Seattle, Washington
Metamorphose: v. -phosed, -phosing, -phoses. -tr. 1. To change into a wholly different form or appearance; transform...
Oh, the sweet irony of Dr. Chen using an overhead projector in the very first session was almost too much for me! Bless his soul, at a conference of computer educators he had the strength of conviction to state he prefers transparencies to using PowerPoint. Indeed, even after dropping his transparencies and suffering mild indignation at the hands of the techno-snobs in the audience ("Yes, but my PowerPoint presentation never gets shuffled!" announced a malcontent.) Dr. Chen just smiled and replied, "Touché!"
Sublime, simply sublime.
Speaker after speaker after speaker at this year's NCCE (Northwest Council for Computer Education) conference, held in Seattle, Washington, seemed to implore educators to do what works for them and for their students regardless of the "coolness" factor of available educational technology. Dr. Chen advocated penmanship. Dr. Healy spoke about how computers shouldn't be even be touched before the age of seven or eight. Dr. Lengel shared that studies of computer usage have shown only marginal improvements in student outcomes. Good heavens, the closing session's keynote topic was "Back to the Future: Preparing Students for the 18th Century."
There were moments when I truly felt like Peter Casey and I had taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way and we were attending a Luddite convention instead of a conference for computer educators.
As the program title suggests, many of the sessions were dedicated to highlighting the continuum of change in educational technology; the highlights weren't pretty. In fact, the whole event was significantly sobering if truth be told. Alas, the sad irony may turn out to be this year's message is more about convergence than metamorphosis. Almost a score of years ago we embarked on a journey using a device designed in some guy's garage. Billions and billions of dollars have been spent since then to replace that technology with newer and cooler stuff. With the best of intentions we created computer labs where we taught teachers and students to word process, program using Logo, and troubleshoot cranky printers. And now, on a couple of frigid days in Seattle, Washington, a bunch of learned folks asked the simple question, "Why?"
Truthfully, we all asked that question twenty years ago.
Well, ok, other people were asking that question; I was too busy wishing I could own a personal computer! I figured it had to better than getting up at two in the morning in the dead of winter, leaving my nice warm bed and bride to walk ten blocks to the University of Pittsburgh's computer lab in the freezing cold in order to punch the fifty cards required to run my FORTRAN program. Frankly, I think at that point in my life I could only imagine "Why not?" I'd have given my right arm to word process, program, and print at home!
However, I know some of you were asking that question almost fifteen years ago when my oldest son, Michael, was starting school back East in Montclair, New Jersey. Michael attended a school where "academic basics" were the main focus. Reading, writing, and arithmetic skills were the foundation upon which all learning would happen. Period. The five new Apple IIc computers in the library seemed quite out of place and some teachers were not the least bit shy in sharing their concerns. Personally, I was too distracted to worry about that debate. I thought there must be a better way to get the PTA newsletter directly onto a mimeograph stencil than using a typewriter. The principal was determined to see the average test scores of his students trended over the past three years. And then there was the incident where Michael came home from his full day pre-kindergarten class with an assignment to draw a picture of a cat on a mat which, in hindsight, proved beyond a shadow of doubt I was an idiot incapable of asking the "Why?" question!
Oddly enough, there was a way to create the mimeograph stencils without a typewriter: just take the ribbon out of your dot matrix printer and run the stencil through instead of paper! Combined with one of the earliest computer desktop publishing programs on an Atari ST, I spent many hours supporting Michael's school by running off hundreds of copies on an ancient mimeograph machine in a converted bathroom in the basement of the school with Joseph, our youngest, sleeping soundly on my back in the backpack. And yes, the principal did send me home with one of the Apple IIc computers with "AppleWorks" where I painstakingly entered data to produce a spreadsheet to answer his questions and make ready for the next year's scores. Finally, Michael and I did set out to accomplish the cat on a mat task as child and parent: Michael with paper and pencil, and Dad with the computer and Logo.
I'm sharing these warm and fuzzy experiences with you because conference speakers and participants also shared stories of good and not so good implementations of educational technology. Dr. Healy shared a story of reconnecting with a former student she had taught a few years prior. Dr. Healy asked the young lady if she remembered a specific computer lesson which Dr. Healy thought had been well constructed and superbly taught. The youngster did remember her as being the teacher but did not remember whether or not they had used computers in their classroom. This teaching an abstraction with an abstraction is a complicated issue, isn't it? Yet, does anybody truly want to return to teaching students how to use slide rules and log tables?
This year I had the pleasure of driving up to Seattle with Peter Casey from COCC. We saw a few folks from Redmond and COCC but nobody else from our neck of the woods.
I'm going to try something different this year and package up all the "goodies" I collected at the exhibits to route as a sort of touring exhibit to all of the site techs. If everybody just takes a day or so to look at the materials and then passes it onto the next person on the list then we should be all set in a month or so. There are a couple of CDs included in the package.
As always with any web page, this is a work in progress. All opinions are probably mine, especially if they are wrong or way off base. Just drop me a note about any grievous error or omission and I'll fix it as soon as I can.
Thursday:
8:30am: Educational Technology at the Crossroads: Issues, Problems, and Challenges
10:00am: Keynote Speaker: Jim Lengel
11:15am: Exhibit Blitz
12:30pm: K12 Linux Terminal Server Project: K12LTSP
2:00pm: Online, Education's Divine
3:30pm: School Network Design
Thursday Evening:
7:00pm: Conference Social: EMP - Experience Music Project
Friday:
8:30am: Extreme Thinking: Transforming Traditional Technology Projects into Effective Learning Environments
9:30am: Emerging Media for Distributed Learning
11:00am: Creative Minds in the Digital Age: Computers and the Growing Brain
12:30pm: Apple Booth
2:00pm: Visual Intelligence: A 21st Century Skill
3:15pm: Keynote Speaker: Hall Davidson
Thursday, 8:30am: Educational Technology at the Crossroads: Issues, Problems, and Challenges
I must say I was caught off guard by Dr. Chen and his use of the overhead projector.
Many of the articles Dr. Chen cited about computer usage not resulting in better learning were taken from older sources; one was from The Olympian dated 9-30-1998. Dr. Chen was concerned about the recent legislative measures in Maine and Virginia where mandates were being imposed to supply students with laptops. Dr. Chen was having difficulty with the porn access aspect of the laptops in Virginia.
Dr. Chen likened computer technology purchases to that of home fitness machines. If you go to a garage sale, what do you see most often? The more money spent on (technology/fitness machine) the more determined the buyer is for a successful outcome. The machines are still in the garage sale.
Does a $300 knife make dishes more delicious?
"Information is not knowledge, knowledge is not understanding, understanding is not judgment, judgment is not wisdom. If we have no trouble in gaining access to limitless amounts of information, it will only make it more difficult to decide what is worth paying attention to." - Howard Gardner
Why do we study math? Mental exercise. Logical thinking.
Why do we word process? Kids just jump from beginning to end of process. More concerned about fonts and colors than content.
Computer skills cannot replace basics.
Dr. Chen clearly had a beef with HyperCard / HyperStudio. Told a story about a teacher who he met who was very proud about a project she had her class do using HyperStudio. The students spent four or five days creating the presentations with lots of bells and whistles. When asked how the presentations and content was related to what the students were learning in class the teacher did not have an adequate response. The slides were fancy but no real academic learning took place. The teacher's reply was at least they read the manual!
Cursive handwriting is a Fine Art. EQ vs IQ is as important to discuss as any use of technology.
Teacher is still the key to success in quality of education in the information age. High tech vs. high touch.
As the teacher in back of the room stated, "Grammar is the contract binding our written communication."
Resources:
http://step.evergreen.edu/teams/hchen.html
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Thursday, 9:45am: Keynote Speaker: Jim Lengel "Metamorph: A Retrospect and Prospect of the Changing Faces of Technology in Schools"
Cute speech but in the end I didn't come away with much new to share. His intention was to have a little fun with where we were (i.e. the DOS prompt etc.), what's changed (i.e. Apple IIe, Mac, iMac, etc.), and where we are going.
Dr. Lengel showed a picture of a top of the line Chevy station wagon costing $7000 in 1981, the price of two PCs. Putting a computer lab together was like assembling a fleet of station wagons.
Dr. Lengel showed my favorite technology vision video, ìKnowledge Navigatorî by Apple. Produced in 1986 this video highlights many of the skill sets we want our students to develop today: communication, record-keeping, research, analysis, presentation, and collaboration.
Realities today: 165 million people connected to the Internet; Yahoo has 65 million different people and Google 40-50 million different people using their services.
We have a choice: we can hold back change (we wont use it unless we learn it first), we can stand aside (missed opportunities), or harness the energy (can't lick'm, join'm).
Kids today can: type, search, chat, and collect; they need to be able to: write, analyze, collaborate, and create new knowledge.
As Clinton sort of said, "The Assignment, Stupid!"
The key to success is developing better assignments. BD (before digitalization) assignments were simply read the chapter and answer the questions in the text book. AD (after digitalization) assignments need to focus on both primary AND secondary sources.
Assignments AD need to be less: search and copy, secondary sources, conclusions, predictable, and coasting; and more: compare and analyze, primary sources, construction of conclusions, diversity of sources and outputs, and work.
Resources:
National Data Buoy Center: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/
EarthBrowser 1.5.5: http://www.earthbrowser.com/
Worldclimate.com: http://worldclimate.com/
Jim Lengel web sites:
• http://www.bu.edu/jlengel/
• http://www.bu.edu/cet/about/jlengel.html
• http://www.lengel.net/online/
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Thursday, 11:15am: Exhibit Blitz
Amer.com http: ( www.amer.com )
Network stuff (switches etc.). Michelle, congrats on your promotion!
Qwizdom http: ( www.qwizdom.com )
Amazingly enough, these folks were back! Look at last year's review!
eInstruction : ( www.eInstruction.com )
And then there were two companies doing the "click in" thing! Personally, I think we'd get our collective selves booted out the door if we spent taxpayer dollars to acquire either of these systems; however, if somebody wrote a grant or won the lottery...
Very cool!
The Qwizdom units felt better; these units look and feel less sturdy.
Clicker4 : ( ww.cricksoft.com )
Very similar to KidWorks Deluxe. I think KidWorks is easier to understand though Clicker4 allows for hyperlinks to the Internet (at the age one would be using this product though, who cares?). I'm sending around a 30-day demo of the Clicker4 product.
Adobe Photoshop Elements http: ( www.adobe.com/products/photoshopel/main.html )
Ask David Lawrence, this is a great product! Again, a CD is being sent around with a 30-day trial version.
More as time permits...
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Thursday, 12:30pm: K12 Linux Terminal Server Project
Paul Nelson is the "Chip Miller" of computer based educational technology. What a project!
Here is a portion of a press release:
K12LTSP 2.0 (K12 Linux Terminal Server Project) released on February 10.
Portland, Oregon - February 10, 2002 - K12LTSP is free software with the potential to save schools, public agencies and businesses millions of dollars. It provides powerful desktop applications published under the Open Source License that encourages modification and improvement of the program code. Open Source software is free in terms of price but also free in terms of development.
K12LTSP is based on Red Hat(tm) Linux ( www.redhat.com ) and the Linux Terminal Server Project ( www.ltsp.org ) packages. Version 2.0 is an update from the first release in July of 2001. Since that time over 5000 schools, public agencies and businesses have installed the software.
K12TLSP installs terminal software on a server that powers diskless workstations (thin-clients). Applications run on the server with only the display, keyboard and mouse running on the workstations. This allows the continued use of older computers while avoiding costly upgrades. New K12LTSP terminals cost less than $200 each. Even greater savings are realized as diskless workstations have no hard drives or software to maintain. While the cost of operation is lower, users enjoy a faster and more reliable software environment.
A typical installation of a Windows(tm) OS based computer lab of 20 workstations may cost more than $20,000 while the same lab running K12LTSP would cost less than than $6,000. Reusing legacy hardware can reduce that cost to less than $2,000.
K12LTSP provides a wide selection of applications most often needed by users. Web browsers, word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and graphics applications are included and are free. Updates in the 2.0 release include automatic sound configuration on many computers. This enables the use of multimedia applications like Real Audio(tm).
Linux has experienced rapid growth as a file and Internet server operating system. It's expansion to end user desktops is not surprising says co-developer Paul Nelson. "No one operating system is the right solution for all tasks but LInux thin-clients are now a superior choice for providing basic desktop applications reliably at very low cost."
However, don't expect to download the software and roll out a production lab in a day and a half unless you have some serious Linux skill sets.
See Ken Allison at High Desert for more information.
Resources:
http://k12ltsp.org/
http://k12linux.org/
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Thursday, 2:00pm: Online, Education's Divine
More Jim Lengel.
Peter was distracting me with that laptop he borrowed from Apple....
Actually, this session did show the use of a slick little matrix widget to help evaluate online environments.
Role of teacher
Social Experience
Content: Extent, Form, Interactivity
We took a look at a few sites. Even tried it on the laptop. They seemed to have a positioning challenge with the wireless hubs.
Resources:
http://www.lengel.net/online/
http://www.lengel.net/online/analysissm.html requires Shockwave!
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Thursday, 3:30pm: School Network Design
Asante has some pretty nifty switch hardware coming out. I'm convinced we need to have as many managed devices as we possibly can afford on our local area networks.
Learned a few things for the upcoming new schools as well!
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Thursday, 7:00pm: Conference Social: EMP - Experience Music Project
"EMP is a one-of-a-kind music museum combining interactive and interpretive exhibits to tell the story of the creative, innovative and rebellious expression that defines American popular music. Featuring a world-class collection of artifacts, unique architecture by Frank O. Gehry, state-of-the-art technology, exciting interactive presentations, and a dynamic ride-like attraction, EMP will encourage visitors of all ages and backgrounds to experience the power and joy of music in its many forms."
"EMP was conceived by Paul G. Allen and Jody Patton. Paul Allen's early passion for Jimi Hendrix led to his amassing of the world's largest collection of Hendrix memorabilia, and later, his desire to share that collection with the public. Early planning soon gave way to a broader cultural mission for both Paul and Jody &emdash; to create a destination for celebrating musical innovation and for inspiring young and old to feel moved by music &emdash; and so Experience Music Project was born."
EMP is hard to explain ... it's sort of a cross between OMSI, the High Desert Museum, and the most comfortable chair in your house! I thought it was a bit spendy since I'm not really a rock'n roll kinda guy but the technological "coolness" factor is off the charts!
They have these nifty handheld devices patrons get to use to access information and music while browsing the exhibits. The Museum Exhibit Guide (MEG) device even lets you "bookmark" specific locations and information for later review, either in their music archive on-site or, get this, online via the web! Two weeks later and I'm able to bring up my bookmarks. Now, if we could get eSIS to work like this...
The interface on their web site is very unique. Give this site a couple of tries and then remember where you saw it first because, afterall, "it's blow'n in the wind!"
Resources:
http://www.emplive.com/
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Friday, 8:00am: Extreme Thinking: Transforming Traditional Technology Projects into Effective Learning Environments
If Annette Lamb ever learns how to modulate her voice and pace her speech she will become a dynamite speaker! Good heavens, this young lady cram two hours of material into fifty minutes! Fifty minutes of "playground" voice is a bit much.
Take a look at her web site. Lots of information can be found there.
Like a fool, I started to take notes like a madman, trying my best to keep up, and then I remembered she always has this huge handout! Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to have this handout online this year. I'll pass it around among the site techs.
Resources:
http://www.eduscapes.com/
http://www.eduscapes.com/llg/
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Friday, 9:30am: Emerging Media for Distributed Learning
"Classroom computers are envisioned as a technology comparable to fire: just by sitting near these devices, students get a benefit from them, as knowledge and skills radiate from the monitors into their minds." - Chris Dede, "Six challenges for educational technology"
Admittedly, Dr. Dede wrote this paper in 1998 but much of what he spoke about in this session can be found in this paper. My only concern about this paper and, in general, all papers relating to educational technology is they all point to studies done involving "ancient" technology. I'm sorry, a multimedia capable computer produced and placed in front of a student in 1997 is many orders of magnitude different than one produced in 2002. However, from pedagogical point of view, Dr. Dede's concerns are still valid.
If you find Jamie McKenzie's ideas to your liking then I think you'll find Dr. Dede's web pages and papers just as useful.
Resources:
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~dedech/
http://www.virtual.gmu.edu/
http://www.educause.edu/nlii/articles/dede.html
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Friday, 11:00am: Creative Minds in the Digital Age: Computers and the Growing Brain
I'm sure my wife would have understood the bio-technical aspects of Jane Healy's talk; I was feeling a bit like a fish out of water.
Dr. Healy's point is well taken with her concerns about computer usage by younger children:
"I think we definitely should be concerned with age differences in technology use. This is the question we have totally failed to ask and that is, 'At what age really is this technology appropriate?'
At high school, clearly to me at least, all of our students ought to be fluent with the tools of technology. Word processing, spread sheets, databases and the use of the computer in simulations and for a lot of conceptual learning.
In middle school, I think it is also important that we introduce them to some of the fascinating applications that are there for them. I am much more concerned about elementary. I think that perhaps the time to start them, ideally, would maybe be around late elementary years. Mid to late. And I really don't believe that children under age 7 should be on computers at all because their brain and their body and their socialization have so much to do at that age that I don't believe it is appropriate to take developmental time away from them to plug them into some kind of an electronic stimulus."
Resources:
http://www.technos.net/journal/volume8/4healy.htm
http://www.edtechnot.com/nothealy.html
Brain-based learning: http://www.excel-ability.com/Models/BrainBasedL.html
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Friday, 12:30pm: Apple Booth
Harry Bottemiller, a Senior Systems Engineer at Apple, is my hero. Romona, this guy deserves cookies!
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Friday, 2:00pm: Visual Intelligence: A 21st Century Skill
Cheryl Lemke has been around the technology scene for a long, long time. I've had an opportunity to hear her speak once before and found her ideas to be challenging. I was a little underwhelmed though this go around. The examples she shared were good but I kept looking at her (oh my!) PowerPoint presentation and jabbing Peter, who was snoring so loudly the maintenance guys were running around looking for stray dinosaurs, to point out how much the watermark in her slides was distracting me from being able to read the information! See for yourself (Visual Literacy Slides - 1.55 MB pdf)! Of course, I was being my usual outgoing self and asking lots of questions (well, nobody else was asking any!) which might have prompted Peter to wish he'd elected to attend a different session...
If you are going to go through the trouble to download the presentation then please take the time to sift through her slides. She makes many solid points which, from a certain point of view, make a lot of sense.
There are many links to "visual literacy" materials on her web site.
I'm not sure, but I think Peter mentioned he uses Robin William's book in his web design class, "The Non-Designer's Web BooK."
Resources:
http://www.metiri.com/presentations/NCCE-visual-literacy.html
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Friday, 3:15pm: Keynote Speaker: Hall Davidson Back to the Future: Preparing Students for the 18th Century
"It is a pattern in our culture that periods of extreme economic, technological, and social change are invariably followed by a tremendous resurgence in self-examination and a reassertion of basic truths. Students will find themselves in a time of information, expression, and rigorous reassessment of authority. In other words, the eighteenth century. What is new this time around is a trained teacher force and technologies that (ironically) allow a return to communication arts that were nearly lost. The sciences revealed much about who we are and we can use that knowledge to craft educational strategies with technology. We'll need them. Be warned! The next Enlightenment has already begun." -- Hall Davidson
During the closing session of this year's NCCE (Northwest Council for Computer Education) conference held in Seattle, Washington keynote speaker, Hall Davidson, conducted an interesting demonstration using the audience as a "living" timeline of technological advances. Mr. Davidson gathered four people on stage designating one individual to represent our students, one as our students' parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and then continuing in this fashion seat by seat, row by row, sharing with us a path representing the passage of time by generation highlighting the many "changing faces of technology."
I haven't a clue whether or not this was intentional though I have to say it was effective for me.
Resources:
Interview with Hall Davidson in the Sep. 1, 2000 issue of CIO magazine. Questions asked:
• CIO: You refer to the modern office workstation as a "death trap for creativity." Why?
• So is all the effort companies put into making an ergonomic workplace misplaced?
• Should companies totally redesign the workplace then?
http://www.mediafestival.org/halldavidson.html
http://www.schooltechexpo.com/2000/vault/conf/bodySpeakers.html
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Revised: March 27, 2002
Contact: John Aubry
