In the END, NO Surpises here!

Innovators Were the Big Winners in 2006 (and in 2007, 2008, 2009, etc.)

By Rob Pegoraro
Sunday, December 31, 2006; F02

To succeed, computing and electronics firms need to reinvent themselves regularly, not just their products. Doing business in the same old way only invites competitors to leap ahead.

Consider the firms that were willing to rip up their own scripts this year, such as Google and Apple Computer. They were often rewarded with dramatic success, while those that couldn't play against type, such as Microsoft and most of the big movie studies, fell behind.

Google turned out to be one of the most aggressive innovators of this year. Had the company motored through 2006 on autopilot, it likely would have remained a fine Web search engine. Instead, it accelerated its software-development efforts with free, frequently improved releases, such as the Google Desktop search tool, the Picasa photo editor and the Google Pack of Internet and media software. The company also introduced an assortment of simple sites that offer free calendar, spreadsheet and writing tools. They're not fancy, but are far simpler and cheaper than Microsoft Office.

Apple also surprised the world in 2006. In January, only six months after announcing its decision to switch from its existing PowerPC processors to Intel chips, the company shipped its first Intel-powered models -- and by October, it had finished that transition. At the same time, Apple persuaded most developers of Macintosh software to make the switch to writing for Intel chips, which can't have been an easy sell. But most quickly rewrote their programs, earning impressive gains in performance. Apple's Intel adoption yielded another benefit: With extra software from Apple and other companies, new Macs run Windows programs as fast as a PC can.

Apple, whose fortunes have been rising with the popularity of its iPod, became even more of a force in online media this year by continuing to dominate music and TV-show downloads -- and then adding movies to its iTunes Store.

But video downloads at iTunes were dwarfed by clips produced (or just copied and uploaded) by everyday users at YouTube and rival sites. No cable or satellite-TV service had as much to watch as the Web of 2006.

That should be a lesson to any company doing business online: Nothing is as attractive to users as other people. Whether it's a YouTube video clip, a MySpace or Facebook page, or a Skype videophone call, the best reason to go online is your fellow humans. And because people's tastes are so diverse, companies that try to package their creative outburst into little boxes are unlikely to succeed.

AOL ended its own attempt to run a gated community online in August, allowing free access and finally merging its content with the Web at large. By casting aside one of its core tenets -- charging for its content and limiting access to subscribers -- AOL may have preserved its viability.

Wireless-phone carriers, however, appear determined to repeat AOL's error by only allowing certain, favored sources of media on their networks. This is classic phone-company bossiness, but the paucity of competing mobile-broadband options may let them get away with it.

Movie studios were another contingent that refused to learn in 2006. Even as TV networks finally moved to put their content online, the film industry kept limiting movie downloads to expensive, tightly restricted services that appeal only to viewers who are unable or unwilling to go to a regular video store or open a Netflix envelope.

It's especially critical for studios to stop this now that DVD players outnumber VHS players in U.S. homes and disc sales are leveling off. No new recorded format is set to replace the DVD -- certainly not when users must pick between two competing, incompatible, expensive types of high-definition disc -- so Hollywood will have to meet its viewers online.

Microsoft, traditionally the one company nobody can afford to ignore, found itself dangerously close to becoming irrelevant in 2006 because it, too, fell prey to old habits. Its two most-anticipated, most-delayed products, Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007, slipped even further behind schedule this year. These flagship releases now won't land in stores until the end of January.

The biggest software update that Microsoft did ship, Internet Explorer 7, brought desperately needed updates to Microsoft's antiquated Web browser, but at a high cost in conflicts and bugs reported by readers since its release. Users could be forgiven for questioning the basic stability of Windows if a "simple" browser update could break their printer's software.

Microsoft's other key release, Windows Media Player 11, seemed to refrain from blowing up most computers but still failed at its goal of derailing Apple's iTunes.

Microsoft's software efforts, however, do give one reason for hope: The streamlined, toolbar-driven interface in programs such as the new Media Player and Internet Explorer shows a willingness to experiment and a recognition that the company's past efforts have become impenetrable to many users.

Vista and Office 2007 will feature this new interface; that's an uncharacteristically risky move by Microsoft. If customers take to it -- and if Vista's security and reliability live up to their advance billing -- then Microsoft can hope for a better 2007.

Most of Microsoft's hardware partners showed far less initiative of their own. Their two big headline moments: Massive product recalls after millions of Sony-manufactured laptop batteries were found in danger of exploding, then the revelation that Hewlett-Packard authorized disgraceful spying on reporters covering the company.

Computer makers who only tried to sell more gigahertz and gigabytes should have noted the example of the video-game industry. Nintendo's Wii lacked the high-definition performance of Sony's PlayStation 3 or Microsoft's Xbox 360 but was, by all accounts, ridiculously fun to play -- and sold in massive numbers.

For customers, the best technology news of 2006 may not have been anything in computing or the Internet, but the steady decline in prices for consumer electronics. Buyers of MP3 players, cellphones and digital cameras all benefited from this virtuous cycle -- but not as much as shoppers of high-definition televisions, who saw prices drop by as much as half in 2006.

Better products for less: If only the people making our hardware and software could live up to that ideal all the time.

State of Michigan "Goes Digital"

Michigan Virtual High School meets the Michigan Merit Curriculum On-Line Mandate

Michigan Virtual High School "CareerForward" On-line Program

http://www.mivhs.org/content.cfm?ID=693

You might wish to become familiar with this "free program" and explore the "more information" elements (on the top right hand side of the page) particularly, the "preview" and "trailer" items.

YO!

It's About TIME in MICHIGAN!

JASON FULFORD AND PAUL SAHRE FOR TIME

Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2006

Building a New Student in Michigan

How one state is re-engineering its schools for the new century
By SONJA STEPTOE

Throughout most of the 20th century, the stream of cars rolling off Michigan assembly lines created jobs with high wages and schools with low expectations. When even a kid who dropped out of school early could look forward to a cozy middle class living, mastering chemistry, geometry, or geography didn�t seem so important. But now, at the start of the 21st century, both the state�s leading industry and its school system are at a crossroads.

While the once innovative industry is struggling to find a new direction, the state�s schools have moved into the fast lane of educational reform. �The collapse of the auto industry, which also exploded the notion embedded in the DNA here that you can make a good living despite being a high school dropout, created a perfect storm for convincing everyone we needed to make changes,� says Michael Flanagan, Michigan�s superintendent of public instruction. For three months last fall a task force of state education officials, school superintendents, college deans and a Ford Motor Company executive pored over scholarly research on curriculum reform, borrowed ideas from private schools with strong college preparatory curricula and International Baccalaureate programs that infuse instruction with a global perspective. The panel also studied the education policies in countries such as Singapore, whose students routinely ace international proficiency exams. And the group consulted education chiefs from states that were early adopters of tougher standards, including Indiana, Oregon and Arkansas—all of which require four years of English and at least three years of math and science.

The goal was to craft rigorous learning standards that would give students the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in college and in the 21st century workplace. The group recommended that every Michigan student, whether college-bound or not, be required to complete four years of English and math; three years of science and social studies; two years of foreign language; one year of Phys Ed; one in a course covering visual, performing or applied arts, as well as an online course—not necessarily for credit—offered by Michigan�s web-based Virtual High School or another Internet instruction provider the meets state guidelines. As juniors, they should also take the state merit exam that, like the ACT, measures college readiness.

Meanwhile, the state board of education wanted to see elective classes that expose them to diverse cultures and international issues; explore the rights and obligations of citizenship; teach finance and business principles in depth; and challenge them to access, analyze and use information from multimedia sources. The coursework, state officials recommended, should also improve their critical-thinking, problem-solving and communication abilities through team projects. Last spring the legislature overwhelmingly approved the new graduation rules—all of which take effect with next fall�s freshman class. �They are among the most rigorous requirements in the country,� says Michael Cohen, president of the nonprofit education think tank, Achieve Inc. Some forward-thinking schools have already begun to incorporate the new approach. Here�s a look at how three Michigan schools are preparing their students for the challenges of the 21st century:

Henry Ford Academy

Showing kids how book-learning relates to the real world is a central tenet of the new thinking. That�s the chief reason the Henry Ford Academy, a nine-year old charter school with a racially and academically mixed student body selected by lottery, was located on the grounds of the 12-acre Henry Ford Museum and its 100-acre companion site, the Greenfield Village. The museum and village�s exhibits of antique vehicles, restored historic homesteads and artifacts bring academic concepts to life and serve as the bases for class projects. When eleventh graders study early-American economic systems, the village becomes their classroom for nine weeks. Exhibit curators often lead class discussions at the sawmills, weaving stations and tin-making shops inside the craftworks district, and on the lawns of Thomas Edison�s laboratory, the working soybean farm and antebellum tobacco plantation that dot the property.

In team projects, students get a hands-on feel for the low-tech production practices of the era by making cheese graters in the tin shop, and using looms to weave belts, under the supervision of museum staff. �It�s one thing to sit at your desk and read about economic development and have a teacher give you notes,� says Michael Trail, a senior who took the class last year. �It�s a totally different thing to go into the village and see it firsthand.�

Having a museum next door may make the process more fun, but it�s only one of the ways in which the Academy lowers the firewall between the classroom and the world beyond it. Students in an economics class put principles into practice with projects in which pairs of students pretend to be married couples living on a budget. �What good is it to teach them about math and economics at school if they still go home and spend $200 on sneakers or $2,000 on a stereo they can�t afford with interest payments of 28%?� asks Charles Dershimer, a faculty member. �It�s crucial for 21st century education that kids are able to see how classwork relates to what�s going on around them.�

In another example of life-skills training, the school is heeding calls from corporate leaders for employees who can work well with others. �Working in teams teaches you how to interact with others, and how to be more sociable,� says Lori Ismail, a junior who often collaborates with classmates to perform science experiments and solve trigonometry problems. �It�s important because if you�re going to work at a company you�re going to have to acknowledge and work with everyone around you.�

The heaviest dose of instruction with real-world relevance is the Academy�s innovative senior mastery process. The two-year seminar beginning in eleventh grade is both a tutorial on searching for a job and an exercise in self-exploration. Each student fills fat, white binders with biographies, personal mission statements, lists of life and career goals, electronic portfolios that include their lists of life and career goals and assorted essays in which they articulate and assess their own strengths, interests and ambitions. A boy who wants to be a mechanical engineer composed an essay titled �How To Be A Better Me,� outlining the steps he intends to take to �become successful in everything in life.� Through interviews with working professionals, consultations with career advisors, and Internet research on the qualifications, salary, and duties for a range of jobs, students weed through options and select a career. During a power-point presentation to classmates reporting on her career research, a girl explains that she�s attracted to counseling, despite the high burnout rate and meager staring salary, because �people need someone to talk to about their problems and I think I�m good at listening and helping.�

As a final step, they create electronic portfolios that include resumes and lists of colleges they would like to attend—along with the attendant admissions criteria—and interview with local employers to secure a senior-year internship in their chosen field. Michael Trail, the senior, is producing blueprints and 3-D models with set-design software as part of his job assisting the technical director of the Detroit Opera House this season. Even students who aren�t as computer savvy as Trail must successfully complete the course and fulfill all the other graduation requirements, in keeping with the policy of Academy principal Cora Christmas that no child will be left behind, held back, or put on a separate track.

To that end, the Academy embeds within its 20-week semesters 10-week remedial classes for students performing below grade level and offers previews of advanced classes for those who�ve surpassed their classmates. Christmas believes the strategy is a better way of keeping advanced students stimulated and helping struggling students retain what they learn than if they tried to absorb the lessons during disconnected summer sessions. �There�s not this thing where you just have to go along with everybody else,� says Ismail, who took geometry and calculus a semester early and, having exhausted the math curriculum, will study college calculus at a community college in spring. �Here, you can always find the pace that fits you.�

Farmington High School

John Barrett, the principal of Farmington High School, is a fervent disciple of the theories espoused in Thomas Friedman�s book, The World Is Flat, about vanishing U.S. economic supremacy on the now-level global playing field and he worries that complacent Americans are perilously close to sliding off the edge. He distributed copies of the book to teachers last spring and made it the sole topic for discussion at the first faculty meeting this fall. To build a less xenophobic student body, students are served a steady diet of internationally focused programs and projects.

A group of students from Lisa Sievert�s international affairs class organized a model U.N. where they debate the practical implications of such abstract concepts as sovereignty and self-determination in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the Iraq War. Sievert says many of the insights they�re gathering extracurricularly while researching mock resolutions inform the class discussions, adding intellectual spice to the sessions she flavors with student-produced Power Point presentations, documentary screenings, as well as reading assignments from foreign affairs journals and memoirs of genocide survivors. Barrett required students to attend an on-campus debate on the Arab-Israeli conflict he organized between a Muslim cleric and a Jewish rabbi. In another assembly, Pakistani and Indian students explained the sources of ethnic tensions in the Kashmir region, and plans are underway for Farmington�s exchange students from Macedonia and Bulgaria to discuss the conflict in the Balkans. Although the school�s college placement record is impressive—77% of last year�s senior class enrolled in four-year colleges— Barrett says the Friedman book�s admonitions led to the decision this fall to �kick up the level of rigor� in the curriculum even more. �It becomes more apparent the deeper you get into the book that what we used to consider third world countries are now outdistancing us in terms of research and, more than anything, work ethic,� he says. �I want our kids to realize they�re not just competing with the kid next to them who didn�t do his homework. They�re up against a much (bigger group) that�s working very hard to take the job they want. �

Roosevelt High

While train tracks still course through the streets of Wyandotte, Michigan, many of the factories that for much of the 20th century made the city a hub from which cargo containers filled with paper, steel, tires, and chemicals were dispatched to consumers around the country and across the ocean are now shuttered. �The opportunity to go to college is about all the students here have now, besides low-paying service jobs,� says Mason Grahl, assistant principal at Roosevelt High, where traditionally far less than half the seniors go on to college. To change the mindset, Grahl and his boss, head principal Mary McFarlane, are administering tough love by enforcing the new state graduation requirements now. This year�s seniors are exempt, but for juniors, it means adding an extra math and science class to their schedules this year.

Some of those who say they aren�t planning to go to college consider the new rules an unfair burden. At a student assembly, McFarlane heard cries of �Why us?� when she announced the changes. Her response: �Because it�s the right thing to do.� Renee Bojanowski is a college-bound junior and honors student at Roosevelt. She says the grousing notwithstanding, the urgent need for a new attitude is beginning to sink in among members of the student body. When a university admissions director met with seniors recently and told them that they will need more than a diploma to qualify for the vast majority of desirable jobs, and showed them wage-rate charts, she reports, �it woke a lot of people up because it made them see that if they don�t get more education, they will earn a lot less money.�

For teachers whose lesson plans already are bloated with required content, it will be a challenge to cover the additional academic concepts the state is mandating along with the new graduation requirements. Chemistry teacher Tim Graham predicts the new content mandates in science and math will only exacerbate tensions between depth and breadth with which teachers must grapple. �Our (state proficiency test) scores show that we�re bringing our kids along in terms of learning to think critically,� he says. �We�re wondering if we can continue to do that while covering the broader spectrum of skills required by the new rules.� Schools could lobby the state to let them count the math and science concepts covered in such technical classes as architectural drawing (which is 90% geometry, Graham contends) and metals technology (which requires students to understand how varying levels of carbon content change the way steel reacts to being heated and cooled, for instance) to meet the new guidelines.

But that may be a long shot because currently many vo-tech teachers aren't state-certified as applied math and science instructors, according to Graham. "The issue will have to be dealt with eventually,� he says, �or we're going to have a hard time." Despite such challenges, Graham agrees with his principal that the stricter mandates are appropriate. �It�s going to be a fight initially and we might see the dropout rate climb a bit,� he predicts. �But this is about having our students ready for where they want to go in life, with the ability to work in teams, reach conclusions, make connections, think logically and problem-solve, because those are the essential skills for the workplace now.�

NORTHWESTERN HIGH SCHOOL (AIM Program)

*Achievement In Motion "Going Digital" Progress Report 2007 (Coming Soon)

Your Invitation Whould Arrive Shortly to START 2007!

USE it or Loose it! Who Knew? Something for Everybody!

Exercise for Your Aging Brain

Published: December 26, 2006

If you’re worried that your mental powers will decline as you age, a new study offers hope that a relatively brief flurry of brain exercises can slow the mind’s deterioration.

The study, whose findings were published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, involved 2,800 men and women in six American cities. All were healthy, 65 and older, and living independently. Most participants were given 10 sessions of training to improve a particular mental skill. A memory group learned strategies for remembering word lists and textual material. A reasoning group learned how to find the pattern in a letter or word series. And a third group was trained to identify an object on a computer screen at increasingly brief exposures.

When tested five years later, these participants had less of a decline in the skill they were trained in than did a control group that received no cognitive training. The payoff from mental exercise seemed far greater than we are accustomed to getting for physical exercise — as if 10 workouts at the gym were enough to keep you fit five years later.

Researchers have yet to find compelling evidence that the retention of mental skills significantly improved the ability to tackle everyday tasks, like handling money or following instructions on a medicine bottle. But there are encouraging hints in the data that brain exercises may well help, a critical factor in determining whether elderly Americans can live independently.

If further studies show that mental exercises can improve everyday functioning, doctors may need to prescribe such training, senior centers may want to set up “brain gyms,” and aging Americans would be wise to do brain-stretching activities. For this purpose, even the Medicare prescription drug program, which critics deem too confusing for many older people to navigate, could prove an unexpected blessing. Spend 10 hours mastering its intricacies today and you could be a lot sharper than your compatriots five years from now.

DIGITAL SMART Signs for SMART Minds!

Loudoun School System Recognized for Technology Initiatives

By Arianne Aryanpur
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 24, 2006; LZ01

Ten years ago, the Loudoun County school system was "limping along" when it came to equipping students with the latest technology, said Assistant Superintendent Sharon D. Ackerman. So school officials pushed up their sleeves and drafted a plan to invest $22 million in technology improvements.

That plan, put before voters in a 1996 bond referendum, called for four computers in every classroom, one computer lab in all elementary schools and four to five computer labs in all middle and high schools. The goal was realized 18 months later, and ever since, Loudoun's public school system has been a leader in introducing the latest technology into classrooms, Ackerman said.

That record recently drew national recognition. Last month, Loudoun was one of three school districts in the nation to win the National School Boards Association's Technology Salute District award. In March, a group of national educators will visit Loudoun and the two other districts -- the Kyrene school district in Tempe, Ariz., and the Kokomo-Center Consolidated School Corp. in Kokomo, Ind. -- to see how those jurisdictions have used technology to enhance learning.

One advanced-technology tool that Loudoun uses is the SMART Board -- a touch-screen white board that eliminates the traditional chalk and erasers associated with teaching. A teacher writes on the screen with a finger, and whatever is written is stored electronically. Students can retrieve the information later by visiting the teacher's Web site.

Betty Korte, a math teacher at Stone Bridge High School, said the technology has made it easier to teach her ninth- and 10th-grade students.

"In math, where a lot of abstract concepts need to be understood, I can use a lot of the features to make it more real for the kids," Korte said. "I've been able to see the difference in their ability to understand these concepts before and after using the tool. In my mind, there's just no comparison."

Since adopting the technology last year, Loudoun has equipped each of its 45 schools with one or two SMART Boards. Stone Bridge has 12, one in every math classroom, and the Academy of Science at Dominion High School has one in every classroom. The school system aims to have a SMART Board in every classroom by 2010, said Preston Coppels, the system's director of instructional services.

"It's probably the most explosive technology in education," he said.

In citing Loudoun for the award, the national association noted the district's offering of online courses, which the county began providing five years ago. Through a partnership with George Mason University and the school systems in Stafford and Warren counties, students who otherwise can't complete classes -- because of long-term illness or lack of time in their schedules -- may register for online classes hosted by the GMU Web site.

The classes are self-taught, but teachers from Loudoun, Stafford and Warren counties answer questions via e-mail and chat. Coppels said that the pass rate for online courses has been exceptionally high and that students have given the service high marks.

The association also cited Loudoun's plans to establish next year a comprehensive online database of student information, including grades and standardized-test results, that will put information about each student at a teacher's fingertips.

Ackerman said the national recognition demonstrates Loudoun's ability to keep itself current with technological advances. And the school system will always have its eye on the next big thing, she said.

"I really think wireless is the future," she said. "The ability to roll the computers in . . . you don't eat up a whole room with a permanent computer lab, and every student can have them on their desks. We are looking in the future to go wireless."

This "Digital Forum" Requires Participation!

The "DIGITAL TICKET" for the Train-Ride to 21st Century Learning!

ALL ABOARD! The "little train" that could!

Yokomi Elementary School Educates Fresno ’s Littlest Scientists

Six-year-olds Kellyn and Julissa hunch over a bottle containing a mysterious liquid, examining it with a flashlight. These students at Akira Yokomi Elementary School in Fresno, California, may only be in first grade, but they already understand how to use words like “transparent” and “opaque” to discuss the properties of liquid. Down the hall, sixth grade students dressed in white laboratory coats peer through their goggles into microscopes, type their observations into laptop computers, and project their findings onto interactive whiteboards. With its high-tech classrooms, hands-on curriculum, and intense focus on science and preparing students for success in the 21st century, Yokomi is not an average elementary school.

Yokomi was born out of a clarion call issued in a report on economic development, education, and workforce issues in 2005 by the Fresno County Grand Jury. The report cited the need for Fresno students to receive additional educational opportunities to build technological literacy and practice skills in applied science and technology fields. In August 2005, Yokomi opened in downtown Fresno as a way of answering this call.

Breaking the Cycle of Underachievement

The new, two-story technology-infused building stands out against the backdrop of a community that was identified in 2005 as having the highest concentration of poverty in the United States by the Washington, DC-based nonprofit Brookings Institution. The school currently serves a population of 660 students in kindergarten through sixth grade who are 67 percent Hispanic, 12 percent African American, 12 percent Asian, eight percent white, and less than one percent Filipino, Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native. More than 70 percent of Yokomi students are from families who do not speak English as their primary language, and 42 percent are designated as English language learners (ELLs). As a magnet school, Yokomi pulls students from across local districts, but over half live in the low-income neighborhood surrounding the school.

Studies show that certain family risk factors, such as poverty or the language spoken in the home, present challenges to students’ educational achievement and progress. For example, The Condition of Education 2006 from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) revealed that in 2005, fourth grade students in the highest poverty public schools scored lower on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Mathematics Assessment than their peers in the lowest poverty public schools. The same report also showed that the number of school-age children who spoke a language other than English at home and who spoke English with difficulty increased between 1979 and 2004.

With the challenges that face low-income and ELL students in mind, Yokomi works to provide enriching educational opportunities and extra support to students so that regardless of their socio-economic status or native language, all may experience academic success. This approach appears to be paying off since, in its first year of operation, Yokomi met all targets for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), and results from the 2006 California Standard Tests (CSTs) show that fourth grade students are reaching district performance goals in English language arts and surpassing those goals in mathematics.

A Technology-Infused Environment

Yokomi administrators and teachers believe that, with the support of appropriate technology and engaging instruction, all students – from those who may be at risk for academic failure to those who are performing above grade level – can master key concepts in core subjects and perform to high levels. At Yokomi, technology does not mean a row of dusty computers in the back of a classroom with outdated software and slow dial-up modems. Rather, technology means digital projectors, scanners, and wireless slates that are used to enhance the curriculum, provide assistance to students who may need extra help, and get teachers excited about teaching and students passionate about learning.

During a recent visit to Fresno, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement Morgan Brown took a tour of Yokomi and noted, “This is an amazing school to walk into. The concept of integrating technology and science into a school curriculum is not unusual, but it usually does not happen for students until they are in middle or high school.”

Yokomi’s classrooms are equipped with at least one laptop computer, a digital projector, and document cameras. Students in kindergarten through second grade learn basic keyboarding skills on special word-processing laptops, while older students use traditional laptops as learning tools. Additionally, teachers wear wireless microphones that amplify their voices through surround-sound systems so students are able to clearly hear lesson instructions. Possibly the most frequently used piece of classroom equipment is the Smart Board. This interactive whiteboard looks much like a traditional mounted writing surface, but the touch-sensitive display enables teachers and students to access and control computer and multimedia applications, the Internet, CD-ROMs, and DVDs with their fingertips. The Smart Board may be connected to a computer and projector so that it functions as a giant computer screen. Teachers and students can write on the whiteboard with digital “ink” and save their work for future study or review.

Yokomi’s principal, Steve Gonzales, notes, “Every one of our teachers, from kindergarten through sixth grade, has embraced this technology wholeheartedly. And parents say that their children come home from school excited about what they’ve just learned, largely due to the technology-infused lessons.”

Although Yokomi has a technology and science theme, all academic subjects are taught with the same level of rigor, based on state standards. Students participate in English language arts, reading, mathematics, science, history, and social studies, as well as art and music classes. As a matter of fact, music has a special place in the Yokomi curriculum based on research that has indicated a powerful connection between the subject and the development of key cognitive skills. Students engage in a specialized music curriculum that combines the use of musical instruments and computers so that students may make music and observe how it relates to other disciplines, such as mathematics.

Science: The Yokomi Way

Science instruction occurs daily and is designed to improve students’ literacy levels while enhancing their inquiry and problem-solving skills. Students in kindergarten through third grade spend about 70 minutes each day studying and exploring science concepts, and students in fourth through sixth grade spend about 120 minutes working with the subject. For half of this time, students learn in specially designed elementary science laboratories that are fitted with child-sized furniture and equipment. In addition to laboratory work, every day for 45 to 60 minutes, students participate in science-based literacy instruction where they learn key vocabulary terms, read scientific journals and articles, and practice writing. For the first time this year, the school also is instituting the Lego Engineering curriculum so that students may apply skills they learn in science and mathematics to build their own robots.

The overall science curriculum at Yokomi is based on Harcourt Science and the Full Option Science System (FOSS), the latter of which was developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkley. FOSS is a research-based science curriculum for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and an ongoing research project. The project began over 20 years ago, and its development continues to be shaped by advances in the understanding of how children think and learn. The Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) has been implementing FOSS in its classrooms since 1993, with teachers receiving ongoing training.

FOSS has three goals: 1.) to promote scientific literacy by providing all students with science experiences that are grade-level appropriate and that serve as a foundation for more advanced ideas; 2.) to be instructionally efficient by providing teachers with a complete, easy-to-use science program; and 3.) to promote systemic reform by providing real experiences for students that reflect National Science Education Standards.

The FOSS kindergarten through sixth grade program used at Yokomi consists of 26 modules in scientific reasoning and technology, and life , physical , and earth sciences. Twice per year, Yokomi students create science fair projects that are based on one of the FOSS modules they have studied. The inaugural science fair last year focused on physical science using modules such as Solar Energy, Magnetism and Electricity, and Solids and Liquids. As a testament to how dedicated the community and parents are to Yokomi, over 500 family and community members attended the fair.

Microscopes and Computers are Great, but Parents are Key

In fact, the school was created with parents in mind. Parents who work near Yokomi in the downtown area are offered priority in the school’s application and lottery processes so that they are closer to their children and freer to visit the school during the day. Parents also are involved with the daily operations at Yokomi. For example, the School Site Council and English Language Learner Committee, which prepare the budget and programming for the school, are open to families. Also, the Student Study Team (SST), which assists students who may be experiencing academic, behavioral, or emotional issues, has parents actively participate in meetings. Parents interact with resource specialist teachers, classroom teachers, the principal, and often the school psychologist and speech therapist to determine how best to support individual students.

With its strong support network for students and innovative curriculum, Akira Yokomi Elementary School is giving Fresno ’s littlest scientists a strong academic foundation that will assist them in their pursuit of higher education and work in the 21 st century. Yokomi graduates are particularly well prepared to enroll in the science/medical middle and high school choices that FUSD offers, such as Fort Miller Medical Careers Academy , Sequoia Middle, Duncan Polytechnical High School , and the Sunnyside High School Doctors’ Academy (see Innovator, July 18, 2005). A Magnet Schools Assistance Program grant from the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education helped create Yokomi – the only FUSD elementary school with a science focus, and the most technologically advanced school in Central California.

Note: The featured program is innovative; however, it does not yet have evidence of effectiveness from a rigorous evaluation.

Resources

• Akira Yokomi Elementary School
• Magnet Schools Assistance Program

Innovation: A National Crisis?

INNOVATE AMERICA

THRIVING IN A WORLD OF
CHALLENGE AND CHANGE

NATIONAL INNOVATION INITIATIVE
INTERIM REPORT
7/23/04

http://www.compete.org/pdf/NII_Interim_Report.pdf

Innovation America...strives for URGENCY!

Arizona USA
National Task Force to Push Math, Science Education as Key to Economy

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano recently announced the formation of Innovation America, a 17-member national task force of education, business and government leaders aimed at preparing America for the economy of the future.

The goal of the task force is to inspire an educational renaissance in math and science that will produce students better able to compete with their counterparts worldwide.

Napolitano said students are key to building a workforce that helps the United States generate technological breakthroughs and lure employers that provide highly skilled jobs.


Friday, August 11, 2006

Dear Friends,

I am honored to share with you that this past weekend, my colleagues - the Governors of our nation's states - elected me to Chair the National Governors Association (NGA) during our summer meeting in South Carolina. This is the first time in the NGA's 98-year history that a woman or an Arizona Governor has ever chaired the group, and I am pleased to take on this responsibility.

Being chair also means that I have the opportunity to focus on a specific NGA initiative. This week, I introduced my Innovation America initiative at NGA. This initiative has a combined focus on education, innovation and technology. Just like my P-20 Council, this effort will focus on the connections between education and the economy to ensure that our graduates have the necessary skills to compete for the jobs of today. There is a national sense of urgency to renew our educational systems in order to modernize our workforce. Though many countries lag behind America in educational and economic achievement, some are quickly catching up, due in part to their focus on innovations in science and technology.
Innovation America will:

· Increase math and science proficiency of all children in K-12 as well as post-secondary education systems - including the graduate level - and increase the quantity of scientists and engineers who attend college from U.S. high schools; and

· Promote business innovation broadly throughout the states and target regions that compete globally.

I am excited about Innovation America and believe that it will make Arizona and America more competitive and our workforce more successful.

As always, I appreciate your input, and encourage you to call my office at 602.542.1318 if you have questions or thoughts to share. Or, please visit our website at http://www.azgovernor.gov for information and news in state government.

Yours very truly,

Janet Napolitano
Governor

Indiana USA

ROCHESTER, Indiana (December 12, 2006) - Governor Mitch Daniels today announced the award of sixteen $50,000 planning grants to help high schools better prepare students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

"Prosperity tomorrow depends largely on the science and math proficiency of today's students, and we've got a long way to go," said Daniels. "Redesigning Indiana high schools for excellence in science and technology is the single best step we can take to raise the income of future generations of Hoosiers."

The high school redesign grants were made possible by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Indiana Secondary Market for Education Loans (ISM).

"We are pleased to support the work of these communities and institutions as they focus on student preparation for success in higher education, for employment in the Hoosier economy and as citizens of our state," said Steve Clinton, president of ISM.

Four grants were awarded to school districts to support planning for the New Tech High School model:

• Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation
• Metropolitan School District of Decatur Township (Marion County)
• Monroe County Community School Corporation
• Rochester Community School Corporation

This model utilizes a technology-rich environment and project-focused learning in addition to core curriculum content. In a survey of recent New Tech graduates, 89 percent went on to higher education; over 90 percent applied their new tech learning and experience in later education and work; and 40 percent were majoring in STEM subjects or working in STEM professions.

"We are pleased that these communities and high schools are ready to pursue the New Tech High model and results for students in Indiana," said Bob Pearlman, director of strategic planning for the New Technology Foundation. "We look forward to working with them to bring New Tech High Schools from concept to reality."

Ten grants were awarded to districts and charter schools to create early college model high schools that prepare students for post-secondary success in STEM study and work:

• Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation, partnering with Ivy Tech and Vincennes University
• Center Grove High School in Johnson County, partnering with Franklin College
• Connersville High School in Fayette County, partnering with Ivy Tech
• Metropolitan School District of Decatur Township in Marion County, partnering with Ivy Tech, Vincennes University and the University of Indianapolis
• Franklin Community School Corporation, partnering with Franklin College
• Herron High School in Marion County, partnering with Marian College
• Lawrence Early College High School for Science and Technologies, a charter school partnership of the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township and Ivy Tech
• Monroe County Community School Corporation, partnering with Ivy Tech
• Richmond Community School Corporation, partnering with Ivy Tech-Richmond and Indiana University-East
• Charles A. Tindley Accelerated High School in Marion County, partnering with Anderson University

Early college high schools offer students the opportunity to take a curriculum in their junior and senior years that includes courses offered by institutions of higher education, helping them make gains on their post-secondary education.

"This benefits the students, who accelerate their learning; their high schools, who provide a rich mix of career-related learning opportunities of interest to the students; and the economies of our regions and the state, which receive a rising set of citizens ready for the opportunities of the 21st century economy," said Rod Rich, Ivy Tech's executive director of K-12 Initiatives.

Two grants were awarded to institutions of higher education in southwest Indiana to partner with neighboring school districts to move their high school designs toward more STEM-focused preparation:

• The University of Southern Indiana
• Vincennes University

Recipients of the planning grants pursued them by responding to a series of conferences presented by the Indiana Department of Education (DOE) and the Center for Excellence in Leadership of Learning (CELL) at the University of Indianapolis. Their schools and school communities engaged in planning with CELL and the Governor's Office that explored models and demonstrated a STEM-preparing focus; an evaluation process to choose and commit to the model each community chose; a confirmation that the model worked financially for the school post-transition; and, in the case of New Tech High, a commitment to the parameters and processes used in that model. The funds are to be used for design and preparation to implement new small high school environments that incorporate the model.

Lynn Lupold, high school redesign coordinator at the DOE, said, "It is gratifying to see resources helping high schools working with their communities to provide stronger STEM preparation opportunities and guidance for their students."

Creative "Higher-Ordered" Thinking Can Lead to Breakthrough DIGITAL Innovations!

Techlearning blog

« International Teaching | Main | Congratulations »

Valuing student creativity

What are the ultimate aims of K-12 education? In our current era of high-stakes testing and accountability in the United States, many people might answer "helping students and the schools they attend achieve high scores on standardized assessments." Yet if we think about it, this goal falls far short of encompassing many of the reasons parents send their children to school and taxpayers support them in this effort. All parents want their students to learn and be prepared for the challenges they will face in the future as adults and fulltime members of the workforce (in some capacity) and society in general. Most will acknowledge, if pressed, that the work environment and challenges of the future are difficult if not impossible to predict with certainty. Given these realities, many people can agree that helping students LEARN TO THINK more critically is a key educational goal.

So how do we determine if educational environments, tasks, and experiences help students develop their thinking skills? Bloom's Taxonomy was first proposed in the mid 1950s to motivate educators to focus on three different domains: the affective, psychomotor, and cognitive. Many people think of Bloom's Taxonomy and its well known pyramid of levels in only the cognative domain, but it is important to remember it includes affective and psychomotor domains as well:

Often in K-12 classrooms, lessons and their related student outcomes focus predominantly on the lower knowledge and comprehension levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Lower-level recitation of facts and details should form a part of the cognitive learning landscape for students, but to truly help them learn to THINK more critically and with more depth, lesson outcomes must focus on higher levels. Traditionally, using Bloom's taxonomy, that meant helping students analyze, synthesize, and evaluate ideas and information. If students reached the "evaluation" level of thinking as a result of a teacher's lesson or assigned task, those students were considered to have achieved the ultimate level of cognitive development for the given context.

In 2001, however, Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl proposed a revision to Bloom's taxonomy that has important implications for learners, particularly in our era of web-based read/write tools. Anderson and Krathwohl placed THE CREATION of new knowledge (including knowledge products) at the top of their taxonomy:

This may sound reasonable, but I think it is actually a revolutionary proposal for most K-12 educational settings. Many adults seem to accept as an article of faith that educational systems exist primarily to transmit knowledge from the old to the young. The purpose and mission of students in schools is believed (fallaciously, I contend) to be sitting quietly, reading their assigned materials, participating in class discussions on cue, and dutifully completing assignments and tests which focus primarily on the knowledge/comprehension level of Bloom's taxonomy. To summarize rather bluntly, students are expected to "sit and get" and regurgitate accurately upon demand. (We generally call those moments "tests.")

I think more educational constituents (broadly defined to include not only educators and administrators, but also parents, board members, and other community members) should be challenged to think about cognative learning outcomes through the lens of Anderson and Krathwohl's revised pyramid of the cognitive domain of Bloom's Taxonomy. If this happened, perhaps we would value STUDENT CREATIVITY more highly that we do in schools today, where the suggestion that students should be remixing and authoring original content via blogs, digital stories, and collaborative wikis strikes many as fanciful idealism at best, or dangerous heresy at worst.

How do we help parents, school board members, and community members in general expand their vision of what teaching and learning should mean in the 21st Century? I think a big part of this answer depends on LEADERSHIP. We need visionary educational leadership that understands and effectively communicates the importance of emphasizing student CREATIVITY and the creation of original (and remixed) knowledge products. Absent this leadership, we're likely to continue with the short-sighted focus on summative assessment that defines many K-12 classrooms and educational environments today.

Posted by Wesley Fryer on December 16, 2006 12:34 AM | Permalink

Noted: Detroit Public Schools

UM, MSU share in $11 million grant for science education: The National Science Foundation has awarded $11 million in grants for researchers at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Northwestern University and Project 2061 to take their efforts to reform elementary and middle school science education. The goal: Maintain United States competitiveness by re-tooling science education to keep kids interested in science and improving scientific literacy for all students, with some winding up in vital science and technology careers. Building upon past success in the Detroit and Chicago public schools, the researchers now are aiming to take their model curriculum to other middle schools across the nation to sites including Washington, D.C. and Tucson, Ariz. The curriculum aims to engage students in science by answering relevant questions about everyday life. Too many Americans see science as something that is static, full of facts to memorize, according to Joseph Krajcik, associate dean at the UM School of Education and principal investigator for the effort, "but science is a dynamic, living thing based on using the evidence you have to try to answer life's biggest questions."

Education Study: Remake the Public Schools Broadcast

National Public Radio (NPR)
*Listen

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6646361

21st Century Digital Learning Environments

Nano, Nano Alert.....Sergeant Sacto!

Teaching the Notion of Nanotechnology

Science of Manipulating Super-Small Objects Inches Its Way Into Classrooms (NO SMALL TASK)

By Valerie Strauss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 19, 2006; A10

Scientist Robert P.H. Chang of Northwestern University had no trouble persuading education officials in Mexico to introduce the burgeoning field of nanotechnology to schools there, but it's been a far tougher sell in the United States.

In Mexico, Chang said he had only to speak about the subject to top government officials, who then simply ordered school officials to teach it.

For better or worse, things work differently here at home.

Multiple factors make it tough for new fields such as nanotechnology -- manipulating matter at the smallest of scales to create new materials -- to get introduced in classrooms in a broad way, educators say. They include:

· 15,000 school systems in the country, each with its own curriculum.

· Differing state standards that spell out what kids should know.

· Different high-stakes standardized tests that assess whether students meet the standards.

Recognizing that changing curricula can be next to impossible, the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network is developing and distributing programs aimed at engaging schools in nanoscale science and engineering education, said Carol Lynn Alpert, director of strategic projects at the Museum of Science, Boston, and a co-principal investigator of the network.

It is vital, she said, for Americans to have some understanding of today's scientific revolutions and the risks and benefits they offer.

"We are living in a democracy, imperfect as it is, in which the notion is that we jointly make decisions about the investment of our research dollars," Alpert said. "It's important that people have a sense of what is the new science."

Nanotechnology presents an especially difficult challenge in education. It is not a traditional discipline but rather a combination involving physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, engineering and technology.

It holds the promise of creating more effective medicines, cleaner fuel and other products to improve quality of life, according to Andrew Maynard, science adviser to the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center's Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies. And it is likely to force changes in the way universities organize their departments and how students are taught.

But first they need to know what it is.

Leah Gonzalez, 14, certainly didn't know what it was when she, along with other kids on Team Tikki of McLean, first learned that it would be the theme for a 2006 competition sponsored by the First Lego League, an international children's program that promotes interest in science with a hands-on interactive robotics program in a sportslike atmosphere.

She'd never heard about it in school, she said, and for that matter, her mother, the team's sponsor, didn't know what nanotechnology was, either.

But they learned about it through Internet research and by visiting the Wilson Center's nanotechnology program, ultimately settling on a project involving a quest for a more comfortable prosthesis to help injured people. The team landed in next year's final competition.

"Everybody should learn what it is," said Leah, an eighth-grader at Longfellow Middle School in Falls Church. "It could be incorporated into science curriculum for different age groups and taught differently. But I think it would be great to teach students about the new science that they might be working in when they grow up."

Chang's university is part of a consortium of 14 museums, research centers and educational outreach institutions also working to educate the public -- inside and outside of schools -- about nanotechnology.

"The informal is very important," said Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association. "Count up the minutes a kid is in the classroom and the kid is outside the classroom. Family involvement, outside learning, is very important."

Museums also are developing exhibits, demonstrations and activities for people of all ages to learn about the field. There's also a proliferation of supplemental materials being created -- including learning modules with ready-made experiments, fact sheets and teaching tips -- that educators can insert into their standard curricula.

That's what Chang has been developing as he directs Northwestern's new national center for the university's Materials World Modules program, charged with creating materials on nanotechnology for students in grades seven through 12.

Part of the goal, Chang said, is that young people will become interested enough to want to enter the field, which he said needs tens of thousands nano-literate workers. Helping kids understand how science directly applies to the quality of their lives is crucial to attracting more workers, he and other scientists said.

It is unclear whether the current array of educational efforts will be enough to accomplish their goals. Wheeler said he doubts it. Supplemental materials and many professional development programs are helpful for some teachers but often don't reach far enough, he said.

"The alpha science teacher does look forward to these new things and finds a way to get the subject into his or her classroom," Wheeler said. "But they really can't put a lot of time into that because of the standards and the testing."

Even Santa is Going Digital!

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/default.php

For some reason, I thought of you when this was brought to my attention.
Ahhhh that digital world you speak of.

:)


Karl

Back to Work! International Academy & Burt Okma

Educators, Parents Eager for an Edge Opt for IB Classes In Grade Schools

By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 17, 2006; A01

Hunting for the best education for her three young children, Traci Pietra fretted about low test scores at her Arlington neighborhood school. Then the principal told her about Randolph Elementary's affiliation with one of the most prestigious and rapidly growing brands in education: IB.

International Baccalaureate is best known for a high school diploma program geared to the university-bound academic elite. But Pietra and her husband, Peter, were sold on the lesser-known elementary version of IB. Both were attracted to the IB emphasis on global understanding, Pietra said, and added: "He was like, 'Our kids are going to an Ivy League school, and we need an education that's going to get them on the right track.' "

The Primary Years Programme, designed by the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate Organization, is becoming a hit in the United States with the Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary set. It's now in 72 U.S. schools, up from six in 2000. Driving the growth is a desire among education officials to ramp up the rigor, the earlier the better.

The program seeks to mold students, from preschool age on, into "transdisciplinary" and bilingual scholars who can deliver a major academic project by fifth grade and then move into deeper studies in secondary schools and beyond. (IB middle schools also exist.) Critics wonder whether it's all a bit much for a student demographic that still receives scratch-and-sniff stickers on written work.

"We initially hear from parents that they're a little worried about the amount of work," said Sandra Coyle, a regional marketing and communications manager for the IB organization. "But they do realize the way it expands their children's minds and teaches them how to learn and how it helps them to manage their schedules. We like to say that IB prepares kids for success in college but also for success in life."

So far, Randolph Elementary and the private Washington International and Rock Creek International schools in the District are the only ones in the region with authorized IB primary programs. But efforts to join them are underway in several local school systems. Prince William County is training staff for an IB rollout in eight elementary schools. Plans are made for five such schools in the District and three in Anne Arundel County. And an IB elementary awaits authorization in Montgomery County.

For some schools with a sizable number of students from low-income families, IB's cachet helps lure -- and retain -- children whose parents are better off. At Ellis Elementary School, one of the chosen few in Prince William to get the IB program, transfer requests are trickling in. "We've already fielded a few phone calls, and most of them were from higher socioeconomic areas," Principal Jewell Moore said. At her school, 40 percent of students are considered economically disadvantaged.

IB elementary classes differ from the ordinary in several ways. Subjects as varied as economics and nonfiction writing can be taught in a single IB class. When students begin learning new material, they are asked to think of numerous questions that get posted on the chalkboard under a title such as "What we want to find out," giving classes an investigative feel.

"In the past, when students asked questions, they just mimicked mine," said Randolph science teacher Judith Kendall. "With IB, they have to think about what they know and what they really don't know."

Teachers at IB schools, who receive special training, say the elementary program will help ensure that students will be able to compete globally and learn from an early age about the importance of other cultures. They also say that the programs can help students pass standardized state exams, especially in the many elementary schools serving low-income areas that face the threat of sanctions under the No Child Left Behind law if test scores fall short.

A Washington Post review of nearly all authorized IB public elementary schools in the country found that three-fourths made adequate yearly progress under the federal law, based on the last academic year's test results. Further, more than two-thirds of the IB schools designated for federal Title I anti-poverty funding made adequate yearly progress.

The IB primary program uses an approach that teaches students several disciplines in classes organized by six units: "Who we are," "Where we are in place and time," "How we express ourselves," "How the world works," "How we organize ourselves" and "Sharing the planet." Unlike the high school diploma program, there are no year-end exams, but fifth-graders complete a culminating "exhibition" that can be a performance, a community service project or another endeavor in which portfolios are turned in periodically. Students also must study a foreign language.

School systems that sign on -- and pay to the tune of nearly $10,000 for each of their schools to apply for the IB organization's authorization -- are not hesitant about embedding the branding into their subculture. At Randolph, for instance, students every morning sing a very multisyllabic anthem that begins like this: "I am a star, a Randolph star. I am a curious and inquiring International Baccalaureate student."

Students buy into the program eagerly. "It looks good on your primary records, and then they will probably put you on another level to get you smarter," said Asia Winkler, 10, a Randolph fifth-grader.

At Randolph, which finally met academic standards this year after test scores rose, IB dominates the school's mind-set. With world maps on the walls and several clocks set to various international time zones, the school is festooned with IB ornamentation. Essays interpret the meaning of being an IB student, and flashcards feature IB Learner Profile words -- risk-taking, communicative, well-balanced, inquiring and so on -- that students must incorporate into their behavior.

Fifth-graders are even anointed by their classmates to be members of the IB Council, which works with school staff to help select their graduating exhibition project.

One recent day, in a science class studying "How the world works," third-grade teacher Judith Kendall urged her students to ask questions on a broad level.

"Let's review the questions that inquirers like to use," Kendall said during a lesson on motion. "Let's read them together: What is it like? How does it work? Why is it the way it is? How is it connected to other things?"

Afterward, one student asked: What else makes things move or stop?

"I had the same kind of question. Is there any other kind of force?" asked Nieve Schimley, 9.

So what's in store for these kids when they get to a high school IB program? When they have to take college-level classes in science, math and a foreign language? When they have to sit for a battery of oral and written tests that can last three weeks? When they have to write a 4,000-word research paper, on, say, cortisol levels in mood-disorder subjects?

"What I'd say to a 10-year-old," said Sebastien Davis-Vangelder, 17, a senior in the IB program at Fairfax County's George C. Marshall High School, "is that it's not going to get any easier."

YOU are the PERSON OF THE YEAR!

CONGRATULATIONS!

PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION FOR TIME BY ARTHUR HOCHSTEIN, WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY SPENCER JONES—GLASSHOUSE Posted Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006 The "Great Man" theory of history is usually attributed to the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men." He believed that it is the few, the powerful and the famous who shape our collective destiny as a species. That theory took a serious beating this year. To be sure, there are individuals we could blame for the many painful and disturbing things that happened in 2006. The conflict in Iraq only got bloodier and more entrenched. A vicious skirmish erupted between Israel and Lebanon. A war dragged on in Sudan. A tin-pot dictator in North Korea got the Bomb, and the President of Iran wants to go nuclear too. Meanwhile nobody fixed global warming, and Sony didn't make enough PlayStation3s. But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes. The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. Not the Web that Tim Berners-Lee hacked together (15 years ago, according to Wikipedia) as a way for scientists to share research. It's not even the overhyped dotcom Web of the late 1990s. The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution. And we are so ready for it. We're ready to balance our diet of predigested news with raw feeds from Baghdad and Boston and Beijing. You can learn more about how Americans live just by looking at the backgrounds of YouTube videos—those rumpled bedrooms and toy-strewn basement rec rooms—than you could from 1,000 hours of network television. And we didn't just watch, we also worked. Like crazy. We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software. America loves its solitary geniuses—its Einsteins, its Edisons, its Jobses—but those lonely dreamers may have to learn to play with others. Car companies are running open design contests. Reuters is carrying blog postings alongside its regular news feed. Microsoft is working overtime to fend off user-created Linux. We're looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it's just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy. Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Loststeak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion? tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you. Sure, it's a mistake to romanticize all this any more than is strictly necessary. Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom. Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred. But that's what makes all this interesting. Web 2.0 is a massive social experiment, and like any experiment worth trying, it could fail. There's no road map for how an organism that's not a bacterium lives and works together on this planet in numbers in excess of 6 billion. But 2006 gave us some ideas. This is an opportunity to build a new kind of international understanding, not politician to politician, great man to great man, but citizen to citizen, person to person. It's a chance for people to look at a computer screen and really, genuinely wonder who's out there looking back at them. Go on. Tell us you're not just a little bit curious. From the Dec. 25, 2006 issue of TIME magazine Managing Editor Rick Stengel thinks a leaner, more opinionated magazine spells the future of Time. (By Andrew Eccles -- Time Via Associated Press)

Out of the Mouths of Babes

---

December 17, 2006

From Lips of Children, Tips to Ears of Investors

By MATT RICHTEL

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 16 — Wanted: investment adviser, the younger the better.

In a nod to the wisdom of youth, many wealthy, highly connected and well-educated technology investors are taking counsel and investment tips from their children, summer interns and twentysomething receptionists.

These venture capital investors say there is good reason to ask young people to help them assess new technology: as the investors themselves are aging, the technology — including social networking Web sites and mobile gadgets — is designed for, used by and sometimes built by people half their age.

“Children are a secret weapon in my arsenal for making investment decisions,” said Heidi Roizen, a managing director at Mobius Venture Capital, a Silicon Valley firm.

Last year, Ms. Roizen asked her daughters, Niki and Marleyna Mohler, ages 13 and 11, to check out a handheld video player she was thinking about backing. The daughters quickly tired of the gadget, so Ms. Roizen did not invest.

And this year, Ms. Roizen bought Niki a subscription to World of Warcraft, the popular online role-playing game. The idea was to get her daughter familiar with the genre so she could offer advice about an investment Ms. Roizen had made in another game company.

“I was a guinea pig, a lab rat,” Niki said of the experience, in a tone that suggested she was also experimenting with sarcasm.

While the idea of testing products on consumers is hardly new, its emergence in the world of venture capitalists is something of a sea change. After all, this is an industry of independent-minded investors who have historically made decisions by trusting their knowledge of engineering, strict analytics and their own gut instincts — along with a bit of the herd mentality.

Unlike the formal consumer tests and focus groups at large companies like Procter & Gamble, these inquiries are taking place closer to home, with friends and family. But their impact can be broad, because venture capitalists not only help steer the development of new ideas but also invest billions of dollars in those ideas on behalf of investment groups and wealthy individuals.

To some, the approach looks like a product of the desperation felt by investors trying to identify the next YouTube or iPod.

“There is something comical, and maybe silly, about relying on kids,” said Paul Romer, a professor of economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. “It seems risky.”

But Mr. Romer noted that it was getting tougher to pick the winners among start-ups. Young people, Mr. Romer said, may be better equipped than investors, who tend to be in their 30s or older, to see nuances and identify trends.

“The people making the decisions may not appreciate some of the small differences that might be apparent to end users,” he said.

Those end users include Mariana and Tatiana Megevand, who live in Geneva. Last year, Neil Rimer, their uncle, heard the girls, 14 and 12, talking about one of their favorite Web sites, Stardoll.com.

The site lets visitors create and dress up virtual paper dolls. Mr. Rimer is not just an uncle but also a venture capitalist, a partner with Index Ventures, based in Geneva. He decided that his nieces’ interest constituted one of the better tips he had heard in a while.

“The next Monday I went in and talked about it with my partners,” he said, “and that week we were on the phone to the company.”

Index and other firms, including the venerable Sequoia Capital, have invested more than $10 million in Stardoll this year, and the company has moved to Geneva from Finland. Mr. Rimer says he still talks to the girls about what they like and what they would improve. He has given them some incentive, too: a small stake in Stardoll that could be valuable if the company prospers.

Other firms have started surveying groups of children. IDG Ventures, a Boston firm, recently asked one of its associates to visit its partners’ homes and ask their children to assess a new social networking site.

The trend may indicate the rise of something new in the venture capital industry itself: humility. A notoriously self-assured bunch, these investors are admitting that some innovations may be lost on their g-g-generation.

“The funniest thing is when we sit around and say, ‘I’m not sure because I would never use this,’ ” said Jeff Fagnan, 36, a general partner with Atlas Ventures.

The investors said consulting with younger people would have been unheard of in the dot-com boom of the 1990s. Then, investors were immersed in the very technology they were financing, ordering books on Amazon, downloading music from Napster and buying and selling on eBay. But now, in the so-called Web 2.0 era, venture capitalists’ personal interests have strayed from the sweet spot of innovation: Web sites like MySpace intended to connect people, free Internet calling tools like Skype or software for mobile phones.

And people now in junior high and high school have spent their lives with technology. “This is the first generation for whom the computer is a native language,” said Jim Gauer, managing director of Palomar Ventures, a Los Angeles firm. “We’re all going to have to get re-educated and learn that language.”

Or they can do what Palomar and others have: hire a native speaker. Last summer, the firm had an intern, Adam Gottesfeld, 21, who was heading into his senior year as an international studies major at Princeton. Mr. Gottesfeld so impressed the firm with his technological knowledge that it has offered him a job as an associate when he graduates.

After Niki, Ms. Roizen’s daughter, became proficient at World of Warcraft, her mother took her to visit Perpetual Entertainment, a game company in San Francisco she had invested in. Niki had some criticisms of the company’s game, a role-playing epic called Gods and Heroes, telling its developers that it seemed unpolished and choppy. The game makers, taking advice from Niki and others, improved the product by the time she visited again.

“When she picked me up, she said, ‘Did you like it? Was it more fun?’ And I said yes, the whole car ride home,” Niki said.

Niki is not only teaching, it seems, but also learning about business. A couple of years ago, Ms. Roizen said, her daughter was looking at Neopets.com, a Web site where people play with virtual pets.

“She said, ‘I don’t get their business model,’ ” Ms. Roizen recalled. “She was 11.”

*IGNORE AT YOUR OWN PERIL!