#8 F16 fighter pilots & the PGA Tour

The PGA tour is a far cry from a classroom full of devices and fighter pilots are something we only see on a playstation. However while meeting with superintendent Carver and a week at TPC sawgrass the ducks started to line up a bit.
Targets keep moving, this has never been truer when you talk technology and even more so when you talk student achievement. As kids learn stuff we don't stop and say you now have reached your potential, we kick on, the playing field is always moving, the target never sits still.
An F16 fighter pilot is tasked with having to hit a target which is moving. If you are to be successful you can't go on a linear line. Orientation Observation Decision Action OODA. You head for your target but every time your orientation changes you have to see things (observe) along the way and make your decisions, taking appropriate action. Change is fluid, targets cannot be reached in a linear fashion, targets are fine but understanding that playing what is in front of you is essential to the classroom.
Nothing was more evident at the TPC sawgrass about playing what is in front of you and also changing your game plan half way through an event. These guys practice between 6 and 8 hours a day for years. They have all the preparation done, everything is worked out, they have every gadget, their clubs are super rockets, the balls missiles. These guys are neat as a pin and cool as ice. But what happens to them as they play that final round they really have to play what is in front of them. They have to change their expectations based on the lie of the ball and the pin placement, the wind, the long grass, the difficulty of shot. They have a goal (winning) but reaching their goal is never linear no matter how much planning they put in.
If you have a plan for learning at your school, a plan that includes these mobile devices as a tool to help, then don't think linear, think fluid. Think OODA.

The thing you might miss is identifying your target
Don't have a plan for device implementation, have a plan for learning. Knowing your target is fairly important, the F16 pilots have a clear target, so did Matt Kucher.

I'm getting close to extended abstract, do i get a funny symbol?

#7 on the road to Joe

I made my long awaited trip to Canby in a seek out "Joe Morelock". It was something I wanted to do since the podgorani discovered the canby wiki a few years back, I hadn't told Joe is was a secret mission to steal his mind, however I now have his most prized secrets Muwaaaahaahaa.
Sometimes you come across people who just have things sussed well beyond your thinking, those who have already made those discoveries that we mortals take years to trip over. What I found was a gem, a guy who was given a chance by his district and has taken it.
I shot quite a bit of video, and this I will stick into a format for my final report, however lots of the success can be put down to a clever superintendant, smart school leadership and lots of empowerment.
The classes were hives of activity, nothing contrived and lots of collaboration, they use google docs, blogs, wikis, edmodo, moodle and other collaborative tools (if you can try it they probably have), skill and drill is for the lemons, and if Joe has any he is making lemonade!

One gem from Canby is that one very important skill for teachers to learn is failure. Failure was expected and celebrated, teachers were encouraged to take risks and were asked to give hunches a go. NICE.
Failure was spoken about, it was put on the table as a huge possibility from day 1.

I also got to meet Dan @CanbyiOS the PL/PD & techo man for the district, he has the cool job of working with kids too, He is a hip dude (most are up this way) with an eye for quality learning.


I am just feeding you people 1 good thing at a time, It's just to keep you interested.