The picture above is the XO-1, but Popular Mechanics says that the new One Laptop Per Child laptop (XO-2) projected for 2010 release will not have a keyboard but will use a touch screen keyboard (picture at link). OLPC is projecting a cost of $75 per machine, but there are doubters. The touchscreen would provide a lot of reconfigurability to the input and couldn’t be any worse than the rubbery keyboard on the current model.

I have blogged about the OLPC project before here & here, and a good Wikipedia article is here.

Via “No Sucker Left Behind”, Inside Higher Ed reports that NYU will not be accepting dual credit courses taught at high schools by high school teachers qualified and certified by the credit-granting college. They will be accepting AP credits. It seems crazy to me, and they don’t appear to have any research to back it up.

I know that when our college offers credit in this manner, the high school teacher must meet the same qualifications and curriculum alignment must occur. Not accepting that coursework seems short-sighted to me. It is also a view into why I believe that our system is out-of-date, out-of-touch, and out-of-time.

UPDATE:

I just read one of the responses in the comments section from the Academic Integrity Coordinator of UC, San Diego. It reads:

Dual Enrollment Teaches Students the Wrong Lessons

I am so pleased to see that a major university has made this decision, albeit for different reasons than I problematize “dual enrollments.” The dual enrollment program reinforces in students a consumer mentality of higher education by teaching them that the academy accepts short-cut methods for earning college credit and prioritizes credit acquisition over learning. Why do we wonder, then, that students view other “short-cutting” methods (e.g., copying and pasting off the internet, copying homework, submitting the same paper in two different classes for credit, and unauthorized collaboration) as viable and acceptable methods for completing college courses? This “double dipping” may offer students short-term benefits (e.g., college access), but NYU’s bold step begs the academy to step-back and contemplate the potential long-term costs of dual-enrollment and other credit-acquisition schemes. How does “dual-enrollment” affect our students’ cognitive, moral/ethical, and social development? What are the psychological and adjustment ramifications for the students who enter college as “better-than-perfect” because they receive extra credit for AP classes? Are there ways to prepare students for college-level education and enhance access WITHOUT teaching them that it is acceptable to double-dip and WITHOUT reinforcing in them the country’s obsession with grades? I would hope so and I hope NYU’s decision stimulates a nation-wide discussion on this issue.

All I can say is that this attitude is exactly what is going to cause our current system to go down the tubes. Yes, our students have a consumer mentality. ‘The Academy’ is going to need a service mentality to meet the challenge. I am dumbfounded that taking a college course for college credit could be called a “credit-acquisition scheme.” I am just flabbergasted by the assertion that taking dual-credit at high school is like plagiarism!

A blog called “No Sucker Left Behind” has noted the article about two-year technical degrees in our Waco paper. Check it out and look over the blog while you are there. It is pretty interesting stuff.

Our local paper, the Waco Tribune-Herald, points out that two-year degrees can be very rewarding. The printed version was on the top of the front page with a huge picture of one of our welding teachers, Ryan Rummel. Further into the article, nursing degrees at our local community college are also covered. We were thrilled to see that kind of press for technical education.

The article is not perfect. It quotes the now debunked assertion that a bachelor degree is worth close to a million dollars ($900,000 according to the quoted source). It avoids the real issue - marketable job skills - and focuses only on degrees.

It is still a very rare article and is worth checking out because it provides more perspective than usual about the viability of two-year technical degrees. The under-discussed issue of student debt is covered to an extent, which is certainly an area where two-year colleges hold a great advantage.

Is it possible that a business model hundreds of years old could be outdated? There is an article at “The Chronicle of Higher Education” that suggests that higher ed must change to respond to the market. The examples presented are the recording and newspaper industries. As usual with these kinds of articles, the comments make even more interesting reading. There is a lot of back-and-forth and the arguments are instructive.

Unfortunately, the comments eventually devolve into the perennial argument over whether students are customers. Of course students are customers. They fit every definition of the word of which I am aware. One of the most important distinctives of a true customer is freedom of choice regarding a product or service. If your students can take their money (or federal aid) and go elsewhere, you better start determining how you can serve them better.

For the record, I agree that the higher ed business model must change. It will change because the customers (including the organizations that employ the graduates) will no longer support it. It won’t all be online, but a lot more will be. Flexibility of many kinds will be demanded and provided. The growth of the for-profit sector is an indication of the desire that education consumers have for that service-oriented approach. In the end, our perception of what is really important in education will change.

For a technical school or program, the issues surrounding online courses are even more difficult. There are some skills that absolutely require students to have their hands on the equipment. We can’t just hide and hope the changes pass us by, though. Technology can be utilized to prepare a student to be more productive in a lab environment and increase the efficiency of the the learning process. Much of this technology can be delivered via the Internet along with the theory elements of a course. Improved technology will continue to make that delivery even more effective.

There is a good post on the ‘Ed in ‘08′ event in Washington D.C. on the Generation Yes Blog. GenYes points out:

The Ed in 08 campaign is a plan to get the presidential candidates to talk more about education and create more urgency in American politics for improving education. Their three policy pillars are:

• Higher standards
• More effective teachers
• More time and support for learning

Uh huh, sure - who isn’t for these. But what exactly do these phrases mean? There are a thousand interpretations, and a thousand more implementation ideas.

That is the problem. Presidential candidates and politicians in general are happy to talk about motherhood and apple pie. “Children need to know how to read and do math!” is a nice statement with which all voters will agree. However, “We need vouchers” or “We need year-round school” or any other specific solution makes some percentage of the voters mad.

I recently had a conversation with a Texas politician who is unhappy with the lack of direction from Washington on a real energy independence plan. He said, “We’ll have to do something ourselves since they aren’t going to do anything.” The same is true with education. At the national level, many of our “leaders” are now too hampered by political considerations to actually lead.

For more on Ed in ‘08, chedk out another GenYes post here. Ed Chipalowski has a lot here.

Texas Oil Billionaire T. Boone Pickens is planning to invest some of his billions in a west Texas wind farm that can power 1.3 million homes. What details are available can be found here.

It sounds like many more wind turbine technicians will be needed shortly.

One last video from the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry! I was very impressed by three things:

1. The museum was filled with great exhibits with a lot of interactive learning opportunities
2. The museum was filled with kids from elementary through high school age
3. The kids were LOUD

Sorry about the ‘loud’ remark. Remember, I work at a college and most of time we don’t reach those noise levels unless the Aviation Maintenance students are running up an engine.

My real point is that kids are getting to see technology at work. As a museum of Science AND Industry, the institution shows how science goes to work. The vision “is to inspire and motivate our children to achieve their full potential in the fields of science, technology, engineering and medicine.” It is summed up by the words in the center rotunda: Science discerns the laws of nature - Industry applies them to the needs of man…”

Below is a video showing an Oceaneering ROV in the petroleum exhibit and a wonderful exhibit featuring robots and a complete manufacturing line using PLCs and Allen-Bradley controls. This is just what kids need to see - the infrastructure that makes modern life possible. If they see that now, maybe more of them will start training to enter the vital and rewarding careers offered by technology.

While we were in Chicago visiting the Museum of Science and Industry, we stopped in on the U-505 exhibit. The U-505 is the German submarine captured by the U.S. Navy in 1944 (Wikipedia article here). It has been at the museum since 1956. We lived in the Chicago area when I was in grade school. I remember visiting U-505. It was outside and was already deteriorating to some extent in the early 1970’s. Now it has been restored and is kept in a covered and climate controlled room below ground level. The video below shows the sub and some of its artifacts. Inside photography was again banned. The tour is very worthwhile. The sub seemed cramped when I was an elementary kid. Looking at it as a rotund adult, I can hardly imagine 59 men living in these quarters for up to 90 days.

Looking at it from a technical perspective, the submarine is an amazing technological achievement. It is hard for someone today to imagine it being designed and built without computer aided design or CNC machine tools (which I suppose is why people who can’t imagine building large structures without diesel fuel look to UFOs to explain the pyramids!). War is a fight for national survival and often leads to incredible technical achievements. That doesn’t make it a good thing, but the accomplishments can still be appreciated.

There are a lot of great tools available at the museum and online to help students understand the science and technology both of the submarine and of the ships and planes which hunted it.

UPDATE:  I found some interior shots of the submarine as well as exterior shots from the outdoor days here.

I have been non-blogging this week because I have been busy at the “Best of Organizational Development” conference in Chicago. While here, we visited the Museum of Science and Industry especially to see the Smart Home exhibit. My video shows the outside only because inside photography was not allowed.

You can go here for more details. Also, there is a YouTube interview about the Smart Home here. I like the modular design and the mix of green and high-tech. If you can make the museum, go and see it. (The whole museum is AWESOME, so see the rest of it as well).

I bought a Flip Video Ultra from Amazon. I wanted the white, but it was back ordered for several weeks. I guess I wasn’t the only one who wanted white. It is simple to use, seems to work flawlessly, and makes it extremely easy to load and edit video on your computer. It can also expedite YouTube uploads. The sound is surprisingly good, and the “pop-out” USB connection makes it like a geek switchblade.

Verdict: I love this thing.

I used it seriously for this post.

I also used it to irritate my coworkers, as you can see at my YouTube site here.

Technical college students can be just as involved, or more, in social and charitable concerns as students pursuing arts and philosophy degrees. Service learning is an important part of any college experience. Here is a video of Texas State Technical College Waco Phi Theta Kappa students and advisers. They were sponsoring Pangea Day here on campus.

The Alpha Omega Omega chapter of Phi Theta Kappa at TSTC Waco has been a very busy and involved group for several years. If you link to their information on the Phi Theta Kappa website (HERE), you will see that the chapter is the recipient of many awards.

The Pangea Day for Waco was also mentioned in local media (HERE).

I agree with everything in this article from Inside Higher Ed. It is very much worth reading the whole thing. We are going to need a completely new way for funding and organizing post-secondary education in this country. Our system of technical colleges is already moving in the direction of greater efficiency in equipping students with truly marketable skills. This society can no longer afford the ‘college experience’ as it currently exists for these reasons:

1. It does not serve the students
2. It does not meet the needs of the economy
3. It wastes huge amounts of taxpayer money
4. It leaves higher ed customers under a heavy load of debt

Right now, public post-secondary technical education already represents an exceptional deal. When you remember that five of the top first year earnings degrees were the AAS variety (see here), you realize that ROI is much better from a technical college degree.

Read the article. Like all bubbles, this one will leave winners and losers when it pops.

UPDATE: I can’t agree with everything I read in this post. Connecting career choice solely with IQ is ridiculous. I’ve known too many Ph.D types that weren’t very smart, and a lot of technicians that were brilliant. I think it has more to do with choice than IQ.

I do agree with this bit, though:

Many go to University who ought to have learned their career skills in high school — or at least in junior college. It is not necessary for all the citizens of a republic to have gone to university and learned French Narrative Theory. One need not know know anything at all about Foucault or Deconstruction to be a good citizen, vote in elections, pay taxes; and indeed I put it to you that being without debt is probably preferable to knowing French Narrative Theory.

Don’t just sit there - make a comment!

There is a very interesting post from Sylvia at Generation Yes blog on the financial viability of educational video games in K-12. The reasoning is financial and ending is provocative:

So the next time someone says, “hey, I hear kids like the video games, why don’t they make an educational one” look them straight in the eye and ask them what they are smoking.

The comments are very lively and interesting, too. It is a good discussion.

Read the whole thing.

Maybe so. Check out this article on the top ten contenders for the prize at Popular Mechanics. The automotive prize will reward the first team to design and build a super-efficient marketable vehicle that will achieve 100 MPG. There is more on the prize in this Wikipedia article.

If you follow this kind of cool stuff, you will remember that the Ansari X Prize was awarded to Burt Rutan and team for launching Spaceship One into space and returning safely twice within a two week period. Those were grown up engineers doing some amazing things.

I wish all the best to the automotive and mechanical engineering students at West Philadelphia High School. It would be great if they won!

UPDATE: They are NATEF Certified according to this.

See the story over at e-Learning Pundit

There is a fascinating project to teach wind energy fundamentals:

The KidWind Project is a team of teachers, students, engineers and practitioners exploring the science behind wind energy in classrooms around the US. Our goal is to introduce as many people as possible to the elegance of wind power through hands-on science activities which are challenging, engaging and teach basic science principles.

While improving science education is our main goal, we also aim to help schools become important resources for students, and the general public, to learn about and see wind energy in action.

There are teacher workshops available around the country. Check it out.

Via the ‘math science and technology through design‘ blog.

I am compelled to brag on TSTC Waco’s SkillsUSA team. Our group at the state Skills competition accomplished the following:

40 gold medals 25 silver medals and 14 bronze medals out of 84 contests. From the 40 gold medalists, 28 students qualified for nationals.

The whole story and a complete list of TSTC Waco winners can be found here.

I hope to be bragging again after the Nationals in Kansas City. We’ve had to scramble to find the money to send such a large group.

*The Tornado is the TSTC Waco mascot. If you will look here, you will find out that we do have a sense of irony.

UPDATE:

Here is the lil’ fella. I don’t think he has a name.

Again from a friend at Texas Workforce Commission, this report about the lack of real change in schools. Highlights … I mean lowlights include:

• Time: Nationally, the amount of time spent in elementary school on core subjects has increased by only approximately 36 minutes per week-less than 10 minutes per day.
• Teaching: About 8 percent of public school districts offer pay incentives for excellence in teaching. That figure has remained virtually unchanged since 1984.
• Standards & expectations: 12th grade test scores in reading and science have dropped, while average high school GPAs have grown dramatically. Students are earning higher grades in “tougher” subjects, yet actual learning is either stagnant or declining. For instance, in math, almost half (two out of five) high school seniors lack skills commonly taught in the 7th or 8th grades that are needed to learn trades that do not require a college degree.

There is a lot to read in the report. I still believe that dual credit can help with a lot of these problems. Even with more dual credit, our educational system is stuck in the past.

Via a friend at the Texas Workforce Commission comes this note on a “tipping point” analysis done at the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. The study found that compared to students who earned less than 10 credits, those who reached the “tipping point” of at least two semesters of credits and a credential had a considerable average annual earnings advantage: $7,000 for students who started in ESL, $8,500 for those who started in ABE or GED, and $2,700 and $1,700 for those who entered with at most a GED or high school diploma.

The brief synopsis that I have read does not seem to differentiate between technical and academic. I will continue to look.

At the link, a model is provided for doing a similar study at your college.