H Duderstadt, New Tech Maven

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/.

The 4th of July was always a very big celebration in my home town. It was the 1960′s and we were just beginning to hear the call for “Safe & Sane” fireworks. You could still buy pretty much anything short of tactical nuclear weapons if knew where to go.

One of the most distinct memories of have of those hot summer days when the air smelled of smoke and the sounds of pops, whizzing, and an occasional KABOOM range out across the town was my father’s annual war with our neighbor Bruce. There was a open lot separating our houses and every year my father and Bruce would attempt to fire rockets back and forth at each other in and effort to span this gap. At first, we used bottle rockets but would harmlessly land and explode in the middle somewhere. But, as dad and his nemesis would explore an ever larger array of “weapons dealers” the size of the rockets began to grow. And so their range.

Finally, fateful day arrived. I was down in my dirt pile (it had been a sand pile but I had mixed the sand with dirt because any 10 year old boy will tell you, sand is boring, DIRT IS COOL! I was busy placing a pair of black cats under an enemy car. “Come on, let’s show Bruce whose the boss!” my dad exclaimed as he walked by. I jumped up and followed along, noticing his was carrying a rather large cardboard box under his arm. We strolled down the incline in our lawn to a point near an old tree. Across the vast (at least to a 10 year old) expanse of the open lot I could see Bruce doing what he loved to do on hot summer days, sleep in his hammock in the front yard. Dad placed the box on the grown and with a flourish pulled out his pocket knife and deftly opened it. He reached in and carefully removed one of the largest rockets I’d ever seen. “This’ll get him, for sure!” dad gleefully said. We set up the launcher, and dad carefully gauged the wind and distance before targetting this monster. “OK, when I light this run up and get behind that tree. I’m not sure what it’s going to do!” He reached down, and with this tip of his Falcon cigar carefully lit the fuse. It immediately sparked to life and we dashed up and hide behind the tree. WHOOOOSH! the rocket suddenly roared off the pad. We followed it go up…up…up…then arc over and start falling…falling…then KABLAM!!!!! It couldn’t have done better if it had been GPS guided as it exploded about 10 feet above Bruce’s head. He suddenly flipped up and out of the hammock and landed on his lawn. He sat there dazed for a few moments then suddenly jumped up and looked our way. By this time Dad was out in the open. “Phhhhhttttttt” dad razed him. Bruce shook his fist and dashed into his house. So began yet another year of the great Duderstadt/Finalyson war. It was kind of like the Hatfields versus the McCoys accept we used rockets, and every other day of the year my dad and Bruce were good friends.

Sadly, the rockets got every larger until they no longer just hit our lots but our neighbors and complaints brought an end to this annual battle.

There’s been a lot of press lately on the school in Rhode Island that fired it’s entire teaching staff.  Even the president stepped in and agreed with the move.   But, I personally believe that though there may be a few teachers that could do a better job, the solution to the education crisis in the US involves everybody from politicians who will honestly back education and not just use it to help get them re-elected to office then cut, cut, cut when they need to balance the budget; or administrators who are educators and not polticians; or voters who will support a school bond even though they don’t have any children; or media producers who are willing to explore adding learning content to their product because it can make them more entertaining if done right.

But no one key component of the process of raising children is so important as the parent. They are key to the future of their children.  Yet, all too often they are struggling to keep up with their kids and their kids “tech”.

Take a look at a typical teenager today and you’ll find a walking advertisement for best buy.   Armed with iPods, iPhones, laptops, all jacked in to networks that give them access to twitter, facebook, texting, phone messaging, World of Warcraft, Second Life, Wikipedia and the vast array of content that is the internet they are easily the most connected generation in history.  At home, many have Xbox 360s, PS3s, Wiis, and any rang of sophisticated game platforms, often hooked up to high def TVs.  Even their conversations can be a blend of texting shortcuts, typical teen slang, and rap tunes.

So, it’s little wonder that those who grew up in the shadow of one media type, whether it be television or radio, or even first generation Mac’s sometimes have a difficult time really understanding these “Digital Natives’ as they come to be known.  And not the least mystified is often their parents.

Though a parent might be a definite blackberry addict (often called “crackberry”), have a facebook account, and actually be at level 70 on World of Warcraft, they must realize these kids are on a whole different level.  A key goal of this site is to attempt to help decode the world modern children live in and help parents better understand and so play an active role in their children’s growth and learning.  Especially now with the severe budget cuts that school districts all over the US are facing, the importance of parents being involved in supporting their children and their learning can not be underemphasized.

So hang on, as I set out to help you 20th century raise 21st century kids1

Have you ever wondered about the way you learn things.  When I was studying education for my MS, I was introduced to amazing test called the VARK test.  It’s a series of multiple choice questions like: