Posted on Friday, 15th October 2010 by Moncrief

Creativity is the “engine” of the United States.  So often we do not celebrate it in our schools.  We should!  Let’s think about this example.  The holiday shopping season is coming up and how long does each transaction take at the register?  One minute?  Two minutes?  Ten for the lady who had to dispute the 10% discount sign on the lingerie rack!  What wasted time!  For the customers, for the profits of the retailer, for the guy in the Santa Clause suit.  How do we look at this problem creatively?

MobilePay Video from Randy Smith on Vimeo.

Why do people shop in department stores rather than buying it online?  They want the item now, they want to hold that pair of jeans in their hands and feel if it is soft enough, etc.  While they want that “real world” experience, they also want expediency and efficiency. With identity fraud, why are people hesitant to use credit cards?  This is a real threat.  Insert creativity and you will see what MobilePay! and companies like them are creating to problem solve this issue.

The current 21st workforce grew up with an educational culture that appreciated and showcased creativity.  This is why, today’s software developers are bringing these types of solutions.  Today’s students are growing up in a society that appreciates and showcases creativity, yet their educational institutions are focusing on productivity and the almighty “standard” test.  Sure, standard assessments are needed, yet the focus to a monolithic teaching style that does not bring the pluralities of learning will be detrimental to the creative “engine” of America 2020.

The lack of creative thought in today’s students may be a lagging indicator of the problem-solving skills of tomorrow’s workers.  Teaching in the “real world” requires creativity and a spirit that cannot be one-sided.  We teach to pluralities.  MobilePay! (http://mobilepayusa.homestead.com) and others like them were able to see the pluralities of a problem and profit from this creative thought.  Do you students?  I hope so.

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Posted on Tuesday, 12th October 2010 by Moncrief

We often talk about this blended experience in education where connectivity is the glue that brings an emerging and strategic education to students.  I work with many Second Language teachers and a technology that was revealed by Cisco lately, has some great possibilities.  Umi Telepresence (http://home.cisco.com/en-us/telepresence/umi/).  Whenever, I see a new technology the key is to look past it and then predict. 

On the surface the Umi technology is a social tool.  Send and receive video messages and instantly communicate in HDTV.  Pretty cool and engaging technology.  But, underneath is more than likely a predictor for education.  What if students were out experiencing learning in the real world and then could dial in an instructor to ask a specific question, have a short discussion about the material, or connect to another student to report out their findings.  Can we do this with audio today?  Sure.  Do we?  No.

Video is the next tool for eduction to tackle.  I remember 15 years ago, when anything with video was going to be made for education you had to hire a crew to make the video for you.  Now, I just do it myself.  While the quality is not near the production quality that I could get from a crew, I can make them quicker and more timely.  What if I was having a review session and I could instantaneously send that helpful piece of (video) information to all my students?  Kinda like an environment where a “Really Simple Syndication” is a way of making a “Really Stimulating School” and a tool of engagement. 

Sure, the Umi environment is a way’s away from the average school district, but here is something that needs to much closer in time.  A video server!  One where students and teacher alike can upload and share content.  Innovators are using a variety of tools (teachertube and schooltube) to compensate for the lack on an internal video server.  So many of the computers that districts around the country are issuing to students have video in them, but they are not creating the structure around it to get that video out and shared with others. 

To educators and educational leaders, video is the “chalk” of the 21st century.  Give your teachers and students the opportunity to be engaged and give them a chance to make a “Really Stimulating School” experience.  Want to hear what the future of video is about, check out this video with Cisco’s Senior VP Carlos Dominguez by CNN’s Ali Velshi:

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Posted on Friday, 8th October 2010 by Moncrief

The advent of online instruction is here, and some may argue that it is in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation of development. I was on a call last night with a company (e-mantras with their Mobl21 http://www.mobl21.com/login) and we were discussing how they are making a piece of mobile technology interactive. You see, the companies that are making the dent in the holistic learning environment get it and we as educators are a little slow on that topic. The key to any learning is interaction.
I think that the apprentice style of education, where the student was the focus point and they reflected the master teacher, is really where this blended/online/hybrid educational environment is going. Apprenticeships have tons of interactions (remember the Latin term for interaction is inter alios “among other persons”). They are tough to schedule on the school’s master calendar. And therein lies the problems, the master calendar and traditional office hours have inhibited creative and meaningful interactions with students.

I read an article today that illustrated the fact that learning is between people. Very interesting concept and flexible–my blended-learning friends would be interested in this model. http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/104461348.html

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Posted on Thursday, 7th October 2010 by Moncrief

Creativity is one of the greatest skills needed for the 21st century workforce. Creativity in education is generally disregarded in the public schools because of the need to assess it. Creativity is not easily assessed. It not only cannot be put on a bubble test, but it requires the time and coaching to teach. This teaching time is so valuable to developing the creative student. It is a time that schools and teachers need to pack into their already highly scheduled days. What good is knowledge if you can’t creatively express it?

Teaching creativity requires the educator to “bend-back” or reflect information with the student. Teaching creativity asks the teacher to not only model creative works but to recognize them. I am fortunate to see the creativity of 106 online educators come through my email box each day. One daily posting struck me about this subject of creativity. A teacher was congratulating a student in a Digital Photography course for exploring the images that he could capture from a freezer in his house. You know, that “ice box” that produces those cubes for your sweet tea.

An “ice box” is as “real world” as you can get! Teaching and learning happen to place in the most common aspects of our lives, however we often think that we have to look to some fancy institution to get knowledge. Can creativity be taught? Surely–”one ice cube” at a time.

If your not convinced that creativity is a skill that needs to be taught in America’s schools, take a look at what a student from Harvard-MIT made. Creativity is a “real” world skill!

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Posted on Wednesday, 10th February 2010 by Moncrief

Hey!  This is Global Investigator Caitlin!  I am packing my bags to bring you insights into the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada.  What are we going to investigate?  Everything that has to do with the people of the World!!!  Why do they gather in Vancouver?  Where do these people find their spirit and enthusiasm?  What is it about the Olympics that is so special?

As I put the last toothbrush and sweater into my suitcase for my departure to Vancouver, Canada–I am reminded of the words of Astronaut Joe Edwards.  Mr. Edwards talked with some 1st grade students last year about Space Exploration and his travels aboard the Space Shuttle.  He said that one of the greatest memories of the is seeing the earth without any borders that fill the maps we see everyday.  

One of the interesting things is that the Space Shuttle Endeavor is up in Space currently and they are viewing this borderless World!  As people gather in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, we will see a borderless world.   The clouds must look like the skiing trails that will be in Canada at the Winter Olympics!  We begin our journey tomorrow to Vancouver, Canada for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.  Can’t wait to share the journey with you!  Global Investigator Caitlin

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Posted on Wednesday, 3rd February 2010 by Moncrief

It is amazing, just a few days after the anticipated announcement on Apple’s iPad—there are so many blogs downplaying the WOW factor for the consumer market.  So, have to have the $500-800+ iPad, but can begin where they are.  This might be a few laptop carts, a half a dozen desktop labs and a new smart phone policy on campus.

So, Apple’s iPad is to Blackboard, as the Blio eReader is to Moodle.  When we look at it from an educational perspective, we need to look to history to see where we are going.  It may not be the Apple iPad, or the Blio eReader, but, somewhere instantaneously they are “selling” it to education.  Certainly, much has been made about Amazon’s Kindle DX and the Barnes and Noble’s Nook with no certain fanfare.  Is the iPad the eReader/eTextbook’s Knight in Shining Armor?  Before we rush out and think that the iPad is going to replace textbooks, we need to look at the history of open-source in education.

Certainly, you recognize the two LMS (Learning Management Systems) in my title, Blackboard and Moodle.  In the history of LMS systems, Blackboard, and others, have been that standard in Enterprise Systems.  Then we saw the rise of Moodle, Open-Sourced and Economy-friendly.  For Education, this was a game-changer!  There was now an affordable market for individual schools, districts and states to create and develop learning content themselves.  As a consequence of this Open-Sourced development, several of the Enterprise Systems merged and focused their product.

This same, cat-and-mouse type of development will be seen in the eReader market too.  We can already see the set up of the development game.  Apple and their iPad are moving us closer to a hybrid environment for the eReader that includes both text and dynamic content.  However, on the sideline and quite possibly the Moodle of this equation is the Blio eReader.  If you are not familiar with Blio, you can read about them here.

Blio can convert any book into the Blio format and bring it to the reader in rich color-format.  It will not only allow for text to speech, but also synchronize unabridged audio with digital text (they call this print + audio).  Blio can also customize research tools and bind together LMS-type functionalities inside the eText.  All of this in a product that can go from reading it on your laptop in class (you get to page 23), and continue reading in on your iPhone on the bus home (it will load to page 23).   How cool is that?

For Education, this multi-platform reader is ideal.  If a school wants to ramp up the eReader program, everyone does not in between.  The Flex option is most likely where we may land.



Posted in 21st Century Education | Technology in Education

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Posted on Wednesday, 27th January 2010 by Moncrief

Teaching Weapon: SMS Text

The American Superpower has created a brand new weapon, SMS text.  To my knowledge, this was not created from a Pentagon design, but rather the ever-emerging evolution of social media.  Ever since Neil Papworth, an engineer with Airwide Solutions sent a simple text message, “Merry Christmas” on December 3, 1992—this weapon of TEXT messaging has been refined.  Over the past week, the American Superpower has leveraged this weapon to raise millions of dollars for our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

You see, the individual becomes a collective power through new media.  We saw this power in the 2008 Presidential election and we can see it in the Red Cross text message donation campaign.  It is a mechanism to connect and impact “the crowd” without ever assembling.  If CROWDSOURCING, as the keynote speaker experiment that ISTE performed for their 2010 Conference in Denver works, how could the power of this medium be a tool in education?

Sure, education can use it to text announcements and updates on school closings.  On a rare-snow day in North Carolina, might I receive a text message rather than a call from the Science teacher who has me on in the “Phone Tree list?”  Absolutely!  However, these solutions are just the beginning!

The real power is in students molding my teaching by the feedback they provide to me. Can that feedback happen in seconds and have less than 140 characters?  Sure! There are tons of tools to do this (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc) and many educators are beginning to do this.  However, are we creating these “crowds” of Learners with our students?

Twenty years ago, a teacher might put a suggestion box in their room and periodically get a pulse to drive instruction.  Ten years ago, a school district might analyze a parent/student survey sent home on a bubble sheet to influence their strategic plan.  Five years ago, students might email an expert to get a quote for a research paper.  One year ago, my students posted and answered technical questions through a Discussion Board.  Two months ago, I began subscribing to these discussion boards so that it was sent via email to my mobile device.  One week ago, I wished that I could reply faster to my students question at 3 am in the morning.  One day ago, I answered the 3 am question.  Tomorrow, I hope that I can text that student right back.

Immediacy, is an element of the “crowd source”—Can it be worth 140 characters?  Could texting make our students “smarter” and more productive?  It may just be a weapon that we need to point in our direction.

Posted in 21st Century Education | Technology in Education

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Posted on Friday, 22nd January 2010 by Moncrief

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Posted in 21st Century Education | Educational Policy | Emerging Issues in Education | Global Investigator Caitlin | Globalization in Education | Technology in Education

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