Did You Know? 4.0: The Economist Media Convergence Remix

The Economist Magazine is hosting their third annual Media Convergence Forum in New York City on October 20th and 21st. Earlier this year they asked if they could remix Did You Know?/Shift Happens with a media convergence theme and use it for their conference. Scott McLeod and I said sure, they got XPLANE to create the presentation, and the result is farther down in this post. Unfortunately, I won�t be able to attend the Forum, as I�m already missing school a few days this fall and I just couldn�t justify missing a couple more (it was very kind of The Economist to invite Scott and me), but it looks like an interesting event.

A few anticipatory FAQ's about this version.

1. It�s the first one that I�ve been part of that does not have a specific education focus (although I certainly think the media convergence ideas discussed in the video have great relevance for education). The idea behind the original (and subsequent) presentations was to start/continue/advance the conversation around certain ideas, so I see this hopefully doing the same thing around media convergence (and, selfishly, it will hopefully get some of the folks attending The Economist�s Media Convergence Forum to perhaps focus on some of the education ideas in the previous DYK�s). And, given the Creative Commons license on the previous versions, folks are not limited to remixes that only talk about education.
   
   
2. They decided to designate it version 4.0 even though there have been only two previous �official� versions. But the Sony/BMG remix that is currently the hot version is typically referred to as version 3.0, so who are we to argue with the wisdom of the crowd?
   
   
3. I should not get much, if any, credit for this one. I sent along a fair amount of statistics for their consideration, and certainly provided some feedback along the way, but otherwise didn�t have nearly as much to do with this version. Laura Bestler, Scott McLeod�s graduate assistant, did most of the research for this one, and of course XPLANE did all the graphical work. (I should, however, still get most or all of the blame if you don�t like it, since I started this whole mess.)
   
   
4. Like the previous versions, this one is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license, so you�re welcome to use/modify as you see fit, as long as you follow the terms of that license.

Finally, an observation. In a recent email Scott McLeod wrote, �It�s amazing, the legs this thing still has.� I would have to agree. The various versions have been viewed well over 20 millions times (my guess is that with downloaded versions and audience showings it�s probably closer to 30 million times, but 20 million would be the safe number). It�s been shown to audiences large and small, educational and corporate and everything in between. It's been shown to the leaders of our national defense and to incoming congressmen. It�s been shown by university presidents and kindergarten teachers, televangelists and politicians, folks just trying to make a buck and those trying to save the world. And this week it even made an appearance in Nancy Gibb�s essay in Time Magazine.

What does it all mean? (Well, besides the self-referential and now self-serving answer of �Shift Happens.�) I think the fact that a simple little PowerPoint (some folks would say simplistic and they would be right � it was meant to be the start of a conversation, not the entire conversation) can be viewed by so many folks and start so many conversations means that we live in a fundamentally different world than the one I (and most of you reading this) grew up in.

I know some folks would dispute that, and that�s an interesting conversation in and of itself, but if you buy that � if you buy that on so many levels the world is a fundamentally different place � then it just begs us to ask the question of whether schools have similarly transformed from when we grew up. If your answer to that question is no, as I think it probably is for a large majority of you, and if you see a problem with that, then what should we do? What is my responsibility, and your responsibility, for making the changes we believe are necessary? What are you willing to step up and do?

Here�s the presentation. Source files will be uploaded to the wiki shortly.

XPLANE, Obama and Social Networking

Just a quick post to pass along this link to XPLANE's latest "XPLANATION." It depicts Barack Obama's success in "reinventing campaign finance" in a visual representation, with a focus on his use of his website and social networking tools.


I don't have anything particularly wise to say about this (please hold your applause), just thought I'd pass it along to folks that might be interested. XPLANE is always interested in feedback, so feel free to comment here and I'll pass it along, or contact them directly.

Did You Know? 2.0 Source Files

You can now download the source files for Did You Know? 2.0. Please note that these are not what you want to download to view/play the presentation, but what you might want to download if you want to modify the presentation (please see our Copyright Notice for the Creative Commons details).

• Download (135 MB) a ZIP file containing the Flash source file (FLA) and audio (AIF). Flash CS3 is required to open the FLA file.
  
  
• Download (130 MB) just the audio file.

Please note that we cannot offer technical support when working with the files and they are provided as-is. Thanks to XPLANE for posting and hosting.

Did You Know? 2.0

I blogged previously that XPLANE had offered to make the original Did You Know/Shift Happens presentation more visually appealing. Well, it�s now finished, and you can view it below. For me, this really isn�t a "sequel" to Did You Know, it�s just different. Some folks will prefer the original, some will prefer this version, some will dislike both. For me, it�s just another attempt to create a conversation, so I hope that it does.

XPLANE�s goal was to make it more visually appealing than text on a PowerPoint background, thinking that by adding some graphics and animation that it could convey the message to more folks (particularly folks whose first language is not English).

I (and Scott) had two main goals. First, I wanted to make it less us (as in U.S.) versus them. That wasn�t my intent in the original, but it certainly could be interpreted that way. It still includes some of the U.S./China/India statistics, because we felt those were indicative of the "shifts" that are occurring, but it avoids words like "we" and "they." But we want all kids to be successful, whether they are in the U.S., India, China or somewhere else. We believe these ideas and conversations should be occurring globally, and we hope this helps contribute to that conversation.

Second, one of the (many) weaknesses of the original is that it didn�t ask anything of the viewers, or direct them to any resources. (In my own defense, that�s because it was just for my staff and I was doing the follow-up. As I�ve talked about previously, I had no idea that it would spread like it did . . .). This new version asks some questions at the end and directs folks to a wiki with some additional information (the wiki is still a work in progress, but we'll get there eventually). The wiki is not intended as a "one-stop" resource, just a fairly simple jumping off point for folks that would like more information. Hopefully they will be drawn into the conversations that we all have been a part of over the last few years. (I wanted to ask even more questions � I may blog those eventually � but it would�ve made the presentation way too long � at over 8 minutes, it�s already pushing it).

If you find it useful, please use it however you�d like (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike license). The YouTube version is embedded below, there's a Google Video version, and you can download a high-quality version in several different formats (just enter your name at the prompt) as well.



Thank you to XPLANE for some truly excellent visuals and animations, and to Scott McLeod for all his work and support. Frankly, I�m a little tired of the presentation, but I still passionately believe that we need to reexamine formal education as it�s currently being experienced by our students and that we owe it to our children to do everything we can to improve. If the presentation draws even a few folks into asking questions and getting involved in the conversations either locally or globally, then I�ll consider it a success.

Spielberg. Scorsese. Fisch?

I don't use words like "surreal" very often, but it's the only one I can think of that applies. I was contacted a couple of months ago by Mountainfilm, which puts on a film festival over Memorial Day weekend in Telluride, Colorado. They wanted to enter Did You Know/Shift Happens into the festival and show it along with the other "movies." I pointed out that it was a PowerPoint, but they still wanted to show it so I said sure.

Well, it didn't quite go as planned. First issue was the music, of course, but they said they had access to other music we could substitute. Then we were trying to finish the XPLANE version for them that I blogged about previously, but that was just too tight of a deadline. Then they needed it in dv format, so I recreated it in iMovie (without the music), exported it to DV tape, and sent it to them via UPS. It looked okay on my end, but apparently the text doesn't fit on the screen. At this point, it looks like it won't be shown at all, so I guess my career as a director was short-lived. Good thing I kept my day job. Then again, I just received an email from the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. (Yes, since it's a wildlife film festival, I'm thinking perhaps they haven't watched the presentation . . . )

Did You Know - The Sequel?

I mentioned in the previous post that we were working on a new and improved version of Did You Know?/Shift Happens. Scott McLeod and I have had contact from some folks at XPLANE. What�s XPLANE?

We use visualization to convey complex ideas, processes, and services, and know the discipline of visual thinking is a key enabler to improve clarity of thought, better decisions and faster action.

They contacted us via email (excerpt):

We�re a global information design and consulting firm, and we specialize in visualizing information so it�s more easily and quickly understood. We�d be interested in working with you to produce your presentation into a more visually-charged event. The addition of some compelling information graphics and data visualization could add impact and help the presentation cross more language and learning boundaries that it does in words alone. With your content and our visualization, we�re pretty confident that your work would reach a much broader audience, furthering its mission.

XPLANE has done great work for some very large corporations as well as government agencies (including the U.S. Department of Education). They are currently brainstorming and gathering more data to clean up and repackage Did You Know?/Shift Happens into a more polished production. Now, I�m not saying that this is �the� video that I talked about previously, but it is something real and tangible that we can be working on.

As part of this, we need to address what steps viewers should take after watching the video. When the XPLANE folks first brought that up, I was pretty stumped, because this is such a complicated issue to try to narrow down to a few bullet points. And the next steps might look different in different places (while the themes we are talking about are universal, all education is local). But then Scott McLeod suggested for me to think about it in terms of questions. Now you�re talking � I�m good at questions (not so good at answers, but good at questions). What questions could we suggest that viewers ask of folks that would spur action and change? Scott McLeod is also thinking about this from his perspective at the higher education/school leadership/data-driven change level, and I�m focusing on K-12. I have some of my own ideas for what those questions/actions might look like, but I figured throwing it out to your collective wisdom made much more sense.

So, here goes. You�re not limited to the way I�m framing this � feel free to go in any direction you�d like. But, to get us started, here are some categories for the questions that could appear at the end of this new version of Did You Know?. I�d like you to fill in the ellipses for each one.

Now that you�ve watched this presentation, we would suggest the following:

• Ask yourself this question: . . .
• Ask your child(ren)�s (school�s?) teacher(s) this question: . . .
• Ask your child(ren)�s (school�s?) principal this question: . . .
• Ask your child(ren)�s (school�s?) superintendent/school board this question: . . .
• Ask your state representative/senator/governor this question: . . .
• Ask your congressperson/senator this question: . . .
• Ask your employer this question: . . .

Maybe this is too many questions, or maybe not enough. Or maybe there should be one series of questions that gets asked of all these folks. Or maybe questions are the wrong way to go. You tell me.

Like many bloggers, I enjoy getting comments. But � this time � I�m practically begging you for them (constructive comments, of course, either on this post or Scott's). If you have suggestions for the questions I proposed � or if you have a better way to frame this � please, please do so. As I tell my staff all the time, if you think some (or all) of my ideas are nuts, then you better join the conversation, because how else is your voice going to be heard? Please help us develop this. XPLANE is actively working on this and we hope to have it completed fairly soon. Our target � NECC in Atlanta. Let�s change the world.