H Duderstadt, New Tech Maven

I’ve been doing some serious investigation into how we are preparing children to live in the 21st century. There’s been a shift in focus in public schools from traditional literacy to “digital literacy”. This is definitely to be commended. But, unfortunately, when I did some research into curriculum and lesson plans that are available on the Internet, they all seem to focus on teaching kids how to use Microsoft Word to write a resume, Excel to do a spreadsheet, PowerPoint to do a presentation, and maybe how to build a web page or send an e-mail, and, frankly, little else.

Though, learning how to use MS office is not necessarily a bad thing, I personally don’t believe that something schools should focus on. For a number of reasons, I think the time the kids are in classes studying digital literacy should be spent on other subjects. These include how to find information on the Internet and then verify its validity, How to handle the vast array of information that they will be facing them sift through it in order to find what is important, of course, how to be safe online, and, in some ways most importantly,  how to use the 21st-century skills they already have and adapt them for use in the education system and in dealing with those who are not as proficient.

My hope is that in the course of this blog, I’ll focus on some of the areas that I think we need to emphasize more in our effort to help develop digital literacy in children.

Something that is common to everything I write is the emphasis I place on modern kids, digital natives as some call them, and how they have a natural understanding of the technologies in our world. When it comes to the tools that are at the heart of digital literacy, kids do just fine. In fact, I personally believe we be better using them as mentors to the 20th century teachers who are actually teaching them.

There is an amazing conference held every year called the TED conference. It brings together what can best be described as technological celebrities who talk about some of the amazing advances they’ve achieved. The slogan of the conference aptly describes it, “ideas worth spreading” and it is grown to develop quite a following of those who can’t afford the high price tag on attending the conference itself but are able to view the presentations online for free. Some examples of previous speakers include Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Jane Goodall, and numerous Nobel Prize winners. Additionally, there are people who are less well-known but have achieved nonetheless amazing things including a rather precocious 10-year-old who was a virtuoso violin player and the first demonstration of the multitouch display that became key to Apple’s iPad.

I propose that there is an equal need for a new kind of conference similar to TED that brings together people who were involved in K-12 education and have done amazing things and are willing to explain how they did. These all go far beyond his teachers. It would include administrators, parents, students, politicians, community organizers, media creators, and anybody who had done something that it had a dramatic effect on education. Additionally, the cost of the conference would be covered by investors so that teachers and those working on limited budgets could attend the conference for free. Additionally, there will be a large and very dynamic online component which go far beyond just providing video presentations to include feedback from the online audience. Add to this, the development of a virtual community for a conference could go on throughout the year.

The goal of this would be to help provide a vehicle for those who are really making a difference to get out what they’re doing and share with those who could really benefit. This dovetails with my belief that we must focus on the successes more than the failures in American education system.

In my personal opinion there’s been far too much focus on the problems with our education system.  With a particular emphasis on rooting out BAD teachers (and killing off the unions that protect them), school “reformers” proclaim that they can fix what ails our current school system by getting rid of all those lazy, awful teachers.  Out with the bad…and viola.  We’ll rise back to the top of list when it comes to quality education systems.

Of course, if you want to take the approach of trying to find out what’s BAD in the American education system, you can’t stop with just teachers.  What about the BAD parents who don’t take the time to support their kids and make sure they are doing their homework?  Or, BAD school administrators who would rather protect their own jobs than support their schools and teachers.  Or, BAD kids that refuse to learn and show no respect for teachers no matter how hard they try.  Or, BAD politicians who make great promises when running for office and proclaim themselves the “Education Candidate” but are the first to vote to cut school funding when the budget gets tight.  Or, BAD voters who refuse to support any school bond issue because THEY shouldn’t have to spend their hard earned money to help somebody else’s brat. Or BAD media companies that could create exciting, engaging programming (that would earn the ratings) that could also educate.   The list goes on and on.  In fact, if you really want to know who is to blame for our bad school system…GO LOOK IN THE MIRROR.  We are ALL to blame.

But, what does finding somebody to blame do to really help find a solution to the problems we face?   Americans have a nasty habit of disregarding warnings, waiting until something goes wrong, and then looking for some hapless soul to point at and say…”yes, they are the reason things are so screwed up”.

I sincerely believe the solution to our education dilemma is to focus on SOLUTIONS and not problems.  There are teachers who are doing a great job.  And parents who support their kids, and wonderful pupils who not only do their work, but help others.  And politicians, school administrators, media companies, voters and on and on that are doing wonderful things.  Maybe, instead of taking a punitive approach, we pay those teachers who have figured out how to do it better, to help develop programs to help other teachers do the same thing.  Or, get those parents involved with the PTA, or give those kids encouragement to become teachers.  By focusing on rooting out the GOOD and then applying it into schools and the world kids grow up in, I feel we’d make much more headway than this fascination with finding somebody to blame.

I’ve written before of how I believe that video games offer a tremendous promise in education. I’m not talking about just “educational” games. Even mainstream products have great potential, especially those that give the player the ability to modify or build their own world. No game, in my opinion, does this better than Garry’s Mod.

The story behind this game is rather interesting. It is actually the product of several independent game developers, in particular Garry Newman, who were interested in creating something that would make it easy for players to modify and alter the characters and environments that are used in the popular Half-Life  games from Valve. As it itself is a modification of the original game,  it’s easy to see where it got the name Garry’s MOD. Originally, offered as a free option for those who are a owned Half Life (now Half Life 2),  is now a commercial product sold through Valve’s  Steam  gain management system. And only about $10, it’s a steal. There are also versions of it that will run on both PC or Macintosh, which is a plus.

Once installed, the player has the ability to work in any of the game environments that happened to be on their system. This, of course, is dependent upon which versions of Half Life 2 they have available, or several blank canvases,  one an open field with a concrete pad in the middle and another an open area in the middle of a giant city are available.    Players also have access to all the various characters and tools that are supported by the games. This includes all the vehicles, many of which are actually drivable.   Additionally, there is a large selection of tools that allow for an amazing variety of capabilities. Some allow you to weld various objects together, others support different types of hinges and connections, others give you greater control over the object or character you’re working with. Ultimately, the player is given access to everything they need to build an amazing collection of machines and objects that actually work. Add to this the fact that the laws of physics are fully functional in this environment and it’s easy to see how it earned the name “physics sandbox”.

Besides what comes with the game, there’s developed a very active community of independent developers who have built an amazing collection of extensions and options to the game. These range from characters and vehicles from games that are not produced by Valve, tools that support an amazing array of additional functionality, and even one set of extensions that allows for the creation of electrical circuits.

Garry’s Mod gives the player the ability to create easily all kinds of things That would be impossible for them to build in the real world. For example, try to build a walking cathedral in the world world or a Rube Goldberg machine that stands several football fields. For any child who shown an inclination to invention, Garry’s Mod will open the door to amazing possibilities. For more information, check out http://www.garrysmod.com/.  The purchase Garry’s Mod, you’ll first need to install Steam  on the machine which will run it. You can get this at http://store.steampowered.com/.

A recent article in Newsweek magazine talked of how the US is falling behind in creativity. Our education system, it wrote, has so focused on standardized testing that creative thought is taking a back seat to rote memorization. And, as schools are facing ever more drastic budget cuts, traditionally creative programs such as Art, Music, even Digital Design are being eliminated to save money. Additionally, more stimulating and challenging methods of teaching more “academic” subjects such as science, math, and english are being discouraged in favor of standardized lesson plans designed to help schools get higher scores in their annual assessment tests.

Yet, school is not the only place creativity can be encouraged. Over the coming articles, I’ll be examining and revealing exciting ways this most important type of learning can be inspired OUTSIDE of school using the very tools and activities that kids are already big fans of. From the next generation of iPhone/iPod/iPad apps that allow children to create drawings, animation, even movies to video games that provide the tools for them to build their own games. From websites that provide detailed instructors on how kids can become their own version of Thomas Edison with easily available things around the house to free programs that empower them to design and even invent.