David Grebow KnowledgeStar

Me-pod, You-pod, Everybody iPod

Posted on November 3, 2011 by David Grebow

It used to take years and now it seems that as soon as I write a blog post about what might happen I read an article or hear a story a few weeks later and it IS happening. The pace of change has surely changed! Here’s another example:

Are iPads on their way to replacing computers in K-12 schools? It sure looks that way. A recent survey of district tech directors found that all were testing or deploying tablet devices—and they expect them to outnumber computers by 2016.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster questioned 25 educational IT directors at a conference on the integration of technology in the classroom, and his small survey, “Tablets in the Classroom,” reveals that all were using Apple’s iPad in schools, while none were testing or deploying Android-based tablets.

Munster explained that the trend in education may be due to a familiarity with Apple devices among students and school employees.

The IT directors polled indicated that within the next five years, they expect to have more tablets per student than they currently have computers. Since iPads represent most of the tablets seen in schools, Munster said the word “tablet” is basically synonymous with “iPad.”

“Within the next five years, our respondents expect to have more tablets per student than they currently have computers” Munster said. The school districts represented in the poll have about 10 students per computer, but in the next five years, IT directors for school districts say they expect it to drop to about six students per iPad. Devices like the iPad are preferred over computers in the classroom because they provide more individualized learning than a traditional computer.

Earlier this year, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook indicated that demand for the iPad is strong among education customers. In February, Georgia Senate President pro tem Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) proposed a plan to replace conventional textbooks in middle schools with the iPad. Williams met with Apple to discuss a plan to make the iPad a central component in the state’s education system.

“[Apple] has a really promising program where they come in and their recommending to middle schools—for $500 per child per year, they will furnish every child with an iPad, wifi the system, provide all the books on the system, all the upgrades, all the teacher training—and the results they’re getting from these kids is phenomenal,” Williams said at the time. “We’re currently spending about $40 million a year on books. And they last about seven years. We have books that don’t even have 9/11. This is the way kids are learning, and we need to be willing to move in that direction.”

This article originally appeared in the newsletter Extra Helping. Go here to subscribe.

Books with Soundtracks?!

Posted on October 12, 2011 by David Grebow

I am always looking for new and potentially useful technologies that I might transfer to improve the learning experience. Here’s another I found today. Soundtracks for books …

The questions, to which books or textbooks would you add a soundtrack to enhance the learning experience and further enable the learning process?

Since I’ve never had a soundtrack added to a book, I’m starting to wonder if I supply my own. Listening to a soundtracks book starts to feel like a ken Burns documentary. Personally I think that’s a good thing.

Before the talkies, theater owners found that adding live music to the silent films added a giant dimension to the experience of watching the movie. More cues. Think of the scene in Jaws at the buoy when the shark attacks the swimmer. Or the musical communication between the humans and the aliens at the end of Close Encounters. Soundtracks enhance movies and have become an inextricable part of the experience.

Would a soundtrack do the same for a book or textbook that was used as part of the learning experience? Is this the next logical step in the world of digital publishing? You heard it here first …

So here’s the challenge: What book or textbook do you think

would be greatly enhanced by the addition of a soundtrack?

Read on for the details …

Booktrack matches synchronized music, sound effects and ambient sound to the text of e-books in a way that’s automatically paced to the reading speed of the user.

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Filmmakers have long been aware of the power of sound to enhance a story, but now a New York-based startup aims to bring a similar experience to e-books. Booktrack matches synchronized music, sound effects and ambient sound to the text of e-books in a way that’s automatically paced to the reading speed of the user.

Working in collaboration with Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Park Road Post and Full Fathom Five, Booktrack offers users a new way to experience the stories they’re reading. Readers begin by downloading the Booktrack edition of the book they want to read from Apple’s App Store. Pricing ranges from free to USD 4, depending on the title. Booktrack e-books can currently be enjoyed on iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, but versions for Android and other devices are coming soon, Booktrack says. Either way, as the reader progresses through the story, the soundtrack keeps pace, with the ability to pause and resume whenever needed. Separately controlled music, sound effects and ambient soundtracks, meanwhile, can be turned off, lowered or raised individually, depending on the reader’s personal preference. The video below demonstrates Booktrack in action:

If you’re interested in more. check out Push Pop Press and its efforts to bring multitouch capabilities to digital books; now, Booktrack’s focus on sound is equally compelling.

Publishers around the globe: you’d better be paying attention!

Website: www.booktrack.com
Contact: info@booktrack.com

iEducation

Posted on October 7, 2011 by David Grebow

Apple’s iPad Officially Passes the Higher Education Test

Note to Reader: I was working on this when I heard that Steve Jobs died. This is not directly about him since I have no words, just an empty space, a sort of hole in the universe … it’s about Steve Jobs and Apple and all the unknowable and uncountable ways in which they changed life on Earth. This is but one more …

Reed College finds that the iPad excels under the same conditions in which the Amazon Kindle failed a year earlier.

Apple’s iPad received glowing marks for its performance in college classrooms from the eagerly anticipated Reed College evaluation, according to a new report shared with Fast Company. The iPad’s smooth interface kept up with the lighting-quick pace of college lectures, helping it to overcome the very same gauntlet that killed the Kindle’s hope of education dominance a year earlier. Most importantly, the report predicts an explosion of opportunity for both Apple software developers and tablet competitors.

After extensive student interviews throughout the Fall 2010 semester, “The bottom line feeling was that the Amazon Kindle DX was not adequate for use in a higher education curricular setting,” Chief Technology Officer Martin Ringle tells Fast Company. “The bottom line for the iPad was exactly the opposite.”

The most impressive iPad feature was also the simplest: a smooth scrolling touchscreen. “The quick response time of the touch screen was highly praised and seemed to be extremely beneficial in class discussions because it allowed students to navigate rapidly between texts to reach specific passages,” notes the report. In contrast, the Kindle’s joystick navigation was exceedingly slow , and “the delay broke into the natural rhythm of the discussion and therefore was unacceptable,” says Ringle.

The silver-medal feature, with only a few strikes against its score, was the highlighting and annotation of text. With the exception of scanned PDF files, the students found “highlighting was easier on the iPad than on paper;” annotation was found to be adequate, but not quite as good as paper. This was a pleasant discovery for Ringle, since the Kindle’s highlighting “capabilities were so meager” that students ditched the device and begin to “print out all of the materials on paper.”

In a surprising twist, the iPad’s notoriously cumbersome application switching was too slow for recreational web surfing during class, but still quick enough for Internet research, leaving students more attentive than with a laptop. However, as devices become more sophisticated, this vacation from the distracted classroom will likely be short lived.

Apple’s new favorite child is not without its flaws. The virtual keyboard is a pain for composing anything beyond short notes. The nonexistent file system makes finding important documents difficult and sharing across applications nearly impossible. Finally, managing a large number of readings in PDF format becomes a major time-suck. Syncing PDFs via iTunes was found to be “needlessly complicated,” emailing marked-up versions back to oneself was “prohibitively time-consuming,” and even the cloud-based storage, Dropbox, “failed to work seamlessly with PDF reading/annotating applications.”

Glitches aside, the students enthusiastically developed a symbiotic relationship with the tablet, using it for much, if not all, of their courses and study time. Ultimately, Reed’s stamp of approval simply demonstrates that tablets do not leave students worse off. The more exciting possibilities, such as interactive textbooks, social network integration, and field data collection, will likely become a reality in the very near future.

Unlike the Kindle, some schools did not bother waiting the device to be thoroughly tested; iPad mania overwhelmed higher education’s traditional wait-and-see culture of intellectual restraint. New York City schools recently ordered 2,000 devices (for a cool $1.3 million), Stanford Medical School requires it for first year students, and Pinnacle Peak Elementary in Arizona enshrined Apple with a digital lab of 39 iPads. Now, with Reed’s data to back up the hype, cautious bystanders will have all the more reason to hop on the bandwagon.

Perhaps the most impactful discovery was that none of the iPad’s strengths are unique to Apple. According to the report, “the new wave of Android-based tablets seems likely to provide an appealing alternative that will result in the coexistence of at least two competing tablet operating systems.” Additionally, since none of the available applications completely satisfied classroom needs, the field is wide open for developers to claim prime real estate in this very lucrative new market. And, if the tales of Facebook and Google are any indication, the new champions of education might not be a McGraw-Hill or Blackboard, but a couple of intrepid tinkerers toying around with their new tablet.

Thank you Steve and my heartfelt support for his family during this very very hardest of times

Create a Soundtrack that Captures What You Learned in 2011 So Far

Posted on September 28, 2011 by David Grebow

I’m working on mine and looking forward to yours. Mine includes the following sounds:

New Years Cheers
Wine corks pulling and popping
Kids yelling
Gunshots
Rachel Maddow
Lots of NPR bits

… and MUCH more.

Let’s literally HEAR from you!

My Latest Learning Obsession

Posted on September 28, 2011 by David Grebow

I’m at the point where I’m beginning to think that we’ve come full circle. 350 years ago, before “education” became formal and public, we had spent hundred’s of thousands years learning stuff. We sat around fires and listened to stories. The best place at the fire was kept for the Shaman who was usually the storyteller. It was social. It went on all your life. It was all about continuous learning.

We moved to an apprentice model. Apprentices learned by watching, asking, making mistakes, and just doing. Their learning was a continuous experience from the day they started until the day they died. Experience did prove to be their best teacher.

So we move from that and more to the formal class and public schooling, corporate training events and then (drum roll please) informal, blended, social, virtual, simulated, digital games and … Did I miss anything?

Seems to me that, when you put it all back together, we’re back to the Continuous Learning Experience. So that’s what I’m going to focus on.

Are we back at the Continuous Learning Experience?
How do you disable the Continuous Learning Experience?
How do you enable the Continuous Learning Experience?
What does a Continuous Learning Experience design look like?
What does a Continuous Learning “Teacher” “Instructor” “Facilitator” do?
What are students expected to do during a Continuous Learning Experience?
Does it work?
Is it worth doing?
Can you measure the ROI?

… and more.

I want to hear from you since this blog gets between 3,000 and 12,000 hits per blog. What do you think?

How-To Learn by Trial and Error

Posted on July 19, 2011 by David Grebow

This post should not need to be written …

Everytime, and I mean every time, you learn to do anything, you have done so by trial and error. Genius short circuits the process. Talent gets it quicker, but the process of learning is the same. Trial. and. error.

The latest findings from the neurosciences show that the brain aggregates memory and builds trial and error into the way to do something. Seems like the trial and error cells are held back while the successful trial and no error cells are moved to the front of the line. Then the old trial and error cells get recycled.

There are a number of things that either enable or disable this process.

Anxiety can work to help if it is aimed at the thing you are trying to do instead of at you focused on yourself failing. “I just can’t do this!” is anxiety talking, and disabling the trial and error process (hereinafter known as T&E). Someone outside your self talk can override your negative emotion with an enabling “Yes you can do it!” if they are an authority figure.

Which brings me to elbows in the mud at Boot Camp. Sargent Major SCREAMING “Whatisyourproblemgetourasupthatwallandoverthe toporIwillpersonallykickyour butttheremyself!!!” That is not a positive override, yet it sure as hell enables your body to get up and over the wall. How does that work?

Seems like the brain has a stronger need to win approval from authority figures than fail. So we do it for the Sarge. Or the Teacher. The Boy or Girl Friend. Or our Moms. Or Dads. Or our kids…

Or whomever we want to impress.

Regardless it’s T&E, the only way to effectively learn and the one way that is most overlooked by the industry from K – Corporate who purports to educate. The problem seems to be the E. You need to not fail. So no T&E only Just Do It. Nothing succeeds like success. [Add your own …].

It makes me crazy, not only because it disables the T&E process from Pre-K onward, it disables the process for all time. So we have a nation of people who no longer TRY because they are afraid to make an ERROR and FAIL. So we have a culture, a whole country of people who, for the most part, do not innovate, create, disrupt, do anything new and go from “Trial and Error” to “Tried and True”.

You want to learn or do something new and different and maybe better, faster and richer? Fail you ass off and count your errors as a plus rather than a minus.

Quick story to make a point. Thomas Edison was interviewed after he got the first light bulb to work (i.e. stay lit for more than a minute) and was asked “How did you manage to keep trying since you tried and failed over 1,000 times to get it right?”. He told the reporter “Those 1,000 times it didn’t work were all lessons that got me that much closer to the one that works.”

Now that’s T&E X 1,000. When it comes to learning, perseverance and persistence count …

7 Ways to Increase Your BrainPower

Posted on July 11, 2011 by David Grebow

Sean McCool (yes that’s his real name) from AWAI had a number – 7 actually – tips for improving your BrainPower. I’ve been adding all 7 into my routine and find they REALLY do help make me a better, more productive thinker. So I’m passing them on …

1. Engage Yourself in Regular Exercise … 7-10 minutes

Do simple exercises like Dr. Oz’s seven-minute yoga routine. Or try five 40-yard sprints followed by some deep stretching. Either way, you’ll need less than 10 minutes.

Exercise triggers the release of neurochemicals known as endorphins, which produce a feeling of well-being. And this puts you in a better state of mind to think, plan, develop, deliver, whatever.

I use NPR as my reward. I listen to it while I’m doing AT LEAST 30 minutes at 2+ MPH on the treadmill in my office.

2. Supplement Your Diet … less than 1 minute

Natural supplements not only keep your body healthier, they also maintain the fitness of your brain. This results in better brainpower! You can start with a good multivitamin and then add in brain-boosting nutrients like Ginkgo biloba, and anything high in omega-3 is a great place to start. For more, just Google brain-boosting supplements.

This is an easy addition to your daily routine that takes less than a minute. It can go a long way to increased energy and clearer thinking.

Yes. Especially a multivitamin that has Ginko first thing in the morning with breakfast. With breakfast is an important add to the list. Eat a protein in the AM with a carbohydrate and then add vegetables and fruit for lunch with another small protein and finally no fruit after 4 PM and mainly vegetables in the evening. Add in 2 snacks of protein (I like peanut button on apple slices) in between and remember to drink LOTS of good water.

3. Use Your Brain … up to an hour

If you exercise your body, you should exercise your brain as well. Don’t just sit in front of the TV in your free time. Get out and have stimulating conversations. Take a night or online class in a subject you find interesting. Take up a hobby that uses a different part of the brain than writing, like woodworking, painting, or learning to play an instrument.

Better yet, combine your body and mind exercise with sports like tennis, basketball, or martial arts.

I’m a third degree black belt in karate … not. Okay so I do watch some TV, but I also spend my evenings reading, writing emails, checking websites that interest me (especially the neurosciences and how the brain learns).

4. Play Games … replace waiting time, TV time, or lingering on social media

Ever sit around waiting … for a kid to get out of school … in a waiting room … for your husband/wife/kids as they get ready to go out? Have you killed time watching TV or surfing mindlessly on Facebook?

Try to use some of that wasted time for mentally stimulating games. You can find brainteaser apps for your smartphone. Or try a good old-fashioned puzzle. Play the right games and you can increase your brain power.

We have a Wii and I am a great bowler-golfer-tennis pro. So there … plus I occasionally play online Texas Hold’em (does that count?).

5. Enjoy an Educational Hobby … an hour here and there

Choose a hobby that forces you to always be learning and improving your skills. Avoid monotonous activities. Photography is a good example of a brain-stimulating hobby as there are always new tricks and techniques to figure out. (As an added bonus, you could even supplement your income once you know a few photography tricks found here.)

I garden, which feeds my brain and body and adds a certain amount of exercise as well! It’s the perfect trifecta of BrainPowering.

6. Sleep Well … 6-8 hours

Sleeping is the time when your body rebuilds and recharges itself. Most professionals believe that you should sleep for at least six to eight hours a night.

I also try to take 10-minute power nap during the day. I take my power nap at about 3:00. The nap, believe it or not, works better than a double-shot espresso with 2% skim milk. Just don’t nap and drive …

7. Relax … 12-60 minutes

Because of the stress of everyday life, your brain is exhausted just as much as your body. You must take the time to unplug and relax. The phrase “Be still and know…” comes to mind. You may want to try meditating to give your mind a break from all the hassle. Meditation is simply sitting or standing very still and very quiet. Try to put all your worries out of your mind and relax. It will be tough at first. But you’ll get better with practice.

I get it out of the way in the morning since I found that a sleepy brain is best for meditation before it fills up with the “To Do’s” for the day.

Over the next week, try to incorporate each of these 7 ideas at least once. Then share your experiences with me by posting a comment

To your success,

David

At The Brain Gym

Posted on June 17, 2011 by David Grebow

Today over 14 million people in 180 countries either subscribe to Lumosity’s website or have downloaded one of its iPhone apps. And revenues have grown 25% every quarter since its launch.

Never heard of it? Never worked out in one of their Brain Gyms? Here’s the story and it tells us a good deal about the future of learning since that grey matter in tour head that’s deciphering these words right now – actually a few nanoseconds before you get the message – will grow old.

Back up to 2007 …

Lumosity was a scrappy startup looking for seed money. Today, the San Francisco-based company that creates games to make your brain work better is announcing it’s landed over $32 million in new funding. 1,2,3,4 years and counting from $0 to $32M.

Quite the ride. But why you ask …

Tim Chang of Norwest Venture Partners recently told Fast Company the investment story. “When we first invested, we were concerned this was just a niche area for people with Alzheimer’s or other cognitive problems. But Lumosity has proved there’s universal demand for this among all demographics.”

A universal demand. That means you, me and a lot of other brains. Sharp Brains, a market research firm tracking the brain fitness space, estimates that the size of the market for digital products was just under $300 million in 2009.

And they estimate that it will grow to at least $2 billion by 2015. That US$2B.

When you sigh up at Lumosity’s website, it starts a process in which go through a series of questions to figure out whether you want to improve your ability to remember names, get better at problem solving, or perhaps develop better concentration. Luminosity then designs a series of “courses” tailored to your particular interests.

The “courses” consist of 40 games designed to sharpen a wide range of cognitive skills.

For example, one game is about numbers. Arithmetic problems appear in bubbles, and you need to solve them before the bubble bursts. In a word game, you and several other players are given a three-letter prefix like “pre”. You must come up with as many words as possible while a clock counts down. The clock is counting how many can you come up with?

(Hint: prescient, preface, presence, prefix, pre-test, preview, pre, you get the idea.

Lumosity CEO Kunal Sarkar believes that brain fitness is the latest wave in the trend of healthy living. For the last 25 years people have been running to the gym, running at the gym, trying to bend over backwards for a yoga class, filling up the parking lots at Whole Foods and organic Farmer’s Markets. So think of it as a gym membership for brain. A subscription costs $14.95 a month or $80.00 a year.

Okay, 10 seconds starts now, how much does a yearly subscription save you, do the math …

This is not really out there anymore. The neuroscience research coming out of universities in the past 20 years has proven that cognitive abilities – your ability to think, reason, concentrate and more – are not fixed. Just as you can pump up by pumping iron , the games that Lumosity lets you play really can make your brain stronger, faster, better and smarter.

Let’s face it. More and more who work in this new Digital Economy rely on how well the grey matter between our ears between our ears functions. Smarter at work is better at work. Lumosity users include traders in Chicago who use the tools as a brain warm up before charging onto the fast-paced trading floor, actors in Los Angeles who need to memorize a script before an audition, even pilots who want to improve their spatial abilities, their reaction times and quick thinking skills before wheels up.

And here’s the kicker that started this whole post. Again from Lumosity CEO Kunal Sarkar. “We don’t necessarily teach you anything but we make it easier for you to learn new things, which is more and more important.” Holy Brain Gym Batperson! Imagine a company that not only provides a gym gym for your body but adds in a Brain Gym for you brain…

Like I said, in this new global hyper-competitive digital economy, only the companies with the highest Corporate IQ will win. A Brain Gym might just be the new espresso maker of the next decade.

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Apple’s iPad Officially Passes the Higher Education Test

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