It’s A Flat, Flat WorldWASBO Annual Conference

May 10, 2006

Derry Lyons – lyons@skitsap.wednet.edu

South Kitsap School District

My Hope For You…• Awareness of the flat, new world

• Reflect where you stand in the flat world

• Reflect where our kids need to be standing in the flat world

• Realize our kids are different, and to survive, they need to be different

• Opportunities to share and learn

• A time to laugh

AcknowledgementsI am deeply appreciative of the work of:

• Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat

• Marc Prensky, Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives

• Price Pritchett, New Work Habits For A Radically Changing World

• Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point

• Susan Brooks-Young, Educational Technology Consultant

The 2 Hour Tour…• Examining Friedman’s 10 Flatteners

• Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives

• Media Literacy

• The Natives Are Restless

• Being Effective Catalysts Of Change

… with sharing checkpoints along the way

…so what is this flat world?

Thomas Friedman

Globalization1.0 – Countries Globalizing (1492 –

1800)

2.0 – Companies Globalizing (1800 – 2000)

3.0 – Individuals Globalizing (2000 – )

… and it’s not about the U.S. and Europe anymore, everyone can play

Definition of Flat• A global, web-enabled platform for

multiple forms of sharing knowledge and work irrespective of time, distance, geography, and increasingly, language.

1. Berlin Wall & MS Windows• Berlin wall fell in 11/9/89

• Strong winds of change for a global, capitalistic system

• India’s Berlin wall fell in 1991… no need to leave the country to become rich

• Personal computers “opened the window” to the world by dialing up and communicating with others

2. Netscape Goes Public• On 8/9/95, a new tool goes “beyond

early adopters and geeks” to connect and unlock, point-and-click, 5- to 85-year-olds

• FINALLY, agreement on open standards

• Overinvestment in fiber optic cable worldwide, and nothing goes faster than the speed of light (Telecom Act of 1996)

50g of Fiber A Day• The gift that keeps on giving, just

change out the end hardware

• Taxes, Radiology, Telephony – if it can get from your computer to your server, it can go to India or China just as easy

• The 24/7 network – there’s always someone online to provide service

3. Streamlined Workflow• What does it take to produce an

animated cartoon?

• Automation – you get a new system

• Collaboration – your new system talks to everyone else’s new system

• Consolidation – Once talking together, the inefficiencies and redundancies become apparent

4. Opensourcing• Meet Shareware 2.0

• Free software and global collaboration

• Software BY the people, FOR the people

• IBM uses Apache web server as it’s core architecture

• Linux, OpenOffice, FireFox, Moodle

• Sourceforge.net 86,000 projects in 2005 to 118,500 projects in 2006

5. Outsourcing• Work (part of your operation) goes

outside the country

• Fungible (movable) vs. Non-Fungible

• Four types of “untouchable”

• Special• Specialized• Anchored• Really Adaptable

So What Jobs Are Fungible?•Accountant?

•Artist?

•Attorney?

•Bus Driver?

•Chef?

•Customer Help Desk?

•Fast Food Orderer?

•Mechanic?

•Radiologist?

•Receptionist?

•Superintendent?

•Teacher?

Please take a few moments to discusswith your colleagues

History Of Work In America

Reinventing Schools: The Technology Is Now!

6. Offshoring• The whole factory goes elsewhere

• Once one company in an industry starts offshoring, the others must follow to stay competitive

• China: From Communism to WTO

7. Supply Chaining• The Wal-Mart Symphony

• Dell: Back up the truck full of memory

• Inventory = $$$, and with a flat world, the price changes constantly

• Technology gives you communications and data (beer, games and Pop-Tarts)

8. Insourcing• UPS doesn’t just ship packages, they

fix Toshiba laptops, they coordinate pizza ingredients, they stock Jockey underwear, they package promotional materials, and hundreds of other things.

• Where does it make sense to insource in a K-12 environment?

• Custodial/Facilities?• Transportation?• Printing Services?

9. Informing• A personal process of self-

empowerment

• Open to all (the walls are down)• Uses the web (Netscape)• Open-Sourcing/Collaborating• TiVo for Entertainment• Supply Chaining

• Google – what do you want to know?

• NEW uses that we haven’t thought of

10. Steroids• Amplify and Turbo-charge the other

flatteners

• My iPaq: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Cellular

• SMALLER, faster, cheaper

• Voice-over-IP

• Übersteroid: wireless…and we’re behind!

• File Sharing

CHECKPOINTOutsourcing, offshoring, insourcing, supply chaining…what does that mean to you and your district?

Threat? Opportunity? Already happening?

Please take 5 minutes, share with a neighbor, and you’ll be welcome to share with the large group when we come back together!

Triple Convergence ~ 20001. The 10 Flatteners

2. Learning to “horizontalize” (collaborate – connect) rather than stay vertical (command – control)

3. The curtain goes up, and India, China and former Soviet Union bring 300 million workers (2x US workforce) to plug and play

Dirty Little Secrets• #1 – The Numbers Gap

There is no Sputnik anymore

• #2 – The Ambition GapImmigrants are always hungry, and they don’t have a backup plan

• #3 – The Education GapMicrosoft braintrust? Microsoft Research AsiaDecentralized U.S education system15+ years to create a scientist

The Political Landscape• No country with a McDonalds has fought

a major war with any other country with a McDonalds, excluding civil wars or border skirmishes

(Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree)

• If your country’s economy is dependent on foreign business, you’ll be careful in biting the hand that feeds you.

• What about immigration, post 9/11, etc?

Pod-Fad?

…to show how far we've come since the first edition, at the beginning of November (2005), the podcast version of this book was the #1 selling album on Apple iTunes. When I started this book in March 2004 podcasting didn't even exist.

-- 11/28/2005 Publisher’s Weekly interviewwith Thomas Friedman

CHECKPOINT• So what do you think? Agree or

Disagree?

• When did you realize the world went flat?

• How have you had to adapt?

Please take a few minutes, share with a neighbor, and you’ll be welcome to share with the large group when we come back together!

…Natives and Immigrants…

Digital Immigrants and Natives•Gen “Y” (1977+) are digital natives, not knowing a world without technology

•Pre-Gen “Y” are digital immigrants, brought along into this new world

•Immigrants have accents, however distinct or faint

Digital Immigrants and Natives• Originated from Marc Prensky, leader in

game-based learning• “Students are not just using technology

differently today, but are approaching their life and their daily activities differently because of the technology.”

-- NetDay, via Marc Prensky

So… let’s take the test:are YOU a digital immigrant?

Top 10 Signs Of Digital Immigrants

10. You have ever tried to rewind a DVD

9. Only use your cell phone to talk to people…if you have a cell phone

8. Teacher speaks, 30 kids listen, respond only when asked (remember “horizontalize”?)

7. You can’t understand why your kids would use a phone to text message to a friend rather than just dial the number

Top 10 Signs Of Digital Immigrants

6. You keep a fire extinguisher handy when your kids “burn” a CD

5. You think fax machines are cool and PDF’s are just for acrobats

4. Google is just a really big number

3. Kids can’t concentrate on homework with distractions like TV, iPods, computers

Top 10 Signs Of Digital Immigrants

2. Someone with a blog might be contagious and shouldn’t be allowed in public

…and the number one sign you’re a digital immigrant?

1. You hear Blackberry, you think pie

CHECKPOINTThink of your own “digital accents”.A time when your kids/grandkids are way beyond where you are. Does your VCR blink “12:00” and do you care? How has technology changed you in the last 5 years?

Please take 5 minutes, share with a neighbor, and you’ll be welcome to share with the large group when we come back together!

“Cells”Use

18-29

30-49

50-64 65+ Total

Personalized with wallpaper or ring tones

85% 72% 50% 29% 65%

Emergency, and it really helped

79% 76% 70% 65% 74%

Make calls to fill up free time 61% 43% 25% 20% 41%

Text Messaging 65% 37% 13% 8% 35%

Take Pictures 55% 27% 11% 8% 28%

Play Games 41% 21% 10% 3% 22%

Access the Internet 28% 11% 8% 8% 14%

E-mail 17% 7% 4% 2% 8%

Play Music 15% 6% 1% 1% 6%

Record video 15% 5% 2% 1% 6%

Source: “How Americans Use Their Cell Phones” 4/3/06 – Pew Internet & American Life Project

Immigrants: What’s Your Paradigm?

“Birds,” said the frog mysteriously. “Birds!”

And he told the fish about the birds, who had wings, and two legs, and many, many colors.

Fish is Fish, by Leo Lionni

1954 Rand Home Computer

…or nuclear sub control room?

Facts, Spins and Photoshop• Teaching kids “digital literacy” –

NETS Standards

• Wikipedia: A collaborative encyclopedia?

• Freidman’s 4th Flattener• Another Marc Prensky article:

Search vs. Research“We don’t let our kids access Wikipedia.

We don’t know if it’s accurate.” - School Librarian

Sample Wikipedia Entry

How Are You “Informing”?• What is YOUR natural, primary

source of information?

• Google?• News Sources?• Web Sites?• Colleagues?• Library?

• What about your digital natives?

Digital Literacy• Students researching Martin Luther King

type in a common web site name, www.martinlutherking.org, and the site states it is “A true historical examination”

• Many of the articles talk about FBI surveillance and assert immoral activities

• A small link at the bottom indicates:Hosted by stormfront.org

• Stormfront is a white nationalist radical group

Keeping Kids Safe• Federal legislation requires filters at

school

• Digital Immigrant parents trust kids, because they don’t understand

• Where’s the computer?

• Resources at isafe.org

…but WHERE is the world flat?• One-third of respondents couldn't pinpoint Louisiana on a map, and

48 percent were unable to locate Mississippi.

• Fewer than three in 10 think it's important to know the locations of countries in the news, and just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill.

• Two-thirds didn't know that the earthquake that killed 70,000 people in October occurred in Pakistan.

• Six in 10 could not find Iraq on a map of the Middle East.

• While the outsourcing of jobs to India has been a major U.S. business story, 47 percent could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map of Asia.

• Although Israeli-Palestinian strife has been in the news for the entire lives of the respondents, 75 percent were unable to locate Israel on a map of the Middle East.

• Nearly three-quarters of respondents incorrectly named English as the world's most widely spoken native language. (Chinese by 2-to-1)

• Six in 10 did not know the border between North and South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world. Thirty percent thought the most heavily fortified border was between the United States and Mexico.

Source: Roper Poll for National Geographic, www.mywonderfulworld.org

Case in point…• Social studies curriculum adoption

for geography, every 7 years

• Instructional materials

• Textbooks (w/ CD!)• Wall maps• Globes

• Is this meeting the educational needs of our digital native kids?

Case in point…• Authentic learning tools

• Google Earth• Global Positioning System (GPS) units• “Geocaching” – www.geocaching.com• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)• Streaming Video

• Students are immersed in real information, drawing real conclusions and applying real-time critical thinking.

• Which resource set makes sense to digital immigrants? To digital natives?

GIS

Data courtesy of Ed Pierson, Applied Digital Mapping, Port Orchard

“There is no reason that a generation that can memorize over 100 Pokémon characters with all their characteristics, history and evolution can’t learn the names, populations, capitals and relationships of all the 101 nations in the world. It just depends on how it’s presented.”

– Marc Prensky

CHECKPOINTIs there an area in your district that’s not native-friendly that you think would benefit from taking a step back and re-thinking the process?

Please take 5 minutes, share with a neighbor, and you’ll be welcome to share with the large group when we come back together!

…where we go from here…

…immigrating into a flat world…

Changing The Way We Educate

http://www.ncrel.org/engauge

Horizontalize/Embrace Web 2.0Where you interact and collaborate

• BlogsPersonal reflections, much like writing a journal that is shared with others

• WikisWeb-based collaborative document, where we all make changes (i.e. wikipedia)

• PodcastsAn “audio blog” listened to with an iPod or other audio player

Understand New Marketing• TV Commercials and Tivo: From

Corporate to Slicing to Product Placement to Collaboration

• Purchasing ring tones – 2 BILLION per year (that’s $2-$4 billion a year industry)

• Purchasing individual songs, not albums. Better if they were free.

• Hush Puppies and The Tipping Point

Watch for Paradigm FLIPS• Used to have to pay extra for online

banking, now you pay extra for paper statements

• Used to have to dial the phone to get to the internet, now you use the internet to make phone calls

• When entering a new job, the young would learn the tried-and-true ways; now businesses are looking for workers equipped with new skills to continue pushing ahead.

CHECKPOINTWhat are some paradigm shifts or flips occurring in the world around you

Please take 5 minutes, share with a neighbor, and you’ll be welcome to share with the large group when we come back together!

“Education is the only business still debating the usefulness of technology. Schools remain unchanged for the most part, despite numerous reforms and increased investments in computers and networks.”

-- Rod Paige, Former U.S. Secretary of Education

Purposeful Abandonment*• You cannot simultaneously grow and

hold on – you have to let go of something

• What are we doing?

• Why are we doing it?

• What happens if we don’t do it?

• See-Feel-Change vs. Analyze-Think-Change

Phrase coined by Dr. Judee Axelsen, Educational Consultant

Changing the Immigrant Thinking• New Work Habits For A Radically

Changing World by Price Pritchett

• “Take no part whatsoever in resistance to change. If the organization decides to turn on a dime, follow it like a trailer. Corner quickly. Turn for turn.”

• “Your future ‘employability’—your appeal as a job candidate—depends on you having a relentless drive to update credentials, acquire new skills, and stay abreast of what’s happening in your field.”

Derry’s Crystal Ball• Convergence, Tablets,

Wireless

• NCLB, 8th Grade Tech Literacy

• Federal & WA K-12 Funding

• Keep an eye on K-12 Alternative Programs

• More Information FROM and TO Your Fingertips

• Watch the natives as they bloom and flourish

RESOURCES• The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman

Video http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/266/

• Marc Prensky’s Articleshttp://www.marcprensky.com/writing/http://www.mediasite.com/ search on Prensky

• New Work Habits For A Radically Changing World by Price Pritchett

• Susan Brooks-Younghttp://sjbrooks_young.tripod.com/

• Dr. Judee Axelsenhttp://www.drjudeeaxelsen.com