What do Mark Zuckerberg, John Doerr and Reed Hastings have in common? They were all in Burlingame on May 18 headlining the NewSchools Venture Fund Summit. They each have access to billions of dollars to help transform public education. Entrepreneurs with billions of dollars are changing the educational landscape like this educator has never seen before, even if they are 27 years old and wear hooded sweatshirts.
Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, John Doerr, venture capitalist, Reed Hastings, Founder of Netflix, all appear to be sincere and passionate about sustaining a full court press until public education has been transformed. Their desire is to reinvent the system to where student and staff failure is history and each student succeeds using agreed-to metrics.
From what I see, hear and feel, it is working. And of course many on the dais during summit sessions have worked with the Gates Foundation in some capacity past or present. So even though not physically present Bill and Melinda Gates’ leadership in the movement for system-change casts long shadows.
A serendipitous event occurred that connected me with a former teacher that worked with me at J.L. Stanford Middle School in Palo Alto. She is now working with NewSchools Venture Fund. The electronic meeting with her led me to attend the Summit for part of the day. The NewSchools Summit has convened since 1999 to answer the questions “How do we make innovation an everyday habit in education? How do we learn from success—and from failure? How do we innovate to serve the most underserved?”
As I walked through the portal of the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame the Summit planners should have had Bob Dylan playing “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” Dylan recalls writing the song with the intention of chronicling the change pulsating through America and beyond. I have been convinced for a while that the public education system in this country is changin’ more rapidly than most of us see.
A couple verses of the song go:
Come senators, congressmen / please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway / don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt / will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside / and it’s ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows / and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin.’
One of our local entrepreneurial change agents, John Danner, co-founder of Rocketship Education, received the national award for New Market Maker. John is hailed as the founder of the hybrid school movement. John has been a consistent shaker of the institutional school windows and has rattled several school walls in the process and there is more tumult on the way.
On Thursday of last week the Santa Clara Ccounty Office of Education convened a groundbreaking meeting that involved superintendents, board presidents, and teacher union presidents from the San Jose Unified, Alum Rock, East Side Union and Franklin-McKinley School Districts. Other key participants included People Acting In Community Together (PACT), several charter school organizations and other potential corporate funders.
We all met with Adam Porsch and Ebony Lee from the Gates Foundation to discuss entering into a collaborative compact agreement to further the dialogue on working strategically together so all staff and students benefit from written agreed to goals and objectives. All participants affirmed that desire to meet again to attempt to write a collaborative compact that could be funded by Gates Foundation for up to $500,000.
Thanks in large measure to the philanthropic work of key entrepreneurs Silicon Valley’s public education system is A-changin’. Adam Porsch of the Gates Foundation wrote to me late in the evening on the day of the meeting and said, “We’ve done several of these meetings and can honestly tell you that nowhere in the country have we seen more passionate and competent leadership in moving districts and charter leaders toward productive collaboration.”
Yes, the times are a-changin’.
The Times They Are A-Changin’ won’t be a changing until California Teachers care more for students than for themselves and realize more money without significant school reform is just good taxes after bad schools
Only reason CTA is working with billionaires is they want more money and will oppose any reforms that give students and parents choices and taxpayers a say in how schools are run
I am surprised people listen to this sad flower. With educators like DiSalvo, we can be confident of being the property of China for centuries to come.
Hey Joseph,
Well, I hope that opened your eyes. How much of what you saw focused on video as a huge factor in future education?
I keep hammering this on all your posts, but cameras in the classroom would have a largely positive impact, not just in keeping students behaviours in line, but educating them as well.
A sick kid could replay the days class from home. A slow kid could “re-watch” a class. Kids could have “video field trips”, instead of having to organise a field trip.
You couldn’t take a classroom into an Intel clean room, but you could send a cameraman or two.
> I keep hammering this on all your posts, but cameras in the classroom would have a largely positive impact, not just in keeping students behaviours in line, but educating them as well.
Technology, including video, is a tool and not a solution.
I leaned a lot from good videos. Bad videos can be deadly dull. Or worse.
Just like teaching, videos succeed or fail on the basis of good content and good presentation.
I fear that we are sliding down the slippery slope of relying in cheap, self-serving video coddle lazy teachers and to even replace teaching entirely.
George Soros and his progressive elves are busily producing and distributing videos to schools under the guise of “education resources”. These “resources” are just soft soap indoctrination of school children in the “progressive” agenda.
A couple years ago, there was a minor flap over schools using Al Gore’s bogus and dishonest global warming screed, “An Inconvenient Truth” as a required education resource. A British Court found that the video contained substantive scientific errors. The Court was being kind, to say the least.
Relying on videos produced by George Soros, or Al Gore, or ACORN, or Concerned Scientists, or any of the zillion other toxic progressive agenda zealots is NOT the education that lucid, conscientious Americans want for their children.
Teachable:
While I agree that the context of which you describe is a “slippery slope” of propaganda, the context of which I’m proposing for video use in schools is not the same.
What I’m proposing isn’t pre-recorded lesson plans. What I’m proposing would more closely resemble a DVR for a classroom (with live video)
Sick kids can still participate in class while at home (which may have the added bonus of being a day “attended” which means, the school gets credit for teaching the student that day)
You calling it a tool is like calling a shovel a tool. Sure I can dig with my bare hands, but I’d much rather use a shovel. It’s more than just a tool. It’s a complete change in how we do things (for the better).
Beautiful thing is, we can do this now, nearly for free in every classroom. The 2003 PC I’m typing on now is more than sufficient for the job, just add a cheapo webcam and some free software, and you’re done. Classrooms are already networked, so there you go.
Zoneminder would do the job wonderfully, It could provide granular access to each classrooms video DVR, and best of all it’s free/open source.
http://www.zoneminder.com/
Granted, we can teach kids without all the fancy hi-tech nonsense, but is that really preparing them for the world?
> Zoneminder would do the job wonderfully, It could provide granular access to each classrooms video DVR, and best of all it’s free/open source.
The issue is not whether Zoneminder is a wonderful facility, or technicians know to provide granular video access to classrooms with video and DVR.
The issue is CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT!
What is the content, who decides what content is offered, and who controls it.
I don’t care if a sick kid at home gets to see live video of his unionized teacher showing the kids in the classroon Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”.
It’s the same toxic message that the kid would receive if he were sitting in the classroom, or if a substitute teacher repeated the class lecture for him.
Video delivery is just a tool. It’s not clear to me what cosmic problem you think this tool is going to solve that isn’t already being solved.
> Wouldn’t it be sweet, just one time, (cause if you are a teacher, I’m sure you’ve dealt with this one) if you could show the parents the crap the kid does in your classroom?
THIS is the problem you want to solve?!!!!
Forget it.
Many years ago, I learned in a video production class that ninety percent of what people learn from videos is what is said about the video. As any video editor can tell you, raw video by itself generally does NOT tell a story.
People can and do have very different interpretations of events they witness. There is a well known novel that depicts this very phenomenon: “Rashomon”.
It is folly to believe that any technical solution will ever be capable of collecting and saving all the video evidence necessary to resolve every interpersonal dispute that occurs in schools or in society. Ultimately, this stuff only gets sorted out on Judgement Day.
A better, simpler, and wiser solution is a system of REAL “school choice”. Allow students and parents to choose their schools. Allow students and teachers to choose their students and their parents.
If a student and/or a parents are disruptive or uncooperative, just tell them that “perhaps little Billy Bob would do better in a different environment. Good Bye.”
Probem solved.
No need for cameras, or DVD’s or networks or Zoneminder or anything else. Just school choice, freedom, and common sense.
In a system based on choice, the cream rises to the top, and the turds sink to the bottom where they can be with other turds.
>>If a student and/or a parents are disruptive or uncooperative, just tell them that “perhaps little Billy Bob would do better in a different environment. Good Bye.”
It never happens that way though Teach.. Here’s what REALLY happens in that situation.
Disruptive kid had really stellar parents (as far as, chewing out the teachers/participating in meetings) We’ll call him “Billy”
Billy goes to Joseph George Middle. Maybe his last name is “Lopez” or “Hernandez” Mostly good kids, sort of a middle class neighbourhood, the Latino ratio is a lot less now than it was when I was a kid.
School – “We think your kid would be better at Sheppard”
Parent – “You’re trying to segregate my poor little latino baby you racist, hold on while I call the ACLU and my lawyer”
School – “Well, his teachers said”
Parent – “THAT ONE TEACHER IS A LIAR! SHE’S WHITE! THIS IS RACISM” (note, it just takes that much to get the ball rolling, doesn’t matter if the case would pan out or not, like the old adage “Anyone can sue”)
So now we got not just a parent/teacher issue. We got the entire administration scrabling to fend this off. A cost/benefit study is done, and the cost of a lawsuit far outweighs the cost of keeping this brat kid in a classroom. The principle tells the teacher, “It’s just another 6 months, and they’re gone.. Just put up with it”
All that time wasted on “spin” instead of teaching…
The filtering that goes on in schools is highly inefficient. Not just student filters, but teacher filters as well.
Anecdotal story here…
In the 3rd grade I hadn’t done my homework in about 2 months. My teacher (Mrs Adams of Springer Elementary in Los Altos) starts screaming at me.
I thought if I could smile, it would ease the situation. Through the yelling, my mouth started cracking and slowly a big grin came on my face.
“FWAP!” For whatever reason, Mrs Adams thought it’d be a great idea to slap that smile off my face. Her hand came down across my mouth, and she cut her hand open on my buck teeth. Blood ran from her hand, and the entire classroom grew eerily silent. Every child in that classroom had a look of fear, like they were next.
Before recess she sat me down, “Robert, don’t tell ANYONE about this OK? I am so sorry, just don’t tell anyone, we won’t worry about the homework anymore OK?”
2 wrong things happened that year.
1. A kid got hit by a teacher
2. A kid got a free pass to the 3rd grade.
I have no doubts other kids told parents/teachers about it, but I’m betting the administration just decided to “let this one lie” since my mother is a lawsuit hound.
Personally, I think it would have been awesome if she would have been fired and barred from ever teaching again. I’m sort of not a nice guy like that.
Had a camera been in the classroom, I bet she would have known not to slap me in the mouth. People act right when they know somebody is looking.
See, it goes both ways.
You keep saying tool though… This is a fundamental shift in how schools could be run. This is bringing parents into the classroom their kids go to everyday, and letting those students take the classroom home with them.
The only people I’ve found who take issue with it is administration. They don’t want the liability of “being wrong”
You’re Joseph writing under a pen name aren’t you teachable? I just checked my hunch, both the style, punctuation, paragraph formatting and overall word tempo’s seem to match. (BTW, for some odd reason, I wound up being REALLY good at writing, honors english all the way to JC)
>>Ultimately, this stuff only gets sorted out on Judgement Day.
Yah, great solution there Broseph. Reminds me of this joke.
A priest a rabbi, and a minister are sitting in front of a pile of coins, debating which percentage to give to “god.”
Priest, in his usual form says, “I propose, we give half to charity, and half to the church”
The minister says, “But my church needs a new organ! I say we give god 1/4 and the rest we keep for our churches.
Rabbi has been sitting quietly this whole time contemplating everything. Rabbi says, “How about, we throw all the money in the air, and what god wants, god keeps!”
(learned from the 80’s flick Short Circuit, while Steve Guttenberg is trying to explain comedy to the Robot Johnny 5)
>>It’s not clear to me what cosmic problem you think this tool is going to solve that isn’t already being solved.
So today a coach and a few teachers are talking about this one kid, acts up, then the parents come in and treat them like crap accusing them of lying to them. (you might actually know this coach, he has 1 arm)
Wouldn’t it be sweet, just one time, (cause if you are a teacher, I’m sure you’ve dealt with this one) if you could show the parents the crap the kid does in your classroom?
“Am I lying now parents? Now please go home and properly discipline your kid”
That’s just one problem it solves. End of story.
Thing I don’t think you understand, again, is that I’m not talking about video into the classroom, I’m talking video out of the classroom. Kids can “rewatch” that days lesson if they need to. Whatever the teacher did in front of the blackboard that day (or any day, why not archive the lessons?)
Michael Moore and Al Gore videos have nothing to do with what I’m pitching.
Content and what is taught in schools is a totally separate thread.
Come entrepreneurs, moneymen / Please heed the call
We’ve changed terminology / Excuse us for our gall
Forget our hate of capitalists / The welfare state has stalled
There’s a battle outside / And it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows / And rattle your walls
For progressives, they are a-changin’.
Amen Brother. And bravo!
Robert
No Teacher wants ” Big Brother ” watching over them – why they would have to be accountable and anyone watching could tell if they are good or not at teaching
Great idea but not going to happen with very politically powerful California Teachers union opposing any reforms
Parent:
May interest you to know that a good portion of the customers at 7 Bamboo are teachers, there to drink away their memories after a day of dealing with kids and their raging hormones.
I’ve passed the idea to all of them, and unanimously they like it. I’d hope Joseph would do the same of his staff, just to get feelers out there.
And as a parent myself, I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable with my child being on camera (as long as controls were in place to only allow parent/student/administration access)
Look at how many false allegations of child molestation have been lobbied against innocent teachers over the years, this empowers them. To a whole new level.
Your kid probably makes funny videos of themselves and upload them to youtube all the time, wouldn’t you rather they uploaded their “class notes” instead?
> Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, John Doerr, venture capitalist, Reed Hastings, Founder of Netflix, all appear to be sincere and passionate about sustaining a full court press until public education has been transformed.
Good grief.
One of the earmark traits of “progressives” is that they habitually use intransitive verbs or verbs without objects or the passive voice.
That way, they never have to articulate a wholly formed thought and be clear about the full consequence of their “solutions”.
Transformed? Transformed into what?
Hope? Hope for what?
Change? What change?
Gullible people (i.e. people who vote for “progressives”) always complete the incomplete statements in the most self-satisfying, self-fullfilling way. And they are always disappointed to be reminded down the road that the “progressive” never actually said what they imagined that they said.
“The NewSchools Summit has convened since 1999 to answer the questions “How do we make innovation an everyday habit in education? How do we learn from success—and from failure? How do we innovate to serve the most undeserved?”
*******************************************************
Wow are ‘we’ off topic ! I just love the the comments !
Is every body scared of technology in the classroom?
Sorry Joseph .