Mathalicious.com seems like a nice site. Integrated math skills tied to real world objects. I’m not entirely sure that they are real world problems, partially because I am not willing to actually pay to look at the material and partially because after reading the post I am not interested enough to dig into the samples.

What am I talking about? They went on a little rant about Kahn Academy. You can find the post here. I am going to do a video going through the post step by step, mainly  because whenever I start re-reading it I find myself inexplicably on a Soap Box of my own. The comment section after the article is well represented and most of what I want to say is represented with varying degrees of effectiveness.

However, I do need to touch on a couple things. I am sure I’ll go over them again in the video (which I’ll repost here after I get it done).

I want to frame this as an ESL issue though. In ESL/SLA classrooms there is slow movement towards more integrated and project based learning, but here in Japan there is still a majority who doesn’t really understand project or task based work. They are stuck in the comfort of the low level rote memorization. So with that in mind, on to the post.

The author(s) (it’s a little unclear and there is no byline), contend that Kahn Academy is not a revolution in education and in fact it is dangerous. Here is the hard part, I agree with the first half. Kahn Academy (KA), while interesting, is not a revolution in education. It is a very well implemented evolution in the delivery of education.

The post opens with a reference to a Raytheon report that states that 61% of middle school students would rather take out the garbage than do their math homework. What surprises me about this finding is that it is only 61%. It seems like it should be a much higher number, and perhaps if it looked at all homework, it would be higher. Either way, it is not quite possible to say what the cause of this result is from. There are a number of factors other than the desirability of math homework that could explain this. But it is a very pretty strawman that just feels right. That will be a phrase that I am pretty sure I will unfortunately have to revisit several times throughout this response. At the end of this section the author says that KA is just doing exactly the same thing that classroom teachers have been doing for years and have been rejected by students. To that I respond, sort of… While some (or many) of the KA vids are re-worked classroom lectures, the fact that students can access them at home, while doing the homework, or anytime they have an internet connection and a device to play the videos is a HUGE change. One that mathalicious also leverages.

In Japan, students and teachers are still pretty much unaware of KA and have NO access to lectures after school hours. The fact that the KA lectures can be played, re-played and re-played again, at the student’s home or on the student’s phone is not something that can be glossed over. That is what make KA a revolution in some eyes and and evolution in others.

The next section is where the authors really show what their complaint is. Bill Gates gave KA a huge grant. The authors are upset that KA used this to hire systems engineers and computer specialists. First, if you want to build a robust system that doesn’t break when more than 300 people try to use it at the same time, making sure you have good infrastructure people is an excellent start. So, really, what I read is that mathalicious is upset because they didn’t get any of the money or notoriety.

They go on to cite (sort of, they never actually say where the quotes come from) Erlwanger sometime in 1973 railing against Individually Prescribed Instruction (IPI) and programmed instruction. Well, without being able to figure out what the rest of the context for that quote is, it is challenging to figure out what Erlwanger is on about. When you look at the computer programming and ability to deliver adaptive instruction in the early 1970′s, it is hard to argue against (the assumed theory) that IPI would be a mass produced set of instruction aimed at the lowest common denominator. Yep, that would not be ideal. But even today, how many classrooms in the US fit that description. A teacher (doing their best) teaching the steps to the slowest student in the room. Yes, I know, that is not every classroom but it is what most people remember about their own education. In Japan, this is the standard. The classes move through the grades together and while the bright students may be given extra work, the classroom is paced at the slowest student there. This is where the high school rankings and high school entrance exams come in to play. The high school entrance exams are one way that the schools try to make sure the students coming in have a minimum level. Yes, even public high schools have an entrance exam. If you don’t pass the exam, you don’t go to high school.

At the end of that section, the author states, “the best way for students to learn math is to work closely with a teacher trained in pedagogy and supported by an effective curriculum.” Well, yeah, or for the student to have one on one lessons with that highly trained and well paid teacher every day. But that really isn’t how the US educational system (or really any national educational system) is set up. If you have the money, you can have a personal tutor.

The next section, entitled “This Time it’s Different”, seems to be a mix of educators’ fears and a hidden layer of good points. The author laments that KA will replace classroom math instruction due to “exponential growth + budget cuts”. That seems unlikely. If your child’s school cuts math ed. and says KA will now run the entire math education for the school, get the principal and the school board fired. I cannot imagine a situation where that would happen, but it is a very pretty strawman, and it even has fangs!!

So, to channel Jeff Jarvis for a moment… Gutenberg. The whole movable type thing had a similar effect. The Church was horrified that anyone other than them could write a book for publication. Scholars lamented the end of education because libraries collected works all into a single location and how easy was that. Textbooks weakened the students’ minds by not forcing them to write down every word the teacher spoke. The internet will ruin education. Google will prevent students from knowing basic information. Filter bubble. All of my chips are on this shiny new toy. Robot zombies from hell…. ah got carried away there, but you see the point.

Good Enough is Good Enough… or Mathalicious channels the recording and tv industries in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and the Church from somewhere in the Middle Ages. Ever heard of Just-In-Time training? The authors are upset because KA gives students “what they want, when they want it.” And goes on to pout that it is not what they need. Or, um, what they think students need. And that leads on to the actual problem for mathalicious. KA is free. The authors are going through the exact same arguments that the media companies have been struggling with for the past 20 years. It all comes down to “I don’t wanna compete with free.”  Too bad. That is the way the world is now.

“KA will make it difficult for something better to come along.” Nope. But sometimes society doesn’t choose the best one. See the VHS vs. BetaMax battle. Or, how about this, Facebook will make it difficult for a new social media platform to come along. Talk to G+. This is a very very pretty strawman. Let me restate mathalicious’ argument… I don’t wanna compete with KA, I don’t like KA’s pedagogy (even though it is pretty similar to what happens in the classroom everyday).  Mathalicious will never be able to charge what we are charging because KA is free and freely available.  Or at least that is what I see when I read it.

There are issues about our educational system that need to be solved. Almost everyone agrees we need to be doing better at every level from elementary to the doctorate. KA stepped up and took a shot. They took a swing and connected in a more solid way than pretty much anything in education has since Dewey. But whining about competition isn’t the answer.

Mathalicious, if you are better than KA step up and take that swing. Make it count and find some grants and sponsors. Make your projects free so that we can see why your way is better rather than crying a river about why KA is terrible and unfair. But if you are going to pull out ivory tower excuses and old media complaints, it is time for you to fold up shop. I hear much the same things from teachers across the country here in Japan as well. That isn’t the way we did it. Well, those days are gone and they are not coming back.

I for one, wish you luck. Online education is where we are going. Worldwide.

I have a paper in for consideration for it. I’ll find out if it will be accepted in a couple of weeks.

Here is the link to the site.

Either way, I am interested in seeing James Paul Gee.

It looks like a fair chunk of his work will be a basis for my dissertation.

UPDATE: The proposal was accepted.  Time to start putting the paper together. It’s only twenty minutes so I’ll have to be a bit more succinct than usual. Hahaha, like that’ll happen. See ya all there!

Reading through the comments it seems like there are a few misconceptions about publishing Journal articles that people might not know. I have never met anyone who got paid by an academic journal to publish. (If those people exist, I’d like to meet them, or at least talk to them.) Academics must sign away their copyright to the journal if they want it to be included. I will never get the rights to any of my papers back and technically, I cannot copy them for my classes (or friends classes) without violating copyright laws. I was not paid for the publications. I just got an extra line on my CV.

Here’s what is pretty widely known.

Circles: a granularized twitter. more control than the facebook wall. Looks very interesting and lends itself to setting up students in classes. This has the potential to be the most used aspects for ed.

Hangouts: video chat and conferencing. The next best this to having office hours/meetings in person. I am hoping and wishing I can convince the powers that be to hold faculty meetings this way. Office hours are a given. Possibly a good way to get students into class via distance. We’ll see after I’ve played with it a bit more.

I imagine that the rest of google services are coming. I expect to see calander, docs et al. to make an appearance as well.

The semester is finally winding down and the students are all in a panic about finals and final projects. Teachers on the other hand are furiously grading work in an attempt to have all of the grades finished and ready to turn in on the last day of classes. No one really wants to be tied down once the class work is over. For me the end of the semester is generally spent listening to several hours of student generated audio and reading through some original short stories by my writing class.

I am hoping that I can convince a couple of students to allow me to publish their audio. There are a few that stand out and if you are interested in Japan, I think you’ll like them. We’ll see. They have to volunteer and there is little I am allowed to do to coerce them

With the summer here/coming up I have a few things on my plate. I am going to try to get my dissertation work all proposalated and the study run. I am going to try to get one more paper together for publication. I am going to try to get my youtube channel back up and going, as well as get the ol’ podcast renewed so we can make it to 100. And, if I can get 30 minutes together all at the same time, a vacation would be nice. That last one isn’t really likely though.

I have a series of rants about Education in Japan that I am in the process of combing through and hope to have those come out in August. I am slowly working through some of the parts over on twitter, so if you are interested, you may want to follow me

On the upside, the “book”/”pamphlet” is done, approved and should be appearing shortly on amazon. I am thrilled that it worked and can say that without createspace.com it wouldn’t have happened. They are awesome. Now that said. I do not recommend buying the ”book”/”pamphlet” at all. It is a re-purposed paper on the ADDIE model and I’d feel a little guilty about taking your $10. (Even though I only get about a quarter of that.) Ok, so I’d feel a little guilty, but I would get over it. But remember, I warned you. It’s really really thin. Ohhh, maybe I should do an audio book…. any thoughts?

Alright. Stuff to finish, so I’ll catch you soon. with an actual article.

Oh, Huge thanks to Olga for pointing out that I haven’t updated since the earthquake. I believe I may still have a refrigerator magnet around somewhere…. I’ll catch you over there.

You all stay out of trouble,

S

Osaka by Stefan from flickr. Creative Commons by-sa.

I had felt the original quake while at home in Osaka and posted that up on twitter, then went looking around for mor info on what was going on. Then, every ten minutes, things got worse. And worse. And it wouldn’t stop. I was stuck on Twitter, Al Jazeera English, and NHK watching the horrible devastation with that helpless feeling that lingers in your stomach. I was able to get messages out to friends and family, and they appreciated that. But I was pretty much useless for most of the rest of the day.

I have been watching schools and organizations finally start to climb back and start communicating again to the outside world. But people in the area still need help and will continue to need support for quite some time.

This link will take you to the page that Google set up for relief and you can donate directly to the Japan Red Cross Society, Unicef, and Save the Children.

http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

You can also donate direct through iTunes.

For those in the US, I have heard you can text REDCROSS to give a $10 donation.

Do what you can to help those hit in Japan and also those in other parts of the world hit by recent disasters like Christchurch and Haiti.

Thank you

Scott

The big draw for 4.3 in most places is the addition of the Personal Wireless Hotspot. I was kind of excited about this one myself, but I kept remembering a tweet by Son-san. No tethering via SoftBank. Forget about it. Hmm, I wonder if we should drop the unlimited data too…  Ok, those are paraphrases, but the idea is correct. And 4.3 in Japan via SoftBank does not include the hotspot. I am looking around on the web to see if I can find any mention of it on any of the blogs, but no luck so far.

While it would be really nice to have a built in hotspot, at least there are some options available. There are at least 3 other viable alternatives at eMobile, DoCoMo and SoftBank themselves. I was just hoping to not have to come out of pocket even more for something that could already be on my phone.

Maybe KDDI/AU will get the iPhone/iPad  and we can get a little competition to move the bars a bit.

Anyway, I saw that Seth Godin had a new book out called, Poke the Box. At 2 hours, I was not sure I wanted to spend a credit on it, but I really liked Tribes and the leadership ideas. So I threw caution and a credit to the wind, picked it up and went for a two hour walk. I had listened to Tribes on audio as well and liked it, so I had high hopes.

And… was not disappointed. However, a word of caution to those who have listened/read to Seth before. You should already know this stuff. Rather than a revolution, it is the next step in the evolution from tribes. Tribes said Be a Leader. Do your own thing and show others what you are doing. Well, this book is the unsaid portion. Do stuff and ship it. In many ways it reminded me quite a bit of Ze Frank’s description of Brain Crack. Those ideas that get in your brain that the brain doesn’t want to let go of for fear of failing. Those projects and ideas that sound great but you are afraid to let them go because you are worried about failing.
Ze’s thought is that you have to get that idea out into the world. Seth agrees. And both of them agree that you will fail more often than you succeed, but that it a good thing. Nothing wrong with failing, at least you gave it a shot.
Hmmm, Sounds a lot like ESL. Or any language learning. You’ll make mistakes, but the idea is that the more mistakes you get out of the way, the better off you will be in the long run.
1. Don’t worry, Try.
2. If you fail, see 1.
3. If you succeed, pick a new project and goto 1.
S

There has been a pretty large amount of spam fighting going on in the background lately and there really isn’t any reason to mess with it to the degree I have been.

So, as of today I have turned off registration. But you can still post comments via disqus and I am looking into a facebook login solution. The changes are coming soon, but I’ll have a couple other papers to finish before all is complete

Scott

Click here to view the embedded video.

So this talk is a TEDx event from Philly, and he eventually focuses on education. The idea of individualized education has been around for no less than 100 years. But it seems like we are on the verge of being able to actually put a methodology in place, easily… well, easier.

Take 15 minutes, check it out and let me know what you think.
S