Seward Incorporated

I must admit that I was out of good ideas for an informative blog post this week. I was on the verge of writing about each presidential candidate and their stance on education. Repetitive much? All hope for ingenuity was lost until I stumbled upon this quirky product.

The “OSTRICH”, a pocket pillow that is designed for naps at your desk by kawamura-ganjavian, is a creative solution to the common dilemma of exhaustion at the workplace. While the Guarana-free “5-hour Energy Drink” claims to be crash-proof, let’s face it, after 5 hours, 3 hours or maybe even 2, fatigue catches up with you, and a crash is inevitable. You cannot deny your body of its basic needs. Sleep is a basic need.

Instead of filling your body with ill-advised amounts of caffeine, consider the “OSTRICH”. Due to evolving work patterns, we tend to spent more time at our work environment; this requires the “need to make work and rest fully compatible within the same space.” “OSTRICH” allows you the opportunity to rest without the need to leave your desk. The product is a mixture of pillow, cushion, bed and garment. Its “cave-like interior” is designed to create a “micro environment” that isolates your head and hands from your body; resting your mind and senses, and giving you a chance to take a “warm and comfortable power nap at ease.”

All images taken from kawamura-ganjavian  (http://www.studio-kg.com/ostrich/)

Kawamura-ganjavian is a Madrid/Lausanne-based architecture and design studio founded by Key Portilla-Kawamura and Ali Ganjavian. It was established in 2000 under the motto “A constant quest for innovation, ingeniosity and comfort”. You can find innovations by kawamura-ganjavian (including “OSTRICH”) at http://www.studio-kg.com/objects-index/.

NOTE: Stay away from “OSTRICH” if you are claustrophobic.

NOTE (2): “OSTRICH” is not currently available for online purchase, but keep visiting the website above for updates.

I am writing this blog from Seward’s office in Lilongwe, Malawi as part of the development of continuous professional development (CPD) workshops in literacy.  While many of the aspects of international education development may not be new to some of our readers, I thought it would be worth using this opportunity to give a brief overview of the reality of education in Malawi.

• From a recent survey of literacy outcomes in education, it was found that in 70% of standard (grade) 2 students in one sample district could not read a single word in their mother tongue (Chichewa) from a list of commonly used words. In another district, 85% of standard 1 students could not write their own name. In another study, 41% of standard 4 students surveyed could not name a single letter! Another survey showed that 97% of standard 2 students surveyed could not answer a single question correctly on a grade-appropriate reading comprehension test. The challenges for students learning to read in both Chichewa and English are enormous!
• It is estimated that 56% of students drop out before standard 5, and a lot of this has to do with the fact that they can not read or do not know English well enough for instruction. Attrition rates for female students are much higher for many reasons, including sexual harassment or unequal treatment, lack of female toilets, or pressures from parents to work at home rather than study. Not to mention the number of students who are affected by life-threatening diseases such as AIDs/HIV.
• The average size of classes is over 100. In some areas it can be as high as 200. The government recently mandated that classes be no larger than 60 students to one teacher. Because of lack of qualified teachers, many teachers have to do double shifts to meet this number (for the same pay as one shift).
• Malawi is currently undergoing a gas crisis, which has raised the price of fuel to very high levels (about $9/gallon, or even twice that if you have to rely on black market gas) and has made availability extremely low. About 1in 10 gas stations in urban areas have gas at any one moment, and people often wait up to 8 hours or more in line to fuel up. This means supervisors, (who usually have motorcycles) are often unable to travel to outlying schools to provide training and support or even become stranded while traveling.

While these statistics paint a very bleak picture for Malawi, I saw several things that gave me great hope.  We recently observed a training of primary school head teachers (principals) which took place on a Saturday.  The teachers travelled many miles, mostly by bicycle to be at the training, which took place in a unlit zonal teacher development center (a zone has about 80 schools in it).  January is in the middle of the rainy season, so some rode down washed-out dirt roads, or battled strong rains to be there.  Most left at first light to travel the distance needed to be there on time and wouldn’t get home until very late.  But they were there, in their suits and skirts. One woman even came with her baby strapped to her back. They received no extra compensation, and the food allowance they did receive barely covers the cost of lunch given the massive inflation the country is experiencing.

In the meetings they were energetic and enthused.  They were interested in finding answers to the questions that could easily overwhelm them.  Some were experienced teachers, and others had just come from the teaching college, their status as head teacher or deputy head placed on their young backs because they were the most qualified from their schools. They critically interpreted the training materials, questioning the facilitator, and arguing constructively amongst themselves.  There were wonderful conversations about involving the community and gender equity, about training their teachers and meeting the challenges of lack of resources and extremely large classes.

Despite the barriers to their success, these head teachers are committed and optimistic.  They know that education is the only way for Malawi to solve its current problems and meet its future needs, and they are willing to make any sacrifice to meet that challenge head on.  I have come away from this trip inspired and hopeful that there exists within Malawi a great human capacity. I just imagine what would happen in the US if we could put the same level of priority on education and were willing to make that same level of sacrifice to educate our youth.

Here’s a roundup of twelve articles about technology, teaching, and eLearning to kick off the New Year!

1. Learning Solutions Magazine has some interesting thoughts on learning contexts, disruptive technologies to use in eLearning, and other new ideas on the future of eLearning.
2. Learning Solutions Magazine has another article with some very interesting book suggestions that deal with learning, the human brain, and interpersonal relationships.
3. ReadWriteWeb has an article on the Boston Globe’s new premium site.  The article is a little more on the technical side, but it showcases a very important trend for the future: creating flexible sites (including eLearning) that cope well with a wide variety of devices.
4. ConnectYard is a very thought-provoking technology.  It just cries out to be translated into other contexts like email between employees, online newsletters, even blog reading feeds could from this kind of medium-agnostic approach.
5. Voice-control features got a big boost last year when Apple’s Siri made a media splash; there are a few alternatives.
6. Articulate has some thoughts on writing meaningful and engaging objectives screens for eLearning.
7. Personalization in eLearning is something of which I’m sure we’d all like to see more.
8. Simple Help lives up to its name; almost every post on the page is a simple “how to” of some task that isn’t immediately obvious on mobile devices, popular websites, or desktop software.
9. Forecasts of eLearning trends that we might see this year.  They sound pretty reasonable although I can’t really speak to Forecast #2 - Talent Management isn’t something I deal with very often.
10. Effective Online Teaching talks about the “F-shaped pattern” where people tend to read the first line or two and then briefly scan down the left side of the page to get the gist of a page.
11. dashe.com talks about inverting the traditional classroom lecture model by having students watch a video lecture as homework, then using classroom time to address questions.  It’s an interesting idea, but it’s a little dangerous - I would have been very unhappy in high school if I’d had seven hours of lectures (one hour per class) as homework in the evenings.
12. American RadioWorks has another story on turning around the common lecture-oriented course format.  The bits about cooperative learning are especially thought-provoking.

This is Seward’s the last blog post of 2011, and as the holiday season fast approaches us, there is one thing on my mind: packaging.  You know, those rolls of wrapping paper ripped and torn, tossed aside as worthless so that the true treasure can be reached underneath.  But even after the carefully folded and taped paper joins the growing mountain of wads and scraps in the corner, another barrier stands in the way of delight: plastic and cardboard, and those really annoying zip-ties.  Next week’s garbage service will carry away overfilled bins, and loads of holiday cheer will find its way into our landfills.

So this got me thinking about reusability: Is there a way to design gift packaging so that it can be used again?  After all, one of my kids’ most played with “gifts” of 2011 was the 5 foot-tall box that came with our new water heater. Surely all that paper and all those boxes can find a use before they get cast aside.

In international development, “gift” (aka aid) packaging often creates a large amount of waste.But can those packing boxes be repurposed before their usefulness expires?

One designer, inspired by Lego bricks, has created a container for UNICEF food and water that can be used to build temporary shelters as well as provide reusable storage containers. Another organization call IVUHAP or Increased Value for UN Humanitarian Aid Packaging was a finalist in the INDEX: Design to Improve Life competition.  They re-used UN aid boxes for furniture in homes and schools, and printed games, learning materials, etc. on the packages (think of the back of the kids’ cereal box).

But what about digital educational content?  Is it possible to create a truly repurposable and reusable learning object, one that can be adapted to local content, local languages, and teachers’ unique needs?  Can it be done easily without a lot of technical knowledge on the part of the teacher?  Can Creative Commons licenses provide enough protection to intellectual property?   How do the original authors/designers get compensated for their time and work? Do they need to be funded by foundations or created by volunteer or student contributions (i.e., lower quality and less support for the end user)? Will reusable learning objects decrease the gap between the rich and the poor?

I suppose the answers to these questions are not simple, and any repurposable or reusable learning object may seem as flimsy as a cardboard shelf sitting on plastic bottle legs.  But often disruptive technologies start out low quality and are quickly adopted because there is no better option. For some people, a flimsy cardboard bookshelf or a reusable learning object may be better than what they have (e.g., nothing). Furthermore, I suppose just shifting our thinking ever so slightly will create less waste, be it digital or material, and will serve more people.

In late November, Seward participated in the Software & Information Industry Association’s (SIIA) 2011 Innovation Incubator Program. The program is designed to highlight innovative educational technology products and services, as well as be a vehicle for networking and collaboration. Our participation in this program got me thinking about innovation not only in the field of educational technology, but in general.

Recently, I came upon an article describing the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) efforts to test one of their new technologies, an unmanned pod known as the Anti-Submarine Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV), a surface vessel which would be used to track potentially hostile submarines. Central to ACTUV’s design is that it runs on software with artificial intelligence capabilities, as opposed to being “manned” by humans in remote locations. As a result, DARPA wanted to figure out just what tactics and strategies it should code into ACTUV’s software. Their solution? An open call to the public to play ACTUV Tactics Simulator (a modification of the existing game Dangerous Waters):

“You are invited to put yourself into the virtual driver’s seat of one of several ACTUV configurations and show the world how you can use its capabilities to follow a submarine. Of course you won’t be the only ship at sea so you’ll have to safely navigate among the commercial traffic, and the target sub has some tricks up his sleeve so watch out! Rack up points as you complete the mission objectives, and see how you stack up against the competition on our leaderboard page.”

As players completed various levels (or scenarios), DARPA requested that players submit their data. Data submission was voluntary and anonymous. In addition to the general public players, ACTUV’s project director Rob McHenry also enlisted a Navy officer expert to play the game—interestingly, the highest he placed on any leaderboard was 3^rd.

The ACTUV project is not DARPA’s first foray into using the public’s help in the research, development, and testing of its newest battlefield technologies. Other instances include UAVforge, the Shredder Challenge,  the Network Challenge (also known as the Red Balloon Challenge), and the DARPA Grand Challenge, later renamed the Urban Challenge.

In today’s technology-centered world, this method (often referred to as crowdsourcing) has become a popular way for companies to tap the public’s collective knowledge. As DARPA’s director Regina Dugan puts it: “You’re looking for the maximum number of folks who can contribute ideas to the process no matter where they come from.”

Also see:
Challenges.gov – The Federal Government’s crowdsourcing website
Crowdsourcing.org – This website is dedicated to all things crowdsourcing (and crowdfunding)

Sources:
The Anti-Sub Game – Fast Company
ACTUV Tactics Simulator Page - DARPA

For quite some time, eLearning producers have relied heavily on the use of flash technologies to provide a consistent, engaging, and media-rich platform for delivering learning material to the widest variety of people. Flash technologies have been the platform of choice because they offer extreme flexibility coupled with deep market penetration.  Having the Flash plugin installed on 99% of the computers out there allowed eLearning producers to build it once and have it work virtually everywhere.

As with everything in the software industry, the only constant is change (and rapid change at that).  A few short weeks ago, Adobe dropped a couple of serious bombshells on the developer community. First off, they decided to drop support for their mobile version of the Flash player. This is truly significant because of the ever-increasing prevalence of mobile devices (phones and tablets) in our everyday lives. Not being able to deploy eLearning through mobile devices cuts out a large, and ever-growing, segment of the target audience.

The second major bombshell is that Adobe decided that their Flex product no longer made business sense for them to maintain so they tossed it out to the open source community.  It appears, for all intents and purposes, that Adobe has called it quits on Flash technologies and is instead embracing HTML 5 as the wave of the future.

After the initial shock of these announcements wore off, I found myself with about a million questions. Some of these questions included:

• What happens to all the assets that our organization and others around the world have produced? Are they now defunct?
• Can HTML5 really meet our needs?
• Moving forward, should we totally disregard Flash-based technologies as an option?

The long and short of it is that, for the time being, Flash isn’t dead. Our assets aren’t going to be useless overnight and they will continue to be valuable for years to come. With regard to the viability of HTML5 as a replacement technology, I think that’s a bit of a mixed bag. HTML5 and its related technologies hold a lot of promise but, at the current moment, they aren’t supported by many of the legacy browsers that we need to target in our eLearning products.  One approach that many people have taken is to implement HTML5 components that fall back to their Flash equivalents if the features aren’t supported.

Looking to the future I think it’s clear that sticking with the status quo isn’t the best business strategy. As time goes on and technologies mature, Flash will play less of a role in eLearning courses. Until then, my recommendation is continue to use Flash only where you need it and to start focusing on other technologies that will take you into the future.

I’ve written before about the Humble Indie Bundle.  Since then, I’ve noticed several more Humble Bundles come and go, with similar results each time.  There’s even one up now.  Far from being a one-off experiment, Humble Bundles are starting to become a regular fixture of the video gaming marketplace.  It’s even spawned copycats; Indie Royale is also running a similar pay-what-you-want deal right now, and some Google searches reveal a few other bundles that ran earlier this year.

It’s an interesting trend.  Consumers win because they can buy that many more games with their scarce entertainment dollars.  The indie developers in the bundles win because these sales bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue and raise their profile among their customer base - both crucial issues for independent game developers.

Could this model work for the large established game studios (or other entertainment industries)?  Probably not.  Part of what makes the bundle work is a sense of goodwill between the developers and the gamers - something sorely lacking in online conversations about studios.  Another consideration is the amount of extra exposure gained through these sales.  The buzz about these bundles reaches an extremely large audience on the scale of the indie developer, but there’s no guarantee that large studios would see a similar increase in reach.  Finally, bundles like these are very risky.  An indie developer can often afford to gamble on getting that buzz, having little to lose if the offering flops.  Major publishers are much more risk-averse in nature, so they’re more likely to simply run a conventional sale.

Christmas is fast approaching! By now you must be thinking about plans for the holiday season, everything from baking to decorating. The biggest challenge that many of us face as Christmas beckons is deciding on the perfect gift(s) for our loved one(s). Many have fussed over the recently released tech tablets from Apple and Amazon. Apple has recently released the 2^nd version of its iPad, the iPad 2, and Amazon has also recently produced a tablet of its own, the Kindle Fire. Have you considered purchasing either tablet for yourself/your loved one(s)? Have you wondered which tablet better suits your or your loved ones’ needs? If so, the analysis of both products below should help clear your decision.

The table below identifies the main differences between the two products:

First off, you will have to ask yourself whether you are looking for a small tablet or a large tablet, with or without a camera and how much you are willing to spend. As the table illustrates, the disadvantages of both products are clear, the Kindle Fire has no camera, which means you cannot record a video, take pictures or entertain a Skype video chat. In addition, the Kindle Fire also has a considerably smaller display screen (7” as opposed to the iPad 2’s 9.7”) and relatively shorter battery life. However, the iPad 2’s advantages come at a price; the iPad 2 costs at least $300 more than the Kindle Fire.

Is the iPad 2 worth the investment? Is the Kindle Fire a worthy competitor? Is it just as good? The common consensus from people who have tried both products can be summed up in the following three quotes about the Kindle Fire:

• “It feels like a $200 tablet. It’s not going to be as fast as an iPad.”
• “The Kindle’s e-books slide from page to page, even though book reading is Kindle’s strongest point. On Apple’s iPad, it looks like you are turning a real page.”
• “Not as versatile as the iPad.”

In conclusion, the Kindle Fire is not as fast as the iPad 2, doesn’t have as much battery life, has less storage size options, has a smaller display screen and has a slightly lower screen resolution in comparison to the iPad 2. In addition, it does not have a camera. While it may present itself to some as a replacement for the iPad 2, it is only a “good” replacement at best if you’re looking for a less expensive, smaller and lighter tablet.

It’s November. That means my mailbox at home is starting to plug up with holiday shopping ads. In addition to Angry Bird pillows and other must-have gift ideas I’ve seen, conspicuous on the front of every store’s ad was some form of tablet computer-from the super simple but durable kids’ versions to the most expensive iPads.

As more and more tablets come on the market, the prices have dropped considerably. With the soon to be released Aakash tablet by the UK-based DataWind, the affordability of tablets for education development projects is now a reality. The Aakash will come out in December in India, and should sell for about $60 (and even cheaper for students). It runs on Android 2.2, and was designed for the rigors of India’s dusty deserts and damp jungles. While it’s not going to win any beauty contests or high end function races, it has everything a student in a dirt-floor classroom needs. And the functionality is much higher than the MP3 players we piloted in Malawi for about the same price:

• The seven inch resistive touchscreen easily lets learners (even several gathered closely together) read text, view pictures, and watch video.
• Resistive touch was used instead of capacitive touch to make the device more rugged and able to withstand students’ abuse.
• The Android platform allows for customizable learning experiences. For instance, an app could be developed that would guide learners seamlessly between viewing videos, reading text, and taking pictures.
• While there is no video built into the Aakash, Datawind has said a camera can be added for about $5 per unit.
• Removable memory means getting content updates easily, and storing video (up to 32 GB) would not be a problem.
• While GPRS and Wi-Fi are not necessary or practical in many settings, they allow for added functionality and data transfer for areas where the infrastructure is good.

Other tablets built for children show a lot of promise too. The Fable by US-based Isabella Products, is due to be released in April and has a 7 inch full-touch LCD with rugged shell and a welcome 8-10 hour battery (especially needed when charging stations are few and far between). This compares with Aakash’s 2-3 hours of battery life.  While the Fable is designed for high-end markets (with WiFi or 3G), it could be adapted for use in low-resource settings.

But before I get accused of throwing another tech gadget at educational development, let me explore briefly what these tablets make possible.

• Seward piloted the use of small MP3-players in Malawi as support for an Open and Distance Learning program for newly-inducted teachers. The devices allowed learners to watch teachers model appropriate methods, read various texts on those methods, and then film themselves trying out those methods. The option for preloading devices in other contexts with content for agricultural, vocational, or health education is very high. Content can be updated easily by swapping out memory cards (which can even be mailed easily to areas with no connectivity).
• Preloading tablets with textbooks or other reading materials could be very welcome in areas where students’ access to reading materials is desperately low. Worldreader has had a lot of success getting e-readers into the hands of more-or-less book-free students in Ghana, where they can’t seem to get enough of the digital books available to them. A tablet could add a lot of value to some of these e-reader programs, and often with a reduction in cost.
• ACDI/VOCA recently used response clickers to evaluate the effectiveness of cascaded training in Rwanda. A tablet with blue-tooth or other short distance transmission capacity could easily replicate their innovative use of user response systems. In this way an evaluator can gauge participant’s anonymous responses, help shape focus group discussions, and allow evaluators to redirect feedback instantly to the participants.
• CyberSmart Africa has had a lot of success setting up a low-cost interactive whiteboard using a projector, Wii remote, and a white vinyl sheet stretched across a PVC pipe frame. Tablets can easily be linked to projectors in classrooms, recreating a similar effect. One tablet centrally placed in a classroom could be projected for all to see, and students and teachers could interact easily on the tablet.

And the list could go on. The thing that excites me most isn’t that we can throw another cool gadget at the ill-resourced classroom. I don’t think this is just more OLPC-hype. The thing that excites me is that for a reasonable price (think of the cost of a couple poorly-written textbooks) we can engage learners in multi-media rich, interactive learning environments. High-quality instructional design and good teacher support (the most important components!) can enable these devices to help learners discover and explore, do, record and share. With the right program in place, they can bring nearly limitless resources to schools that are currently lucky if they have chalk for the chalkboards and where learners’ access to reading material is next to non-existent. The tablets are open for customization and are welcome the creation of locally developed content and apps. And the technology isn’t too difficult to learn (after all, my 3-year-old knows what to do with a well-designed touch-screen app). While we can’t fail to mention the drawback that comes from lack of accessibility features on touchscreens for vision-impaired users, tablets open up several other options for learners with disabilities.

So bring on the holiday electronics shopping. All that competition means that useful technology will become even more affordable for developing markets in the near future.

In the past few years, I have started to hear more and more about online programs for K-12 students, both supplemental programs and full-time programs. As a college student, I took quite a few online courses, but in looking back to my K-12 days, I think it would’ve have been nice to have these options available-I could have done my schooling during my preferred hours (and no, that did not include waking up at 6am), worked at my own pace (to some degree), and could have had more time for other activities (sports, job, etc.).

So, what are some of the facts and figures relating to K-12 online learning in the U.S.? Is online education effective? How should online education be implemented? What are the emerging trends?

Here are some resources I found, along with highlights of information I found particularly interesting:

Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: An Annual Review of Policy and Practice 2010 Report, which is published annually by Evergreen Education Group. This report reviews the online learning landscape in the U.S., including state-by-state profiles.

• State virtual schools, or state-led online learning initiatives, now exist in 39 states.
• Together, the state virtual schools had about 450,000 enrollments in 2009-2010 (however NC and FL account for 96% of net growth - note: these were the first two state virtual school programs to be introduced in the U.S.)
• 6 states have full-time enrollments of greater than 10,000
• 27 states have a multi-district full-time online school
• As of late 2010, online learning opportunities are available to at least some students in 48 of the 50 states, plus Washington DC.

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. This report focuses on addressing four research questions in particular and included both a literature review and a meta-analysis of 50 study effects:

1.       How does the effectiveness of online learning compare with that of face-to-face instruction?

2.       Does supplementing face-to-face instruction with online instruction enhance learning?

3.       What practices are associated with more effective online learning?

4.       What conditions influence the effectiveness of online learning?

• Few rigorous research studies of the effectiveness of online learning for K-12 students have been published.
• Students in online conditions performed modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction.

Final Report: A Comprehensive Assessment of Florida Virtual School, reported by Florida TaxWatch. Florida Virtual School (FLVS) was founded in 1997 and was the first state-wide Internet-based public high school in the country. Although this report was done in 2007, it provides some very interesting data.

• In 1997, FLVS opened with 77 enrollments in five courses. Since that time, it has grown to 113,900 enrollments in over 90 courses. (According to the FLVS website, there were 259,928 enrollments in 110+ courses in the 2010-2011 school year).
• Most FLVS students are part-time. That is, they take one or two courses at FLVS and the balance at a traditional school, be it private or public, including charter shools.
• Students may reside in Florida, another state or even another country.
• The student population at FLVS is diverse. About one-third of the student body represents minorities, with Hispanic and African American heritage being the predominant minority groups.
• Students at FLVS earned higher grades than their counterparts in traditional public schools.
• Students at FLVS earned higher test scores.
• You may also want to read: Florida Virtual School: Building the first statewide, Internet-based public high school, a 2009 Education Case Study from the Innosight Institute

Top Ten Myths About Virtual Schools - North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL)

• Myth #8: Virtual schools are about technology.

Truth: Virtual schools are about curriculum and instruction for students. The “medium” is not the message because the student, instructor, content, and learning goals are key. Networks simply make it possible to provide communication, access to extended resources, and use of sound, graphics, video, text, interactivity, and other digital capabilities to strengthen instruction.

• Myth #9: A student is more likely to cheat online.

Truth: Cheating is no more prevalent online than in the classroom. In addition, there are many technological ways to deter it and track it.

I have also included a couple of resources if you are interested in finding more information about Minnesota Online Education opportunities.

MN Department of Education - Provides general information and forms for Minnesota K-12 online learning

iseek education - A place to find resources for Minnesota K-12 online learning options