Theodore Sizer, whose obituary is in the New York Times today, saw a crucial key which unlocks individual education. As the obituary concludes: “He wrote in [his 1997 best seller] Horace’s Compromise, ”Horace Smith and his ablest colleagues may be the key to better high schools, but it is respected adolescents who will shape them.”
Adolescents who are respected are not the kids you find in failing schools and especially in United States inner city black schools. Dumping money on these schools demeans the student body even more. It resonates as failure that speeds a downward cycle of expectations that form of an underclass of can’t do kids. This underclass becomes a growing source of leftish political and union support, casting a deepening shadow on American democracy.
Ted Sizer did great work in creating schools where the adolescents were respected — beginning in the 1980s. It is now becoming much easier for any adolescent to avoid the demeaning expectations. We have a powerful new tool for eliminating the respect problem. The kid who uses his or her smartphone to browse the web connecting to knowledge and assessment options is not judged by its virtual teacher and tester. The mobile source of knowledge in the kid’s pocket does not know if its owner is in South Chicago, South Korea, or Southampton. It does not know if the individual connecting in is male or female, black or asian or white, or what grades school has given this person.
The experience young Sizer had that taught him individual adolescents can achieve is explained in the obituary of this remarkable and extremely insightful and constructive educator. Although in the experience this describes the pressure to achieve was group support, notice that it is the individual who is proven to be able to perform. In the virtual world of learning online, every adolescent is respected.
Theodore Ryland Sizer was born in New Haven on June 23, 1932. His father, also named Theodore, was an art historian at Yale. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from Yale in 1953, the younger Mr. Sizer served as an Army artillery officer, an experience that would set the course of his professional life.
Few of the young soldiers who served under him had completed high school, but when treated as valued members of a cohesive group they learned new skills readily, he found.
“Whatever troops you got had to deliver,” Professor Sizer told Phi Delta Kappan magazine in 1996. “If one person didn’t do it, he put everybody’s life at stake. That made a deep impression.”
The thesis of golden swamp is that what we learn and know emerges in network patterns from little pieces — and that can happen in the idea ecosystem of the open internet as it does in our minds. Big, static structures like curricula do not work well in the open ecology, and need to be unbundled into small pieces that can interact freely.
The two marvelous videos embedded above and below show the dynamics of small pieces emerging into music and molecules. That is very similar to what happens when you or I think. That is also what happens online when a learner connects interlinkable bits of knowledge.
The narrator of the molecule video says that, “Ribosomes can make any kind of protein. It just depends on what kind of genetic message you feed it on the RNA.” The music machine is also being fed a string of information code which it follows to activate the balls. Future curricula will include strings of information to activate online patterns of virtual bits of what is known by humankind.
Watch the video above to see a very recent advance in molecular science — the kind that would take months or years to reach classrooms before the edge of human knowledge moved online.
The researchers placed a thin film of water containing single stranded DNA molecules between a glass surface and a metal-coated base. By heating a spot on the base with an infrared laser a thermal gradient is created in the fluid layer, with cooler fluid at the top. This pushes the DNA molecules towards the top of the film. The laser is then scanned in a radial pattern from the centre; as the laser spot moves it heats up the fluid locally causing changes in viscosity which result in contraction and expansion of the fluid either side of the moving spot, which causes the fluid to flow outwards, away from the centre. The layer of fluid above this moving ‘belt’ moves in the opposite direction to conserve mass. In this way, the molecules, which have been drawn to the upper layer of the fluid by the initial heating, are pulled towards the central spot, where they accumulate.
Weinert and Braun showed that high concentrations of DNA can be accumulated within a few seconds when carried on the conveyor. ‘The mechanism does not require microfluidics, electrodes, or surface modifications,’ the researchers say. ‘As a result, the trap can be dynamically relocated. The optical conveyor can be used to enhance diffusion-limited surface reactions, redirect cellular signalling, observe individual biomolecules over a prolonged time, or approach single-molecule chemistry in bulk water.’
The image in the illustration above shows how a string that binds to different parts of a string of DNA causes a new configuration. Why not use the same principle to bind the meaning of small hunks of meaning in the open online ecology? When you think about it, something like that is already happening through tagging. Webpages with the same tags are clumped together during keyword searching.
Most importantly, the principle that is illustrated suggests what could be done by working at the nano level of the internet to enrich content. The illustration demonstrates that reducing ideas to their very small components makes possible new and multiple combinations. Typical educational curricula start from the whole big idea, restricting the flexibility of the pieces that compose the subject.
You will see that I am extrapolating an idea that is a stretch from the subject in the TED talk by Paul Rothemund where I found the illustration. It is a very interesting talk on DNA Origami. Clicking the illustration will take you to the talk.
As I continuing blogging here on the GoldenSwamp blog, I will link to the project pages for background about my topics. Everything I write about is focused on what the picture posted above illustrates: 21st century children will learn in new ways. We need to understand the new learning, develop the good things about it — getting our heads out of the 20th century.
The little girl in the picture with me above will live into the 22nd century if she reaches the age of 92. She will not remember the schools we knew in the 20th century. She has contemporaries in many parts of the planet who have no schools. There are many kids her age who are headed into schools, even in the most developed countries, that will leave them in an underclass. There are millions of girls her age who will not be allowed to attend school.
There are new ideas for learning that can end these and other education shortages and failures. We can help. I am working to explain how at GoldenSwamp.com and its new Ideas Changing Learning project.
For more than 500 years the book has been a remarkably stable entity: a coherent string of connected words, printed on paper and bound between covers.
But in the age of the iPhone, Kindle and YouTube, the notion of the book is becoming increasingly elastic as publishers mash together text, video and Web features in a scramble to keep readers interested in an archaic form of entertainment . . . .
The new hybrids add much more. In one of the Simon & Schuster vooks, a fitness and diet title, readers can click on videos that show them how to perform the exercises. A beauty book contains videos that demonstrate how to make homemade skin-care potions.
Not just how-tos are getting the cinematic work-up. Simon & Schuster is also releasing two digital novels combining text with videos a minute or 90 seconds long that supplement — and in some cases advance — the story line.
So, what about the obvious “vook” approach to school books? A word search shows neither “school” nor “textbook” is mentioned in this hybrid book round-up article.
School vooks can — and I feel certain — will soon be a mainstay of the new handschooling that will emerge around mobiles. We are in the age of the iPhone, Kindle and YouTube. Here is an opportunity for the mobile industry to tap into the billions spent every year on textbooks — an archaic form of curricula.
The kids will love text vooks and learn from them. If vooks teach homemade skin-care potions, why not physics? What are educators waiting for?
The school choice battle is about choosing between schools, or among schools. The anger-filled video from Reason TV embedded above demonstrates the stress this choice enflames. There is another choice unfolding that is to go to the commons of what is known by humankind online as a source for learning.
The new choice does not settle the arguments about schools. Instead it offers every student another — additional — choice for finding knowledge to learn. By combining two surprise serendipities we can open literacy and learning for the young global generation:
1. Handschooling: Getting an individual mobile device with wireless broadband browsing to every youngster, so that each of them can connect to:
There are many complexities to creating 21st century education, but there is a new, simple, increasingly doable step: connecting each student to what is known online. Doing that for a student does not make a choice, it provides equality.
Among the questions voiced by video game executives: How can Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft keep consumers hooked on game-only consoles, like the Wii or even the PlayStation Portable, when Apple offers games on popular, everyday devices that double as cellphones and music players?
And how can game developers and the makers of big consoles persuade consumers to buy the latest shoot’em-ups for $30 or more, when Apple’s App store is full of games, created by developers around the world and approved by Apple, that cost as little as 99 cents — or even are free?
The everyday devices that now offer games can not only bring the stuff of traditional textbooks — text and printing images — into the hands of students. These devices can offer later versions of constantly updated text, moving and interactive images, live cams for subjects studied, capture of images and locations being studied, and games that teach.
In fact, it is so obvious that individual mobile devices are at least as effective a replacement for textbooks as they are for game consoles that one wonders why the changeover has not been made long ago. My guess is that schools make decisions for large groups of students instead of one individual at a time. When it comes to buying a game console, a single player or family does the shopping and decides how they want to play the game. Also, billions of dollars spent annually on textbooks are at stake. Surely we can find a better way to spend those billions than on paper (remember the trees), ink, and delivering (making a big carbon footprint) millions of heavy books for kids’ heavy (spine stressing) backpacks.
My more recent focused definition of the phrase “golden swamp” is: the network in the open internet of what is known by humankind. Network laws operate freely out there causing the golden swamp to vet itself and emerge the freshest most authentic version of what is known about essentially each and every science, technology, humanities subject, etc. This remarkable new phenomenon is surely doing this: “taking advantage of new technology to give people something they want that they couldn’t have before.”
I don’t know exactly what the future will look like, but I’m not too worried about it. This sort of change tends to create as many good things as it kills. Indeed, the really interesting question is not what will happen to existing forms, but what new forms will appear.
The reason I’ve been writing about existing forms is that I don’t know what new forms will appear. But though I can’t predict specific winners, I can offer a recipe for recognizing them. When you see something that’s taking advantage of new technology to give people something they want that they couldn’t have before, you’re probably looking at a winner. And when you see something that’s merely reacting to new technology in an attempt to preserve some existing source of revenue, you’re probably looking at a loser.
In a decade or two, when the world looks back at the transformation of learning to mobile, what will be the kick-off date? When did handschooling* really take hold and get underway? I would lay down a bet that 2009 will be the year. Here are some reasons why:
First, smartphones are rampant. These devices are actually — finally! — delivering the internet through browsers that are easy to use for the nimble fingers and sharp vision of kids. The tipping point is close and closing for the cascade of internet browsing mobiles into the hands of student age people.
Second, the mobile phone transmission networks that are quickly covering the planet are also being crept into by internet browsing. I am not an expert here, but with my iPhone, where I can make a phone call I can browse the internet. That fact is transitional for learning.
Third, online knowledge quality of learning resources has become embarrassingly superior to print. A student simply learns more by clicking through the website of the Large Hadron Collider than by reading a textbook author’s synopsis written months or years before.
Fourth, handschooling is emerging in the for profit sector, while the edu sector continues to hemorrhage money. A fellow I know is qualifying for an Apple certification for which he can only take the test on his iPhone. Apple is not tax-supported.
Maybe the HandheldLearning 2009 in London in a couple of weeks will be the day of the turning point into the new era of handschooling. If so, its founder deserves kudos. A few years ago I was on a panel with Graham Brown-Martin who founded and heads the HandheldLearning conferences, now in their fifth year. He is a true believer in learning for every child which mobile can deliver. He has pushed forward to empower kids to learn with mobiles, against education establishment inertia and the need to clarify the mobile learning vision for all of us. Graham is leading a winning movement, as I am sure the Festival will reveal.
*Handschooling is a new domain I have registered. More about that soon.
One gets flak for optimism. The cool thing about the positive approach, however, its its power. In an eloquent tribute to Norman Borlaug, who died at age 95 this week, Gregg Easterbrook describes the incredible power of Borlaug’s good purpose. The entire article — a Wall Street Journal Opinion piece — is instructive to cynics and good sustenance for optimists. It begins:
Norman Borlaug arguably the greatest American of the 20th century died late Saturday after 95 richly accomplished years. The very personification of human goodness, Borlaug saved more lives than anyone who has ever lived. He was America’s Albert Schweitzer: a brilliant man who forsook privilege and riches in order to help the dispossessed of distant lands. That this great man and benefactor to humanity died little-known in his own country speaks volumes about the superficiality of modern American culture. . . .
Those of us who want to make a difference for the world’s young population now on the brink of starvation for healthy education can be inspired by Norman Borlaug’s persistence — and his huge success in getting done what he saw possible.
Yesterday I saw the new movie “9″ where awesome talents of animators and voice artists once again have created a dystopia. I confess to being a literary and movie wimp when it comes to appreciating art as the depiction of death, destruction, horror, and the rest. I know this is unsophisticated in the arts.
Yet clearly, dystopian illustration of the future is becoming a bit old fashioned. Exploding cities, out-of-control machines, and horribly visualized aliens are all very twentieth century.
The future that is now unfolding does not seem fraught with those kinds of horrors. In the 1950s, when I was in high school, they seemed very possible. That is when dystopia acquired its cachet. But we know more now, and times have changed. The odds I give for a real dystopia in the 21st century are at least 9 to 1 against it. I know, global warming is in those odds somewhere. Yet as I wrote in my post Ditching Dystopia: No dystopia is necessarily ahead, quite the opposite is proving to be true.
So, I entertained myself this morning by overlaying the “9″ poster on a photo of some pansy flowers I took last month in Colorado. Next I erased some background from the poster. Then I replaced 9’s light globe with a shining Earth globe (a visual pun like Picasso enjoyed).
Quite seriously, it is time to use creativity and insight to describe and capture the global enlightenment that is dawning through our digital connected age. Looking forward with optimism is overdue and I am hopeful that soon the awesome tools and talent of our artists are challenged to show us the light and flowering of the future.
This week I received the Half the Sky book just published about “turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide.” It is an important book about a crucial topic.
That said, the chapter on education completely misses the major potential of mobiles to change learning for girls: mobility! The huge problems they discuss for girls in getting education are all related to leaving the home to go to a school: cost, gender prejudice, menstruation taboos and embarrassment, demands for sexual favors from teachers, and even rape. (Wow!) Think of this: NONE of those problems exists when a girl stays home and uses her internet-browsing mobile to learn.
The idea that the new generation can and will learn somewhere besides and other than at school is not limited to girls. Worldwide there are many places where there are no schools but lots of kids. Here in New York City, there are lots of schools where kids attend but do not learn much because the schools have low quality and low expectations.
The new choice does not settle the arguments about schools. Instead it offers every student another — additional — choice for finding knowledge to learn. By combining two surprise serendipities we can open literacy and learning for the young global generation:
Yesterday I saw the new movie “9″ where awesome talents of animators and voice artists once again have created a dystopia. I confess to being a literary and movie wimp when it comes to appreciating art as the depiction of death, destruction, horror, and the rest. I know this is unsophisticated in the arts.
So, I entertained myself this morning by overlaying the “9″ poster on a photo of some pansy flowers I took last month in Colorado. Next I erased some background from the poster. Then I replaced 9’s light globe with a shining Earth globe (a visual pun like Picasso enjoyed).