Planet Jeffro

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I had some brief responses to today’s front page NYT story about the Waldorf School for elementary students of wealthy tech parents that doesn’t use technology in their schools.  I think there’s a big difference between kids around age 5 using iPads excessively and students in middle or high school using computers in the classroom.  That distinction is barely mentioned here so I’m assuming because of the age of the quoted students that the article is mostly focused on elementary school students in K - 5th grade.

• I agree that tech in the hands of very young kids have mostly unknown consequences.  This is a school for young kids, not high school.  Young children are first experiencing the world around them and learning how to manipulate it.  Everything is new, everything is tactile, new smells, new sights, new sounds.  When a 2 year old’s view of the world comes through a tiny iPad and the most they can interact with it is through tapping, pecking or swiping, I believe they are deprived of a maximally engaging learning environment.  I suspect no one knows the ramifications of raising a kid on a tablet since it’s so new, but my hunch is a kid who uses this stuff as excessively as an adult (whose mind is fully formed) will likely have some kind of learning problems along the way that could manifest in unforeseen ways.  My other hunch is that kids who spend a lot of time on iPads probably come from ‘rich’ homes with educated parents, and those resources will likely mitigate the ‘harm’ (I use that in quotes because I have no idea).
• It’s nice that Waldorf eschews the use of technology, but outside of their bubble, teachers get paid nothing and have 100s of students in a classroom.  Technology for moderately developed kids (like 8 or 9 year olds and up) is not only appropriate when it is supervised by a teacher and used for education like math drills, or something like that, but absolutely necessary to tackle the problem of getting 100 students into the next grade level.
• Waldorf seems to be congratulating themselves based on factors beyond their control.  I’m sure their curriculum is amazing but one of their few boastful metrics is that Waldorf kids overwhelmingly go to college.  ”94 percent of students graduating from Waldorf high schools in the United States between 1994 and 2004 attended college.”  That’s a totally irrelevant metric. Rich kids always go to college, regardless of what school they attended. They’re rich, they have resources, they have parents who work at Google, Apple and Ebay… I’m actually more interested in why 6% didn’t attend college.  What happens to them during those school years that is so bad or derailing that even with their surfeit of great schooling, boundless resources and highly educated support throughout their lives they end up not going to college?  I’d expect a 99% rate at such an elite school. (I’m only part joking.)  Amusingly, my alma mater Mamaroneck High School, sends 95% of its seniors to college.  Oh, and it’s a public school.  In a well-to-do Westchester suburb, but still a public school.  (Mr. Kourabas was my guidance counselor.)

At Mamaroneck High School, about 95 percent of its current seniors have applied to college, according to guidance director Nick Kourabas. The remainder will be working, joining the military or pursuing other opportunities. (Larchmont Gazette)

• Even though I’ve been an SAT tutor for 7 years, I am no fan of standardized testing.  I think it pushes kids into the wrong way of thinking (that there is always a right answer, that failure is bad, that progress on a problem is ultimately worthless if you don’t get the correct answer…)  But if you need to do well on these tests, technology is great at drilling students to prep for them.  Oh, these are the same tests that private schools like Waldorf don’t have to take:

Is learning through cake fractions and knitting any better? The Waldorf advocates make it tough to compare, partly because as private schools they administer no standardized tests in elementary grades. And they would be the first to admit that their early-grade students may not score well on such tests because, they say, they don’t drill them on a standardized math and reading curriculum.

• Find me an elementary school with just 196 kids and the same student to teacher ratio as Waldorf.  If regular schools did that - computers, no computers, white boards, smart boards, no boards, working outside, inside, desks, tables, cubicles - very little in the ‘methodology’ would matter except the teachers themselves.  These teachers sound like they are top educators, are paid well, recruited heavily, and absolutely love their job and their students.  They would (should) therefore be able to teach *any* group of students at *any* school.  Even ones that don’t come with a $18,000 price tag.  I’m sure the results would follow the teachers and teacher/student ratios to any school with any methodology and any technology integration in classrooms.

I tend to agree with the Waldorf methods so I certainly am not trying to rail against them or the school since I’d be happy to send my kids (when the time comes) to a school like that. But I think this “debate” is largely generated by the author of this article who thought it would be front page material to pit non-tech against tech in education.  Well, it certainly is a front page story, but the controversy is manufactured.

Turns out, this is a false choice and I doubt there is that much controversy when it comes to the nitty gritty of when it is appropriate to use technology.  Is it dumb to pin hopes on technology in the classroom and spend millions and expect scores to skyrocket? Yes, just as it is in the medical industry (which I know quite well) where big investments in EMRs yield minimal efficiency gains.  It boils down to how the technology is used and, duh, technology in and of itself does not necessarily do wonders.

So, like most things, it’s not a clear cut issue and there are many shades.  Some kids benefit greatly from technology at an early age. Others need to use pencil and paper. Some parents have the means to teach their kids about technology when the time is right. Some schools (most) are so incredibly underfunded and stripped of resources that technology can be a savior in the classroom, especially if it helps a group of restless 7th graders focus on grammar and math.  Personally, I’d *like* to raise my kids with books, physical activity and lots of hands-on weekend projects. I built a wooden box with my dad one weekend and used to build model rockets, built a skateboard, took apart remote controlled cars, and tinkered with electric circuits when I was 5 or 6.  But damn if I got to build a Ruby on Rails web app at school (something I still can’t do because I haven’t learned Ruby yet)!  Or if, in 1996, I got to learn HTML not out of the classroom with my nerdy friend Jon (who now works at Foursquare), but during school hours when I was falling asleep. That would have kept me motivated and awake as it did countless nights tinkering with my first website welcome.html file!

UPDATE: I just read this other NYT oped - Will Dropouts Save America? - 1000 times yes!

I’d *like* to keep technology to a minimum and introduce it as my children mature and need it (just like in a tech startup - use technology to support your idea only after the idea is vetted and tested in non-technical ways). But even David Pogue talks about how the iPad is an amazing tool for his young children, and my friend Zak’s brother has been using an iPhone/iPod/iPad with his son since he was born.  I am not a huge fan of that but I need to reserve judgement since the mind is a wonderfully adaptive organ and who knows what direction a kid raised on apps can take.

I think the potential of these devices is limitless and a place like Waldorf shrugs off the need for the average person (those without parents who work at Google and Apple) to become adept at computing. I’m still amazed that quite a few students at the schools that are using VocabSushi, my company that helps you learn vocab through reading news articles, lack internet and a computer at home.  These students, even at schools progressive enough to use a differentiated vocabulary tool for English class, have students who simply have no choice but to use the site during school hours in the computer lab.  Tech is not quite as ubiquitous as Silicon Valley thinks, but it’s getting there.

I’ve been a tutor for 7 years and have worked with hundreds of students from elite high schools.  I used to push them to get excited about physics and math - “you’ll need this stuff in the ‘real world’, it’s all over the place. Trust me.”  I believed it.  Now I push them towards programming computers and thinking of solutions to bigger problems and using their skills in physics (logic based problem solving) to pick up a programming language.  Arithmetic is a 1950s skill.  Setting up solutions to problems, math, physics or otherwise, tends to only take up about 10% of a student’s time.  It’s the really boring, really mundane rote algebra or calculus or equation plug and chugging that makes students hate the work, get bored, check out, or hit roadblocks.  That’s why I get called in.  No one really questions whether this work is relevant in today’s highly technical society where, yes, calculus will never be used!  But step-by-step problem solving will be if you want to get into programming.  Sadly, you don’t find programming in many schools, and even then they are focused on things like the AP Computer Science exam which doesn’t really help kids build cool web applications in a weekend hackathon.

Chalk this one up to the media turning a highly nuanced issue into a this versus that controversy and oversimplifying it all with extreme quotes and all.  Those kids at the end of the piece - really? the girl doesn’t have any interest in video games unless prompted by her father? The boy only plays a flight simulator on the weekends?  Kids from the 1950s seemed to watch more movies than these 5th graders who “occasionally” watch movies.  Seriously? Occasionally?? I think video games are a giant waste of my time but every kid I know loves them.  That kid who was annoyed that everyone else was ignoring him to play with their smartphones or iPads… yeah, that’s because he didn’t have one.  ;-)

Related articles

• At Waldorf School in Silicon Valley, Technology Can Wait - NYTimes.com (mbcalyn.com)
• http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?src=me&ref=general (nytimes.com)
• A low-tech school in the heart of Silicon Valley (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute (nytimes.com)
• Shipping Container Classrooms - The Waldorf School of Orange County Gives New Meaning to Portables (TrendHunter.com) (trendhunter.com)

A lot of people wonder what I do all day.  Here’s a list of all the stuff I’m currently working on (as of October 22, 2011):

1. BluTrumpet.com business development - it’s a neat new ad network with better yields than iAd and customizable. I’m finding app developers and reaching out to them. Also incorporating their SDK into several of my own apps.
2. VocabSushi - supporting all the teachers using VocabSushi with their classes, looking into a very cool partnership opportunity with a large education website, working with a new social media star who will manage outreach and other stuff, updating the VocabSushi iPhone App.
3. Tutoring - I have 6 high school students. I see them once a week for SAT prep, math and/or physics tutoring.  Been doing this for 7 years.  I enjoy it and am always trying to get my students interested in programming (it’s a much better skill than knowing calculus, as it turns out.)
4. Fareshare - working with our partners in London, Green Tomato Cars, to finalize development of our cab-sharing iPhone app so they can launch it and ramp up for the Olympics. Things are on track and we’re planning to launch in January.
5. Corporate Videography - I work with a big PR company and shoot media trainings.  If you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and you’re about to go on TV to be interviewed, you’re going to want to prepare your messaging.  That’s what these trainings are for.  I film the mock interviews (with a backdrop, light, and mic) and play them back.
6. PatientCommunicator.com - this is a communications and practice management platform for independent doctors to streamline their workflow. My father uses it and he cut all 3 of his secretaries (his overhead is just 15%). He was profiled in Forbes for having such a tech savvy and highly efficient (and profitable) primary care practice. I’m working with a business partner to raise money from several already interested investors, and demo’ing to other interested parties.  Also speaking with interested doctors and getting them on board. Finalizing the specifications and product roadmap - our next few releases will sport features never before innovated by any EMR or platform management system on the market. It’s an exciting time.
7. Cnvrge.com - I’m coding this speed-networking via SMS app (though I’ll soon partner with my friend and developer James to unload that work to him), and using the app to run about 2 networking events per month.  Still proving out the concept through lean methods, but people seem to really like it. If you want to run it in your networking event, let me know!
8. Bandsnearby.com - A weekend hack I did with Pinzler, this is Pandora for local bands to help you find which intimate music venue in NYC you should go to tonight.  Had my virtual assistant grab all the bands playing at 13 venues over the next 6 weeks. Still tweaking a lot of functionality and data. Planning to get a designer to clean up the look.  It’s already allowed me to discover a few bands I really love that are local and small.
9. Supermarket Classroom - My mom’s app. This is for parents in the supermarket with their young children who want to give them something educational to do in the context of the aisles.  I just used Tinyproj to find a great graphic designer and hope to get this in the app store within a month.
10. IngeniousOwl.com - An online SAT course powered by Bespoke Education.  I’m working with a designer and star python developer to finalize the functionality and get this really helpful site up and running and into the hands of our students who need the extra help. If you want to beta test it, let me know. Planning to officially launch in January.
11. The Census Bureau - This is a spoof video of the Honey Badger video to celebrate the tireless Census Takers who come to your home when you don’t return the census forms. I’ll be editing this and loading to Youtube shortly. Stay tuned.
12. Blogging / running / walking Sagan (our greyhound) / hanging with my amazing wife (and occasionally proof-reading her papers) / Skype-ing with my dad / dreaming up dozens of new projects and ideas

So yeah, I’m stretched pretty thin.  But as always I’m loving my crazy days which let me regularly work on about 7 or 8 of these things. I rotate through a lot and by the end of a 16 hour day I git ‘r done.

Yes, yes, and sort of no.

I shoot a lot of interviews which required me to buy some gear a few years ago.  A Panasonic DV camera (which shoots on tape, agh!), wireless lav mic, wired lav mic, light kit, backdrop and obviously a tripod.

Recently I made a pretty huge discovery I should have realized a long time ago: The iPhone 4 shoots pretty damn good video!  Even with basically zero control over the image (iris, focus range, zoom), it’s pretty incredible.

So I made 2 purchases. 

First thing is to keep the image steady.  For this, I got the Glif, an awesome little rubber holder that has a thread at the bottom to mount the iPhone onto a tripod.  The Glif has a fascinating back story worth reading.  $20.

Next is to ensure you have good audio. NO ONE should have to suffer through flipcam-like video of someone speaking from 10 feet away where you can barely make out what they’re saying against tons of background noise.  (In a previous life I was a boom mic guy on film sets and learned a lot from a lot of sound guys.  Sound is arguably the most important part of a video.  People will tolerate grainy images.  They generally won’t tolerate crappy audio.)

I ordered this guy - an XLR adapter for the iPhone with a headphone jack so you can plug in a pro mic feed and monitor the audio with a headset.  $33 + shipping.

I’m going to do some test video at the next shoot (when I have my backdrop and lights all set up) and see how the iphone compares to my DV cam.

Side note: Recently I shot video of the president.  The video was about 6 minutes.  Apparently there is a cutoff of maybe 3-5 minutes, above which the iPhone doesn’t let you copy the video to your computer without 3rd party software or a workaround.  WTF? Really?  I’m not the only one upset about this.  What it means is that it’s an obstacle to fully committing to the iPhone to shoot somewhat lengthy videos.  This is really stupid and a major design flaw that should be fixed.

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Wow - the iPhone just became a lot more amazing.  VLC is software that plays any video format.  It is my go to player for videos that I, ahem, acquire.

Whenever I ride the subway or bus I watch video on my iPhone.  Movies, TV shows, and TED talks.  Before the VLC app, in order to get video on to the iPhone I had to convert (transcode) the files to MP4 (an iPhone friendly format) using SUPER, a free but somewhat wonky transcoder.  Then I’d copy them to iTunes.  The process was painful because the conversion takes maybe 1/3 or 1/4 of the full playing time of the video - so a 22 min episode still takes more than 5 min to convert.  Plus I am lazy so I’d do this as a batch overnight process once I accumulated a bunch of stuff.

No more.

Now all I need to do is open iTunes, click on apps and VLC, and then click “ADD” and select all the stuff I want to copy.  Super fast, really easy, and the playback is flawless and looks amazing.

Get the app here.