When something bright or novel flashes, it tends to automatically win the competition for the brain’s attention, but that involuntary bottom-up impulse can be voluntarily overridden through a top-down process that Dr. Desimone calls “biased competition.”

In the nearer future, neuroscientists might also help you focus by observing your brain activity and providing biofeedback as you practice strengthening your concentration.

Cool info, but this is what I got out of the article:

Ms. Gallagher advocates meditation to increase your focus, but she says there are also simpler ways to put the lessons of attention researchers to use. Once she learned how hard it was for the brain to avoid paying attention to sounds, particularly other people’s voices, she began carrying ear plugs with her. When you’re trapped in a noisy subway car or a taxi with a TV that won’t turn off, she says you have to build your own “stimulus shelter.”

She recommends starting your work day concentrating on your most important task for 90 minutes. At that point your prefrontal cortex probably needs a rest, and you can answer e-mail, return phone calls and sip caffeine (which does help attention) before focusing again. But until that first break, don’t get distracted by anything else, because it can take the brain 20 minutes to do the equivalent of rebooting after an interruption. (For more advice, go to nytimes.com/tierneylab.)

First, this is one of the most incredble games I’ve ever played. I cannot begin to express how much fun I’ve had playing this game with my daughter, much less how much I’ve enjoyed it after she’s gone to bed! It is a blast! If you haven’t checked it our fot the entertainment value, it’s worth every penny.

Second, it has been a fantastic educational tool! That really is the focus of this post and future ones about the game. First, a bit on educational gaming theory. The engagement level of this game is profound. As a teaching tool, is does need mentoring to fully gain the educational value of the game. The game was designed for entertainment first and the educational value works when you bring external knowledge into the gameplay.

With that said, Willow has been learning about evolution. We’ve discussed theories of how life started (the game shows an asteroid breaking open in a “tide pool” to reveal your first single-cell organism). We’ve discussed DNA (provided as “points”). We’ve discussed the difference between how creatures evolve in the game (you, as gamer, decides vs Darwinian evolution vs God. And we’ve discussed how Will Wright has unfortunately left out the “fish” stage of evolution: what happens between the tide pool and land creatures (ok… so this is up to debate, but you do see what appears to be a very complex microorganism swim right up onto land).

The game provides an evolutionary timeline, although Willow hasn’t quite grasped the time scale, so that is an additional lesson outside of the game. We’ve spent the last week up on land and have been discussing animal behaviors and what it means to get bigger brains (social behaviors and species eradication by your own species correlate to bigger brain sizes… your creature is learning). The game lets you decide wether to attack another species or befriend them.

Next up: the tribal stage. And due to some events in Willow’s real world, we’ll be discussing race relations and addressing the natural apprehension we feel when encountering tribes that look and act different than we do.

One of the game design elements that I find brilliant is the user-invention facet of the creature pool. Users submit the creature designs to the Spore portal, and the creatures are used to populate gamer’s planets. The creations can also be find on the Spore web portal (look under our username: qgecko).

The workshop has focused on the National Weather Center’s HWT and the role the social sciences and key stakeholders (Emergency Management, public leadership, and the public). Much of the workshop has focused on probabilistic forecasting, a developing technology that will provide more concise hazardous weather forecasting. Emergency management and the public have grown used to a certain paradigm when receiving reports of hazardous weather. The NWS needs to insure roll-out of a new system will not cause errors in public communications, particularly since the issues involve life and death. The workshop audience is primarily NWS personnel and a small mix of social scientists (Sociology, Communication, Anthropology).

Day 1: Lots of background information about HWT, WAS*IS, Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA), and Probabilistic Forecasting. We also broke into groups to look at the new probabilistic forecasting model from different societal impact foci.

In a nutshell, what does this all mean from a non-meteorological perspective and education? The most interesting thing if the aspect of dealing with uncertainty in forecasting. Most of us expect some sense of certainty from the weather reports and meteorologist we see on television. Perhaps this comes from this information coming from “officials.” Interestingly, the current forecasting models have even more uncertainty that the new system they hope to roll out. But the new system focuses on probability and this may just be beyond the understanding on most of the general public, not to mention emergency management. The most promising use of this system is reporting that is specific to user’s geographic location. Emerging technologies, specifically information and communication technologies combined with GPS, promise better use of the system. For example, your iPhone will be able directly report to you reporting hazardous weather that is approaching your specific vicinity (as opposed to a radio broadcast that pinpoints your entire county… the current methodology in hazardous reporting). The system allows long-term (hours, in some cases) heads up on impending weather events. Advanced warning can be an issue… how do people deal with warnings that come hours before the event?

The system would make an excellent scenario for digital game based learning. Students could take on the roll of emergency managers. The system would teach probability, critical thinking skills, mathematics, graphing, and communication skills.

The social sciences will need to help collect data on how people respond to this new information. Surveys have been discussed frequently, although some new technologies, in particular Sense Networks, could help provide data on actions taken by people.

From a societal perspective, even if we could better pinpoint hazardous warning, would that change people’s behavior. Ultimately, the goal is to get people to respond by putting themselves in a safe place.

Day 2: Some opening comments on yesterday’s progress. This was the first real response from the social science and psychological perspective. Lots of discussion. And an introduction to updates to the Emergency Alert System (EAS) by changes in the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). It amounts to an increase in information.

Again, what does this mean for the education community? The National Weather Service is on the crux of unveiling new forecasting methods. Public information will change. If the education community comes to the table, the weather enterprise could begin to suggest the needs for public knowledge to make informed decisions from the forecasts.

Leadership training is another aspect that may need to be considered. More information permits local leadership (i.e. school principals) to make informed decisions that are site specific. Research and practices on innovation diffusion could insure success in this endeavor.

As the education paradigm in the US begins to change, this could be an ideal time to influence the knowledge base of the citizenry. If a core understanding of probability is necessary to make the most informed decisions from the forecast, then the education system should insure high school graduates have the knowledge. While probability is covered by middle school, relevancy is necessary to insure students “get it”.

Probability is an important concept for multiple areas. Climate change is an excellent example. Public availability of raw information requires a better understanding of scientific uncertainty. Math and statistics are not just needed for the sole purpose of improving our nation’s report card. Not only do we tend to question the “facts” reported by media and leadership, leadership is becoming less willing to draw absolute conclusions, partly due to issues of liability. We need a citizenry ready to make personal risks assessments, take probability data, and make their own informed decisions. We need a citizenry that can do inquiry based science, even on a personal level.

Jan Morrison of the Gates Foundation recently posed a rhetorical question that perfectly sums up the state of K-12 education: “Do our schools still look like they did in the 1950s – now ask yourself, do our companies still look like they did in the 1950s?”

Most of what comes out of the US Chamber of Commerce I’m at odds with. They are big supporters of the Bush administration, NCLB, big oil, etc. But this post was more neutral than most. (Perhaps he’s gearing down for the next president?) It was this comment that struck a cord:

Is NCLB perfect? Of course not, but thanks to the reforms of the Act, we can finally evaluate the shortcomings of our education system and ensure that appropriate action is taken on behalf of our students. Just as we expect our schools to change, improve, and evolve over time so, too, do we expect education policy to change, improve, and evolve.

He does, as another commenter pointed out, mention the need for “better teachers”. I know this is a contentious point. But I also know what working conditions teachers must contend with now and we need to give those that are ready for productive change a chance before throwing them out with the bath water.

Here’s my complete reply, posted as a comment:

There are volumes of research available and in progress that demonstrate effective teaching and learning. And yet, few, if any, public education institutions are in a position to implement the change necessary. Scrapping the whole thing and starting over is plausible, but not realistic.

Research tells us effective schooling is a broad endeavor involving multiple stakeholders at the community level. Systemic and sustainable change can only occur if all stakeholders have buy-in and play an active role in the process. Education is a community effort. But this does not entail a community that insist on finger pointing and threats of reduced funding. This means a community that must make every effort to insure the success of the children. It means a Professional Learning Community brought together by knowledgeable agents of change.

School boards could be insuring community resources are available to assist every aspect of the school. This should include not only repair and maintenance, but guest speakers, mentorship opportunities, staffing assistance, and access to workforce expertise. Local colleges and universities should play a role in insuring students are prepared for entering higher education. Learning needs to happen in the context of the community, bringing relevance and real-world examples into the classroom.

Administrators should be intimately aware of organizational change theory and action research. Administrators should be the bastions of research and data driven decision making. They should insure a shared vision and shared leadership is in place. Discipline needs to be left to other dedicated staff.

The National Academies’ call for 10,000 teachers is one piece of the puzzle that can help. Adequate instruction requires personalized attention provided in the way of mentors and facilitators. Ideally, there would be one teacher for every six students in primary grades and one teacher for every twelve students in secondary. But this also requires teachers have adequate time for collaboration, teamwork, planning, and professional development. Teachers need to model life-long learning, but must be given the time and resources to do so.

Students need to be engaged. Technology is fundamental, but it must be student-centered and used to bring authentic, real-world community-based issues to the classroom. Collaboration and problem-based learning should be the norm. Standardized testing needs to reflect the needs of business and industry today, where complex problem solving and soft skills have replaced encyclopedic knowledge.

So what are the barriers? Standardized tests based on memorization and out-of-context equation solving, lack of personnel, lack of systemic community-based support infrastructure, lack of research driven educational technology, and interference from politics.

This isn’t impossible. In fact, it is being accomplished in some research-based schools. Schools that were not scrapped, but chose to work with their communities to bring reform to the educational system. And for a fraction of our costs to engage the war on terror, we could be insuring our economic prosperity.

Senator Obama sends his own two daughters to the private “Lab School” founded by John Dewey in 1896, which charged $20,000 in tuition at the middle school level last year. Though he says “we” should not be “throwing up our hands and walking away” from public schools, he has done precisely that.

That is his right, and, as a wealthy man, it is his prerogative under the current system of American education, which allows only the wealthy to easily choose between private and government schools. But instead of offering to extend that same choice to all families, Senator Obama wants the poor to wait for the public school system to be “fixed.”

As an advocate of public education, liberty, the environment, etc., I do what I can to uphold my beliefs. But there are a few instances where I draw the line. Being a father is one.

At the moment, my daughter attends a public school. Someday she may not. In fact, it’s a tough choice for me. Her progress (which is completely subjective on my part) will dictate whether or not she remains in public education. This is my prerogative as a parent and has nothing to do with my everyday work improving public schools.

I know of several public school educators that send their children to private schools. Do they believe the public school system needs to be “fixed”? When it comes to being a parent, you do what you feel is best for your children.

Obama is a parent and public figure. As a parent, he should do all he can to insure the best education for his daughters. It makes me wonder if Mr. Coulson has any children. Perhaps he should editorialize about this.

A distillation of trends, the report list two major themes each for three time frames: one year or less, two to three years, and four to five years. Some of my thoughts on each:

1. One year or less: Grassroots Video. Basically, anyone can make and share videos today, with or without a computer. The barriers are dropping faster than they did for digital photographs. So the next step for the rest of us? Contribute. You and your students have no excuse not to be contributing to the emergence of video information. Every community should be creating video clips to document history and place. You may think no one is interested in your little corner of the world, but with the right tags, someone will find it and use it.
2. One year or less: Collaborative Webs. You have no reason not to use the web to collaborate (with the possible exception of a paranoid IT staff).  Start document collaboration in Google Docs. If you need the final version in Word, then one person can export it when all is done. Worried about losing your docs when they are kept online? Believe me, the hard disk on your computer will crash first.
3. Two to three years: Mobile Broadband. Yes, the iPhone as a trend setter is cliche’. But it’s true. The bottleneck in everyone moving to mobile broadband is not devices, but rather cell phone companies. As long as we pay for the added service, fewer people will see any real reason to use mobile applications. But when mobile broadband comes automatically with your service, the devices will change and the way we use, and our students use, the web will change. Don’t forget the mantra: bring learning to where your students are. And no, I don’t own an iPhone. Yet.
4. Two to three years: Data mashups. Data mashups are the combination of digital data into a unified tool. Much of what we’ve seen so far are Google Map mashups, combining geo data with other data, such as locations of people or census data. It used to take lots of programming to make this happen. This is changing rapidly, which web tools coming quickly on board to allow less-technically inclined people to view where data intersect. The educational impact of this is enormous.  I highly recommend encouraging tech-savvy students to explore this immediately.
5. Four to five years: Collective Intelligence. The billions of web pages, blog posts, tags, and other minutia of information of the web is about to find it’s way into coherent building blocks of information. Projects are busy working at ways to tag information that came before personal tags. Bots are tagging other objects with information. And the software is evolving to help us make sense of it all. Google and Amazon to this already to suggest products and ads for you. What if, as a high school teacher, you could take every assignment a student has completed in their school history and create a development portfolio of as they begin a new academic year. Sort of like going back in time to talk to every teacher a student has ever had. Wishful thinking? Start digitizing student portfolios now. Your students will never forgive you in five years if you don’t.
6. Four to five years: Social Operating Systems. Your desktop (the physical one) is like your desktop (the virtual one). It’s a private space you keep your stuff. But you also work in your virtual one, unlike most of your physical work. We come to schools and offices primarily because we need to work together: collaboration and relationship building. But what happens when your virtual workspace becomes as collaborative and an open venue for relationship building as your physical one? What happens when your virtual space becomes infused with all of the data we usually receive from others because we are actively collaborating with them? This is not about replacing our physical relationships, but rather intelligently enhancing our current work in the virtual world. It will literally be a bug in your ear that tells you what you need to know when you need it. Imagine an assistant Googling for you while you work and handing you tidbits of information relevant to what you are working on. And because of collective intelligence, we are closer to this than you may realize. It’s been the stuff of science fiction.

Does it work? Early student observations show the game is very engaging. We’ll have to wait for the final study to be released to show it’s educational effectiveness…2009 at the earliest, but more like 2010. When the results do come out, expect a study on a scale unheard of in educational research: 2400 students across over two dozen school districts!

Can I try? Not yet. The study is still in progress. Once completed, and assuming the results show positive educational efficacy,  the game will need to move to commercial prototyping. This could be another year or two. University technology transfer can be a complicated process… the technology either needs to be bought by an existing company (hey EA, are you listening!?), or the university will spin off a company that will need to find venture capital.

Considering the $14 billion market in educational technology, this could be the start of some awesome new educational tools that could make classrooms into LAN parties! Oh yea, they’ll be making better grades and gaining those 21st century skills as well.