a cafe-like space. I am hoping that I can move my office to the middle of this cafe, with one of these units, as my primary workspace. This would provide the opportunity for teachers and students who are having problems, to connect to the system and “puck” their display up, so that it can be more easily seen by the group and that we can troubleshoot.
I think that the benefits of this system are great. Like all other emerging technologies, it may be beneficial to strategically seed these systems in some places and drive some early adopters to use them. Once others begin to see the benefit of these systems, it will help drive demand of these systems.
Yesterday, while working at home, a realization crystallized for me. For 80% of what I do, I am working within two applications, my web browser and a twitter client. Nothing more, nothing less. This has occurred more significantly since we migrated to Google Apps for Education.
Occasionally, I will also use other applications. I do use a podcast client, Juice, connected to my iTunes library to fill my iPod with content. I do use Adobe PhotoShop once in awhile for photo manipulation. I use Audacity for audio editing. And yes, I am not able to break my Microsoft Office habit to do fine tuning of material I create in Google Apps. I still think that the formatting in Microsoft Office is far superior. But I am an advanced Office User, I have created several documents with multiple sections, glossaries, and other higher tools and have done significant data manipulation in Excel. But I am opening these applications less and less.
As I am due for a new system next fall, it begs the question, what type of system do I really need? Obviously, one with Internet connection and enough data storage for my audio, video, and pictures, but beyond that, I really don’t need much more. I am thinking that a netbook, or similar product, would enable me to do 90% of what I want to do. All I really need is a web browser to access email, Google Apps, iTunes, a podcatcher, an RSS reader, and access to web streaming to watch videos or an occasional television show. That’s all.
What about the other 10%? This could easily be solved by shared access to specialized systems to do the higher level work using more specialized software. That’s all.
It makes me wonder, if these Apple iSlate rumors are true, then I may be able to migrate to this device for 90% of my work. Hmm…
Addedum – after writing this, I “stumbled upon” the Kindle App for PC. The iPhone/iTouch versions of the software are already available. the Macintosh version is promised. Hmm… More thought for thinking, further cementing my ideas.
