ISS gets company…

Today marks the start of a new era – the development of commercial space flight going as far as the International Space Station (ISS).

SpaceX Dragon approaches ISS

While this video clip shows the SpaceX Dragon from about a mile out, the docking went smoothly and history was made.  As we continue to think about the skills that young people need to develop, the world of space exploration is as alive as ever, even as NASA has slowed down its own construction of spacecraft.

It is worth thinking about what it took to make this all happen.  In terms of educational domains, creativity, engineering, science, math and technology all rank highly.  We can count ourselves lucky that the talent needed to do this incredible task was available.  What is of concern is what the future holds.  Nothing involved with the design, launch, and success of this complex mission fits within the domain of our test-driven mind-set still dominant in US education.

We’ve entered a new era.  Will education for all change as well?

Putting the T and E in STEM

One of my major concerns with all the current interest in STEM education is that the bulk of the efforts I’ve seen are focused on the Science and Math parts of the topic, with Technology and Engineering taking a back seat to everything else. To me, Technology goes way beyond using computers to create documents, but includes the ability to build one’s own programs from scratch. On the engineering side, my feeling is that kids need more opportunities to invent and build things with their hands – engaging in the kind of tinkering most engineers get to do. There are, of course, many schools that do offer a balanced approach to STEM, and they are to be applauded. But there are many more who do not offer the richness that hands-on construction affords. We have libraries to enrich kids heads. Does your school have workshops where they can enrich their hands and minds together?

The situation is made even worse for many kids who are having trouble in school, since they are often funneled into even more draconian rote-learning environments rather than being given the chance to explore learning in ways that might well be more natural to them.

My bias is home grown. I’ve been an electronics tinkerer since I was a little kid. I used to find old radios that I would take apart for their parts, some of which ended up in projects of my own design. I had no teachers helping me – I just figured things out for myself, with the support of my folks who helped provide me with the tools of construction, some of which I still use today. Of course my tinkering took place decades before personal computers were invented. Programming was replaced by building. And, yes, I made plenty of mistakes and did some stupid things – but, through it all I learned a lot.

By the time I got my PhD and started working at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, I had developed both my hands and my mind. Since (among other things) I have degrees in engineering, both of these domains got a good workout. For example, one design methodology I learned (once the personal computer came into existence) was that there was a decision one made as a designer as to which tasks were better done in software, and which ones were best done with hardware. Since I worked in both fields, this kind of thinking made great sense to me.

But this trip down memory lane has a point – simply that far too many young people would have no idea what I’m talking about. But this can change, almost for free. Furthermore, it can change in ways that are appropriate for young children as well as for adults – all using the same tools.

First, on the programming front, the Scratch language from MIT  is accessible to all and, through its construction-set metaphors, builds good programming habits if students decide to learn more traditional languages later. This free tool can address a lot of the missing materials on the Technology side of STEM.

On the Engineering side of STEM, one amazing and inexpensive tool is the Arduino programmable controller. This open source piece of hardware acts as the interface between the computer and (for example) a robot built by a student with a few parts and recycled materials.

Basically, you create a program for the Arduino that will sense inputs of various types (light, sound, physical pressure, temperature, etc.)and then, based on your program design, run motors, control lamps, and do myriad things limited only by your imagination. While you are free to build your own Arduino system from scratch, most choose to purchase a fully assembled board (shown above) for about $30, or $TB 0.1 (one tenth the cost of a traditional textbook) from vendors like Sparkfun whose catalog also includes all the other electrical components you might need for your projects. Even RadioShack has jumped on the Arduino bandwagon!

As for programming the Arduino, the free software from the Arduino site contains all you need to create programs to be downloaded to your board. But, the language in which these programs are written is not as easy to master as languages like Scratch.

Not to worry – there is a special version of Scratch for the Arduino device (Scratch for Arduino). By connecting your Arduino to the USB port of your computer and creating programs in this version of Scratch, you’ve opened the door for Technology and Engineering education in some pretty powerful ways.

The screen above shows a couple of programs that cause lights to blink in sequence, and to plot the level of light hitting a photocell used to turn the lights off. I could have just as easily created a Scratch program to run an electric car that follows an arbitrary line drawn on the floor – or to have a robot solve a maze – or just about anything else. Now while the Arduino does not have enough power to run most motors directly, motor driver circuits can be built using about a quarter’s worth of parts.

Once kids get started with the Arduino, they suddenly develop an interest in learning to use multimeters, oscilloscopes, and a bunch of other tools (including soldering irons.) They start to view the world of the made through new eyes once they have learned to make things themselves.

So, when it comes to STEM education, I think we should get serious or go home. The tools are there along with amazingly rich libraries of support materials. It is beyond time for us to realize that Science and Math alone do not a STEM curriculum make.

What gets me up in the morning…

With each coming year I realize more and more that the process of education needs to be revised to meet today’s needs. My own work on Educational Holodecks reflects some of this work and was the topic of a recent video from the George Lucas Education Foundation (Edutopia.) The video speaks for itself:

http://www.edutopia.org/david-thornburg-future-classroom-video

Do the math…

A recent report shows that only 20% of educators think funding for STEM subjects will increase this year.  This is particularly disturbing given that we haven’t even come close to providing adequate support for these subjects in recent years.  And, in my view, one part of the STEM curriculum that needs particular attention is mathematics.  I have just surveyed several math textbooks across grade levels and have found no references to chaos or complexity theory – twentieth century math topics that are particularly germane to the world in which we all live.  In fact, we are a full decade into the twenty first century and we have yet to include ANY twentieth century math into the curriculum at all.  Zero, nada, zilch.  It is as if the previous 100 years didn’t exist.

Adding to this tragedy is that there are lots of concepts in this field that are fully understandable by students, especially in high school.  If you understand anything about quadratic equations, for example, you are equipped to start exploring a branch of mathematics that will knock your socks off.

Why does this matter?  Well, let history be our guide.  When Newton formulated his laws of motion, he also developed a new branch of mathematics (along with Leibnitz) that was needed to allow the expression and use of these laws – the mathematics of calculus.  Some have even gone so far as to suggest that calculus was essential for the Industrial Revolution.  So, let’s get this straight – our top math class in high school is calculus which is tantamount to saying that we are preparing our kids for a world dominated by steam engines.  We should be ashamed.

Fast forward to today.  We live in a world of great complexity and chaos (and chaos means something very specific to mathematicians.)  Whether it is freak weather patterns, economic collapses, or any of the other big topics in the news today, chaos and complexity rule the day.  Fortunately there is a mathematical formalism that allows us to explore and perhaps understand some of these phenomena – and ultimately will provide the tools to avert global disruptions sometime in the future.  But how are we to even get started on this task if we don’t expose our students to some simple, but amazingly rich, mathematical concepts while we still have the chance?

Of course it turns out that most of the processes that produce chaotic behavior are recursive, and thus hard to do with paper and pencil.  They are, however, easy to explore with computers using nothing more complex that a spreadsheet program.  And, to be sure, once you start wandering down that rabbit hole, you’ll find amazing riches in the exploration of even more complex mathematical systems for which students can write their own programs!

In 1990 I wrote a book (Chaotic Microworlds: Personal Computing and the Art of Mathematics) that went out of print after selling about 250 copies – mostly to Waldorf schools.  There was nothing in that book that any high school student couldn’t master, but I was told that the topic wasn’t in the curriculum, so nobody wanted to incorporate it.  Yes, there were (and are) a few renegade math teachers doing wonderful stuff in the area, but the topic has yet to become mainstreamed.

Well, guess what.  Over 20 years later the topic is even more important than it was then, yet it still isn’t in our curriculum.  It isn’t just that we aren’t preparing students for their futures, we aren’t even preparing them for the present!

And, against this backdrop 80% of teachers think funding for science, technology, engineering and mathematics will either remain anemic or drop even further.  This isn’t chaos – it is a disaster in the making.

The power of joy

Many years ago I was consulting for the Monterey Peninsula School District and I remember once when the Superintendent walked into the room and said, “I’ve just been to every school in the district and I have two questions:  Why aren’t the children singing?  Why aren’t they dancing?”  After which she stormed out of the room.

She had a very clear grasp of what education could be, and was frustrated by what she had seen instead.  Since I’ve always been a huge fan of creativity and student expression, I shared her concerns and never forgot that incident.

I thought of her last week when visiting my wife’s school where the children were singing, dancing, laughing, and learning.  The connection between learning and joy should be obvious.  When kids are eager to be in school and are given the opportunity to explore rich topics in open ways, there is no limit to what they can accomplish.  Our granddaughter Bianca, is in kindergarten there and, if I drop by, she is afraid I’m going to interrupt her interactions with her peers (“Grandpa, not now – I’m busy!”)

It is so easy to lose sight of the “softer side” of education in our never-ending quest for higher test scores and increased accountability, even when the work of Csikszentmilahyi and others has shown a direct connection between the flow state that comes from joy and learning.

I’d love to see every school as a place of joy – where students and teachers explore grand ideas in an environment of mutual support and respect.  It can be done.  I have the pleasure of seeing it almost every day.

Place matters in education

Those who’ve seen my presentations about educational holodecks have seen the following picture – a painting of a classroom c. 1350 by Laurentius de Voltolina

Classroom circa 1350

This painting shows an all-too recognizable classroom, complete with students sleeping and others talking while the teacher drones on from the front of the room.  We should be embarrassed to recognize this as a picture of school – it looks all too familiar.  In the intervening centuries, attempts to improve education have largely failed to  address the design of the classroom itself, but have focused instead on the teachers.  While teachers need to be encouraged to move from lectures toward more project-oriented approaches, this is hard to do when our classrooms persist in replicating structures we have known to be failures since the Middle Ages.

Even the addition of some new technologies have been in suppport of this outmoded classroom model.  Consider, for example, the popularity of interactive white boards (IWB’s).  These expensive devices do nothing to change the physical structure of learning and are are tantamount to putting lipstick on a pig.  Instead of just failing to address how children learn, these tools provide a more expensive way to perpetuate an educational model that has failed for hundreds of years.

This said, some people have made great strides to bring education into the 21st century – with the design of new classrooms and schools that break the old mold.  One group of architects that has taken the lead is Fielding Nair, whose work has resulted in some beautiful schools that are not only inviting places, but that meet the real needs of learners and teachers as they transform the process of education.  They have written a wonderful book on the topic (The Language of School Design)  that should be required reading by anyone interested in truly meeting the space needs of today’s learners.

My old ideas about learning spaces (campfires, watering holes, caves and life) have had a receptive audience there, and I am excited to be one of their senior consultants.

In some future blogs I will explore my current thinking about learning spaces, and invite you to join in the discussion.

Solar Storms and science education

Early this morning, the Earth got hit by the start of a fairly strong coronal mass ejection (CME) that has the potential to disrupt satellite service and shut down power grids, but will likely do nothing more that produce some amazing auroras tonight in the Northern Hemisphere.

Snapshot of solar flares from March 8.

In fact, this coronal mass ejection travelling at millions of miles per hour is a precursor to storms coming in the next year as the Sun reaches its peak in the 11-year cycle for such events.

If I was teaching science, at any grade, I’d be adding this event to the curriculum.  The kinds of questions I’d want students to research would include:

• How dangerous are CME’s to life on Earth?
• Why do such storms have the potential to disrupt communications?
• How can power grids be effected by these storms?
• What are the best precautions we can take to minimize the impact of CME’s?
• Why does solar activity peak every 11 years?

The point is to ask questions of the students and then provide them with the freedom to explore the answers themselves – a far more effective educational model than having them read a textbook chapter on the Sun, or to hear a lecture on the topic.  In the process of finding answers to these questions, students will start asking other questions themselves.  Ultimately, they might even decide to design a way to insure that Earth would be completely immune to these storms in the future.

This is a terrific educational moment, and we should seize it.  As for me, I hope to see some Northern Lights tonight!

The next big thing?

Tablets have largely eclipsed the netbook market and some (myself included) have argued that this format of device will disrupt education profoundly.  In saying this, I in no way am suggesting that radically new technologies will not emerge.  In fact, they already have – even if they are not commercially available yet.

For example, in 2009, MIT Grad Student Pranav Mistry gave  TED presentation in which he showed his sixth-sense technology with which a special necklace held a camera and a projector to facilitate augmented reality explorations of really neat things.  For example, if you picked up a book and looked at the cover, information about that book, including reviews, would appear projected on the book itself.  His video is a whirlwind tour of amazingly cool stuff that seemed like science fiction at the time – only he made it work in the laboratory in preparation for becoming products.

Fast forward a year or so and the focus shifts to Google.  While the public face of Google Labs has been closed down, Google is continuing to explore cutting edge ideas.  One shot over the bow was a free app called Google Goggles that lets you use your smartphone to do many of the things dome by Panav Mistry’s system.  Take a photo of a book cover, for example, and it not only recognizes the book, but provides links to reviews and even a link to Amazon in case you want to get your own copy.  Stand in front of a landmark building, take a picture, and get links to information about the building.  Take a snapshot of a Sudoku puzzle, and it recognizes it as a puzzle and asks if you would like the solution.

Last year buzz started to build around the idea that the Google Goggles software was going to get its own dedicated hardware – a pair of glasses with a built-in heads-up display.  For example, a recent article in the New York Times blog describes some of the possible features such a device would have.  This would be a truly hand’s free device using head gestures to send commands to the system.  While this format probably tops out on the nerd scale – which is probably why I think it is cool – it may in fact represent the new face of computing.

Only it isn’t new.

In July, 1945, President Roosevelt’s science advisor, Vannevar Bush, wrote an article for the Atlantic in which he described his vision for the future.  One of his ideas was the following:

“Certainly progress in photography is not going to stop. Faster material and lenses, more automatic cameras, finer-grained sensitive compounds to allow an extension of the minicamera idea, are all imminent. Let us project this trend ahead to a logical, if not inevitable, outcome. The camera hound of the future wears on his forehead a lump a little larger than a walnut. It takes pictures 3 millimeters square, later to be projected or enlarged, which after all involves only a factor of 10 beyond present practice. The lens is of universal focus, down to any distance accommodated by the unaided eye, simply because it is of short focal length. There is a built-in photocell on the walnut such as we now have on at least one camera, which automatically adjusts exposure for a wide range of illumination. There is film in the walnut for a hundred exposures, and the spring for operating its shutter and shifting its film is wound once for all when the film clip is inserted. It produces its result in full color. It may well be stereoscopic, and record with two spaced glass eyes, for striking improvements in stereoscopic technique are just around the corner.”

Of course he was thinking in terms of the photography of the time  which was film-based.  He was aware of photocells and even speculated about their use in photographic elements.  Instead of Bush’s “walnut” Google is opting (it seems) to use glasses – something well accepted in our society.

No matter how it all shapes up, it seems the time is ripe for wearable computing.  And it would be foolish to think Google is alone.  Apple’s iPod nano comes with wrist straps, using arms instead of noses as the support for wearable technology.

Of course these technologies are not going to replace computers any more than tablets have – they will be additional tools that open new opportunities for creativity and productivity – and may even have a place in education.

Only time will tell.

Tablets in Brazilian schools

Brazilians love their technology.  I remember decades ago when I first visited the country to see that people would mark their seat at a buffet by leaving their cell phone on the table.  In fact, Brazil was probably among the first country to have cell phones outnumber wired lines, although that was largely due to the difficulty of getting a new wired phone line at the time.

But technological romance remains quite high.  Our local shopping center’s Apple store is full of people.  Samsung’s store in the same center is also quite busy.  Even Nokia, whose future remains uncertain, gets some traffic – and this is not just window shopping!  The number of iPhones, Galaxy tablets, and iPads coming out the door is amazing to see.  In fact, a recent study by Accenture shows that Brazilians are three times more likely than the global average to be purchasing a tablet in 2012.

This caught me by surprise given the explosive growth of this sector worldwide.

While tablets are coming into US schools at a fairly good pace, some Brazilian schools are listing them as back to school accessories along with crayons and paper notebooks.  The explosion is not restricted to the private schools.  In Pernambuco (the state where I am in the northeast of the country) the government is purchasing 170,000 tablets in a pilot with second and third year high school students.  Nationwide, other pilots in the public sector are adding 350,000 more tablets to the mix, with the goal to bring these devices to every student in the country.

Now if tablets were cheap devices, this would be one thing, but they are not.  The duty on imported electronics is so high that, for example, Apple products are nearly twice as expensive in Brazil compared with their price in the US.  Of course, with the rapid growth in sales volume, Toshiba and other major players are opening Brazilian factories to avoid duties and thus bring the price down.

The alpha-geek in me loves to see all this activity.  I’m an avid and active tablet user myself.  But when it comes to education, huge projects are taking a big risk if they are not thought out in advance.  For example, what is the wireless telecommunications infrastructure of the school?  Can it handle a thousand kids online at the same time?  How will the tablets be used?  If they are just glorified textbooks, much cheaper alternatives exist.  If the uses are more in support of creativity and inquiry, what tools will the tablets have?  Most importantly, how (and when) will teachers be provided not just with the mechanics of tablet use, but with the pedagogical support to transform education in rich ways?

Without thinking these questions through, the huge influx of tablets will likely fail to effect permanent change.  With the right support, though, we may see that the consumer driven romance with technology (especially among the young) will produce benefits that far exceed the cost of these devices, and this is a result worth seeking.

Why we need to focus on true information literacy skills

Angela Maiers posted a wonderful blog, “In Google We Trust,” in which she cites a recent study from Northwestern University researchers who found that many college students have no idea how to conduct or evaluate good searches on the Internet.  Rather than pay attention to the sources of the information, they tend to rely on simple page ranking, often just accepting the first thing that shows up on the screen.  The full study can be downloaded here.

This is a topic about which I have been speaking since the 1990′s! I put it in the context of 3 skills for functional literacy today.

1. How do you find information?
2. How do you evaluate its relevance?
3. How do you evaluate its accuracy?

Students may have the first skill under control, but need guidance on the others. These are skills that, in the past, were the primary domain of librarians. Now we have become our own librarians, but have skipped developing the rest of the essential skills.

What was interesting to me about the study was that it focused on college students – an age group we think should know better.  But how can we expect them to figure all this out on their own without guidance from us?  Yes, an appreciation of relevance probably grows with age, but accuracy?

Are we teaching students to be conscious users of information, or to just accept what they see in print or on the screen?  In the old days of textbook delivered curriculum we never asked students to question the authorship of their textbooks.  Instead, we just taught from them assuming they were valid.  This helped build the concept that, if something appears in print, it must be true.

Of my many reasons for disliking textbooks, the reinforcement on this assumption is one of my hot spots.  I recall reading an astronomy textbook years ago that said that Jupiter was the only gas giant without rings.  It then went on to explain why Jupiter didn’t have rings.  All very interesting, except that photos of the rings of Jupiter had been sent to Earth by Voyager in 1979, well before the book was published.

I could go on all day citing cases where textbooks should be placed in the fiction section of bookstores.  I won’t even start asking if US History books (most published by British companies like Pearson) may have cleaned up some of the British behaviors during the Revolutionary War.

But back to our point.  The Web is a powerful resource – probably one of the best ever assembled in history.  The truth is there for those who find it, but to find it we need to teach a new set of skills to young people, and failure to do so carries a high penalty.