MVU Closing Address

The closing address at the Michigan Virtual Symposium 2008 was a panel discussion moderated by Richard Ferdig. The following is a paraphrased version of the panelists responses to questions:

Panelists:

Michael Flanagan, Superintendent of Public Education, Michigan Department of Education

Dan DeGrow, Superintendent, St. Clair RESA

Jayne Mohr, Associate Superintendent, Traverse City Area Public Schools

Lorri MacDonald, Michigan Online Teacher of the Year; Online Instructor, MVU

Jamey Fitzpatrick, President & CEO, MVU ,

Michael Horn, co-founder and Executive Director of Innosight Institute

Warren Buckleitner, Children's Technology Review



Talking About the Future:

What does disruptive Innovation mean to you?

Michael Flanagan: Where we are right now: State Superintendent can waive seat time. Customizing education with technology can help all kids hit home runs. This is an opportunity to be student based and not teacher based. We need to attach money to proficiency and not seat time.



Lorri MacDonald: "In every crisis there is an opportunity" Schools should be open 24-7



Jamey Fitzpatrick: In the recent past no superintendent was asking for a virtual school, but now its needed. We can get smarter about how we innovate. Danger is thinking that technology is extra with budget constraints.



Michael Horn: We need a common language so that we don't speak over each other. Our solutions and visions might not be exactly right, but hopefully a common language has begun. Most excited about learning.



Warren Buckleitner: Think about mastery learning, its proven and can be done in a variety of ways. Kids are smarter than we think and we need to give them access and get out of the way. All the pieces are there, they've been developed and theory is there and waiting for us to put it to work.

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QA



Micheal Flanagan: not larger schools! Don't need to build them...when we put the for sale sign on it who will buy it? Funding needs to be adjusted and addressed. Early childhood is an important area.



My question: Are the days of ISDs numbered and bricks and mortar schools soon gone?

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Parting comments:

Dan DeGrow: Online education is only going to grow. Our job is to make it successful



Jayne Mohr: Our children are our future the online learning experiences are possible because of the seat time waivers. Blended instruction is an option.



Michael Flanagan: don't limit yourself to what you can do without permission! Not everything requires a waiver.

Lorri MacDonald: If we keep doing what we've always done we will get what we've always gotten. Creativity needs to be encouraged. Look to learn from kids.

Michael Horn: Disruptive innovation is a force that extends benefits to more people by driving down cost. Everyone can have a computer on their desk. Disruption expands benefits...accessibility will come.



Warren Buckleitner: a forest fire fertilizes the ground for new growth, boats rise on the account of water, don't throw out your old shoes until you have new shoes.

MVU Lunchtime Keynote Warren Buckleitner

Exploiting Educational Technology

Warren Buckleitner invites audience to touch his floppy disk, he doesn't even care!

The lunchtime keynote. presented by Warren Buckleitner gave a overview of many of the technologies that are being used today. His vision of one laptop per child is to employ the use of the Nintendo DS. Its affordable and many students already own it. This also capitalizes on the current gaming trend that does much of what good instruction is all about: instant feedback, mastery learning, testing, scaffolding and opportunities for apprenticeships where one gamer tutors another.

Warren also shared the wiki that he created for the keynote and it can be found at: http://rutgerstech.wikispaces.com/MVU

Peter Arashiro, MVU, working the Wii Music program while waiting for the lunchtime keynote. Now that's innovative entertainment.

Acer Aspire One

I'm typing this post on the Acer Aspire One at the MVU Symposium. This is my first opportunity to put this computer through the paces and I have to admit that I like it quite a bit. Although the keyboard is a bit compact and the touch pad seems to be in line with proper thumb placement, it doesn't hamper my use. Mainly because I have a very bad habit of using my right index finger to use the space bar, therefore, my thumbs don't rest on the touchpad.


I quickly connected to the network, accepted the user agreement and got to work opening several simultaneous windows. I opened Microsoft Word 2007, ooVoo, and several Firefox tabs including connecting to the webmail server for my district. So far all is going well. It is very light weight and is even easy to handle when using my lap as a table top. I've install several programs such as Skype, ooVoo, Quest Atlantis, Firefox, Chrome and more and they all appear to be working.

Although the storage space is limited, I don't find this to be a deal breaker because I find that I use remote server spaces for much of my work. This blog is hosted by blogspot, my documents are saved to Google docs and there is always a thumb drive if needed.

I think that this is going to be a holiday gift to myself.