David Vogt

Thanks for this, Sydney - Not surprising - although I would be concerned that staff preparation might be a significant issue here, as you can expect that the students themselves are more than comfortable with tablets. Too comfortable perhaps, but then that is a classroom management issue. I'm not saying that this is the case here, but the situation reminds me of the lobbying power of the textbook industry, which is not seeing the profit margins they used to with printed textbooks. Twenty years ago, when I was leading the implementation of a completely online middle school science curriculum, I was confronted by a province (unnamed) where the textbook publishers successfully lobbied to legislate a new education ministry ordinance that in order for any resource to be purchased by the province, the publisher would have to guarantee that the content would remain unchanged for at least five years. Sounds simple enough, and in spirit it was meaning to offer some quality assurance, but it was designed precisely to kill any online resource, at least any resource that used the power of the internet to continuously refresh and update content...

Yup

yessur

Colleen - DavidP is grading A4, so he may have additional comments, but the main objective is for you to briefly and objectively (as possible) characterize your contribution to 522 in terms of ideas and thought leadership. Providing linked items to evidence your characterization will tie it all together. DavidV

Extending your concept of "clash" a bit further, isn't that the basis of human creativity across art, science, business, relationships, etc? In science, which was my first love, there is a saying that, "the best measure of the greatness of any scientist is the amount of time she or he is able to impede the progress of science". Ideas are in constant minor motion, but great ideas are like intellectual earthquakes, able to suck up change-energy for decades or centuries. Disruptive new ideas often seem to work best with cognitive dissonance - a combination of two ideas that people are already comfortable with separately, but had never considered meshed together. Art that is 'arresting' of your attention usually works this way. That's the "Eureka!" moment that venture capitalists are looking for: a similarly arresting business model or product or service. Entrepreneurs need to showcase something in their venture that wakes people up with its originality, otherwise they'll be seen as part of the constant minor motion. Meshing up a new idea is tough enough, but it is usually even harder to find a way to communicate it compellingly. Images, stories, metaphors are your best tools for "crossing the chasm" of peoples' understanding and behaviour. Timing and luck play an important role. In human ideas, very much like plate tectonics, all kinds of invisible forces build tensions that can't even be measured until a major disruption happens when a single right idea occurs at the right place, at the right time.