THERE IS NOTHING WRONG HERE

My 94 year-old father had a heart attack over the weekend (8/4)and is still in the hospital. He is recovering and he should go home in a few days. This is hard because we live in Massachusetts and he lives in New Mexico, so there are a lot of phone calls.

Before my parents moved into an assisted living complex I communicated with my dad through email. He has had a computer for about 5 years and it became another source of connection between us. Not only the electronic connection, but the connection of a shared experience with technology. Whenever I would go to NM to see my parents I would spend time with dad at his computer installing some software or trying to fix something he had screwed up. He is a tinker at heart, like me, and can not leave well enough alone. And, of course, mom would complain that he spent too much time on the computer.

We have had conversation about how much the world has changed since 1913. Dad grew up in Pittsburgh, my grandfather was a draftsman and worked for the steel companies. So my father grew up during the growth of the American industrial revolution, the end of WWI to the end of WWII. He saw the explosion of the auto industry (he became an auto mechanic), the interstate highway system, the airlines, the electric grid, communication systems, TV, and computers. I remember the first TV my parents bought and the first time I saw a transistor radio. My father grew up at a time when most people in the US did not have a telephone now we all carry one in our pocket. Before WW II most people did not travel far from home, now the skies are crowded. It took days to send a letter to a friend, now email is almost instantaneous.

I don’t think we realize how much people of my parents generation (born 1910-1930) have had to adapt to a changing “flatting world”. For most of their childhood and early adulthood their world changed very little and what changes there were came slowly. By the end of WW II that change had began to speed up and has continued to increase.

As an adult and educator living at the beginning of the 21th century I have to make my own adaptations to the rapidly changing world of technology. The “digital natives” in my classroom seem to be adapting to the ever quickening pace of technological innovation. Watching my peers try to adapt to the digital age has given me a new appreciation for my father. He has had fun learning to use a new tool/toy and maybe that is a key to living a long life, have fun and adapt.

Both Nena and I recently read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. For those who don’t know about the book it is the story of how Greg, who was attempting to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world, ending up building dozens of school in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The book is on the best sellers list and we have been telling everyone we can to read it.

His story is so compelling for two reasons. The first is the old theme of a person’s struggle to overcome adversity. In Greg’s case the adversity takes many forms; personal, physical, and cultural. The second reason is it tells the story of the people living in tribal areas of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. Greg give these people a humanity that balances the demonization of them that has happened in this country since 9/11.

His book is compelling because it show how the efforts of one man can change the lives of thousands of people. He has not only changed the lives of the people in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but the lives of anyone who reads the book. By bringing some understanding and humanity to people half-a-world away, maybe we can find ways to solve problem without using violence.

Greg started the Central Asia Institute to build school using local resources and labor. Many of the schools are for girls. The girls are more likely to stay in remote villages as the young men leave. By training the girls in basic hygiene, the death rate of children can be cut significantly.

As a teacher I was struck by the story of the children gathering in a open field to do their lesson; they were writing in the dirt because they did not have any writing materials. The village was so poor they had to split the $1.00 a-day fee for the teacher with another village.

As Nena and I were watching the new Harry Potter movie last night (the best one so far), Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry started to look very familiar. Mr. Fudge is the school committee, who is more interested in holding on to his power than seeing the problems (Voldemort). The administrator who is out for a power grab is played by Dolores Umbridge. Once she becomes headmistress school becomes “by the book”, and she uses intimidation and pain as teaching tools. As a students asks in the Dark Arts class, “When can we learn real magic we will need in the real world”. Because the students are not learning the real skills they will need, they turn to Harry to teach them.

Are the leaders at the national, state, and local level more interested in power and getting reelected than looking at the real problems in education? Are school leaders more interested in looking good for their peers or solving real problems. The students are telling us they want to learn real skills for the real world. Maybe if we listen to the students we will learn together.

I want you to meet the new me Jaime Theas, my avatar in Second Life . I can be found at Eduisland II looking at all the new resources being built there. I am still a new citizen learning how to live in SL. I have had a passing interest in SL, but when I started reading Kevin Jarrett’s blog The Story of My “Second Life” I knew I had to become part of this community of educators. Kevin has been working with the teachers and students at Suffern Middle School as they explore the integration of SL and education.

Then there is Sloodle, a mashup between Second Life and Moodle.

Sloodle is a project to integrate the VLE platform Moodle with 3D immersive settings such as Second Life. Imagine a Moodle course that, if you wanted, could turn into a proper 3D interactive classroom with all your Moodle resources available to your students in the virtual world.

Many of you may have seen Karl Fisch’s Did You Know video, but did you know that he has created a trio of video about the past-present-and future of educational technology.

The first video is called What if and is about the historical resistance to using new technology in education.

The Did You Know? video is here as a streaming Flash video and here on YouTube.

The third video is called 2020 Vision. In this video Fisch is giving the keynote at the high school graduation in 2020. He looks back over how much the world has changed over the last 13 years.

When I received the flier about this symposium I was not sure I could go, but I am glad I did. I have been looking forward to this for 2 weeks. I have learned so much since the MassCUE Conference in November I wanted to touch base again with some of the same presenters from November. I have been reading Will Richardson’s book from cover to cover and was able to get get him to sign it. He has so much energy and want to spread the edtech message to everyone. I was able to reinforce many of the concepts Will introduced in November.
I was also able to get more out of Paul Colombo’s podcasting workshop, now that I know more about what he is doing and I am doing. The Digital Kids workshop was very informative also. Producing and publishing instructional digital videos is not diffcult and many students could do it.

The conversations around the table at lunch are always interesting. Comments about the lack of technology integration teacher training at the college level is an issue that not many people are addressing. It is assumed that a 21 year old new teacher will be tech savy, but that is not true. They may have a blog and a MySpace, but that does not mean they can use tech tools effectively in the classroom. More work to be done.

I have been thinking about how to integrate some of the ideas I have from the Symposium into the curriculum at Career Tech. I guess I need to find out what they do now. My feeling is not much other than use computers for word processing and graphics.

I never thought I would be reading an article in American Enterprise Institutes’s website, but there I was agreeing with Charles Murphy. Would a liberal think tank write three articles about the role of intelligence in education and society? I think not. Murphy’s thesis is “Today’s simple truth: Half of all children are below average in intelligence. We do not live in Lake Wobegon.”

I work with the children who, for many different reasons, are constantly running into their limits of academic achievement. They are constantly told that if they try just a little harder they to can achieve academic success. Academic success for many students is an 8th grade education, much less passing the state mandated test for graduation. Murphy does not suggest we give up on these children, but that we are realistic and use the limited resources to better meet students and societies needs.

Alan November’s Learning Communities website has a series of podcasts that push the educational system to rethink everything. Do yourself a favor and spend the time watching and listening to Alan and other forward thinking educators. My approach to teaching has been changing over the last two years, and now I feel empowered to keep moving forward. 

As will happen when you are digging through the Internet, one link lead to another and I had to read Teaching is dead, long live learning. I have watched Leigh Blackall’s screencast three times and I am still absorbing and processing his message. It is time for the 18th century factory model of education to die and a new model to be born.

Teaching is Dead, Long live learning is an iconoclastic statement aimed at the traditions of modernist education. It uses the sociological and economic impact of media technology, in particular the Internet and its strengthening of informal and networked learning, and calls the foreseeable end of the traditional roles of teachers and ultimately the school system. It is in this day and age that the ideas of Ivan Illich become more realistic…