The good ol' days ...of 2008!

Was just going through some of the files I have in iTunesU in advance of a bit of research I'm doing around the use of LMS and similar tools in our environment here at school, and I came across a series of videos I had downloaded from "Learning and Teaching Scotland". Recognising Stephen Heppell as the commentator in these two videos made me have another look at what he said. Haver a listen - what Stephen said in Scotland "way back" in 2008 is still perfectly relevant, and will remain perfectly relevant into the future.

Pay particular attention to the role of the teacher as Heppell portrays it. Do you believe it? I know in my subject area of interest it is so true. Some of my Year 11 students are currently engaged in work and they are producing an output far in advance to the skills I would bring to the same task. But at least I have guided them this far, and I know where their next steps should be, and where they can get the skills they need if I don't have them in my head.

So listen for 2 minutes to Stephen on the School of the Future



and again on the aspect of Emerging Technologies (note that this was 2008!)

It's about Culture, stupid!

"The purpose of education is to focus on the culture of schools", says Sir Ken Robinson during his keynote on Day 1 of the recent EduTECH 2014 conference.

Along with 5199 other educators I sat in the dark of the Brisbane Convention Centre at 4:15 pm waiting for what (I'll be honest) I expected to be the absolute highlight of the conference. 90 minutes later I, along with most others in the auditorium, rose to give him a standing ovation. It was an incredible experience to listen to such a wonderful story teller.

Now - the messages? Well, there were some of the old ones. Creativity, industrial schools and the like. But the context had changed a little from the past. He spoke passionately about the current obsession with PISA results and their use as a ranking system. He is perfectly correct when he observes that education policy is now as important as defence policies in many western governments. He rolls out some incredibly powerful graphical representations of the changes in population growth in general, and the shifts from rural to urban in many of the big cities of the world. LA and Sao Paulo were particularly impressive with the scary growth that has happened there over the past 50 - 75 or so years.

Back the culture of schools as important. He talked at length about the nature of agriculture and the shifts in farming as industrialisation really kicked in. The shifts from diversity in the local farming area to one where mass production of crops, aided by machines and fertiliser, had changed the landscape (and the land). He spoke of the problems of soil health and disease that easily results from this type of farming, and a major response to this move has been to see organic farming increase in importance. Where if you get the conditions right (get the soil right) then diverse growth happens.

He talks of the 4 principals of culture: diversity, ecology, fairness and care.

He says that growth comes from beneath (and he shows a great visual of a tree to support this). He makes the point that politicians are usually only passing through, and very little of what they do will stick. Teachers must make the difference - the revolution must come from the ground up.

He urges teachers and educators to see the world through the eyes of students. Move towards more organic education. Move away from the battery hen format of curriculum and assessment to organic and free range.

He ends with two short videos - one that has been on Sunday (or 60 minutes) recently - the Landfill Orchestra and one from a school that I didn't quite catch - but was in the Middle East and looked at kids responses to the same task that had been worded differently. It was something around giving kids a partially completed drawing (in fact it only had a triangle in it) but one group of students was given the image with the instruction: "complete the house". The other was given the instruction : "complete the image". The difference between the outputs of the students was astounding. [I must find that video somewhere!]

I'll leave you with this short clip from Sir Ken's keynote. I hope more of it appears online in the coming weeks. It was an honour and a privilege to listen. It as the fastest 90 minutes of being "lectured" I have ever witnessed.


Sir Ken Robinson at EduTECH 2014 from EducationHQ on Vimeo.

Project Tomorrow

Just been reading "From Chalkboards to Tablets: The Emergence of the K-12 Digital Learner" from the Project Tomorrow group. Apart from the easy read of the 17 page report about the learning opportunity that over 300,000 students say they want, the interesting points for me were the following ...
 "The impact of the teacher in the technology usage equation also appears to have changed. In 2003, 31 percent of seniors in high school said that their teachers’ lack of knowledge about how to use technology was a significant barrier to their own use of technology at school. In 2012, only 18 percent of students in grade 12 felt the same way. However, 40 percent of the Class of 2013 say that a major obstacle to using technology at school is that their teachers consciously limit their technology use." (Page 9)

 And from the very first page of the report ...

"Our coaches were mostly college students and they helped teachers set up their first email account, do searches for lesson plans online and format class newsletters. At the same time, these college students were tasked to work with students at the schools during their computer lab time and in afterschool programs. We soon learned that the coaches were engaged in a vastly different set of activities with the students than with the teachers. With the students, the coaches were setting up electronic pen pal relationships using instant messaging and social networking sites, conducting web quests with NASA, the Jason Project and National Geographic, and helping the students self-develop HTML and programming skills to create their own websites and multi-media presentations. More importantly than the difference in the sophistication level of the respective activities, however, was the seemingly insatiable appetite that the students had for using technology more effectively within their learning lives." So, if you believe the numbers, students believe 20% of their teachers lack sufficient knowledge about how to use technology to enhance learning. But 40% consciously choose to inhibit students use of technology. For the full report go here.

Conveyal of Content is a Commodity

"Education teaches you to cope with certainty."
"Learning teaches you how to cope with surprise."
"Every day is a surprise. There is no certainty."

Stephen Heppell is well known internationally for his research and practical solutions and suggestions for the future of education. The three quotes above are from him - as part of a video put together about the future of learning.

There are a number of things that resonated with me when I watched this video. I'll mention them here and then put the video in for you to watch.

1. The video brings together the thoughts of a number of people that I have to some degree or other heard of and heard from in the past. Heppell of course has been to NZ a number of times and has somewhat of a legacy here. Seth Godin is another well known IT, marketer and thinker. Don Tapscott - whose quote opens the video - has written extensively about "Growing up Digital" and "Grown up Digital"
2. "The graduates of Education must be uniquely valuable, not identically valuable" - so says David Warlick.
3. More children will leave school over the next 30 years than have ever left school. Period. So, if we can make a small change now we will impact a lot of people.
4. I had only the night before seeing this video signed up to a course at coursera.org. So, I was pleased to see something I had gone past the mere viewing stage to see what the next level was like was featuring here. Labelled as the "world's best courses, on line, for free" I'm looking forward to taking my first course with anything between 10,000 and 100,000 fellow course members come February next year. Yes - you read right - 10,000 or more students. [Of course there are other similar ventures - like Harvards and MIT's edx site.]
5. A big point for me is one that I have made on and off now for several years. And that Daphne Koller says far more eloquently than I ever will... "conveyal of content is a commodity".

Here's the video ...



So - what will make the difference to the student of today ... the leader of tomorrow? Whatever you do, don't get bogged by the content - it will change and there are far better mechanisms than you to deliver it! Do get bothered with sharing the learning journey with those in your care. Foster creativity. Foster mistakes. Embrace that which makes the journey easier. Challenge existing "truths". And if you must assess, then build a meaningful assessment of learning that goes past the narrow confines of the examination paper and the examiners marking scheme. [I mean, so what if the student doesn't use the exact word that the examiner wanted them to use ... or they have just recorded an answer using one less line of working than the examiner was expecting... or they used a diagram to explain a concept that the examiner was expecting words for ... apart from the examiner, who cares? In "real life" you get the opportunity to discuss opinions and ideas ...]

A real future - or Glass Cleaner required!

Just over a year ago, Corning (the glass manufacturer) posted a video on YouTube called  a Day Made of Glass. In the past year it has had over 18 million views on YouTube - viral by any definition. The video is about 5 minutes long and is here for you to watch.



Now - anyone who has used an iPhone/iPad or tablet of any nature (or wears glasses for that matter) will smurk - how do you keep the stuff clean! Bad enough with just your own prints on it - just imagine everyone elses! But of course - this is not the point - the point is the possibilities for the future.

I remember Alan Kay and his great quote - the best way to predict the future is to invent it. So - it's the direction that these creative people are looking that makes the video worth watching.

In February of this year, Corning released a sequel. A Day Made of Glass 2. Here it is.



It has had 1,500,000 views in the last month or so.

And then to top it all off, a video showing the "truth" behind the video - how it was put together and explaining the technologies and where they are at, and what might be possible in the near future and what might not. This video has had 650,000 views in the past month.




Watching these visions of the future is cool.  When you couple this kind of "biased" look through the eyes of a glass manufacturer with that of the latest version of the "Did You Know" series of videos, maybe you start to think of just how fast things are moving.




And how a sense of urgency is required when it comes to opening your mind to other ways of doing things ... particularly in education. Do you, for example, use YouTube as your second source of searching on the web?

Now - where do I get a large supply of  glass cleaner?

TED Talks: The mathematics of cities ... our future?

Have just watched Geoffrey West give a talk on the "simple" mathematics that governs the growth of rats, people, cities and companies. Well worth 17 minutes of anyone's time.

The Entitlement to Change

Last week saw the NetHui conference in Auckland - a meeting of some of the best minds in NZ to discuss the future of the internet and what our parts were in  it. Now, apart from the obvious question "What was I doing there?" - there were a number of takeaways from the conference - but the biggest came from Larry Lessig. Many of you will know that Larry is a Harvard law professor, and is co-founder of the Creative Commons. He was the keynote speaker on Friday morning - and the 40 minute presentation he gave has left me in a somewhat mixed state ... a state of both unease and excitement.

Unease, because in a time of intense change, change by its very nature creates unease. Excitement because we are in those times where the network is allowing anyone to claim their "entitlement" and to recreate culture. He talks of "entitlement" and "entitlement yielding change" often in his early part to his talk. I'd encourage anyone to watch this - it is challenging. It's 42 minutes.

If you are interested in how the web, this network, is "yielding change", then these 42 minutes will fly past.


How will students exercising their "entitlement" affect what we do in our schools? This is the big question for me. Anyone got some thoughts?

Is this the future of K-12 education?

Bill Gates hints to the audience at the end of this TED talk by Salman Khan that "you have just seen a glimpse of the future of education". I wonder if you agree?

To start with, here's the talk - it's 20 minutes worth, but it is worth it imho, particularly if you are a teacher of maths, science or geography - and from memory the Khan Academy also has a growing library of accounting and economic resources too.



So, is it the future of education?
Alan November gave a recent interview on TV in the US where he quoted brain research stating that "if you make the mistake at home in your homework, chances are you'll make the same mistake in the test - even if the error is corrected the next day".

So, maybe Khan is right.
With digital video content -

• you can watch it as long as you like
• you can rewind it as often as you like
• you don't need to be made feel uncomfortable by taking "an age" to get the point about something
• you will always get a consistent approach from the video
• you won't be told "I've already explained that twice"

Are you prepared to turn your classrooms around as Khan suggests?

What might some of the pros and cons of this approach be?

Is this a "Foundation for Excellence"?

"Digital learning can customise and personalise education so that all students can learn in their own style and pace, which maximises their chances of success at school and beyond ...." So says the report "Digital learning Now" from the Foundation for Excellence in Education.

The report lists 10 elements of high quality digital learning. Those of you who follow the push for educational reform won't likely find much new here. But what you will find is a list of a few key policy directions that stand a chance of delivering on the promise that technology has for education. Let me give you an example or two ... then you can digest the report yourself ... luckily it is one of those reports that is only a few pages long and doesn't waste time on putting in irrelevant stuff ...

Point 2: All students have access to high quality digital content and online courses.
Policy directions:

• do not restrict access to courses or content using class numbers, budget or enrolment caps or other such traditional measures ... just make them available
• do not restrict access due to geography
• do require school diplomas to have at least some online course completion requirement

Point 3: All students can personalise their own learning using digital content from approved providers
Policy directions:

• allow students to take online courses full time, part time or by individual class
• allow students to enroll in multiple courses from multiple providers
• allow enrollment all year round
• no limit to number of credits take

Each of the 10 elements has a similar "simple" look - a brief statement of the element and a few policy directions.

I wonder how this might play out in our environment? I have made several suggestions in the past in varying formats that I believe it is inevitable that the nature of learning in schools must change - and I liken it to Chris Anderson's view of Long Tail Economics - I just can't see education in its current form for some students being valid for too much longer. There will likely be a need for bricks and mortar for some - but for others, why? Why when there are better options?

Anyway, read the report, and keep the discussions going - and try and implement a little of the directions every day in your schools.

K-12 Online Conference 2009 Keynote

This online conference kicks off today with a keynote by Kim Coffino. Kim currently teaches at International School Bangkok and has been on the international school circuit for around 8 or 9 years. Her keynote Culture Shock, Convergence and the Future of Education is a 39 minute scene setter. I've only listened to the first 14 minutes so far - the section on Culture Shock. But Kim has made a few points that I'd like to comment on.

Firstly, she makes the now well made connect that many of us (western teachers) live and breathe what we know. Our view of the world is heavily influenced by what I refer to as our own KER (knowledge, expertise and reputation). She points out that her eyes have been widened to the richness in other cultures only through the contact that her travels have permitted. (So I can see the connection coming that I'm sure she will make between the power of technology to connect students globally and the growing desire to make these connections by both students an teachers.)

Once Kim gets past the introduction she hits on a number of the issues - those of mobility, customisation, 24/7 always on, tradition and new co-existing, just in time delivery, flexibility, collaboration, adaptability. She uses the backdrop of everyday life in Asia to good effect to make her points. The metaphor of everyday life and how education should be part of this and not stand apart from it.

At one stage she alludes to iTuneU and other online course availability to allow students (and teachers) to develop personal learning networks. I've often referred over recent years to the "long tail" economics approach to K12 education - I firmly believe that Chris Anderson's concepts of long tail economics can and will apply to K12 education - and quite likely in the realm of private education first. (Memo to self - finish listening to Chris's book "Free" - there is a powerful message for education in the first message that Chris delivers about the Monty Python experience of "free" with their Youtube channel!)

OK - lots more to pick up I suspect in the rest of Kim's presentation. But for now - off to class!

So, what is fundamental?

I'm at the stage of trying to reinvent our strategic and tactical planning at school - we need to move forward from where we are and have been for the last couple of years. While sorting out my research I found an article I wrote a couple of years ago and thought I'd share it here...(I wrote this before Seymour Papert has that terrible accident in Vietnam)

People laughed at Seymour Papert in the sixties when he talked about children using computers as instruments for learning and for enhancing creativity. The idea of an inexpensive personal computer was then science fiction. But Papert was conducting serious research in his capacity as a professor at MIT. This research led to many firsts. It was in his laboratory that children first had the chance to use the computer to write and to make graphics. Today Papert is considered the world's foremost expert on how technology can provide new ways to learn. He has carried out educational projects on every continent, some of them in remote villages in developing countries. He is a participant in developing the most influential cutting-edge opportunities for children to participate in the digital world.

In 2004, Papert addressed a conference in Sydney where he made the observation that too little time was spent in schools discussing “what constitutes fundamental?” By this he meant what is important to include in the learning opportunities that students are exposed to. He made reference to a key point – most of what is included in current curricula is the result of what can be written down in books. How relevant is this as we move at exponential pace into a world where writing on paper is not the main means of communication? Blogs, wikis, podcasts, email, social networking websites, instant messenger are all new modes of communication that no one had heard of a few years ago, let alone used. Today, sites like MySpace claim to be signing up 250,000 new users every day, and have over 200 million registered users. In addition to this, they claim that the average time spent by a user once logged in is around two hours.

A leading group of computer research scientists met in Washington, USA, in October 2006, to share their views on where they saw developments in technology moving over the coming years. In a summary of their meeting published in the New York Times and titled “Computing 2016: What Won’t be Possible”, the scientists shared their common view that the changes to science, the economy and to society that have occurred over recent years are minor compared to what will happen in the ten years ahead. Developments will impact on all areas in a far wider and deeper way than they have, and there will be significant social policy that needs to be addressed as a result of this.

This month (November), 250 delegates from 48 countries met at a conference held at Philadelphia's School of the Future, where all students have laptops, there are few books or pens, and teaching is done in multidisciplinary projects in which academic skills develop through work on real-world problems. "Education for most people doesn't promote creativity," said Sir Ken Robinson, a British educational consultant. "It actually stifles it." He cited research showing that 98% of children as young as 3 – 5 years showed divergent thinking, and that this dropped to only 10% of 15 year olds and 2% of 25 year olds.

There is a constant theme in each of these stories. Technology, in particular the personal computer, has brought unprecedented power to the user. Information is no longer the domain of books. The power of the press is no longer with the press. For the first time in history the access to information, and the ability to create and publish information, is with the individual.

We are at one of those points in history where fundamental change is taking place. Not just incremental change, but fundamental change.

Research from the USA (PEW Internet Group, 2005) is starting to show the preference for 8 – 18 year olds to get the information they want from an online source rather than in the traditional classroom or from their parents. They get information in a manner and a time frame that suits them. One reason for this is that irrespective of whether the learning style is visual, auditory or kinaesthetic, the individual can find something on the web to suit them. Technology is unique in this way – targeted carefully, it can reach any learner.

The implications and challenges to education are vast. None more so than at the “high stakes” testing we still engage in at the senior end of the school. We continue to assess knowledge in an unnatural time frame using anachronistic tools. The International Baccalaureate (IB) is currently trialing electronic assessment, and this is at least a step in the right direction. Internal (moderated) assessment is another step in the right direction, and both NCEA and IB have significant components of this. [ASIDE: it is not uncommon to hear questions regarding the use of technology in learning when assessment of learning is still carried out with pen and paper. There is no research that supports the premise that student achievement is diminished as the result of significant use of technology in the learning process. There is a growing body of research that supports the use of technology as an element in the improvement of student achievement in standardised testing. The UK is well ahead of New Zealand in the deployment of technology in state schools, and over recent years they have experienced significant increases in student achievement in all subject areas at GCSE and A level, despite their examination processes being even more formal than NZ.]

The New Zealand Digital Strategy states that “New Zealand will be a world leader in using information and technology to realise its economic, social, environmental and cultural goals, to the benefit of all its people.” (Ministry of Economic Development, 2005)

If we are to deliver on this objective at a macro (or micro) level, we have no choice but to deploy tools that will enable the student to successfully participate.

Creativity is a highly valued characteristic that employers seek in future employees according to a 2003 Victoria University study. Searches of the research literature into the use of technology in education frequently highlight creativity, problem solving and collaboration as key outcomes from successful use.

If Sir Ken Robinson is correct, if Seymour Papert is correct, and if the collective intellect of the top IT research scientists is correct then we have a duty to be pushing the boundaries of the “education system”.

We are at a place in time where change is occurring in an exponential manner. Change, by its very nature, threatens the status quo.

We must continue to ask ourselves “just what does constitute fundamental?”

It is a question that we will ask a lot more over the coming years. We are at the most exciting time in history.

Next Horizon Project starts tomorrow

Going to start with Kate from Landco to help set the scene then run through this Slideshare deck with the students. This slideshow has two extra slides that I usually don't use with this age of student - I have tended to just draw these on the board as I go. Slides 3 and 4 show the growth of information over time - the exponential nature of slide 3 is usually enough to convince most people that something needs to change, and quickly, with respect to what we try and teach and how. But it is worth going back to the overall view of all of history - I've just used since 0 AD - the graph is startling - we go "vertical" with our change of volumes of information - or knowledge. Just how do we cope with this with a society at large that is often blissfully ignorant of just how significant these times are in the history of our planet.

Horizon Project 5

View more presentations from Rob Mccrae.

Key Competencies

The Ministry of Education has launched a new web site dealing with the "key competencies" as outlined in our new curriculum documents. "Key competencies matter because things have changed" says the first line or so of the "Why are key competencies important". What I found interesting though was the short into video by Karen Sewell, our Secretary for Education. In this she alludes to many of the issues raised in the original (and many versions since) of Karl Fisch's "Shift Happens".

Why do I find this interesting? Well, I guess two apsects to this.

1) it gives credence to Karl's work and

2) if the Secretary of Education is making these noises, then maybe, just maybe, the messages are slowly getting through.

We are at the "mother of all inflexion points" that Tom Friedman talks about in his "The World is Flat". In Papert language, we are in the stages of fundamental change ... it's just that we don't often talk enough about just what constitutes fundamental as far as what we teach and what we learn.

Just in case anyone reads this and are not from NZ, the NZ key competencies are:

1. Thinking
2. Using language, symbols and text.

3. Managing self.

4. Relating to others.

5. Participating and contributing.

At first glance I like what the site is trying to do - provide information and support for teachers (and leaders) trying to implement the new curriculum, and build in the KC's to classroom activities. The following is a snap from the page exploring what the KCs might look like in teaching.

The highlight is mine - the teaching profession in our country is aging, and for a good number I wonder just how long it will take them to adopt these two "fundamental" changes in the classroom practice. Over the coming months we have the opportunity to really try and make a difference in education in our school and in NZ I suppose. I hope we are up to it.

The Long Long Tail of Education

I was lucky enough a couple of years ago to hear Chris Anderson (of WIRED fame) talk about "Long Tail economics" and its application to technology. It was at the Digital Summit 2.0 run by the NZ Government. I remember the talk quite clearly and wrote about the potential application of long tail economics to K-12 education when I returned to work a few days later. It's a thought that has stayed with me since. Just when will "education" become "commoditised"? And what will that mean for the independent school sector? [Note - you can hear Chris talk about the Long Tail and Technology on TED].

Now, in this talk Chris talks of "free" - particulary in reference to band width and fibre optic capacity. As you may know, the capacity of fibre is huge - currently capable of delivering 2500 CDs of data per second, and increasing at a rate of 3 fold every year or so. The FREE notion is the basis for Chris's new book -"Free : The Future of a radical Price". His promo for the book makes some interesting analogies (Gillette, coffee machines, cell phones, video game consoles) of products basically "given away for zero or very little cost, with the benefit to the company coming in downstream consumables. I thought that probably printers would have been a better example for many today - zero cost for the printer and exorbitant cost for the ink/toner. Malcolm Gladwell doesn't agree with all of Mr Anderson's assumptions - in his New York Times review he points to the inability of YouTube to make a profit as a key flaw in Anderson's position. As Gladwell points out, with a potential audience of 75 billion, even 75 billion x a few cents is still a lot of money.

Despite this, its hard to argue too much against Anderson in the educational sphere, and particularly the K-12 space - a space where education, at least in my country, is supposed to be free anyway. MIT have provided vast libraries of free content through their Open Courseware site. The Open Educational Resource movement (eg OER Commons, Wikieducator) are other examples where anyone can access learning material. Couple these types of resources with the myriad of other online sources and the ability to customise learning opportunities for people of any age is just sitting there waiting fore someone to challenge the embedded educational systems in many countries.

As Robinson points out, most societies have a similar system of education, so surely some clever group is going to challenge the status quo? As bandwidth continues to increase, the availability of courseware/content continues to increase and your ability to participate in communities anywhere continues to increase, then putting all of these together seems to make online learning for any age highly likely ...

... Or is the embeddedness of education, broader governmental involvement and the strange way we assess student learning at the senior end of schooling enough to suppress any revolution in this area? Perhaps the custodial reasons for existing school (aka baby sitting while parents work) is still way too strong for this change to happen?

We are awash in a sea of change, and that rate of change is increasing. With so much knowledge and information available on the network, it does seem rather quaint that we still have so many classrooms around the world that exist in a way where the teacher is still seen as the font of all knowledgea

A letter to the teacher ...

"Dear Teacher

I am writing to you today following the publication of the White Paper Your Child, Your School, Our Future: building a 21st century school system."

So begins a letter from Ed Ball, Minister of State, to teachers in the UK today. Head teachers got their version. Boards of governors got their version. Support staff got their version.

So, you've got to think that probably the white paper is reasonably important as far as schooling in the UK is concerned. I've had the chance to read the teacher letter and skim read the 18 page summary version of the white paper. Yep, on a quick summary, it looks pretty significant.
Here's a couple of the highlights so far ...

1. Pupil Guarantee - a 4 page document outlining the rights and expectations that pupils have. eg every pupil will go to a school where there is good behaviour, strong discipline, order and safety; and how about this one - every pupil will go to a school where they are taught in a way that meets their needs.

There's more, much more, like the Parent Guarantee, but this is a good place to start. I'm sure there isn't a school in our part of the world, or the UK for that matter, that wouldn't have something like both of the above points as part of their vision/strategic plan. But how many of them mandate them and have them as part of a student "guarantee"? A published one for all to see and be held accountable to?

Another part that appealed ... teaching seen as a Master's level profession with a new Masters in Teaching and Learning with associated professional development, oh, and the accountability part ...

So far I like what I read. Leighton Smith on ZB this morning was on about the Herald editorial supporting league tables for NZ, same in Aus, and so it's interesting that the planets are aligning with the UK going to publish school scorecards and faciliate league tables. Maybe some of the education leaders in these countries are talking to each other ... or maybe not. I'll look more at the UK plans in the next few days.

Why I love TED

I've just had the chance to watch Clay Shirky's TED talk from May of this year on how the likes of Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites are changing the fundamental notion of media and media construction and consumption. If you haven't heard it, spend 17 minutes now ... it is well worth the watch.



This video complements perfectly Ray Kurzweil's on the continued exponential growth in computing in general terms. (If you haven't seen Ray's original talk from 2005, then watch it first!) Thanks TED!

While I'm at it ...

Clay Shirky is someone I'm trying to read a bit more of. In an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review he talks about the demise of literacy as an outcome of television becoming pervasive, not the web becoming pervasive. He says that the demise was done and dusted by 1970, and that the advent of Web 2.0 technologies is actually bringing back reading and writing, it's just that those rejoining this literary space don't bring with them the richness of writing that Tolstoy engendered.

Shirky makes a lovely comment about half way through ...
"RJ: What’s your response to people who say that all this information that’s out there, all this knowledge that we’re producing is great, and there’s all this access that we didn’t have before. But we also risk information overload alongside, and we don’t—
CS: Oh, those are the stupidest people in the entire debate because they, I mean, almost all of the people arguing that this is the Dark Ages are narcissists, because they’re essentially trying to preserve a particular piece of it."

I like this line of thought. Thanks Clay!

Here we go again!

Blog number ... oh, who cares. This is yet another attempt to try and get things right in the world.

For every time I've heard someone say that education is the way of the future I can show you a school that either hasn't heard the message, has heard it but doesn't know what to do about it, or has heard it and chosen to ignore it. This blog is my attempt to work through the issues.

Thanks to Wes Fryer for this link to Future Schools. Stephen Heppell makes a nice analogy towards the end of the clip about rail and road, linking school development to it.