STEMM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math….. and Multimedia?
Need a quick explanation of ohms, watts, sound pressure levels and dynamic range? Who would you call? What if you want an explanation of lighting heat signatures and their importance?
Could you plot the area of a sphere covered by an electronic signal beamed from a distant moving source? Do you need to determine the amount of lumber required to construct a 30-foot cyclorama and cove curved horizontally and vertically so that light refracts rather than reflects?
Who can demonstrate the use of active voice, pacing, pathos or ethos? Who might be able to demonstrate use of light, composition, tempo, timbre, frequency or color correction?
Then of course there are pixel widths of pages, compression codices, baud rates, download speeds, bandwidths and mobile devices.
You might contact a physicist, an engineer, a mathematician, a computer technologist, a writer, an artist or a musician.
However, if you prefer one stop shopping you might visit any number of high school multimedia classrooms across the country and ask a media student. Better still ask them to show you.
Multimedia communications is the 21st Century Literacy.
If you think that is a bold statement, search O*net online. More than 230 careers require multimedia skills. Nearly one third of them have higher than average growth expectations.
Dr. Nicole Pinkard founder of Chicago’s Digital Youth Network suggests that those unable to create, critique, filter, search, research and navigate in a digital world may soon be considered illiterate. http://video.pbs.org/video/1767540185/
Multimedia tools build on and improve basic literacy by fostering engagement, application and creativity. Contrary to popular belief digital tools do not destroy reading and writing. They do change the ecology of reading and writing.
Kids today are reading and writing more than ever. They just aren’t doing it sitting in their bedrooms with a novel. They constantly collaborate, communicate, listen, watch, create and generally consume things they believe valuable and relevant.
Refusing to accept the fact that today’s students do not function as we did is at best tragic. Students today are wired differently. Their world has changed dramatically. Educational systems and pedagogy have not.
Institutional fear of embracing and managing change has alienated an entire generation of learners. They no longer believe what is being pushed to them in school has relevance to their future.
And they may be right.
The resulting disconnection caused by our reliance on yesterday’s inflexible failing systems and pedagogy is effectively robbing our students of their future by continuing to prepare them for a world and careers that no longer exist.
Our “always on” technology-driven society has evolved from a linear industrial manufacturing model with everything in its prescribed place. Now everything everywhere connects, impacts and intertwines with everything else and each added nuance influences everything once again.
The swirling vortex of readily accessible information has spawned a lack of certainty and conformity that is impossible to manage with linear systems. Rote memorization has become irrelevant in a world where information is universally available in seconds. Learning is no longer time and place dependent.
The teacher and textbook aren’t always right. There is no longer just one right answer. The answer is no longer at the end of the book and collaboration is now the normal means of arriving at a solution.
The overriding question becomes what will help students succeed at all levels and in all pursuits. According to Dr. John Seely Brown, senior fellow of the Design Futures Council: “The most important thing for kids growing up today is the love of embracing change.”
He further suggests, “The ability to navigate in a buzz of confusion and to figure out how to trust the information that you find and feel confident about it” makes the world yours. Embracing change and using ubiquitous information navigation and creation tools radically alter the learning landscape.
So how do multimedia tools impact student lives and achievement?
Quite simply, they add relevance. Relevance leads to engagement that fosters practice. Practice encourages mastery, innovation and collaboration. Implementation and publication invite reflection and comment.
Essentially students become part scientist, technologist, engineer, mathematician, researcher, communicator, creator and artist utilizing tools that are part of their sociological and technological DNA.
Today’s multimedia students:
• Create advanced scenarios and solve complex problems,
• Use advanced computational skills,
• Communicate across a wide variety of platforms,
• Create a variety of content deliverable on a rapidly changing medium that reaches incredibly diverse consumers,
• Creatively and efficiently use a multitude of technological tools,
• Tell stories and create messages that are clear, concise and compelling,
• Manage a variety of collaborative resources and interpersonal networks and
• Access, aggregate, assimilate, filter, distribute and respond to more information than has ever been accessible. They must also do it faster, more efficiently and more accurately than their predecessors.
Impact “by the numbers”
While study and application of multimedia technologies is no silver bullet, it has significant impact. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE3y9enUxEQ
Student grammar scores in the Cronkite School’s 10 Stardust multimedia journalism programs annually increase by 7-15% across the board. Historically, 100% of the students in the programs graduate from high school and more than 95% of them go on to post-secondary studies.
These numbers are much higher than either the state or individual school averages. It is important to note that there are no individual student pre-requisites for inclusion in any of the programs. In addition, the schools are all rural or urban and represent significant diverse underserved populations. http://stardust.jmc.asu.edu/Stardust/Stardust_Program.html
Two years ago Cartwright Elementary School District began a multimedia journalism program for its middle schools. The very first semester language usage scores in all areas improved by 30% for students in the program.
During the last year of my tenure at Arcadia High School in Scottsdale, Ariz., my students won more than 50 state or regional awards and 16 national awards. In addition, the seniors in the media communications program earned more than $1.25 million in merit scholarships.
Today those students are flourishing at their schools of choice studying medicine, engineering, law, business, media and journalism. Many of the selection committees at prestigious universities indicated that their media technology skill sets influenced the selection decisions.
It is also interesting to note that my 6-year tenure at Arcadia has already produced 77 multimedia industry professionals. In addition, more than 100 students are still preparing for multimedia-related careers at post-secondary institutions across the country.
While many students in multimedia programs pursue media related professions it is important to note that an even larger number are thriving in careers that traditionally were not media oriented. Those careers and businesses have changed to incorporate and encourage if not require the ability to write, manage information electronically, create, collaborate and produce in imaginative ways using multimedia tools.
In fact the most commonly listed across the board international 21st Century survival skills appear remarkably similar to the skills developed in the multimedia classroom.
Dr. Tony Wagner co-director of the Change Leadership Group at Harvard Graduate School of Education defines those core 21st century survival skills as:
1. Critical thinking and problem solving
2. The ability to create, collaborate and communicate across media-rich networks and systems
3. Agility and adaptability
4. Initiative and entrepreneurship
5. Effective oral and written communication
6. Accessing and analyzing information and
7. Curiosity and imagination.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Role of the Community College and Nature of it's Students
Perhaps it is most appropriate to comment on the nature of the community college student before discussing the role of the community college. My comments are based purely on observation and not on any scientific research. I would also suggest some may not necessarily be valid when comparing residence and non-residence campuses.
My observations suggest a few broad generalities. It would seem that community college students seek:
• Occupational education,
• Affordable options,
• Program flexibility,
• Fundamental workforce entry skills,
• Pre-university readiness preparation/remediation,
• Self directed/selected personal improvement study and/or
• Opportunity for seamless transition to a 4-year college or university.
Increasingly students appear to be multi-ethnic products of single-parent households. They are often first generation higher education attendees. It appears they are also increasingly female. Many are single parents themselves.
They appear to be more sophisticated and technologically adept than their predecessors. I would characterize them as being more special interest oriented individuals who not only want to make a living but also make a difference. They tend to arrive on campus, take courses then leave. They tend to rely more on personal technology resources for study and homework. They function in a multi-tasking, always on, connected society that isn’t dependent on the college. Their learning tends to be less time and location dependent.
They are more likely to use guidance and personal support services including financial aid, day care, health services, job placement and career counseling.
It also appears they are less likely to:
• attend athletic events,
• eat at on campus food service,
• use campus resources for rest or relaxation,
• use campus athletic resources,
• participate in campus social groups or
• attend cultural events.
With these observations in mind they will most likely choose an educational institution based on convenience, location, cost, flexible scheduling, career goals and portability of credentials to four-year institutions.
So what should be the role of the community college?
• Meet the needs of the students and community.
• Provide high quality flexible options that are cost efficient.
• Serve as a conduit of connectivity to community, industry and academia.
• Facilitate seamless transition between secondary, post secondary, workplace and lifelong learning opportunities.
• Remain flexible, agile, and aware of changes in our world then respond to them.
• Be forward looking and pre-active rather than re-active.
• Do not prepare students for careers that do not or soon will not exist.
My observations suggest a few broad generalities. It would seem that community college students seek:
• Occupational education,
• Affordable options,
• Program flexibility,
• Fundamental workforce entry skills,
• Pre-university readiness preparation/remediation,
• Self directed/selected personal improvement study and/or
• Opportunity for seamless transition to a 4-year college or university.
Increasingly students appear to be multi-ethnic products of single-parent households. They are often first generation higher education attendees. It appears they are also increasingly female. Many are single parents themselves.
They appear to be more sophisticated and technologically adept than their predecessors. I would characterize them as being more special interest oriented individuals who not only want to make a living but also make a difference. They tend to arrive on campus, take courses then leave. They tend to rely more on personal technology resources for study and homework. They function in a multi-tasking, always on, connected society that isn’t dependent on the college. Their learning tends to be less time and location dependent.
They are more likely to use guidance and personal support services including financial aid, day care, health services, job placement and career counseling.
It also appears they are less likely to:
• attend athletic events,
• eat at on campus food service,
• use campus resources for rest or relaxation,
• use campus athletic resources,
• participate in campus social groups or
• attend cultural events.
With these observations in mind they will most likely choose an educational institution based on convenience, location, cost, flexible scheduling, career goals and portability of credentials to four-year institutions.
So what should be the role of the community college?
• Meet the needs of the students and community.
• Provide high quality flexible options that are cost efficient.
• Serve as a conduit of connectivity to community, industry and academia.
• Facilitate seamless transition between secondary, post secondary, workplace and lifelong learning opportunities.
• Remain flexible, agile, and aware of changes in our world then respond to them.
• Be forward looking and pre-active rather than re-active.
• Do not prepare students for careers that do not or soon will not exist.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
ACTE 2010
The 2010 ACTE national conference is winding down. It seems everyone is talking Web 2.0 and 21st Century skills. There appear to be a few disconnects in my opinion.
1. We want our students to collaborate via web tools but restrict access to the Web.
2. Web policy is often dictated by limited web users.
3. Teachers often are trying to apply hi-tech tools to 19th Century pedagogy.
4. Teachers find it difficult to embrace tools they neither use nor understand.
We have a long way to go but at least we are talking. To be fair there are many who are doing admirable things. The challenge is to move things out of episodic isolation, systemically to scale.
1. We want our students to collaborate via web tools but restrict access to the Web.
2. Web policy is often dictated by limited web users.
3. Teachers often are trying to apply hi-tech tools to 19th Century pedagogy.
4. Teachers find it difficult to embrace tools they neither use nor understand.
We have a long way to go but at least we are talking. To be fair there are many who are doing admirable things. The challenge is to move things out of episodic isolation, systemically to scale.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Global Achievement Gap-Call to Action
Minister of Education for the Kingdom of Bahrain, HE Dr. Majid bin Ali Al Nuaimi outlines what must change.
• We must move from a system that is rigid to one that is flexible.
• We must reject a system of homogeneity in favor of one that provides for diversity.
• We must move from a system that fosters a culture of narrow theoretical knowledge to one that requires mastery, quality and professionalism at all levels and in all subjects.
• We must move from the old industrial model of rote learning and begin to foster innovation, creativity and collaboration across disciplines.
• We must stop taking things for granted and insist on self-evaluation and accountability.
• We must reject a culture of responsive behavior in favor active behavior.
• We must reduce dependence on delivery by teachers in favor of self- dependence and responsibility.
• We must reject short-term learning in favor of life long learning.
• We must eliminate the culture of easygoing education in favor of one of reflective teaching and learning.
• We must cease teaching and learning focused on exams and encourage learning for being, knowing, working and living.
• We must move from a system that is rigid to one that is flexible.
• We must reject a system of homogeneity in favor of one that provides for diversity.
• We must move from a system that fosters a culture of narrow theoretical knowledge to one that requires mastery, quality and professionalism at all levels and in all subjects.
• We must move from the old industrial model of rote learning and begin to foster innovation, creativity and collaboration across disciplines.
• We must stop taking things for granted and insist on self-evaluation and accountability.
• We must reject a culture of responsive behavior in favor active behavior.
• We must reduce dependence on delivery by teachers in favor of self- dependence and responsibility.
• We must reject short-term learning in favor of life long learning.
• We must eliminate the culture of easygoing education in favor of one of reflective teaching and learning.
• We must cease teaching and learning focused on exams and encourage learning for being, knowing, working and living.
Global Achievement Gap-Seismic Shift
The current educational buzz surrounds the success in Finland. Jaana Palojarvi, Director for International Relations of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture credits a “culture of trust in education professionals” as being a key component.
In this environment schools are autonomous. Community stakeholders are involved in collaboration. Assessment is school based. There are no school districts.
The government’s responsibility is to insure that schools and teachers have enough resources and technical skill to complete their mission and to insure a balance between diversity and public standard.
In this model, schools and teachers have enough skills and freedom to innovate. The focus is on teaching and learning not testing.
Dr. David Hogan, of Singapore’s National Institute of Education concurs suggesting that any improvement model must be “neither too tight or too loose.” That of course is a challenge but the basic design principles are quite similar.
A systemic improvement plan needs to:
1. Balance strategic top down movement with bottom up flexibility that provides room for innovation,
2. Reconcile relevance and rigor within the context of stakeholder partnerships,
3. Provide a consistent, sustained, task oriented focus on improving instruction,
4. Focus on capacity building, distributed leadership and high quality professional development,
5. Have a tolerance for failure as a matter of principle and
6. Tolerate downstream implementation.
In order to implement whatever model is designed, Dr. Kevin Knight, Director of School Improvement Services for the New Zealand Graduate School of Education insists that teacher preparation is key.
It must begin with defining of the job. It is difficult to focus on outcomes when there are constantly changing and conflicting expectations.
Second, identify what a teacher should be doing. That includes timing of minute skills including management, workflow, collaboration, classroom management, presentation techniques, facilitation of collaboration, structuring inquiry, and developing relationships with students.
Less time needs to be devoted to lesson plans and more to the art and skill of delivering those plans. This is best provided in a non-judgmental system of teachers helping teachers.
Finally, recognize that teacher training is a specialty best practiced and learned in the practical classroom and not in the university laboratory.
According to Andrew Blair, President of the International Confederation of Principals our current crisis of confidence is exacerbated by the fact that schools are given additional responsibilities of dealing with parenting, family dysfunction, basic care, health and student well-being.
Furthermore the process of teaching and learning is eroded by the proliferation of high stakes testing and “perverse incentives” that serve to narrow curriculum.
The general consensus is that “teachers have lost their long term vision and lost touch with their goals.” Mr. Blair reiterates that educators have forgotten how to deal with the “What could be in education because they are mired in the “What is.”
In this environment schools are autonomous. Community stakeholders are involved in collaboration. Assessment is school based. There are no school districts.
The government’s responsibility is to insure that schools and teachers have enough resources and technical skill to complete their mission and to insure a balance between diversity and public standard.
In this model, schools and teachers have enough skills and freedom to innovate. The focus is on teaching and learning not testing.
Dr. David Hogan, of Singapore’s National Institute of Education concurs suggesting that any improvement model must be “neither too tight or too loose.” That of course is a challenge but the basic design principles are quite similar.
A systemic improvement plan needs to:
1. Balance strategic top down movement with bottom up flexibility that provides room for innovation,
2. Reconcile relevance and rigor within the context of stakeholder partnerships,
3. Provide a consistent, sustained, task oriented focus on improving instruction,
4. Focus on capacity building, distributed leadership and high quality professional development,
5. Have a tolerance for failure as a matter of principle and
6. Tolerate downstream implementation.
In order to implement whatever model is designed, Dr. Kevin Knight, Director of School Improvement Services for the New Zealand Graduate School of Education insists that teacher preparation is key.
It must begin with defining of the job. It is difficult to focus on outcomes when there are constantly changing and conflicting expectations.
Second, identify what a teacher should be doing. That includes timing of minute skills including management, workflow, collaboration, classroom management, presentation techniques, facilitation of collaboration, structuring inquiry, and developing relationships with students.
Less time needs to be devoted to lesson plans and more to the art and skill of delivering those plans. This is best provided in a non-judgmental system of teachers helping teachers.
Finally, recognize that teacher training is a specialty best practiced and learned in the practical classroom and not in the university laboratory.
According to Andrew Blair, President of the International Confederation of Principals our current crisis of confidence is exacerbated by the fact that schools are given additional responsibilities of dealing with parenting, family dysfunction, basic care, health and student well-being.
Furthermore the process of teaching and learning is eroded by the proliferation of high stakes testing and “perverse incentives” that serve to narrow curriculum.
The general consensus is that “teachers have lost their long term vision and lost touch with their goals.” Mr. Blair reiterates that educators have forgotten how to deal with the “What could be in education because they are mired in the “What is.”
Global Achievement Gap-Attitudes and Myths
In order to even begin the discussion a few “educational myths” need to be exposed.
First and foremost, Rigor means mastery. It is the continual constant accurate application of all that is learned not the addition of more demanding content.
Second, develop a language common to both industry and education. Even though the same words are used they often have different connotations for each of the stakeholders.
Third, recognize that learning how to learn is more necessary than what is learned.
Fourth, ethical behavior, individual responsibility and the ability to function with and within diversity are critical.
Fifth, use cognitive science to challenge our traditional distinctions between:
• head and hand,
• academic and vocational
• knowing and doing,
• abstract and applied knowledge
• education and training; and
• school-based and work-based learning
Sixth, recognize and eliminate commonly held mistakes concerning education and training. Contrary to popular belief:
• Skills are not like building blocks one learns in a specific order each building on the last. In fact human beings-even small children are sense-making problem solving individuals. Failure to involve them at the earliest age in refining problem solving skills creates barriers to learning itself.
• Students are not “blank slates” waiting to be written upon. Most traditional curriculum is based on memorization and analysis of subject matter and does nothing to modify what is already in an individual’s head. As a result, many become adept at taking tests or solving “book problems” and equations but when they encounter real world problems they become confused and unable to apply the book-based theory.
• Students are not empty receptacles into which knowledge is poured. In fact, learning only really occurs when the learner constructs, invents and solves problems.
• Students are rarely able to apply skills and theories learned in isolation without practice in applying them to real situations.
• Although “learning to know, learning to do and their application” are often separated, there is no effective learning or understanding of one kind without the other two.
Finally, all stakeholders must become committed and willing to make “whatever changes are necessary” to assist our youth in becoming productive, effective, successful members of society. The implication for schools is that they must become committed to learning in context and break down the distinctions between knowledge and practice.
This requires re-designing learning and using appropriate contextual methodology for teaching rather than simply applying new technological tools to old methods. Ultimately it requires the merging and cooperative use of resources, leadership, experience and expertise available among diverse stakeholders.
First and foremost, Rigor means mastery. It is the continual constant accurate application of all that is learned not the addition of more demanding content.
Second, develop a language common to both industry and education. Even though the same words are used they often have different connotations for each of the stakeholders.
Third, recognize that learning how to learn is more necessary than what is learned.
Fourth, ethical behavior, individual responsibility and the ability to function with and within diversity are critical.
Fifth, use cognitive science to challenge our traditional distinctions between:
• head and hand,
• academic and vocational
• knowing and doing,
• abstract and applied knowledge
• education and training; and
• school-based and work-based learning
Sixth, recognize and eliminate commonly held mistakes concerning education and training. Contrary to popular belief:
• Skills are not like building blocks one learns in a specific order each building on the last. In fact human beings-even small children are sense-making problem solving individuals. Failure to involve them at the earliest age in refining problem solving skills creates barriers to learning itself.
• Students are not “blank slates” waiting to be written upon. Most traditional curriculum is based on memorization and analysis of subject matter and does nothing to modify what is already in an individual’s head. As a result, many become adept at taking tests or solving “book problems” and equations but when they encounter real world problems they become confused and unable to apply the book-based theory.
• Students are not empty receptacles into which knowledge is poured. In fact, learning only really occurs when the learner constructs, invents and solves problems.
• Students are rarely able to apply skills and theories learned in isolation without practice in applying them to real situations.
• Although “learning to know, learning to do and their application” are often separated, there is no effective learning or understanding of one kind without the other two.
Finally, all stakeholders must become committed and willing to make “whatever changes are necessary” to assist our youth in becoming productive, effective, successful members of society. The implication for schools is that they must become committed to learning in context and break down the distinctions between knowledge and practice.
This requires re-designing learning and using appropriate contextual methodology for teaching rather than simply applying new technological tools to old methods. Ultimately it requires the merging and cooperative use of resources, leadership, experience and expertise available among diverse stakeholders.
Global Achievement Gap-Understanding the Situation
Amidst the scathing indictments of our current educational system there is much that is positive. Changes are being made at local levels. In fact as Charles Leadbeater, consultant for innovation in education in the United Kingdom suggests, “Education + Skill training + technology = Hope.”
Educators must however realize that: “Most innovation comes from collaboration. Most effective learning occurs as a result of collaboration. Our current system of education can’t deliver the necessary outcomes with the current teachers and techniques that are in place.”
Systemic transformation will only occur when new attitudes and delivery techniques are universally used to address the needs of the workplace and the motivations of what is now being described as the “Net Generation.”
The current generation of learners is very different from their teachers. They are accustomed to instant gratification. The “always on” connection has resulted in a physical re-wiring of their brains.
They use the web for extending friendships, interest driven learning, self-directed inquiry and view the Internet as a tool for self-expression.
They are constantly connected, creating and multitasking in a multimedia world everywhere except school. Young people aged 8-18 spend 7 hrs and 38 minutes a day using electronic devices. If you factor in multitasking that time increases to 13 hours.
They have less fear than their predecessors. They have less respect for authority and want coaching or mentoring not lecturing. They want and need to “make a difference.”
In order to truly transform education, educators must reframe everything to address the needs of the world and its learners.
Educators must however realize that: “Most innovation comes from collaboration. Most effective learning occurs as a result of collaboration. Our current system of education can’t deliver the necessary outcomes with the current teachers and techniques that are in place.”
Systemic transformation will only occur when new attitudes and delivery techniques are universally used to address the needs of the workplace and the motivations of what is now being described as the “Net Generation.”
The current generation of learners is very different from their teachers. They are accustomed to instant gratification. The “always on” connection has resulted in a physical re-wiring of their brains.
They use the web for extending friendships, interest driven learning, self-directed inquiry and view the Internet as a tool for self-expression.
They are constantly connected, creating and multitasking in a multimedia world everywhere except school. Young people aged 8-18 spend 7 hrs and 38 minutes a day using electronic devices. If you factor in multitasking that time increases to 13 hours.
They have less fear than their predecessors. They have less respect for authority and want coaching or mentoring not lecturing. They want and need to “make a difference.”
In order to truly transform education, educators must reframe everything to address the needs of the world and its learners.
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