Work With Hope

The case for digital texts is pretty overwhelming.  Ask the parent of any young student carrying a 50 lb. backpack, or one paying $150 for a single text, and the answer is clear.  Ask any teacher who is affected by the tyranny of the text, and one wonders why this transition is not happening more quickly. Ask the directors of a textbook company, and things become a bit more complicated.  Unfortunately, without the cooperation of textbook companies, this evolution will take significantly longer.
 
I want to be careful to be fair here.  Companies who see their current market threatened will work to protect their model.  Sometimes this takes the path of obstruction to progress, buggy whip makers trying to kill progress on the automobile.  However, some of the challenges to digital texts are real, and until a clear path is found, progress will be sluggish at best.  I’m going to look at two challenges in this post, distribution model and compensation to authors.
 
In order to have digital texts that are equal to their paper counterparts, students must have universal access to these texts.  Until a school moves to a 1:1 model, therefore, digital textbooks are not practical.  Though the move to 1:1 seems inevitable, at least at the secondary level, the financial and networking challenges put this goal much farther down the road than it should be.  Even when students have this universal access, there will not be a single model.  Schools now are embracing laptops, laptop tablets, pure tablets, netbooks, and electronic readers, so any electronic text will have to work on multiple platforms.
 
Beyond this is the bigger questions of distribution.  I’m certain up to a few years ago most companies thought that CD or DVD offered the answer.  Students could purchase discs which would have the text and live links to further resources on the Internet. However, the portable optical storage device seems to be dying as quickly as the floppy disc did.  This leaves two options (at least) downloadable texts that stay on the the drive and cloud-based texts accessed online.  Each of these requires Internet access which again is challenged by current realities.  Also, digital content is by its nature infinitely reproducible, so the challenges of piracy are greater.  Probably schools will have to charge or pay a fee per student, to give that student access to the book for a limited time, but control will be difficult.
 
Connected to this is the financial model.  Everyone in education laments the inflated price of textbooks, and there is general agreement that an electronic text should combat this.  However, one thing that is forgotten is that the only costs removed from the digital text is publishing and physical distribution.  Authors, editors, and publishers will still be needed, and need to be fairly compensated.  So while costs should drop, digital texts will not (and should not) be free.  However, just as digital distribution of music or video has cut the income of record or film companies, digital texts will call for a restructuring and shrinking of the textbook publishers. Transitional pains of a major industry (which has major influence in the whole world of education…textbook publishers sponsor most education events) will slow the inevitable.  
 
Digital texts are coming, but it won’t be an overnight transition, and there will be many growing pains. 
 
As always, I welcome your comments. 
 
 

Every school is (or should be) talking about the future of digital textbooks.  When I meet wi textbook company representatives, my second question (after “how are you today?”) is, “What is your company’s digital strategy and roadmap?” So I’d like to talk about this subject for a couple of posts.  Today I’m going to talk about the benefits and possibilities of moving to a digital format for textbooks, and tomorrow I’ll talk about some of the challenges schools will face moving in this direction.  I don’t like writing in this order; I like to finish on the positive, but I tried writing the posts in that order and they didn’t make sense.  So I’ll start by saying that I support the move to digital texts (or whatever they will be called), but I am aware of the difficulties.

 
Let’s start with the most obvious and important point, a textbook is not a course.  I’m not sure whether this is universally agreed.  I still hear joking comments of teachers staying one chapter ahead in the text, and not joking concerns about not “finishing the book” by June.  Textbook companies, understandably, do nothing to disparage this idea.  A textbook is sold not as a book alone but as a “course in a box,” with assignments and tests and PowerPoint lectures and online resources in the package (ironically, many schools are now having trouble with students acquiring teachers’ versions of texts, undermining this structure) .  Effective instruction requires a teacher to map out material to be learned and use resources to effect this learning.
 
One of the strongest arguments for digital texts is the possibility of reducing the tyranny of the textbooks.  Textbooks loom massively in a class.  Physically they are large, the main prop of the classroom.  They are expensive, putting pressure on a teacher to justify student expense.  One of the arguments for a teacher finishing the book is to get the students’ money worth.  They also have the weight of authority, suggesting in every way that this is the subject, not a means to it.  Parents cite not completing the text as evidence of teacher incompetence. The suggestion that a teacher would not use a textbook would be viewed with skepticism.  A combination of traditional thinking and persuasive marketing by textbook companies have convinced the world of academia that the textbook is king. As with many other fields, digital distribution can break the hold of old monopolies, which will also cause many of the challenges I’ll talk about tomorrow.
 
Textbooks weigh a ton!
 
A textbook is an inherently limited medium.  In most subjects, textbooks are out of date as soon as they are published.  A digital textbook has the capability of regular updates.  Textbooks contain the contents that are intended for the broadest audience possible while a digital textbook could be customized by a teacher, a school, or a student.  Many textbooks today offer “digital extras,” but these are broadly underused because they require moving away from the book.  The same digital features could be seamlessly integrated into the digital text.  The paper and printing resources used in creating a textbook are huge, and often used for a short period of time.  A perfect example of this wasteful is the literature anthology.  All students have carried these bricks monetarily and physically back and forth to class only to use less than a third of the contents.  A digital anthology can easily be limited to only the selections that are needed for a course.
 
Efficiency, flexibility, reduced cost and weight all argue for the implementation of digital texts. Just as in the transformation of music and film to digital distribution models, this change is an inevitability. However, just as with music and film, inevitability does not mean that the change will be a smooth one.  There a clear challenges to this move, and clear interests that will fight to maintain old models.
 
And I’ll talk about these tomorrow.
 
As always, I welcome your comments.
 
 

As Superintendent of a system of Catholic schools, I am disheartened by the struggles faced by the schools in my diocese, particularly those in disadvantaged neighborhoods. What is even more frustrating, though, is the attitude I sometimes find in laity and clergy that this an irreversible trend and it is fine that schools close if they can’t sustain themselves through parents’ tuition.

 
I decided some time ago was that I needed to go back to basics and articulate for myself and others why we are doing this. The following link is to the first draft of this case statement for Catholic schools in my diocese, and in a broader sense throughout this country. This article will be used in a variety of publications and a variety of forms

The Case for Catholic Education in the Diocese of Orange

I would welcome your comments.

Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be anything to write about. It’s 7:00 and the blogging streak is in serious risk. Then, suddenly, as if provided by above, I start to print the envelops for Christmas cards.  
 
I’m not a big mail-merger. I do it once a year, for Christmas cards. I have all my lists as saved files, so printing out envelopes saves a lot of time, and I can personalize the envelopes with graphics that coordinate with our cards. Get it, this is supposed to save me time.  
 
I went up tonight and tried to do this for the first time with Office 2012. After I finally found the tab for mail, I selected merge, and suddenly everything worked differently. First, my pre-saved address files wouldn’t open because the updated program doesn’t recognize word tables. So I saved the data and tried to create a new file, but the ability to add a table of data is either taken out or hidden from me. Luckily I could save the data as an Excel file which worked.  
 
After about 1/2 an hour I was able to print envelopes. But my Christmas card spirit was gone, and my hatred of Office 2012 was blazing like a Yule log.  
 
I know I’m not the first to express my irritation with the changes to Office. The problem is that with a fundamental program like Word, you don’t have time to relearn it on the fly with new versions. Over time I’ve figured out where most of the needed commands are, but every so often I try to do something old…like mail merge…and this frustration reemerges.  
 
It’s good to have these experiences, because they remind me of the frustration that must be felt by so many of the people I work with. The world of technology is constantly changing and sometimes I’m so used to it I forget how jarring this can be.  
 
Until I try to mail merge…  
 

I’ve been going to elementary Christmas shows for more than 12 years now. Having a wife who is also an elementary school, music teacher, it’s part of the territory. Since my wife teaches at a fairly large school, for the past 10 years she has done 2 shows, lower and upper grades, every Advent/Christmas season.  
 
For many years my daughter was in the show, but since that time I sit in the back, comfortable not to be fighting for prime space, and free to read stories on my phone (or type blog entries).  
 
Even though there is a sameness to all of the shows (tonight’s is “Miracle at Midnight”), I never get tired of being at the shows. There is something so affecting about children trying their best, and parents happy to see their young ones sing, dance, and (sort of) act. The jokes are corny, but always well-received.  
 
The highlights of every show are the songs. Each class gets an opportunity to perform, usually with hand gestures and basic dancing. I love how parents wave at their children, even from the back of the church, as they crane and half-stand to get the best view of the child’s big moment.  
 
OK, Mary is very great with child this year…a larger basketball than usual.  
 
At both performances, it is the eldest class that performs the play. Like the years of Nutcracker, the passing of time is marked as children move through the ranks. It will seem an instant before the seventh graders singing right now will be Mary, Joseph, shepherds, kings, and the most coveted role of the camel.  
 
Fifth graders singing now, a class of angels…for the moment.  
 
My wife is always so nervous in the weeks between Halloween and the two shows, and there is always a day or two of near despair. But I can honestly (and impartially) say that there has never  been an unsuccessful show.  
 
Seventh graders now…cowboy shepherds…hmmm 
 
Every year I make the programs for the shows. I remember this being quite an ordeal years ago, but now the template is so clear that it takes no more time than typing in names (in fact, in years when she reuses a show from years past, I don’t even have to type in the songs or characters). It is one of my two yearly contributions.  
 
Ah, the camel…lots of laughs in the audience. Now the front hump is singing.  
 
My other contribution is clean up, usually vacuuming the sanctuary. In doing this for so long two things are clear 1)it is very hard to vacuum straw and glitter 2)church vacuum cleaners are notoriously bad.  
 
Now the manger scene, the upturn ending, the big reversal. The one lesson I still take from scripture is that God has a wonderful sense of dramatic structure.  
 
Everyone on stage, the finale, bringing in the ship successfully again. and parents are looking at their watches and smiling…just under an hour! 
 
A school Christmas play…not the worst way to spend an evening.  

I knew that 13 would be an unlucky day.  I’m having a heck of a time coming up with a topic. 

 
It’s been a good long time since I’ve written about my use of the iPad.  I’ve been using my iPad 1 for a little more than a year now, so I’m finally feeling confident in my experience.
 
Simply stated, the iPad is my primary device.  I use it for reading of news and novels (I have never read more).  I write emails, memos, blogposts (like this).  I use web resources, Facebook, and Twitter, and I watch movies on Netflix. My wife, who has an iPad 2, also uses the video capability for Skype with our daughter. I have been impressed with improvements to the platform and applications, and I can see how the capability is going to continue to grow in years to come.  As I often say to people, “I occasionally use a computer, but I live in my iPad.” If my iPad should be lost or broken, I would be distressed, but since the platform is primarily cloud based, I would lose very little real data.
 
I am very optimistic about the future of the device.  As I argued in an earlier essay, the platform is so prevalent that other applications are finding ways to adapt to it.  Just today, Microsoft introduced its cloud storage app Skydive for the iPad.  For all of their interest in developing an operating system for competive products, Microsoft knows that there is no future apart from the iPad for foreseeable time ahead.  As I attend meetings and workshops, I see more and more iPads in the room.  It is virtually the only device I see at executive meetings.
 
So I guess I’m “all in” with this device.
 
Hope to have a better topic tomorrow. 
 
As always, I welcome your comments. 

OK, I said I would be back on email today, but I just finished this book and I wanted to write about it instead.

 
Title: The Night Circus
Author: Erin Morgenstern
 
I liked this book so much that I almost fear reviewing it, afraid that someone else will read it and see that thing I’m missing that makes it silly or trivial.
 
The circus arrives without warning.
 

Much the same could be said for this first offering by Erin Morgenstern, for The Night Circus for me falls into a category of novel that is nothing short of miraculous.  It immediately takes its place with novels like The Princess Bride or Creator which are so different and captivating and engrossing that I am torn by horses pulling me on to the end and the sirens calling me to stay and savor each page.  
 
Orphan apprentices of two long-magicians are raised from childhood to participate in an unspecified challenge.  Celia and Marco are bound to this task by a power beyond their free will, and only gradually do they come to understand its rules and only much later its conclusion.  After moving from their mentors, the two are involved with a mysterious circus that travels worldwide without notice and without visible means.  Les Cirque des Reves, which opens at dusk and closes at dawn, is a gathering of tents, each with its own performance or attraction.  A visitor moves among these tents finding the familiar acts, animal performances, a fortune teller, a magician (Celia) blended with new and unusual tents offering various physical and emotional experiences.  
 
As the plot weaves through place, time and characters, the reader understands that despite its “creation” by a consortium led by an empresario and his aide (Marco), the circus is maintained by a complex balance of the talents of the two apprentice magicians.  However, once they meet and fall in love, this challenge takes the form of cooperative competition, each one building on the accomplishments of the last and expending more and more energy to keep everything balanced and moving like the ornate clock at the entrance. 
 
Just as Celia and Marco build a circus of dreams, so Morgenstern creates pages of wonder as the events of plot are interspersed with descriptions of tents and their attractions.  Thus the reader becomes simultaneously the recipient of the story and a follower of the circus, joining the ranks of the Reveurs, the aficionados of the Circus who follow its travels and document it’s history.  Woven into this history are discussions of time and space, of free will and determinism, of art and magic.  Allusions to The Tempest make the story richer, and not derivative.  
 
A cursory glance at the Amazon reviews of The Night Circus reveals a far from consistent reaction.  There are one and two star reviews, one reviewer commenting on the whole thing as “twee,” and another saying that the story would probably be best for those who like circuses.  So perhaps I am missing the cynical realization that makes the entire thing fall apart, but like Celia and Marco I choose to accept the mystery and wonder as valid in the midst of a naughty world.
 
 

Today’s is something very different, my apologies to any who don’t like it.  I’ll be back on to email tomorrow!

 
This afternoon I’m off to see a stage production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  For as long as I can remember, this has always been my favorite Christmas story.  I’ve seen most movie versions multiple times (not the Jim Carry 3d animation one…don’t be silly), including the Muppets (actually a very good version, and the subtext of being made soon after the death of Jim Hensen makes it very poignant), the musical Scrooge (to call it uneven would be overly generous, but Alec Guinness as Jacob Marley!), and Mr. Magoo (unbelievably frightening for a child…still remember being scared).  My favorite is the George C. Scott version made for television about 25 years ago which I still watch multiple times every Christmas season.
 
One of my favorite memories of A Christmas Carol goes back about 20 years to Knott’s Berry Farm’s Bird Cage Theater. The Bird Cage was a great venue in the park where a small troop of actors did comic melodramas.  Of course this closed many years ago, I assume because of lack of interest and probably significant costs of paying actual people to act.  However, back then during the Christmas season, the theater was open to the public for free, and they did a reduced production of A Christmas Carol every hour.  I spend one afternoon seeing the production 4 times, enjoying the way that actors would play different parts each time.  It was a great afternoon, followed by Mrs Knott’s chicken.
 
One reason that I like the story so much is that it illustrates a vital lesson about human nature.  In the best productions, the character of Scrooge is a pitiable figure rather than an evil one (one of the reasons why I so like the Scott version is that he plays Scrooge not as caricature, but with cynical humor).  He has been hurt into cynicism and solitude.  Fear of the vulnerability of being hurt has created the safety shell that is only broken by the demonstrated realization that even a safe life leads to the grave.  The redemption at the end is a willingness to rejoin life despite the risks and pain it brings. 
 
I see the same thing in myself and in many that work with.  Openness to new programs devices or ideas leaves one vulnerable to ridicule.  Cynical negativity at least seems to offer some protection.  As I said in frustration a few weeks ago, “If you always say no, you’re never wrong.”. However, just as in the case of Scrooge, this safety is an illusion because it can’t hold off the future, whether it be a death of a person, or of an education system. 
 
I hope that you enjoy A Christmas Carol this holiday, and I hope its lesson of hope brightens your day.
 
As always, I invite your comments.

I want to talk about email for a couple of days. 
 
I think we should develop a new holiday called “Email Amnesty Day.” On this day once a year, everyone is required to delete all email that has piled up in their box unless it has been explicitly saved.
 
Dirty little secret time.  In a couple of my workshops I give tips on how to manage email and to work toward an inbox that is emptied daily.  However, I DON’T DO THIS AT ALL.  Despite efforts to eliminate emails, they pile up like Tetris blocks gradually filling up my mailbox until I simply archive a couple of months once I receive the regular “mailbox full” notice.  I’m not saying these strategies can’t work, but they don’t work for me, or for anyone I’ve ever met.

 
If once a year your email simply disappeared, the stress about saving something that might be needed later would be answered for you. And think of the yearly joy one would feel to send the following message:
 
All of my emails were deleted for Email Amnesty Day.  If you had something really important that I have not responded to, please resend.  Merry Email Amnesty Day to all, and to all a good night!