If you use the internet (and I suspect you do) you owe it to yourself to read this short web book by Google.

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The moment I found this on Boing Boing, I stopped everything and watched it. Feel free to mash.

I'm still processing what I learned, but I think this is an important take on California's crisis. Is the middle class really in jeopardy? Both the left and right claim that they understand econ 101. Who is correct? Please give me something between Ayn Rand and Michael Moore. Is Krugman wrong? Show your work.

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I have the fortune to provide a session on a couple Google tools to San Francisco Friends School today. We'll focus mainly on Google Forms and Sites. 

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Here's a quick demo of how Google Moderator could be used in the classroom. To try it out yourself, go to www.google.com/moderator

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My friend from high school was not only named Casey Jones, but he also had a van painted just like this! Spoiler Allert: It gets crushed within the first 10 minutes. Rest of the film was a waste.

I flew right over the tornadoes, lightning storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, super solar flares, and whatever else my mom is facing on her solo cross-country adventure. I feel really bad that I couldn't join her for that trip, but she seems to be trucking through well.

I'm really excited to see Tony Wagner speak at the conference. He is one of the leaders pushing for more 21st century skills in education.

I am also looking forward to seeing Kiran Bir Sethi. Her TED talk helped inspire my students last year to adopt a local struggling 3rd grade class by creating and delivering amazing lesson plans.

Finally, Trina reminded me that Gever Tully will be there.

Another TED speaker and author of 50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do). When my friend Camilla asked about a gift for my nephew, Nathanael, I suggested that book. She didn't want to be held liable, but admitted that her boys had already done almost all of the 50. Tully is a strong advocate for encouraging students to learn by making things. I still credit my 7th grade industrial arts teacher and class for having a huge role in making my life as rich as it is. Besides the thrill of getting to use really dangerous power tools, we were taught to design, draft, build, and craft. That class, along with building decks with my dad, taught me tremendous life lessons: Measure twice, cut once. A sharp blade is safer than a dull blade. So far that latter lesson has only held literal value for me.

My custom two-story chicken coop / McMansion built almost entirely out of material found at the local dump is a product of those experiences.

The foxes have tried to get those ladies, but with the help of dad and Beth, the coop has stayed secure.

Gratuitous chicken photo mostly for Trina's benefit:

Too bad most schools don't have shop anymore.

Can anyone tell me how to get to the English version of Google?

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A couple weeks ago on the podcast I recommended the "Send and Archive" feature in Gmail's Labs settings. Here's a short screencast that shows you how to get this going for yourself.

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In the summer of 1995 I was leading a mountain bike trip in the remote Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. I took a nasty spill and broke the axle on my front wheel. Digging through my bag I found everything I needed to replace the axle except an essential washer. My partner started digging through his bag, realizing that if we didn’t find a washer, I’d be walking the 12 miles back to the trail head ... and he'd be waiting for me with the rest of the group. He revealed a beer bottle cap, pulled out his multi-tool, drove a hole in the middle of the cap. “Here’s your washer.” Sometimes a bottle cap isn’t a bottle cap.

Archimedes had his moment when he realized a bathtub can serve a purpose beyond bathing--it could also measure volume through displacement. Eureka!

One of the keys to solving problems effectively is to overcome the cognitive bias known as functional fixedness. If you’ve read Daniel Pink’s book Drive, as I’ve urged, you would remember The Candle Problem, which demonstrates our tendency to think of objects as having one discrete purpose. In order to solve this puzzle, we must not think outside of the box, but rather reinvent the purpose of the box.

Recognizing and overcoming our functional fixedness seems to be critical if we are going to solve our world’s major problems, not just broken axles and hypothetical puzzles, but how do we nurture our ability to see objects and tools as having multiple purposes? I would argue, practice.

At some point, I’ll write about how I think Legos have shifted from a system that helped kids combat functional fixedness to one that encourages it, but today I want to write about a video game. Hailed by many critics as the best game of the year, the little black and white 2D game, Limbo, available for download on the XBOX marketplace for about $15 is a beautiful and haunting little game. It’s also another one of those so-called video-games-as-art games. Whatever, that debate has become dull.

Yes, there is so much to love about Limbo, but what made me stop playing it to write this post was its ability to force us out of our functional fixedness. In order to progress through the map, we have to move our benighted little protagonist from left to right, solving puzzles, finding unexpected ways to overcome obstacles.

[minor spoiler alert ... first five minutes of the game ... skip the next three paragraphs if you don’t want to be spoiled]

After overcoming some lethal bear traps, our hero approaches a lake with a little wood crate on its bank. I climbed over the crate and attempted to swim across the lake. The poor boy never learned how to swim, sank to the bottom, and produced small puff of bubbles before his glowing little eyes turned dark. Trial-and-die.

Luckily this game is generous with infinite respawns, so I decided that the crate was going to have to be my boat. I dragged the crate into the water and attempted to float across the lake, but each time, I fell out of the crate and drowned ... and drowned ... and drowned again.

Right when I began contemplating giving up and finding the solution on the web, I had that little eureka moment. The crate isn’t a boat ... it’s a ladder, at which point I dragged the ladder to a nearby tree and climbed my way to the next puzzle.

It’s a very small example of overcoming functional fixedness, but I can’t help but think that time spent experiencing the satisfaction of battling that bias helps train our brains to think beyond the obvious and maybe solve significant problems in innovative ways.

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A recent Newsweek article argues that Americans are facing a looming creativity crisis, and our education system is making it worse. Conversly, Europe and Asia are emphasisizing creativity in the classroom. On this week's Schools and Tech Podcast, we discuss this issue and other timely topics. What's more important, intelligence or creativity? According to an IBM survey of top CEO's, creativity is the single most important leadership competency. What do you think?

SaTP15.mp3 Listen on Posterous

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A few months ago some friends and I started a weekly podcast where we discuss how technology and advances in psychology are changing the way we teach and learn. I'm really honored to be associated with Cammy Torgenrud, Tim Torgenrud, and Dr. Roger Luuckenbach. If you're interested in education, technology, or psychology, I invite you to listen at schoolsandtech.com. You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here. In the most recent episode, Cammy shares some of the insights she gained at the International Society for Technology in Education conference in Denver. Listen below. 

SaTP14.mp3 Listen on Posterous

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See the full gallery on Posterous

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I produced this one minute video as a part of my Google Teacher Academy application. The academy will be held in London this year and their application suggests that they're particularly interested in international teachers, so who knows. All applicants are to submit a one minute video on Motivation and Learning or Innovation in the Classroom. I chose the former.

[update] I was checking out Daniel Pink's Blog, and I noticed that RSA also did a piece on one of Daniel Pink's talks. Now I feel a little silly. 

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Last year a colleague of mine talked about how valuable it is for him to keep a teacher's journal. After class he would jot down some brief notes about what worked, what didn't work, and ideas for the future. It's such an obviously good idea, but I know myself well enough that getting in the habit of doing this consistently would be challenging.

I was trying to think of ways to overcome barriers I might face in trying to keep up with a teaching log. I thought about using a private blog, a separate twitter account, or just a google doc, but having to log into a website to submit seemed like it would be just enough of an annoyance to prevent me from doing it. Remembering to have a specific notebook (and a pen) near me when I was ready to write seemed unlikely.

I found a solution that I might actually use, once I get in the habit. In google docs, I created what they call a form--basically a website that has questions and fields. This form has only one question: "What did you do / learn today?" with a field to type some text. As soon as I hit the submit button, that text is entered (with a timestamp) into a private google docs spreadsheet, which I can access when I'm ready to reflect. The beauty of this is that accessing the form page to submit requires no sign-in ... only knowledge of its URL, which I have bookmarked on each computer I use. It's the spreadsheet with all of the entries that's secured with a password. Watch this video to see how to make your own teaching journal using google forms.

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This week the TWiST team welcomes Joyce Sherry, Dean of Students at York School to discuss distance learning. Joyce is currently enrolled in a remote masters program. More show notes at www.twistcast.net.

Twist6.mp3 Listen on Posterous

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Boing Boing found a great flyer produced by Imaginary Foundation which is a bit of street art that mimics flyers you would see on telephone poles with rip off phone numbers. I downloaded the pdf, printed it and taped it to my door. Within 48 hours, all of the "I will's" had been taken. I have no idea who took them, but I enjoy thinking about those anonymous students who have pledged action.

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An article in Wednesday's New York Times explores how researchers are bridging the gap between the humanities and sciences by exploring the reasons we have evolved into creatures who occupy ourselves with the lives of fictional characters. Armed with M.R.I.'s, researchers are looking into how our brains act differently when we're reading the newspaper and when we're reading Proust. One theory is that reading complex fiction enables us to better understand what others are thinking and that novels equip us with tools in finding the right mate. Once they figure this out, I'll be able to tell my English students that if they don't do their homework, they'll suffer one lonely prom night. That's an even better motivator than autonomy, mastery, and purpose!

On the flip side, the article explores how literature can help explain one of evolution's mysteries: altruism. William Flesch, a professor of English at Brandeis University cites Odysseus, Don Quixote, Hamlet, and Hercule Poirot as altruistic punishers. Flesch argues that nature has endowed us with a "pleasing sense of outrage" when we watch characters cheat, and we are delighted when cheaters are punished. These emotional reactions can provide insight into how we have evolved to play nice.

I'm not sure Hamlet is the best example of an altruistic punisher. Of all the forces that motivate Hamlet to finally avenge his father's murder, altruism ranks pretty low. I would have cited Batman.

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On Saturday, I'll head to the Apple Store in Monterey, drop $500, and walk away with the new iPad I reserved a couple weeks ago. Whether I flip it on Craigslist immediately will depend on the market for these things. I can't afford to walk away from a nice profit just for the luxuary of having it in the first couple weeks of release. Is that wrong? Either way, I'm most excited about how this little device could revolutionize education. Here are seven resons I'm bullish on the iPad for schools.

1. Solid OS The iPhone operating system on the iPad is likely to be much easier to maintain than Windows or even Mac OSX. One of the greatest costs of an IT program at a school is keeping the hard drives clean. While the iPhone's draconian system of app approval and inaccessible file structure has its drawbacks, it makes giving a device to a teenager much more palatable. Kids will still be able to get into all kinds of trouble on the device, but at least for the near future, they won't be able to download a bunch of garbage that can harm the system.
2. Solid state Not only is the OS likely to be more durable than laptops running Windows or other operating systems, the iPad, as far as I can tell has no moving parts. Unlike almost all laptops and some netbooks, all data is stored on flash memory rather than a traditional hard drive with fragile little motors and sensors. Slap a protective case on that thing, and it may hold up pretty well to student abuse.
3. Touch interface Some kids learn better when they can see the content. Others respond better to hearing it. Almost all learn more effectively when they are exposed to both senses. More senses triggered equals more effective learning. The touch interface could provide a way to deliver information to a third sense, touch. Not only students labeled as kinesthetic learners benefit from touching academic material. Imagine the difference between seeing static images of cellular mitosis and actually causing it to happen on an iPad by touching an image of the cell with two index fingers and moving them apart using the multi-touch technology, watching one cell become two.
4. Better than textbooks Every time I mention the inevitable demise of paper textbooks to educators, I get the same response from at least one person. "I just like books," or "I like holding a real book in my hands," or I like the smell of books." Fine. I like books too, but it's clear to me that they are not the most effective way to deliver academic content. Back when Gutenberg launched his printing press and Luther started distributing Bibles in the vernacular all kinds of academics got upset, but the printed Bible in the vernacular had better hardware and better software for distributing information. The iPad with its ability to include text, audio, video, and 3D animation to be manipulated by touch is simply superior to a traditional dead-tree textbook. Finally, to those who still say they just like books--you know what I like? I like having the entire works of Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Melville, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Whitman, and the rest of Project Gutenberg resting lightly in one hand--downloaded to my iPad for free.
5. Cheaper than textbooks How many textbooks do college students not have to buy before they save enough money to buy a $500 iPad? My guess is seven. I don't know what the thieves in the textbook publishing industry plan to charge for their iPad textbooks, but it's likely to be steep. But the value of all information, including academic content is plummeting. Say what you will about Wikipedia, but I've found the vast majority of information there to be accurate, concise, and well cited. I envision a time when educators and academics bypass the for-profit textbook industry and make all academic content open source and free for all. I'm seeing it happen here at York already.
6. Content creation I'll have to wait to see whether this device will actually serve as an acceptable word processor, but it may. The iPad will not be good for heavy computing or extended writing, but for a quick free write exercise, note taking, and brainstorming, this may work quite well.
7. Polling tools in the classroom The iPad would be the perfect device for this sort of thing.

How else could we use the iPad to facilitate learning? Am I just an overly enthusiastic Apple fanboy?

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Twist2 by Kevin Brookhouser Listen on Posterous

I got together with some friends yesterday afternoon to launch a little podcast on how technology is affecting education. We're still in the beta phase on this, but have a listen and let me know what you think.

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If you want to encourage students to complete a project or assignment with creativity, innovation, and passion, what's the best tool to motivate them?

a. offer a high grade
b. threaten a low grade
c. make it a competition
d. offer a gift certificate to GameStop
e. chocolate covered iPod
f. none of the above

According to Daniel Pink's latest book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, the answer is f, as in fail. In fact, the evidence is overwhelming that all of the above carrots and sticks actually reduce performance and undermine motivation. When it comes to tasks that require problem solving or other right brain activities, people perform best when they are given autonomy over their tasks, opportunity for mastery in their field, and a sense that the task has a clear and meaningful purpose.

Those who have read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, Carol Dweck's Mindset, and Levitt and Dubner's Freakonomics will find much familiar, but Pink packages many of these ideas in a new, and even more useful form.

In the following video from a TED conference, Pink offers a brief and compelling overview of his argument. His emphasis here is on business, but educators wouldn't have to stretch too far to see how it applies to the classroom. However, the book does dedicate a significant number of pages directly to how we need to radically shift the way we motivate our students.

Recently, I applied this new way of motivation to my English students. Essentially I gave them some 20% time to work on any project of their choosing. I did encourage them to do something that was worth doing and had a greater purpose. Some examples of what they came up with:

• Two students, disgusted with the fact that Monterey was given an F by the American Lung Association for smoking ordinances, wrote letters to the the local newspapers here and here. Since then the Monterey City Council unanimously voted to dramatically restrict smoking in public places.
• Ten students have decided that they want to adopt a 3rd grade class at a local underfunded school and encourage them to read by giving lessons on children's books they love. 
• Six students are planning a blood drive with a goal to break a school-wide record for pints donated. They're currently scheming to perform the most persuasive series of assembly announcements. Ever.
• Seven students are organizing a shoe and clothing drive for Haiti.
• Two students decided they want to be published journalists. Look for their first piece to be printed in Off 68 within a couple weeks.
• A couple students are working to build a certain Yurt. 

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"The Hardest Part of a Zombie Apocalypse Will be Pretending I'm Not Excited," says an old friend of mine on Facebook. I tend to agree. What's up with this fascination so many of us hold for zombies? I'll leave that to the psych department of my school, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that our Id can indulge its hunger for inflicting violence without that pestering Super Ego telling us that such behavior is inappropriate. There's nothing inappropriate with unloading a twelve gauge in the face of the undead. The morality is delightfully simple. I would argue that this is the device behind the success of Tarrantino's Inglourious Basterds--Nazis being the closest thing we've seen to people we can kill with a free conscious. This device is why I picked up World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. However, it has nothing to do with why I liked the book so much.

Sure, there's some good zombie killing satisfaction to be had in WWZ, but what makes this novel most interesting is what it reveals about international diplomacy, military strategy, and world cultures.

The story takes place after the global zombie outbreak has been quelled and is told in the form of interviews of people around the world who experienced the crisis. We meet generals, soldiers, spies, orphaned children, and mercenaries. We hear from the Chinese doctor who discovered the first case in a rural village--a village created by citizens of an older village destroyed by the Three Gorges Dam. As news about the outbreak spreads around the world, most nations respond with skepticism--who would believe that an infection really could cause the dead to walk and eat other humans? The Israelis would. According to the Brooks' world, a nation with their history, always forced to be on guard, take unlikely threats seriously. They urge people, including Palestinians, to establish quarantine zones, which is met with an understandable lack of trust.

How does South Africa with its history of apartheid respond to a zombie invasion? How would a blind victim of the bombing of Hiroshima survive a year in the infested wilderness? How would Cuba's 50-year trade embargo help it become an economic superpower during a zombie crisis? The questions aren't practical, but the answers are revealing.

The novel also addresses some of the issues our current military faces. Wired Magazine recently published Noah Schatman's "The End of the Air War," which explains why America's dominant Air Force isn't useful in conflicts like Afghanistan. With the ubiquity of information and news, bombing a village is no longer a good way to make peace. The rules have changed.

In a zombie war the rules change even more drastically. What good is an expensive stealth bomber when fighting an enemy that can't tie a shoe, much less use radar. World War Z also exposes the importance of psychological warfare simply because zombies are immune to it. You can't discourage a zombie army into thinking the war is hopeless the way the allies did in World War I. They just want brains, and they're willing to seal-walk their exploded torso into a wall of bullets to get them. History books tell us World War II was a "Total War." World War Z shows us how history books lie. Expect a novel about zombies. Get a lesson in the economics and psychology of warfare.

I read somewhere that the job of a novelist is to send a character up a tree and then shake that tree to try to get him to fall out. As he hangs on, we gain insight into the character. Max Brooks sends our globalized society up a tree and shakes the hell out of it revealing insight similar to what one might find in Foreign Affairs or The Economist.

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