Notes and Thoughts from Day 1 Microsoft Future School Summit 2008 Dec 1.

First of all – all of the slides mentioned below are located on the conference website:
http://sofsummit.com/documents.aspx

there is also my bookmarks on the sotf delicious site: http://delicious.com/sotf

Keynote 1 Michael Horn
Innosight Institute
Original quest for Clay – Why do successful organizations fail? Although good management (ie from Harvard Business school) gets company to top, still fail. Theory of disruptive innovation
understand theory

chart – performance vs time – one line = performance that customers can utilize or absorb
steeper line pace of technologic progress
other try and take advantage, most technologies, the incumbents nearly always win

a disruptive innovation – comes in under the performance but addresses non-consumers needs – they use this technology – redefine the measure of performance – the non-consumers move to this place – price drops, technology performs, and eventually takes over the consumers in the other plane.

example of Digital Equip Corp – should we make better products for our best customers or make these new pcs? – most companies choose to refine their customer base and improve incrementally their product line – not jump into new – this leads eventually to failure
examples – ford v toyota, dept stores v walmart, dec v dell, delta v southwest, jp morgan, v fidelity, xerox v canon, state u v cc, cullinet v oracle, at&t v cingular, dillon,reed v Merril lynch, sony discman v ipod (see ppt slides!)

tomorrow’s new disruptors – online classes, kia, etc (rates)

another example – RCA spent billion $ trying to make the transistor fit its table top model – couldn’t get it to work for their needs – sony comes out and does it with a disruptive devices – transistor radio

“Existing business can only deploy tech in ways that sustain and add cost to the current model. Disruption best competes against non-consumption at the outset.”

another idea in development – The right product architecture depends upon the basis of competition – example – windows code or ibm mainframes – problem customization is expensive
competing tech – modular design – trade off in performance but greater flexible
example – dell computers

6 insights:
Conflicting mandates in the way we teach vs. the way we learn
Computers have failed to make a difference because we have crammed them into conventional classrooms
They must initially be deployed against non-consumption
Individualized, computer-based instruction requires a disruptive distribution model
Separation is critical. Chartered schools should be seen as heavyweight teams, not disruptive competitors
We have imposed disruption on our schools three times in recent history by moving the goalposts – the metrics of improvement.
Education research has not shown the way forward

CAST – universal design in learning – from http://www.cast.org/

conflicting mandates – the way we must teach (pace/style/content/sequence) vs the way students learn

4 interdependencies:
temporal (sequence)
lateral (fl – verbs here first)
physical (project based not possible in most class)
hierarchical (mandates of what teachers must do)

customization – costs 2-3x to teach special ed due to IEP

computers could be this solution – why have they not made a difference?
horn’s argument – computers have been crammed into the curriculum and the corners of the room as add-ons to the traditional model

if computers instead were used as a disruptive innovation, could effect change – starting to happen

examples of non-consumption for education where computers could move to change education as a disruptive influence

credit recovery
drop outs
AP Courses
schedule conflicts
home schoolers/home bound
small rural schools
tutoring
PRE-K
the parts of the curriculum that are being dropped due to budget or NCLB needs

these provide the entry point for this disruptive technology

(mark’s thoughts Horn thinks that online classes are not as powerful as f2f, the research says not correct – even he needs to think about why students might choose the model)

MPI – if we offered these kinds of opportunities, would kids take less f2f and take more online? Would that allow more time for authentic, student centered projects?

he shows online learning as an s-curve phenomena – 45k in 2000, 1M in 2007

projections – by 2019 50% of courses online!

how does this affect MPI – why would people choose us over this option? What will be our value added features that will make spending $16,500 worth it – arts program? sports? Technology and media use?

where is the market?
developing countries – 73 million children world wide do not do primary school
200M + no secondary
budgetary pressures
barriers – long dist, softy, infrastructure

he sees this as an opportunity for making a difference in education
100% of singapore HS offer course online
K12 – in dubai
rubicon – out of jordan
EU – curriculum stanards
mexico has digitized its entire curriculum
mobile solutions
india/africa
inacol (north american collation of r online learning

question – different ways that children learn (mode, pace, learning style)

Keynote 2: patty murray – wash state senator – skills needed (talking with engineering firm)- engineers that are skilled communicators – communication

the important question for MPI – how will this change in education affect us – what do we bring to the ‘value added’ nature of the educational experience? A good half of what we do could be pushed online (math ed, science topics, history, some language arts, world language)

Breakout 1: Critical conversation with michael horn
question: forget online – still reinforces modular learning – integration
new structures – allow teachers to escape from subject matter, skills competencies – he mentions High Tech High, MEt schools – redefined schooling – what is the backbone of the curriculum
HTH – how to scale it? the innovation disruption – maybe they will model (mark wonders who their non-consumption audience is – home schoolers?)
if we judge innovation by the old metrics (seat time, school year, etc) we will fail – need new metrics – mastery – (FVHS, K12) – you don’t get funding unless success.

Horn defers (?) to Tony’s book – question about age and time- issues
Philadelphia school of the future(rosalind)? – need a construct students work towards mastery and competencies – and needs to be transparent – has to include a whole learning community k-16 so what we do informs all to understand how kids progress…pedagogical avenues – create a menu that both students and educators and students can map out multiple paths (there is no more seat time in PA- we threw that out year ago)
andy ross – fvs – 110,000 students this year – their competition is trad schools – they must but they lose money enrollment f2f down…so schools fight for their funding

horn – need to create new space (real or virtual?) to do new things
refers to “big picture schools” – to help kids get into college (mark is not sure what he meant here)

diana oshiro – need drove movement in online education – if you are a disruptor, you can get caught up and miss the s curve – strategies – to transfer ownership to students – example of kid who hacked into AP course – system wanted to punish kid for doing outside the rules learning

chancy – cto in texas – q: disruptive innovation coming whether we like it or not – he sees the needs to change advocating – finds himself – trying to put infrastructure in place – more policy than equip – admins have fear
horn – there is a sense of inevitability – if this doesn’t happen in our public space, it will happen – policy – school within a school that ducks outside the regs, if we were designing from scratch

fvs – growing 40% a year – success is the back channel selling point
horn – north carolina – doing infrastructure – trying to set up backbone architecture

director Montery mexico – process of innovation we are being succeed in – teachers and parents aren’t ready but the kid are – is there a difference in the curve to have innovation really set in…what new ways to handle the process
horn – tough question – in the s curve you don’t know what it will be – don’t make the “big bet” – apple – newton an example – make sure you take smalls steps and learn along the way – what works –

mark – change model –
from the top – admin –
user network (parent teacher student) – ‘snap together’ a module for the kid – $64000 question in education – how to get critical mass of design – linux was a core group of designers
a few people developed the core
he thinks tutoring will maybe develop the model to adapt this for ground up change

jim harview – national superintendents round table- the blame game – we may be making a mistake in designing the disruptive innovation – he thinks that the best approach is a ground up conversation – policy from top down is trying to recreate 1950s school
he thinks higher ed is part of the problem they want to recreate professors for their own institutions (unintentionally?)
people think they want a new school – until they see it, then they tend to pull it back to what it they think it should be (not necess what it needs to be)
horn – charters – not disruptive but more sustaining innovation – he thinks charters are a very rich place – seeing charters as an r&d lab
philadelphia – the mandates (NCLB, for ex) stave innovation, we should be teaching students how to learn – silos of learning need to go

mike duvee – teacher philly – students don’t always do what is best of themselves – he feels that students need direction – they are dependent at some level on leadership (he is in a minority in the room in this feeling)

horn – knits together a school – not everyone can homeschool – so what do schools do

Breakout 2: conversation with anthony salcito and bean

question: let’s put lots and lots of computers in school? what about those that cannot?

martin – students need to see relevance of what they are learning – not brick and mortar, click and mortar
tech provides cost effective distribution
digital study hall in india http://dsh.cs.washington.edu/

peter from netherlands – it sounds good, but what about all the leadership that won’t believe? How do we show that tech is improving – why should we reform education? wast is the evidence?
anthony – what needs to be done – real work to change structures, content, it isn’t about equip – how do we keep the longer term change going? – he thinks we need to create a common language that sustains an effort across the school – when some schools do this, they don’t develop a common language so groups don’t keep initiative going
bruce the vocab we use to language – ex transformation or personalization (he thinks it isn’t just testing individuals more) – needs to have sophistication – need to be able to describe what we talking about
he is intrigued by the lack of progress in ed from tech – need to understand it and do a better job

interesting to me that MicroSoft is talking about visualization and social networking – these are tools that developed outside of MS that they want to own

martin – he is shocked by change – school of the future in the uk – how will you measure success – what are the leading indicators – sell your leading indicators to the policy makers – need a plan – what gets measure get managed what gets managed gets funded

his topics that schools should measure – absenteeism, interactions – avg hours in extracurricular, teacher retention, application for new teachers,

social networking – what he thinks (martin) – don’t underestimate how these can improve the conversation about a child

bean thinks that by brining social networking into ed (instead of outside) it will be powerful…
european partner – she can cite examples of model schools – but broader acceptance is a problem – teachers are not ready
anthony – more important to build the competencies teachers need – not computer skills, but pedagogical discussions – how do we change this? HOW DO WE elevate teachers skill set?
bruce – there is a myth that teachers don’t want to do this (Mark thinks it is a more cultural phenomena than this – we are changing their roles so it is trickier than that)
one of the speakers talked about how teachers seem to be fine at home but they can’t figure out how to use it in a learning environment…
martin – moving teachers is motivation – what is in it for them? (good questions)
question: leading and lagging measuring success – indicators – although we cannot avoid the question that how kids score will be critical to this
which indicators are low hanging fruit, and which are lagging that we can show as data comes in later
anthony – need to look at how to help students – need to look at outcomes – out of school (college?) what do you want to do? how do we help kids get there?
talked about school of philly – required to apply to college – third is one of the expectations change
egypt – not engaged in learning discussions – more about funding – does MS have frameworks?
anthony – what we do as a company is a refection on what your needs are –
need a process approach for change and sustaining – needs to be inclusive –

anthony mentioned a framework that dede has developed – I need to find this
question: the change jobs question – if a kid focusses on a specific challenge – anthony says that kids will have developed competencies that are transferable to move this forward
new resource – careerforward (out of MVHS)

Keynote 3: Transformation through innovative school design Randy Fielding –

talking about 20 modalities of learning ideas like learning by building, teacher led lecture,
part 2 – 4 primary designs for transformation – in our future school, let’s think about how the spaces need to reflect some/all of these ideas
campfire – place for stories, pull together – facilitator led
watering hole – in/out space a place for conversation peer – peer
cave space – Small group interaction, project/product work – private reflective space
real life – spaces outside that allow learning (watase courtyard?)

part 3 – intro to comprehensive frame of design patterns

why haven’t we build on the design of the watase courtyard and R Kev – in the Kawaiaho crtyd

how do you ensure school design fits within its style
they have designed a instrument- efei educational facility effectiveness instrument

Keynote 4: imagine cup
go to websites to find – interesting project!