Rick West

Instructional Researcher, Evaluator, and Designer

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Innovative website

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This website’s design is amazing, as an example of creative advertising. Tip of the hat to Clif for pointing it out.  I can’t say whether this creativity works or not. On the one hand, it seems less usable, and I struggled to be able to click on any of the products while the song and dance were going on.

On the other hand, the song and dance–the first time–kept me glued, and the genius of it is that it showed off all of their product lines, giving "eye time" to everything on the page.

What do you think? Does this work, or is it unusable? Either way, it’s cool.

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Evaluating teachers’ digital literacy

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For an evaluation project I am working on, I need to be able to pretest and posttest teachers’ digital literacy improvements from some professional development in this area. Can anyone recommend a resource, method, or person in this area?

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Some of my favorite past posts

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Recently I saw a list of the top 10 blog usability mistakes by Jakob Nielsen. One area that he mentions that this blog failed on was not having a link to the "classic hits" or posts that were the best in the history of the blog.

Well, I don’t know if any of my postings would quite qualify as "hits" or "classics" but I’ll at least call them my "favorites." If you would like to read some of these favorite posts, there is now a permanent link to them on the right sidebar. I consider these posts only unfinished drafts, so please keep in mind that these are not polished. It’s also possible that my ideas might have changed since the time I wrote them, or will in the future, as I continue to learn.

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Microsoft’s huge tax break

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This article makes me sick, accusing Microsoft of a $528 million tax break because they make products in the state of Washington but "sell" them in Nevada, where there is no corporate tax.

That’s just disgusting. The poor, small business owner can’t afford to pull off a trick like that or doesn’t know how, but the behemoths can and do (Microsoft, I’m sure, is not the only one). And thus the monopolies grow.

What kind of tax system could prevent these kinds of situations?

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Can being absent-minded get me a job?

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I think I’m going crazy. I needed a book for my prospectus and could not find it anywhere on my shelf, so I asked two friends whom I typically loan books whether they had it. Nothing. I finally gave up.

Well, I just found them both–under a pile of papers on my desk! I feel like the old man who goes looking for glasses sitting on his head. This experience has taught me an important lesson: My desk is a disaster. Cleaning day must be approaching. I reflected to my cubicle mate that my desk is a disgrace, and he commented, "I think it just looks professor-like."

So that brings me to wonder: Would having a messy desk get me a job? Could I put this on my vita?

Well, that’s if I can FIND my vita somewhere on this desk? Now which pile did I put that in? 🙂

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Do schools kill creativity?

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My cousin-in-law (which doesn’t seem to be the right word! That sounds so unfamiliar when in reality I know well and am good friends with Tim) recently commented on my posting about the lack of creativity in modern schools. In my post, I reflect on the predictions of JP Guilford in 1950 when he predicted that computers would eliminate the need for knowledge experts and elevate creativity and problem solving as the necessary skills of the future.

Guilford was exactly right. Tim agrees and gives a great perspective from the medical education sector, where med students who can memorize information progress in the system faster than problem solving doctors. Tim wonders, and I agree, which would YOU prefer to have working for you? I would much rather have the problem solving doctor, who has enough knowledge to know where to find the information he needs, but can still think progressively about how to serve me.

Thanks, Tim for the great comments!

I don’t think I’ve linked yet to a great presentation on this topic by Sir Ken Robinson at the TED conference, where he presents a very funny and entertaining (and persuasive) talk on how schools are killing creativity. Thanks to Clif Mims for pointing me to that video.

Personally,  I think the current recession may not be the least of our worries in our great nation if we don’t figure out quickly that our current model of education is not right for the 21st Century. We don’t need "knowledge experts" anymore because the info is readily available. We need "problem-solvers." Of course a person needs SOME knowledge to be able to be a problem solver, but still, the creativity/problem solving aspect is terribly overlooked right now in schools.

Since the system isn’t changing quickly enough, I wonder what I can do to at least prepare my own children and develop their creativity/problem solving skills? What can I do to prepare my children for 21st century jobs and lifestyles even though they attend 20th century schools?

Any ideas?

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LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley dies

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Please excuse a deviation today from my usual thoughts on communities, learning, and educational technologies. I just needed to write some of my reflections about a man I admire who passed away last night.

Today is a sad day for the 13 million members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as our president, Gordon B. Hinckley has passed away at the age of 97. What a truly amazing man! The articles being released this morning say that up until the end he was putting in a full day at the office. I hope I can be able to have that strength when I am in my 90s.

President Hinckley has led the Church for 13 years, during which time he has done some truly remarkable things. I like what Senator Orrin Hatch said, “This is a man who — I don’t care what your religious belief is, I don’t care what your educational standards are, I don’t care what place you’ve reached in the world, etc. etc. — you have to conclude this is one of the greatest men who ever lived on the face of the earth.”

In his service to the Church, these were some of the highlights that I think I will remember hm most for:

– Creating the Perpetual Education Fund, which I think is one of the greatest humanitarian efforts in the world and is continuing to grow. This program uses interest from a pot of money gathered through donations to give loans to people in developing countries, who then repay the loans for the next group of students. Perhaps because of my background in education, I am particularly excited for this program and the good it is doing for thousands of people in the world. If you truly want to “teach a man to fish”, consider donating to this wonderful program, which is administered by volunteers so 100% of the money goes towards these educational loans.

– Temples for members of our church are very special, different from church houses and more costly and difficult to build. But President Hinckley oversaw a radical change in how temples were built so that the number of temples worldwide could double in three years.

– Even in his 80s and 90s, President Hinckley traveled throughout the world to meet with members of the Church everywhere. I like the quote in this article that he was so beloved in the Orient that members there joke he will be resurrected a Korean!

– In 1995, he led the Quorum of 12 Apostles in crafting a powerful document on the family that explains how families can be built and developed successfully in today’s society.

– In 2000, he and the Quorum of 12 again issued a proclamation, this time a beautiful statement on our Church’s beliefs concerning Jesus Christ

– He was a bestselling author of Standing for Something.

– Above all, he was an exemplary example of a husband and father, and was perhaps best known or his devotion to his wife, Marjorie.

To those not familiar with the LDS faith, it may be interesting to know that the next president has already been selected, although not officially until after President Hinckley’s funeral, per the Church’s revealed tradition. The new president will be Thomas S. Monson, who was the senior member of the Quorum of 12 Apostles. I actually got to hear him speak by satellite broadcast to our church service yesterday. He is best known for his devotion to the needy (he frequently visits hospitals and has looked up the widows he served as a young bishop years ago), and as an experienced leader, and humorous storyteller.

Thank you President Hinckley for your service and love of the people, and to President Monson, our prayers are with you!

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Who am I anyway? Verifying my ID for customer service

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I am currently on the phone with Adobe trying to get some assistance. Since I have upgraded to a Macbook, I am installing my old copy of Adobe CS 2, which requires first installing Adobe CS 1.3 and then installing the CS 2 upgrade.

This is usability problem number 1. Why do I need to spend 15 minutes inserting the 3 1.3 version disks just to get to the point when I can install 2.0? I bought these three years ago, there has to be a way that Adobe can know by now that I legitimately have 2.0 and can just let me download it somewhere.

For some reason, the 2.0 installer doesn’t like my 1.3 serial number, even though 1.3 is up and able to run on my hard drive. So 1.3 is there on my hard drive but the 2.0 installer doesn’t see it and won’t let me upgrade to 2.0

But here’s the kicker: When I call Adobe, they try to verify that I am who I say I am. The conversation goes like this:

Adobe: What is your email address?

Me: Er, which one? I have, like, a dozen. (I then name off all the email addresses I can think of, but since it was three years ago that I bought this, I can’t remember the obscure backup email address that I used back then).

Adobe: Well, then, what was your zip code three years ago?

Me: Er ….

Adobe: Well, what was your telephone number?

Me: Er ….

Adobe: Well, what was your address three years ago?

Me: Er ….

C’mon, I can’t be the only one–especially as a student–who doesn’t remember his address, phone number, and email from three years ago. That was probably about three apartments ago. There HAS to be a better way! Why can’t they ask for my date of birth, mother’s maiden name, or something else that won’t change within a few short years?

And I know what Adobe would say to me, "Well, you should have updated your information with us when you moved."

Yeah, right. Who does THAT with EVERY, SINGLE company they have ever done business with?

There has to be a better way!

BTW, for anyone reading this, how well does 2.0 run on Intel chips in Rosetta? I’m not a power user, I just like to make fliers and brochures every now and then. Will it be painfully slow for me? Tags: , , ,

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Our creative society: The visionary JP Guilford in 1950

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For a course in creativity that I am taking, I was able to read the classic article by JP Guilford that he presented to the American Psychological Association in 1950. In it he laments the paucity of research into creativity (which hasn’t changed too much), and outlines areas for future research. He also has some interesting statements about what he thinks the future of our schools and society will be like, and I think he nailed it on the head! He predicted in many ways the problems or opportunities that we are facing in our current society and educational systems. This made me laugh, and then despair to think that we’ve known about these things for 50 years and still haven’t made the adequate changes in our research and practice.

For example, I enjoyed this quote especially, from page 448 when Guilford worries about the consequences of "thinking machines" (computers) which would bring on a new "industrial revolution." About this, Guilford said,

"There are several implications in these possibilities that bear upon the importance of creative thinking. In the first place, it would be necessary to develop an economic order in which sufficient employment and wage earning would still be available. This would require creative thinking of an unusual order and speed. In the second place, eventually about the only economic value of brains left would be in the creative thinking of which they are capable" (p. 448).

This is a significantly profound statement to have come in 1950! Almost 60 years later, it seems we are only beginning to understand what it means to have ubiquitous computing in our society. As Guilford predicted, it has begun to establish a new economic order. Yes, jobs are still available, but as he described, the jobs have moved from areas of production to areas of creation. In fact, our age is being called the Information Age to distinguish it from the previous Industrial Age. In the Information Age, it is no longer critical to be a master of information and to "know" a lot of things because the information is freely available on the Internet. For example, real estate brokers and car salesmen used to make their profits from knowing more about the real value of cars and homes than consumers. But now, information on the true cost of cars and homes is easy to find on the Web.

Because of this trend, what is becoming valued in today’s society is often creativity and problem solving, or the creation of physical or conceptual artifacts that bear economic value. This modern emphasis on creativity—evidenced by a 68.3% increase in the level of patent applications from 1996-2001—has led our emerging society to be called the "creative economy" (Banahan, 2004). In fact, Ogunleye, 2006, explained that creative skills, according to the Construction Industry Training Board, are key requisite skills in the workplace and are critical to job and business success.

I think Guilford was exactly right. In some professions–not all of them yet–the economic value of the employees is in the creativity they have, because information and even skills are cheap and easy to find. If this is true, and I believe it is, it is a terrible misjustice that our schools still emphasize rote learning of information and practice of skills while so little time is spent learning how to be creative.

Another quote from Guilford’s 1950 article showed his keen foresight into future problems. On page 447, he wrote about the difficulty of objective, multiple-choice testing. He is not against this kind of testing in its rightful place, but he worries that it moves researchers and leaders away from some kinds of learning that are not easy to represent on such a test. In his article, he argues that "the quest for easily objectifiable testing and scoring has directed us away from the attempt to measure some of the most precious qualities of individuals and hence ignore those qualities." In his article, he is discussing how standardized tests ignore creative qualities, but his statement is true of many others of the most important kinds of learning. Now, nearly 60 years later, we are still gripped by the trap of standardized testing! I, like Guilford, appreciate testing for what it can do, but what Guilford said back in 1950 is very true: Our quest for objective, scientifically based evidence has led us to ignore the most important kinds of learning, such as creativity, problem solving, collaboration, social/emotional development, and higher order thinking.

This is my big worry for educational systems: That the push for accountability is leading us to teach and research less about the kinds of learning that we need most in our modern creative society. I DO support accountability, but we need to continue to search for effective ways of being accountable for our teaching and leading in ALL of the important areas of learning.

References
Banahan, E., & Playfoot, J. (2004). Socio-organisational challenges in the creative economy. In L. M. Camarinha-Matos & H. Afsarmanesh (Eds.), Collaborative networked organizations: A research agenda for emerging business models. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Guilford, J. P. (1950). Creativity research: Past, present, and future. American Psychologist, 5: 444-454.  (The page numbers I quote in this article are approximate as I was using a scanned in reproduced copy of this article in a collection of some kind–a teacher handout).

Ogunleye, J. (2006). A review and analysis of assessment objectives of academic and vocational qualifications in English further education, with particular reference to creativity. Journal of Education & Work, 19(1), 95-104.

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