Learning and Technology are Better Together

I can’t remember what event or forum I was at where I heard this but the facilitator asked the group “what do you teach?” and each teacher shared what they teach… “I teach English”, “I teach Math”, “I teach PE”, “I teach grade 5”, etc.  The facilitator than asked “Don’t you teach students?”.  Profoundly, teaching isn’t the goal, learning is.  I think we lose focus of this at times.  Teaching does not guarantee that learning is happening.  Learning is not necessarily dependent on teaching.  I know there will be those that disagree with me but I think we’re on a trajectory in time where learning will be dependent on technology.  However, today I suspect most of us would agree that technology is still seen as optional in schools, just a tool.

In my travels through Vancouver schools, I hear a lot about the barriers to using technology: networks are slow and unreliable, no wireless access, not nearly enough access to useful digital learning tools (computers, tablets, handhelds) for kids or teachers, not enough technical support.  No coherent way to store, share, collaborate: “how do I get this iMovie or iStopMotion video, etc. off the iPads”.  Cloud service privacy issues – a British Columbia phenomenon.  There’s not enough time for teachers to learn how to use technology for teaching and learning and to transform the teaching and learning processes.  I believe that as we build the case, the imperative so to speak, for learning through technology that these things will take care of themselves.  People do connect to important purposes and changes when they are part of the journey.  Our “system” will prioritize its scarce resources for what makes a difference in the the learning of kids.  The challenge though is to demonstrate the imperative where so many people in the education field still don’t see it – the way things were and are works just fine, we think. 

As part of removing barriers, we will transform our infrastructure to a utility grade “invisible” support where there is always enough and it’s always on – just like oxygen.  We will focus scarce resources on learning technologies and make BYOT a priority ensuring equity is kept at the forefront.  We will build (where necessary) and integrate online and mobile spaces for students, teachers, parents, and staffs to store learning evidence, to undertake learning, to teach through, to inform, and to transform work to efficient connected processes.  We have to!

So, barriers being removed, what then?  To take learning to whole new levels, the process and activities of learning need to be immersed in the use of effective technologies.  Take writing for instance.  When writing is done on paper, the words, the ideas, they are trapped on and enslaved to that single dimension medium.  The students thoughts can not be easily shared beyond their teacher.  Shift to digital writing and their ideas are lifted up, free to be broadcast to real audiences, to be shared and remixed, to be improved upon by others.  Their ideas can be enriched through other mediums such as video, audio, pictures, and 3D virtual learning worlds.  Or how about art?  Using an iPad, I’ve seen young students learning to take effective (and respectful) pictures of each other and then negotiate with classmates on what they feel is appropriate finger painting.  Not only did they have fun and they were engaged, they learned how to take good photos, how to negotiated, how to practice social responsibility, and how to be creative with art.  This would be difficult, if not impossible, without technology.  For Physical Education, kids with SmartPhones could use apps to track their heart rate, breathing, caloric burn, and if on a run, hike, or bike ride, their route, the elevations, etc.  They can post this information on a class blog to share with each other and their families, compare and contrast each others data or just their own, forecast improvements and develop plans to accomplish that, and use the data to track their progress.  Not possible without the technology.

I was visiting with an elementary school Principal and Teacher last week and we were talking about new possibilities with technology.  I showed them how with SIRI on my iPhone I can ask questions like “what is X^2 – 3X + 8” and it taps into Wolfram Alpha to solve the equation, show and name the graph, show the roots, derivative, integral, and show its work in doing so, in seconds!  I asked SIRI about earthquakes near Japan and in seconds, again with Wolfram Alpha it plotted them on a map indicating their magnitude, dates, and times.  These are activities kids are asked to do without technology. Or, perhaps they are told to “google it” to do the research and then do the work by hand (create the table, draw the graph or map, color the picture, etc.) while consuming hours of precious learning time.  Why not use the technology to do the grunt “robotic” work and then ask big questions that require thinking.  Ask: “For that 5.2 quake, 9km off the coast, research what damage the coastal towns experienced.  What if that 5.2 quake was 6.2?  Estimate the damage you think would occur then and justify your thinking.  Now move that 5.2 quake to within 5km of the coast, what affect do you think that would have on the coastal towns?  What advice would you give the towns people to prepare for these alternative scenarios?”.  There are a lot of cross-curricular learning outcomes coverable with problems like this.  How often is there time for students to solve real problems like this?  Unfortunately, they are often too busy doing what computers do best.  We need to leverage technology’s “magic” to free learning, to free teaching, to move to whole new levels of engagement, knowledge acquisition and development, and personal growth.  Learning and Technology are better together!

I think we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg in what technology will do to disrupt and transform learning.  Currently most use of technology in classrooms is either for teaching or under the direction of the teacher.  Kids usually don’t get to choose when they will use technology or what that technology is – it’s “assigned” to them.  The problem is school systems and those of us in them, continue to stand in the way of the potential.  I would like to see education systems move to a model where it is a student’s right to use technology, to choose what that is, and the school systems provide safe spaces for them to store their learning, share it, reuse it, and enable teachers and families to be plugged into the kids learning, provide easy feedback on it, and to highlight great work.  Obviously the degree of choice and teacher direction will need to evolve from K to 12 but we need to arrive quickly in a place where kids really do own their learning.  Until all learning has either a digital focus or at a minimum, a digital trace, learning will remain trapped in physical spaces with very limited value.  Isn’t it an imperative for education systems to free the learning from the technologies of the past?

Technorati Tags: K12,education,immersive,knowledge,learning,students,technology,transformative,vision,WolfRAM Alpha,SIRI,iPhone,iPad,digital,BYOT

Pervasive Inequality

I find it rather surprising how much I did not learn about important aspects of history during my stint in the K12 education system as a student.  Was it taught and I tuned out or is it a challenge of too much history, what do kids need to know?  I’ve listened to two ear opening audio books recently, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World and Civilization: The West and the Rest both written by Niall Ferguson.  In many ways, these books expound dark truths about our past.  The abuse of peoples, the creation of vast inequities are the story of our past which were essentially driven by greed, power, and fanaticism.  Our past is rife with conquest, enslavement, murder, starvation, etc. and the love of money is clearly at the core.  We continue to strive today against inequities and inequalities but I wonder sometimes if this is a losing battle.  The civilizations and systems we live in and with are still stacked against the many and favor the few.  The relative prosperity and high standard of living many of us have grown up with as baby boomers and subsequent generations, is highly unusual.  It is also apparently in decline.  Take the economic meltdown of 2008 – we haven’t seen the end of this yet.  Countries and their people are on life support – we’re simply temporarily insolated from the impact of massive debt loads.  Even in the “wealthy” USA, there are 1.5M households living on less than $2 per day (Wikipedia May 4, 2013)! “During the Age of Reason, Francis Bacon wrote ‘Above all things good policy is to be used so that the treasures and monies in a state be not gathered into a few hands... Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.’” (Wikipedia May 4, 2013). 

Today in a British Columbia there seem to be a lot of competing interests and entitlement minded people.  Our politics are polarized by this.  Politicians promise what they think people want, costing large sums of money, without being clear about how they will pay for it.  People want more / better health care, better transportation, cleaner environments, and want to be paid higher but they don’t want gas pipelines, business development, or higher taxes.  They want the “government” to pay for it.  I suppose they don’t realize that would be themselves… Inequality persists in this complex society.  On a global scale, people are dying every 3 1/2 seconds due to extreme poverty.  This should concern us.  Zooming in on a BC school system, my eyes are opened every week to the inequities in the Vancouver area.  We have schools where most families are unable to feed their kids consistently and schools where many kids drive fancy sports cars.  How, in a system of pervasive inequality do we provide a technology infused equitable education?

I truly believe that access to information, knowledge, and people around the world is an essential ingredient for a society and its education system. The Internet has developed into a sort of global mind.

We have already largely outsourced our historical, intellectual, social, and personal memories to our devices and the cloud. Kurzweil, Ray (2012-11-13). How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed (p. 246).

We might be shocked how much of who we are is now inseparable from the tools we use on the Internet.  Our memories are stored in digital calendars, notes, blog posts, tweets, Facebook or Google + posts, pins on Pinterest, and emails, to name a few.  The people we know and learn from increasingly don’t live anywhere near us.  We become smarter and more capable through these connections and tools.  But, pervasive inequality exists in this new world.  How can we call our education system “modern”, equitable, one that serves the needs of all kids and families, and allow access to modern tools with sufficient bandwidth to be unevenly distributed?  How can we continue to not invest adequately in ensuring our teachers and school leaders have the skills and knowledge to use technology, teach its use, and enable students learning in critical new ways?  In my travels to schools I see pockets of technology infused learning, but it is highly unevenly distributed.  There is a lot of money poured into K12 education in BC every year.  Yet, there isn’t enough to address today’s inequities of access, skills, and knowledge that persist with technology.  We must remove barriers.  It increasingly bothers me when people so easily relegate the use of technology for learning to “just a tool”, “a support to learning”, or worse “unnecessary”.  Technology and learning today should be are inseparable.  We accept so much less when we “force” students to write or draw on paper where their words are trapped and at best appreciate by their teacher.  When ideas and thoughts are stored in digital mediums they are free to be shared, mixed, mashed-up, learned from, and re-used.

It may be a pipe dream but I would like to figure out how to eliminate pervasive inequality (with respect to access to technology in education) - it is becoming somewhat of a mission for me.  I want us to remove barriers such that teachers and students experience a diverse technology infused learning journey.  For our kids to live successfully in this ever increasingly complex world, technology needs to be baked into their learning pathway through our schools.  People need to learn to let go of their own notions of entitlement and help our systems direct resources to investing in our kids futures.  In fact our kids futures are our futures.

Technorati Tags: K12,citizenship,education,economy,equity,equality,values,Civilization,Money,poverty,technology,students,history

Imagine the Car

With my recent job change where I now commute 48km each way through a complex labyrinth of roads and traffic, I have lots of time (45-50 minutes in the morning, 75-105 minutes after work) to reflect on the state of our transportation system.  Along the way there are seven cities, one bridge, and approximately 40 lights to navigate.  Traffic stops, goes, slows, speeds up, weaves (no signaling), merges, people cut each other off, some talk on phones, some day dream, some get sleepy, etc.  It’s a rats nest of dangerous weapons driven by people, many who shouldn’t be driving, just waiting to have an accident!  Let’s imagine together what could be done to change this up…

There are some fundamental changes required to create intelligent roadways.  Electronic nodes could be installed, perhaps as nanopaint, and applied to the sides, lanes, and center of roads, starting with the freeways, highways, and major commuting routes.  Additionally, the cell phone networks could be filled in with deep capacity along the same routes providing high speed wireless Internet to vehicles.  Cars and trucks could be equipped with wireless radios and navigation systems that interact with the traffic control nodes and with other vehicles – every one being an intelligent node.  Combine this with satellite radios, accurate GPS triangulation, radar, and all vehicles would be embedded in a redundant virtual transportation grid.  All vehicles would be in sync, anticipating the others moves, perhaps sharing destination information so that they know when a vehicle will change lanes, which exit they will take, which lane a car entering the highway intends to enter, etc.  Think of this as a machine omnipresent transportation experience.  Google driverless cars are glimmers of this future.

The driver, er passenger, would speak directions to their vehicle or perhaps the vehicle would interrogate the passenger’s smart phone’s calendar to see where they are to go, and off they go.  The passenger, can go about their business of reading, e-mailing, social media interaction, writing, planning, thinking, sleeping, etc., while their vehicle safely and swiftly gets them to their destination.  Perhaps commuters could negotiate with their employers for travel time work credit.  Rather than work days extended by 2-3 hours of travel time, a portion, perhaps 75% of the travel time would count as work time.  Of course this would only apply to office, information, knowledge type workers but that would be a significant benefit for many people.

Vehicles would routinely and safely tailgate because they will know what to expect and when.  Traffic will flow at very high speed and with little to no accidents (assuming the bugs are carefully worked out).  When vehicles do leave the smart roads, say to enter a suburb that hasn’t converted yet or a rural or remote road, the vehicle would instruct the passenger to be ready to take control and become the driver.  Eventually most roads would be part of the new grid and only very remote and rural areas would require human drivers to be involved.  Perhaps though, new technology involving laser, radar, video, sonic, and satellite radio / GPS techniques would enable driverless vehicles to even work in those areas.

Vehicles would likely in this scenario, be fully electric.  Perhaps the road ways would be coated or embedded with a solar nanoelectric charging surface which enables vehicles to trickle charge all the time, always having maximum capacity.  This system would be more efficient, time effective, safer, faster, and better for the environment.  Imagine the freedom for disable persons.  A person who has lost their site, can now get to places on their own in an intelligent vehicle. 

Car of the Future

Google’s research in this area is remarkable.  Add smart roadways to the mix and it could be the perfect transportation system.  For me, I would embrace this future car instantly – it would transform a stressful, dangerous, time wasting commute into a relaxing and productive experience.  Thinking selfishly for a moment, I will retire in less than 10 years so I really hope this becomes a reality before then!  If not by then, when it does, 100’s of millions of people’s lives will be transformed for the better when this is a general reality.  How about you, what do you imagine for the cars of the future?

Technorati Tags: Travel,automation,future,infrastructure,invention,machines,scenario,technology,Google,Driverless Car,transportation

People Power

I know, the title sounds kind-of retro, something from the 60’s, but let’s not go there.  I read and write a lot about machine power and how machines are increasingly taking over roles in society that were previously thought to be human only.  As this inevitable trend plays out, it will be increasingly important to be crystal clear about the role of people in the economy and society in general.  We seem to be on an unwavering trajectory to a highly automated and robotic future so why not leverage that likelihood to the people’s advantage.  Let’s be sure to keep our roles up front and center in this brave new world that’s unfolding.

“In the years ahead,” Rifkin wrote, “more sophisticated software technologies are going to bring civilization ever closer to a near-workerless world. Race Against the Machine (Kindle 118)

I remember as a kid hearing about some utopian future where machines did the work and people sat around enjoying their leisure.  That doesn’t sound too bad actually.  However, a good part of what drives us humans is the need to contribute in meaningful ways to meaningful initiatives.  Work is actually a innate need built in to us.  I love my job, it’s exhausting, stressful, but super fulfilling at the same time.  It’s part of my purpose.  I suspect most people deep down feel the same way so let’s not give it all away to our machines.  So, what might the future of people power be in an automated robotic future?

When people are enabled, supported, and networked, great things tend to happen.  The mixing of ideas amongst diverse people results in breakthrough innovations.

“The history of the modern world is a history of ideas meeting, mixing, mating and mutating” Rational Optimist (kindle 3806)

We need to design new physical work spaces and practices with mixing and true collaborating in mind.  Google is on to something at their GooglePlex facility if the stories we hear are true.  They have funky open collaborate spaces, slides between floors, game rooms, and swimming pools.  Perhaps we can’t afford spaces like this in our schools and School Board offices but certainly a less institutional design would be helpful.  In my visits to new schools in Vancouver such as Kitchener Elementary, I’m encouraged by the new design thinking.  This school has varying sized classrooms clustered in learning communities that include shared learning spaces that spill out into the halls.  Rooms open up between them to make larger spaces when necessary.  There are larger commons, small nooks, benches built into walls below windows, spaces that spill outdoors, etc.  It’s important to work on the needed shift in practice with teachers so they can maximize the benefits of funky learning spaces like this.  Often schools skip the culture preparation step and these spaces end up being used as traditional classrooms are and the benefits of mixing and learning in new ways, are lost.  It’s important for kids to learn to mix ideas, work collaboratively and cooperatively, to be creative, to be allowed and encouraged to think outside the box, to learn to push the boundaries and not learn in containers.  This generation will be faced with a automated machine run future in the 2020’s and 2030’s and it is imperative that they learn to maximize people power, through togetherness.  Learning from school contexts, how can we disrupt and rejig our office spaces?  How can we help our work teams shift to new models of mixing, learning, collaborating, and maximizing their collective wisdom?

This is not the wisdom of the crowd, but the wisdom of someone in the crowd. It’s not that the network itself is smart; it’s that the individuals get smarter because they’re connected to the network. Where Good Ideas Come From (Kindle 678)

Add new or future technologies into the mix and we get an amplifying effect.  Technology in its bare essence is an amplification tool.  We need to expand our networks.  In physical spaces we can only connect, learn, and work with so many people, maybe a few dozen actively.  But through current and future social networking tools, the possibilities to mix and connect are limitless.

“The more knowledge you generate, the more you can generate. And the engine that is driving prosperity in the modern world is the accelerating generation of useful knowledge.”  Rational Optimist (Kindle 3466)

I recently visited with a teacher in our Vancouver Learning Network (VLN) school – an online, sometimes blended, model of schooling.  He took me through the Desire 2 Learn (D2L) learning platform showing me how courses are created and how students access them, how teachers get analytical data from the tool, etc.  D2L even checks the work students hand in online for plagiarism automatically through TurnItIn and gives a color coded percentage indication of a problem (machine algorithms at work).  Although D2L is a powerful tool for online learning, I think we need more immersive ways to connect learners.

Tools like ActiveWorlds and AvayaLive Engage will continue to evolve to the point where the blur between reality and virtual will be indistinguishable.  I believe these types of environments will increase people power on a global scale.  Once they get past the gimmicky game feel to a real world experience but also taking the advantage of a place where anything is possible, people could be enabled in ways unimaginable.  As the people, from around the planet, work together discussing new ideas, imagining solutions to new problems, machine intelligence would be at the human’s beck and call to put their ideas into products and solutions (virtually) at no significant cost.  I want this!  I prefer to operate in the idea space more than the build-it space.  With a place that can implement your ideas in a flash, you could rapidly prototype with virtually located colleagues and speed up the idea to prototype process significantly.  Attach future 3D printers that can leverage a vast array of input materials and produce products of varying sizes in super high resolution, and ideas can go from collective brains to virtual prototypes to actual products of all shapes, sizes, and purposes in a very short time. 

In the future, people power will likely never include grueling brutal physical labor, rather it will mean relationship forming, thinking, idea storming, communicating, cooperating, and creating.  Our machines will assist us in this but also take on most or all of the physically taxing labor.  This future will free us to meet our physical needs through sport, exercise, and connections with the outdoors rather than through often harmful physical work.  Here’s to the Power of People!

Technorati Tags: automation,economy,empower,future,immersive,ideas,machines,virtual reality,VLN,Kitchener Elementary,3D Printing

Algorithms Are Us

My first introduction to algorithms dates back to grade 11.  There was one computer, an APL machine, in the entire school district and it happened to be in my math classroom.  As budding mathematicians, we learned to write algorithms and program them into the APL machine.  I remember writing a black jack card game and that might have been the turning point for me to shift away from becoming a mechanic to go into computer science.  Actually I often credit that particular teacher (thank-you Jim Swift) with changing my destiny as it was he that pointed me into the new direction.  Folks, math and algorithms, “a set of rules that precisely defines a sequence of operations”, are underlying everything in our world.  I will relate this to education later in this post so hang in there…

Remember back in the early days of Internet search when there was no predictive hints provided?  You had to know how to find things online (Internet quests anyone) and that took quite a bit of experience, thought, and luck.  Then, about 3-4 years ago, Google searches started predicting the next word and then possible complete searches based on the words you typed.  This is the magic of a predictive algorithm.  Essentially Google is referencing the words you type to previous other billions of searches with those words and offering up neighboring search terms they’ve seen before.  Google is learning from our billions of daily searches what we typically look for. 

Our neocortex is virgin territory when our brain is created. It has the capability of learning and therefore of creating connections between its pattern recognizers, but it gains those connections from experience.  Kurzweil, Ray (2012-11-13). How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed (p. 62).

Our brains have sophisticated pattern recognizers.  Research by Ray Kurzweil suggests massively parallel sets of recognizers are at work predicting the future (next letter, next word, next decision, etc.) based on what has been learned and observed in the past.  Sounds very much like Google’s algorithm for predictive search doesn’t it.  There are brilliant mathematicians researching and inventing new algorithms to speed up processes, to overcome human limitations, etc.  It is mind boggling where this is heading.  I’m currently listening to the fascinating Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World on my iPhone on my return commute.  The author describes in detail how stock markets began to be “hacked” by algorithms in the 60’s and today nearly 70% of all trades world wide are done without any human involvement!  Algorithms “decide” in milliseconds what to buy, sell, whether to put or call, how to hedge, etc.  They “earn” pennies per trade but when there are 10’s of millions of trades, this adds up.  The other key is to be first in on a trade and first now means 3-4 milliseconds sooner than the next person, er, machine.  Algorithms can run amok though – “May 6, 2010, when a "flash crash" inspired a short-lived Dow dive of almost 1,000 points” (USA Today).  “Computer algorithms are too fast, and can jump on trends faster than humans, he says.  ‘This is analogous to the flash crash,’ Feiger says. ‘We have created a market-trading structure which is driven by short-term math decisions that capitalize on quick market movements. Machines don't forecast the future of Europe.’” (USA Today).  I predict it’s only a matter of time before machines (algorithms) can predict world events better than humans and catch their errors in judgment sooner.

Another example shared in Automate This involved music and the ability to break it down into its mathematical parts to uncover its patterns.  Algorithms have been used to create profiles of hit/successful music and then used to match unheard music to these profiles to predict new winners (see Can an Algorithm Beat Simon Cowell at His Own Game?).  Apparently software was used to predict Nora Jones great success in 2004 at the Grammy Awards – “She has been the recipient of several Grammy Awards; Come Away with Me was nominated for two awards at the 45th Grammy Awards. Jones personally received five of the eight awards for Come Away with Me. (Wikipedia 2013).  Algorithms have been used to generate music (also see Intermorphic) – the book talks about generating Bach like music that humans could not distinguish from the real thing.  In other words machines can be taught to be creative and surprising musicians!

So how does this relate to education.  I suspect most people believe education to be a fundamentally human discipline, as do I.  However, I think the rapid rise of algorithms and Big Data might force us to reconsider to what degree.  I referred to Ray Kurzweil’s book and research earlier and If you really want to blow your mind, read his book.  His goal is to map the brain’s functions, break them down into modules, and replicate the brain in software (algorithms).  His view is that in essence our brains are fundamentally pattern recognizers loaded with “big data” that grows as we experience life.  Personally, this is a little too clinical for me – I see our spiritual dimension to be fundamentally important but I’ll keep this more academic.  Assuming our brains are big data pattern recognizers, this can, for almost certainty, be replicated with tomorrows technology given the exponential growth in speed, storage, and sophistication of technology.  I see this as very disruptive of our view of education, work, and what we think is reserved for humans.  We need to actively differentiate ourselves from machine capabilities.  Teaching is going to have to move from “teacher” to wise facilitator, social learning organizer, guide, goal advisor, and supportive coach, etc.  Content, curriculum, learning activities, assessment, etc. will inevitably be deliverable by machines in the not too distant future so I’m suggest that aught not to be what teaching is about, in the future.

I find this somewhat frightening but ultimately exciting.  There’s a lot of mundane work involved in our lives that can be replaced by machines.  We have the opportunity of a life time to reinvent our purpose in learning, teaching, and work.  But, we should be working this out now and be in charge of creating our new future and not leave it to chance!  Let’s reinvent rather than be disrupted.  This is learning at the core “[t]he principal activities of brains are making changes in themselves” (Marvin Minsky, The Society of Mind).

Technorati Tags: automation,algorithm,brain,disruption,education,future,invention,learning,teaching,Marvin Minsky,Ray Kurzweil,music,stock market

Vision for a Learning Ecosystem

As I am out visiting schools, participating in District meetings, or other contexts, I often find myself either presenting or in conversations about my vision for technology and learning.  I recently wrote and presented a set of strategies to focus our efforts in implementing technology at the VSB.  We need to sustainably invest in three areas: Infrastructure (computing, storage, and network), Equity (tools/devices for students and staff, technical support), and Learning & Work Systems.

My aim is that infrastructure becomes a utility type service that we don’t really need to talk about in the future.  Rather it is funded like electricity where there’s always enough and it’s always on.  Behind the scenes we replace and upgrade every five years or so taking advantage of Moore’s law where we get more (speed, capacity) for less cost.  Infrastructure is the “oxygen” of a learning ecosystem and is an essential component for technology powered learning and work.  An equity focus, especially in the diverse VSB environment, is critical to ensuring access to tools, experiences, content, and minds.  It is about removing barriers to access.  A component of equity must involve BYOT (bring your own technology) whereby our District invests unevenly to ensure students who are unable to BYOT have the same access as those that are.  We also need to equitably provide mobile devices to our teachers (who choose not to BYOT) along with time and support to learn to adapt and transform how learning in their classrooms works.  If technology enters a classroom and the teaching and learning does not change, it’s a waste of money and a distraction.  Change in practice (work, teaching, learning) must accompany the introduction or addition of a new technology.

The Learning & Work Systems strategy is about providing powerful online spaces for employees, students, and parents to shift work from paper and time consuming processes to efficient online intelligent work flows.  This is the most exciting and potentially revolutionary focus area.  Digitally powered Work Spaces will support effective and timely communication methods, knowledge capture and sharing, record and document management, and social connection, learning, and collaboration.  I see us also providing several additional spaces including a Student Space, Teacher Space, and a Parent Space.  It is this trio that forms the Learning Ecosystem and this relies critically on a well developed infrastructure with equitable access for all in a well supported manner.

A key challenge we face besides designing well is what to buy, what to build, and what to integrate, and how.  For instance, there are great free or relatively inexpensive tools that provide to some degree what I’m about to describe.  Tools like Edmodo, Office 365, Google Apps/Docs, and others supply pieces of a disconnected story.  But what I am interested in goes beyond current capabilities.  We need systems that integrate and interoperate seamlessly together and, with internal business information systems (HR, Finance, Student Info, etc.).  We need a platform that can integrate loosely with external tools we will never recreate (Twitter, Prezi, Pinterest, WikiSpaces, WordPress, EverNote, to name a few) that support learning.  Without integration, there’s too much complexity for most people to face and that creates barriers to adoption.  Remove barriers and adoption rises soon afterward.

A Learning Ecosystem might work like this…  students have a space where they can write (wiki, documents, blog), create discussions with fellow students and teachers, share their work safely with their class and their school, or others.  The Student Space will have a Learning Wall – think Facebook Wall but for learning.  As the student creates content and participates in activities, this is recorded as posts on their wall.  Teachers, in their Space, will have feeds from their student’s wall, flowing to assessment “boxes” for them to easily review, assess, provide feedback (comments), and bookmark for report card use.  Students can highlight / rate their work in their digital portfolio as a show case of their learning which grows over time.  Students will comment on each others work, providing feedback and support.  Parents via their Space, will have feeds flowing in from their children’s Learning Walls, into a review “box” and they can read and comment on their kids learning, providing valuable feedback.  Parents can bookmark learning artifacts that they want to keep in their digital learning scrapbook for each of their kids.  Parents will also see assignments given and feedback provided by their kids teachers.  Parents are fully engaged in their kids learning activities and results.

As students grow from Kindergarten to Grade 12, the degree of online learning done exclusively in the protected Student Space will shift to be more open.  They will have the ability to open up aspects of their learning (eg, their blog) to the world.  They will use external tools (Twitter, Prezi, a blog site, etc.) and link (integrate) those into their Learning Wall so that regardless of where their learning occurs, it all feeds in to their Wall for review, assessment, etc.  The Learning Wall becomes the record of the Student’s learning through-out their school career.

In addition to connecting them to their kids Learning Walls, Parent Spaces will enable parents to do business with their school(s) and the District.  All forms will be completed this way, policies agreed to, fees paid, field trips approved, and volunteer opportunities accepted.  Teachers will be able to message parents of their students, the school office can electronically communicate with families.  When parents are in their Space (web or mobile), they are connected to all learning and work aspects of the education system their kids are embedded in.  Schools or the District can easily survey parents for their opinions on education and policy matters or target specific communication to select parents where needed.

Teacher Spaces will provide tools to store lesson materials, to post homework, and to provide learning assistive tools and content.  It will support calendars to communicate, places to write and reflect, and connections to school activities and responsibilities.  As determined by the teacher, portions of the Space can also be opened up to the public.  Through their space, teachers will be connected to District business tools to see and question payroll advice, submit expense claims, find/read policies and regulations, make purchases, and receive communication feeds from the Superintendents, HR, Payroll, IT, and other divisions.  They will be able to easily apply for jobs, submit an absence, and discover and register for professional development opportunities.

Essentially a Learning Ecosystem is a comprehensive online platform with spaces suited for different types of people and their needs.  The platform connects these spaces in natural and expected ways to simplify the learning and work people do every day.  I envision us building parts of this, buying others, and connecting with external services where possible.  A priority effort we have on deck is the creation of a District Portal.  That will be a key piece for the Work Space portion of the ecosystem but I see us adding in the Learning Spaces along the way as we build momentum.  However, none of this is possible unless we solve our Infrastructure and Equity challenges.  We have a lot of work to do on many fronts but I believe with a clear vision to the future, it will come faster as each barrier is removed along the way.

Technorati Tags: K12,education,family,infrastructure,equity,learning,portal,technology,vision,student,teacher,parents

Leadership Now

Back in 1982 while still in college two friends and I formed a company called Tricom Computer Corporation to focus on writing software.  We took on writing software for the video rental business of the day.  We also offered training, seminars, and workshops.  I recall our first “big” workshop where we invited vendors to sponsor us in “educating” home computer users and buyers.  I don’t remember the specific topic, but I was on the agenda to speak for 45 minutes or so to the crowd of maybe 75 people.  I had never presented publicly before – I was terrified, my voice cracked, I broke out in a sweat, my heart was racing, I almost “died”.  I managed to survive… barely.  That simple beginning, although frightening, seemed to get me charged up about leadership possibilities.  Over time, I over came my fear of public speaking where I now really quite enjoy it.

I have learned so much about what not to do as a leader, often through the school of hard knocks and with casualties along the way.  Wanting to improve as a leader drove (drives) me to learn continuously.  In fact, I believe you must be a fearless learner to grow as a leader!  There is a real tension for leaders that has to be reckoned with.  It is the drive to be known as a leader, to shine, to be noticed, to accomplish, to achieve.  This profile is juxtaposed with growing and building up your people, those that you lead.  The problem is, the more you focus on the former, the more problems you will have with the latter.  I used to speak way too much in team meetings or meetings with my team and external people – I was the spokesperson, the one that knew it all, the expert, or so I thought.  I thought my team was there to support me.  Wow, was I ever wrong!  I’ve learned that the reverse is a better way – leaders are there to support their team members, to help them shine, to quietly provide, as Andy Hargreaves would say, pressure and support.  It isn’t necessary for leaders to always be out front “telling”, in fact the stronger your team members are and the more they are able to take on leadership roles, the stronger you are seen to be as a leader.  It’s all about growing your people.  From Leader Change Group (Mar 9, 2013):

Which type of manager do you want to be? One who believes you have all the answers or one who asks questions?  Effective [leaders] are good askers!

A strong leader recognizes that they do not have all the answers.  They need their people to know.  You hire people for their expertise, knowledge, and in general their help with your mission.  For them, “asking is enabling, telling is limiting, and ignoring is irritating”, Leader Change Group (Mar 9, 2013).  The strength of your leadership is tightly linked to the strengths of your team members.  “Everyone serious about success is serious about teams. Great teams lift organizations. Lousy teams drain everyone”, Leadership Freak (Mar 9, 2013).  This article goes on to say “bad attitudes ruin teams”.  I have certainly experienced this with past teams I’ve led.  The challenge though is when you, the leader, are co-responsible for the development of the bad attitude, which has been the case for me in the past, how do you avoid this?  Mistakes leaders make are sometimes irreversible.  For example, what if you don’t always do what you say, what if you slip up, repeatedly?  Trust is the casualty.  What if with your best intentions you “manipulate” the system to “get the right people in the right seats” as advised by Jim Collins in Good to Great? But by manipulating the system, you cause trust breakdown, are seen to play favorites, etc.  You have to self-regulate your ambition and intentions and be sure to be true to your word, to treat everyone fairly, to respect processes while you grow your team.  Trying to cheat a system will end up causing harm to your people and to your ability to fully achieve your goals as a leader.

So, if growing your team is key, and it is, you must invest in their development.  Mark Miller, author of The Secret of Teams: What Great Teams Know and Do says “success requires constant training. ‘Become a training machine’”, Leadership Freak (Mar 9, 2013).  In addition to training, leaders need to help those they lead become like a family otherwise “[their] team will never perform at the highest possible level if the members of the team don’t exhibit genuine care and concern for one another. The best leaders create an environment where this is the norm”, The Secret of Teams (Kindle 379).  I believe that a key to achieving care and concern amongst staff, is for leaders to be genuine in their caring about those they lead.  Leaders should demonstrate this by listening more than talking, being open to people challenging their ideas and goals, being interested in their employees as people.  The strength of a leaders vision, mission, and accomplishments lie directly with their team members pulling together in the same direction.  I am feeling rather blessed with the team I’ve inherited in my new role – they genuinely appear to care for each other.  One of our members is leaving us for a new job – over half of our team members went for lunch last week to celebrate with him.  This is encouraging.

Most leaders have an external aspect to their leadership role, as do I.  I have responsibility as CIO for a vision, mission, and strategy at an organizational level as it relates to choosing, implementing, and leveraging technology.  I spend a lot of my time engaging with people inside and outside our organization.  This time is well spent listening to and learning about our “client’s” needs and goals, providing advice, as well as articulating and selling our vision, mission, and strategy.  I believe in a transparent and open approach and thus share ideas, goals, what I read, and presentations publicly through Twitter, my blog (Shift to the Future), LinkedIn, Prezi, Kindle, Library Thing, and Slideshare.  It is important to me that the people I am trying to influence and support know what I’m about, how I think, and where we are headed.  This is now possible through modern technologies without me always having to speak with them in person.  Being a very social person, I do love the in-person conversations and presentations but there are only so many hours in the day and I can’t be everywhere at once.  But, with social media, I can be and people can stay in touch with me any time they choose.  I believe that if you’re a leader today or contemplating a leadership role, you must engage in social media to spread your message.  People you strive to lead need to “know” you or they won’t necessarily be interested in following.

I’ll leave you with some summary advice.  Be a fearless learner, always.  Learn by reading.  Read books, blogs (eg, Leadership Freak, Michael Hyatt), and Twitter feeds.  Connect with other leaders and share your struggles, your wins, and learn from theirs.  I don’t have a leadership coach per se, but I find that my network, both through in-person conversations and social media substantially, fulfills this for me.  Don’t isolate your self, leverage your network.  And finally, grow your people through teaching, listening, training, caring, nudging, and supporting.  When you do this, you will enjoy seeing and hearing them speak of the vision, mission, and strategy to each other and others and seeing this executed well.  I would love to hear from you, your lessons learned while navigating the narrow and difficult path of leadership.

Technorati Tags: advice,empower,leadership,learning,vision,Jim Collins,Andy Hargreaves,Leadership Freak