I Just Returned from the Future

I just returned from the future.

In one of the strangest experiences I have had in a while, I lived the future as I read about it! I did not realize it for a while but then it struck me suddenly over dinner—”I am what I’m reading!”

Let me explain.

As I write this I am nearing the end of my annual Think Week (you can read details about Think Week in these two articles: How to Reduce Stress While Getting More Done; and in How To Find Time to Focus, Think, and Work). During my Think Week my primary focus is prayer and reading. On this trip I took several books with me including Humility (Andrew Murray), The Culture Code (Clotaire Rapaille), Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God (John Piper), Derailed (Tim Irwin), Death by Meeting (Patrick Lencioni), and Generous Justice (Tim Keller).

I also took Anywhere: How Global Connectivity is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business (Emily Nagle Green). This is the book I was reading when I realized that I was living the future. I will summarize some of the key points of this book and their implications for our schools in a subsequent post but for now let me simply state the theme of the book;

Within the next ten years the global ubiquitous digital network will connect most of the world’s people, places, information, and things, which will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, teach, and learn.

The author, Emily Green, knows what she is talking about. She is the President and CEO of the Yankee Group—one of the world’s premier research firms on the impact of the global connectivity revolution with operations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

One of the most fascinating parts of the book is her description of five consumer segments: Analogs, Technophytes, Digital Shut-ins, Outlet Jockeys, and Actualized Anywheres (AA’s). As I was enjoying my dinner and reading it suddenly dawned on me just how much I was exhibiting the characteristics of the Actualized Anywheres. The short description of AA’s is that they “bring the concept of a ubiquitously connected consumer to life.” This is when it struck me—-I was literally living the future she was describing!

Here is how I know. I wrote down how I was handling my recreational and work related tasks during Think Week. Here is a short list.

• All of my books, newspapers, and magazines are on my iPad. I read, highlight, annotate, and share my reading content electronically.
• I downloaded a book immediately onto my iPad based on a recommendation from the book I was reading at the time.
• I held a video-call with my daughter and grand daughter using FaceTime on my iPhone.
• I sent an email through Facebook to some friends and family. I accepted a connection request with a professional colleague on LinkedIn.
• I used the Yelp application on my iPhone to find restaurants and read reviews before choosing a place to have dinner. I also wrote my own review on Yelp for the benefit of others.
• I used my Garmin GPS to guide me to the restaurant.
• While driving and while dinning, I used an iPhone application called SoundHound to identify and order songs to download. I liked the songs but could not remember the titles. SoundHound solved that problem.
• I used an application called NoteSelf on my iPad to take notes using a stylus, including notes for this blog article. No paper or pen needed.
• I used the Evernote application to send clippings from the books I was reading to my administrative assistant for her to type so that the information could be put into my Endnote program for future reference and citation.
• I used Logos Bible Software on my computer to study and write a devotional for my faculty.
• I used Adobe Acrobat to print the devotional as a PDF. I uploaded it to Box.net (cloud storage and collaboration) so it could be shared with our parents with a hyperlink in an email, and then I emailed it to all school staff using Outlook.
• I used LoseIt on my iPhone to track my calories and my running.
• One of the books I was reading referenced a 2004 NYT article on how Apple Outflanked Sony in music players (this had to do with Disruptive Innovation). I went to the NYT website and downloaded the article.
• I am using my laptop to type this article using Live Writer, which I will then post to my blog using the same program.

Now, before you react with something like “are you crazy?!” let me highlight the key point. I am using mobile devices connected to a global digital network everywhere I go to get things done and to enhance and enrich my life. I have a seminary’s worth of books in my Logos Bible program. I have an entire library on my iPad for reading. I have a huge music library of beautiful music in my pocket. I can find and read reviews on local restaurants before deciding where to eat. And I was able to speak with AND see my granddaughter even though I am hours away in a hotel.

Some of my readers, perhaps many of them, have no intention or interest in using technology in the ways I describe above. That is okay. They are most likely Analogs. Most people are. All of us fall into one of the consumer segments that Emily Green describes in her book.

What does this have to do with our schools? Plenty! What I just described is how most of our younger parents and our students will conduct their personal and professional lives.

As school leaders we must understand that our younger parents (those born in the mid to late seventies) and certainly our current students and our future parents DO CARE. They will live and work much as I have described above. Mobile computing and connectivity will be a given—it will be woven into their lives. Their expectations are, and will increasingly be, that our classrooms and school-to-home communication reflect the realities of the new Anywhere Global Connectively.

This is a sea change. It is as evitable as the sun rising tomorrow.

Are we preparing our school infrastructures for this change? Are we preparing and training our faculty? Are we preparing our students for the new work world of tomorrow? Are we providing a biblical framework for understanding and using technology for God’s glory? Are we modeling the use of technology for our teachers and other administrators?

This is one of my favorite quotes from the book:

New things are an easy target for those who lack imagination … Years ago, no one understood why e-mail was worthwhile. Now, no one thinks twice about it—but they’re busy talking about why Twitter is stupid. Bob Metcalfe

Let’s put our sanctified imaginations to work—let’s travel to the future and then return to our schools to get ready!

How To Find Time to Focus, Think, and Work

It is hard to find it hard to find time to focus, think, and work on important projects.  We are constantly interrupted and distracted.  The immediate crowds out the important. 

In his excellent article Who Else Needs More Mental Focus?, Michael Hyatt, Chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the world's largest Christian publisher, offers very helpful tips for improving one’s focus. (see a short excerpt and link to his article below)

I have used many of the same practices for years.  In addition to Mr. Hyatt’s recommendations, I also do the following to carve out time for focus, thinking, and working on critical projects.

• I schedule several hours every Friday morning off campus to focus and think.  I do not come into the office.  I can be reached by cell phone in an emergency but my administrative assistant has been instructed that I am not to be interrupted.  This is some of the most productive time in my week.
• Each year I take several days for a “Think Week.”  I got this idea from Bill Gates who pulled away each year for an extended time of research, reading, and reflection.  I have adopted this practice.  I spend these days praying, reading, reflecting, and writing.  I take a substantial amount of reading material with me.  Because I use my iPad exclusively for reading I am able to carry an entire library of books and research articles with me.  I read and reflect from morning to evening only interrupting my reading for eating, running, and showering.  It is usually during Think Week that I come up with long-range initiative such as our BCS SMART SCHOOL program.

Click here to read Mr. Hyatt’s article, Who Else Needs More Mental Focus?

A few weeks ago, I had to prepare for a board meeting. I really needed an extended period of time to review the material and prepare my presentation. In doing this, I realized that I go through a similar pattern whenever I need to increase my mental focus and get a lot of work done in a short period of time.  Here are ten tactics I use that may help you…

What do you do to improve your focus and creativity as you lead your school?

Fast Facts About Online Learning: I Do The Research So You Don't Have To

Dr. Barrett Mosbacker, Publisher
I have been reviewing a substantial body of research and attending national conferences as I formulate the theological, technological, financial, and marketing framework for a distance learning program at Briarwood Christian School.

I like to share the fruits of my labor with my readers.  Here is a summary of some of the research on distance learning that you may useful.

It has been said that “a picture is worth a thousand words.”  With that in mind, I am providing several charts that provide a useful snapshot of the status of distance learning in the U.S.

This is important information because as I noted in previous articles (They Are Coming After Your Students and Said So! and Can We Keep Up with the Competition?) it is imperative that we work through the theological and pedagogical implications of distance learning as we position our schools for the realities of a dramatically changing educational landscape.

The Evergreen Education Group is the source (Evergreen Education Group. (2009). of Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: An Annual Review of State-Level Policy and Practice. Evergreen, CO: Evergreen Education Group.) from which the graphics below are taken.

Research, Trends and Statistics

K-12 Online Learning and Virtual Schools: Expanding Options

• K-12 online learning is a new field consisting of an estimated $300 million market, which is growing at an estimated annual pace of 30% annually.
• 45 of the 50 states, plus Washington D.C., have a state virtual school or online initiative, full-time online schools, or both.i
• 24 states, as well as Washington, DC, have statewide full-time online schools.ii
• Many virtual schools show annual growth rates between 20 and 45%.ii
• 35 states have state virtual schools or state-led online programs. iii
• As of January 2007, there were 173 virtual charter schools serving 92,235 students in 18 states.iv
• 57% of public secondary schools in the U.S. provide access to students for online learning.v
• 72% of school districts with distance education programs planned to expand online offerings in the coming year.vi
• 14.2 million computers were available for classroom use in the nation’s schools as of the 2005-2006 school year. That works out to one computer for every four students.vii

Online learning in K-12 schools is growing explosively

• There are an estimated 320,000 course enrollments in state virtual schools and 75,00 full-time students in full-time online schools in the U.S.ii
• In 2000, there were 40,000-50,000 enrollments in K-12 online education.viii
• Eduventures estimated 300,000 students participated in virtual learning in the 2002-2003 school year in the United States.ix
• Alberta Online Consortium in Canada reported 4,766 enrollments in 2002-2003. In 2002-2003, NCES reported 328,000 distance education enrollments in K-12 public school districts.x
• In 2008, Sloan Consortium reports that there are approximately 4 million college students are currently enrolled in fully online courses.xi
• In 2006, the Sloan Consortium reported 700,000 enrollments in K-12 online learning. to read: According to the Sloan Consortium, the overall number of K-12 students engaged in online courses in 2007-2008, is estimated at 1,030,000. This represents a 47% increase since 2005-2006.xii
• In 2006, Sloan Consortium reported there were 3.2 million postsecondary students in the United States that took at least one online course; this represents a 25% increase over the previous year.
• In April 2006, Michigan became the 1 st state to require online learning for high school graduation. In 2008, Alabama added a high school graduation distance/online learning requirement ,as well. 80% of K-12 school districts cited “the course was otherwise unavailable” as the number one reason for offering courses at a distance. xiii
• According to the 2009 Sloan Consortium report, K-12 school district administrators cited “offering courses not otherwise available at the school,” “meeting the needs of specific groups of students,” and “offering Advanced Placement or college-level courses” as the top three reasons they perceive online and blended courses to be important.xiv
• Enrollment province-wide in British Columbia climbed from 17,000 students in 2006 to 33,000 students in 2007, according to Canada’s Ministry of Education statistics
• When considering online education for students in rural communities who have either “access to only a limited number of course offerings in their public schools” or advanced students interested in taking courses for college credit, the public expresses considerable support. In these two instances, over 60 percent of respondents support public funding for online education.xv

Research Reports “As Good or Better”: Effective

According to NCREL Synthesis of New Research on K-12 Online Learning: xvi

• Online Learning Expands Options: “The first impetus to the growth of K-12 distance education was an interest in expanding educational options and providing equal opportunities for all learners.” (p.7)
• Online Learning Is Rapidly Growing: “Recent surveys show that K-12 online learning is a rapidly growing phenomenon.” (p.4)
• Online Learning Is Effective: “Equal or Better”: “One conclusion seems clear: On average, students seem to perform equally well or better academically in online learning.” (p. 17)
• Online Learning Training Improves Teaching: Teachers who teach online reported positive improvements in face-to-face, too. “Of those who reported teaching face-to-face while teaching online or subsequently, three in four reported a positive impact on their face-to-face teaching.” (p. 25)

Today’s Students

• The Pew Internet Project reports “the Internet is an important element in the overall educational experience of many teenagers”:xvii
• 87% of all youth between the ages of 12 and 17 use the Internet (21 million people).
• 86% percent of teens, 88% of online teens, and 80% of all parents believe that the Internet helps teenagers to do better in school.
• 85% of 17 year olds have gone online to get information about a college, university, or other school they were thinking about attending.

High School Reform and Redesign

• Data suggest that in about six years 10 percent of all courses will be computer-based, and by 2019 about 50 percent of courses will be delivered online.xxi
• 90% of the fastest growing jobs in the economy require a college degree.xxii
• Over 40% of our nation’s high schools do not offer any AP courses. Many of these schools serve predominantly low-income and minority students.xxii
• Virtual schools and online programs provide AP courses.
• While only 44% of U.S. high school students studied a foreign language in 2002, learning a second or third foreign language is compulsory for students in the European Union and elsewhere.xxii
• Virtual schools offer foreign language courses online that allow interactive communication and collaboration with students and teachers across state and national boundaries for 21st century learning.
• 52% of middle school and 15% of high school mathematics teachers did not have a major or minor in mathematics and 40% of middle school and 11% of high school science teachers did not have a major or minor in science.xxiii
• Virtual schools and online programs provide a range of courses such as science, math, foreign languages, electives and remedial courses with highly qualified teachers.
• According to the Manhattan Institute, 70% of all students in public high schools graduate, and only 32% of all students leave high school qualified to attend four-year colleges.xiv
• The high school graduation rate in the United States is 70%. High school drop-out rates in urban areas average 50%.xxv
• Only 51% of all black students and 52% of all Hispanic students graduate, and only 20% of all black students and 16% of all Hispanic students leave high school college-ready.
• According to recent research from the Silent Epidemic study, 47% said a major reason for dropping out was that “classes were not interesting” and they were “bored”; 88% of drop outs had passing grades.xxvi
• The National Education Technology Plan recommended that every student have access to e-learning opportunities and every teacher have access to e-learning training.xxvii
• Virtual schools and online learning can help provide equal access to rigorous courses for all students, reducing inequities that exist across the educational system.
• Today 6,000 talented young people will drop out of school. xxvii
• Today only 11 states require credits in a foreign language for students to graduate.xxvii
• Today two-thirds of high school students will be bored in at least one class.xxvi
• Today African American students are 14 percent of those in school, but only 7 percent of those taking Advanced Placement exams.xxvii
• Today 15 million students who need mentors do not have them. Xxviii
• 69 percent of the public say that they “would be willing to have a child [of theirs] go through high school taking some academic courses over the Internet.xxix

References

iNACOL. (2009). Fast facts about online learning. Washington DC: International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL).

i Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning 2009, Evergreen Consulting; www.KPK12.com

ii Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning 2009, Evergreen Consulting; www.KPK12.com

iii Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning 2009, Evergreen Consulting; www.KPK12.com

iv Center for Education Reform. (Note: There are 173 virtual charter schools with 92,235 students, up from 147 schools serving 65,354 students in 18 states in 2005-2006; 86 such schools with 31,000 students in 13 states in 2004-05; 60 schools in 13 states in 2002-03).

v Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994–2005, 2007. U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. www.nces.gov.

vi Distance Education in Elementary and Secondary Public School Districts, 2005, U.S. Department of Education National Center for Educational Statistics. www.nces.ed.gov

vii Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2009, Table 252 http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/

viii Virtual Schools, 2001, Tom Clark/WestEd.

ix In 2002-2003, 4,766 students in Alberta, Canada were enrolled in online learning programs; up 1,000 from the previous year’s 3,810 students.

x Distance Education in Elementary and Secondary Public School Districts, 2005, U.S. Department of Education National Center for Educational Statistics. www.nces.ed.gov.

xi Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States, The Sloan Consortium, 2008. http://www.sloanc.org/publications/survey/pdf/staying_the_course.pdf

xii K–12 Online Learning: A 2008 Follow-up of the Survey of U.S. School District Administrators, Sloan Consortium, January 2009, http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/pdf/k-12_online_learning_2008.pdf.

xiii Distance Education in Elementary and Secondary Public School Districts, 2005, U.S. Department of Education National Center for Educational Statistics. www.nces.ed.gov.

xiv K–12 Online Learning: A 2008 Follow-up of the Survey of U.S. School District Administrators, Sloan Consortium, January 2009, http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/pdf/k-12_online_learning_2008.pdf.

xv “The 2008 Education Next-PEPG Survey of Public Opinion,” Fall 2008, (vol. 8, no. 4), http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/26380034.html.

xvi NCREL Synthesis of New Research on K-12 Online Learning, 2005, North Central Regional Education Laboratory/Learning Point Associates. www.ncrel.org/tech/synthesis/.

xvii The Internet at School, 2005, Pew Internet Study. www.pewinternet.org.

xviii Rates of Computer and Internet Use by Children in Nursery School and Students in Kindergarten Through Twelfth Grade, 2003, National Center for Educational Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/quarterly/vol_7/1_2/4_4.asp.

xix Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994–2005, 2007. U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. www.nces.gov.

xx Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994–2005, 2007. U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. www.nces.gov.

xxi How Do We Transform Our Schools?, Education Next, Christensen, Clayton M. and Michael B. Horn, Summer 2008 (vol. 8, no. 3), http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/18575969.html.

xxii Expanding the Advanced Placement Incentive Program, U.S. Department of Education. http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/competitiveness/expanding-apip.html.

xxiii Schools and Staffing Survey: 1999-2000, U.S. Department of Education. www.ed.gov.

xxiv Public High School Graduation and College Readiness Rates in the United States, 2003, from the Manhattan Institute. www.manhattan-institute.org.

xxv Public High School Graduation and College Readiness Rates in the United States, 2003, from the Manhattan Institute. www.manhattan-institute.org.

xxvi The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives on High School Dropouts, 2006, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. www.gatesfoundation.org.

xxvii Toward A New Golden Age In American Education: How the Internet, the Law and Today’s Students Are Revolutionizing Expectations: National Education Technology Plan, 2005, U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology.

xxviii The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development: The Whole Child. www.wholechildeducation.org.

xxix “The 2008 Education Next-PEPG Survey of Public Opinion,” Fall 2008, (vol. 8, no. 4), http://www.hoover.org/publications/.

Why and How to Use Twitter with FREE Guide (Download)

Why should you use Twitter?

That was my first reaction when I was first exposed to Twitter.  Frankly, I had my doubts.  However, as I have gained more experience with Twitter I have discovered that it can be a very useful and powerful tool—the trick is to use it properly to meet your needs.  If it is not used wisely it will merely produce “noise” in your life.

In the Complete Guide to Twitter, the author list the following benefits of using Twitter:

• Being able to “live-Tweet” an event. Twitter’s “moment” when it went from banality to mainstream was at the 2007 SXSW conference when attendees were rapidly twittering conference developments as they happened. People could then stand in front of two large screens and watch the Twitter timelines rapidly and constantly updating with what was happening next. Call it instant messaging on steroids.
• Being able to break the news live from where it happens. The best example of this is, of course, Iran when the public went onto the streets in protest of the 2009 national elections. Iranian tweeters were able to bypass official government restrictions and tweet everything that was going on in their country. It got to the point where “official” news agencies such as CNN and the BBC were forced to get their news from Twitter because their own journalists had been expelled from the country. These messages were then presented on the television screen to the viewers. Twitter messages also give the news a “human face” because they are coming directly from the people most affected by the events in question.
• Being used by friends & family to "follow" each other: are your family and friends in another country from you? Do you have trouble keeping in touch with friends, either real or cyber? Then Twitter makes an excellent tool for keeping in touch and finding out what your family and friends are up to and what they are thinking at that particular moment.
• Real Time Event Search Engine: because of the continuous buzz, Twitter can be considered a rapidly updating search engine, powered by real people. It can be easily used to check what people are saying about currently unfolding events, or to check up on more personal, time-related issues (e.g. if Gmail is down for everyone or just you). We will get more into detail on this later in the manual.
• Being able to promote your blog posts: If you use a website called Twitterfeed6, you can have all your blog posts automatically posted to a Twitter feed as they are published. This has proven to be a highly effective way of promoting a blog or website. Readers who live on Twitter instead of an RSS feed can be notified of your new material in their timeline.
• Job networking: in this current economic climate, an unemployed person needs all the edge they can get and Twitter hasn’t been left out of their job seeking armoury. The site is now being used to ask for work and to look for suitably qualified candidates. Both job seekers and job providers are leaving messages on Twitter with what they need. Private messaging takes care of the rest. ). These tweets can then be retweeted to others and discussed by those who may decide to subscribe to your site later.
• Being able to get the resources you need: Twitter has also been used if a user needs something or has something to offer. Need someone to car-share on a trip from San Francisco to New York? Do you have a spare conference room which you can loan out to someone? Are you selling something or looking to buy something? Then Twitter can be used as your interactive classified ads column. No more placing ads in the newspaper.

For excellent tips,tricks, and powerful resources for using Twitter, download the The Complete Guide to Using Twitter. 

I Hate to Say It, But Told You So! :-)

Dr. Barrett Mosbacker, PublisherThe title is a bit tongue in cheek but I want to update you on a major trend that I believe will have a significant impact on our schools—the rapid development, growth, and acceptance of e-publishing and e-book readers.  The textbook and library as we know them may disappear or at minimum be radically transformed. 

A few months ago I wrote Welcome to the Library. Say Goodbye to the Books:

Things are changing!  For many years e-books have resided in the back waters of publishing.  Early adopters and gadget freaks have read them but the vast majority of the population were either unaware of them or didn’t care.  The lowly status of the e-book may be about to change—and radically.

Consider the latest developments:

The US Kindle Catalog is has surpassed 400,000 Books.  On Saturday (Dec. 26) Amazon issued a press release announcing that on Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books." That's exciting and seemingly newsworthy, although it is natural that this would have happened with hundreds of thousands of new Kindle owners opening their Kindles and finding nothing to read on them but a snappy welcome letter from Jeff Bezos. But that's not to say it is not a big deal.

It is the latest in a steady flow of data points suggesting not only that Amazon is dominating both the hardware and content markets of the e-book sector but also that the e-book revolution itself is moving with stunning alacrity from its inflection point this past September to a tipping point that should occur, at the latest, in 2014.

In a separate article, Mr. Bezos, CEO of Amazon makes this statement (emphasis added):

Our vision for Kindle is to have every book ever printed, in every language, available in 60 seconds from anywhere on earth. We have worked with publishers to get the most popular books you want to read. The Kindle Store currently has more than 390,000 titles and we are adding more every day. Whether you prefer biographies, classics, investment guides, thrillers, or sci-fi, thousands of your favorite books are available. The Kindle Store offers 101 of 112 books currently found on the New York Times® Best Seller list. New York Times Best Sellers and most new releases are $9.99, and you'll find many books for less.

In yet another news story:

Amazon.com said Monday that its Kindle e-reader has become the most gifted item in the company's history…The online retail giant also noted that its customers purchased more Kindle e-books than physical books on Christmas Day -- a first for the company. However, not everyone buying e-books from Amazon this holiday season will be reading them on dedicated Kindle devices.

Amazon has unleashed a Kindle app for the iPhone and iPod touch that users in 60 countries can download from Apple's App Store. Moreover, in November the online retailer released a free Kindle for PC application that enables customers to read Kindle books on notebooks PCs….The new strategy makes sense in light of Forrester's projection that e-book sales will top $500 million in 2010. "This is still small compared to the overall book market, but it's growing quickly," Rotman Epps observed.

The potential for selling content that's never been consumed digitally before is huge and helps to explain why Barnes & Noble recently launched its nook e-reader at the aggressive price of $259, Rotman Epps noted. Barnes & Noble's long-term strategy is "to profit not so much off device sales as off of e-book content sales," she explained.

My Personal Experience

I confess, I am  now the proud owner of a Kindle 2.  My wonderful wife, with wise advice from my daughters, bought me the Kindle 2 Global Edition for Christmas.  Below is a picture of my Kindle on my desk in my study with full bookshelves in the background.

After using it now for several weeks, here is my take on it; it is fantastic and not because I like technology.  Simply put, it is better than a physical book.  Here are some of the reasons why I like the Kindle better than traditional books.

• I now have access to a million (yes, a million) FREE books, letters, and essays that I can download in 60 seconds.  That alone is enough to justify buying the Kindle. Here are a couple of examples:

• Virtually all Kindled edition books are cheaper than the printed versions.  For example, I purchased three volumes of a photography book.  I saved more than shown because I purchased each volume separately for only $9.99 each! I paid 29.97 for all three volumes compared to the normal price of $69.99, a savings of $40 or (57%).  Not even counting the free books, the Kindle pays for itself very quickly.

• My library is full.  I have no more room for books and can’t afford new expensive bookshelves even if I had room.  However, I can store 1,500 books on the Kindle.  When I fill it, I can archive the one’s I’ve read on Amazon and download more books.  I can move books back and forth between the Kindle and Amazon, which means I’ll never be out of room.
• I can read the books on my iPhone, my laptop, and the Kindle and they all sync.  That means if I read something on my iPhone and later open the same book or article on the Kindle, the Kindle version starts where I left off reading on my iPhone.
• The books are archived safely on Amazon's servers. I don't have to worry about losing my books if the house burns down!
• The new e-ink technology makes the Kindle read just like printed material.  It is not backlit there is no eye strain like there is when reading on a computer monitor.  It also means that the battery lasts much longer.
• I can literally carry my entire library in my hand. I can read any book, essay, newspaper, magazine or blog—any place, any time, any where.  Great for the doctor’s office, on planes, etc.
• I can highlight and annotate material and access my notes, annotations, clippings on my computer for using in articles, presentations, or for sharing with others.
• Newspaper, magazines, and blog subscriptions are downloaded to my Kindle at night, while I sleep and before they are online or on newsstands.  When I get up to have my coffee, I can have my devotions and read the newspaper before the start of the workday.
• I have free broadband 3g coverage via Sprint on the Kindle.  This means I can browse the web on my Kindle.  The browser is not great, but usable.
• I can have a sample of any book or newspaper sent to my Kindle prior to buying.  This saves me from making expensive purchase mistakes.
• I can search any book or my entire library on my Kindle by key word(s).
• I have immediate seamless access to a built in dictionary and Wikipedia.  I can lookup anything without looking my place in the Kindle.
• I have an always available “built-in” book light in on Kindle case (light and case sold separately).  I don’t have to find the book light.  It is always available with my Kindle.  This is great for reading in bed or on flights when I don’t want to disturb my seat mates.

Those are just a few reasons by I prefer the Kindle.  There are a few downsides:

• Even though the Kindle can go two weeks without recharging (with wireless off), it still has to be charged.  Print books do not have to be recharged.
• The Kindle is a computer with software, which means there will be occasional technical issues.  I’ve never had a technical problem with a book.  :-)
• Although within limits you can share your Kindle account with other Kindle users (meaning you can share books with each other, e.g., family members), it is limited and requires that they have a Kindle. There is no restriction on sharing printed books.
•   Some will argue that e-readers like Kindles don’t give the pleasure of holding a book in your hand.  Although I understand this concern, I believe it is over-stated.  First, there is nothing particularly pleasurable about holding a paperback.  Obviously, holding a nice leather bound book provides a certain pleasure, but who can afford many leather bound books?  Second, as indicated above, with a good leather cover on the Kindle, it feels like you are holding a good leather bound book.
• A library in one’s study is beautiful, Kindles are not. I would not want to see a room full of Kindles.  :-) 

What are the implications for our schools?

• It the trends are any indication, textbooks, newspapers, magazines, blogs, etc., will migrate to electronic versions.  The price point should be lower, saving schools money. 
• We may finally be able to eliminate the heavy book bags that our students carry.
• Lockers may no longer be necessary.
• Curriculum can be updated more frequently, which is particularly important for science textbooks.
• Students and teachers could have access to textbooks and other readings on cell phones, computers, and Kindles (or other e-book readers) simultaneously.
• There may be a convergence of this technology into one handheld device.  It is rumored, for example, that Apple is working on an iSlate and Microsoft on a similar device.
• Students can have access to the world’s best literature and historical documents—for free.
• We can reduce the size of our libraries making room for more classrooms.

What are your thoughts about these developments?

Given the anticipated explosion in e-books and e-readers, what are your thoughts about the implications for our schools?  Would you promote the use of e-readers and e-textbooks as substitutes for printed textbooks and the traditional school library?  Do you see any intrinsic advantage or disadvantage to the move to electronic reading and publishing?

They Are Coming After Your Students and Said So!

Dr. Barrett Mosbacker, PublisherAt a recent Executive Symposium on Distance Education that I attended a public school superintendent, not knowing I was from a private school, said to the group (to paraphrase), "we are developing a robust online program and we fully expect to recapture students from home schooling families and private schools."

I just reread portions of Christensen's excellent book, "Disrupting Class".  I am particularly interested by his analysis of the "Dimensions of Agreement" and the "Tools of Cooperation".  I have attached graphics depicting the concepts.  These are particularly important to me because it can be difficult to get staff to accept change--I find this particularly problematic among conservative Christians, whom by definition, are "conservative."  :-)  In my estimation, moving forward, carefully and thoughtfully, with distance learning programs in imperative but it is not an easy task--the learning curve is steep, creating a feasible business plan is critical, and getting buy in can be tough.  But, Christensen argues, refreshingly, that consensus is not necessarily the goal--cooperation is!  I find that a refreshing approach given the emphasis on consensus building over the last several decades in the management literature.  I was also surprised by his observation that change is most difficult when there is wide agreement on the goals and processes currently in place.  Generally, one would think that this is a good thing. Upon reflection, however, it is easy to see why change in an organization can be very difficult when the organization is in the upper right quadrant of the dimensions of agreement chart.  This means that one of our challenges is to challenge the consensus on the goals and/or processes currently in place, which is all the more difficult when the organization is successful.  In other words, success can actually work against us, as in "good is the enemy of great."  It is what I'm calling the "Hobbit Effect."

In the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbits went merrily about their lives oblivious to the fact that Mordor was rising and threatening them.  Only a few saw the danger and acted.  I wonder if distance learning and charter schools aren't the "Mordors" of Christian education.  While we argue about uniforms, dress codes, and tuition discounts, the public system is installing a robust distance learning infrastructure and charters are multiplying.  Will we wake up in 10 years and wonder what happened to our market?’

Christensen (2008), Disrupting the classroom, p. 187

 

I am so impressed with Christensen's book that I've ordered two more:
The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do

The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth

Do Our Schools Need to Become Less Uptight?

WARNING: this article is provocative.  I am posting this article not because I agree with everything asserted (I don’t) but because it provokes thought and has relevance for how we are leading our schools during a time when the landscape of education is changing-perhaps dramatically.  At the end of this article I pose some questions for your consideration.

WSJ: September 29, 2009

By Gary Hamel

In most  organizations, change comes in only two flavors:  trivial and traumatic.  Review the history of the average organization and you’ll discover long periods of incremental fiddling  punctuated by occasional bouts of frantic, crisis-driven change.  The dynamic is not unlike that of  arteriosclerosis:  after years of  relative inactivity, the slow accretion of arterial plaque is suddenly  revealed by the business equivalent of a myocardial infarction. The only  option at that juncture is a quadruple bypass:  excise the leadership team, slash head  count, dump “non-core” assets and overhaul the balance sheet.

Why does  change have to happen this way?   Why does a company have to frustrate its shareholders, infuriate its  customers and squander much of its legacy before it can reinvent itself?   It’s easy to blame leaders  who’ve fallen prey to denial and nostalgia, but the problem goes deeper than  that.  Organizations by their very  nature are inertial.  Like a  fast-spinning gyroscope that can’t be easily unbalanced, successful  organizations spin around the axis of unshakeable beliefs and well-rehearsed  routines—and it typically takes a dramatic outside force to destabilize the  self-reinforcing system of policies and practices.

Let me  return, for a moment, to the topic of my last post, organized religion.   What are some of the inertial forces that have prevented churches from  reinventing themselves in ways that might make them more relevant to a  post-modern world?  A partial list  would include:

–Long-serving denominational leaders  who have little experience with non-traditional models of worship and  outreach.

–A matrix of top-down policies that  limits the scope for local experimentation.

–Training programs (seminaries) that  perpetuate a traditional view of religious observance and ministerial  roles.

–Promotion criteria for church pastors  that reward conformance to traditional practices.

–And a straightjacket of implicit  beliefs around how you “do church.”   For example:

• Church  happens in church.
• Preaching is the most effective way of imparting religious  wisdom.
• Pastors lead in church while parishioners remain (mostly)  passive.
• The  church service follows a strict template:  greet, sing, read, pray, preach,  bless, dismiss (repeat weekly).
• Believers, rather than curious skeptics, are the church’s primary  constituency.
• Going  to church is the primary manifestation of a spiritual life.
• Church  is a lecture not a discussion.

If organized  religion has become less relevant, it’s not because churches have held fast to  their creedal beliefs—it’s because they’ve held fast to their conventional  structures, programs, roles and routines.  The problem with organized religion  isn’t religion, but organization.    In the first and second centuries, the Christian church was communal,  organic and unstructured—a lot like the Web is today.  It commanded little power (it couldn’t  raise an army or depose a monarch), but had enormous influence.  (The Christian church grew from a handful of believers in AD 40 to 31 million adherents by AD 350, roughly half the population of the Roman empire. ) Today many mainline denominations  are institutionally powerful, but spiritually moribund—at least in the  U.S.

What’s true  for churches is true for other institutions:  the older and more organized they get,  the less adaptable they become.   That’s why the most resilient things in our world—biological life,  stock markets, the Internet—are loosely organized. 

To thrive in  turbulent times, organizations must become a bit more disorganized—less buttoned down, less  uptight, less compulsive, less anal.

As a start,  you’ll need to become more alert to the things that reflexively favor the  status quo in your own organization.   While no one’s going to stand up  and say, “I’m on the side of inertia,” they may nevertheless defend management  processes that reflexively favor the status quo.

All of the  things that allow little organizations to grow into big ones—scale, learning  effects, and accumulated expertise—are products of repetition.  When the environment changes, however,  the returns to repetition start to diminish.  Problem is, old habits die hard,  particularly when they’ve been hardwired into a company’s management  processes. 

–Hiring criteria that over-value  “expertise” and under-value diverse life experiences.

–A planning process that  institutionalizes orthodox thinking by using industry standard definitions of  customer segments and product categories

–Decision-making bodies that are  comprised mostly of long-serving industry veterans who tend to discount new  views.

–Highly conservative budgeting criteria  that starve unconventional projects of resources by demanding near certain  returns, even when the funds involved are modest.

–A single approval track for new  projects, where every new idea has to go up the chain of command.

–Large, monolithic organizational units built around a single, dominant, business model.

–A highly optimized but inflexible IT  infrastructure.

Large  organizations don’t worship shareholders or customers, they worship the  past.  If it were otherwise, it  wouldn’t take a crisis to set a company on a new path.

The most  extreme version of organizational inertia comes when those within a company  are no longer able to distinguish between form and function—when their  instinctual loyalty is to the “how” rather than the “what.”

If one  didn’t know better, it would be easy to believe that a lot of newspaper  publishers have been more committed to producing broadsheets than to  delivering the news in a convenient form, or making it easy for advertisers to  connect with customers.

Until  recently, music companies seem to have been more committed to stamping out  plastic discs than to giving their customers easy access to their favorite  tunes.

Many drug  companies seem a lot more interested in peddling temporary palliatives for  chronic conditions than in eradicating disease.

For years,  Kodak seemed more focused on making film than on leveraging new digital  technologies that would make photography simpler and cheaper.

Alzheimer’s,  arteriosclerosis and arthritis—these seem to be the inevitable byproducts of  old age.  But must organizational  maturity bring a similar set of maladies?  I don’t think so.  Despite all the evidence to the  contrary, I think a company can truly be “Forever 21.”

Questions:

• Is your school too “button down”, to wedded to tradition?
• Does the administration, faculty, board members, or parents confuse form with function, preference with principle, or truth with tradition?
• Has inertia set in at your school?  If so, how can you overcome it?
• How would you apply the arguments / principles in the above article to addressing 21st century skills, distance learning, technology integration, recent discoveries in cognitive science, and other innovative developments in education to your school?

Have You Seen This Outstanding Resource?-OER Commons

Click on the image above to go to the site.  I just discovered this amazing resource. 

Below is an excerpt from one of the post-secondary lessons I found on the site.

The “three R’s” of school leadership

A quick check of effectiveness for school administrators.

By Chris Hitch

Your influence as a school leader is more critical today than ever before. Regardless of whether you are dealing with people internal or external to your district, earning their trust is crucial to moving your agenda forward. Although at times you may succeed by issuing edicts or commands, in school situations, leaders generally must rely on their powers of persuasion.

The three “Rs” of school leadership today are as follows:

• Are we putting the right people in the right places?
• Are we using the right metrics?
• Are we making a difference?

Are we putting the right people in the right places?

Where are your people deployed? Are they in places where they can be successful? Many school executives resist asking this important leadership question. You or one of your predecessors at some time in the past believed the talents of Teacher X and Staff Member Y matched the positions they now occupy. Times, however, change; talents evolve in various ways. The prudent school leader periodically reviews his or her team’s “lineup” to determine if everybody on the team is “playing” the right position. Education seems to be one of the few professions (OK, education is the only profession I know of) in which the more experienced and valuable a professional becomes, the easier his or her assignments become. The wise school executive asks the question, “Are my strongest players in positions where they can do the greatest good for the school?” …

Was Chicken Little Right? Is the Sky Falling?

Although he is cute, I have no desire to be Chicken Little! I do not  believe the sky is falling.

I am convinced, however, that storm clouds have formed on the horizon. Want to see what is in those storm clouds? Watch the first episode of the PBS special, Where We Stand: Echoes of Sputnik and a Call to Action.

Referencing this series, Mr. Thorpe writes in Education Week:

With the presidential candidates focused primarily on issues such as ... the 3E’s—economy, environment, and energy—this program will ask an important question: Why is the fourth E—education—not seen as worthy of equal attention?

It is the one systemic investment that ultimately fuels our success (or failure) in almost every national endeavor ... Most of us would probably agree that there is little evidence schools are doing any worse than they did 10, 20, or even 50 years ago. They are probably doing better, in fact.

But the problem lies—just as it did a half-century ago—not in what we are doing, but in what other countries are doing.

Our challenges involve the degree to which those other countries are investing in human capital, the priorities they set, and the results they are getting.

The United States once led the world in math, science, and other critical subjects, as well as in the number of students going on to higher education. Today we are well down in the pack ...

Let anyone dare to compare our education results with those of Finland, South Korea, or Singapore, for instance, and the excuses rain down.

We have a more diverse country! We try to educate all children! They can do that over there because, because, because.

Finally, he warns:

In today’s “flat world,” the geographical accident of where they are born no longer conveys to the children of the United States the advantage they have had for decades. Other countries have learned from us how important it is to invest in their people.

We give lip service to the cliché that “our children are our future,” but most people do not see a 2nd grader, or even a high school student, as having much to do with determining our future strength ... Few of us really look at Susie’s lack of interest in reading or Jose’s success in math as being either a threat to or the hope for the nation’s future. Yet, that is exactly what they are.

Is the sky falling? Maybe not but there is a storm brewing over the distant horizon. Unfortunately, most Americans are blissfully ignorant of the pending threat posed to our national well-being, to our national security, or to our children's futures.

Too many of us are like the Hobbits in Tolkien's classic, The Lord of the Rings. Danger is brewing in Mordor but like the merry Hobbits, too many of us go about running our schools largely ignorant of the rising danger or are unwilling or "too busy" to provide the leadership that is necessary to realign our schools, our standards, and our curriculum to meet the global challenge.

Everything may seem beautiful and peaceful in the village but the threat is real. By the time we are concerned enough to raise our standards to international levels it may be too little too late for many of our students.

As illustrated by the table below, American students rank very low in international comparisons of science achievement. Click here for the Executive Summary of the 2006 PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) report. As pointed out in the report, the problem of low achievement by U.S. students is not restricted to science.

To put the problem in a more tangible form, consider two typical "man on the street interviews," which add a surreal exclamation point to the threat our nation faces from poor academic achievement.

Why People Think Americans are Stupid

How Much do American's Know about Europe?

If you have not done so already, I strongly recommend that you and your staff read The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. Here is one excerpt from the book to illustrate the international level of educational competition:

India is a country with virtually no natural resources that got very good at doing one thing--mining the brains of its own people ... In 1951, to his enduring credit, Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, setup the first of India's seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) in the eastern city of Kharagpur ...

The IITs became islands of excellence by not allowing the general debasement of the Indian system to lower their exacting standards ... You couldn't bribe your way to get into an IIT ... Arguably, it is harder to get into an IIT than into Harvard or the the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...

IIT alumnus Vinrod Khosla, who co-founded Sun Microsystems, said: "When I finished IIT Delhi and went to Carnegie Mellon for my Masters, I thought I was cruising all the way because it was so easy relative to the education I got at IIT." pp. 104-5

So How Should We Respond?

• Don't dismiss the problem or the challenge. It is real and is substantiated by a large body of research.
• Don't assume that Christian schools are academically superior. As I have indicated in previous articles, even if our students score high on nationally normed assessments, we are comparing our students against a low standard relative to international achievement.
• Have your teachers and administrators read The World is Flat and other articles that layout the problem.
• Assess the quality of your teaching staff--are your teachers superior? How do you know? If they are not superior, what do you plan to do about it?
• Substantially increase the level of your professional development activities and accountability.
• Reassess your curriculum--is is broad enough, rigorous enough?
• Leverage technology to deepen and enrich your curriculum and to enhance professional development
• Remember that when grounded in God's word and motivated by His glory and a love others, the pursuit of academic excellence is a holy endeavor!

What say you?

Technorati Tags: Globalization,Excellence,Chinese,Competition,India,technology Integration,flat world,staff development,professional development,international standards,Mordor,Lord of the Rings,Dumb Americans,Man on the street interviews

Learn How to Search Google Like a Pro in 15 minutes

Do you use Google frequently to find information?  Would you like to make your searches more efficient and effective?

If so, click here for a short document how searching Google Like Pro.  Spend 15 minutes reading the document and you will be able to much more effectively search Google.

You will also find new search options that you did not know were available.  Happy searching

Technorati Tags: Productivity,Research,Google,Internet