NSF ITEST STEM Grant Urgent Response 7-20-2007 "Meanwhile in Traverse City the NGA......

"I'll be paying close attention to the ideas that businesses are putting forward," Gov. Jennifer Granholm said of the event.

Governors set to tackle hard issues

On the agenda of meeting in Michigan: Global competition

July 20, 2007

BY KATHLEEN GRAY

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Thirty-five governors in the Traverse City area for the weekend all want stronger economic development in their states. Sometimes they are even bidders for the same companies, competing with tax breaks and other incentives.

But as the four-day National Governors Association conference begins today, the chief executives will try to set those rivalries aside to confront a different rival -- international competition.

"The idea is not so much about Michigan versus Indiana or Michigan versus Colorado in terms of economic development, but Michigan and Indiana and Colorado versus China or India," said Earl Ryan of the Livonia-based Citizens Research Council of Michigan. "From that perspective, there's some good rationale to put their heads together. They may be trying to attract business for themselves, but at the same time, the whole country is in competition with the rest of the world."

When Gov. Jennifer Granholm leads a session on global competitiveness Sunday, she'll be listening to business and government leaders as much as talking about what Michigan has done to diversify its faltering economy.

"I'll be paying close attention to the ideas that businesses are putting forward," Granholm told listeners Saturday in her weekly radio address.

Michigan is in a unique position to take the advice from business and government leaders. The decline of the auto industry has left the state reeling. Earlier this week, the state reported its unemployment rate had increased to 7.2%, highest in the nation and well above the national average of 4.5%. The state ranks third in mortgage foreclosures, according to a July report, and is the only state to have lost jobs in 2006.

"There are definitely things we can learn from other states on what they've done to help make their cities competitive," said Bill Rustem of the Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants.

Rustem, who'll be attending the conference today, cited efforts in Minneapolis and St. Paul to market the Twin Cities jointly for development, Seattle's pitching itself as a welcome home for immigrants and Traverse City's push to engineer a long-term development plan for the five counties surrounding the unofficial capital of northern Michigan.

"Traverse City gets it," Rustem said. "They've created the type of region that is competitive for young entrepreneurs. They're attracting people who understand that they can sit on the beach with their laptops."

The governors will talk about other weighty issues this weekend at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, including global warming, education standards and Internet safety.

On climate change, Granholm and governors from other major automotive states are expected to engage their colleagues on the push in Congress to require much higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks. Michigan representatives argue the changes could further cripple the domestic auto industry.

On the official agenda, the governors also will discuss efforts to make medical records more portable through technology and improving math and science curriculums.

Unofficially and behind closed doors, the governors are expected to tackle a federal mandate to create an identification card for all U.S. citizens. It's better known as the Real ID card, which will be required to travel, drive and do any official financial business.

The states were supposed to have the cards ready to issue next year, but pending federal rules are expected to extend the deadline to 2013.

"But that may not be enough time to move 245 million people through the system," said David Quam, director of federal relations for the NGA. "The governors have been looking for reasonable solutions and a good financial partner to share in some of the costs."

The program is expected to cost at least $100 million nationwide. Michigan's cost isn't available yet, but more than 7 million people will have to get new driver's licenses or state identification cards.

Outside the official program, Michigan and Traverse-area officials get a chance to show off the region and state's best side with a classic car show, beach party and golfing, exploring the uniquely Michigan Dennos Museum and a getting a few sips from local vineyards.

"This is like the Super Bowl of government. It is an opportunity to showcase Michigan not just to the other states, but the business leaders who are there, too," Rustem said. "All of those people will go back to their states and talk about what they saw in Michigan. Right now, the national impression of the state is not very good, and this is an opportunity to change that impression."

Contact KATHLEEN GRAY at 313-223-4407 or gray@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.

Transformational Shared-Worldview Resonating With Our Alignment to Purpose!

New Generations, New Media Challenges

By Jonathan Fanton

Tuesday, Jun. 19 2007

Children coming of age today are the first generation to grow up digital. In
their world, the use of computers, the Internet, cell phones and interactive
video games is commonplace.

We used to worry that computer technology would remain in the hands of the
privileged; now it is carried in the backpacks and shirt pockets of those from
all walks of life.

On Saturday, the 2007 National Media Education Conference gets underway in St.
Louis. The theme of the four-day series of workshops and screenings — the
nation's largest gathering of media educators — is "iPods, Blogs and Beyond:
Evolving Media Literacy for the 21st Century."

Clearly, access to technology no longer is the central issue. More than 90
percent of those between the ages of 12 and 17 are online. The number of
high-speed Internet connections, necessary for the richest content experience,
is growing by 40 percent annually. Participation in the all-digital virtual
world known as Second Life has risen dramatically — from 500,000 to nearly 5
million people in two years.

Today's young people increasingly express themselves and build communities with these powerful tools of technology. The real gap between tomorrow's digital haves and have-nots will be a lag in competence and confidence in the fast-paced variegated digital universe building and breeding outside schoolhouse walls.

Research, some of it funded by the MacArthur Foundation, is just beginning to fathom how deeply our children have absorbed new technology: the role it plays in their lives and how it affects their learning, play and socialization. What this research suggests is that today's digital youth are in the process of creating a new kind of literacy; this evolving skill extends beyond the traditions of reading and writing into a community of expression and problem-solving that not only is changing their world but ours, too:

— They have created communities the size of whole nations by channeling personal affiliations through message boards or meta-games or dedicated
websites such as Facebook, Friendster and MySpace.

— They have mastered digital tools to create new techniques for personal
expression: modding, digital sampling, mash-ups and zines — not to mention new
paths of distribution for personal works of video and text.

— They have redefined the notion of "play" to include complex problem-solving, mentoring, the archiving of knowledge and real-time conversations on issues of policy and politics of global interest and importance.

Henry Jenkins, director of the media studies program at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, calls this a new "participatory culture," one that
presents low barriers to artistic expression and social engagement that suggests that a richer environment for learning may lie outside the classroom.

Online and after school, youths in this new participatory culture are
assimilating new languages and rules, vast troves of research and perspectives
on the nature of order and community that vault across traditional boundaries
of race or creed or culture.

In meta-games such as Civilization III and SimCity, participants develop and
manipulate dynamic models of real life; they teach and legislate, create and
share, connect and collaborate, reflecting the value of team-building and consensus over autonomous solutions.

Moreover, through virtual characters and identities — even some that disturb
parents — teens can experiment through trial and error, make poor moral choices
or learn the downside of risk-taking without jeopardizing actual careers or
lives. They learn to value challenge and appreciate complexity, even as they assimilate facts and assess developments at breathtaking speed.

The downside may be that in the sunset of the old information culture, we are not understanding this new media literacy soon enough. Those who have no opportunity or desire to be part of these revolutionary digital communities may be deprived of vital virtual skills that would prepare them for full
participation in the real world of tomorrow.

In this new media age, the ability to negotiate and evaluate information online, to recognize manipulation and propaganda and to assimilate ethical values is becoming as basic to education as reading and writing. The children who truly will be left behind in the evolving digital culture are those who fail to bridge this participation gap.

Our challenge is to develop these educational forces, opening up our classrooms to the learning in which children now engage largely outside of school. In the end, we may find that the best way to institutionalize and encourage this new media literacy is to understand and harness what our young digital culture seems to be doing pretty well on its own.

Jonathan Fanton is president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which is funding a $50 million initiative to understand how digital technologies are changing kids and learning.

SPecial to the St. louis Post-Dispatch

DTE Energy MATH Enrichment Grant Program (Pontiac Community & Schools)

DTE Energy MATH Enrichment Grant (Blog-site)
http://dtemath.blogspot.com

Science City (Er, Why Fun is SO Important!)

---

July 16, 2007

Editorial Notebook

Science for Big Kids

By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS

My memory of the old Liberty Science Center is dark: the touch tunnel. A carpeted tube through which one navigated relying on senses other than sight. (I also remember the bobbing greenish glow of the watch of the person in front of me. I suppose a stickler might say that we cheated.) Years of many small knees crawling and many small hands tugging left the Science Center a bit ragged. This week, after two years of construction, the Center will reopen, on time and on budget.

Gone is the beloved touch tunnel, but perhaps that’s for the best. The updated Science Center — still in Jersey City — is shiny, new, and high-tech, and does not condescend to its visitors. There are still covertly educational toys for the very young, but they’ve pulled the common denominator up. Instead of sampling the dynamic world of, say, static electricity (which can be done from the privacy of one’s linen closet) one can construct a small building and test its resilience on an earthquake simulator. I watched a teacher’s building crumble at the first tremor. What kid wouldn’t enjoy that?

The new Center also tries to make science feel accessible, even local. Tanks of fish include flat little sharks from the harbor. The skyscraper exhibit brings the New York City skyline, visible out a nearby window, into a global context. To its credit, the Center does not shy away from the things we wish were less real world. The skyscraper exhibit holds two pieces of the World Trade Center; one, an I-beam mangled by the heat and pressure into a twisted U.

America is falling behind in the global competition to produce and educate scientists. The Liberty Science Center hopes that the chance to interact with real scientists and their work might awaken new enthusiasm in children who might otherwise be napping in the back of their chemistry classrooms. So they offer the opportunity to go out on the water with an oceanographer or chat — via video camera — with a surgical team while watching them operate. ("Excuse me, is that a kidney in your hand? Should we continue this conversation later?") I was that kid dozing in chemistry class. And at the Science Center I had fun.

Dont' be Aimless.........Uncover and Discover YOUR.............

When The Thrill Is Gone, So Are They

by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans

Do you help your employees find the work they love to do? It may not always be easy, and you may even risk losing some of them. But if you don’t partner with your talented employees to find work they are passionate about, you will no doubt lose them anyway.

Passion for work means that people find what they do to be so exciting that it sometimes doesn't even feel like work -- so exciting that it brings exhilaration, a "high." Granted, even those who have this passion seldom have it every day -- but they do know that feeling, and they know when they lose it.

Do you know what your employees are passionate about? Do you have any idea what gets each of them up in the morning feeling anticipation and eagerness about the day? When we asked dozens of people about their work passions, here is some of what we heard:

• "I love creating something new, something no one has ever seen or even imagined before."
• "I get a kick out of working on such an elite team. There is so much brilliance here."
• "I love drawing, welding, building something."
• "I love numbers. I'd rather work with them than with people."
• "I really get excited when I discover a new rule in math."
• "I love to help someone get better at something and get happier in the process."
• "I love managing others. What a kick it is to motivate and guide a team to do great things."
• "My passion is turnaround -- taking something that is broken and fixing it."

A common theme surfaces among these diverse answers: When people are doing what they love, they are at their best. If you help connect your employees' passions to their jobs, you and they will reap the rewards.

Passions are wired into the real world more directly than our workday routines are. If you love something, you'll bring so much of yourself to it that it will create your future -- Francis Ford Coppola.

Uncover and Discover

So what can you do to help people find work that engages them deeply? First, ask. Ask several ways because people respond differently to different words. Try, "What work do you really love to do?" or "What are you passionate about?" or "What gives you the greatest thrill or kicks at work?" As they answer, dig a little deeper. Then think creatively about how you might put their passions to work.

When one manager had the "passion conversation" with his em­ployee, here is how it went:

• Manager: What do you love to do? What are you passionate about?
• Tara: I've recently learned to use some desktop publishing software, and I've created brochures for my church. I'm having a ball with it.
• Manager: I wonder if there is a way we could use your talent and interest here at work.
• Tara: I've been thinking about it and wondered if I could take on the layout of the new company newsletter we've been talking about.
• Manager: How would that work out with your current heavy workload?
• Tara: I will definitely get my work done. You know that about me. This project will be above and beyond my current workload.
• Manager: Let's give it a try. Keep me posted as you work on the first issue. Let me know what's working and what's not.

Tara was feeling pretty bored with her job. She'd been doing the same work for years, and the thrill was gone. She had even been thinking of leaving. She poured herself into the new project, teamed with colleagues, and turned out a first-rate newsletter. Her teammates and boss praised her and were astounded at her accomplishment.

Since that event, Tara has expanded her job to include multiple graphic arts projects. Her boss worked with her to restructure her job so that some of her former duties went to other people. Tara's energy and productivity have soared, and she wakes up eager to go to work. The key to her renewed enthusiasm is that her boss collaborated with her to uncover and then capitalize on her passion.

Passion Igniters

Most managers need a little help building passionate teams. Here are a few passion igniters to consider:

Hire for Passion

Why not select for passion in the first place? Find out if the candidate has a passion for making a difference or for your company's product or service. What about a passion for the work your unit does or for working on a team? If you build a team of passionate people, they'll not only produce for you -- they'll actually help retain each other.

Show Your Passion

"I see a world of possibilities where people who approach their work with passion, who take calculated risks for the good of the company, and who dare to test their own limits will reap unparalleled benefits in terms of excitement, fun, and personal satisfaction."-- J.P. Garnier, CEO, GlaxoSmithKline

What would it be like to work in an organization where leaders at all levels shared this CEO's approach? Share the passion you have for the work with your team. Your actions model what you expect from others.

Share a Meaningful Mission

Why does your team or organization exist? What is your mission? Share that mission with your employees. Then, clearly link employees' work to the mission. Tell them how their work contributes to it. Tell them how critical they are to you, to the mission of the team, and to the or­ga­nization.

"I've been the janitor and maintenance expert here for 30 years. We take care of old people who need nursing care and help with their daily living. They deserve the best, after all they have done and given in their lives. I love my work. I help make this building beautiful and safe for the people who work here and the people who live here. The director here gave me an award for my service and told everyone how critical I am to serving our residents. That award hangs on my wall at home." -- Maintenance expert, nursing home.

This man is crystal-clear about the value of his work. He is inspired by the mission of the organization and the reason for his being there.

What prevents you from giving your employees different work or more of the kind of work they love? The list is often lengthy. You might think that in reality you don't have enough of the following:

• Time
• Money
• Staff
• Management support

These constraints may be real. But remember, if you don't help your talented employees find work they love in your organization, you will lose them. Do you have enough time, money, and staff to deal with their loss and replacement? People who do what they love usually do it very well. If passion is missing at work, your best people may not bring their best to work. So collaborate with them to uncover and discover what they love to do. Link them and their work to your mission, and help them remove the barriers to doing what they love. You'll gain enthusiastic employees who will stay engaged and productive -- and on your team.

Yeah, but really "what does the school of the future look like?" (Not Found Here!)

Building the School of the Future

Introducing Philadelphia's new high-tech high school

By Lindsay Oishi
URL: http://www.schoolcio.com/showArticle.php?articleID=192501205

Microsoft and the School District of Philadelphia have worked together for three years to create the School of the Future, an innovative model for incorporating technology into education that opens on September 7, 2006. Rob Stevens, the project’s architect for software solutions, and Mary Cullinane, group manager for Microsoft’s Partners in Learning program, spoke to School CIO about how IT leaders can learn from the School of the Future’s vision and approach.

Q. How much has the school cost so far?
A. The entire project is funded at $63 million, which is a traditional budget for the School District of Philadelphi. The money required toa operate a school is mostly spent on maintenance. But we’ve used LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification guidelines, so that the overall cost of maintenance will be less than the cost for schools that don’t follow these guidelines.

Q. What technologies are you providing students with?
A. Wherever these kids go, whenever there’s a learning opportunity, they have access to an infrastructure has been built to give them an appropriate environment. That means wireless throughout the school, experts from around the world coming in via streaming media, and infrastructure allowing them to communicate with teachers and parents. The collaborative environment will be very powerful. The other area that will be very powerful is the Virtual Teaching Assistant and Virtual Library. With these, we hope to foster a community of learning.

Q. Tell me more about the Virtual Teaching Assistant.
A. One of the principles of this school is to create an adaptive learning environment. When we went to school, every kid had to turn the page at the same time. With the Virtual Teaching Assistant, the class can have an individualized pace. As a teacher, you can put together a quiz, give it to your students, and immediately ascertain where your class is. The quiz comes up as a window on the students’ machines—they each have their own laptop computer. The results go back to the teacher right away, and if a student gets a certain pattern of questions wrong, the teacher can give them extra help in that area.

Q. How do you keep student data secure?
A. We’re relying entirely on credentialed access. Once you log into the operating system, we know who you are. You don’t have to remember multiple passwords. We have very secure passwords that allow, for example, parents to be identified only with their children, so parents will not be able to get information on another child. We’re not custodians of extremely sensitive information. But we do have the ability to protect it. It’s a well-bounded community of learners—people from the outside will have great difficulty getting information.

Q. Which technologies offer the highest return on investment?
A. First, the multimedia capabilities available through Windows Media services give students a wealth of resources that are visual and online. These are the most valuable in terms of the ultimate product, which is educational accomplishment. The Virtual Library, for example, is a repository for different types of digital media. It allows movies, documents, Web sites, and other content to be stored together. Second, we have automatic mechanisms for student enrollment. Whenever a student is added to the school, they automatically get a Windows account for school portals, e-mail, and a personal Web site. This translates into savings of time and administrative effort, which also reduces cost.

Q. How do school portals work?
A. The school has portals for students, the extended community, and faculty and staff. When you log in to your computer, you’re automatically logged in to your portal. If you’re a student, the portal knows what classes you have and shows you a picture of everyone in your classes. The extended community portals allow parents to be more familiar with their students’ teachers, and to find out what happened in the classroom. Faculty and staff can also use their private portal to communicate about students or even view pay stubs online.

Q. Do you have advice about making public-private partnerships work?
A. CIOs shouldn’t limit themselves to the most obvious asset a partner can bring to the table. When someone thinks about Microsoft, they think of software. But the School District of Philadelphia got to see how we hire people, motivate people, and create the culture of our organization. The other thing to remember is that money is great, but people are better. Individuals and their thinking are valuable resources. We’ve had over 45 people at Microsoft touch this project in various ways, and you can’t put a price tag on that.

Q. How can CIOs keep informed about the school?
A. Every step of the strategic planning has been documented on the Web site, for all schools that are interested in following a similar process. U.S. Partners in Learning will host quarterly briefings with schools across the country, and there is also an annual global forum where school leaders can get together and discuss the results of these innovations.

Lindsay Oishi is a graduate student in Learning Sciences and Technology Design at Stanford University.

© School CIO

ADD: Economics 101: Cheaper, Better, Faster! (Anymore?)

Nine Excellent Reasons for Technology in Education

By John Page
July 1, 2007
URL: http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604531

from Educators' eZine

Two events prodded me to write this. The first was my involvement in formulating a technology plan for a technologically advanced local school. During this process I became increasingly concerned that while the school intuitively knew it should improve in this area, it did not really know why.

The second event was an email I got from a teacher concerning my web site Math Open Reference. In it she said, to paraphrase: 'Thank you so much! Now I have something to do with those laptops they gave me!.' You can visualize the scene: a school decided to move technology into the classroom so it gave the teacher the computers. This is putting the solution before the problem. Again I wondered if this school really knew why they wanted the technology. In what way precisely would the education be better?

So here they are. Nine fundamental reasons why I think technology is important in education. Hopefully, they can act as the rationale for technology plans in schools. If you disagree, or find things missing, my contact information is at the end.

Reason 1. Expansion of time and place

In a typical high school a student has access to a teacher for one hour each day. That means she has access to the teacher approximately for 6% of a 16-hour waking day, and even that time is shared with 25 classmates. But she has access to the Internet 100% of the time. That's a lot better — some twenty times better. Yes, technology is no substitute for an inspiring teacher. However, on-line materials are FAR more available. As shown above, some twenty times more available.

Using the traditional textbook + classroom approach, the places where learning can occur are limited. A portable wireless computer has access to the teacher's course material and the entire Internet almost anywhere. And this is a vastly larger resource than can be practically carried on paper in a backpack.

Bottom line: information technology allows learning anywhere, anytime; not just in one particular classroom for one hour a day.

Reason 2. Depth of Understanding

Interactive simulations and illustrations can produce a much greater depth of understanding of a particular concept. When virtual manipulatives are used in a classroom setting they can go far beyond chalk and talk. Using a projector, the teacher can conduct onscreen investigations and demonstrate concepts far more easily than with just words and arm-waving. For example see Subtended Angle. Combine this class demonstration with access to the same tools over the web, and the student can reinforce the ideas by playing with the simulations themselves, any time, any where.

Reason 3. Learning vs. Teaching

Technology allows the tables to be turned. Instead of teaching (push), students can be given projects that require them to learn (pull) the necessary material themselves. Key to this is the ability to get the information they need any time anywhere, without being in the physical presence of a teacher. This project-based pull approach makes learning far more interesting for the student. I have seen firsthand how students cannot wait to get out of regular classes to go to the after-school robotics project.

Reason 4. New media for self-expression

In the old days, students could write in a notebook, and what they wrote was seen only by the teacher. Using modern technology, they can: make a PowerPoint presentation, record/edit spoken word, do digital photography, make a video, run a class newspaper, run a web based school radio or TV station, do claymation, compose digital music on a synthesizer, make a website, and/or create a blog.

Reason 5. Collaboration

A vital skill in the new digital world is the ability to work collaboratively on projects with others who may not be physically close. This can best be done using modern computer tools such as the Web, Email, instant messaging and cell phone. Rather than laboring alone on homework, students can work in small groups wherever they happen to be and at any time. They are doing this already – it can now be formalized and taught as a vital skill. Many university projects are undertaken by teams spread around the world. Your students need to be prepared for this.

Reason 6. Going Global

The worldview of the student can be expanded because of the zero cost of communicating with other people around the globe. The internet permits free video conferencing which permits interaction in real time with sister schools in other countries. From an educational viewpoint, what could be more important than understanding other cultures through direct dialog and collaboration?

Reason 7. Individual pacing and sequence

Students are, of course, all different. Information technologies can permit them to break step with the class and go at a pace and order that suits each student better. Without disrupting the class, they can repeat difficult lessons and explore what they find interesting. With time, it will become more like having a private tutor rather than being lost in a large class.

Reason 8. Weight

Three textbooks and three binders easily weigh over 25 pounds. A laptop computer weighs about 5 pounds and provides access to infinitely more material via its own storage and the Internet. A 40Gb hard drive can hold 2 million pages with illustrations; the Web is unfathomably large. Right now, students are getting back injuries lugging around a tiny subset of what they need in the form of black marks printed on slices of a substance not all that different from the papyrus used by the ancient Egyptians. And it's just static boring text.

Reason 9. Personal Productivity

Students need productivity tools for the same reasons you do. They need to write, read, communicate, organize and schedule. A student's life is not much different from that of any knowledge worker, and they need similar tools. Even if they are never used in the classroom, portable personal computers will make a student's (and teacher's) life more effective. To cash in this benefit, schools need to go paperless.

In summary, if education is about knowledge and intellectual skills, then information technology lies at the heart of it all. We have only just begun this transition. School will eventually look very different. Get ready.