Digital natives: Are schools foreign to them?
Dr. Jason Huett
Technology guru and University of West Georgia professor Jason B. Huett said a frontier teacher from a century ago popped into today’s modern era would be agape at the changes she saw every place but one — the classroom.
“When she walked into a school, she would immediately know what this is, and she could pretty much swap her prairie dress for a pants suit and go right to work,” said Huett, West Georgia’s associate dean of online development and USG eCore, a multi-institution collaborative where college students can take classes online.
Huett is among the those urging schools to use technology to make schools more relevant, accessible and flexible and less like a prison sentence.
School districts are heeding that advice — to a point.
For example, DeKalb County Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson announced this week that more than 8,200 students at seven middle schools will receive netbooks in the fall loaded with all their textbooks.
“And by August of 2o14, every student — all middle schools and all high schools — will have their own device,” she said. Every teacher will be getting a laptop.
Even better, all 138 DeKalb schools will be wireless by August, she said. Now, only 38 percent of the district is wireless.
“The fact is that our students are digital natives and active learners,” said Atkinson, speaking at a DeKalb Chamber of Commerce luncheon. “The fact is, they are not limited to the classroom. The fact is, they use the laptop and not the pencil. The fact is … they can’t wait for us to catch up to their style of learning, nor should they have to.”
But are schools catching up fast enough to the realities of a world where today’s young learner will have 10 to 14 jobs by age 38?
Students will have to be flexible and adaptable to thrive in this new marketplace. Huett said, “One of the new rules: If you can be out outsourced, you will be outsourced. Are you essential?”
Huett urges a deeper rethinking of how schools function, including the entrenched notion that learning has to be delivered 180 days a year between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Education can no longer be “a cage for every age where we lock students into this planned track,” he said.
Speaking at a Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education forum earlier this year, Huett explained why he fled k-12 education after five years to teach in college: “It felt like I was beating my head into a brick wall. I don’t like to teach people who don’t want to learn.” (Watch video of his talk here.)
He blames a factory model that puts all students on a conveyor belt set to medium speed.
“And the ones that could move ahead faster, we just tell them tough luck. You need to stay on this conveyor belt at medium speed,” Huett said. “And if you are too slow on that conveyor belt, we will take you off, retool you a bit and start you back up at the beginning. We are going to keep running you through this mass-produced system where discipline and order are emphasized above all else.”
To illustrate his point about the tedium of school, Huett shared his favorite student evaluation of a course: “If I had one hour to live, I’d spend it in this class because it feels like an eternity.”
That evaluation resonates because extreme boredom drove Huett to drop out of high school.
“I didn’t stay out for long, mostly because my mother was waking me up every morning by dumping ice cold water on me and telling me to go find a job,” he said. “I was bored to death. When I left school, I honestly did so because I really couldn’t fit in that environment. I was the kind of person who would rather have a fork stuck in my eye than sit for eight hours and listen to someone talk at me.”
Huett said schools have to change because their role has changed. Schools no longer have a monopoly on information. Kids can reach into their pockets, pull out their smart phones and get multiple lifetimes of information. Students need schools to teach them how to critically process all that information, he said.
But Huett cautions educators to avoid the two extremes — online education is going to fix everything or it’s going to ruin everything. “Real reform is almost always to be found in the middle,” he said.
And target reform where it matters. “The meat of real educational reform almost always occurs between the interaction of teacher and student,” he said. “If it isn’t clearly examining and improving that relationship, it probably isn’t going to work.”
–from Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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174 comments Add your comment
Concerned DeKalb Mom
December 6th, 2012
5:24 pm
And how does DeKalb plan to pay for all this? More bonds? Seriously … technology is great, but this is nothing more than a well-timed distraction from the real issue at hand. Redistricting and reorganizing the schools. Again.
Michele
December 6th, 2012
5:58 pm
Oh, my God are you correct. The “Cookie Cutter” mentality of education is ruining education. It is a known fact that humans rise to expectations. If parents have no expectations, no learning. If a teacher has no expectations, no learning. If a teacher is not allowed to stray from the standards, gifted students get no incentive to excel. Who loses? EVERYONE! I retired from teaching in Gwinnett County for just this reason. The establishment is pushing for mediocrity. Until the community realizes that all students are different, nothing will ever change. Legislators do not belong in education. A vast majority of them don’t know any more about education than I know about the specific legislative processes they use. They would be ticked off if I tried to do their job. They, equally, cannot do the job of a teacher. I would have never told my mother how to be a mom.
We need much more diversity in education, not standardization. We need trade schools. We need classes that meet the needs of immigrants. We need special ed classes for delayed learners as well as behavior problem students. We need standardized classes for the average students as long as the teacher has the freedom to build their lessons to challenge appropriately. We also need gifted education for the most gifted students. Think about it. We have none of these. Why do you think so many people are interested in charter schools and private schools? Wake up and smell the roses. Our state education system is a virtual joke. Until the entire attitude of the community changes, Georgia will remain at the bottom of the heap in America.
BehindEnemyLines
December 6th, 2012
5:58 pm
re: “Kids can reach into their pockets, pull out their smart phones and get multiple lifetimes of information” …. since, of course, everything on the internet is true.
mountain man
December 6th, 2012
6:13 pm
Goodness! How did we SURVIVE the boredom in the sixties! I am surprized we are alive! We didn’t have i-phones or computers and we LEARNED? It is not possible!!!
Today’s students are spoiled rotten brats who get everything handed to them and must be entertained 24/7. You can’t tell them to memorize multiplication tables, or states and their capitols, or history dates because that is not FUN.
Hillbilly D
December 6th, 2012
6:14 pm
Technology is a tool. A tool is no good without knowing the basics that allow you to get the most out of whatever tool you are using. We ignore the basics at our own peril.
mountain man
December 6th, 2012
6:15 pm
“Kids can reach into their pockets, pull out their smart phones and get multiple lifetimes of information”
And if your “smart” phone is dead or not in a service area? Reminds me of students who say they don’t need to know multiplication because a calculator does it for them.
SouthGaBoy
December 6th, 2012
6:27 pm
If students are not motivated in the traditional setting, how will being online motivate students?
The problem is that online courses are really glorified multimedia text books with take home exams. If we gave college level students take home exams in a traditional course, every professor I know would be horrified.
However when students collaborate online, are given 4 hours to pass an exam, are free to text and cell phone their peers taking the same exam (even though they have promised not to), no one cares perhaps because we don’t see it. The truth about online degrees is that most students don’t learn much. The environment is not conducive for learning.
A few hyper motivated students excel. Sure we will save billions of dollars and the technology is very inexpensive, no need for bonds to be issued. In the end we will be granting visas for all the science degrees so that foreigners can teach us math and chemistry.
pull my other leg
December 6th, 2012
6:32 pm
For example, DeKalb County Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson announced this week that more than 8,200 students at seven middle schools will receive netbooks in the fall loaded with all their textbooks.
This from a school district who is having financial difficulties? Are you kidding me? Do you really trust middle and high schoolers to treat netbooks with the care they need?
Private Citizen
December 6th, 2012
6:39 pm
I’ve not seen a one-to-one computing environment using laptops. The one thing I wonder is how do students power the laptops? I guess the answer is fresh batteries that last for a daytime school session and plug them in at night. As machines are made with lower power consumption, maybe OLED (organic light emitting diode) display and solid state hard drive, they will have less power consumption, plus with improved batteries, which must evolve at some point, this will be a temporary concern.
It is certainly a “reconceptualization” to think of students, 100% of them being mouse and trackpoint jockies, and print books being a novelty for personal consumption, novels and such, sort of like how typewriters or record players are now.
They should get away from Apple and Windows and lose the software fees. It’s no longer necessary. Windows-based computing is expensive and obsolete. Just ask Google, Amazon.com, NASA, the stuff that runs submarines, and the tech. general who did the invasion of Iraq (he said it “was not done on Windows”). Apple is expensive stuff for people who have means, like a high-end watch. I was looking online at 10″ tablet computers from my favorite shop in Shenzhen, about $130. plus shipping, Android o/s. No “windows,” no “fee for software,” which is written on a world level and released to you using Free-Open-Source licensing. My list of contemporary heroes is pretty short, Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds. Because of them I am saving about $250./year on telephone since their work has made it where I can run voice-over-IP telephone with my internet connection and port my prior land-line number. I have the same telephone number. Thank you Richard, Linus, Larry, and Sergey. You guys are buying me a lot of fuel and groceries.
To celebrate in song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dppczm_TKMA
Private Citizen
December 6th, 2012
6:51 pm
Holy mackerel these guys have got the nerve. ‘talk about prescient http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWsQgmq-fNs
Private Citizen
December 6th, 2012
7:25 pm
Probably more like $500./year savings. Thanks guys. I really appreciate it, for real.
Jack ®
December 6th, 2012
7:35 pm
I suppose if the internet goes away, these digital natives can always get a job as a fry-cook.
mountain man
December 6th, 2012
8:35 pm
“When she walked into a school, she would immediately know what this is, and she could pretty much swap her prairie dress for a pants suit and go right to work,”
She also would be aghast at the changes. Children who curse their teachers. Parents who don’t back up the teachers. Students who can’t do simple reading and arithmetic in upper grades.
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
December 6th, 2012
8:37 pm
Hillbilly made the point I wanted to reinforce. It’s a tool. Educational about using a tool is called Vocational Training. Group Projects using a tool are social engagement.
Plus it is primarily visual so for most students school is no longer about using the thinking part of their brain. And don’t think the Schemers do not know it. Locked monopoly revenue from taxpayers while simultaneously taking out the Axemaker Mind that might have had the capability to develop a superior product.
That’s called a Win-Win for the Tech companies.
http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/embrace-and-seize-technologys-potential-to-capture-the-hearts-and-minds-of-todays-students/ is from a fairly recent document in Texas where the various school district supers were quite graphic on why they push tech so much.
Mush-brains preferred would be a succinct way to describe it.
living in an outdated ed system
December 6th, 2012
9:21 pm
Couldn’t agree more – one of the best posts I have seen on this blog – EVER. The average age of a child’s first use of a computer or game console is during or before kindergarten. We need to be teaching children using stimuli they use in their daily lives. But remember the risks of “cramming” technology into schools. It’s no good putting technology in schools if teachers aren’t trained, the technological infrastructure is not in place, and content is not tailored for the interactive nature of the medium.
Technology is not the magic bullet to save public education. It is an ENABLER. When we recognize that online learning changes the role of teacher from the sole deliverer of knowledge to the facilitator of knowledge, then reform efforts have a fighting chance at being successful.
William Casey
December 6th, 2012
9:45 pm
I’m not anti-technology, I’m anti-technology hype. Televisions didn’t revolutionize education in the ’60’s. VCR’s didn’t do it in the ’80’s either. Wirelress campuses won’t do it now. Dumb and unmotivated is dumb and unmotivated regardless of accessories/gizmos. Sorry, it’s truth.
God Bless the Teacher!
December 6th, 2012
10:26 pm
Amen, William Casey!
Tech Prof
December 6th, 2012
10:35 pm
“Digital Natives” is in your title and is mentioned by Superintendent Atkinson. Evidence is piling up to show that Marc Prensky had a gift for naming things, but that “digital natives” are not actually better at meaningful uses of technology.
Atkinson is quoted above with “style of learning”. I hope she is not talking about “learning styles”. It would be disappointing to see leaders in Education focussing on voodoo: http://elearnmag.acm.org/featured.cfm?aid=2070611 & http://www.danielwillingham.com/learning-styles-faq.html
It sounds like Huett had one thing many of today’s students don’t have: a mother willing to dump cold water him and tell him to get a job. She knew she was driving him back to school.
Brandy
December 6th, 2012
10:59 pm
Things that pioneer schoolmarm or schoolmaster would be shocked at or overwhelmed by:
-no in school religious instruction, school prayer, or using the Bible as a primer
-that students spend as much time in school as they do, both in total duration of the school day and length of mandatory school attendance (1st grade through age 16 in most states)
-integrated schools
-that students with disabilities are expected to attend school and complete (and succeed at) the same work as their more able peers
-that students do not provide their own materials and texts, that students’ families do not transport their children, that students do not go home for lunch, and that students’ families are not expected to provide room and board for the teacher
-the lack of recess
-that teachers today are required to have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, often in their subject area, and complete regular continuing education/professional development coursework
-that women outnumber men as teachers in most schools
-that schools are self-contained bureaucracies rather than each school being basically on its own with a small bit of oversight by a local or state board
-mandatory state tests for even the youngest of students and mandated curricula and materials
-that teachers are not respected by the community at large
-that some teachers are responsible for over 100 students a day at the upper levels
-the breadth of K-8 curricula
-that all students, regardless of income, ethnicity or racial identity, gender, or ability, are expected to attend high school
Yeah, education really hasn’t changed. ***cough, cough, that was SARCASM***
Great article, but it misses a big point–technology, like the library, like a dictionary, like a calculator, is a tool. It is not a panacea, it is not a replacement for quality face-to-face interaction and instruction, and it is limited in its effectiveness when applied with a one-size-fits-all approach.
I use technology in my classroom every single day. Sometimes it is as simple as a youtube video that helps present what we are learning about in a different way or reinforce a concept, others it is as complex as student-created Wikis, an interactive blog, or WebQuests. I also incorporate other technology every single minute of every single class–pencils, pens, lined paper, HVAC, lighting, et cetera. All of these technologies are NOT required to reach my students (even the lighting and HVAC, as shocking as it might seem), but they are great supplements to already great instruction. I love technology and would love to incorporate more of it, but neither I nor my students are unable to do our jobs (teaching and learning) without the technology.
fjeremey
December 7th, 2012
5:33 am
Technology certainly has the potential to blow the doors off education as we know it. But we must put a complete infrastructure in place to suppor the deployment; train, and I mean really train, the educators on its use; train, and I mean really train, the students in its applications; and provide the time, real time, to work on the projects that technology makes available.
But before all that, we must ask ourselves exactly what we are trying to accomplish and whether more advanced technology is in fact the best way to do it. For what are we trying to educate the student and are the methods we are employing germane to that goal? Is it truly the best way to teach Johnny to be an educated and critical consumer of information?
Food for thought: If more technology in the classroom is the absolute best path, why are technology executvies purposefully choosing an education for their children that eschews technology?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?pagewanted=all
Soothsayer
December 7th, 2012
5:36 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9WDtQ4Ujn8
dcb
December 7th, 2012
6:36 am
Great article Maureen to which I laud Huett for his many cogent talking points. And to the responders above who wonder how all this technology might be paid for, I would answer “how can we afford not to if our goal is to serve our students and society as they both already exist today?”
drew (former teacher)
December 7th, 2012
7:14 am
“Dumb and unmotivated is dumb and unmotivated regardless of accessories/gizmos.” Another amen to Mr Casey’s observation.
My experience is that if you give students technology, they will find a way to “entertain” themselves with it. In their minds, that’s what it’s there for…to entertain. And lord knows, young people LOVE to be entertained. Learning though…not so much. Give 30 students computers to research an issue, and within a few minutes 25 of them will be checking Facebook, playing games, listening to music, watching videos, etc.. Hell, put 30 ADULT students in the same situation and you’d probably get the same result.
There’s only one problem with reforming schools…schools can’t be reformed. You can dress it up, put lipstick on it, introduce new programs here and there, but the huge bureaucracy that comprises education, the status quo, is simply too big and too entrenched to reform. You could blow it up, and completely redesign it, but I don’t see that happening either. Maybe charters can make a dent here and there, but the status quo remains.
And the unfortunate reality is that getting technology into the hands of students is usually more about selling technology than it is about learning.
Mitt
December 7th, 2012
7:31 am
There is always technology that revolutionizes education; chalk to pencil, abacus to calculator. We have our heads in the sand if we believe that the most transforming technology ever to exist does not impact the classroom. Kids are not educated in the same society as we were and have new desires, priorities, and opportunities. I applaud Dr. Huett for speaking for many educators. We must always adapt or become obsolete. That might sound extreme but if you do not believe, watch the traditional school fade away. It is already happening.
Truth in Moderation
December 7th, 2012
8:21 am
@fjeremey
“Technology certainly has the potential to blow the doors off education as we know it. But we must put a complete infrastructure in place to suppor the deployment; train, and I mean really train, the educators on its use; train, and I mean really train, the students in its applications; and provide the time, real time, to work on the projects that technology makes available.”
You are exactly right. One Georgia school where this is being successfully applied is the Gwinnett School of Math Science and Technology. ED WEEK did an article on the topic of “flip model” instruction (which depends on technology rather than traditional books) and featured GSMST’s successful model. Read the details here:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/09/28/05khan_ep.h31.html?tkn=ZXMF1rv4KF9cglHvMj0eaNeo%2FdRcKsBLvaMN&cmp=clp-sb-ascd
indigo
December 7th, 2012
8:30 am
This sort of change will cost a great deal of money.
People today want more and more Govt. services and less and less taxation.
This sort of adolesent thinking means you can forget any major changes in school teaching policies.
Truth in Moderation
December 7th, 2012
8:52 am
Gwinnett School of Math, Science, and Technology ranked #11 in the South by THE WASHINGTON POST 2012 High School Challenge! It is the only school from Georgia in the top 20.
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/schools/2012/list/south-schools/
clueless
December 7th, 2012
9:02 am
As the discussions of the last 2 weeks indicate, what they really need is the BASICS that the teacher of 100 years ago would have taught them.
Truth in Moderation
December 7th, 2012
9:04 am
GSMST ranked #18 NATIONALLY by the THE WASHINGTON POST 2012 High School Challenge.
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/schools/2012/list/national/
Sk8ing Momma
December 7th, 2012
9:15 am
Hmmm….I’m in the middle: Old school methods need to mix with current technology. Abraham Lincoln is my education hero and proof that all one *really* needs is books and life experience. Any well-read person who is capable of critical thinking can learn technology, IMO.
Hey Teacher
December 7th, 2012
9:50 am
Technology breaks. Books do not. I hesitate to rely exclusively on anything that requires so much maintenance — every time I plan a great lesson in a computer lab, the internet goes down. I ALWAYS have a paper back-up plan of some sort. A little of this goes a long way IMHO.
jarvis
December 7th, 2012
9:59 am
People have short memories. Kids were turds when I was in school.
I remember my mom (taught 8th grade for 30 years) called a parent in the mid-80’s because his son was acting up and could not be controlled in the classroom. The response on the phone, “Is that all? Don’t ever call me at work ever again.”
I had kids talking back to teachers all of the way through school. I remember two girls getting in a fight when one of them cut the other with a razor blade. I even had a student punch my theater teacher in the stomach in the 9th grade (woman teacher) when she broke up a fight in the classroom.
The “geeks” were tormented horrendously. Daily beatings in middle school for no reason was a norm. I suppose this would be called bullying these days.
I went to very good upper middle class school that was 99.9% white at the time (Parkview High and its feeders). When we played Cedar Shoals in basketball in the early 90’s stands chanted “Shakka Zulu”.
OK? There have always been turds.
Denise
December 7th, 2012
9:59 am
This is why we homeschool! This describes our experience with public school perfectly!
living in an outdated ed system
December 7th, 2012
10:00 am
Books are outdated. Do we want our kids reading science books that still show Pluto as a planet?? Digital tools save trees and are more easily updated. Books will not go away, but textbooks absolutely should. I don’t want my children carrying 50+ lbs of books in their backpacks. No need to do that!
Truth in Moderation
December 7th, 2012
10:14 am
GSMST had the highest SAT average in Georgia for the class of 2012:
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/georgias-sat-scores-up-but-still-below-national-av/nSKtF/
“The Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology had the highest three-section score in the state, 1941 out of a possible 2400.”
GSMST wins the First Annual STEM Education Award, awarded by Technology Association of Georgia.
http://gsmst.org/~gsmst/gsmst_web/?q=node/250
BT
December 7th, 2012
10:15 am
By 2020, 7 of the top 10 jobs have not even been created yet.The number 1 job skill at that point will be creativity and innovation.
jarvis
December 7th, 2012
10:23 am
@BT, what is a top job?
jarvis
December 7th, 2012
10:29 am
Here is a list of the current highest paying jobs.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47984925?slide=7
All have been around for a loooooong time.
Hillbilly D
December 7th, 2012
10:31 am
The number one job skill is always creativity and innovation. It’s been that way since the beginning of time. Every generation thinks the world started anew with them.
V for Vendetta
December 7th, 2012
10:48 am
@Brandy,
You’re number one point is a positive. We’ve worked hard over the years to get religion out of schools. That way, we can focus on things like facts. You know, things that are real.
@Truth,
You are correct praise the Gwinnett school of Math and Science. What they are doing is the closest thing to proper technology integration I have heard yet. For a future model of what learning CAN become, I would point people towards the Khan Academy or Ted Talks. Of course, in order to learn from those sources, you have to be self motivated and understand the value of education.
V for Vendetta
December 7th, 2012
10:50 am
@jarvis,
I believe it was a pocket knife. I remember that. It was at lunch, and I was in ninth grade at the time. The cops hauled her right past my Math class on the way out of the school.
10:10 am
December 7th, 2012
11:14 am
The teachers’ union, on the other hand, is more concerned with fighting partisan battles in Washington, on behalf of their clients the Democrats: http://tinyurl.com/awt2z6s
… in case any naive young members of the Georgia Association of Educators wonder where that extra yearly $168 they shell out to the “non-partisan” NEA ends up.
Private Citizen
December 7th, 2012
11:19 am
Truth in Moderation, Good overview article that you posted describing both the “how” and “why.” http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/09/28/05khan_ep.h31.html
Private Citizen
December 7th, 2012
11:23 am
I wish they would do the same type instruction with economics, art history, and philosophy. -if it is even possible to honestly do so from a U. S. perspective. Business school is taught differently inside / outside of the U. S.
Private Citizen
December 7th, 2012
11:26 am
10:10 Labor unions are supposed to defend good working conditions for labor. That is the core of what they do. In industry, it is for safety reasons. There has to be some regulation somewhere. This point is sorely lacking in Georgia, where the government does not regulate bureaucracy and at the same time has prohibited unions. It allows petty bureaucrats to use people. That’s basically Georgia in a nutshell.
Maureen Downey
December 7th, 2012
11:40 am
@V, Glad to see your post. Wondering where you have been of late.
Maureen
bootney farnsworth
December 7th, 2012
11:42 am
God save me from evangelists of any kind. they are often more determined to validate their convictions than see if they work. while there is a lot of truth in this, there is also a fair dose of personal propaganda. fine, but be up front about it.
digital natives are not opposed to the classroom, nor is it damaging to them (they certainly need the social interaction). the assumption seems to be just because they are digital natives, they all have the same talents and interest.
teaching, like students, evolves. the long term reality is be it chalkboard or laptops, there is no one size fits all solution.
bootney farnsworth
December 7th, 2012
11:44 am
@ 10:10
you need a new act.
Looking for the truth
December 7th, 2012
11:46 am
While I agree that cookie cutter schools are boring and tedious, where else are kids going to learn that not everything in life is exciting 24/7? Many jobs are boring and routine most of the time. Even “exciting” jobs have times that are hard to get through!
bootney farnsworth
December 7th, 2012
11:46 am
books are outdated?
what an ignorant statement. red meat Fran teach you that?
Private Citizen
December 7th, 2012
11:46 am
Hey Teacher, great comment. You really made me chuckle. Technology breaks, computer lab goes glitch, paper is lost. Sounds like a soviet era car. And that would be Microsoft products you’re using, the same folks who give “free software” and then set-up a computer culture – especially for the dumb community colleges – of using their stuff AND training people on it? Now, I love community colleges, but I have seen inept computing combined with portable signs in the college drives to direct people to the Microsoft certification trainings.
Anyway, desktop computing is a beautiful thing if you know how to do it. It is unfortunate that for a while, many U. S. regular people have been subjected to computing that requires a subculture of little shops to fix things that are supposed to be working. My computing is so rock solid it’s practically boring. I don’t use anything special, and no virus protection or niche gimmicks or nuthin. But I understands the basics of how to do it, which is directly in opposition to the U. S. empire monopoly approach that wants to put you to sleep with all of this dopey “My Computer” vanity garbage. I agree with you that a computer should be like a toaster or any other appliance. It is a machine that you use and make do things, nothing more. Seriously, this is one thing I appreciate about taking a break from the government schools is that there is it wall-to-wall Microsoft mono-culture for computing. The alternative seems to be the expensive Apple products. Well, I do not use either and believe in neither and neither of them is my comfort zone. It is fatiguing to be around so much of technology people who don’t know what they’re doing and enforce a monoculture. The sole reasoning to use Microsoft in an education environment is for the numerous ways to both surveille people and prevent them access, like being able to offload your own emails files, which are kept locked up in “Outlook” in the government system. So.Much.Fail. – for a teacher in the school house, Microsoft computing makes North Korea look like a nice place regarding freedom.
“Let’s design a computing system so workers can not remove or personally archive any of their own email.” (sly expression) “Sounds good.”
bootney farnsworth
December 7th, 2012
11:53 am
@ mountain man,
while I feel you, reality is against the thought.
we used to think the best way to teach was a room full of kids taught be a barely educated woman.
it used to be Sr. Margaret Mary beating the hell out of a kid was appropriate “motivation”
-just like all cars had sticks and carbs, we now get better mileage from computerized fuel injection (unless you’re a gearhead)
we gotta deal with the kids where they are, not where we want them to be
V for Vendetta
December 7th, 2012
11:59 am
Maureen,
Good to be here. I’ve been swamped lately. I’ve picked up a few more responsibilities around school that have eliminated the tiny fractions of time during the day in which I would chime in and post. Also, as I’m sure you know, as your kids get older your free time ceases to be your free time. Such is life. I’ll try to drop in a bit more often, though.
living in an outdated ed system
December 7th, 2012
12:54 pm
The fact that people think teaching has evolved is an ignorant statement!! When are the personal attacks going to be removed from this blog???? Pathetic.
Private Citizen
December 7th, 2012
1:22 pm
Microsoft computing is a good metaphor for the danger of controlled curriculum, that it can be caged and exploited and people taught information in a way that is not in their best interest.
For example, teacher technology training is generally going to be based in how to apply software / applications in a Microsoft computing environment. If you tell someone they can use LibreOffice http://www.libreoffice.org/ (no cost for program) in place of Microsoft “Office” http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Microsoft+Office+Home+and+Student+2010+-+Windows/9894452.p?id=1218190976111 ($149.) you are going against the script. Additionally, there are students who will freak out and feel disoriented because they have been so thoroughly conditioned to do things one way and pull money out of their own purse and pay for it. Meanwhile, outside of the United States, high end governments are saving millions of dollars implementing this approach, but it U. S. teacher technology training, you will not find it.
Hmmm. Let me see if I can locate a syllabus online, just as an experiment….
at Western Nevada College, http://www.wnc.edu/ they’re teaching the application of free software in the manner that I describe. According to syllabus for EDU214 – Preparing Teachers To Use Technology :
If your productivity software is other than Microsoft Office 2007/2010… you could download/install and use the free Open Office suite, by the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), PC version…
audio wave editor that creates mp3 files. You could download/install and use the free Audacity sound editor. If you choose to use Audacity you must also download the free LAME MP3 encoder to be able to convert Audacity sound files to mp3 files
, http://www.wnc.edu/files/syllabus/20123_edu_214_w01_black.pdf
_________________________
Meanwhile, the guy at Tennessee Tech who teaches “emerging technology” to teachers ( FOED 3010: Integrating Instructional Technology into the Classroom) is not teaching them how to use “emerging” free software and instead specifying expensive proprietary Apple and Promethean products: http://www.teachingwithtech.net/syllabus/
I guess he missed the part at the ranch where you learn to ride a horse.
______________
this looks interesting, UGA 20/20 Series: real life stories of death by “PowerPoint” http://www.coe.uga.edu/itt/2020-2/
by the way, the correct term is “presentation software.” “PowerPoint” is a trademark owned my Microsoft, it is not a term for a type of application / software.
10:10 am
December 7th, 2012
1:23 pm
@blabney farnsworth:
Still living in your mother’s basement and squandering her bandwidth (along with way too many of Maureen’s column inches)?
Private Citizen
December 7th, 2012
3:11 pm
Dearest Jason,
You’re prescribing outdated computer mono-culture. I object to your course “Software requirements: Microsoft Office 2003 or higher.” http://www.westga.edu/share/documents/syllabi/medt_7472_010709.pdf
for one thing, it won’t even run on my computing of choice that has all of that stuff built in http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/features . Microsoft has denied the cross-platform distribution of “Office” even if I wanted to use it (which I don’t). You are force-marketing for Microsoft to your students. I note you provide them no alternative or otherwise educate them in this manner. It is a serious matter. You are force-requiring a computer monoculture, doing marketing for Microsoft, which is an expensive and obsolete approach to computing. This company has been fined a billion dollars, enforced upon appeal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203897404578076223368670946.html (Oct 2012 – please check the brief article comments, too) based on the sort of thing you are doing to your students, and significantly training them to launch into their careers and perpetuate the same thing as “the way it is done.” It is not “the way it is done” and the future and economic efficiencies of Georgia deserve better rather that being harnessed to this retrogressive stuff. It’s not how Google or Amazon.com do it and it’s not what runs YouTube, either. And if you will note, all of that stuff always works. Google is spending less money on the software to run their company than UWG is spending on Microsoft Office licensing.
-Hey, take care and thank you for the good work you do.
PPS Jason it is really horrific experience to be a technically literate student in an education course where students are active steered in the wrong direction against their interests including their time and grocery money.
PPS Any browser running Java will run your “Wimba” application just fine.
disclaimer: I used to use Mandrake and SuSE.
Private Citizen
December 7th, 2012
3:18 pm
Pardon the WSJ link-to-article paywall. Here is similar information, http://slashdot.org/story/12/06/27/1228254/eu-court-upholds-microsoft-antitrust-fines
Here is an interesting article from just a day or two ago. “”Microsoft is trying to make up for below expected earnings following Windows 8’s and Surface RT’s lack luster adoption rates by increasing the prices of its products between 8 and 400 per cent.” http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/12/04/0142250/microsoft-steeply-raising-enterprise-licensing-fees
UWG is writing checks for that stuff. Don’t get caught in a trap. The company is obsolete and there are newer ways to do computing.
Private Citizen
December 7th, 2012
3:31 pm
Time required to completely wipe clean the hard drive of a “PC” and use a usb stick (install) and network connection (one update) to install Ubuntu operating system and included core applications: about 30 minutes. Cost for software: suggested donation of $12. if desired.
This computing approach will run everything specified in your syllabus. There is the added benefit that “old computers” tend to do just fine with it, as it is efficient and not “resource hungry.” Care for the environment, less landfill, all of that.
bootney farnsworth
December 7th, 2012
4:05 pm
@ 10:10
what name did you used to post under?
bootney farnsworth
December 7th, 2012
4:08 pm
@ living
I was very clear. your comment was ignorant. I stand by that. ignorant and idiotic.
that was a clear comment on your statement, not you.
this is directed to you: grow up and stop acting like a faux wounded high school girl. if you put out an ignorant statement, its fair game. same as if I do, or anyone else here
bootney farnsworth
December 7th, 2012
4:14 pm
@ 10:10
if you can create a valid list of shop stewards in DeKalb, Clayton, Cobb, Henry, and GPC and Ga State I will issue a public apology, admin I was wrong, and that you are a genius, visionary, and trailblazer.
all you gotta do is come up with the list of shop stewards and the local they are attached to.
and to save you time, red meat Fran won’t have this on any talking points
Truth in Moderation
December 7th, 2012
4:30 pm
@V
You wrote:
“We’ve worked hard over the years to get religion out of schools. That way, we can focus on things like facts.”
“For a future model of what learning CAN become, I would point people towards the Khan Academy..”
Coincidentally, today I decided to fire up Khan Academy to spice up my geometry curriculum. I called up the first video under “Introduction to Euclidean geometry” called “Euclid as the Father of Geometry.”
I was pleasantly surprised to see a quote by Euclid, “The laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God,” used as the intro to the video.
Alas, poor V. You will have to remove heretic Khan from your approved list.
Truth in Moderation
December 7th, 2012
4:31 pm
Enter your comments here
Brandy
December 7th, 2012
4:41 pm
@V, Completely agree.
Truth in Moderation
December 7th, 2012
4:46 pm
@ Trademark/Private Citizen
“It’s not how Google or Amazon.com do it and it’s not what runs YouTube”
Jealous much? Apart from Apple, these companies would cease to exist. Your clan hates Steve Jobs because his biological parents are Syrian. Get over it.
Truth in Moderation
December 7th, 2012
5:00 pm
Oh No!
Whatever you do Vendetta, DON’T load this Khan Academy video!
You will SHATTER your reputation…
http://www.khanacademy.org/math/geometry/intro-to-euclidean-geo/v/euclid-as-the-father-of-geometry
“Euclid as the Father of Geometry”
Truth in Moderation
December 7th, 2012
5:03 pm
Oh No!
Vendetta, DON’T LOAD THIS VIDEO from the Khan Academy website:
“Euclid as the Father of Geometry”
Otherwise, YOUR REPUTATION WILL BE SHATTERED!
living in an outdated ed system
December 7th, 2012
5:08 pm
@Bootney, I can’t even begin to list all of your ignorant comments on this blog. You should be removed from this blog for the personal attacks you levy on people. @Maureen likes to say I was hostile to bloggers in the past, but you take the cake.
Your comments are disrespectful and unworthy of an intelligent response. You can rationalize your comment all you want – what you said was pathetic and I am so glad you never taught my children!
living in an outdated ed system
December 7th, 2012
5:10 pm
And BTW – I backed up my statement with fact – you took it completely out of context. Textbooks are outdated! Books are important, but less so in physical form. But with you minimal intellect, I guess I have to provide more details for you to get my point!
Get back to the issues and stop being hostile to bloggers on here. It’s getting old.
Georgia and education not compatible
December 7th, 2012
5:23 pm
Dr. Huett was my professor in the graduate program for school library media @ UWG. Very realistic and hilarious. Funniest line that I remember from his class happened when a student came to him about not being able to pass his class, “That’s OK..you’ll catch on the second time you pay for it.”
Great teacher!
Private Citizen
December 7th, 2012
6:39 pm
Truth in Moderation, “It’s not how Google or Amazon.com do it and it’s not what runs YouTube” -Jealous much?
No, silly. I do it the same way. I was applying this before Google was a company and then (unrelated to me) Google built their whole concept on the same way of doing computing, which made me very very happy. I have some back, personally and in family, with systems design and consutling during the develppment phase of products, so it does not suprise me, frankly, that I could resonate with the fundmentals of it that are now scaling on a world level. ‘Will be nice as it continues. The think I did not foresee was the jump to Android phones and tablets, which are essentially running the same software fundamental as Google/Amazon/YouTube etc.
FYI, all of it non-Microsoft and non-Apple, which is why is it retrogressive to see teacher technology classes referring to “PC” and “Apple” as computing. When your pal Mr. Jobs improved their Apple operating system, they imported many of the same architecture fundamentals that was when their stuff tightened. Point is, they turn it into proprietary and sell it as boutique products. If you review the links in my initial post on the subject, I tell you how to do the same thing for $12. if you like, and zero $ if you’d rather go buy some fresh produce instead. (licensing is based on donation).
This is obviously a foreign concept to you because it is not commercially marketed. It is the same distribution system in play at Archive.org. There is no fee, but you can make a donation is you have means. I’d buy a new transmission for my car before I paid the price for an Apple computer. They basically have zero relevance to non-wealthy persons, although Apple does like a lot of swank industrial design (the Faberge egg of recent times?). Steve Jobs family is from Syria? Cool! although, man, that guy commissioned an ugly boat (looks like an Apple store?) http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/29/tech/web/steve-jobs-yacht/index.html . Now it’s a question of what to do with it. To be frank with you, I just do not care for the “i-life” marketing. I don’t need it, personally and I know for a fact it does not economically scale. As smart as you are you should understand that concept. Do to proprietary hardware, the price is was WAY up there.
T-Pain likes it though. Maybe you and he have something in common. Maybe not since he uses Apple as a professional product required for his career (audio / video production). Most college students and teachers do not need to make pro-level hit records using their laptop as the production tool, so that level of sophistication is inappropriate and impractical for populist application.
Anyway, TiM, there is a chronology to who did and developed what. It is changing and maturing, thank goodness. There are a number of U. S. foundation persons who should be recognised, such as Ian Murdock from Purdue University. In my opinion, his work outweighs the infamous and intense Mr. Jobs by a measure.
Hey, just for fun. Here’s a chart from Klaus Knopper, who invented the bootable cd that has turned into the bootable usb, since compact discs are obsolete. The chart shows operating systems that have branched out from Knopper’s work on his own operating system “Knoppix,” which is part of the whole Google/Amazon/YouTube computing method I have been harping about, as we should recognise what works and what is economically efficient. It is a nice graphic, website is served from Spain, although reading through some links, I would make a guess that the site owner is Finnish. http://futurist.se/gldt/wp-content/uploads/subtrees/knoppix1010.png
Private Citizen
December 7th, 2012
6:51 pm
TiM, this guy is a very very smart boy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Knopper Read the link to see the type terms and technology the rest of the world uses for computing outside of the Microsoft / Apple marketing zone, what is considered “the everyday approach” to literate computer applications persons (you know, like the ones hired by Google/Amazon/YouTube….)
Truth in Moderation
December 7th, 2012
6:51 pm
Mac vs fat PC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0rzYKyeLz4
Pride and Joy
December 7th, 2012
6:58 pm
If Cheryl gave my kid a notebook, I’d throw it in the trash and giver her a pencil and paper.
We need to teach children reading, writing and arithmetic! This emphasis on technology is nothing more than an easy way to distract people with expensive gadgets.
Private Citizen
December 7th, 2012
7:09 pm
TiM,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA_Di-P5WR4
Chris Sanchez
December 7th, 2012
7:30 pm
An op-ed I completely agree with. Having done my undergraduate work and first master’s degree in the classroom and a second master’s online, I can attest to the fact that a serious rethink about education delivery must happen.
Private Citizen
December 7th, 2012
7:53 pm
TiM, here is some work done, using Apple computing, by Michael Gregory who attended Appalachian State University in the enchanted mountains of North Carolina. http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=sP4NMoJcFd4 If you want to Songify the News and network with T-Pain, it’s good equipment, but a closed system designed for production professionals. Good tool for the Gregories, Now, please excuse me while I go locate the air compressor and blow the crumbs out of the keyboard of this raggedy Lenova laptop I use. But I love it and it is easily replaceable. Plus, since it is a pro business-level modular design, I can remove and replace the keyboard if I have to and it takes five minutes. Try that with an Apple laptop product. it ain’t gwanna happen
Use ‘em! and break ‘em! and take ‘em apart!, and make ‘em!
Hillbilly D
December 7th, 2012
8:24 pm
We need to teach children reading, writing and arithmetic!
I agree with that. Calculators were just coming along when I got out of school (and they cost like $100, too). One or two brought them in but they weren’t allowed to use them. I can still do addition, subtraction, multiplication and long division, with a pencil, when I don’t have a calculator handy. I’ve had kids around 19-20 years old who worked for me, that were lost without a calculator. They were bright kids, they’d just never been taught and/or had the necessary repetition for the skills to sink in.
Snarkysnake
December 7th, 2012
8:40 pm
” You should be removed from this blog for the personal attacks you levy on people. ”
I must (respectfully) disagree. I wish it were mandatory that people like this guy be made to post here. When the average taxpayer sees what the educrats really think of them and their kids, our job of winning the heats and minds of voters (and legislators) is made much easier. I have actually had people read aloud his drivel for a good laugh. Usually,these people take condescension a lot more, um , charitably than thin skinned ‘ol Bootney ever would. You can tell that you scored one when he goes ad hominem on you.
The war against the educrats has become a guerilla war. So put on your gorilla suit and support your legislators that have the courage to buck the self interested education cartel and vote for real reform. They’ll call you names (ignorant being their current favorite, or racist or what have you) but remember, in a fair election, almost 60% of your fellow voters stood with you. You are not alone.
Be of good cheer.
Snarkysnake
December 7th, 2012
9:08 pm
*heats= hearts
10:10 am
December 7th, 2012
9:36 pm
@ blabney farnsworth:
Still in denial that the National Education Association is labeled a union in the media, and touts its own union status not only to the Internal Revenue Service but openly on its own website?
Those (GAE/NEA) teachers who pay dues to it … are union members … even though that extra $168 in yearly NEA dues mostly pays for union stewards and liberal mischief in other states:
ref: http://goo.gl/rtJIZ (NEA campaign donations)
ref: http://goo.gl/bNdPt (NEA liberal causes)
Dr. Monica Henson
December 7th, 2012
11:00 pm
10:10 am is correct about unions and Georgia. A portion of GAE dues go directly to the NEA. The NEA then uses those funds to support its political agenda, which is to defend the status quo and advocate for lower class sizes (which would require more teachers, that then would pay union dues) and higher pay based purely on seniority and additional degrees while fending off accountability for student outcomes.
Ron
December 8th, 2012
8:29 am
I agree with quite a few people on this post: The verdict is still out on whether digital learning is really superior or not to the traditional classroom. Just because devices are convenient or faster doesn’t make them better, nor do they necessarily improve quality of life. In, short digital learning is overrated and simply a ploy to get people hooked into a new consumer industry.
Lee
December 8th, 2012
9:18 am
{{{yawn}}}
Technology gonna save the day….
Remember back in the 80’s when they said the computer would put the paper industry out of business? ROFLMAO at that one. Best thing that ever happened to them. My company brings in printer paper by the truck load.
“For example, DeKalb County Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson announced this week that more than 8,200 students at seven middle schools will receive netbooks in the fall loaded with all their textbooks.”
It will be interesting to see how many of those netbooks survive one year. Conventional wisdom says a significant percentage will be lost or destroyed.
More feasible would be for the school to set up a website where students could log in and access their textbooks. But then you would have cries of some type of “-ism” because certain folks don’t have access to computers.
One thing I have learned about technology geeks is that they love their toys and think everything can be solved by electronics. Sorta like the old saw about “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”.
In my office, if the network goes down, 95% of the work comes to a halt. Can’t even make a phone call.
cris
December 8th, 2012
9:35 am
@Private Citizen, really wish you would quit highjacking this blog to further your own agenda – now it’s operating systems, a month ago it was health care…why don’t you start your own blog?
I’ve seen Dr. Huett speak and he’s not against traditional learning and skills – surprisingly – he’s just speaking the truth when he says that the students of today need to be taught with the tools of today. Back in the 50’s, they didn’t make you write with a feather pen dipped in ink did they? He does see technology as a tool (admittedly quite a bit more advanced than a ball point pen), but it is just a tool – one that we all need to be fluent with. You can open any newspaper (real or online) and read about how there are jobs available, but the people that apply for them are lacking the skills to fill them – usually computer skills.
living in an outdated ed system
December 8th, 2012
9:52 am
@snarkysnake – thank you for your support. We will reform public education in Georgia, because a 67% graduation rate is, frankly, embarrassing. Our children deserve better!
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
10:13 am
cris, The conditions in much of Georgia are desperate. I’d like to do something about it. If they stopped writing checks to Microsoft for “Office” licensing, which is specified in Dr. Huett’s syllabus – if you care to read it – and applied that money to public medical, which is how things are done in places with higher standard of living then here, it would be a difference. Yes, I am actively trying to educate people (like you) with my comments. I guess I am a “change agent” except that I do not work for a corporation. Anyway, you should take things a little more seriously and cry some tears of shame over the conditions in your state. Digital is the future. Whether we like or not, books are obsolete. And operating system and associated applications have everything to do with spending money and where the money goes. I don’t like living in slum, Cris. I don’t like moving out of the slum in Georgia and finding out I have moved into a different slum in Georgia when I thought I was moving up or bettering myself. There is so much defeating lies and duplicity from government here and ignorance is plentiful. Hey Cris, let’s do something about it.
The Digerati
December 8th, 2012
10:16 am
Yes, Superintendent Atkinson putting textbooks on Netbooks … that’s the solution. The Digerati have convinced us that putting life into 1’s and 0’s is the solution to everything.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
10:21 am
In my office, if the network goes down, 95% of the work comes to a halt. Can’t even make a phone call.
That’s because “you” don’t know what you’re doing in how to apply software. It would benefit us, including your servers and phone system, to change the computer culture here. The internet supply monopoly, Comcast etc., is not helping, either. We should be ashamed of these conditions of monopoly in “the business state.” 5 Comcast executives each pull $20 million a year in salary, and the school kids don’t have eyeglasses. That’s truth and fact. That’s a billion dollars in personal salary for ten years for five people.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
10:34 am
One a different note: I just noted my local police dept. is marketing “faith” on their mainpage. Meanwhile they’ve built a brand new Taj Mahal city hall / police dept. and they have a boarded up shopping center next to them and the one place where the shopping center is open the shops are decrepit and the whole parking lot is worn/cracked asphalt that looks like it should be torn up and removed. In the school house, half the old door locks are broken, the building has significant climate / air issues no matter how many times they replace the main air system equipment. Somebody said something about “When the only new buildings are government buildings” and it’s true. And they’re doubling the size of the county jail thing, too, new construction. It’s like a concentration camp or something. The little police dept. has an online form for people to report other people. That’s right out of communist Stasi East Germany. It’s really disheartening. And there is literally thousands of kid here going to school every day like good little angels who have blurred vision. It’s so dysfunctional. Here’s the kicker, the new city hall / police dept. website has these beautiful pictures of flowers and “visionary” corporate type photos. They don’t show the boarded up shopping center next door. I guess they are waiting for God to come and for the dentist to appear from out of town and move there because it is so beautiful.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
10:57 am
Dr. Huett’s been through a lot and has my respect and a good formation, particularly on his graduate schooling. Summa Cum Laude from San Marcos? Now that’s a hoot! (San Marcos is a classic “drinking” school), but he smartly moved up from there to his graduate studies. He’s from the same area as internet sensation Overly Attached Girlfriend. Denton is one of the most creative and smart college town places in the U. S. Congratulations on your schooling, Dr. Huett, you bring a lot to the table.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
11:06 am
And here’s to Carl Finch and Brave Combo. Partying – Huett style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCRtAwKPrS4
bootney farnsworth
December 8th, 2012
11:13 am
@ outdated
its very simple. I deal with the statement, and yes, when its stupid (case in point) I deal with it harshly I rarely comment on the poster, but in your case, yes, I have made an exception.
your faux high school girl outrage is sad, and if you can’t deal with having a stupid comment treated according, perhaps you would be better suited posting at Hannity.com where you can sing with the chorus instead of attempting to solo.
yes, you made your caveat clear, but it was still a stupid point. it ignores reality. it reminds me of when the used car salesman Steve Portch actually sold the state legislature on a semester conversion and claimed it would not cost the state a dime.
you are welcome to cherry pick facts all you want, but you are gonna have to deal with the blowback when you do.
bootney farnsworth
December 8th, 2012
11:25 am
@ 10:10
-the NEA is a union. no kidding
-Ga is a right to work state, and gov’t workers are by law not allowed to unionize
-you once again failed (or chose not to try) to back up your claim and prove your position.
-what Dr. Henson does not tell you is the GEA has the same standing as say, the Knights of Columbus or the KKK in Georgia. they can advocate all they wish, but have no power real or imagined to impact or moderate change for its members.
-the GEA can not call strikes, or pay strike wages
-the GEA has no seat at the table in matters of employee/management disputes. a fact I believe Dr. Henson should know all to well. she is touting administrative party line.
-the GEA offers legal advice, but has little if any ability to represent Joe Average. they do, however, throw their limited weight behind selected cases.
-the GEA cannot engage in collective representation for state workers in Georgia.
once again, what locals and what shop stewards represent state workers against management?
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
11:47 am
Good post, Bootney. Crisp and appropriate. My gut had a good gnarl this past week when I got a call from one of my colleague “inside” teachers who is at a different school than my recent one, and yet he is telling me of plans to displace the principal at my former school. They’re going to play more Chinese checkers with principals where I live. They do it regularly. That principal is dedicated and capable and they are going to mess him around like putting somebody in a blender. It’s an open issue that is not resolved. Charter schools are a nice idea, but it is <1% of the schools? These district schools are run like nasty little fiefdoms. They bring in good people, exploit them, and then mess them around.
Jason Huett
December 8th, 2012
11:51 am
Hello all! I would like to say thanks to everyone for the insightful comments. You have given me much to think about, and I appreciate that more than you know. I was honored, and completely surprised, to find myself the subject of Maureen’s wonderful blog. I am a fan of her writing and certainly never expected to find myself the center of it!
I thought I might take a little time to respond to some of the comments and themes emerging from the discussion. If I do not address you directly (and especially if I do!), please do not take offense as I sincerely appreciate all the comments.
I am not an evangelist for technology in the classroom. Any good “technology guru” worth his salt knows that the tech is just a tool and that our educational problems are far too complex to ever be solved just by throwing more technology at them. If you have watched my speech, read my blog or other works, or have taken a class with me, you would know that I am on the same page as many of you posting here.
As several of you point out, we have been hearing for decades how this innovation or that innovation was going to radically reshape education as we know it only to fall far short of lofty promises. I am anti-hype, but this time, I honestly believe things are different. So many forces are converging at once (many of them have to do with technological advancements and many do not), that education is going to look radically different in the very near future, especially for adult learners. We ignore this coming “tidal wave” at our own peril.
@SouthGABoy @Ron @Lee and others: As I wrote in any earlier blog about online learning for the Southern Education Desk
The jury is not out on the efficacy and importance of either medium [Online vs. F2F] to the future of educational reform: both can be equally effective; both can be equally dreadful; both will become a part of almost every educational institution’s identity. There is no one ideal way to teach or to learn. There are preferred ways in given situations and with certain subjects catered to particular audiences, but by and large, no one delivery platform can lay claim to the superior approach. The sooner we come to terms with this, the quicker we can get on with charting a path to real, sensible, productive reform.
@Private Citizen: You are obviously a very passionate person, and I sincerely applaud that. We need more passionate people concerned about education. You and I are actually in agreement about the FOSS issue. In fact, I wrote a book chapter about the history of FOSS and why it should be used in education. You can Google it if you are interested. It is called “What’s all the FOSS? How Freedom and Openness Are Changing the Face of Our Educational Landscape.” I also talk about this in the speech Maureen referenced. I have no doubt that you may actually know more about this particular subject than I, but you might find it an interesting read.
Regarding my syllabi from 2010, the department elected to include specific minimum standards across all courses in the program of study for a variety of reasons I cannot get into here as well as to ensure compliance with governing and accrediting bodies. It gets complicated. For the record, I always tell my students on the first day of class that I do not care what tech they use, how they access the class, or what software they use to complete assignments as long as they do not fall behind, can access all presented materials, and I can get to their work for grading.
Regarding my schooling, at some level education always has been and always will be a self-directed enterprise. Ergo, any school can be a “drinking” school and any school can be rigorous. It all depends on the student in question
I have seen Brave Combo many times. I miss Denton….
@Tech Prof: You and I are on the same page when it comes to labeling digital natives/immigrants and learning styles as educational “voodoo.” I preach this to my students all the time. It never ceases to amaze me how concepts with so little research, theoretical grounding, and data become part of the established lexicon and are used to drive policy.
@indigo @BT @ V for Vendetta: You make good points.
@jarvis: I was one of those “geeks!”
@Georgia and education not compatible: Thank you! It is always great to hear from a past student! Drop me an email and let me know how you are doing. As I love working with my students, I think it important to note that the student on the receiving end of that quote was LAZY
@Cris: Thank you!
Again, thanks for Maureen for the wonderful write-up and thanks to all of you for the comments. I wouldn’t be a good professor if I did not plug my programs so if you are looking to start your college education, check out eCore. If you are looking for online graduate programs in instructional technology, check out at UWG! Cheers, Jason
Georgia
December 8th, 2012
12:28 pm
The issue is about teaching itself. You can’t teach how to teach. Some teach. Some can’t. Some have confused the dunce cap with the tin foil hat. Some think that castor oil qualifies as a vegetable like catsup does for the school lunch program. Some teachers don’t qualify to be school cafeteria cooks. Imagine the average math teacher preparing shepherds pie! No laptops for students taught by lap dancers and lap dogs.
Lee
December 8th, 2012
12:54 pm
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
10:21 am
In my office, if the network goes down, 95% of the work comes to a halt. Can’t even make a phone call.
That’s because “you” don’t know what you’re doing in how to apply software.
————————————-
“I” don’t have to. That’s what we have an entire IT department for.
The point is that tech types push for every gizmo that comes down the pike. When it works well, it can be useful. When it decides to take a dump, it can cripple an organization.
Giving netbooks to middle schoolers is a recipe for disaster, IMHO.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
2:11 pm
Lee, Good computing is streamlined and solid. There’s not much to it, really. I regret your IT / tech people are trendy and have lots of gizmos and passwords hanging off their belt. They obviously do not understand system design. Someone else is probably tell them what to do. I find it difficult to be in the type environment you describe.
Point about netbooks, notebooks, tablets, etc. is that the clunky print books are obsolete. The legitimate question is as what age is the digital screen appropriate. It might be 6th grade, it might be 9th. it is the way of the future and would be interesting to inventory working models of how it is done well, including:
-age of student when digital media is used as primary “book” media.
-hardware used
-specific software used per subject. private / expensive software?, free / open source / foundation based?
Lee, this is a contemporary, important, and relevant issue from Georgia to Moscow to Paris to Dusseldorf to Mumbai and Prague. I know they’re ‘doing it out in the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex. Some places will do it well and be the leaders in effective and cost efficient application. Private academies can and do provide students Apple brand products and the best for-fee software. This will not apply to broad application government schooling. There are places who deliver powerfully and cost efficiency. A decade ago the schools in Paris were giving students usb sticks at the start of the school year with software and materials on them.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
2:19 pm
I guess the Parisian students were expected to provide their own laptops or home computers. But you know, they have public health care over there, no university debt, do not allow corporations to poison or control their food supply and they have cheap internet, too, about $40. for a “triple play” internet/tv/telephone package. They also are not carrying the U. S. military on their backs.
Parisians had minitel computer terminals to go with their home telephones long before the US had instead distribution. They apply a lot of technology over there. Here, read about the minitel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel I suggest their 2012 approach to student computing may have something to tell us in Georgia. I suggest their approach will be organised, relevant, well structured, and free from commercial exploitation.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
2:21 pm
should read “Parisians had minitel computer terminals to go with their home telephones long before the US had internet distribution.”
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
2:28 pm
In France in 1982 every home with a telephone had a Minitel computer terminal from France Telecom next to their telephone. They don’t tell you that in the United States. I didn’t know this until I saw one in person when I was staying in someone’s home during a study abroad. It’s pretty neato how they do some things over there.
living in an outdated ed system
December 8th, 2012
2:34 pm
@Bootney, I find your comments to be from the gutter. You are a 19th century educator who is an anachronism and has no business teaching children in the 21st century. You mock what you do not understand.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
2:38 pm
One reason Minitels were popular, in addition to being a digital telephone and address directory for the whole country, there was a social networking chat and messaging function. Someone could throw a party and make it know on their Minitel messaging list. Social dates and arrangement were communicated by text messaging through Minitel years before people were using email. It was like having a personal newsroom tele-type connected to your peer group. Exciting stuff for the day.
Here in Georgia the guy at the landfill proclaims he does not have a computer, is incapable of providing a url for information, has no print information on what is acceptable / unacceptable for items to landfill and has to tell me verbally that is is okay to deposit cuttings and branches, but a few loose bricks are prohibited even for the construction debris container. There is no precision in Georgia, and the concept of public services is fouled by antics and avoiding clear communication. It is a bizarre situation here.
living in an outdated ed system
December 8th, 2012
2:42 pm
@Bootney, my comment was not stupid. It’s FACT. You complain about everything – you’re like the 21st century Archie Bunker.
V for Vendetta
December 8th, 2012
3:08 pm
@Truth,
Amusing. The ancients believed in many archaic and useless things–often times while making strides in scientific fields. Newton was a Christian, as was Charles Darwin; however, the thought that we should shackle ourselves to such silly flights of fancy simply because someone used to believe in them is ridiculous. As is your example. Just because we don’t know something doesn’t mean we won’t know something.
Truth in Moderation
December 8th, 2012
3:15 pm
Cats using technology:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDDILztf6vE
Michelle O. would be proud.
Truth in Moderation
December 8th, 2012
3:22 pm
PC meet V.
Ya’ll are the perfect conversationalists for each other. I’m blathered out.
Truth in Moderation
December 8th, 2012
4:04 pm
@PC
According to Reuters:
“France’s unemployment rate rose to 10.3 percent in the third quarter of 2012, its highest since the third quarter of 1999, from 10.2 percent in the previous quarter, data published by national statistics office INSEE showed on Thursday.
Youth unemployment rose more markedly, with the jobless rate edging up to 24.9 percent, from 23.6 percent, among people under 25 years old. That was higher than any quarter on records going back to the start of 1996.”
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/12/france-unemployment-rate-hits-103-youth.html#jxiIpxZp85ibVOBu.99
So much for all that advanced school technology and free health care in Paris.
Truth in Moderation
December 8th, 2012
4:19 pm
@PC
DEATH OF THE MINITEL
“France is switching off its groundbreaking Minitel service which brought online banking, travel reservations, and porn to millions of users in the 1980s. But then came the worldwide web. Minitel has been slowly dying and the plug will be pulled on Saturday.”
“What once was shiny and new now looks like a shoddy bad investment – of interest to the retro market, but not to anyone else.
One thing that is very telling is that Minitel was a uniquely French institution. It never made it abroad (apart from Belgium).”
“Minitel wasn’t an open platform. It only provided Minitel services, which was quickly going out-of-date as a model. Also by the early 1990s the terminal itself was the clunkiest piece of desk manure you could imagine. It was embarrassing.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18610692
Dekalbite@mountain man
December 8th, 2012
8:27 pm
“She also would be aghast at the changes. Children who curse their teachers. Parents who don’t back up the teachers. Students who can’t do simple reading and arithmetic in upper grades.”
My grandmother was a teacher in the olden days – 1914 – 1918 in a one room schoolhouse. She had discipline problems, parents who felt farm work came first and many students who could not do simple reading and arithmetic. I totally agree with the writer of this post – the world has changed while the educational system has remained stagnant.
Funniest all time video regarding new technology in the academic world:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=-xmTTzCAALc&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-xmTTzCAALc
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
9:43 pm
t.i.m., just on a note on the reporting tone of your news link. the British have hated the French for a very long time. using a BBC story about the French is almost like the opening of a practical joke. in their mutual history they’ve warred many time across the channel. I’d take universal heathcare anytime. The adult I am tutoring also needs / does not have eyeglasses, just like the kids I talk about. I asked my tutorial student about it. They said they went to the eye facility at the hospital and got an eye exam and paid $100. toward glasses and owe them another $100. before they get glasses. Meanwhile the person is studying online college likely spending thousands in debt money. I had to give the $4. for gas before I left this evening. I’ll check up on the local hospital / eyeglass clinic story, confirm it. $200. is a lot of money for a person in low socio-economic. They said it was $300. at the mall. anyway, it really sux trying to teach people who do not have eyeglasses. I friggin’ hate it, this aspect of it.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
9:52 pm
PS person said they had not gas money because they went over to do home care for someone today (as in clean / help an elderly infirmed person) and the person wasn’t there. It was the first time my tutorial student asked for money. It wasn’t much but the point is some people live close to the ground, so to speak. I told them they had to pay me back.
oh yes. the online course material is from the British monster Pearson.
the online program “homework” assignments do not align with what is on the “quiz” modules. there is no textbook except for an “eBook” that is part of the online website. The eBook is not searchable and has no index, only chapter headings that do not tell you where the specific topics are. I was unable to find sample problems that fit the quiz questions and I spent 2 hours doing it. The student said many people have to repeat the class and the school doesn’t care. I am hoping this student passes this class, as I have invested about 25 hours of my time in their success on this one course. If this online course is an example of Pearson product, it does not seem put together very well.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
10:06 pm
Truth in Moderation, Irony of ironies, Minitel is a branch of a technology called “Videotex” that was invented by engineers at the BBC, as they used to have their own in-house engineering staff and workshops that built applications equipment, which is why in the early days so many BBC productions and British recordings were so advanced in quality. Your current BBC reporter with One thing that is very telling is that Minitel was a uniquely French institution gets a double F- for context.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
10:21 pm
So the online mess of misaligned no-index non-searchable “eBook” online math course software I was dealing with this evening is from British company Pearson, and if I want to pick up a Georgia math certification, I have to pay Pearson to take the certification test, as they have purchased the GACE testing company. This “New World Order” business plan has literally got us encapsulated. They must be laughing about it. Capitalism is supposed to be based on competition. The course also combines algebra, geometry, and graduate level calculus based statistics combined into an 8 week course given to entry level undergraduate students, many of whom require remediation to do algebra. The whole thing is just a shoebox of mess. Welcome to online education via Pearson.
I’ve taken 4 graduate levels statistics courses and some know what I’m saying. This is the type of problems they had combined with their course: http://www.brocksoft.ca/bcorp/tools/stats/statsgifs/stdev_s.gif I think that’s little excessive for an 8 week course with entry-level students. What are they thinking? I mean really.
N. GA Teacher
December 8th, 2012
10:30 pm
Enter your comments here
I am always stunned by how simplistic nonteachers are about how to “solve” our “bad” education in public schools. The latest wave is the technocrats who simply believe that the wow factor of technology will convey success to the students. It is amazing how little they know about the massive lack of motivation, lack of parental involvement, and lack of respect for the educational setting exists. Technology will not cure these things. Online learning? No way will the unmotivated teen do the necessary reading and research on his own. Using the cell phones even the poorest seem to use continuously for social purposes all day? For nontitillating reasons? Are you kidding? No, I WILL admit, that for those kids who ARE motivated to succeed and enjoy learning via technology, then yes, it is fantastic. However most of the students I have worked with with this mentality are AP high schoolers, honors undergrads, and grad students. What we have to do is radically change the curricula in public schools to provide vocational technology for those kids who simply waste time in traditional academic classes. THAT is where tech works: when the kid makes the direct job connection.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
10:35 pm
I guess Pearson thinks they’re going to wow them with shizizzle and show who’s powerful. It’s sure not the students. I wonder if they even beta-test their online software before release. From the user perspective, I am guessing that they do not.
Truth in Moderation
December 8th, 2012
10:38 pm
@PC
“Also by the early 1990s the terminal itself was the clunkiest piece of desk manure you could imagine. It was embarrassing.”
What are you blathering about now? This statement is totally accurate:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/5881889658_d1b03ced76_b-640×480.jpg&imgrefurl=http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/minitel-frances-precursor-to-the-web-to-go-dark-on-june-30/&h=480&w=640&sz=69&tbnid=J57kSocexJOBWM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=125&zoom=1&usg=__yhsL9WVnlgwzlavcfEPNYChtxqM=&docid=dSZ_sPBnQCS71M&sa=X&ei=PAfEUPCWNpCO8wScwoGACw&ved=0CGIQ9QEwBw&dur=5170
Truth in Moderation
December 8th, 2012
10:50 pm
“I’ve taken 4 graduate levels statistics courses and some know what I’m saying.”
Really? And all you can do is post blathering nonsense all day and complain about your half blind destitute student tutorial “customer,” yes? I think you need to return to Paris and take advantage of their plentiful job opportunities. Oui?
Dr. Monica Henson
December 9th, 2012
12:51 am
bootney posted, “what Dr. Henson does not tell you is the GEA has the same standing as say, the Knights of Columbus or the KKK in Georgia. they can advocate all they wish, but have no power real or imagined to impact or moderate change for its members.
-the GEA can not call strikes, or pay strike wages
-the GEA has no seat at the table in matters of employee/management disputes. a fact I believe Dr. Henson should know all to well. she is touting administrative party line.”
I’ve worked in unionized states (Mass., Conn., and Florida), and I can assure you that GAE is not a union. However, that’s not the point. The point is that GAE members’ dues support the NEA, which IS a union. Union dues and agency fees are used at the discretion of top leadership to support a failing agenda.
If I were a GAE member, I’d be pretty annoyed by that.
As a classroom teacher in Massachusetts, I refused to pay the agency fee because I disagree vehemently with the NEA’s agenda. I dared the “shop steward” to sue me and make me pay it. I would have lost, of course, but they didn’t bother to take me to court over it.
Cobb History Teacher
December 9th, 2012
7:37 am
I like the idea of digital textbooks, printing, binding and shipping are part of the biggest cost of textbooks. A digital textbook with the right software would allow students to highlight and annotate without ruining an actual textbook. In college you buy your textbooks and can highlight and write in them. A textbook with the right software would allow students to highlight, annotate and take notes in the digital text.
I’m still torn between laptops and the idea of tablet PC’s for students. Laptops would give them full function, but tablets would be lighter and easier to carry. Maybe a tablet with a removable keyboard would be best?
My other concern as a classroom teacher with 30+ students in the room I would want software on my computer that would allow me to monitor what students were doing. Students particularly at the middle school level are particularly good at getting off task. Running around the classroom try to see what they are doing gets old especially in a crowded classroom. The technology would be great but if was going to be misused and abused it no better than what we’re doing now.
As for expense we in the public schools have been “DOING THINGS ON THE CHEAP” for too long. Rather than a pay raise I’d like to see more teachers so we have smaller classes. Too many students per teacher not only dilutes the attention they can give to each student, but it also causes them to use strategies that aren’t as effective. Grading 120+ essays in a reasonable amount of time is not practical; however grading 80 – 90 is at least manageable. Bottom line I’d rather have 10 fewer students per class than have a pay raise.
Teaching about 20 students per class would give me more time with each student, I could get to know them better, and they’re would be fewer brush fires during group learning activities.
bootney farnsworth
December 9th, 2012
9:57 am
@ Dr Henson
you are typing out of both sides of your keyboard. either the GEA is a union, or it isn’t.
pick one, and stick with it please.
as GEA membership is voluntary, a smart person does their homework to see if the group, any group, is worth investing in. when I looked into the GEA I opted not to join because they weren’t able to offer me anything I can’t find for myself.
when someone puts an offering in the plate at church, some of that money goes to organizations and outreaches that person may not approve of. doesn’t mean the individual donor is lockstep with that group.
yes, the GEA is an ….ORGANIZATION …. which has common cause with a union. the US gives money to Egypt-it doesn’t make you Egyptian.
bootney farnsworth
December 9th, 2012
10:03 am
its really funny here
our public schools are out of control due to racial politics, rampant cronyism, interference from DC, moronic legislation from the gold dome, the cult of football, the cult of UGA, inequities of funding, non existent parental involvement, insane school boards, and a host of other issues too long to name.
but hey, its not all bad. at least we’ve kept them teachers from unionizing.
bootney farnsworth
December 9th, 2012
10:14 am
@ cobb history teacher,
even if we all agreed on moving from print to PC tomorrow, there are major logistical challenges.
-who buys the PC/nook/kendal whatever? state or local? what vendors?
-is it ours or theirs?
-what do we do when they are not returned or stolen?
-do we require standardization state wide?
-how do we-if we do at all-make sure the device in question is actually used for school?
-what do we do if its not?
-depending on usage/device, how do we slow down cheating?
-what do we do about the fiscal disparities between counties, much less districts?
putting aside for a moment if question of if we should, IMO we gotta deal with these issues first. the state backs further away from it funding obligation hourly- and most still seem to think they just need to give us a bucket of green paint and a new carton of chalk.
bootney farnsworth
December 9th, 2012
10:19 am
one thing I have noticed at GPC is the more reliant the faculty is on computer assisted instruction, the easier it becomes to throw them off stride if the technology -which most of us don’t understand, lets be honest- doesn’t work.
part of the problem in this concept is the bulk of the faculty in place at the moment are not trained to work in the digital world this deeply. regardless of the good or bad of the idea, its probably a 1/2 generation too early.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:29 am
That’s a cool photo, truth, and a great article. The French have such a great tradition of industrial design. Wow, look at that thing.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:34 am
hey truth, the French priority is not “job opportunities;” they’re interested in “life opportunities.” maybe the 15% difference in unemployment is the number of people we pay to run our jails and prisons.
the French idea of an arrest warrant is to perform a general amnesty every few years and erase all the old unpaid tickets.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:45 am
truth, this might be a good time to recall that if it were not for France, we’d be a British colony right now. Ben Franklin went over ans asked the French navy to come help the U.S. during the American Revolution and since hate the British, they complied and came over and beat Britain’s butt for us. Now today, Britain is coming back to rule us with their Pearson publishing company that own the teacher certification tests in Georgia, and many of the textbooks used for teacher training, depending on the school. Here, they have significant penetration with their “program” approach. I expect UWG and Georgia State may be a little more sophisticated. It is a weird thing, “Georgia” is really like two states, with two ecosystems and the dividing line is the fault line, on or about Macon, also known as the “gnat line” because of the gnats and such below the line, and less of same as the elevation climbs north of Macon. yes, truth, if it wasn’t for the French, we’d be thinking celebrating the Queen’s birthday via television was the proper way to celebrate our heritage. All the people would be out in the streets crying about how beautiful are the queen’s shoes and her kids and the royal family (wait a minute, that sounds like how it was under the rule of Bushes)
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:48 am
WELCOME TO GEORGIA, TRUTH. your half blind destitute student tutorial “customer,” WHO HAS WORKED ALL HER LIFE.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
11:06 am
bootney and Dr. Henson, just want to say you two are really “on” on your commentaries. excellent description of conditions, Bootney, and Dr. Henson, thank you for bringing your Massachusetts background and experience here.
Cobb History Teacher, once for a semester in high school, for one class period I assisted an old teacher in a student computer lab and one of the things I did was sit at terminal and surveille what the students were doing. I could summon each machine and see their desktop on my machine. If they got too off task, I could/would press the reset button on their desk top. This was an uncomfortable level of control. Most of the off task activities were browser based games downloaded from Yahoo. The explorer browsers were clogged with them. Anyway, just to tell you your vision of controlling / surveilling desktop activity. I like your ergonomic questions. I do not know what the answer is to this stuff. It is like we need to write a book addressing it from twenty sides.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
11:16 am
Cobb History Teacher, maybe we can do that via a digital interface and distribution. I’d prefer a keyboard, though I wonder if a tablet is more suited strictly for reading due to customising the screen design to low-power consuming “on/off” two-tone scale, instead of the eye burning laptop screens suited for color photos and James Bond movies and such. Maybe students (or you or I) need both. Laptop for general work, and a less interactive reading tablet device to imitate paper.
living in an outdated ed system
December 9th, 2012
11:27 am
@Maureen, so it’s perfectly ok for @Bootney to personally attack folks and speak from the gutter, but not anyone else?
3schoolkids
December 9th, 2012
1:00 pm
To me the problem lies with what “innovation” in education means. If it is simply transferring curriculum materials onto a tablet or laptop so they can be accessed and utilized in that way, then it is not innovative. It will train students so that they can use the technology the way the school (and later, their employer) wants it used. Will the ability to annotate and highlight on a computer as opposed to a real book really benefit students that much? Not enough to increase test scores, which is how effectiveness of the use of that technology will be measured.
The system is broken and the fault is essentially the GOAL of public education. Trying to provide an equal education to all leads to a one size fits all model that doesn’t work for everyone. Technology only helps correct that if we change the model. I agree with @Private Citizen in that throwing tons of money into unproven, expensive and burdensome licensed products is not the answer. Ironically the answer is to be able to use technology to customize education and make it more flexible to suit the needs of each individual student. That will require more people (teachers, staff and yes admins) to evaluate each student and come up with a game plan that will change as the student grows and changes.
Are we ready for that? Not when we think approving millions of dollars to set up a parallel school system that reinforces the same model and has the same goals for everyone is the answer to “choice.”
Truth in Moderation
December 9th, 2012
5:13 pm
“Ironically the answer is to be able to use technology to customize education and make it more flexible to suit the needs of each individual student.”
This is what home schoolers have been doing over the last 10 years. I use technology every which way. I live-stream video curriculum, use interactive teaching software, Google maps, e-mail, blogs, research, etc. One child was able to teach himself programming and 3-D modeling, while another is mastering a paint system. I still use paper and pencil, text books and old fashioned teaching methods as well. We don’t own a TV and they can’t use Twitter or calculators before high school. We have the best of both worlds, and they have 21st century computing skills. We also avoid getting locked into outdated computers and software, like France’s “minitel.”
concerned
December 9th, 2012
5:41 pm
I love online learning. Both my masters and Ed.S. were obtained online through UWG. BUT, I’m a adult who worked hard and really thought about the application of what I was learning. Students do not do this. Some of the teachers at my middle school have tried and tried to get students to create thoughtful projects using various Web 2.0 tools. Most of the projects were not worthy of a grade above a “D”, in my opinion. Most students will not research their topic and usually begin the idea of research as they enter the computer lab to complete their project. But that isn’t the only issue. The largest issue is money, or lack of it. My school has one computer lab for twenty academic classrooms and there are not enough computers in the lab for a whole class to work at the same time. There are a few student computers in a few of the classrooms. There isn’t money to buy more computers, update the computers we have, or even buy software or subscriptions to use many of the wonderful Web 2.0 tools. Technology is expensive and must be replaced after four or five years. Students break anything they get or use. They can’t affor to pay to have it fixed so who is responsible then for fixing it? Our students won’t even bring paper and pencils to school. Until there is a specific budget, that cannot be used for anything else, provided for every school, most students will not be using technology. We can’t even get new text books or new library books in my school. More than half of my school population does not have a working computer with Internet in their home. Most do not have cable television. Our parents cannot afford it. I love hearing about all the schools in the larger school districts getting iPads, laptops, and tablets for students to use. But in small school districts we aren’t that fortunate. How is that fair?
Maureen Downey
December 9th, 2012
6:02 pm
@To all, I encouraged Dr. Jason Huett to jump into this discussion on online learning if he was so inclined and then went to the woods for 36 hours with no Internet. So, his response to the lively debate here landed in moderation as a first-time post. To ensure folks see it, I am copying it here since it is farther down in the the queue because it was posted yesterday.
Maureen
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
6:28 pm
concerned, you’re describing my recent work environment down to the detail. it is odd to read, like from the same building or something.
Public HS Teacher
December 9th, 2012
7:41 pm
It sickens me to read and hear people call the classroom “old fashioned” for whatever reason.
I agree that the basic classroom has not changed. Has eating changed? Have children changed how they learn to walk? Does birth come out of some new-fashion canal now?
No. The basics of HOW TO LEARN has not changed. So, the basics of a classroom has not changed. This does not make it “old-fashioned” at all.
And, by the way, if you think that the classroom has not changed, then ANSWER ME THIS…. what has changed then? I can answer that – it is the parenting (or lack thereof) that has changed. These children enter into classrooms so very unprepared in most every sense. THAT is what has changed!
living in an outdated ed system
December 9th, 2012
8:05 pm
@Public HS Teacher, the classroom has not changed because the system has not changed. We’re in a digital world, yet students must sit in classrooms where teachers lecture in a monolithic style of instruction. We need to move from a teacher-centric to student-centric learning environment, where teachers become the facilitators of knowledge rather than the sole gatekeepers of knowledge.
I don’t know how to make it any clearer for you. Why do you think brick and mortar bookstores have suffered since the Internet arrived? Or Best Buy? Or music labels? Or newspaper and magazine publishers? Shall I continue? If the “walled garden” physical classroom does not evolve to embrace the global access to information facilitated by digital technology, then it will become extinct before you know it.
A good teacher finds the right stimuli to align with each student’s learning style. We need to create intrinsically motivating environments that use stimuli that children use in their daily lives. That’s why this author’s blog post is so important.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:31 pm
I think both of you two are wrong. ha. Public HS Teacher, food has changed a great deal. It’s called “manufactured food” and it comes in square cardboard boxes in a refrigerated truck and is loaded into the cooler at the school. When it’s meal time, the cafeteria workers heat it and serve. Sort of the equivilent of feeding kids tv dinners. Please obtain and read a copy of Fast Food Nation. I know there was a movie, but it has little compared with the content of the book, which explains a lot of thing. At school, kids also get disposable styrofoam trays and bowls and plastic utensil that they dispose of upon use. Has birth changed? Yes. C-Section? Meanwhile, living in an outdated system is recommending to provide stimulation to compete and hopefully overpower the existing stimulation, like an uncalibrated IMAX theater with the volume a little too loud? If you want to see how excellent education is done, look to the best. It is not through media stimulation. In fact, many kids gets so much of this, they appreciate a consistent meditative environment at school. Not all kids, but there are kids who do not want what you’re describing.
A good teacher finds the right stimuli to align with each student’s learning style.
That sounds like propaganda if I’ve ever heard it. I want a teacher who has mastered their content and can teach it to me in an organised sequential manner. Where did you get the “align with each student’s learning style?” You must have thirty heads and sixty arms and eyeballs if you’re for real, or did you hear these phrases somewhere? Pardon the harsh, but after I achieved teaching for three different learning styles simultaneously, and add three different assignment activities going at the same time, and each student could which they wanted like a menu, after doing all of this and making it work, I mean, it is a bit much, don’t you think? Maybe it depends on what kind of content you plan on transferring. It reallllllll-l-l-l-l-llllly seems like a way of treating kids as consumers. I’m not sure that is what education is. I’m fairly certain all of this hocus pocus is NOT how it is done in the best environments. Someone who knows their content is not going to want to play fry cook running three stoves for very long.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:39 pm
Oh look, living in an outdated system has provided us a picture of the capable teacher from their website on teaching doctrine. http://www.journeymart.com/article/ArticleImages/IMG_173_1.jpg
Maybe it is appropriate to ask, “Can you tell us any detailed specific method or technique to go with the gleaming North Korea type declaration?”
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:43 pm
Why are teachers expected to be master of the universe, whereas a doctor or dentist can do one procedure at a time and do it well?
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:48 pm
And some places you can make a fiction movie with a camcorder, and call it a dissertation for the humanities. I’m not sure about this assignment shape-shifting. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman! According to John Taylor Gatto, it’s incoherence.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:55 pm
I tried teaching with comic books (graphic novels via computer). The kids didn’t go for it. Very low consumption ratio for this item on the you-pick-it menu. The few students who like graphic novels consider it something very personal, like a private subculture they find for themselves. It usually contains material too risque or otherwise faux-worldly in a way set to be unacceptable to the authorities or morality-police parents.
Joe
December 9th, 2012
10:56 pm
Maureen,
You should talk to Dr. Mark Bauerlein at Emory. His book, The Dumbest Generation, provides an empirical counterpoint to Huett’s uncritical acceptance of the idea of a “digital native.”
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:58 pm
Okay, living in an outdated system, I provided a specific example. Your turn.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
11:13 pm
Bauerlein seems to have taken a turn toward the populist commercial publisher crowd, but I think he has made one of the most brutal and appealing books (to me) I’ve ever seen from a U. S. academic author, Literary Criticism – An Autopsy. Like Herman Melville, during his time, the book was not well-liked by the academic establishment. I suspect it was way too confronting. That’s a very good tip to check out Bauerlein. He’s taught a lot of freshman composition classes (incoming students from high school) and he knows what he says.
There isn’t another book like this: a primer and a polemic on the jargon of literary study, impressive in its range of examples and uncompromising in its critique.
Hail to the king. I think it’s his major work. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/literary-criticism-mark-bauerlein/1111454010
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
11:25 pm
Oh look, Bauerlein is on the case with some new stuff. The Digital Divide: Writings for and Against Facebook, YouTube, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/digital-divide-mark-bauerlein/1100996761
Jason, similar to how you miss Denton, I miss Mark’s work before he stepped into big league corporate publishing, which maybe there is some pressure to do so, big league school, big league publishing, big business. The stuff certainly takes no chances, but there’s plenty of brainpower there if it’s got his name on it. Will the French be discussing it and putting it in shop windows? Maybe not. (the French read/consume more books than any other country / have numerous book stores).
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
11:34 pm
We may have stumbled onto something. I took a screen capture of sample page/ first essay in the book. http://postimage.org/image/tqsovxrsp/ Maybe Mark Prensky invented the term “digital native.”
10:10 am
December 10th, 2012
6:43 am
@ blabney farnsworth:
The National Education Association and its Georgia incarnation, the Georgia Association of Educators, have endorsed and funded every Democrat nominee for president since the 1970s.
And neither has ever endorsed a Republican or independent for Georgia Governor.
A search on “NEA” and “donations” will bring up reference websites which track political donations reported by the union to government regulatory agencies. Virtually all the NEA’s political money goes to Democrat candidates and liberal causes. And that’s merely what the union chooses to officially report. All Georgia Association of Educators members belong to the NEA ($168 extra yearly).
Integrating more online instruction at the possible cost of classroom jobs—isn’t likely to happen in the moribund public school system without union opposition.
ref: http://www.nea.org/home/18469.htm
ref: http://goo.gl/rtJIZ
ref: http://goo.gl/bNdPt
I Teach Writing
December 10th, 2012
7:25 am
Anyone who uses the term “digital native” uncritically, as Superintendent Atkinson does in the statements Maureen quotes, calls into question his or her capability to make rational decisions about the integration and deployment of technology. Prensky’s term was nonsense when he coined it — a facile attempt to understand the perceived gap between his own generation and those significantly younger in understanding and integrating digital information. Trouble is, using age as a cutoff makes no sense (something research has shown). By Prensky’s reckoning, Tim Berners-Lee, the prime architect of HTTP & HTML, is a “digital immigrant.” So was Steve Jobs. The Xerox team that designed the first graphical OS are older than Prensky. Whereas school children who are still figuring out how to navigate a GUI and have NO IDEA how processing code or networking architecture work (or that they exist) are “digital natives” because they can play Angry Birds.
The truth is that all of us are digital immigrants. We learn to process the world first in analog, then (if given the opportunity) in digital. The former, however, is inherent in our biology, which is why digital delivery of education is still trying to catch up to analog delivery in many respects.
Holding a class discussion via the web, I learned this semester, doesn’t work as well as holding it in person because all participants strive to read both verbal and non-verbal cues from all other participants. Even with video integration, it’s impossible to see each other in the same way, so discussion is often stilted. When the same group met in person, discussion leapt forward.
On the other hand, digital delivery has revolutionized access to the best research in all fields. Databases like JSTOR collect top journals in many different fields, and HS students often have access to a world of thought that I, as a HS student, didn’t even know existed. Visual masterpieces from all over the world are reproduced online, allowing students to examine everything from sculptures to illuminated manuscripts – from anywhere, for free.
The availability of that information, however, even combined with the rudimentary digital literacy displayed even by HS and college students, doesn’t add up to a learning revolution. Solid textual and graphical literacy are prerequisite to high-functioning digital literacy, as the internet is awash in frivolous and false information. Finding the good stuff takes judgement (and strong reading comprehension). Organizing mountains of material found associatively into a coherent unity takes training in logic and rhetoric. All of those basic skills are more easily taught in person (and in small groups). Giving netbooks to elementary students won’t help. That’s a fish-bicycle scenario. Teaching them to read, reason, and evaluate would prepare them better for the digital world. Figuring out how to operate a GUI – any GUI – is pretty easy, once you have those skills.
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
7:32 am
@I Teach Writing
Well said!
In our home school, my children do not develop computer skills at the expense of developing traditional literacy skills. They are adept at both.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
9:21 am
What Imma seeing:
1. truth, you do a lot of great stuff and there’s a place for it, but a lot of your sharp success may have to do with low student ratio/ tutor as teach environment.
2. I see that Jason does not have the authority to write his own syllabus and must import aspects of syllabus, defering to dept. mandate and those gawd-awful steam-pot crock-pot meetings where the dept. brass sit at the their conference table and make everybody mumble for ten hours. This is at a state university. Is that what we want, professors who do not have the authority to write their own syllabi?
3. I see that Mark (Bauerlein) must publish commercially and the former university press model is left in the dust, replaced with editors who use marketing, calling a work “the definitive…” and promoting a top academic as “shocking, surpisingly entertaining romp into the intellectual nether regions” (this is from the book flap of Dumbest Generation). Mark, if someone has not told you, is this a metaphor for underwear? Is that what you want? Do you have editorial control over the presentation of your work? As Jason has no authority over his syllabus, do you have control of what goes on the book jacket? Or do want a second home in the Caribbean or something, as in go for the coin, hence the emphasis on marketing.
4. One aspect of anything online in Georgia means for many that you pay the monopolist Comcast for connection. I just went over and paid my internet service bill. The parking lot had trash all over it and it looked like the mix of a prison / slum outside. I told them to call the 5 guys getting paid $20. million each and tell them to come over with a broom and leaf blower and clean up their business.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
9:35 am
Good observation that humans are analog. One point about “netbooks” etc., it would make more sense to focus on what is the effective software approach, and the device would be the last concern at the end of the decision tree. There are very few people capable of reaching the best compehensive strategy for digital delivery. It is not a simple thing. In other words, many of the persons trying to implement this shift will not be qualified for such. It is not like buying a consumer item and being done. The education establish, whether they intend to or not, has a pattern of creating disorganization and incoherence. In this regard, the leadership role lies with the intellectuals and academics who must push-back an agenda of relevance.
Just saw an Indian movie and the key line re: the pubic as “Those are not the people who love God. Those are the people who fear God.” In other words, the public does what they are told. The point of the move was to act without fear. Seems a lot of conditions in Georgia are set to make people work in fear. When I asked the people at the land fill for some details on what you can and can not bring (organic cuttings vs. loose bricks) they could provide little detail and said, “Check with the county. We do what we are told.” And then silence. And this is over simple operation matters. In other words, maybe county office types have no business setting operational agenda, they don’t do it very well, hence: incoherence.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
9:46 am
10:10 I agree with you that with Georgia having no union protection for workers, it is pointless for workers to pay $168. a year to the NEA/GAE. One thing you should know is that teachers are told that they are required to join one of the “the three organizations” for the purpose of obtaining liability insurance for working in a public environment. So there is a bit of a scam at play, and it is official. Teachers are not joining these organizations because they believe in the organization, cause, or politics. They are joininhg / paying these organizations because they are told to do so as a condition of their work for the sole purpose of an insurance policy.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
9:50 am
There you have it, one aspect of the bureaucrat / insurance / cause group mafia at work. And does it not seem a little inefficient for individual workers to purchase liability coverage? And this is very small change compared with how the health insurance industry is using / playing teachers and the state. These two uses of paying out for “insurance” are making some companies very very rich and taking a goodly proportion of salaries and state funds. Will Americans ever wise-up to the inefficiencies of their health care delivery system?
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
11:48 am
“Will Americans ever wise-up to the inefficiencies of their health care delivery system?”
@PC
SInce you are a Sergey/Google fan, I find it interesting that “Intel, PayPal, eBay and Yahoo were all founded by migrants, though I suppose the most striking example is Google, whose presiding genius and co-founder is the Russian-born Sergey Brin. It was his father Michael, now a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, who took the chance to leave the Soviet Union, with his family (including six-year-old Sergey) in 1979. The Brins were among an exodus of Jewish academics who left the USSR as a result of that nation’s officially sanctioned but publicly unacknowledged anti-Semitism.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-more-migrants-please-especially-the-clever-ones-2368622.html
So, the Brins escaped the COMMUNIST Soviet Union, with its “healthcare for all” to come to the “Land of Opportunity,” with private healthcare, to strike it rich! And what does the GRATEFUL Sergey Brin do for his adoptive country? Well, his company becomes A MAJOR TAX DODGER. You know, hiding billions in profits offshore, all legal of course:
“Google Revenues Sheltered in No-Tax Bermuda Soar to $10 Billion”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-10/google-revenues-sheltered-in-no-tax-bermuda-soar-to-10-billion.html
Perhaps this is why you have nothing but half-blind destitute college students in need of your tutoring services. The “Too Big to Jail” corporations and Wall Street Banksters are sucking the non-immigrant Americans dry. BTW, wasn’t it those very people that invented Communism and funded the Russian “Red” Revolution to begin with?
“Professor Sutton stated, “Western textbooks on Soviet economic development omit any description of the economic and financial aid given to the 1917 Revolution and subsequent economic development by Western Firms and banks.” “In the Bolshevik Revolution we have some of the world’s richest and most powerful men financing a movement which claims its very existence is based on the concept of stripping of their wealth,” declared Allen. “[M]en like the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Schiffs, Warburgs, Morgans, Harrimans, and Milners.”
Perloff agreed, “Jacob Schiff, the head of Kuhn, Loeb and Co., heavily bankrolled the [Communist] revolution. This was reported by White Russian General Arsine de Goulevitch in his book Czarism and the Revolution.” “According to his grandson John,” described Allen, “Jacob Schiff … long-time associate of the Rothschilds, financed the Communist Revolution in Russia to the tune of $20 million.” He continued, “According to a report on file with the State Department, his firm, Kuhn Loeb and Co. bankrolled the first five year plan for Stalin,” and added, “Schiff’s descendents are active in the Council on Foreign Relations today.” ”
http://www.thehiddenevil.com/communists.asp
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
12:24 pm
What’s all the FOSS? How Freedom and Openness Are Changing the Face of Our
Educational Landscape
http://www.irma-international.org/viewtitle/41950/
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
1:40 pm
More like “What’s all the DROSS?
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
2:05 pm
Truth, now I’m serious here. Why do reference the lowest common denominator instead of the highest working model? Can you explain this to me? Is it all a joke to you? Or are you economically isolated and doing “all for me?” I’ve seen dental videos of surgery without anaesthetics in the Ukraine. I know what you are referencing. But tell me, why do reference the perverse and use this to compare your country to as a means of elevation. You are defending the status quo. You must be among those who have it pretty good, are not worried about medical bankruptcy or bills for basic services, where the doctor bill for 2 hours is 15 times your monthly electric bill.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
2:10 pm
Truth, would you see a corollary of the business model of Comcast to be like communism? Where everybody pays and there is no choice and no alternative?
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
2:25 pm
hey truth I know someone with full health insurance better than I’ll ever have and they’re still paying out $500./month for pharmaceuticals.
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
6:35 pm
No one is fooled by your attempt at diversion. Your response just confirms what I’ve said all along. Time to get a new trademark. PC’s days are numbered.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
7:06 pm
Truth, when you said a “Sergey fan” I thought you meant a “Serge Gainsborough fan.” (his name even passed the browser spell-check unlike the angel from Google, and yes I operate my home telephone by using their servers – thanks Google!) I am hoping? the circumference of your truth conveys what is hip, as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I_Nm0z1ur4 Hey if you want to be a fan of something, this is good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF2tSGvzxJw There’s a lesson in there somewhere. I’m not from Macon. I wouldn’t know.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
7:22 pm
Truth, You got something to say or are you strictly competitive? Seems your rhythm has been ruffled. Well, good. That means you’re getting somewhere. I’m still trying to figure out who you are addressing. Appears to be two people. But you know, no worries. Oh okay. rereading your comment, you are saying I am committing “diversion.” Diversion from what? Kind of difficult to be “diverted” from the Georgia plantation system if you live in Georgia. This is the most no-vocabulary English speaking place I’ve ever seen and to top it off, you get the evil eye if you teach vocabulary in the school system, at least in the government school system. You’ve got a nifty little caste thing going here, truth. I really can’t tell what side of the fence you’re on. At least you can ask me where I stand on something and I’ll try and make it clear to you. You always play sheriff on discussion sides. You should give me some respect, I’m the guy who located where the title post term came from (with some help). That’s worth something, why yes it is. Truth, are you a digital native or a digital immigrant? Or maybe you have a magnetic sphere like Mesmer. Whup. I See how you do it. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DEXV3B97L._SL500_SS500_.jpg
Student Advocate
December 10th, 2012
7:30 pm
@Cobb History – the first thing I would do if my students all have net books is to install mirrors in the back of the classroom!
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
8:38 pm
hey truth, I’ll admit that I sometimes “redirect” to the arts. I believe it stimulates higher order dimension / thinking skills. as far as public health, I may not have the best terms for it, but yes I am firmly in the camp of perspective that it is directly relevant to student performance. Considering the official emphases about performance and such, and to ignore the U. S. situation involving services, it is a conspicuous situation – let me go outside and pound my head against a post to make it feel better. They nerve that Arne and company are demanding first world performance from “all students” while not having health services and support, like eyeglasses, for “all students” is just real reaLLYREALLY a wise guy routine. The typical “American” is not keen to see it that way, but if you study international comparative education in the same way you would study electrical grids, or car manufacturing, or nuclear reactors for power, you will find that most of the developed world does thing much differently that the service-deprivation thing being practiced in the U. S. and maybe particularly in Georgia, since I am gussing? that is some places the states pick up the ball and provide some stop-gap. Well, truth, I am not here to waste my time or hours playing pansy about it. At the very least, we need to be made aware of how the present inefficient service delivery system is not meeting the needs of the public, and that it is done differently elsewhere and with better results that support the propagandistic demands they claim to be addressing here with the saturation testing fetish, the 360 degree teacher evaluations, and whatever hocus pocus the official sources are pushing. I wish I could be coy or something, but I guess that is just where I’m at. Why are yoiu allergic to good policy and getting services for your taxes, or coordinated payment in the interest of efficiency? You seem to have made a foregone conclusion that is is bad or unworkable, like liking the smooth soft dirt road and objecting to someone putting down pavement. I’m not being flippant. You ever go out to someone’s address and find there’s no road sign and the road is dirt? And all the drives are dirt? There’s a lot of that. You might think it’s cool. Maybe it is cool. Lots of school kids without eyeglasses is not cool, however, and I’m here to say it.
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
9:27 pm
@PC
Forget tutoring. You are a natural for producing lorem ipsum text…or Greeking.
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
10:21 pm
Move over Mena, Arkansas! The people push back in Colorado with Amendment 64. Yes, the good citizens are “One Toke Over the Line!” Now they can keep the revenues themselves to help fund half-blind destitute college students who need tutoring. Lawrence Welk sets the celebratory mood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg
Private Citizen
December 11th, 2012
1:54 am
hey truth, here’s a news story screen capture of the news you mention: http://postimage.org/image/w44h12lk5/
Truth in Moderation
December 11th, 2012
5:48 pm
Digital Natives Begins…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a7IaS3ml4g
Cobb History Teacher
December 12th, 2012
2:25 pm
@Student Advocate…thats a good idea if you stay at the fron of the room. I’d prefer software that would allow me to see their screens on my laptop (kind of like scurity cameras) as I move aroud that way there is no working in one browser while playing in another. I could pull up individula screens for closer inspection when necessary.
Private Citizen
December 12th, 2012
10:36 pm
truth, that’s a captivating video. The French anthropologists – fearless! What courage. You and me must be on the same wavelength. I recently saw this video, which is linked from the excellent video you posted, I like the look on the one lady’s face seeing the camera image on laptop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQgh3I1VLG0#t=1m19s She looks like a real thinker. Intense stuff.