Move over, PDF.... Interactive CDF is here from Wolfram

Thanks again to John Vornle for forwarding this article to me...

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/wolfram-launches-new-document-format-meet-cdf/52917

Wolfram on Thursday rolled out its Computable Document Format (CDF), which aims to turn documents into interactive applications.

The goal is to turn “lifeless documents” into ones that bring data to life, show the data behind assumptions and illustrate concepts. Conrad Wolfram, strategic director of Wolfram, said the CDF effort has now reached the point where the company can open it up to developers, publishers and other interested parties.

Wolfram is still working out the business model behind CDF, but publishers have shown “great interest.” For now, CDF is delivered via a free player that can bring infographics, journals and math lessons to life. It’s not a stretch to see how a magazine like Popular Science could publish in the CDF format.

The rub is that Wolfram needs adoption and there’s already a dominant document format in Adobe’s PDF. One big challenge would be figuring out the interplay between CDF and PDF. Would someone want to embed a CDF document into a PDF. Conrad Wolfram said that “the CDF format will be open” with the goal of becoming a public standard.

In a demonstration, Wolfram highlighted a bevy of use cases. Financial documents such as 401K information could highlight the assumptions behind savings models. If global warming papers could have detailed the underlying data in the models perhaps there wouldn’t have been climate gate, noted Wolfram.

For now, Wolfram needs developers on board. CDF has reached the point where a developer with the knowhow to author an XML document can bring publications to life. Indeed, the use cases for CDF revolve around:

• Journal articles;
• Knowledge apps;
• Textbooks;
• Infographics;
• And presentations and reports.

Be comfortable with the uncomfortable

Random Learning
I returned a rental car during lunch on Wednesday during a conference. I rode back with Mr. Hidalgo who was listening to Dennis Prager on the radio and we got to talking.

"I tell my son, 'Be comfortable with the uncomfortable.' When he asks me to buy something for him," Mr. Hidalgo said, "I ask him to negotiate and find out about the warranty. He has to be ready to move forward by himself."

AN INTERESTING INTERNSHIP
"I tell my son to watch Hard Core Pawn. Anyone who watches that TV show for at least ten episodes will become better at business. If a young person could work there for a month, he would be set for life. I don't know why any teenager stands on a corner with a sign, waving it around. What does he learn doing that? It would be better to work in a store like Hard Core Pawn and really learn about how to run a business."

Two of his children are college graduates or in college, one at Columbia, and his third child (age 14) is in ninth grade. "I already took him to visit his brother at Columbia. I want him to think that this is part of his future." That's an engaged parent.

I'm at a conference to learn how to become a better teacher, how to find better learning materials and how to motivate students. I got my best tip from the guy who drives a shuttle bus. Bravo, Mr. Hidalgo.

Let's listen to some inspiring words recommended by students

I'm spending time at a "second chance" high school, where stduents can quickly earn credits and graduate. Lectures in schools can tend to bore people. Why not let them read the information and show what they have learned?

A new student looked borted wth his reading assignment and I asked, "Have you ever met an author?" I wanted to discuss "author's purpose" and get him to see that there are reasons why there are marks and symbols on the page. "Yes, I have. His name is Vic Woods and he's a motivational speaker."

That got me thinking about a quote by Dennis Littky. Education is less about what we teachers think shold be going into students. Education (e = "out," ducare = "to lead") is more about finding out what is inside the student and helping it to come out. The student told me about Vic Woods and his book... you can learn someting by watching these videos from Youtube.com

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ofMNIhwWg

part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGS8DR4l4ps

part 2 The power in Barack is in you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zs5cwxE-4U

Female Prison

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVOVP7fwM5o

Wes Hall

Wes Hall excerpts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUMSrt2m3cg

Les Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXS4tWHtItY

Tom Wood and Les Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwSMAd039rk

If you find a link that inspires you, send it to me VisualAndActive@gmail.com

It's CONforming, not REforming schools. When will we truly change in a positive direction?

When we hear about school reform, we hear about these elements.

a) Standardized tests

b) Standards that all schools should meet

c) Standard curriculums for all students

d) Every student needs four years of math

e) Every 8th grader needs to be exposed to algebra in 8th grade, starting at age 13.

f) Send everyone to university.

g) Every teacher should have an advanced degree.


It doesn’t sound like REFORM, it sounds like “CON”form.

===========================

Instead, we need to look at TRUE reshaping and retooling and reformatting our schools.

For example

a) Time is a variable. We don’t have to group kids by age. We don’t have to require students to advance at a set time together to the next level of the curriculum.

b) Let’s us computers to allow independent rates of learning. See Dr. Fischler’s TheStudentIsTheClass.com blog.

c) Arne Duncan calls for expanded schooling to support the community, 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, 12 months a year: 12/7/12.

d) Relationships: Dennis Littky’s “three Rs” says Rigor, Relevance and Relationships. We need teachers who visit each kid's home,..."Teachers who know the kids, look out for them and push them to succeed" (from a speech by Bill Gates).

e) Relevance: Why does every child need to study biology? Robert Reich has a cogent observation about the

f) Move away from Compulsory Failure: very few of us are renaissance people – we can’t master every subject, so there will be some subjects that are difficult for us and not relevant to our lives. Why do we impose failure on children? Reform means “making school relevant to the child, fit the curriculum to the child, not the child to the curriculum.”

g) Teachers teach all subjects: Why does a teacher need to have an advanced degree in mathematics in order to teach math? Some of the best teachers are those who struggle with a subject. “I hated math when I was your age. Let’s work together to get through this…”

Those are elements of true reform.

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Dennis Yuzenas (www.WhatDoYaKnow.com) and I (VisualandActive.com) are talking about making a presentation about “It’s not school Reform, it’s school CONform.”



Tony Blair spoke in the right direction…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL-Vi3d9IPw&feature=related

Long speech but worth a listen.
Notes from Blair’s speech.
What works in a reformed school?

1. Independence -- Schools need to be independent, free to innovate and find the strategy that works for their community.

2. Community learning -- teaching adults, too. -- Continued adult learning is important becuas children who have parents with low levels of education tend to not go very far .

3. Community service: Our schools need to be more than academics and more than just for the child.

Breakfast clubs (to fill empty stomachs)

Afterschool clubs

Homework clubs

Let’s make education about the whole person and the whole community.

4. We need to remove bad teachers.

5. We need to think differently. We know what to do, we need to implement. It’s not hard to think up things to do differently – it’s difficult to IMPLEMENT. We need to focus on community interest, not about VESTED interests.

We know what works.

Well, that's what Blair said. Let's get to work. Contact me with your comments (954) 646 8246 or write to visualandactive@gmail.com