Future of Education

Introduction

There two ways to look at education and society changes.  One is to look at how school systems alterations have complex changes on society.  Another way is to look at what changes in society required changes in schools to keep them relevant.   Students today are immersed in a digital world.  Connectivity from Facebook to texting to online gaming has made the current generation more social in a digital way.  A large portion of kids today spend time playing games that feed positive emotions through quick awards for accomplishments.  How will schools empower the students of tomorrow in the face of this digital world?  

 

Initiative

The initiative should be to continue to engage the students.  The active student has always been better at learning and been more productive.  New technology does not change this fact.  New technology just changes how students interact with the world and thus how schools need to engage them.

The positive emotions of students will continue to be extremely important, as students are more energized, for learning when they feel good about themselves.   Texting can be used in a good way; it is less threatening to students.   They are allowed to reflex, retract, and research.   Allowing students to text could help students be more willing to participate.   Student’s emotions are kept positive when the pace of learning matches the student’s learning rate.   More computer systems and educational software will be used to give a one to one learning style.

Playing together as a group has always produced stronger relationships.  Modern games that kids play take this another step.   Not only do they often group players, but many games group players against a computer.    Kids are no longer up against each other.  Role playing and collaborate problem solving will replace single player learning.  No longer, will the student getting help from their neighbor be cheating.

‘Why?’  Students today want to know the reason they need to know something.  Memorizing facts will seem pointless, when it can be found on a mobile device in seconds.  Future learning will need to be more about scenarios that analyze and evaluate information or data and the decisions made.

Accomplishments continue to be important.  The future will require faster assessment as students are more and more used to instant gratification from faster and faster data streams.  The future is changing fast, yesterday constructions are quickly old.  To keep up, students will also need to be more creative.

 

Domains

Changes will need to occur in all the domains listed in McREL’s The Asking the Right Questions:  A Leader’s Guide to Systems Thinking about School Improvements.   The curriculum and instruction methods in the technical part will need to change to keep schools relevant.  They will need to be less about facts and more about using them.   Standards and assessment will need to be improved to give faster critiques on even more difficult rubrics to assess areas associated with higher levels of learning.

Students are not the only ones who want to know ‘why?’  Leadership will have to create climate and culture that teachers can succeed in.  Significant communication and professional development will be required to mix the new technology and curriculum.   Teachers will also need to be empowered to make positive changes.  They will also need to change their teaching roles to become more of a mentor.

Organizing this will take a lot of careful deliberation, including input from all the stakeholders and evaluation of all resources.    Politics will require schools to be held accountable to getting it right the first time.  Careful considerations will need to be made of all possible actions.

 

New Technology

The ever changing world of technology will play a key role in the future of what education will look like.  New unseen concepts could drastically change even the most careful consideration on how to proceed.   Soon small tablets will have enough power to do all school required applications.  The line between laptops and tablets will blur.  The key will be capturing a price point to make them affordable, as companies prefer producing newer items with higher profit margins.  Virtual worlds are already getting close to reality.  In a few years these will be more of an excellent learning opportunity.   The biggest change of all would be some advancement in neuroscience that directly plugs in information like in the movies.   This would raise a huge ethical debate as ideologies could also be programed.

 

Conclusion

The brick and mortar schools will need to have an added value if they will continue to compete with ever improving online only education.  They will have to combine the best of both worlds.  Technology will continue to change rapidly and continually keeping pace will be too expensive.  Constantly jumping between technologies will also be too disruptive.  It will be extremely important for management to pick the right technology and learning system, or fall behind in the ever more competitive future world of education.

Reference

Cicchinelli, L. (2000).  Asking The Right Questions: A Leader’s Guide to Systems Thinking about School Improvements.   Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.  Retrieved March 3, 2012 from http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/SchoolImprovementReform/5982TG_AskingRightQuestions.pdf

DigitalArtsAlliance. (2008). Learning to Change – Changing to Learn.  Pearson Foundation.  Retrieved March 4, 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tahTKdEUAPk

The Economist Intelligence Unit 2008.  (2008).  The future of higher education.  Retrieved March 4, 2012 from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Future-of-Higher-Ed-%28NMC%29.pdf

The Guardian/The Observer.  (2011) 20 predictions for the next 25 years.  Retrieved March 4, 2012 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/02/25-predictions-25-year

Wingfield, N. (2012).  As New iPad Debut Nears, Some See Decline of PCs.  The New York Times.  Retrieved March 6, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/technology/as-new-ipad-debut-nears-some-see-decline-of-pcs.html

R9 Navigation

This video help pilots learn how to use the R9 to teach navigation

R9 Frequency Input

 

This video teaches how to enter both com and navigation frequencies into the Avidyne R9 FMS.

Introduction to Avidyne R9 Avionics

How to setup and use the basic functions on the R9 computer simulator by Avidyne

Engaging the 21st Century Student

Notes from Dr. Mark Taylor Presentation 
Western Michigan University Fetzer Auditorium, Kalamazoo Michigan
May 16, 2011
Meet Generation NeXt: Understanding and Teaching Today’s Students

www.taylorprograms.com 

Kids today have grown up with the digital world at their fingertips and parents who managed their time. The students in school today have a few different characteristics then past students.  Not that they are all the same, but as a group they tend to be less compliant and less idealist.  Many of them see their parents as friends who offered options, instead of authority figures.  They all got the trophy for just showing up, so many do not value hard work and may take criticism poorly.  Protected from normal outcomes, many have not developed decision making skills, but love to offer their opinions.

College has been a struggle for some.  Part of it might be that they are used to their parents bulldozing the way.  The very few hours of studying a week which got them by, in high school, does not cut it in college.   Many have said that their connection to the net has left them easily distracted with attention issues.   Yet when they are engaged in something they value, with their ideas of unlimited horizons they can accomplish many things.

Mark Taylor’s opening lecture was about comparing this group of students with past and how to better engage them.  Generally today’s students are good at finding information very quickly, especially if they value the information.    By moving towards less lecturing and involving students more, they will learn to value and apply the required knowledge.  What worked for us, may not work for the average student. Most of us were automatically engaged in school, we loved the stuff we were learning, that is why we are teaching it.

Dr. Taylor gave some ideas for engaging the 21st century student.  They included

• Improve students’ understanding of class expectation.
• Moving content out of the classroom to before class study.
• Make students responsible by quizzing them on being prepared.
• Make class more active and a time of discovery.
• Have students teach each other by rephrasing learned material.
• Use the limited class time to teach students what information to value and to link knowledge with the skill that uses it.
• Improving student future orientation, by showing them what they will be doing as the professional they aspire to become.  
• Showing students the benefits of your class by linking class goals to needed skills.

Dr. Taylor ideas for working with student workers included

• Make them feel as part of a team they value memberships and relations.
• Understand the difference between age groups of workers. (Working with the Generations)
• Helping them understand the expectation of adult life including
• Orientation to authority  (Taking orders),
• Importance of productivity,
• Dealing with customers, and
• Expected appearances.
• Expecting some defensiveness – remember they think they are special and grew up with praise
• Realizing your expectations may seem unrealistic to them, so help them by
• Using another of the same generation to talk to them,
• Sandwich praise with feedback to correct them related to a goal,
• Giving more procedural and development feedback, and
• Giving less personal feedback.
• Helping them learn methods to stay on task.

 See blog entry from Mark Taylor first WMU visit from September 2010 at Notes on Dr. Taylor Sept 2010 WMU visit 



Reference

Taylor, Mark . (2011, May). Meet Generation NeXt – Understanding and Teaching Today’s Students: Lecture delivered at Western Michigan University Fetzer Auditorium, Kalamazoo, MI.

Cloud Computing Security

Cloud Computing Security

Introduction
In the recent years, there has been a tendency to move away from mass in-house storage and keep data on the web or in “The Cloud”. A big advantage to this, is that this comes at a reduce price over in-house storage. This allows people access to your information, anywhere you have internet access. All types of things can be stored; some common ones include pictures, music, and e-mail. Weather you know it or not, you most likely already use cloud computing, if you use email like Yahoo Mail, Gmail, or Hotmail or social media like Facebook. Businesses can use “The Cloud” for many different business applications. The applications are almost limitless, but some common uses include data processing, accounting, email, office productivity software, and call center automation. These applications also include some Software-as-a-Services that are also moving off your computer and on to the web. This paper looks at exactly what is “The Cloud”, the questions ‘how safe is “The Cloud”, does it keep your information safe?’, and ‘what preparation can be done to protect you or your business?’

Formal Definition
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, Information Technology Laboratory defines Cloud computing as a
“model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

The NIST goes on to list essential characteristics
• On-demand self-service
• Broad network access
• Resource pooling
• Rapid elasticity
• Measured Service

Just as there are many different clouds in the sky, there are different types of cloud deployments. A Private cloud is run exclusively for one organization. A Community cloud is used for a group of organizations with similar needs or requirements. Public clouds are usually run by a business selling services to the general public or a group of businesses. The last is a Hybrid cloud, which is a unique combination of the first three. Services can also be broken up, between infrastructure, platform, or software.

How safe
The fact you can reach your information from all around the world, brings up the question “who else can also get this information?” Do you really know where your data is kept, or by whom? Do you know if any protections are taken to keep your information or data safe from thief or loss? These controls of security procedures are relinquished when computing is outsourced to the cloud.
In the article, Google Blames Software Update for Lost Gmail Data, Steve Musil states that about 40,000 Google accounts suddenly and mysteriously lost e-emails, contacts, and folders. Luckily for the users, Google keeps multiple copies of data in many different data centers.

According to the editor at Oxford Consulting, cyber criminals are often able to get critical information. Worse yet, these companies that are hack, often have no idea what information is stolen or lost. This lost of information highly affects consumer trust.

The homeland security newswire adds that criminals even run their own cloud services. They centrally control compromised computer with botnets, to host malicious content or to overwhelm a selected target with data. You can actually purchase virtual computers from these people. Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud was used by a cyber criminal to send out an immense junk e-mail operation. The newswire quotes Haroon Meer as saying “The cloud is going to offer the serious criminal huge computing resources on tap, which has lots of interesting applications”

Cloud computing security needs to be taken seriously. Redundant data storage and Identity and access management are a must. To regain control, you need to ensure that the company you pick has some serious standards in place.

Security
How do you select a cloud vendor, when you leave the in-house programs that provide a certain physical control over information? You must ask detail questions and insist on getting information on security. Make sure the company you pick have test done to verify that they can protect you. Jon Brodkin quotes Gartner, on seven specific security issues a customer should raise with a vendor before selecting

1. Privileged user access. Sensitive data processed outside the enterprise brings with it an inherent level of risk, because outsourced services bypass the "physical, logical and personnel controls" IT shops exert over in-house programs. Get as much information as you can about the people who manage your data. "Ask providers to supply specific information on the hiring and oversight of privileged administrators, and the controls over their access," Gartner says.

2. Regulatory compliance. Customers are ultimately responsible for the security and integrity of their own data, even when it is held by a service provider. Traditional service providers are subjected to external audits and security certifications. Cloud computing providers who refuse to undergo this scrutiny are "signaling that customers can only use them for the most trivial functions," according to Gartner.

3. Data location. When you use the cloud, you probably won't know exactly where your data is hosted. In fact, you might not even know what country it will be stored in. Ask providers if they will commit to storing and processing data in specific jurisdictions, and whether they will make a contractual commitment to obey local privacy requirements on behalf of their customers, Gartner advises.

4. Data segregation. Data in the cloud is typically in a shared environment alongside data from other customers. Encryption is effective but isn't a cure-all. "Find out what is done to segregate data at rest," Gartner advises. The cloud provider should provide evidence that encryption schemes were designed and tested by experienced specialists. "Encryption accidents can make data totally unusable, and even normal encryption can complicate availability," Gartner says.

5. Recovery. Even if you don't know where your data is, a cloud provider should tell you what will happen to your data and service in case of a disaster. "Any offering that does not replicate the data and application infrastructure across multiple sites is vulnerable to a total failure," Gartner says. Ask your provider if it has "the ability to do a complete restoration, and how long it will take."

6. Investigative support. Investigating inappropriate or illegal activity may be impossible in cloud computing, Gartner warns. "Cloud services are especially difficult to investigate, because logging and data for multiple customers may be co-located and may also be spread across an ever-changing set of hosts and data centers. If you cannot get a contractual commitment to support specific forms of investigation, along with evidence that the vendor has already successfully supported such activities, then only safe assumption is that investigation and discovery requests will be impossible."

7. Long-term viability. Ideally, your cloud computing provider will never go broke or get acquired and swallowed up by a larger company. But you must be sure your data will remain available even after such an event. "Ask potential providers how you would get your data back and if it would be in a format that you could import into a replacement application," Gartner says.

Cloud computing as many benefits, from portability to cost. To take advantage of these, it is important to address some important security concerns from who has access, where is the data, and how well is it backed up. With these precautions the sky is the limit.



References

Information found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

Business uses for the cloud found at http://www.getapp.com/blog/cloud-computing-highly-preferred-for-business-applications/

Cloud Computing models found at https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/5300-Top-10-Security-Concerns-for-Cloud-Computing.html

Mell, P., Grance, T. (2009, Oct 7). The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Information Technology Laboratory.

Information on how safe found at http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-12/tech/cloud.computing.security_1_computing-convenience-stored?_s=PM:TECH

Musil, S. (2011, Feb 28) Google blames software update for lost Gmail data. Digital Media. Download from http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20037554-93.html

Data from Oxford consulting found at http://oxford-consulting.com/industry-news/2011/03/shocking-data-loss-statistics-released/

Homeland Security News Wire found at http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/cybercriminals-begin-exploit-cloud-hacking

Brodkin, . (2008, Jul 2). Gartner: Seven Cloud-computing security risk. Network World. Download from http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/gartner-seven-cloud-computing-security-risks-853

Do you Learn, when I teach

A link to a Video on "I teach, therefore you learn... or do you?"