Nine Shift

New 21st century standard gets interest

In a new economic age, the societal infrastructure has to be rebuilt/ recreated. Part of that is creating new standards.

LERN has created a new standard to replace continuing education units (CEUs). And maybe replace the credit standard for education. This month Thom Lowther of the American Institute of Architects and I led a session for the Certification Networking Group in Washington DC.  About 30 associations and others providing certification for various occupations.  The International Learning Unit (ILU) got a good reception, and much interest, boosting its credibility in the early going.  It will take years to establish the ILU throughout society. But its' off to a good start. You can check it out at www.learningunit.org

Education victory on Transparency in the Classroom

Yeah kids! A big education victory on transparency in the classroom.

Mathew LaClair, age 16, did not like his teacher advocating for religion (only Christians would go to heaven) in the classroom.  So he videotaped the teacher to document the repeated incidents.

Instead of disciplinary the teacher, the school district punished Mathew and protected the teacher.
But in a stunning and terrific reversal, the school district has now:
* Praised Mathew
* Apologized
* Started teacher training on the issue.

Mathew got an "A for Accountability" as a student hero by ParentAdvocates.org web site.
Nice job Mathew. Teachers and schools have to be accountable too. For everyone trying to get accountability in the classroom, thanks Mathew.   (Photo: Mathew LaClair and Dad)

Big Education Conflict: Behavior versus Knowledge

One of the fundamental conflicts in education right now is the issue of Behavior Versus Knowledge.
That is, should students be graded on their behavior, or only on their learning and knowledge?
NineShift of course argues that in the 21st century Knowledge will replace Behavior as the standard for grading.

Here's two negative and backwards recent events, both written up by Jane Stancill of the Raleigh News and Observer.

BAD IDEA #1. CHANGE ADMISSIONS TO GPA.
   The University of North Carolina is studying a proposal to weight high school GPA more, and SAT/ACT tests less, in admissions. Already males are only 38.6% of UNC graduates (over past 5 years). Boys, as we have documented, get lower GPA than girls due to their behavior (they turn in homework late, and do less homework than girls). The new policy, a step backwards, would lower admissions of men even further.

BAD IDEA #2. GRADE ON BEHAVIOR.
   As we have noted, boys receive lower grades exclusively because of behavior, not learning or knowledge. Faculty lower boys grades for all sorts of behavior. But here's probably the worst reason of the year:
  A Duke student received a failing grade simply because he was on the LaCrosse team. He was not charged, and of course all students were found innocent. Nevertheless he failed a class, and thus could not graduate, simply because he was on the LaCrosse team.  Here's the story.
   He and his parents sued Duke and eventually got a passing grade. But Kim Curtis (pictured), the Duke faculty member, has not been reprimanded or received any disciplinary action whatsoever for this sad and sick act of flunking a student for being on an athletic team. 

Latest lawsuit news affecting boys in school

Two new decisions predominantly affecting boys in school.

WIN.

The Supreme Court rules parents do not need a lawyer to sue public school districts over their children’s special education needs. Boys, for example, are far more likely to have a form of autism requiring special school needs. More on the story.

LOSE.

Anthony Soltero, 14, killed himself last year after his school disciplined him for skipping school. A civil suit against the school was dismissed. Schools still get to value behavior over knowledge and learning, even when it means we are literally killing our boys. More on the story.

Photo of Anthony Soltero

U.S. Treasurer says to steal technology

One of the aspects about the current intellectual property/copyright issue is that the main losers are millions of poor people, often living in developing countries. And the winners trying to protect their copyrights are a few rich people trying to make more money. 

So James Surowiecki writes an interesting column on IP in The New Yorker May 14, 2007. He says that when the U.S. was poor, and England was rich, that Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, one of our founding fathers and a great patriot, "advocated the theft of technology."  "Among the beneficiaries of this was the American textile industry, which flourished thanks to pirated technology."
Painting of Hamilton by John Trumbull, 1792. Used here without permission!

Surowiecki concludes that IP laws and protection "may make the world safe for Pfizer, Microsoft, and Disney,"  but they don't benefit the rest of us, either here or abroad.

Teens driving less

Some data on teens driving less.

The percentage of 16 year olds who have driver's licenses fell by over 25% between 1993 and 2003, according to the Child Trends Databank.  Some of that is due to state graduated licensing programs, but even licensure rates for older teens dropped during the time period.

"Not every teen rushes out for a driver's license at the age of 16," notes the report, a big change from when baby boomers got their licenses 30-40 years ago. 

And just having a license doesn't mean today's Gen Y kids are driving. Many drive less, and take alternative transportation whenever possible.  American Public Transportation Association says that "transit oriented youth" is one reason why train ridership is up so much. Thanks to co-author Julie Coates for finding this research. What is your experience? Do you know young people who are driving less?

Are trains taking over?

Are trains taking over? Tell us what you think.

Consider these big events just in the last month:
* Mass transit and train ridership is the highest since 1959!  See our blog story on it.
* A high speed train set a new record of 350 mph this spring.
* American businesspeople are using trains, whenever they are in Europe, England and Japan. See our blog story on it.
* Even Amtrak is getting cocky with one of its new ads, "It really is our way or the highway."
  What do you think? Are trains taking over?

Commuting bad for your health

Commuting to work in an office is also bad for your health.

NineShifter Jeff Kart sent us this Detroit News story by Eric M. Weiss.

  "Besides taking time away from family, a long commute can be harmful to your health. Researchers have found that hours spent behind the wheel raise blood pressure and cause workers to get sick and stay home more often. Commuters have lower thresholds for frustration at work, suffer more headaches and chest pains, and more often display negative moods at home in the evenings. Carpool passengers deal with what they call Mustang neck or Beetle neck -- the contortions they make to wedge themselves into the back seats of certain cars."

Education: Why more boys are left handed

Boys are more likely to be left handed than girls.

My brilliant co-author and lead researcher Julie Coates has discovered amazing new evidence for the fascinating boy phenomenon going on right now.

We were watching television one night, and a tech inventor is on tv, and Julie perceptably notices that he's left handed.  Now she's got the research to back up her observations that left handed persons are more apt to be:

* Creative, especially visual. And that includes creative technology-wise.
* Autistic to some degree.
* Boys.
* Gen Y, as there are more left handed people in Gen Y than in older generations.

Next up: Julie now researching the brain implications and how left handers process information differently than right handed people.

Lefted handedness - just another visible sign of the phenomenon of more numerous creative, autistic Gen Y boys today, many of them creating the tech inventions changing our world.

09 F9 story likely to be part of IP history

NineShift has declared 2007 the year in which the intellectual property (IP) and copyright issue "resolved."

The struggle continues. The fat lady hasn't sung yet, and the news media hasn't a clue. But it's pretty much over.

In May of 2007 there was a story that's likely to be part of IP history.  Here's the story. There is a 32 digit code that is a critical part of an encryption code that prevents a person from copying high definition DVDs. The code starts with 09 F9.... and it is illegal to print/share the code under the misnamed horse-and-buggy law called the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.  A few kids of course started sharing the code. So the movie industry took action against the kids.

So what happened? So many people, one estimate says a million, were angered that everybody started posting the entire code on web sites all over the world. The site Digg.com was at the center of the media frenzy over it.  So the code is now essentially useless. For more on the story go here.

The moral of the story: The intellectual property/copyright rights of the public trump the financial interests of the IP holder. And the Lesson of the Story: if you don't share it, everyone else will.  And you can't sue a million people. Like the story?  Hate the story? What's your view? Share it now!