Author Archive
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018
Hacking Project-Based Learning: 10 Easy Steps to PBL and Inquiry in the Classroom by Ross Cooper and Erin Murphy is a must read for any teacher interested in this mode of teaching. Their ten hacks provide a path for more student-centered learning in any classroom. Be sure to get some copies for teachers you know.
Introduction
- Project-Based Learning (PBL) is messy. The authors have done everything in their power here to de-clutter and tidy up the mess to make it as approachable as possible. PBL may not happen overnight in you classroom or school, but it won’t happen if you don’t get started. Ross and Erin started doing PBL as teachers and now support it as administrators. They will help you set the stage for students to thrive in a culture of inquiry and creativity with these ten hacks. Keys are to make student work public and for them to reflect on their work. The role of feedback is also vital.
Hack 1: Develop a Space That Promotes Risk-Taking
- Schools are designed to fill kid’s heads with information. Student questioning diminishes. The assembly line is populated by robots. We need students who can think and solve problems. They need to be driven by their curiosities. Teachers need to do what they can to bring in materials from garage sales or anywhere. They should post failed ideas. They also need to develop relationships. Make sure that things are designed for student learning rather than teacher convenience. The walls should contain student work. Bring in the real world.
Hack 2: Teach Collaboration Skills
- Starting group work without first teaching collaboration skills is a mistake. Working with others requires dialog and productive struggle. Students should know this. They should understand that collaboration is working with others in order to achieve or do something. A good way to teach collaboration is to search the Internet for collaborative experiences. Look for discussion skills, body language, transitions, and organization strategies. Students can also visit other classrooms and watch collaboration in action.
- A big focus should be on the idea that it’s possible to not like someone else’s idea without disliking the person. After early collaboration activities, students should debrief and discuss what went well and what didn’t.
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Sunday, September 16th, 2018
16 Jobs That Will Disappear In The Next 20 Years Due To Artificial Intelligence from Alux.Com (@aluxcom) should provide guidance to students and people already in the workforce. If you have one of these jobs, start preparing for something else. If you are still in school, prepare for something else. Watch the original Alux.Com video on YouTube. For each job, I have added my own thoughts and advice based on my daily viewing of Internet resources for this blog.
One study at Oxford found that 45% of all jobs will disappear in the next ten years.
- For the most part, it’s easy to extrapolate from where we are to where we are going as many of these job loss trends are well underway or available as prototypes. As time marches forward, machines and computer software will be able to do more and more and this isn’t new. Not only will jobs in the US disappear, but many of the jobs that have been sent offshore will return only to be done by machines and/or computers.
16 Jobs Not to Train for and to Start Retraining If You Are In One
- 1. Drivers – It looks like it won’t be long before cars and trucks drive themselves. Our 20 million drivers will have to reinvent themselves. There are already self-driving trucks in Nevada and self-driving Uber cars in Pittsburg. This should be a real boon for old people and it should save many lives. Perhaps when I get to the point where my daughter tries to take my car keys away I’ll have a self-driving car.
- 2. Farmers – Much of what needs to be done is rapidly being automated. Labor intensive jobs are already disappearing. This should reduce our reliance on immigrant labor. Already under 2% of employed people in the US work on farms. Farming also continues to become more hi-tech. On some dairy farms, for example, cows are already milking themselves. If you want to be a farmer, take as many science and engineering courses as you can. You can also expect to work for one of the ten companies that control almost all of the food we eat.
- 3. Printers and Publishers – This one is well on its way with the growth of Internet publishing. Few publishers have been able to establish a successful paywall in front of their online content. These jobs won’t totally disappear for a while as older people like me still like the experience of holding real books, magazines, and newspapers. There is no laptop screen as big as my physical New York Times.
- 4. Cashiers – Self-checkout stations are expanding already. At my Walmart, as of today, there are eight along with an equal number of checkouts staff by humans. I prefer self-checkout at grocery stores and places like Walmart as there is usually no waiting. I suspect that as soon as lines show up they will add more and have fewer humans. I’ve used them in restaurants as well and I like this experience. I don’t have to give my credit card to some server I don’t know who takes it someplace where I can’t see it. In the last year, my card was hacked twice in restaurants in New York City for this reason. Fast food restaurants now let you order and pay using your smartphone from the parking lot.
- 5. Travel Agents – I’ve been doing my own booking online for years. The last time I used a real agent was in 2002. Many of my retired friends sign up for tours where someone does all the planning and makes all the arrangements for at least a bus full or people. I prefer doing it myself as when you go on a tour bus or cruise ship you take the crowd with you.
- 6. Manufacturing Workers – Now machines build other machines with less human interaction every year. This is not new as car manufacturers have been using robots for decades. This is a slow and steady change unlike some of the others listed here. Many schools are letting students manufacture things with 3D printers. This is one more reason why all students should try to take a few programming courses.
- 7. Dispatchers – The role of the dispatcher is coordinate people in the field. Technology will soon do this better. You can already call your own cabs and pay with your smartphone. I think we will need people who can maintain and repair vehicles for some time. These jobs have already become more technical as the first thing they do is connect a computer to the vehicle’s computer.
- 8. Waiters and Bartenders – This trend has already begun. I’ve been to restaurants where once you are seated you use a tablet at the table to order and pay. We still need humans to do some of the food preparation, but there is no reason why a robot can’t serve the food someday soon.
- 9. Bank Tellers – ATMs have already cut the number of people doing this job. There are still many transactions that we need tellers for, but efficiency is making them more productive. At my bank, the tellers use a machine to count the money I get when I cash a check.
- 10. Military Pilots and Soldiers – The military is often the first to adopt new technology. Drones are more accurate and safer, at least for the person piloting the craft. We only have prototypes of robot soldiers at this point, but the idea of a robot soldier engaging bad guys in urban warfare has a lot of appeal. Check out this prototype soldier from Boston Dynamics. We also have robots that help clear IEDs and landmines. As terrorists adapt and evolve, we will need to do the same with increasingly advance technology.
- 11. Fast Food Workers – This falls in the same category with the waiters and bartenders. According to some thinking, the push for $15/hour pay has pushed automation to be adopted faster. Order taking and paying is easy to automate. The harder part of food preparation will take a bit longer, but it is already underway. The remaining humans will need to be more skilled to troubleshoot the entire process.
- 12. Telemarketer – This industry has been taken over by online ads. People like me that only have cell phones can block calls, which takes a big piece of the market off the table. Facebook, for example, can test the effectiveness of ads and target them to people who are more likely to respond. I don’t mind seeing this job go as it seems like a crappy job.
- 13. Accountants and Tax Preparers – Boring and repetitive jobs are ripe for takeover by machines. Most people have simple needs for tax preparation that can easily be met by software. Tax preparation software is already decades old. If you are an accountant or plan to be one, you better be good and expect to only get the tricky nonroutine work. Rich people and large corporations will still need tax preparation people, but they better be really top notch.
- 14. Stock Traders – Only 10% of stocks traded today are traded by humans. In this world, the bots always win. Most people will still want to talk to a financial advisor who needs to be very knowledgeable and constantly learning. The habits of constant learning and continuous improvement should serve workers well as they try to deal with the ever-changing nature of the job market.
- 15. Construction Workers – Technology is getting more efficient and fewer specialized workers will be needed at the job site. For example, watch Sam the Bricklaying Robot that can lay bricks better and three times as fast as the fastest human. Sam’s human supervisors will have to understand the entire job and not just be able to lay bricks. This trend probably started with the invention of the wheel or something like that. Automation has also dramatically cut the number of people needed to run mines and oil fields.
- 16. Movie Stars – Human actors are expensive and moody. Actors will just be generated by computers. The 3D animated movies like Toy Story and others already give us an idea of how movies can be made without actors. Next time you see one of these animated movies be sure to stay for the credits and read about the hundreds of jobs that take the place of a relatively small number of actors. The problem here is when the movie is done, all of those people have to look for their next job. There are a lot of jobs for non-starving artists who are willing to do what the boss wants as opposed to their own thing so don’t hesitate to develop some artistic skill.
Dr. Doug’s General Advice On Preparing For the Future
- We know that it is very difficult to know what kind of job you are going to be doing even a few years in the future. In the meantime, there are a few things that are clear as far as what you can do to prepare for whatever comes next no matter how old you are.
- 1) Whatever you do, get good at it. There will be less and less work for people who are mediocre.
- 2) Become a self-directed learner so you can acquire as much in the way of skill and knowledge as possible on your own. This can start as early as elementary school for some students. Tricky jobs require fast learners who can figure things out as they go. There are tools on the Internet that make learning much more available.
- 3) Work hard and learn something new and try to improve every day. The future is not likely to belong to the slackers, at least for a while. If we get to the point where machines are doing everything we have to get good at slacking.
- 4) Consider taking as many science, engineering, and programming courses as possible. In a future featuring more and more robots, you want to be designing, maintaining, or supervising them rather than being replaced by them. Even if you don’t want to get serious about programming, at least learn how to create and maintain an attractive website.
- 5) Creative people will always be in demand. Some might argue that creativity cannot be taught, but most educators believe that it can be facilitated. If you don’t give students open-ended problems and projects, they won’t be able to exercise their creative ability. Parents can do this too.
- 6) Artistic skills will be in demand. Everything you see on television, print media, and the Internet was created in part by artists. If you want to go to an art school, make sure it’s one where you will spend most of your time developing your artistic ability rather than taking a bunch of liberal arts courses. Try to take the AP versions in high school so you can avoid them in college. Also, pick a school in a big city where it will be easier to get high quality internships.
- 7) Develop your network. Most people get their jobs by way of word of mouth. In addition to working hard to become highly skilled and creative, make sure that as many people as possible in addition to family and friends know what you can do. Rather than a resumé, put samples of your best work, whatever it is, on your website.
Some TED Talks on the Topic
- Jobs of the Future and How We Can Prepare For Them, a TED Talk by Avinash Meetoo. @AvinashMeetoo As robots proliferate, the creative arts will thrive because people will have time on their hands and will be able to create things that entertain. In addition to the creative arts, there will be a high demand for jobs that call for computer science.
- AI and the Future of Work a TED Talk by Volker Hirsch @vhirsch FoxCon in China is replacing 60,000 workers with robots. This means it’s cheaper to use robots than it is to pay someone $5 a day. Keep in mind that we have had industrial robots for decades. Drones are already delivering pizzas in New Zealand. Large legal firms are using AI to do legal work. Automation will take every job that it can take. Anything that has repetition machines can probably do better. If you are an account or radiologist you should consider retraining. Hoping that change won’t happen is a bad idea.
- How the Future of Work is Not Jobs a TED Talk by Rudy Karsan @RudyKarsan tells us that people are already creating work and that entrepreneurism will increase in the future. He also makes a pitch for universal minimum income.
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Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018
The Gritty Truth of School Transformation: Eight Phases of Growth to Instructional Rigor by Amy M. Dujon tells the story of how, as principal, she lead her school from one that was teacher-centered to one that is now student-centered with rigor. This is a book that every principal and teacher leader should read. It can also help parents become better teachers at home. Make sure that your school has a copy.
Why This Book?
- The goal is to tease out what school leaders, in partnership with district leaders and teachers, can do to transform the instructional culture of their schools and to promote more rigorous learning. One discovery is that transformation needs to be sustained and not static and their vision is focused on the future. There is a concern about the defenders of the status quo and a recognition that traditional pedagogies are not likely to prepare students for the world they will enter.
- The concept of productive struggle is at the heart of this work. This means engaging in an effort, thinking, and learning that is just beyond one’s current ability. It is akin to the idea of deliberate practice (K. A. Ericsson, 2003). The goal is to stretch each aspect of learning capacity without having it be eclipsed by a focus on acquiring knowledge and completing tasks. Several chapters contain QR codes that take you to additional resources.
Part I The Productive Struggle – Phase 1. Setting the Vision
- The story here revolves around the school where Amy became principal in 2013. The demographics had changed and results declined. Traditional teaching that had been good enough needed to change. What was needed was second-order change rather than first-order change where teachers essentially went through the motions. Second-order change requires deep reflection, a substantive rethinking of philosophy and practice, and significant changes to school culture. The first key is to understand the importance of shared vision, mission, and core values. If you want to get at a root cause, try the Five Whys Protocol.
- The goal is to shift from instruction where the teacher does most of the talking and tells students what they need to know to one where the students talk to each other more as they make connections and draw conclusions. The idea of student autonomy is central here. To make this type of second-order change happen a leader needs to find and support first followers. These first followers will show others that the leader is not there to judge but to help them grow. This will attract new followers.
Phase 2. The Deconstruction
- One step in moving from teacher-centered instruction is to tell students only to raise hands to ask questions. You still need to know what they are thinking, but having one student give an answer doesn’t tell you much. As a leader, you will have to change too. Doing observations where you compliment a teacher on something and then give them something to work one should stop. Focus on what students are doing and if they are thinking. Try to be nonjudgemental. Focus public praise on changes in student behaviors and outcomes. Treat teachers and staff as equals or thought partners.
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Wednesday, August 1st, 2018
Future Driven: Will Your Students Thrive In An Unpredictable World? by David Geurin encourages teachers to look to the future as they design lessons to excite their students. To make students future ready you need lessons connected with reality, projects, collaboration, and tolerance for risk. Although we can’t predict the future, we need to adopt a futurist vision and be adaptable and mentor adaptable learners. After you read this fine book be sure to get a copy into the hands of any educational leaders you know.
1. Shaping the Future
- Too many classrooms don’t look or function much differently than they did decades ago. Nonetheless, educators need to look forward as they prepare their students for an uncertain future. For most of us, there were parts of our education that were timeless. There were also probably too many that were needlessly passive. The idea that we should help students find and explore their passions is relatively new.
- One thing that is apparent is that we need to create adaptable learners as adaptable learners will own the future. The key is to develop skills that are transferable to unknown situations rather than reducing a student’s achievement to a few numbers. The need to adapt is not new. People with adaptive ability have been more successful in the past and this skill is more important as change accelerates.
2. The Unexpected
- Everyone encounters the unexpected in life. Rising to unexpected challenges is essential to success. Students should know this. We can expect, however, millions of jobs to be replaced by automation. We can also expect new jobs related to technology. Knowing this should help educators be more forward-thinking and future driven. It’s also a safe bet that hard work will still have great value in the future as it has in the past.
- To think like a futurist teachers should 1) Be willing to challenge how they are doing things now 2) Read the news with an eye to the future 3) Reflect on ways to help students be adaptable 4) Share ideas with students and colleagues about what the future may demand 5) Embrace the future even when it’s difficult.
3. What If Schools Were More Like Google or Starbucks?
- Here David provides the names of successful companies who are very innovative along with companies that have failed for failing to innovate. Unfortunately, many schools are happy with traditional teaching methods where there is a lack of student input and collaboration and a focus on test prep. Such schools will not thrive in the future. Some schools are looking to innovative companies that turn employees loose to innovate and tailor products and services to individual needs.
- Schools need to personalize instruction, which is easier to do if every student has a laptop. Student voices need to be heard and students need to have some choice in regard to what they study. The students should function like a think tank, which will promoter ownership. Classrooms should be flexible (including standing desks) so that furniture can be rearranged to allow for various sized student collaboration groups. Students should also have a say in classroom decoration and design. Innovative companies want employees with the ability to learn and who know when to lead and stand back. School libraries should feel like Starbucks.
4. Connect, Grow, Serve
- Like many other authors in the modern education field, David feels that student relationships are the most important thing that educators should work on. He tells how what he has done as a principal to get to better know more of his students. Strong relationships are the foundation of one’s ability to lead and influence. For this reason, schools must teach and model interpersonal skills. Teachers need to be aware that many of their students will suffer physical and emotional problems outside of school and be prepared to offer empathy.
- The next big idea is to make sure that you take care of your own physical and emotional needs so you will be fit enough to help others. Ideas for connecting include attending student extracurricular activities and sending positive handwritten notes to students and parents. David even devotes part of a faculty meeting for note writing.
- David thinks that schools put too much emphasis on student weakness and remediation and not enough focussing on student strengths. The chapter ends with ten things you should say more often like I believe in you, I’m here to help, and I’m listening.
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Tuesday, July 24th, 2018
The Obvious Match: Artificial Intelligence and Education by Lora Young deals with a topic that is likely to have a profound impact on education as we move forward. Educators and parents alike should be looking for AI applications that will promote learning for all children.
Introduction
- With each year, technology seems to just keep getting better and better. As a species, we’ve always been able to survive and thrive in our environment because of our ability to innovate, create, and improve. There isn’t a single day in our lives that we aren’t using some form of technology for our benefit. There was a time when the Wright brothers were seen as crazy for thinking that it’s possible to create flying machines — today, millions of people travel by air on a daily basis.
- Modern technology has seen an increased rate of development in the past ten years. Kickstarters are popping up all around like mushrooms in a rainforest, each with their own ideas on how to make our lives much more convenient. One of these technologies is Artificial Intelligence. But…
- Artificial Intelligence? is a branch of Computer Science that aims to create machines that are able to process information and react to these pieces of information in a manner that humans would. Now you’re probably thinking: “Why would we want that?” The answer lies in one of the principles of psychology — learning. Learning is defined as the process by which experiences are able to permanently alter behavior. Now, if you really think about it, every living organism on Earth survives through the process of learning. Lions aren’t born as killing machines, nor are newborns able to speak coherently from the get-go.
- This is where learning comes in. Through experiences, which also include a wide variety of interactions, organisms are able to store information that would, in turn, alter their behavior toward a certain scenario. We know that we shouldn’t touch hot stove tops because we remember that one time we did and we ended up with 3rd-degree burns.
- Now, while a modern computer is great at performing complex calculations, it cannot alter its behavior. It is limited to user input. And while complex conditions can, in a way, simulate behavior or decision making, the computer itself cannot make sense of the experiences it encounters because these have to be manually inputted by someone else. Now, Artificial Intelligence seeks to give computers the capability to not only gather and process information but to assimilate and to act upon that information autonomously.
- This opens up a wide variety of possibilities. Because AI enables machines to adapt to situations and grow smarter over time, these machines can only become better the more than they are put to use. It is, in a metaphorical sense, the maturation of machines. Machines will soon be able to account for their experiences and future decisions will be derived from that particular experience.
How Exactly Can AI Be Used in Education?
- Because AI is able to adapt to its environment through the experiences it encounters and takes account of, AI will eventually become smart enough to determine the best course of action. Say, you’re in a Safety Training Scotland course. There are a wide variety of topics to discuss and each student has his or her own unique set of strengths and weaknesses, learning methods, language fluency levels, and cultural backgrounds. Artificial Intelligence, given enough experience, will be able to determine the best approach to each student to ensure that optimal learning is met.
- Let’s say that your main language has always been Japanese. AI will easily be able to speak and translate concepts for you because it has been exposed to different cultures. Not only that, but AI will be able to tailor your course material to match your background and your learning preferences and capabilities. It will even create meaningful representations of concepts for you and will also be able to avoid topics that may offend you in any way.
- AI can also be used in the assessment of each student’s performance, and by doing so it can alter the teaching material into something that helps students who are lagging behind catch up, and students who are performing, perform even better. There are a plethora of teaching methods that a single teacher can use, but a single teacher simply cannot teach each student according to each student’s preferred learning method. AI can do that for each student because it is capable of processing large amounts of information and determining actionable plans for each situation.
AI In Classroom Discussions
- An even greater example of AI application in education that benefits students as much as teachers is when it is used in actual classroom discussions. Regardless of what your subject matter is, classroom discussions will always have a few questions thrown about. Now, every once in a while, a student asks a question that an instructor cannot answer, or explain in a manner that students are able to digest.
- This is where AI comes in. Say, the exact scenario happened to a learning-disabled child. AI will be able to process, interpret, and present the information to the child in a manner that’s appropriate for his learning capacity, without hindering the pace of the discussion. And yes, there are always naysayers when it comes to innovation. Some people may even go as far as to say that if we decide to integrate artificial intelligence into our education systems, then what’s the point of having teachers around?
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In Conclusion
There are even those who are extremely paranoid about technology (or they may simply have watched too many Terminator movies as a child). And while it’s uncertain when artificial intelligence will be integrated into the educational system, what’s certain is that history, especially when it concerns new technology, will always repeat itself.
- And whenever we see someone trying to create something new, we should always remember: There was a time that people thought the Wright brothers were crazy for thinking that they could create flying machines. Today, it’s commonplace.
Lora Young
- Lora was born in January 1992. Today, she is a digital marketer who has several years of experience in working with non-profit organizations. She has extensive knowledge in the fields of Education, Computer Science, and Psychology. When she isn’t helping build brands, she practices Muay Thai and runs marathons. Thanks, Lora
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