As with all students, the opportunity for students with learning disabilities to compete for college admissions, succeed in college and in the global market place depends upon the quality of their educational preparation and the systems they rely upon. Enhancing the effectiveness depends upon technology and innovation. Richard Varn will describe the challenges of relevance and innovation in technology that must be confronted in order for students with learning disabilities to achieve their goals in preparing for college. Varn will discuss how technology will reshape the schools and education systems that students with learning disabilities rely upon for preparation and the colleges and university environments that they will be entering. He will discuss issues that policymakers, educators and others must confront to close gaps in preparation and college access for students with learning disabilities.

Two Key Ingredients for
Improving Preparation and
Transition to College
Richard J. H. Varn

CIO
"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm (indifferent, uninterested) defenders in those who may do well under the new. "

 1990 World Wide
Web…
 DNA forensics
 Broadband
 Video History
Archive
 Iowa Electronic
University
 Indoor playgrounds
 Government services card
 1-to-1 computing
 E-medical records
 Health care pooling
 Courseware camps
 Ad supported e-mail
 100% E by 2003
 IP video and telephony
 GIS/GPS criminal tracking

High Value
New Process
Leap and
Reap
Rapidly
Low Value
Current Process
High Cost Low Cost

High Value
Low Value
New Process
Creep and Weep
Over a Much
Longer Time
Current Process
Keep the Old
Process But Do
Less of It
Current Process
High Cost Low Cost

Where we passionately and methodically search for new insight into how the brain functions, how we learn, and the factors and methods of human organization and success...

 Pushing change in education and government is like trying to run through a wall of spandex…
 …coated with Teflon so nothing sticks…
 And imbued with the universal element
“Bureaucratium,” an amazing substance that seems indestructible and repels everything…

No Birds Are Involved
In Transmission…

Plop Pop Cop

 Would it be unethical to make learning addictive?
 Hint: TV, music, game, drug, pornography, gambling and other industries do not understand the question
 Time=Value=Mind Share=Learning: where the time goes, the mind goes

 Which does not fit:
Licentiousness, Extremes, Titillation,
Comfort or Learning?
 We try to do analog replication and combination of these “easier” things to help learning - like with games that teach or a dramatization of an idea such as with Les Miserables.

 What about when we can digitally and elementally duplicate the pleasurable to achieve the difficult?
 As we identify the electrochemical processes and stimulants that are involved with pleasure, spirituality, comfort, fun, etc., will the vice and commercial industries be the only ones willing and able to use them?
 If we can make learning to solve quadratic equations feel like eating junk food, gaming, and skateboarding all at once, what is wrong with that?

 Modern science and technology
 Humanity’s Great Quest: Being able to observe, identify, model, manipulate, create, form and combine the parts of anything
 Cosmos, atoms, genes, cells, brains, bodies, ecosystems, knowledge, work, processes, markets and institutions

 Digitalization
 Automation
 Robotization
 Miniaturization
 Specialization
 Customization
 Globalization
 Mutation
 Commoditization
 Disintermediation
 Modularization
 Technological
Determinism
 Acronymization or
TCCTA
– Tendency to Create
Colorful Technical
Acronyms.
–
If you have a problem with that, join SPAM or
Society to Prevent
Acronym Memorization.

 Center of Proximity and Concentration
 Center of Culture/Entertainment
 Center of Production
 Center of Application
Past (Settled)
 Center of Global Scale
 Center of Excellence
 Center of Integration
 Center of Creativity
 Center of Discovery
 Center of Brokering
Future (Frontier)
 Center of Service (Concierge At Large)

The Postman
Proviso
Technology is ultimately a friend but mostly it is a "dangerous enemy" that "intrudes" into a culture "changing everything“ and even "eliminates alternatives to itself."
Automation increases probability but decreases possibility.
- Lewis Mumford
Technology or Technique is Not Neutral…
We conform to it, it does not conform to us.
But perhaps it can be Subversively Helpful.
Technological determinism means that if you change a part of an interconnected system, the rest of the system WILL eventually and inevitably change to reflect the speed, power or capabilities of the part that was changed.
-Richard J. H. Varn

 The long term sneaky way to change the world without ever asking permission or having to try to convince those who will be forced to change and already hate the idea, whatever it is and no matter what it is, before you even thought of it.
 Change key, interconnected tools, and the rest of the system will change.

 Technological systems are interconnected webs.
 The history of such systems shows a consistent repeating pattern.
 Changes in the speed, power or complexity of one part causes comparable changes in all other parts to which it is connected.

 Tools are viral containers of ideas.
 How we think differently from their use is often even more important than what they actually do.
– Do you remember the first time you clicked instead of typed?
– Do you remember pocket protector wearers saying
GUI was a waste of time and resources, and was the SAME AS TYPING COMMANDS?
– The viral idea was the connection between interface, function and data, and they could not see it.
 The dominant tool, metaphor, idea of our time is the database.

 The coming together or merging of:
– Jurisdictions
– Industries
– Companies
– Tools and technologies
– Products and devices
– Professions and skills
– Jobs
 The viral spread of IT across and within industries and elements of life

 Nut, screws and bolts
 Rails
 Electricity
 Auto tires
 Paper
 Plumbing and lumber
 Drove the greatest expansion of human productive capacity in history and a lot of extinctions

 Data (XML in every industry)
 Networks (IP everything)
 Software (Web Services and SOA)
 Storage (the one file holy grail)
 Human Computer Interface (see me, feel me)
 Processing (Gird for the Virtual Grid)
 And the effect will be at least as large…
 Technological bow waves…

Government and Education
As A Service
Public Developers
Domestic, Global and
Open Source
Private Developers
Domestic, Global and
Open Source
Object Market
Functional and Software Lego Bricks
Concierge Layer
Web Services
Customer
Agents
Personalized and Automated Human, Software and Hardware Services
Bit Niche Function Industry Cross-Industry
Government
Integrated Into
Other Software and Services
One
Stop
Gove rnme nt Subject Matter Expert Layer
Subject and Industry Specific Human, Software and Hardware Services
Public Entities Non-Profit Entities and Associations For-Profit Entities
Public
Only
Both Public Only Both Private Only
Public
Only
Domestic and Global Economy of Scale Layer
Private
Only
Common, Interchangeable, Customizable Software and Hardware Services

Steps to
GAAS UP
 Consolidate (across boundaries and industries)
 Broker (think “ Plastics …”)
 Standardize (what and how)
 Automate (no human can…)
 Innovate (no machine used to…)

Steps to
GAAS UP
 Document rules (rules are made to be coded)
 Virtualize (it happens somewhere)
 Eliminate (processes and systems)
 Re-deploy resources (harvest)

Citizens
“COUNT”
First
Form
Businesses
“COUNT”
First
Form
Customer
Agents
“COUNT”
First
Form
•Extract
Data
•Apply
Business
Rules
•Validate
•Sign
•Submit
•Route
E-Forms
Functional Summary c i n t a
A u t h e o n i t
Forms
Engines to:
•Submit
Data
•Apply
Business
Rules
•Sign
•Submit
•Route
Data
Analysis,
Sharing and
Public
Access
Direct
Data
Transfers
Data to
Agencies to:
• Accept
• Share
• Reuse
• Query
• Manage
• Safeguard
Privacy

Data Management
Improvement
Process
Select
Industry or
Government
Function
Scope
Industry
Segment or
Government
Identify
Forms and
Paperwork
Processes
Within
Function
Select Forms and
Processes to
Be Addressed
Work With:
• Business and Industry Associations
• Industry Solutions Vendors
• Federal, State and Local Governments
• Customer Agents
• Industry XML and Data Standards
Bodies
Publish Data
Routing
Processes
Harmonize and Reduce
Determine Core Data Elements and Business Rules
Harmonize Data Elements and
Business Rules; Coordinate With
Industry Standards
Finalize and Publish XML
Schema for Data Elements,
Business Rules and Presentation
Formats
Create
Harmonized
Forms
Customer Agents
Private Industry Solutions,
Systems, Services and
Software Modules
Agency Processing,
Applications,
Databases and Legacy
Systems

 Devices per chip continue to double every
12 months.
 The pace of change continues to accelerate.
 100 years happens in 20 at the current rate.*
 Use to ubiquity.
 Distinctive to disposable.
 Peripheral to integral.
*Ray Kurzweil , The Age of Spiritual Machines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PPTParadigmShiftsFrr15Events.jpg

 Anyone, anywhere, anytime will be able to instantaneously talk, write and send visual and audio information to anyone else.
 IP replaces Esperanto.
 Please put my universal translator engine in my cell phone in my ear rather than a Babel Fish…

Like Starbucks' relentless attempts to sell itself as the "third place," the wireless industry is trying to sell itself as the "third screen."
2010:
•500 Million Broadband
Users
•2.3 Billion Cell Phones

Availability dates:
 Artificial Brain Cells
 Artificial Brain
 Artificial Eyes
 Artificial Eye Implant
 Permanent Mechanical Heart
 Synthetic Muscles
 Lungs And Kidneys
DATA: BRITISH TELEPHONE LABS in Business Week, March 200 and in The Register, February 2005
2017
2035
2010
2024
2010
2019
2015

 Over 100,000 Cochlear
Ear Implants
 Bionic limbs moved by thought
 Exoskeletons
 Limbs, joints and bones
 Carbon nanotubes

 A BrainGate, enabled paralyzed Matthew
Nagle, to move a computer cursor, change
TV channels and operate fingers on a prosthetic hand.
 Long-term goal of the study was to develop brain computer interfaces (BCIs).

 Eric Ramsey has been "lockedin" since 1999. “A locked-in patient is somebody who is basically alert and intelligent, but they cannot communicate.”
 “His thinking brain is intact, but he cannot move, he can hardly move his eyes, he cannot speak, he gets spasms from time to time."
 They are presently detecting the pattern of firing in signals and the pattern is associated with particular phonemes or word sounds that he is trying to produce. They have done that mapping and are trying to detect them and send them back to him, so that he can actually produce the phonemes or sounds of words. The result will be a computer synthesizing Eric's attempts to speak.

 Beyond alleviating the effects of disabilities, normal functioning humans could upgrade to improve intelligence, sensory awareness or simply to counter the effects of aging.
 Disability becomes ability?
 Ampl-ability (ability becomes amplified)?
 Eubility (good things beyond human ability)?
 Malability (things we wish humans could never do)?

 Computers reach the speed of 20 quadrillion instructions per second, equal to the human brain
– In accordance with Moore's law, we expected to reach the computational capacity of the human brain---20 million billion neuron connection calculations per second (100 billion neurons times an average of 1,000 connections to other neurons times 200 calculations per second per connection)---in a super computer by 2010 and in a standard personal computer by the year 2020.
Ray Kurzweil

 By the year 2040 a super computer reaches the collective brain speed of all the human brains alive.
 By 2050 global brain speed is available on a $1,000 laptop.

 Cumulative machine intelligence becomes larger than cumulative human intelligence.
 GNR (Genetic, Nanotechnology and Robotics) combine to remake civilization as we know it.

 Non-invasive brain scanning capabilities are growing exponentially.
 Reverse engineering of the brain and other software techniques make machines more than human in many ways.
 “Will I dream, Doctor?”

Information
Technology
Learners
Assessment
Neuroscience
Diagnosis, Response and “Treatment”

 Customization and individualization
 Democratization of access, content and tools
 Non-linearity
 Place indifference
 Availability of changeable content
 The elimination of rote tasks in teaching and learning

 More time to focus on only that which a human can do well
 Instant access human knowledge in all forms
 Overlaying data on our experiences
 Sharing
 Collaboration
 Input and outcome analysis

 The Carnegie Unit credit hours
 Linearity
 Grades
 Subjects
 Learning to remember rather than learning to learn
 Education is expected to cure all with out concomitant resources

 Assessment is misapplied with too many high-stakes low-yield tests and not enough low-stakes high-yield tests.
 The policy response is inadequate to the amount of change, the size of the challenge and the importance of the outcome.

 1: Each academic program has an articulated curriculum.
 2: Each class has specified goals and objectives.
 3: Standards and the method of assessment are agreed upon.
 4: Student achievement level and learning style are assessed.

 5: Learning and instruction plan is customized and matched to goals, objectives and student learning style.
 6: Search for, acquire and develop courseware to meet the learning and instruction plans.
 7: Training in the use of the courseware and courseware tools is delivered.

 8: Courseware is delivered.
 9: Continuous assessment based on standards is used to determine level of achievement of goals and objectives.
 10--Results of the assessment are fed back into the curriculum articulation and writing process.
 Repeat the cycle.

 Experience, Information and Knowledge
 Objects
 Modules
 Units
 Courses or Competencies
 Degrees, Certificates and Documented
Achievement

Digital Content—Essential Raw Material
 Why have states not mandated that all text books and educational materials purchased must be in both analog (paper) or digital form?
 Furthermore, since most of the cost of paper materials is NOT in the content development but in the manufacture and distribution, states should pay less for the digital copy and subscribe to updates like other software maintenance.
 If you feel lonely, put a trigger to make sure 10 or some number of states pass it before it goes into effect.

Searching for Optimal Efficiency and Quality
High Personal Tutor
Discussion/Class
Cost
Low
Courseware
Lecture
Book Self-Study
Mode and level of personalization of delivery

 Games and simulation
 Mix, mash and create
 IM
 Txt
 Cell
 MP3/Podcasts
 Stream-of-consciousness surfing
 Blogging
 Email
 Collaborate
 Music
 TV
 DVD’s
 Viral advertising

 Being able to see and use all allowable data in multiple formats:
– Textual
– Tabular
– Spatial
– Simulation
 The ability to know actual outcomes of programs from enterprise data and other private data sources.

What and Where Is Work and Who or What Does It?
Human Race
Workplace Workers
Distributed Workers
Outsourced Workers
Crowd Sourced
Workers
Machine Race
Computers and Robots
Workplace Machines Work
Neither and Both
Play
Distributed Machines
Outsourced Machines
Distributed
Processing

Unbundling the Teaching Profession
 One job category
 Job description?
 Do it all and do it well.
 What does that mean?
 We need to face up to our teaching disabilities.

Job Description for a Teacher
 Teaching
 Assessment expert
 Diagnostic expert
 Curriculum designer
 Advisor
 Mentor
 Researcher/Writer
 Public servant
 Social worker
 Community and Parent
Liaison
 Bureaucrat
 Policymaker
 Medical manager
 Content expert
 Technology integrator
 Disciplinarian
 Disability manager
 Secretary and data entry clerk
 And did I mention you have a life?

 Neuroscience
– Psychometrics
 Biology
 Psychology
– Communication and Persuasion
 Chemistry
 Physics
 How these will be applied to the teaching and learning process

Consider the Medical Model and Distributed Work
 How the health care work force is organized:
– We pay doctors a lot but there is still a huge supporting cast of specialist and professionals.
– They have insurance and customers shilling for them and occasionally annoying them.
 Consider how the converging sciences of information technology, neurology, assessment and so on can be used to diagnose successful and unsuccessful learning strategies and activities and vary how we approach education.

 Student portfolios to document learning
 New evaluation methods
 The link between material use, brain research and real-time monitoring
 Diagnostics with physical capabilities
 Formative assessments can be:
– Technology like Web Ex, Groupsystems.com, and audience response systems
– Or cheap and simple
• Red dot, green dot
• A-E letters

 Who teaches it?
 What is taught?
 When is it taught?
 Where is it taught?
 Why is it taught?
 How is it taught?
 How do we measure teaching?
 Who learns it?
 What is learned?
 When is it learned?
 Where is it learned?
 Why is it learned?
 How is it learned?
 How do we measure learning?

 What aspects of teaching and learning do we want to:
– Augment?
– Replace?
– Automate?
– Decentralize?
– Reform?

 Is this the reason we go to school?
 It is the most practiced act.
 Granted: it has the benefit for some learners of reinforcing and as a memory aid.
 It is not part of the curriculum, evaluated, credited, improved.
 Alternatives
– Notes in advance
– Lecture capture, preview, or synopses
– Real-time voice to text
– Moving on to the next level of discourse rather than recording the sage on the stage





 Classroom and Institution Management
– You want the grading and paperwork processes of teaching to be easier and more automated.
– You want learners and their families to be able to do self-service on classroom and institutional processes.
– You want to know more about your learners before they show up for class. You want to know the results of your specific programs and effort with as much cause and effect analysis as possible.
– You want your results based system to roll its results up to various mandated reports like NCLB and to teachers, researchers, educational leaders, policy makers and the public.

 Better Lectures and Presentations
– You want to hold the attention of learners during lectures and presentations and appropriately use various media to enhance learning rather than just entertain.
 Reflect Work Conditions
– You want your learners to learn using the same tools, techniques and systems they will use in the workplace.

 Remediation
– You want to spend less class time on bringing everyone up to the same level and on addressing general study skill issues, subject matter gaps and literacy problems.

 Technical Training
– You want learners to learn to use tools and systems that are not in themselves part of the curriculum by using self-paced, virtual and hands-on tutorials.
 Customized Learning
– You want use technology to match the teaching and learning methods and materials to be tailored to the individual knowledge, skills, learning styles and objectives of each learner.

 Diagnostic Model of Education
– You want to use brain research, assessment, real time feedback and (if it becomes commonly available) physical indication of learning activity in the brain to know if a learner is in fact learning and responds accordingly.
 Extended Learning
– You want the exceptional and the motivated learners to go beyond what is required in the class or program and beyond what you have time to teach them.

 Self-Directed Learners
– You want learners who can and will learn on their own to be able to do so and receive credit for what they learn. You want to be able to spend more time being a mentor, motivator, creator, guide, evaluator and/or expert learner.

 Collaborative Learning
– You want your learners to work in collaborative teams and networks that are not bound by the walls and grounds of your location.
 More Learning
– You want your learners to learn more than previously possible through print technology and gain greater mastery over the subject matter.

 More Cost-Effective Learning
– You want learning the amount of learning per dollar spent to be greater.

 Differentiating Roles and Specializing
– You want to allow each person to focus more on the more narrowly defined role, specialize, and improve the quality of their work on their areas of expertise
(e.g., assessment, curriculum development, discussion, administrative processes, lecture, mentoring, counseling, etc.) and use technology to help free up time and reorganize the work to make this possible.

 Virtual Reality
– You want to be able to simulate real environments that are too dangerous, expensive and/or remote to provide at your school.

 Courseware Development
– You want to do what was once only the province of textbook companies, moviemakers and computer specialists: make multimedia courseware.

 Reach New Markets
– You want to export your unique and high quality programs into areas beyond the magic 30-minute, 30-mile barrier.

 Expand Offerings
– You want to be able to increase your offerings beyond what is possible and/or affordable with conventional educational delivery systems. You want to do this to attract and keep more students and increase the value of your programs.

 Survival
– You want to make sure you are not bypassed by other delivery systems and that your school is equal to or better than the competition in the use and availability of education materials and information technology.