Old School is History! Thanks to Hardcore History

I FINALLY enjoyed the experience of my son understanding the powers of new media.  After all the years of blogging and knowing that what the internet has become will change EVERYTHING about education, I finally had a real world experience that, while you might think insignificant, I thoroughly enjoyed.  

Sure I've fixed my cars by simply watching YouTube videos, and I've watched my kids attempt to find answers to homework using Google.  And don't get me started on Wolfram Alpha.  An amazing teaching tool that is not allowed in schools.  I'm still buying handheld calculators for my kids.  It's lunacy...but I digress...

So, have there been other moments of tech use in my home for educational purposes? Without a doubt, yes.  But none of them like this. Up until now it's been all about the homework.  Completing the random worksheet or quiz questions in a long outdated textbook.  The technology has simply been used to find the answers that fill the blanks, not for engaging their curiosity.  

But then it happened!

My son is a typical 15 year old boy.  He loves hanging out with his friends, playing video games, playing basketball, playing his guitar, watching stupid YouTube videos, etc.  He's a good student and he loves his teachers and his school, but I rarely see him being very passionate or excited about an academic subject. And I suppose that also defines him as a typical 15 year old boy.

I was driving him home from school recently and asked the usual questions: How was your day? How are your friends? Do you have any home work? He said he had some homework and one of the items was that he had to print a history paper.  Now this intrigued me because, coincidentally, I had recently swapped out my usual tech podcasts for Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. So, of course, I blew off the other homework items and began to dig deeper about this history paper.

Me: Is it already written and you just need to print it and turn it in?
Him: No. I still have to write it but it only needs to be one page. It won't be a big deal.
Me: Oh that's cool. What's the topic?
Him: Answering a question about the guy that started the great war.

So NOW I'm REALLY interested! Coincidentally I had just finished the latest Hardcore History episode, Blueprint for Armageddon, which started with this story. 

Me: So who's the guy?
Him: Pippin, or Pinpal, or something like that.  He killed a king or some other important guy.
Me: Was his name Princip?

I'm no historian.  I just like a good historical story.  But I felt pretty darn good about being the all-knowing father every kid thinks his parents should be. I got lucky. (Thanks, Dan!)

Him: Yea, I think that sounds right.
Me: I just got finished with a podcast that tells that story. Wanna hear it?
Him: Sure.

Now, for listeners of Hardcore History, you know why I'm started to get excited about this.  I can't imagine ANY teacher telling history stories better than Dan Carlin. It's like listening to the historical account of your last Call of Duty mission. Dan spares you no details. He paints a picture of the brutal realities of history's atrocities: Shockingly grotesque human behavior that you can't believe is real...and THAT's engaging! And PERFECT 15yr old boy stuff. (Sorry moms)

Hardcore History was one "now playing" tap away.  We've got about 15mins left in our drive so I restart the episode from the beginning...and the magic begins.  A few minutes into the story I asked if this sounded like the story he needed to write about. Before finishing my sentence he was nodding his head shhh-ing me.  We listened together with nothing else said the remainder of the drive home.

We finished the last few minutes of that first part of the episode in the house.  When it was over, I asked him again if that was the right story, and what he would write about.  He said yes, and that the assignment was to answer the question did Princip complete his goal.  I asked if he thought he had enough info to answer that question.  The answer: "WAY more than what we read in the book."

Mission Accomplished!

Most of my experiences "helping" my kids with homework include a significant amount of prodding and questioning because I won't do the work for them.  This is quite often met with frustration and heavy sighs (from not just the kids). In this case, the paper was written and sent to the printer without ANY "Hey, Dad?" moments.  But it gets better.

The next day I was chatting with my wife about the kids.  She is usually the one to take our son to school and so I asked how the drive went. She said it went great. And Instead of me asking why, I was more excited about my experience and I jumped in with my story about our drive home the day before (its a stupid guy thing). She smiled and said he talked about that story the entire way to school...and that he was very excited about it.

My thoughts...

The best story tellers make the best school teachers. And in the workplace good story tellers make the best training instructors as well.

New Media is here to stay and impacting everything we do. The next generation entering our workforce will expect to find information quickly, easily, and as compelling as a commercial content producer.

Many will tell you that the new media generation has already entered the workforce, but I only see it in small pockets and specific, mostly technology, industries. I believe it's going to take until the next generation before it gets real.

Mobile Learning's First Thing

There are many many great blog posts reviewing mLearnCon last week. Several mind maps, videos, and other media as well. So I don't feel the need to do a high level recap. Instead, I'd like to take another look at one of the questions asked of the closing panel.

(BTW, I'm tapping this out on my iphone using the blogger app because I'm trying to take advantage of mobile content creation capabilities.)

I don't remember the exact question but basically someone wanted to know about the "first thing" you should do to get started with mobile learning. I think it's a great question and I think it deserves more than a couple 30 second responses. I think it's important because "where do I start" is a question asked of any new model, modality, technique, or technology. And while I liked the answers that were given by the panel, I think they require more analysis. Or more to the point, i think the answers only raised more questions...at least for me.

"You must first understand if mobile learning is even an appropriate solution before you decide what the first step will be."

I agree with the statement, but would then argue that seeking understanding IS the first step. But nobody really knows how to make that decision, and gain that understanding.

Similarly, how can an organization define what mobile learning is, or will be, in their environment without first trying out some mobile learning?

My question to all authors, thought leaders, and gurus, in mobile learning is this...

"What does an organization actually look like that is ready for mobile learning?"

I ask this question because if we are to start with discovering if our organizations are ready for it, then I want to know what that state looks like.

If this state of an organization is even definable, then I'd like to compare that to the companies that have implemented mobile learning to validate if they were, in fact, "ready" to take that first step and do that "first thing"...whatever that first thing may be.

So, I ask you to comment here and let's extend this conversation. Hopefully we can nail this down and then share it back into the community.
Ready? Go!!!

(UPDATE 6/25: I made some edits to the spacing, and moved the image to the top. The iPhone blogger app did not allow for this type of editing.) 

Mobile Learning Report Shows Significant Increase in Intent to do MORE mLearning

Mobile Learning: The Time is Now was just released by The eLearning Guild.  With the mobile market being the fastest growing industry you'd be wise to pay attention to how mobile devices impact your learning audience and in turn how you develop and deliver your learning solutions.

Guild members have shared the impact of mobile learning on their organizations and their strategies.  The questions they've answered have given us a solid picture of the mobile learning space.

"The number of Guild members who say they intend to use mLearning continues to increase. In 2010, 45.6% of Guild members said they intend to do more mLearning. In 2012, that figure has increased to 65.7%."

This mobile research report is nicely timed in anticipation of the mLearnCon Conference and Expo.  The major mobile learning industry players can be found at this event. You don't want to miss it.

Khan Academy Announces iPad App

This Fast Company article is the first I've heard of Khan Academy's new iPad App.  I have not downloaded it yet.  But that's next on my list after writing this post.  I'm a big fan of what the Khan Academy is doing and my favorite new school model is "flipped" instruction.  The app supports that model well.

For the growing number of schools that are adopting iPads, the most impactful potential for the app is for Khan Academy's "flipped classroom," in which lectures are watched at home by students, and then assignments are completed collaboratively in class, where a teacher is present. "The teacher is free to do a lot more of the human interaction," says Shantanu Sinha, President and COO of Khan Academy.

I know this blog is supposed to be about corporate learning strategies but so much of what is going on in tech impacts both corporate AND academic learning environments.  Some of the same methods could of Khan Academy could very easily be incorporated into corporate training environments.

Let me know if you are doing anything similar to Khan Academy in your corporate training department.  I'd love to hear about it.

Check out more mobile learning innovations at mLearnCon June 19-21.

iTextbooks? - Apple Gets in on the Digital Textbook Revolution

As long as I'm posting about digital textbooks, I might as well mention Apple.  Rumors are swirling around the Apple invite that has gone out to press saying,

“Join us for an education announcement in the Big Apple.”

 According to the Mashable article Apple is partnering with textbook publishers.  It all makes sense to me.  After all, why not utilize the now mainstream distribution channel of iTunes and iBooks, and start selling iTextbooks.

I think the bigger question for instructional designers and developers is how can WE publish into this system?  We also want to know if there will be interactive components to the textbooks.  At the very least I hope we're able to embed hyperlinks to YouTube videos, blog posts, etc.  I think some bonus functionality would be something like selecting some text within a textbook and posting it to social networks like twitter, or facebook, or google+.  This increases the factor of engagement significantly which is what students really need.  It's one thing to just sit and read a book.  But it's a significantly better experience if what is read can be shared and discussed with others.

Apple is not very good at the social thing yet.  Ping is lame and iCloud is still clunky and frustrating for many users.  However, they do understand the desire to publish content to other social systems and they have embraced that capability.  So, I'm hopeful they will continue along that path until they can get their own social network functioning...if they ever intend too.

Flatworld Knowledge Succeeds in the Textbook Market as Free and Open

The digital textbook industry is definitely in it's infancy and there are many players to consider.  But since I'm on the subject, I might as well turn you on to Flatworldknowledge.com and their "free and open textbook" system.

There seem to be so many publishing solutions available these days that I'm not sure how college students or professors know how to make the right decision.  In many cases I'm certain the decision is made FOR them by some administrator or sales person.  But I like to think I'm not that jaded :)

Flatworld Knowledge has a great chart explaining their solution.  Well, actually it describes the problem and the solution...as you can see for yourself.

The books are free to the students.  Professors choose the book.  Students choose the format and price for printed versions, audio versions, and soft-cover versions.  Sounds like a pretty decent solution to me.

The very cool option that I like is allowing the professors to edit and customize the book. The books also come with slides, instructor manuals, and test-banks.  I'm not sure if those are editable though.

It may not actually be a purely "free" and "open" solution.  But it sounds like they are making a significant dent in an industry that really needs a kick in the pants.

Kno Knows eTextBooks

I saw the KNO eTextBook solution on TechCrunch TV from CES.
The eTextbook is so much more than just flipping digital pages on an eReader.  The features of the Kno eTextbook solution are incredible.  Check out the full list of features here.

There are several features that caught my attention, but I was very intrigued by the presenter's comment about images:

"...any image with labels is automatically converted into a quiz."

When I went to the web site I was impressed to see a course manager.  The interface is clean and appealing.  It's got a real Mac-feel to it.  I think the syncing will be critical.  Having your textbooks available on both your laptop and your mobile device is the future.

While the textbook industry takes it's time converting to digital, I'm left wondering what publishers are embracing Kno.  Or are the big publishers going to create their own standards, their own apps, their own formats, their own stores, etc.  I hope the content creators can figure out how to create their content and go directly to the new textbook market...in much the same way that iTunes changed the music buying process.  But that remains to be seen.

eLearnDevCast - Learning2.0 Special - EDU20.org - Graham Glass

I'm trying to get a steady flow of interviews with the web entrepreneurs creating learning sites. My first is with Graham Glass of EDU20.org.

I really enjoyed chatting with Graham. It's exciting to hear that being a teacher can be a million dollar career. Let me rephrase that...being a GREAT teacher can be a million dollar career. Our current system keeps the greatest teachers bottled up and available to only the few students currently in their "class". An effective entrepreneurial teacher can reach many, many more students from all over the globe and a free market system will adequately compensate the best ones in the same way that the best athletes are given million dollar contracts. It surely is going to be fun to watch the best teachers in the world competing, and finally making the money they deserve.
If you don't believe me just listen to what Graham has to say. Then leave me a comment if you are interested in having a go at being a freelance educator.

Bloggers with similar thoughts:
Tom Crawford - The Death of the Classroom

The Encyclopedia of Life - Wiki

The Encyclopedia of Life just crossed my desk and reminds me of how incredibly powerful the web has become as an information resource.

The Press Release page has some great media elements and information on the project.

From the press release:

WASHINGTON (May 9, 2007) – Many of the world’s leading scientific institutions today announced the launch of the Encyclopedia of Life, an unprecedented global effort to document all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants, and other forms of life on Earth. For the first time in the history of the planet, scientists, students, and citizens will have multi-media access to all known living species, even those that have just been discovered.

Over the next 10 years, the Encyclopedia of Life will create Internet pages for all 1.8 million species currently named. It will expedite the classification of the millions of species yet to be discovered and catalogued as well. The pages, housed at http://www.eol.org, will provide written information and, when available, photographs, video, sound, location maps, and other multimedia information on each species. Built on the scientific integrity of thousands of experts around the globe, the Encyclopedia will be a moderated wiki-style environment, freely available to all users everywhere.

So, we start with all of the species of the world and then perhaps we move on to Geology? All I know is that at some point ALL of the possible information required for K-12 will be available via the the net. So...then what? How are the educators of the old-school going to handle that?

This truly makes me wonder if David Williamson Shaffer is right?

Shaffer, D. W. (2004). Pedagogical praxis: The professions as models for post-industrial education. Teachers College Record, 106(7), 1401-1421. http://coweb.wcer.wisc.edu/cv/papers/TCRpedprax.pdf

Or how our children need to learn my "doing" and "becoming" from his book How computer games help children learn.

I'm not sure we can turn the ship that quickly, but from what I've seen parents are taking their kids off the ship. Virtual schools are growing like crazy, and home schooling is not so scary any more. School used to be a resource for learning. But today when your computer provides infinitely more learning possibilities than any brick and mortar can provide it makes me wonder why more aren't jumping off the ship.

TeacherTube - Tell me why we need to GO to school?

I put out an idea early this month about teachers putting themselves on the open market. The tools I find, the more I see this as our future reality. TeacherTube is great! And since I haven't done my going-into-the-weekend-video post recently (old one here if you need a fix), I'll give it too ya here. This is from TeacherTube to illustrate a point. I'll be there's a hundred ways to take this content and make it "better"...rip, mix, feed. I don't want to take anything away from this teacher because this is how it starts...then someone else adds a little, and then someone else, etc.

The k-8 curriculum seems fairly cut and dry to me. We have teachers all over the world reinventing the wheel over, and over, and over. We currently use the internet to subsidize the learning that is being missed in class for what ever reason. So, when do we begin to realize that the internet can be the primary source, not just something extra? Good/entrepreneurial teachers could quite easily increase their salaries with simple marketing techniques and open source technologies like Google TeacherTube, blogger, pbwiki, and hundreds of others.