Blurts

I have frequently addressed topics under the heading of Flat World on my other blog. The phrase comes, I assume, from the writing of Thomas Friedman, and within the analysis there is a concern that the U.S. educational system and the effort level of students needs to improve to maintain a competitive advantage in contrast to emerging economic powers. Friedman\’s analysis is more nuanced and involves many interrelated issues, but one of the messages that seems to be seized upon by so many is the challenge to our educational system. I would not interpret what Friedman has to say as about blame – in fact many of the economic concerns he raises are a product of the differential speed of success (e.g., engineers in India may work for far less than the engineers in the U.S. – this is a function of where different countries are in general standard of living, but in the short term, it does indicate we may have to become more successful to maintain the economic advantage we presently enjoy).

I value this YouTube video from edwardseducational because it challenges some of the popularized concerns that many (perhaps me) raise to argue for change. As I have suggested in other posts, it is important to consider multiple perspectives and not focus exclusively on those with a similar message. Some of the arguments in this video remind me of a book published in 1995 by prominent educational researchers David Berliner and Bruce Biddle. Their book (The Manufactured Crisis) systematically addressed many claims demeaning the U.S. educational system and offered data refuting each claim. The international inferiority of the U.S. K-12 system was among the claims addressed. It can be difficult to sort out genuine concerns when there are incentives to point fingers or promote causes that can be economically self-serving.

The demands of the 21st century are often couched in dire economic predictions and somehow educational institutions are to save us. What is it that is to be developed – STEM, problem-solving, critical thinking, etc. How about a concern for equity and ethical behavior? The present economic down turn seems more related to greed, fraud, and lack of interpersonal responsibility than to a lack of scientific knowledge or entrepreneurial spirit.

It is fun to be able to play with tech. I learned about Boxee from a podcast (source now forgotten) and received an invitation to download the alpha some weeks ago (no longer an issue). I was interested in streaming video sources and Boxee appeared to be a way to integrate multiple sources. At about this same time, NetFlix began streaming to the Mac (using Silverlight). I experimented with these tools on my Mac, but wanted to be able to display the video on a much larger screen.

I somehow got the idea that the AppleTV was the hardware necessary to get the video to a HDTV and convinced Cindy it would make a great birthday present. I did have some of the details wrong – I assumed you could stream anything from your Mac to AppleTV if you made use of this strange hack that required to prepare a flash drive with some special software and boot to this flashdrive instead of the hard drive of the AppleTV. This may still be possible, but not with the software I used.

\r\n

I do need to read a little more carefully. You don\’t really stream everything from your Mac to the AppleTV and the flash drive is for installing software on the AppleTV (a little more risky than I had originally thought although there may be another technique out there that does not require modification of the AppleTV itself).

The method for modifying the AppleTV makes use of code written by the Google people so I was willing to give it a go (Hack technique). It took a little experimentation, but I was able to get it to work. The AppleTV works as originally intended and has the added features of Boxee. The unique benefit of Boxee as far as I can tell is mainly that it offers access to HULU. NetFlix works on a regular computer, but not on the AppleTV (at least not yet).

Fun project.

p>I intended this title to be controversial. How else does one get attention?

Will Richardson offered a post a few days ago commenting (criticizing) a Washington Post column by Jay Matthews. The title of Matthew’s piece “The latest doomed pedagogical fad: 21st century skills” may offer some insight into the focus of the article. Actually, I read the article and found it much more neutral than you might expect from the title. Again, you get little attention for being neutral.

In discussion the nuances of 21st century learning and the value of active online participation, Richardson claims:

But while that can sound like a pretty positive and powerful space, it is fraught with complexity. We have to learn to read not only texts but to edit them as well, not just for accuracy but for bias, agenda and motive.

I could not agree more.

Here is my take – hopefully including an attempt to evaluate for agenda and motive. I agree with the Richardson position that “interest based”, “friendship based”, and “passion based” learning is great. We have all had such experiences and these experiences may have shaped our careers. We may enjoy such commitment outside of our areas of employment and continue to toil into the night cultivating skills that are valued by few and compensated by no one. When we reflect on our interests (science fiction, bird watching, stamp collecting, photography, music performance), we may wonder why others do not share our passions. The reality is that some of us will listen for hours to classical music and others see this pursuit as boring. Education is a lot like this – I still find some tasks quite tedious, but realize in my maturity that this is what my job entails. Others experience these same tasks with a different mix of enthusiasm and boredom.

Richardson speaks of his personal experience in blogging for 7 years. It is true that some of us have committed to this activity for this long, but the reality is that we are in the extreme minority. Most folks who start blogs quickly give it up. Simply put – what are exciting tools and learning experiences for some are not that interesting to others – even those who give it a shot.

I do think that educators should be open to the potential of new tools and new methods. Exposure to these tools and methods will be quite exciting for some students. Others we will find will not engage unless we grade, carefully list the number of required posts, etc.   The skills we find exciting and important will be recognized as such by some, but not others. Group-based education kind of works like this and always has.

Cindy forwarded a link basically advertised as college student “must haves” – 10 Tools to Save your Butt. There are some helpful tools here, but also the support of some unethical practices. One tool (file destructor) creates a fake file students are encouraged to submit when they cannot get an assignment done in time. So, instead of the dog ate my homework, the idea is to plead the computer ate my homework.

Some students may wonder why instructors are cynical when they claim they were sick or at a funeral. This type of thing is the reason. What type of response do you expect when such approaches are openly advocated?

BTW – I tell my students that their technology skills are part of what may be evaluated on any assignment. I give them suggestions for testing my requirements – e.g., send an email to yourself so you know that an email sent through the CMS works. I do suggest that they make certain files they have saved can be opened again.

A virtual chat with Sasha and Marcia from Nizhny (Russia). These are friends Cindy made during her travels and she stays in touch. The coming of the New Year seems a bigger event in Russia. They give presents and welcome Father Frost much as we do on Christmas eve.

We exchanged several vodka toasts each followed by a pickle. There appears to be an order to the toasts. I remember the second round is to remember your parents. They were eating caviar on toast. Hard for us to match that, but the cost in Nizhny is a fraction of the cost in the U.S.

The first day of 2009 did not go so well. We were on the road from Wisconsin to western Iowa to visit my mom. Shortly after dark we came over a rise in the highway and confronted a herd of deer standing in the road. No options in either lane. I probably had the speed down to 40-45 when we struck two deer. Car pretty messed up, but we are fine. No insurance adjustor until Monday because of the holiday. We will borrow a car from brother Dan to get back to North Dakota. Could have been worse.