PILOTed

#FETC 2018

FETC 2018 is in the books.

For me, the conference started with the EduTechGuys interviewing me about game-based learning at FETC. This was the first year FETC had a separate pavilion dedicated to education games. It was so popular it’s going to be expanded next year with more presentations and more games. Games mentioned in the interview are TeacherGaming, 3DBear AR, Agents of Discovery, Wibbu/Ruby Rei, and Amplify Reading.

If you listen, you’ll also learn that in Oklahoma, 25 times 25 is 225.

Speaking of games, I got to spend some time with Azi Jamalian of Littlebits. Playing with the different coded electronics parts is such a fun way to learn computational thinking, problem solving, collaboration, communications, and inventing to solve a problem while also experiencing electronics concepts such as power, input/output sensors, motors, servos, parallel and serial circuits, voltage, and capacitors.

Leslie Fisher did a brilliant review of Augmented Reality uses in education. She and I both agree that AR is poised to explode across the education spectrum. It immerses and engages kids, delivers compelling content, and also empowers kids to solve problems and create without requiring the purchase of physical objects.

One of her favorite applications is Aurasma, now renamed HP Reveal. You can make pages pop into life by creating an aura, which can link a trigger to text, 3D objects, or videos. Based on audience reaction, a second very popular application is goosechase, an AR app for scavenger hunts. Of course, Leslie has over 50 AR apps on her AR resources page on her website.

Poster sessions are always one of my favorite activities at tech conferences, because you get to spend real time talking to educators doing remarkable things with their kids. FETC had a special poster schedule for AR and VR apps.

The Academy of Holy Name in Windsor, CT has elementary students demonstrate their understanding of zoology by creating their own animals using Creaturizer. Middle school kids create bio domes using CoSpaces. And high schoolers create their own interactive historical adventures using Story Spheres.

Tampa Preparatory School has a 6 station VR creation lab. Computer science students create VR experiences using Unity 3D, while art students use Oculus Medium, Tilt brush, and the 3D scanner “Structure Sensor” to create 3 dimensional interactive art.

A conversation with Bob Dillon highlighted one of the mega trends at the conference. For a variety of reasons, federal and state policy is mandating, schools are demanding, and publishers are paying more attention to inclusive instructional design (or Universal Design of Instruction, UDI). Being able to accommodate students who have deficiencies or learning preferences is becoming required and commonplace, and publishers that do not have inclusive features baked in are seeing their products bypassed by curriculum committees at districts. This is a specialty of The ETIN’s Sarah Kloek, and she will be talking about how to comply with federal and state regulations at the SIIA Annual Conference in June.

And another conversation with TeamDynamix's Andrew Graf highlighted that security is the second biggest concern of superintendents nationwide. Districts have to contend with parents’, students’, and teachers' increasing expectations about immediate access to the content they want when they want it, and if there is a problem, that it be solved immediately, at the same time as they face resource constraints. Dynamix’s solution is to make it easier for users to fix problems on their own while also making it less labor intensive for the right expert to fix problems that require specialized knowledge.

And no conference would be complete without conversing with Tom Whitby. Tom and I planned out a series of Edchat Interactives on Wednesday nights that will drill down on the most popular topics of the Tuesday Edchat Twitter Chat. You can sign up for Wednesday, Feb 7 here, or see what is coming up here.

 

The Game Based Learning Guide to FETC 2108

With some help from the kind people of FETC, here are the sessions on game-based learning at FETC this year.

Please pass this on to whomever you know is interested in GBL.

Also, don't forget to visit the Game-Based Learning Pavilion, right next to the poster sessions on the exhibit hall floor.

Title	Description	Speakers	Where/When
Tuesday, January 23
Game Makers	During this interactive workshop, you will be challenged to use creative, innovative thinking and technology to make the best game.	Jaime Donally, Hoonuit | ARVRinEDU; Rachelle Dene Poth, Riverview High School	1:30PM, Hyatt Regency, Bayhill 18
11 Projects Implementing Technology to Develop Critical Thinking	Discover how to teach your students that mistakes and failures are not disasters, but rather an opportunity to learn something new.	Howie DiBlasi, Digital Journey	1:30PM, Hyatt Regency, Bayhill 20
Digital Games Help Develop Students' Literacy, Life and Career Skills	This workshop showcases free digital learning games produced by Classroom Inc. (CI). Led by two CI staff members and one to two middle school educators who use the digital learning games in their classrooms, this workshop will connect the story of creating a game-based curriculum guided by educational research with the story of how the games are used in the classroom to develop critical 21st century skills.	Hee Jin Bang, Ph.D, Classroom, Inc.; Kwamara Thompson, Classroom, Inc.	1:30PM, Hyatt Regency, Bayhill 23 & 24
Wednesday, January 24
MIE Teacher Academy -- Minecraft: Education Edition	During this one-day, in-person Teacher Academy, you will: learn about Minecraft: Education Edition, its place in learning, and unique features suited for teaching and learning with immersive games.	Mary Williams, Microsoft; Zia Hassan,	8:30AM, Orange County Convention Center, North 220C
Break Out of Your Box and Break into Breakout EDU!	Come experience Breakout EDU games for yourself, then begin developing your own breakouts to re-energize yourself as a teacher and students of all ages as learners!	Lynne Herr, Educational Service Unit 6	10:30AM, Hyatt Regency, Bayhill 21
Using Scratch with Elementary Students	Never used Scratch before? Want to learn how to create using the program and discover ways to incorporate coding into your classroom?	Jason Rushing, Wysong Elementary (Neb.); Susan Prabulos, Meadow Lane Elementary (Neb.)	4:00PM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 1100
Thursday, January 25
CETL: Up Your Game With the National Certification for IT Leaders	For K-12 education technology leaders, earning the Certified Educational Technology Leader program certification demonstrates to your staff, superintendent and other stakeholders that you have mastered the skills needed to define and successfully build 21st-century learning environments in your school district.	Tom Ingram, Escambia County School District (Fla.); Diane Doersch, Green Bay Area Public Schools (Wis.)	8:00AM, Hyatt Regency, Bayhill 21
Game On: Using Digital Games for Teaching, Learning and Assessment	This presentation is designed for PK-12 teachers and curriculum specialists to: find, critique, and evaluate digital games using search and evaluation strategies to determine if they are suitable for instructionm integrate a wide range of digital games into the curriculum utilizing academic standards, and explore instructional and assessment strategies essential to make a game- based learning experience a success for students.	Ryan Schaaf, Notre Dame of Maryland University	10:00AM, Orange County Convention Center, North 220E
Bringing Hands-On Coding And STEAM Into Your District Or Classroom	Are you planning to enhance STEAM and Coding programs in your district, school, or makerspace? Join this session for a fun, hands-on experience with littleBits Code Kit: a complete computer science solution that teaches students how to build their own mini-computer or game console.	Azadeh (Azi) Jamalian, littleBits; Azadeh (Azi) Jamalian, littleBits	10:00AM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 1159
30 Game Tools to Engage Every Class	This fast paced session will demonstrate 30 free and simple-to-use games, that can be integrated into any classroom, no matter what grade level or content area. Participants will walk away with game based technologies and examples of how they can be used in classrooms the very next day.	Jeff Ertzberger, University of North Carolina Wilmington; Salena Rabidoux, University of North Carolina Wilmington; Amy Rottmann, Lenoir-Rhyne University	12:00 noon, Orange County Convention Center, North 220E
Gameshow Classroom: Formative Assessment That ROCKS	The best features of game shows can be used to review and teach in the classroom. Play with Kahoot!, Quizizz, Quizalize and Quizlet Live, learn about their best features and see how they can bring game show magic to your own classroom.	Matt Miller, Ditch That Textbook	12:00 noon, Orange County Convention Center, North 320AB
Exploring the World of Game Based Learning	During this session, we'll explore the world of Game Based Learning and try out a variety of games and gaming techniques that provide opportunities for students to make connections to learning objectives, standards, and beyond in the classroom. Make sure to bring any type of device pre-loaded with your favorite game to share with others.	Brandon Petersen, mindSpark Learning	1:00PM, Orange County Convention Center, North 220E
Makerfication!	Makerfication is a look into how Google suites can bring gamification and the maker movement together to help enhance engagement in the classroom and increase excitement in PBL.	Rick Funes, Gulliver Schools (Fla.); Andrés Joubert, Gulliver Schools (Fla.)	1:00PM, Orange County Convention Center, South 330AB
Direct from Finland: Deep Learning Using Games, 3D, and AR	What do the developers of classroom blockbuster MinecraftEdu and a group of cutting-edge 3D and augmented reality engineers have in common? They're both from Finland, home to the best education system in the world, and incredibly passionate about innovative learning. Santeri Koivisto from TeacherGaming and Jussi Kajala from 3DBear will take to the stage to deliver insights on how teachers can take a page from Finland, embrace uncommon teaching methods, and deliver learning experiences their students will never forget.	Santeri Koivisto, TeacherGaming; Santeri Koivisto, TeacherGaming; Jussi Kajala, 3DBear	1:00PM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 1159
Breaking The Mold With BreakoutEDU	This session will share a hands-on gaming platform called Breakout EDU. Modeled after escape rooms, Breakout EDU challenges students and/or staff to think critically about content, problem solve, troubleshoot, and work as a team.	Edie Erickson, Bay College	2:30PM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 965
BreakoutEDU for K - 2	Come visit this poster session to explore how Breakout EDU can specifically be used with Kindergarten through second grade students!	Cutia Blunt, The Galloway School	2:30PM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 965
Battle of the Books Gets H.O.T. With FSA Standards	Battle of the Books and web based gaming software is transforming the way our students read in Pinellas County School District. We use higher order thinking, textually complex questions in our games played across the county using technology in a virtual gaming world. Student collaborate with the books in teams to compete.	Laura Woods, Pinellas County Schools Library Media Department; Peggy Duncan, Curlew Creek Elementary	2:30PM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 965
Don't Flip Your Lid - FlipQuiz	Come and learn how you, too, can use FlipQuiz to create quiz board games for your students. Students are motivated, engaged, and above all learning!	Kimberly Dawn Albury, Horace O'Bryant School	2:30PM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 965
Breakout EDU with OneNote	Participants will learn about Breakout EDU and how to create virtual locks using OneNote. Ideas and tips will be shared for creating your own Breakout games, as well as exploring and modifying existing Breakout games. In this session participants will also play a Breakout game!	Freda Williams, Cherokee County School District	2:30PM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 965
¿Hablas Minecraft? Minecraft in the World Language Classroom	Experience Minecraft in the second language classroom! From gamification to game-based learning we will explore how you can start using Minecraft in your classroom immediately!	Glen Irvin, Wabasha-Kellogg School District	2:30PM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 965
Middle School English: Let's BreakOut Before We Stress Out	You can take students to the next level with their learning and critical thinking skills while fostering communication. BreakOut EDU boxes are applicable to all subjects, but in my session, I focus on effective strategies for implementing BreakOut EDU boxes into English and Social Studies curriculums. Your students will have a blast learning how to BreakOut instead of stressing out.	Betsy Wengler, St. Edward's School	2:30PM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 965
Make Learning Come Alive in the Gamified Classroom!	The gamified classroom is an adventure at any level or content area. This session will describe how to layer the most motivational techniques of gameplay over your curriculum to increase student collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity.	Tisha Richmond, -- Please Choose (Starts With A) --	2:30PM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 965
Stemming Attrition in STEM and Promoting Durable Conceptual Change	In this session, we share the game design principles that proved to promote a high level of engagement, interest, and learning as well as the kind of ‘durable conceptual change’ that benefits all students, especially girls and students from low SES.	Victoria Van Voorhis, Second Avenue Learning	2:30PM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 2305
Designing Games in Scratch	What do students love more than playing games? Making games! Come and learn how to use Scratch to code a variety of games.	Susan Prabulos, Meadow Lane Elementary (Neb.); Jason Rushing, Wysong Elementary (Neb.)	3:20PM, Orange County Convention Center, North 220E
How to Design Effective Starters for Strong Classes	We'll look at several ways that teachers can get their classes going in the right gear with technology, including approaches to using images, discussion tools, games, and short videos.	Rushton Hurley, NextVista.org	3:30PM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 1805
Breakout EDU : Learning Inside the Box	Breakout EDU is the immersive learning game platform. Come and learn about how to create and share Breakout EDU games with your students and see how easy it is to increase the critical thinking and collaboration in your classroom.	Adam Bellow, Breakout EDU	4:20PM, Orange County Convention Center, North 320AB
Friday, January 26
Using Digital Games for Teaching, Learning and Assessment	Robert will make sure you experience the full potential of game-based learning through a selection of titles hosted on BrainPOP's GameUP portal. Bring your own laptop/device … if you're game!	Robert Miller, BrainPOP	10:00AM, Orange County Convention Center, North 220E
Hands-On STEM: Coding Robots	This session will showcase a variety of robots and products that allow students to learn and apply coding and robotics concepts. Participants will learn about classroom use of Dash and Dot, Parrot Mini-Drones, Ozobots, a coding game called Puzzlets, Bloxels Video Game Creator, and a Kano Computer Kit.	Lauren Wade, Ocean Palms Elementary School	10:45AM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 2305
Virtual DC Documentary	Through this project, my 5th grade students learned about the history associated with landmarks they'll be seeing this summer on their Safety Patrol trip to Washington, DC.  My 5th grade students did the research, script-writing, green screen setup, and producing prior to being able to "walk the red carpet" as the stars of the movie they produced.	Caryl OSteen, Bronson Elementary School	11:00AM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 965
Google CS First Clubs	Technology Instructor, Kelly McNeil, will demonstrate samples, lessons and tips from her 6th grade classroom Digital Storytelling and Art Clubs.The teacher dashboard, printed materials and question and answer time will be provided from a tried in the classroom perspective. An overview of the themes will be presented: Storytelling, Friends, Fashion and Design, Art, Social Media, Sports, Music and Sound, Game Design and Animation.	Kelly McNeil, All Saints Academy	11:00AM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 1100
Next Level Technology Clubs: Creating Divergent Thinkers Through Inquiry-Based Learning	We have created a culture of divergent thinkers through the promotion of student exploration, collaboration, and innovation without the need for specialized staff. Students choose an individualized learning path from choices such as coding, robotics, 3-D printing, invention, and video game design.	Michael West, Elyria City Schools; Cindy Tobel, Elyria City Schools; Brian Kokai, Elyria City Schools	11:00AM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 1100
Scratch with Elementary Students	Scratch is a visual program that can be used to explore content and create in a range of media formats (games, digital storytelling, animation, etc), making it engaging for young people with various learning styles and interests and languages.	Regina Schaffer, Middletown Township School District	11:00AM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 1100
The Power of PBL	My high school programming students designed and created a game to help our lower school students practice their mouse skills. Participants will discover all of the steps necessary to bring the project from an idea to an actual product that was played and tested by our first grade students, including feedback and iterative design strategies.	Cristy McCloskey, Sewickley Academy	11:00AM, Orange County Convention Center, Booth 2405
Become Makers: Don't Play Games, Make Them!	Teachers and students can make or augment games for learning classroom material. Learn why Alice programming was created and why it is supported by computer science professors at Duke, Stanford, Carnegie Melon, Georgia Tech and more.	Chari Distler, North Broward Preparatory School (Fla.)	12:00 noon, Orange County Convention Center, North 220E
Builders, Miners and Geeks: Why Minecrafters Need School IT	In this session, Scott, Mitchell, and Daniel will share their journey and introduce school IT leaders to several solutions that address common problems when using Minecraft for educational purposes at home and in school.	Scott Vrablik, Carmel Catholic High School (Ill.); Clean Minecraft Videos; Mitchell Brown, Carmel Catholic High School (Ill.); Clean Minecraft Videos; Daniel Rezac, Tynker & Quest Academy	12:00 noon, Orange County Convention Center, South 330H

Skoolbo Discussion

I had a very thought-provoking conversation with Colin Brown of Skoolbo last Friday.

Skoolbo is a free resource for teachers, parents, and kids worldwide that contains short learning games. They are used by over 50,000 schools (about 300,000 students ages 5-9) around the world with about half of all users coming from the US. There is a premium version for schools with enhanced ways of tracking student progress and assigning work to students.

The conversation centered around learning research an d a new partnership with ChuChu TV. If you haven’t heard of ChuChu TV, you really need to learn about them.

The Research

The Skoolbo platform responsibly (based on their student privacy and child safety policies) tracks student performance and activity, and makes the research available to researchers. Lamar University correlated the data with itegs (International Test of Early grade Skills) for Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the US. In these early grades, the US did surprisingly well, showing the greatest improvement in reading and numeracy skills in the lowest quartile of students, especially compared to the UK and New Zealand, which are both seeing increasing gaps between higher and lower performers. And, if you don’t look too closely at the number of countries included, you will be relieved to know the US never ranked lower than 6^th.

In general, top performers at age 5-6 are more advanced than lower (bottom 25%) performers of children three years older, ages 8-9. It would be interesting to find out if those gaps increase even further as the children grow up. Boys are about 3 months more advanced than girls in numeracy skills, while girls are about 3 months ahead of boys in reading skills. These trends go across all countries.

One surprising outcome was the incredible lead of Hong Kong in numeracy skills. Even at age 5.5, Hong Kong students are three grades ahead of students from the other countries. And these weren’t “privileged” Hong Kong students, the students were poor, with no Internet access at home and whose first language is Chinese. One big cultural difference is the importance of Math in the culture in Hong Kong; there is a firm belief that Math will take you anywhere, and that it’s simply not acceptable to be bad at Math, it would be as foreign as saying, “I am bad at breathing, so I won’t breathe.”

Colin said that Skoolbo is committed to making the data available free to researchers.

ChuChu TV

ChuChu TV runs Youtube channels of educational videos for children ages 0-6. Colin said that for the last 5 years, their prime channel has ranked in the top 20 of all Youtube channels, with about 500 million views a month, and is the number 1 preschool channel worldwide. SocialBlade currently rates them 21st (with 10.5 billion views), which is still nothing to sneeze at.

While I hadn’t heard of ChuChu before the conversation, I did check with relatives that have young children, and they used these videos with their kids.

ChuChu employs about 230 animators who churn out videos with musical educational content.

With their content free, ChuChu makes their money on Youtube ads.

What’s next?

Marshall McLuhan coined the terms “hot” and “cold” media in Understanding Media back in 1994. And while Youtube  is a 21^st century phenomenon, watching videos is still passive learning on cool media.

Colin is partnering with ChuChu to add learning content and analytics around the videos in a joint venture named Chu Chu School. Games, activities, curriculum, tracking, and reporting will be available in a school package in the next few months.

It will be very interesting, to watch this merger one of the most popular creators of children’s content and a widely used education games platform, to see if they can successfully use the mechanisms of Youtube tie-ins and freemium offerings to reach schools and parents and offer them subscriptions.

How to get EdTech Products into the hands of more students

A summary of the Education Business Forum

I have to congratulate co-chairs Robin Warner and Mitch Weisburgh (wait, that’s me, am I allowed to congratulate myself?) for putting together the best group of speakers ever at the SIIA’s Education Business Forum last week. This is the conference to learn about the business of running an education technology organization:

• how to finance growth and product development
• what are the emerging trends and technologies that have the potential to transform education
• how do you get your products into the hands of more students
• how to prepare for partnerships, mergers, exits, and acquisitions
• network and forge partnerships with successful EdTech investors and businesses

Here are some highlights.

Financing your Ed Tech idea

Before you have revenue or product, if you haven’t run and sold businesses before, you’ll need to bootstrap the business yourself or get money from friends and or family members. You can gain access to good resources and networking opportunities through incubators such as StartEd in NY or LearnLaunch in Boston. Grant financing up to $1 million is available through SBIR programs at the US Department of Education and the National Science Foundation, although the grants are very competitive.

Once you have customers, you still need to bootstrap until you reach around $100,000 to $200,000 in revenues, but at that level you can look for Angel Financing for rounds of $150,000 to $500,000. Angels generally invest locally, and being part of an incubator is a strong vote of confidence that influences angel investors.

Professional investors start getting interested when you have $500,000 or more in revenue and are looking to scale your idea with investments of $1M to $3M, and there are different levels of professional investors at even higher levels if you are in the $8M to $15M revenue range.

Tech Trends that Have Transformation Potential

IBM is one of the companies leading the charge in artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of things, block chain, eXtended Reality (XR, which subsumes both augmented reality and virtual reality), and game based learning. If you missed Phaedra Boinodiris’s talk on where these technologies are leading us to, what types of jobs they open up, how they are being used in education today, and how to partner with IBM to catch these waves, you missed it. Maybe consider coming to the next SIIA event, the Education Impact Symposium, in June.

Jussi Kajala of the Finnish company 3DBear and Lisa Castaneda of Foundry10 talked about studies on the use of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality applications in schools. These technologies help students visualize spatially, can be incredibly immersive, and provide students with experiences they might otherwise not have. And here’s a request from students, “Please don’t ruin XR when you bring it into schools.”

Career Readiness

The work environment is incredibly chaotic; this is what we are preparing students for. Companies are not looking to keep their employees for any length of time, and they are unwilling to invest in preparing them for the workfoce. Recruiting tech talent has become a zero sum game, each company is poaching talent from the next. Companies deploy recruiting systems to screen from thousands of potential applicants for jobs, looking for keywords that indicate experience while applicants are learning how to game the system. In the meantime, how are people supposed to get the experience when experience is an entry level requirement? College degrees are widely used as indicators of some level of competence even though they are very poor indicators of proficiency or ability. We are all starting to question the wisdom of frontloading 4 years of education before careers when that education does not truly train people for their jobs and when nearly everyone is going to need retooling a few times during their working career.

There are growing opportunities to help students visualize possible careers, learn hard and soft skills, intern and apprentice, and display competencies at secondary schools, postsecondary, and after.

How to get your product in front of more kids

Here are some of the concerns voiced by the people who make decisions about whether your products get in front of kids:

• Do you really know who my student is and how your product is going to help my student
• If you tell me your product is going to solve all my problems, I’m going to be skeptical
• What is the installation process like, I don’t want to do installations, I want something cloud based and scalable, but something that will work even if the network has problems.
• Are you going to save me time, money, or effort?
• Can the data be used by the dashboard I already use?
• It is mobile friendly?
• Is it WCAG 2.0 Compliant (and if you don’t even know what this mean, you’re out of the running)
• Are there independent people who can vouch for your product’s effectiveness, and can I talk to them?
• When things go wrong, how do you react and how will you support me?
• Who is using your product now, and can I talk to them?
• Why did customer who no longer use your product stop, and can I talk to them?
• How do I know you’ll be around in 5 years?
• Can I trust you?

Other Opportunities to Learn on Edchat Interactive

From Consumption to Creation: an online discussion this Tuesday on the changes in pedagogy as we switch from “listen and learn” to “do, make, and learn” with Monica Burns.

Let’s Make School Dangerously Relevant: exploring the role of schools, classes, and teachers in the shift from an industrial model to a global innovative one with Scott McLeod.

Slush 2017 Helsinki

I know I wasn’t the oldest person at Slush, because Al Gore was there and he’s 69 years old. But I was probably 35 years older than the median of the 20,000 tech heads from 130 countries attending the world’s largest startup event.

Some snippets of advice from some of the entrepreneurs and investors:

• You can’t change consumer behavior by persuading them, you have to give them an alternative that’s demonstrably better.
• It’s fantasy to expect masses of consumers (or customers) to switch to something more expensive.
• You’ve got to get your systems (production, marketing, sales, support) right in one market before you expand geographically. Avoid the VC trap; don’t expand too fast.
• You don’t make innovation spread. Innovation spreads, or it doesn’t.
• The only way to stay on top is to challenge and change what you are doing.
• You don’t build by focusing on what is going wrong, you expand from what is going right which also breeds excitement.
• The only way to secure data is not to gather it in the first place; the moment you start saving data, you are putting your customers and your company at risk.
• Storing your data under blockchain allows more choices for decentralization, mitigates risk, and reduces cost vs the traditional way of centralizing your data.
• The education system has to have both excellence AND equity, at scale. It's not neither, nor either, it has to have both.
• If teachers aren’t embracing the change (in education) you want to implement, the revolution collapses. And to do that, you have to trust teachers.

Will AI enhance our lives or obliterate the human race?

One series of talks were devoted to artificial intelligence and blockchain. The future belongs to decentralized (meaning blockchain) artificial intelligence. Current AI systems suffer from two missing ingredients: they can’t adapt to new situations without a great deal of human input (for example an AI system that can play the game of go cannot also drive a car), and they are not capable of rich models of objects and their interactions (for example, an AI system might be able to recognize faces, but it would not understand that the face was part of a human being and nor how to create a relationship with that person). It’s expected that the first gap will be solved in the next 3-5 years, which portends things like cars that under most circumstances will drive far better than humans, and the second in 15-20 years, which means machines may be able to learn to complete any task better than humans.

But don’t worry; 60% of AI experts say there is nothing to worry about, while only 40% maintain we are most likely on a collision course with destruction. Of course, speaking of experts, Ernest Rutherford, the founder of the atomic model, famously predicted that there would never be an atomic weapon, and that was just 12 hours before the first one was detonated. Would you get on a plane where only 40% of the experts were predicting it would crash?

Can we design a better person?

Another series of talks focused on human augmentation. Bionic devices are currently used primarily for disabled individuals. They can help people hear, walk, etc. Neuro technology (the interphase between neurons and devices) can work with bionic devices and provide feedback mechanisms. And gene editing already is used to alter crops and change animal cells to produce different chemicals (gene editing on pig cells growing in a lab enables those cells to produce human insulin). But these three technologies have even greater promise. Bionics will be able give people super human strength or other physical abilities (already most professional athletes get eye surgery in order to get vision twice as good as normal human vision). Neuro technology will soon allow brains to process faster, access more information, and control objects through thought. Gene editing will eliminate certain diseases while also offering the ability to create “designer children.”

Will we use human augmentation for the benefit of humanity, or will it further increase the gulf between the haves and the have nots? What do you think?

3DBear and TeacherGaming

Backing off these heavy thoughts a little, 3DBear reached top 10 startup status (out of 100 startup finalists) with Jussi Kajala’s riveting pitch startling the judges by crash landing a drone on the judges’ table. You can see at right how he used this to bring home the disruptive power of 3DBear to immerse kids in 3D design.

If you come to the SIIA Education Business Forum this week, or to FETC in late January, you’ll be able to meet Jussi and another Finnish EdTech star, Santeri Koivisto, whose TeacherGaming Desk is connecting curriculum and standard based lessons with popular video games to help teachers provide engaging lessons that promote deep learning.

Interesting online discussions on Edchat Interactive

And, please join us online in some exhilarating discussions:

• Shifting pedagogy from consumption to creation with Monica Burns
• Are your kids’ classes dangerously irrelevant with Scott McLeod

Just click on the links and register.

What do we want for our kids?

Does this sound like the types of citizens you want to cultivate in the next generation?

• Personal Responsibility: developing a sense of self-accountability in matters of finance, ethical and moral boundaries, personal health and fitness, and all relationships.
• Global Citizenship: able to communicate, collaborate, dialogue, and debate across all levels and regions of society
• Digital Citizenship: engage in appropriate and exemplary behavior in the online environment
• Altruistic Service: possess a healthy concern for the well-being of the people which whom we share our world and embrace the opportunity to exercise charity and goodwill for the benefit of others
• Environmental Stewardship: appreciate the beauty and majest that surrounds us every day and take responsibility and action on personal, local, regional, national, and international levels.

Yes or no? And how?

Whether we are parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, how?

What are the ways we can encourage students to maintain a sense of pride and accomplishment in themselves? To lean respect for the various traditions, values, faiths, beliefs, opinions, and practices of a global community? To become active in portraying themselves positively with their online persona? To add capacity for teaching and learning from others and understand the myriad ways in which we are connected? To develop habitually positive actions toward the environment and use what we have wisely

Each of us has our own perspectives on these issues, but together, we may be able to develop a consensus and plan of action.

So let’s talk.

Lee Watanabe-Crockette and Andrew Churches of Growing Digital Citizens are going to be leading a discussion on Edchat Interactive on Monday, November 20 at 8:00PM Eastern time (5:00PM Pacific time). Please join us and add your perspective, experience, and resources by registering here.

National Ed Tech Trends, from SETDA’s Leadership Summit

In education, we already have a wall, one that keeps education technology from unleashing student learning.

Education Technology Directors at the state level are working to eliminate the wall, both within their own states and cooperatively with other directors to share best practices across states. It’s at the SETDA (State Ed Tech Directors Association) Fall Leadership Summit where these issues get discussed.

TeacherGaming's Santeri Koivisto explaining to Ed Tech leaders from Minnesota and New Jersey how game-based learning motivates students to advance their skills and knowledge

There are 7 requirements to education technology effectiveness.

1. Applications and content that Ss and Ts want to use
2. Machines powerful plentiful enough
3. Bandwidth, to school, in school, to Ss
4. Assessment, reporting and feedback
5. Knowing how to use
6. Compliance: security, privacy, and equity
7. Non duplication, interoperability

If any one is missing, ed tech fails. This isn’t horseshoes, getting close doesn’t count. We reach our goal, or we don’t. Period.

Applications and content that students and teachers want to use

If the applications don’t make the teachers job easier, if they don’t engage students, the students aren’t going to learn. While ed tech may have started with primarily replicating what textbooks did, today’s best content facilitates students’ learning by doing.

Where are we? These is no shortage of good content, it’s just sometimes hard to find and hard to evaluate.

Machines powerful and plentiful enough

In the real world, we live on our devices every waking moment. We communicate on our devices. We research. We work. We plan. We create. When we don’t have enough devices for all kids, or when we provide kids with devices that less powerful than the phones we carry around, we place those kids at a distinct disadvantage.

Where are we? Fewer than 15% of students are in 1:1 environments. Most of that 15% are using relatively powerful devices. For the rest, too little access and often on underpowered devices.

Bandwidth, to school, in the school, and to the students

The computer is primarily a way for a student to access a network, and the network needs to follow the student, just like we all use our networks all the time. Five million families with kids don’t have Internet access, that’s between 20% and 30% of school age kids.

Even in classrooms, access to content is not guaranteed, with fewer than 20% of classrooms meeting current guidelines.

AND, FCC chairman Ajit Pai is proposing rules to further reduce Internet access for schools in two ways. Internet access is primarily funded through E-Rate, which comes out of the Universal Services fees we pay for phones. Pai is looking to reduce E-Rate funds in order to reduce the fees themselves and to reallocate funds to other, nonspecified, priorities. He has proposed reducing the guideline measures to something that most schools already have in order to make it appear that the country has met its connectivity goals for schools.

The $61M spent annually by telecom lobbyists probably has nothing to do with that, though, right?

Where are we? The vast majority of schools do not have adequate bandwidth, and large swaths of students do not have access outside of school. But if we lower our standards enough, we can meet the new goal.

Assessment, reporting, and feedback

Students need to know how they are doing. Teachers need to know how their students are doing. And schools and districts need to know whether their students are on target.

The right data has to be accumulated, and it must be reported back in a timely and understandable way so that the different parties can take appropriate action.

Where are we? Most state data is obsolete by the time it is reported back. Additionally, we are often measuring what’s easy, not what we need to know. And with all that, we are spending too much time testing.

Knowing how to use

Educators need to know how to operate the hardware, how to use the software, and how to integrate the content into instruction. One of the byproducts of the OER (Open Education Resources) movement is that it is freeing up money for districts to use to support teachers in learning new methods to teach using technology.

Where are we? We are just at the beginning, but making progress. Unfortunately, the teachers- ed colleges are tending to teach the same way they always have, so we aren’t even getting the next generation of teachers coming in prepared to teach the way we need them to.

Compliance

There are federal policies and guidelines (ADA) for to make sure content is accessible for all students and others so that student data is secure and private. But they are vague and open to interpretation.

Different states (16 in the last year alone) passed their own security and privacy acts. But translating those acts into district contracts is the job of each of the 15,000 districts in the US. Imagine the extra work and confusion this causes, when each district employs a law firm, not necessarily an expert in the uses of student data, drafts its own interpretation of those laws.

Connecticut calculated that 100,000 hours were spent last year negotiating student data privacy clauses alone.

Where are we? It’s a hodge podge of different policies at the district level, along with the inability of smaller districts to access the expertise to devise policies that protect and provide access.

Non-duplication of effort and interoperability

Students should be able to sign in once and get access to all their content instead of having to sign in to each application separately. Teachers should have their classes set up automatically rather than having to create class lists for each application. Students, teachers, administrators, and parents should be able to go to one place to see how students are progressing rather than having to look at reports, if they even exist, in each learning application.

Where are we? We certainly don’t have a shortage of standards. But none of those goals are consistently being achieved. There are a few districts that have shown leadership, like Houston, but nothing nationally.

What’s next?

We cannot count on national leadership, either from the US Department of Education or Congress. SETDA has established working groups and position papers on most of these issues. Probably our best hope is that SETDA can lead us to private-public partnerships for leadership at the state level and across states.

You can join in live online discussions of these issues at Edchat Interactive events.

The Power of Gaming: A Global Phenomenon

by guest blogger Ryan L. Schaaf

This article first appeared at http://blog.amplify.com/digitalgames/learning-through-gameplay-0

During sporadic times in my life, I would have labeled myself a gamer. I started with the classic Atari 2600 in the early 1980’s (no old jokes, please). As I developed through my adolescence, the video game industry continued to evolve. The Atari 2600 made way for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the NES made way for Sony’s PlayStation, the Playstation gave way to the Super Nintendo, then PC games, then the Xbox and so on.

Today, my children have access to a wide variety of game types on various platforms - access is quickly becoming less of a barrier for gameplay. Although my boys and I enjoy a wide variety of activities, we love to play games together. Games, both digital and non-digital, are an incredible draw for so many people.

Playing digital games is an immensely popular form of entertainment. Simple real-world observations will attest to gaming’s connection to our youth. Go to a restaurant such as Buffalo Wild Wings and the restaurant passes out tablets for its patrons’ children to use. And on each tablet (besides germs and BBQ sauce) are digital games ready to engage children in gameplay; allowing their parents to have a conversation that doesn’t involve Barney or the Teletubbies. This recurring pattern of turning over mobile devices to children is occurring everywhere. A quick scan at restaurants, in the backseat of cars, or in their own homes helps draw a simple, crystal-clear conclusion – our youth love to ingest media.

Seventy-two percent of children age 8 and under have used a mobile device for some type of media activity such as playing games, watching videos, or using apps -- Common Sense Media, 2013

These children, the members of the always-on generation, are growing up with hundreds of ways to consume and produce information using media.

The digital games of today are visually more appealing, contain better storylines, are developed using better technology, encourage both single and team gameplay, and are easier for new players to adopt than classic games from the past. Today’s digital games are products of an incredibly powerful and awe-inspiring market that have helped spawn “a gaming culture”.

The gaming industry is a booming and lucrative one. After all, there are between 1.75 to 2.1 billion people in the world that play games (Levin, 2016; McKane, 2016). Over the years, the number of new gamers adopting the pastime has steadily increased as more and more countries embrace new technologies. Market research firm Newzoo projected global revenue would reach over 128 billion dollars by the year 2020; an overall compound annual growth rate of 6.2%. The mobile gaming sector accounts for about 42% or 46.1 billion dollars of this revenue. (McDonald, 2017)

Source: Newzoo, 2017

If we focus specifically on the United States, then the data is quite compelling and convinces us that the old barriers and stigmas associated with gaming are rapidly disintegrating. First, 150 million or roughly about 59% of people in the United States spread over a vast variety of backgrounds, ages, genders, socioeconomic statuses play games.

About 65% of U.Sl households are home to at least one person who plays 3 or more hours of video games a week -- (ESA, 2015)

Next, the preconceived notion that a gamer is a teenage boy playing in a dark basement at night all alone is no longer accurate. It’s true that about 99% of teenage boys do play games at least weekly – that is a no-brainer for many of us to accept. However, the surprising statistic is that 94% of teenage girls also play games weekly. (Lenhart, Kahne, et al., 2008) Here’s a question to consider (No Googling) – What is the average age of a gamer in the United States? 10 years-old? 15 years-old? Maybe 20 or 25? All wrong – the answer is 35 years old. (ESA, 2015) So, more and more people; young and old, boy and girl, novice and expert are jumping into stories, sending game requests through social media, fighting foes, traveling through time, and finding hidden objects in an ever-expanding global culture.

A culture that is growing with no signs of slowing down.

SOURCES

• Common Sense Media. (2013). Zero to Eight: Children's Media Use in America 2013.
• ESA. (2015). 2015 Sales, demographics, and usage data: Essential facts about the computer and video game industry.
• Lenhart, A., Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., Macgill, A., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008). Teens, video games and civics. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
• Levin, M. (2017, May 15). Yes, 'Call of Duty Flu' Is a real thing. Here's what to do about it. Inc.
• McDonald, E. (2017, April 20). The global games market will reach $108.9 billion in 2017 with mobile taking 42%. Newzoo.
• The global games market reaches $99.6 billion in 2016, Mobile generating 37%. (2016, April 21). Newzoo.
• There are 1.8 billion gamers in the world, and PC gaming dominates the market. (2016, April 26). MyGaming.

What I learned at the Edchannels Conference/EdTech Investor Summit

Martin Keck of Needham talked about 9 trends that most influence EdTech investors:

1. The rise of the Private Equity firms, who see good potential returns in the education market, but whose entry also means increased focus on profits and cash flow, and probably lower valuations for mergers and acquisitions.
2. Increased usage of digital materials in K12 means predictable annual revenues.
3. Coding Bootcamps had their initial hype and consequent crash, but seem to be growing at a sustainable growth based on market needs.
4. Private Equity firms are pooling together groups of companies, expecting that synergies in operations, sales, and marketing will give them increased clout, growth, and profitability.
5. The marriage of content, data, and interactivity heralds success for content that is more engaging and personalized with learning analytics.
6. In Higher Ed, students are looking for a financial return on their time, money, and effort, so schools that can tie their programs to employability will increasingly win over traditional colleges and universities.
7. The International market is larger than the US market
8. Analytics and the ease of collecting and reporting on data are increasingly a factor in the buying decision for content and systems.
9. Schools and programs that that collaborate with employers could be a tsunami of success.

Angela Nelson of Stages Learning talked about the different ways of getting products into schools: direct sales through a dedicated sales force, indirect sales with independent reps or resellers, catalog and web-catalog companies, Educational Service Agencies and School Consortia, Company Websites, Short term trials or pilots, platforms or online marketplaces, freemium offers, and open education resource platforms. But also pointed out that none of them are foolproof and no one seems completely satisfied with any of the channels.  Guess that’s why EdTech companies consult with me.

Sean Cavanagh of Education Week talked about trends in the demands of EdTech purchasers:

• Demand for cloud computing is rising
• Internet connectivity is improving, but it’s still not close to ideal
• Districts are demanding more transparent pricing
• Most state education budgets are s-l-o-w-l-y improving
• Districts have some more flexibility in ESSA, but no new federal money
• Educators are still struggling to integrate tech to improve instruction and need help
• Personalized learning is a goal, but the just is out on how effectively it’s being deployed
• Changing populations, demographics, and psychographics are changing demands from districts

Why Game-Based Learning is so Hard for Schools

The following is excerpted from Gerhard Molin’s The Role of the Teacher in Game-Based Learning: A Review and Outlook in the book Serious Games and Edutainment Applications Volume II.

After the student, the teacher is the greatest (school) influence on student learning performance. We know this from John Hattie’s work on Visible Learning reviewing thousands of studies.

Even as long ago as 1938, we knew that a key role of the teacher is to “provoke the mind of children by asking questions” (John Dewey). And today, we know that effective teachers are able to challenge their students’ knowledge and show them a way to find pleasure in learning (Ken Bain).

However, in much game-based learning, teachers are held back because they have:

• Limited time to prepare, play, and connect knowledge acquired in the game to academic and real world knowledge
• High costs of some games
• Limited knowledge of digital games, and lack of confidence in using the game
• Difficulties in identifying appropriate games and assessments that fit the curriculum
• Poor technical infrastructure and insufficient resources

Games run somewhat counter to a traditional classroom scenario. Schools traditionally mold teachers to the tasks of instructing, assessing, critiquing, assigning, controlling, and assigning; and students to be the receivers of these actions. Games invoke a sense of play and adventure. In game-based learning, the teacher must fit the game into the curriculum, classroom environment, and school technology while also connect to the playful world promoted by the game.

This results in common disruptions of games which affect both student engagement and learning.

• When the teacher brings the students out of their “game role” into a “pupil role” in order to instruct, it disrupts the game and can also lead to confusion.
• Students are often demotivated when they are assigned to participate in games that their teachers don’t do themselves; it indirectly signals disinterest on the part of the teacher which can result in disengagement by the students.
• Teachers may not have the time to become proficient in taking on the roles of technical administrator and game administrator, nor on designing pre- and post- activities to transfer knowledge from the game to topics the students need to learn.
• When things don’t go according to plan (well this never happens, right?), the teachers often do not have the time, game skills, or coaching skills to keep students playing and learning.

Most teachers’ job satisfaction derives from their interaction with students and the feeling that they are having a positive influence on their students’ development. These disruptions can not only affect student engagement and learning, they can demotivate the teachers.

Thus, if we ever expect game-based learning to thrive, we have to find a way to support teachers’ professional identity, sense of purpose, and agency by providing the tools and skills so that they can be active and self-creating subjects even within novel contexts.

And like any person, facing uncertainty and possible multiple potential points of failure, teachers will often revert to the familiar: lecture, readings, and questions.

How do we do this?

• Part of it is cultural. When the school culture is one of participation, obstacles are just additional learning opportunities.
• Just as we scaffold learning in students, we can scaffold game use in classes. Organizations such as TeacherGaming and Filament Games have game-based learning templates that ease teachers into learning situations.
• We can provide teachers with coaching and support, such as the ISTE Games and Simulations Network and the edWEb Game-Based Learning community.
• And we can provide guides such as Ryan Schaaf’s Game On: Using Digital Games to Transform Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, and Matt Farber’s Gamify Your Classroom: A Field Guide to Game-Based Learning.

We know that teaching capacity develops with practice over time. So ultimately, it's going to take time, and we have to provide teachers with the time to play and learn.