Transcript CRAFTING OUR 2020 VISION

by Stewart Savard (SD# 71 Comox Valley, B.C., CANADA)
Getting ready for the 2020 Grad
It is sometimes easier to look into the future, than it is to
look at today.
We are going to look ahead to image the future - so that we
can be released to look at today.
Stew Savard Comox, B.C. February 2011
HOW DO YOU SEE LEARNING?
HOW WILL YOU SEE LEARNING?
INTRODUCTION – FINDING A FOCAL POINT

Today’s grade 3 students will graduate in 2020

Amongst the last students to have
experienced traditional learning

Our learning system will have changed
by 2020 – the clock is ticking

They are in our schools and we must get ready for them
FOCAL POINT

Educational institutions, such as schools, seldom have
the luxury of the time to peer into the future

Most teachers are focused more on trying to just stay
current – on getting today’s tasks done, than on longterm planning

We can use the 2020 grads as a focusing element to
make changes and measure success
HOW WILL YOU SEE LEARNING?
The answer to this question is still unclear, but we can
safely identify three forces that are shaping the changes we
face:
1.
We live in a flat world in terms of information access
2.
21 Century skills will be used to shape what we do
3.
New technologies will change how we see resources,
give us new electronic tools, and create new
challenges
18 days
PART ONE
FRIEDMAN IS RIGHT! THE WORLD IS FLAT!
“The World is Flat” (2005) suggested that, due in
part to globalization, the world’s economy was
increasingly moving towards a level playing field.
From these ideas, and others, we can state that:
BY 2020 ACCESS TO THE WORLD OF INFORMATION WILL
BE FLAT. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!
INFORMATION ACCESS IS BECOMING FLATTER

The internet and search engines, such as Google, have
helped to create a flatter playing field in terms of
information and access to it

Access to the internet means that information is no
longer just the domain of select countries and groups
(including teachers)
INFORMATION ACCESS IS BECOMING FLATTER

Access to information, without purpose, may not matter
if it does not lead users to either knowledge or wisdom

Unfocused access can be entertaining

It may simply lead people, and groups, into
activities dependent on constant stimulation
and not on focused skill development and
empowerment
INFORMATION ACCESS IS BECOMING FLATTER
In British Columbia, and in parts of Canada, it is possible to
identify three challenges to flatter access:

Remote areas of B.C. and Canada face challenges

Low-income schools and communities face challenges
(to both electronic and traditional resources)

Career/trade students face attitudinal challenges (theirs
and others)
IT’S ABOUT PURPOSE
Canadian author Marshall McLuhan once wrote:
“That the medium is the message.”

That truism can be extended to: ”It is the
purpose to which information is used, that
provides the message.”

Information can provide entertainment

Can be a step on the path to knowledge and the
development of wisdom
PURPOSEFUL PLACES
Three facts in 2010:

Information, with purpose, can lead users to knowledge,
wisdom, and make them more powerful

The users of purposeful information can be individuals
and groups (school classes)

Historically, the places where large amounts of
information come together with purpose are called
schools

...on to PART TWO – TEACHING 2020 SKILLS
THE SKILLS – 21st CENTURY SKILLS
Why choose this set of skills? The B.C. Ministry of
Education has identified 21st Century Learning as an
element in educational change in the province.
Two groups that have outlined some skills are the 21st
Century Learning Initiative (based in the U.K.) and the
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (from the U.S.).
PART TWO – SKILLS
PART TWO –SKILLS
PART TWO – ESSENTIAL SKILLS
We need to blend 21st Century Skills with Essential Skills
The Government of Canada, working with Industry and
labour groups, has identified a set of essential career skills.
PART TWO – TEACHING ESSENTIAL SKILLS
Career-based skills
tend, in some
ways, to be more
practically stated
than those
outlines by other
bodies.
This doesn’t make
them less
important.
PART TWO – SKILLS FOR THE MIND
Howard Gardner published “Five Minds for the Future” in
2007.
A set of skills that students should acquire during their
education and expand on during the rest of their lives.
PART TWO – GARDNER’S IDEAS
A 2020 vision needs to be
built on a blend of 21st
Century Skills, Essential Skills,
and skills that shape one’s
mind.
No one approach should, or
needs, dominate. We are not
working with just one kind of
learner in our libraries. We
face a complex challenge.
WHO’LL TEACH THE SKILLS

Because skills don’t teach themselves, we need teachers

2020 learning will be shaped by the skills mastered and
the access and expectations placed on students in order
to give purpose to learning
PART TWO – CAUTIONARY TALE
 Overview of American education
 Records the attempts of that
country to find a ‘one size fits all’
approach to education
 from 1974
PART TWO – SECTION TWO
OUR CHANGING
AUDIENCE
PART TWO – A CHANGING AUDIENCE
During the next decade the ‘audience’ we work with will
change. Schools, in most of BC, are losing students:

there has been, for years in this province, an ongoing
drop in the total number of public school students

there has also been a second drop in students enrolled
in traditional brick and mortar schools – often to D.L., or
distance learning, schools

this drop may be slowly changing the makeup of who
our audience
WHAT SKILLS? – AUDIENCE MATTERS
Audience matters when teaching skills and determining
what skills to teach:

according to the BC Ministry of Education website “Provincial
Reports” under the title “Student Statistics” (a pdf file) we learn
that in 2009/2010 there were 649,952 K-12 students in the province
(p.1) – down from 665,624 in 2005/2006

of that total 44,042 were Distributed Learning: DL students – up
from 13,208 students in 2005/2006

from a peak in 2005/2006, traditional schools may have seen a
drop of around 50,000 students
PART TWO – SKILLS LEAD TO MORE SKILLS
In the last 25 years we have evolved from:

storing information in a notebook, binder, or locker

storing information on floppies, hard-drives, flash drives

storing information in the web
Students who lack access to the technology, or who don’t
have the required skills, are unlikely to develop the next
level of skills.
PART TWO – EXPLICIT VS. IMPLICIT SKILLS
The concept of “digital natives” seems to have lead some in
the popular media to superficial thinking.
The term seems to posit that, without regard to access,
skill development, and intent, all those born since date X
have some innate skill that others do not have.
It also seems to have lead some to conclude that, through
some magical form of implicit adoption, digital skills will
have been acquired by all students within an age range.
THIS IS NONSENSE!
PART TWO – EXPLICIT VS. IMPLICIT SKILLS
One constant in my career has been that students who
need help are not going to get it by simply being in my
class or on the internet.
These students need direction and often they need to be
taught small, but critical, skills in order for them to more
on.
Good teachers teach in small steps. Powerful students take
giant strides.

...on to PART THREE - TECHNOLOGIES
TECHNOLOGY – THE PURPOSE
The purposes to which we use technology sends messages.
The messages have changed from:

Ooh! Ahh! Isn’t this neat/incredible/amazing/powerful!
to that of

These are the tools I use to shape what I do and am

This is where I keep my tools

These are the places my tools take me
PART THREE – TECHNOLOGIES
By 2020 we will have FINISHED a significant shift in
technology and how, where, and why we use it. Changes
are happening in:

hardware

software

the places we use technology

our purposes in using technology
TECHNOLOGY – HARDWARE
Hardware is changing.
Until recently, computers have been heavy-lift
devices. Heavy lift means that:

students can do the most complex tasks
linking the hardware and the software
TECHNOLOGY – HARDWARE
Most students, most days, don’t need heavy-lift technology:

elementary keyboarding doesn’t

word processing usually doesn’t

searching the internet doesn’t

PowerPoint doesn’t
TECHNOLOGY – HARDWARE
Change our thinking to reflect our different purposes:

CAD classes still need heavy lift
capability

Socials, English, and Science
classes do not need
heavy lift capability
We will need devices that reflect the different and ongoing
purposes we have.
TECHNOLOGY – CHANGES IN HARDWARE
In the last few years we have seen waves of laptops and
netbooks. At their core they are heavy-lift devices:

restricted by short battery lives (2-4 hours)

built around heavy-lift software
While providing some options, they have not been a game
changer.
TECHNOLOGY – HARDWARE
Laptops and netbooks have helped change how schools
operate. Many schools are now wireless.
Wireless changes a school’s relationship with users because:

it services needs instead of suggesting “Our way or...”

opens the door to different kinds of technological devices
(and the challenges that creates)
TECHNOLOGY – GAME CHANGING HARDWARE
Since the Kindle announcement by Amazon in 2007 and the
iPad by Apple in 2010, we have seen new kinds of device
that change how we use technology.
These technologies can be thought of as being light-lift
devices. They, and their peers, are game changers!
TECHNOLOGY – HARDWARE
Light-lift devices – now or in the near future – will:

provide independence – day-long (or longer) battery life

bring convergence - fewer other devices are needed)

bring instant adaptability – you can quickly add ‘apps’
and resources (eBooks, videos, music)

help users to locate, create and store light amounts of
information (in relative terms) on the device and in the
web
LIGHT-LIFT – SELLING LIKE HOTCAKES
Light-lifting devices are “selling like hotcakes”:

before Christmas, Kindle purchasers
faced a delivery delay of 7 to 9
weeks
 Ebook share is growing rapidly - from
CBC Radio February 14

the iPad share of the Tablet market was running at sales of
4.5 million devices per fiscal quarter
TECHNOLOGY - SOFTWARE
Software has been the partner of hardware. Change in one
has lead to change in another. But now software is moving
in several different directions:

programs are moving from on the machine to in “the
cloud”

open platforms, such as the iPad, iPod, and
SmartPhones see software in terms of user centered
“Apps”
TECHNOLOGY - SOFTWARE
Traditional software:

expensive - although some companies, such as
Microsoft, give schools very deep discounts

static - although piracy is often rife – schools must have
legal copies

supported a heavy-lift view of needs

required constant attention (updates, patches, work-arounds)
TECHNOLOGY - SOFTWARE
Software is moving to “the Cloud”. For example:

Google Apps, which SD#71 is adopting, provides device
independent access to a suite of applications

NIDES Google Apps
TECHNOLOGY – SOFTWARE

the Kindle allows users to purchase and read books,
listen to books/music, get/send email, etc.

the iPad comes with software to surf the Internet,
get/send email, watch a video, take notes, make
purchases from the Apple store and download more
programs (Apps)
TECHNOLOGY – SOFTWARE

act like the slimmed down versions of traditional
software. (The iPad has Pages and Keynote – Word and
PowerPoint like programs)

bring convergence – access to a users music files or act
like a stand alone GPS device

support mobile activities - provide a map to the mall,
show the stars above, play pinball while in class
APP SOFTWARE
This also opens other opportunities for users:

the App Store for the iPad has different eBook reader
software
 from Apple, Kobo (Chapters/Indigo), Amazon and other providers
 is beginning to allow users to share the same book on their
different devices (Lendle sites.)

and it moves the discussion for users from “I use this
company.” to “I use these suppliers.”
CLOUD-BASED TOOLS
My main Google account presently supports 18 functions.
CLOUD-BASED TOOLS
My NIDES Google Apps account supports 12 functions today...
GOOGLE TUTORIALS
https://sites.google.com/a/apps.nides.bc.ca/nides-apps-help/home
CLOUD-BASED TOOLBELTS
Create cloud-based homes. iGoogle and myYahoo, allow
online homes.
THE CLOUD - IGOOGLE
iGoogle lets me add “Stuff”
and add tabs.
Some of these can be school
related.
Comox Valley Media lets me
track local news - like snow
days - and it was created by
a district employee.
ELECTRONIC TOOLBELTS
eToolbelts, when combined with light-lift devices, will shift
what students do because they provides users with
accessibility and independence. Teachers need to:

explicitly confirm or teach skills related to tools

link eToolbelts, light-lift devices and eResources to promote
higher level activities (across subject areas)
TECHNOLOGIES – VIRTUAL WORLDS
Some Distance Learning students spent much of their time
in virtual worlds.
Students in the Comox Valley D.L. school, NIDES, use
Quest Atlantis as a platform for discovery and creation. This
approach uses a rich blend of 21st Century Skills
TECHNOLOGIES – THE HOLODECK IS COMING!
2020 school libraries will contain holodeck-like learning
bays.
The Microsoft “Kinect” and Sony “Move” are examples of
early motion control players. As users move, for example
in a soccer field, their movement are tracked and
incorporated into the game being play.
TECHNOLOGIES – THE HOLODECK IS COMING!
With just a little imagination it is possible to image a newly
built library, centered around access to traditional and
electronic resources, and with a series of “learning bays” on
the periphery. These, constantly monitored bays, would:

vary in size (for small and medium group exploration)

allow students to explore different virtual environments
directly linked to their studies or areas of inquiry

allow students to capture elements of their exploration
for inclusion in tasks linked to their studies
E-RESOURCES
eBooks are one form of educationally useful eResources.
So are:

focused school web-pages

curriculum specific web pages

eTextbooks

accessible video/music files

curricular/skill linked computer games
E-TEXTBOOKS
eBooks are changing ‘reading’. eTextbooks are an example
of an eBook. They may evolve in this fashion.

eTextbook 1.0 conversion of paper textbook into an ‘e’ version

eTextbook 1.2 has some material added (charts, maps, etc.) and
has previously determined and static assignments, tests, etc.
(which can be converted to PDFs, etc. and sent to a teacher)

eTextbook 1.5 can be updated for most recent version, is adaptable
to suit general accessibility needs and some user preferences

eTextbook 1.8 contains significant, but static, additional internal
resources, and pointers to external resources (which may be
current)
E-TEXTBOOKS
2.X

eTextbook contains the best features of 1.8 and can be updated, via
a library subscription service, to reflect a specific school year and/or
semester, based on term-certain dates (September 1st and February
1st in B.C.)

has static pointer links to previously released material and to some
dynamic information link to topics

has tests, quizzes, etc. that can be forwarded to teacher

has a semi-dynamic Table of Contents and Assignments based on
learning styles, progress to date, linked to a specific user

provides explicit tutorials design to teach skills linked to content
E-TEXTBOOKS
eTextbook 3.X

based on a fully dynamic app that “gets to know the user” ,
provides material as needed, and contains virtual tools linked to the
textbook (microscope for biology)

covers described curriculum material and allows student and
teacher determinations to reflect student’s perceived learning style,
needs, interests

has dynamic tests and quizzes that advance or re-teach concepts

accesses additional resources designed, as needed, to build a
student’s informational breadth and depth

provides explicit instruction on how to use tools linked to needs
THE WORLD IS FLAT - A MODEST EFFORT

The organization of knowledge and the creation and
sharing of a library can happen anywhere

I maintain, with some support from my School District
(for which I am thankful) and a lot of my free time, the
SD#71 eLibrary

It receives between 70,000 and 80,000 unique
visits a year from between 130 to 140 countries
A MODEST EFFORT

Some of the content in the eLibrary is current and,
sadly, some is dated, but...

If you do a world-wide Google search, from here in
Canada, on the phrase: “Mongol Empire” you get, in the
first page of results, on the evening of February 14,
2011, the following...
Not bad, for a
school district
of about 8,000
students on the
‘very wet-coast’
of Canada.
Wikipedia beat
us! Darn!!
Try “Earth’s
Composition”.
Our Earth’s
Composition is a
bit old, but it
helps makes the
point. Access to
the world of
information is
flat! Anybody
can organize it!
Even a public
school.
Wikipedia beat
us again. lol
BE A KNOWLEDGE CREATOR

Go to http://simple.wikipedia.org and create knowledge for your students
This is my vision of school...what does yours look like?
This is our 2020 Grad! She is our next generation of user.
She is in our schools. What will she need?
HARDWARE – PRESENT
Staying on top of eBook readers and tablets is difficult.
These links may be helpful:

eBooks overview – Wikipedia

eBook comparisons – Wikipedia

tablet overview – Wikipedia

2010 tablet reviews – cNet
HARDWARE – FUTURE OF LIGHT-LIFT
Light-lifting devices are changing rapidly. Flexible metal and
plastic screens (likely to change eBooks and iPads/Tablets
from flat rectangles to learning batons - from which you can
pull out a flexible screen) are all under development. For
information go to:

Las Vegas CES 2011

Mobile World Congress 2011 (in Spain)

Apple iPad site
1.
“The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” Nicholas Carr, 2010 ASIN: B003R7L90I
(Kindle edition)
2.
“The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age” Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg,
2009 ASIN: B0030DGXY6 (free Kindle edition)
3.
“The World is Flat” Thomas L. Friedman, 2007. ISBN 978-0312425074
4.
“Five Minds for the Future” Howard Gardner, 2007. ASIN: B001E53R2I (Kindle edition)
5.
“Curriculum 21” Heidi Hayes Jacobs, 2010. ASIN: B003VRZUDG (Kindle edition)
6.
“Civic Potential of Video Games” Joseph Kahne et al, 2009 ASIN: B0030EFOO0 (free Kindle edition)
7.
“Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man” Marshall McLuhan, 1965. ISBN 0070454353
8.
“The Global Achievement Gap” Tony Wagner, 2008. ASIN B0039QGJ86
9.
“Waiting for Superman” – the video AND companion book edited by Karl Weber
Screen shot come from my different Google accounts

Unless otherwise identified all images used in this
presentation come from Microsoft Corporation
http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/images/

World is flat. Photo by Stew Savard
Retrieved February 15, 2011.
http://acidcow.com/pics/20110202/best_egypt_protest_signs
_09.jpg



Retrieved February 15, 2011.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/multimedia/dynamic/00717/
Egypt_Protest_JPEG_717742e.jpg

Retrieved February 15, 2011.
http://acidcow.com/pics/20110202/best_egypt_protest_signs
_09.jpg

Retrieved February 15, 2011.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/world/2011/02/10/watson.wael.g
honim.revolution.cnn.640x480.jpg
