Author: grabe

Interpreting “Outliers”

Cindy and I have taken a couple of long trips in the car lately and I have used the time to listen to Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers. It is the kind of book that is interesting and invites interpretation and speculation.

The book consists of a series of stories that demonstrate that the reason individuals who we regard as extremely successful are so good at what they do is because circumstances have allowed them the opportunity to spend great amounts of time (10000 hours) on something. It is this combination of circumstance and time spent that greatly changes the odds of success.

The identification of what factors represent “circumstances” is what makes this book s0  fascinating. Circumstances range from birthdate in the example of successful Canadian hockey players to access to interactive coding opportunities when such opportunities were extremely rare (Bill Gates) to culture differences in how numbers are represented in language and the assumption that success requires personal commitment to lengthy periods of meaningful work (Asian success in mathematics).

One of the final chapters (chapter 7) considers the success of KIPP (Knowledge is Power). The analysis explains a major source of SES differences in academic performance as learning outside of the school day (summer and outside of school). In a way, KIPP intends to compensate for this difference by extending the school day, week, and year.

As a technology advocate, my tendency is to attempt to understand some of these factors within the environment I understand. Perhaps technology offers opportunities to extend the day, week, and year. This would require that ALL students have access outside of school and have the opportunity to use this access in meaningful ways. This reminds of the concern regarding high bandwidth access from home. 1:1 initiatives would be a start, but the most important applications would allow students to take the computers home and also keep them throughout the summer. Having a computer would be of limited value without Internet access. City wide wifi might be a solution in some situations. Finally, there is the problem of how access would be used. The KIPP expectations require intense activity (the descriptions from the book focus on math). I have less to say about the curriculum and I am not ruling out direct instruction, but I do note that the advantage of growing up in a family of means is not so much about formal instruction as it is about information rich activities (e.g., travel) and related discussion. Perhaps a place to begin would be to encourage a continued virtual connection to the school as a learning community through participatory web activities. Would a student with Internet access be able to find some interesting participatory activities during the month of July?

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Typicality

I picked this topic up from a post by Will Richardson. He passes on a request from an Edutopia writer asking for student input on how teachers should use technology in classrooms. The post then goes on to outline some examples that are very much in keeping with a view promoting student multimedia authoring. I always interpret this approach as proposing that teachers are out of touch with the needs and interests of their students.

Here is my concern with such an approach. It really concerns me what one might say from such input. Will it offer insights into what a typical student would like to experience as a learning experience and what a typical student would be prepared to implement as a learning project.

Two quick examples:

1) I teach educational psychology to undergraduates and some in this class are future teachers. These are both students who have opinions about how they should be taught and students who will soon be teachers. I am in the middle of a simple cooperative project in which students within a pair write on a designated topic and then send this material to their partner who analyzes the content using a technique I provide and then returns the results to the writer. Simply put, the project uses some very basic technology skills – prepare a document and save in RTF format, send as an attachment. I ask them to save a document in rtf format because students use different word processing programs and use word processing programs of different vintages. You would think I am asking them to code in C++. Many cannot understand my explanation of why requiring a common format might be important and many cannot figure out how to send an attachment. Often my instruction are ignored, some just send the file as it is saved and let their partner deal with it and some cut and paste into the email they send. In the same class, I have a computer science major and we talk about open source software. A translation program others could use was recommended.

If I was to inform other college profs on student interest in cooperative email projects in large lecture courses, do you think I should forward the student who recommends a format translation program as a prod to change their methods of teaching?

2) When I was a kid, I received a printing press as a Christmas present. I wanted this printing press very badly. Once I had it, I discovered that it did not come with enough letters (the rubber type you used to prepare your content for printing). I saved my money and bought more, but I also had to resort to tactics such as substituting 1s for ls.

I remember I created a sports page. I would write an account of the week’s playground softball games and I would include the pro baseball standings in the final document. Writing was challenging – I had to limit what I said to the type I had available. Probably good preparation for Twitter. I would take the pages i produced to school and distribute to my classmates. Circulation of about a dozen or so if I remember correctly.

I am the only kid I know who had a printing press, but I bet I would have been the kid my teacher would volunteer as an example of student authoring.

One of the long-term problems I have with the approach taken by many reform advocates is that they seize on the interests and capabilities of a few to argue for change for others. I wish the capabilities of digital natives were as advertised. I have been waiting for this group to show up in my college classes for several years now. I am thinking they must only enroll in colleges on the east coast.

Don’t get me wrong, I am an advocate of the participatory web and the potential of these tools and tactics for learners. However, I think we must work with students to develop necessary tool skills and apply these capabilities in productive ways. The interests and skills of some are and have always been unrepresentative.

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Are There Too Many Portals?

I have been working to create an educators portal for about a year now (Learning Aloud). It is a combination of my blog posts, a social bookmarking site focused on topics in educational technology, and most recently something I think of as an online book entitled Meaningful Learning and the Participatory Web. I originally developed the online book as a personal wiki (anyone could read, but only I could write), but then converted the content into more traditional web pages. There are also options for participation – it would make little sense to write about the participatory web without welcoming and offering opportunities to participate. The social bookmarking site allows registered users to contribute and rate. Access to some parts of the stie are controlled through Drupal and those who register are provided a page they are encouraged to use to link to their own projects and examples.

My site was certainly not the original. Those who work in this area enjoy working with the tools and sense the value of using these tools to tap the knowledge and experiences of others. However, a reasonable question might be – if too many portals are created has the potential body of participants been diluted to the point that the potential benefits of collaboration cannot be realized. I have begun to think about this topic because of two new portals I have encountered in recent weeks.

Social Networking 4 Teachers

ISTE Connects

One site is sponsored by a major organization for educators with technology interests (ISTE). Those organizing the other are a little difficult to identify (I know how some of the individual components originated, but not the site). While it has been argued that survival as a content/service provider is really a battle for attention, I encourage your examination of all of these sites. BTW – I am making no effort here to be exhaustive.

So, the site I am attempting to organize may have little hope of competing with the resources of an organization or perhaps an organized group with well-known members. So, what I would like to argue, perhaps in an effort at self delusion, is that the model I propose is more useful. Others could offer this model (a cohesive position/vision statement in combination with examples and comments), but I am guessing this will not be the case with the examples I offer here. I translate “cohesive vision” into something as comprehensive as a book. I say that I doubt the willingness of the sites I have mentioned to offer such a resource because of the “money” issue – the examples I am using as contrasts generate income from books or presenters’ fees. It is therefore difficult to acquire an integrated model and examples from these sources.

I think others offer a similar perspective. In Tapscott’s recent book (Grown Up Digital), he offers a perspective he bases on Geoffrey Moore’s famous “Crossing the Chasm” (this analysis based on an even earlier model of innovation that I remember using farmer adoption of hybrid seed corn as the core case study if my Iowa roots serve me well). To be honest, I am using Tapscott’s analysis here – I have not read the original content for some time. I am guessing you have encountered the argument – ideas take off when the early majority (rather than early adopters or visionaries) buy in. Moore argues that to reach the more pragmatic “early majority” one must offer a “whole product”. Visionaries and early adopters are excited enough by pieces that they will generate their own implementations and discuss these implementations with anyone willing to listen. I read an interesting ReadWriteWeb post that went further and proposed a somewhat different scenario when applying the Moore model to tech innovation. This post argued that innovators and early adopters can be driven by the excitement of the innovation (my interpretation), but they may not necessarily serve the most useful role in promoting change because they often move on to new innovations before the present ones are actually fully implemented or given a trial. I see a real germ of truth in this claim.

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Google Earth

Yesterday I read a post on LifeHacker describing the newest release of Google Earth. A video offered within this site describes new features available in version 5.0. You can locate the download at the Google Earth site. A new feature I found intriguing allows the investigation of changes over time.

Rather than duplicate the examples discussed, I wanted to test the tool using a situation I have experienced. I happen to be watching a local outdoor show a few days ago. The guest was a resort owner from Devils Lake, North Dakota, who was talking about the interesting history of the lake. He described the tremendous changes in the level of the lake that have occurred over time and told his own personal story as a short term example. He described working at the Creel Bay boat launch as a youth. At the time it was one of the few locations on the lake where you could rent a boat or purchase bait. He described that the facility was now gone as the location was submerged in the rising waters. This caught by attention. When I first came to North Dakota 30+ years ago a few colleagues from the department and I would go fishing from the Creel Bay marina in the summer. My brother later moved to Devils Lake and lived near this location. He left the area and I stopped taking trips there, but I knew the story of the rising waters.

I decided to examine this phenomena using Google Earth. My strategy was simply to locate Devils Lake in Google Earth and capture a picture of the area. Without changing the area shown, I using the “clock” tool to change the date and attempted to capture the same area of the map. recentdl

Recent image (2005)

olderdl

Older image (1997)

I found my assumptions regarding how easy this would be were somewhat naive. It turns out you cannot find images for any given date. The most recent I could locate for Devils Lake were from 2005. The images were generated by different organizations. I also assume that the time of year the images were taken would influence what was observed. In other words, precise control was not possible. However, if you look carefully, you can detect change. I have identified a common area in a small section of map that shows how a greater area of land is submerged in the more recent image. Science is like this – it is difficult to control all variables and demonstrations are often more difficult to produce than one expects. This is a very interesting tool and certainly available for personal experimentation.

More information describing Devils Lake is available online.

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Server Issues

I have operated at least one server pretty much since this was possible. My motivation for this commitment has varied. Early on, having my own server allowed me to do quite a few things others could not do. This is still the case in isolated areas. My research involves database driven interactivity and storage requirements I cannot duplicate with services provided by the university. Even some of the instructional strategies I employ are very cumbersome when using something like the Blackboard CMS. For example, creating and modifying linked web pages is not practical in Blackboard. The system does not allow modifications to one part of an interconnected system of pages. Some familiar with a CMS may question my claim. Try changing one page of a 40-50 page web site saved on a CMS. Blackboard, at least, wants to treat the entire site as a unit.

The last few days I have been experiencing some of the limitations of having a great deal of personal control. The server offering instructional materials for one of my courses and the development site for online content associated with our book has crashed over night. Temporarily losing the development site is not catastrophic, but students do get frustrated when course content is not available even if they happen to discover this is the situation at 2 in the morning.

At one time, I had hoped that most educators would each operate a simple server and it seemed that things were going in that direction. The Mac had a simple way to share web pages. You did not have to FTP content to a remote server, you just moved files into a folder on your desktop machine. Some things have changed. The assignment of static IPs is now less popular. Security concerns also seem more prevalent. You can still use any Mac as a server, but I know no one who actually does this.

I now have another option. I can rent server space at a reasonable price. The resources I offer at Learning Aloud are provided on rented space. I can do PHP and MySQL scripting, but I do not have to setup or maintain the server. This combination offers advantages.

There is an expression that often applies – I know just enough to be dangerous. I have learned some things operating a server. I know a little linux and to consider some of the exploits that hackers might apply (sql injection). However, when you don’t maintain a server on a daily basis you end up applying your time very inefficiently. I never completely understand what I am doing and I must expend a great deal of time and energy in trial and error. As the equipment I use (typically cast off Macs) changes and runs on different operating systems, what worked last time does not work this time. Critical files are located in different places and executing a statement on the command line from my old notes may not work this time. So, I can spend 8-10 hours over a weekend to get something working a couple of times a year or I can pay $10 a month to not have to worry about it. It would be nice not to have to pay anything, but those hours of labor have to be worth something even to me. This is now the decision. How important is it to have physical contact and control over the entire process?

— I located this post through bloglines that outlines issues in using the Mac as a server

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The Images of Our Lives

Our kids bought me a scanner for my 60th birthday. This was some months ago and it took some time to get it ordered and delivered and for me to find some time to get it put together. It is a Canon CanoScan 8800F and it has an adapter for scanning slides. It does occur to me that talking about slides and slide projectors may not be particularly informative for many who read my posts, but this disconnect is kind of the point. I have these old pictures in a format I can no longer display and I wanted to do something to save them.

I started to look at some pictures (slides) we saved from my parents’ house shortly before it was torn down. Some of the slides are likely older than I am and even pictures in which I appear are really at the earliest reaches of my powers of recollection. It is impossible to know if I really remember or if I remember the descriptions provided by others.

markdanlowell

Here is a picture I am guessing was taken approximately 55 years ago. I am on the right with the binoculars and my brother Dan is on the left. We are not twins, but my mother must have thought it interesting to dress us alike. Perhaps it was a way to keep us from fighting about who had the coolest stuff. The kid in the middle is Lowell Monke our neighbor from down the gravel road. At least I think this is the case. I must admit I even have difficulty differentiating the pictures of me from my brother after this length of time. Actually, maybe it is my brother Bill, but that would make this story less interesting. I wrote about Lowell in a blog post some years ago because we both went on to academic careers that had something to do with classroom technology. I wrote a book about the integration of technology and he wrote a book cautioning educators against instructional dependence on technology with younger children. I have not had the opportunity to talk with him in years and I have no idea how different our perspectives really are. What are the odds?

I am intrigued by the current interest in stories, storytelling, and the importance of collecting the stories of our lives. Images may be a neglected part of these stories. Maybe now is the time to consider how we will save the images we tucked away in our closets and basements.

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Books Online (at least some)

I have written multiple posts concerning copyright and the publishing industry. I certainly don’t have the answers, but as both a producer and consumer I at least understand the frustrations experienced by the multiple parties involved.

The NYTimes Review of Books offers an interesting editorial on such topics prompted by Google’s efforts to digitize and offer as much published content as possible. I learned some new things – e.g., libraries must pay $25,910 to offer access to the Journal of Comparative Neurology. I was curious and tried to access this journal. UND does have it and I could access online. I took a look at the first title – Deletion of the citron kinase gene selectively affects the number and distribution of interneurons in barrelfield cortex (p spc1) –and decided that I would stick to reading the Journal of Educational Psychology. I wonder what the library budget for the College of Education is.

BTW – the editorial does not come down on the side of open source:

Libraries exist to promote a public good: “the encouragement of learning,” learning “Free To All.” Businesses exist in order to make money for their shareholders—and a good thing, too, for the public good depends on a profitable economy.

I offer this resource as another comment on this complex issue. The article describes the present agreement between copy-right holders and Google (students don’t count on legal online access to your textbooks) and also expresses some concern that the present agreement is limited to Google.

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