Feeling Change

I'm currently reading The Heart of Change by John P. Kotter. I'm part of the vision team at Southfield Christian School that is working toward fundamentally changing the way that we educate students. Instigating and sustaining such radical organizational change is very difficult.

One of the key points that Kotter keeps hitting home is that true change requires a shift in behavior. This requires urgency that is felt, not thought. Kotter argues that in order to convince people to change they must feel the need to change, not intellectually agree that change is needed. Data, charts, memos, and presentations provide evidence supporting change, but don't motivate people to change. Throughout his book Kotter illustrates this point by sharing real examples of organizations that succeeded in changing by emotionally impacting the members of the company. Most of the examples involve symbols and physical examples of why change is needed.

After reading this, I began to think, how can I encourage change in my school? I believe that we need to develop an online component in our high school. Online learning is the future of education and we aren't doing anything to address it. I have presented data to my administrators, attended committee meetings, and discussed my ideas at length to anyone who will listen. No change has occurred. So, now it's time to try Kotter's idea. Does this video make you feel the need to change?

Essential Reading

Those of us planning on being in education for a while need to think about, prepare for, and understand the coming changes in education. Here are three essential works that speak to each of these things:

1. Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen
A disruptive innovation is an idea that, at first, is not accepted because of its expense, and lack of application to everyday life. Over time this innovation gains a following amongst a fringe crowd who develop a cult-like following. More an more people begin to adopt the innovation and them seemingly overnight the innovation overtakes the incumbent way of doing things and becomes the dominant form. Examples include the horseless carriage (replacement of the traditional carriage) and digital photography (replacement for film photography). Online learning is a disruptive innovation.

2. The Future of Education by Thomas Frey
In this bold article Frey claims that a radical shift in education will occur due to the emergence of standard course-ware software so that companies, universities and school districts can quickly and easily create content that can be accessed from around the world. A key component of this software will be the ability to accurately assess mastery of learning. Read my full summary of this article here.

3. Blue Ocean Strategy
There are two types of markets: red oceans and blue oceans. The red ocean is where most industries are: firmly entrenched against their competition with well defined value structures and customers. In the red ocean, companies compete to drive costs down while attempting to maintain or raise their quality. This seldom works. Either costs go up or quality goes down. Furthermore the companies in the red ocean spend most of their time reacting to the actions of the competition.

In contrast, the blue ocean is uncontested market space. Companies who make it to the blue ocean re-envision their market, get rid of "sacred" elements that are outdated or a drain on profits and focus on increasing value for customers. The blue ocean strategy is to reduce waste, eliminate the unnecessary, raise quality, and create unexpected value. Many times, a company intent on creating a blue ocean strategy will mash two typically unrelated industries together. A perfect example of this is Cirque du Soleil. Taking the best elements of the circus and the theater while discarding and eliminating the fat from both, Cirque du Soleil is in uncontested territory.

Despite advancements in technology, the educational system in the United States has remained largely unchanged. Most schools are in the red ocean. Huge potential exists for any school that is willing to venture out into the blue ocean by re-envisioning how we do education, by taking the best, cutting out the fat, and adding value that those in the red ocean can not match.

Tech Training at Southfield Christian

This year I am leading monthly tech workshops for the teachers in my building. I did a couple of workshops last year which were well received and encouraged me to continue this year. The Google Teacher Academy gave me lots of ideas that I'm excited to share with others. I'm also doing to do some training on the old standbys: Outlook and PowerPoint.

Just for fun, here is the handout that I am giving to teachers tomorrow during staff orientation. It lists the various software/programs/services that I will be helping the staff with. Did I leave something out that you think teachers should know? Leave me a comment!

eBeam Edge Interactive Whiteboard

I was browsing through the pages of the July edition of Tech and Learning and saw a new product from Luidia: the eBeam Edge. This product promises to turn any projected image into an interactive whiteboard. This is a novel concept as it removes the cumbersome presence of a large fixed physical component. It's a bit cheaper than the traditional whiteboards, coming in at $899.

I read the description in Tech and Learning and then browsed the Luidia website and couldn't help but laugh-- I can create the exact same setup using a Nintendo Wii controller and an IR pen for less than $100! While I'm sure the eBeam Edge software and hardware works very well, why spend hundreds of dollars reproducing what the creative open source community has given us?

Johnny Chung Lee came up with the original prototype for the "wiiboard" in early 2007. I stumbled upon it in the summer of 2008 and used my Wiiboard throughout the school year. It's a fairly simple setup that has been significantly improved since Chung's original iteration. To learn how to set up your own interactive whiteboard for less than $100 using a Nintendo Wii controller, see these previous posts:

What can a Wiiboard do for me?
Wiiboard Software
Setting up a Wiiboard
IR Pen Review

Auto Fill for Google Docs Spreadsheets

Here's a feature of Google Docs Spreadsheets that will save you a ton of time! Learn how to automatically generate a list of practically anything using the power of Google Sets. Thanks again to Ronald Ho, Project Manager of Spreadsheets, for sharing this at the Google Teacher Academy.

Click here to view in full screen.

Word Cloud Gadget for Google Docs Spreadsheets

Ronald Ho, the project manager for Google Spreadsheets, demonstrated some awesome gadgets for Google spreadsheets at the Google Teacher Academy. One of them was a word cloud gadget. It's a neat tool, here's how to use it!

Note: the size of the video in Blogger makes it very difficult to read the text. You can view a full screen version here.

Pictures from GTA

Google Teacher Academy Reflection

Yesterday, I got to be a Googler for the day. I attended the 2009 Google Teacher Academy which was held in Boulder, Colorado this year. Corporate culture at Google is unlike any other company in the world. As soon as I entered their office I new this: an eight foot bouldering wall dominated one corner of the main floor. The other areas were filled with video games, a pool table, and a gigantic bean bag chair. Six flat screen TV's were mounted on the circular walls to keep the Googlers updated on anything and everything. The familiar Google colors: red, blue, green, and yellow were everywhere.

52 educators from the US and Canada gathered in the upper level of the Boulder office in front of a large wall on which dual images were projected. Less than 150 ft. away (Google Policy) was a "micro" kitchen. After being treated to a breakfast of fresh fruit, waffles, and great coffee, we got started. In the morning session we learned about some of the advanced search features Google offers (Squared, Similar Image, Timeline), and then learned more about the Google Apps for Education program.

After a short break we split into three groups for breakout session including Google Docs, Sites, and "others" (calendar, iGoogle). I learned lots of new features on each of these that I will share in a separate post.

One of the best parts of the day was the tour of the Google Office by two employees. The Boulder office is primarily dedicated to Google Sketchup and the 3D warehouse (repository for 3D buildings in Google Earth). During the tour I experience first hand how Google has designed their office buildings to maximize collaboration and innovation. The Googlers are groups into clusters of four desks which face inward for easy discussion. Each employee receives two 16" or one 30" flat screen monitor to maximize productivity, and, again, no one is ever more than 150 ft. away from food! The Googlers are undoubtedly one of the most creative teams ever assembled. One of the best features of the Boulder office is a large deck with picnic tables overlooking the mountains. Can't beat it! One of the Googlers who gave us the tour unashamedly told us that all of the perks that Google offers them (three meals a day, video games, flex time, etc) is all a ploy to get them to work more. According to him, their strategy is working!

After lunch we dove back in with a session on integrating Google Apps, Moodle, and Mahara. Still under development, the integration of these three products is still a bit shaky, but promising none the less.

One of the most exciting presentations of the day was delivered by Googler Ronald Ho who is the project manager for Spreadsheets, Google's version of MS Excel. He showed us how to automatically fill in cells with data, and create a moving chart or word cloud based on data. Each of these deserves a post of their own, so stay tuned!

Another round of breakout sessions brought together the Geo Apps produced by Google: Sketchup, Google Earth, and Maps. Sketchup is an exciting 3D modeling program that has lots of great applications. I am thinking about having my biology students use it to model cells this year. Jerome Burg demonstrated his use of Google Earth in teaching literature through his Lit Trips. This is an absolutely fascinating application of Google Earth. I highly recommend that you check it out. Kern Kelly demonstrated his use of Google Maps and demoed a brand new technology called Augmented Reality (AR). This new technology will quickly become unbelievably useful!


Our final session featured a new search curriculum being designed to help educate students in essential skills of the 21st century. I was encouraged to train my students to become better consumers of information.

Our final activity was a time of reflection in which we discussed in small groups about our biggest "aha moment" of the day. Unquestionably, it was the theme of collaboration and problem solving that permeates Google's products and corporate culture. No longer is obtaining information the characteristic of a intelligent individual; The internet has made obtaining information easy. It's what we do with that information that makes all the difference. Google's products are designed to make the analysis and synthesis of information easy through collaboration.

I certainly enjoyed my day at the GTA. I was with a great group and hosted by a great company. This is certainly not the last you will hear about the things I learned, it's just the beginning!

Google Teacher Academy

It was a long drive to Boulder, Colorado, but my wife, daughter, and I arrived safely. Tomorrow is the 2009 Google Teacher Academy. I'm excited about the opportunity to rub shoulders with a very distinguished and influential group of educators from around the country.

Tomorrow will be a full day starting with breakfast at 8am and ending with a "celebration dinner" at 6:15. I previously posted the published schedule provided by the folks at Google. If you are interested, you can follow the procedings via twitter. We are using the hashtag #gtaco.

Stay tuned for subsequent blog post on the lessons of the day!