Is the Future of Education on the Web?

Astoria High School in Astoria, Oregon just became an experiment in the future of student computing. The tech company Google put an experimental laptop into the hands every one of the school’s 700 students. Beyond the usual one-to-one initiative is the fact that the particular laptop, named the Cr-48, is not a regular laptop, but more a cross between a laptop and a mobile internet device.

Here's a video of the initial deployment at the High School.

What a day!

The video below is a humorous take on why to use an internet based notebook over a traditional laptop. Note: at the end it mentions that 25 computers were harmed during the filming. No kidding! With the fabulous photography, especially in slow motion, and the application of wonderful yet damaging scientific/engineering procedures, this five minutes and 37 seconds is well worth your time even though it is an infomercial.

What does the P in PC stand for? Why personal of course. But have you forgotten why the C was called P? I know, the Cr-48 is not just a dumb terminal accessing a mainframe…or is it? Either way, that’s not my point. Instead, I would like you to consider why we wanted some P in our C.

Was it to get away from the mainframe? Likely. But remember the mainframe is not dead, just remarketed. IBM has a whole page of mainframes for sale on their website as well as a historical archive of information about the mainframe. And with just a slight tweaking of the meaning of the term mainframe, cloud-based computing and thin clients have pushed mainframe as a concept back to the forefront. It’s just that the mainframe no longer must be physical machine in a physical place. Instead it is more of a mystical aberration where everything is sort of …well, everywhere, anywhere, somewhere?.

In a nutshell the Cr-48 looks like a laptop and behaves like a laptop, that is if you only use your laptop to surf the net and use web or cloud-based apps. It does not download in the traditional sense, nor run traditional programs beyond its browser-like OS called, as you’d expect, Chrome OS, and Chrome-based apps. In fact, in some ways is similar to the One Laptop Per Child Program's XO machine.

Here are some links to info and reviews about the Cr-48 notebook:

Google’s site showcasing the Cr-48

Engadget’s review of the Cr-48

A first-hand account of using the Cr-48

A description of a soon to be released public version

And of course, a naysayer’s take on the Cr-48

So the Google CR-48 Chrome notebook is an interesting change in paradigm…or is it?

I’ll spare you my take on the Cr-48, especially since I have not played with one yet, but I do find this technology innovation somewhat circular in its reasoning. Not good or bad, just circular. But remember, traveling in a circle does not mean you are always in the same time zone.

New technologies have a way of arriving before their time. But in this case, the Cr-48 just might be right on time. Very much like the iPad, it will take users of the Cr-48 a while to start asking what it can do rather than what it can’t. But once over that hump, there is a great big world of new possibilities waiting discovery.

And that's when things will really get interesting!

Really using 21st Century Technology

In the video above, a Missoula third grader gets to use a rather striking example of 21st century technology to talk about some common topics in science, namely earthquakes and volcanoes.

Interestingly, back at the 2009 National Science Teachers Association's national conference, the US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan mentioned that, “You need to challenge yourselves and each other to move the curriculum beyond dinosaurs and volcanoes…”

Duncan did not say don't teach about dinosaurs and volcanoes, but instead teach about them and then beyond them. Frankly, if kids could grasp the actual science behind dinosaurs and volcanoes, they would be far ahead. Sadly, most lessons in these areas focus on lower level (knowledge, comprehension, etc.) "facts" which are easy to assess with multiple choice instruments.

As I watched the video, I was encouraged by the pauses as the student studied the imagery on the globe. He is not reciting anything, but interpreting what he sees which in my book is at the highest levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. In other words, complex scientific images are presented in a spherical (authentic) representation of the earth which in turn are then cognitively analyzed (separated into pieces) by the student, then reassembled (synthesis) into a reasonably coherent explanation of the relationship between the pieces (remember the student is only 9) .

A few things to keep in mind: 1) the sea floor is visible here, but in real life it is not; 2) the images are in false color; 3) his sister is selecting and moving different images of which the student does not always know what is next; 4) the globe is bigger than the student so he cannot even see half the globe from his perspective; 5) the colors change and the oceans and continents switch between positive and negative space projections; and 6) the student is able to adapt to the images "on the fly" meaning he understands not only the individual concepts but their relationship to each other.

The Price of the Wishes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea3oQeP2nPM

This MCPS video provides some insights (and coaching, I presume) into what students wish for, expect, and deserve. It is an interesting list and in most cases requires more change in attitude and procedure than in funding.

I believe there are many opportunities to save money while implementing the 21st Century Initiative. Do you?

Here is an abbreviated transcript of the student wishes. Following the wish, I added my thought about the cost of such a wish. Although I leaned my guess on the generous side, my point is that we can do much with little or no change in cost.

Each question is followed by the gist of the student response.

· How do you feel you learn the best?

· When it’s quiet with a touch of music Free

· … teachers demonstrate things Free

· …my teacher demonstrates stuff Free

· I see how to do it, then I do it Free

· When I have a partner who can help me Free

· By doing the project. Not just by watching them Free

· …when someone shows me Free

· …with interactive projects Free

· …when I have music on Free

· being able to stand up and move around Free

· hands-on experiments Free

· when my teacher shows me it and we work it out on our whiteboards Free

· when you work in partners Free

What do you wish the school day looked like?

· …start a little bit later Free

· ? fun and friendly with math Free

· start later and end later Free

· start the same but end at 4 Free

· more social studies Free

· perfect, no problems

· an hour in gym Free

· science every week Free

· come in at 9 and end at 2:30 everyday Free

· start at 8:40 Free

· longer so we could learn more Free

· more geography in our school day Free

· more science Free

· bright and sunny Free

· started a little later and end later Free

· 20 days in a row school and then an 8 day break Needs study

What do you think students need to learn to help them be successful adults and community members?

· Read higher ranked books…push themselves to the limit Free

· Math and science Free

· More science Free

· Science and math Free

· Math and reading Free

· More science and social studies Free

· More math Free

· More English Free

· Math and reading Free

· How to handle real-life situations Free

· Fish and hunt Free

· More math Free

What technology do you wish you had at school?

· New computers Large expense

· iPads Mild expense

· more internet access Free

· faster computers Large expense

· laptop Large expense

· iPads Mild expense

· iPad Mild expense

· iPad Mild expense

· iPads Mild expense

· smartboards in our desks Large expense

· iPads Mild expense

· iPads Mild expense

· touchscreen computers built into the desk Large expense

· newer computers Large expense

· touchscreen computers built into your desk Large expense

· iPads Mild expense

· laptops Large expense

· iPads and computers Mild and Large expense

· new computers Large expense

· laptops Large expense

· five cameras Mild expense

How would you make a better learning environment?

· Bigger with more ? Free?

· Like how it is Free

· Wouldn’t change anything Free

· Like it the way it is, perfect… Free

· Having kids pay attention more Free

· Standing up desks Mild expense

· Like it the way it is Free

· Get the weird smell out of there Needs study

· Have a longer school day Free

· Stand-up desks Mild expense

· Art Free

· Take reading tests Free

· I like it just the way it is Free

20th century skills for the 22nd century and beyond!

"To know the road ahead, ask those coming back."

---Chinese Proverb

-----The following is a post I made in my Science 2.0 Blog for the National Science Teachers Association about its consideration of 21st Century Skills. The original post appears (click) here.-----

A team of science educators has developed a new NSTA position statement acknowledging the value of 21st-century skills within the context of science education (available here). The statement advocates for the science education community to support 21st-century skills consistent with best practices across a science education system and notes that “exemplary science education can offer a rich context for developing many 21st-century skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and information literacy.”

With the first decade of the 21st century already in the rear view mirror, it is somewhat interesting-for several reasons-to still be considering what we call 21st century skills. Like it or not, the 21st century is already 11% over, and yet 21st century skills discussions are couched as if 1) there is a really a choice, and 2) the 21st century is still to come.

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane to consider the challenges to traditional education when calendar pages all over the globe flipped from 1899 to 1900, or in this case, to 1911.

Some of the notable events of the first 11 percent of the 20th century include:

The first Nobel Prizes are awarded

The first Trans-Atlantic Radio Signal

Einstein proposes his theory of Relativity

The first electric washing machine

Ford begins selling the Model T

Plastic is invented

Peary is first to reach North Pole

The air conditioner is invented

Blériot flew his monoplane across the English Channel

Rutherford discovers structure of the atom

Raymonde de Laroche was the first woman to receive a pilot's license

Amundsen reaches the South Pole

The first talking motion picture is demonstrated

Digested, this list indicates we drive cars, human flight is obvious, instant global communication is possible, we have a serious challenge to Newton, the guts of an atom are known, and we have stood on the extreme reaches of our planet. In essence, kids, everything from here on out will be much different than anything known before. Ever.