Disconnecting

What I’ve realised during this time is the very same thing I realise every time I enter the Summer holidays: that there’s a lot to be said about routine as a way of savouring time out of routine.

I’ve also been reminded how consuming, in terms of time and somehow motivation, the internet can be. Where there is a device, there’s almost always wireless. It’s liberating the escape it, even for a day, more so for a week. But when you just can’t escape it, particularly when there are better things you could be doing with your time that would be far more fulfilling, you’ve got to put up some barriers to entry.

So, to revive regular blogging in the new year, I’ve banished my Mac to the living room and set up the Compaq on my bedroom desk, a computer which could be described as solid, dependable and unassuming among similarly ordinary terms. But it has no wireless, very few applications and it can’t be moved far as the battery serves little use any more.

Reconnecting Education

However, there are some parts of society that could really benefit from embracing the internet. Maybe then the internet habits of teenagers would yield some educational benefit. It’s all about leveraging what’s great about an open, accessible system that can be shaped by the user. If schools feel like they’ve successfully integrated computers into the classroom, yet still use them for little more than making Powerpoints and printing images off Google, then they’ve really looked past the power of the internet.

This idea was kind of piqued by an article I read over the weekend, called Toward a new education, that attempted to deal with this ever-growing disparity between the tools we use out of school and those we use during school:

Students are apathetic. They’re bored. ‘School sux.’ And it does. It sux hardcore. Being treated like a cog in a world that’s rebuilding itself around personalization and instant, contextual access to information and experiences makes our school system more irrelevant by the month.

To identify and build on a child’s strengths, education will need to become deeply personalized. I can’t imagine any conscientious educator that would argue against more personal attention for students. It’s something we can all get behind. Yet, we haven’t been able to figure out how to make personalization scale. That’s about to change.

The current generation of low-cost, connected devices, along with a few key platforms, will finally create the ecosystem in which a low-cost, personalized and scalable education can arise.

And such a system might not even require mass content creation by schools or governments, with such information already available in abundance:

In order to begin solving for this new kind of education we first need a system that can amass, maintain, and deliver an incredible amount of knowledge content, while being freely accessible. There’s a model that exists for such a system: Wikipedia.

They’re exciting thoughts, but entirely conceivable given the availability of computers and information. As the article mentions, an integrated online system would allow for better visualisation of progress and possibly even the gamification of education, earning rewards along the way like one would in the World of Warcraft or when amassing wealth on their Farmville farm.

Back to routine

Finally, today marks the beginning of the 2012 school year for me. I’ve just arrived home after four periods, which were slightly exhausting but altogether familiar. Already I’m more at ease after receiving course plans from teachers and even an opportunity for goal setting.

Recommended reading:

• McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: In Which I Fix My Girlfriend’s Grandparents’ WiFi and Am Hailed as a Conquering Hero
• Vanity Fair: Topic of Cancer
• The Joy of Quiet

What I’ve written this week:

• Mentoring in practice

I’ve always been interested in things such as computers, the internet and more recently the changing shape education, so I’ve had in the back of my head the idea that I should really talk more about these thoughts and see if I can get others to listen. Attending Ulearn in 2010 was a start, as was sharing some more disruptive views on “Gifted” education and the English curriculum.

So for the last few years I’ve maintained a blog, learnt new skills, and even launched a few websites for people I know. All of these little efforts sent out the message to my family and people who know me with similar interests that I’ve got a voice here and I’m willing to take some initiative in order to share it.

Then a few little opportunities arose and became something greater and more positively challenging than I’d expected.

Learning together

A week ago now, I took a few years of thinking and about a year of collaboration with Dr Cheryl Doig of Think Beyond, and joined her in presenting a workshop in front of ~65 teachers at the Learning@School 2012 conference. This was a big step up for me, as I ditched the script and talked to an audience of notetakers who were quick with questions throughout.

The topic was mentoring, between teachers and students, with my side of the talk focused around student voice and ways that teachers can listen to the feedback of students and importantly, make something of it.

Although it may not convey the specific ideas, you can get an idea of what we were presenting on in the slideshow below:

The response after presenting was really overwhelming. To hear that people had enjoyed my presentation was one thing, but to discuss afterwards these very ideas with them and see the notes they’d taken down was evidence enough that I had successfully delivered something that might just be helpful.

For more of my own thoughts on these topics, take a read of these blog posts:

• Evolving Education
• What mentors mean
• Snowed in

So what now? That’s the advantage I suppose of having these ambitions and ideas but not really planning too definitively what will become of them. I want to return and speak again, but for now I’m going to keep refining these ideas through my blog and continue to stay in touch with the changes ahead, through my own school and elsewhere.

But neither the composition of these goals nor lack of accomplishment concerns me, because I’m not disappointed in the slightest with what I did manage to achieve in 12 turbulent months.

In summary, I got a job, took up web design, made it into the school orchestra, spoke out about English in high schools, wrote some of my best stories and had a great year at school – new friendships, better friendships and success in school exams. I was also more comfortable than ever in a learning environment that will suit me well for the next three years of school.

So yes, in these regards it was a great year. There were obstacles, and many things which could have gone better. I can sympathise with many other Cantabrians who had a far bigger battle to fight courtesy of countless massive earthquakes. But this is all the more reassuring in that it means next year can only be better for all of us.

I like to think that goals follow the same adage as rules: Goals are made to be broken. Some goals are not, mind you (like some rules), but it is fine to leave your intentions behind, just as it is to succeed beyond your intentions.

If I were stubborn, letting nothing compromise my path to fulfilling the goals I set myself then I would surely have let myself down in other ways. There’s a lot to be said for embracing serendipity – through good and through bad. A year is a long time, never void of troubling times.

Really, the important ingredients to a successful year are optimism and determination. I aimed high, I didn’t land  where I once hoped to land, but I feel like I’m far better off for where I ended up.

I say so because I’ve achieved some continuity this year – I won’t be writing new goals and starting over next year with fresh intentions. I just want to keep heading in this direction; serendipity will inevitably take care of the rest.

The idea is somewhat inspired by the creative annual reports of Nicholas Felton, with less emphasis on data and graphics to tell stories and more on simple words. But I did make sure that the whole magazine was packaged tidily in a minimalist, clear and highly-legible design.

In the long-term, I’m certainly going to work hard to maintain the annual nature of this magazine, with new features, graphics, content and hopefully the addition of colour come the end of 2012.

But for now, I’m going to devote a bit more time over the next few weeks to improving the current edition, before printing and binding a few dozen copies (depending on the cost) with the view of selling them to friends and family. I’m off to Melbourne with the high school orchestra in November, so I really do need to earn a few dollars if I’m going to enjoy the opportunity.

You can read, download and print the entire document on Scribd or just scroll through below.

To prove my point, here are a few areas which I feel are ripe for technological revolution, but which need a little more money and momentum.

Education

I’ve talked about it quite a lot recently, but I could go on for hours about how flawed our current system is with regard to modern day society. Once upon a time, it was as efficient as a factory in churning out the type of worker required for the industrial age.

But that age has since passed. The upside is that there’s a massive opportunity here and the solutions could prove far more immersive and conducive to learning than the current whiteboard and textbook set up.

It all starts with an online, networked system that has a comprehensive and usable library of knowledge for all abilities that is only complemented by teacher interaction in the classroom. A greater focus will be put on modern areas such as programming that are missing from today’s curriculum, while helping students to make sense of traditional subjects such as English and maths.

Teachers and students will also have a better picture of progress thanks to course and grade tracking that highlights and addresses holes in learning like current systems do not.

TeleVision

This one will excite many avid TV watchers all around the world. Think for a moment about how inconvenient TV channels and DVDs really are. Firstly, you have such a limited choice. Even with 50 channels, you often end up compromising or watching something mildly annoying. If you’re not there, you virtually miss out.

There’s the on demand internet option today, but that is a fragmented system that requires a computer screen and can prove frustrating. Because you’re not paying, the ads are often frequent too.

Now imagine this. Every TV show, as well as every movie and song, available to you for a monthly subscription, viewable through your TV. Planners allow you to schedule shows, from a computer, remote control or smart-phone. When you find your favourite shows, you can share them with friends, or if you’re indecisive, watch what they recommend. Intuitive learning on the machine’s part means shows are recommended to you based on your viewing interests.

Payments

A few years ago, cellphones were primitive devices that served two and a bit real functions – phoning, texting and a poor excuse for handheld gaming. These days, phones are so much more. They are computers, music players, cameras, personal assistants, and one day soon, wallets too. Gone are credit cards, pin numbers, IOUs and, gasp, change. Swipe with your phone, press PAY and you have a safe and simple transaction.

Intelligent software will also mean you can use your smart phone to help budget and save, as well as make internet payments and remote payments. Although I have a limited knowledge of international currencies, I can see such a system doing away with many of them in favour of a more universal currency, particularly for the internet.

A personal vision I’ve been pondering recently is the evolution of barcodes and microchips. I always think that a supermarket could be far more efficient than it is today. While virtual shopping is still some way off the in-shop experience, we ought to at least refine the real shopping experience for the time being, with a combination of the aforementioned virtual wallet as well as goods which automatically register for purchase.

Say you’ve got a trolley of groceries and you reach the check out. In the future, you walk right on through, say a polite hello to the person next to you, and swipe your phone for payment. No manual swiping, credit cards or long waits in line. The sensors will instantly recognise your purchases and charge you accordingly. If you spend enough, you might just get a voucher for 10 cents off your next car charge up at the power station.

There’s far more to come

This is but a selection of the many innovations that are on the verge of revolution right now. Indeed, these are only the ones I’ve heard about in some form or another. There are many more that are still small thoughts in the heads of potential entrepreneurs all around the world. Be excited, it will help us get through this hard patch quicker and rise up far stronger as a result.

It seems as though education is ripe for change right now, for the precise reason that it hasn’t changed for so many years. Originating in the industrial age, a shift in education is far overdue.

With the financial situation not permitting an increase in education budgets (which would only bring about marginal change anyway) and increased competition in the job market, where degrees and doctorates are no longer a ticket to employment, it’s understandable why people are questioning the education establishment.

Growing disparity between rich and poor in New Zealand, with the 7th highest wealth gap in the OECD, is also a catalyst for conversation in this area. People are beginning to point to an old education system for the answers, and increasingly they’re demanding a better solution.

More than catch up

As a democracy, we may not be obligated to share our wealth and belongings with the less fortunate, but at the least we have a responsibility to offer equal opportunity. In today’s competitive world, opportunity starts with education. There are many components that make an education system democratic, the most important aspect being free schooling for all students.

Second to that is offering a consistently high and indiscriminate standard – which today means technology that is ahead of, and not behind, the current trends. It also means ensuring that a school’s decile rating and socio-economic situation don’t factor into the offering that students receive.

A new direction

Where education is concerned, bureaucracy is always a challenge. We have an established hierarchy of teachers, administrators and then government bodies who may or may not have a clue as to what constitutes an effective technology strategy. This leads to a “design by committee” approach which can cause the more bold and endearing options to be lost.

With technology, it becomes a battle to balance costs and buy new equipment. We often encounter the argument in which one side says that we’ve already got enough computers in our schools, and the other that we need more. The way I see it, the solution is neither. We need to instead look at new ways to make this technology useful, integrated and universally accessible – not simply more abundant.

The tools

First, we can start at the top, with a nationwide computer strategy. Now, I’m not sure how the current system works, but as far as I know each school is given a budget with which to buy technology in line with the school’s requirements. The trouble here is that the onus falls on each school to find and finance their own computers.

If we want a common standard, we could start by offering common tools, financed on a nation-wide level. This would help us cut costs and also pave the way toward a more cohesive e-learning system that was common across all schools.

Branching out

I feel that the view of many schools is that an effective technology strategy means more computers, and maybe other hardware like cameras too, as if a school can be considered more in line with the times if it invests in the latest machines.

But it isn’t the hardware that students value at all. It is the systems and the software behind these computers that either helps, or in some cases hinders, learning. It is irrelevant how many computers a school owns. It is how they’re used – actively, by students, and not just in theory – that is important.

I can imagine a system, as others have more comprehensively envisaged, in which every class lesson is the branch to a plethora of other leaves – extensions and reinforcements upon the core topics covered in that class.

Think about science as a tree, if you will. Every student can access this tree through a personal account on a web browser, in school or at home. The growth of this tree is tracked and logged, the progress visible to student and teacher.

Every time a new concept is introduced to the students at school, a new branch sprouts out. This branch, when accessed, contains an overview of the topic in question. And from this branch are leaves, each leaf a sub-topic off the core branch.

The content of each leaf is a mixture of media, with the most relevant diagrams, text and video accompanying each idea.

At a glance

This concept is not new, by any means. The Khan Academy has already begun offering a similar model that I believe has a lot of potential. But what we really need is a tailored solution, one designed for the New Zealand curriculum.

If we are prepared to embrace these tools and ideas, I think we’ll quickly realise that this technology is not very radical after all, but a natural evolution of education that keeps pace with the changes in our lives outside of school.

Here’s how, at a glance, I see such a system benefiting New Zealand education:

• Students can easily see where they are in their learning and in which areas they’re succeeding or require more work. Teachers have a similar view of progress and can direct their students accordingly when in class to reinforce certain areas or offer extension.
• Gone are many textbooks and photocopied handouts, instead this material exists as leaves on each student’s learning network.
• For those who are behind or who wish to move ahead, they can do so with confidence, knowing that what they are learning is in line with the standards of the curriculum.
• Resources would be comprehensive and media-rich, offering videos, diagrams and quizzes for students that are even more reliable and up-to-date than the text books and lesson plans of today.

There are certainly more reasons, as there are obstacles which I haven’t addressed here. What I really want you to realise is that education can be exciting and straight-forward, democratic and individual.

As the way we communicate has changed time and time again in the last few decades, and the capabilities of technology has outgrown the humble PC, it’s about time we consider how education can adapt to reflect our evolving way of life.

The disconnect

With special classes for puberty, contraception, alcohol and other such adult burdens, I’m increasingly convinced – thus fearful – of the impending transition into tertiary education and later employment. Even my subject choices in the next three years will require some forward thinking as to where I see myself heading. Yet I’m not sure I have a clue.

This is the disconnect. After 13 years of schooling, it is still vague how this accumulation of knowledge and skills relates to whatever single occupation a student chooses.

The dilemma

But it’s a challenging dilemma, because some people seem to cope without trouble, while others struggle. The factors which influence either result are difficult to isolate, because doing so forces us to question where these life skills are learnt and whether they’re learnt in schools at all.

It would seem reasonable, then, to educate students on the available options in general terms, once in a while, to provide a bit of direction. If I remember correctly, we had 3 such sessions least year. But even attempting to educate about post-school careers in “general terms” would be immensely difficult, considering the many, ever-changing options available.

So we spent a class period on the Government’s CareerQuest web tool. At least this generated a bit of discussion and internal contemplation, for the day at least. Yet it still didn’t give one the depth of information required to make a decision or decide upon a direction.

The solution

Some of us have a passion and are fortunate enough that this passion translates conveniently into a career. But for many of us, there may not be such a job or such a passion. Somewhere out there, however, there’s a job – if not many – that would fulfill our financial and vocational aspirations.

What we need is a mentor, a wise person who has achieved their aspirations and would like to share their story. But more importantly, they would share with young students what their job entails, day-to-day, year-to-year, and why they chose it.

A mentor doesn’t necessarily have to take us under their wing, but they can simply act as a guide, offering advice that will amount to clues in our quest for a career.

The questions that remain are aplenty. Finding a time and place for mentors in high schools – as well as finding the mentors themselves – is a challenge that would require plenty of work and experimentation. But with technology, we could bring experts from all range of occupations into the classroom and allow them to impart advice to our students.

Whether it is for personal gain or for greater society, it doesn’t make a difference. In both instances the agents of change are compelled by the burden they carry. Like a tumour, it constantly threatens to beat them down if they don’t first act, the consequence of failure being disappointment and regret.

So a stubbornness takes hold, an infallible drive that others may view as eccentric, but it doesn’t matter because the pursuit has already begun. The result may be beautiful or ugly, functional or flamboyant – about all it won’t be is uninspired.

However, the idea itself is likely worthless, unless detailed drawings are produced and a patent taken out. Only then could you extract value, which may be very little depending on demand for your concept.

It seems to be a similar story for my idea of introducing Writing as a separate subject into the New Zealand high school curriculum. I’ve got the idea, but at this point no one is prepared to buy it. It challenges the status quo and presents a lot of extra work for whoever wishes to take it on.

Thus, I wasn’t at all surprised to receive a response from the Ministry of Education to my idea that somewhat blunted my enthusiasm for immediate action.

The first time I read it through, I reacted with a bit of a sigh, before closing the email and carrying on with my holiday. I felt that the idea was lost when it was suggested that Media Studies already caters for writing, both narrative and informative. The suggestion that writing was already well catered for in the curriculum continued. Discouraged, I skimmed over the rest with little focus.

It was today’s reading, a couple of days after receiving the response, that sparked my enthusiasm once more. This paragraph in particular:

In your blog you have outlined a sound argument for the inclusion of specific opportunities to develop students’ writing. Schools have the flexibility to develop a writing course or module similar to the photography and music courses you describe. Often this is also dependent on wider factors like staffing. You could discuss your ideas with the Head of Faculty for English or the senior staff member responsible for curriculum and learning.

In a school as large as Burnside, which has obviously taken steps already to develop courses for Photography and Music, I see no reason why writing couldn’t also be included. In fact, as is suggested in the email, aspects of writing are already present, although small and fragmented. If Burnside’s English department were to pick out these existing aspects and develop these further to tie the course together, we would have a subject.

So my hope is somewhat renewed. I realise now that this idea, which has thus far existed as little more than a thought, will require further development. Unqualified myself, it’s now a matter of convincing the English department at Burnside to take the idea on board for a pilot run – the prototype that will prove or disprove the arguments I’ve presented.

This does rely on a lot of co-operation and it’s very likely that I won’t get that considering the larger issues concerning education at Burnside at present, such as exams and post-earthquake evaluation. In the meanwhile, another endeavour of mine, Christchurch Young Writers’ Group, will provide a concrete avenue through which to further my involvement with writing.

Below is a copy of my original enquiry to the Ministry of Education as well as their response:

My enquiry

Dear Ministry of Education,

It has recently occurred to me that the subject of writing in the English curriculum, from formal to creative writing, seems to be obscured, barely present, in the current high school curriculum. I’m in year 10 and I’ve already noticed how writing as an option diminishes for high school students as they move up the year levels. What was quite regularly covered in primary is all but absent at the High school level. I would like to refer you to a short blog post I wrote: http://danielcoats.net/2011/10/where-is-writing-in-our-high-school-curriculum/

I would be keen to discuss this topic with someone from the Ministry of Education. As a passionate writer and reader, I would very much like to know why there are so few opportunities for the former in high school, yet writing is a strength, interest and potential career path for many young New Zealanders.

Thank you,

Daniel Coats
Burnside High School

Minstry of Education Response

Tena koe Daniel

This email is in response to your enquiry received on the 5th October, regarding the subject of writing in the English curriculum.

It is exciting to see such passion for reading and writing. It is equally encouraging to see a young student like yourself provide some alternative proposals for the teaching of writing at secondary school.

I agree with you that writing is a crucial skill in our society, even more so in this digital world where we have unlimited access to people, information and ideas. To be fully engaged with our modern world being able to read, write and communicate effectively is vital.

Writing is an integral part of all subject areas as skill in writing is essential for success in most learning areas – especially at secondary school level. For example, Media Studies has its own distinctive ways of narrating stories and reporting events and information. This is one area in which writing can be developed. Writing can be thought of as a ‘tool’ for curriculum and lifelong learning.

Writing is also an integral part of English. It is part of the ‘creating meaning’ strand. In this strand students develop the skills or tools of speaking, writing, and presenting so they can effectively communicate their ideas, viewpoints and information they have read. You state that the teaching of formal and creative writing can be seen as an isolated unit of work in English programmes. However there are also many teaching and learning approaches where teachers can continue to support students to develop their writing knowledge and skills and interest in writing and language. The Ministry’s advice to schools encourages teachers to see writing as a tool that is developed in an ongoing way across all years 9-13 learning programmes.

In your blog you have outlined a sound argument for the inclusion of specific opportunities to develop students’ writing. Schools have the flexibility to develop a writing course or module similar to the photography and music courses you describe. Often this is also dependent on wider factors like staffing. You could discuss your ideas with the Head of Faculty for English or the senior staff member responsible for curriculum and learning.

Another option you could explore is to start a school writing group, or there may be writing groups in the community which you could join to support your strong interest in writing. As you have argued, creating opportunities for students to follow their passion and also develop their writing knowledge and skills could then lead into journalism and creative writing courses at tertiary level.

Nga mihi/regards

The trouble is, consumers only know what they think they want. In terms of predicting innovation, they serve only to slow down a product’s development.

Which brings me to the phrase that has defined Apple for 3 decades: Think Different. This is more than a marketing slogan, I can assure you. This is an ethos. It ensures that Apple’s employees are never caught behind the competition and it assures consumers that Apple will do the thinking for them.

To Think Different is to give consumers what they wanted all along, but didn’t realise yet.

Now take a look at your mobile phone. There’s a good chance that it’s no smaller or lighter than your last one. Yet mobile phones have come further than any market research, however in-depth, could have conduced. The phone is now so much more than a single-use device. Indeed, it serves many of the same functions of personal computers, in a smaller, more svelte body.

Apple realised that consumers didn’t really want a smaller phone at all. They wanted a smarter phone. They wanted a device that, unlike a laptop, could fulfil all of their communication and computing needs at once.

At the same time, they responded to a youthful desire for a product that is as aesthetically pleasing as it is natural to use. They called it the iPhone. Since Steve Jobs showed off the device in 2007, competitors have been scrambling for even the thinnest slice of the smartphone market.

The very companies that were putting all of their efforts into producing devices that they claimed the public wanted were immediately exposed as slow and unreceptive. No exorbitant amount of R&D dollars will produce innovation like Apple has.

Today, I type this post on the iPad. It’s incredible how easy Apple makes this technology business look. It’s easy to lose track of the number of products they’ve redefined, markets they’ve created and cynical predictions they’ve proven wrong. There’s no market for tablets. Whose going to pay $1000 for a phone? No family needs a computer in their household.

You would think that by now the competition would realise. It’s only natural that as the founding father of Apple, Steve Jobs, passes, that we look to the up and coming technology giants.

Yet, after watching on in both awe and panic for a decade, no one is yet to step up to that mark. I would say Amazon have come the closest, but even their latest device is merely a watered down iPad for a fraction of the price. It sounds enticing, but haven’t Apple proven already that price is no substitute for innovation?

The prolific success of Apple is both reassuring and worrying at the same time. It shows that innovation and insight count for everything. Think back to innovators of the past. They began by redefining expectations and producing something unseen and unforeseen. These ideas always last for decades beyond their conception.

But I worry that Apple is the last real innovator we’ll see in this space for another 10, possibly 20 years. Granted, others will build upon their contributions, but will they ever match the incredible foresight and confidence in their products that Apple has shown?

It’s not necessarily inventors that we need to achieve this. The ideas will come naturally. It could be said that every person has a few good ideas up their sleeve during a lifetime. Steve Jobs certainly wasn’t an inventor. But he was the man who saw a single idea, among a sea of “crap”, and stubbornly pursued it, iterating at every turn. There’s no doubt he would have overseen many more iterations in his lifetime had he not been caught out by cancer.

Complacency is the greatest obstacle to success. In recent years, America as a country has embodied this idea. As education and innovation falls, so national debt rises. Obviously there are unforeseen factors at play, but without an educated, forward-thinking population, getting back on two feet is far, far harder. Apple showed us this too, in 1997 when they were counted out. There time was up, they’d had there one breakthrough and relied on it for a decade too long. Then they came right back and responded with the iPod.

We can’t all be quite as agile or ultimately successful as Apple, but we can do our best to eliminate complacency, through good and through bad. In both situations, we need to summon the courage to throw out the crap, regardless of how brilliant it once was, and confidently pursue the untested.

Tomorrow’s innovators shouldn’t strive merely to be different. They must apply the very same thought for the future and for consumers as every innovator before them. This is what it means to Think Different.