Good morning all,
I had the good fortune to tour Infosys' tech hub in Hartford yesterday with a group of my students. They experienced virtual reality tennis, augmented reality (exploding a model into its composite parts on the screen that the student with the headset and the rest of the class could see on a big monitor) 3-D printing, and collaboration to create creative work. I was struck by the idea in that company of creation. They put creative, intelligent people together in a space, give them the tools they need, and watch them develop things.
Why aren't we doing this with all students? I know that we at Classical Magnet School do this, to some extent. Our Coached Projects, when they run well, allow this sort of collaboration. But we aren't giving the students the technological tools to be greater - to make these ideas into apps or websites, into easily consumable bits and bytes - so the audience for students is largely themselves, and maybe some parents and community members. If, as a society, we really pushed those 21st century skills, and allowed students the time and creative space to create, as they do at Infosys, think of what they could accomplish!
So, on to big dreams: a) Transform at least one room at Classical using the design principles of Infosys. Big, open space, with room to dream and collaborate. Lots of whiteboard space, interactive touchscreens which are usable by everyone, fast computers and knowledgeable coaches who can answer questions when students have tech questions. Infuse this with the ability to create partnerships and drive connections to the larger community - city, state, world, business - and watch our students thrive.
b) Recycle Infosys' old technology. When they upgrade, show students how to refurbish the computers and give them to students who need them. Based on what I saw in the innovation hub, even their old computers would be light years ahead of ours.
c) Ongoing field trips and tech exploration with Infosys, with Capstone projects being guided by Infosys staff. One easy connection - the Hartford website is being redesigned by Infosys. Could the students help in that endeavor? Could they help us on our website as well, using the design principles they learn at Infosys?
d) Summer internships for educators - become certified in teaching python or java, and learn real world applications of it by being a part of a design team. I volunteer as tribute.
e) Math education - each course builds in a few building blocks of CS, so students have some exposure even if they don't take a CS elective.
f) Legit computer science course - either the one I signed up for with Amazon, or one that helps students prepare for Infosys internships by learning python and starting to play with apps.
g) More collaboration between math and science, and math and technology, and science and technology. We need collaborative projects like this because it would allow students to see connections, but also to learn how to work in groups as they would in jobs such as the ones we saw at Infosys. The groupwork and collaboration was at least as important as the individual brilliance of the folks who work there, perhaps more so. The collective genius of a group is what seems to drive innovation there, and what gets the most actual work done.
Thursday, March 21, 2019
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
A wealth of information
Good morning all,
I can't get this quote out of my head. What information consumes is obvious. It consumes our attention. Therefore, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.
Here it is in his words:
The brilliant economist and psychologist Herbert A. Simon was one of the first to precisely describe the relationship between information and attention: “….information consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”
It's so relevant to my career, and to marketing literally anything. In my life, I try to market mathematics education, @gr8fullyfeclub, linux, the Grange, recycling, philosophy, computer science, eating local, and my music. I suppose I also market the beauty in nature, cute things my dog and my family do, and my backyard. None of these things have gone viral, but I am starting to understand how they might. In thinking about how to market my school, I am noticing that products like hootsuite, which not only post to several social media sites but also analyze the hits they get from each of them, are going to become ubiquitous and necessary. How do you keep my school relevant? It has to be posting every day, a few things to each social media site. These posts all have to be positive or uplifting, as well as link back to our school and how to apply to it. The positive attitude coming off of those posts has to be so great that it overcomes the student posts, some of which aren't flattering and some of which denotes a culture that is less than academic.
So, here are my ideas:
a) Use a phone with a good camera, signed into hootsuite, to take at least one picture of something cool happening in our building every day. Post it to all the social media at once, with hootsuite.
b) Give out raffle prizes for liking, sharing, and commenting positively on our posts (such as tickets to a show, game, T-shirts, etc. - things we already own)
c) Ask each club/organization in the school to make their own Insta, Facebook, Twitter (at least) and like and follow ours with it, as well as tagging us in each of their posts.
d) Links on the website to all of the official ones, as well as the ones in c)
e) Every teacher and every student checks into CMS daily on all the social media. Challenge them to say something positive.
My commitment:
a) Take over one FB business page for CMS, one insta and one twitter. Use Hootsuite to do a) from above daily, and link to all 3 media sites from the website.
b) Pay for a cell phone (hopefully reimbursed by the school eventually, but in the interim just me) to do what I said above, so it can be handed around to departments etc. to take pictures of the cool things happening.
c) Keep the website relevant and up to date, and linked to all of the above.
d) Write grants so we have cool things to talk about - for instance, the solar powered calculators in my room.
I also thought about this - could we have our name announced every snowstorm? I know it's only a scrolling list, but it would get us announced separately from HPS every time on every scrolling list . . . . free advertising.
I can't get this quote out of my head. What information consumes is obvious. It consumes our attention. Therefore, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.
Here it is in his words:
The brilliant economist and psychologist Herbert A. Simon was one of the first to precisely describe the relationship between information and attention: “….information consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”
It's so relevant to my career, and to marketing literally anything. In my life, I try to market mathematics education, @gr8fullyfeclub, linux, the Grange, recycling, philosophy, computer science, eating local, and my music. I suppose I also market the beauty in nature, cute things my dog and my family do, and my backyard. None of these things have gone viral, but I am starting to understand how they might. In thinking about how to market my school, I am noticing that products like hootsuite, which not only post to several social media sites but also analyze the hits they get from each of them, are going to become ubiquitous and necessary. How do you keep my school relevant? It has to be posting every day, a few things to each social media site. These posts all have to be positive or uplifting, as well as link back to our school and how to apply to it. The positive attitude coming off of those posts has to be so great that it overcomes the student posts, some of which aren't flattering and some of which denotes a culture that is less than academic.
So, here are my ideas:
a) Use a phone with a good camera, signed into hootsuite, to take at least one picture of something cool happening in our building every day. Post it to all the social media at once, with hootsuite.
b) Give out raffle prizes for liking, sharing, and commenting positively on our posts (such as tickets to a show, game, T-shirts, etc. - things we already own)
c) Ask each club/organization in the school to make their own Insta, Facebook, Twitter (at least) and like and follow ours with it, as well as tagging us in each of their posts.
d) Links on the website to all of the official ones, as well as the ones in c)
e) Every teacher and every student checks into CMS daily on all the social media. Challenge them to say something positive.
My commitment:
a) Take over one FB business page for CMS, one insta and one twitter. Use Hootsuite to do a) from above daily, and link to all 3 media sites from the website.
b) Pay for a cell phone (hopefully reimbursed by the school eventually, but in the interim just me) to do what I said above, so it can be handed around to departments etc. to take pictures of the cool things happening.
c) Keep the website relevant and up to date, and linked to all of the above.
d) Write grants so we have cool things to talk about - for instance, the solar powered calculators in my room.
I also thought about this - could we have our name announced every snowstorm? I know it's only a scrolling list, but it would get us announced separately from HPS every time on every scrolling list . . . . free advertising.
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