Binary code and outliers

!!warning, I wander!!!

It started with the pizza, at least the binary code part did. Boy Wonder and I were sitting at the table eating a pizza after volunteering at Centenary this afternoon. I cut it in conventionally into 8ths and had handed a plastic container to Boy Wonder after finishing my dinner so he could pack his lunch for tomorrow. I told him that he could have one or two or even one and a half. He told me that that a half of a piece was one 16th. After asking him what half of that would be, I began working on a song as I often do, using the Yankee Doodle tune. Encouraged by Boy Wonder's giggles, I worked to find rhymes for 32, 64, 128 and 256 and I started to build the song around whole numbers instead of fractions. To add context I began to add computer/binary references. This is a sample, not an actual line, I did not manage to write them down, though I did use the door/four rhyme as in this sample:

"these are the powers of 2, the key to a computer's door, to begin with you must remember that 2 times 2 is 4"

Often as I make up these songs I find the teacher bumping heads with social norms. Just as I like to skip and yo-yo as I walk in public (the later much easier to pass off than the former), this type of singing enriches my life and my teaching, but I am reluctant with it still as it confuses people and inspires odd looks. As I see the value of these practices in education, my confidence overcomes the social norms and I even have felt that I can start to have a positive impact on colleagues with these lighthearted and fun teaching practices.

After the song, I started to explain bits and bytes and before long I introduces the idea of how a byte can represent a number. I got out graph paper and we began to make a character map so we could write his name in binary. His excitement rose as he began to catch on after I modeled the translation of "A" into binary and I guided him as he encoded the "i".

Later as he explained it to Caryn, I told him that he was an "outlier", not quite a genius, just someone who had opportunities that could put him higher on the curve than others.

This leads to the segment that I started writing earlier today about "outliers".

~~~

Yesterday I heard about Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers. It describes conditions that are behind the most successful people around the world. One study that it sights is that of schools that tested students using standardized tests in the fall and in the late spring. They tracked students of different SOE classes who scored in the same range in the fall and found that their progress throughout the school year was similar. However when their spring scores were compared to the scores of the next fall, students of low SOE classes scored the same or below the levels of their scores from the previous spring. Gladwell's conclusion is that low SOE students do not benefit from enrichment activities during the summer (not summer school; activities as simple as talking with parents). The High SOE students were exposed to more interesting and academic non-school content and often their scores were higher in the fall than in the previous spring.

...which links in my attempts to understand the rational behind my districts outsourcing of summer school to the private Edison company. Where does the funding come from for Edison to cut a $100 gift certificate for every student with 100% attendance, along with $75 and $50 certs for students with 1 and 2 days missed. If the success of this program is merely keeping the kids in school where they are asked to think and play (the afternoon sessions are based around fun activities) with educators for part of the summer, then Malcolm Gladwell may be bursting their bubble by suggesting that it's not the bells and whistles or the rewards for that matter. These students are being invited to be "outliers" instead of couch potatoes.

I am trying to do the math on the number of eee pc 901s (I do my work on one) that I could buy at $280 each for the schools and/or students instead of tossing out carrots. Lets take $100 from that cert, $90 from textbook money and toss in a fund-raiser that the kids can get hyped on because it is to raise money on their very own netbook for the other $90 and you got a great set of education tools. There is no buy out on this fund-raiser, only opportunities for parents to donate to the general netbook fund. Students learn and earn responsibility.

Make it a program that kids work up to, spread across a few years... a little 1st/2nd grade JA (Junior Achievement)/economics lesson to link in with the fund raiser, leading to a late 2nd grade typing curriculum (that is when motor skills start kicking up for typing), kids collecting credit w/summer school all along... teachers hyping the netbooks by using them, showing off student projects made on them. Students use lab computers throughout 3rd grade, encouraged with "these are the programs/skills you will need to know to use your netbook". In art class they design their own netbook sticker for the backside of their screen, desktop wallpaper, etc.

They learn the importance of school community, with a wireless internet network ala. MIT's One Laptop Per Child program, they will share a connection that originated from the school and jumps from member computer to member computer extending across the student population. With parent support this community learns the important of helping others as students continue to earn credits beyond their quota and gift them to a common fund. The larger community is invited to give to buy shares in the program. These donations are in part stock as students are responsible to show their learning progress to shareholders regularly.

Raising third graders are handed their netbooks by their teacher/principal as they cross the stage. It is a right of passage, they will keep these at school and learn how to respect and use them. Fourth and fifth graders continue to use them at school as they develop projects and interact with curriculum.

Their teachers have entered the information age. They know how to find and organize information, they are connected to larger networks of educators who share online texts in an open library.

As these students enter middle school they are entrusted to take their netbooks home. In art class they craft a carrying case or bag. Their credits continue to accumulate. They learn give to an insurance fund, they pay for maintenance, accessories are offered/required, they sponsor younger students who have not earned their netbook yet.

As high school, they are free to take their netbooks to and from school. They visit elementary classrooms and teach younger students how to use their netbooks, modeling computer literacy. They present to local businesses and organizations to sell shares in the program. The presentation is a portfolio of their years of work. They are offered computer shop class where they learn hardware maintenance, programming classes that began in middle school lead to software development and web design classes. Again they participate in JA style activities, designing, manufacturing, packaging, marketing and selling products (some to be given free to stakeholders).

Did they earn their $100 cert?

Did they get what they wanted?

Did they get what they needed?

eee new start

I am giving the blog thin a new start. I will likely work out the import tool and bring over the hand full of posts that I made on the other blog. Why change? ...I realized that using my name was a bit odd and possibly a privacy issue and I saw a blog with a nice simple layout, thanks http://goatinacoat.blogspot.com

I have had my eee pc 901 link for almost a week now. I came across the above mentioned blog while searching for patterns for a leather messenger bag to carry it, books and materials. I also reasearched the master plan for internet through my cellphone. When my plan is up in October, I will be able to upgrade into a full internet inabled phone that will be set to teather to my netbook. Internet will cost $25 a month and it will upgrade to 3G internet next winter, spring at the latest when the network finished.