Attended Brainstorm 10.0 today and had a chance to hear PC industry pundit John C. Dvorak. Brainstorm had a great number of technology sessions for K12 Technology Directors.
The most surprising session was “HD video over IP for Distance Learning” because the original presenter did not show up….so I decided to try an Unconference session that ran two hours long. Lots of great learning about how K12 Districts around the Midwest want to bring distance learning and HD video into the classroom.
Its all in the timing. The global economic crisis has placed my latest read Hot Property: The Stealing of Ideas in an Age of Globalization into a pretty unique light. Regardless of the delay in the US economy the impact of globalization, technology and good old corporate espionage has impacted the world’s stage in manufacturing and distribution.
From aspirin to automobiles with computer technology stolen right in the middle. Author Pat Choate, an economist was the 1994 University of Oklahoma Arthur Barto Adams Alumni Fellow. He has also written Agents of Influence: How Japan Manipulates America’s Political and Economic System.
The core arguments focus on the use of historical legal patents and technological advances of foreign companies competing against American interests by stealing. Today its known as corporate espionage. The end result: the US government does not protect companies in today’s global marketplace.
This book will leave most Americans frustrated. Globalization has changed the way people and business must evolve to simply stay in business. The auto industry is a timely example of how America lost this business to global competition.
The old assumptions in American business do not work today. When you innovate and invent, patents will protect your dedication and hard work against competitors around the globe. How wrong Choate proves this idea is today.
Hot Property will quickly show you how far from the truth the real-world works … against you. Reminds me of T-shirts I see around the Univ. Wisconsin-Madison campus: “Don’t let school get in the way of your education”.Choate illustrates how major American companies like GM, Microsoft and Cisco are powerless to stop Chinese counterfeiters. To remain a “favorable company” in the Chinese market, American companies sacrifice their own development, technology and employees while trying to gain business in China. It is somewhat amazing to see the RIAA use it’s legal arm against elderly Americans for downloading an MP3 file but turn a blind eye to the stunning levels of piracy in China.
This week my colleague ijohnpederson blogged about YouTube‘s January analytical results. For the first time over 100 million internet users in the U.S. watched 6.3 Billion videos. In the globalized world today that number is not very big. Consider how the world is connecting to the internet in larger and larger numbers:
Population
China: 1,330,044,544 (July 08) Source
US: 303,824,640 (July 08) Source
Internet Population
China: 298,000,000 (Jan 09) 22.4% of the population Source
US: 220,141,969 (June 08) 72.5% of the population Source
China has almost as many people connected to the internet as America has people. Think about that for a moment. At Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society this week former Berkman fellow Rebecca MacKinnon addressed “The Tao of the Web: China and the future of the Internet” in a webcast about the role of censorship in China.
K12 Teachers and Administrators have questions about some of the finer points regarding CIPA and their school district. It appears there is a misunderstanding: not all CIPA products are created equal and more importantly your District may actually have the wrong CIPA product installed.
From a technical point-of-view CIPA solutions range in flexibility like Tylenol: Extra Strength Tylenol, Regular Strength Tylenol, Tylenol 8 hour and Tylenol PM.
For a real-world overview of YouTube, K12 web filtering & CIPA: Click Here
Many CIPA related questions from teachers and administrators can be addressed by a single resource: District Technology Policy. If you do not have one — get one — following these easy steps:
1. Google “K12 district technology policy”
2. Read policies posted online by Districts around the country
2a. Find one that looks appealing for the needs of your District
2b. Don’t forget to acknowledge their efforts…send an email acknowledging their work
3. Copy/paste
4. Modify as needed WITH District-wide consensus
5. Publish your Policy under Creative Commons
In many respects the CIPA vendor you choose may limit your flexibility in unblocking webpages. Most robust CIPA products DO permit teachers/district coordinators to permit custom URLs to be available on the fly.
Over the long holiday I finally finished Tom Friedman’s book Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America. The book is a mixed blessing. Friedman has written one of the best books to understand the emergency need for a global environmental revolution.
Friedman provides detailed examples of how the world has been wasting energy resources since the industrial revolution. Sadly I am convinced we are (environmentally speaking) screwed.
Friedman provides well written pages that will awaken those still asleep on the environment’s impact on the human race. If you think “green” is a movement to replace your light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs your WAY off base. Its about re-educating how we waste energy and in today’s global economy risk losing more industries to countries around the globe.
The major challenge? This issue is no long America’s alone to fix. Thanks to globalization its now a problem for the entire world. Mother Earth needs assistance from China and India. Both must engage in green technologies to ensure planet earth’s health for the long term.
For China and India that includes all 3.5 Billion of their citizens who are just coming out of poverty. Their governments cannot permit new coal plants to dominate their air pollution. China alone brings coal-fired (dirty) power plants online every two weeks and will continue to do so for the short term future.
The Beijing Olympics was a perfect example of population and industrial pollution impacting the Chinese environment … and their economy.
Why China and India are causing the price of gasoline to rise.
When I was born in 1966 the earth’s population stood at 3.4 billion. When my son was born in 2007 the population doubled to 6.7 billion. What does our future hold when the earth’s population reaches 9 billion in 2050? Forget fuel costs for a moment. How much will it cost to feed your family?